Walkthrough

I.    Introduction

II.   FAQ/What you should know  

III.  Getting Started
        What you need
        Statistics
        Characters
        Choosing a Party

IV.   Walkthrough
        Coneria/Temple of Fiends
        Arrrr Matey!!
           Power Peninsula
        Time for a Nap!
           King of the "Marshians"
           Northwest Castle
           Crystal Clear vision/Wake up and smell the Herbal tea!
           Cleaning Up
        Kaboom!
           A side trip to Crescent Lake
        The First Orb
           The Titan and the Ruby
           The Earth Cave
        A Choice
           The Gurgu Volcano
           A Tale of a Rat
           The Ice Cave
           Fly, on your wings, like an Eagle, Flies High as the Sun...
        Stuff to do
           King of the Dragons
           Shopping
           [Extra]-The "Loot Root"
        Techno-Waterall
        The Oasis
        The Loot Root
        The Submarine
        LeFein 
        The Mirage Tower
        Earth! Fire! Wind! Water! Heart!

V.    Epilogue: Comments, questions, and answers
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I.    Introduction

     Before familiarizing you with the Final Fantasy itself and its operating 
system, you should get a good idea of the walkthrough itself before you go on at 
all.  This is the perfect walkthrough for the beginner, because there is 
ABSOLTELY NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY.  This walkthough is good for the beginner 
because of the level of detail it provides in the tough spots, as well as in-
depth advice to guide anyone through the most important of decisions.  However, 
this walkthrough is not just for the Beginner, because the level of detail, and 
the plentiful pointers can make any player better, regardless of experience.
    I also feel that you should be introduced to the starter or the epic Final 
Fantasy series, as well is the actual Nintendo system, so that you may be 
familiar with the game before starting.  Final Fantasy is a classic RPG made by 
Squaresoft in Japan.  This game is what started the whole series, which now 
numbers up to 9, on the good old 8-bit Nintendo.  Well, in 13 years since the 
game came out, both video games in general and Final Fantasy have made 
incredible advances.  There have been seven sequels to Final Fantasy, and Final 
Fantasy 9 is due out soon.  There is also one more Final Fantasy known as Final 
Fantasy Tactics, which retraces its roots to classic RPGs, rather than become 
involving with complex plots and long storylines like the later Final Fantasies.  
I have played every single Final Fantasy ever made, but there is just nothing 
that can compare to the original.  This is the first walkthrough I have ever 
written, and I do not plan to write any more.  I am dedicating my time to the 
best FF ever made, Final Fantasy 1. 
     You will notice 2 things absent from my walkthrough.  On most FAQs that 
I've read, I always see a monster list (bestiary) and a Magic list.  I thought 
about adding these, but I thought to myself:  I have already covered these 
sections in the midst of the walkthrough to a level of detail and usefulness 
unsurpassed by any FAQ I've ever seen.  Rather than just listing Magic and its 
function, I gave advice on which spells to buy, and when to use them.  Instead 
of writing a monster list, I told you about every single monster in the entire 
game that might give you trouble, told you how to beat them.
     There was one thing that was eating away at me the every time I read an 
FAQ.  There was always one of 2 faults.  One, the walkthrough was only for a 
certain party, like 4 White Mages.  It told you how to get through the game with 
4 White Mages.  But, how do you do it with 4 Black Belts?  The other fault was 
generic information.  Some people gave information good for any party, but none 
enough to really help a beginner.  My walkthrough gives DETAILED IHFORMATION for 
EVERY PARTY you can think of--from buying equipment and equipping it, to what 
spells to buy for different parties.  
Read and Enjoy!


II.   FAQ
     Well, this thing isn't posted on the internet (as of the time I'm writing 
this), so I don't actually have any "asked" questions.  However, I included some 
miscellaneous questions that I know I'm going to be asked someday anyway, and 
other things that I've seen come up on the Message Board on GameFAQs.  Speaking 
of GameFAQs, although it implies that its files are based on the FAQ, this one 
will be much more focused on the walkthrough rather than the FAQ.  [NOTE] READ 
THIS ENTIRE SECTION BEFORE ASKING ME ANY QUESTIONS!!!

1.  Why Final Fantasy 1?
     I love this game.  I've been playing it ever since I was a kid.  This thing 
started the whole spur of Final Fantasy, and I wanted to dedicate my time to 
such and awesome game.  I especially like the fact that you can choose your 
party.  This adds tons of replay value that you can't get from other Final 
Fantasies.  You can experiment to find the best party, or challenge yourself 
with the worst.  This was the best game ever made. 

2.  I heard about [this rumor].  Is it true? 
     No.  People make up tons of weird things just so they can laugh when their 
friends spend hours in vain trying to find something stupid.  I even heard of 
some stupid hidden vendor in the Temple of Fiends that sells you a Masmune for 
100,000 GP.  Nice Try.  However, if you would like to tell me about something, 
and have reasonable proof of it (screen shot, savestate, or something like 
that), I will gladly post your secret and credit you accordingly.

3.  Uh, you spelled Masamune and Excalibur wrong.  What's up?
     Final Fantasy has only so many letters for their Weapons and Armor.  So, 
that's there XCalber and Masmune come from.

4.  I heard that specialized weapons like the Were, Rune, Coral, Dragon, Giant, 
Fire, and Ice Swords have no bonus effect at all on any monster.  Is this true?  
     Well, this is very tough to say.  Is there a huge difference?  No.  
However, even though the Fire Sword has a smaller damage rating than the Ice 
Sword, I have seen the Fire Sword work better than the Ice Sword on undead and 
Ice creatures.  But, as for most of the specialized swords, you will find that 
you will already have a much stronger sword anyway.  For example, you will have 
the Silver Sword much sooner than you will get the Were Sword, and even against 
Were monsters, you will find the Silver Sword to work much better because it is 
so much stronger.
     As for specialized armor, there is definitely a very noticeable difference.  
Ice armors provide protection against Fire, and Fire armors likewise against 
Ice.  The Ribbon also gives protection against all the elements.  Also, I read 
on Ben Siron's FF1 Handbook that the Aegis Shield provides protection against 
poison status, as long as it is not inflicted with the regular attack.

5.  Anything you need to know that's not on here?

[Stuff you should Know]
     There are a few things that you should know before you go straight to the 
walkthrough.  You will find new words that you've never seen before, or you will 
find some words used in completely different ways than you've ever seen them.  
To avoid confusion in the future, here is a list of some out-of-the-ordinary 
words you will find throughout the walkthrough:

CAPITAL LETTERS-  You will find many words in all capitals.  Many times, this is 
either for emphasis, or more commonly, a way of setting a spell or item aside 
from the rest of the walkthrough.  All spells and Items will be found in capital 
letters.  Also, if you see a capital letter like in the word Fighter, this means 
the class, Fighter.  If you see fighter without the capital, it's a general term 
for a fighting character, such as a Fighter class, Thief, or Black Belt.

Spiked Square-  Normally, you will encounter enemies randomly if you are in a 
cave or tower.  However, sometimes, there are special squares where you can step 
where you will always find the same battle, every time you step there.  
Sometimes, you will find the enemies to vary slightly in type or number.  
However, one thing that you can rest assured- there WILL ALWAYS be a battle on a 
spiked square.

Critical Hit-  Sometimes, your characters will hit the enemy for more than usual 
damage, and it will say Critical Hit.  If one of your hits is a Critical Hit, it 
will do twice your Damage rating, regardless of the enemy's defense.

Gold and Experience-  When you win a battle, you will get gold and experience 
for your efforts.  Each enemy gives a certain amount of gold and experience upon 
its demise.  When you get gold, it will be added to your party's pool, which it 
will share.  When you get experience, the set number will be divided equally 
amongst the number of non-stoned surviving members of the party, those who cheer 
when the battle is over.  Note a few things:  If the experience is less than 
one, you will get one.  Otherwise, it will be rounded down.  

III.   Getting Started

      For starters, you will need a copy of Final Fantasy and a Nintendo, or at 
least an Emulator with the Final Fantasy ROM.  Once you get this far, start it 
up, and it's time to play!  Watch the mini-intro and read the story line.  It 
will let you choose a Respond Rate.  1 is painfully slow if and is nice if you 
can't read for crap, but I recommend at least 7 or 8.  Now, start a new game and 
you get to pick your characters.  Each character has his own strengths and 
weaknesses, and you will need a perfect balance of power to get the party you 
want.  Read the outline of the following characters and abilities, and then 
choose a party that best suits your style of fighting. 

Statistics
     Stats affect many aspects of the game, and basically differentiate the 
powers of each class.  Every stat has several functions that affect your 
characters' abilities.  There are six main stats and four other stats that will 
be important throughout the game.  There is a great "Handbook" made by Ben Siron 
on gamefaqs.com that explains in detail all the formulas for determining derived 
stats such as Hit% and Evade%.  I read through this, and I picked up some useful 
information.  Since I some of this information in here, and I cannot call it my 
own work, any sentence containing any of Ben Siron's work is noted with an 
asterisk (*).  


Hit Points
     Hit Points are (duh) non-existent in real life.  In Final Fantasy, they 
determine how much "Life Force" a character has. When a character is hit, he 
loses Hit Points.  When he loses all his Hit Points, he dies.  

Strength
     Strength is pure power.  A strong character will be able to do lots of 
damage with the Fight command, if equipped with a good weapon to compliment.  
Strength does determine your base DAMAGE stat, but the formula is rather 
complicated and varies from class to class.  Either way, a higher Strength stat 
will boost the DAMAGE stat.

Agility
     Agility is the ability to move around.  In Final Fantasy, Agility will have 
the function of determining your Evade stat.  Add 48 to this number to get your 
base Evade, then subtract your armor*.  I had one theory in an earlier version 
that it might affect who acts first in battle.  I can not really back this up, 
nor am I sure myself that it's true, but I thought it was worth mentioning.  

Intelligence
     Intelligence is a measure of the ability of the brain.  As of this point, I 
am quite unsure of the function of Intelligence in Final Fantasy.  It is 
certainly not apparent, but I am still trying to find something definite.  
Either way, I will still present my theories until I find out some more 
information.  As far as I can tell, intelligence will mainly affect magic.  I 
have several theories that stem off of this.  My first is susceptibility to 
magic.  I think that a character with high Intelligence will be more susceptible 
to magic of all types.  Magical attacks will hurt a smarter character much more 
than a dimmer one, but Healing spells will restore more HP as well.  If this is 
true, this would explain why White and Black Mages always get pelted so bad by 
magical attacks, even though ABSORB has nothing to do with magic.  My second 
theory is more common, but still not proven, nor is there enough information to 
do so.  I think Intelligence might affect the ability of a character to use 
magic.  For example, CURE always restores somewhere in between 16 and 32 HP.  My 
theory is that a character with higher intelligence will get closer to 32 HP 
back.

Vitality
     Vitality is the energy of life.  This is more or less the idea of Vitality 
in Final Fantasy.  When you get a level up, you gain a certain amount of Hit 
Points.  While the formula that determines the gain is rather complex (and 
variable for that matter), Vitality does play a role in determining Hit Point 
gain.  Basically, 1 more Hit Point will be added to the formula for every 4 
points of Vitality you gain*.  However, in addition to that, I do have another 
theory of a secondary function of Vitality.  I noticed that Black Belts, and 
Fighters for the most part, seem to have more resistance to poison and related 
status attacks than Black Mages and other characters with low Vitality.  So, I 
developed my theory that maybe Vitality might also have an affect on status 
resistance as well.  This was my best guess before I learned that Vitality plays 
a definite part in Hit Point gaining.

Luck
     Luck scientifically does not exist in real life, but is used as a term for 
the happenings of random events in favor or detriment to a person.  While the 
actual function of Luck in Final Fantasy is unknown, well, to me at least, there 
are several theories.  In an earlier version, I stated that Luck determined 
Evade, among other things.  I was wrong in saying that, as Evade is strictly 
proportional to Agility.  I also thought that it had something to do with Hit%, 
which was also wrong*.  Hit% is determined by your level and class*.  Yet 
another theory I had was that it was like a "god" skill, that affected all 
others, by basically favoring chance along with the effects of other stats.  I'm 
not sure if this is completely wrong, but I don't know for sure either way, and 
I have little to back it up.  I have just one more theory that is not quite 
tried and true, but is accurate as far as I know.  I think Luck might have 
something to do with the ability to escape battles.  I do have a background for 
this theory, yet still not hard evidence.  I was thinking about the Thief and 
his ability to almost flawlessly escape battles.  Then I considered the one 
thing that he had that others didn't:  a high Luck stat.  Hence, my theory about 
Luck was created.

Damage
     Damage directly affects how much damage your character will do when he is 
attacking.  Damage is equal to your weapon's Damage value plus half your 
strength.

Hit
     Hit percent determines whether you will hit an enemy or not.  Furthermore, 
if you have a very high Hit Percent, you may actually hit the enemy several 
times, not just once.  You will notice your characters will start to make more 
than one hit around Level 8 or 9.  Your weapon has a determined Hit value, which 
will raise your Hit Percent.  Your Level will affect Hit% somewhat, but that 
depends on your class*.

Absorb
     Absorb is how much damage will be blocked from an enemy's attack.  Someone 
with a higher Absorb stat will take less damage from monsters.  Absorb is 
determined by the sum of the Absorb values of all your armors put together.  
Your other stats have absolutely no effect on Absorb.  Without any armor, your 
Absorb value will be zero.  
[BUG] In Final Fantasy, there is a bug in the Absorb stat.  For Black Belts and 
Masters, after you visit your armor screen, you will see that a Black 
Belt/Master's Absorb will equal his level, as long as you have no armor 
equipped.  If you do have armor on, Absorb will be equal to the armor's value, 
whether this is higher of lower.  However, this is intended.  But, for Masters, 
if you equip a piece of armor, then level up, the Absorb value will revert to 
your level until you visit your armor screen again.  Even if you turn the system 
off, or use a piece of armor in battle, your Absorb will still be your level 
until you hit start, then go to armor and press A.  So, you will be able to get 
the benefits of the Ribbon and ProRing without forfeiting the Master's naturally 
high Absorb value.

Evade
     Evade determines whether an enemy will hit you or not.  Also, it can 
actually determine how many times an enemy hits you.  If an enemy is capable of 
hitting your 4 times at once, if you have a high Evade stat, he might only hit 
you twice, once, or maybe not at all.  Each character has an Evade value equal 
to his Agility plus 48*.  Your Evade value equals your characters basic Evade 
value MINUS all the Evade values of your armors put together.  So, heavy Armor 
like Iron Armor and Steel Armor have a high Evade value which is bad.
     

          Characters

     Fighting Characters- These guys are generally tuned to fighting and brute 
strength.


Fighter
     The Fighter is true to his name, no more, no less.  He is your typical 
powerhouse that can equip all kinds of weapons and armors.  He has very high 
strength and vitality, and will eventually become very agile as you Level up, 
plus he gets tons and tons of Hit Points, seemingly to no end.  The Fighter is 
good because he is a real survivor.  He has high HP, and can equip lots of Armor 
and defense, so each Hit Point will be worth a lot.  With the combination of 
high HP and high defense, the fighter can take huge beatings and still remain 
standing.  However, he has very little speed at the beginning of the game, is 
rather dumb, and cannot use magic.

Thief
     The Thief is, uh, not really a Thief.  He can't really do much, and he 
doesn't have much Strength or Hit Points, but he is considered more of a 
fighting character only because he can't use magic.  The Thief has a very high 
luck stat, but that only affects the ability to run (and even that I'm not 
completely sure of).  So, while other characters are fighting and earning 
experience, the Thief is running away and staying weak.  Since he never has a 
good attack, Hit Percent won't matter much.  Evade won't do him much good, as 
most enemies will hit you no matter what.  Also, with his low Absorb rating and 
low HP, any hit WILL be devastating.  He does develop good speed later in the 
game, but not even as much as a Fighter.  I strongly recommend against using a 
Thief, since he really has no strong points.

Black Belt
     The Black Belt is a very unique character.  He fights very well with his 
bare hands, and gets good Hit Points, with OK strength, which will increase 
rapidly as you level up.  The two most unique things about him are ABSORB and 
DAMAGE.  For some reason, his DAMAGE always equals twice his level, provided he 
has no weapon equipped.  Much unlike any other character as well, his ABSORB 
equals his level if he does not have any armor equipped.  This is especially 
weird because most characters have an ABSORB rating of Zero without armor.  
While his Absorb can get up to 50, provided he is at Level 50, he does have 
pretty good defense.  However, that doesn't really help much, because he will 
always suffer, as through the vast majority of the game he will NOT be at Level 
50.  What's worse?  He can't equip much of any armor at all to compensate!  All 
in all, his defense will always be fairly low.    He really stinks at low 
levels, but the Black Belt can serve you well later in the game.  The weirdest 
thing about the Black Belt is how he opens up.  In the beginning, he doesn't get 
many Hit Points.  But, since he gains Vitality every level, no questions asked, 
he will very steadily gain more HP every level he gets.  Not only that, by level 
8 or 9 or so, he gains the ability to very efficiently fight with his hands.  
While he will be weak against many powerful bosses or any other monster with 
high defense for a while, the "opening up" theme WILL kick in.  While it will 
take time, by Level 30, he'll be able to do over 1000 damage to just about any 
monster there is!  So, to make a long story short, if your Black Belt isn't good 
enough, level him up a bit, and he'll be a LOT better.  He is also good because 
you will not have to spend much money on him, which can save lots of time.  
However, there is much Armor that he cannot equip, making him rather vulnerable 
to attack.  He can do good damage without a weapon, but when you come to fight a 
boss with high defense, you will find him rather useless when he cannot do much 
damage at all unless he as at a VERY high level, and will always be very open to 
a boss's tough offense.  

