Chrono Trigger/Lavos Beckons

Chapter 22: Lavos Beckons (12,000 B.C. second time)

The Underground Ocean Palace
Items: 1xAeon Helm, 1xAeon Suit, 1xStar Sword, 1xShock Wave, 1xSonicArrow, 1xKaiser Arm, 1xDemon Hit, 1xElixer

As mentioned before, this is your last chance to do things in Zeal, so buy whatever weapons or complete whatever quests you need to here before moving on. You'll run into Masa/Mune as you head into the Ocean Palace (leave the first room to the south) and then witness a brief cutscene concerning the Mammon Machine.


 * Note: Scouts (the flying cyclopes) are immune (they absorb it) to all magic except for their color (element). If they are hit with magic not of their color, they will counter with a party damaging spell of their element (i.e. Water 2).

In this next area, there are several rooms which branch off of the main area. There are five new weapons available to be found here, however Ayla is the only one who will not recieve one. Within the main area are patrolling monsters, ambushes and an Aeon Suit on the lower right side. If you don't want to fight the Scouts and Mages, simply walk around the edge platforms, however you will probably have to fight to move on when you can. The left and right are simply mirrors, so the rooms look the same. Notice that the northeast, northwest and middle doors connect to one another, and that the southeast and southwest both loop around to one another.

You'll need to flip a few switches to open the path to the next area. One can be found in the northeast room, one in the northwest, and one in the southern loop (through the southwest or southeast doors). The switches in the northeast and northwest rooms, when pressed, will initiate a fight with a Jinn and a Barghest. These monsters are slow and may not even get the chance to attack, but if they get close to each other they will attack everyone in the party for around 120 damage. Barghest has a shield on Jinn, so kill it first, then Jinn; just use normal attacks.

The right middle room (which you can get to by the top right room) contains an Aeon Helm in the chest; however you will have to fight two Red Scouts and a Mage to get it. Falcon Hit should be able to kill all three instantly.

In the left middle room, the Star Sword can be found in the chest; again protected by a Mage but this time with two Blue Scouts.

Head through the south-east or south-west doors to find the third switch. The room has two main "islands" with Scouts standing on posts. If you walk between the posts, you will initialize a fight between a Blue and Red Scout and a Mage. Again you can avoid the fights altogether by just walking along the edges. Hit the switch in the middle of the room, and then pick up the items in the chests. The Kaiser Arm is available in on the eastern side next to the entrance, the SonicArrow is next to the southeast pole (Red Scout) of the west "island." Note: there's a Demon Hit if you go through the west side of the room, head around the left border (start near the entrance) and then when you get to the dead end by the statue, backtrack just a few steps and enter the passage to the secret room (you can see the chest).

Once all three switches have been pressed, the passage will be open to the south within the large room with the 8 doors. Head through that new door to come to a room with some stairs and an exit to the south.

The south exit leads to an empty elevator shaft used later, so head down the stairs. Fight two Thrashers and two Mages, then move on. The next stairway has four Thrashers jumping up and down; if you run into them they'll go wait for you at the bottom, otherwise you won't have to fight. At the bottom of the next stairway there's a statue that breathes fire which actually damage you, so keep moving. At the bottom of the next stairwell you'll have to fight two Lashers and two Thrashers at the same time. Continue on and you'll run into Masa and witness another cutscene; head to the bottom of the stairs to find a save point and an optional battle with another Jinn and Barghest pair (they will try and start the fight).

Head south and fight a few monsters so you can use the elevator by selecting the left globe. You'll be in for a long series of fights. You can take Marle and Lucca if you want to have Water and Fire magic handy to kill the different colored scouts, or concentrate on physical attackers. The first two groups will fall easily to Crono's Lightning magic, so equip the Gold stud on him to make things faster, particularly if you have Luminaire. The third group will be three scouters of each color, so hit them with single target magic of their type, or just wear them down with physical attacks; a well aimed Falcon Hit will take care of all three.

When you hit the bottom of the elevator, go ahead and go in and out to ride it up again, there will be a magic tab in the left middle part of the elevator (embedded in the wall) once you ride it up. If you do ride the elevator up you'll have to run down the stairs again then ride the elevator, so be warned.

Head into the room you land on, and there will be a big switch there that doesn't do anything. Head into the left and the right doors to flip a switch and fight a few scouts, although you can actually skip by the scouts if you're fast enough. Once you've hit both the switches, step onto the big one to reveal a platform into another room with a chest containing an Elixer and a save point. After that, get ready to fight the Golem Twins.

Golem Twins
Use the same strategy as you did on the single Golem, they counterattack with whatever type of attack you use on them, and they're at their most harmless when they're using fire attacks, so always try to finish off with one of Lucca's fire spells that targets both of them. If you have Luminaire and Flare and have your third party member heal, this will be a pretty easy battle. If you haven't trained Lucca enough, just stick with your best characters and try it yourself.

Dalton will try to summon the Golem Boss, but realize he doesn't want to risk giving up his chance to be immortal. Head down the hall to prepare for one of the coolest parts of the game. You'll stab the Mammon Machine with the red knife, and have it turn into the Masamune. After, that, prepare for a confrontation with Lavos.

Lavos confronted
If you actually beat his outer shell, which is much harder than usual, you'll get The Programmer's Ending. However, this is extremely hard since his first attack does massive damage, enough to probably kill you instantly if this is your first time through the game, and he casts chaos on your party immediately, which you probably don't have any protection against at this point in the game. If you do an insane amount of levelling up and IF you do the sunken desert sidequest early to get some status protection you may have a fighting chance to beat him on your first game, but otherwise you'll probably just have to try for this particular challenge on a New Game+.

The prophet will reveal himself to be Magus, and try to attack Lavos, but to no avail. Crono will try to stop Lavos singlehandedly, and be disintegrated. Schala will transport you to safety with the last of her pendant's power, and you'll awaken in the remains of the earthbound village. While you're here, head into the middle hut and wait for the Nu to leave to pick up a magic tab, and head into the Commons (the forest) to confront Dalton and have your items, money, and equipment stolen away (talk to the Elder). Bummer. Choose your party carefully for this part since you won't be able to switch for a while, and remember that Ayla won't need any equipment to attack with.

Challenging Lavos
If you go back and challenge Lavos at this point, you should get The Prophet Ending. There will be a few scenes involving "the Prophet" from this period and a particularly nice speech from him, hinting that he would have gotten the chance to do what he wanted without your interference.

If you defeat Lavos during the fight with him you're supposed to lose, you'll get the The Programmer's Ending, and get to talk with all the programming staff at the End of Time.