latest_walkthrough

## Intro
* Enkibot is a hints file generator built by the Something Awful fiesta community.
* Questions, corrections, suggestions? Come hang out on irc.synirc.org #ffvfiesta.
* Other resources that I'd reccomend:
* - http://ffvspirit.com/ has the best general-purpose walkthrough I know of.
* - http://www.cavesofnarshe.com/ff5/ is slicker but assumes you have all classes...
* - http://tinyurl.com/jfxrqdv is the GFAQs mechanics guide; has all boss AI scripts (hyperlinked version by Sax Solo)
* - http://tinyurl.com/ovua3zd is @GarlyleWild's Fiesta Handbook

## Class Tips
* Here are some basic general tips based on the classes you've selected...
* [KGT] The Knight seems straightforward, but the combo of !Guard + Cover is amazing.
* [KGT] If the party is in critical HP, you ignore all single-target physical attacks.
* [KGT] This is especially brutal with a way to inflict Berserk.
* [KGT] (White Mages can do so easily with a spell; staff and rod-users can later on).
* [KGT] So can chemists, though if you have Chemist you probably don't need to coverscam to win.
* [KGT] Bear in mind that even if you have Two Handed equipped, you CAN equip a Shield mid-combat through the item menu!
* [KGT] This is super useful with elemental absorption shields or the blessed Aegis.
* [MNK] Monks do amazing damage at first, but rapidly taper off after World 1.
* [MNK] Barehanded attacks can crit, allowing you to penetrate high physical defense.
* [MNK] HP+XX% abilities can allow your squishier classes to survive the final boss' Almagests.
* [MNK] The Deep Sea Trench has the Kaiser Knuckles which can boost your monk's damage output, but not by enough.
* [MNK] Seriously, you can't wear them together with Hermes Sandals, so they're pretty much trash.
* [MNK] Most parties will just use their monk as a very durable itembot later in the game.
* [THF] Thieves have access to some very good stuff early on.
* [THF] Unfortunately, bad stats and garbage gear options probably make Thief the worst of the Wind jobs overall.
* [THF] I'll try to note particuarily juicy steals as the walkthrough goes on.
* [THF] The capstone Thief ability, Footwork, grants +16 agility which is actually a lot.
* [THF] Lastly, remember that the Thief's !Mug ability is a safe way to use the Chicken Knife.
* [BLM] Black Mage is pretty broken.
* [BLM] Black Mages should remember Rods also enhance the power of elemental spells by +50%.
* [BLM] just blow up everything in the game, black magic's damage output is obscene.
* [BLM] Your currently equipped weapon can be changed from the Item Menu.
* [BLM] Flare kind of sucks. It's not worth doing Fork Tower for by itself.
* [BLM] If your party is Reflected, you can bounce a groupcast spell off for 2x damage.
* [WHM] White Mage is pretty broken.
* [WHM] The White Mage's Protect and Shell allow you to sandbag almost any encounter endlessly.
* [WHM] Many bosses are vulnerable to the Confuse, Silence, and Berserk status effects.
* [WHM] Berserk is especially effective when combined with Blink/Image.
* [WHM] Casting Mini on the party raises their evasion into the stratosphere if they have a shield.
* [WHM] Once you have it, Holy is a fantastic single target damage option, on par with other power classes.
* [BLU] Blue Mage is completely broken.
* [BLU] Highlights: one-shot 50+% of the bosses in the game with Dark Spark + L5 Death.
* [BLU] http://gfycat.com/TerrificKeyEmperorshrimp
* [BLU] Goblin Punch is a safe way to wield the Chicken Knife and Excalipoor on a physical class.
* [BLU] Goblin Punch also does 8x (wtf) damage to enemies of the same level, which may be abusable.
* [BLU] White Wind is the best healing spell in the game, and works on Bonemail wearers.
* [BLU] L2 Old isn't as impressive as L5 Death, but trivializes several very hard fights.
* [BLU] Mighty Guard is basically farewell to being worried about straight damage, forever.
* [BLU] With the wind-boosting Air Lancet, the Aero/ra/ga line of spells is solid damage.
* [BER] Berserker is, all joking aside, a surprisingly solid class.
* [BER] It's when you're assigned multiples that you start having trouble.
* [BER] They hit super hard, get plate armor, and can equip daggers if accuracy is a thing.
* [BER] Special shoutout to the Death Sickle you can farm in late World 1.
* [BER] It can cast Doom when it hits, and you can scam instant kills on a lot of bosses with it.
* [BER] Special comedy option: berzerkers with a mage command are brutal with a Rune Axe equipped.
* [BER] That's 'comedy' as in 'it's comedic how fast the boss melts', by the way.
* [BER] On the SNES version only, a Berserker (3 magic) with a Thornlet (-5 magic) underflows to 253 magic.
* [BER] The Gaia Hammer, which casts Quake when attacking, deals stupid amounts of damage with those stats.
* [BER] If you've got a 3 berserker fiesta, I strongly encourage you to start on SNES.
* [MYS] Mystic Knight is completely broken.
* [MYS] Status effect sword magic has a 100% chance to land for all non-immune enemies.
* [MYS] Several bosses have status effect 'immunity' via high magic evade; you ignore that.
* [MYS] Level-3 elemental swords instantly kill anything with a weakness to it, or do 9999 to Heavy.
* [MYS] Use Drain or status swords in random encounters; elemental swords do nothing vs. neutral.
* [MYS] If you need to quickly disenchant a sword, just un/re-equip it from the item menu.
* [TIM] Time mage is on the precipice of completely broken.
* [TIM] Time Mages may not be able to heal, but they can use the Healing Staff from Tycoon.
* [TIM] They can also break rods if they need insane damage before they get Comet.
* [TIM] The Slow spell is available early and works on, like, everything.
* [TIM] Comet and Meteor do damage independent of your stats/gear and cannot be reflected.
* [TIM] Time-based effects like regen continue during Quick, making regen a full heal.
* [TIM] You can kill anything in the game (very slowly) by casting Quick, snapping a Venom Rod, and fast forwarding.
* [SUM] Summoner is pretty broken.
* [SUM] They have incredible damage output, but will generally only have one 'good' element at a time.
* [SUM] Remember that you can always snap an elemental rod at need for fire/lightning/ice.
* [SUM] Don't bother not learning optional summons to boost !Call; it's just not very good.
* [SUM] Air Lancet boosted Syldras are your best offensive option through the endgame.
* [SUM] This makes the side quests to get Bahamut and Leviathan kind of pointless.
* [SUM] Don't underestimate Golem: he can singlehandedly neuter physical-heavy bosses.
* [SUM] ...or anyone you can land Berserk on, which Summoners can with the Wonder Rod...
* [RDM] Sorry, Red mage kind of blows, unless you have another mage and the patience for Doublecast.
* [RDM] By itself, Red Mage's only offense is rod snapping. Stock up.
* [RDM] Yes, they can equip swords. Yes, they have absolutely no strength and less survivability.
* [RDM] More importantly, they can equip staves, granting early access to Cura (Healing Staff) and Berserk (Power Staff).
* [RDM] There's a surprising amount of utility in low-level White Magic, especially with Doublecast.
* [RDM] Being able to heal/protect/raise 2 twice in one action is surprisingly good.
* [RDM] You can also stick Confuse/Silence/Sleep onto enemies much more reliably.
* [RDM] If the rest of your party is strong, I wouldn't advise grinding out Doublecast, though.
* [BST] Beastmaster is completely broken, but it takes significant amounts of effort.
* [BST] You're looking at the best value in the Job Fair by far here--you're getting broken-class power for dumpster-class prices.
* [BST] !Releasing the correct monster will trivialize any boss fight.
* [BST] I've tried to note in the individual boss entries the best release I know of.
* [BST] Remember that Beastmasters aren't the worst physically, and can attack from the back row.
* [BST] Whips are actually really solid weapons; there are a few edge case uses for Equip Whips.
* [BST] !Calm also works on a surprisingly large amount of things, and can be used to stunlock several annoying bosses.
* [GEO] hahaha you got geomancer
* [GEO] !gaia sucks
* [GEO] bell weapons suck
* [GEO] their base stats suck
* [GEO] just job fair it
* [GEO] secretly kind of amazing in steam/mobile since they changed how !gaia works, it's super bullshit 64 now
* [NIN] The Ninja's Dual Wield is as good as ever, especially on other classes.
* [NIN] Having it on the off-hand is a safe way to wield the Chicken Knife.
* [NIN] But the real power ability is often !Throw. The scrolls have a higher base power than level 3 magic!.
* [NIN] Remember that most abilities 'grant' a stat increase to go with it.
* [NIN] Giving a Ninja a high magic ability like !Summon or !White makes scrolls completely obscene.
* [NIN] Also: did you know that the elemental rods boost the elemental scrolls by 50%?
* [NIN] You can just bury everything in the game, including the final boss, in a hail of anime wallscrolls.
* [BRD] The Bard is secretly one of the best classes in the game.
* [BRD] Equip Harps transfers great agility and magic, which is nice for Rune Axe zerkers, ninjas, etc.
* [BRD] Love Song and Charm Song are fantastically effective against random encounters.
* [BRD] The stat-boosting songs allow you to steamroll any boss you can stay alive against.
* [BRD] The final boss ain't got nothing on a level 255 party with 99 strength, magic, and speed.
* [RAN] Ranger is pretty broken, but not until you pony up 600 AP.
* [RAN] The Ranger's signature ability is !X-fight/!Rapidfire, which hits 4 times for half damage.
* [RAN] It also never misses, procs Magic Sword, ignores defense (!) and is Chicken Knife OK (!!).
* [RAN] This rarely comes up in a fiesta, but savor the combination of Ranger+Spellsword if you get it.
* [RAN] also they can use bows and summon animals like jrpg saint francis i guess
* [RAN] If you're between level 10 and 19, you'll usually get a powerful heal-all effect from !Animals.
* [SAM] The Samurai is basically a big beefcake with a few dirty tricks available at need.
* [SAM] Katanas can crit, ignoring physical defense.
* [SAM] !Giltoss/!Zeninage is expensive, but it's amazing all-target damage.
* [SAM] !Slash/!Ianuki is a fucking 85% chance of instant death to all enemies.
* [SAM] A surprising number of bosses are not Heavy, and are therefore vulnerable to this.
* [DRG] The dragoon is a beefcake with almost no dirty tricks available. Vanilla but decent.
* [DRG] !Lancet is a last-resort method for any mages you have to restore their own MP mid-fight.
* [DRG] It's straight up unuseably bad off a Dragoon's innate magic score, though.
* [DRG] Remember that !Jump does full damage when used from the back row.
* [DRG] Careful timing and knowledge of boss patterns also allows you to dodge nasty attacks.
* [DNC] Dancers are an extremely squishy front-row class which is way too luck-dependent.
* [DNC] But in the 1/4 chance that they roll Sword Dance on !Dance, they're amazing.
* [DNC] If you got Monk, Barehand is compatible with Sword Dance and really funny, since it can crit.
* [DNC] Certain pieces of gear boost the rate of Sword Dances, amping their lategame offense.
* [DNC] Sword Dance is also, at need, a safe way to wield the Chicken Knife.
* [DNC] The real benefit of rolling Dancer is the ability to learn Equip Ribbon.
* [DNC] Being able to ignore almost all status effects is exactly as dumb as it sounds.
* [CHM] Chemist can solo the game, effortlessly. It's obscene. It makes Blue Mage look bad.
* [CHM] !Drink allows them to haste themselves and double HP, making survivability easy.
* [CHM] But the real power of the class is in !Mix... (http://i.imgur.com/MBJBNvG.gif)
* [CHM] Their staple is Drain Kiss (Turtle Shell + Maiden's Kiss), which is a fucking power-255 Drain.
* [CHM] That's stronger than Meteor, Holy, and Flare, available in World 1, and heals the user too.
* [CHM] Turtle Shell mixes can also haste, protect, shell, cure, revive, MP refresh.
* [CHM] !Mix can also give elemental/status immunities and inflict aliments with 100% accuracy.
* [CHM] There are also 'Super Saiyan' strategies wherein a Chemist becomes immune to literally everything using !Mix.

