Final Fantasy III/Crystal Tower

''With new, powerful jobs, the Warriors of Light can go toe-to-toe with the dangerous enemies of the Syrcus Tower, also known to mortals as the Crystal Tower. The powerful weapons hidden in the Forbidden Land, Eureka, are also accessible to the heroes, as long as they are able to defeat the equally powerful fiends guarding them.''

The Forbidden Land, Eureka


Items in italics may not need to be purchased because they can be found for free.

There are two strategies for dealing with Eureka: slowly descend to the bottom, fighting each boss on the way, or rush to the bottom, fighting the bosses in whatever order you desire. This guide will focus on the second strategy - it is much safer and allows your party to grow from defeating the weaker bosses and obtaining their weapons.

From the entrance, go around to the east, then west at the fork for two chests with White Musk and Elixir. Circle around the south to the opposite side of the circle, and west to get two more chests with Chocobo's Wrath and Fuma Garb. Go south to the next area.

There are two paths, after you head south a little ways. Head west first to enter a room with a chest, containing White Musk. Then, go east and enter another room with White Musk, Phoenix Down, and Chocobo's Wrath. From the east side of the room, you can slip into a small tunnel in the center. There is a chest with a Ribbon in it, which is guarded by a Ninja. The Ninja should go down fairly easily - you will fight these again later in the Crystal Tower, so use this fight as an indicator of readiness for the final dungeon.

After you obtain the Ribbon, go to the southwest and enter the next area. There is a single chest on a ledge with a Shuriken. Return to the previous area, then go southeast to the next area. Take the first branching path to the west for an Elixir. Follow the path around to the south, grabbing the chests with Shuriken and Phoenix Down along the way. Head to the next area.

The next area is a linear path, but there is a boss on the way, Amon. The fight can only be triggered by walking up to the weapon on the pedestal and interacting with it, so don't worry about being attacked before you're ready. Continue on to the next area.

The next area is also fairly linear, and also has a boss in it, Kunoichi. Head south, and go west at the branching path. The chest looks fancy, like it could be guarded, but it's not, despite holding the powerful Omnirod. Across the way to the east is Kunoichi's altar, but continue south if you don't want to fight yet. Take the Phoenix Down from the chest, and continue to the next area.

Yet another linear path: head down the stairs, following the path around. You'll come to the door to the next area. Take it, but know that General is at the end of this path to the east, whenever you are ready to fight him.

In the next area, just continue straight to the warp panel. The east and west paths lead to boss fights with the Guardian and Scylla, respectively. The warp panel takes you to a safe zone, with four chests and two shopkeepers. Two chests hold Elixir and two chests hold Shuriken. Behind the shopkeepers are two springs: the eastern spring restores your party's health and MP, while the western spring revives any fallen party members. There is a hidden path through the east wall, where there is a third, secret shopkeeper. This is the only shop in the game where you can buy more Shuriken, a strong item that your Ninja can Throw.

When you're done shopping and healing, consider leaving Eureka and Crystal Tower to save. It's definitely a pain, but do you really want to open those chests again? When you're ready, go ahead and fight the bosses here to obtain the weapons they're guarding.

The bosses are listed in the order that they appear, but you don't necessarily have to fight them in that order. If you want to fight the easiest boss first, and the hardest boss last, the recommended order is: General, Guardian, Kunoichi, Amon, Scylla.

Boss: Amon


You may have flashbacks to Hein when fighting Amon, and rightfully so. Amon is able to cast Barrier Shift just like Hein. You could try to follow the Hein fight strategy, but honestly it's just easier to hit him hard with physical attacks or unaspected magic such as Meteor. Every other turn or so, Amon uses magic spells that will hit either one party member, or the entire party, so be sure to keep everyone topped off.

Do not use Drain spells or items, since Amon could change his weakness and have those spells actually damage you instead.

Boss: Kunoichi
As noted in the Bestiary, Kunoichi is the first enemy you'll encounter that can attack three times per turn. Her physical attacks can inflict Poison, and she can cast Aeroga to damage the entire party. Oh, and she can buff herself with Haste. You'll want to strike quickly and powerfully to be victorious!

Her biggest weakness is how little HP she has. Take your strongest jobs and try to wrap things up quickly. Consider having your assigned support job cast Haste on your strongest attacker.

In the NES version, Kunoichi excessively uses Mind Blast, which guarantees paralysis to all party members unless they are equipped with a paralysis-countering armor piece. She can also use Blind to blind your physical attackers. But, if you got the ribbon, you can hit her and quickly defeat her.