     Magic Users- These guys are generally tuned to magic and intelligence

Red Mage
     Now this is your star player.  He has no super high stats, but likewise, no 
low stats.  Hence, you will almost never find him in a situation that he cannot 
handle.  The Red Mage gets exceptionally high Hit Points in the beginning of the 
game, although the rate of increase will slowly curve off, but not until much 
later in the game.  Even still, he will always have enough HP to take some heavy 
beatings, although not quite like a fighter.  Also, a Red Mage gets good 
Strength, especially for a Magic User.  This Strength, combined with a good long 
list of weapons and armor that he can use, make him useful for fighting as well 
as using magic.  Also, his agility, intelligence, vitality, and luck will always 
be above average.  Now, besides being a pretty good fighter, the combinations of 
magic he can use are phenomenal.  He gets both White and Black Magic, for the 
ultimate combination of attack, curing, and support magics, which can also boost 
the other characters' usefulness.

White Mage
     The White Mage is your typical healer in a classic RPG.  As you would 
expect, he gets a lot of Intelligence and spell casting ability. He has very 
little offense, defense, Strength, or equipment that he can use, but he can use 
a plethora of support and healing spells that help both himself and other 
characters.  He is good to have around on long trips when potions just aren't 
enough to keep your party going, or when you are facing a fierce enemy where you 
need quick defensive spells.  He gets fair Vitality, and HP, but without being 
able to equip much good armor, he tends not to be very survivable, and you will 
often find is lack of offense frustrating in long caves and fortresses.

Black Mage
     The Black Mage is also a typical dark magician in a good classic RPG.  He 
has very high intelligence, and his powerful magic can cripple a big horde of 
attacking enemies in a flash.  However, he only gets so many magic points, so 
you will have to conserve this on long adventures, and you will find that he has 
very little offense other than magic.  Also, his HP, Vitality, and Defense are 
utterly pathetic, and you will often find yourself coughing up tons of cash for 
healing potions one after another, or exhausting other mages' magic to keep 
curing him.  He really cannot equip much of anything at all, so you will find 
him about as survivable as a slug in a salt mine.



Well, that about does it for all the major characters in FF1.  However, a bit 
past halfway through the game, your characters will evolve, and you will get a 
"Class Change".  This opens up a whole new world of possibilities for some 
characters, so I thought it would be helpful to put this in before your choose 
your party, just so you have something else to consider before making your final 
decision about your party.

Fighter -> Knight
     Well, the Knight is pretty much the same as the Fighter, save a few things.  
The Knight now gets to equip all kinds of Weapons and Armor.  Now more than 
ever, he will be your star fighting character, and with these new weapons and 
armor, he is ready to pound anything, or take a pounding just as bad.  What's 
more?  He can use some White Magic!!! Well, it's not much, but having some extra 
cure magic does help.  He can get magic such as CURE and CUR2, but his lack of 
intelligence makes his magic somewhat ineffective.

Thief > Ninja
     Oh my God!! The Thief actually became USEFUL!! The Ninja can equip almost 
every single weapon in the entire game, which significantly increases his 
firepower.  Also, he can also handle lots of armor, giving him some good 
defense.  The Ninja can also use some Black Magic, including FAST, probably the 
best magic in the game.  However, other than this, he is little different than 
the Knight, except his strength is much lower.  This, combined with how tough it 
was to actually keep him alive this long, cuts into his usefulness a whole lot.


Black Belt > Master
     Well, this guy uh, almost doesn't change at all!  he still can't equip many 
weapons or much armor, which really hurts.  His low defense will always plague 
you, but his offense can be a different story.  Technically, at Level 50 (the 
highest) it is "possible" to get 20 hits, with critical hit, causing over 8000 
damage, so he can kill ANY guy in one shot.  However, he can only do NEAR this 
much damage to the most wimpy and crippled monsters (even then he still never 
does 8000 damage), and he will still have a lot of trouble doing much damage at 
all to a boss or tough monster.  He is also the only character in the game after 
the class change who can't use magic.  I noticed when I was fighting Lich with 
Level 15 Black Belts that they hit 4 times, but only got around 30 damage!  Even 
with a Critical Hit, they only got around 50.  I'm not sure why this is, even 
though he can do tons of damage to just about any wimpy monster in the game.  
However, when I advanced him to a Master at around Level 30, he started doing 
around 1000 damage to any monster, regardless of defense!  He really is a unique 
character, as always.

Red Mage > Red Wizard
     The Red Wizard, still your star player.  Well, his usefulness drops off 
slightly toward the end of the game, when his HP gains start to slow, and he 
kind of becomes stuck in the middle.  He is neither a super-power fighter, like 
the 3 fighters who now become very effective with the Fight command, and there 
is a lot of high-level magic that he can't use. However, he STILL is good.  He 
will always be strong enough to knock and obnoxious enemy out cold, and the 
powerful combination of White and Black magic will always dominate.

White Mage > White Wizard
     Well, he doesn't really change much.  He still can't equip very good 
weapons or armor, and will always be somewhat weak.  However, he can learn ANY 
White Magic spell in the game. There is one spell of the highest level that will 
actually give him some firepower.  FADE will cause about 200-400 damage on all 
enemies, which can be helpful at times when you just want to get rid of a bunch 
of guys without worrying about defense, but rater how fast you can kill them all 
(4 Frost Dragons can never be good).

Black Mage > Black Wizard
     Much like the White Wizard, the Black Wizard does not change much through 
the class change.  The Strategy Guide says he gains strength, but I really don't 
know where that came from.  All stats remain the same through the class change, 
and he actually gains strength slower than he did as a Black Mage.  The best 
thing is, he can learn ANY Black Magic spell in the game.  Even still, his 
Strength, Vitality, and HP will always hold you back, and he always seems to be 
either dead or really close to it.  


          Choosing a Party
     Alright, now that you have a good idea of what all the characters are like, 
it's time to pick your 4 favorites.  Keep in mind that any 4 of one character 
will NEVER give you the best party.  However, I have outlined a list of 
suggestions for you to base your party on, keeping in mind your style of 
fighting.

The Classic Party:  Fighter, Black Belt, White Mage, Black Mage
     Well, this is the party of balance.  All things are moderated.  It has some 
firepower, and all types of magic.  However, I do not like it at all.  The Black 
Mage is always weak, and the Black Belt always seems to lose all his power when 
it's time for a boss fight.  Also, on long trips, the mages will usually get hit 
just once or twice for 100-200 damage each time, and you will quickly find them 
sapping up your heal potions and cure spells.  Then, when they're finally 
healed, they'll get whacked again, and they'll either die or suck up some more 
heals.  Then, to top it off, on long trips away from home, you will have to 
conserve your magic, so they will end up fighting most of the time, and will 
always slow you down in battle.

The "Default" Party:  Fighter, Thief, Black Belt, Red Mage
     Well, this is pretty good if it's your first time.  The Thief and Black 
Belt will save you money from equipment and magic, but will be relatively 
useless other than that.  The Red Mage will always serve you well, with spells 
like CUR2 and FAST.  Not only will he be able to heal your guys, he gets tons of 
support magic to make your fighters even better.  Well, this party just needs to 
switch a few guys around, and you can get great combinations of characters, as 
what most of the following are based on.
My Party:  2 Fighters, 2 Red Mages
     This is my  personal favorite.  These guys are POWERFUL.  Not only do you 
have lots of good magic, you also have tons of firepower.  Every guy can pack a 
mean punch against any monster.  FAST will come to be beyond value, and 
FIR2/LIT2/CUR2 will push you through the game to the bitter end.  The only 
disadvantage is money.  You will always find yourself in a pinch for cash.  
However, these guys are so powerful, you can get along just fine with only 
second-rate weapons and magic.  This is what you want to go for if you want the 
perfect balance of fighting, magic, and defense.

Superpower Party:  2 Fighters, Black Belt, Red Mage
     This is a variation on my favorite party.  These guys have tons of fighting 
ability.  They make up for their lack of magic with a complete lack of need for 
it. These guys are aimed a little more toward economy and fighting and less 
toward magic.  Some people love Black Belts.  While I don't personally like 
them, I won't deny their usefulness in this party.  Like my personal favorite 
party, these guys will last and last through tough caves over and over.

The Defense Party:  Fighter, 2 Red Mages, White Mage
     This party is good if you are facing a few tough bosses on short trips 
where you don't need to worry too much about Magic Points.  The firepower of the 
Fighter and 2 Red Mages really can knock out a WarMech no problem when combined 
with the support of INV2, ARUB, FOG2, FAST, and CUR3 from your Mages.  This 
party is way too complicated if this is your first time playing, but if you know 
how to manipulate these guys, you can really pack a mean punch against any boss 
you want.  However, these guys will take put a nasty sting on your wallet, so be 
careful where your dump all your cash.

The Magician's Party: 2 Red Mages, White Mage, Black Mage -OR- Red Mage, White 
Mage, 2 Black Mages
     Well, I don't really like this combination very much, but I suppose you 
could make use of it if you love magic.  These guys will always be weak, and you 
weapons and armor WILL suffer throughout the entire game.  However, I suppose 
they would be useful in annihilating a huge pack of Frost Wolves, but their 
magic points would thin out quickly.  Also, tell your wallet to prepare to die, 
cause you'll be spending tons and tons of cash on magic and expensive yet 
ineffective bracelets for your whole party.  
The Challenge Party:  4 White Mages
     Well, these guys, uh, suck.  However, that's the whole idea for the avid 
Final Fantasy player.  These guys will NEVER have good offense, at least until 
you get the Masmune at the end of the game.  Your defense will never prosper, 
but you will always have plenty of defensive magic, and spells like RUSE will 
always keep tough guys missing you.  Uh, be prepared for a challenge.  There are 
detailed walk-throughs for this party, but I'm not going to bother with specific 
party walkthroughs.





IV.  Walkthrough-This is not complete at this time.  Please have patience, as 
such a piece of work cannot be done in a day.  Thank you.

YAY!! We have our parties, it's time to start!!
[Coneria/Temple of Fiends]
     You will start out in the plains, just south of a bunch of towns and a 
castle.  Immediately head up into one of the towns (they're all the same, it 
doesn't matter which).  It's time to buy equipment and Magic!
Fighter:    Buy Rapier and Chain Armor
Thief:      Buy Rapier and Wooden Armor
Black Belt: Buy Wood Chucks and Wooden Armor
Red Mage:   Buy Rapier and Chain Armor
White Mage: Buy Iron Hammer and Cloth
Black Mage: Buy Small Knife and Cloth
Now that you have weapons and armor, it's time to fight and earn money.
Go out of the town.  You can go to the castle and talk to everyone to learn some 
stuff, but there's nothing really to do here.  Walk around and fight guys for a 
while, at least until Level 2.  Now, you should have some extra cash.  Stay at 
the Inn, and then buy some magic:
Red Mage:   CURE FOG  FIRE or SLEP or LOCK
White Mage: CURE HARM RUSE or FOG
Black Mage: FIRE LIT  SLEP or LOCK
 [NOTE] CURE will always be useful, even later in the game.  For now, it works 
just like a HEAL potion, but you don't have to spend money to use it.  Later in 
the game, you will notice that even 99 HEAL potions will quickly wear thin, so 
CURE will be a good supplement to potions.  For the White Mage, you should have 
HARM, which will ALWAYS be useful for pesky undead monsters, plus this gives the 
White Mage a gateway to actually mount a good offense sometimes.  I suggest 
getting FOG instead of RUSE, as most of the time, enemies will hit you no matter 
what, and you will need defense rather than evade.  Plus, RUSE only works on the 
caster, and a more useful spell, INVS, will appear in Level 2, which will have 
the same effect, but on any character.  On the other hand, a spell like FOG will 
not appear until L7 Magic (FOG2), and that will not be for a long time.  
However, if you combine RUSE and INVS against a Giant from Power Peninsula, with 
about 8-10 layers of RUSE/INVS, you will be almost impossible to hit.  It's a 
tough decision, but it's your choice.  For the Red Mage, CURE will be a definite 
choice without second thought.  I suggest FOG, as the Red Mage cannot learn RUSE 
until the class change, when it will be obsolete anyway.  Unlike the Black Mage, 
FIRE and LIT will be bad choices because they only work on one guy, and for over 
99% of battles, a Red Mage's regular attack will be far more powerful than a 
casting of FIRE or LIT.  However, there is ONE MONSTER in the ENTIRE game, that 
you MIGHT want FIRE for.  Muck will take one damage from an attack (except 
critical hit), but will be knocked out by FIRE.  However, I don't feel buying 
FIRE is worth it for the one place this monster pops up.  SLEP or LOCK would be 
better choices than FIRE.  The Black Mage has very low fighting damage, so FIRE 
and LIT will be very useful for the beginning of the game, and even toward the 
middle of the game when you don't want to waste a L3 Magic Point on just one 
guy.  SLEP or LOCK are both OK choices, but neither are really that great 
anyway.

Now that you have some good Magic and higher Levels, buy a tent, and go 
northwest to the Temple of Fiends.  Save before entering.  Now, go to the left 
and into the treasure room for find a cap.  Equip it on one of your characters, 
whoever is getting beat up the worst.  Then, go up to the other treasure chests 
and pick up a CABIN and a HEAL potion.  Now, exit the Temple and just fight 
around it for a while.  When you're feeling bold, go ahead and fight inside the 
Temple.  When you're ready, go back to the Inn in Coneria and buy whatever magic 
you didn't have before. Then go back to the temple.  Go straight up and talk to 
the man there, who will be...

BOSS FIGHT-Garland
HP: 80-100 or something like that
    This guy shouldn't be too hard.  He can to some heavy damage to some of your 
ill-equipped mages, but you can just cast RUSE, FOG, and CURE to help that.  
Just keep pounding him and he should pass away with little difficulty.

Now that you beat Garland, fight some guys around the Temple until your HP and 
Magic start to get really low.  When they do, talk to the girl and...

Free trip back to Coneria Castle!!  Go up and talk to the King and then his 
daughter. YAY! Part one complete!

[Arrrr Matey!]
     Ok, go to the Inn to rest up and buy a tent at the Item shop.  Go across 
the bridge north of Coneria.  Watch the little "movie scene" (not quite like 
those in FF8).  Then go North to Matoya's Cave.  A broom there will say HSUP B 
TCELES.  Read it backward to see the message "Push B Select"  Do this in the 
outer world to see a world map.  Walk over the Skulls and pick up 2 Heals and a 
Pure Potion.  Then, go south to just north of the bridge, and fight for a little 
while.  When your HP get low, go back to Coneria's Inn one more time.  Then, 
it's time to go to Provoka.  Go northeast then east, then finally southeast and 
south.  Use the tent on the way if you need to get 30 HP and a save.  Go in the 
town and walk straight up to the Inn and stay there.  Then, go to the left and 
talk to the pirate there...

BOSS FIGHT-Pirate x9
HP: 6 
     Any one of these guys is easy, but together, they can reek havoc on a wimpy 
little mage.  Before you come in, buy SLOW if you have a Red or Black Mage.  One 
shot of SLOW will send every pirate into vast stupidity, and you will notice 
that most of them either miss or do only one damage.  Still hurting you?  Use it 
again!  After the Pirates are crippled, have a White Mage and a Black Mage team 
up on one guy, and have a Fighter, Thief, Black Belt, or Red Mage each attack a 
different guy.  If your Black Mage can't seem to attack for crap, just use LIT 
or FIRE to put one guy away quickly.  Use defensive magic as needed and they 
will all soon be dead.

With the Pirates dead, and some extra gold and experience, you are ready for 
some shopping. First, talk to the pirate to get his ship.  I do not recommend 
buying any weapons or armor here, other than a Cap for everyone except the 
Fighter.  Instead, buy the INVS spell here, you won't need anything else for 
now.
Here is what your magic screen should eventually look like:
Red Mage:   INVS, SLOW, ALIT or MUTE or TMPR
White Mage: INVS, ALIT, MUTE
Black Mage: SLOW, TMPR, ICE
[NOTE] You only really need one party member to have ALIT.  So, if you have 2 
Red Mages and a White Mage, for example, neither Red Mage would need ALIT, so 
you should give them MUTE or TMPR.

[SPECIAL TRICK-Power Peninsula] Hop on the ship and head southwest to Elfland.  
Buy FIR2 for all your Red and Black Mages.  You should also buy some Iron Armor, 
a shield, and a helmet for your Fighter(s), and Caps for everyone else.  If you 
have the cash, you might want to buy Copper Bracelets for any White or Black 
Mages you have.  Don't worry about anything else for now.  Head back to Provoka 
and stay at the Inn.  Buy at least 2 Tents, and some gloves for everyone.  Now, 
go southeast a little bit from Provoka, until your see a port to the North.  
Make your way Northeast until you come to a Peninsula.  The top 2x2 squares 
contain REALLY powerful enemies, and they will probably knock you out for your 
first couple tries.  So, use a TENT before you fight.  You will need really good 
tactics or really high levels if you want to win.  Here are some tactics I use 
when fighting these guys:  Have a White Mage constantly cast RUSE on himself.  
When those spells are exhausted, use INVS on him.  One time I had about 12 
castings of RUSE/INVS on my White Mage.  All other guys were dead against 4 
Giants.  I put a chair leg on the A button, and let it there for half an hour.  
The White Mage killed all 4 Giants without losing a single Hit Point.  Wow!  
Also, have any fighting characters attack, as they can do little else.  Now, 
from here on out, the most important thing is what you're up against.  If you 
encounter Giants, which is likely, you're probably out of luck.  You can reset 
the game or choose to fight.  If you want to fight:  Try casting SLOW a lot to 
reduce their power.  Try to concentrate on the Giants who have not "Lost 
Intelligence".  Cast FIR2 as much as you can and protect your weaker characters. 
This one is really tough.  You can also encounter ZomBULLs and TROLLS.  These 
guys are tough, but they're weak against fire, so protect your weak characters, 
have your fighters fight, and cast FIR2 to the bitter end.  They should go down 
fairly easily.  Another possibility is a pack of Frost Wolves (varying numbers).  
They have very little attack damage (relatively speaking).  They will use FROST 
on you, which will cause a lot of damage to everyone.  If this kills you, reset.  
Otherwise, just 1-2 FIR2 spells will knock them all out, regardless of their 
numbers.  You can also encounter a Tyro.  Beware, he can easily do 90-100 damage 
points even to a fully armored fighter.  Use defensive tactics on him, as FIR2 
won't be much help.  Use TMPR, RUSE, INVS, and FOG for support.  I'm not sure if 
SLOW works, but it will make the battle a joke if you can get it to work on him.  
One time, I also encountered 3 Wyverns, but these are very rare.  They can be 
tough, but I did kill all of them in one try with a L10 Red Mage, with all other 
characters already dead.  Well, they can poison you with their attack, and the 
attack alone is fierce.  To fight them, start off with SLEP.  Then, use SLOW and 
keep casting INVS, RUSE, and FOG.  With any luck, they will die.  When you win 
your first battle (my first one took me 4 tries), save with a TENT and head back 
to Provoka.  If you can't win at first, keep trying, don't get discouraged.  If 
you simply just can't win at all, no matter what you do, get some more spells 
and equipment from Elfland or just charge up around Provoka for a while.  
Anyway, beef up here for a while.