## Post-Wind Shrine
* Most classes will not need to purchase gear in Torna to beat Karlabos, but it's cheap.
* [BST] If you plan on releasing it against the Antlion, don't open the trapped chest in the Training House.
* [BRD] There's a piano in Torna, for parties with bards.
* [BLU] You can revisit Faris' hideout now, to learn Vampire from the bats there.

## Karlabos
* The Something Awful Forums -> Let's Play -> Let's All Solo FFV And Get Murdered By Karl Boss
* 650 HP; can inflict paralysis or lower a character to 1 HP. Basically the worst for solo games.
* Just Potion up after getting hit by Tail Screw and you'll be fine.
* [KGT|MNK] You'd kind of have to be trying to lose with Monk or Knight.
* [BLU] Blue Mages should make sure they learn Vampire and Goblin Punch first.
* [BLM] Black Mages can absolutely wreck him with Thunder, which he's weak to.
* [WHM] If you're stuck with four White Mages, you'll probably need to grind out another point of M at level 8.
* [THF] Thief gets more points of M at levels 5 and 11. You may need to grind it out, or spend an inordinate amount of potions.

## Ship Graveyard
* If you're feeling the pain w.r.t healing, the Calcruthls in here rarely drop Elixirs.
* The room with the three treasure chests after the save point is the best place to grind those if you need.
* Don't forget, if you need to grind for any reason, you can sleep below decks on Faris' ship(wreck).
* [WHM] The enemies here are Undead, which makes this a great place to gain levels with your White Mages.
* [WHM] Make sure you pick up the hidden Flail; White Mage parties will rely on it for damage for a while.
* [THF] The Daggers dropped by skeleton enemies here are a nice upgrade from Knives; get four before fighting Siren.
* [KGT] Because they factor AGI in, the Daggers dropped by skeleton enemies here are an upgrade from your Broadswords.
* [NIN] If you expect to have trouble vs. Byblos, you can farm Fire Scrolls off the Psycho Heads here.

## Siren
* 900 HP; switches between a high-MDEF human form and a high-PDEF undead form.
* She has the heavy flag, so no getting cheeky with Phoenix Downs (which are expensive rn anyway)
* [WHM] You can use Cure to deal big damage to her undead form.
* [WHM] The Flail ignores defense, which means you can actually also do some pretty nice damage to her human form.
* [WHM] Remember that the Flail can be used from the back row at 100% damage.
* [BLM] lol just nuke her with fire.
* [BLU] Don't try to use Vampire on her Undead form; the results are as predictable as they are unfortunate.
* [MNK] Fist criticals can penetrate Siren's hefty physical defense even in undead form.
* [BST] Chaos Beastmasters can catch a Carcruthl to instatly kill her with Hug.

## Kerwin/North Mountain
* You don't care about it now, but unless you have Blue/Time, confused gaelicats on North Mountain are your only way to get Float.
* The hidden Frost Rod in Kerwin lets you trivialize either Magissa or Garula, so get it.
* [WHM] Pick up Armor/Protect in the Kerwin magic shop. Trust me on this one.
* [BRD] There's a piano here in Kerwin, too.
* [KGT] Optionally, get the heavy armor from the armor shop in Kewin; it's a nice upgrade.
* [KGT] More importantly, definitely buy LongSwords. They're much better than dagger or broadsword.
* [THF] You can steal Softs from the Cockatrices on North Mountain, which is nice.
* [THF] You can steal SilverGlasses from the tombstones; they'll be pretty handy in the Fire Ship coming up.
* [BLU] If you restore their MP with Ether, you can learn Flash from the tombstone enemies in North Mountain.
* [BLU] I'm not actually sure it's worth it, frankly.

## Magissa + Forza
* 650 HP; alternates between black magic and drain/fight. Summons Forza at 300 HP.
* Forza has 850 HP and can easily one-shot a squishy character in the front row.
* [WHM] It's technically quite easy to sandbag your way through Magissa's 200 MP before she summons Forza, if you have !White.
* [THF] Just bring a lot of potions if you have 4 thieves. There's no real way to finesse this fight.
* [THF] If you're really in trouble, grind to level 16. With 4 Daggers, you can bring Magissa from 320 to dead in one set of !Fights.
* [BLM|BLU] You can snap the Frost Rod from Kerwin here for dumb amounts of damage; pushing Magissa from 300-0 like that skips Forza.
* [BLU] If you're not going to abuse rod snapping, your Blue Mage can blind Forza easily.
* [BLM] If you're not going to abuse rod snapping, you can also just Sleep Forza and unload on Magissa.

## Walse/Walse Tower
* The waterfall behind Walse Castle has the Shiva fight, which is critical for Summoners.
* ...but you won't have Summoner until after the next dungeon.
* [KGT] You can buy Iron armor in Walse town, which isn't strictly necessary since you can cheese Garula easily with your Knight.
* [THF] Strongly consider the Kempo Gi armors from Walse town; you're gonna want every edge you can get for Garula.
* [THF] Please, please, please steal four mythril daggers from the Y-Burns (sorry, wyverns) in Walse Tower.
* [THF] Also, buy a fuckton of potions. Sorry, Garula just sucks for thieves.
* [BLU] In the waterfall behind Walse Castle, you can learn Frog Song. Not only is it very good vs. Garula, it's a generally nice spell to have.
* [THF] Thieves have a fairly easy time getting the Elven Mantle in the basement of Walse Castle. It's nice vs. Garula.
* The RicardMages in Walse Tower can drop Flame Rods, if you snapped the free Frost Wand on Magissa and want to trivialize Garula.

## Tycoon (optional)
* Check a world map to see how you can get back to Tycoon Castle early with the dragon.
* Treasure includes valuable healing items, such as multiple Elixirs.
* You'll also get a Healing Staff, which casts Cura instead of attacking, and is totally amazing.
* [SAM] You'll also get an Ashura katana, which is the first possible katana for samurai-havers.
* [SUM] This is also a good time to head to the tower behind the waterfall in Walse to get Shiva.
* [SUM] Worst case scenario, use a Fire Rod from Walse Tower (you did farm an extra, right?) or buy one in Karnak and come back.

## Garula
* 1200 HP, begins countering every attack with Rush at 800 HP.
* A definite trainwreck waiting to happen for unlucky and unprepared players.
* [BLU|BLM] Of course, you could pretty much just toast him with one snapped rod farmed from a RicardMage downstairs.
* [KGT] Knights can cheese this fight hilariously with three critical-HP characters and one spamming Cover.
* [KGT] Garula can't do anything to you, it's hysterical.
* [KGT] Well, OK, he can still inflict HP Sap. Bring a few potions or something.
* [WHM] White Mages can cast Protect to make Garula's offense half as dangerous.
* [WHM] For 4x WHM parties: put everyone in the back row and ONLY attack with the Flail to minimize counterattacks.
* [WHM] It's easy enough to grind out. Also completely infuriating.
* [THF] 4x Thief parties should have a mythril knife attacker in the front row and 3 potion chuckers in the back row.
* [THF] Seriously expect to burn through 50-60+ potions if you're at a reasonable level and haven't been grinding.
* [MNK] The Monk's !Focus, which lets you hit twice as hard half as often, completely trivializes the counterattack mechanic.
* [BLU] You can get Frog Song to apply to Garula. He can cure himself, but he'll keep wasting turns.
* [BLU] Blind will also stick to him, if for some reason frog abuse isn't enough.

## Fireship
* You'll only get one discounted item at a Karnak store, so pick a pricey one.
* In the iOS version, you can buy 99 of a 75% off item, and then resell to double your cash.
* Wild Nakks outside of Karnak are probably the easiest way to farm cash in world 1.
* This is especially nice since Karnak is the only source of rods in the world.
* Consider stocking up before going to the Fireship; rods make the Karnak 500 so much easier.
* [BRD] The third piano is also in Karnak, so make sure you get that for your bard.
* [BLM] The magic store here sells level 2 black magic.
* [WHM] The magic store here sells Cura and Raise.
* [TIM] The magic store here sells Stop and Gravity.
* After some plot business, you'll be sent off to the next dungeon: the Fire Ship.
* [BLU] Wild Nakks will also teach your Blue Mage the ???? spell, which is Vampire w/o the drain.
* [BLU] Crew Dusts in the Fire Ship cast Flash, which you can pick up for your Blue Mage.
* [THF|NIN] Thieves and Ninjas should make sure they get the Moonring Blade.
* [THF] This dungeon is lousy with enemies that blind, so here's what you stole SilverGlasses for.
* [THF] Thieves should also pick up the Thief's Gloves, which boost steal rate.
* [THF] Once you have them, you can steal Hi-Potions from Poltergeists to your hearts' content.

## Liquiflame
* 3000 HP, transitions randomly between three forms when struck.
* Human Form: single and multi target attacks and counters with target-all fire magic.
* Hand Form: single target attacks that can paralyze and counters with Fire 2. IMMUNE TO MAGIC.
* Tornado Form: casts Fire2 on self to heal.
* [RAN] Consider killing it in Tornado Form to get the Fire Bow.
* Frost Rods will, of course, completely trash this guy. Do not use them when it's in hand form!
* [TIM] The Time Mage's demi spell will work on the human and tornado forms only.
* [TIM] One cast of Demi followed up by a Frost Rod snap will kill Liquiflame.
* [MNK] Fewer, bigger hits will do better against him, so !Focus ain't bad here.
* [KGT] The fewer times you have to hit liquidflame the fewer counters you see; consider using Two-Handed.
* [MYS] Blizzara Sword up and just wreck this dude. Make sure you have a way to transform hand form, though.
* [MYS] You can unequip your weapon and re-equip it through the Item menu to strip your spellblade effect. It also doesn't use your turn.
* Since the forms' MP is tracked seperately and the tornado cannot actually hurt you, consider just sitting there until it's out. It won't take long.
* [BER] Consider just having your Berserker blinded/dead as you enter the fight, until you run Tornado out of MP.

## The Karnak 500
* You have 10:00 to get as much loot out of the Karnak 500 as possible.
* (Karnak 1000 just doesn't roll off the tongue as easily)
* Have your jobs and abilities set immediately after you kill liquiflame; the Karnak 500 continues ticking in menu.
* It's best to look up a map if this is your first time. There's a decent one on GameFAQs.
* If you're having trouble with the Sergeant + Kar Nakk encounter, kill the Sergeant to make the dogs run away.
* [KGT] RUN RUN RUN run. No, the Brave Blade ain't worth it. Never take the Brave Blade.
* [THF] If your offense is good, you can steal plenty of Elixirs from the Gigas enemies infesting this place.
* [THF] You should common-steal some Mage Mashers from the Sorceror enemy in here.
* Try and get the Elven Mantle and Main Gauche; those are the best unconditional loot in here.
* [DNC] There's also a Ribbon! Get the Ribbon! You'll need it for your Dancer! It's rad!
* [BLU] You can learn Aerora from the Gigases here for your Blue Mage, though it won't be too long until you can get it again.
* [BLU] Since the Gigases are immune to Aero, Blue Mages can have serious damage problems here.
* [BLU] It may be worth it to run straight to the exit for Death Claw, then run back to the trapped chests.
* [WHM] White Mages should definitely not forget about the Esuna spell in a chest here; it'll be a while till you can rebuy it.
* You'll have to kill Iron Claw, a miniboss with 900 HP and some adds, before you exit the castle.
* [BLU] He can teach you Death Claw, and you'd be well advised to try and get it here. It's lovely against anything that's not Heavy.
* [BLU] Don't kill the sergeant before he transforms into Death Claw, if you do decide to do this.

