Select controller:The Trial (1000 A.D. second time)
You'll regain control after the trial locked in prison, with your only company a save point and some Ethers if you were lucky.
Guardia Prison
Crono is going to be put to death, are you just going to let it happen? You have two choices on how to escape at this point:
- Wait out the three days until your execution. It'll take about one minute of real time. Lucca will show up to rescue you and knock all of the guards out. You'll be able to start exploring much farther into the dungeon and all the guards will be knocked out, plus Lucca will be in your party.
- Rattle the gate three times, and knock the guard out when he comes to beat you up (or if you want a harder fight, charge out of the cell.) You'll have more enemies to fight.
Assuming you'll take the long way by breaking out yourself for now, fight the other guard and use the cup in your cell if you need to restore your health. Take the gift on the bed for some Ethers (how many you receive depends on how you did in the trial). Head straight to the east (lower stairs) and across a bridge to find a single guard guarding a cell. Knock him out from behind and open the chests inside for 2x Ether and 2x Mid Tonic. An Omnicrone will fight you afterwards. Head back to the room with the Blue Shields (make sure you wait until they turn to one side before attacking). The upper left exit contains a fight with the undead and a preview of what's to come, so go to the upper right.
Fight the guards on the bridge, and try to sneak past the guards and knock them out for some Mid Tonics. You can find another Mid Tonic in the chest in the room where Fritz is. Knock out the three guards (wait until they look away and then go up near them and press 
) and check their bodies for the Mid Tonics. Open the gate (go through the gate behind Fritz to find a BronzeMail) and make sure you free Fritz from the guillotine. Incidentally, if you chose to let Lucca break you out, this is the point where you'll start. If you had Lucca help you, then two guards are knocked out already, so just collect 2 Mid Tonics from their Bodies and attack the last guard for the last Mid Tonic. If you reenter the room, then you can repeat this again to get as many Mid Tonics as you want.
Head out the northwest exit and go across the walkway. You'll come to another set of four stairways. The bottom left stairway will offer a Shelter, and the top left stairway will allow you to climb outside the castle wall. Climb down until you see an opening, to get into a locked cell you couldn't reach before. There is another Shelter waiting for you. Enter the pit at the top left to gain a Lode Sword and 1500 G. Make sure to equip it. Press next to the wall to climb back up.
Head all the way back out and go to the top right stairway. You'll be out of the dungeon and back in the grey walls of the castle. Fight a couple guards, then Lucca will show up to knock out a guard if she didn't join you already. Search his body for 5 Mid Tonics, save, then get ready to face a boss, The Dragon Tank.
Boss Fight
Dragon Tank
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| HP 600 (Head), 266 (Body), 208 (Wheel) |
Weaknesses None |
Strengths Fire/Lightning (Head), None (Body/Wheel) |
Absorbs None |
Suggested Level 8 |
| Charmables None |
Drops None |
XP 40 |
TP 5 |
Gold 500 |
Attacks
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Description/Strategy
 The Dragon Tank contains three parts: head, body and wheels. Each performs like a normal enemy, although they only do certain things. For instance: the head can only heal the entire Tank, although it has a passive shield that prevents most lightning and fire damage. The body contains the brains, so once it gets destroyed the entire machine falls; it can fire missiles or lasers. Finally, the wheels can store up energy and then release it by ramming Chrono and Lucca doing around 40 damage.
You'll need to kill the head first to stop it from constantly healing the wheels and body, then concentrate on the wheels, then body itself. If you have Fire Whirl, then you won't have to worry about concentrating, simply use the ability a few times, maybe three and the fight will be over. This can be a tough fight at low levels, try to use those mid tonics you picked up and keep your hp above 30. If you don't have the dual tech, then use Cyclone and Fire Toss as much as possible.
Aim for the head first. Since Crono's Cyclone and Slash hit multiple targets, stick to single attacks for now, and have Lucca use Flame Toss on the head. After you've destroyed the head, start on the grinder (wheel). Have the party members use only regular attacks on this, because Flame Toss will hit both the grinder and the body in the line. Finally, you can set to work on the tank itself. Use any attacks you like on this. Alternate between using Crono's Slash and Lucca's Flame Toss, then following it up with their Dual Tech Fire Whirl. The Tank should be destroyed with a few big attacks like these. Once defeated you'll watch a small cutscene as Chrono leaps upon the Dragon Tank and stabs his sword down into it, destroying it. | ||||
After the boss fight, the chancellor will come with two men trying to fix the Tank but it's too late. The Dragon Tank explodes; destroying part of the brigde causing the chancellor with his two men to act as a brigde trying not to fall through the gap so just walk over them. You're now in the Guardia Castle and out of Jail and on the way to the exit is a Shelter. Once you reach the Main Hall you'll be chased to the exit of the castle by soldiers. Marle will join you and leave her home, and you'll end up trapped in a corner of a forest, where a time gate offers you an unpredictable escape route. You decide to take it and vanish off into the unknown.
Challenging Lavos
Impossible during this stage of the game since you have no access to a time gate. You can't even return from the unknown gate as the chancellor will simply corner you again.