FINAL FANTASY 1 ONE FIGHTER GUIDE version 1.1 Written by: EDMAN edman@hackermail.com 3rd January, 2003 This is a guide that gets you through the game with only 1 fighter. It is not an ordinary walkthrough or strategy guide. I require that you have finished Final Fantasy 1 at least a couple of times before doing this. It is an advanced guide, so if you require basic information, or have any other questions, I suggest that you consult some basic guide (lots of them can be found at www.gamefaqs.com). I am sorry, but there is no way I can write here all the site names that store this guide, as that list is updating faster than the guide updates are happening. COPYRIGHT NOTICE This guide is copyright (c) by Edmunds Steins. You may not reproduce this guide or any part of it. Anyone who will claim this guide as their own, sell this guide or use it for any other promotional purposes (even if it doesn't involve getting money) will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. If you wish to put this guide up on your site, you are encouraged to do so, but you MUST get (e-mail for it) permission from me to do so, otherwise you are breaking copyright. Please do not rip off other people's work. Imagine when you will feel like a master of a computer/video game, and will write a great guide (I'm not suggesting this guide is great:), and someone rips it off. You will feel like ripping the guy's lungs out. And that's exactly what I am going to do if you break my copyright! Suing other people in the modern world isn't that difficult (especially if your parents are lawyers, hehehe). ================================ Contents ============================== Part 1 : Guide Intro 1.01 Only one fighter? 1.02 Not a walk out in the woods 1.03 Simple game suggestions Part 2 : Detailed Final Fantasy 1 Solo Fighter Walkthrough 2.01 HEY! What happened to the other three??? 2.02 What? Pirates? 2.03 The Sleeping Prince (HUH? Shouldn't it be princess???) 2.04 Let's just blow it up! What? Where's my TNT? 2.05 The Rotting of the Land 2.06 It's Gettin' Cold in here... 2.07 Couldn't they just kill a rat??? 2.08 It's Gettin' Hot in here... 2.09 We're going deeper underground... 2.10 Aiming for the skies 2.11 What am I supposed to do? Save the Planet??? Part 3 : Some Add-ons 3.01 Frequently Asked Questions 3.02 Sources of more FF1 information 3.03 About/Contacting me 3.04 Thanks 3.05 Version History ============================= PART 1 : Guide Intro ========================== 1.01 ONLY ONE FIGHTER? Basically, what this guide does is helps you get through Final Fantasy 1 with only one of the four characters. The way this is done is simple - At the first battle of the game you will kill the other three characters. "Why would anyone want to do that?", I hear you ask. Well, finishing the game with just one character rises the challenge of Final Fantasy 1. I know it is a pretty difficult game already with all four of the charcters, but for some it just isn't enough, as all of the 4 character class combinations have been tried out. It is even possible to finish the game with 4 White Mages (NO class change!), since the masmune sword saves you. So what can be more difficult than that? Well, getting through the game with just one character. <*UPDATE*> STOP DRAGGING ON ABOUT THE MISTAKE I MADE IN THE FIRST VERSION OF THIS GUIDE! I know I made a mistake saying that you can't do all solos, you can. It is possible to finish the game with every single class of Final Fantasy 1. So, basically, the following section isn't really true. Yes, even a solo White Mage, Solo Thief and a Solo Black Mage are very possible. So, the next section will be left there simply to show why I chose the Fighter when I fought my solo quest. The stuff in it isn't really true... REMEMBER: THE FOLLOWING SECTION THAT BASHES ALL OTHER CLASSES ISN'T TRUE!! So why is this one character a fighter? Well, it is the best class to do it with and is certainly a lot more fun than other classes (which is just frustrating...). So why didn't I pick a --> White Mage? You gotta be joking! 4 white mages is OK, as one can attack constantly, and the other three can heal. But only one white mage? That's not going to happen. CUR4 is Chaos's fourth spell, so he can heal himself to full HP as quickly as every fourth attack. Of course, that isn't going to happen, as he has other attacks available. So it will be his 6th to 8th attack. So you (with a little luck we will prosume it is his 8th spell...) will have to kill him in 8 rounds and not die at the same time. But with his physical atack doing more than 250 damage, and then he still has ICE3 and LIT3 and INFERNO, you are bound to CUR4 yourself every second (at least, sometimes every) round. That leaves you with 4 rounds. Then you must remeber that a White Mage (more likely a Wizard) has a low Hit% (so you might miss some of the atacks), and a pathetic strength. Also, you won't reach Chaos with full spell charges, it just isn't going to happen. Can he kill Chaos? Yes he can, but it is basically impossible. You would have to be so lucky to even get to him, and then be sooo lucky that some of his attacks miss (if they don't, no chance for you to kill him) and that all of your attacks hit him. And even then, that's just the Chaos strategy. This guy is going to be too weak to get past the first Imp! (Imps have 8 HP, White Mage does 1 damage per turn, Imps do as much as 5 damage (with criticals they do 14 damage!) and you only have 25 HP. You usually meet 3 to 5 Imps. Do the calculations yourself!) <*UPDATE*> I have just made a solo White Mage guide, just to counter the arguments that I made in this guide... so check it out! And the White Mage never did 1 damage... only to Garland... --> Black Mage? You gotta be joking! Again! So you say that a Black Mage has NUKE and can blast anyone to nowhere! Well, the maximum HP a Black Mage can have is around 650 HP. Plus, he has the worst defence rating! Let's imagine a fight with Chaos (has 2000 HP): First round - you attack with NUKE and do 400 damage. He does a physical attack and does 350 damage. Second Round - You NUKE again, and do another 400 damage. If he attacks with another physical attack, you ARE dead. If he attacks with LIT3, you have a chance of surviving with low HP, but his