## Library
* On the walk down, dodge the desert unless you want to fight the powerful Dhorme Chimera.
* Remember that you can heal for free in the Library by drinking from the pot on the second floor.
* [CHM] The turtles infesting the grasslands around here drop Turtle Shells; you're gonna want to farm 99 of them for your Chemist.
* [CHM] I know it sucks, but drain kiss is really really really good and you can basically run from everything else for the rest of the game.
* [BLU] Your Blue Mage should learn Level 5 Death from Page 64s in the library; you'll obviously have to grind to 15 or 20 for this.
* [BLU] You can also learn Moon Flute in here from Page 256s, but all it does is berserk your party. Big whoop.
* [THF] Page 256es are carrying a Ninja Suit as a steal, a pretty respectable piece of cloth armor.
* [THF] That said, you'll be able to just buy them not too long from now.
* [GEO] Geomancers will often get the Will-o-Wisp spell here, so they're actually good.
* [BLU+BST] !Control will also let you learn Off-Guard from the same Page 256.
* [BLU+BST] The same for the (extremely questionably useful) Transfusion spell from Mythril Dragons outside.

## Ifrit
* 3000 HP, alternates between (Fira or Flame) and (Fight or Flame)
* 20% chance to evade all physicals, which can make some runs annoying.
* Snapping a couple of Frost Rods on him will put him down with minimal fuss.
* [BLM|RDM|SUM] So will simply blasting away with Ice-elemental attacks, if you're feeling cheap.
* [MYS] Mystic Knights should set Silence with a Spellsword before going to town with Blizzara Sword.
* [NIN] Ifrit is weak to water in addition to ice, so here's a good place to use your water scroll.
* [BLU] Aqua Rake is actually nonaspected damge, so it won't be super-effective here.
* [BLU] He is, however, vulnerable to Blind and Berserk, both of which you can inflict by now with !Blue.
* [WHM] It's quite possible to land Silence on Ifrit, which cuts down on incoming damage significantly.
* [WHM] He's also vulnerable to confuse...which will mostly cause him to Fira himself and heal.
* [WHM] Worst case scenario, you can easily run him out of MP this way.
* [TIM] Ifrit is vulnerable to Slow, which you can inflict at this point with your Time Mage.
* [GEO] Chaos Geomancers should note that Will-o-Wisp is fire damage, so...don't use that.
* [THF] The Mage Masher you stole from the Karnak 500 can be used to Silence Ifrit here.
* [BST] Beastmasters can release Zus from the grassland outside Karnak, for a solid 750 damage each.

## Byblos
* 3600 HP, uses a variety of debilitating spells which make prolonged engagements almost unwinnable.
* He also can cast Protect on himself and will counter attacks with Drain when low.
* That combination makes the fight brutal on parties with only physical damage.
* Happily, you can just snap a couple of Fire Rods over his head and call it a night.
* [BLM|RDM] Or you could just Fira him into the ground if you're feeling cheap.
* [KGT] Knights should be relying on Two-Handed in this fight and any other fight where counterattacks are an issue.
* [NIN] I hope you got that Flame Scroll from LiquiFlame if you don't have a better strategy for doing this!
* [NIN] You could also have farmed them in the Ship Graveyard all the way back.
* [NIN] Teeeeechnically you could walk all the way back to get more, but why?
* [NIN] If you want to, they drop from Mindflushers in the room where the World Map was.
* [BER] Zerker-heavy teams can have trouble here, because they can trigger Byblos' counters at bad times.
* [BER] If you have other powerful characters or a way to cheese the fight, consider coming in with your zerk blinded.
* [SUM] Cast your new Ifrit summon on him for some extra comedy.
* [GEO] Chaos Geomancers rejoyce! !gaia here gets you Will-o-Wisp, which is Fire damage.
* [TIM] Time Mages with an aversion to rod abuse can still land Slow on him, making the fight much easier.
* [BLU] Death Claw works on him, reducing him to single-digit HP immediately.
* [BLU] He's not Heavy ahahahahaha.
* [BLU] On the other hand, you probably want to learn Magic Hammer from him, which can be obnoxious as hell.
* [BST] The vanilla Whip weapon Magissa dropped all that time ago will paralyze-lock Byblos.
* [BST] A released Page 32 from the library will cast Banish, which has a 33% chance of straight up killing Byblos.

## Sailing
* Black Mages, Summoners, and anyone with a use for the Istory rings can visit Istory at this point.
* You can buy Angel Rings (block Old/Zombie) and elemental absorb rings for a cool 50K from Istory.
* Parties with weak single target offense and no White Mage may want to consider a Flame Ring.
* [BRD] Bards can get the fourth Piano from Jachol, also.
* [BLU] Blue Mages can learn the almost-useless Exploder from Bombs near Jachol.
* [BLU] It is very, very useful (also: funny) in one particular boss fight, so get it.
* [GEO] The cave outside Jachol has SkullEater encounters, for 5 ABP and a common Elixir drop.
* [GEO] They are extremely difficult, but !Gaia will dispatch them with little fuss.
* [GEO] This is your sole recompense for rolling GEO: this is a very, very good grind spot.
* [GEO] (of course, if you're not Chaos you don't have it yet; feel free to come back.)
* [BLM] Black Mages can pick up the Toad spell from a NPC in Istory.
* [SUM] Summoners can learn Ramuh from an encounter outside Istory.
* [THF] Ramuh's common steal is a Hi-Potion and you won't get any other encounters outside Istory until you kill him.
* [THF] You can steal Hi-Potions from him forever if you keep running from the fight.
* [BRD] Bards should make sure they grab the fifth piano from Crescent, while we're at it.
* Rod-having parties can also pull the legendary Dragondarch Manuever outside Istory, farming the tough Magic Dragons there for XP.
* [NIN] Ninja Scrolls can farm the tough Magic Dragons outside of Istory with thrown scrolls.
* [BER] Berserker parties should swing by Crescent Island and farm up some Death Sickles from the Harvesters there.
* [SUM|NIN] Parties with reliable AoE magic, like !Summon or thrown scrolls, can farm a small island north of Crescent for XP and AP.
* [SUM|NIN] The only encounter there is 3 or 5 black flames, which have high avoid but can be cleared instantly by any AoE magic.
* [BLU] The small island north of crescent is a pro visit for Blue Mages, who can learn Dark Spark from the enemies there.
* [BLU] It halves the target's battle level, which trivializes large swaths of the game combined with L5 Death and L2 Old.
* [BST] If you're feeling up for it, !Control comedy will let you farm Prototypes on another island west of Crescent.
* [BST] It's pretty good gil and xp/ap.
* [CHM+BST] ...especially since you have a Chemist, who can find a real use for the Dark Matters that the Prototypes drop.

## Chocobo Forest
* Comedy note: if you land the black chocobo in its home forest you have to catch it again.
* Pop by Rikks/Lix village now that you have black chocobo flight.
* The item vendor there sells at half-price to you, making it a good place to stock up on ethers and phoenix downs.
* [CHM] Chemists should definitely spend their entire earthly fortune on ethers here. You'll miss them bitterly when you leave W1.
* [NIN] Ninjas will also appreciate buyable elemental scrolls and shuriken.

## Sandworm (Zerkersbane)
* 3000 HP, can use Fight or Quicksand (~50 party damage and HP Sap).
* Attacking the wrong hole triggers a counterattack.
* The game tells you not to use magic here. The game is lying. Use magic.
* Most non-Berserker parties can simply DPS race the sandworm with healing items.
* [BER] Yes, berserkers will repeatedly wipe your party here by being stupid. Kill or blind yours.
* [BER] If you're on zerker risk and have only berserkers, my condolences. Grind grind grind.
* [NIN] Thrown Water Scrolls will do a number on the Sandworm.
* [BLU] The Dhorme Chimera in the desert south of Karnak can teach you Aqua Rake, which will damn near one-shot the sandworm.
* [BST] The Dhorme Chimera in the desert south of Karnak casts Aqua Rake on release, which will damn near one-shot the sandworm.

## The Desert of Shifting Sands
* [NIN] Water Scrolls (you could've bought them in Lix) basically much everything in here.
* [THF+DRG] If you have both Thief and Dragoon, you should steal a Javelin from the Sand Bears here.
* [THF+DRG] The Javelin is literally the third-best spear in the game, and won't be replaced until the very end of World 2.
* [BST] Get used to coming back here to !capture more Sand Bears before every hard boss fight for the rest of W1.
* [BST] When !released, they cast Right Claw for ~2200 damage, which is kind of a lot in W1.
* To get the treasure chests in the airship hanger, answer no when you interact with the switch, THEN yes.
* [WHM|RDM] Make sure you don't miss the !white spell Mini in one of them.

## Crayclaw
* 2000 HP, uses various single-target attacks.
* Signature combo is Tail Screwing someone who's under HP Leak, which will pretty much always kill them.
* Basically any status effect will land on him, so it's easy to neuter his offense if you have to.
* Low HP, but extremely high physical and magical defenses. Remember that elemental weaknesses (lightning) ignore MDEF.
* Yes, this is another fight you can trivialize with a rod snap or two.
* You can also simply blow him up with any other source of lightning damage.
* [BST] or just Bearaga him to death
* [BST] (beastmasters can also paralyze-lock him with the Whip that Magissa dropped)
* [KGT|BLU] You have a class which can wield the Coral Swords from Jacole, if you're willing to make the detour.
* [THF|KGT|BLU] ...or just steal the one that Crayclaw has! Ah, hubris.
* [NIN] You probably have some Thunder scrolls, since a common random encounter on the ocean drops them. Use 'em.
* [RAN] The Thunder Bow purchasable in Crescent Town will make quick work of him.
* Fists, katanas, x-fights, and other defense-piercing attacks will work if you have no other way through.
* [THF] You can steal a Coral Sword from him if one of your other characters can wield a sword.

