Final Fantasy 2 - Hint Sheet by Luke Drelick duky@worldnet.att.net http://rpgocean.hypermart.net [INDEX] 1. Thanks [a] Who Wrote This? [b] Who Offered Insight? [c] ATTENTION!!! 2. The Tricks [a] Perfect Stat Increasing Trick [b] Avoid An Enemy Encounter [c] World Map [d] Chocobo in FF2 [e] Getting Lots of Gil [f] Getting Holy And The Ogre Axe [g] Stocking Up On Magic [h] Stocking Up On Weapon Levels [i] Secret Spell Shop [j] Airship Turbo Boost 3. Boss Help [a] Lieutenant [b] Adamantaimai [c] Borgan [d] Red Soul [e] Chimera [f] Lamia Queen [g] Behemoth [h] Gorts [i] Big Horn [j] Great Worm [k] Fire Gigas [l] Ice Gigas [m] Thunder Gigas [n] White Dragon [o] General [p] Green Dragon [q] Emperor and Guards [r] Cursed Emperor [s] Blue Dragon [t] King Behemoth [u] Red Dragon [v] Zombie Borgon [w] Tiamat [x] Asta Lord [y] Beelzebull [z] Emperor (Final Boss) 4. Locations [a] Altea [b] Gatea [c] Phin [d] Poft [e] Palm [f] Salmando [g] Cave Of The Semite Waterfall [h] Bofsk [i] Ice Cave [j] Kashuon [k] Empire's Warship [l] Dist [m] Dist Caverns [n] Arena [o] Camp [p] Mysidia [q] Black Mask Cave [r] Mysidian Cave [s] Tower of Mysidia [t] Whirlwind [u] Paramekia Castle [v] Jade/Pandemonium Castle 5. Party Members [a] Minh [b] Josef [c] Gordon [d] Layla [e] Richard [f] Lionheart 6. NPC's [a] Hilda [b] Scott [c] Paul [d] Cid [e] Nellie [f] Elena [g] Borgan [h] Dark Knight [i] Emperor 7. Spells [a] Fire [b] Thunder [c] Blizzard [d] Keal [e] Blink [f] Protect [g] Shell [h] Fear [i] Vasna [j] Esuna [k] Silence [l] Barrier [m] Wall [n] Change [o] Holy [p] Flare [q] Ultima [r] Death [s] Dispell [t] Teleport [u] Raise [v] Clouder [w] Drain [x] Fog [y] Haste [z] Curse [aa] Sleep [ab] Stun [ac] Stop [ad] Confu [ae] Blind [af] Toad [ag] Break [ah] Degeon [ai] Minimal [aj] Anti [ak] Slow [al] Aspell [am] Aura [an] Berserk [THANKS] a. This document was written by Luke Drelick as a brief hint sheet for FF2. These are some strategies to make your characters into walking deities, and ake life through this challenging game much easier. b. I'd like to give thanks to a number of friends right now, who all made this info file possible. Brian Pacula - Providing lots of help on actually playing through FF2, and wrote a great FF2 FAQ. Told me the Gil Grabbing trick. Demi, Flobbasko, BigWierd - For doing a fantastic job on the FF2 Neo translation, which, when released, will give this document a burst in popularity. :) Demi, once again - For putting this document on his page, and informed me of what certain spells do. Tomo1657 - Helping me in select FF2 spots, told me the location of the Arena, revealed the Airship Turbo Boost trick to me, and informed me on what certain spells do. Tomas "Toma" Guinan - Telling me about a bunch of spells I forgot to add to this document. Mo - Telling me what the Change spell does. c. ATTENTION! If you have ANYTHING to add to this document, email me at "duky@worldnet.att.net" right away! If you want to use this document on your web page, go right ahead, but please email me first to inform me, and don't change the content of this document around. [THE TRICKS] a. Here we go, the ultimate FF2 cheat! This is a way to turn your characters into walking gods in about an hour. You can do any variation of this cheat, but here's my preference. First and foremost, buy a "Cure" spell for the 3 main characters, as the 4th character you get could leave the party at any time. Second, make sure you have about 500+ gil (it all depends on how powerful you are). Now, get into a battle against real weak enemies (Goblins, Leg Eaters, Hornets), and start pounding on your own guys. Keep on pelting your guys with damage, until they're all in their "low HP" position. Save your game after every round, if you're using an emulator, just in case somebody dies. Win the battle, and your guys should gain some HP, and possibly Strength points or Defense points. Enter another battle, and constantly cast "Cure" magic on your guys, who should have low HP. Once all their HP is full, or all their MP is used up, win the battle, and you'll gain more MP. I've noticed that the amount your Max HP/MP goes up increases when your Max HP/MP gets very high. My Frioniel has 4000 