THE WORLD OF RUIN

FEEDING CID

It is possible to save Cid. We aren't aware what meaningful difference it makes, other than to your pride, but if you feed him enough of the fast, yummy fish, he will get better. If he gets better, Celes won't jump off the cliff on the north of the island. Getting the yummy fish is very hard to do, because the game will often give you only one slower fish or even no fish at all. In this case the only way to reset what it will give you is to feed him that one fish or to talk to him when you don't have a fish. We've even tried saving the game, turning the console off, turning it back on and restoring the saved game. There is also no way we have discovered to catch and dispose of a fish. In one game I found he died in only four or five turns, just when I finally found a second yummy fish. I reset and tried again and got exactly the same sequence of fish collections.

When you either heal him or let him die, you will get access to the basement where there's a raft. This is Celes' ticket off the island. She will float on the raft to near Albrook. The people here say they've seen a man who looks like her. He went to Tzen looking for his friends. There are two things you can do here in any sequence, though you might want to do them in the sequence named below so you'll have more power for the second event.

SAVING THE BOY

When you reach the top of the stairs at the entrance to Tzen Kefka will turn his "Light of Judgment" on the town. People will begin running around in panic. At the north of town there's a house. You could not enter this house in the World of Balance because the mother stood in your way. Now her son (the boy who was sliding down the banister in front of the armor shop) is caught in the basement of the house, which has been damaged. Sabin is standing by the door, but he's holding part of the house and keeping it from collapsing. You have to go into the house alone. This is your only chance in the game to collect the goodies from the chests. But you only have six minutes to do it all. Equipping Celes with the Sprint Shoes helps, but you can finish this ordeal without them. At this point you probably want to have her normally equipped with the Genji Glove and the Black Belt. Since she'll be fighting alone these two can help her get rid of multiple enemies in a short period of time. If she's strong enough, however, she can kill monsters with one blow, so give up the Genji Glove to get the Sprint Shoes.

You'll have to exit the front door of the house with the boy in tow before the six minutes are up. It would be nice to get everything from the chests. But two of the chests are only monsters-in-a-box. The chest just north of the main stairway, and the chest west of the boy in the basement can be skipped altogether to save time. You can also save time by getting the chest on one side (north or south) of the stairwell room on the way in and getting the other on the way out. To get the boy just talk to him. Then quickly fight your way out. When you get outside the front door, Sabin will drop what he was holding and the house will collapse. Now you have Sabin in your party, at a level just one above Celes. If you want, you can take Celes around and build her level before you get Sabin so he, and the others, will come in at a higher level. This does, however rob you of the benefits of the different "On Level Up" properties of the different espers.

TERRA AND THE CHILDREN

On the northeast side of this continent is a bridge to the Serpent Trench, which moved from below sea level to above sea level when the world changed. Follow it counter clockwise to reach Moblitz. In the basement of the first house you come to is a door leading to a cave of sorts where the children of the town hide. When you talk to the children Terra will recognize your voice and come out to talk to you. The children all think of her as their mother, even the two oldest, Duane and Katarin. This is one part of the story that has apparently been watered down in the English translation. At any rate, when you leave this room, Phunbaba will approach the town. You will fight him as Terra, but she has no weapons or armor and will eventually be defeated. When she is annihilated, your party (just Celes if you try to do this first) will fight Phunbaba. You won't defeat him now, but if you do enough damage he will "Escape."

Terra uses this event to insist that she cannot go on to fight. She will be in bed from now until you come back later with the airship. In fact, you can wait to do all of this until you get the airship. In that case you will move on to the next part of the scenario by walking out of and back in to town. By the way, the closed relic shop in the north part of this town has a bed where you can get a free nap. It might be helpful after your battle with Phunbaba.

Now follow the Serpent Trench clockwise. You'll come to a range of mountains with a tower in the middle. This is the Cult of Kefka tower which you can reach when you get the airship. Continue north from here until you reach Nikeah. Here a ship will take you to South Figaro, but only after another part of the story.

THE "KING" OF THIEVES

When you enter Nikeah all will seem normal. You'll find yourself in a crowded marketplace, but there are some useful things you can purchase, such as the Enhancer sword or the Diamond Vest armor. When you're ready, go into the cafe and talk to the people (thieves) there. They'll mention a new boss named Gerad (anagram for Edgar). When one of them says, "OK, let's go," it's your cue to leave. In the marketplace you'll find Edgar (Gerad, he insists) and you can follow him to his ship. There the game will take over long enough for you to stow away aboard the thieves' ship. Once at South Figaro you'll be able to talk to Gerad again in a room at the inn. He continues to claim you've mistaken him for someone you know. By the way, there's a tent in a box just northwest of the docks when you enter town (if you didn't get something here earlier).

