Walkthrough

The Beginning...

You start on the airship Prima Vista. Explore the first room and when your happy light the candle (when ? appears). You and your new friendsnow have to fight a battle, it should be quite easy so take the time to steal some stuff. Afterwards your leader, Baku ( the one you just killed) will tell you the plan. When you understand ityou fly to Alexandria and meet the games second main character... As Vivi you can now explore Alexandria. Go to the ticket booth to find you've got a fake ticket. You still get 3 cards though.Now enter the alley to the leftand you'll find ratkid. Agree to be his slave, its not very hard. As he escapes watch for alleyway Jack. press x to stop him stealin some gil. He will explain the card game if adressed fast enough.To save visit ratkid in the steeple, climb the ladder and a moogle will fall down. Talk to him to save. Once you have explored enough( and nows the time to) follow ratkid up the ladder onto the roof. Follow 'Puck' to the castle where the show will commence!

The Show

You arrive just in time, but now you control zidane again. just attack king leo to end the show quickly, only 1 character nees to survive to win. Now you must duel, follow the instructions given, you can repeat to please the audience more. Once diguised go upstairs and you run into a girl, what you choose to say doesn t matter. You now control Steiner, the captain of the knights of pluto.You need to reach the west tower Back with Zidane follow Garnet to the engine room of the Prima VistaAs you try to leave Steiner blocks your way. Deal about 170hp to end the fight then, attack Steiner again after the next scene. The third and last battle yo don't have to take any action, justweight for the bomb to explode. Now the Prima Vista will eventually crash in the evil forest.

Evil Forest

Run south to the ice cave, you can see it on your map. You can have vivi melt walls with his magic when a ! appears above Zidane's head. As you reach the far end of the ice cavern the path branches. Go left and thaw the trapped moogle now save. Go back and head right, make sure Zidane is fully healed and ready for battle. Watch your party fall unconsious, only Zidane wakes and you must search for the cause of the trouble. If your a bit unsure re save your game.
BOSS: BLACK WALTZ 1 HP 229 MP 9,999 LV 2 WEAKNESS FIRE + ICE SEALION HP 472 MP 9,999 LV 3 WEAKNESS FIRE
Attack black waltz first and defeat it before attacking sealion. When its torso turns red his attacks become much stronger so make sure you have enough potions.Use your trance free energy if possible. Return to your companions who are now waking up, walk past the waterfall and out of the ice cave.

Dali

now you go west to dali, take time to train or anything else you want, you can explore but not much and there are no important items to be found. You mp + hp are automatically restored there so don't waste potions. When you wake up in the in the inn, save your game and then view all ates. Go to the to meet Dagger and arrange to meet at the inn. Go on to the windmill to talk to Vivi. Enter the inn and as Vivi hasn't arrived you decide to look for him. Walk to where you last talked to descover he's been taken captive underground.. The entrance is inside th windmill, get the ARIES stellazzio coin before opening the dome on the floor. Hop off the lift and go into the next room, Save your game at the moogle in the barrel and continue through the rooms collecting all the items. Dagger hears Vivi in a barrel and you free him, continue following the wooden walkway, and you will descover the secret behind this plant. As steiner now, go down the stairs and wait for Morrid in the hut. After the conversation you head back to dali, check your equipment, your'll be battling another black waltz now. The party is reunited in time to do battle...

Black Waltzes 2+3

As you are reunited you will now do battle with
BLACKWALTZ 2 HP 1,030 MP 3,017 LV2 Weakness Wind
Do not use magic as it counters with Fira, steal items and make sure at least 1 of your male characters remains alive at all times, it won't attack Dagger as it wants to take her alive. Enter Dali once more to save and rest before boarding the cargo ship. After all conversations and arguments have finished you will fight.....guess who.. BLACKWALTZ 3 HP 1,128 MP 2,080 LV 7 Weakness Man Eater Bird Killer + Wind Use Vivi's trance to its full extentand steal items if you feel it neccesary, but you can find/purchase them in the next city. Watch out for its Thundara but thats about it. Just sit back and watch how you arrive in Lindblum.

Lindblum

You can save by going to the guest room, then heads to the lift. After all the chat Zidane explores Lindblum and meets up with Freya, an old friend. Save next door, then you can explore all of lindblum. To continue the story however, head to the station opposite the inn which takes you to the Theatre district, as I said you can explore the industrial + Buisness districs first. Leave the station and head down the stairs on the left, after the ates go to the castle. Once there go to the fountain and up the stairs to the right (the lift is blocked). Steiner says he cannot find her anywhere so the search must be continued..... You might also want to save your game. Walk towards the lift and you hear the princess singing. Walk back to the hallway with the sleeping guard outside ( by the guest room ) Talk to him and lure him into the guest room where after a brief struggle you don his uniform and enter the lift disguised as him. Then climb the stairs to the left and continue to the tower where Dagger is. Looking through the telescope, you need to spot six places, press x whenever a ! sign appears. You then decide to impress the princess by entering the Festival Of The Hunt. Save your game and check equipment before taking the cab to theTheatre district. Different win different things as their prize ZIDANE=5,000 gil FREYA=Coral Ring VIVI=Theatre Ship Card When just 4 mins are left go to the buisness square where you can battle a Zaghnol. If you wish Zidane to win let Freya be defeated and Zidane defeat the Zaghnol, if you wish Freya to win do the opposite. For Vivi to win just let them both be killed. Head to Dragons Gte after events have unfolded and save, stock up on potions etc before heading to Gizmaluke's Grotto.

Gizamaluke's Grotto

Before heading to Gizmaluke's Grotto visit Qu's marsh slightly north-east. In the marsh you get the character Quina and you can catch some frogs. Also you can find the first Chocobo forest, more infomation is given on another part of the website on chocobo's. Finally go to Gizmalukes grotto, you can find it on the map. The wounded soldier gives you Gizmalukes Bell which opens the stone door. On the other side Zorn + Thorn make you battle. Defeat the type A prancing around in the middle of the hall to get your second Gizmaluke's bell. Open the middle stone door to continue, this is the fastest way but feel free to continue to explore. Here are the items you could gain by taking your time:
Bronze Vest
Mythril Gloves
Magus Hat
Also you'll meet some Moogle's who are quite interesting..... You'll receive a Holy Bell after going through the middle door which leads to Gizmaluke............
GIZMALUKE HP 3,175 MP 502 LV 16 WEAKNESSES Bird Killer Thunder Wind
Gizmaluke is being controlled by Zorn + Thorn. If ever magic is used then it counters with SILENT VOICE. This is very annoying so, you can if you're feeling lucky use a tactic I used. At the beginning of the battle use a tent on Gizmaluke, if you're lucky this will inflict him with Silence or Darkness. Now back with Dagger + Steiner eventually after picking up the MULTINA RACKET talk to mary, then the worker on the left, then the young man on the right. You receive a gate pass from the guard as you exit down the alley. Exit through the archway, buy anything, update equipment and save before leaving by talking to the conducter. Now the adventure continues back with Zidane. You can see your destination on your map, and you might want to save before entering BURMICEA.

