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X-Death's Castle (return)[edit]

Renamed: Exdeath Castle (GBA)

Before going into the castle you might want to stop at an item shop to stock up on healing and status items as well as the best possible equipment you can afford. The fight with X-Death himself is coming up and he will not go easy on you.

Pilot the sub to X-Death's island and enter the castle. Zeza's soldiers, who were occupying the lower levels earlier, lie wounded on the floor. You can save and use the recovery spring as before. Once you are done enter the door north of the entrance which takes you to a small landing and leads to the 2nd Floor.

Check around here for treasure, then go up the stairs in the center to the 3rd Floor. This is a large and seemingly empty area. Go into the main area, look around and go back as there is nothing else to do. Bartz thinks it is just a dead end but Krill senses something and asks Galuf's spirit for help.

Back at Kelb Village, Kelga dispels the illusion blocking your way and the appearance of the castle changes dramatically.

X-Death's Castle II[edit]

Treasure in X-Death's Castle
Found Container Location
Ether Chest Southwest corner, 2nd Floor
DiamndShield Chest Southeast corner, 2nd Floor
Ice Shield Chest East room, 4th Floor. Pull switch to open.
Ether Chest Next to exit, 5th Floor.
Elixir Chest End of dead end path north from exit, 6th Floor.
Gale Bow Chest Southeast corner at end of secret passage, 6th Floor. Need to walk through lava to reach.
Kotetsu Chest East side, over moving bridge, 7th floor.
Blizzard Chest West side, over moving bridge, 7th floor.
Elixir Chest End secret passage in southeast corner, 8th Floor.
9900 GP Chest West side, 8th Floor.
800 GP Chest Northeast corner, 10th Floor.
Double Lance Chest East corner of platform, 10th Floor.
Magishuriken Chest East room of 12th floor, north.
Partisan Chest East room of 12th floor, north.

Floor 2 and 3

X-Death's castle takes on a dramatically goth-like change, even down to the basement dungeon. The healing springs on the main floor have been replaced by boiling lava pits. Not only has the castle transformed, the monsters encountered here are different as well. A doorway to the north side of the 3rd floor appears which leads up to the 4th floor.

Floor 4 and 5

There are arches here which you can go under even though it may not look like it. Pull a switch about half way to open a locked room with a treasure chest containing an Ice Shield. Otherwise just keep following the path as it wraps it's way around to the southwest corner and the stair to the 5th Floor. The path winds around here as well but there are two shortcuts which you can spot with Secret. Exit through a door in the northeast corner to the 6th Floor.

Floor 6

From the 6th floor and beyond you will come across lava which can be traversed through but is harmful to the unprepared party. The best thing to do is have somebody in the party who can utilize the Geomancer's passive skill of Antitrap, otherwise the party will take damage with each step they take up until they are down to 1HP.

On the north side of the 6th floor is a hidden path going horizontally across the top edge of the map through the lava. However it is best to head south through the lava to the southeast corner of the map where you may find the Gale Bow hidden within the wall. You may also grab the Elixir in the chest in the middle of the room before heading south towards the stairs leading up to the next floor.

Floor 7

On the 7th floor there is a gap and a skull mark on the floor. Stepping on it forms a bridge across the gap which moves rapidly back and forth. The timing may be difficult but the bridge can be stopped by pressing the confirm button. The two chests on this floor contain a Blizzard sword (left) and a Kotetsu (right). If the bridge so happens to stop at one of the pillars then a monster will pop out and you will have to fight an easy set battle. Past thim room is a save point and the stairs to the 8th floor.

Floor 8

Floor 8 is pretty straightforward; just grab the treasure then exit to the north. It will help to have Secret to locate some of the treasure. It will also help to have !Flee or !Dustb here; the random monsters on this floor are dragons and can be difficult to escape from. There are rewards if you fight them, since some of the expensive rings from Easterly Village can be acquired here as drops or by !Steal.

