Final Fantasy/The Journey Begins

Treasure: Potion x2, Antidote, Jolt Tonic, Ship

Maytoa's Cave
Once you cross the bridge into the wilderness, you'll encounter some new, more dangerous enemies, particularly the Ogre. A little further up, you'll reach a mountainous area that splits into two paths - North and East. If you go to the north, you'll find a cave at the edge of the peninsula. Enter it and talk to the broom inside, it'll give you an important tip, "Press Start and Circle". That will bring up a map of the over world along with the position of all the towns, caves or dungeons you've already visited. Go into the next room and speak to the rude old woman. It seems she's lost her Crystal Eye, which gives her the ability to see because she's blind if you didn't figure it out already.

There's nothing you can do for her right now so empty the chests on the left side of the room and exit the cave. Now head back down the peninsula to the mountainous section that splits off in the two different directions, but this time, go east to find the port town of Pravoca.

Provaca
This town is quite a bit larger than Corneria, so finding the shops can be a little difficult - the armour shop is in the lower left corner and the magic and weapons shops are on the right side of Pravoca, along with the church, which you can use to revive any dead characters. You most likely won't be able to buy anything substantial just yet due to the steep prices of equipment and magic around here.

Here's a table of good equipment and magic to get. Much like the stuff in Corneria, you won't be able to buy everything here until you fight the local monsters for money, so just get what you can for now.


 * Warrior: Broad Sword, Steel Plate, Leather Shield, Leather Gloves
 * Monk: Nothing!
 * Red Mage: Broad Sword, Ice1, Leather Shield, Leather Gloves
 * White Mage: Leather Shield, Leather Gloves, Invs1, Nulbolt, Silence
 * Black Mage: Leather Shield, Leather Gloves, Ice1, Slow1

Northwest corner
Anyway, once you get a hold of some equipment and (hopefully) magic, stay at the inn to recharge or check out the church to revive any dead characters, you'll be ready for the battle ahead. Again, I hope that you leveled up a little since you've been here. So, when you're ready, go all the way to the upper left side of Pravoca and talk to the guy waiting there. For some reason, he'll want to battle you, and he'll find nine burly buddies of his to help him.

Pirates x9
These guys are pretty wimpy by themselves, but as a group they can easily kill your equally wimpy mages, so watch out. Just attack with your Warriors, Monks, Thieves, and Red Mages, they should be able to kill a pirate with each of their attacks. Black Mages should continually use Bolt1 or Fire1, and your White Mages should just attack and use Cure1 if necessary.

After you've cleaned house, talk to the lead pirate again and he'll hand over his ship to you. At this point in the game, you can do several things, the first of which should be to get some new equipment and some magic. Around this time, you'll probably come to the inevitable realization that you won't be able to buy the equipment necessary through the game with the Gil you get from fighting enemies, and it gets a lot worse from this point on. The only effective way to get Gil quickly is to use the Power Peninsula (outlined below)... or be nearly broke for a long time. Now, about the Power Peninsula. If you're up to it, the Power Peninsula can net you a lot of experience and a hell of a lot Gil.

Power peninsula (optional)
To get there, head East until you see a port, then North until you reach a dead end. The top two squares here contain very powerful enemies: Winter Wolves, Hill Gigas, Trolls, and Necrotaurs. There's also the odd chance that you'll run into a group of Wyverns, but it's unlikely, plus they're relatively weak so you should be able to kill them. Still, you should be very careful because all of these enemies can hit hard, often too hard for your current level. Winter Wolves are susceptible to Fire and Fire2, but make sure you use NulIce beforehand or you'll quickly get owned by their Ice Storm attack. Fire and Fire2 also works well on Trolls, but you'd better get off some Invs1 and Blink spells before you start attacking.

Necrotaurs are weak against Fire and Fire2 as well as Dia spells. As usual, cast Invs1 and Blink for a few rounds, then let loose with your stock of spells. On the other hand, a group of Hill Gigas are a mixed bag. They give lots of experience and Gil, but they're very difficult to defeat at low levels. The only real way you're going to defeat Hill Gigas is to use Invs1 and Blink like crazy on a single character, then start hacking at their HP. If you manage to win any of these battles, you'll usually get between 500-900 experience and 2000-3000 Gil. Not bad, right? I though so, and you can keep coming back here until you reach level 15 or so, then most of the enemies will be easier to kill. Now it's time to head to Elfland.

Chapter 3: The Prince of Elfland >>