• The possibility of using a Star Pendant as an infinite Antidote by just equipping it to a poisoned character.
• The short cutscene between Sabin and Duncan's wife after you first recruit him.
• The lack of chocobo riding sprites for Banon.
• The secret bridge in South Figaro.
• Special weapon properties ignored/nullified by Capture.
• The secret treasures on the ground in the Cave of the Sealed Gate being worse than what the game tells you it is giving you.
• The 50% discount at South Figaro stores in the WoR when Edgar is your party leader.
• The fact that Gogo cannot uncurse the Cursed Shld.
• The strategy for defeating Outsider in the Colosseum.
• The desert south of Maranda for magic point grinding.
• The fact that Doom Gaze is found on a single area of the map, regardless of altitude.
• The fact that the red sparkle in the chest in Kefka's Tower doesn't appear on subsequent visits if you trigger it in the SNES version of the game.
• The various oddities of how the Offering works with other special weapon mechanics.
• The level Relm must be at in order to always successfully Sketch EarthGuard and therefore avoid the Sketch bug.
• The trick of using Ursus, Control, and the Cat Hood to easily gain GP.
• Many of the elemental and status vulnerabilities of bosses.

• This guide is primarily geared towards those who have played Final Fantasy VI before. I have tried to include a little direction for the first-time player, but I won't be elaborating on basic Final Fantasy info (i.e. characters with the Float status can't be hit by earth elemental attacks such as Quake).
• The best way to use the guide is to read each section just before you play through it and then leave it open to refer back to as you play. This way you shouldn't miss anything important, but also shouldn't have to spend more than a few minutes in the guide for each section.
• READ THE GUIDE IN ORDER. In each section, I will be assuming that you have read the previous sections. This is the best way I know to minmize excessive redundancy and make the guide flow linearly, as is my intent. I will occasionaly refer back to previously mentioned information, but most of the time I will assume that you remember the important things.
• For the purposes of this guide, the term "cutscene" refers to any dialogue or scene where you lose control of the game (other than pressing the button for dialogue continuation) and simply witness the characters interacting.
• If I don't fully explain something important or interesting right away, just trust me; it will be explained when necessary. If I still don't, then skip to the bottom where the contact information is and let me know!
• Throughout the walkthrough I will refer to two main sections/areas of the game: the World of Balance (WoB), and the World of Ruin (WoR). If you don't already know what these are, then suffice it to say that you start the game in the WoB, and you'll know when you get to the WoR without my having to tell you.

• Experience points earned from battles are evenly divided among the party members alive at the end, however the number of points earned that the game displays for you is actually the number each living character receives after the division of the total.
• If you "double click" on a piece of equipment in the Items menu, you can view detailed information about what bonuses and special properties it has. This becomes especially useful in the latter half of the game where items with many special qualities become much more common.
• If you want to get a quick overview of what all the characters in your party have equipped (including relics), go to the menu, select Equip, and then hit Left on the D-pad. This should allow you to select everyone at once.
• Characters can be in either the front or back row for purposes of battle. Characters in the back row take half damage from basic physical attacks, but also do half damage with normal Fight attacks (unless they are equiped with a special weapon that does full damage from the back row). To change what row a character starts the battle in, go to the menu, press left, and "double click" on the character's portrait to toggle between rows.

• The statistics every character in the game has are as follows:
  Stats gained on level up:

  Vigor	-	Determines physical damage output in a smaller part
  Speed	-	Determines time between turns in battle
  Stamina	-	Determines hit rate of instant death attacks against the character
  Mag.Pwr	-	(Magic Power) Determines damage and curative output of spells

  Stats improved through equipment:

  Bat.Pw	-	(Battle Power) Determines physical damage output in a larger part
  Defense	-	Determines physical damage taken
  Evade	-	Determines absolutely nothing (except in the GBA version; see below)
  Mag.Def	-	(Magic Defense) Determines magic damage taken
  MBlock	-	Determines chance to avoid ANY attack that is not unblockable

• In the SNES and PSX versions of the game, the Evade stat is bugged and does nothing. This causes the Blind status to do nothing, and it also renders the Goggles (prevents Blind) and Beads (halves attacker's hit rate) relics totally worthless.
  So how can you dodge physical attacks? Well, as it turns out, the bug also causes the MBlock stat to be used for dodging any attack in the game that isn't unblockable, be it physical or magical. So, pay attention to equipment that adds to MBlock. Having an MBlock of 128 or higher will guarantee that if an attack is blockable, the character will block it every time.
• Also worth noting is the fact that if a character has 255 Defense, they will receive 1 damage if in the front row and 0 damage if in the back row when hit with a physical attack. Thanks mostly to an outstanding piece of armor called the Snow Muffler, Gau and Mog can reach 255 Defense at fairly low levels (they are the only two that can wear it).
• There are spells, special abilities, and weapons that "ignore defense". This means that they are inhibited neither by the target's Defense nor Magic Defense.

• When I state that a spell or ability "divides damage", all I mean is that it does more damage to a single target than it does to each of several targets. I don't think it's as simple as a literal division of the single-target total by the number of targets, but I could be wrong. The important thing is that it is more/less in single/multi-target situations.
• Note that "Poison" can refer to either the status effect or the type of elemental damage. In the guide I will indicate which with [E] for elemental damage type and [S] for status effect.
• If you're not a veteran Final Fantasy player, it's worth noting how the Reflect status works. Characters with Reflect will have all spells cast on them bounced back to their opponent(s) instead. However, Reflect can only bounce a spell once, so if your opponent has Reflect, just grant one of your party members Reflect as well and then bounce any offensive spells off of that party member. Keep in mind that Reflect bounces curative magic as well, though. There are a few offensive and defensive spells and special abilities that aren't affected by Reflect; the important ones will be noted when you come across them.
• One non-obvious status effect in the game is the Seizure status. A character or enemy with this status will lose HP over time, just like with the Poison status, however there's no visual cue to tell you the character has this status. Seizure is the functional opposite of the Regen spell/status, so casting Regen on a character will remove Seizure from him/her. However, it can also be cured via the Remedy spell or item, or the Antdot spell.
• When a character or enemy "absorbs" an element, all damage of that element will heal instead of harm him/her/it. When an attack or spell consists of multiple elements, characters or enemies that absorb just one of them will absorb the entire attack. Likewise, characters or enemies that are weak to just one of them and are neutral to the others (take normal damage from them) will be weak to the entire attack. Absorbtion trumps weakness for multi- element attacks.

• Since the Steal command becomes available to you quite early on, I'll do a bit of explaining about it here.
  Enemies in the game can have a rare Stealable item, common Stealable item, both, or none. "Rare" and "common" refer to the chance of receiving the item upon a successful Steal attempt, not the general availability of the item in the game.
  If an enemy only has either a rare or a common steal (not both), then you can repeatedly attempt to steal until you successfully get it, provided both you and the enemy survive long enough.
  If an enemy has a rare and a common steal both, which one receive on a successful Steal attempt is chosen at random, and once you have stolen one of them, the other becomes unavailable to subsequent Steal attempts on the same target. So for example if you know an enemy has a rare Steal and a common Steal, and you successfully Steal the common item, you won't be able to then Steal the rare one from the same enemy in the same encounter. Keep this in mind when reading the Steal info in the guide, especially for boss encounters. If you know a boss has both a rare and a common Steal, and you know you want the rare one badly, save your game before the fight and be prepared to load and try again several times.
  Spells (Dischord) or relics (Sneak Ring) that increase the chance of success for Steal do not affect the chance of getting the rare Steal versus the common one. So they help you succeed at Stealing more frequently, but do not help you acquire the rare item more frequently than the common item.

• One of the characters you'll recruit in the game has the ability to assume some of the attacks and properties of monsters you encounter throughout the game using a skill called Rage, which he has in place of the Fight command (more about this in the Key Stategies section below). Rages must be collected in an area of the world map called the Veldt, where you can encounter any formation of enemies that you have encountered elsewhere in the game (a "formation" being a set of specific enemies found in a single encounter). Only formations you have already encountered in other parts of the game will appear on the Veldt. It is not necessary to win a battle for the formation encountered to become available on the Veldt, you only need to leave it without having been totally defeated (or "Annihilated", as the game so delicately puts it).
  Each time you encounter a formation on the Veldt, rather than picking it randomly from all those available, the game instead cylces in order through a set list of groups (commonly referred to by fans as "packs") consisting of up to 8 formations, one of which is chosen at random. If the next pack in the sequence is empty or you haven't yet encountered any of the formations in it, the game moves on to choose a formation from the subsequent pack. (See

  6.4. Veldt Packs

  in the Quick Reference section for the pack listing.)
  I mention this mechanic because depending on what version of the game you are playing, there are a couple of ways to manipulate the next pack chosen to your advantage when trying to get Rages from specific formations:
  • In the SNES version, the game jumps ahead 13 packs when you load a saved game. So if you would normally encounter a formation from pack 15 on your next encounter, you can save and load your game so that instead you will encounter a formation from pack 28. This allows you to jump past packs that don't contain any formations you are interested in and more quickly cycle back around to those that do until you have collected the Rages you want.
  • In the PSX version, normally when you load a saved game your next pack is randomized. However, if you allow your party to be defeated, the game automatically loads your last saved game with the same next pack number you had at the time you created the save. This works in the SNES version as well. The game also loads in the data used to (pseudo)randomly determine the next formation, so the formation chosen from the pack will also always be the same. This has its uses, but isn't very desirable for Rage hunting.
    However, you can force the game to choose a different formation from the same pack by leaving the Veldt and fighting a battle elsewhere (making this method of manipulation only feasible if you have an airship). So to keep retrying the same pack:
    • Fight until you know that the pack you want is up next.
    • Save your game.
    • Try to get the formation you want.
    • If you don't get it, fight another battle and intentionally die.
    • After the auto-load, go fight a battle elsewhere (I recommend alternating between Figaro Cave and the Phantom Forest in the WoB, and Figaro Cave and Narshe in the WoR); this should change the data used to pseudo-randomly select the next formation (note that this might not always mean a different formation is chosen).
    • Save again so you don't have to start over from the original save data if you fail to get what you want again.
    • Try again to get the formation you want.
    • If you still don't get it, repeat the process until you do, making certain to never fight the not-on-the-Veldt battle in the same location twice in a row; I'm not 100% certain, but it seemed that in my tests fighting the off-Veldt battle would fail to change the formation-determining data if I used the same location as the previous off-Veldt battle.
      • Occasionally, I have run into a situation where the off-Veldt battle seems to fail to alter the formation-determining data even when dutifully alternating locations. When this happens, fighting several battles in multiple locations before trying the Veldt again seems to solve the issue (i.e. fighting 2 or 3 battles in one location, 2 or 3 in another, and 2 or 3 back in the first one or in a third one).
    It's not exactly a piece of cake, but it does give you some measure of control versus just cycling through the packs over and over and over.

• (WARNING: If you are a first-time FFVI player, parts of the following won't make much sense to you, but I recommend you read it anyway. It will make sense later when you get to the area of the game I'm referring to.)
  In the latter half of the game, there is a place called the Colosseum at which you can bet items to win better (or sometimes just different) items in exchange. Each time you bet an item, you must choose a character from your party to compete in a fight with a single enemy. What item you bet determines what enemy you will face and what item you will win if you survive the fight (the same item bet always yields the same enemy and the same item to win). Win or lose the battle, you always lose the item you bet.
  The most important aspect of Colosseum battles and the reason I mention them upfront is the fact that the actions of your character are chosen for you at random from among the attacks, skills, and spells available to him/her. Usually all you can do is equip the character for the battle as best you can and cross your fingers. However, I have developed a Colosseum strategy that works astoundingly well, but must be kept in mind from the very beginning of the game. I'm probably not the first to suggest this method, but I did contrive it independent of outside input and have yet to see it anywhere else.
  It's really a beautifully simple strategy. Mog is the ultimate Colosseum character, IF before you are done with the Colosseum:
  • You don't use his team in battle when defending Terra at the beginning of the game,
  • You don't recruit him OR don't use him in battle in the WoB, and
  • You don't teach him any magic.
  This will ensure that when you get to the WoR and recruit him, he will only have the Fight command available to use in the Colosseum. Most battles in the game will cause him to learn a Dance based on the setting of the battle, hence the need to keep him out of battle entirely; even if he is dead or you managed to get only him to run away, he will still learn the Dance if you complete the battle. Once he learns a Dance he pretty much goes from best to worst Colosseum character, given that once a Dance is used, it continues for all of Mog's turns for the rest of the battle.
  It's possible to achieve this Fight-only state with at least one other character I know of (Shadow), but what makes Mog so special is his ability to equip spear/lance type weapons. These weapons do 2x normal damage when used with the Jump command, which is granted by the DragoonBoots relic. Jump causes the character to leap into the air for a time, during which he is invulnerable to attack, and then drop back down and attack (for 1.5x normal damage with any non-spear/lance weapon). Even better, you can additionally equip the Dragon Horn relic, which causes the attack from each Jump to hit two to four times instead of just once. Plus as previously mentioned (see

  3.2.2. Character Stats

  ), Mog is one of two charaters that can use the awesome Snow Muffler armor to achieve the maximum of 255 Defense early on.
  With only the Fight and Jump commands available for him to use, Mog doesn't ever have a wasted move in the Colosseum (i.e. casting Cure on himself on the first round when he is undamaged, etc.). If you follow the walkthrough for the WoR in the order I have written it, you will be able to easily win nearly every worthwhile item from the Colosseum in a single visit pretty early, using Mog almost exclusively.
  (FFVI veterans may be saying to themselves, "Wait a minute, he said Mog will have BOTH Fight and Jump available, but Jump clearly replaces the Fight command", and they would be correct, if this weren't the Colosseum. Unfortunately, characters retain the ability to perform a basic Fight attack in the Colosseum when Jump is added to their reportoire via DragoonBoots.)
  I have found that this Colosseum strategy is so effective that I will be assuming its use in the walkthrough. This shouldn't inconvenience you too much if you don't wish to follow it; simply ignore my periodic advice related to it (i.e. not using Mog's party when defending Terra).
  I also recommend that you don't teach Shadow ANY spells until you are done with Colosseum bets because, as mentioned earlier, he also can be used as a Fight-command-only character in the Colosseum (due to the fact that Throw is not available in Colosseum battles). After the main Colosseum trip with Mog as the star of the show, you will very likely want to use him in battle, so Shadow is a great backup character to use for any future bets once you've ruined Mog with Dances. Keeping Shadow magic free allows you to take advantage of a strategy that makes him as-good if not better than Mog for Colosseum battles, but that does not become available until late in the game. It will be mentioned when you get to it in the guide, or you can jump to

  4.2.50. Collecting the Imp Gear

  if you are curious about it now.