Burmecia

Collect CANCER from behind thetoppled cart. Continue forward to meet Zorn + Thorn, defeat the monsters before continuing into the town. Climb up the stairs to the right, watch the top treasure chest, its a Mimic monster. Go through the door on the left. Continue left, but after getting the chest, walk, don't run! Now retun to where you defeated the Type A's. Walk through the left door and collect the chests on the ground floor, upstairs is another Mimic. The door on the right leads to the Architects house, climb through the window to step on the balcony where you can jump to the next section of the mansion. Talk to the soldier and collect the Protection bell from behind the bed. There's also a hidden Ether. Return to the great door in the other part of the building and use the Protection bell. Climb the stairs to uptown district....
Go through the arch and save the life of a citizen, climb up the stairs and enter the building through the left hand door. Ignore the Mimic at the end of the passageway continue on to the palace square. First go to the left building and get the Mythril Spear, next go right save and equip your new lightning staff. Accept Stiltzkin's deal, then equip any items that lessen thunder damage, your gonna need them. After a little while you now battle Beatrix....
BEATRIX HP 3,630 MP 3,467 LV 14 Weakness Man Eater
You cannot defeat her, the battle ends when you have taken the hp above or a certain time expires. Try to survive till the either happens, Vivi's magic + Freya's jump work well. Try to steal some nice equipment if possible, make sure you heal your characters in time!
CD 1 Ends, Save Your Game !!

