Chrono Trigger/Dimensional Vortex

In the Nintendo DS/Steam version, one exclusive area exists called the Dimensional Vortex. The Dimensional Vortex is a dungeon that can only be accessed after beating the game at least once. When you return to your saved game, three new Gates will have appeared in separate time periods (12,000 B.C., 1000 A.D., and 2300 A.D.).

Like other dungeons in the game, the Dimensional Vortex varies depending on which time period you're in when you pass through the gate. Each time period specifies the reward from completing the dungeon: a permanent upgrade to one of three characters.

• Marle (the past)
• Crono (the present)
• Lucca (the future)

After completing all three different versions of the dungeon, a final, new, boss encounter is unlocked (as well as a new ending).

Dungeon entrance

Passing through any of the three Gates will take you to this area. You'll have to fight (or sneak) your way through several random maps from the game's locations before moving on.

After completing this first part of the dungeon, you'll enter into a room with a save point. Two additional paths lie in the room, one that takes you out of the Dimensional Vortex, and one that leads to the Twilight Grotto. This final area depends on which gate you entered through, and will also determine which boss you fight and which character receives a permanent stat boost.

12,000 B.C. dungeon

A large icy mountain that plays the unreleased song Singing Mountain. The special enemy is a Heckran like Snowbeast. At the end, you'll get to the Twilight Grotto where you'll fight a special boss if you haven't already done so. You'll move on to the "Twilit pool" and Marle will say something is calling her in. Move on to fight Alabaster Shade, a Marle look-a-like.

Alabaster Shade
HP 16,000	Weaknesses Shadow, Fire	Strengths None	Absorbs None
Charmables Haste Helm	Drops None	XP 5000	TP 1	Gold 0
Attacks Techs: Barrage Icefall(Ice II) Recuperate Counters: Icefall(Ice II) Barrage
Description/Strategy Despite Alabaster having Marle's movesets that aren't individually overwhelming, Alabaster wearing the Haste Helm in this battle is very nasty as it can execute moves faster than your characters. If you brought Ayla into the battle, charm that Haste Helm, though this won't make any difference to Alabaster's stats. The best way to defeat this is to equip the Blue equipment that absorbs Water so that the only thing you need to worry about is regular attacks hurting you. If you manage to defeat it, it will merge with Marle and her abilities will be boosted.

1000 A.D. dungeon

A large volcano dungeon. This dungeon is a recreated unreleased dungeon that has not appeared. The special enemy is Red Ghul.

At the end, you'll fight Once-King Dalton:

Once King Dalton
HP 26,000	Weaknesses None	Strengths None	Absorbs None
Charmables None	Drops None	XP 6000	TP 0	Gold 0
Attacks Techs: Iron Sphere: Gale Slash: Energy Spheres: Deep Freeze: Plasma: Nether Blast: Counter attacks MP Buster: Violent Belch:
Description/Strategy Dalton is still pretty easy although he'll launch a couple attacks like Fire II, and Ice II. When you finish him off, he'll try to kill you with a burp attack (slightly more powered than the first one) and he'll be finished.

Dalton will be pretty angry that you beat him again, so he'll say something about going to Porre to raise an army. Although he says this, he will not appear anywhere in the town in either timezone. This is a reference to Chrono Cross in which Porre takes over the land where the game takes place and serves to set up a reasoning for Porre to invade.

At the Twilit pool, you'll need to have rescued Crono for the Steel Shade.

Steel Shade
HP 20,000	Weaknesses Shadow	Strengths None	Absorbs {{{absorb}}}
Charmables Prism Spectacles	Drops None	XP 5000	TP 1	Gold 0
Attacks Techs: Gash (Wind Slash) Energy Blast (Lightning) Rend (Cleave) Thunderfall (Lightning II) Scintillation (Luminaire) Counters: Gash (Wind Slash) Energy Blast (Lightning) Rend (Cleave)
Description/Strategy Steel is a really nasty boss due to equipping the Prism Spectacles that will multiply its damage. If you brought Ayla into the battle, charm the guy for the very rare Prism Spectacles, though this will not change its stats. It is highly suggested to wear the White Armors to absorb all of Crono's magical attacks, especially Scintillation.