When he leaves the room he leaves the building, and when you talk to someone outside he'll tell you the thieves have left town. So, leave behind them. You'll find the entrance to the cave is now a little closer to South Figaro. Go in. You'll find Sigfried here. He claims the cave is too dangerous for you and that he will go ahead to clear out the monsters. You'll learn soon enough he's not doing a very good job. If you left treasures here to pick up in the World of Ruin, get them now. When you get to the room that used to be the entrance you'll see Gerad and his men jump across the pool on the back of a turtle. That brings you to yet another room where you'll discover what Sigfried really wanted to get first. If you like, you can go north at a "Y" in the cave in talk to Sigfried, but there's not much point except for the story. Down the other corridor and out through the south you'll find an entrance into the prison of Edgar's castle. You'll catch Gerad talking to the prison guard. All this man or any of the men in the castle will tell you is that "it" was awful.

Go up the stairs and straight across. The castle's operator, who used to block your way to the engine room by telling you it was too dangerous is now stunned by the events of the world change, and he'll let you go on down. You'll come out on an upper walkway over another passageway you'll pass through soon. Go north and out to the right to get to the bottom floor. South from here you'll go through a door and find yourself in a room with five doors. The two doors to the south lead to treasure rooms. Get the goodies here. Go through the northeast door and up the stairs to the one treasure room there. Then go back to this room and enter the center north door. This leads to the passageway between the two walkways you've already been on. Through the north door from this passageway is the engine room. Four large, powerful engines drive the castle. The engines are infested with tentacles. Gerad will send his men on through into the treasure room and finally admit that he is, in fact, Edgar.

That's because he needs your help to defeat the tentacles. There are several hints on how to beat these. But if your level is above 30 they will be little trouble. The tentacles do pick you up and drain energy from you, but the amount they draw is small. Just keep hitting them (I used Sabin's Air Blade blitz and Edgar's Auto Crossbow tool). When they're clear you will all hide while the thieves exit the treasure room. (You can go in, but they've cleaned it out.) You're now ready to engage in the next episode of the adventure.

A NEW AIRSHIP

You are about to embark on a fairly lengthy adventure, but when it's through you will have the freedom to do whatever you want in whatever order you choose. Go down the stairs to the operator (or talk to him on the way out of the engine room) and he'll take you to Kohlingen. It's possible to do several things here, but the thing that will give you the most freedom is to go into the main building in the south of town (you come into town from the south here). On your way into town you might talk to some of the people in town. There's a soldier from Narshe who warns that his city is full of monsters. An old woman just east of the main building will reminisce about the world before. You can buy some strong weapons and armor, here, but I suggest you don't buy the Trump for Setzer. Where you're going it won't work, and he'll do more damage with some other weapon. Anyway, inside the inn/cafe you'll find Setzer.

Setzer doesn't want to go, but Celes will talk him into it. Then he'll lead you to Daryl's Tomb. You may have been here before and found you couldn't do anything. He'll open the tomb, warn you about the possible contents, and lead you inside. This dungeon is full of strange new monsters, some of whom will turn members of your party into Zombies. The cure is to use the Revivify item, and you'll probably get more of these from battles than you will use. Go straight south through the first room. You'll come to a room with six doors (counting the one by which you just entered. Go first to the northeast door. "Read" the tombstone to open another door, pass through here and work the switch on the north wall. No go straight through to the south. Here you'll find a room with four tombstones. Read each of them. Now go back out to the second room of the tomb and cross over to the northwest door. Here is a blank tombstone. Carve the words you got from the four tombstone room in this order: WEHT, DLRO, QSSI, ERAU. It puts the words THE WORLD IS SQUARE on the tombstone backwards and will open the way to a hidden room downstairs.

Go straight south, get the item in the chest, and go down the stairs. This room has a chest, a door to the north, and a hidden door on the east wall that leads you to the hidden room with the Experience Egg. This relic, when equipped, gives the wearer twice the experience for each battle won. It's a handy way to build someone up quickly. Through the north door is a room with water in it. Walk through the water and work the switch on the north wall. Go back to the second room of the tomb and this time take the door directly south of where you first entered this room. This will take you to a turtle. Ride him south and into a room which you will now recognize as the upstairs portion of the room where you hit the switch just moments earlier. Hit the switch you can see from here and the downstairs area will fill with water. A turtle will come up with it, and you can ride him around to the rest of the tomb.