HP, and every time his HP goes up, it increases 80+ points! Finally, after completing these steps, go to an Inn, rest up, then repeat as necessary. It's helpful to be at extremely high HP, due to the complexities of the game's dungeons. Don't power up that many spells, only Cure, Fire, Ice, and Bolt, or whatever spells you use constantly. Weapon points go up as you kill enemies, and when they reach 100, the character becomes more adept at using his/her weapon, allowing for greater hits. Build up the weapon levels while fighting the strongest possible enemies you can at whatever stage you're on. b. If you're playing FF2 through an emulator (which is very likely, due to the rarity of the actual cart), you probably know that the number of steps it takes to get into an encounter is determined as soon as you enter the level. The same holds true with FF1 and 3, but strangely, not with the Dragonquest games. In case you're extremely lazy, are using an emulator with a save state function, and don't want to get into a battle, do this trick. Walk, and after every step, save the game. Keep doing this until you get attacked. Load the save game RIGHT before you get attacked. Now, go to the Status Screen and cast the Cure spell on one of your party members. Exit the Status Screen, save your game again, then continue walking, until you get attacked again. Then, repeat. Unfortunately, for this trick to work, one of your characters needs to have gotten damaged, with HP lower than the max. c. Like in FF1, you are able to view the complete world map. When you're on the world map screen, hold "B", and press "Select". This will bring up a screen with a giant globe in the middle of it. Press a button on the direction pad to rotate the globe in that direction, but be wary, as the rotation proceeds extremely slowly. The flashing brackets indicate the party's current position, and any flashing dots indicate important locales, such as towns, caverns, or castles. Note that this trick only works on the world map, and AFTER you've gotten the Ship (although you don't need to be on the Ship to see the map). d. The Chocobo is directly south of the Kashuon Castle. From the Castle, just hold "down" on the controller, and you'll get to the Chocobo's forest. Catch it (it's TRES fast!), and ride around! e. Brian Pacula told me a real cool trick to getting lots of gil. First, you'll need to be slightly strong, with over 500 HP. Now, head a little ways north of Phin. Around here lurk Magicians, and if you're unlucky, Land Turtles. The reason why you need lots of HP is in case you run into these asses. Magicians, when defeated, sometimes drop spell books. The spells aren't all that useful, so sell them for cash. You'll gain a lot of cash this way, and be able to buy powerful armor and weapons. f. In the village of Mysidia, you can buy many types of Magic, both White and Black. This includes the powerful Holy spell, sold for a whopping 20,000 gil! You're also able to purchase the Ogre Axe, which is an extremely strong axe weapon. With this, and Guy with a weapon level of 6, I was doing 700 damage every time! Even before you retake Phin, and it's required to travel to Mysidia, you can go here and purchase these items. As soon as you get the Ship, just head to Mysidia, southwest of Altea, and purchase away! Be careful, as the enemies around here are STRONG! If you use the "skip an encounter" trick, you'll make it here alright. These items will help you greatly as you go to the Cave of Dist, and advance through the game. g. There is a way to stock up on Magic Levels extremely easily, but it requires patience. Get into a battle with some enemies, preferably weaker ones, to begin. When the person with the spell you want to use comes up (it has to be one of the 3 lead characters for this trick to work), cast the spell, target the enemy, and all. Press "B" to cancel the last character's move, then recast the spell on the enemy. Repeat as necessary. Every time you do this, your Spell Points will increase by 1. Do this 100 times, and you'll gain another Spell Level. Unfortunately, you can only gain 1 Spell Level per battle, and it takes an awful amount of time to do this trick, but