## Kyrosiris' Least Favorite Boss
* The Adamantoise has 2000 HP, good magic evade, and sky-high physical defenses.
* Has powerful physical attacks, which you'll want to scam with back-row + mitigation/status aliments.
* The hard part is simply managing to get damge on this guy.
* Unless you can just snap a Frost Rod on him hahaha what's class balance?
* Any source of Ice damage will bypass his defenses.
* [RAN] Like, say, a Ranger with a Ice Bow you can buy in Crescent Town.
* [BLU] You can one-shot him instantly with Level 5 Death from your Blue Mage.
* [BST] He's not Heavy, so a Banish from a !released Bandersnatch (near Walse) will have a 50/50 chance of killing him.
* [BER] He's not Heavy, so a proc'd Death spell from a Death Sickle axe hit will eventually get him.
* [MNK] Monk fist criticals will break through his physical defense. Eventually.
* [WHM] White Mage blind is a godsend in this fight if you have to plink him down.
* [WHM] In general, he can't do much to you if you just Armor/Protect up and leave people in the back row.
* The Something Awful Forums >> Ask/Tell > [ASK] Me About Doing Adamantoise With Only Bards

## Soulcannon
* [BLU] The turrets you fight before SoulCannon can teach you Missile and Flamethrower/Burn Ray.
* [BLU] The latter is a very solid damage option with a Flame Rod equipped.
* 12500 HP; charges up and then casts Surge Beam (casts get faster after the first)
* Surge beam deals 50% of the party's max HP and inflicts HP Leak.
* The real danger is the Launchers: 2 of 'em, 800 effective HP, can inflict Old.
* Try to kill the launchers fast with lightning damage to avoid having your whole party slowed into uselessness.
* hahaha you have rods just snap a Thunder Rod and kill all the launchers instantly.
* [SUM] Or just cast Ramuh, whatever.
* [NIN] Thunder scrolls work especially well.
* [WHM] Parties with !white can get through this slowly by Esunaing the Olds and healing through Surge Beams.
* [WHM] Esuna will not heal the stat downs incurred while Old'd! Purge the status effect IMMEDIATELY.
* [GEO] All you'll get in this fight is Wind Slash! Awesome! ...except Soul Cannon and the Launchers are immune to wind.
* [TIM] Stop from a Time Mage will work on the Launchers, if for some reason you're allergic to rod abuse.
* [BRD] This is a surprisngly funny fight for Bards, since they can Stop the Launchers all at once and Hide from the Surge Beams.
* [BST] You may be able to rush the Soulcannon down with four Bearagas (~9k damage) plus some chip.
* [BST] Alternate plan: you can Capture a Prototype and release it for ~1k all-target damage.
* [BST] Prototype is vulnerable to !Control, but actually reducing it to 1/8 hp is an exercise for the reader.
* All damage in this fight is % based, so armor does nothing. Consider unequipping it for speed.

## Ronka Ruins
* Don't hit the speed trap!
* [KGT] The Ancient Sword in Ronka is both a great Knight weapon and a way to inflict Old.
* [DNC+THF] Dance + Thief parties should steal a Lamia's Tiara from Lamias here, which boosts Sword Dance's proc rate.
* [BLU] If you missed it, the Enchanted Fan can teach you Aera.
* [BST+BLU] A !Controlled enchanted fan will also teach you White Wind, which is KIND OF A BIG DEAL.
* [BST+BLU] You can also learn 1000 Needles from !Controlled Lamias, which is pretty handy now or then.
* [BLU+WHM] You can Confuse an enchanted fan to learn White Wind, which you really should since it's rad.
* [BLU+RDM] You can Confuse an enchanted fan to learn White Wind, which you really should since it's rad.
* [BLU] Frankly it's a pain in the ass, but you can hunt down the Ghidra to learn L4 Graviga at this point too.

## ArchaeoAvis
* Has 5 forms with their own HP pool but shared MP pool.
* F1: 1600 HP, weak to wind, high physical defense, inflicts Sap.
* F2: 1600 HP, absorbs ice, not Heavy, inflicts poison.
* F3: 1600 HP, absorbs fire, inflicts blind.
* F4: 1600 HP, absorbs lightning, not Heavy, inflicts paralysis.
* F5: 2500 HP, absorbs wind+ice+fire+lightning, has previous attacks and charm.
* Magic-heavy teams may have to knife the last form to death painfully and slowly.
* [BER] Since berserker axes mostly ignore defense, they can reliably damage all five forms.
* [NIN] Water Scrolls are solid offense against the first four forms; he'll never absorb Water.
* [MNK] If you can kill a form with a Monk's Counter, it skips the trigger that causes the next form to spawn.
* [TIM] You can land Slows on problem forms, if you feel like it.
* [BLU] Aerora the first form to death.
* [BLU] You can L5 Death the last form and the last form only, but that's the hard one anyway.
* [BLU] Hint: Death Claw will land on forms 2 and 4, so you only have to have an answer for F3.
* [BLU] (by the way, the answer is 2x dark spark + l5 death)
* [BLU] God, blue mage is broken.
* [GEO] The first form is, like, geomancer's one time to shine. Go for it!!!
* [SUM] Chocobo, your time is now! (It does physical damage and therefore will work on form 5).
* [SUM] Unless you're on iOS hahaha fuck you they 'fixed' that.
* [BST] You can use Bearagas on the first and last form, which can otherwise give beastmaster parties trouble.
* [BST] If you don't have Sand Bears stocked, the Ronka Knights in here still !release for ~1500.

## Purobolos
* 1500 HP, cast Exploder when low, will cast Life2 to revive other puroboloses when killed.
* Easiest way to handle this is brute force with powerful AOEs to kill them all at once.
* Yup, that means rods.
* [BLU] If you don't want to just spam rods, Aqua Rake works pretty great here too.
* [SAM] They're not heavy hahahaha you can just !Ianuki them repeatedly.
* [SAM] Or just kill them all with one or two gil tosses, though that's expensive.
* [NIN] Spamming a few scrolls on them, especially with a mage subability, will make quick work this fight.
* [BST] Beastmasters have it super-easy here: they can just !Control the bombs and have them Exploder each other.
* [WHM] A Silenced Purobolos will not cast Life2 upon death.
* [MYS] A Silence Bladed Purobolos will not cast Life2 upon death.
* [TIM] For whatever reason, the Time Mage's Mute spell will not stop Life2 from going off.
* [BRD] A Purobolos that's Stopped by !Sing will not cast Life2 upon death.
* [BER] This is another fight you might want to come in with a dead/blinded berserker for.

## Titan
* 2500 HP; main threat is the Earth Shakers he casts for powerful (480-540) all-target damage.
* He casts Earth Shaker on death, so you need to have a way to not wipe to that.
* [WHM] WHM/RDM can cast Confuse on Gaelicats in the North Mountain to gain Float, which neatly evades Earth Shaker.
* [DNC] Dancers can roll Tempting Tango on Gaelicats in the North Mountain to gain Float, to nullify Earth Shaker.
* [THF+BER] If you have a thief, a berserk, and a death wish, you can rarely steal a Earth Hammer from Titan.
* [THF+BER] That's literally an endgame weapon, especially if you can back up its Quake procs with a mage subability.
* [CHM] Here's your introduction to the brokenness of !Mix: Antidote + Maiden's Kiss = Levisalve.
* [BST] Stopping Titan with !Calm right before you kill him will dodge the Earth Shaker, but the timing is tight.
* [BRD] Stopping Titan with !Sing right before you kill him will dodge the Earth Shaker, but the timing is tight.
* [TIM] Your Time Mage can set Slow on Titan, which helps with wearing him down before he gets too many shakers off.
* [TIM] If you have no alternative, you can Stop Titan right before you kill him, but the timing is tight.
* [SUM] Titan is vulnerable to the Stop set by the Remora summon, probably the only time in the game it's useful.
* [SUM] With very, very good timing, you may be able to avoid the last Earth Shaker using it.
* Failing any way to scam Earth Shaker, the only real alternative is to have enough HP to survive it.

## Chimera
* 3300 HP, not Heavy (laffo), alternates between (Fight or AquaRake) and (Blaze or AquaRake).
* Basically any dirty trick will work on him, between his 0% M-evd, lack of Heavy, and status vulnerabilities.
* [BST] Bandersnatches from near Walse will cast Banish, which will 50/50 instant kill him.
* [BST] Before moving onto W2, you may wish to catch a few more Sand Bears, if you're worried about Bridgamesh.
* [BER] Death Sickles' doom proc will work on him. Berserker's a good class, I swear!
* [BLU] Blue Mages have so many ways to cheese this fight it's not even funny.
* [BLU] Try Death Claw, for starters.
* [SAM] Ianuki technically works on this guy, but how the hell did you master Samurai already?
* [TIM] Time Mages can totally shut him down between Stop and Slow.
* [WHM] White Mages can just land Blind and outheal the Aquarakes for an easy kill.
* [BRD] Bards can stoplock him easily.

## World 2 Intro
* Most parties don't particularily need to win the fight against the Abductor on the Solitary Island.
* [THF+SUM] If you have a Thief, a Summoner, and way too much free time, you can try to get his rare steal (the Gaia Gear).
* [THF+SUM] You'll just be able to buy it in town not too far away anyway.
* Remember that there's an infinite use Healing Spring in Exdeath's Castle, which a terminally underleveled Galuf might need.
* Almost no classes have real trouble with the solo fight vs. gilgamesh, and you can pick the best of your four.
* If you got, like, bard x4 or something, check out Sullla's solo notes to see what he did.
* http://www.sullla.com/FF/finalfantasy.html
* [BLU] If you missed Death Claw for your Blue Mage in W1, you can get it from Treants outside Exdeath's castle.
* [BLU] If you missed Dark Spark for your Blue Mage in W1, you can get it from Strapparers outside Exdeath's castle.

## Bridgamesh
* 6500 HP, goes super saiyan by casting haste+armor+shell at 2500 and starts spamming jump.
* This fight is much, much easier if you can prevent the buffs from being cast.
* [WHM] Protect will also make it possible to just slug it out against boosted Gilgamesh.
* [TIM] Silencing Gilgamesh before you push him below 2500 will work, only in the SNES version.
* [TIM] A better plan is probably just to get Slow to stick to him.
* [BLU] Blue Mages can Magic Hammer their way through Gil's 1000 MP before phasing him, causing the buffs to fail.
* [BLU] Alternatively, 1000 Needles will simply let you blast through his 2500 HP phase in 3 hits.
* [DRG] It'll take forever, but in the worst case scenario !Lancet can be used to drain Gil's 1000 MP before phasing him, causing the buffs to fail.
* [CHM] Chemists can mix up Lamia's Kiss and Dark Ethers to effortlessly drain Gil's 1000 MP before phasing him, causing the buffs to fail.
* [BST] Beastmasters can simply blast through him, if you thought to save some Bearagas from World 1.
* In the SNES version only, you can try getting lucky with a Mage Masher as you push Gil below 2500.
* Otherwise, most parties can simply win a DPS race against boosted Gil, if you're careful about when you push him.

## Lugor/Regole
* Lugor can get kind of expensive, depending on your classes and whether you need to buy weapons.
* [WHM] The magic store sells Blink and Shell, the latter of which is vital for several bosses.
* [BLM|MYS] The magic store sells Drain, Break, and Bio, which are pretty fun on Black Mages and very fun on Mystic Knights.
* [TIM] The magic store sells Comet (your Time Mage's first non-rod offensive spell) and some other trash.
* [TIM+THF] Since you have Time Mage and Thief, you can use the Return spell to keep trying for an annoying steal.
* [CHM] This is the first chance for Chemists to stock up on the disgustingly broken drink items.
* [SUM] Summoners can buy a Gaia Gear here, which boosts earth damage by 50%.
* [SUM] Boosted Titans are going to be your mainstay for a long time.
* [BRD] Make sure you hit another Piano while you're in Lugor.
* [BST] Beastmasters might want to consider making an early visit to the Sealed Castle.
* [BST] They can !control the Shield Dragons in there for easy kills, and stupid amounts of AP and XP this early.
* [BST] They can also be easily captured for Almagest (~750 damage), which is fine if you're out of bears.
* The undead dinosaur in the underground passage isn't even a boss. Just Phoenix Down him and move on.
* In the Moogle Villiage, you can get the Dancing Dagger, which is primarily useful for letting anyone Confuse.
* [BLU] Your Blue Mage can finally learn most !control-only spells, even if you don't have a Beastmaster.