next attack will kill you (and he will still have 40% of his HP!). And that's assuming that you attack first, but you won't, as Chaos's stats just happen to be better than yours! And your evade is so low you won't dodge attacks. BUT, that's just for Chaos. You still have to kill the 4 fiends before getting to Chaos. And you have no EXIT to help you out, which means a lot of restarting. And that's just the end of the game, he WILL have difficulty getting past the first Imps, just like the White Mage (although he has Black Magic to help out, it needs to be refilled in an INN, and those will cost so much money, compared to what you have right now, that you are bound to miss out on magic!) <*UPDATE*> I am still not sure if this is possible. After all, a Black Mage has much less HP than a Thief (which has been done...) and lower attack. But he has Black Magic. So I think it can be done, and it is in fact easier than Thief (the difficulty might be the same at the end, but during the game, BM is certainly easier). --> Thief? This is INSANE!!! Thief's attack power at the beginning of the game is at around the level of a Black Mage. And he has NO magic. The only thing this guy can do is RUN. You won't be able to kill enemies early in the game. You plain simple won't be able to do anything (other than die!) The class change would leave you with a below-average fighter, but you won't get that far! <*UPDATE*> The only thing I can tell you is that this solo has been done. The main reason why it was possible was because of the Strength maxing out trick - the person who did it made sure his Thief has maximum strength. <*/UPDATE*> --> Red Mage? Ahh, this is one class you can do a one character game with! He has an OK attack rating, has a healing capability, and has EXIT (which is what really closed the challenge for a Black Mage). However, even with the high attack rating (compared to the other wizards) and the Masamune, you will still need a lot of luck to win the game with this guy. However, the beginning of the game isn't going to be as difficult. Possible? Yes. Frustrating? Hell, yes! Would you like to suffer that? Hell NO!!! <*UPDATE*> There is a solo Red Wizard walkthrough up on the GameFAQs FAQs and Guides list. And a solo Red Mage can be a lot of fun, just a bit difficult at the end. --> Black Belt? Now, this is one hell of a good class! At LV50 he could kill Chaos in one turn, so that's not a problem. The problem is how to get there. A Black Belt has no healing capabilitites, and you can only stock up on 99 Heal potions. As an addition to that, he has a pretty low defence rating. And NO EXIT. So, if we prosume that each heal potion heals for around 30 HP, and you are at LV50 (999 HP), the average HP damage that your enemies can do is 4000 damage, and then you are dead. In fact, 4000 HP could be quite a lot, but it is still difficult, as the Black Belt has a very low defence rating and can get beaten up even from the weakest attacks (then again, there is that something called a Heal Staff...). Lot's of running away and luck required. <*UPDATE*> There is a solo Black Belt walkthrough up on the GameFAQs FAQs and Guides list. But I still stayat what I said - solo Black Belt is much more difficult and frustrating and boring than a Fighter! But that doesn't matter if you want to completel all the challenges... That's why I chose a fighter. Although he has no EXIT (If he had that, this game would be too much of a piece of cake!), he has CURE and CUR2 as extra curing charges. He can equip the best swords, and the early enemies will do pathetic damage. Getting through the first parts of the game is going to be easy, and will require basically no restarts. In the second part of the game, you can use the EYE to level up to LV50 (which will hopefully give you 999HP) and then everything will be slaughtered in your way! Although he can't quite kill Chaos in one turn, he has the best chance of getting to him. 1.03 NOT A WALK OUT IN THE WOODS Although you chose the best character class with witch to do this one-man-quest, it is still not going to be easy. That's why I suggested at the beginning of this guide that you have already finished Final Fantasy 1. The main thing you should consider is how to beat Chaos. He is, no doubt, the strongest boss/monster in the game (some might disagree by pointing to WarMech, but that guy has only half of Chaos's HP, although he has more power). At LV50 with Masamune, you will be doing 1000+ damage. That allows you to kill Chaos in two turns without much concern. But you must remember that you have to get to him - you have no EXIT, so you will have to do the whole Temple of Fiends in one go. That's not necessary all that easy, but, as the fighter has a lot of defence, you should have enough healing capabilities to get to Chaos with at least 400 HP, which is all you need. Still, not very easy, and be ready to push the restart button a lot of times (or just reload if you are using an emulator :) Another thing you should consider are enemies that use Stun and instant death attacks. Those will be tough and you will most likely die. Some enemies have a nasty attack that does physical damage (weak), but can kill you instantly. Stun attacks basically paralyse you, as they never stop. With a four character party they are a big problem, but can be handled because they usually can't stun all four characters. But with only one...you will get stunned every turn of the battle, making it impossible to get out of it. If you have the luck, you might be able to run away. Choosing a fighter makes it easier, as he can take more hits. Imagine a White Mage fighting one of those! (actually, a White Mage could be pretty effective, as most enemies that use Stun are undead, so one HARM spell (HRM3 comes to mind) and they are all dead). Basically, this is not easy, will require a lot of restarts, but hey, what do you want? This is supposed to be one of the ultimate challenges! 