• Gau is a unique party member in FFVI in that instead of the Fight command, he has a skill called Rage that allows him to adopt the status immunities and elemental strengths and weaknesses of most random encounter monsters in the game, as well as the ability to use the special skills for those monsters. When used in combat, you choose a single monster from a list of those whose Rages Gau has acquired, and then for the rest of the battle Gau has a chance of either using a physical attack or the special ability of that Rage each time he takes a turn.
  Normally Gau cannot equip weapons, and to make up for this, his base physical attack power is much greater than the other characters in the game. However, there is a relic you can obtain from the Colosseum called the Merit Award which allows the equipped character to use quite a few weapons and armors he or she would not normally be able to equip. In the SNES version of FFVI, Gau can equip the Merit Award and consequently can equip weapons. This is totally awesome for a few reasons:
  • Equipping a weapon adds onto Gau's already unusually high base physical damage. This ends up equalizing a lot of the end-game weapons in that many of them cause Gau to hit the Battle Power cap of 255. This kind of sounds like a bad thing, but it means that you are more free to choose weapons primarily based on their special properties instead of mainly their Battle Power.
  • Rage special skills that are just basic attacks with a multiplier (the best of which is Stray Cat's Catscratch attack at a x4 multiplier) also apply the same multiplier to the spells from chance-to-cast-on-hit weapons if they are triggered by the attack (note that the pre-multiplier amount will be based on the character's Mag.Pwr rather than Vigor). A favorite for this is Cyan's Tempest weapon, since the Wind Slash spell it sometimes casts hits all monsters instead of one, but it is effective for any such weapons. Equipping weapons with elemental properties is also very effective with Catscratch when hitting monsters weak to the element. Even better, if Gau is equipped with the Offering relic, its effect applies to Catscratch attacks, meaning they occur four times instead of one (I think still at half power as is normal for Offering, but who cares when Catscratch itself is 4x more powerful than a basic attack?).
  Unfortunately, Square apparently did not intend for Gau to be able to equip weapons via the Merit Award, because in the PSX and GBA versions of the game, they made Gau unable to equip it.
  More about Gau and his uses (Merit Award or no) can be found in the walkthrough when you acquire him. However, I should warn you that I have kept my recommended Rages to the bare minimum in this guide, since collecting any significant number of Rages can take a very, very long time, and most of them grant abilities the same as or comparable to spells that Gau can learn and use 100% of the time rather than by chance (although they cost MP, unlike Rage abilities). If you are interested in investing the time necessary to collect a wider variety of potentially useful Rages (or if you are a masochist and want to collect ALL the Rages), I suggest both Djibriel's and Skoobouy's Rage guides found on GameFAQs.com.

• You can soft reset the PSX version of the game by hitting L1, L2, R1, R2, Select, and Start all at the same time.
• In the PSX version of the game, you can save a "Memo file", which is just a temporary save that doesn't stick around when you shut off the system. The up side is that it saves and loads much faster than a memory card save file. While the memo file is lost when you shut down or reset the system itself, it persists if you do a soft reset.
• Every character besides Umaro and Gau has a "desperation attack". Characters have a small chance of performing their desperation attack every time they use the Fight command when their HP is low enough that they are crouching. This is more of a novelty than anything of real use. The attacks are pretty powerful, but certainly not worth keeping a character at very low HP on the off chance that they'll use it.
• When you use a Tent to rest, the color and style of the tent varies depending on which character is your party leader (although some characters have the same tent as each other).

• Magitech attacks work just as well from the back row.
• Don't get any bright ideas about killing off Biggs and Wedge in order to give more XP to Terra from the boss before the esper (Whelk); it doesn't give XP.
• When you first wake up as Terra and the soldiers come for you, check the clock before leaving Arvis's house and you will find an Elixer. Many clocks throughout the game have Elixers, so check every one you come across.
• Wait until the WoR to open the chests and you'll get better stuff.
• As per my recommended Colosseum strategy, DO NOT use the party with Mog for any battles in the multi-party defense sequence, otherwise he will learn the Dusk Requiem dance. If you haven't read the recommended strategy and other up-front information, shame on you; go to

  3. Important Info to Know Upfront

  and start reading right now.
• Take Mog's Mithril Shld and Mithril Pike to use on other characters later.

• Edgar's Tools do the same damage from the back row as the front row.

• Wait until the WoR to get the chests for better stuff.

• Since this is the first place you'll encounter an enemy with a recommended Rage, it's time to start thinking about whether or not you feel Gau is worth the time. (The fact that it's best to make this decision early is why I included the

  3.2.5. Veldt Mechanics

  section in the upfront info section; check it out if you haven't already.) Even with the Veldt pack trick, you're probably looking at a few hours of hunting just to get the very few Rages I recommend. Here's some things to keep in mind:
  • Gau can only use the Merit Award in the SNES version, so he's not nearly as worthwhile in the other versions as an end-game character. On the other hand, when he can use the Merit Award you're most likely going to be using the Stray Cat Rage 99.9% of the time, which isn't hard to get, so SNES or no doesn't necessarily have to affect how much time you spend collecting Rages.
  • Gau has some Rages available quite early on with attacks that are much more powerful than anything your other characters will be able to do at the same point in the game. Keep in mind that special abilities from Rages don't take any MP to cast. These great early Rages are:
    • ChickenLip. The ChickenLip Rage is available towards the end of the WoB, and its special attack is Quake. Quake is very powerful and hits both friend and foe, so when all your party members are equipped with the Gaia Gear armor (which grants absorbtion of Earth elemental damage), you can do massive damage and massive healing at the same time.
    • Anguiform and Aspik. Anguiform and Aspik become available at the same time, not long after you acquire Gau. However, to collect them as soon as they are available requires an optional return trip to the Veldt. The Anguiform Rage grants the Aqua Rake attack, which hits all enemies for slightly more damage than a second level spell and is both Water and Air elemental (when I talk about spell "level", I'm referring to the Fire, Fire 2, Fire 3 type spell power tiers; at this point you've probably only seen Terra's first level "Fire"). The Aspik Rage grants Giga Volt, which randomly targets a single enemy or all enemies and is a Lightning elemental attack nearly as powerful as Bolt 3. Both of these attacks bypass the Reflect status.
  • While there are many late-game Rages that provide Gau with most of the more powerful spells in the game, most of these spells can be taught to him and could be used by choice rather than by chance.
  • There are some late-game Rages that grant Gau some very interesting special abilities that can't be learned as spells which I have not included in my recommended Rages (i.e. Gilomantis's Shrapnel attack). If you are more inclined to spend time hunting Rages than I am, it's worth looking into these.

• South Figaro has a lot of items to be found around town, some of which are upgraded if you leave them alone until the WoR:

  Tonic

  Barrel to the left of the Chocobo stable

  Green Cherry

  Barrel to the right of the Chocobo stable

  Phoenix Down

  Barrel to the right of the rich guy's house

  Warp Stone (WoB)
  Phoenix Down (WoR)		Barrel above and behind the Chocobo stable

  Eyedrop (WoB)
  Elixir (WoR)		Box in the lower left section of town

  Antidote (WoB)
  Tent (WoR)		Barrel in the lower left section of town

  Soft (WoB)
  Remedy (WoR)		Box in lower left section of town

  Tonic (WoB)
  X-Potion (WoR)		Barrel between Armor and Weapon shops

• You can also find a few more items in pots, boxes, etc. inside some of the buildings, none of which upgrade in the WoR.
• You should search boxes, barrels, crates, etc. for items around every town you come to in the future as well; I only provided a complete list here because this is the only town where such items are upgraded if you leave them be until the WoR (unless you count the chests in the Narshe mines as being in a "town"). Missing some of these is no big deal as they are usually just Tonics, Antidotes, Phoenix Downs, and other items that you end up using a lot less often than you'd think.
• Equipping a Star Pendant (prevents Poison[S]) actually cures a currently Poisoned character, so you can use it as an infinite Antidote.
• In the rich guy's house, when you go to his secret basement via the stairs behind the bookshelf in his room and you get to what appears to be the bottom floor with three bookshelves on the left, keep going straight down in the vertical part of the passage as far as you can go and then go to the right. This takes you down a secret staircase to another basement level with a Hyper Wrist and Running Shoes in chests.

• In the second cave, there's a hidden passage between the cliff and the wall just to the right of the bridge that's very easy to miss. It leads to an Atlas Armlet, which boosts your physical damage by 25% (the actual damage, not just Vigor, the stat that's used to help determine physical damage). This includes non-standard physical attacks such as the AutoCrossbow Tool, but does not include certain fixed-damage attacks (such as the Dice weapon).
• Sabin's Blitz moves that have diagonals in them have alternate versions without diagonals that are much easier to successfully perform. (See

  6.1. Blitzes

  in the Quick Reference section).
  If you haven't yet read all about the convenient features available in this special HTML version of the guide, go to

  3.0. The HTML Version

  and check them out. Don't miss the purple link to add the Reference Tangents section to your "cookie jar".
• Note that damage is based on Magic Power for all Blitz moves other than Pummel and Suplex, and Blitz moves do the same damage from the back row.
• If you return to South Figaro and talk to Duncan's wife after obtaining Sabin, you'll see a short cutscene. It's nothing too special, but this is unfortunately your only chance to see it.

• When exploring the hideout as Terra, search the top right corner of the big table for a piece of paper.
  • If you leave it alone, Banon will flip out and throw it away at the beginning of the meeting, and Terra will laugh.
  • If you throw it away, nothing happens.
• There is a White Cape in a secret passage on the right side of the storage room. White Capes are great filler accessories because of the boost to Mblock.
• When Banon first asks you to help, tell him "no". Then the man in the storage room will give you a Genji Glove instead of the Gauntlet you get if you agree to help the first time.
• If you deny Banon three times, you'll skip the cutscene of the meeting, and if you didn't already get the Genji Glove from the returner in the treasure room, he'll come up and give it to you before you leave for the Lete River.
• Before you leave on the raft, go back into the room Terra woke up in and stand under the chest for a short cutscene.

• Take two Lefts for the shortest path (there's no treasure to collect).

• Banon was never given chocobo riding sprites, so you can put him in the lead and rent a chocobo from the hidden stable in the woods west of the Figaro desert to see garbled images riding a chocobo.

• Don't forget to leave all of the chests unopened. The newly-accessible one in the Moogle room will contain a Ribbon in the WoR (has a Rune Edge now). The Ribbon is a relic that prevents all status ailments.
• Just before you enter Arvis's house via the back door, you can unequip your stuff for the characters in the next scene can to use.

• Don't miss the green soldier merchant that quickly rides up to the crazy guy's house and away again on a chocobo.
• If you talk to Interceptor (Shadow's dog) from different angles, Sabin hides from him behind different objects in the area.

• When you kill the Leader, he usually drops a Black Belt relic, but has a small chance of dropping a Phoenix Down instead. Make sure you get the relic.

• "Hitting" the chest alerts a soldier which you fool by meowing; "Kicking" it brings about an encounter with Doberman (the only time you encounter them in the game).
• After the first time you chase Kefka, instead of talking to him explore for more treasures. Behind the tent with two chests, there's a ledge you can jump down to get to a chest with a Barrier Ring.
• Note that the Green Beret you get from Telstar (Monster-in-a-box) boosts your max HP, a detail that is easy to miss since the Equip screen doesn't mention it (the Items screen does).
• Once you exit the camp, there is a chance that Shadow will leave you after you win a random encounter; If you want to keep him around, save frequently until you get to the Ghost Train so you can load if you lose him.

• Check the top left corner of the room with the save point in the rear car for a Tent.
• In the dining car, sit at the center table and the ghost will serve you. After sitting down the first time sit down again with different members at the head of your party to see different sequences.
• You should pick up your first set of Earrings in the chest behind the waiters. These work pretty much like the Atlas Armlet only for magic damage. They are great for boosting most of Sabin's Blitz moves, and also work for Gau's magic from Rages and Shadow's elemental throwing weapons (found later), basically any magic damage attack that isn't based on a fixed formula (i.e. Step Mine).
• Don't worry about searching everywhere for Ziegfried; you can't ever find him and get the treasure he steals.
• In the empty compartment to the left of Ziegfried's, check the floor in the top left corner for a Tent.