D I S C 2 B O S S E S --------------------------- Boss: Black Waltz Wizard #3 HP: 1292 Steal: Steeple Hat, Thunder Rod, Fire Rod Location: South Gate Railroad My Party: Dagger (6), Steiner (5), Marcus (5) Wahoo! He's back for a rematch! He has a weak physical attack which shouldn't worry you, Thunder will hit for about 130-150, and he will also cast Freeze which dumps the Cold status ailment on a single character. Fire and Blizzard are the other two spells he'll cast, but they're both weaker than his Thunder, hitting for between 100 and 130. Basically, have Steiner use his normal attack, Marcus can try to steal (never worked for me), but you'd probably be better off hitting the wizard. Have Dagger strike too. She may not do much damage, but every little helps at this point, but if anyone drops below 100hp have her cure them instead. This fight should be over in no time. --------------------------- Boss: Raruvaraava HP: 2296 Steal: Bone Wrist, Mythril Fork Location: Gargan Roo My Party: Dagger (8), Steiner (7), Marcus (7) This one's a pushover too.. I'll try and translate the name properly later on :) This lil' serpent type thing is big on Status Ailments. Its physical attack can cause Slow, and it's Poison Kiss attack (or something along those lines, I couldn't translate the kanji) gives you, believe it or not, poison. It also uses Thundara (Wahh! Level 2 magic) but it's not that devastating.. It hits for between 130 and 180 (depending on who it strikes). Have Steiner hit (as usual), Dagger should either heal (again, when HP gets close to or drops below 100), or cure Poison. But healing comes first :) Marcus you can try stealing with, but it won't matter too much. After a while Raruvaraava will disappear into the mist. Yay! --------------------------- Boss: Antlion | Antorion HP: 2938 Steal: Gold Helm, Mythril Vest, Annoyance Chin Location: Cleyra Settlement My Party: Zidane, Vivi, Freya Antlion seems like a toughie, but isn't that hard. His counterattack will strike for around 220hp damage, so make sure not to hit it with a physical attack unless you have at least that many HP left. Have Vivi cast Thundara, Freya should jump each turn, and have Zidane hit. If someone dies, revive them but don't cure them at all. Since Antlion's only all-hitting attack (Sandstorm) reduces you to critical but won't kill you, you'll be ok as long as when someone falls, you revive them immediately. --------------------------- Boss: Beatrix | Beatorikusu HP: 4736 Steal: Ice Brand, Raiden Glove, Phoenix Pinion Location: Cleyra Settlement My Party: Zidane, Vivi, Freya Beeaatttrrriiiixxxxx *_* Once again, Beatrix proves a worthy opponent. Shock will now hit for 1000hp, which, unless your level is really high, is gonna kill you outright. Her physical attack will once again hit for about 200-230, and the lightning sword attack hits, again, for around 300 damage. Again, if a character is KOed (trust me, it'll happen), revive them immediately but don't try to heal them. She doesn't have an all-hitting attack, remember, so you can easily get by with 1 character hitting, 1 reviving and Freya jumping :) Remember, though, if you're down to one character the battle will very tricky and you may lose. But if it gets to that stage, you've most likely nearly won the battle. Either that, or you ran out of Phoenix items ;) Good luck ^_^ --------------------------- Boss: Zorn and Thorn | Zorn, Sorn HP: Zorn - 4896, Thorn - 2984 Steal: (From Sone) Mythil ? Location: Alexandria Castle Dungeon My Party: Steiner, Zidane, Vivi, Freya This fight is easier than you'd first think. In a "Turks-from-FF7" Style, you've only gotta hit one of the lil' jester critters to win the battle. I just hit Thorn (The one in red). Have Freya jump (a surprising alternative to my normal strategy for her, that), Vivi cast Thundara, Steiner should concentrate on healing, but when he can get a hit in either hit or use Thunder Sword, and Zidane should steal and then just hit. The jester kids will do their own Meteo and Flare spells. The Meteo type spell will do around 300 damage to one target, and a little to the rest of the party. Don't worry about it, you'll live. Well, you _should_ live ;) The battle will be over soon enough, so don't worry. --------------------------- Boss: Beatrix HP: 5709 Steal: Mythril Vest, Gold Helm, Phoenix Down Location: Alexandria Castle, Princess' Room My Party: Zidane, Vivi, Freya Beatrix again XD Yay! You know the rap for Beatrix by now, but this time she's still tough. Don't give up, I was one hit away from total defeat and just managed to win. Revive whoever falls and keep on hitting her when ya can. You know the drill :) Great things happen after this battle ^_^ --------------------------- Boss: Raruvaimaago HP: 3352 Steal: - Location: Gargan Roo My Party: Zidane, Dagger, Vivi And then you fight this one :) If you attack it with a physical attack it'll likely wrap round itself into a strikingly weird pose. When this happens, do not attack him with physical attacks because - a) they will not do much damage (about 50hp if you're lucky) and b) it will counterattack with Earthshake hitting everyone for about 200hp damage, if not more. It also likes to cast Thundara on your peeps, so be wary of that. To get it to stop doing its curl-up type thing, just cast a spell on it, which doesn't prompt a counterattack. As usual have Garnet/Dagger heal (I can't get used to calling her Dagger dammit). And that should be all you need for this battle :) It may end up lasting a while if your levels are low, but you'll manage it. --------------------------- Boss: Rani HP: 5708 Steal: Gradius Location: Fossil Roo My Party: Zidane, Dagger, Vivi, Quina Rani was hired by Queen Brahne (I think) to find and kick the crap out of Zidane. Or maybe she's after Garnet, or perhaps both. Either way, she prolly coulda picked a better person for the job than Rani here. Her magic is weak and her physical attack is nothin to shout about. Try to steal a Gradius from her, it's the best weapon you can have for Zidane at the moment I think. Just have Vivi cast Thundara, Quina use his regular attack, Dagger heal or summon Ramuh, and Zidane steal the Gradius from her, then attack as usual. This battle shouldn't prove any significant problem :) --------------------------- Boss: Hill Gigas | Hiru Gigaasu HP: 8106 Steal: - Location: Conde Petie Mountain Path My Party: Zidane, Dagger, Vivi, Eiko Conde Petie! Lali-Ho! Anyways, this boss again isn't really a challenge. His strongest attack (the name of which I forget ^^;) will hit for about 500 damage, but only strikes a single target. Eiko has Cura so that shouldn't be a problem to rectify even if you're curing everyone at once. This battle is also pretty straightforward, just have Vivi use his strongest magic (for me, still Thundara ^_^), Eiko should heal whenever she can, or cast protect on people if no-one really needs it. Dagger can also focus on healing and also attacking (she should have a good weapon by now), and Zidane should just attack as usual. --------------------------- Boss: The Soulcage | Za Sourukeeji HP: 9765 Steal: Brigandine, Orcstaff Location: Iifa Core My Party: Zidane, Dagger, Vivi, Eiko Oh I like this guy :) He was talkin' about Kuja which can't be a bad thing :) The Soulcage opens up the battle with Level 5 Death. If you have people on a level multiple of five (most likely 20 or 25), level them up before you fight this guy. Or, you'll have to bring 'em back to life in battle. His other attacks include Mustard Bomb, a spell that you will learn to not like. Basically, when he uses Mustard Bomb, your character will turn red. Don't mistake this for the Beserk status ailment. When your character is red like this, do not do ANYTHING with them, don't even defend, just press Triangle to skip to the next character. If you do something, you die. Simple as that. Don't worry, it wears off quickly enough. Other things to not do in this battle include using Fire magic against him. It might just have been coincidence, but every time I cast Fira on The Soulcage, it countered with a nasty Fire attack that knackered my whole party. Hitting everyone for between 100 and 300 hp. Also, he has Fira up his sleeve himself, which hits for around 500 damage (individual target). Having 2 potential healers (Eiko and Dagger) means this battle is not so challenging, but don't neglect your healing duties or you'll end up fried. Remember that Eiko has Cura (Cure 2), don't hesitate to use it. One last tip. When people fall in this battle (maybe at the start from Level 5 Death), make sure to heal the people that are still standing first. If you're all on low HP and he uses an all-hitting attack, you'll be dead faster than you can say "Kweh?!" in a japanese chocobo manner. NOTE - The Soulcage is an undead. Cast life on him. Watch him un-undie. --------------------------- SubBoss: Scarlet Hair HP: 8985 Steal: - Location: Madain Sari My Party: Zidane I decided to add this here because, although not strictly a _boss_ fight, it can be tricky if your levels are