1.03 SIMPLE GAME SUGGESTIONS These are just some things that you should remember when playing the game and I won't remind you about them anywhere in the future. --> ALWAYS HAVE 99 HEAL POTIONS! From the very beginning of the game, once you can come up with the cash (which seems to be around the time you get to Elfland), keep in your items screen 99 heal potions. There is nothing worse than to be going around a dungeon with low HP and you just forgot to buy those potions. Always have them with you. Also, remeber it doesn't end with heal potions. You should always have 20 or more Pure potions with you. DON'T bother with Soft potions. If you do get stoned, it's GAME OVER! --> ALWAYS SAVE! There's nothing worse than to go around leveling up for a couple of hours and then get killed by a monster. Why? Because you would have to level up again!!! And this time it will be frustrating. Therefore, just save whenever you can! BTW, healing at INNs is not the only way of saving - if you have walked a long distance, use a TENT and save. --> LEVELING UP IS NOT THE SAME AS SOLVING A DUNGEON! So when you are in a dungeon, if you can't beat it, simply go to some of the level up places I have mentioned in the walkthrough, gain levels and then return. Don't try to level up inside a dungeon. Instead, RUN from all the battles to conserve HP, so you have enough Heal Potions to heal yourself back to full health before fighting the boss of that dungeon. --> ANYTHING ELSE??? If you think something should be added here, either e-mail it to me to edman@hackermail.com =================== PART 2 : FF1 SOLO FIGHTER WALKTHROUGH ===================== 2.01 HEY! WHAT HAPPENED TO THE OTHER THREE??? After you have chosen your crew, which hopefully included at least one fighter, you will appear in the front of the Coneria castle. You can go inside the castle, but there really isn't much to do there. Once you are done, walk into the town. Buy one chain armor and one rapier and give it to the one fighter that you want to play the rest of the game with. Buy wooden staves for the other three. Get into the item shop and buy 3 potions (you can get more later). Now get out of the town, put your fighter in the last row (by pressing select) and get into a battle. You will probably fight some Imps (if you fight stronger enemies, your task will be easier, but you could die in the process!). Leave only 3 alive, and let them attack you until everyone, except your fighter, is dead. Use the heal potions to heal him if there really is a need for it. Afterwards, just simply end the battle. Keep on fighting random map battles until you are at LV3. Then go into the town, buy some, like 5, potions and a tent. Use the inn as a save point. Walk north until you come to the Temple of Fiends. Enter, but don't attack Garland just yet. The enemies here are pretty easy, the only ones you have to fear are the Creeps (I think that's what they were called - pink type of enemies). Instead, walk left, get the Cap, equip it, then walk up and get the treasures from there, then, depending on your HP, you could go out, use the tent, refill HP and save, or you could just use potions to refill HP and go and fight Garland. Any way you wish, the more careful people will take the first one. In any way, enter the room in the centre, and talk to the "whatever" that stands in your way. The fight with the first boss of the game will start! BOSS FIGHT : GARLAND HP : 100 ATTACKS : He will use the attack command only. STRATEGY : If you just keep on pushing 'Attack', you will win. Afterwards talk to the princess in the centre. BTW, before you do that, try walking around the Temple of Fiends until you reach LV4 - it is going to make your future much easier. Once you are done talk to the princess. In the castle you should just get the Lute and then talk to the king to get your bridge and then just get out of the castle. It is time for a walk! 2.02 WHAT? PIRATES? Refill your Heal Potion stock at the town of Coneria. You will need some of those things! I really don't think that you should go to Matoya's cave, after all, it is a useless waste of time. Just head east for the town of Pravoka. The walk to Pravoka shouldn't be too difficult. If you meet Ogres, I suggest that you run. If you meet Creeps, kill them, they are not all that difficult. The rest of the enemies are a piece of cake, even at LV4. Try leveling up until you are at LV5 (that is enough for the pirates, but the real level up time will only follow!). Afterwards just walk into Pravoka, and prepare for a fight against 9 losers. BOSS FIGHT : PIRATES x 9 HP : 6 ATTACKS : Only physical, will do 1 dmg, but critical hits can do as much as 15 damage. STRATEGY : Just wack them away with your super duper powerfull attack command. The battle should end with you having more than 100 HP. After the battle talk to Bikke and you will receive your ship! Before anything, use the inn. After you have saved, get out of town and fight some random battles. The pirate fight should have raised your money by quite a lot. Keep on fighting until you have 550 G. The preffered enemy to fight is the Ogre. But that isn't necessarily the enemy you could easily defeat. Anyway, I suggest you use an inn after every battle (unless it's something easy like the Imps). Beware of very difficult enemies, like the WrWolf. Those guys can kick your butt, but only after poisoning you! Also - remember, if you have to spend after the fight more money just to heal your wounds than you would win, you should press reset. For example, if during the fight I had to use 2 Heal potions, a pure potion and rest in an inn, then the cost for me of that fight will be 60 + 60 + 75 + 50 = 245 G. If in that fight I am going to win 200 G, then I am loosing money, so it is not worth it. Wolves and Madponys are generally the enemies that give you very little G. Ofcourse, exceptions are fights where you gain lots of Exp. And remember, healing using an inn is cheaper than using a heal potion. Some time during this money raise you will (should) level up to LV6. Once you are done raising money, go to the weapon shop and get the Short Sword. It will be helpful for now. Don't worry about spending money, because: You should level up now until you get 860 G, then buy the iron armor and some gloves. Keep on leveling up until you are around LV10 (which will give you a lot of cash, hence don't worry about it). That should give you a lot of power and Hp to get you to the next stage of leveling up (alhtough, if you really don't want to level up, LV8 should be OK). Once you are done in the Pravoka reagion, take your ship southwest to the Land of Elves. Getting through the sea at LV8 should be a piece of cake. By now you should be able to handle any battle on the sea. However, the OddEyes are likely to kill you, as they have the stun attack (even though they will do only 1 damage!) 