The next room north has two treasure chests and a save point. The east treasure chest (which you may want to get on the way out) contains the Man Eater sword. The west treasure chest is a monster-in-a-box, but you'll get a Dragon Claw, a very powerful weapon for Sabin. Save on your way back around to the east chest, and go through the north door the the main room of the tomb. Here is Daryl's resting place. When you walk up to the cloth shrouded bier and "talk" to it, you'll fight the boss of this dungeon, Dullahan. When you've defeated him you can walk out to the north. Setzer will now lead you down a long staircase, telling you the story of Daryl and her experimental airship, the Falcon. At the bottom you will find this legendary craft, restored and stowed here by Setzer years before.

When you get airborne Celes will spot a bird and ask Setzer to follow it. It flies south along a long isthmus and lands in a town. Setzer will take the craft to a spot just over this town, but you will decide whether to land here or not. It might be a good idea to save right away, so you won't have to wade through the story of Daryl again.

FREEDOM

You now have the freedom to wander the World of Ruin as you wish and to do any of the rest of the game in any order you choose. Of course, success in Kefka's tower will probably require you to recover most of your crew, but it is very possible to finish the game without getting everyone. If most of your people are at or above level 60 you should be able to defeat Kefka. But there are so many more interesting things to do. We offer them below in an order we think makes sense, but with only a few limitations we'll mention at the start of each section you can do these in any order you choose. We've provided a jump list below, since this is a fairly large document. Follow the items in the order you choose.

One caution. Don't buy weapons and armor like you used to. As there's no real restriction on where you can go, you won't necessarily find the best weapons and armor at the next town as you may have become accustomed to doing in most other games. Shop around until you know what will work best for each player from each town.

CHARACTERS

• TERRA
• CYAN
• CYAN'S DREAMS
• MOG AND UMARO
• SABIN
• GAU
• RELM
• SHADOW
• LOCKE
• STRAGO
• GOGO

PLACES AND EVENTS

• ODIN'S CITY
• THE OPERA HOUSE
• DRAGONS
• DOOM GAZE
• BUILDING LEVEL
• CULT OF KEFKA TOWER
• THE CURSED SHIELD

CHARACTERS

If you haven't had your first battle with Phunbaba, now's the time to do it. Any time after it's done (and after you get the magicite shard he leaves behind), you can return to Moblitz and enter the second house. A dog will lead you to the hidden stairway. Upstairs you find Duane, who reveals that Katarin is pregnant (I wonder how that happened!). Downstairs you'll find Terra and Katarin talking, and Duane will come down to admit he's been a rather poor husband so far but that he really wants to help. Then Phunbaba will arrive again. This time he's mad as all get out and not going to take it any more. You can hit him with your full crew, but he'll tire of the beating and use Baba Breath on two of them. At that point Terra will arrive at the scene of battle, morph, and join your crew. Her morph option will be off during this battle, so you can't change her back. But she will help the two who are left to defeat Phunbaba. That will give her the courage to go with you. Take another nap at the relic shop and go on to the next adventure.
Back to list

The bird Celes wanted Setzer to follow led you to Maranda. There you'll find a lady who will tell you about Narshe, the Veldt, and Doma Castle. You'll find other people referring to a strange knight who kept calling people "thou." The girl who was chasing the soldier has no soldier to chase, but she's chasing anyway! And in the house just north of there you'll find Lola. She's been getting letters and handmade silk flowers from her soldier friend in Moblitz. Or she thinks she has. You will "recognize" Cyan's handwriting, and if you offer to mail the letter for her by carrier pigeon you'll see it goes to Zozo. One other man in Maranda will tell you that the one person who said Zozo was a dangerous place is the only person in Zozo to tell the truth. OK. Go to Zozo.

In Zozo find the man referred to above. He's usually north of the Cafe. He'll sell you a can of Rust Aid for 1000 GP. Now climb the cafe to the previously rusted door. When you "talk" to it your Rust Aid will dissolve the rust and you can go on through to Mt. Zozo. This is a series of caves and mountain walkways. In the second cave is a save point. Just north and east of here is a floor switch which will open a chest. The chest contains the Storm Dragon (see the section on the eight dragons). If you feel strong enough (I defeated it with my players in the mid 30s levels), open this switch and defeat it. Go on to the next cave, which will be full of flowers, and have a desk holding a letter and with a locked chest beside it. On through this cave you'll find Cyan. He wants to know how you found him, and tries to hide the evidence even after he knows you've read his letters.