Boss: General
The General tends to use more physical attacks, but is able to cast Bio, Drain, and Death. Ninja's physical attacks, and Magus Flare help out a lot, and of course you'll need a healer to keep the party alive. Of the Eureka bosses, The General is considered the weakest.

Boss: Scylla
Unlike the other bosses in Eureka, Scylla casts primarily using strong magic attacks. Her regular physical attack can also Petrify party members. Cast Protect on your healer if you're worried about losing them, and ensure they heal the team or cast Stona as needed. Admittedly, now that you have access to Arise, it may be more strategic to have your healer cure a party member of Petrify, while letting a party member that's low on health die.

In the NES version, Scylla only casts Flare making her much easier than the 3D versions. Her attacks still petrify, however.

Hit her with your strongest attacks and magic, and do your best to keep everyone alive. Scylla is probably the hardest boss in Eureka.

Boss: Guardian
Like The General, The Guardian is a heavy physical attacker, whose attacks can cause Petrify. The Guardian can also cast Reflect, so it's safer to take a party of pure physical attackers with one healer for support. You can likely use the same party you used for the General.

In the NES version, The Guardian attacks primarily with Quake and heals itself with Cura and can also protect itself with Reflect. Keep your party members healthy and attack physically should it use Reflect. Otherwise, use magic and you should have victory.

??? (3D)
This dungeon has no name, and is extremely linear, but that doesn't make it easy. There is only a short path to an altar, with an extremely powerful boss. Do not challenge this boss if your overall level (not job level!) is lower than 75. Even at 75, the fight is still extremely difficult. Take a party of full job level 99s as well. This boss is designed to be the most difficult boss in the game. Consider yourself warned.

On the way to the boss, various dragons ambush you. All of the dragons have high HP, physical attacks that can inflict status effects, and attack twice per turn. The strongest dragon is the Red Dragon, with 99,999 HP and heavy physical damage. Their attacks can also poison your party. Next up is Green Dragon, with 89,999 HP, and physical attacks that cause confusion. Considered the weakest, but still no pushover, the Yellow Dragon has 79,999 HP, and their attacks can silence party members.

All of the Onion armor drops from the dragons here, as well as in Crystal Tower. However, you only encounter dragons in this dungeon so if you want to try and farm for a complete armor set, you should spend your time here. Green Dragons can drop Onion Shield and Onion Gauntlets. Red Dragons drop Onion Shield and Onion Armor. Yellow Dragons drop Onion Shield and Onion Helm. All of the dragons have a rare chance of dropping the Onion Sword. Stealing only yields Elixir, but since you can't buy them, this might be a good place to farm for them.

Boss: Iron Giant
There are a few different strategies for beating the Iron Giant at lower levels, but all of them require a full party of job level 99s. Any lower, and your party will likely not survive his whopping four attacks per turn. Equip your party with Ribbon since his attacks can cause status ailments.

Cast Protect on your party to help mitigate damage, or use a Viking's Provoke to focus the boss's attention on your more heavily armored party member. Iron Giant's magic defense is somewhat low, so casters and Summoner do well here. You could even equip your casters with dual shields and place them in the back row, casting their strongest magic every turn. A party of all Onion Knights would also work well against this boss.

If you defeat this boss, you should be more than prepared for the final battle. If you want the final part of the game to be challenging, then don't try to defeat this boss. You can always make another save and come back to it.

The Crystal Tower
On the first floor, head up the stairs and then east. Go south, down the stairs, and pick up the White Musk from the chest. Go around the path to the east and grab Chocobo's Wrath. Head back up the stairs, and bear east to open a chest with Elven Bow. Go south from there to get Chocobo's Wrath. Return to the center of the first floor, and go around to the east and west of the door to Eureka for chests with Lilith's Kiss and Chocobo's Wrath, respectively. Head west, then down the stairs for Fuma Garb. Back up the stairs and further west, there is a chest with White Musk. Enter the door in the north part of the room to enter Crystal Tower proper.

On the second floor, go around to the south, taking the stairs down, then heading east when the path turns. Take the first northern passage you come to for Elixir. Return to the main path and follow the path as it winds around to the north, then east, grabbing a Phoenix Down as you go by. Head up the stairs at the end of this path, and walk around the back of the tower to the west to grab Elixir. Return to the east, and down the stairs to the south, then follow the path to the west to find the stairs.

After you exit onto the third floor, head east - there's nothing to the west. Follow the path around and grab the Elixir from the chest, then head through a passage on the eastern wall to continue on. Follow the path, and take the stairs up to the next floor.