[Time for a Nap!]
     The plot thickens.  At this point, I think your adventure really starts, 
rather than just wondering aimlessly from town to town.  Soon, you will actually 
see a story develop, and the game gets much more interesting.  Now that you're 
all beefed up from fighting the extra powerful enemies, you should have some 
extra cash.  Believe me, you will need it all!  Head to Elfland again.  You can 
talk to the people in the castle to learn that the Prince is sleeping and he 
needs HERB to wake him up.  However, you don't need anything in the castle for 
now.  Now onto the town.  This will open up a huge new world of weapons, armor, 
and magic.  However, none of these are free.  Here is a cost per character of 
supplies you will eventually need:

Fighter: 4000(silver sword)+800(iron armor)+100(iron shield)+100(wood 
helm)+60(gloves)= 5060 GP
Black Belt: By now, he should not even need a weapon -5(sell Wood 
Chucks)+60(gloves)=60 GP 
Thief: 450(rapier)+60(gloves)=510GP
Red Mage: 4000(silver sword)+60(gloves)+4500(L3 magic [1500/spellx3 
spells])+12000(L4 Magic)=20,560 GP
White Mage: 1000(copper bracelet)+60(gloves)+4500(L3 Magic)+12000(L4M)=17,560 GP
Black Mage: 1000(copper bracelet)+60(gloves)+4500(L3 Magic)+12000(L4 
Magic)+275(Large Knife)=17,560 GP

WOW! That's a lot of money!  Although it's not much, you should sell all your 
old equipment to get a small amount of cash back.  Either way, you'll be really 
poor for a really long time.  However, some things are not essential, especially 
not right up front.  Well, your Mages probably don't have L4 Magic points yet, 
so you can hold that off for a while.  Also, L4 White Magic REALLY stinks, so 
you won't need to bother with that until you have more than enough cash to go 
around.  Well, FIR2, LIT2 and CUR2 are really good choices to start off with, 
and FAST is also a great choice after you have enough cash for a Silver Sword 
for your Fighter(s).  Nevertheless, you will eventually get a full set of Magic 
for both Levels 3 and 4.  Your Magic menu should look something like this:

L3:  These are some of the most useful spells for a long time, and even toward 
the end of the game, you will still find yourself using most of these.  Choose 
carefully.
Red Mage:   CUR2 FIR2 LIT2 or AFIR
White Mage: CUR2 HRM2 AFIR or HEAL
Black Mage: FIR2 LIT2 LOK2

[NOTE] Well, as with ALIT, only one member of your party really needs this, so 
only give this to one character, preferably the White Mage, as HEAL is not 
really a very good spell.  By this time, the healing power of CURE is not enough 
to really help your characters, even if it does work on all allies.  The Red 
Mage will have a VERY tough time deciding on Magic for L3, especially if you 
don't have a White Mage.  CUR2 is ABSOLUTELY essential, as later in the game, 
you will notice your HEAL potions will quickly start to wear thin.  Also, at 
this point, you will need a more potent form of healing than CURE or a HEAL 
potion.  There are many enemies weak against FIRE in this game, including the 
undead, which usually attack in groups and often inflict paralysis on you.  FIR2 
will be desperately needed to quickly take out huge packs of these pests.  Also, 
FIR2 will become beyond value in the Ice Cave, probably the toughest endeavor of 
the game.  I suggest displacing LIT2, as it is much less useful than FIR2, and 
AFIR is essential to have at least one of.  The sea monsters are easy enough 
without LIT2, and by the time you get to tougher monsters in the Submarine way 
later in the game, casting LIT2 will be obsolete with the Zeus Gauntlet (casts 
LIT2 when USED in battle), and by this time, you will also have LIT3.  I suppose 
if you had a Black Mage, you could choose HOLD instead of LOK2, but HOLD only 
works on one guy unlike SLEP, and they are often quickly freed.  On top of that, 
it often only works on the wimpy enemies that you don't even need it for.  
However, LOK2 will increase hits on any enemy, and magnify the effects of FAST, 
TMPR, and SABR.  Nonetheless, neither of these will be as useful as FIR2 or 
LIT2.

L4:  If you want to know the truth, most of these spells are much worse than L3 
Magic, and you might want to hold off buying these until you have tons of cash 
to throw away.
Red Mage:   FAST ICE2 AICE or AMUT or CONF or SLP2
White Mage: AICE AMUT PURE or FEAR
Black Mage: FAST ICE2 CONF or SLP2
 [NOTE] The White Mage has very little useful Magic in L4, but AICE will be 
essential for at least one character.  AMUT would me much more useful than it is 
if there were more than 2 or 3 guys in the whole game that actually use MUTE, 
but you might want it anyway.  PURE is no better than a PURE potion, so that's 
quite a waste.  FEAR will make annoying wolves scatter, but will never actually 
be useful.  Choose what you want here, but none of these will be important at 
all except AICE.  As for the Black Mage, L4 Magic is okay, but nothing to get 
exited about.  FAST will give a fighting character an incredible boost in attack 
power, and ICE2 will always come in handy, especially in the Gurgu Volcano.  
Neither CONF nor SLP2 will ever work against tough enemies (the only time you 
actually need them to), so they will never be important.  Choose whichever is 
more appealing to your style.  For once, not even the Red Mage will have a tough 
time choosing Magic.  FAST and ICE2 are definites, and you will need AICE unless 
someone else has it.  Otherwise, CONF, SLP2, and AMUT are up for grabs, but I 
never use any of them anyway.

[King of the "Marshians"]
     The time has come.  This will be your first big endeavor in this game.  
When you think you have enough equipment and magic (definitely 1-2 Silver Swords 
and 3 Magic Points for LIT2), buy some items.  At the very LEAST, you will need 
50 HEAL potions [3000 GP], 20 PURE potions [1500], a CABIN [250], and a TENT 
[75] = 4825 GP.  Stay at the Inn.  Now, head to the Marsh Cave (south, west, 
north, west, south, east) without using any Magic.  Save with either the CABIN 
or TENT, whichever will give you full HP.  Now, head into the Marsh Cave.  Try 
to run away from all monsters you meet, as most of them will cause extensive 
damage and poison, without giving you much EXP or GP  If you encounter a Muck 
and can't run, use FIRE or FIR2 on them, as any regular attack will only do 1 
damage.  You will also find some Shadows.  Run if you would like, but otherwise, 
just one or two HARM spells will knock them out,  and they'll be easy EXP and 
GP.  
     On the first floor, you will have several choices to make as to which way 
to go.  You can do up, but it's just a dead-end with a little cash and some 
second-rate treasure.  Instead, go down until you find a room.  Go in and go 
down the ladder.  There is no treasure on this floor, although there are many 
rooms and treasure chests.  Go down as far as you can, then make your way to the 
right.  You will be in a somewhat large room with two doors.  Exit through the 
other door and go downstairs.  This floor is like a grid of rooms.  There are 4 
columns and 4 rows.  The 2 columns on the right have no good treasure, so don't 
bother exploring them.  Most of the other rooms have some good treasure.  Get it 
or don't, but your real destination is the 3rd row down, and the 2nd column from 
the left.  Here, there will be some odd structure that looks like a throne, with 
a treasure chest in the middle.  But when you step up to the treasure chest...

[semi] BOSS FIGHT-WIZARDS
     Well, these guys aren't exactly bosses, but they'll give you as much hassle 
as one.  They come in packs of 2-5.  They don't have many HP, but their attacks 
are VERY powerful.  A lightly armored White or Black Mage can take as much as 
120 damage from one Wizard.  Although they usually don't do that much, even a 
Fighter can easily take as much as 50 damage.  If you spend too much time 
healing and protecting your weak ones, they'll quickly eat you alive.  Use RUSE, 
FOG, or INVS on weak members, then have your fighting characters attack.  Have 
Black and Red Mages use LIT2.  About 2 shots of LIT2 will be enough to take out 
all the Wizards.  
[NOTE]- This square with Wizards on it is what I call a "spiked square."  Every 
time you step on a spiked square, you will encounter the same group of enemies.  
There can be several different types of enemies here, and their numbers vary.  
Nonetheless, every time you step here, you will get an encounter of generally 
the same battle.
[Extra]- I used to use this trick more than I do when I play now, but it's still 
worth mentioning.  Sometimes when I have some extra HEAL potions, LIT2's, and 
HP, I like to walk back and forth to the Wizards' square by the throne.  Each 
Wizard gives you 400 GP and a considerable amount of EXP, so just 3-4 battles 
will be enough to buy a Silver Sword or a L4 Magic spell.  So, if your party is 
more geared toward fighting, try fighting these guys for a while if you didn't 
get all the cash you wanted from the Power Peninsula by Provoka.  Fight some 
more Wizards (or don't), retrieve the CROWN from the treasure chest, and exit 
the cave.  

[Northwest Castle/Crystal Clear Vision]
     If you came here before, the King here told you that Astos stole the CROWN, 
and he told you to get it for him.  Well, now that you have the CROWN, the King 
tells you to give it to him (he'll also note that he has Matoya's CRYSTAL), but 
this "king" turns out to be...

[BOSS FIGHT]-ASTOS- HP-168
     Astos is tough.  He is by far the most difficult boss you have fought so 
far.  He has very high defense, and you'll find any Black Belts rather useless 
unless they have some Iron chucks.  He also seems to have a pretty good 
resistance to just about every spell you have, so your fighting characters will 
be useful here.  For starters, try using FAST and TMPR on your fighting 
characters, then use INVS, FOG, and RUSE to protect against some of his rather 
fierce attacks.  Astos has several spells that can really hurt.  First, he will 
probably start off with RUB, which, if it works (very likely), will knock out 
one of your guys, probably the one on top.  Your level does have something to do 
with the success rate of RUB and other auto-kill attacks, so if you can't stand 
to have someone die, go charge up some levels if it keeps working.  Next, he 
will probably use SLO2.  If this happens, just use FAST and TMPR to regain some 
power, and cast LOCK to increase the number of hits you.  This is really a 
problem, because your 2 best attackers are always at the top.  One will be dead, 
the other too stupid to do more than 10 damage.  On top of that, I have seen him 
use FIR2 and LIT2, so AFIR and ALIT will help immensely.  Also, he might use 
FAST on himself, and if he does, be really careful.  Any characters but Fighters 
will be in significant danger here.  Use lots of defensive spells and watch your 
HP.  He doesn't have too high HP, so if some of your fighting characters are 
still in working condition, keep your HP up, but concentrate on offense rather 
than defense to take him out before he can cause much more trouble.
     Astos might take you a couple of tries to kill, especially if your levels 
are low.  Anyway, after you kill him, he'll cough up the CRYSTAL (it's in your 
inventory).  You will also have retained the CROWN, which you will need later in 
the Castle of Ordeal

[Crystal Clear vision/Wake up and Smell the Herbal Tea!]
     Take the CRYSTAL back to Matoya's Cave.  She'll say that see again and give 
you the HERB.  If you talk to her again, she'll tell you to get out (don't be 
too appreciative that you got your vision back and all).  Head back to Elfland 
Castle and talk to the Prince's Servant, who will administer the HERB to the 
prince.  Talk to the prince and he will give you the MYSTIC KEY.

[Cleaning Up]
     Finally, you got the Mystic Key.  You've been waiting for this for so long! 
Now, you can get all the treasure chests you wanted to badly before.  Head back 
to the Northwest segment of Castle Coneria, and you will be able to get the TNT 
from the left treasure room.  Also there is a Silver Hammer which will power-up 
you White Mage.  
[NOTE] From here on out, there will be a rather long and tedious quest to hunt 
for the treasure that you missed before. Everything here is nonessential for the 
game, so if you don't really need weapons, armor, or money, you can skip this 
part.  Here is a list of some locations and semi-complete lists of the treasure 
there.  
 Temple of Fiends:  There are 2 treasure rooms on the right that contain the 
Were Sword and the Rune Sword among other things.  These are the best weapons 
for the Thief up to this point.  If you don't have a Thief, these sell for about 
3000 a piece if you need some cash.  There is a spiked square in the upper right 
with varying numbers of Gargoyles (no problem).
Northwest Castle:
Marsh Cave:  This is a long journey for some mediocre treasure.  You can go to 
the top floor and get some treasure if you didn't bother the first time; the 
doors aren't locked here.  Now, head to the bottom floor.  On the three rooms on 
the bottom, there are locked doors.  There is a Silver Bracelet here that a 
Thief, Black Belt, White Mage, or Black Mage could make good use of.  I think 
there is also a Silver Knife.  Among the treasure chests are a few GPs and a few 
spiked squares.

[Kaboom!]
     Now that you have the TNT, hop on your ship and make your way to the 
westernmost part of the Aldi Sea.  Follow the coast to the North until you come 
upon a port.  Land there and make your way Southwest to the Dwarf Cave.  Talk to 
the locals, and they'll tell you some rather useless information, but there are 
treasure chests with a small amount of GP in the unlocked rooms.  Talk to the 
Blacksmith, who will ask for ADAMANT.  You do not have this right now, nor will 
you for a very long time.  Head down and left to a thin hallway with a treasure 
room on the left.  It is locked, but you have the MYSTIC KEY now.  Go in to find 
a Dragon Sword.  I forget if the Thief can equip this or not, but if it is, it's 
the best weapon for him so far, and will be until he becomes a Ninja.  There 
will also be some Silver Armor which will be great for a Red Mage.  Silver Armor 
has a lower evade decrease than Iron Armor, but it also has a lower Absorb, so 
the Fighter should stick with Iron.  There will also be some different Silver 
armors (gauntlets, helmets, etc).  Once you have all the treasure, go down to 
the dwarf who will ask for the TNT.  He will blast a straight that will lead to 
the outer world.

[A Side Trip to Crescent Lake]
     Well, the game takes another big step here.  The battles will become 
harder, and you will soon face the FIEND of Earth, a boss far more powerful than 
anyone you have encountered so far.  Now that the rest of the sea is opened up, 
your options of what to do take a huge jump.  Now, the next place to go 
according to the plot would be Melmond, which is just Northeast of the outlet to 
the ocean.  Instead, we're going to head south a little bit then far to the 
west.  Hit B and Select at the same time to see the world map.  All the way at 
the bottom of the map on the right side, you will see a desert.  A bit above the 
desert, you will see a town, you destination.  To get there, follow these 
directions:  From the outlet to the ocean, go west about 4 squares or so. Go 
south until you hit land, then west until you hit land again.  Follow the 
coastline to the south until it ends.  Then, go west for a while.  You will 
eventually find yourself slightly above a port.  Hook around and land there.  
You will have quite a hike to Crescent Lake from here.  Make sure you save your 
game here.  Just head southwest; it's pretty linear.  You will find some tough 
battles here, much like those on Power Peninsula.  You will also find some 
others.  Cobras can do a lot of damage in quantity to someone will low defense 
and HP, but just use ICE2 once or twice and they shouldn't bother you.  One more 
thing, use ICE2 sparingly, you will find that you will need it a lot, and your 
L4 Magic Points will quickly wear thin.  You will find some ZomBulls, Trolls, 
and Giants here as well, but you should be able to knock them out pretty easily.  
Also here are Pedes, who will most likely cause some trouble.  They are pretty 
tough, much like Giants, only with slightly higher attack power.  They also have 
poison mixed into their attack, so you will find yourself struggling with that.  
What's worse, they tend to attack in packs of 4, which does not help at all.  
However, you can beat them if you're strong enough.  Have all your fighting 
characters pummel one of them, and Red and Black Mages use ICE2 or FIR2.  White 
Mages and Thieves should use Pure potions to keep your HP from decreasing, and 
White Mages should keep your HP up.  Use INVS and RUSE for support.  Finally, 
you will encounter some scorpions along the way.  These guys also attack in 
packs, and can also poison you when they hit you.  They're more of a nuisance 
than anything, they always poison at least one guy somehow, and they don't give 
you much Exp or GP either.  If you want to fight them, ICE2 works well, but it's 
best to run.  
     Ok, you'll get to Crescent eventually.  When you do, save immediately at 
the inn.  Now, it's time to buy Magic and Equipment.  Red Mages will not be able 
to learn any L6 Magic Until the class change.  White Mages should buy FOG2 and 
INV2, and save one slot for EXIT, which can only be learned after the class 
change.  My manual and magic/monster/weapon/armor lists have long since 
disappeared and I'm not sure what spells the Black Mage can learn at this time.  
However, I'm pretty sure he can learn LIT3, but all the other spells are just a 
waste of money, and you won't ever use any of them anyway, so don't bother 
buying them now, as you will be very pressed for money right now.  Note that you 
may have some of the items here, especially if you completed the [cleaning up] 
section of the walkthrough.  Here is what your budget will look like for each of 
your characters:
 Fighter: 2500GP(Silver Shield) + 2500GP(Silver Helmet)+ 2500GP(Silver Tie) 
(Come on, like that actually looks like a Gauntlet)=7500GP
 Thief: 2500(Buckler)
 Black Belt: YAY!! No charge for this guy!
 Red Mage: 7500(Silver Armor) + 2500(Buckler)=10,000 GP
 White Mage: 2500(Silver Hammer) + 40,000 (INV2 and FOG2)=42,500GP
 Black Mage: 2500(Silver Knife) + 20,000 (LIT3)=22,500GP