After he leaves the cave (you'll find him at the airship) go back out to where you found him You'll see a glitter. It's the key to the chest. Pick it up and open the chest to learn something of how Cyan has grown since you first met him. He has learned a lot in his adventures so far, but he still needs to deal with his past, and he will need you to help him do it.
Back to list

This next bit is quite involved and requires a lot of strength, so make sure you take a strong party with you to do this. Go to Doma Castle with Cyan in the party. The layout is the same as before, so you should be familiar with it. If you didn't clean out the treasure chests in the World of Balance, do so now. Then spend a night at the inn. When you "wake up" Cyan will stay in bed, and you'll find yourself accosted by the three "Dream Stooges" who proceed to possess Cyan. Your party will jump in after them.

This next bit will be the toughest part of this adventure. You'll wake up as just one member of your party in a weird area. You need to find the other two party members before you can go on. The monsters in this area have some strange attacks. The Barb-e will do her Love Potion on you, which will cause you to take all damage directed at her. If she does this to you when you're alone, you probably won't make it. Be sure to save at the save point right next to where you wake up, and save here after each event in this area.

You'll come to a place with three doors. The center door is the place to take after you have all three members of your party. Right and left will lead (possibly after some going around in circles) to each of the other party members. As you get them your chances in this area will be much easier. When you've got all three, save and go through the center door. You'll find yourself at the top of a double stairway (you can go down either one) that leads down to a door with three dots in front of it. When you try to go through this door the three "Dream Stooges" will confront you and do battle. Save yourself a lot of trouble and defeat Curly first. He's the one flying. If you don't defeat him first he'll bring the others to life and you'll do battle "forever." When you're done with Larry, Moe, and Curly, step through the door again. You'll now find yourself on a train. Through the first door toward the front of the train is a save point. Use it.

This first car is just a passenger car with no purpose except to make you walk through it. The second car has some interesting treasures. After you work the switch at the east end of the car the box west of the treasure chest on the north wall will move after each battle. Walk around until you're near it after a battle and the box is moved so you can get to it. You'll receive a Genji Glove for your trouble. You should now have three! Another chest is blocked by an empty chest that keeps moving to block your way. At the west end of the car is a chest containing a lump of metal. Come back to the moving chest and "talk" to it after you have the lump of metal. The chest will stand still and you can get the item in the chest it protects. A switch between these two closes a set of chests in a certain pattern. Remember or draw this pattern, you'll need it in the next car. You'll see Cyan go by chased by a ghost before you enter this third car.

This car has several puzzles in it. One regards getting past. Don't give up and cross on top of the car. You can get through. There's a switch that moves two boxes. They'll need to be down so you can move the seats above them to get to the switch that moves something else. Then you'll need to move them back in order to get on through. The correct sequence will come to you after a little trial and error. Once you get through here you'll see two rows of three chests just like the ones in the second car. Close them in the pattern you saw on that car, work the switch on the wall, and your way will be open. Save at the save point in the next car. You won't have to fight the engine this time. I'm not sure of the exact sequence necessary, but I walked up to the stack and "talked" to it, went into the engine and worked one switch (I don't even remember which) and when I stepped out of the engine I came to the next scenario.

You come in an area much like the Narshe mines and you're dressed in Magitek armor. The trick to this is to go backwards. You'll see Cyan leave to the south, and that's the only way you can go. But if you keep going in this direction you'll go in continuing circles. Turn around as soon as you leave the cave and go back in. You'll be in a different cave. When you come out of it at the other end you'll see Cyan. When you try to follow him across a bridge your armor will break it and you'll fall. Then you'll be in Doma Castle (in Cyan's soul, still). Cyan's wife and child will explain about Wrexsoul and ask you to save him. You'll have freedom to walk around the castle. But as soon as you enter The King's room the next battle will begin.

Wrexsoul is one of those battles that can take forever unless you know what to do. Don't bother to fight the smaller monsters that guard Wrexsoul. They'll just aggravate. Wrexsoul has possessed one member of your party. To find out which kill one at a time. That's right. Go ahead and hit them yourself. Keep the others at full level. You'll know when you got the right one when Wrexsoul appears again. Then hit him with everything you've got. When I played the game to write this walkthrough he possessed Sabin, my strong fighter. So I used Life2 on him after Wrexsoul appeared. I was able to defeat Wrexsoul without him repossessing anyone. If he does, just follow the same procedure again. When he's gone Cyan will confront his family, Elayne and Owaine. They will convince him that it wasn't his fault Doma fell. They'll also become a sword Cyan will keep by his side. When he picks up the sword you'll see a magicite. Once you get control again, go to the throne room and get it. It's Alexandr.
Back to list

When the world went crazy and the airship crashed, Mog ran to the only place of refuge he knew, the caves north of Narshe. You should know now how to get to him, so go to Narshe. Go to the maze where Locke first protected Terra. You can get there from Arvis' house, or you can use the secret entrance west of the school. Zip on north from this room and talk to Mog. As the pickpocket will tell you when you first enter Narshe, there's only one left. After he joins, be sure to "talk" to the wall behind where you found him. You'll get the Moogle Charm. (This relic is a mixed blessing. Equipped on Mog it will keep you from having to fight random monsters. But you'll miss the experience.) Mog will also tell you about Umaro, the sasquatch you may have seen hiding in the caves.