it's worth it! h. There's also a way to stock up on Weapon Levels. It's almost exactly like the Magic Level trick. Get into a battle with some enemies, then have the person you want to use Fight. Cancel that command, and have him use Fight again. Cancel, then Fight, then Cancel, then Fight, etc. for 100 times, and you'll gain another Weapon Level. Unfortunately, you can only gain 1 Weapon Level per battle, and it takes an awful amount of time to do this trick, but it's worth it! i. There's a secret spell shop in Jade Caverns, where you can buy the spells of Death, Berserk, Haste, and Flare, for a large price. Once you get to the bottom of the HUGE waterfall in Jade, when you're wading in the water, walk underneath the waterfall. In the middle of it, you'll hit something. Search it, and you'll find the shop. j. If you think Cid's Airship goes too slow, there's a way to give it an extra speed boost. Rapidly press the "B" button real fast 40 times. Then, you'll start to go really fast. Hold down "B" and you can keep going at this speed. It makes trips around the world A LOT easier! [BOSS HELP] a. The Lieutenant is the first boss you fight, guarding the Mythril in the Cave of the Semite Waterfall. To defeat him, you should have a Fire spell up to level 2, and some guys with a Sword level of 4. Keep attacking him with Fire and your weapons, and he'll die soon. Make sure you spend some time building up HP, so his attacks won't do that much to you. b. The Adamantaimai guards the Goddess Bell in the Ice Cave. Like it's name implies, the Adamantaimai has defense of steel. Physical attacks on it will hardly do anything, but 2 hits of a Blizzard spell at level 3 will put this beast out of commision. c. Borgan, an Empire villain, will wreck your day up at the end of the Ice Cave, after you get the Goddess Bell. If you've healed your guys after the rough battle with the Adamantaimai, you'll be more than poised to finish off Borgan. Keep attacking him, and Bye Bye Borgan! d. At the very top of Kashuon Castle, the Sun Flame is to be found, guarded by a meanie, the Red Soul. This guy has the ability to cast a fire spell on the whole party, but he's not as immune to attacks as the Adamantaimai was. Since you're able to equip yourself with 2 items to use during a battle, equip 2 Hi Potions for all your guys, save Gordon. In fact, don't worry about him throughout the whole battle. Throw everything you've got at the Red Soul, and when your HP is low, use Cure spells and Hi Potions. Ice spells also work real well, obviously. e. Before you can drop the Hiryuu's Egg into the pool underneath the Dist Caverns, you'll need to battle from 1-4 Chimeras. First, if you're using an emulator with instant state savings, keep on getting into battle with the Chimeras, until a favorable number of them appears. If you do decide to fight multiple Chimeras, battle them one at a time, throwing Ice spells and strong attacks against them. You'll also want to get the Knight Armor for Frioniel, at the bottom of Dist Caverns (take the southwest passage on the first floor, and follow the passage through), which will lessen the Chimera's damage by a good percent. With high HP, this boss shouldn't give you that much trouble. f. The fake Hilda is really a Lamia Queen in disguise. This chick is a real ass to beat, too. First and foremost, she uses a Confuse spell, and a spell that increases it's evade, causing your guys to miss. Secondly, if that wasn't bad enough, she attacks you for 300 damage a pop, and then makes your guy fall asleep, for 2-3 rounds. I cannot stress having multiple characters with the "Esuna" spell at this moment. Whenever a guy is asleep, or confused, cast Esuna on him, and cure like mad! Swords and the Fire Bow do a nice amount of damage, but unfortunately, the Axe isn't too useful. I'd recommend that you resort to spells once the Lamia uses her evade increase spell. Finally, make sure you have HP in the 1500 range, and you'll win. Don't be surprised if you suffer a few fatalities in this battle, though. g. After the Lamia Queen, you fight a real simple boss. Unlike in FF4, FF2's Behemoth isn't all that powerful. He mainly attacks physically, doing only 200- 300 damage. If you were able to beat the Lamia Queen, and have your characters at their maximum HP, you should be able to beat the Behemoth without even healing, using only physical attacks. Otherwise, enjoy the cool music that plays when you fight this guy.