L6 Magic: L6 Magic is very powerful.  It is perhaps not quite as useful as L5 
with LIFE, FIR3, and HRM3, but it has one of the most arguably best spells in 
the game, EXIT, which is the only way to get out of some dungeons.  Although 
your list of L6 Magic will be very incomplete at this time, here is what it 
should look like after the class change:
Red Wizard:   INV2 EXIT FOG2 or LIT3
White Wizard: INV2 FOG2 EXIT
Black Wizard: LIT3 RUB  QAKE

     L6 Magic will help you tremendously in the battles soon to come if you have 
a White Mage.  INV2 will be invaluable to protect you against attacks from 
fierce monsters and bosses, like Kraken, who can get 8 hits at a time.  INV2 
will either make the bad guys miss, or at least decrease their number or hits on 
you.  Not only is INV2 stronger than its predecessor, it also works on all 
allies.  However, there are some enemies that will hit you no matter how much 
invisibility you have.  So, you can use FOG2 to help increase your armor rating 
for tough fighters like Earth.  I'm not sure if you can get ARUB as a White Mage 
before the class change (god I need my Nintendo Power Strategy Guide), but if he 
can, you might want this for fighting Mages and Eye in the Ice Cave to protect 
against RUB.  However, when you use ARUB, it says "Defend Magic".  If this is 
true, it might actually reduce the amount of damage you take from magical 
attacks instead of immunity to RUB.  I'll have to check up on that.  Either way, 
it would only be useful in the Ice Cave, because once you get the FLOATER, you 
will be able to buy Prorings, which have the same protection against RUB and 
related attacks.  As for EXIT, MAKE SURE TO LEAVE A SLOT OPEN FOR EXIT.  This 
will be the most important magic in the game, because it is the only way to get 
out of the upper floors of the last dungeon.  WARP could also do this, but on 
the upper floors, your magic will have been worn down, and you will need to cast 
WARP up to 5 times to get out, which may not be feasible.  I think it would be 
beneficial to give more than one person EXIT if you can.  One time, I was 
playing with the White Wizard as the only character with EXIT.  He died, and my 
Red Wizard's L5 Magic was exhausted, and I could not revive anyone, or get out 
of the last dungeon.  Ouch.  As for Black Magic, L6 is probably the most 
horrible, relatively speaking for how good the magic is compared to the level. 
LIT3 would be beneficial to the Black Mage because it lets him mount an offense 
against Kraken, the Water Fiend, and gives him more power for other water 
enemies, even though they are not very common.  As for the Red Wizard, LIT3 is 
not very useful.  What few water enemies there are in the game are really not 
ideal for using LIT3 against.  Big powerful monsters, such as SeaTrolls and 
Kraken, do not attack in quantity, and attacking would be just as effective.  
However, the water enemies that attack in swarms do not require the use of LIT3.  
Usually, it would just be an overkill.  It would be more beneficial to use the 
Zeus Gauntlet or just cast LIT2.  FOG2 would be a better choice.  As for the 
other spells for the Black Mage, it doesn't really matter what you pick.  I 
don't like HOLD because it never works on the tough enemies you actually need it 
to.  Also, its effect seems to be on the same lines as the L1 spell, SLEP.  The 
only 2 leftovers are QAKE and RUB.  QAKE usually doesn't work on the guys you 
need it to either, but at least it kills them, rather than disables them for 
about 2 rounds.  RUB is like QAKE, but only works on one guy.  It does work more 
often, but still isn't worth 20,000 GP.  The Strategy Guide says it's worth the 
money, but I never actually use it.  As always, it's your choice, but choose 
wisely!

[The First Orb]
     Alright, you had your fun at Crescent Lake, but it's time to get back on 
track of the plot.  Now, it's time to head to Melmond.  From the outlet to the 
ocean, there will be a long, thin island that stretches to the Northwest.  
Follow this island until you find a port to land on, with Melmond not far away.  
There will not be quite as much to do in Melmond as in Crescent Lake, but there 
are some things that you need.  Melmond is especially annoying because of its 
lack of an Item shop.  So, you will have to travel all the way to Elfland to get 
your HEAL potions.  You will need to buy a Silver Bracelet for each of your 
Black Belts, Thieves, White Mages, and Black Mages.  If you would like, you may 
buy Steel Armor for your Fighter, but don't bother unless you have incredible 
amounts of money to blow away.  Here is what your budget will look like:

Fighter: 45,000(Steel Armor)
Thief: 4000(Silver Bracelet)
Black Belt: 4000(Silver Bracelet)
Red Mage: 8000 or 16000 depending on what Magic Spells you will buy now.
White Mage: 4000(Silver Bracelet) + 24,000 (L5 Magic x 3 Spells) = 28,000 GP
Black Mage: 4000(Silver Bracelet) + 16,000 (L5 Magic x 2 Spells) = 20,000 GP

I suppose I have to make you a Magic guide also.  

L5 Magic:  Level 5 is some of the best magic in the game, and, without surprise, 
will be the toughest to choose from by far.  

Red Mage:   CUR3 LIFE WARP or FIR3
White Mage: CUR3 LIFE HRM3 or HEL2
Black Mage: FIR3 WARP BANE or SLO2

Wow, tough decision.  Whatever you decide, if you want WARP, you will have to 
wait for the class change, but it's well worth it.  WARP takes your party back 
to the starting point of the floor they were just on.  Fortunately, it doesn't 
just keep alternating between 2 floors, either.  So, technically, in any 
dungeon, you could keep casting WARP until your party makes it out safely.  
However, this technique assumes that you have enough Magic Points, which, in 
many cases, is not likely.  Either way, this spell is very useful.  LIFE is also 
a vital spell for any party, especially if you have a lot of magic users, whose 
days are always numbered.  LIFE revives a dead party member (duh!).  However, 
this party member will only have one HP left when they get revived, so be 
careful, or you'll find yourself soon casting it again.  Also, this does not 
work in battle.  There are only 3 ways to revive someone in this game: Go to a 
clinic (located in every town), cast LIFE, or cast LIF2.  Going to the clinic is 
expensive and very inconvenient, especially one room away from the end of a 
really long cave.  Sorry Red Mages, but you'll have to wait until the class 
change to get LIFE.  However, since a Red Mage or Wizard can never learn LIF2, 
LIFE will always be beyond value.  [EXTRA]: Try to get 2 people to learn LIFE.  
That way, if one dies, the other can revive him, and vice-versa.  If only one 
person has LIFE, and he gets knocked out, he stays out, and so does anyone else 
who dies.  As for CUR3, with all CURE spells, you will need this, no questions 
asked.  None.  Sorry.  As a White Mage, you might find yourself wondering 
whether to get HRM3 or HEL2.  It's a tough decision.  I really don't think 
there's that much power difference between HRM2 and 3.  Furthermore, I never 
really saw any monster(s) that you needed to cast HRM3 on when HRM2 just would 
not do.  Also, I have heard that there is a bug in HEL2 that causes the same 
effect as HEL3.  However, it just does not seem to work as well, but HEL2 does 
seem a little too powerful considering that it works on everyone.  Even still, I 
would rather save my super valuable L5 Magic for LIFE or CUR3.  As for HEL2, it 
has a lot in common with its predecessor.  It basically casts CUR2 on your whole 
party.  However, as with its subordinate, CUR2 is somewhat obsolete when you're 
really in a pinch at this time.  Chances are, if you're in danger of dying, and 
you cast HEL2, you'll probably still be in danger.  As with HRM3, I usually do 
not cast any of these because I would rather save my L5 Magic for something more 
important.  As usual, the Red Mage will have one hell of a time deciding what 
Magic to buy.  And as usual, CUR3 is beyond question.  There will never be a 
substitute for LIFE, as the Red Mage cannot learn LIF2, and you always need to 
revive people, particularly later in the game.  As for FIR3 vs. WARP, this will 
be really tough.  I suppose it really depends who you have in your party.  If 
your party lacks powerful black magic, FIR3 would be a good choice.  But if you 
have a White Mage with HRM3, you will find little use for FIR3 as a good-
attacking Red Mage.  I would say there are few enemies weak against FIRE, but 
the undead make up a very large percentage of the enemies you encounter.  Even 
in the Ice Cave, you will find pretty few non-undead enemies weak against FIRE.  
Still, FIR3 is very powerful, and believe me, if you don't get it, you will miss 
it.  On the other hand, WARP is not to be disregarded.  It can be really good in 
a pinch when you need to get out of a cave and you don't have an extra L6 Magic 
Point for EXIT.  Better yet, if you have 2 Red Mages, your best choice will be 
to give one WARP and one FIR3.  Finally, the Black Mage.  He will certainly be 
the easiest, thankfully.  Your Black Mage will need FIR3 to keep his offense 
sharp, and definitely save room for WARP after the class change.  As for the 
other spell, neither is too important.  BANE is good at knocking off pesky 
enemies like Scorpions and Grey Wolves, but it will rarely serve you well in a 
pinch.  As usual, all the enemies that you desperately need it to work on will 
most likely be immuned to BANE.  SLO2, on the other hand, works against almost 
any non-undead monster in the game, including some bosses.  I once got it to 
work on LICH and KARY, to fiends that get really wasted when they can't attack.  
SLO2 only works on one enemy, but if it works, this guy will be VERY 
incapacitated.  YAY!! We're done!! No more choosing magic for a LONG time!!!

[The Titan and the RUBY]
     If you talk to some of the locals in Melmond, they will tell you some vital 
information.  First, make sure you remember where Dr. Unne is; he will be very 
important to remember later in the game.  I forget if they actually tell you or 
not, but you will need to know that you must see Sarda the Sage to get the 
STAFF, which will smash open the stone plate in the Earth Cave.  So, the plot 
directs you to Titan's Tunnel, but I'll save you the trouble of going there just 
to find out that the Titan won't let you pass unless you give him a RUBY.  So, 
you need a RUBY.  Where do you get one?  The Earth Cave of course!  (God knows 
why it would be there, of all places, and of all the women in Melmond, not one 
single one has a RUBY).  Anyway, make your way to the Earth Cave.  Make sure you 
have 99 HEAL potions and at least 40 PURE potions before you enter.  There will 
be an enemy that can turn you to stone, so pick up about 5 Softs.  You will find 
that both tend to run out very quickly.   If you go to your left, you will find 
the HALL OF GIANTS.  Every square here is spiked with a varying number of Giants 
and Iguanas.  This is a great place to charge up if you have a strong fighting 
team.  If you go up from the entrance, you will find a treasure room with some 
GP in a chest.  Watch out, one of the squares is spiked with an Earth, a 
powerful enemy.  He can only attack, but he's mighty good at it.  He can easily 
do 90 damage to a Fighter fully loaded with Steel Armor and all the goodies you 
can think of.  He can also knock out a White or Black Mage in one hit, 
regardless of what they're equipped with.  He gives some good Experience, but 
it's not worth it.  Anyway, go right from the entrance, and you'll find yourself 
on the way down.  Along the way down, watch for Cockatrice.  They can use 
squint, which will cause Stone status.  This is a fatal attack, so if everyone 
is stoned (haha, the Light Warriors all stoned) or dead, the game is over.  If 
you encounter a Cockatrice (the usually come in packs of at least 4), use ICE2, 
and they should all die quickly.  If you don't think you can kill them before 
they SQUINT you too many times, just run.  There's no real valuable treasure 
along the way, except a Coral Sword.  I think this might be the best weapon for 
your Thief until the class change.  Otherwise, it's worth quite a bundle if 
you're short on cash.  Once you get to the bottom floor, you will see a long, 
narrow hallway stretching to the right.  One time a bat got stuck there, and he 
wouldn't come out for half and hour.  Dumb pieces of $%&*, you should be able to 
kill those stupid things anyway.  Anyway, at the end of the hallway, there is a 
room.  Inside is...

[semi]BOSS FIGHT- Vampire
HP-About 150
He's kind of a boss.  Now anyway.  Later, you will find large groups of these 
guys in random battles.  But for now, you gotta put this guy away quickly.  He 
has a lot of attack power, and can really pound you if you dilly-dally too much.  
So, don't bother with any defensive spells, just get him out.  Have fighting 
characters and Red Mages just attack.  White Mages should use HRM2.  You could 
use HRM3, but that's kind of overkill.  He doesn't have that many HP.  Have a 
Black Mage use FIR2 or 3.  You should take him out in one round.  If not, don't 
worry about your HP, just keep attacking.  He'll probably beat you up faster 
than you can heal yourself.  He shouldn't be too hard.  

     He should die in 2-3 rounds (so much for that immortal stake-through-the-
heart crap).  When he does, take his RUBY from the chest and exit the same way 
you came.  When you're out, make your way northeast to the Titan's tunnel.  In 
there you can give the Titan his RUBY (hmph, I wanted to fight him too).  There 
is a treasure room on the other side.  There's nothing real valuable there, but 
you can pick up some stuff that'll sell for a small bundle.  Make your way out 
the other side and to Sarda's Cave.  When you get there, you'll notice you're 
welcomed, and the Sage gives you the STAFF you need to break the plate in the 
Earth Cave. I just want to know why he lives in the middle of nowhere, rather 
than in Melmond.  Ok, time to go.  Head back to Elfland and get 99 HEAL potions 
and 50 PURE potions.  Head back to Melmond and stay at the Inn.

[The Earth Cave]
     Make sure you save before you enter, it's for real this time.  Continue 
through the cave until you reach the bottom level.  I think there are some good 
treasures along the way, with some spiked spots.  I think one is a Manticore or 
something like that.  He can use STINGER, which will cause all your party 
members to get poisoned.  There is also one more spiked square near a treasure 
chest.  It consists of a Wizard Ogre, and a mix of Hyenas and other Ogres.  The 
WzOgre can really be a problem.  My first time, he killed me in one of the most 
agonizingly boring fights of my life.  First, he used MUTE and he shut my mages 
up.  Then, he used SLOW and disabled my fighters.  Then, so the mages couldn't 
attack him, he kept using RUSE on himself.  He slowly killed me after 20 long 
minutes.  So, to fight him, use MUTE if you have it.  If he uses RUSE too much, 
use FAST on your fighters or cast LOCK on him.  You could also use AMUT to stop 
him from being a problem in the first place.  Either way, just keep pummeling 
him and he should go down without too much trouble.  His accomplices will not 
cause any problem either.  Ok, once you make your way to the bottom, you will 
find a mysterious orb in a room that looks different from the rest.  Heal your 
party to Max HP.  Then, Examine the orb closer and...

[BOSS FIGHT]-LICH
HP-400 I think
Ok, this guy is certainly by far the toughest boss you have encountered so far.  
LICH is an all around tough little bitch.  He (it, whatever) can certainly hit 
you many times at once and maybe put a weak Mage out of commission in no time.  
Compensate for this with defensive spells such as RUSE, INVS, FOG, FOG2, and 
INV2, whatever you have.  Also, LICH will use FIR2 and ICE2, so make sure you 
use AFIR and AICE to help out a bit.  LICH has very high defense, and you will 
find out quickly that Thieves, Black Belts without weapons, and White and Black 
Mages will have a very tough time making good hits on LICH.  Nintendo Power says 
that LICH is weak against Fire, but even FIR3 will never do more than 40-50 
damage, so don't bother with that.  Instead, use FAST and curing or defensive 
spells on your party rather than attacking instead of attack if you have a low 
Damage rating.  One time, I even got SLO2 to work on LICH.  Wow, that helped 
immensely.  Well, other than that, just use normal strategy and caution as you 
would against any tough monster, and LICH should expire without too much of a 
quarrel. 

[A Choice]
     YAY!! You defeated the first of the 4 Fiends.  Now, step on the alter, and 
the power of the first ORB will be revived!  Congratulations, one down, 3 to go!    
Take another step forward, and you will be warped out of the dungeon.  Save when 
you exit, and continue your journey back to Melmond.  Stay at the Inn and head 
back to Crescent Lake.  Now it's time to talk go to the Circle of Sages.  They 
will tell you some semi-important information, but the real thing you're after 
is the CANOE.  Although it may not seem like it, the game actually makes a big 
turning point here.  You will quickly notice that pretty much all of your best 
weapons and armors will not be sold in stores anymore, and you will have to find 
most of them.  Also, as you are about to see, from this point on, the game gets 
much less linear.  Rather, you will have many more options and choices about 
what to do next.  After you defeat LICH, one of the Sages will congratulate you 
and tell you to take you take the CANOE to defeat KARY, the Fire Fiend.  
However, there are actually three choices from here:
 You can follow the plot, and take the CANOE into the lake itself and find your 
way to the Gurgu Volcano.  I recommend doing this second, as it is much easier 
than the Ice cave.  I recommend waiting for the Castle of Ordeal for this, 
mainly because it is so long, and you could use the extra equipment and Magic 
points that you will get from getting treasure chests and leveling up the Castle 
of Ordeal.  Although this is easier than the Castle of Ordeal pound for pound, 
this is so much longer, and you will find yourself struggling for HEAL potions 
and Magic Points.  The funny thing about the Gurgu Volcano is that it has 
absolutely nothing to do with the plot.  So, you can put this off pretty much 
until the end of the game, even much later than the class change.  The only 
thing is, you will need to have the ORB lit in order to finish the game.  You 
CAN put this off for a long time, but I don't recommend it.  It's not THAT hard 
that you actually NEED to put it off for so long.  In fact, you really should do 
this before the Ice Cave, mostly because you will need every piece of equipment 
and every level you can get before the Ice Cave.  But, hey, it's your decision.  
-OR-
 The Ice Cave comes in the plot after the Gurgu Volcano.  If you want to do the 
Ice Cave next, go to [The Ice Cave] section, then [Fly, on your Wings, Like and 
Eagle, Flies High as the Sun] section.  You can do the Ice cave now if you want 
to, but this is the absolute hardest cave in the game, because many of the 
enemies use RUB and other related auto-kill attacks and you do not have a 
Proring at this time to prevent them.  I recommend doing this last.  This is a 
long hard cave, and you will need all the equipment from the other caves to get 
out of this alive.
 The Castle of Ordeal is actually last in line of the plot, but I recommend 
going here first.  If you wish to do this, skip to the [Tale of a Rat] section  
The Castle of Ordeal can be VERY tough, as it is quite a maze.  Also, you will 
find some enemies here that are more powerful than you have seen anywhere except 
the Ice Cave.  There will be Medusas that travel in packs and can easily turn 
your whole party to stone in just a round or two.  Sounds REALLY tough, right?  
Wrong!!  If you learn your way around, it's so short, it's more luck than skill 
or power!!  That's right, it all depends pretty much on you knowing your way 
around, and on chance of whether you encounter Medusas or not, and what they'll 
do if you see them.  This is the best adventure to do first because it is short, 
yet there is tons of treasure here that's better than most anything you will 
find anywhere else up to this point.  To get here, take your ship to the Elfland 
area, and head South.  Use your map to hook around the peninsula in your way, 
and then when you're in the bay, find the spot where a small river lets out into 
the sea.  Just take your ship and try to head up to the river.  You will see 
that the ship stays at the mouth and you are in your CANOE.  Head Southwest to 
the castle.  Save before you enter.