2.03 THE SLEEPING PRINCE (HUH? SHOULDN'T IT BE PRINCESS???) Once you get to Elfland, the only thing you are aming for, is the Silver sword. It costs 4000 G. So get out of town, and fight random battles. The Ogres should go down in 2 hits, and if you have the iron armor, then their attacks will do somewhere around 1 damage. So it is easy, and killing them is no pain. Also, buy the iron shield and the wooden helmet. The inn here is expensive - 100 G, but I don't think you should take the bother of going all the way to Coneria just to save yourself 70 G. You can do that later when you have the airship. Once you have the silver sword, can you try out your luck in THE peninsula. Go back to Pravoka, head East as far as you can and then head north. You will come to a peninsula. The last 2 squares of the peninsula contain very strong enemies from later in the game. Before you go here, I suggest you take 99 Heal potions (this is the time you should start doing that, but for now, 30 will be OK), 10 Tents and at least 5 pure potions. Reaching the peninsula is not all that easy - you can meet Geists, who use stun. Just 2 geists once stunned me for 38 turns in a row! But keep on trying! Then just fight battles in those squares until you are at around LV20. If you reach that level, the future battles will be very easy for you. Once you are done leveling up, it is time to progress with the story! So head back to Elfland, and buy 99 Heal potions, 20 Pure potions, and make sure you have Tents or some Cabins with you (just to save and heal up!). When you have done that, head for the Marsh cave. 2.04 LET'S JUST BLOW IT UP! WHAT? WHERE'S MY TNT? First you will have to get the crown, so head for the Marsh Cave. As you go there, you will notice that due to your high level (LV20, right?) the enemies are deciding it is best to run for it. So, getting to the cave shouldn't be too difficult. Just head east from Elfland and then go south. Use a Tent before you enter. As you get inside, just head down as far as you can, and then enter the room to get to level 2. Head down as far as you can, then go right until you run into a room, get in and then get out on the other side, and take the stairs to level 3. The crown (and Wizards) can be found in the very centre of the room, so head down to the third row of rooms and then it is the first room to your right. Anyway, if you are LV20, you shouldn't have any trouble walking around this place - most enemies will either miss or do 1 damage (by the time I reached the wizards I had used up only 1 Heal potion, and I was at full health!). BOSS FIGHT : WIZARDS x ? (their numbers very form 2 to 6) HP : 84 ATTACKS : Their physical attacks do quite some damage, but if you are at LV20, then that damage will seem like a couple scratches. STRATEGY : Just use physical attacks and one of your attacks should take down one Wizard. A very easy battle. Once you are done, check the chest and get out of that place. Your next destination is the Northwest castle. Once you are out, head north to the castle, heal before you enter, and once you are in, just walk to the throne. Talk to the king, and you will get to know that he is actually the dark elf. BOSS FIGHT : ASTOS HP : 162 ATTACKS : A nasty RUB spell, but the rest is easy. STRATEGY : He WILL cast RUB as his first attack. If it hits, you are dead, so hope it misses, and restart if you have to. Otherwise, killing him is very easy. Once you are done here, head for your ship, go to Coneria, cross the bridge and head north until you come to Matoya's cave. Talk to her, to exchange the crystal for the herb. Now go to the Castle of Elves and wake up the prince. The prince, as a thanks for waking him up, will give you the Mystic Key. You could now go around the world to get all the treasures that were hidden by the mystic key, but I really don't see the point, as you won't get any better weapons/armor than you already have, and you should have lots of money from all that leveling up (I would guess over 35,000 G...), you really don't need cash. Anyway, just take whatever you have to (which is the TNT) by going to Coneria castle and searching some of the unlocked rooms there and be prepared to venture into new lands. Head west of Coneria and then north until you find a port where to dock your ship. Now (on the land) head south until you come to a cave. It is the cave of the dwarves. You should check everything inside, but what you are really looking for is a dwarf named Nerrick - he is digging a canal, but he has run out of TNT. So just give him yours, and he will dig a canal for you. Please note that in the room near where Nerrick was standing you will find the Silver Armor. It has higher evade, but lower absorb. So I suggest you keep the Iron armor on, as the enemies you are about to meet will hit you with a very high evade stat. If you feel lucky, you can use the Silver Armor. Anyway, pretty soon that is going to change! Also, you will find an Iron helmet. As you probably have a Wooden one equipped, swap it with that. Once you are done here, head for your ship, and then head south, use the new canal, and head west until you get to the town of Melmond. 