* h. Gorts is the boss of the occupied Phin Castle. He deals around 400 HP per hit, and is smart enough to take one guy on at a time, so be careful. I'm sure Layla, after you get her in Phin Castle, is extremely weak, so put her in the back row, and have her cast Bolt spells. Make your other guys attack Gorts like crazy. After Gorts attacks one guy, get ready to cast Cure in the next round. He only has about 2000 HP, so it won't take all that long. i. The Big Horn, boss of the Black Mask Cave, is laughably easy. I've even seen him appear as a regular enemy over by Mysidia at times. If you have full HP when you enter this fight, you should not lose. Use your strongest weapons/spells/items/etc. on him, and in 3 or 4 rounds, he'll be dead! If you ARE extremely weak, remember to heal the wounded characters. j. The Great Worm is the boss of the Leviathan. He's not too hard to defeat, but can deal up to 900 points of damage to one character. First off, be sure Frioniel, Maria, and Guy have 2000+ HP. Then, I'd suggest putting Richard, who only starts with about 600 HP to begin with, in the back row so he won't get damaged. To finish off the job, attack the Great Worm, and when your HP gets to around 1000-1200 HP, heal. It shouldn't take too long to beat if you're careful. k. The Fire Gigas is the first of 3 Gigases in the Tower of Mysidia. He's not hard at all. Attack, and use strong Blizzard spells. If you don't have strong Blizzard spells, use Holy. His attacks only take about 350 damage on you. l. Now, the Ice Gigas is a bit harder than the Fire Gigas. His attacks take away more HP, and he has more life than the Fire Gigas, but shouldn't pose a threat at all. That's because... m. ...these guys are only softening you up for the mighty Thunder Gigas. The Thunder Gigas is only weak against Clouder (which you can get in the Black Mask Cave). Attacks don't do that much damage. My suggestion is to equip the Unicorn Horn you found on the previous floor on your strongest warrior, then use it. This'll cast "Haste" on him. Then, blast away with Clouder and Holy. The Thunder Gigas can hit for up to 1500 HP, so be extremely careful. He also uses strong Thunder spells on you. n. Guarding a treasure on the 9th floor of the Tower of Mysidia is the White Dragon. You don't even have to bother defeating this boss, but you should, if you're strong enough. The White Dragon attacks for around 500-1000 HP, so keep your HP levels high, and put Richard in the back row. Use Holy, and powerful physical attacks. What makes this battle so hard is that you're probably worn out after the gigantic climb and the fight with the 3 Gigases. Defeating the Dragon, though, will net you both a Black Robe, for Maria, and a Wind Flute.* o. On a high floor in the Whirlwind, you'll find the Diamond Armor and Diamond Helm, in a treasure chest guarded by the General. This will be a relatively simple fight. Although he can do 1200+ damage in a turn, he only attacks once, and won't take more than 3 rounds to beat. Holy seems to work best for this guy. You might want to heal your characters, never letting them drop below 1200 HP. p. At the next-to-last floor in the Whirlwind, you'll come across a treasure chest with another Wind Flute in it. Unfortunately, you'll have to battle the Green Dragon to get it. The Green Dragon isn't extremely difficult, but you'll need to fully cure before attempting to grab the treasure chest the Dragon lurks in. Normally, the Green Dragon attacks for about 1000 HP, but after you've worn it down, it'll resort to using an attack called "Poison Breath", which will take about 200 HP on everybody. When it comes to this point, forget about healing, and finish the Dragon off.