Getting to Umaro will be tougher. You'll need Mog in the party to talk to him or he won't join you. This time, go north through Narshe, past the maze where you protected Banon and the esper from Kefka and up to where the frozen esper Tritoch waits. (You'll remember this spot if you got Mog in the World of Balance.) Be sure to use the save spot on the way by. Tritoch loves to use Rasp on your party, taking away their magic power. He takes very little damage from swords, so use attacks like Sabin's blitzes and fire magic. You'll get his (her?) magicite which teaches three spells, Fire3, Ice3 and Bolt3. Then a notch will appear in the cliff. You may want to go back and save, because there's lots of adventure left.

Step into the notch and fall into the caves. The first room you come to has two stairways. If you go up the west stairway and carefully avoid the holes, you'll come to a monster-in-a-box. These Pugs have very strong attacks and you really need the Life2 magic because it's almost impossible to keep everyone in your party alive, and if you have only life, the Pugs (there are 3) will kill them before you have a chance to cure them up. In fact, if your level isn't very high yet, skip this altogether. In the room below you is a Gauntlet, a relic that allows a character to hold a weapon with both hands, thereby increasing the damage that character can inflict. Go on counterclockwise around the ramps and up the stairs. There are two switches that open holes under you. The first leads to the room from which you just came. The second leads you to Umaro's chamber. You'll capture his attention by taking the magicite out of the bone scupture in his room. You'll fight him, and when you win Mog will convince him to join you. He'll go to the airship. Follow him and you'll fall onto the path back to Narshe.
Back to list

Sabin is the second character to join the party in the World of Ruin. But there is one thing he'll need to complete his skills. That's a visit to his former teacher, Duncan. East and a little north of Narshe you'll find a peninsula with a mountain just north of five trees arranged in a cross. Walk to the middle tree and you'll find Duncan's house. There Duncan will teach Sabin the Bum Rush, Sabin's most powerful blitz. Some have suggested that Sabin will also learn his other blitzes, but it didn't happen for me. In the cave on the Veldt you can find another claw weapon that will increase his fight power.
Back to list

Getting Gau is much simpler in the World of Ruin. Just go to the Veldt with only three members in the party. At the end of your first battle Gau will join, and you don't have to feed him! There are hints that to have Relm sketch Gau just before he joins (you have to be fast, they say) the game will glitch and you'll get lots of goodies. As before, he will learn rages while on the Veldt. Another hint suggests that if you have Gau leap in a battle, then immediately change your party to four, Gau can't rejoin and you can fight lots of monsters on the Veldt. When you tire of this, reduce the party, Gau will rejoin, and he'll have the rages of everything you've fought. We have tried this one, however, and not found it to work. Usually, he only learns the rages of what you were fighting when he leapt, and when he rejoins. Since what you encounter on the Veldt is determined by what you've fought so far, you may want to start into Kefka's tower, maybe even fight the statues, then bring Gau to the Veldt to learn their rages too (yet another hint).
Back to list

If you did not save Shadow before jumping onto the airship after confronting Kefka at the statues, you will save Relm in the Cave on the Veldt. If you did save Shadow, then he's who you will get, though the game appears to have a glitch in that after you defeat the two monsters "protecting" Shadow -- the game's characters will say something about taking "her" to Thamasa. I'm sure that comes from the fact that without Shadow you would be saving Relm in this cave. For more on the cave see the section on Shadow.

Some time after this (unless you were getting Shadow) you will be able to go to Jidoor and enter Owzer's house. You'll know you're in at the right time when the room is dark. There's a lamp beside the stairway, but it won't stay on. Try going up the stairs with the light out and Owzer's diary will appear on the desk. Read it. Then the light will stay on and you can get up into the gallery. Be sure to look at the emperor's picture twice in a row and get the letter (it's a clue about Locke). When you fight the lady (you can also fight the flowers) the picture will turn into a door and you can explore Owzer's basement. It's a dark and confusing place with plenty of chances to go round in circles. When you come to three doors take the one on the left. The other two take you back to the first basement room. You'll work your way around to a room with some floating chests. Each will bring you into a battle with a Soul Dancer protected by four Wild Cats. Then you'll get what's in the chest. When this is done, "talk" to the center painting on the north wall. It will fight you and turn into another door. In the hallway you enter take the far door. The near door leads you around in a circle.