## Val/Drakenvale
* Let's get this out of the way. Objets d'Art in the basement of Val Castle drop 0 XP, but lots of gil and AP.
* They can be instantly killed by soft needles (or any other petrifaction cure).
* [BLU] Blue Mages can simply vaporize them with Level 5 Death, which makes grinding much less tedious.
* [CHM] Chemists are the only class that can equip the hidden Angel Robe in Val Castle.
* [TIM] Time Mages should get the Teleport spell in Val Castle; it's the only source of it in the game.
* [KGT+MYS] The Great Sword in the moat of Val Castle is the best sword you're gonna get for quite a while.
* Drakenvale itself has some fantastic loot.
* The Dragon Zombies here are tough, but can be easily defeated by Phoenix Downs or other anti-undead measures.
* They commonly drop Dragon Fangs, which sell for 2500 gil each!
* [CHM] Dragon Fangs are also invaluable for endgame Chemist shenanigans; you'll want to grind a few of them.
* [CHM] If you plan on killing Omega with your solo chemist, you'll want 40+.
* [BST] Beastmasters should make sure they get the Coronet here, which doubles the success rate of !Control.
* The big prize is the Bonemail, which you can find on a skeleton near the top of Drakenvale.
* It's a medium armor with sky-high physical defense and immunity to death, poison, old, charm, and berserk.
* It also makes most healing magic hurt (though instant death effects like Doom, Death Sickle procs, etc will now full heal you.)
* You can also get around this with elemental absorb: flame rings are particularily good since Bonemail also confers fire weakness.
* [BLU] The Blue Mage's White Wind spell can still heal Bonemail wearers, because !Blue wasn't good enough.
* [MYS] Bonemail is particularily disgusting on a Mystic Knight with Drain Sword, which still works.
* Bonemail is otherwise best against random encounters, bosses that mostly attack physically, or bosses that mostly use status spells.

## Dragon Pod/Hiryuu Plant
* 12000 HP, summons 100 HP adds that inflict various status effects.
* Most parties will either clear adds with heavy AoE, or abuse the plant's lack of Heavy.
* Worst case scenario: the Bone Mail shuts down almost everything the plants and flowers have.
* Only the second flower from the left inflicts an aliment (paralyze) that the Bone Mail doesn't nullify.
* The flowers themselves have no status immunities, which is nice to know if you have to reply on the Bone Mail.
* [MNK] This battle is probably the Monk's last gasp at viability: repeatedly clearing tiny adds is what they're best at.
* [BLM|SUM|NIN] Any powerful target-all spells or scrolls will lock the plant into resummoning its adds.
* [BLU] The plant isn't Heavy, so you can just end this fight with a Death Claw.
* [BER] If you can clear out the adds, your Berserker will eventually kill the plant with a Death Sickle.
* [BST] Aquathorns from the swamps around Val cast an instant death spell when !released, which will work.
* [BST] It's only single-target, so kill the flowers manually first.
* [BST] If you don't want to walk out, you can catch a Skelesaur right here in Drakenvale.
* [MYS] Drain Sword bypasses the no-healing property of Bone Mail, allowing for an effortless Mystic Knight solo.
* [CHM] You can hit the plant with a Death Potion (Dark Matter + Phoenix Down) for a 100% kill.
* [CHM] If the rest of your party is good, though, it's a waste of a dark matter.
* [BRD] Bards can Stop all the flowers at once with !Sing.
* [RDM|WHM] In extremis, you can neuter the paralyze flower by Confusing it.

## Surgate
* You can visit Surgate Castle at this point, but most parties shouldn't bother.
* [BRD] Bards, however, can learn the incredible Swift Song at Surgate now.
* [TIM] Time Mages can find the Float spell at Surgate, just in time for W2 Exdeath.

## Boatamesh & Enkidu
* 8888 HP, mixes up physicals with Missile and Death Claw. Summons Enkidu at 4000.
* Enkidu has 4000 HP and uses various blue magic, including the completely infuriating White Wind.
* Kill Enkidu first, but watch out for his ability to Vampire for obscene damage when you do.
* [BLU] Gil's level 31 and not Heavy. Dark Shock + L5 Death ends this fight instantly.
* [CHM] MP draining Gil won't stop him from summoning Enkidu, but it will shut down his offensive casting.
* [TIM|WHM] Silence from a Time Mage or White Mage will shut down Gil's offense, but Blue Magic can't be silenced.
* [MYS] Mystic Knights can nail Gil with a Silence sword. He can still cast Blue Magic.
* [THF] Make sure to steal a Genji Glove from Gil, if you have anyone who can equip heavy armor.
* [BST] You can !Control Enkidu lol. WhiteWind the party or just have him Hurricane himself.
* Enkidu has no immunity to instant death, stuff like !Ianuki, Death Potions, Death Sickles will work on him.
* ...neither does Gilgamesh, now that I think about it. Poor guy.

## Shield Generator/Barrier Tower
* The Barrier Tower is a fairly obnoxious dungeon with a lot of loot you want to grab.
* Anyone with a caster should make sure to get the Gold Hairpin, which halves MP consumption.
* [BLU] Blue Mages can learn Time Slip from Travelers, though it's of somewhat limited utility.
* [BLU] Level Trickers can cast Level 4 Graviga here, if you missed it from Ronka.
* [KGT] Knights can obtain the Blood Sword here, a weapon which drains HP from its target.
* [KGT] Note that it's nearly useless since it only has 25% Accuracy, AND is treated like a magic spell for Multipler calculations.
* [THF] Thieves can get an invaluable Flame Ring from the Red Dragons in trapped chests.
* [THF] You can flee from a monster-in-a-box to reset the encounter if your steal fails.
* [THF] ...or if you're a nutter and want 4 of them.
* [THF] ...or as many as you want to sell for gil while grinding out flees for the Chicken Knife.
* The first Gold Hairpin, a helm which halves MP consumption, is available here.
* Most importantly, farm Reflect Knights for their Reflect Ring drop here.
* Unless you have a way to cheese him entirely, you'll need them for World 2 Exdeath.

## Atomos
* 19997 HP, spams comet until someone dies then starts sucking them in.
* Just come in with someone dead so you can at least choose who you have down.
* Revive them right before they get eaten and let Atomos kill someone else to buy more DPS uptime.
* [WHM|CHM] !White or !Mix are the two defensive abilities good enough to possibly let you just tank comets.
* [WHM|CHM] Wouldn't really try it though, unless you have no better plan.
* [BLU] Dark Shock + Level 5 Death.
* [BLU] Yup. Could take a while to actually get Dark Shock to stick, though.
* [BLM|MYS] Sleep (and Sleep Sword) inflict the only aliment that Atomos is weak to.
* [BLM|MYS] Once you have him sleeping, you can just kill him without waking him up with magic or !Mineuchi/!SwdSlap or something.
* [BLM|MYS] !Mineuchi/!SwdSlap is 'fixed' on iOS and wakes sleeping enemies!
* [RDM|KGT] You have a class that can equip swords, which means you can Slumber Sword Atomos if you have to.
* [RDM|KGT] Once you have him sleeping, you can just kill him without waking him up with magic or !Mineuchi/!SwdSlap or something.
* [RDM|KGT] !Mineuchi/!SwdSlap is 'fixed' on iOS and wakes sleeping enemies!
* Most parties without access to a dirty trick can simply win a DPS race against Atomos.

## Post-Submarine Questing
* To advance the plot, take the submarine to visit Ghido's Cave.
* [BLU] While you're there, learn Aeroga from the Enchanted Fan metamorph.
* [BLU] It's by far the most reliable option for Blue Mages to do straight damage.
* Your staff users may appreciate the Staff of Light that sometimes drops from metamorphs.
* Metamorphs will only drop this while in their *base* form. No transforms allowed.
* Farming copies to snap may make W2 Exdeath much easier, but it's also completely mind-numbing.
* [SUM] Summoners will want to stop by the Northern Island to fight Shoat/Catablopas.
* [SUM] Shoat has only 5000 HP and attacks with weak physicals or Drain.
* [SUM] However, he counterattacks with Petrify. Don't feel afraid to back off and cure.
* [SUM] HP Sap like, say, what a Summoner can inflict by snapping a Venom Rod, gets around this.
* [CHM] If you're running low on Turtle Shells for your Chemist, go to the Northern Island where Shoat is.
* [CHM] The Land Turtles here drop more Turtle Shells to fuel your Drain Kiss habit.

## Moore
* Moore town, in general, has some pretty good buys for your casters.
* [BLU+SUM] Air Lancets boost wind damage by 50%, making them immediately useful for Blue Mages.
* [BLU+SUM] Summoners will be able to abuse this too, but not until the last world.
* [WHM] Curaga, Berserk, and Reflect all allow you to cheese fights in various hilarious ways.
* [BLM] YUP. FINALLY YOU GET THE -AGA BLACK MAGE SPELLS.
* [TIM] The various spells Time Mages can learn here are nice, but the real winner is Hastega.
* [BRD] Bards will be happy to find yet another piano in Moore.
* Every single goddamn encounter in Moore Forest is fucking infuriating and you should run from them all.
* [BRD] Exception: bards can spam Love Songs to inflict Stop; every random encounter is vulnerable to it.
* You'll have to make a choice here between the Aegis Shield and the Flame Shield.
* Any party which can actually equip them will want to pick the Aegis Shield, which is much much better.
* Exception: your party has literally no other way to beat the upcoming Seal Crystals fight...
* ...and you forgot to buy the Flame Ring in World 1. A certain famous streamer pulled that one...

## Seal Crystals
* 7777 HP each, not Heavy, virtually immune to %M-EVD subject spells.
* Each crystal casts a spell at <3000 HP: top Fire3, left Aero3, bottom Earthshaker, right Aqua Rake.
* Each crystal also absorbs attacks of its element.
* In general, avoid all-target attacks unless you think you can end the fight in one cycle of casts (cough giltoss).
* None of these are immune to instant death. Your party can simply pick off one at a time that way.
* [BER] If you Mini your own berserkers using the trash encounter in Moore that casts it, they won't do any damage.
* [BER] That way, you can fish for instant death procs without worrying about a crystal's HP being pushed under 3000.
* Parties with reasonable offenses can simply get a crystal close to 3000 HP and try to kill it quickly.
* [WHM] Shelling the party gives you a lot more room to work with here, as a White Mage.
* [TIM] While they're high level and have some amount of Magic Evade, they ARE Graviga-able.
* [TIM] Get !Time on everyone, have one person attempt Graviga, and if it connects, everyone else spams Comet. If not, they just defend.
* [TIM] You need to be fast on the hop after Graviga connects, though, because it sends them right into the panic zone.
* Extremely low-offense parties can equip Flame Rings from Istory back in W1, if they planned ahead for it.
* Being able to absorb the top crystal's Fire3 allows you to pick off individual crystals without worrying about healing.
* You can also get fire absorb by letting the Aegis shield burn, if you forgot to get Fire Rings or are otherwise an idiot.
* Seriously, don't do it.

## Meatcastle
* To save yourself time in world 3, farm a Power Staff from Black Warlocks.
* It casts Berserk when wielded, which has a number of obscure but quite useful applications.
* [THF] Your Thief can also steal a Judge Staff from the very same Black Warlocks.
* [THF] It casts Dispel when wielded, which has a number of not-very-obscure applications.
* Shield-users will appreciate the Ice Shield in a chest here, or at least they would if not for the Aegis.
* [BLU] Magic Dragons cast three Blue Magic spells you theoretically should have, but may have missed:
* [BLU] Aeroga, Guard-off, and Level 2 Old all had slightly annoying conditions to obtain the first time around.
* [RAN] You'll have to walk in lava to get the Gale/Hayate bow here, but it's worth it.
* [KGT] The Blizzard knightsword isn't very good, but in conjuction with an Ice Shield it lets your Knight heal themself.
* [NIN|THF] Ninjas and Thieves will appreciate the Double Lance weapon in a chest near the end.
* [SUM] Summoners can get the Carbuncle summon by defeating it in a small boss fight after the final save point.
* [SUM] Carbuncle is almost impossible to kill, but transforms into a weaker healing form after casting 3 spells on you.
* [SUM] The healing form is not Heavy and is vulnerable to Stone. Just wait for it and cast Shoat.