• Just before entering the cave at Baren Falls, unequip Shadow's relics and gear for use with your other characters since he is about to leave you.

• If you're a first time FFVI player and don't know how Rage/Leap work, don't worry, the game explains it to you when you recruit Gau.
• Don't worry if the monster whose Rage you want dies before Gau "Leaps"; he will still have learned the Rage when he returns.
• Note that Gau not only gains the Rages of the monster(s) he "Leaps" into, but also the monsters from the encounter he reappears in also (unless you accidentally damage him and he runs off instead of rejoining). However, this does not include the monsters from the encounter in which you recruit him for the very first time.
• I actually recommend waiting to collect any Rages until a little while later when you can make a special trip to the Veldt and the Anguiform and Aspik Rages can be collected. You won't need to use Gau that much until then, and Anguiform and Aspik are well worth the extra trip.
• If you haven't already, read

  3.2.5. Veldt Mechanics

  for more information on getting the Rages you want.
• You can rest for free in the back of the relic shop.
• For what it's worth, Dried Meat will heal instead of hurt undead, unlike normal curative items, so it could potentially be used to restore hitpoints of characters with the Zombie status or Gau Raging an undead monster if necessary.
• To help the injured soldier and get a Tintinabar: talk to him, go to the pidgeon post office and send a message for him, go "talk" to the relic shopkeeper, rinse, repeat ("talking" to the shopkeeper triggers the soldier asking you to send the next thing).
  • If you wait and do this quest when you have the airship, you can go to Maranda and talk to Lola after each letter/item sent, and she will have different dialogue depending on what you sent last.
  • This is well worth the postage because Tintinabar can be traded for an Exp. Egg at the Colosseum much later in the game. Exp. Egg doubles all XP gained by the equipped character (two DON'T stack).
  • This side quest is unavailable in the WoR.
• You can keep killing Telstars on the Veldt for as many Green Berets as you want.
• DON'T explore the cave at the bottom of the Veldt until you are ready to move on because when you walk up to the area that the water breathing helmet is hidden in, your party will automatically unearth it and dive into the Serpent's Trench without giving you a choice.

• Worrying about getting all of the Anguiform and Aspik formations for Rage collection is mostly futile since you can't backtrack. You can return to the trench later, but there's no guarantee you'd get the formations you missed the first time through, and getting back repeatedly takes quite a while. Not worth it unless you totally missed one monster or the other.
• Take two rights to get all the treasure.

• Pick up some Smoke Bombs at the item shop. They come in handy in a pinch. If you pick up 20 or 30 now, you probably won't need to buy any again for a long time, if ever.
• Before taking the ferry, unequip any relics or gear you may want for Locke's Scenario.

• There's a secret bridge over the river in the middle of town hidden underneath the Inn/Cafe (Pub in the PSX version) overhang; using it allows you to cirumvent some of the otherwise necessary costume switches.
• If you're wearing the soldier's uniform when you rescue Celes, then she says something close to what Princess Leia said in Star Wars when Luke rescued her on the Death Star.
• In the secret passage there is a spot that you can push on the left wall to reach a stairway leading to a room with a Ribbon in a chest hidden from view.
• If you want to take advantage of the Stealing trick in the Battle at Narshe, then make sure you have an ample supply of curative items before leaving town. (See

  4.1.21. Narshe: Defend the Esper

  below.)

• Don't forget to leave the chests alone so you can get better stuff from them in the WoR.

• Note that the soldier enemies (as well as many other human opponents throughout the game) are weak to Poison[E] attacks, so Edgar's Bio Blaster Tool is effective against them.
• Both Rider and Kefka just wait for you to attack them, so kill all the other groups first for the XP.
• If your party is killed, they'll restart with only 1 HP. If you allow your party with Locke to be defeated by Rider after Stealing from him, you can keep encountering and Stealing from him to get multiple MithrilVests, which are better than anything else you have at this point (unless you kept Shadow's Ninja Gear before he left). You really only need enough for a single party (3 or 4) since there will be bigger and better armors in the future.
• Rider is weak against Fire and Poison[E].
• You can use the same trick to obtain numerous Ethers from Kefka. If you do this, stick Celes with Locke so she can block Kefka's magic with Runic until Locke Steals successfully. Personally I think that thanks to the Osmose spell allowing you to easily and freely replenish your MP, this isn't worth the effort.

• If you want to view Shadow's first four dream cutscenes, pick only 3 party members now so you can recruit him in Kohlingen. He's likely to abandon you anyway, so return to Narshe and dump him after seeing the dreams. Until you have seen all four, there's a chance that a dream cutscene will occur each time you sleep.
  • You cannot trigger the dreams in any of the readily available places you can sleep for free (Figaro Castle, Sabin's cottage); just use the Kohlingen Inn.
  • Also note that if you return to Narshe, Shadow will automatically leave you at the gate before you enter.
• If you want to see Locke's scenes (at Kohlingen), make sure he's in your party. You might want him for Stealing later on anyway.
• There's a house with a lot of good, free treasure directly below Arvis's house; follow the cliff instead of going down the stairs. One of these treasures is the Sneak Ring, a useful relic that doubles the success rate of the Steal command (having more than one equipped does NOT stack the effect).
• If you go north to the entrance to the mines (but don't enter) you can see a sasquatch periodically peek in and out of the little black hole up and to the right.
• You can go around the counter in the weapon shop, enter the shopkeeper's bedroom, and sleep in his bed for free.

• You can make a special trip to the Veldt at this point to collect Rages by going the same route you did before with Sabin (starting from the Lete River accessed via the Returner's hideout). I highly recommend this as Giga Volt is incredibly powerful for this early in the game, and Aqua Rake, while a bit less powerful by comparison, is always multi-target and gives you access to two attack elements that are hard to come by at this point. You also won't have another chance to collect these for a good little while, and they are quite useful for some of the upcoming areas.
• Also if you want to see every cutscene in the game, note that this time when you take the ferry from Nikeah to South Figaro, you have to be smuggled out of South Figaro by one of the ferrymen inside a chest.

• If Edgar is in your party, then you'll get special dialogue with different people in the castle (i.e. the merchants try to refuse to take your money but Edgar insists).
• If Edgar is your party leader, the shops here will offer their goods for half price. Note that even though the merchants verbally acknowledge him no matter what position in the party he holds, he MUST be the leader in order to get the discount.
• Pick up the two new Tools from the shop. Drill is especially useful as it ignores the target's Defense.
• If you have both Edgar and Sabin in your party you'll see a cutscene about their past if you go to the room with the beds and rest. If you don't view it now, you will be able to in the WoR, where it arguably makes more sense story-wise.

• If you go behind the house on the top right and push down, you'll find a back entrance which leads to a Green Beret.
• When you leave town, don't forget to stop by the war-crazy old man's house way up north and pick up the Hero Ring from one of his pots. Hero Ring is Earrings and Atlas Armlet combined, so it's a great choice for Edgar or Gau, or even Sabin if you use Pummel or Suplex with him as much as AuraBolt or Fire Dance.
  • It should be noted that the physical damage bonuses from Hero Rings/Atlas Armlets don't stack with each other, but the magic damage bonuses from Hero Rings/Earrings DO stack with each other. So, putting both your Hero Ring and your Earrings on either Sabin or Gau is pretty effective.
• If you don't need the XP from encounters, you can find a chocobo stable in the woods next to the war-crazy old man's house and ride a chocobo all the way down to Jidoor.

• Save the tower with the relic shop sign for last; it's the tower Terra is in.
• To get the Chain Saw, set the clock to 6:10:50. Chain Saw ignores the target's Defense like Drill, but has much higer damage and a 1/4 chance of attempting an instant death attack instead of a normal damaging attack (which is actually kind of a down side as these tend to miss, and many bosses are immune to instant death).
• When you get to the first place you can jump between buildings, don't forget to first climb all the way up the building you are on and get the Thief Glove.
• The Capture command (Fight + Steal, usable with Thief Glove equipped) unfortunately nullifies some special properties of weapons:

  Striker,
  Assassin,
  Wing Edge,
  Scimitar,
  Trump / Doom Darts (SNES/PSX)	-	No instant death

  Man Eater	-	No double damage to "Humans"

  Drainer,
  Soul Sabre	-	Normal damage instead of HP/MP drain

  Rune Edge,
  Ragnarok,
  Illumina,
  Punisher	-	No MP-using critical hits

  Ogre Nix	-	No MP-using critical hits, but can't break

  Sniper,
  Hawk Eye	-	No random extra damage

  ValiantKnife	-	Loses defense-ignoring properties and doesn't add the (max HP - current HP) damage

  Tempest	-	Won't cast Wind Slash

  Atma Weapon	-	Becomes a normal 255 Battle Power sword

• Dadaluma is weak against Poison[E] and susceptible to Imp, Mute, Sleep, and Stop.
• After the cutscene, you'll obtain your first four Espers: Ramuh, Kirin, Siren, and Stray.
• When your other party members arrive, then as soon as you talk to them you'll be forced to proceed with Locke, Celes, and two others of your choice. Make sure you first unequip any relics or other gear you want from any characters you were using and will now leave behind. If you bring Edgar and Sabin you'll see an amusing/story-significant interaction when you first recruit Setzer, but if you collected the Anguiform and Aspik Rages for Gau, I recommend you bring him instead of both brothers.

• I will normally use the term "Espers" to refer to your equipable Magicite, and I will refer to the special "magic points" you earn from battle for learning spells as "MXP", in order to easily distinguish between these magic points and the magic points (MP) used to cast spells.
• Pay attention to the stat bonuses on the Espers. These are permanently added each time the equipped character levels up in addition to whatever stat gains they would normally get from leveling. Vigor and MagPwr are the two most worthwhile bonuses, and which is best depends on the character and how you play him/her. If you use mostly magic damage attacks with a character (i.e. Blitzes or magic skills from Rages) then go with MagPwr, but if you use mostly physical damage attacks (i.e. Chain Saw or physical skills from Rages, most notably Catscratch) then go with Vigor. See

  6.2. Esper Stat Bonuses

  in the Quick Reference section for a complete listing of possible bonuses.
  • At this point in the game, I recommend equipping Espers based on what stat bonuses they grant rather than what spells they teach (except for possibly the curative spells). You can always run random battles to learn spells, and there's a couple of ways to do this without having to constantly watch your characters' XP in order to switch them back to the Esper with the stat bonus you want when they are about to level up. I'll mention these methods later when they become available.
  • Note that in the SNES version, the Vigor bonus espers are incorrectly labeled as "Strength" bonuses, even though there is no "Strength" stat.
• Also pay attention to what the Espers do when summoned. Some of them have very nice effects, especially those acquired later (i.e. Golem). To get to the summon, select the Magic command in battle and press up while at the top of the list of spells the character knows. Espers can only be summoned once per battle.

• Make sure you stop by Owzer's mansion at the north end of Jidoor before heading here.
• Make sure you equip Sprint Shoes on a party member since part of the Opera House sequence is timed. Note that in the PSX version, you can actually already sprint any time you want to by holding down O (circle), however this turns into an insanely fast super-sprint when you have Sprint Shoes equipped, so they're still worth it.
• You may want to save beforehand and sing the song incorrectly on purpose, because some of the incorrect lines are pretty amusing; same goes for hitting the wrong switches when trying to stop Ultros (the correct switch is the one on the far right).
• Ultros absorbs Water and is weak against Fire and Lightning.

• If you have both Edgar and Sabin in your party, Edgar gives the coin that Celes flips to her, and Sabin gets upset with him (remember how the NPCs in Figaro told you the succession was decided?).

• Make sure to re-equip Celes's gear, relics, and Esper once you arrive.
• You can return to the Blackjack for various services supplied by the crew members: healing, item shop, and unequipping your characters that are back in Narshe.
• You might want to visit the four other settlements before heading to Vector. These are Albrook (you land next to it), Tzen (north), Maranda (west), and the Imperial Mountian Base (east).
• Tzen, Albrook, and Maranda have some new gear for sale, most notably Bard's Hats and, in Albrook only, Wall Rings.
  • Having 4 Wall Rings will be advantageous in many future situations, so it's not a bad idea to pick up as many as you need here. I recommend getting 2 since you should find a couple more from chests before you ever really need to use them.
  • I recommend the Bard's Hat for its significant boost to MBlock; paired with a White Cape, you will notice a significant increase in the number of times the character dodges attacks. The only possible advantage the Green Beret has over the Bard's Hat is the max HP bonus it provides (Bard's Hat gives a max MP bonus).
• The Imperial Base has soldiers walking around that you can fight and Steal Tents from (Commando common Steal), and they also have a chance of dropping Tents as well. This is a great way to stock up.

• In the upper-right corner of the second area (the area that loads after you fall down on a conveyor belt), there is a pipe in the wall you can enter near the large group of crates that leads to some treasure.
• In the lower left corner of the second area on the lower of the two levels there is a door leading underneath the upper level to a treasure chest. There's a similar door at the right end of the lower level as well leading to another treasure chest hidden behind the bottom wall.
• If you are going for Strago's Lores later, make sure to encounter a Chaser in the area after you fight Shiva and Ifrit so that you can find it on the Veldt later and learn Dischord from it.
• Osmose (which can be learned from the Shiva Esper) is an incredibly useful spell for any spell casting character. It drains a large amount of MP from the target and gives it to the caster. Osmose can often totally replenish a character's MP in a single cast, provided the target has enough MP to begin with.
• Trappers use the first L.# attacks you will face (L.3 Muddle, L.4 Flare, and L.5 Doom), where they target the whole party but only hit a character if his/her level is divisible by #.
• In the room with five empty glass tubes, check down and to the left of the bottom left tube for a Break Blade.
• Number 024 is susceptible to both Sleep and Imp.
• Number 128 absorbs Ice and is susceptible to Slow. The Tempest rare Steal it has is one of only two in the game.
• Left Crane absorbs Lightning and is weak against Water. Right Crane absorbs Fire and is weak against Lightning and Water. Both are susceptible to Slow.