Through here you'll reach Owzer and find Relm at work on a painting. But a demon has possessed the painting and attacks you. Chardanook keeps changing, which changes what kind of magic works on him/her. (Guys will wish the clouds would blow away!) But if you are like me and rely on fighting, blitz, and similar attacks, this won't matter. When you have defeated the demon in the painting Relm will join the party, Owzer will "fess up" about the stone that seemed to cause the problem, and you'll be free momentarily. Explore this room and ignore the bookcase until you're finished, because when you "talk" to the eastern half of the bookcase you'll find the magicite Starlet and be warped out of Owzer's house. By the way, if you haven't yet found both magicites at the auction house, now might be a good time to look for them. I've often wondered if the game keeps track of the 1/1200th of an airship. Would the boy have a whole airship if his dad spent 1.2 billion GP and bought him 1200 of these things?
Back to list

If you have saved Shadow by waiting for him just before the world changed, then you'll find him lying wounded in the cave on the Veldt. When you first enter the cave you see Interceptor leading you on in. Be sure to keep your levels up as you go in. On the way in you'll get a Striker from a chest in a room which has three stairways and a switch (which moves a rock to open the way to the next area). Keep this dirk. You'll go through a room where you can see the body, either Shadow or Relm. When you enter this room the second time you will be drawn directly into a battle with two behemoths, one after the other and the second from behind. Even with your characters at a relatively high level you'll have to fight hard for this one. Once the battle is over you'll be taken to Thamasa where you'll put the injured party to bed.

When you have someone strong enough to fight at the Coliseum (it's north of Kohlingen where the brother who dreamed of building it lived in the World of Balance), bet the Striker. You'll fight Shadow (he's not very tough) and when you've defeated him he will join your party.
Back to list

On the north part of the continent with Albrook, Tzen, and Kefka's tower, is a star shaped mountain. There's a patch of green in the center. Fly the airship over this green area and land it. You'll be instructed to pick two parties. Put all your best fighters in one group. Lead the other group in to the dungeon first, because they'll face fewer monsters. In fact, you might decide (I didn't) to put Mog with the Moogle Charm in this group. That way this group will not encounter random monsters and your other group can do all the fighting. If you want to leave before you finish this dungeon, just jump on the hook at the entrance.

You need two groups because this dungeon has a number of floor switches that only work when someone is standing on them. You'll have to have one group standing on a switch while the other group goes through the area opened up by the switch. You also do some jumping across rocks to get across the lava beds. Most of the treasure chests are empty -- you can guess why. The second time you get to the lava beds (unless you greedily tried to get to the first chest you came to and fell through the floor) you'll do some rock hopping and get to another empty chest. But you'll be unable to get to one in the center of this area. Don't worry, your chance is coming. When you get back upstairs you'll find a switch which will drain the water out of one area, and cool the lava in this area. Now the other party can come down here and get the Ribbon in this chest.

Eventually the two groups will come together. You'll see two switches to the south, and a stairway down to the east. Use your strongest group and go down here. You'll fight the Red Dragon and get the Dragon Horn (it's in the chest). Both groups need to stand on the switches to the south in order to open the passage to the next area. This is where you will find Locke. There's a tantalizing colored "save point" you can see from here, but so far we haven't figured out if you can even get to it, much less how you would do so. Locke has found the Phoenix magicite, but it's badly cracked. Nonetheless he takes it to Kohlingen hoping it will revive Rachel. It does, but she can only live long enough to set him free from his guilt about her accident. Then she dies to give the Phoenix its power back. Locke (and your party) now get this powerful magicite shard. It will teach you the better life and cure spells. When you leave the house Locke runs back in and returns with the items out of the chests in the dungeon at star mountain.
Back to list

There is another adventure for Strago, but it's not included in this incomplete walkthrough. Anyway, my wife and I have found it takes a lot of work and doesn't provide any benefit as a result.
Back to list

This one can be tough the first few times around. There's plenty of opportunity for frustrating send-backs. Go to Triangle Island. There's a forest here that contains the Zone Eater. He's pretty easy to defeat, but that's not the point. Don't fight him until he's sucked everyone up with his Engulf attack. There's another game glitch here that involves having Relm sketch the Zone Eater. Anyway, once you're all inside you've got a new dungeon to explore. Do NOT go north from where you land. That's the way out and you'll just have to be sucked up again. To the south you'll find a room with some unconnected ramps. It's easy to jump from one to another, but you have to avoid the green guys. If you haven't done this before, and probably even if you have, don't bother going down the stairs. You'll get there when you don't want to, because if you encounter one of the green guys he'll knock you off the ramps and you'll land downstairs. There are three chests in this room, each worth the trouble of avoiding the green guys and jumping across to get.