## Castlemesh
* 13000 effective HP, spams the same old Blue Magic + new status aliments.
* Totally optional, if you don't need Excalipoor or the Genji Helmet.
* He won't show up in the Void or to help you fight Necrophobia if you skip this, though.
* [BST] Beastmasters can go downstairs and grab a Yellow Dragon, which will carve off 8192 HP from Gil.

## W2 Exdeath
* 32768 HP; phase transition at 16000 and 7000 HP remaining.
* Classes without a strong way to cheese this fight should bring Reflect Rings, which...are no longer obtainable. Hmm. Hope you paid attention in the Barrier Tower!
* If you're foregoing reflect rings, don't have a level divisible by 3, unless you want to eat L3 Flares (they're non-elemental, so don't get cute with Flame Rings).
* If you *are* bringing reflect rings, going in with a level divisible by 3 will cause Exdeath to blow himself up.
* [WHM] Make sure you keep Protect/Armor up; Exdeath's Vaccum Wave physicals can be surprisingly nasty.
* [WHM] Remember that you can't actually heal party members with a Reflect Ring, unless you have a way to also Reflect Exdeath.
* [WHM] Setting Berserk on your own characters may help with the mad rush to take his last 7000 HP.
* [BLU] Level 2 Old totally works on this guy and totally neuters him, haha.
* [BLU] If you bothered getting Level 3 Flare, that's solid damage at this point. Otherwise just Aeroga spam.
* [BLU] Alternatively, if you know the timing well (or are watching his level in memory), once Old ages him to a multiple of 5, just give him the SKULL (with Level 5 Death).
* [TIM] Do not use Slow. Exdeath will simply counter with Haste, which overwrites Slow instead of neutralizing it.
* [TIM] If you can Reflect Exdeath and bounce a Slow off your own party, his Haste counter will bounce off too!
* [TIM] Do use Float on your party to avoid Earth Shaker; even if he uses 100Gs it wastes a turn.
* [SUM] Make sure you keep Golem up; Exdeath's Vaacum Wave physicals can be surprisingly nasty.
* [BST] Releasing four Yellow Dragons (8192 damage each) will instantly kill Exdeath, if you're willing to go to the trouble.
* [NIN] Consider !Throwing your Excalipoor or Magishuriken to get past Exdeath's last 7000 HP, if Meteor is crushing you.
* [MYS] Mystic Knights may have luck with applying Drain Sword and just trying to DPS race Exdeath.
* [BRD] Going Super Saiyan on Exdeath with bard songs is technically possible but tricky, unless you have a way around Condemn.
* [CHM] Dragon's Kiss (Dragon Fang + Maiden's Kiss) blocks Condemn, allowing you to go Super Saiyan in peace if you feel like it.
* [CHM] Exdeath is weak to Holy; chugging a Giant's Drink and then spamming Holy Breath (Dragon Fang + Holy Water) works.
* [CHM] So does good old Drain Kiss spam, if you're still good on Turtle Shells.
* Staff-wielding parties can grind for Staff of Lights in Ghido's Cave; snapping them will allow you to do massive Holy damage to Exdeath.
* This also takes forever and should very much be treated as a last resort.
* If you're still relying on the Healing Staff, remember that it won't work on anyone wearing a Reflect Ring.
* Consider carefully what secondary loadout you give your Aegis Shield user; if things start going south they will likely be the one responsible for saving the fight with revives/healing.

## Antlion
* 8100 HP, Bartz and Krile only.
* Pain in the ass if your offense is slow, since he spams Dischord (level half) which makes it slower.
* Unless you had the foresight to farm a Power Staff in Meatfort. It casts Berserk when wielded.
* [RDM|WHM] Berserking him and dealing with the physical attacks is probably the easiest path with a White Mage.
* [RDM|WHM] Blinding him would also basically neuter his offense.
* [RDM] Red mages will have to get Berserk from the Power Staff.
* [BST] If you didn't plan ahead, the only available !release is from the trapped chest in Tule's training house.
* [BLU] 1000 Needles at least isn't affected by your levels. 8 and spare change will kill Antlion.

## Did You Get The Chicken Knife?????
* I've put an entire entry in here to remind you to get the Chicken Knife.
* It's in a hidden passage behind the shed next to the Pub in Moore.
* If you play like I do, the Chicken Knife is probably at 127 power already.
* Otherwise just run away from random encounters under fast-forward until it is.
* [THF|NIN] You can also find a trapped chest and repeatedly !Flee or !Smoke out.
* [THF|NIN] There's a conveniently trapped chest that you can pull this on in the next dungeon.
* [THF|NIN] Also, if you were smart, you can use the trapped chest in the Beginner House in Tule.

## The Great Pyramid
* To get in, you'll have to beat 2 5000 HP Gargoyles which use physical attacks.
* They revive each other, so you need to kill simultaneously or use debilitating effects.
* [WHM|RDM] White magic is particularily strong here.
* [WHM|RDM] You can use Blind, Protect, and Blink to completely shut off their offense.
* [WHM|RDM] Then simply Berserk them to stop them from reviving each other and go to town.
* For subsequent rematches: you can always use a Magic Lamp Odin to kill them.
* [THF|NIN] Because of the Lemures and knockoff-Omegas in here, !Flee and !Smoke are really good.
* [BRD] Many of the random encounters in here are Undead, making Requiem very handy.
* The Black Robe you can find in here is probably the best caster armor in the game.
* [BER] The Earth Hammer, an axe you can find here, is very powerful with a mage secondary.
* [BER] On the SNES, it's possible for a berzerker to underflow into 255 magic.
* [DNC] Another Ribbon can be found in a chest late in the Pyramid.
* [CHM] There are total of six Dark Matters in a chest here, which should be more than enough.
* [CHM] If you need more, Prototype Island close to Crescent is still around.

## Melusine
* 20000 HP, swaps between thunder/ice/fire/physical weakness.
* When in elemental-weak form, has stupid physical defense and spams the NON-WEAK elements at party.
* When in physical-weak form, has 0 defense/evasion.
* Always begins weak to fire.
* Your Chicken Knife wielder will always be able to pierce her physical defenses.
* Reflect Rings make it impossible to die, but be aware it'll let her heal herself occasionally with absorbs.
* [RDM|WHM] Congratulations, you've found the one time in the game the !White spell Libra is useful.
* [RDM|WHM] You can also neuter her offense with Shell, or stick Silence onto her.
* [BLU] The Blue Mage !Scan ability will let you determine which form she changed to.
* [BLU] Aqua Rake is non-elemental, giving you a way to hit the magic-vulnerable forms.
* [TIM] Your Time Mage can Stop or Slow her once she's in a vulnerable form.
* [MYS] Silence Blade will always work on Melusine, which makes the fight easier to just bum rush.
* [RAN] !X-fight ignores enemy defense; spamming it with the Chicken Knife lets you ignore fight mechanics for this boss.
* [RAN] (also, most of the rest of the game)
* Defense-piercing fist/katana criticals will work well against her.

## Sealed Castle
* You'll have the choice of 3 legendary weapons at first in the Sealed Castle, plus 3 more per tablet.
* The Assassin's Dagger is the only really multiclass one, but it's real good (bring it to cheese twintania).
* [KGT] Excalibur has the highest Power of any easily obtainable weapon and is Holy elemental. No-brainer for Knights.
* [NIN] The Hardened Dagger is really good, espeically if your Ninja isn't your Chicken Knife user.
* [DRG] The Holy Lance is a solid option for your dragoon, though dragoon is kind of a falling-off class at this point.
* [BER] The Rune Axe is kind of a mediocre choice for your Zerker...unless you have a magic-using seconary ability.
* [SAM] Masamune is dumb dumb dumb. Guaranteed initiative + use item for haste. Especially funny with !Flee or !Smoke. Get it.
* [RAN] Yoichi's Bow's selling point is the defense ignoring proc, but...aren't you using !x-fight?
* [RAN] In fact, aren't you just using the chicken knife with it?
* [BRD] Apollo's harp is kind of niche, but it's not a bad choice for your third tablet if you have no better options.
* [BRD+CHM] Chemists have the ability to turn things into dragons so Apollo's Harp can wreck them, which is at least funny if not practical.
* [BRD+CHM] EDIT: i got this combo last year and it's actually incredibly practical
* Any rod-using class can equip the Wizard Rod, but it's best on Black/Red Mages because of its omni-elemental boosts.
* (Summoners prefer the Air Lancet to boost Syldra).
* Very few staff-using classes have a use for the Sage's Staff, frankly.
* [CHM] Though the Sage's Staff lets you butcher the Exdeath Souls right outside for Dark Matter (assuming the Pyramid was too rough).
* [BST] The Firebute is basically garbage, though it out-performs the other two end-game whips if they're not hitting a monster-type weakness.
* [GEO] The Gaia Bell is actually garbage.

## Aviation
* There are a lot of interesting things to do now that you have a working Airship.
* In a forest on an island to the south of the world, you can visit the Phantom Village.
* The stores there sell stupendously valuable gear, with a price tag to match.
* The Weapon shop is disappointing, since you just got done raiding a cache of legendary weapons.
* The Magic Shop sells some fantastic spells, if you have White/Black/Time Mages.
* [WHM] Arise and Dispel will both come in handy in upcoming boss fights.
* [BLM] Black Mages kind of get the short end of the stick with Doom and Aspir.
* [TIM] Quick is fucking obscene, even without Venom Rod abuse. Just bring a Gold Hairpin.
* The Accessory Shop sells WingedShoes/Hermes Sandals for 50K each.
* They grant Haste and Stop immunity and are a steal at 50K. Buy 3; there's a free one later.
* [BRD] The last Piano also happens to be in the Phantom Village, hidden carefully. Sneaky.
* Lastly, don't forget the Thief's Knife at the bar, which lets anyone steal from enemies.
* You can grab Boko back from where you parked him near Ghido's Cave.
* You can ride him all the way to the top of Istory Falls, to find the Magic Lamp.
* The Magic Lamp allows non-Summoners to use summons, with some conditions. It's vital.
* [SUM] Summoners get a pretty damn good prize too: in Faris' old hideout, you can get the Syldra summon.
* [SUM] When boosted with the Air Lancet, it's the strongest summon in the game. Better than Bahamut or Leviathan.
* [SUM] You can also visit Val Castle's basement to get the Odin summon, but you could also just Magic Lamp it.
* [BLU] Blue Mages can and should learn Mighty Guard from Stingrays, a rare encounter in the water south of the huge desert.
* [BLU] It's a Control-only spell, so the easiest way to pick it up is with a Beastmaster.
* [BLU] Otherwise, you'll have to Confuse it with White Magic/!mix, or use a Dancing Dagger.
* [BST] The Stingray, a rare encounter in the water south of the huge desert, has the strongest whip in the game as a drop.
* [BST] Of course, it's a rare encounter and a rare drop, so you may want to skip it.
* [BST] If you're on the NA version of the GBA port, you can use the Quicksave trick to get guaranteed Stingrays.
* [BST] Bring a captured Zombie Dragon to poison them, then hold them down with !Control to watch them slowly bleed out. You monster.
* [BRD] The Minstrel in Crescent Island will teach you the PowerSong/Sinewy Etude if you've hit seven pianos.
* [BRD] If you've hit all eight, you'll also get Hero Song/Hero's Rime.
* [DNC] Your Dancers (and Equip Ribbon-havers) will appreciate the Ribbon a girl in Regole will give you.