low. Make sure you have plenty of Hi Potions at least. When Salamander is in his starting position, and only then, try to hit him. Attacking anywhere else will prompt him to counterattack and hurt you. If your HP drops below 500 you're probably best off healing, as you never know (well, you can probably guess) when he'll get an attack in before you, or when he'll get a critical hit, or when he'll counterattack your next strike. When he's jumpin around the place trying to be smart, heal yourself, if possible back to max HP. Sometimes he'll jump back to his original position, but then he'll jump away again. You know when he's gonna stay in his original position when he says something (a message appears at the top), then he jumps back to his original position :) Good luck ^_^ If you have 1400hp or above this fight shouldn't be a problem. Hmm there's a whole section to go after this guy, but no more bosses. The end of disc 2 rocks, enjoy it :) Oh disc 3 ^_^ D I S C 3 B O S S E S --------------------------- SubBoss: Antlion | Antorion HP: 2938 Steal: - Location: Eastern Desert Whirsands My Party: Zidane, Dagger, Quina, Salamander Okies you may fight this again if you enter the wrong whirlsand (the one you need to enter is the one furthest north). Just refer to the strategy earlier to beat it. Although this time around it shouldn't be much of a threat at all. --------------------------- Boss: Arc | Aaku HP: 20002 Steal: Elixer Location: Oeilvert My Party: Zidane (28), Salamander (26), Quina (25), Vivi (27) Wow this one was interesting at such levels. I'll write here how I just there now beat it, but first I'll do the overall strategy (my levels are probably abnormally low because I'm rushing through it second time). Arc's attacks are Photon, which reduces a single character to 1 hp, Boomerang which is an all-hitting physical attack which hits everyone for around 300 hp, Propeller Wind which causes your whole party to become confused if it hits, and another wind attack which causes 200 to 300 damage to all party members and causes whoever it hits to Float (I was thinking maybe if you stop your characters floating then Propeller Wind won't effect them but I didn't test that theory out yet). When confusion hits your people, you'd better hope that Vivi or Quina break out of it first :) Use them to hit your confused party members to make 'em snap out of it (doing that with Zidane or Salamander may result in death though, since they tend to be very strong). If you're lucky then soon after Propellar Wind, Arc will soon use its Boomerang attack which will cancel confusion on everyone simultaneously. Here, it's best to have Salamander attack when he can, Quina and Vivi should focus on healing the party, particularly Zidane, and make sure Zidane keeps hitting when he gets the chance. If your levels are as low as mine were (Believe me this was probably my worst party to bring, baring in mind that magic is rendered obsolete in Oeilvert), then you may need to do something a bit silly :) This is what I did: Make sure you have the counter attack ability on as many people as you can get it on, and definately on Zidane. Now, don't concentrate on keeping everyone alive, just use 'em until they die. Apart from with Zidane. Now, do _not_ attack unless your HP is over 500 at least. (600 is the safe zone). Use hi-potions every turn until your HP is over 600 (or just below). If Arc uses Photon on Zidane, then just keep healing again. With Hi-Potions, your HP will be restored faster than he can take you down, and if he becomes confused he'll only hit himself for around 250-300hp. Every so often, he'll counter attack, and soon enough he'll reach Trance. When this happens, you've still gotta keep healing but if you're over 500hp, hit Arc with Solution 9 (or your strongest Trance attack at the time). Just keep doing this and sooner or later (took me about 20 minutes) Arc will fall :) yay! Of course, it probably won't come to this, but good luck all the same :) --------------------------- Boss: Varia Vira HP: 12119 Steal: - Location: Desert Empress My Party: Eiko, Steiner, Freya, Dagger NOTE - upon playing the English version of the game, I realised that the more 'bloodstones' you activate, the weaker this boss will be come; I don't mean it'll have less HP, I mean each bloodstone takes away a certain element of its 'system' - it's massive defence and it's magic guard are the two you'll most wanna get rid of.. But I managed to do it with both of these activated in the jp version anyway, so if you're as stupid as I am, and you're stuck, read - A boss that has a mega-high physical defence, guards against all your summons and casts reflect on itself so you can't cast basic magics on it. How the hell do you win? Hmm it's not that hard, you've just gotta be real patient. Make sure that Eiko has learned (or is currently learning) Carbuncle (The item she learns it from is the Ruby I believe). Anyways, that's basically it; summon Carbuncle at the start of the battle so its magic can't hurt you. Don't think you'll win the battle by reflecting its own magic though, as it will guard all spells (there may be a way to stop it from doing this but I am not sure). Some status spells will hit though. Blindness at least, but it's sorta useless here. Anyway, as long as you keep carbuncle's barrier up, just keep Freya jumping, Eiko casting Carbuncle and Garnet handing out the Ethers. If you wanna speed things up (a lot), kill steiner then revive him with a Phoenix Down. Now, make sure you have reflect on him at all times so he can't be hurt. The reason is this - his second swordskill, "Sagaku " (I'll translate that one later, maybe) does damage depending on how many HP Steiner is short of his maximum, meaning he'll be hitting for 1000+ with that every turn. And yeah, it ignores defense :) Just what you need, eh? After a while, this guy will drop. And you'll be relieved :) --------------------------- SubBoss: 2x Red Dragon Steal: - Location: Gulg Volcano My Party: Zidane, Vivi, Dagger, Steiner This battle can be tricky because of the birds' tendancy to cast Twister. I'm not sure what the damage of Twister is based on, sometimes it will wreck your people, and sometimes will hit for a mere 50hp damage. Anyways, Auto Potion will come in very handy. Garnet has an ability which doubles item efficiency (or somethin like that), so if you clear your inventory of standard potions and leave only Hi-Potions, each time she's hit she'll recover 900hp, which is enough to keep her alive almost always throughout this battle (unless twister decides to be nasty and take mega amounts of hp away from her). And use her for healing purposes and revival purposes. Because of her condition she may sometimes fail to carry out her actions, but don't worry, if you're unlucky one turn you might get lucky the next. Don't give up. Have Zidane hit as usual, try and keep Steiner and Vivi alive as much as possible to do more damage to them, but as long as you have Dagger and Zidane you shouldn't have too many problems. They take priority here :) --------------------------- Boss: Meldi Gemini | Merudi Jemini HP: 24348 Steal: - Location: Gulg Volcano My Party: Zidane, Dagger, Steiner, Eiko I had a sneaking suspicion that Zorn and Sorn would do this ever since I first clapped eyes on 'em :) This battle isn't too tough, seeing as you have two healers. Steiner should use his usual physical attack, or if he's on low hp, his second swordskill. Zidane should also attack. Have Eiko cast regen on people, but she should also concentrate on curing as Garnet might fail at a critical time. Garnet should heal, though, if you decide to have Eiko summon. I did fine here when Garnet only had Cure (Cure1), so you shouldn't have too many problems on that front. The attack to watch out for here is their physical attack, which took out Zidane in one hit for me given that he was in the front row (weak party ^_^). They will cast Bio either on a single target or on the whole party, so get Cura out :) This fight is simple enough, just a basic hit-and-cure type thing. You know what to do :) --------------------------- Boss: Daharka | Dahaaka HP: 29186 Steal: - Location: Ipsen's Heritage My Party: Zidane, Dagger, Steiner, Eiko Another high-defense nasty :) And I bet that name's mistranslated badly by me ^^ Anyways, if you brought along Eiko and Dagger you have two new all-powerful summons to try out :) Have Eiko call Madeen (Maduin..?) and Dagger summon Bahamut about 4 times each and this battle will be over :) Of course, if you can't spare the ethers, then you can do what ya did for the Varia Vira in D.E. and let Steiner die (or kill him off yourself), then revive him with a phoenix down, and use his second swordskill. Works a treat :) Again, nothing too difficult, but remember to keep an eye on the party's condition. Don't go mad summoning and forget to cure :) Another way is to bring along everyone's favourite lil' black mage (and everyone's favourite ff9 character) Vivi! And, if you have some good offensive blue magic, Quina