 Well, I'm going to walk you through the dungeons in order of the plot.  If you 
choose to take my advice and skip around, then just go to the section where you 
want.  Good Luck!!

[The Gurgu Volcano]
     This is the second "Theme" dungeon in the game.  As you saw with the Earth 
Cave, many of the surroundings and enemies were earth based.  Here, (almost) 
everything is fire-based.  Accordingly, magic such as AFIR and ICE2 will become 
very useful.  If you put this off until the class change, ICE3 will also come in 
handy here and there, but for most of the weak enemies in here, it will be quite 
an overkill.  Anyway, as with other dungeons, there are a bunch of particularly 
perilous enemies that you'll have to keep a special eye out for.  WzOgres will 
be back, but by now, he's just more of a nuisance than a threat.  You will find 
some Red Gargoyles, these will cause you problems no matter what you do.  They 
cast FIR2 almost incessantly, and have pretty high attack power too.  Just use 
AFIR as soon as you encounter them.  They have high HP and defense, so you can't 
just knock them off right away.  What's better?  They're not weak against 
anything!  And, to top it off, they usually travel in packs in 3-6 and usually 
get the first attack.  FIR2 can do as little as 20 damage, or as much as 40-50.  
Multiply that times 4, 5, or 6, and you're hurting.  Just run if you see any.  
If you have any Mages, have them cast AFIR instead of run in case you can't run 
right away.  The only good thing about these guys is that you don't encounter 
them very frequently and if you do, they're only really on the top levels (you 
start up top and work your way down).  So, if you get pelted, go out, restore 
HP, save, and enter again.  I guess you should note Agama also.  He can use a 
move called HEAT, which is pretty much like FIR2, except it only does about 20-
30 damage to your party.  There are a few spiked squares with Agama.  I 
recommend fighting, because he gives you some good Exp.  Plus, he has fairly low 
HP and Defense, so with a full-party attack, you should be able to knock him off 
in one round.  Also, there is a monster called Fire.  He looks and acts much 
like Earth.  He can't do anything but attack, but, like Earth, he does that very 
well.  Fire can be a threat to your characters if they have low HP and/or 
defense.  You can't run, so just attack and use ICE2 if you want.  Also in the 
Gurgu Volcano, you will find Cockatrices, who will use SQUINT on you and turn 
you to stone.  There will also be Perilisks that hang out with them.  These guys 
will use something like squint, I forget what it's called, but it will kill you 
instantly.  Just use a blast of ICE2 and you will find any Cockatrices and 
Perilisks paying you big bucks for killing them.
     Now that you know who to fight and who not to, it's time to get some 
treasure.  I'm not going to bother telling you where every single thing is, as 
such would be almost impossible without a diagram.  However, there are some good 
things to find here, as with any dungeon.  On the first couple floors, you won't 
find much, except maybe a Flame shield (or is that lower?).  You will find some 
armor that you've seen before and some cash; watch for spiked squares.  You will 
also find the Giant Sword, which is supposed to give you an edge against Giants, 
but most any other sword you have by this time will do much better than the 
Giant Sword.  As you get lower, you will find a MUCH better weapon, the Ice 
Sword.  This is a Fighter or Red Mage's pride and joy.  This will be the most 
powerful weapon for them for a LONG time.  It seems to have an extra boost 
against fire enemies, but it doesn't seem at all ineffective against Ice enemies 
for some reason.  You will also find some Flame Equipment which will provide 
good defense overall for a Fighter and will protect against Ice attacks.  Just 
keep exploring everywhere and you'll find some great treasure, which will either 
help you a lot, or sell for some cold cash later.  
     Make your way down to the last level.  You will know it when you see it.  
You will be surrounded by lava, and you can choose to go in one of 8 directions.  
However, most lead to either crappy treasure or dead ends.  To start, head west 
(left), but only if you dare.  You will find yourself in a room with candles 
enclosing a treasure chest.  Just before you enter this little "cage", you will 
find a square spiked with Agama.  He shouldn't cause you too much trouble.  
Then, right before the treasure chest...

[Semi] BOSS FIGHT- Red Dragon
 He's not quite a boss, but sure fights like one.  In fact, he's very dangerous.  
He can use BLAZE, which is like FIR3.  This does about 50-80 damage to every 
single member of your party.  Use AFIR immediately to reduce this to 20-40 
damage per character (still, ouch).  His attack isn't quite as dangerous, but 
provides no relief.  He can do about 30-90 damage, much depending on who he's 
attacking.  To kill him, make sure you keep your HP up.  HEL2 is nice, but it 
may not completely counteract a shot of BLAZE.  Use defensive spells, but use 
FAST and keep attacking to put him away before he really becomes a problem.  You 
will be well rewarded for your endeavor when he dies, but it's still not worth 
it to charge up on, especially considering the danger he poses, and how long it 
took you to get here, not to mention how much longer it will take to get back.  
So, get your prize, the Flame Armor, and proceed East back to where you started 
on this level.
     Now, it's time to finish the Volcano.  From the center of the room, go 
southwest, and you will find a mysterious yet familiar room.  Max out your HP, 
get ready cause here comes...

BOSS FIGHT- KARY
HP-600?
Much like LICH, Kary is an all around pain in the butt.  Kary has no weak 
points.  The manual says that she's weak against Ice, but it really doesn't work 
much better than a Fire spell.  Use regular boss tactics.  Kary can get lots of 
hits on you, sometimes up to 6 or 7, so make sure you use INV2 plenty of times 
if you have it, or at least use RUSE or INVS on your weak ones.  You will find 
that only Fighters and Red Mages with powerful weapons will be able to do even 
remote damage to Kary.  Black Belts are ok I suppose, but they just don't seem 
to have enough firepower.  Make sure you use AFIR.  Don't forget ALIT, as I've 
seen Kary use powerful Lit spells before, I've even seen her use ICE2, so AICE 
should be helpful.  As always, FAST will be helpful.  I was able to get SLO2 to 
work on Kary once or twice, so that should help a lot if you can get it to work.  
Just keep fighting, she shouldn't be too hard, just watch your HP.
     Well, Kary should vanquish sooner or later, and when she does, put the ORB 
on the alter and exit through the portal.  Save your game and return to Crescent 
Lake, cause it's time for your next adventure...

[The Ice Cave]
     Alright, get ready, hold your breath, cause this is about the hardest part 
of the whole game so far.  Go onto your ship and hook around the peninsula and 
follow the land to the North until you find a bay with a river.  Sail directly 
into the river and follow it until you get to the mouth of the Ice Cave.  Save 
your game and enter.  This cave is loaded with treasure.  I rushed through this 
place, fighting the absolute least number of monsters I could, but I got all the 
treasure chests, and I ended up gaining over 50,000 GP here.  You will also find 
the Flame Sword, which will give you a boost against undead and Ice Monsters.  
You will also find a full set of Ice armors, much like the Flame set in the 
Gurgu Volcano.  
     Well, you will get a lot of treasure in this cave, but it is certainly not 
free.  You will find you will have much trouble defeating the enemies in here.  
As usual, here comes the list.  There will be tons of undead enemies in here, 
but you will find that many of the groups will be more hybrid.  You will see 
Mummies, Wraiths, Images, Cockatrices, and Perilisks mixed into one gruesome 
battle.  Mummies can put you to sleep with their attack, which will send you off 
to la-la land for a long time, while you keep getting pelted.  Perilisks and 
Cockatrices will be here too, so you'll find that you may be stoned or dead very 
quickly.  While neither of these two are undead, you will see them mixed in the 
groups, so mix a blast of ICE2 in with your FIR2's and HRM2's.  Also in this 
little group will be Wraiths and Images, who have a lot of attack power.  Other 
than that, they are little different from their subordinates, but can still 
Paralyze you.  Also in the Ice Cave are Sorcerers, who will cause you much pain.  
They do little other than attack, and when they do, they only do about 1-2 
damage.  However, the kicker is that they have RUB in their attack.  You could 
have 400 hit points and one of them could hit you for 1 damage, and you could be 
down for the count.  I advise you to run, but I suppose you can't all the time.  
To fight these guys, you'll need a lot of luck (not the skill).  Well, INV2 and 
INVS work wonders if you keep using them, because they can't kill you if they 
can't hit you.  They don't have very many Hit Points or defense, so if you 
attack fiercely, you might be able to put them away before they cause too much 
trouble.  Now, onto your biggest problem.  You might encounter some Mages.  
These guys will yield no relief no matter what.  You will probably have trouble 
running from them, but if you think you can, it's worth a shot.  Even though 
they are really hard, they will usually come in packs of 4, and could easily 
wipe out your entire party in a snap.  Their worst attack is RUB, and you can't 
do much about that except die.  Use ALIT to counter their powerful LIT3 spell.  
Even with ALIT, you will still find yourself hurting.  Mages have no weaknesses, 
but use your most powerful magic and attack with all your might if you can't 
run.  Their attack is somewhat mild, but it doesn't make them much easier.  
Although they're not as perilous as Mages, you will also stumble upon Frost 
Wolves.  They will usually attack in large packs.  Their attack is mild, but 
they have a move called FROST, which causes Ice-based damage.  It can easily do 
up to 60 damage without AICE, and multiplied by 6 Frost wolves WILL cause 
problems.  One or two shots of FIR2 should knock them out though, but still use 
AICE for defense.  
     Ok, this Cave is pretty confusing.  Ok, make your way down to the bottom 
floor, it's pretty linear up to this point.  At the bottom, you will find 
yourself on top of a set of stairs to go up, and you will see another upstairs 
close to you, with nowhere else to go.  When you go up, you will see yourself 
above a room.  Go around to the bottom and enter through the door.  You will see 
3 treasure chests, partially surrounded by a number of holes.  Go to the one on 
the left, without stepping on any of the holes.  You will get a Flame Sword, 
which will help you with undead and Ice monsters.  Do NOT get the chest on the 
right!!!  It is guarded by several Mages who will probably wipe you out.  The 
chest only contains Cloth, such a waste.  You can't get the chest in the center 
right now, so jump down the hole.  You will find yourself in a rather small 
room.  The spot above the door is spiked with a mix of undead monsters.  After 
you get out of the room, you can go to the left side and find a room with the 
Ice Armor.  If you make your way all the way to the bottom left, there will be a 
room with 8 treasure chests filled with TONS of GP.  There is a spiked square 
with Frost Wolves at the end, so watch out.  On the right, you will find a way 
upstairs.  Collect the treasure on the way.  Find your way to a tall, narrow 
room.  Above that is a staircase, but DON'T go there yet.  This is the way out.  
Instead, go in the room with 3 treasure chests and a hole.  Get the treasure 
chests, and hop in the hole.  I'm sure you can guess where it leads.  You will 
find yourself in the room with the treasure chest that is surrounded by holes.  
This time, you can get the chest in the middle.  But before you can get to the 
chest...

[semi] BOSS FIGHT- EYE
Eye- HP about 150 or so
     Ok, I suppose the Eye isn't really much of a threat to a full party, but he 
is devastating to a solo character.  He will start off using RUB or similar 
spell, which will most likely knock one of your guys out right away.  He has a 
lot of tricks up his sleeve.  He has a very weak attack, so if he does attack, 
consider that a relief.  He can also use Glance, which will turn you to stone.  
He also uses many auto-kill spells like XXXX and Brak.  However, he will not use 
any spells that will kill your WHOLE party.  Not all at once, anyway.  What's 
the best way to beat him?  Kill him before he kills you!  Do NOT worry about 
your HP, not even a little bit.  Do NOT use any defensive spells.  I think MUTE 
might work on him, but I'm not sure.  You might want to use FAST, but don't 
dilly-dally.  Use your most powerful magic and attacks and put him away quickly.  
You should be able to get him in one round, maybe two.  

     Yay!! You get the FLOATER!  Now you get a free ticket out of the Ice Cave!  
Right?  WRONG!  You still have to fight your way out.  Jump in a hole and make 
your way back up to the tall, narrow room.  Above the room is a set of stairs, 
the one you weren't supposed to go in before.  Go in there now.  You will be out 
of the deadly Ice Cave.  Make your way back to Crescent Lake and save at the 
Inn.  

[Fly, on your Wings, Like and Eagle, Flies High as the Sun...]
     Little Iron Maiden there, Flight of Icarus.  Well, you get the picture, 
it's time to fly!  Hit B Select.  All the way on the bottom right corner of the 
island, you will see a desert.  Take you ship just below there.  Dock it at the 
mouth of the river, and walk into the desert.  Use the FLOATER you got from the 
Ice Cave.  Watch in awe as the Airship appears before your very eyes!  Now, you 
can explore the North.  You will find a group of islands.  Explore them for some 
GP.  After you pillage them, find the one where Bahamut is.  He will tell you to 
go to the Castle of Ordeal and get something to prove your courage.  Now, it's 
time for...


[The Tale of a Rat]
     Ok, time to go to the Castle of Ordeal.  If you are following the plot, you 
will know that Bahamut told you to come here.  Or, you might have skipped here 
from [A Choice] section.  There is a way to get here by Airship, but there's a 
much better way.  Take your ship to the port to the South of Elfland.  Go 
straight down until you hit land.  This is actually a peninsula.  Go to the 
right to hook around it.  Head into the bay.  You will come across a river 
junction right below you.  Dock your boat there and head southwest to the Castle 
of Ordeal.  Save before you enter, and make sure you have full HP and MP.  As 
you enter, you will see a man that tells you that you need a CROWN to take the 
courage test (God knows why you COULDN'T have the CROWN at this point in the 
game).  Make your way to the room on the upper left and jump in the sofa.  Here, 
you are in a room, and outside you will notice some column-shaped teleporters.  
Go out of the room and to the right to the first teleporter.  Then, right and up 
to the next one.  Now, you will have a choice.  If you pick the right one, 
you'll move on, but if you pick the wrong one, you'll teleport back to somewhere 
you were before.  Go into the bottom one.  Then, hook left and down into the 
next teleporter.  Next, you will have a choice again.  Take the one on the 
bottom.  Follow the little hallway to the next teleporter and go in.  Then, you 
will have another choice.  Take the one on the bottom right, closest to you.  
Here comes the biggest choice of all.  You will be at the beginning of 2 large 
hallways.  Take the one on top.  You will come to a room.  Enter it.  There will 
be a treasure chest there.  The square next to it is spiked with a Mud Golem.  
He can use FAST on himself, and that will make him a very formidable attacker, 
but just keep hitting him, and he shouldn't be too much trouble.  You will get a 
Zeus Gauntlet for winning.  This is a great item.  No one can equip it yet, but 
after the class change, you can give it to a Knight, Red Wizard, or Ninja.  The 
best thing about this is that you can use it in battle, whether it's equipped or 
not.  In battle, go to ITEM, and select the Zeus Gauntlet and hit A.  It will 
cast LIT2 in battle.  What's better?  It doesn't use up ANY magic points and you 
can use it an INFINITE number of times!  I usually give this to a weak attacker.  
That way, they can at least mount some kind of offense.  A White Mage or Thief 
are good choices.  Ok, make your way out of the room.  This can get confusing.  
Directly below you is a teleporter, but do NOT take it.  Take two steps to the 
right, and go down the hallway.  There will be a teleporter right below you as 
you walk straight down.  This is the one you want.  You will see the hallway 
extend to the left, but that just leads to another teleporter you don't want.  
If you're confused, take two steps to the left from right outside the room, and 
go straight down.  Whew!  The big maze done!  I'm sure you can find your way to 
the stairs, and it gets pretty linear form here.  You will find yourself at the 
bottom of a long hallway.  Make your way up until you find a door to a room.  As 
soon as you step into the room, there will be a spiked square with Nightmares 
(cousins or MadPony).  Nightmares are more of a nuisance than a threat, but I 
suppose they could cause trouble.  They are pretty hard to hit, and they use 
SNORTING, which causes Darkness.  However, they can't really hit very hard, but 
use FAST so you can get some good hits in.  If you can't hit them for some 
reason, use the Zeus Gauntlet for some extra damage.  Kill them, and get the 
treasure chests above you.  Among other things, you will find a Heal Staff.  
Much like the Zeus Gauntlet, you can use the Heal Staff in battle to cast HEAL 
and restore some HP to everyone.  Head to the left, and you will find and Ice 
Sword and a Gold Bracelet.  The Ice Sword is the best weapon for your Fighter or 
Red Mage at this point, and will be for a while.  The Gold Bracelet is the best 
Armor most Mages can have with the exception of the Opal Bracelet.  Make your 
way down to the last set of treasure chests.  There is some money, a HOUSE, and 
an empty treasure chest.  Anyway, go to the right, and you will see a treasure 
chest and a sofa.  Get the treasure chest from the bottom.  It's the TAIL!!!  
Head to the sofa.  Oh, come on, like you didn't SEE it coming, you KNOW there's 
gonna be a spiked square there...