2.05 THE ROTTING OF THE LAND Well, it is not going to be a pretty view. The town was attacked by the Vampire, so it will look as though it is just ruins. There also won't be a building that you really don't care about (a clinc...but it isn't that you would like to revive anyone???) and one you do care about (there is no item shop - use Coneria to get items). I suggest that you sell all the stuff you got from the Dwarf cave and buy the terribley expensive 45,000 G Steel Armor. Your evade will go down, but absorb will go up, and if you have all the armor as I told you, then you should have 44 absorb. Nice! Don't forget to get 99 Heal Potions and some Pures. If you really want, you copuld use the hall of giants for a fast level up, but I don't really think you would want to. However, if you want this place to be easy, level up to LV25 (it isn't all that difficult/time consuming). The place you would want to do all that is the earth cave. Head west of Melmond, and then head south until you come to a cave (don't confuse it with Titan's Lair!). Use a tent to save before you enter! Once you are inside, to get to the Hall of Giants head Southwest. On every step you will take, you will fight a battle with either Giants or Iguanas. Very fast G and EXP gaining place, just don't get too excited, and remember to heal (I usually heal after every battle). I suggest getting to LV25, it isn't difficult nor really time consuming, and it will make the rest of the game very much easier. Remember, you don't have to get to LV25 in one go, I would usually go back to Coneria to restock on Heal Potions. Do that once you have finished leveling up, as you will have to get through all the levels of the Earth Cave! Once you go inside for real, head right. The enemies you will meet will be Asps (super easy), Cobras (they run from you like hell!) and Bulls (easy). If you check out the tresure chests (where the most expensive treasure is a Pure Potion) you will fight Earths. Those guys are more difficult than Giants, but not quite as strong as Tyros or ZomBulls. Just get on with it and get to Level 2 of the earth cave! In level 2, head down, up, down, down, up right, down, up right, down, down, down, up right, take the stairs to level 3. In level 3, you will meet Cocatrices, which could stone you. They will most likely run, but I am warning you that there is a risk. Level 3 is a circular room, so just walk in a circle anticlockwise, and try to keep to the inside as much as you can. The path will end in a room, and there you will meet the vampire. BOSS FIGHT : VAMPIRE HP : 156 ATTACKS : Physical attacks that hurt a lot and an attack which can cause stun. Pretty nasty. STRATEGY : You should be able to take him out in two turns. Just pray he doesn't use stun during those two turns. After you are done, check the treasure chest for a Ruby. Once you have done that, get out of the Earth Cave. Once you are out, head north and then west to get to the Titan's tunnel. Feed Titan the Ruby, take his treasure (equip the Silver helmet as a replacement for your iron one) and exit on the other end. Go to Sarda's cave, talk to him to get the rod, then head back to Coneria to re-stock on Heal Potions, and head back to the Earth Cave. Once you are back in the cave, head for Level 3, but this time continue going to a center. You will come to a plate - use the rod and stairs to level 4 will appear. In level 4 you will notice that enemies have gotten a bit more difficult, but not yet as difficult as the ones of the peninsula. If you keep as much south as you can and head left you will come to a room with a silver shield. Equip it, as it is better than your iron one. From that room just head straight up and you will come to the stairs to level 5. In level 5 head straight up (but not to the top of the room), and then left, down, left and enter the room in front of you. There you will find the fiend of Earth himself. BOSS FIGHT : LICH HP : 400 ATTACKS : ICE2 (90 damage), Sleep (pretty useless...), FAST (on himself, of course...), physical attack (up to 50 damage) and lots of others that he won't ever use on you cause you will kill him. STRATEGY : Well, this is your first real boss fight. And you will kill him in four hits. That's not fair! Even the Vampire with his stun could be, theoratically, more dangerous. Once you have defeated Lich, step on the altar, and you will have your first ORB lighted (and you will be teleported outside). Head back to your ship, and it is time to explore new lands! 2.06 IT'S GETTIN' COLD IN HERE... First you have to go to the town of Crescent Lake. Take the ship south and then go east. Pass Elfland by its south, keep on heading left near the land. You will come to a port, which seems to be in the middle of nowhere. Dock there and walk west until you come to Crescent Lake. There is absolutely nothing good in the weapon/armor shops, so use them to sell any stuff you might have gotten from the cave. Restock on your Healing potions, but the main thing is to talk to the circle of sages. Pass between the Magic shops and then go right. Just follow the path until you come to those 12 old farts. One of them will give you a canoe, but you should talk to all of them. Basically, tehy will tell you to kick the crap out of the fiend of fire, but that's not what you want to do right now. What you really want is the airship, so head for the cave of ice. Take the ship to a port just north of where you are right now (use the river mouth as a port - get straight into the canoe - saves a walk). Now go to the river and use the canoe to go left, on the first junction go up, go up right, left, on the next junction keep on going left, then down, on the last junction go left, then just follow the river to come to a grassland. Keep on going and you will reach the ice cave. Use Tents to restore HP and save. The ice cave has some very nasty enemies, the worst ones being FrGiants and FrWolves (FrWolves only because they can come in groups of 6). But nothing too difficult. As usual, run from all battles and you should make it. Room 1: Well, not exactly difficult... Room 2: HAHAHA, try getting lost - after all, you can go in cricles ^_^ Room 3: This is the most difficult dungeon in the game. A complete nightmare for all Final Fantasy gamerz. The maze here is sooo difficult, I wonder why I am making you do this before the Volcano quest. I mean, it is so impossible, that I won't even cover it in my walkthrough. Room 4: This is another place where gettin lost is pretty difficult... In the room, there are two treasures you can reach. The one on the right side has a flame sword (equip it immediately!), and it is not guarded, so get it. The other one you can reach is guarded by Mages (Actually, they are more like FrAstos, so he casts RUB). You don't want to mess with those guys (at least not yet), so just fall into one of the pits. Room 5: Head down, over the ice floor (you take damage), down, left and use the stairs. Room 6: Get in the room, then get out. Get into the room to your right. See those stairs? That's the way out! But you still haven't finished your