could be good also; magic is this guy's weakness. Casting reflect or summoning Carbuncle will be good, but remember to repeat it once reflect wears out. --------------------------- Boss: Earth Guardian | Tsuchi no Gaadian HP: 20756 Steal: Avenger Location: Earth Shrine My Party: Zidane (32), Quina (25) This battle can be really tough, but shouldn't be too worrying if ya do this - Have Zidane learn Auto Potion, and equip him with the Auto-Regenerate ability. It goes without saying that Auto Levitate will be brilliant in this battle, so if you have it, use it. To hell with Bird Eater or whatever. As for Quina.. Well, unless you've been using Quina a lot, he will die here. And even if he doesn't he'll be next to useless I guess. This fight is virtually a one-on-one from the offset, so don't worry and don't be surprised when he snuffs it. Oh, you can grab the item which allows you to learn Auto-Regenerate from the moogle (mogri) in Ipsen's Heritage. Anyways, once all that is sorted, you're ready more or less. You'll need about 2000hp, which you should prolly have by now. Basically, each attack he does (Firaga, Thundaga, Blizzaga, an Earth quake attack, and physical) will hit for between 1000 and 1500 damage. Auto Potion and Regen between them will heal around 700-900hp worth of that damage per turn. If he does his physical attack or if Auto Potion fails then you'd better heal yourself, but otherwise just keep hitting him. Soon enough Zidane will reach trance, at which time hit him with Solution 9 or (if you have it by now) Grand Lethal. Grand Lethal hits him for around 9000-9999 which, of course, rocks :) Hmm I was sorta hoping that I'd get to fight the Water, Wind and Fire guardians too. Ah well, can't have everything :) Anyone else think these guys look a lot like FF1's Fiends? :) I really liked this whole lil' cutscene, and the music with it... *quits rambling* --------------------------- Boss: Dragon type thingamajigger (I'll get the proper name later) Steal: Tent Location: Pandemonium My Party: Zidane Wow does this music rock or what? :) Hmm this shouldn't really count as a boss I guess, but hell it's going in here anyway. Don't worry about the one-on-oneness of this battle, once it starts to fly, Freya will join you and help out. Then, a little later Salamander will also accompany you. Oh yay! Anyways, this one can be tricky because of his phyisical attack when he is airborne (I forget the name). This can hit for about 1500-1800 damage and if he scores a critical (which can happen more than you'd expect), you're looking at 3000-4500 damage, which pretty much equals one dead character. Have Zidane hit him (auto potion and auto regen will help a lot here). If auto-potion fails, use a hi-potion yourself. Also, if you drop below 1000 hp, heal. as soon as it starts to fly, defend, or if you have low hp (again, below 1000), use a hi-potion or better yet, an elixer. Have Freya jump, or heal if that's necesarry, and Salamander hit & heal. You can steal a tent from this guy, which isn't really needed but if you can afford to you might as well grab one. Remember, defend when it flies. --------------------------- Boss: Abadon HP: 12658 Steal: Ether Location: Pandemonium My Party: Steiner, Quina Wow! 2 bosses in a row with no time to heal. Ouchu! Well, it's a bit late to say this now, but equip everyone as best you can while you still have the chance back in BranBal. And shove Quina into the back row while you're at it, he's your healer again. Have Steiner attack every turn (unless, once again, extra healing is needed), and that's basically all. After a small while, Zidane will join the struggling duo and the battle will be easier. Remember to try and keep everyone alive, if you're down to only Zidane, and are out of Elixers, then you'll probably lose unless you get Trance or have nearly finished it off. Anyways, Abadon isn't too tough. --------------------------- Boss: Shelter Dragon | Sherutaa Doragon HP: 12661 Steal: - Location: Pandemonium My Party: Zidane Make that 3 bosses in a row :) If you die now you'll be well pissed. Well, you'll prolly be glad that you'll get to hear the amazing music some more ^_^ The Shelter Dragon has a tendancy to cast Earth Shake. Don't worry, it's not too devastating. His physical attack isn't too worrying either, it'll hit for about 800-1400. Don't worry about that either, it's nothin really as long as you have Auto potion and Auto regen on. A little way into the battle you'll kuso a brick when he hits Zidane and takes his hp down to 1. But then kiyootie Dagger arrives and replenishes his HP. Yay! First thing to have her do is cast Levitate (Float) on both her and Zidane. Then, have her curing each turn and have Zidane hit. That should finish him off soon enough. If Dagger gets KOed then don't worry, just have Zidane heal himself. Remember my strategy for Arc? You can do a similar thing here. Zidane will soon get his trance (if he didn't get it already in these three battles), and then one or two hits with Solution 9 or Grand Lethal will do the trick. Yay! A much respected savemoogle follows, but remember to backtrack a screen to find it. --------------------------- Boss: Silver Dragon | Gin Ryuu HP: 24055 Steal: Kaiser Knuckle, Dragon Mail, Elixer Location: Pandemonium My Party: Zidane, Dagger, Steiner, Eiko Wow if I didn't know better I'd say this was the dragon that Kuja was flying about on. And I don't know better, so I'm gonna say this is the dragon that Kuja was flying about on. Enjoy the music, FF2j fans everywhere should recognise it ^_~ (err, and the dungeon you've just done). Anyways, that's probably enough pointless babble :) Kuja's strangely green Silver Dragon has a wide array of attacks which will almost kill you unless your levels are high (bare in mind when I wrote this I did hardly any level building at all and got very few random attacks, some of which I ran away from because I was going for a fast time). Her attacks include an all-hitting wind attack, which will strike everyone for about 500 (amusingly it hit Steiner for 2800 hp but because of his armor it healed him). Another all-hitting attack where it emits this white ball of energy which will hit for between 800 and 1500 damage (ouch!). Also, Gin Ryuu is another one that does Twister (dammit!), and we all know what a pain in the ass that can be. Her physical attack, Claw, will hit for about 1600 damage. Have Eiko equip Phoenix Feather so she can summon Phoenix here for multiple revivals at once (if needed). Dagger should be the main healer, using Cura for the whole party, but just regular cure should do for one person. Have Zidane steal, as she has some stuff well worth getting. Once you've got all three items, just keep hitting, and have Steiner attack too. She doesn't have too many HP, well not when you're doing a total of about 5000 damage each round. After a short while she'll disintegrate and then you'll face, almost immediately afterwards, with no chance to save... *drumroll* --------------------------- Boss: Garland | Gaarando HP: 40728 Steal: Battle Boots, ??, ?? Location: Pandemonium My Party: Zidane, Dagger, Steiner, Eiko FF1 nostalgiaaaa! In name, at least. Garland is weird. Anyways, he has a ball-of-energy type attack (he throws a white ball of energy towards a single character), which hits for about 800 damage. His strange attack (where he lifts a character up and then drops him down, and lots of red bubbles (kweh?) appear below). That does around 1500hp damage and I believe is his counterattack. Flare will hit for anything between 1300-2000, and he also casts stop. Damn what a bastard! The strategy for Garland isn't much different from the last one. Simply have Eiko and Dagger be the healers and revivers, and Steiner and Zidane attack. Cast Regenerate on Dagger so the chances of her dying are even slimmer, and so you'll always have at least one person alive with Life (which you should've learned by now). The thing that makes this fight real easy is that he can only hit a single character in each turn (unless he counter attacks), so you can probably get by using just Phoenix Downs to revive with. After hitting him a lot Garland will go "Uh!" and that's that :) --------------------------- Boss: Kuja HP: 42382 Steal: Light Robe, Kyarabinieeru, Ether Location: Pandemonium My Party: Zidane, Dagger, Steiner, Eiko Kuja! I've been waitin so long to fight him/her/it! Yaaaay! Kuja isn't exactly difficult, although he's slightly harder than the last two bosses. Kuja likes to use Thundaga, but will only hit one person at one time with it, hitting for between 1000 and 3000 damage. He also likes Gravity. I'm not sure how that works in FF9, but it might get you in some pretty nasty situations. Still, it only hits one person at a time. Basically, do what ya did for the last ones ;) Zidane and Steiner hit, Eiko and Dagger heal. Revive whenever someone is KOed, though. This fight shouldn't be too much of a challenge at all. Again, the battle is ended with a "Uuh!". But then you recieve a little surprise and witness FF9's