Chrono Trigger/Lavos Beckons

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

The Underground Ocean Palace
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 and witness a brief cutscene with Schala.

You'll need to flip a few switches to activate the paths in the next area. Head through the door to the right to step on a switch and you'll get into a fight with Jinn and Barghest. Just kill Barghest first to get rid of his shield guarding Jinn, then finish off Jinn. You can head into the next room to fight some monsters and grab an Aeon Helm. Pick up the Aeon Suit in the center room, and grab a star sword by going through the left doors, after flipping another switch and fighting some more monsters. One quick note on the many colored scouters that fly around is that they absorb all magic except for one particular element denoted by their color, as well as counterattacking any other magic attack. Hence, yellow scouters absorb everything but lightning, blue scouters everything but water, etc. Head south through the south-east or south-west exits and by the time you clear out that room you should have picked up a new weapon for everyone in your party except Ayla. Hit the switch in the center of the south room, and if you hit both of the other switches, you should activate a passage in the north room. Head down it to come to a room with some stairs and an exit to the south.

The south exit leads to an empty elevator shaft, so head down the stairs. Fight some monsters, then move on. The next stairway has a bunch of monsters that you'll fight at the bottom of the stairs, but only if you run into them. At the bottom of the next stairway there's a statue that breathes fire which actually damage you, so keep moving. You'll run into Masa and witness another cutscene, then reach the bottom of the stairs to find a save point and an optional battle with another Jinn and Barghest pair.

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.

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 once you ride it up. If you do ride the elevator up you'll have to repeat the previous area and the elevator ride, so be warned. Anyway, 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 and a save point. After that, get ready to fight the Golem Twins.

Use the same strategy as before, 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.

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.

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 forest to confront Dalton and have your items, money, and equipment stolen away. 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 equpiment 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 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.

Continue to Chapter 23: The New King (12,000 B.C. second time)