Select controller:Moore Forest[edit]
There is nothing more to do in the desert so head back east, but save your game and prepare for battle before entering Moore Forest. When you reach the Elder's Tree there is a cutscene where Reina reunites with the party, rescued from Tycoon Castle before it was sucked into the N-Zone. X-Death appears and sends the Library of Ancients into the Void. Reina is possessed by Mellusion, who you end up fighting.
| Mellusion |
| Boss level: Variable, Recommended party level: 34 |
| HP: 20000, Weaknesses: Variable, Nullifies: None, Absorbs: None |
| Gold: 0, ABP: 20, Drops: None |
Renamed to Mellusine in the GBA version. Preparation: Have a healer with Cure2, Scan, and Shell. A Summoner with Golem will be useful and a Black Mage with Fire3/Ice3/Bolt3 will do a lot of damage. Elemental type weapons, such as Blizzard/Flame Saber/Coral Sword or Ice Bow/Fire Bow/LightningBow will be useful here. Elemental shields such as Ice Shield will save on some healing. Tactics: Mellusion has four different forms, one each weak to Fire, Ice and Lightning, and another without any elemental weaknesses. She starts out weak to Fire, but every time she performs Wall Change she changes another form and which one is random, so you will need to do a scan to find out which one. Just using a magic attack an hoping for the best is not practical since she absorbs elements she is not weak to, so if you do not have Scan, use the weakest tiered-elemental spell as a test. Mellusion uses physical and magical attacks, but the magic is stronger so start by casting Shell, then cast Protes or Golem. Every time Mellusion does a Wall Change cast Scan to find out which type of attack to use, then have your damage dealer use that type of attack until the next Wall Change. Remember you can change weapons during battle so your fighter can always attack with the right elemental weapon. If your party is properly protected then healing requirements should be easy to handle. |
When the battle is over Reina rejoins your party. Use Raise or use a Tent to heal her before moving on. Continue east past where the Library of Ancients used to be to the ship to the north of it.
Airship[edit]
Go aboard to start a cutscene. Reina, who hasn't been in on the plans to collect lithographs, says the entrance to the N-Zone is where Tycoon Castle used to be. But Faris and Bartz say that they need to go to Kuza for the 12 legendary weapons, and you start for there. Meanwhile, X-Death, drunk with power, starts attacking the towns of the world and sinking them into the Void. From the airship you can see this happening but there's nothing you can do about it, though Bartz, in a rage, starts wildly driving the airship faster and faster. Eventually Bartz calms down and you're in control of the airship.
In all, four towns were sunk, but you can now visit the ones that are left: Tule Village, Town of Karnak, Surgate Castle, Moore Village, Kerwin Town, Jachol Village, Crescent Town, Lugor Bordertown, Val Castle, Kelb Village, but all but one have nothing new but updated dialogue. The exception is Lugor Bordertown, where talking to the girl between the shops gets you a Ribbon. You may want to visit the other towns just for the dialogue since there are important clues.
There are ten other points of interest on the map. One is former location of Tycoon Castle which is now the entrance to the N-Zone. There is nothing stopping you from entering the N-Zone right now if you want to; just fly over the hole to be sucked in and start up the ariship to fly out again. The former location of the library of ancients is also marked, though there is nothing there now. There are four dungeons marked: the pirate cave, the Wind Shrine, North Mountain, and the Valley of Dragons, Go to the pirate cave and through to the pirate hideout, then after a short cutscene, you get Faris' old friend Hydra as a Summon spell. There is nothing new in the Wind Shrine, Valley of Dragons, nor at North Mountain unless you want to take on Behamut and that's not recommended at this time. (You can't reach North Mountain right now anyway, stay tuned.)
If you've mastered the Piano Sidequest, you can return to Crescent Village and play the piano for the bard. He'll complement your playing and give you Sinewy Etude. There are two towers marked, but these are dead ends for now, which leaves and the Sealed Castle and the Island Shrine. The Island Shrine is the location of the next lithograph, but we'll save that for a bit and go to the Sealed Castle.
Sealed Castle[edit]
Look for the castle east (about halfway to Torna Canal) and a bit north of Tule. Enter to speak to the scholars whom have previously arrived from the Wind Shrine. One of them so happens to have brought the recovery urn just in case you need to heal your party. Speak to the head priest if you need to refresh your memory on the Sealed Book or any further objectives. Continue north until you reach the Sealed Room. It is advised that you have Flee or Dustb equipped here if you're needing to escape from difficult random battles. The main area has the twelve legendary weapons arranged in a clockwise formation with Excalibur at the top (12 o'clock).