* q. Finally, you come face to face with the Emperor. He's a real wuss, but before fighting him, you'll need to face off against 2 sets of Horsemen Corpses. They're not hard, don't waste magic on them. Once you do that, you'll finally face the emperor, 2 Horsemen Corpses, and a Wood Golem. First, attack the Wood Golem with Holy. The Wood Golem can put a guy to sleep for a few rounds whenever it attacks, so you'll want to deal with it first. Defeat it, and hack up the Horsemen, like you did before. All this whole time, the Emperor sits in the corner, using Haste on himself, and casting extremely weak thunder magic on the party. Once you breech the Emperor's defenses, he'll start to attack, but for only about 400 damage. Finish him off with something like 1500 HP worth of damage, and you've won! r. In Paramekia Castle, you'll fight the Cursed Emperor. He lurks in a treasure chest which holds the Thunder Spear. Make sure you have your guys up with full HP, and use your strongest attacks on him. s. The Blue Dragon lurks in Jade, where he guards the Cat Claw, a powerful dagger. He shouldn't pose much of a threat if you posess a Holy spell and an Ultima spell. He'll take around 1200 damage off a party member, and at times uses a thunder spell which will take 200 damage off of everybody. Don't worry about these, and concentrate on attacking. If you haven't spent the time to build him up, put Lionheart in the back row to protect him from attacks, since he's probably weaker than your other 3 characters.* t. Use the EXACT same strategy on the King Behemoth as you did on the Blue Dragon. In return for your efforts, you'll grab the Rune Axe. u. The Red Dragon will probably be the strongest and hardest enemy you'll ever fight up to this point in the game. He'll give you 10,000 gil, a Dragon Shield, and a Yoichi Bow (Yoichi = pure blood?) if you defeat him. I cannot stress the importance of both full HP and MP when you find yourself face to face with this dragon. Whenever it attacks, pray it uses Blaze 16 instead of a physical attack. Its physical attacks take away up to 2000 damage on a party member. The dragon also has a high amount of HP.* v. The Zombie Borgan, who guards the Genji Helmet, is a joke, compared to the rest of the 3 bosses guarding treasure in the Pandemonium Castle. I beat him in 2 rounds, getting lucky and getting a pre-emptive strike the first round :) Use Holy, a Rune Axe, Excalibur, and you'll beat him soon. His spells, like Flare, are fairly weak, and shouldn't pose a threat. Has about 3000 HP. w. Remember Tiamat from the original Final Fantasy? This Tiamat is just as much as a pain in the ass as its successor. His attacks, which consist of Blaze, Lightning Strike, and Poison Breath will take away anything from 150-300 damage, eating your party down a little bit at a time. Don't overlook the fact that this guy will take a while to beat, so you should heal when you're low on HP. You'll get a Genji Chestguard when you beat it.* x. Make absolute sure your HP is over 4000, and your MP is at maximum before you fight the Asta Lord. It's another extremely challenging boss. Not only does it take about 10 minutes to kill, but it has spells like Death, which will usually take out one party member. It uses Death sporadically, mainly concentrating on Clouder and Drain. These don't do too much damage, but they can wear you down. As if all that's not bad enough, his physical attacks will take about around 3200 damage! You get a Ribbon for your heavy efforts, IF you win...* y. Guarding the powerful Genji Armor is the Beelzebull. It's not a very hard boss, at least compared to the Asta Lord! Use a purely physical strategy, but be careful, because it can immobalize you with Stun spells, or Confuse one party member. If you don't have enough HP, exit from Pandemonium Castle, rest up, then try attacking this fool again...* z. You're now face to face with the evil Emperor. Using this strategy will greatly increase your chances of winning. Character Row HP MP Weapon Magic Item -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------ Frioniel 1 4000 0 Masamune None Bacchus Wine, Elixir Maria 2 4000 400 Yoichi Bow Holy 16 Wind Flute, Elixir Guy 2 4000 400 Rune Axe Ultima 16 Wind Flute, Elixir Lionheart 1 4000 0 Excalibur None Bacchus Wine, Elixir -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------ Have Frioniel attack with the Masamune, Maria cast Holy from the back row, Guy cast Holy from the back row, and have Lionheart attack with the Excalibur. Use Bacchus Wines to speed up Frioniel and Lionheart the first round of the battle. If any character is low on HP/MP, use their Elixir, and if they're missing an Elixir, use their Wind Flute to do minor (about 200) damage with the Whirlwind attack. I'd say, as an estimate, he has about 10,000 HP. Good luck, for you'll need it!