When you get past them and go down the stairs you'll find a save point. SAVE!!!!! Even an experienced player frequently needs this. The next room has a rock covering that regularly drops against the floor, crushing anyone caught between them. There are a few points where the floor isn't covered. You need to know where these are. The first three you can see from the previous point. After that you just have to run for the southwest exit. Two are in front of treasure chests, so get what's in the chests and wait in front of them. The third point is in the middle of the walk, and you'll have a hard time getting it right. There are two spots, two and three steps south of a notch in the floor, where you'll be safe. When the rock rises again, rush to the third treasure chest, grab it's contents, and run south to the exit. The sprint shoes help a lot in this room.

From here down and back you won't encounter random monsters (except possibly in the passage between this and the "springy chest" room). The springy chest room requires that you jump from ramps to chests and back to ramps. You'll go south, west, north, and around east and south again. At this point jump south rather than to the obvious west. Stepping on this switch will open the way to another treasure chest. It also makes it possible to take a shortcut west to get back to the south intersection from which you can now go west and get the treasure. No go on north, loop around, and go west this time. You'll loop around north and enter Gogo's room. Talk to him and he'll agree to go with you. The hard part is that you don't have a save point, and you still have to get safely back through that falling rock room. Hope you memorized the safe places! If you have trouble, I'm sure you'll save as soon as you get back to the save point with Gogo in tow. Now go back around. It may be easier to get knocked off the ramps. Go on north and exit the Zone Eater.
Back to list

The next time you use the castle to travel between continents the operator will come to you partway through the trip and tell you he seems to have bumped into something. He'll give you the option to continue or to stop and explore. It's fairly easy to discover that if you go to the prison and go through the cell by which you entered this castle when following "Gerad," you'll come to new territory. This cavern leads you deep underground. It has a number of hidden passages, though few that hide anything useful. Most simply give you a shortcut to get to a place you could get to in some more obvious way.

There are two maze rooms, with several doors between them. At the southwest corner of the south maze room a passageway leads to a fairly large open area with a few rock columns and a large hole in the middle. Get the items in the two chests in here, then go down the stairs in the middle. This leads to a double-stairway room with a save point. Save here, just in case you goof later in the story. Up the next stairway you'll come out in what appears to be the front yard (garden) of an old castle. When you have taken 13 (I think; I counted 12 once and 14 once) steps north into this yard, you'll see the story of this "lost" city. The city is under attack by magic, and the city's guards call on Odin to protect them. Odin slices through a group of attackers using his "Atom Edge" attack, but this attack fails when he is confronted by a powerful wizard (represented by the game's stock "ghost" images). The wizard succeeds in turning Odin into magicite.

To the left is a monster-in-a-box. The Katana Soul can be fairly readily defeated (with a group in the mid 40's), and the gift in the box is worth it. The offering enables a fighter to strike four times over. In fact, if you pair this with the Genji Glove, your character will actually strike EIGHT times each turn! Of course the hits aren't as hard, but this can be really useful when you're fighting a number of weaker monsters. In the main room, to the right of Odin's throne, is a hidden treasure room. "Talk" to the thousand-years-dead Odin and you'll receive his magicite. He'll teach you the Meteor magic, possibly the second most powerful attack spell in the game.

The right-hand throne is the queen's throne. Five steps south from this is a place where you can change the castle by "talking" while standing on the spot. Now enter the room to the east of this main room. You'll see something sparkling in the bookcase. It's a jewel-encrusted diary. It belonged to the queen, and in it she expresses her love for Odin. Terra finds this interesting -- love between a human and an esper. In the chest east of the northeast table is a useful item.

If you've made the change mentioned above there'll be a stairway in the southeast corner of this room. Down it you'll find another room. The Blue Dragon is in here. You'll also find the queen here turned to stone. Unless you don't want to learn the Meteor magic, don't "talk" to the stone queen yet (she looks like Celes at the Opera). When you do, your Odin magicite will turn into the Raiden magicite. It too can be useful (you learn Quick), but you should have everyone in the party learn Meteor first.

