Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation/Howcastle



As usual, there are treasures here that you cannot get at this point. The Mini Medal in the northwest corner can't be reached without the Magic Key, and the Mini Medal and Platinum Mail behind the locked door can't be reached without the Ultimate Key. Fortunately, we will be getting the Magic Key by the time we're done in Howcastle, so that will not be a problem. In fact, if you are playing the remakes, you will even be able to get a fresh new recruit in that part of the castle, Goowain! He's not terribly good in normal play, but he is very handle to have in a certain place called the Slimopolis.

In any case, talk to the King and say yes to his request. Then go to prince's room, marked D. Then you will find Howard hiding within the six-pack of barrels, inside the southeastmost one. Talk to the king again, try to leave, and Howard will escape again. Go exit through the passageway marked E and you will get him back in your party again. Leave the castle, and head toward the Hallowed Hollow!



Running Around


The Hallowed Hollow is just due south of Howsworth. But when you enter it, and try to head to the 2nd floor, Howard will run away, back to Howsworth village. Unfortunately, this is not anywhere on your Zoom list, so you will have to Zoom to Howcastle and walk east to Howsworth. Once you do, get the Mini Medals and go to the northwest building. You'll find Howard, and this time, he will not run away from the cave when you try to go through it.

On that note, this dungeon is going to be a bit of an upshot in difficulty, so you will want to replace Ressa with Rex for now, just on account of Rex's slightly higher HP (even as a Dancer) and his ability to act even on an A.I. setting. If you decide to do so, set your party up like so:



Hallowed Hollow


'Be sure to go in with only Milly if you are playing the SNES version; she has an innate immunity'' to the Fuddle status, one that she does not have in the remakes. All you have to do is give her the Cautery Sword and Ghent Staff, and she'll be effectively immortal against it.'''

This cave will be slightly more challenging than the softballs that the game has been throwing at you since Murdaw's death. There are three straight minibosses in a row to deal with; if you do not have at least one Magic Water lying around, you will want to put your party on "Use No Magic" in order to conserve your MP. Otherwise though, you should be fine; in fact, Rex can actually put Follow Suit to good use if facing groups such as the 4x Stinkerbell group. Rex will imitate every spell that's cast within a single round, not just one. He does not even need to use any MP to do so either; so while Follow Suit isn't ridiculously useful, it can still be neat in this dungeon.

Speaking of Rex, he should have Fuddle Dance by now; if he does, he can put it to some good use. Wayward Armours have Body Slam, which always does 80% of a character's max HP; but they only have 15% resistance to Fuddle. Landing that on a group of them, or on a group of Slumbering Rams, will trivialize them as threats. Then there are the Devil Glasses; they have 50% resistance to Fuddle Dance, but only 15% to Leg Sweep and Sultry Dance. You can choose to stun lock them before they ever have the chance to Morph into any of your characters.

In conclusion, the cave has slightly harder random encounters than what you have been dealing with recently, but still nothing as tough as either of the dungeons Murdaw made you go through. So once you are ready to move, go on the left path and fight the First Test.

VS. First Test
This is yet another fight that is far more annoying than it is hard. The enemy's only method of attack, under most circumstances, is to spam Fuddle on your entire party. Even this, however, is a non-issue once you get Buff, so there is virtually no threat value to this fight. It does, however, tend to be long; there is not much to be done about this fight except to Buff your Resilience so that your party members don't kill each other. You can solo it with Milly if you are playing the SNES version, but otherwise, all you can do is hope that your PC's don't take too long to finally hit it while under the influence of Fuddle.

Now then, Howard will run away after you dispatch First Trial, but he won't have run far this time. You'll find him directly next to the chest with the Chain Whip. Go to the next floor, put the Agility Ring on Rex to consistently outspeed the next boss, and go up to the next door to meet your next challenge.

VS. Second Test (Always starts the fight with Bounce)
The first test was easy but annoying; this one, on the other hand, is just easy. His resistances, high damage attacks, and A.I. quirks would normally make him relatively challenging; but as you can see from the Resistances table, he has a crippling weakness to Stun. This is why the Leg Sweep was acquired for Rex and the magic users; it is a completely free technique that can stun an enemy for an entire turn. In this case, Second Test will spend a good chunk of the fight squirming as you keep tripping him. Meanwhile, Carver and Amos have free reign to wail on him at their leisure. If you do not have Leg Sweep or Sultry Dance (another Stun technique), you can still deal with him easily enough; just be sure to Buff Rex and Milly so that they won't take too much damage from it.

Howard will run away to the spot listed in the picture to the right once you win this fight. This will be the last time he does so however; you will never have to worry about this again. Be sure to get the Mini Medal before heading to the last floor though; and get the Mini Medal and Iron Cuirass once you are there. After that, you will get the hardest boss in this dungeon; be sure that Milly has as much MP as is possible, because she will be going through a lot of it in this fight.

VS. Third Test
This is one of those fights that are incredibly easy to win...but incredibly tricky to keep everyone alive in. The bosses's primary gimmick is that it casts Kasap every turn, beating your Resilience into the ground so that it can hit you for 90+ Damage per physical attack. If you have followed the guide, this fight will not be so bad; all you have to do is use Kabuff six times. After that, have Milly keep spamming Kabuff as Amos and Carver pound the Third Trial with Double-Edged Slash/Regular Physicals (depending on HP). If anyone's HP seems like it will dip below 100 by the next turn, heal them with Rex; otherwise, have Rex keep healing himself, even if he's at full HP.

Do this, and you will win via brute force.

If you do not have Kabuff/Buff on most of your PC's (Remakes): You may still be able to keep everyone alive, even if Milly is the only one with Buff/Kabuff. Milly herself learns Kabuff naturally at Level 18, and you can simply put your Ghent Staff user on "Focus on Healing" to heal any damage that occurs. Milly may need to take an occasional break to heal if Third Trial uses Lightning, but that's fine; your PC's have moderate resistance to Kasap in the remakes that they do not have in the SNES. Their Resilience should never drop too low so long as Milly is diligent.

If you do not have Kabuff/Buff on most of your PC's (SNES): You will need to let Amos have the Ghent Staff, and you will need to make very liberal use of the Equipment Glitch; there's just no way you're going to keep up with all the Kasaps otherwise. Carver and Amos can get away with forgoing it until they lose all of their Resilience, but Milly will need to use it on every single turn, especially if she is in the Mage or Priest classes. Naturally, Kabuff is useless under these circumstances, so Milly will wish to spend each turn either healing or using the Flame Claw.

If worse comes to worse, the fight may come down to Amos and Carver having to solo the Third Test themselves. But as long as they have the Ghent Staff, have max HP totals above 160, and are using the Equipment Glitch, they should not truly be in danger of dying; the Third Test simply isn't capable of doing enough damage to them.

Aftermath
Once all is said and done, get Howard his baptism, and be sure to talk to him after he does so! This is yet another tricky sequence trigger in the game; if you use Evac before getting Howard to join your party, you will have to go all the way back through the dungeon again. Be sure that this does not happen to you.

Head back to Howcastle and go through the scenes before getting the Magic Key from the king. When you do, go get that Mini Medal in the northwest corner that you couldn't before; and if you are playing the remakes, get Goowain while you are at it! Make him into a Priest, and head on to the next page.