| # | Name | Sell | Atk. | Special | Who Can Equip? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 |  |
5 | 110 | Holy based attack. | Knight |
| 1 |  |
10000 | 81 | 25% chance of instant-death; Speed +1. | All jobs except Monk, White Mage and Oracle |
| 2 |  |
10000 | 99 | Speed +1, chance of blocking attack. | Ninja |
| 3 |  |
5 | 109 | Vigor +3, Holy based attack. | Lancer |
| 4 |  |
5 | 71 | Mag.Pwr +3 | Berserker |
| 5 |  |
5 | 107 | Increased chance of First Strike. | Samurai |
| 6 |  |
5 | 101 | Vogor +3, Speed +3, Chance of critical hit. | Hunter |
| 7 |  |
10000 | 82 | Vigor +2, Speed +2, Chance of Fire3. | Trainer |
| 8 |  |
10000 | 45 | Menu: Casts Dispel. Long ranged. |
W. Mage, TimeMage, Chemist |
| 9 |  |
10000 | 40 | Ice, Bolt, Fire based attack. Ice, Bolt, Fire, Poison, Air, Earth power increased. | B. Mage, TimeMage, Summoner, BlueMage, RedMage |
| 10 |  |
5 | 45 | Strong vs. Dragon, Undead. | Bard |
| 11 |  |
4500 | 35 | Chance of Quake, increase Earth power. | Geomancer |
Check the pedestal with the sparkling lights to place the lithograph; you can now unlock and obtain three of the weapons. Depending on your current jobs, some of these will be more useful than others, but you will get all of them eventually so there is no need to agonize over your choices too much. Note that some jobs will not be able to use some of these weapons even when they would normally be able to use a weapon of that type. For example, neither BlueMage nor Red Mage will be able to use Excalibur. Since nearly any job will be able to use the Assassin, it's recommended that you get that one in the first round, and pick the other two according to what jobs you are planning to use for the next lithograph. When you have selected the three weapons you want, check the pedestal again to exit; the game does not let you leave without selecting three, so do not worry about missing any.
Mirage village[edit]
Before going on to the next lithograph there is another optional area you should visit. You will hear rumors of a town hidden in the forest if you talk to people in Crescent. Head south and west, following the long isthmus. (This is formed from the island chains in the other worlds.) Explore the forest at the southernmost part until you enter a village. This village does not always appear in the same spot, so you may need to move around for a while before you get it.
| Found | Container | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Thief Knife | Barrel | Behind the bar in the pub. |
Talk to the people to learn that this village was frozen in time in the N-Zone, but has been released now that X-Death is trying to unleash the Void. Before exploring any of the buildings, equip the Secret ability since there are many hidden passages here. You can stay at the inn for 70GP but you may later come upon a recovery urn if you're trying not to spend money. If you're able to afford such a luxury, the item shop upstairs sells Elixir for 50000GP each, but you may want to visit the other shops first before making that kind of purchase.
Go north and up some stairs to the pub for gossip. The Magic and Armor shops are south of the pub. The Weapon shop is down the stairs and to the west of this. The inventory here includes items and spells which either was not available in previous shops or are no longer available because the shop has disappeared. However, if you have been thorough about collecting treasure up to now, then you should already have most of these items already.
This covers the easily accessible parts of the village, but there are other parts which are not as obvious to find and you may have caught a glimpse of these. First, take notice of the door behind the bartender in the pub. Exit out of the pub to go around the north side of the building and keep looking for the hidden door; when you find it you may come in behind the bar. Check for treasure in the barrels next to the bartender then go down the stairs to a small room. Before exiting south, you can start the Chocobo tour subquest by talking to the strange fella in the room.
Go south through a tunnel and enter the nondescript building to the left of the Weapon shop. There is a healing urn here in case you decided to skip spending 70GP at the inn. As you continue north towards the stairs speaking with the villager will reveal that each store has two merchants. Since only five merchants have been covered up to this point, and this person is claiming there should be eight, that leaves three left to discover.
Once you've gone downstairs, assuming you've got Secret, you should see the hidden paths in the wall to the left. The first room has a stairway leading to a door; take note of this because outside is a black chocobo which you can either get now or come back for later. Go to the next room to the left where you may play the final piano (hopefully finishing off the Piano subquest.) As you begin heading back right, you'll discover the door in the main hallway is too dark and spooky to even consider entering. Ignore it and head upstairs if you're wanting to visit the secret Weapon merchant.
Make your way out of this area exiting through the pub and head towards the Magic shop. Aside from the obvious front door entryway, there is a secret side door on the left side of the building in the area where the pedestrian so happens to be walking. This merchant happens to have six brand new spells which are going for 10000GP each.
Now exit and head for the Armor shop. With Secret, you can see two hidden passages leading west from behind the counter. Check the north end of the counter and it will slide out of the way. Now you can follow the passage to the hidden merchant for the Armor shop.
Once you're finally done shopping, if you haven't already, you may want to head back through the pub and downstairs to catch that black chocobo from earlier. While the airship can get you to most places you may want to visit, the black chocobo will allow you to access the large desert in the northeastern part of the world map containing North Mountain and the Phoenix Tower.