[semi] BOSS FIGHT- Zombie Dragon

     Well, I suppose he isn't really a boss, nor does he nearly as dangerous as 
one.  Although he can be somewhat of a threat to a weakly armored warrior, he is 
not much or a problem other than that.  Well, every dungeon has to have a boss 
at the end (Wizards in the Marsh cave, Eye in the Ice Cave), so The Castle or 
Ordeal has to have something.  The funny thing is, he's easier than most of the 
monsters in here!
     Alright, time to kick some dead butt (argh, there's another word I wanna 
say, but ya gotta keep it clean with gamefaqs).  Contrary to most bosses,  
Zombie D can't do anything other than attack, and that he doesn't even do that 
well.  Rather than use tough boss strategy, just attack and use Harm spells.  If 
your HP gets low, Cure yourself.  He shouldn't be a problem.
     Now, with the Zombie D dead, you can hop on the couch and leave... But, 
HOLE ON!  This is a great place to charge up and boost your levels.  The Zombie 
D is quite weak, but he gives you tons of EXP and GP.  I usually slay at least 
10-20 of them before I leave.
 
[Stuff to Do]
    Ok, it's time to leave.  Hop back in the ship and head back to Elfland.  If 
you haven't already done the Ice Cave yet, do so.
     Ok, after you do the [Ice Cave] and [Fly on your Wings] sections, you will 
have the airship, and will have plenty to do.  Well, the plot of course has its 
own order that you're supposed to do things in, but with the airship, the game 
is totally chaotic, and any traces of the linear beginning are completely gone.  
So, basically, you can do almost anything in any order from here on out.  Since 
I don't even know the real order off hand, I'll just give it to you in what I 
think is the best order.  

[King of the Dragons]
     We all know Bahamut, king of the dragons, one of the few characters to 
appear in every single Final Fantasy ever made.  While he plays a rather minor 
role in this game, it's still very helpful.  He is located on the Cardia 
Islands, which is a rather simple maze.  To get to him, find the island with 2 
holes that's covered with forest.  His hole is on the bottom right of this 
island.  Go see him and get the...
     WAIT!!!  There are advantages to delaying the class change.  While there 
are obvious reasons to get the class change early, such as more Magic and better 
Weapons and Armor, there are downs to hurrying.  Do they outweigh the 
advantages?  I don't know, that's for you to decide.  If this is your first time 
playing, you might as well go for it, as it'll make things easier for the time 
being.  But, if you know what you're doing, you might want to wait.  Although I 
have nothing concrete to prove it, I have noticed some down sides to forcing the 
class change.  I have noticed that particularly for wizards, but certainly not 
excluding fighters, particularly Fighter/Knights and Thief/Ninjas, my Hit Point 
gains started to drop off slightly.  One time,  I had a Knight who only had 
around 950 Hit Points at Level 50.  Then, I played another game through and 
delayed the class change until Level 30, and I had 999 HP by L 47.  Even worse, 
I noticed stat gains sloped off.  From my experience, I NEVER had a Fighter who 
failed to gain Strength, Agility, and Vitality on every single level, even up to 
30.  However, in another game, when I advanced to a Knight at Level 13, right 
away he stopped gaining Agility and Vitality every level.  I do not have 
anything to prove this to anyone, but I'm just passing on advice from my own 
personal experience, which I value, as I've played through this game, front to 
back, beginning to end, at LEAST 7 or 8 times.
     Well, I suppose it's your option to change now or wait, but I recommend 
waiting, as it will pay off in the long run.  If you think you can hold it out, 
I recommend to do so.  Take my advice or don't, but it's your loss (or gain).

     Wow, big turning point.  Now, you get better magic and armor, more powerful 
weapons, and an overall boost in power.  Not only that, now you will notice that 
some weak enemies will start to run away from you!  That leaves one less 
nuisance in the world.  When you hit L16, you will notice that more enemies will 
start to run away, such as Sahags.  And, although it's far away now, even really 
powerful enemies like trolls will start to run away at L50.  
     
[Shopping]
    Now that you have advanced classes and the ability to equip better weapons 
and armor, you will need to go shopping.  First, head to Gaia.  That's the town 
in the upper right corner of the map, surrounded by mountains, northeast of the 
Mirage Desert.  You should buy ProRings for everyone, as they prevent RUB and 
like spells.  Also, a CatClaw will be mildly helpful for boosting a Black 
Wizard's attack power.  Furthermore, you should buy a Gold Bracelet for everyone 
who needs one, such as White Wizards, Black Wizards, Red Wizards, and Masters if 
they are under L25 or so, which they probably are.  Well, you might have gone to 
Onrac, and if you didn't notice, they don't have any Weapon or Armor shops.  So, 
by now, for the most part, you either have most of the good weapons and armors, 
or you'll have to find them, not buy them.  However, Gaia does have some very 
useful things that you might want.  Gaia is an expensive place, so you might 
want to earn some money first.  Here are general price estimates per capita:
Knight: Proring(20,000)
Ninja: Proring(20,000)
Master: Proring(20,000) + Goldring(50,000)=70,000 GP
Red Wizard: Proring(20,000) + Goldring(50,000)=70,000 GP
White Wizard: Proring(20,000) + GoldRing(50,000)=70,000 GP
Black Wizard: Proring(20,000) + GoldRing(50,000) + CatClaw(65,000)=135,000 GP

Wow!  That's a lot of money!  This place is different because unlike most 
places, Black Wizards and Masters will be very expensive.  Usually Black 
Wizards/Mages are cheap equipment-wise, as with Black Belts/Masters, who are 
almost always free.  For sure, you'll be scraping the bottom of your pockets to 
pay the fees of the northern world.  Speaking of magic...
    In Gaia, there will be 3 out of 4 Level 8 Spells to choose from, plus 2 
Level 7 Spells for each color.  As if it's a big secret, there is a semi-secret 
passage in Lefien that leads to the 2 "best" magic spells in the game.  If you 
go to Lefien, go to the upper right section of town.  There will be a notch in 
the town gates for you to walk through.  Go to the right to find 2 small shops 
right next to each other... The LOST L8 MAGICS!  The White side has LIF2 and the 
Black Side has NUKE.  These 2 are definitely worth getting, but are unique to 
the Wizard of according color.  Speaking of choices, you will have some of the 
hardest to make here, provided you're not a Red Wizard.

Level 7 Magic:  Wow, it's been a long time since you bought magic.  Not to fear, 
magic is here!! If you haven't noticed, the odd numbered magics in this game are 
all of the same nature... CURE, HARM, and HEAL.  L7 is no real exception.  
You'll mostly see familiar spells here, but the choice will be no easier.  Ok, 
maybe it'll be a different story for the Red Wizard, but these spells will be 
very important.

Red Wizard:   ICE3 ARUB ----
White Wizard: CUR4 HRM4 ARUB or HEL3
Black Wizard: ICE3 SABR BRAK

     Well, like I said before, it'll be a tough choice unless you're a Red 
Wizard.  The Red Wizard can only get 2 L7 spells, ICE3 and ARUB.  Well, ICE3 is 
really nothing new, only it's very powerful.  I think it can do up to 240 damage 
to all enemies, and even more than that if they're weak against it.  ARUB is 
simple ARUB.  Enough said, right?  WRONG!  Well, yeah, it does prevent auto-kill 
attacks much like a ProRing except to the whole party.  However, there is 
something else I needed to mention.  When you use it, it says "Defend Magic".  I 
think this is very misleading.  I used to think that it might protect you from 
all magic spells, but I tried out, and it doesn't work.  I casted it 4 times 
between 2 Red Wizards, and FIR2 from the ManCats still did the same amount of 
damage.  Well, 'nuff said for the Red Wiz.
     Haha, another joke coming!  It will be tough to choose not because these 
spells are so good and you want them all, but because you DON'T want them all!  
Isn't that funny, the second best level mostly stinks.  Well, the White Wizard 
will definitely want CUR4, which you've been waiting the whole game for.  This 
spell restores your HP to the Max, no questions asked as long as you're not 
stoned or dead.  The Black Wizard, of course, will want his best Ice spell, as 
always.  However, after that, it's more of a tossup.  I really don't ever use 
any other L7 spells.  Well, HRM4 is just overkill, and you won't need that.  
Soon, you'll have 2 Light Axes and a Mage staff which cast HRM2 and FIR2, so you 
won't need magic points to kill the undead by the masses.  As for HEL3, if you 
read about the bug in the L5 Magic, HEL2 effectively has the same effect as 
HEL3, so using a Level 7 Magic point I obsolete when you could get the same 
spell in a L5 Magic Point.  Plus, HEL3 just isn't worth it, as it can't even 
restore 100 HP per warrior, and can get as low as 50.  The problem with this is 
that many enemies can do more than that to your whole party at once, like a Red 
Dragon with BLAZE.  As for ARUB, you always have ProRings.  If you don't, it's 
still more of a waste of a powerful spell for the chance that you'll get hit 
with a RUB spell, and it still doesn't work on the sorcerer's slay, so it's 
quite useless.  The Black Wizard is not a much different story.  You'll want 
ICE3 of course, but nothing else is really necessary, unless you'd like to have 
it just to have it, but believe me, it won't save your life.  SABR works to make 
his weapon better, but it only works on the caster, and the caster can not 
attack anyway, making this spell completely useless.  As far as I can tell, this 
only has the same effect as TMPR, the Level 2 Spell that works on anyone, and 
I'm not even sure that does anything.  Likewise with BLND, I did not notice any 
change in the enemy's attack pattern, a reduction in number of hit, OR a 
reduction in damage from each hit.  I realize that in Final Fantasy Legend, 
Blind meant that you do less damage, but I did not find that to be the case in 
FF1.  As far as I can tell, Blind does nothing.  I suppose BRAK is the only one 
left, which isn't exactly gold itself, but still costs plenty of it.  BRAK is 
much like RUB, I see no difference myself, but rather a higher magic point is 
used.  In fact, even RUB doesn't seem to work any better than the L5 spell BANE, 
which works on all enemies, not one.  Now, even Bane will become obsolete when 
you get the Bane sword in the Sky Castle, which casts BANE upon the using.  
You'll hear the same story with BRAK, it never works on the guys you need it to 
(WarMech).    

Level 8 Magic:  This is it.  This is the best magic in the game.  Well, for the 
White Wizard at least.  I noticed that just about every single high level magic 
spell for the Black Wizard either involves auto-kill or some status change.  I 
was disappointed to find out the uselessness of Level 8 Black Magic.  White 
Magic, on the other hand, was phenomenal.  All the best spells are here, 
including many spells that turned out to be predecessors to many spells in later 
Final Fantasies.  On another note, because these spells are so wonderful, the 
poor Red Wizard will be completely left out :(  Poor Red Wizard.

Black Wizard: NUKE ZAP! XXXX
White Wizard: LIF2 FADE WALL   

     Well, L8 will be another tough decision, much like the way L7 was.  With 
the White Wizard, you will find Level 8 Magic to be very useful.  LIF2 will 
probably one of the best spells you can come across, when your L50 Knight gets 
killed, and you don't want to cast LIFE and waste 998 HP worth of CUREs and HEAL 
potions.  LIF2 will revive a dead warrior to full health, no questions asked.  
FADE is an excellent spell.  It can do up to a little over 300 damage per 
monster, and unlike HARM, works on any enemy, not just undead.  You will 
definitely want this spell.  As for the last spell, it's not really important, 
you probably won't use it much anyway.  WALL is pretty good, because it defends 
against all elements and auto-kill, but Ribbon and ProRing basically do that.  
Plus, WALL only works on one ally at a time.  As for XFER, that is better known 
as Dispel in later Final Fantasies, which depletes good status, but ignores 
ailments.  However, there will rarely be a case where you will actually find an 
enemy that can use things like FAST, and even if they do, it's not that 
dangerous that you actually need to cast it.  Moving on, Black Magic isn't much 
better.  Nuke packs a mean punch up to 400 damage, but I thought that's what 
your Knights and Masters were for.  Besides, a Master can easily do 1000 Damage 
WITHOUT wasting magic.  Furthermore, the rest of the L8 Black Magic is utterly 
pathetic.  STOP is much like HOLD, just stuns the enemies for a while, but helps 
very little.  XXXX is just like RUB, which is inferior to BANE, which itself is 
even obsolete.  ZAP! is just another name for BANE, much like QAKE.  Same story 
with all these, they just don't work on guys you need them to.  So, NUKE might 
give you a run for your money, but I don't think anything else will in this 
spell level.

[EXTRA-FINAL FANTASY LORE]-The spell FADE will play a huge part in future Final 
Fantasies.  The oddest thing is that I have never see any other RPG where a die-
hard cure-type magic user ever got one and only one offensive spell.  I really 
like the idea of FADE, because it lets the White Wizard get some offense.  FADE 
was the only spell that lasted as the White Wizard's solely offensive spell.  In 
all other Final Fantasies but #1, you could use the CURE spell on you enemies, 
including the Undead, which eliminated HARM.  FADE was the only magic to be 
carried over to other games.  In US Final Fantasy 2, the tradition of FADE, 
which was the White Wizard's sole offensive spell that could hurt anyone, got 
its own element, Holy, and was renamed White.  In Final Fantasy 5 Jap, it was 
the forbidden magic, Holy, also with its own element.  Even in Final Fantasy 3 
US, it was still there, only as Pearl, yet still with its own element as well, 
Holy.  Even in Final Fantasy 7, it FADEd out (I'm so punny), but the Holy 
element still existed, and a summon god still had it.  Finally in Final Fantasy 
8, they revived it, with Holy elemental, a GF to compliment it, and the Holy 
spell was there again.  Wow, who would think FADE would last for that long?
     XFER never FADEd either, even through 8 Final Fantasies.  XFER removed 
special status bonuses without curing the ailments in FF1, and still does in 
every other Final Fantasy ever made.  However, the name was changed to a better 
one in my opinion, and still exists in Final Fantasy 8 as Dispel.
     Ok, we can't forget WALL either.  In Final Fantasy 1, WALL protected an 
ally form magical attacks.  In later Final Fantasies, it went so far as to 
reflect it.  Then, it reverted back to protection, this time with protection 
from physical damage too.  Even in Final Fantasy 8, this Limit Break for Selphie 
grants protection from physical and Magical attacks.

     Wow, all done with Magic!!  Now that you got your equipment and Magic, it's 
time to Rock!!!
     When you go from town to town, you will notice the horrifyingly steep 
prices of magic.  If you did not charge up levels enough, you might have to end 
up saving up.  So, I'll tell you about a few good places to earn some experience 
and cash before I go into magic too much.
     I'm sure I mentioned it before, but now would be a good time to go to the 
Hall of Giants again in the Earth Cave.  I'm sure I mentioned it before, but if 
you got the class change and some new equipment, any of your characters might be 
able to knock out a Giant or Iguana in one hit, making this much more efficient.
     However, there's an even better place.  To prepare, you must load up 
everyone with ProRings, or you will find this trip rather unpleasant.  Now, 
venture back into the Ice Cave.  You will be amazed how much easier this place 
is with a little better equipment and magic, plus resistance to auto-kill 
attacks.  Now, go fight the Eye.  He used to be perilous because of his plethora 
of auto-kill attacks, but now they're just wasted turns for you to kick the crap 
out of him.   He will give you 3228 Experience and GP, the EXP of course divided 
amongst the survivors.  The best thing about fighting the Eye is that he's easy, 
he has low HP so he doesn't take long to kill, has low defense so the Hit Points 
don't last as long, low attack power to reduce danger, and only one significant 
danger.  He can use Glance and turn you to stone.  However, he seldom uses it, 
and it usually doesn't work anyway.  If it's still a problem, equip a Ribbon to 
block it completely.  It's well worth the small risk for the amount of Exp you 
get combined with how little he hurts you.  Since he doesn't hurt you much, you 
can keep killing more and more without stopping to heal yourself (and god knows 
why anything that could reproduce this quickly hasn't taken over the entire 
world already).  Anyway, this way is quicker and safer than any other way I know 
to get up to level 50 and get the maximum amount of money, 999,999 GP.  
     There is another good place to charge up, but more for Gold rather than 
experience.  I'll give you more details about this in [The "Loot Root"] section 
of the walkthrough.

[Extra-the "Loot Root"] Ha ha.  Little pun reliant on pronunciation.  
     This is an extra trip that you might want to take if you've played this 
game before and you know what you're doing, but otherwise, just skip this 
section and move on.  Well, while probably hundreds of people claim they 
invented this trick, which involves scavenging the treasure out of all the major 
dungeons without really beating any that they don't have to.  I have to say that 
I invented it, but I think the case was just about everyone who ever played FF1 
invented it themselves, but never told anyone until they invented it too.  Now, 
it's more common knowledge, but in case you know stuff other than the common, I 
suppose it's worth mentioning.  
     Since this route is not official or linear, nor does it follow the plot for 
that matter, there really is no set way to do this, and there are many 
variations.  The main purpose of this is to get all the good treasure as quickly 
as possible so that you can use it to your advantage for all the stuff you 
skipped before.  I use this route a lot to save time, mostly because I'm too 
impatient to actually play through the game right.  Well, this is the way I 
invented the loot route, and I'm sure you might have invented it differently, 
but here goes the undetailed walkthrough of the LOOT ROOT:
   After you get the canoe, head over to the Castle of Ordeal and get the tail.
   Skip the Volcano, and get the FLOATER from the Ice Cave
   Get the Airship, and buy stuff you need
   Pick up stuff from the Waterfall and get the CUBE
   Pick up stuff from the top 2 floors of the Sea Shrine, then floor B1 and B2, 
after getting the OXYALE from the fairy
   Learn Lefienish with the SLAB and get the CHIME
   Get the stuff from the Mirage Tower/Sky Castle and kill Tiamat
   Kill Kraken, then Kary.