* *These bosses have the REAL GREAT FF2 Boss Music play while fighting them! [LOCATIONS] a. It's OBVIOUS where Altea is! You start here :) b. Gatea town is directly below Phin, and north of Altea. It's at the intersection of 2 rivers, one preventing direct passage to Phin. c. Phin is right north of Gatea town. Unfortunately, there's a river blocking direct passage to Phin, so you'll need to cross the bridge west of Gatea town, and head down the river coastline, sidetracking until you find a bridge. Now, head back to Phin. d. Once you get the Canoe, head to the lake directly north of Altea. From here, sail east, through the mountainous passage, and you'll come to Poft, the Pirate Town. e. There are 2 ways to get to Palm. The easiest is to take a ferry in Poft, for 32 gil. The other way is to head directly north of Palm, following the mountains up, then when the mountains split, head east until you come to the mountain that looks like a fish, and go down to Palm. f. Salmando is to the northwest of Palm. From Palm, head directly north. Then you'll see a snow field, blocked by mountains. Follow the mountains west, and you'll come to a village nested in the mountains. This is Salmando. You can also get to Salmando via Cid's Airship. g. From Salmando, follow the mountains west, until you come to the shoreline. Now, you have the choice of going up and down. Head down, and nestle the Canoe in the river that appears before you. Take the river straight east until you come to a cave over a waterfall. This is, of course, the Cave of the Semite Waterfall. You can also get to the cave via Cid's Airship. h. Bofsk is quite a distance from any town, so it's best to hitch a ride via Cid's Airship to here. It's located directly east of Palm village, but you'll need to head north to get over the mountains and ocean that block the two villages. i. The Ice Cave is directly north of Salmando, nestled in the big Snow Field. After you've gotten the Pass in Bofsk and the Ice Boat in the Cave of the Semite Waterfall, you can get onto the Snow Field and head to the cave. To get to the Snow Field, though, you'll need to enter from the west. Directly north of the river you took to get to the Cave of the Semite Waterfall is a valley through the mountains, where you launch the Ice Boat from. j. No matter where you are, it's a real long trek to Kashuon. It's nestled in the middle of a circular group of mountains, far south of Bofsk. Your best bet is to take Cid's Airship here, although you'll have a helluva time walking back to Altea. k. The Empire's Warship is FAR north of Altea and Phin. It'll be a very long travel to get to the Warship, so purchase 2 Cottages, because you'll need to go round-trip. Slightly north of Phin, the strength of the enemies increase drastically, and you'll be fighting Land Turtles, Magicians, and more. Just continue onward, though, and you'll eventually come to the Warship. l. Dist is on a small island directly west of Bofsk. Take the Ship you get from Layla to this island, and dock. It's in the center of the island, but if you're having trouble finding it, remember, you can now use the World Map to find it! m. Dist Caverns is easy to find. Just head directly north of Dist, in the valley. :) n. The Arena is out of the way. It's to the south of Kashuon. Go into the desert, head straight east, and follow the mountains all the way down, until you come to the small arena. Dock your Ship over by where the mountains start, as you can get to the continent Kashuon's on by heading directly west of Altea. o. After saving Hilda, her and Gordon will be waiting in a camp, ready to attack Phin. The last remaining people in Altea and Batea tell you that the camp is to the west of Batea. Cross the bridge to the west of Gatea, and you'll find the