• After Terra rejoins your party, she will have permanently gained the ability to "Morph" in battle into the freaky-haired white Esper-thing. While in this form, Terra has improved offensive and defensive statistics, so she'll deal more and take less damage. How long she remains in this form depends on how much MXP she has earned from battles since the last time she used Morph.
• Now that you have the option of using Setzer as a party member on a regular basis, it's worth noting that all of his unique weapons (meaning only he can equip them) do the same damage from the back row.

• There is new stuff in the weapon and armor shops, but make sure you save at least 33000 GP for buying some Espers in a bit.
• If you like using Locke, I highly recommend Genji Glove + two Hawk Eyes for him as not only do they do the same damage from the back row, but they also frequently do extra damage at random.
• Go to the house with the locked treasure chest (the one you looted all the other chests in earlier). You'll see Lone Wolf on his way out and the chest is empty. Follow him north to the Esper. He's holding Mog hostage. Just hold still for a bit and Mog will escape. Either talk to Mog and he joins your party, or talk to Lone Wolf to get a Gold Hairpin (Mog can be recruited later in the WoR whether or not you get him here).
  • Go for the Gold Hairpin. You can't use Mog yet if you are following my Colosseum strategy anyway. Gold Hairpin halves the MP cost of all spells for the equipped character.

• At the auction house, you can obtain the Golem Esper for 20,000 GP and the Zoneseek Esper for 10,000 GP.

• You can purchase the Sraphim Esper for 3,000GP from a random guy behind the trees in the upper-right part of town.

• Gaia Gear grants absorption of Earth elemental attacks, so having 4 of them helps greatly in several areas, and makes Gau's ChickenLip Rage a great option.

• If you waited to do the injured soldier letter sending sidequest so you could go hear Lola's responses in person, you can do that now.
• While Veldt battles don't give you any XP, they do give you MXP.
• Chimera's special attack is identical to Anguiforms, however it grants many status immunities Anguiform lacks.

• It's a good idea to equip your party with Gaia Gear for the Cave of the Sealed Gate; the Lifeshaver attack used by Ing is Earth elemental.
• If you are planning to use Gau in your main end-game party and are playing the SNES version, make sure you hang on to the Tempest you get from the chest in the area before the changing bridge maze (or if you stole one from Number 128 in the Magitech Research Facility, make sure you keep at least one of the two).
• To get a Genji Glove in the area after the changing bridge maze, go up the the staircase and trip the switch in the middle of the bridge, then when it drops you, go left and up through the small cave mouth.
• The plaza beneath the grand stairway the ninja (encountered when you flip the right of the two side-by-side switches) refers to is just the area at the bottom of the big staircase that appears when you trip the switch in the middle of the bridge over the lava. There are several items you can find there just by searching the apparently empty ground, none of them really worthwhile, especially since two of them aren't as advertised: the "2000GP" is actually just 293 GP, and the "Remedy" is actually a Soft.
• When you reach the area with the two button-looking switches close to each other in the floor, ignore them and go down the stairs and then to the left. There will be a third floor switch on a platform; trip it and a cave will open up leading to some chests, one of which contains the Atma Weapon sword.
• The Atma Weapon does the most damage when its user is at full HP, and also does more damage the higher the user's level.

• When you exit the airship, you can find a chocobo stable in the nearby forest in the narrowest part on the right side. Bring Sabin and Cyan for some extra tidbits of dialogue later.
• Before and during the banquet, there is a point system by which you can earn rewards. This is how you can get the best possible outcome:
  Talk to as many guards as possible before the banquet begins. You have 4 minutes. To save as much time as possible:
  • Equip some Sprint Shoes.
  • Don't take the time to open the chests; you can do this after the banquet.
  • Don't talk to the two fancily dressed guards in the throne room where you start out or try to enter the doors at the back of it. These guards don't count towards the total, and they'll move up and bar your way if you try to enter the doors; all of this wastes valuable time.
  • Don't walk up to the cell Kefka is being held in; this will trigger a small cutscene in which he'll just babble in annoying, Kefka fashion, again wasting valuable time. If you want to hear what he says, you can come see him after the banquet is over.

  Each guard talked to	:	1 pt	(24 pts total)
  Each guard fought	:	4 pts	(20 pts total)

  During the banquet, respond to the questions like so:

  Who to toast?	-	"To our hometowns"	:	5 pts
  About Kefka?	-	"Leave him in jail"	:	5 pts
  About Doma?	-	"That was inexcusable"	:	5 pts
  About Celes?	-	"Celes is one of us"	:	5 pts

  Any questions?

  :

  2 pts each; -10 pts if you ask a question twice (When Gestahl asks to talk about Espers after you ask the first question, refuse so you can ask the other two.)

  About the Espers?

  -

  "They've gone too far"

  :

  5 pts

  Which question asked first?	-	Choose the correct one	:	5 pts
  "Take a break" and beat the Emperor's Guard (Sp Forces)			:	5 pts

  Anything you'd like me to say?	-	"The war is over"	:	5 pts
  Do me a favor?	-	Say yes the first time	:	3 pts

  Rewards (these are cumulative; if you get 90+ pts you get them all):
  0-49 pts:	Empire withdraws from South Figaro
  50-66 pts:	Empire withdraws from Doma
  67-76 pts:	Unlocks the locked door in the house in the Imperial camp outside the Cave of the Sealed Gate
  77-89 pts:	Receive a Tintinabar
  90-93 pts:	Receive a Charm Bangle

• Now that you've earned your rewards, don't forget to explore the palace and collect the treasure. If you examine a toilet, you'll jump on it, squat, and flush. You can also go hear Kefka's windy monologue now if you'd like.

• Go back and visit the airship where it crashed near Maranda for an interesting cutscene in the engine room.
• In the now-unlocked basement room in the Imperial camp, there is a hidden chest in the bottom right hand corner of the room, and the stove has a Flame Sabre as well.
• The troops will be gone from Tzen and Maranda, and the citizens will have different dialogue.

• This should be the first point in the game at which you have the opportunity to teach Shadow some Magic, however I recommend that you don't until much later so that he can be used as a much more effective Colosseum character. (See the last paragraph of

  3.3.1. Colosseum Strategy

  .)
• The weapon shop here sells some of the elemental rods. In addition to being regular equipable weapons, the elemental rods can be used as expendable items to cast a defense-ignoring version of a spell of the corresponding element.
• The armor shop here sells Mystery Veils, an awesome helm with some MBlock that only the ladies can wear. You might as well pick up 3.
• After talking to Strago, go behind his house and the one nearby to see some suspicious activities. Then, go rest at the Inn, BUT FIRST completely unequip Shadow (gear, relics, Esper) so he doesn't take your stuff when he leaves.
• FlameEater absorbs Fire, is immune to Lightning, Poison[E], Pearl, and Earth, and is weak againts Ice. It is susceptible to Slow.
• There's a Memento Ring hidden on the left wall of the second floor of Strago's house (a.k.a. the "Safty Ring" in the PSX release...).

• As this is the first chance you'll have to start learning some Lores, it's worth noting that the Blind status actually does do something: it prevents Strago from learning Lores. You'll probably never run into any trouble with this, though.
• When Relm joins your party, you'll notice that her special battle command is Sketch. In the original SNES American release of the game (version 1.0), Sketch is subject to a serious bug triggered under certain conditions when it misses. A later SNES version of the game was released without the bug, and the bug does not exist in the PSX or GBA versions either.
  The bug can cause all manner of things to happen, ranging from freeze ups and graphics glitches to total loss of all save game data on the cartridge. If you are playing the SNES version of the game and aren't sure which version it is, I recommend that you don't use Sketch at all unless you know it will hit. This guide will only direct you to use Sketch one time, and will list the conditions for 100% chance to hit there.
• Ultros absorbs Water and is weak against Fire and Lightning. He is susceptible to Stop.
• Fall through the bottom-left weak floor spot last since it will lead you onward while the other two lead to treasures.

• If you re-enter Thamasa with Strago in your party you'll find his friend Gungho near the Elder's house, and there will be a short cutscene about Hidon. If you talk to Gungho without Strago in your party, you're party leader will describe Strago insultingly (and amusingly).
• If you won freedom for South Figaro via the point system on your last visit to Vector, there's still an empty suit of Magitech armor left behind near the weapon and armor shops.
• If you won freedom for Doma Castle, go collect the treasure there. Somewhat surprisingly, there is no cutscene for having Cyan in your party.
• I highly recommend at least teaching your two main casters (Celes and Terra) all of the magic you have available at this point. At the very least teach all of the truly useful spells to Celes, since there will soon come a time where she is your only character for a little while.
  You should consider going the route of earning good MXP while at the same time earning little or no XP. Then later, when you are fighting battles that give you normal amounts of XP, you can just equip Espers according to their stat bonuses without worrying about what spells they teach. I know of three good ways to do this:
  • Fight random battles in the first two areas of the Phantom Forest (when you enter from the north). You will encounter either a single Ghost worth 3 MXP or a Ghost and two Popliums together for 1 MXP (no, I'm not sure how this makes sense). The Ghost is the more common encounter. These battles are worth very little XP, and all of your characters should be able to one-shot the enemies here, even from the back row.
  • Hunt for Intangirs on Triangle Island. You will encounter a single Intangir roughly half of the time here. Intangirs are worth a whopping 10 MXP and no XP, but The downside is that the other monsters you'll encounter here aren't worth *any* MXP (they are also worth very little XP). Intangir is normally a very tough monster. However, it is susceptible to instant death attacks; the Rhodox Rage is the best way to kill it since it will counter the Doom spell with Meteo on the caster, but won't counter Snare. Meteo hurts. Use Gau + Rhodox Rage.
  • Fight on the Veldt. An encounter on the Veldt gives you just as much MXP as it does in its original area, even though it doesn't give you any XP. Since some encounters aren't worth any MXP normally, this of course means that the same encounters aren't worth any MXP on the Veldt either. This really isn't the best method unless you are killing two or three birds with one stone by hunting Rages and/or Lores at the same time.
  I prefer the Phantom Forest method as I feel it gives you the best MP over time. Intangir is great, until you get unlucky and have a streak of ten non- Intangir, 0 MXP encounters in a row. You also pretty much have to use Gau at all times when hunting Intangirs, since trying to survive or revive after every Meteo counter attack to Doom is just not worth the trouble. This slows you down if you are teaching magic to all of the characters since you can only be teaching three of them + Gau at a time.
• Now is a good time to pick up the highly useful Dischord Lore. Enemies immune to instant death attacks are also immune to Dischord. However, there is a bug in the game you can exploit to hit them with it anyway. The way the Vanish status is coded, any enemy that has it can be hit by any spell, regardless of whether or not it is one to which they would normally be immune. Casting Vanish on a monster immune to instant death then allows you to hit it with Dischord. Because said monster could alse be hit with instant death attacks if under the effects of Vanish, this bug can be seriously exploited throughout the game. I strongly recommend against this; it will suck the fun right out of the game. However, exploiting it with Dischord in order to Steal items more easily shouldn't ruin your fun at all, unless you LIKE spending unnecessarily larger amounts of time trying to Steal stuff...
• If you don't already have some, buy some Bolt Edges and Fire Skeans in Kohlingen for Shadow to throw on the Floating Continent. Don't forget that Earrings boost their damage, and that Earrings stack (or Earrings + Hero Ring).

• Chupon absorbs Fire, is weak against Ice and Water, and is susceptible to Mute, Sleep, and Stop. Ultros absorbs Water, is weak against Fire and Poison[E], and is susceptible to Slow.
• In the battle with Air Force, all of the opponents are weak against Lightning and Water, and all of them *besides* Air Force are susceptible to Stop.
• Don't forget to NOT teach Shadow any magic so that you can use him effectively in the Colosseum.
• Behemoths are vulnerable to instant death attacks, so use Doom or Break against them.
• Dragons are weak to Lightning attacks, and can be affected by Stop and Sleep (they are pretty tough, so you might want to try for both statuses).
• To get to Gigantos, a monster-in-a-box encounter, go all the way to the right just past the staircase to the first warp hole (the platforms with the dots in the center), and the path will open to a blue orb. He is susceptible to both Stop and instant death attacks, but he does open up the battle with three hard-hitting physical attacks, so you might consider applying Vanish to all your characters before the battle.
• AtmaWeapon is susceptible to Slow, and can be killed by using Rasp to drain all of its MP, which can be safer than more orthodox methods since he is scripted to use more powerful attacks the lower his HP gets. You might consider Wall Rings to protect against some of his brutal magic attacks, especially if you have Strago with the Pearl Wind Lore or are using Gau with the Gaia Gear + Quake (ChickenLip Rage) tactic for healing.
• Don't forget about Sprint Shoes for the timed escape sequence.
• Naughty is susceptible to Imp, and Wall Rings help against it too. It uses Cold Dust, an attack which can cause the Frozen status effect. This is one of only two status effects in the game that can't be cured with an item or curative magic. Frozen characters can only be unfrozen by taking fire damage, so a basic Fire spell is probably your best bet.
• Nerapa is susceptible to Muddle, Stop, and Doom, but starts with the Reflect status, so you have to bounce spells off of your own characters' Reflect barriers to hit it.
• When you are about to jump to the airship, instead choose the wait option, then when the clock reaches 0:04 Shadow will arrive and jump with you. If you fail to do this, you'll never see him again, and instead of Shadow later getting a fifth dream sequence, Relm will get a dream sequence of her own.

