Ys: Ancient Ys Vanished/Abandoned Mine

Preparation
At this point in the game, you should be above level 7, hopefully close to reaching level 8 (12,800 experience points) if you haven't reached it already. You should be equipped with the Talwar sword, the Reflex armor, and the Silver Shield. Although it's not entirely necessary, it's not a bad idea to purchase the Large Shield. Although expensive at 6000 gold, there may come a time when you find you need it. (If you're playing the remakes, this is less of a concern.) Head due north from Minea, and you will find the entrance to the mine. Restore your health, save your game, and step inside.

Floor 1
Inside the mine, the first thing that you'll notice is that Adol's vision is good enough to see just a few feet around him, but not much farther. This puts you at a huge disadvantage when it comes to exploring and observing enemies. Unfortunately, there is no remedy for this, so you'll just have to get used to it.

What's worse, when you first arrive in the mines, you still can't regenerate hit points inside. However, there is a remedy for that which you'll soon find. Until then, if you find yourself in danger, know the quickest escape route to the exit, or to one of the interior bridge areas where health generation is permitted.

There are three distinct enemies on this floor, all of them equally deadly. There are the strange orb-shapped Nubbrows, the translucent bodied Gryel, and the large worm Othcross. They are each found in various locations throughout the floor, but your strategy for defeating them should be the same as always.

There are three treasure chests to be found on this floor. But your limited sight will make it difficult to navigate with confidence. You'll have to explore the mines several times before you become more familiar with their layout. To find the first chest, simply head left from the entrance, and continue all the way to the left until the path bends down and starts looping back around. Along the way, you'll find a chest with a Heal Potion in it.

From this chest, make your way down as far to the bottom of the map as you can. There are two dead-ends off to the left, but if you make it to the very bottom, you'll find another chest with the Timer Ring in it. When wearing this ring, you'll find that enemies move at half their normal speed. This should make it easier for you to correct your position and avoid taking damage while you fight them.

From the Timer Ring, follow the right wall up until a path opens to the right. Join this path, and follow the wall above you as it heads down to the right, and then back up and ultimately to a treasure chest. Inside this one, you'll find the Silver Armor. Equip this armor to get a nice boost in your defense.

You are now ready to head down to the second floor. From the Silver Armor, follow the path below as it heads straight down towards a doorway that's very easy to miss in the dark. If you start looping back up, you missed the doorway. You must pass though this door to find the path that leads to the first basement level.

Once you head through the door, follow the path as it leads you to a bridge that crosses over a lit chasm. In this area, you can regenerate lost health by standing still, so take advantage of that fact before you continue through the other side. Once there, follow the path through another doorway until you reach the stairs that lead to floor below. Ideally, you'll want to be at level 9 (25,600 experience points) or very close to it before you proceed.

Basement 1
Once again, this floor introduces three new enemies; the giant mouth Dynicks, the spear carrying Karons, and the smallest but deadliest of the three, the orb-like Menons. Menons are especially nasty.

There are three treasure chests that you should find down here. To find the first one, start at the stairs back to floor 1, and head to the right as far as you can until you are forced to walk down. When the path opens back up to the left, you should notice a Menon sitting still in a doorway. Crash through the Menon to access the other side of the door, and you'll find a treasure chest which contains the most useful ring of all, the Heal Ring. With this equipped, you can finally heal inside dungeons. And if you have it equipped in places that you can normally heal in, then you will heal twice as fast! This should make it easier to survive the mine.

Finding the next treasure chest isn't too hard, but there aren't a lot of landmarks to go by. From the Heal Ring, you should step back out through the doorway and follow the path to the left. When it begins to head down, follow the path as far to the bottom as you can. You shouldn't have to veer too far to the left or to the right. The path below should dead-end. Then follow the bottom wall to the left to find the chest which contains the Silver Harmonica. Now you can finally return Reah's lost possession.

But before you exit, there's one more chest to find. This chest is found near the bottom path of the floor, which is primarily composed of another bridge that crosses a long chasm. It's easiest to find if you run down along the right side of the floor, and cross the bridge. The chest can be found near the left side, just below a doorway. Inside the chest, you'll find the much talked-about Roda Seed.

At this point, it's best to return to Minea. If you can easily find your way back out of the mine, do so and head south to Minea. Otherwise, simply use the Wing for an easy and instant trip back to town.

Reah and the Roda Trees
Back in Minea, it's time to return Reah's precious Silver Harmonica to her. In the original versions, you will find her standing in the same location of Minea as always, near the upper right corner of town. However, in the remakes, she has actually chosen to wait for you up on the ramparts of the town wall. Just head through the doors where she used to stand and climb the steps to find her looking out at Darm Tower in the distance.