Floor 9 and 10

The 9th and 10th floors need to be covered together as you move between them multiple times. Start by going up to the 10th floor, then circle to the right and go back down to the 9th floor. At this point you are forced to step into the lava, so you may want to switch one of your characters to Geomancer or at least have the Antitrap ability equipped. Ignore the small room to the right since you cannot go in, and go all the way to the east side. Take the stairs there to treasure on the 10th floor. Go back to the center of the 9th floor and take the stairs to the main area of the 10th. Go right a bit to see a pattern of skulls marked on the floor. There is one in the center, twelve more in a ring around it, and three more at the corners of the diamond shaped platform. When you step on the west skull the ledge leading to the exit south disappears, but don't worry about that for now. Some of the skulls in the rings, the ones at 4, 5, 9, 11, 12 o'clock, and the skull in the center, mark trap doors that fall through when you step on them. If anyone in your party is a Geomancer or has the Findhole ability will warn you before you fall, but if you do you will land in the lava in the 9th floor.

Avoiding the pitfalls, get the treasure in the east corner, then go to the north corner to be teleported to a small ledge to the west. Check the flashing light here to start an optional, but recommended battle.

Carbuncle
Boss level: (immune to level scan, 1 when weak), Recommended party level: 30
HP: 15000, Weaknesses: None, All (when weak), Nullifies: None, Absorbs: None
Gold: 0, ABP: 11, Drops: Turtle Shell (rare)
Description/Strategy

Preparation: This battle is actually fairly easy once you know what to do, so a single healer should be enough. Concentrate the rest of your resources on magical damage dealing. Having a Black Mage will end the battle quickly, but a Red Mage plus other strong attack mages, such as Summoner, Time Mage or Blue Mage, will do almost as well.

Tactics: Carbuncle has a pattern of attack where it casts three attack spells, pauses, casts Cure2 on itself, pauses again, and then repeats the cycle. At the start it attacks with some combination of Fire2, Ice2, and Bolt2. It will have Reflect status and attacks by casting spells on itself so that the reflect spell will hit someone in your party. (You may have noticed this type of attack with Reflect type enemies encountered earlier.) Casting Reflect on your own party will not save you from these spells because spells can only be reflected once. When Carbuncle is at about two thirds of its maximum health it switches to three new attack spells: Muddle, Bio, and Stop. Finally, when it is getting low on health it switches to its most serious attack spells, Doom, X-Zone, and Break. There is a moment around the time it casts Cure2 when it does not have Reflect, is weak to all elements and vulnerable to most status ailments. Start by casting Haste and Shell if you have it; Protes is useless here since Carbuncle does not attack physically. Hold off on magical attacks which may rebound on you. Start counting Carbuncle's attack spells, then after the third wait a moment and cast a spell on it. If you want to make sure of the timing, cast Scan and as soon as you see it not bounce off it is safe to cast something else. To end the battle quickly if you have a Black Mage, cast Break since this kills Carbuncle immediately. If you have a Red Mage then cast Sleep, followed up with attack spells but no physical attacks.

When you win you get the Summon spell Carbuncle. Go down the stairs to another skull mark on the 9th floor where you will be teleported to a small alcove on the north side of the room. Do not forget to change a character back to Geomancer if you changed for the boss battle, then go back up the stairs to the 10th floor.

Step on the skull in in south corner of the platform. This causes the ledge that disappeared earlier to reappear and you can exit through the door to the south. There is another save point here and it's a good idea to save and rest. Continue north to the 11th Floor.

Floor 11 and 12

Ignore the treasure chest in the middle of the room for now and head for the northeastern exit to the small treasure room on the 12th floor then head back down to floor 11.

The treasure chest in the middle of this room is empty; Do not open it unless you intend on fighting the optional boss Gilgamesh. If you opened the chest he will confront you as you head up the stairs in the northern part of the map so don't forget to save and prepare accordingly.