• A lot has happened since you last had the opportunity to save, so note that you can exit to the world map and save there by going anywhere but down from the outside of the cottage.
• The best way to save Cid from dying is to collect both the fast and medium speed fish whenever both are available (you can catch more than one at a time and the effects are cumulative). Sometimes the medium speed fish are actually bad for him, but they are always worth the risk if caught with a fast moving fish. When not being fed fish, Cid's "health" is constantly being drained. Talking to him seems to be what triggers a new set of fish on the beach. You can check in the rare items section of the Items menu to see what kind of fish you caught, but at that point it's irrelevant because there's no way to avoid feeding it to Cid the next time you talk to him.
• While I suppose saving Cid is the nicest way to go, letting him die is more interesting story-wise, even in spite of that "leap of faith" nonsense added to the US version. Furthermore, when you come back to the island later in your brand spankin' new (ok, refurbished) airship, all he does is wander aimlessly around his dilapidated shack and say "I feel much better! Thanks Celes!" (regardless of whether or not Celes is actually in your party) rather than, I don't know, COMING WITH YOU. Saving him is also tedious; it's much easier to kill him with slow fish. In any case, whether he lives or dies is merely a matter of story progression; you don't miss out on any treasure or anything either way.

• As long as Celes is your only party member, it's a good idea to keep a Ribbon on her to protect her from deadly status effects like Petrify and Zombie.

• If you examine the campfire by the weapon shop, you'll hear a burning noise and your character will jump back.
• The weapon shop sells the three elemental swords, which can be purchased later for Shadow to Throw for great single-target elemental damage.

• You'll be playing another timed sequence here, so equip some Sprint Shoes.
• In the collapsing house, don't get the treasure chest right next to the stairs down to the basement or the chest in the upper left corner of the basement. Both are monster-in-a-box encounters that just waste time and don't net you any items.
• If you have them, you can use Smoke Bombs to quickly escape the random battles in the house and save quite a bit of time.
• Before you leave town, stop by the relic shop and pick up enough Peace Rings so that between them and your Ribbons you can protect 3 party members from Confusion, snag a second Sneak Ring if you only have one, and make sure you own a couple of DragoonBoots.

• If you want as many Espers as early as possible, head towards the "tail" (look at your mini map) of the Serpent Trench first where Mobliz is. If you instead want to regain an airship ASAP, head towards the "head" and Nikeah instead.

• Don't waste a use of Morph when fighting with Terra; it's a scripted battle where she is forced to lose.
• Phunbaba absorbs Lightning and is weak against Poison[E].
• After defeating Phunbaba, you will receive the Fenrir Esper.

• The weapon shop has Enhancers, which increase MBlock by 20% besides being a pretty good weapon. You can equip two with a Genji Glove for a very high dodge rate, especially when coupled with a Bard's Hat and a White Cape.
  • You will have a chance to buy Enhancers at half price a short while later in South Figaro after you acquire Edgar, so as good as they are, it might be worth the wait.
• Don't waste your money on a Diamond Vest for Celes as you can buy her a Diamond Armor very soon in South Figaro.

• If you didn't gather the treasures around town in the WoB, you can collect the better WoR items now. (See

  4.1.05. South Figaro

  for the list, including locations.)
• If Edgar is your party leader, you'll get a 50% discount in the stores here, so you may want to wait until you get him before buying gear here (you won't have to wait long).
• Make sure you have enough Amulets/Ribbons to protect 4 party members against the Zombie status before moving on.
• Check the trees on the east edge of town for some amusing NPC dialogue.
• Behind Duncan's wife's house, you can re-enter the passages where you first escaped with Celes in the WoB and fight the same random encounters that were there before (probably a mistake since imperial commanders wouldn't have any reason to attack you now given that the empire no longer even exists, let alone occupies South Figaro).

• It's a good idea to have Peace Rings/Ribbons equipped to protect againts the dangerous Confuse status set by many of the enemy attacks here.
• If you waited to open the chests from the WoB, make sure to grab them now. Don't worry, Siegfried won't get to them (just like on the ghost train, he doesn't actually prevent you from getting any treasure you might otherwise have been able to obtain.)
• Before talking to Gerad in the engine room, equip RunningShoes on Celes and Sabin for the ensuing boss battle. This will prevent the Tentacles from Slowing and grabbing either of them (you'll see what I mean as they are sure to do this to Gerad).
• In keeping with their tendancy towards being annoying, each of the four Tentacles has different weaknesses and susceptabilities, so to make it easier here they are listed in the same spatial layout as the Tentacles themselves:

  Tentacle A		Tentacle B
  Absorbs Earth and Water Susceptable to Stop		Absorbs Lightning and Water Susceptable to Poison[S], Mute, Sleep, and Slow
  Tentacle C		Tentacle D
  Absorbs Ice and Water Weak against Fire Susceptable to instant death attacks, Poison[S], and Slow		Absorbs Fire Weak against Ice and Water Susceptable to Poison[S], Mute, and Slow

• Check the suit of armor in the treasure room for a Soul Sabre.

• If you didn't view the cutscene with the two brothers earlier in the WoB, you should do so now.
• Like South Figaro, if Edgar is your party leader the shops give you 50% off. You can also have the old man in the basement take the castle back to South Figaro so you can take advantage of the discount there if you wish.

• Fun fact: In the SNES version, Trump (available in the weapon shop) are actually darts when used in battle, and the Doom Darts (acquired later) actually appear as cards. The PSX version swaps the names of these two items so that they make sense.
• Trump/Doom Darts have a chance of inflicting instant death; not particularly useful in the next dungeon, but many people favor them in the Colosseum (not necessary if you took my advice regarding Mog).
• Pick up at least one Dice for Setzer. I prefer to equip two since this reduces the chance of his turn doing crap total damage.
  • Dice damage = 2d6 * 2 * Setzer's level, but they're weighted in favor of 1-4 rolls vs 5 and 6 rolls.

• The Colosseum is in roughly the same place the war-crazy old man's house was in the WoB (the northwest corner of the map).
• You can visit the Colosseum now if you wish. About the only thing worth your time at this point is the

  Gold Hairpin –> Dragon Horn

  trade (see the bottom of

  5. Colosseum Guide

  ), but many players can't bear to part with their precious Gold Hairpin at this point. If you follow my recommended WoR order and Colosseum strategy, you will be able to win the vast majority of the useful items available from the Colosseum in a single visit not long from now, and will score TWO Dragon Horns without giving up your Gold Hairpin. However, the DragoonBoots + Dragon Horn combo is pretty sweet on spear/lance wielding characters (just Edgar at this point), so it's worth considering.

• Monsters here frequently attempt to Zombify you, so equip Amulets/Ribbons all around.
• Don't use Trump/Doom Darts with Setzer as most of the monsters here are undead and the instant death effect will actually revive them.
• In the room with the Czarina Gown, there is a hidden passage in the right wall to a chest with an Exp. Egg. Note that even though the character equipped with the Exp. Egg will in fact receive twice the normal XP from battle, the combat message still states the normal amount.
• In the room towards the end of the tomb with the save point and two chests, the left chest contains the Monster-in-a-box Presenter. Presenter absorbs Ice, Lightning, and Water, is immune to Poison[E], and is weak against Fire. It is susceptible to instant death attacks, Mute, Sleep, and Stop.
• Dullahan absorbs Ice and is weak against Fire. He casts quite a few spells, so Runic is a good choice. Wall Rings can also be useful, but he targets characters with the Reflect status with a special status ailment attack, so pairing them with Ribbons may be a good idea. Also of note, he casts L? Pearl, which hits all characters whose level is divisible by the last digit of your current GP.

• From here on out, the order of the areas is just my recommendation / personal preference. Feel free to ignore me when I tell you things like "don't talk to so-and-so yet" or "don't go in there yet". The game drops hints at its own recommended order (i.e. the bird to follow), but for the most part, you can really just choose wherever you want to go next.
• It's a good idea to make sure you save just before each time you use your airship, just in case you encounter Doom Gaze while you're in the air. At this point it can kill you relatively easily. (See

  4.2.32. Doom Gaze

  for more info.)
• Throughout the WoR there are 8 special dragons to defeat. In addition to being listed below, each is also listed in the section for the area in which it resides. When all 8 are defeated, you will receive the Crusader Esper.
  The 8 Dragons:

  Red Dragon	-	Phoenix Cave
  White Dragon	-	Fanatic's Tower
  Gold Dragon	-	Kefka's Tower
  Skull Dragon	-	Kefka's Tower
  Dirt Dragon	-	Opera House
  Blue Dragon	-	Ancient Castle
  Storm Dragon	-	Mount Zozo
  Ice Dragon	-	Narshe Ruins

• This is the town to which the pidgeon led you.
• The Falchion, which can be bought in the weapon shop, can be bet for a Flame Shld at the Colosseum, which can then be bet for an Ice Shld. Buy four.
  • Flame Shld absorbs Fire and nullifies Ice, but adds weakness to Water. Ice Shld absorbs Ice and nullifies Fire, but adds weakness to Air. Also, Flame Shld teaches Fire 2 at a x5 rate, and Ice Shld teaches Ice 2 at the same rate.
• Don't talk to Lola just yet (the woman with all the flowers in the top right house); you'll come back for that later.

• Jidoor is located on the southeastern end of the large circular part of the continent furthest to the west (the large circular part is on top with a thin strip of land curving down an to the east connecting it to a smaller oval part).
• Stop by the auction house until a Hero Ring comes up, and buy it for 50,000 GP. If you don't have the GP, go get it, because Hero Ring is awesome.
• Grab a Sniper at the weapon shop to trade into a Red Jacket at the Colosseum later, as well as a Partisan for use in the Colosseum prior to winning the Pearl Lance.

• Note the Steals available here for later. I won't be listing them again because I don't personally think they are worth the time and effort. Peepers and Earthguards die after a short time because they have extremely little HP and the Seizure status, so it's harder to obtain a rare Steal from them than you might think. Also, because their Seizure status is inherent, it cannot be cured to extend their life.
• The Palidor Esper can be found on the beach where you caught fish for Cid.

• If you spoke to Duncan's wife in South Figaro, you'll recall she mentioned that he's still alive. His cottage can be found in the center of a + shaped group of trees northeast of Narshe. Narshe is in about the same place it was in the WoB (center of the map at the extreme north).
• If you visit him without Sabin, he'll be jumping around and hacking up a lung inside his cottage. Also, every time you go to the menu and back he'll restart his jump sequence, so you can make him jump off the left side of the screen this way.
• If you visit him with Sabin, you'll see a cutscene and Sabin will learn his final Blitz, Bum Rush, which he normally doesn't learn until level 70. At this point, this will easily be your strongest attack. While it looks hard when you check out the button combo the game gives you, keep in mind there's an alternative with no diagonals in the Quick Reference section. (See

  6.1. Blitzes

  )

• Mobliz is on the end of the "tail" of the Serpent Un-Trench.
• Return to pick up Terra. If this is your first time here, you'll first fight Phunbaba and pick up the Esper Fenrir, and you'll have to leave and re-enter Mobliz in order to fight Phunbaba again and get Terra.
• Phunbaba absorbs Lightning and is weak against Poison[E].
• Keep in mind you can return here whenever you want for an easily accessible and free rest in the back of the empty relic shop.

• When you first enter Narshe, go into the secret entrance cave to the left and follow it to the moogle cave, where you'll find Mog. After you recruit him, check the spot on the wall he was looking at for the Moogle Charm, a relic exclusively for Mog that prevents random encounters entirely.
• Make sure you don't use Mog in battle and therefore end up teaching him a Dance.
• If you left the chest on the far left end of the moogle cave alone in the WoB, go grab the Ribbon from it, and continue on and grab the Elixer and Pod Bracelet from the other chests, assuming you left them alone in the WoB too. When you're done, Warp out of Narshe.
• Once back on the airship, put Mog in your party and equip him with Sprint Shoes and the Moogle Charm for...

• Fanatic's Tower is located south of the "head" of the Serpent Un-Trench, surrounded by mountains.
• In the first room with the chest containing a Safety Bit, check the wall to the right of the chest for a secret switch. Tripping the switch reveals another door nearby on the stairway leading to the Air Anchor Tool.
• You'll notice a dragon roaming around the room in which the Stunner is found; DO NOT engage the dragon or Mog will learn a Dance.
• DON'T get the treasure at the top of the tower. If you do, you'll be forced into a battle with MagiMaster and get the crap beat out of you.

• To get to the cave, go to Triangle Island (northeast corner of the map), unequip the Moogle Charm, and encounter ZoneEater. Then, just wait for it to eat you, re-equip the Moogle Charm, and you're good to go.
• Make sure you let the weird looking dudes knock you down the pit at least once so that you can get the treasure that's down there.
• Make sure you save at the save point when you come to it; the next area can kill you instantly if you get smashed by the repeatedly falling ceiling.
• You can "equip" Gogo with the special abilities of the other characters in the game in via the Status screen. The best armor that Gogo can equip without using a Merit Award is the Tao Robe, which can be purchased at Maranda.

