Island Shrine[edit]
| Found | Container | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 12000GP | Chest | End of hidden passage starting from east side of first room. |
| Hi-Potion | Chest | Hidden in the lower left in switch room. |
| Iron Draft | Chest | Hidden in the lower right in switch room. |
| Elixir | Chest | Left up , right down switch combination in switch room. |
| 9000GP | Chest | Left down, right down switch combination in switch room. |
| Razor Ring | Chest | Left down, right up switch combination in switch room. Fight Pantera or Invisible |
Go to the bridge between the east and west continents, just south of the center of the world map. Cross the bridge half way and enter the temple there, this is the Island Shrine. Step in to be attacked by two statues as in the Pyramids. These are exactly the name monsters so see the Earth Lithograph page for description and strategy. When the battle is done, approach the door and one of the pages of the book will burn up and open it as before.
The same advice about exploring the Pyramids applies here as well. Enter the first room, there is a hidden passage on the east side leading to a small room with treasure. Continue to the next room to find an air vent; stand next to it be sucked in and dropped into a small room with two switches. You can now go to different places by setting the switches and letting yourself be sucked through the vent again. Before you flip the switches, collect treasure from two hidden spots in the lower right and lower left of the room. Both switches up take you back. Left down and right up takes you to another room with treasure and the way forward. The other combinations take you to other small rooms with treasure but are dead ends otherwise. The treasure in the last chest is guarded by a boss which seems to be randomly determined.
| Invisible or Pantera |
| Boss level: 52 (Invisible), (Pantera), Recommended party level: 34 |
| HP: 7000 (Invisible), 18000 (Pantera), Weaknesses: None (Invisible), Fire (Pantera), Nullifies: None, Absorbs: None |
| Gold: 0, ABP: 5, Drops: None |
Preparation: Since there are several possibilities for which enemy you will face, you need to be prepared for anything. So just have a good balance of healers and damage dealers and have abilities that grant you a variety of status spells. Be sure to have a few Phoenix Downs on hand as Pantera has an attack which is instantly fatal. Tactics: (Invisible) This doesn't look too bad at first but when you defeat the first one he spawns two more of the same. Cast Golem and/or Dark to reduce the need for healing, the start attacking until the first one is gone. When Invisible respawns, there appears to be only one there, but there are really two with one hidden. Recast Dark and knock out one at a time. Tactics: (Pantera) Almost immediately Pantera will spawn two copies so you will need to fight three. The good news here is that it has a number of status vulnerabilities, so you should be able to disable two while you fight the other one. The other good news is that once you have defeated one, the other two will quickly escape and the battle is over. So concentrate all your attacks on a single enemy, preferably with Fire based spells or weapons. |
| Found | Container | Location |
|---|---|---|
| CrystalHelmet | Chest | 2nd Floor, northeast corner. |
| Ether | Chest | 2nd Floor, northwest corner. |
| Protect Ring | Chest | 2nd Floor, center. Fight MechaHead |
| Beast Killer | Chest | 3nd Floor, small room in center. |
| Ether | Chest | 5th Floor, center. |
| Dragon Fang | Chest | 5th Floor, right. |
| Dark Matter | Chest | 7th Floor, left. |
| Circlet | Chest | 7th Floor, right. |
Exit north to find a save point. Then continue to the 2nd Floor. This is a large area; explore the corners for treasure, including one you can only reach by hidden passage, then exit north to the 3rd Floor. Here is there is a hidden passage to the right, but if you go near it you will fall through a trapdoor and land on the 2nd Floor. Just in front of the entrance is a small room with treasure but a dead end. So go left, and exit north to the 4th Floor. This area is empty, so continue north to the 5th floor. There is treasure here, but there all also pit falls that drop you to a different area in the 4th Floor. If you fall, exit east or west to get back. There are four pitfalls on the 5th floor; one each in front of both of the chests, one just to the right of the exit, and another in the northwest corner; so as long as you avoid these spots you should be able to move around without falling. Exit north to a save point on the 6th Floor.
Continue to the 7th Floor, this is where the lithograph is waiting, but don't forget to check for treasure here as well. Go up the center passage and check the lithograph. One of the monsters X-Death sent to guard it comes out and, after a bit of trash-talk, a battle begins.
| Stoker |
| Boss level: 7, Recommended party level: 35 |
| HP: 20000, Weaknesses: None, Nullifies: Earth, Absorbs: Water |
| Gold: 0, ABP: 20, Drops: None |
Preparation: You can probably win this battle with any decent setup, but it will be a grind if you don't have do a bit of special preparation. Most of the mage types will be ineffective as damage dealers here, but you will want mage type abilities equipped for buffs. So have a character with Time ability, one with Summon ability who can cast Golem, and one with White to be backup healer. For your Jobs, you want a W. Mage as healer and a mix of melee fighters such as Knight and ranged fighters that can do damage to the back row such as Hunter. A Lancer using Jump does well for a ranged fighter. Alternatively, have a W. Mage and Red Mage as healers, a front row fighter and a ranged fighter. Tactics: What appears to be four enemies is actually one real enemy and four images. Which is the real Stoker keeps shifting randomly so you will normally only have a one in four chance of hitting the right one. If you attack an image then no damage is done, but this doesn't cause the real Stoker to move, so you can, at least for a while, eliminate that image as a target. If you hit the real Stoker, you'll see the number flash showing the damage done, and then Stoker will switch to a new random location (possibly staying put). Assuming you never attack an image once you know it's an image, and assuming the real Stoker never moves unless attacked, you can bring your chances of hitting the right one up to four in ten. But Stoker sometimes does move around even if not attacked, so your actual chances of hitting the real Stoker if you follow this tactic are probably more like one in three. Don't try using a group spell because the images react to magic by casting their own spells, ones that do massive damage to your entire party. The same thing goes for Kick, but Earth and Crit seem to be exceptions. Single target spells seem to be safe, but will use up MP for nothing if you don't get the right target. So it's probably better to stick with physical attacks. Start by buffing your party as much as possible: Haste, Protes, Golem, Regen, etc. Now start a pattern on attack where you target each position once until you see a hit, then start over. Have your front row fighters target the front row, and your ranged fighters go for the back row. If your healer has nothing else to do, attack the back row; this may not do a lot of damage but if you get a hit then there's an even chance that Stoker will move into the front row where you can do more damage the next time. Occasionally you may get Mind Blast and Hurricane in close succession on the same character, which spells a pretty much unavoidable K.O., so try to keep you healer with enough MP for Raise. |
After defeating Stoker you get the second lithograph. There is a short scene where you see the tower being unlocked and you notice something written on the lithograph about the Fork Tower being open and White and Black Spells being inside. Use Telepo to get out and head for Crescent.
