Final Fantasy/The Journey Begins



Treasure: Potion x2, Antidote, Jolt Tonic, Ship

Matoya'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 along the rivers, 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" (or B+SELECT for the NES version). 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. She's blind if you didn't figure it out already.

There's nothing you can do for her right now so rob her instead. 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 Pravoka.

Pravoka
This town is quite a bit larger than Cornelia, so finding the shops can be a little difficult - the item and armor shops are in the lower left corner and the magic and weapons shops are on the right side of Pravoka, along with the church, which you can use to revive any dead characters. The inn is in the middle, at the very top of the map. You most likely won't be able to buy everything you want just yet due to the steep prices of equipment and magic around here. You shouldn't buy everything you can just yet since you can get better equipment in the next town. Instead just buy Leather Gloves for everyone as well as Broadswords and Steel Plates, if you can afford them.

Bikke
Anyway, once you stay at the inn or heal to recharge, you'll be ready for the battle ahead. When you're ready, go all the way to the upper left side of Pravoka 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.

These guys are pretty wimpy by themselves, but as a group they can kill your equally wimpy mages if they concentrate their attacks, 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 go across the sea to get some new equipment.

Elfheim
Once you beat the pirates, leave town and you'll see a ship in the port. Get aboard and sail west, back to Cornelia. Rest and save at the inn if you want, then sail due south until you hit land. Sail a bit west and you'll see the dock. Land your ship and walk south (run from enemies, right now they can stomp you into the ground, and poison you) into the town along the southern coast.

Here at Elfheim, you can buy a lot of powerful weapons, armor, and magics. Don't worry about the magic yet since you can neither afford nor use it just yet. Don't worry about the weapons here either, Pravoka has the best weapon you can buy right now, except you should get a Saber here for anyone who can't use a Broadsword. Instead go to the armor shop and buy Iron Shields, Helmets, and Copper Armlets. You can get Steel Plates here and in Provaka.

Inner Sea
Chances are you can't afford all of the equipment and Level 2 magic, so sail around fighting things until you have enough money. Privateers are your best source of money; giving 120 Gil apiece. You may have trouble hitting the enemies until you get Broadswords from Provaka and level up enough that your characters can get more than one hit in per turn.

Power peninsula (optional)
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 your typical 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 (say around level 10), the Power Peninsula can net you a lot of experience and a hell of a lot Gil.

To get there, head east of Pravoka (on foot) until you see a port, then north pass the port until you reach a dead end. The top two squares on the tip of the peninsula 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. Originally you may want to head back and save after each successful battle, but as you level up you'll be able to survive more than one. Once you're powerful/rich enough it's time to head back to Elfland.