## Island Shrine
* Consider carefully whether you actually need to do the various optional World 3 dungeons; many parties do not.
* It is also required for Fork Tower and thus Istory Falls and the Deep Sea Trench.
* [THF] The Island Shrine contains the Rising Sun, the best thief weapon in the game (oh boy!!).
* [THF] Mirage Vests, which grant natural Blink, can be rarely stolen from RedHarpy/Oisearare.
* [BST] If you're coming, the Beastkiller whip is situational but decent for your Beastmaster.

## Stoker/Wendigo
* 20000 HP, uses physical attacks and Hurricane/Mind Blast/Confuse.
* Attacking the wrong one does no damage.
* They respond to multi-target attacks with an Ice-element counter.
* If you have Fire Rings or Ice Shields, you can just blast away to your heart's content.
* [THF] Thieves can steal an Ice Shield from Slownin enemies in this dungeon.
* [WHM] Your White Mage can simply Shell up and heal through the counterattacks.
* [BLU] With Mighty Guard and White Wind, you kind of don't care about the counterattacks.
* [BLU] See if you can learn Mind Blast from the Wendigo while you're here.
* Otherwise, just use trial and error with powerful single target blows.

## Fork Tower
* Consider carefully whether you actually need to do the various optional World 3 dungeons; many parties do not.
* The Defender in Fork Tower is a Knightsword that might be interesting if Excalibur didn't exist.
* It can be used as an item to cast Protect, which may be useful for certain very squishy parties.
* Many rod-using parties can take good advantage of the Wonder Rod in Fork Tower, especially if they lack !White.
* [WHM] Fork Tower is the only way to learn Holy, which gives White Mages (fantastic) offense if required.
* [BLM|MYS] Fork Tower is the only way to learn Flare for Black Mages (eh) and Flare Blade for Mystic Knights (!!).
* [MYS] Mystic Knights can also use Holy Blade, which is useful-ish like once (Twin Tania) but it's really funny.
* Classes that need no special Fork Tower loot will often want to skip it, since frankly Istory Falls and the Deep Sea Trench suck.

## Minotauros + Omniscient
* Dual boss; you have to split up your parties for this.
* {"Minotaur is easy even for mages"=>"just whittle him down with Chicken Knfie and potions."}
* Just don't be afraid to back off on dps, since he counters with more physical attacks.
* Omniscient Resets if a physical command is used on him, unless silenced or berserked.
* SILENCE AND BERSERK DO NOT WORK IN THE IOS VERSION
* His entire offense is neutralized by Reflect Rings, but you still need a way to kill him.
* [WHM] White Mages can simply land Berserk on him and then spam Blink.
* [WHM] The latter bit is important, he hits like a freight train loaded with bricks.
* [GEO] http://i.imgur.com/JkwTg5O.png
* [CHM] Offensive mixes will cause Omniscient to reset the battle.
* [CHM] That said, you can just berserk + blind him trivially.
* SNAPPING RODS COUNTS AS A PHYSICAL ATTACK (somehow)
* Failing any other way to do this, there are three general strategies.
* 1) With Reflect Ring+Mage Masher reflect Silence onto Omniscient by attacking yourself.
* 2) With a Reflect Ring+Bone Mail, just wait for him to impale himself on yourself.
* 3) With a Reflect Ring, wait out his 30,000 MP. This may happen before (2) does.
* All of these options are Super Bullshit 64 and you should seriously consider if you need to do Fork Tower at all.
* Also, none of them work on the mobile or Steam releases.

## Deep Sea Trench
* It's pretty rare for any Fiesta party to care about the Deep Sea Trench. Consider skipping it.
* [BRD] Bard parties might appreciate it solely for the novelty of vaporizing its 100% undead inhabitants with Requiem.
* [BRD] Not a bad way to grind out XP/AP/gil, but you've got Bard. Why do you need to grind?
* [MNK] Monks can get the Kaiser Knuckles here, which turns their damage from pathetic to pretty bad.
* [MNK] It also locks them out of the Hermes Sandals.
* [MNK] hahaha
* [TIM] Meteor is locked behind the Deep Sea Trench for your Time Mage, which is probably the only time I'd do it personally.

## Three Stooges
* 13333 HP each, primarily attack with not super dangerous black magic.
* The only real reason to fight these guys is if you have a Time Mage, for Meteor.
* They're Undead and not Heavy, so you can one-shot them with Phoenix Downs...
* ...but they'll revive each other, so you need to either stun then or use target-all.
* The easiest way to do this is to summon Odin from the Magic Lamp for a triple kill.
* [BRD] The Bard's Requiem song is, as you might expect, completely disgusting here.
* [WHM] Don't forget that White Mages can spam target-all Curagas on them.
* [BER] If you're going to fight it out, for the love of god kill/blind your berserker.
* [BLM] Be careful with group-cast black magic: each stooge absorbs the element he uses.
* [MYS] If you can volley three off at once, you can kill them instantly with Break Blade.

## Istory Falls
* Istory Falls isn't useless per-se: there's a lot of good loot in here, but it rarely makes or breaks a run.
* [SUM] Summoners learn Leviathan here which is...completely useless due to the lack of water-boosting weapons.
* [SUM+CHM] ...unless you have Chemist, whose Elemental Power mix can boost Water spells. EP Leviathan is the second strongest spell and strongest AoE in the game!
* [RDM] Red Mages will, uh, 'appreciate' the Rune Blade here, which might make them better at killing things than, like, a geomancer.
* [RDM] On second thought, nah.
* [BLU+RDM] The Enhancer available in Istory Falls boosts Magic for your Blue or Red Mages.
* [MYS] The Enhancer available in Istory Falls is the best Spellsword-compatible weapon that's not a chicken knife.
* [MYS] That said, A) you probably will be using the chicken knife, and B) you can get more in Exdeaths' Castle.
* [RAN] Rangers can get the Artemis Bow here, which is a bow that's actually still worse than !x-fighting with the Chicken Knife.
* [RAN] If you've got a second !x-fighter who's using a chicken knife, it's a good consolation weapon though.
* The Aegis Shield here is the real reason to run Istory: having two Aegis Shields is huge.
* It may or may not be worth grabbing a second: you'd have to have two shield users or Equip Shields.
* And it might be a whole lot of extra work for not that much benefit.

## Leviathan
* Why are you here? The only thing he drops is the Leviathan summon.
* It's not even better than Syldra, unless you have a Chemist to mix elemental power.
* ...but then you'd have a Chemist, anyway.
* If you insist on fighting this out, bring Coral Rings.

## X-Zone/Interdimensional Rift
* The various zones in the Interdimensional Rift are primarily just filler.
* I'm trying to think of anything interesting to say about these zones or the trash in it.
* Three things: get the Coral/Angel Rings in the Caves, get the Ribbon in the Forest, and, uh...
* ...what's the third one there? uh, not the EPA.
* I can't. The third one, I can't. Sorry. Oops.

## Calofisteri
* Wait, it's the Department of Energy!
* Bonemail + Hermes Sandals literally make a character immune to Calofisteri's entire moveset.
* Just hold down the Fight button and make a sandwich.
* Left to her own devices, she will spam Reflects and then start bouncing debuffs and buffs off them.

## Omega
* Optional superboss; there is no reason other than bragging rights to try this.
* To pull this off at a sane level, you need both a way to neuter his offense and a way to actually hurt him.
* [BRD] Omega is vulnerable to being stopped by the Bard's Love Song.
* [BRD] Two hasted bards can keep him locked while a third sings your speed up to 99.
* [BST] Beastmasters can release Yellow Dragons for 9999 each.
* [TIM] Meteor and Comet deal unaspected damage and ignore reflects.
* [TIM] Unless they roll fantastically high, however, they'll get completely nullified by his sky-high MDefense.
* [CHM] Chemists can mix a Split Shell/Turtle Soup to decrease Omega's defense and magic defense.
* Without cheese but with good sandbagging classes like WHM or BLU, you can try to fight it out normally.
* That said, many parties won't even have a way to damage him through 190 defense and elemental absorbs (or his 95% physical evasion).
* [MNK|SAM] Barehand and katana criticals ignore physical defense.
* [BER] Axes quarter enemy defense, making it possible to hurt Omega with any strong axe.
* [BLM] Black Mages can reflect a Thundaga off friendlies to beat Omega's innate reflect.
* [BLM] This doesn't trigger Omega's brutal counter script, making Black Mage one of the only choices for winning a straight up fight.
* [BLU] Blue Mages can chip Omega down with Thousand Needles. 1000 HP at a time.
* [MYS] Thundaga Sword will do 9999 damage to Omega.
* [RAN] The Ranger's X-Fight/Rapidfire ability ignores physical defense and is guaranteed to hit.
* [RAN] It'll provoke two sets of counter-attacks, though!
* [DRG] Dragoons can chip away with the Trident, a spear that does lightning damage.
* [SUM] Summoners can penetrate Omega's defenses with either Ramuh or Odin.
* [SUM] Ramuh will deal superior damage unless you don't have a Thunder Rod.
* [KGT|RDM] Anyone who can use a sword can...technically damage Omega with the Coral Sword.

## Apanda
* 22200 HP, Byblos 2.0, counterattack routines and all.
* You have a few more options available to you than against Byblos, though...
* Keep a weak weapon on hand to break the Confuse status effects he inflicts.
* Any source of Fire damage will let you put him down very quickly.
* [WHM|RDM] White (and Red) mages can Berserk and Blind him, which pretty much neuters him.
* [SUM] Casting Ifrit on him causes him to waste a few turns and disables his counterattacks.
* [BST] You can blast through him (and basically everything else in the castle) by releasing a Great Dragon.
* [BST] You can find them in the Caves in the X-Zone, and they !release for 9999 damage.

## Exdeath's Castle
* If you have AoE, the 2x Sword Dancer + 2x Death Claw encounter in the lobby is fantastic experience/AP.
* [MYS] You can rare steal/thief knife an Enhancer Sword from the Sword Dancers, but it's not usually useful.
* [MYS] Spellsword + Chicken Knife is such a dumb, dumb combination.
* Make sure you grab a Hermes Sandals from a treasure chest in the Castle; that's 50k gil saved.
* [DNC] If you still need Red Shoes or Rainbow Dresses, there's one of each in the downstairs cells if you fight the Jura Avis.
* There is a room in the castle that only has fights with Iron Giants.
* They're worth 10K experience each but are relatively tough.
* They only use physical attacks and are vulnerable to instant-kill magic like Odin and Break Blade.

## Azulmagia/Apocalypse
* 27900 HP, casts only !Blue spells.
* Go in with an odd level not divisible by 5 (he doesn't know L3 Flare) to neuter his Level X spells.
* Technically optional; all you get from him is a save point.
* He's weak to poison, so you can just snap a ton of Venom Rods over his head and be done with it.
* The Wonder Rod will also let you Reflect him if you have it, which is super funny when he Mighty Guards.
* [BLU] Your Blue Mage can actually 'teach' him a few spells, causing him to try it out on you.
* [BLU] You can teach him Exploder ahahahahahah i'm serious do it.
* [BLU] But first, check if there's any good !Blue spells he uses that you missed; you can learn them here.
* [BLU] If your party is divisible by level 3, you have Reflect Rings, and you want an even funnier kill than Exploder, teach him Level 3 Flare.