This is a good place to build level, because the monsters give up quite a few magic points, and you can learn spells quickly.
Back to list

The Impresario is in trouble again, as you'll discover when you visit the Opera House. The ticket master will tell you that there's a big problem and ask you to speak to the Impresario. He's in the balcony. Speak to him and he'll complain about a dragon sitting right in the middle of the stage. You can't get to the dragon through the stage door Celes used in the World of Balance. You'll have to go to the northeast door of the balcony and talk to the guard at the top of the stairs. He'll warn you about which switch to use. There are four switches on the north wall. The outside two don't matter. The west center switch turns out the lights, and the east center switch drops you onto the stage where you can thrash the Dirt Dragon. (See the section on Dragons).
Back to list

There are eight dragons in the World of Ruin. (You don't have to defeat them in the order given.) [1] You'll find the Ice Dragon somewhere in the maze where you protected Banon in the World of Balance. [2] The White Dragon is in the Star Mountain Cave where you went to find Locke. [3] The Storm Dragon is on Mount Zozo, on the way to find Cyan. [4] The Blue Dragon is in Odin's castle, underground. [5] The Dirt Dragon is disrupting the performance at the Opera House. [6] The White Dragon is in the treasure room in the third level of the Cult of Kefka Tower. The last two are in Kefka's tower!
Back to list

Doom Gaze is a sky monster that you will encounter at random while flying in the airship. He has no way to repair the damage you do to him, even if several "weeks" pass between encounters. So even if he escapes you, you can eventually defeat him. When you do you'll get the Bahamut magicite. This magicite teaches only the Flare magic, but it's value is in its level up property. Every time the person on which Bahamut is equipped gains a level their HP increase by 50 percent! If you use the Vanish - X-Zone magic combination on Doom Gaze (one tip says) you won't get the magicite. I rarely use this anyway, since, as another tip puts it, it makes the game too easy.
Back to list

There are several good places to build level. If you have plenty of GP, the dinosaur forest (east of Gau's father's house) is a great place to work. Mostly you'll encounter Tyrannosaurs, with the occasional Brontosaur thrown in. The Brontosaur is nearly impossible to beat until your full crew is above level 50 or so. But once you get a strong enough party, you can defeat them regularly. You should do this until you get at least four Economizer relics. Do this BEFORE you attempt to climb the tower of the cult of Kefka.

The Tyrannosaurs will often give you Imp Halberds after battle. These are, according to one tip, useful to make an imp into a powerful character. They're also handy at the Coliseum. Bet an Imp Halberd. Then bet what you get several times through and you'll get another Experience Egg. Eventually you'll have enough of these to equip them on every person in the party. Then they can fight in Dinosaur Forest (or wherever else you'd like) and gain level twice as fast!

If you want to build magic power, fight in the area leading to Odin's castle. These monster's are fairly beatable by level 40 or so and give up plenty of magic points on each battle.
Back to list

This tower, built by some deluded or totally ignorant people, contains a field of some sort that makes it impossible for you to use your weapons. (The exception is when one gets struck by a rage and decides their attacks at random. For this reason be sure they have good weapons equipped.) This is the one place where you must use attack magic. You might choose to wait to finish this until you have an Economizer for everyone in your party (saves on the MP consumed). One major problem you run into quickly is that these magic-based monsters (named "Level [n]0 Magic" {replace [n] with any integer 1 through 10}) frequently cast reflect on each other. A solution is to cast reflect on someone in your party and then cast all attack spells on them. Another is simply to be sure everyone in the party knows both Meteor and Ultima. These spells are not affected by the reflect magic.

Between the base (where you pick up Strago) and the top are four equal sections of many stairways. On each of these sections is a door to a treasure chest. In the third of these is the White Dragon. The White Dragon's main attack is Pearl, so it probably won't do much damage. Near the top of the tower you will begin to encounter Magic Urns. Don't attack these. They do lots of useful things to you, like Remedy, Ether, Tincture, and even Elixir. They will eventually escape, so just keep hitting the Y button and let them do their thing.

At the top you'll find a small room containing a treasure chest. In the treasure chest find a Magic Box relic. It allows a magic user to cast two spells every turn. When you leave the room you will be surrounded by the zombie-like members of the Cult of Kefka. They don't attack, and they don't talk, but you won't be able to leave until a creature much like the one that defeated Odin in the abandoned underground city attacks you. Hit him with Ultima, but be sure to cast Life3 on at least one of your players. He mostly does Wall Change in response to your attacks, and rarely does much damage, but when he dies he casts Ultima, which will kill everyone in all but the strongest parties. The Life3 spell ensures that at least one party member will be revived so you will survive the battle and claim the reward. Warp magic does not work here, so you'll have to walk back down all four levels. There are no save points, so be SURE to save when you do get out!
Back to list