Gilgamesh (4th encounter)
Boss level: 53, Recommended party level: 31
HP: about 15000, Weaknesses: None, Nullifies: None, Absorbs: None
Gold: 0, ABP: 0, Drops: Excalipur
Description/Strategy

Preparation: This battle is fairly easy, especially compared with the battle coming up. A main healer and a backup should be able to keep up with the damage easily. A summoner with Golem will make the healer's job even easier. Gilgamesh casts some status spells so be sure you have a supply of status items, specifically Eye Drops, Maiden'sKiss and Cornucopia. As with the previous Gilgamesh battle, have a Thief with you if you are collecting the Genji Armor.

Tactics: Gilgamesh mostly uses physical attacks but also uses status causing spells and one or two attack spells. Cast Golem at the start so you do not have to worry about the physical attacks and be ready with status items or Esna for status effects. He occasionally uses magical attacks that Golem will not absorb, but your healer should be able to restore health again before damage builds up. Beware of the Hurricane that he uses when he takes enough damage; it will reduce a party member to critical health. When Gilgamesh has taken enough damage he transforms and wields a new weapon. His new form is much tougher , but his new weapon is actually Excalipur. If you have a Thief use Steal to get the Genji Helm when he transforms into his second form.

You get the Excalipur sword as a drop. It claims to have a Bat.Pwr of 100 but actually is scripted to output a power of 1.

Floor 12 and 13

Point of No Return
You will be going to next world after defeating X-Death. Make sure you've gathered all the bestiaries and treasure chests in this one before approaching him.

Return to the previous save point to save again then continue north to the 12th floor. Follow the passage to the 13th Floor where you can see X-Death up ahead. Approach him to start a fight.

X-Death
Boss level: 66, Recommended party level: 31
HP: 32768, Weaknesses: Holy, Nullifies: None, Absorbs: None
Gold: 0, ABP: 0, Drops: None
Description/Strategy

Preparation: This is a tough battle so you're going to need two healers with Cure2 to keep up. Cure3 is available now and may be useful, but only if most of your characters are low on HP at the same time. A Summoner and a Time Mage will be very useful for keeping your damage to a minimum. This does not leave much room for a damage dealer but you should have your Jobs developed enough so that your characters can perform double duty in some roles. X-Death casts a number of status spells so status healing items will be needed here as well. Be sure to have Holy Water and Antidote in particular. It is pretty certain that at least one of your characters will be KOed at some point, so bring some Phoenix Downs as well.

Tactics: X-Death has no status vulnerabilities at all, so you will need to buff your characters as much as possible near the start. Cast Float and Protes at a minimum, also Shell and/or Haste depending on time and availability. You can use Golem to protect against physical attacks and Carbuncle to cast Reflect and turn most magical attacks back on X-Death. But these require a lot of MP to maintain through a long battle, so you may need to burn some Ethers to avoid running out. One trick for this is to have your Summoner equip Dancing Dirk and attack when Summoning ability is not needed; you may get Wonder Waltz a few times this way, which is the equivalent of about five Ethers in MP. Keep an eye out for Reverse Polarity, which switches some party members' positions. In any case, Golem and Reflect will wear off, and X-Death occasionally casts Dispell which removes Reflect. X-Death's attacks become stronger as his health starts to fail, so save some MP when the battle is nearing the end. X-Death will occasionally cast Condemn, but there does not seem to be anything you can do about it except to wait for the character to die and revive with Phoenix Down or Raise. He also uses Zombie Breath which takes a lot of HP from the entire party and may turn some into Zombies. The only thing you can do about this is to use Holy Water on the victims, but it is not urgent as there is an advantage to being zombified: zombies absorb attacks without taking damage, and as long as their attacks do not do too much harm you may be better off to leave them as zombies while you get the rest of the party healed. Another attack to watch out for is Earth Shaker, but this is harmless as long as you cast Float at the beginning and keep recasting it on anyone who loses it.

At the end of the battle the crystals that X-Death was working on start to vibrate and shatter. You are knocked out.