     Well, that's the Loot Root.  While I'm not too much of a fan of it myself, 
I have heard a lot about how great it is from many other people.  The one thing 
that really gets me, though, is the Sea Shrine.  It's pretty long, but if you 
just go to the top 2 levels, then the level right below that, you get all the 
best Knight gowns (Opal Armor), and you get the Mage Staff, and both Light Axes.  
This way, you can go back to the Waterfall if you would like to charge up on the 
undead monsters.  If you don't want to, head straight to the Mirage Tower to get 
the treasures there like the ADAMANT for Xcalbur.

[Techno-Waterfall] 
     Speaking of the Waterfall, it's time to go here next.  This is one thing 
that sets a classic RPG aside from just about all the others.  There's ALWAYS 
something behind the waterfall.  From the not-quite-RPG's like The Legend of 
Zelda, to the more modern classics like DragonView for Super Nintendo, and even 
Dragon Warrior 4 for the NES.  There's just always something behind the 
waterfall.  Period.  While the plot directs you toward the Sea Shrine, or the 
Submarine, I feel that it's much easier to go to the waterfall first, since it's 
so short, and the monsters are easier.  
     Wow, it's been a long time since you were in a big dungeon.  Well, although 
this is still not a big dungeon, it's still something to be looked upon 
likewise.  
     Perilous enemies are scarce here, and certainly nothing new.  You'll see 
Nightmares, but they're more of a pain than a threat.  MudGols will show up 
again, but they're no more of a threat than the Nightmares, unless they cast 
FAST on themselves and manage to get a few hits off, which is very unlikely at 
this point.  I suppose big packs of undead could be a hazard to a solo warrior, 
but there's nothing different about them here than anywhere else.  Your friends 
Cockatrices and Perilisks will be back, but with ProRings, Perilisks just don't 
seem to be much of a threat anymore.  Oh yeah, VERY rarely, you might find a Gad 
Dragon.  I suppose he could be a problem, but a round of good attacks should put 
him down quickly.  Maybe it's just me, but he seems to be much less of a threat 
than other Dragons.  
     While dangerous monsters are rare, good treasure is anything but hard to 
find.  This place is a maze with a treasure room at the end.  Just walk around 
for a while, you'll find your way around fairly easily.  Now, as soon as you 
enter the treasure room, there will be a spiked square filled with undead 
monsters.  You'll find combinations of mainly WzMummies and Mummies mixed with a 
couple Cockatrices and maybe a couple Perilisks.  I really don't like the name 
Wizard mummy, since they can't use magic and all.  I guess that's the best they 
could think of, I just don't think Green Mummy or Were Mummy would cut it.  
Anyway, this is a great place to charge up.  Each battle yields about 4000 GP, 
which will quickly add up to enough to buy at least one Level 8 Magic Spell or 
another Gold Bracelet.  However, you might not find this very convenient right 
now, as FIR2, FIR3, and HARM spells will quickly deplete, and attacking just 
isn't efficient for those big numbers of enemies.  If you would like to charge 
up here later, it will be really easy, as you will have a Mage Staff, 2 Light 
Axes, and the Zeus Gauntlet.  With the Zeus Gauntlet and the Mage Staff, you'll 
kill all the Perelisks and Cockatrices, then the supplementary Light Axes will 
kill any number of Mummies and Wizard Mummies.
     Although dangerous enemies are scarce, good treasure is a completely 
different story.  First, talk to the robot to get the CUBE, which you need to 
get into the Sky Castle, but you won't need that for a while.  You will find 
some good stuff in the treasure chests.  First, there is the Defense sword, 
which is the third best weapon for the Red Wizard, besides the Sun Sword, and 
the Masmune, of course, neither of which you have at this point.  The Defense 
sword casts RUSE in battle.  You will also find the Wizard Staff.  This is 
relatively useless, so you can sell it for 25,000 GP.  If you don't need the 
cash, you can keep it, as it casts CONF when used in battle.  Now, the grand 
finale! There's a Ribbon in here!  The Ribbon equips as a helmet, accessible to 
any class.  It only gives 1 or 2 defense, but the defense isn't half the story.  
First, it provides resistance to all the elements including poison-based 
attacks, such as Gas D and Tiamat's POISON.  Also, it provides resistance to 
just about all types of status ailments, not including Stone and Death.  
However, if the enemy inflicts this status with their attack, such as Asp with 
poison, you will still be liable to the status attack.  There is some other 
stuff in here, but I'll have to get back to you on that.
     Make your way out as easily as you went in, and it will be time for...

[The Oasis]
     Ok, this section is hardly worth mentioning, but it's still important, so 
I'll keep it short.  As you should know, you cannot land your airship right next 
to Onrac. You will have to land it just below the river leading to the 
waterfall.  Now, follow this up to the desert until you see a tiny patch of 
desert next to a couple trees.  You can land your airship on one of the desert 
patches, just look for the full sand-covered square in the tiny patch.  Now, 
take one step in any direction, and go back to your airship.  You will find 
yourself in the Oasis store.  The guy there will sell you a BOTTLE for 50,000 
GP.  Buy it.  You can buy several if you want, but you only get one regardless 
of how many you buy.  Exit the store.  Go to the item menu and use the BOTTLE.  
It will tell you that a fairy popped out, then is gone.  Now, go back to Gaia.  
All the way in the northeast corner of the town, you will find the fairy waiting 
for you there.  Talk to her, and she will give you OXYALE.  You will need this 
to breathe in...

[The Submarine]
     Now that you have completed the Earth Cave, and the Fire Volcano, it's time 
for the next theme dungeon with a corresponding Fiend.  As you could guess from 
the name SEA Shrine and submarine, this place will be water based.  In here, the 
monsters will generally be weak against LIT, so the Zeus Gauntlet will be useful 
here, as well as the Thor Hammer if you have it at this point from [The Loot 
Root].  Otherwise, LIT2/3 will come in handy, and the Mage Staff will be a small 
help, although most enemies are resistant to Fire.  Most of the enemies in here 
have pretty good attack power, but a lack of other strong attacks, so you will 
find that White/Black Wizards and Low-Level Masters, as well as ill-equipped Red 
Wizards will suffer here.  Good HP and Armor are musts.  
     The enemies in this shrine are quite a bit harder than anything else you've 
seen so far.  Unlike the Temple of Fiends and the Ice Cave, you will not find 
many, if any, horrible status attacks or related problems.  On the other hand, 
these guys are tough.  They have a lot of HP and defense, as well as crippling 
attack power.  For the most part, there aren't too many particular enemies to 
watch out for, but they will all wear you down substantially.  However, there 
are a couple treacherous guys to watch for.  Waters are probably the worst.  
They are quite hard to hit with their good evade, and what few hits you get will 
not hurt them much.  What little damage you do manage will still be a small 
chunk out of their high HP.  Yet, they have a nasty bite (or however the hell a 
little swirl can really hurt you), and can easily do 90+ to a well-armored 
Knight.  Use Ice for these little pricks.  Ghosts will not provide any relief 
either.  They usually don't stun as much as Geists hit-for-hit, but they can 
really pack a punch.  The can even do about 150 to a Master/Red Wizard, and 
maybe knock out a Black Wizard in one shot.  Don't bother with defense against 
these guys.  I usually use the Mage Staff, 2 Light Axes, and Zeus gauntlet, 
which should knock them all out.  If you'd like, you could even substitute the 
Zeus Gauntlet with HRM2 or FIR2.  You could use HARM3/4, but that would be a 
real overkill with all the other stuff you're using.  Lobsters are a nuisance as 
well, as they will poison you quite frequently, but Sea Snakes won't (Somebody 
had better fire whoever programmed this retarded game).  Most other enemies will 
be more of a bother than anything else.  
     Scavengers will be in paradise here.  This place has some good Knight 
gowns, including a full set of Opal accessories, although the body armor is 
below deck.  Equipped with all of it, a Knight will have 74 Absorb, enough to 
keep him alive through just about anything when combined with his high HP.  On 
the top floor with all the Mermaids (where most of the Mermaids are), you will 
find the Opal equipment, and the SLAB, which you must give to Dr. Unne in 
Melmond to learn the Lefeinish language, which will be important later.  
     Once you get all the stuff from the top two floors, I suggest you go back 
to the Inn and rest, and buy more HEAL potions if need be.  Then, head right 
back into the shrine and get the rest of the treasure.
     Now, we head to the bottom.  You will find the Opal Armor, as well as 2 
Light Axes, the Mage Staff, and a Ribbon.  The Light Axes will be very useful 
against the undead as they cast HRM2.  The Mage Staff will also be good against 
the undead, as it casts FIR2.  Although the Mage Staff will not be very useful 
in here except for Ghosts, it will come in handy in many places where enemies 
are weak against Fire.  
     Wiggle your way through the maze until you get to the bottom floor, where 
you will find the usually mysterious room, and someone will be waiting for 
you...

[Boss Fight]-KRAKEN
   HP-600
     Kraken is the third of the 4 fiends.  He will pose to be quite a threat to 
the weakly armored.  Rather than use nasty spells and horrible status ailments 
like RUB and BRAK, he mostly just attacks.  The bad thing about this is that he 
can ATTACK.  He will be able to get 8 hits on you at once, and nail you for over 
400 damage sometimes, enough to send a White/Black Wizard or a weak Master to 
the floor in a hurry.  Because of his high Hit%, no amount of RUSE or INVS will 
be able to completely protect you from his attack.  Even with 255 Evade, he will 
be able to hit you about once every 4 attacks, which always seems to be a 
Critical hit.  So, that eliminates the practicality of FOG, because Critical 
hits are not affected by defense.  He does cast LIT2/3 sometimes (seems odd 
seeing as he's weak against it), and that can hurt.  He will also use INK, which 
will Blind all characters, provided that they don't have a Ribbon on.  For some 
reason, Dark doesn't seem to have any effect on you.  It does not lower your 
Hit% at all.  However, in Final Fantasy Legend for Game Boy, Dark lowers your 
attack power by 25%.  However, I have not seen any impact on my attack power, 
despite being Blind.
     Kraken can be dangerous, but you should be able to get him without too much 
trouble.  His offense is very powerful, and he has a lot of HP, so you should 
concentrate on defense before offense.  Since his attack is clearly the biggest 
threat, start with 2-3 layers of INV2 to help reduce his attack power.  After 
about 3 shots of INV2, the biggest threat now will be LIT3.  Cast ALIT to 
nullify the danger of that.  Follow that up by FASTing your warriors, then 
continue with INV2 and healing.  
     If you have a high level Master, or more than one, you might want to change 
your game plan.  Try to FAST them first, and hope you can take the oversized 
octopus out before he can become a problem.
     Either way, you should be able to kill him without too much trouble.  He's 
really not that hard if you know how to fight him.  Do the orb-exit routine and 
get out of there.  When you are outside of Onrac, go right back in and stay at 
the Inn to save and rest.

[Lefein]
     Lefein seems to be very important to thin plot of Final Fantasy.  However, 
It seemed odd that it was just thrown in out of nowhere pretty late in the game.  
Anyway, if you go to this lost wooded town, you will find that they have a 
seemingly unintelligible way of talking.  To save you the effort of coming here 
in vain, take the SLAB to Dr. Unne in Melmond.  He will teach you the Lefeinish 
language.  Now, head to the ghostish town north of Provoka.  You will have to 
land you airship far to the northwest and hike down.  You will find some enemies 
familiar from power peninsula, plus some FrGiants.  
     Make your way into the town.  If you didn't figure it out by now, or you 
didn't know already, there is a secret Magic shop in the upper-right part of 
town.  This secret is so well-known, it makes me laugh just calling it a secret.  
Find the notch in the gate and head to the right to get NUKE and LIF2.  
     In the town, talk to everyone, who all learned to speak English when you 
were out learning Lefeinish.  You can talk to everyone to learn some interesting 
things about the plot.  However, all you really need to do is go to the top, 
head right, down, and talk to the guy standing still on the bottom left corner.  
He will give you the CHIME to unlock the Mirage Tower.  I never understood how 
that worked, but you need it for some reason or another.

[The Mirage Tower/Sky Castle]
     Wow.  This place is really loaded.  It's got everything: treasure, danger, 
cool new bosses (one of whom is harder than the end boss himself), and lots of 
new enemies.
     Boy, is this place loaded with treachery and nasty enemies!  Among others 
you will see your friend the Vampire from the Earth Cave, only in numbers this 
time, and in random encounters.  [NOTE-You can run away from these Vampires, 
unlike the Earth Cave].  A bite in the neck really hurts, causing at least 80 
damage a shot, which isn't pretty seeing as there can be up to 8 of them 
attacking at once.  You will see them hanging around with their superior 
friends, WzVamps.  WzVamps can cast a couple spells, none of which you should be 
worried about.  They can cast AFIR, which triples resistance to Fire.  However, 
seeing as they have no resistance to Fire in the first place, it will not do 
anything at all.  To beat these guys, just use your Light Axes, Mage Staff, and 
Zeus gauntlet to send these guys back into their coffins.  They should have a 
stake in this game, it would actually make a Hammer DO something!  You will also 
see Chimeras.  They will use BLAZE on you (or something to that effect), which 
will cause Fire damage.  Rather than waste an AFIR spell, just take them out 
before they can cause any trouble.  They are weak against Ice if you are 
inclined to use magic.  Worst of all, you will find ManCats.  These guys are 
really nasty, and don't play games.  They have a formidable attack for starters, 
but they will start out casting FIR2, which can really wear you down when they 
attack in sets of 8, even with AFIR.  They are not weak against anything.  Use 
NUKE if you have it, run, or take them out ASAP.  Although you will see many 
more guys in the Sky Castle, these are all you need to worry about for now.  Do 
not underestimate anyone in here, as they can wear you down very quickly.
     Head into the treasure room on the first floor where you'll find some 
interesting yet simple mazes to get tons of cool treasure.  I really don't know 
what is where, but there are some cool things on this floor.  Among Gold and 
HOUSEs, you will find a Vorpal, which only a Knight, Ninja, or Red Wiz can 
equip.  I find it odd because it doesn't do anything, and it's even weaker than 
the Ice Sword.  Anyway, it's worth some cash, if nothing else.  You will also 
find the Sun Sword, the best weapon for the Red Wiz save the Masmune, and the 
best for the Knight or Ninja up to this point.  Also on this floor is a Heal 
Helmet, which is just a tad weaker than the Opal helmet, but it casts HEAL in 
battle.  You will also find the best weapon (save the Masmune) for the White 
Wizard, the Thor Hammer.  You can actually hurt an enemy with this if you Attack 
(unlike other hammers), or USE it to cast LIT3, a great choice for undead or sea 
creatures.  As you progress up to the first floor of the Sky Castle, you will 
find the Bane Sword among other things.  The Sword itself is rather weak, but it 
casts BANE in battle, which will wipe out a whole group of enemies provided it 
works.  You should also find a Ribbon here, if not a floor above, same for the 
Dragon Armor.  On the next floor, you will find the ADAMANT on the southwest 
branch, which you need to give to the Dwarf Blacksmith in the Dwarf Cave (as if 
you couldn't figure out where it was) to get the Xcalbur, the best weapon that 
the Knight alone can use.  On the southwest corner, you will find the White 
Shirt, which only the White Wizard can equip, which he should.  This shirt will 
be VERY important regardless of who you have in your party.  Oddly enough, this 
cotton garment protects better than most Armors that the Fighter can bear, but 
that's hardly its strong point.  This wonder-cotton blouse casts INV2 when you 
USE it in battle, which is one of the most useful defensive spells in the game.  
Right next to this treasure chest is another White Shirt, only this time dyed 
black, and is complementary color Wizard.  The magic black dye in here causes 
ICE2 to be cast in battle when USEd instead of INV2.  I think there's another 
Heal Helmet here, but I'm not sure.  Don't worry, almost done, one more floor of 
treasure to go.  One more level up, you will find some second-rate treasure 
compared to what you got before.  Beware, in the upper right treasure room, on 
the left treasure column, there are two treasure chests containing Armor.  The 
one on top is the ProCape.  Do not pick up the lower one, which is a Cloth.  
Many times, I have thrown out a useful Armor to see what was in the chest, and 
it turned out to be quite a miserable surprise.  Other things on this floor 
include more second-rate stuff and a Katana, the ideal weapon for the Ninja.  
     Wow, what a long dungeon!  EIGHT floors of madness!  I'll spare you too 
many details and get on with it.  As you enter, you will see a room.  Go up into 
that room and collect the treasure, then go out of the room and take the 
upstairs near where you came in.  For this room, you will have to make your way 
up around the right side of the room (after getting the treasure) to get 
upstairs.  Once upstairs, you will find yourself above another room.  Hook down 
and enter but watch out for...

[Semi] Boss Fight-Blue Dragon
     Well, he's kind of a boss, so I have to mention him.  He can use POISON, a 
rather nasty attack that really hurts.  Not to fear!  He's rather wimpy, just 
pound him with your whole team and he should go down almost instantly

     Head up to the teleporter.  You can't get through here unless you have the 
CUBE.  You will now be in the sky castle.  You will find 4 branches around you, 
with you in the center.  Collect the treasure and go up to the next floor.  
Similarly, collect the treasure and head to the south branch to go up.  Again, 
this is pretty simple.  Get the treasure and head left until you find the     
up-arrow-teleporter-stair-thing.  This next room seems rather weird, it's really 
a maze, more of a grid than anything.  The weird thing is, that it overlaps, so 
if you go too far one way, you will end up on the other side, much like the 
Airship on the world map.  Go right 2 spaces and up 2 spaces, or zig-zag until 
you find the up-arrow-teleporter-stair-thing.  Now, you be at the bottom of a 
long hallway.  If you read Nintendo Power, you will know that you can encounter 
a WarMech here.  It says there is a 1 in 64 chance, but I think that's the 
probability of every step you take.  So...