When you speak with her, she will be extremely grateful that you have returned her harmonica to her. You will receive 3000 experience points as a reward for returning it. Leah will then proceed to play a composition for you. It is at the point in the remake when you may also hand to Reah the piece of parchment that you may have found in the Plains. She will explain that it's a poem that she wrote a long time ago, and thank you for returning it. If you do this, then when you leave the rampart, the view will switch back to Reah, and you will hear her song again while the poem scrolls onto view.

Before you return to the Mine, there is the matter of the Roda Seed that you found. (Don't forget to purchase another Wing from Pim if you used one to transport yourself back to Minea.) There are two big Roda Trees to be found in the Plains. It just so happens that if you eat the Roda Seed, you will be able to communicate with both of them. In the remakes, however, you must return the harmonica to Reah first before you can fully understand the trees.

If you visit the north tree first, it will tell you that it is part of a pair of trees, and if you find the other, you may find a silver blade. Sure enough, if you locate the southern tree and speak with it, the tree will bestow upon Adol the Silver Sword. Be sure to equip this powerful weapon before you return to the mine.

Basement 2
In order to reach the lower basement level of the mine, return to the first basement level, walk a short distance to the wall below the stairs, and follow that wall around until it leads to a second set of stairs. The second basement level is a bit more flooded than the previous levels.

Down on this level, there are three new powerful enemies to face, the most powerful in the mine. You will first encounter the fire birds known as Chelasken. Not long after, you will meet the tall insect warriors, the Lemendy. Finally, there are the powerful knights called Brayzals.

From the entrance, you'll have to follow a path until it branches. If you keep going up, you'll dead-end at some water. Take the branch that leads left until you see a Brayzal standing guard at an entrance that leads up. Fight your way past this Brayzal, and make your way back to the right, where you will find a treasure chest. Open this chest to find the Darm Key, an item you will need to gain access to the tower.

Return back to the path you were on. There's one other chest on this level, but it contains a Heal Potion. If you already have one, collecting this one won't benefit you, so you may choose to ignore that chest. If you choose to look for it, continue to follow the path around until it branches as it heads downward. The chest can be found by following the left branch.

To reach your destination, you must follow the right branch. Once you are on this path, there are no more branches, and it will take you along a long route that deposits you in front of a large door. Before you open this door, it truly is best if you have Adol reach the highest level of experience, level 10 (51,200 experience points). Even at level 9, the boss which follows is significantly challenging, and you'll want as many hit points as you can get. As long as you possess the Darm Key, restore your lost health, save your game, and pass through the doors.

You'll enter a room that seems quite peaceful, and a chest will be waiting for you on the floor. However, as soon as you approach the chest, the tranquility will cease, and a boss will appear.

Vagullion
Vagullion is considered by many to be one of the hardest bosses in the game, perhaps even harder than the final boss. He is a vampire-like being who can divide himself into a multitude of bats. The bats spread out and fly around the room, primarily in search of Adol. After a while, they swarm back together, and briefly restore the form of Vagullion. Your only chance to attack him and do any damage is this brief period when he comes together.

This battle is difficult for a number of reasons. For one, there are so many bats to avoid, and they can all do damage to Adol. When they fly around, the bats drift in Adol's direction, so you can't hold still. You must continuously run away from the bats in order to stay safe. Run around in a circle is generally a good idea, but you don't want to run too far ahead. You want to be close enough to them so that when they swarm together and form Vagullion, you have enough time to hit him and run away before he morphs back into bats again.

You would think the visual indication that the bats are swarming is enough to warn you when you need to get closer so that you can hit Vagullion, but it's not that simple. Sometimes the bats will swarm, but they don't restore Vagullion. Instead, they just continue to fly around and you must wait for another opportunity. When they do combine, he keeps his form so briefly, that you are likely to miss him if you are too far away. On top of all of this, Vagullion has a large number of hit points, and only the Silver Sword can make a dent on him.

Chances are high that you are going to be defeated multiple times against Vagullion. That's why it is so important to save just before this battle. Even at the highest level and with all of the silver equipment, this will simply be a difficult battle. One tip that should help you out: in the original version, you can come at Vagullion from just about any direction, and you will score a hit, but in the remake, you must concentrate your attacks on his feet. Start running towards him as soon as you think he's forming so that you can reach him and attack his feet before he breaks apart again.

Once you defeat him, the chest which caused him to attack will reappear. This time, you can open it to obtain the third Book of Ys. You may also notice a door on the left. If you go through it, you'll find an empty room with pedestals, and another large locked door which you will be unable to open. The pedestals probably had goddess statues on them, but they are gone now. There's nothing left for you to do in the mine except retrace your steps and escape to the outside.