Fork Tower[edit]
Stop to rest at Crescent, then go to the tower just to the west and go inside. You can't get the magic here unless you split up the party and get both Black and White at the same time. Now if you paid very, very close attention to the gossip in Crescent you will have learned the one clue that is vital to surviving the battles ahead. There's a woman who says something about the right tower being one where magic won't save you. Properly interpreted, with a bit of hindsight after being wiped out a time or two, this means that magic can't be used in the right tower, so you must have fighter types in the right tower, and other types in the left tower.
| Found | Container | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Ether | Chest | Left tower, 5th Floor. |
| Wonder Wand | Chest | Left tower, 7th Floor. |
| Potion | Chest | Right tower, 4th floor, right side. |
| Defender | Chest | Right tower, 7th Floor. |
There's nothing to stop you from splitting up the party 3 to 1 instead of evenly, but the game won't let you keep everyone on the same party. In any case, the battles ahead are difficult enough that neither one should be attempted solo, so set up your jobs as two mages, sending them left, and two warriors, sending them right.
You first ascend the tower with the left party. Navigation is easy so it's not necessary to give directions other than saying that on some floors you need to exit temporarily to a balcony to go on. The game seems to know what jobs you have picked and reacts to the "wrong" jobs/abilities by sending you more difficult random battles, and if you have the "right" jobs/abilities you may not see any random battles at all. When you reach the top, just after the 7th floor, the scene shifts and you must ascend the tower with the right party. Navigation is the same, but this time when you reach the top you go all the way to the 9th floor where something is glowing on the floor. Check it to start a battle with the guardian of the magic.
| Minitaurus |
| Boss level: (scan not possible), Recommended party level: 35 |
| HP: about 20000, Weaknesses: None, Nullifies: None, Absorbs: Holy |
| Gold: 0, ABP: 20, Drops: None |
Preparation: There is no magic allowed in this battle, so don't even think about having mage jobs or abilities here. The stronger your fighters the better, but you will also need good defense. Have at least one character with the Twin ability; the Mirage Vest is nice for this since it starts your character off with an image right away, though it will still need to be refreshed. Your only way of healing will be with items, so have plenty of Potions and perhaps a few Phoenix Downs with you. Minitaurus absorbs Holy so don't have Holy Lance or Excalibur equipped. Tactics: Since your actions are restricted so the tactics are pretty basic. Keep Twin up as much as possible and keep healing with potion whenever your health is below about 900. |
At the end of the battle Minitaurus tries to cast Holy on you but doesn't have the MP, so he disappears instead. You then receive the White spell Holy.
Meanwhile, the two parties are communicating, presumably with Whisper Grass, so it's time for the left party to start its battle. Check whatever is glowing here to start the other battle.
| Omniscient |
| Boss level: 53, Recommended party level: 35 |
| HP: 16999, Weaknesses: Wind, Nullifies: None, Absorbs: None |
| Gold: 0, ABP: 20, Drops: None |
Preparation: Fighting won't do any good here so choose weapons based on bonus Mag.Pwr. The Healing Staff my be useful for a W. Mage. You only have two members in your party so split it up as one healer and one damage dealer. W. Mage is good for a healer but a Red Mage might work as well. Omniscient is weak to Wind so perhaps the best choice for damage dealer is BlueMage, but it's not the only choice. The Time ability will be handy here for Haste. Since you'll probably be use a lot of MP with this, have a few Ethers on hand. Tactics: Omniscient does not use physical attacks at all, so don't bother with Protes or Golem. Instead, cast Shell and perhaps Reflect to keep damage down. Cast Haste and Regen if possible, then start to work with doing damage. The first thing to learn with this is to not use any physical attacks at all, since this causes Omniscient to cast Return and the battle starts all over again. (Note, what the game considers a physical attack may seem a bit strange, for example Wind Slash triggers a Return.) Cast Wind if you have it, otherwise use summon attacks or Bio. Watch out for Omniscient casting Reflect on himself and make sure you don't cast anything but Dispel on him if he does. Omniscient save his worst spells for the end, so it's a good idea to keep Reflect up later in the battle. |
After the battle you receive the Black spell Flare. With both spells gone, the tower disappears and the airship dock is now visible.
Now is a good time to go back to the sealed Castle and get the new three legendary weapons you've earned.