job - fall into the pit (check the treasures first, of course) and you will come to the treasure chest you couldn't reach before. But beware - the chest is guarded by the Eye BOSS FIGHT : EYE HP : 162 ATTACKS : Pretty much everything that kills instantly. STRATEGY : Pray you get the first attack, if not, then prey her attack misses or is a pathetic physical attack. Otherwise, the Eye will kill you (you need a ProRing to kill it, which you will get later). Also, remember that she has an attack that can stone you, so you will need a ribbon too... Check the chest to get the floater. Now just get the hell out of this place! Fall into the pit to go back to Room 5, then go to Room 6 and use the stairs. Once you have the floater, head for the desert south of Crescent Lake. Use the Floater there, and an airship will appear. Woohoo, now you can go pretty much everywhere on the world map. First you should go to the waterfall. Go to the continent north of Melmond, land in the grasslands an dtake the canoe up the river as far as you can until you wun into a waterfall. The waterfall itself is a pretty good maze. Generally, walk left and down as much as you can and you will get there. You will come to a room with a walking robot. Talk to him and you will receive the CUBE. Check the treasure chests to find lots of good stuff, including a ribbon, which will help against all status attacks. You will also find Defense, one of the best swords in the game, but you can't use it until you've become a Knight. Now just get out. You could go to Onrac now, but there really isn't anything to do there right now. Secondly, I suggest you go to the town of Gaia. Remember the peninsula? Well, head straight north, pass a town there (it is Lefein, but you don't know Lefeinish, so there is no point for you to go there), keep on heading north. Gaia is in a gap of mountain ranges. Once there get into a weapon shop and get a ProRing (exchange your gloves for the ProRing. I know it makes your defence worse, but the ProRing is going to protect you from all those nasty one kill attacks). Now that you have that, I suggest you go back to the Ice Cave and use the Eye to level up (gives you 3225 EXP and VERY easy to kill). I suggest you get to around LV40. You don't have to, but it is going to make the rest of this game very easy for you. And anyway, you should be at level 40 (leave 10 levels so you don't waste experience you get later in the game) when you fight Chaos, so you will have to level up anyway. So, why not do it now? At 3225 EXP per battle it really doesn't take that long either... 2.07 COULDN'T THEY JUST KILL A RAT??? Please note that you don't have to change classes in this game. It is pretty easy to finish it with a solo Fighter. After all, only the weapons until the Masamune are not the same. The only thing you will have any difficulty with, will be killing Warmech. As that was optional in the first place, you really don't have to worry about it. Once you are done leveling up, it is time to visit Bahamut and improve the game's graphics (akhem, I mean, your muscle size...). Remember the islands between Gaia and Onrac? Bahamut is in one of those, but you should visit them all and talk to all the dragons. Bahamut will tell you that you must bring him a proof of courage. And the best place where to test your courage is the Castle of Ordeal, near the islands. As there is nowhere where to land the airship, take the ship, dock it at the mouth of the river, take the canoe and then walk to the castle. Once inside, talk to the old fart and go to the room northwest. You will come to a maze. Just walk into the column. Do the same for the next room. In the third room you will have to choose between two columns. Take the bottom one. Keep on going until you have to choose again. Take the bottom one. The next time you have to choose, pick the one closest to you. You will come to a place with a room near you. Walk into the room to get a Zeus gauntlet. Out of the three choices here, take the one furthest away from the room. You will be teleported to a place with stairs, so go to level 2 (or three, if you count the first part of the castle as a level). In the next level it is pretty difficult to get lost. The first chest you see will contain a Heal staff. That can be an extra healing for you (use it in battle to have the same effect as Cure). In the next set of chest you will find the Ice sword. Equip it now - it is better than your current one! In the next treasure chests you will find lots of stuff you already have - money and a house. Check the last treasure box to find the Rat's Tail. Try walking to the king's throne (doesn't it look like a sofa?) and you will be attacked by some ZombieD[ragons]. They have 268 HP, so it really doesn't count as a boss fight. With your current power, they should die from one of your hits. Step on the throne to be teleported back to the first level. Now that you have the tail, go and visit Bahamut. He will upgrade you to a newer version - a Knight (equip the Defence sword once that happens and go buy some White Magic, like Cure and Cur2). 2.08 IT'S GETTIN' HOT IN HERE... Can you still believe you haven't done the volcano quest yet? And it is easier than the ice cave! Right now, at your level (which should be at around 46 to 50...), this dungeon will be a joke. You can find the volcano west of Crescent Lake (take the airship). All of the levels will be easy for you. The lava floors will damage you, so use Heal Potions if you wish. On the next floor, simply get inside the room, check the treasure chests (which are guarded by Fire elementials, but that's just one hit for you). If you don't want to check the chests, simply walk left to get to the stairs. In the next level, simply walk right to get to the stairs. In the level after that walk down and then right (very easy). In the next level simply walk down, and then left until you can go down again. You will have to cross lots of lava floors. In the level after that you should try to keep down as much as possible. Now, the next level is much better. You could go in 8 directions. The ways north, south, southeast, east, northeast and northwwest lead to nowhere. The way west lead to a chest with the Flame armor, so get it and equip it - it has better evade than your Steel one. The way southwest leads to Kary - the Fiend of Fire. BOSS FIGHT : KARY HP : 600 ATTACKS : You wouldn't notice any... STRATEGY : Well, how is this? A boss that has less HP than you? And attacks waaay worse than yours? It takes skill to loose! Once you are done harassing Kary, step on the altar to re-light another one of the Orbs and telelport yourself out of the volcano. 