2300 A.D. dungeon

Another dome place. As usual there is relentless security. Do not miss out on finding the Apocalypse Arm treasure chest, Robo's broken weapon in the game that will deal 9999 damage on critical hit (equip the Dragon's Tear to make that more common). The special enemy here is the extremely powerful Iron Maiden. If you make it to the Twilit pool, you'll get to fight Lucca's shade, the Crimson Shade, and an additional foe, Eggsterminator.

Crimson Shade
HP 12,000	Weaknesses Water	Strengths None	Absorbs None
Charmables Nova Armor	Drops None	XP 5000	TP 1	Gold 0
Attacks Techs: Barrage Shadow Fire (Fire II) Explosion (Flare)
Description/Strategy See below for strategy.

Eggsterminator
HP 10,000	Weaknesses Fire	Strengths None	Absorbs Shadow
Charmables None	Drops None	XP 250	TP 0	Gold 0
Attacks Techs: Poison Mist Flashbomb Blaring Din Recover Counters: Osmose (Mp absorber)
Description/Strategy Not only does the Eggsterminator have enough health to be its own boss, but it also has more attacks than Lucca's shade does. It also absorbs MP from you every time you attack, which can be annoying. Kill Lucca's shade first because it's weaker, despite it being the main boss, then kill the Eggsterminator second. If you have the Red Armors equipped, you can literally go after the Eggsterminator. If you have Robo equipped with the Apocalypse Arm and Dragon's Tear, this fight will end in a few turns.

Time's Eclipse

At the End of Time, speak to Gaspar and it turns out there have been goings on while you've been away. Enter the bucket to Time's Eclipse. Run ahead and meet up with Magus in his Prophet outfit. He'll speak of a new enemy who can devour dreams. He'll ask you not to interfere. He'll run into the gate leaving you with the choice to fight or not. Enter the gate if you think you are ready.

Beyond Time's Eclipse

Exit the gate to find a Lavos-like creature with Schala floating above it. Lavos will push Magus back into oblivion, and the fight will commence.

Dream Devourer
HP 32000	Weaknesses None	Strengths None	Absorbs None
Charmables None	Drops None	XP 0	TP 0	Gold 0
Attacks Devours dreams from a distant dimension. Gravity Sphere (lightning) Dreambind: Stop Incinerate (fire) Heavenly Peal (lightning) Starfall: Devastating physical attack Lowers Defense and begins storing power. Chaos Zone: Confuse Life Reaver: Steals HP Ice Lance (Water) Supernova (lightning) Pandemonium The End of All and Nothing Phantasm: Devastating magical attack Counters Mana Reaver: Steals MP Chaos Zone: Confuse
Description/Strategy An upgraded version of Lavos. This time, it's using Schala in place of Queen Zeal. This guy can do some nasty moves. In the beginning, Dream Devourer is vulnerable to magical attacks. If you make the mistake of attacking it with non-elemental physical damage, he'll counterattack you with Mana Reaver, shaving all your MP. After enough damage or time, Dream Devourer will change its barriers. You will then have to switch to doing all physical attack as all magic attacks are absorbed. On this phase, it will annoy you with Chaos Zone as a counterattack. If Dream Devourer used a move that nullifies status protection, this fight will be much more annoying. Phantasm and The End of All and Nothing are powerful enough to kill characters. To cheapen this fight, have Robo equipped with Apocalypse Arm and Dragon's Tear to dish out 9999 damage on critical hits, especially when this boss has an absurd amount of HP. There is a glitch in the game where if Dream Devourer switches barriers, you can use powerful magic tech moves (triple techs preferred) to heal him until the battle ends; this is due to the game's code oversight that where the HP reaches over 2^15 (32,768), it overlaps.

The Dream Devourer will be ready to take down existence when Future Magus manages to wake up Schala, who warps your party back to its own time. Schala will give a speech about how she's changed and sends Future Magus back to whence he came. Magus will wake up, and decide to recover from his amnesia. Congrats on getting the new ending. Once the credits are over, you'll see a new cutscene and obtain the DreamSeeker, Crono's most powerful weapon with 90% critical hit rate!