• To enter Kefka's Tower, attempt to land the airship on it.
• You'll definitely want a Warp Stone or the Warp spell available for when you are ready to restart with Mog in a different party slot. You only need one party member in one of the three parties to know Warp because if one party uses it, everyone gets out.
• To get the Aegis Shld, you'll have to find and follow a hidden path maze at the bottom of the room with the Hero Ring. The entrance is on the left side of the rotating thingy. After taking the initial long downward path as far as it goes, go up one square and to the left. This should allow you to circle around and enter the hidden room from the bottom without too much difficulty.
• When doing the third party area, don't go past the room with the Hero Ring and Aegis Shld or you will soon be attacked by a boss.

• This is just a short visit before the main one later; bring the 4 Falchions you bought in Maranda and, bet them for 4 Flame Shlds, then depart.
• If you are having too much trouble beating Outsider to get Flame Shlds, but you did get the ChickenLip Rage for Gau in the WoB, you might be able to do without the Flame Shlds in the next area and use the Quake + Gaia Gear strategy to keep alive instead. This would require that you go pick up Gau on the Veldt real quick (just fight there with only 3 party members until he shows up).

• Phoenix Cave is a two-party dungeon found in the center of the star shaped mountain range north of Tzen.
• This time you'll have to use both parties, so put Mog by himself with the Moogle Charm and Sprint Shoes equipped, and make the other party like you normally would. Don't worry about which party you put Mog in; both parties start in the same place this time.
• There's a wide variety of status effect attacks used here, so a Ribbon for everyone might not be a bad idea. Give everyone a Flame Shld. (Note that Ice Shld is probably safest on the off chance Parasoul uses a Water elemental attack, but Flame Shld will result in you being healed by the more common Fire attacks you'll face; just kill Parasouls fast when you encounter them, or else use a Smoke Bomb to flee).
• Most monsters here are weak to Ice; Necromancrs are undead and so can easily be vanquished with Life.
• If you happen to encounter Aquila here and survive the battle, make sure you remember you did; this will be very important later.
• Don't worry about crossing the spikes with Mog; they can't kill you and he won't be doing any fighting.
• Have Mog take the left path at the entrance and your main party the other. The first chest you see here on the left contains a Wing Edge, and all subsequent chests you see are empty or aren't worth it (Warp Stone) until the chest in the very center of the second lava area (the one where you solidify it by draining the water onto it), which contains a Ribbon.
• Fight and kill the Red Dragon with your main party. He is weak to Ice and Water, and susceptible to Poison[S], Muddle, and Slow. Flame Shlds are a valuable asset in this battle. If you have Terra with you, feel free to use Morph as there's no final boss to this dungeon. The chest he was guarding contains a Dragon Horn!
• At the end of the cutscene, you will receive the Phoenix Esper.

• Once you have Locke back, he can pick the locks on the houses. Bring him and Moogle Charmed Mog to pick up a couple items of interest.
• Get the Ragnarok (sword or Esper) from the weapon shop. The Esper teaches Ultima. I recommend the sword since the Paladin Shld can be used to teach Ultima instead, and the sword can be bet at the Colosseum for the Illumina, the best weapon in the game.
  • Ultima is the best attack spell in the game. When used by Terra, it is almost certain to do the maximum damage of 9999 to all targets if you have been improving her Magic Power via Esper stat bonuses.
• Get the Cursed Shld from an old man in the locked house above the relic shop. Uncurse the Cursed Shld by equipping it and a Ribbon to a character and then fighting 256 battles. (The Ribbon is necessary because the Cursed Shld inflicts a variety of negative status effects on the wearer, including Zombie, and the character must be living at the end of a battle for it to count towards the total).
  You can help yourself keep track of the number of battles you have fought with the Cursed Shld equipped by using the

  Battles w/ Cursed Shld

  counter.
  • When uncursed, the Cursed Shld becomes the Paladin Shld, by far the best shield in the game. It grants absorbtion of Fire, Ice, Lightning, and Pearl, and nullifies Water, Earth, Air, and Poison[E], adds a whopping 40 to MBlock, and teaches Ultima at a x1 rate.
  • I recommend that you have a character equipped with a Ribbon and the Cursed Shld for as many random battles as you can manage from now on. It's not as much of a burden as it seems, just make certain you replace it with a functional shield for boss battles. If you do this, you should be able to get a good chunk of those 256 battles out of the way just in the course of regular gameplay.
  • TAKE NOTE: Gogo is unable to uncurse the Cursed Shld, so don't equip it to him when working towards those 256 battles.

• Pick up two Imp Halberds to bet at the Colosseum for a Merit Award and a Cat Hood. Vanished characters will be immune to all of Mantodea's attacks, and Mantodea doesn't have a common Steal, so you can just keep trying until you succeed. Bring Gogo along so you can have two party members make steal attempts. Also, don't forget to equip the Sneak Ring.
  • If you want a set or two of the Imp Gear, go ahead and pick up one or two more Imp Halberds to keep as well (See

    4.2.50. Collecting the Imp Gear

    ).
• The other monster you can encounter here is Reach Frog. Beware of Reach Frog's Rippler ability; it swaps all of its status effects with the target character's status effects, but it is bugged and swaps some properties of characters that aren't actually status effects. The most notable of these is Shadow's ability to have Interceptor randomly block attacks, something that is PERMANENTLY lost if Reach Frog steals it via Rippler and doesn't then give it back with a subsequent Rippler.
  • It's actually possible to give other characters the ability to have Interceptor block attacks for them by getting Reach Frog to first use Rippler on Shadow and then again on a different character. However, this isn't as cool as it sounds since Interceptor doesn't appear to perform his counterattacks when blocking for characters other than Shadow. Rippler is actually a learnable Lore, but you can't target your own party members with it, so it is worthless for experimenting with its bugs.

• The Veldt is on the largest northeastern continent, and the cave is at the southern end (similar to the WoB).
• Make sure to pick up the Striker in the chest below the switch that moves the rock out of your path.
• Blue SrBehemoth absorbs Ice, is weak against Fire and Poison[E], and is susceptible to Imp and Stop. Yellow SrBehemoth absorbs Poison[E], is weak against Fire and Pearl, and is undead and therefore susceptible to instant death via the Life spell.
• If you want 2 Snow Mufflers (one each for Gau and Mog), then when you've finished with the cave, return to the Veldt and hunt until you encounter Yellow SrBehemoth again. Don't worry, this encounter is gauranteed; SrBehemoth is in a Veldt pack by itself (

  pack 57

  ). Defeat it for another BehemothSuit.

• Now you're finally ready to clean up with your second / main visit to the Colosseum (see

  5. Colosseum Guide

  ).
• Be sure to bet the Striker you just got to get Shadow back.
• If you took my advice and didn't recruit Mog in the WoB, didn't teach him any Dances, and didn't teach him any magic, he makes an excellent Colosseum character. Put him in the back row, equip him with a good spear/lance type weapon, DragoonBoots, and Dragon Horn, and go to town! As soon as possible, bet a Strato to get him a Pearl Lance and a BehemothSuit to get him a Snow Muffler. Snow Muffler + Genji Helmet should get him to 255 Defense.
• After you get all the items you can at this point, you don't need to worry so much about keeping Mog from learning Dances if you keep Shadow from learning any magic. You really don't want any magic on Shadow at all so that you can use him with the imp gear in the Colosseum. (See

  4.2.50. Collecting the Imp Gear

  )
• You should now be very well equipped. I personally recommend using Edgar and Mog in your main party, both with the DragoonBoots + Dragon Horn combo. This is devastating with the Pearl Lance occasionally casting Pearl as well; any enemy weak to Pearl doesn't stand a chance.
• Now that you have Shadow back, don't forget that the elemental swords can be purchased in Albrook to use as awesome Throwing weapons. You can also purchase Shurikens and the more powerful Ninja Stars at Thamasa. Also, if you want to follow my recommendations about using him in the Colosseum and avoid teaching him magic for now, make sure you don't accidentally teach him one of the second-level elemental spells via a shield (Flame Shld, Ice Shld, or Thunder Shld).

• At this point it's worth mentioning that the best place to grind for MXP in the WoR is the desert south of Maranda. You'll encounter Hoovers and Cactrots here (worth 5 and 10 MXP respectively). Cactrots aren't worth any XP, but Hoovers are worth 1881 XP per party member when all four are alive at the end of the battle, so keep an eye on your characters' experience if you are trying to use Esper stat bonuses to the best effect.
• Hoover is pretty rough, but is vulnerable to instant death attacks. Equip everyone to be invulnerable to Air element attacks (Thunder Shld or Minerva) so that its Sandstorm counter-attacks won't clean your clock, and then go for the highest hit-rate instant death attacks you have at your disposal: Rhodox Rage for Gau, Air Anchor for Edgar, and probably just the Doom spell for everyone else.
• Cactrot has 255 Defense but only 3 HP, so any defense-ignoring weapon or attack will finish him off: the Dispatch SwdTech, the Pummel Blitz, Throw, the Drill Tool, Fixed Dice, ValiantKnife, etc.

• Fight on the Veldt with only 3 party members to get Gau back.
• If you take Sabin and Gau to the shack on the big island north of the Veldt, you'll see a cutscene. Having Locke and Edgar also in your party yields the most amusing cutscene by far.

• While flying around the world, there is a single spot, chosen randomly (altitude doesn't matter), on which you will encounter Doom Gaze, who drops Bahamut when defeated. About the best srategy for finding him is to just fly east or west with as small a tilt as possible towards the north or south so that you quickly wrap around the world map side to side while slowly ascending or descending.
• Doom Gaze absorbs Ice and Poison[E] and is weak against Fire and Pearl. He casts L.5 Doom, so pay attention to your characters' levels before you go looking for him.
• It may take more than one encounter to defeat Doom Gaze, but don't worry; he doesn't heal between fights.

• Now that Mog can be used in battle, it's time to put that Moogle Charm to good use again, this time to kill some of the otherwise hard to get to dragons so in order to get the Crusader Esper while you still have some time to enjoy it. Assemble a strong party that includes Mog. Keep in mind that only the Magic command is allowed on Fanatic's Tower, so the only way to use physical attacks is to cast Bserk on yourself.
• You can find the White Dragon in one of the treasure rooms in the tower. It is susceptible to Mute and Stop.
• If you're planning on picking up the Magic Urn Rage, you can also go ahead and encounter them now.

• First assemble your main party with Mog in the second party slot. Proceed until you come across Gold Dragon. He is weak against Water and susceptible to Poison[S] and Bserk. Bserk Gold Dragon and cast Vanish on yourself for an easy win, then Warp out.
• Now assemble your party in the third slot. Continue on your way until you encounter Inferno. Inferno absorbs Fire, is weak to Lightning, and is sucseptible to Slow. Its arms are both susceptible to Slow and Stop, so impede them and then focus on Inferno.
• In the next outdoor area you come to, you'll find three chests, two of which contain a Megalixer and a Rainbow Brsh, and the third a red sparkle. Don't mess with the red sparkle yet, otherwise you'll have to remember which chest had it when you finally come back to kill Kefka (if you're playing the SNES version), and there's no reason to touch it now anyway.
• Eventually you'll come across Skull Dragon. He absobs Poison[E] and is weak against Fire and Pearl. Kill him and Warp out.

• The Opera House is located on the thin strip of land connecting the two main land masses of the continent furthest to the west.
• Dirt Dragon is weak to Air and Water and susceptible to Sleep, Slow, and Poison[S]. He frequently uses a move that removes the Float status from all of your party members, so irremovable Float (via Cherub Down or a Rage that grants Float), Gaia Gear, or just keeping Dirt Dragon asleep at all times are your best bets for not getting creamed by Quake.

• To get to the caves leading to the Ancient Castle, take Figaro Castle underground and investigate when it collides with something (exit the castle via the hole in the back of one of the prison cells).
• The enemies here have a pretty high resistance to magic, and many have inherent Reflect, so bringing characters with non-magic or defense-ignoring attacks is a good idea.
• The chest in the top right of the second cave area is a Monster-in-a-box: Master Pug (by the way, you can walk through the wall to the left of the chest). Master Pug is susceptible to Poison[S], Sleep, and Slow. What he's weak against depends on what spell he cast last:

  Weak vs Ice:	Fire 3
  Weak vs Fire:	Ice 3
  Weak vs Air:	Bolt 3
  Weak vs Pearl:	Bio
  Weak vs Lightning:	W Wind
  Weak vs Poison[E]:	Pearl
  Weak vs Water:	Quake
  Weak vs Earth:	CleanSweep

  As you can see, he's got some pretty mean elemental spells up his sleave, so dress accordingly and Float everyone beforehand. Bum Rush doesn't wake him, so if you Slow and Sleep him right off the bat you can most likely kill him with it before he does too much damage.
• There is a non-obvious exit to the second cave room on the left.
• When you arrive at the castle, enter the semi-hard to spot doors on the right and left before going in the main door. The left door leads to a Monster-in- a-box encounter with KatanaSoul. KatanaSoul is weak to Poison[E] and susceptible to Poison[S] and Muddle. Make sure not to run from KatanaSoul, otherwise you'll miss the Offering he drops permanently.
• Offering is a relic that gives you 4 unblockable attacks per Fight command, but halves the power of ALL your physical attacks (including Blitzes, SwdTechs, Tools, etc.), and prevents critical hits and triggered spells (with the exception of Wind Slash from Tempest). Another bonus is that these attacks won't target enemies that have sustained lethal damage from one of the previous attacks in the set of 4.
  Offering is best paired with odd weapons with special effects: Fixed Dice for Setzer (does not reduce their damage), instant death weapons (i.e. Wing Edge, Scimitar), and ValiantKnife for Locke (does not reduce damage and still does max hp - current hp extra damage per attack). Thiefknife + Offering is not recommended since you will only actually get the last item successfully stolen.
• When you come across the statue of Odin, examine it to get the Odin Esper.
• Don't miss the secret room in the first archway to the right of the thrones.
• After you read the queen's apparently sparkly diary, go back to the thrones, stand on the one on the right, take five steps down, and examine the ground; you'll hear a rumbling sound and a new path will be opened back down in the room where you found the diary.
• The chamber that just opened up contains the Blue Dragon and a statue of the queen. Examining the queen turns your Odin Esper into Raiden, which I recommend you go ahead and do (you can learn Meteor much faster from Crusader, which you'll be obtaining soon). The only reason you might not want to do this is that Odin is the only Esper that grants a bonus to Speed on level up.
• Blue Dragon absorbs Water, is weak against Lightning, and is susceptible to Poison[S] and Slow.