Follow the path up the stairs and back down the stairs. Grab the Phoenix Down from the chest, then head through a secret passage in the western wall. The secret passage goes south a bit, so if you don't think you're moving head south. At the other end of the secret passage is a chest with a Shuriken. Head back up and around the path, then take the stairs down to the previous floor.

Back on the third floor, follow the path south, then back around to the north. There are two chests with Phoenix Down and Elixir. Go east around the tower, and grab an Elixir from a ledge. Head north, and find the stairs back up to the fourth floor.

Back on the fourth floor, there's nothing to do except take the stairs to the fifth floor.

The fifth floor is where you will start encountering Yellow Dragons to fight, so be on your guard. Follow the path on the fifth floor to the east, winding around to the south side of the room before heading back to the west. Take the stairs to the next floor when you come to them. There is a secret passage in the western wall but no point in taking it.

On the sixth floor, head all the way to the west and east for Phoenix Down and Crystal Mail respectively, then take the stairs to the seventh floor. Green Dragons call this floor their home.

You will encounter the powerful Red Dragon on the seventh floor. There are two chests right to the east and west of the large set of stairs: Crystal Gloves and Phoenix Down. Don't head up the stairs quite yet; go around to the east and west for Crystal Helm and Crystal Shield respectively. Then, take the large staircase up, and take the stairs to the eighth floor.

It bears repeating: this is the point of no return! Before approaching the mirror, make sure you have done everything you want to do in Crystal Tower, and have a full inventory of each type of status-curing item. After you approach the mirror, you will be locked in from here on, unable to save or leave the dungeon until you beat the game.

Onion Knight equipment (NES)
The Crystal Tower is where you can find the Onion Equipment. All the five parts are dropped by Dragons.

In the NES version, dragons appear four times every 256 battles.
 * The first dragon appears after about 128 battles. If you already got the treasures of Eureka, that means you can leave the Invincible, cross the Ancients' Maze, walk to the bottom of Eureka, up to the seventh floor of the Sylx Tower, back down to the second floor and start climbing up again before you've fought 128 battles.
 * The second dragon appears after about 64 more battles, which means, take another visit to Eureka (buy tens of Shurikens) and head back to the Sylx Tower.
 * The third and fourth dragon appear after about 10 more battles each.
 * Forty more battles and the cycle starts over. So, you need about 170 more battles to meet another dragon. Return to the Invincible, save the game and reset the NES.

The dragons drop an Onion part only if they are hit by an OHKO spell. There are several options:
 * Black magic: Breakga, Death and Warp
 * White magic: Mini, Toad and Exit
 * Summons: Evoker's Bahamut and Summoner's Odin, but they have a higher chance to miss
 * Equipment: Petrifying hits from Omnirod and Golem Staff
 * Items: Black Musk, Black Hole and, if your level is 86 or more, Devil's Sigh

You should defeat the dragons on the second turn for a better chance to get an Onion equipment part.

The Dragons always drop an item when defeated. Most of the times it will be an Elixir instead of an Onion part. The Thief can steal many Elixirs from them.

A frequently asked question: if the Thief steals one or more Elixirs from a dragon, does the chance of winning an Onion part get a boost? Unfortunately, this is not the case.

According to the analysis by Sir Bahamut, this is where each dragon can be met:

Boss: Xande
In the NES version of the game, Xande hits extremely hard, and can obliterate just about any party in 6 turns. Therefore, you should go on the offensive, even forgoing a dedicated healer slot for extra damage to take him down. Xande begins the fight by casting Libra on one of your party members, then almost always follows up with Meteor, then casting Libra after it.

In the 3D versions, this fight is quite forgiving. Xande attacks twice per turn, which is almost normal at this point. He can cast Haste and Protect, so bring a Rune Staff for free Erase for your healer. Unlike the NES version, you can and should dedicate a slot to a healer, and have them heal the party when they're not dispelling Xande's buffs.

Use your strongest attacks every turn. However, if you're using a Ninja, consider holding on to your extra Shuriken for later boss fights (unless you have a metric ton of them).

This fight can wrap up fairly quickly, especially if you've gotten comfortable fighting the Dragons in the ??? dungeon. You'll notice that Xande has less health than all of the dragons, so you may be surprised when the fight ends.

You would think that Xande was the final boss, but something else appears: the Cloud of Darkness.

The Cloud of Darkness cannot be defeated now; this is a scripted loss. If you took an Onion Knight, it can resist Cloud of Darkness's attacks and drag out the battle unnecessarily. If this is the case for you, simply remove the Onion Shield and make the Onion Knight attack himself.