camp, on the other side of the river. p. Mysidia is fairly tough to find, as it's not on the map, but you're able to go here after you get the Ship. Dock your boat to the southwest of Altea, east of the Arena, and beat it to the River. Take the River over to the mountains, and then get out. Head down the west side of the mountains, and you should see a small village. This is Mysidia, village of the Magicians. q. The Black Mask Cave is on a small island to the north of the Ice Field.The island is one big mountain, with a cave in the middle of it. Keep checking the world map to find the location of it. r. The Mysidian Cave is directly east of Mysidia, in the center of mountains shaped in a hollow circle pattern. It's blatantly obvious to where this is if you use the world map function. s. The Tower of Mysidia, and hence, Leviathan, are directly west of Altea, in the water, with a circular shaped landmass surrounding it. t. The Whirlwind is directly northeast of Phin Castle. u. The Castle of Paramekia is directly north of the Arena. Take your Airship, and descend on top of it to get in. v. Jade is a portal that will take you to Pandemonium Castle, a hideous castle said to be linked to Hell itself. It's a portal far east of Mysidia, at the end of a peninsula. After beating Jade, you'll finally come face to face with Pandemonium Castle, and begin your final search for the Emperor. [PARTY MEMBERS] a. Minh is Hilda's magician. He is equipped with assorted white magic spells when you get him at the beginning of the game, and will prove a valuable ally to you while you try and get the Mythril in the Cave of the Semite Waterfall. Later on, Hilda sends him on a task to fetch the powerful magic, Ultima, from the top of the Tower of Mysidia. Will he make it back? b. Josef is a man who the party meets while trying to grab the Mythril. He lives in Salmando and knows the way around the Ice Field, so he accompanies you there. He hates Paramekia, so he agrees to help you. c. Gordon is the brother of Hilda's fiancee, Scott, and prince of Kashuon Castle. He joins you to help light the Eagle Torch for the party, and cleanse the occupied Castle free of all monsters. He starts out with 64 HP, and no spells. Put bluntly, he's crap. He'll die after the 2nd fight you get into, and he's better off left dead, IMHO. d. Layla is the captain of the Pirates, and offers to lend you her ship to go to Dist. But are her intentions clear? Apparently, not. She immediately attempts to rob the party, but when she realizes you're fighting Paramekia, she joins. Leila posesses about 350 HP, and a Thunder spell. This'll help you out in your trip throughout the seas. e. Richard is the last surviving Dragoon, swallowed by Leviathan. He joins your party when you show him the Crystal Rod you've found in the Mysidian Cave. He's fairly strong, equipped with the Wind Sword, but posesses no spells. f. Lionheart is your permanent fourth character. He is lost in the beginning of the game after your defeat against the Black Horsemen. [NPC'S] a. Hilda is the Princess of Phin. Unfortunately, her family was kicked out of Phin by the Empire, and her parents were slain, so she escaped. She now heads the Resistance movement in Altea, a small town directly south of Phin. After reviving youu, Hilda will send you out on your mission to defeat the Emperor, and will play an important role in the story. b. Scott is Hilda's fiancee. He's hidden in Phin, where he's breathing his dying breath. Fading away, he gives the party a Ring to show to Hilda, and tells the party he won't make it. c. Paul is the master thief, who steals from the Empire. He always returns favors, so after you rescue him in the Cave of the Semite Waterfall, he'll be thankful to you, and pay you back much later in the game. d. Cid is the famous Airship man. He'll allow the party to use his Airship service to get them where they need to go in the beginning of the game, and later, after the Empire attacks, he bequeaths his Airship upon you. e. Nellie is Josef's daughter. f. Elena is the wife of the last surviving Dragoon, Richard. She tells the party about the Dragoon race, and the flying dragons. Later on, she'll give Richard and the