• Remember back in the day when you followed the pidgeon to Maranda and I told you not to go into the house at the northeast end of town? Do so now and talk to Lola there. Maranda is on the eastern end of the smaller of the two thinly-connected land masses of the continet furthest to the west.
• Also, while you're here, if you haven't picked up a Tao Robe for Gogo, you might as well do so now.

• Zozo is located at the northeastern corner of the large round land mass on the continent furthest to the west.
• When you arrive at Zozo, "talk" to the pidgeon and it will fly up near the building with the rusted-shut door that you may remember from the WoB. Go talk to the purple-hooded merchant towards the north end of town and he'll sell you some Rust Rid to open it.
• Zozo still has the same random encounters it had in the WoB, so they aren't worth wasting your time on if you have Mog in your party and can thus utilize the Moogle Charm to your advantage.

• When you come to a save point with a switch above it, get prepared for the fight with Storm Dragon because the switch releases it from a chest. It'll fly around really fast in a set pattern, so stand in his way to trigger the encounter. Storm Dragon absorbs Air and is weak againts Lightning.
• You'll come across a room full of flowers with a locked chest, and outside to the right you'll find Cyan. After the cutscene, go back outside to the right and you'll find the key to the chest; open it with Cyan in your party for maximum amusement.

• Make sure you bring Mog along as you'll need him to recruit Umaro.
• Make your way to the top of the mountain where Tritoch was in the WoB. On your way up you'll encounter Ice Dragon. He absorbs Ice, is weak against Fire, and is susceptible to Poison[S], Mute, Bserk, Muddle, and Slow. After you defeat Ice Dragon, if you followed the order of the guide, you'll receive the Crusader Esper.
  • Crusader's main feature is the Merton spell, which is an extremely powerful Fire and Air elemental attack that ignores defense and hits both you and the enemy. This sounds like a bad thing, but equip everyone with Flame Shlds (or Minerva for the girls) and you've got a spell that simultaneously deals tons of damage and probably fully heals everyone in your party.
• When you reach Tritoch, you'll have to fight him. He absorbs Ice, is weak against Fire, and is invulnerable to all other elemental damage.
• After you defeat Tritoch, examine the gap where the chunk of the cliff fell away and you can jump down into Umaro's cave.
• If you run into a Pug, use Imp on him to avoid his nastier attacks (Cleaver and Step Mine).
• Watch out for the darker colored floor tiles; these are pitfalls.
• The room to the left of where you land contains a chest with a Monster-in-a- box encounter with Pugs (not to be confused with Pug). Pugs absorb Water, are weak against Fire, and are susceptible to Imp, Mute, and Slow. They have a chance to drop a Minerva, and also hold it as a rare steal (which is quite hard to get since they are high level enemies). Pugs only use physical attacks, so having Vanish on your characters is pretty helpful.
• When you get to the switches, ignore the first one; it just sends you down the same old pitfall. Hitting the second switch causes you to fall down into Umaro's lair. Examine the skull to get the Terrato Esper, and Umaro will attack you.
• Umaro absorbs Ice, is weak againts Poison[E] and Fire, and is susceptible to Poison[S], Bserk, Sleep, and Slow. After you beat him, talk to him and Mog will convince him to join your party. If you ever end up using him, don't forget to equip him with the Rage Ring and Blizzard Orb, two relics unique to him that cause him to be a lot more effective.

• Doma Castle can be found on an island just east of the "head" of the Serpent Un-Trench and just south of the crazy old man's house on the northwest end of the Veldt continent.
• Obviously, you have to bring Cyan along to complete this sidequest. Even though the final boss absorbs the Pearl Lance's elemental damage, I highly recommend bringing Mog along for the Moogle Charm as the random encounters here get pretty tiresome.
  • Shadow is essential for this area. Make sure you pick up a respectable supply of Blizzard swords in Albrook for him to Throw at the boss (around 10 or so is probably plenty). I also recommend Edgar for Drill/Chain Saw. See the info on the boss at the bottom of the section for more information about why.
• Rest in the room that gives you the option, and when you awaken you'll see a cutscene and then enter into Cyan's mind / dream world / whatever.
• Make sure your most powerful not-Cyan party member is in the fourth slot as you'll be starting the dream world with only that character.
• It's a good idea to have Ribbons equipped to deal with the variety of status effects that get thrown at you here.
• In the fight with the Dream Stooges, Larry = left, Moe = right, Curley = top. Take out Curley first as he revives the others with Life 2.
  • Curley absorbs Fire, is weak against Ice and Water, and is susceptable to Sleep.
  • Larry absorbs Ice and Air, is weak against Fire, and is susceptible to instant death attacks, Mute, Muddle, and Slow.
  • Moe absorbs Lightning and is susceptible to Bserk and Stop.
• In the phantom train dream, make sure you pass through all the cars you can so that you don't miss any of the treasure (the first car after the save point car doesn't let you enter until after the cutscene of Cyan running from a ghost finishes).
• In the MagiTech armor dream, make sure you always use Bolt Beam as the enemies here are weak againts Lightning attacks.
• In the Doma Castle dream, there are three cutscenes you can view; two outside by the moat (one towards the left and one towards the right), and one in Cyan's family's quarters.
• Wrexsoul is found in the throne room. He absorbs Fire and Pearl and is weak against Ice. The most irritating thing about him is that he possesses your party members, you have to kill them to get him to come out so you can hurt him, and he has high Magic Defense, making anything other than defense ignoring attacks not nearly as effective as usual. If you don't have Shadow, don't equip your characters for high MBlock or else they'll be nearly impossible for you to kill off in order to get Wrexsoul to appear.
  • This is where having Shadow is invaluable. Throw ignores defense, can't be blocked, and can be used against your own party members (unlike the Drill or Chain Saw tools). Wrexsoul seems to always possess your party leader first, so make sure that's not Shadow, waste them with Shurikens or some other cheap Throw fodder, and then when Wrexsoul appears lay into him with Thrown Blizzard swords and Drill attacks (or Chain Saw if you're willing to risk the occasional worthless instant death attack in exchange for higher damage).
• After defeating Wrexsoul, Cyan learns all of his SwdTechs. Now that you have access to the Quick spell, SwdTechs can be quite good. Since after casting Quick everyone else has to wait for Cyan to complete his next two turns, you can wait as long as you like for those high level SwdTechs without getting whaled on in the meantime. Cyan's SwdTechs of note are:
  • #6: Stunner
    Stunner is a multi-target non-elemental attack with a chance to Stop enemies. The damage is magical.
  • #7: Quadra Slice
    Quadra Slice hits randomly selected enemies with a fairly powerful defense-ignoring physical attack four times.
  • #8: Cleave
    Cleave is an instant death attack that affects all enemies vulnerable to instant death and prevents counter attacks.
• You can now stop by the throne room and pick up the Alexander Esper.

• If you bring Cyan to Maranda and talk to Lola and then examine the letter on the desk, Cyan will switch it with another one. You can then read the letter (it's the same one from his desk on Mount Zozo), and Lola's dialogue will change.

• Owzer's Mansion is in the same location it was in the WoB: the north end of the town of Jidoor.
• Examine the flower picture at the entrance to encounter and defeat Nightshade. If you have followed the guide thus far, then this encounter will now be the only encounter in Veldt

  pack 37

  , guaranteeing that you will be able to easily collect it. Leave for the Veldt before continuing on in the mansion, otherwise you'll encounter other formations from pack 37 and ruin this advantage.

• Don't forget to simultaneously work on learning magic while you are hunting.

• All of the Stealable Suits can be traded into Genji Armor eventually at the Colosseum, so consider bringing Locke and/or Gogo for some Stealing. Alternatively, you can return here for some Stealing anytime you want, even after the boss is defeated.
• If you examine the painting of Emperor Gestahl twice, you'll receive a hint about where the Phoenix Cave is, but oops, I already told you...
• Characters wearing the Moogle Suit will have the standard Moogle sprite set in battle instead of their usual.
• There's a Relic Ring hidden behind the three doors that open and close on their own.
• The left-most of the three self-opening-and-closing doors is the correct one.
• Like the treasures found on the floor in the Cave of the Sealed Gate, the treasures you get from the falling chests are actually worse than what the game tells you it is giving you.
• In the room with the save point, the door to the right is the correct one.
• Before talking to the fat guy, equip all your characters with Thunder Shlds for the battle with Chadarnook. Chadarnook has two forms, a woman form and a demon form. The woman form absorbs Pearl and Water, and is weak against Fire, while the demon form absorbs Lightning and is weak againts Pearl and Fire. Both forms are susceptible to Slow.
  • Don't waste time damaging the woman form as it is unkillable; the demon form is what must be killed.
  • While the woman form of Chadarnook uses Charm, which is indeed horrible, it's not as bad as it seems because whenever Chadarnook changes forms the Charm is broken.
• After defeating Chadarnook, you will obtain the Starlet Esper.
• Now that you have Relm back, remember that you can equip her with the FakeMustache relic you obtained a while back to turn Sketch into Control. Keep in mind that Control lets you keep the Controlled monster from taking any action against you while you do other useful things such as attempting to Steal from it repeatedly.

• Bring Relm and stop by to pick up Strago.

• Thamasa can be found on the island in the southeast corner of the map.
• Bring Relm and Strago to Thamasa and witness the cutscene. Then go north and enter the dungeon at Ebot's Rock. You have to bring Relm to see the cutscene which makes the dungeon available, however you don't have to bring her into the dungeon itself (but you do have to bring Strago).
• In the dungeon you'll find an irksome chest that requires that you feed it Coral before it will let you pass. The dungeon consists of teleport switches that randomly warp you to random rooms with random chests that contain random amounts of Coral. You must feed the chest 22 pieces of Coral AT ONE TIME for it to let you pass, so don't return to talk to it again until you have all 22 pieces.
  You can help yourself keep track of how much Coral you have by using the

  Coral Pieces

  counter.
• When you encounter Hidon after feeding the chest enough Coral, kill all the Hidonites first and it'll use GrandTrain, Strago's most powerful Lore. Hidon absorbs Poison[E], is weak against Fire, Earth, and Pearl, and is susceptible to Slow.
• After you slay Hidon and watch the cutscene, you can repeatedly talk to Gungho outside of Strago's house until he says that Hidon has reappeared at Ebot's Rock, at which point... Hidon will have reappeared at Ebot's Rock. You can go feed the stupid chest the required Coral and fight it again if you want (this time you aren't required to bring Strago). You can do this as many times as you want, with talking to Gungho and getting the message about Hidon's return always being the trigger for him to reappear.

• Equip Relm with the Cat Hood and a FakeMustache, and head back to the caves of Mount Zozo. When you encounter an Ursus, Control it, and then keep hitting it with level 1 spells so that it counters with Steal and takes a bunch of money (keep it healed to keep going as long as you like). When you finally decide to end its misery and win the battle, you'll get double your money back from what was stolen thanks to the Cat Hood's double GP gain from battles effect.
• Probably one of the best things to do with your newfound riches is to buy an abundance of the elemental swords from Albrook for Shadow to Throw.

• The imp gear has superior stats and grants Water absorbtion, however the character wearing the gear must be under the Imp status, otherwise the gear's offensive and defensive capabilities are reduced to pitiful levels.
• The imp gear is a great way to turn an otherwise ho-hum character into a great dragoon, provided you have the required set of DragoonBoots and Dragon Horn relics available. If you followed my advice and kept Shadow magic-free, you can use the imp gear to turn him into a phenominal Colosseum character. This doesn't work for characters that know any magic because in Colosseum battles, they will still attempt to use it while under the Imp status, but since Imp prevents the casting of any spell other than the "Imp" spell itself, the spell just fails and the turn is wasted.
• You can find Geckorex on the green grasslands on the continent where Maranda, Zozo, and Jidoor reside, and you can find all the others on the green grasslands on the continent just north of the Veldt, although Mantodea is pretty rare here. If you didn't get enough Imp Halberds the first time you hunted for them, head back to the forest north of Jidoor to encounter some more Mantodea there (see

  4.2.27. Forest North of Jidoor

  ).
• If you really want to get serious about speeding up the Stealing process, bring Locke, Gogo, Strago, and Relm. Have Locke and Gogo equipped with Sneak Rings (and Gogo with the Steal command, of course), have Relm equipped with the FakeMustache so she can Control and therefore pacify the monster you are Stealing from, and use Strago's Dischord Lore to lower the monster's level thereby raising the chances of a successful Steal.