[Maybe] SUPER BOSS FIGHT- WarMech
HP-1000
     This guy is NO JOKE.  Although this guy is much less elaborate than the 
Ultimate Weapons in Final Fantasy 7 or Omega in Final Fantasy 5/8, or Shinryuu 
in FF5, he is tougher than the end boss like many of the super bosses in the 
later Final Fantasies.  He has 50 Absorb, which can be quite hard to handle.  A 
Level 25 Master will score 1 damage per hit if he doesn't get a Critical.  He is 
VERY tough.  Chaos, the end boss, has about every trick in the bag, which he 
uses rather foolishly.  He uses ICE3 for 50 damage when he should use NUCLEAR 
for 300.  WarMech is much different.  He either attacks for 200-400 damage, or 
he uses NUCLEAR, which does up to 400 damage to you whole party.  I would say to 
wipe him out quickly before he causes harm, but you really can't.  FAST any 
fighting characters.  Have Red and White Wizards use INV2 to ease the pressure 
from his attack.  Use the White Shirt to help also.  NUKE and FADE make good 
attack for White and Black Wizards.  The Jack of all trades, the Red Wizard will 
be relatively useless except for using INV2, FAST, and CUR3.  If you have a 
White Wizard, use CUR4 if you HP gets low.  
     With any luck, WarMech will fall sooner or later.  When I played a solo 
White Mage walkthrough, this was the only enemy in the entire game that I could 
not defeat.  You will be well rewarded-32,000 GP and 32,000 EXP.

     Head on up the hallway to find the familiar scene with the fiend.  When you 
go up to the orb (oh come on! You've got to be stupid if this is actually a 
surprise by now)...

[BOSS FIGHT]-Tiamat
HP-1000
     The last of the 4 Fiends, and perhaps the hardest, is upon you now.  He 
kinda looks retarded, like a snake-dragon thing tangled up in itself.  He has 
some nasty auto-kill attacks, so equip ProRings beforehand or cast ARUB.  He 
also has a THUNDER attack, a nasty move that's like LIT3, only more powerful.  
He can also use POISON a nasty damaging attack.  The Aegis shield or the Dragon 
Armor can help protect against this.  He has 50 defense like WarMech, so only 
high level fighters will beuseful for hand/sword-to-whatever-he-has.  Use NUKE, 
FADE, CUR4, INV2, FOG2, ALIT, FAST, and related spells as usual.  He shouldn't 
be too much trouble.  Revive the ORB and exit, then head to the Airship.



Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, Heart!
     The time of trial is upon you, great Light Warriors.  Lick you wounds from 
Tiamat, rest up, and restock Heal Potions to the max, and buy at least 25 PURE 
and SOFT potions.  If you went to the circle of sages again as directed, or you 
read this, you will know to go to the Temple of Fiends.  Make sure you have the 
LUTE from the Princess from the beginning of the game.  
     Hm... Not much treasure in here considering where you are in the game.  As 
you may know, the legendary Masmune is here, on the second to top floor.  Also, 
you will find another Procape, and another Katana in case you have more than one 
Ninja (as if you could make it this far with 2 Thieves...).  Otherwise, this 
place is rather empty.
     Ah, danger, what can I say?  You'll find everything here.  Every single guy 
you've ever seen will come back to haunt you here, except the easy guys.  I'm 
pretty sure that you will find just about every single dragon here, except maybe 
the Blue D from the Sky Castle.  You will find Frost D's in packs of 4, who can 
freeze as many as 800HP out of you in a single round.  Gas D's will be back in 
full forced packs of 4 as well, whose Poison can cause 1200 damage Max on the 
whole party per round.  There really aren't that many new enemies who cause any 
particular problem in here, it's just the powerful and tough enemies really wear 
you down quickly if you don't know how to fight.  You will find Worms, who, 
unlike out segmented friends in the real world, could cause some problems.  They 
have pretty good HP, and can pack a mean punch, especially in packs of 4.  
What's worse?  You can't run!  You're stuck fighting.  You will be revisited by 
Elements, Earth and Fire, who will attack in 4's, and Water and Air, who will 
show up in up to nine at a time.  You can't run from any of these guys, and they 
have a merciless attack.  For solo players, the only way I found to survive was 
to use Defense/White Shirt repeatedly, no matter how hard they hit.  Eventually, 
they stopped hitting me, and I could kill them off, and restore some HP with my 
Heal Staff.
     Needless to say, this will be the hardest endeavor of the entire game, save 
maybe for the Ice Cave.  I say the Ice Cave is tough because you will be at the 
mercy of auto-kill attacks, so the journey is based on luck, not skill, levels, 
equipment, or strength.  In the Ice Cave, if you do not make it, you can go 
right back in and probably beat it.  In the Temple of Fiends, if you don't make 
it, you probably will have to charge up to stand much of a second chance.  The 
Temple of Fiends is hard because of the tons of enemies that will ruthlessly 
pound you.  Because of these enemies, you will find that luck plays a very small 
part in this dungeon.  Instead, Levels, attack power, defense, and magic will be 
important here.   
     Perhaps this might be ruining the challenge of this dungeon, but I suppose 
my job is to guide you through the whole game, especially the toughest parts, 
which I will do without fail.  Needless to say, this will be the longest dungeon 
in the entire game, and the hardest to navigate as well.  When you enter, you 
will not notice anything different than before.  Then, go into the room where 
Garland used to be and talk to the bats.  They'll have something more 
interesting than "Kee... Kee..." to say.  Go up to the Orb and Hit A to reveal a 
passage.  Note that when you step through here, the only way out is to reset, 
die, cast EXIT, or cast WARP several times.  You will find yourself in a room 
with a similar structure to the one you were just in.  Go up the stairs to the 
bottom right of the floor.  You will be in a small fenced off area, where you 
will go right to the next stairs.  You will be on another floor much like the 
one you started at.  Head to the bottom center of the floor and head up into the 
room.  Surprise...

[Semi] BOSS FIGHT- Phantom

     Phantom can be a rather tough enemy.  I heard a lot of nasty stuff about 
him, but I never failed to kill him in one round with a full-party attack.  If 
you're too insecure to fight, he's undead, so FIR3 or HRM3,4 will do nicely.  I 
would give you some more strategy, but he's just too easy to be worth it.  You 
will be rewarded a generous 1 EXP and GP for your efforts.

     Ok, you'll be in a room again.  Off to the right is a treasure chest with a 
small amount of GP, and a more significant amount to the left.  Either way, I 
have absolutely no need for money at this point, even if I was going to go out 
again.  You will find another stone plate at the top of the room, much like the 
one in the Earth Cave, only you will have to use the LUTE to open it.  Go in, 
and (surprise) you'll be on another generic-looking floor.  Head to the upper 
left corner to the stairs.  Then, follow the corridor to the left and up to yet 
another set of stairs.  This will lead you down to the Earth floor.  Head up, 
over, and down to get to the next set of stairs, which is neatly marked by 
columns and...

[BOSS FIGHT]-Lich revisited
HP-500
     This Lich is different than before.  He/she/it is stronger, has more 
defense and attack, and a nasty lineup of spells.  This Lich has NUKE, which can 
easily cause over 300 damage per character.  Have Knights/Masters/Ninjas/Red 
Wizards attack, and Black Wizards NUKE.  White Wizards should cast HRM3 or 4.  
You really want to put Lich away as quickly as possible to avoid getting NUKEd.  
If you think it's going to be a long battle, you may want to FAST instead if 
your levels are low.  
      You will be skimpily rewarded with 500 EXP and a GP.  Keep in mind that 
Lich and all the Fiends in here are spiked squares rather than physical enemies 
on the map.  I think this is stupid seeing as they regenerate instantly, yet in 
the present, there's only one of each.  Little logic error there.

     Go down the stairs to the Fire floor.  I always have trouble finding the 
little doors here, so here's a mini-detailed walkthrough.  Go down to the wall, 
left to the wall, up 3 steps, left 2 steps, and up to the wall.  Enter the door 
a step to your right.  Then, go up a few steps until you can do right.  Head 
down the hallway until you see 2 statues below you.  Go down to the wall.  Take 
s step right, then five down.  Head down-left into the mini-room.  You can go 
down to find a few treasures, or go up to the stairs...

[BOSS FIGHT]- Kary revisited
HP- 700
     Again, Kary has a 100 HP boost and more power.  She will only cast FIR3 and 
HOLD (I think), so AFIR should be sufficient for defense.  Just attack and use 
normal boss tactics, but go easy on the Magic; you'll need it for later.

     As you might guess, you'll now go to the Water floor.  Head down a little, 
then all the way to the right, and in the bottom-right door.  Follow that down.  
Go out and up to the next room.  Follow that left to the first entrance.  Head 
down and into the corridor.  Beware, only about 3 steps into the corridor is...

[BOSS FIGHT]- Kraken revisited
HP-900
     Like the others, Kraken has stat boosts and 100+ HP.  Kraken can be very 
dangerous; he has a really nasty attack.  To kill him, have your fighters 
attack.  Red Mages and White Mages should use the White Shirt or cast INV2 or 
FOG2.  Black Wizards won't really be much help here, but he can use the White 
Shirt if he has it.  Otherwise, you can cast NUKE if you have the Magic Points 
to spare, or cast LIT3 instead.  Kraken is tough, but he'll go down, giving you 
your skimpy reward in return.

     In case you haven't figured this out by now, you will find the Air floor 
next.  You should go all the way down and right to get the Masmune, the best 
sword in the game by a huge margin.  It has 56 Damage and 50 Hit%.  You will 
then have to backtrack to pretty much where you started from.  From the 
beginning, if you go right through one corridor, in the next you will find...

[BOSS FIGHT]- Tiamat revisited
HP-1100
     This guy is pretty tough, and he might catch you by surprise with low HP if 
you're not careful.  Well, Level 40+ Masters can take him out in one hit, but 
let's not assume you have one.  Tiamat will be tough.  He has a nasty arsenal of 
spells and special attacks.  He has high HP, so you most likely won't be able to 
remove him in one round.  You should start with INV2 to avoid his attack, and 
FAST will be helpful here.  You should most likely let off a NUKE here.  If you 
are at level 26 or higher, a Black Wizard will have 2 Magic Points for Level 8, 
so you should use one now and one for Chaos.  However, the White Wizard should 
not use FADE, because you want to save all your level 8 Magic for Chaos.  
Otherwise, just fight away and Heal as needed.

     The pressure's on!  Head up-right to the last set of stairs, no suprises 
here, just the last floor.  There are no enemies up here, just wonder around for 
a while; this place was just so interesting for some reason.  If I have to tell 
you, HEAL UP TO MAX HP.  (As if you'll be using the extra Heal potions after the 
battle anyway).  Head into the room.  You'll see ???, who will tell you about 
how ???.  Finally, you'll fight the final battle, go for the gold...

[BOSS FIGHT]   ---CHAOS---
HP-2000

     Well, I'm sure you've heard about all the horror stories about how hard 
this guy is, but I found Chaos rather disappointingly easy, even at Level 29 
with a Knight, Ninja, White Wizard, and Black Wizard.  You, on the other hand, 
might not see him as quite a cinch.  He has a nasty attack, and solo characters 
will rely on luck here more than anything.  Chaos has nearly every mean attack 
in the game, but the combination if them makes them much less dangerous.  He 
will use ICE3, FIR3, and LIT3, which will waste his turns doing little damage to 
you, and give you that much more of an opportunity to hit him back.  
     Strategy is very important here.  Chaos's worst attack is CUR4.  He will 
use it about every 7-8 rounds, and he'll get all his HP back.  Instant reaction: 
kill him: quick.  This is a bad plan.  Take your time.  See, all magic enemies 
have a cycle of spells.  When they use a spell, they move on, and don't use it 
until the cycle comes back to that spell again.  So, Take your time.  Don't 
attack.  Instead, POWER UP.  FAST all your Knights/Ninjas/Masters/Red Wizards.  
Use the Power Gauntlet if you have it.  Cast SABR, TMPR, INVS, FOG.  If your 
White Wizard has the Magic Points left, WALL himself, then the person in the 
lead, and maybe the other 2 if you want to blow off your MP.  Use the White 
Shirt, INV2, and FOG2 until it comes out your ears.  Cast ARUB, AICE, AFIR, 
ALIT, and AMUT.  Heal up as needed  Then, as soon as he casts CUR4, start your 
attack.  Go all out.  Be ruthless, merciless.  Explode: This is it.  Swing your 
swords and fight with flying fists.  Fry him with FADE and NUKE.
     Keep attacking, don't let up.  Use CUR3/4 when you need to.  Chaos should 
go down far before he gets the chance to use CUR4 again.  If he doesn't, you'll 
just have to try again.  If you made it this far, I don't see any possibility 
that you wouldn't be able to put Chaos away.
     I won't ruin the ending when you beat Chaos, sorry, you'll just have to see 
it yourself.  I won't tell you if it's disappointing of the best ever, nor will 
I tell you what happens, or say anything more.  It's up to you!
[THE END]



V.  Epilogue- Comments, questions, and answers

     I still remember the cold fall morning when I beat Chaos for the first 
time.  I was 6 years old, and had been playing this game nonstop for the 2 weeks 
after I got this game for my birthday.  I got up real early on Saturday morning 
to play.  After a long journey to the temple, I finally marveled at how amazing 
he looked, as that was about as real as NES graphics got.  I started the fight, 
and was so happy to finally defeat the end boss.  However, I was the slightest 
bit sad because this was it, no more.  I couldn't believe the game was over- all 
over!  I wanted more.  I started playing again instantly, experimenting with 
different parties, and playing over and over again.  I knew this game was really 
something special.
     It never occurred to me at the time how big this game was.  Most of my 
friends never even heard of it, and most of them told me how stupid it was when 
they first played it.  I have to admit, I didn't really like it that much when I 
first picked up the controller, but I was very intrigued by the class system, 
and quickly got very involved in the game.  I had anticipated getting this game 
for the longest time.  I rented the game one time before I got it for my 
birthday, and I played it all day.  This was definitely something to be 
remembered for a long time.  I had no idea how big this game was, and not a 
single clue as to how big it was going to be.  10 long years later, here I am, 
writing a walkthrough for the original game I so loved.  Now, Final Fantasy goes 
up to 8, but hasn't stopped there.  There is also Final Fantasy Tactics, a newer 
game aimed more at the classic RPG style.  On top of this, there are 3 Game Boy 
Games from the same makers, under the name Final Fantasy Legend, FFL2, and FFL3.  
Long live the continual episodes of the last Fantasy!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Final Fantasy Walkthrough
Written by Brian Lennon, aka Edge
[email protected]
Feel free to ICQ me at 38278886 or Email me at [email protected]  
Remember, this is to help everyone.  If you have a question, ask me!  This is 
here for YOU!
Copyright by Brian Lennon, 7/28/2000.  This work may not be reproduced without 
permission form the author.  This work may not be sold or profited from in any 
way.  Feel free to link my site to yours, just keep your site updated so that 
everyone may have access to the latest versions.
[NOTE]-If you have anything to contribute to my site, feel free to email or ICQ 
me, and I will accredit you accordingly.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Versions

v 0.3
7/28/2000/12:30-2:30 AM- Started this project.  Got the general outline done and 
finished the Introduction, getting started, and stat explanations.  Started the 
characters section.

7/28/2000/1:30-4:45 PM- Finished the characters section.  Did the FAQ and the 
[Coneria] section of the walkthrough (Just that took 3 hours ugh).
          5:30-7:00 PM- Finished the [Arrrr Matey!] part of the walkthrough and 
added a special trick to power up levels
          7:00-8:00 PM-Started [Time for a Nap!] section of the walkthrough and 
made price estimates for all the characters.
8/05/2000/9:00-10:00 PM-Just got back from vacation.  Finished [King of the 
"Marshians"] section, and did [Northwest Castle].
8/06/2000/1:00-2:30 PM-Did some revisions and corrections.  Finished Lists/ 
Analysis for all Magic up to L4.  Added some more detail to other sections.
          7:30-9:00 PM-Finished the [Time for a Nap!] subsections and did the 
[Kaboom!] section.
8/07/2000/8:00-9:30 PM-Did [Side Trip to Crescent Lake] Section
8/08/2000/1:30-2:00 AM-Finished the Weapons, Armor, and Magic for Crescent Lake.
8/09/2000/1:00-1:30 AM-Did some refining on the [Statistics] Section and started 
[The First Orb] section.
          9:30-11:00 PM-Finished [The First Orb] section.  Did [The Titan and 
the Ruby] section.
 v 1.0
8/10/2000/8:00-8:45 PM-  Did [The Earth Cave] section
8/11/2000/7:00-8:30 PM-  Did [A Choice] Section and started [Gurgu Volcano]
8/12/2000/10:30-11:00 PM- Finished [Gurgu Volcano] Section
8/13/2000/9:30-11:00 PM- Did [The Ice Cave] Section
8/17/2000/4:30-5:00 PM- Added a guide for the Marsh Cave
8/18/2000/3:30-4:30 PM- Did [Fly like and Eagle] Section and most of [Tale of a 
Rat] section. 
          10:30-11:00 PM- Finished [Tale of a Rat] section
8/25/2000/9:45-10:30 AM- Did [Stuff to Do] and started the [Shopping] sections 
of the walkthrough.
          9:15-9:45 PM-  Updated some information about statistics.
8/26/2000/10:00-11:00 PM- Updated some more information about stats, corrected a 
few mistakes, and added lots more to the [Shopping] section of the walkthrough.
          12:00-2:45 AM- Started [Techno-Waterfall], added more to [Shopping],  
finished Magic sections (ugh), and did [The Loot Root].
8/28/2000/3:00-3:30 PM- Finished [Techno-Waterfall] and did [The Oasis] section.
8/30/2000/5:30-6:15 PM- Did [The Submarine] and [Lefein] sections, and started 
[The Mirage Tower] Section.
8/31/2000/7:00-7:30 PM- Worked on [The Mirage Tower] section.
9/05/2000/8:00-9:00 PM- Finished [The Mirage Tower] section.
9/16/2000/9:30-11:30 PM-After 43 pages, an 11 day break, and 2 hours tonight, I 
finally completed my walkthrough, so all may read and enjoy.