2.09 WE'RE GOING DEEPER UNDERGROUND... Next you should drown Kraken, the Fiend of Water. Remember Onrac? Fly to the desrt right next to it. You should see a small patch of desert a bit away from the rest of the landscape. You can land your airship there (I know, it is desert, but you can land it there). Walk out and then walk back onto the same square and you will meet the caravan (in the oasis). Buy the bottle from him. Now head back to Gaia and walk to the small lake in the northern part of the town. USe the bottle, and a fairy will appear. She will give you the Oxyale. Now go to Onrac and talk to the girl who is blocking your way to the submarine. You will be teleported to the Sea Shrine Floor 1: Just walk straight up and then right to see the stairs. Floor 2: Try to keep up as much as possible. You will eventually come to a room where you will find the Opal armor in the chest. Equip it immediately! from here head straight down and then right. You will come to stairs. Floor 3: Now, this place is full of mermaids. There are NO enemies in this level, so explore it at your convenience. Make sure you get the SLAB from the northwest part of the floor. Check all the rooms for treasures. In the southeast corner of the floor you will find a chest with the Opal shield. Equip it. Once you are done, head for floor 1. Floor 1: I think you should head out, re-stock on Heal Potions and then come back. Once you are done, head left of the stairs to floor 2, and you will get to level 1. Level 1: Head up and you will come to stairs Level 2: Not very difficult Level 3: Not all that difficult either... Level 4: Another place where it is difficult to get lost. Level 5: OK, here things get serious. You can get another ribbon here, if you want, but who are you going to equip it on??? Just head up and then left. Level 6: Go left, then up, then left, then down, and enter the room. Go up and exit on the other side. Once you are out, head up and then enter the room there. You will find Kraken, the Fiend of Water. BOSS FIGHT: KRAKEN HP : 800 ATTACKS : Some physicals that can do over 100 damage, Dark (useless), I didn't notice any more... STRATEGY : Two hits. That's all you need. If you need more than that, count yourself unlucky. BTW, he has less HP than you... Once you are done, step on the altar, re-light the ORB, and then teleport out of the place. 2.10 AIMING FOR THE SKIES What you are looking to do right now is to rid the world of the last Fiend - Tiamat. To do that, you will need to go to the sky castle. To do that, you will have to learn Lefeinish. So, go to Melmond, talk to Dr. Unne and he will teach it to you. Now you should go to Lefein. Getting there is not easy - the town itself is near the peninsula with strong monsters, but the place where you could land the airship is quite a long walk to the north of that. But you don't have a choice. Talk to everyone there, and one of the guys will give you the Chime. The main magic shops are here, but you can't use magic as advanced as that... Once you have the Chime, restock on Heal potions and tents and head for the Mirage Tower. Level 1: Simply go in the room, and walk out, then take the stairs. Level 2: A circular room, just go anticlockwise, once you can't go any further, go right and take the stairs. Level 3: Just get into the room. You will fight a Blue D[ragon], but that's easy. Use the teleporter to get to the Floating Castle. Level 1: If you go down, you will get a Bane sword. If you go right, you will get a Heal Helmet, ProRing and money. If you go left you will get a Heal Potion and some money. If you go up, you will get to level 2. Level 2: Up is the way you came from, up-right you will get an Opal Gauntlet, tight you will get a ribbon and an Opal Shield, down-right you will get a Black Shirt and a White Shirt, down-left you will get an Adamant, left you will get some money, left-up you will get a House and a Silver Helmet. What really want to do is go down, and you will be teleported to level 3. Level 3: Here you can take a look out of the window. Going right brings you to treasure chests with some money, a ProCape, a Cloth (?) and a Soft. Go left to get to the teleporter to the next level. Level 4: Ths level may seem endless. Go right once and then up until you reach the teleporter. Level 5: See the long bridge? You can meet Warmech there. Although most people's reaction to this monster is "RUUUUN!!!", you can defeat him with just one character - your fighter. Your chances of meeting him are low - you will have to walk forwards and backwards several times before you meet him. The only strategy I can give you is "Attack!" and never stop until he is dead. WarMech has 1000 HP, and attacks like NUKE. So be careful. He is VERY difficult, and you will most likely die for a couple of times... Avoid him if you wish to avoid the chance of having to restart from the Mirage Tower. But then again, you have the chance to become a true master of FF1! Once you are done with WarMech, it is time to finish off the Fiend of Wind - Tiamat. So heal to full health and head up into Tiamat's room. BOSS FIGHT: TIAMAT HP : 1000 ATTACKS : Thunder (around 50-60 damage), Physical (around 20-50 damage), Poison (somehow it doesn't inflict poison effect... maybe it's the ribbon? Still does around 40 damage), and some others like that. STRATEGY : As you can see from above, his attacks aren't all that good. Your attacks will do around 200 damage, so attack him 5 times and he will go down. Once you are done with the last of the Fiends, re-light the Orb and teleport out of the castle. Go to the Dwarf Cave, talk to Smith the Blacksmith and he will make the sword Xcalber out of the Adamant. Whola! the second best sword in the game! Now you can go and beat this game! 2.11 WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO? SAVE THE PLANET??? First go and re-stock on Heal Potions. Then