Ultima spell for the first time :) Yaaaay! And with that, and a few excellent (to say the least) cutscenes, it's time to wave goodbye to the wonderful world of Terra, and hello to the final part, aka Disc 4 :) D I S C 4 B O S S E S --------------------------- Boss: Shinryuu HP: 59940 Steal: Grand Armour, Dragon Wrist Location: Warp My Party: Zidane, Dagger, Steiner, Eiko (I guess I should mention this. In the game's translation, Shinryuu is called Nova Dragon). The beginning of the last dungeon brings nasty death to your party in the shape of Shinryuu, or more likely in the shape of Shinryuu's Tidal Wave attack :) But more about that later. What we have here is one hell of a tough boss (at around level 32 anyways). If you have Zidane near Trance, then you're in luck but you'll still have a hard time keeping him alive. Here's what to do. Bring Eiko and Dagger along, you need two healers :) Bring the character with the most HP (other than Zidane) along too, in my case Steiner, and stick whoever it is in the back row, too. In Salamander's or Steiner's case, they'll still be able to hit for a decent amount of damage in the back row. In Freya's case, jump! In Quina's case, you'd better have some good enemy skills otherwise he's gonna strictly be a third healer. In Vivi's case just throw your strongest magic at him. Ok, now let's see what Shinryuu has to offer, remember how billy buckmere solid he was in FF5? Well thankfully he's nowhere near that hard, but still.. Tidal Wave is hell, if your HP ain't high (and mine _wasn't_) it will wreck your party, probably kill off Garnet and Eiko (too bad you need 'em), and leave the others on critical. Twister is still confusing to me, it will demolish some characters sometimes and then do next to nothing later. Well, it's still scary. Shinryuu has the weird "bubble" attack (the one where the screen goes dark that it also likes to use as a counter attack), and it also has a physical counter which tended to miss Steiner every single time for me, but also tended to take Zidane out in a single hit. Ouch! Finally, it has the all-hitting wind attack and the all hitting wings-in/ball-of-energy-out attack that the Silver Dragon had. And to cap it all off the guy has around 40,000 hp. I believe the words "oh" and "shit" are springing to mind round about now. Don't worry though, once you get used to the idea that you'll be scrambling for survival the battle gets quite easy. At the beginning of the battle have Dagger cast Shell on herself, then on Zidane, then Protect on Zidane, then Shell on Eiko. Continue that cycle when they wear off. The only times you should break this cycle is if someone is knocked out (revive 'em), or if the party needs curing (Cura the entire party). Eiko should concentrate on curing, so Cura all round. Again, revive whenever someone is knocked out. Zidane should just hit each turn, unless you have plenty of HP (at least 2000 for every character. My Eiko had about 900 hp in this battle ^_~). Your fourth member should heal with items if needed (Phoenix items to revive Dagger or Eiko, Hi-Potions, Ethers and Elixers to whoever needs them), or otherwise just hit in the best way they can. If Dagger and Eiko are knocked out at the same time, have Stiener (or whoever you brought) use a Phoenix item to revive them. If you follow this basic strategy you shouldn't have too many problems. Have fun :) --------------------------- Boss: Kary/Maliris | Maririsu HP: 59497 Steal: Masamune, Ultima Sword, ?? Location: Place of Memory - Soto Bu Tsuuro (Outside Pathway) My Party: Zidane, Dagger, Freya, Eiko Wow FF1 or what? :) Hell this is so much like FF1's finale Temple of Fiends that the boss fights are entered without any kind of warning ^_^ Welcome Kary (or in the jp version, Maririsu (Maliris), the Fire fiend. Note that the translators for FF9, whilst doing a great job almost all the time so far (although I'll have trouble forgiving them for "Rally Ho"), didn't stay true to FF1's translated fiend names, so this remains Maliris in the english version. Anyway, this is the one you saw Salamander and Freya face waay back on disc 3 when Zidane and Quina went to the Earth Shrine; none other than she, the 'Torchy girl' herself (thanks to FF1's manual for that one ^_^), the Fiend of Fire, Kary. Her attacks then, are Mustard Bomb (argh!), a Blaze Slash (or somethin like that) type attack which slashes one target and does about 1500 damage, her physical attack hits for about 1800, and her special attack (looks like her pysical) which hits for about 1600 and she also casts Reflect a lot (which is why I recommend not brining Vivi here). Kary has some stuff well worth stealing (the fabled Masamune!), so be sure to have Zidane try to steal from her. Freya should jump every turn no matter what (go grab the Lance of Kain in the first room of the last dungeon if ya didn't already. Oh, and it's hidden). Have Dagger cast Protect on herself, Freya (do it just after she's came down from a jump, or before ya tell her to jump in the first place), Eiko (so she doesn't die from a single hit), then Zidane. Keep this cycle going when they start running out, and otherwise use her for the usual - curing/reviving/summoning if ya get a spare turn. Eiko should heal whoever Kary hits (she only hits one character per attack) with Cura. After dealing a lot of damage (somewhere between 40000 and 50000 I think), Kary will fall, but unleashes a deadly all-hitting final attack which may wipe out your whole party unless they have Protect on :) Oh, and a little tip, there's a hidden savepoint in the room after this fight, but you can find it yourself (not that it's hard to find) ^_^ --------------------------- Boss: Tiamat | Tiamatto HP: 59494 Steal: Broadsword, Grand Helm, Feather Boots Location: Place of Memory - Toki no Hasa Aida (Pause in Time) My Party: Zidane, Dagger, Freya, Eiko Tiamat doesn't like you, and since he has an attack which casts the Hot status ailment on _everyone_ at once, he's not someone it's healthy to be disliked by. But it's not as if you have a choice, so here's what to do. Jet Somethingorother hits the entire party for between 600-1500 damage and casts Burn on everyone. He also uses Twister (me no like!), also, Silent Claw which will hit for around 2000 and silences (if it doesn't kill) whoever it hits. In addition, he has three nasty drain attacks. MP Drain will steal _big_ amounts of MP from a single character, Strength Drain will diminish physical Strength (defense or attack, I'm not sure which), and Magic Strength drain which will render spells like Cure next to useless, but Rise (Life) will still work (phew). He also casts Levitate on single characters, but I'm not sure why. Maybe Twister wrecks you even more if you're floating... Not sure... Anyway, Tiamat shouldn't be too hard as long as you do this. Always wait for him to attack first. If you tell everyone to do somethin then he casts Jet Whatever, you're dead. When your time bars fill up, leave them full until he attacks. Then, immediately after, have Zidane steal or attack (again, cool stuff worth pilfering here), Dagger should heal and revive as is regular for her (and indeed Eiko) in these parts. Freya jumps as always (as if I needed to say that). Although if it comes down to just her, revive Eiko and have her cast Phoenix. That's pretty much all there is to it. As long as Twister and Jet don't get you, you should do ok :) --------------------------- Boss: Kraken | Kuraaken HP: 59496 Steal: Wizard Rod, ??, ?? Location: Place of Memory - Gensho no Umi (Ocean of First Origin) My Party: Zidane, Dagger, Stiener, Freya Kraken has 3 parts - her two arms/antennae/tentacles and her main body. Here, just concentrate on taking out the main body, as taking away her antennae makes her use her nasty physical attack which will more than likely kill a person straight away. And she'll use it every turn. Anyway, Kraken's attacks include the now common Breeze (Freeze?), a strange attack where she shoots black stuff (oil maybe) at you called Sumi, which strikes a single target for around 1000, Waterga (Water 3) which hits all targets at once and does around 1000 to all party members or around 2500 to a single member, and finally a water jet couterattack which will hit for between 1500 and 2500. Have Zidane steal the Wizard Rod then hit as usual, only stopping to throw someone a phoenix down if needed. Dagger should cast shell on herself so she doesn't get killed easily, and conentrate on keeping the party healthy as always. Only cure one person at once, unless Kraken hits the whole party with Waterga, in which case cure everyone at once with Cure 2. Freya should jump all the time, although if Dagger is KOed, revive her as soon as possible. And if that means missing out on a jump or an attack, do so. Steiner should just attack as usual also, but have him be your secondary healer (if you have enough items) unless his physical attack does more than Zidane's in which case swap their roles :) Kraken should be no problem. --------------------------- Boss: Lich | Ricchi HP: 58554 Steal: Black Robe, Siren Flute, ?? Location: Place of Memory - Kyo Sora he no Mon (Gateway to Empty Skies) My Party: Zidane (41), Dagger (32), Freya (30), Eiko (30) The first fiend of FF1 is the final fiend of FF9. Are we gonna come full circle and run into Chaos? Well, we'll soon be finding out, but not before we've kicked the crap out of the Earth Guardian. You fought this guy before, altho this time round he's bigger, meaner, had new attacks to bap you with and has a great fat wad of HP. Lich will cast Death at the start of the battle, meaning you're one person down right away. Great. Have Dagger or Eiko revive whoever is KOed first. Another attack he will use is Powder, which stops whoever it is cast on and adds some weird status ailment which I'm not sure of :) He casts the Mirror of Death on one person, which is basically Doom/Condemn, he has Stop, and 2 Earthquake spells, Earth Shake and another one (Ground something), which hit the whole party for about 1500 damage. Then, he has his physical attack Death Cutter which strikes a single target for about 3000 and also causes Condemn. Finally, he has Level 5 Death, which can take out your whole party instantly if you're unlucky enough to have levels multiple of 5 :) The easy way to beat him would to have everyone equip Feather Boots and attatch the Auto-Levitate ability, and then he'd only be able to kill one person per turn (with the possible exception of level 5 death). But that may not be an option. Anyway, I beat him by equipping Auto Levitate to Dagger and Eiko (the healers/revivers are ESSENTIAL here thanks to Lich's love of instant death spells), and having Zidane hit each turn, Freya jump, and leaving Eiko and Dagger's timebars full until someone needed healing or reviving. The Powder attack and Stop can be countered with a simple remedy, of which you should have plenty by now, and any death spell can be rectified by casting Rise/Life (or Arise/Life2 if you have it by now). Earthshake and Earthquake can be a real pain, so if you want, cast Levitate on Zidane and Freya, although it's not essential to do so. And that's all really :) --------------------------- Boss: Doomgaze (Desugeizu (Deathgaze)) HP: 55535 Steal: Duel Claw, Black ??, Elixer Location: Crystal World My Party: Zidane (41), Dagger (32), Steiner, Freya (30) After FF1 comes FF6. Who woulda thought :) The translation is Deathguise, but if you know FF6 you'll know what it looks like; Doomgaze. And for those who don't know (and actually care), in FF6j, Doomgaze was called Deathgaze (and while we're at it, Tina/Terra's morph was called Trance. How about that! Oops almost forgot.. I'm meant to be writing a boss guide). Doomgaze can be tricky because he hits _hard_. At the beginning of the battle he casts Meteo and wrecks your party goood, hitting all targets for around 2000-3000 damage (in some strange cases it will only do about 700, though). After that he starts pulling out stuff like Demon Claw, which hits a single target for about 1000, an all- hitting physical attack which swipes away around 1500 damage, Death and Level 5 Death which as you know can be nasty, and Twister (ARGH!). Prioritise in keeping Dagger alive. Keeping your HP high is vital here because of Doomgaze's hard hitting attacks. At the start of the battle don't have anyone attack until he casts Meteo. Now, if Dagger dies from the meteor's hit, revive her with a phoenix down with Steiner, have Freya jump and Zidane attack (or steal). If she's not dead but other people are have her use Rise on the others (Zidane first, then Freya, then Steiner). Otherwise, have her cure the whole party each turn (Curaga/Cure3 is probably best). Zidane should hit as usual, if he gets Trance hit with MiiruTsuisutaa (MiiruTwister), Freya should jump as usual and Steiner can hit. This battle isn't too difficult if you can get past his nasty attacks. --------------------------- Boss: Trance Kuja (Toransu Kuja) HP: 55535 Steal: White Robe, Ether Location: Crystal World My Party: Zidane, Dagger, Eiko, Freya Trance Kuja! You'd think he'd be shooting all them cool streams of energy at you that he was using to destroy the vast skyscapes of Terra with. But he doesn't. Instead he uses Flare, Holy, Flarestar, Reflect and Curaga. No biggie, right? I don't think Trance Kuja has a set attack pattern. His actions at the start of the battle differed from time to time. Sometimes he'd cast reflect, sometimes Flare or Holy, sometimes even Flare Star (thankfully he hasn't yet been dumb enough to cure before taking damage like a certain Bizarro Sephiroth does). If your party averages Level 40 or above, you shouldn't have many problems. If you're level 30 or something I recommend bringing both Garnet and Eiko for curative purposes, and your two strongest characters. Front and back row doesn't matter here (as far as I know) because Kuja here only uses magical attacks. If you're short on items you might benefit from pilfering an Ether, and a white robe will come in useful (you'll get a chance to equip it before the next battle). So stealing's good. Also, to make the battle go a little quicker, you may wanna use Zidane's MP hit ability (not sure of the proper name yet). That way you can do about 5000 damage per hit for a few turns until his MP reaches zero. Just remember that if he's about to enter Trance, throw him an ether or two so he can perform his strong trance skills. You could summon Madeen with Eiko, or cast Holy, but you're probably better off conserving your MP for curing. A good tip here is to 'queue' your attacks. Especially as the battle progresses. After you have relieved Trance Kuja of around half of his HP he will start counterattacking. Most frequently, he will counter with Flarestar, which will strike your entire party for.. well I think it really depends on equipment (a lot more so than normal). It was striking my level 28 Eiko for less than 900, but my level 40 Zidane for over 1000. I don't think it is determined by rows, though. I'd have to check it out. Sometimes he will counter by using Curaga on himself. healing about 3000-4000 of his hp. Nothin you can't take away with one or two hits. Other counterattacks are Flare and Holy, they can kill you if you're not high on hp, but you have two healers so whoever falls you should be able to revive immediately. Anyways, about queing your attacks. Once Kuja counterattacks (that's when he gets at least 2 attacks in one turn :p), start fighting thus - only strike once. Leave your other attacker(s) time bar full. Now, if Kuja counterattacks, heal if need be. If not, attack with the other person. Keep this going and you shouldn't get beaten. The main problem in this battle is when those attacks and counterattacks of Trance Kuja's add up, and all of a sudden you're out of MP. Chances are you'll get Flarestar cast on you and next thing you know only Zidane is still standing. Don't despair. Now, if you have auto-potion and auto-regen on, you can still pull this off. Revive Garnet or Eiko (whoever has the most MP I guess) with a Phoenix item. Now all she has to do is concentrate on healing while Zidane is hitting. Keeping two people alive for long enough to finish the fight should be easy. But again, watch out for those counterattacks. At the end of the fight you get to see that lovely Ultima for the second and last time. Get ready my friends. It's final battle time. --------------------------- Boss: Eternal Darkness (Eien no Yami) HP: 54100 Steal: Elixer Location: Zetsubou no Oka (Hill of Despair) My Party: Zidane (51), Dagger (43), Vivi (43), Eiko (42) NOTE - this guy is called Necron in the english version. OK, first things first. Don't worry about the way Trance Kuja kicked the crap out of you, the characters you pick are fully recovered before the battle starts. Take your best characters. If you don't have any 'best', then take the most useful. Sort out your equipment and abilities. I'd give everyone their best equipment (although if you're still learning Arise or Curaga or Flare or some other big spell, keep on learning it. It's not as if weapons on mages will matter here anyay). As for abilities, I advise equipping as many status ailment guarding ones as you can (especially Body Temp), and also Auto Regen. One more thing, you need your white mages. Take at least Garnet or Eiko (helps to have both), and one of your other best characters. Got all that sorted? Good! Let's get started! Eternal Darkness, who looks like FF1's Chaos as my friend Luke pointed out, is great. If you want him to be a challenge, fight him at level 30 or so. If you're very far over level 45 he isn't _that_ hard. Eternal Darkness casts Shell and Protect on himself. You may want to dispel that but he re-casts it (as a counter attack sometimes I think). He will also use Blizzaga, Firaga and Thundaga, again, mostly if you use these elements on him, he will counter with them. Same goes for Flare. I didn't try using Jihad (Doomsday). Also, he casts the occaisional Meteo. He has an attack that reduces one character's HP