party the Excalibur, a powerful sword. g. Borgan's the Empire confidant. He's a real jerk, and will lead your party into trouble. Luckily, he's a weakling... h. The Dark Knight is a mysterious recruit to Empire Paramekia, who's past is surrounded in mystery. He appears at certain times to mysteriously taunt the party. i. The Emperor is the main villain of the game. He built up Paramekia to crush every area in it's way. Some believe he gets his powers from the gates of Hell itself... [SPELLS] a. Fire is a spell that you'll use a lot on the course of your mission, presumably against Ice-based creatures. It sends a small blaze at enemies. b. Thunder will be another spell you'll use frequently throughout your adventure, especially when you get the Ship. It sends a bolt of electricity to strike enemies. c. Blizzard is your third most invaluable spell. It'll cover the enemy in white snow. d. Keal is probably the most important spell in the game, bar none. It'll heal your party members. e. Blink nullifies the next few physical attacks from the enemy. f. Protes increases the defense of a party member. Not too useful, unless you've got low HP. g. Shell increases your defense against magic. h. Fear strikes the enemies with immense fear, increasing their chances of running away from you. i. Vasna heals all the party members, but it's much weaker than the regular Keal. j. Esuna is an important spell. It cures you of any status ailment inflicted on you. k. Silence will attempt to mute the monsters, so they won't be able to cast spells. l. Barrier increases your defense against physical attacks, stronger than Protes does. m. Wall puts a wall up on your party, reflecting magical attacks used against them. n. Change swaps the caster's HP/MP with whomever you use it on. o. Holy sends a powerful white explosion to scorch the enemy, regardless of his/her Element. p. Flare is a powerful fire ball which is sent at enemies. This spell is found atop the Tower of Mysidia, or in a secret shop at the base of the waterfall in Jade (see above). q. Ultima will send a massive green light to scorch all opponents. This is the strongest spell in the game, but you can only get it atop the Tower of Mysidia. r. Death will bring an enemy to an instant death. s. Dispell removes any power up spells the enemy casts on itself. t. Teleport allows you to escape from a dungeon, but makees the caster extremely weak. When it's level raises, though, it puts less and less of a strain on the caster. u. Raise revives a character. VERY important spell. v. Clouder (sometimes called Aero) sends massive waves of purple clouds to damage the enemy. Can be found in the Black Mask cave. w. Drain drains the HP out of one opponent, and sends it to the caster. x. Fog is just a stronger version of Mute, and if this gets used against you, the effects will stay with you even after the battle's over. y. Haste increases the attack power of the person it's cast on. Extremely important spell, and essential in the boss battles. z. Curse weakens the enemy's attack power. aa. Sleep makes the enemy fall asleep, thus it can't attack until it's damaged. ab. Stun resembles the Sleep spell, except that the character stays frozen after attack. ac. Stop stops the opponent, like Stun. ad. Confu confuses the enemy, so it attacks itself and other enemies. ae. Blind lowers a character's hit rate, and if your party member gets attacked with it, it gets to wear those funky shades :) af. Toad turns an enemy to a wussy frog that runs away. ag. Break turns a character to stone. Reversed with a Gold Needle. ah. Degeon warps you up 1 floor of the dungeon. ai. Minimal shrinks a character, bringing attack and defense down dramatically. aj. Anti takes away MP, but doesn't absorb it, like Aspell. ak. Slow lowers the number of attacks a character can make with his weapon. al. Aspell takes away enemy MP, absorbing it. am. Aura changes the colors of the characters, but I don't know if this has any real effect asides from that. an. Berserk makes an enemy go crazy, only attacking. *Note that the effectiveness of ALL spells is determined by the level of the spell (1-16)! [END/ (C) 1998 LUKE DRELICK/ http://rpgocean.hypermart.net]