Final Fantasy VI/Fanatic's Tower

Final Fantasy VI -> The Fanatic's Tower

For reference, the fanatic's tower is located on the giant U shaped continent, on the left half of the U inside a mountain range. This is also where you pick up Strago in his sidequest. I would highly recommend that you teach at least one character Ultima before you attempt the tower, it will make things much easier going. Ultima can be learned either from the ragnarok esper or the paladin shield, which is the uncursed "cursed shield." Both can be found in Locke's sidequest. I would also recommend purchasing wall rings from Thamasa, at the bottom right of the world map, and equipping them on all your characters. You will be unable to use anything but magic while in the fanatic's tower and you will earn no experience points, so keep that in mind when choosing your party, strong magic users are generally wise to pick, such as Terra, Celes, and Strago. Also make sure someone in your party knows life 3 for the boss battle.

If one of your characters knows ultima you can give them the Gold Hairpin or an economizer if you managed to steal one from an Aquila or win one from a brachosaur. It will do an unblockable magic attack to devestate the opposition. If you don't know ultima or can't stomach the MP cost, simply cast a high level magic spell on all of your own party or an unblockable one on the opposite party. To restore MP during battles cast Osmose, or stock up on ethers.

The first door leads you to a safety bit, which prevents instant death spells. Step to the right of the chest and hit A to activate a secret door on the floor below, which gives you Edgar's final tool, the air anchor. Each level contains progressively harder monsters. The next level has a door leading to a genji shield, a very powerful shield. The next level contains a stunner weapon for Shadow and a white dragon. The dragon has no weaknesses and casts holy/pearl magic. If you followed my strategy of equipping all wall rings most of the spells will just reflect and heal the dragon. The next level will give you the force armor, one of the best armors in the game which raises the all important mblock stat. Go up to the last level and enter the room at the top to get a gem box, which allows someone to cast two spells in turn. I'd strongly recommend equipping this on someone right away, preferably your strongest magic user. As you attempt to leave a bunch of Kefka's minions will surround you and you'll have to fight the Mage Master.

I'd strongly recommend casting life 3, quite possibly on the entire party since the boss does a final attack of ultima which will most likely wipe out your entire group. Hit the mage master with your most powerful spells, quick and the gem box will give you extra turns, and scan him or use unblockable spells to get around his wall changes. If you have ultima in your repretoire this battle shouldn't be too bad. After you're done, you can warp out or simply trudge all the way back down and take off in your airship. You can bet the gem box for an economizer at the Collisium, which is a relic which reduces all spells to a casting cost of one, but I'd recommend holding onto the gem box since you can win and steal some economizers but you won't get another gem box.

See sidequests list