to 1, "Blue Light" or something. All of these spells are relitavely weak (apart from Meteo, which is random), and are easily rectified with Curaga or two Curas. If you brought Freya, jump after Eternal Darkness casts Shell or Protect on himself. This is because the nastie stuff usually starts after Shell/Protect: The real fun starts when the words "Grand Cross" appear on your screen. Images of FF5 and FF Tactics come flooding back already. Grand Cross is the ultimate status ailment attack. It can inflict stone, hot, cold, petrify countdown, condemn, mini, zombie, beserk, and even instant death. (Don't you wish it was obtainable as blue magic?) Also, it hits everyone. Grand Cross is seriously not good for your party's chance of survival. He will usually cast it after he has at least either Protect or Shell on and after he's used 2 or 3 other attacks. After Grand Cross hits, you gotta scramble to get your party back to health. Revive anyone who has been killed, summon Phoenix if necessary (if you have Eiko), clear status ailments (especially stuff like Beserk, Stop, Stone or Sleep). However, if you can help it, don't revive Zidane (or whoever your highest level character is) yet. The reason is this - Soon after casting Grand Cross, Eternal Darkness uses his strongest spell, Neutron Ring. This hits everyone and is quite weird; if Zidane (my highest level character by 10 levels or so) was alive, it'd hit for between 2000 and 4000 damage. But, if he was KOed, it'd only deal about 1000-2500 damage. I guess it could be based on levels but I don't know for sure. If you survive Neutron Ring (at Level 45+ you should do, as long as everyone was restored to full health after Grand Cross), then you're more or less safe. But don't attack with magic until everyone's back to over half their HP (doing so could prompt a counterattack). Get rid of everyone's status ailments. Cure some more if you need. Start casting Haste or something on people (Zidane first, of course). Okay, now is the time to wail on him with everything you have. You've only got so long before Grand Cross comes around again. If you trance with Zidane, you'd probably do 9999 with Stellar Circle 5 (hey, it worked on Trance Kuja), also, you can use a Dark Matter item on him to do 9999 damage also (a really cheap way to win, too). Eternal Darkness has about 50000 hp. If you can get past Grand Cross and Neutron Ring each time they come around, you've virtually won. Good luck! Enjoy the ending! It's excellent :) S E C R E T / O P T I O N A L B O S S E S --------------------------- Boss: Hades (Haadesu) HP: 55535 Steal: Robe of Lords, Battle Boots, Shoes of Elmens, Reflect Ring Location: Place of Memory - Umareru Mono (One to be born/Birth) My Party: Zidane (41), Dagger (32), Steiner (30), Freya (30) How to find - I had a few mails about this, so here's how to find Hades. In the last dungeon (Place of Memory/Memoria) go to the place where Quina was swimming around (it's called 'Birth' in the English version). Search behind the rocks on the right hand side of the screen. When ya find it, sort your party out and then let's rock! NOTE - Jihad is called Doomsday in the english version. Hades is a peice o' cake at level 50 or so, but not so easy when your party is a trembling level 30. Firstly, and quite importantly, stick everyone in the back row. You heard right. Everyone including Zidane and Steiner. You'll see why soon. Hades is a nasty chap, sitting there in his big chair with that painful lookin' sword. He casts reflect on himself, has a similar looking attack to the last dungeon's Iron Giants (slashes straight down on a character reducing their HP to 1), and a slash-all attack (Cleave), which means a loss of between 1300 and 2000 to everyone at once, and that's in the BACK row. You see now :) Also, he uses Mustard Bomb and Breeze (or is it Freeze?). If you have it, Body Temp would be good to equip here. Finally, he has 2 special attacks that occur after a countdown of three. The first is Curse (Kaazu), which has been upgraded from a slight stat-decresing spell to something much like Bad Breath from hell. It confuses, poisons, slows and dramatically weakens everyone. Curative magic will be much less effective and physical attack power will be laughable. The second is Jihad, the ultimate black magic in the game (besides Ultima which you can't acquire so it doesn't really count). Jihad hits your whole party for some teradeath-recieving amount of damage around 6000, and at the same time, (this will make you CRY) will heal him between 6000 and 7000hp. I can hear them now, those wimps, saying "I'm gonna wait til I'm on level 99 to fight him!" "So how the hell do you do it at level 30?!" you ask. Well, this makes it easier - equip armor which reduces, blocks or even absorbs darkness/shadow damage. This basically means that Jihad will not completely devistate your party (and may even heal it depending on what you equip). Remember to equip the Add Status ability too, tho ;) It goes without saying that Auto Potion and Auto Regen help here. The reason that Sakaguchi (or whoever it was who decided) gave Freya jump was to use in this battle. Have her jump at all times, apart from when a countdown is occuring (I'll explain that later). Dagger should cast Protect on herself and then Zidane, and then concentrate on Curing. If protect runs out, re-cast it. If Steiner should fall, throw him a Phoenix Down and have him use his second swordskill, Minus Sword, but if his physical attack will do more than that does, you might as well fully heal him if you can spare the turn. In the event of one of Hades' countdowns, have Freya jump when the countdown hits 2 (if you have other party members lined up for an attack first), or 1 (if you have no other party members lined up for an attack). This way, she'll totally avoid Curse and Jihad. And chances are you'll need to have someone to cure those status ailments like confusion. The cycle goes - a few attacks, curse, a few attacks, jihad, etc. Go for it on level 30. I dare ya! --------------------------- Boss: Ozma (Ozuma) HP: - Steal: Elixer, Dark Matter Location: Chocobo Aerial Garden My Party: Where FF1 had Warmech, FF5 had Shinryuu and Omega, and FF7 had Emerald and Ruby Weapon, FF9 has Ozma. All you weapon lovers can call it Ozma Weapon if it makes you feel better. You should really prepare well for this fight. Since you've gotta do a lot of the Chocobo stuff to even reach this guy, you might as well go get Zidane's Ultima Weapon (use a Dead Pepper after swimming into the center of the Shimmering Isle remains) and Steiner's Ragnarok (go see a chocobo guide, but I think it's Chocograph treasure #23 that has the Ragnarok). Well, that's if you decide to use Zidane and Steiner that is ;) COMING SOON - guides for Ozma, Quale, and Tantarian /-------------------\ |B O S S L I S T | \-------------------/ NOTE - The sub-bosses (ie, those which are difficult fights but aren't quite bosses ^_~), are not listed here. Disc 1 Bosses Boss - - - - - - - - - - - - - Location - - - - - - - - - HP #1 Plant Brain Evil Forest 916 #2 Black Waltz 1 Ice Cavern 229 Sealion Ice Cavern 472 #3 Black Waltz 2 Dali 1030 #4 Black Waltz 3 Cargo Ship Deck 1128 #5 Gizamaluke Gizamaluke's Grotto 3175 #6 Beatrix Burmecia Castle 3630 Disc 2 Bosses Boss - - - - - - - - - - - - - Location - - - - - - - - - HP #1 Black Waltz #3 South Gate Railroad 1292 #2 Raruvaraava Gargan Roo 2296 #3 Antlion Clayra Settlement 2938 #4 Beatrix Clayra Settlement 4736 #5 Zorn Alexandria Castle Dungeon 4896 Thorn Alexandria Castle Dungeon 2984 #6 Beatrix Alexandria Princess' Room 5709 #7 Raruvaimaago Gargan Roo 3352 #9 Lani Fossil Roo 5708 #10 Hill Gigas Conde Petie Mountain Path 8106 #11 Soulcage Iifa Core 9765 Disc 3 Bosses Boss - - - - - - - - - - - - - Location - - - - - - - - - HP #1 Ark Oeilvert 20002 #2 Valia Pira Desert Empress 12119 #3 Meldi Gemini Gulg Volcano 24348 #4 Daharka Ipsen's Heritage 29186 #5 Earth Guardian Earth Shrine 20756 #6 Dragon Creature Pandemonium ? #7 Abadon Pandemonium 12658 #8 Shelter Dragon Pandemonium 12661 #9 Silver Dragon Pandemonium 24055 #10 Garland Pandemonium 40728 #11 Kuja Pandemonium 42382 Disc 4 Bosses Boss - - - - - - - - - - - - - Location - - - - - - - - - HP #1 Shinryuu Warp 59940 #2 Kary Place of Memory 59497 #3 Tiamat Place of Memory 59494 #4 Kraken Place of Memory 59496 #5 Lich Place of Memory 58554 #6 Doomgaze Crystal World 55535 #7 Trance Kuja Crystal World 55535 #8 Eternal Darkness/Necron Hill of Despair 54100 Secret/Optional Bosses Boss - - - - - - - - - - - - - Location - - - - - - - - - HP #1 Tantarian Alexandria Castle Library 21997 #2 Quale Qu's Marsh 55535 #3 Hades Place of Memory 55535 #4 Ozma Chocobo Aerial Garden 55535 /---------\ |O U T R O| \---------/ Lali-Ho! (or Rally-Ho if you're one of the idiots who tranlated Conde Petie). Any comments/constructive criticism/corrections/questions mail addy is - bluryamaneko@hotmail.com I might take a while to respond, too.. Sorry about that ^^ Hope this guide helped a little. Until next time, then...