make sure you have Cure and Cur2. Now, save at the entrance of Temple of Fiends, and enter. Inside, walk to the altar (next to where the princess used to be at the beginning of the game). Touch the Orb and you will be teleported to the first floor of the inside of Temple of Fiends. Floor 1: Go down, then right and take the stairs. Floor 2: Try getting lost Floor 3: Go down, then right and into the central room. You will have to kill (One hit) the Phantom once you enter. Here you can use the Lute. Floor 2: Go down, then left and up, take the stairs. Floor 1: Just walk left. Level 1: Walk up, right, down. Before you can take the stairs you will have to assassinate Lich AGAIN (just one hit). Level 2: Go left, up into the room, right, down out of the room, keep on going down, then left and up the stairs. Kill Kary on the way. Level 3: Walk into the room and then out on the other side. Go down, right, into the large room. Go right, then down, left and out of the room. Up into the other room, then left and down out of the room. Walk down, then right and take the stairs. You will have to kill Kraken again. Level 4: Head down and then walk right. You will walk through a very narrow passage. At the end you will see a small room and you will find the Masmune sword in the chest. Equip it imediately. Now head back to the beginning of the level, but this time walk right. You will have to fight Tiamat - he is easier than before, due to the Masmune. Walk up and right to reach the stairs to level 5. Level 5: There are no enemies in this room. Just walk to the central room to find the boss of Final Fantasy 1. After you have healed yourself to full health, enter (shouldn't they have a special evil music playing right now?). My stats (with weapons and armor equipped): HP : 986 Strength : 69 Agility : 45 Intellingence : 21 Vitality : 43 Luck : 33 Damage : 90 Hit % : 207 Absorb : 67 Evade % : 81 Magic slots : 2/2/2/0/0/0/0/0 Level : 50 Magic : LV1: CURE LV2: INVS (was never needed/used) LV3: CUR2 Weapon : Masmune Armor : Opal Armor Opal Shield Ribbon ProRing Please note that you can get better armor than the Opal stuff, but I just couldn't be bothered (and it wasn't needed, as I could reach Chaos with full health). Also note that you should have magic slots 4/4/4/0/0/0/0/0. I didn't because I upgraded to a Knight at LV46, so I didn't have enough level ups to gain all the slots, but it wasn't needed, as I never used any of the magic. Be ready to fight the Chaos himself! BOSS FIGHT : CHAOS HP : 2000 ATTACKS : Kill in one hit attacks like CRACK, weak ones like LIT3 and ICE3, Physical attacks that hurt a lot, CUR4 which cures him back to full health, and a lot more attacks that you won't see... STRATEGY : I usually kill Chaos before he gets to cast CUR4. It isn't all that difficult. Just keep on attacking and don't stop to heal. I think 5 hits will take him down. Watch him fade away and watch the ending. CONGRATUALTIONS!!!! YOU MANAGED TO BEAT FINAL FANTASY 1 WITH JUST ONE CHARACTER!!! Now go and brag about it. ============================= PART 3 : SOME ADD-ONs =========================== 3.01 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Q: This game's damn hard! Why don't you make a more detailed walkthrough? A: At the beginning of this guide, I said that this is an advanced level guide. So this walkthrough is even a bit too detailed for all those FF1 l33t experts out there. Q: Why is it that you hate all the character classes but the Fighter? A: It's not true that I hate all the other character classes. In fact, I love the crapyness of the White Mage, but for this type of a quest, I think that the fighter is the best person to have with you. Q: I can't get past that-and-that part of the game. Can you help me? A: I'll be happy to help you with any part of the game, but I suggest you get a beginner's guide - you will get much more info that way... Q: WHY IS IT THAT MY QUESTION IS NOT ANSWERED, YOU *******!!! I'M GONNA HACK YOUR ******* WEBSITE!!! A: If the question you send to me is --> Written in capitals only --> Contains Cursing --> Contains Threats --> The message contains trojans, viruses, etc --> Doesn't have a game name in the subject line Then your question will not be responded. 3.02 SOURCES OF MORE FF1 INFORMATION The main source of info is no doubt the GameFAQs (www.gamefaqs.com). There you will find all the possible FF1 walkthroughs and lists that you have ever wanted! (including this one...hopefully!) The sites that contain FF1 info mainly have the same info as the guides in GameFAQs, so, if you really want info, go there! 3.03 ABOUT/CONTACTING ME My Nick: Edman Real Name: Edmunds Steins Nationality: Latvian (that's in Europe, for those who don't know...) E-Mail Address: edman@hackermail.com Other guides: Final Fantasy 8 No Level Up Guide (DONE!) Final Fantasy 7 Low Level Guide (in progress, but will be done soon) 3.04 THANKS Well, the one person who I would like to thank to is Maris Kalnins. He introduced me to the whole scene of emulation, and it was through emulation that I managed to get my hands on Final Fantasy 1 (and 5 more Final Fantasies...). People usually thank Square for making such great games. Well, I'm not going to, because I thank people who do stuff (help) for me for free. Square is in it for the money (Believe it or not, Square is worth $6,000,000,000!!!) 3.05 VERSION HISTORY (the stuff you probably won't read...) Version 1.0 : the one you are reading right now. It is pretty complete, so I think that it will only be upgraded to version 1.1, which would just add some stuff to the current contents, as opposed to v2.0, which would mean a change in the contents page. Version 1.1 : Added the comment about finishing the game as a Fighter. Added the comment about my class comparison not being true. Fixed some spelling mistakes. THE FUTURE: Version 1.2 : this one will have improved Tips section (part 1.03), improved FAQ section and probably it will have some spelling/grammar mistakes fixed. Planned to happen only in January 2003 (yeah, I'm slow). ============================== THANK YOU FOR READING ============================ FINAL FANTASY 1 ONE FIGHTER GUIDE edman@hackermail.com COPY THIS GUIDE AND YOU'LL BURN IN HELL WITH ALL THE BOSSES I HAVE BEATEN WHILE WRITING IT!!!