## Catastrophe
* 19997 HP, casts Gravity 100 to dispell Float, then spams Earth Shakers.
* GRAVITY 100 CAN BE REFLECTED. Get a floating character, put a wall ring on them. He'll never attack.
* Dancing Dagger to confuse a Gaelicat (North Mountain) or Poison Eagle (Drakenvale) for Float.
* If on the GBA version, you can use the Quicksave glitch to get the rare encounter in the Caves room with the super long staircase.
* That rare encounter is the same one in Drakenvale that has a Poison Eagle. You'll need to feed it an Ether before it can float you though.
* Just don't stay at an inn or use a cottage/tent when running back.
* [TIM] ...or just cast the Float spell with your Time Mage.
* [CHM] ...or just use the Levisalve !mix with your Chemist.
* [BLU] ...or just use the Blue Mage's Mighty Guard, which grants Float.
* Of course, some parties have the HP/healing/offense to just eat Earth Shakers and kill Catastrophe normally.
* Try it out before running out to do the float cheese, to save a lot of time.

## Halicarnassus
* 33333 HP, sky-high level (affects aliment spell accuracy).
* Starts by turning characters into frogs; if you come in with everyone frogged it cures you instead.
* Casts Holy once every eight turns; having the party Reflected will let you scam an easy kill.
* In general, only has single-target offense. Any party can sandbag with Phoenix Downs.
* [SUM] For whatever reason, Halicarnassus counters all offensive summons viciously.
* [SUM] You can still just spam Carbuncle until it impales itself with Holy, though.

## TwinTania
* Enrage is at ~13 minutes; you're on the right track if you see 4 Conflagrations go out during P1.
* Oops, sorry, wrong game.
* It's not Heavy and has no death resistance when charging Giga Flare. All parties can have the Assassin's Dagger here.
* Just turtle to avoid its counterattacks and kill it instantly when it changes form.
* If you're having trouble surviving, you can equip a Coral Ring and attack him to heal for free.
* The Wonder Wand from Fork Tower can be cycled to cast Death... but you'll *probably* get blown up by hubris this way.
* <@CarbyBot> Oh my god, the Wonder Wand missed! (#25)
* [MYS] If you have Holy Blade, you can 100% instant kill its charging form using that.
* [SUM] He's also vulnerable to Break, so your Summoner can inflict that on him.
* [TIM] You can stop him with !Time while he's charging, to get more assassin's dagger attempts.
* [BST] An Executor from the Solitary Island Shrine gives you Level 5 Death, which works on the charging form.
* [BST] If you didn't pick one up earlier, cheesing the assassin's dagger will be faster than walking out for one.
* [BLU] Your Blue Mage can also just instantly kill him with level 5 death during the charging phase.
* [THF] Steals vary by form: normal form has a Flame shield and charging form has a Giant Axe.
* [SAM] If for some reason you still need it, the charging form can rarely drop a Murasame when killed.

## The Void
* Most groups will simply want to blast through the Void on the way to NED.
* The last Gilgamesh fight is basically just a victory lap.
* He has 7000 effective HP and simply uses unimpressive physical attacks.
* He has a Genji Shield to steal/thief knfie, but Aegis Shields are better.
* The vast majority of trash encounters in the Void are brutal; most groups should just flee.
* EXP/AP/gil is generally easier to get back in the first room of the Castle.
* [THF] Crystal Dragons in the Void have Elixirs as their common steal (!!). Stock up.
* [THF] You likely have no more use for them, but more Bone Mails can be stolen from Necromancers.
* Of note: the random encounter with 3 Moves is 199 AP per fight--but you have to win before they run.
* They're Heavy, Undead, and vulnerable to Fire.
* [SUM] If you actually bothered to get Phoenix for your Summoner, now's a good chance to just explode them all.
* [BLM|MYS] Firaga/Firaga Sword will make quick work of them.
* [BST] Beastmasters can !Control them and force them to suicide.
* [TIM] Time Mages can land Slowga on them, or simply quick+venom rod them if you stocked up.
* [BRD] Bards can vaporize the Movers easily with the Requiem song.

## Shinryu
* Optional superboss; there is no reason other than bragging rights to try this.
* [DRG] If you want his Dragon Whisker for your Dragoon, remember that you can flee Shinryu.
* [DRG] There's nothing stopping you from stealing (or Thief Knifing) and running repeatedly.
* [DRG] xcept basic common sense, i guess.
* The vast majority of Shinryu kills are going to involve Berserking him.
* [TIM] Exception: quick + venom rod works just fine for Time Mages, if you have the patience.
* [WHM|RDM] Anyone with White Magic can simply cast Berserk on him, of course.
* Anyone who can use a Rod can (eventually) land Berserk on him with the Wonder Rod.
* Staff-users can swing away with the Power Staff and apply a Berserk proc.
* [CHM] Chemists can mix a 100% blind with Holy Water + Eye Drops because of course they can.
* You also need some way of surviving incredibly fast one-shot physical attacks.
* The Aegis Shield + mini status will boost a character's evasion % into the stratosphere.
* So will the Genji Shield from Gilgamesh in the Void, if you stole it. 99% Shield Evasion, baby!
* [KGT] Knights can coverscam Shinryu the same way they would vs. any other berserked enemy.
* [SUM] Summoners can just about keep up with Shinryu's offense using the Golem spell.
* [WHM] White Mages can neuter berserked Shinryu's offense with the Blink spell.
* [NIN] If you give the Ninja's !Image command to everyone, that'll work just fine.
* In the worst case scenario, any class which can wear the Mirage Vest can abuse a bug.
* Changing weapons with a Mirage Vest equipped refreshes the start-of-battle Blink.

## Necrophobe
* Necrophobe is an optional fight! You need to kill him for the last save point before NED, though.
* First phase: four 8800 HP auto-reflect Barriers, which alternate between level 3 black magic and holy/flare.
* Second phase: 34044 effective HP, weak to all elements, spams double physical attacks/vacuum waves.
* Reflect rings will let you cast on yourself to penetrate the barrier reflect status.
* The barriers are vulnerable to instant death, which your party is capable of efficiently inflicting.
* Make sure that your preferred method of ID is NOT reflectable, though!
* [SAM] Samurai can just !Zeninage the barrier crystals down easily.
* [SAM] You might want to use !Iainuki, but the Barriers are heavy, so it won't work.
* [SUM] Air Lancet boosted Syldras from your Summoner will let you just DPS race the barriers.
* [SUM] If that sounds like too much work, you can also scum Shoat petrifies on the barriers.
* [SUM] Golem will allow you to almost completely neuter the second phase's offense.
* [TIM] Remember that the Time Mage's Comet and Meteor ignore reflect statuses.
* [BST] Beastmasters can release Great Dragons from the X-Zone Caves for a 9999 hit, to quickly thin out the crystals.
* [BST] Just pray the random target selection doesn't pick Necrophobe himself.

## Tree Exdeath
* 49001 HP. Starts with regular attacks and White Hole (petrify+death).
* Adds Holy and Condemn below 30000, then Meteo below 10000. Rush that last 10K HP, Meteo hurts.
* Spawns Neo-Exdeath after going down.
* [BRD] This fight continues into NED, so Bards can use the time to go capped-stats Super Saiyan now.
* [CHM] Yes, yes, on the SNES you can Kiss of Blessing to stop NED from spawning and thus skip the final boss. Gold star. Don't.
* [CHM] This fight continues into NED, so Chemists can use the time to go immune-to-everything-level-255 Super Saiyan now.
* Aegis Shield blocks White Hole completely, so have it on your most indispensible character.
* [WHM] Have Shell and Protect on the party going into Exdeath.
* [BLU] Mighty Guard. Mightguardmightyguardmightyguard. You can even facetank Meteos with it.
* [NIN] Now would probably be a good time to chuck all those legendary weapons, if you're having trouble burning the last 10K HP.

## Neo Ex Cactuar
* Image guide: http://i.imgur.com/FphWf.gif
* High level strategy overview follows:
* Biggest threats are: Grand Cross (random aliments), Almagest (~1700 HP all-targets), enrage (last part spams super attacks 2x/turn)
* Grand Cross is mitigatable with Hermes Sandals and luck. Most parties will kill Grand Cross first to lower the number of dice rolls.
* Almagest is a HP check. Unless you have extreme damage output and rush it first, you will need the HP (or Shell) to survive it.
* You can skip enrage either by counting HP and killing the last 2 parts at the same time.
* ...or you can save the bottom, non-Heavy part for last and then gib it with a Magic Lamp Odin.
* Even without !white, you get one free Shell casting from the Wonder Wand, if you have it.
* [BER] In the SNES version, there are 'dummy' targets in the fight that will cause your zerker to miss a lot.
* [BER] You will probably be better served equipping the Earth Hammer and any magic-boosting abilities you have.
* [BER] In the GBA/iOS version the dummies are gone, making the Rune Axe much more reliable.
* [MYS] Congratulations! Your Mystic Knight don't care about almagest.
* [MYS] Break Blade will knock out the part that casts it with 100% accuracy.
* [TIM] If things go seriously south, the Time Mage's Quick is a good recovery tool.
* [TIM] Quick will allow you to throw out multiple Phoenix Downs/Remedies/Elixirs in a single action.
* [TIM] Meteor will be weaker than expected, due to the presence of two 'decoy' targets in the SNES version.
* [TIM] If you're a gambling sort, you can try to land Old on the Almagest part at *extremely* low odds. It'll completely defang that piece, though.
* [DRG] Almagest is telegraphed by Neo Exdeath beginning to shake, and Grand Cross is telegraphed by the warning 'The laws of the universe mean nothing!'.
* [DRG] Your dragoon can dodge that (and Grand Cross) by being in the air at that time.
* [DNC] You'll probably have to look elsewhere for damage, but Equip Ribbons make Grand Cross a nonissue.
* [CHM] Chemists can do excellent AoE by spamming Holy Breath (Dragon Fang + Holy Water).
* [CHM] It does damage equal to your HP, which is affected by the doubling from Giant's Drink
* [CHM] Between Giant's Drinks and the ability to Shell allies, Chemists can neuter Almagest.
* [CHM] The Dragon's Kiss (Dragon Fang + Maiden's Kiss) also grants immunity from most but not all Grand Cross outcomes.
* [SAM] You will need an obscene amount of cash to kill NED with just !GilToss but it's conceptually simple.
* [SAM] If you have a way to kill them, the Movers in the last room of the void drop huge piles of gil.
* [THF] Remember that weapons you steal off of NED's parts can be equipped mid-battle.
* [THF+NIN] ...or thrown, with your Ninja.
* [BST] Beastmasters can release a Dragon Aevis for a 9999-all-target Breath Wing. 4 of them will get NED's parts real low.
* [BST] You can also release a Crystelle for Mighty Guard to trivialize Almagest, but catching one's a horrible pain.
* [BST] As long as you're under level 45, using the Dancing Dagger in the back row against a Crystelle that you !Control to use Protect does 1-3 or 2-6 damage (if you don't !Dance).
* [BLU] Mighty Guard and White Wind allow you to win stand-up brawls against NED with little fuss.
* [BLU] Or you could abuse Dark Spark and L5 Death, but honestly I'd go with the first idea.
* [BLU+CHM] Unless you have mix AND math at your side, which lets you set up the hilarious QUAD SKULL.
* [DRG] The Dragon Lance is super-effective vs. the Grand Cross part, if you're burning that one first.
* [BRD] Apollo's Harp will do massive damage vs. the Grand Cross part, if for some reason your party isn't 99 speed/level 255 anyway.
* [RAN] Were you dumb enough to grind out a Dark Bow in Ronka, or bought one in Bal? Congratulations!
* [RAN] The Melee piece (the one that chucks out 1800 damage Vacuum Waves) can be blinded!
* [RAN] NED's phantom targets will make !X-Fight less powerful on the SNES version, though.
* [SUM] An actual !summoned Odin will not work on the bottom part!
* [SUM] Hardcasted Odins will use Gungnir if any enemy on the field is Heavy.