• Now is a good time to finish teaching spells to whatever characters you want. Refer back to

  4.2.30. MXP Grinding

  for the best strategy.
• If you haven't finished uncursing the Cursed Shld to obtain the Paladin Shld, you should do so now.

• Fanatic's Tower has enemies that only use magic attacks, and it also only allows your party to use the Magic command (and Item), so bring along all your best mages and choose your gear accordingly. Sadly, the Lore command is also unavailable, so Strago doesn't get an extra edge like you might expect.
  • Even though he's probably not one of your strongest casters, you may want to bring along Mog for the ever-useful Moogle Charm. You can't cast Warp in the Fanatic's Tower, and you have to climb all the way back down it after you beat the boss...
• Make sure at least one of your characters can cast Life 3, cast Float on your entire party, and equip everyone with Wall Rings. I also advise equipping Flame Shld to everyone (or Paladin Shld if you have that now) so that you need not fear Merton (whether it's used by you or an opponent). It's also best to make sure you have access to offensive spells that ignore the Reflect status since some of the opponents have it by default. These spells are:
  • Meteor
  • Merton
  • Quake
  • Ultima
• Don't forget about the awesome Osmose spell. Enemies here have a lot of MP.
• MagiMaster is vulnerable to Bserk. It should also be noted that he does not start with Reflect by default, nor will he cast it on himself. The most important thing to know about MagiMaster is that he always casts Ultima when dealt lethal damage, and this always kills you (unless you spent way more time leveling than is normal). So, make sure you cast Life 3 on everyone right at the start of the battle, and you should be good to go (Life 3 ignores Reflect, so don't worry about your Wall Rings interfering).

• The Economizer is one of the most rare and most coveted relics in the game. It causes all Magic spells, Lores, and Esper summons to cost a mere 1 MP. There are two ways to acquire an Economizer: get it as a rare Steal from a rare encounter with Aquila (who unfortunately has a common Steal), or get it as a rare drop from a rare encounter with Brachosaur.
  I have discovered what I believe to be the best strategy for obtaining Economizers, and it works for both the SNES and the PSX versions of the game. It is as follows:
  • If you haven't already, encounter Aquila in the Phoenix Cave (try to Steal from it too, but odds are good you'll just end up with the common Phoenix Down).
  • Go to the Veldt and use the trick described in the up-front info section to get the encounter with Aquila (see

    3.2.5. Veldt Mechanics

    ). Make certain you save your game just before the encounter from

    pack 43

    each time until you run into Aquila. Also, make certain you stick close to the airship when you are repeatedly saving during the randomization process; if you save on the Veldt so far away from it that you can't reach it before you hit the pack 43 encounter, then you won't be able to leave to randomize the encounter and get Aquila's formation.
  • Try to Steal the Economizer. If you get the Phoenix Down instead, kill yourself (Merton is excellent for this task). When the game auto-loads from your last save, your next encounter on the Veldt will always be the Aquila encounter. Vanish/Dischord is of limited usefulness, as it only increases the chance of a successful Steal in general and does NOT increase the chance of getting the rare Steal over the common. Unless you are too low level to quickly Steal successfully, don't bother.
  I believe this to be the best method because it allows you to, with a bit of work up-front, turn the rare encounter with Aquila into an always encounter. So instead of looking at a rare encounter with a rare Steal, or a rare encounter with a rare drop as your only methods, you are just dealing with a rare Steal that can be repeatedly attempted without too much down time. That said, it still can take over an hour to get the first Aquila Veldt encounter, so you're still looking at a potentially significant time investment. I got lucky a couple of times, but I was able to acquire 4 Economizers in about 5-6 hours total using this method (this includes the time taken to initially encounter Aquila in the Phoenix cave). I would be surprised if any other method comes close to this without a lot of luck.
• If you want to do some level grinding, the Dinosaur Forest located north of the Veldt is the best place to do this. The only three encounters here are with one Tyranosaur, two Tyranosaurs (always a pincer attack), and rarely, one Brachosaur. Equip each of your characters with an Exp. Egg for maximum effect (don't forget that the XP reported at the end of battle is the un- doubled amount).
  Both monsters are weak against Ice. If you encounter Brachosaur, don't forget about the Quick spell; it's a lifesaver. If you're looking to Steal some Ribbons from it, bring along Strago and Relm so that Strago can use Vanish/Dischord on it to lower its level, making it easier for Relm to incapacitate it with Control and Locke/Gogo to Steal successfully.
• If you wish, you can make a final trip to the Colosseum. If you've used Mog in battle and therefore he has learned some Dances, Shadow is your best bet provided you followed my advice when it comes to not teaching him spells. Two great things you may not have bet for yet are more Genji Armors via betting the various "Suit" armors Stealable from monsters in Owzer's Mansion, and more Genji Helms via betting the Regal Crown and the Coronet (by this point you really shouldn't need Control anymore, so giving up your Coronet is no big deal).
• If you've done even moderate MXP and XP grinding, you should be able to afford plenty of the elemental swords from Albrook for Shadow to Throw. It's also nice to stop by an Item shop and max out on Tinctures for Kefka's Tower, just for the convenience of instantly accessible MP recovery outside of battle.

• Many guides will give you much more in-depth strategies for the final dungeon, but I really don't feel this is necessary. By now you should be able to wipe the floor with every enemy in the place.
• Party #2 can optionally fight Atma in the jail cell room. Atma absorbs Air, Pearl, Earth, Water, and Poison[E], and is susceptible to Slow. Atma can cast Quake, so Float is not a bad idea.
• After you drop the weights and trip the three switches simultaneously to open the center door, go down with the center party in order to trip a new switch to open the way for the other two parties before continuing upwards. From this point onward, I will refer to the center party as Party #1, the left party as Party #2, and the right party as Party #3.
• Party #1 will face Guardian. Guardian is weak againts Water and Lightning, and is susceptible to Slow.
• The next time Party 1# gets to an outdoor area after defeating Guardian, there is a Ribbon hidden at the bottom just below and to the right of where you enter the area.
• Party #1 will next face the first of the goddess statues, Poltrgeist. Poltrgeist absorbs Fire and Air, is weak againts Poison[E], and is susceptible to Stop.
• Party #2 will next face the second goddess, Doom. Doom absorbs Ice and Poison[E], is weak against Pearl, and is susceptible to Slow. If she gets the chance to "shake" her "aura", then she'll gain the Reflect status, which you can remove with Dispel.
• Party #3 will face the third goddess, "Goddess". Goddess absorbs Lightning and Pearl. Make sure you save at the save point that appears after she is defeated as this is your last chance before the final battle.

• Tripping the final set of three switches will take you to the pre-final battle cutscene, after which you will get to choose your overall party order, but will NOT get to adjust your equipment, so make certain you give your best gear and Espers to your top character choices for the final battle before you trip all three switches.
• The final battle happens in four stages, and if any of your characters are dead at the end of a stage, they will be replaced by the next characters in line going by the order you put them all in beforehand. Note that when the battle transitions between stages, the buffs from the Golem and Fenrir summons will be removed, however you won't be able to summon them again as though you had begun a new battle.
• It's best to have most of your top characters equipped with a Ribbon since you will be up against a lot of nasty negative status inducing attacks. Also apply Float beforehand since you might get hit with Quake.
• Stage 1:
  • Short Arm is weak againts Water and susceptible to Mute, Bserk, and Slow.
  • Long Arm is weak againts Air and is susceptible to Petrification and Instant Death.
  • Face is weak against Fire.
  • Take advantage of the relative easiness of this stage to apply useful buffs that will hopefully last you through the next two stages: Haste2, Safe, Shell, Regen, and Life 3. Save the Golem or Fenrir summons for Stage 3 or 4.
• Stage 2:
  • Tiger absorbs Earth, is weak against Ice, and susceptible to Poison[S].
  • Tools is weak against Lightning and susceptible to Instant Death and Stop.
  • Magic is weak againts Earth and susceptible to Mute. Note that the Mute status will not prevent its counter-attack spells upon its death.
  • Hit is weak againts Poison[E] and susceptible to Bserk and Stop.
• Stage 3:
  • Girl absorbs all elemental attacks and has no susceptibilities. She just exists to keep Sleep alive (which she does if you kill Sleep first), so take her out first.
    • Girl has the Ragnarok as a common steal, which you can equip during the battle to get better MBlock if you've got somebody using a weapon for MBlock less than 30.
  • Sleep has no weaknesses or susceptibilities, but it also does not absorb any elements either.
• Stage 4:
  • Kefka is immune to Poison[E] and has no susceptibilities.
  • Kefka has a lot of nasty counter-attacks, but doesn't really get much chance to use them if you own him fast with Gem Box-induced X-Magic, and the Quick and Ultima spells.

• ALWAYS save your game before a Colosseum battle so you can load if you lose the fight, and consequently, your item.
• Starting the battle restores the chosen character's HP and MP, but does not heal negative status effects such as Poison[S].
• "Use Dragoon Mog" implies that he should be equiped with DragoonBoots, Dragon Horn, Pearl Lance, and Snow Muffler unless otherwise stated (or unless it's for the battles to obtain your first Pearl Lance or Snow Muffler). This goes without saying if you read the Colosseum strategy section in the intro, but it is also understood that Mog should have learned NO MAGIC OR DANCES WHATSOEVER.
• The guide will direct you to visit the Colosseum two times, and then after that you are of course free to visit it whenever you wish. Asterisks next to bets indicate which visit the bet is recommended for like so:

  *	=	First Colosseum visit
  **	=	Second (Main) visit
  ***	=	Some other visit

• This is not an exhaustive list of bets, but rather represents the bets I personally feel are worthwhile.

• Outsider is vulnerable to instant death attacks.
• Use Setzer wielding two Trump/Doom Darts via Genji Glove and a Black Belt for the counter attacks. This should optimize your chances of the instant death effect from the weapons triggering.
• Alternatively, if you have the Pearl Lance, using Dragoon Mog also frequently works fine. Outsider is weak to the Pearl element, so one good Jump ought to finish him off. Most if not all of Outsider's attacks will hurt you just as much if you're in the back row, so put Mog up front so his Fight attacks will do better damage.
• Snow Muffler is an absurdly good armor for Gau and Mog that allows them to reach max Defense of 255 quite easily at relatively low levels.

• Use just about anyone; it's easy.

• Use Dragoon Mog.
• Aura is simply a better weapon for Cyan than Murasame, but eventually leads to a Pearl Lance via the next two bets.

• Use Dragoon Mog with a Flame Shld.
• It's debatable as to whether or not the Genji Helmet is better than the Red Cap; if you think it is, then you can eventually trade your Red Caps into them starting with this bet.

• Use Dragoon Mog.

• Use Dragoon Mog with an Ice Shld.

• Retainer uses Tradeoff when slain, which will instantly kill you if it hits, so it's best to have some MBlock for a chance to survive it.
• Use Dragoon Mog.

• Sky Base frequently casts Doom, but is also susceptible to it.
• Use anybody with a Wall Ring.

• Cactrot has super-high Defense, so use somebody with defense-ignoring weapons (Setzer with Dice, Locke with ValiantKnife).
• Rename Card lets you rename a character; whoopty doo. However...

• Use Dragoon Mog with a Flame Shld.
• Doom Drgn uses Fallen One (attack that reduces your HP to 1), so it's best to have Mog in the back row with 255 Defense.
• Marvel Shoes grant Haste, Regen, Safe, and Shell.

• Use Dragoon Mog.

• Use Dragoon Mog.

• No matter the outcome of the fight, you recruit Shadow permanently as a result rather than gaining/losing an item.

• Use Dragoon Mog with a Thunder Shld (you should have one if you're following the order of the guide for the WoR).

• Use Dragoon Mog.

• Use Dragoon Mog.
• Illumina is the best weapon in the game. It does the same damage from the back row, performs MP-consuming critical hits when used for a regular Fight attack, and has a chance to cast Pearl on hit, among many other more readily observable good qualities.

• Use Dragoon Mog.
• Cat Hood doubles GP drops.

• Use Dragoon Mog with a Thunder Shld and a Cherub Down instead of the Dragon Horn.
• Merit Award + Gau = Awesome (See

  3.3.2. Gau and the Merit Award

  )

• Use Dragoon Mog with Gaia Gear and an Ice Shld.

• Use Dragoon Shadow with the Stunner equipped, as Madam is susceptible to Stop. If you are having trouble winning, you may want to consider dropping the Dragon Horn for a Wall Ring to deal with her powerful spells, such as Flare.

• Use Dragoon Shadow, again with the Stunner for Stop. Veteran uses a lot of instant death attacks, so if you are having trouble with that you might try swapping out the Dragon Horn for the Memento Ring (or the "Safty Ring", as the PSX version so eloquently describes it...)

• Use Dragoon Shadow.

• Pug is pretty nasty; he counters all damage with a special physical attack and a Step Mine attack.
• Use Red Cap and Muscle Belt for enough HP to survive Step Mine. If it's not possible for you to kill him in one attack, forget about it; using Offering along with the few weapons whose damage is not reduced by it to achieve this is highly recommended.
• Magus Rod has 30% MBlock and a bonus to Magic Power.

• If you follow the guide, you won't need to resort to this to get a couple of Dragon Horns relatively quickly, however I personally never end up using the Gold Hairpin as much as I think I will, so this is a good trade to consider.
• Evil Oscar shouldn't be too tough, just make sure you have a Ribbon equipped to deal with his Bad Breath attack. He's weak againts Fire.

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