Nelveska Temple quest, both described above. You’ll also still need Mustadio

around.

Having completed both of these quests, hike all the way back to Goug. (If

you’ve finished the battles at Mullonde, you’ll have a handy shortcut.)

Besrudio will power up the weathervane with the Cancer Stone and it will ...

summon Cloud. Cloud, in typical Cloud fashion, will refuse to let you

introduce yourselves and run off in pursuit of Sephiroth.

Now you have to go all the way to the Trade City of Sal Ghidos. Remember when

you met Aerith here earlier? Well, she’s back, and this time she’s being

accosted by some thieves. Cloud comes to save her, but has another one of his

schizophrenic breakdowns. You have to save him from the thieves. This is

quite an easy battle, although you may want to equip Safeguard beforehand so

the Thieves can’t steal any of your gear. Afterwards, Clod... er, Cloud will

join you.

You’re still not totally finished with this quest. In order for Cloud to be

able to use his Limit attacks, you need to find his Materia Blade. The Blade

is found using the Treasure Hunter ability on Mount Bervenia. The easiest

method is to go to Riovanes Castle and just move back and forth between

Riovanes and Mount Bervenia until you get into a random battle.

Once you’re in battle, move your Treasure Hunter to the very tippy-top of the

volcano to discover the Materia Blade. You’ll need a Jump at least of 4 to

reach the volcano top -- equip Germinas Boots if you need a boost. Unlike the

other rare items found with Treasure Hunter, this one doesn’t depend on your

Bravery. You’ll always receive the Materia Blade on this tile, regardless of

your Bravery; there’s no chance of getting the wrong thing. Once you’ve

secured the Materia Blade, finish off the rest of the enemies to end the

battle. (If you end the battle by mistake before getting the Blade, just start

up another battle; the Blade never disappears until you find it.)

If you’re having a hard time getting your Treasure Hunter up to the top during

the battle, one strategy is to kill off all but one enemy, and then use

Beowulf’s Chicken ability to turn the last enemy into a chicken. This leaves

you free to spend as much time as needed navigating the volcano.

Equipping Cloud with the Materia Blade allows him to use his Limit command,

although you still have to learn all the Limit abilities individually.

Honestly, Cloud isn’t really all that great a character, in my estimation --

his Limits take a long time to charge (you’ll probably want to give him the

Time Mage’s Swiftness ability), and he starts back at level 1.

%%%DISORDER IN THE ORDER%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%00dis

QUEST BECOMES AVAILABLE: After Mullonde battles

REWARDS: Lots of stealable equipment

The second of two Agrias-related quests, this quest becomes available late in

Chapter IV, after you win the battles at Mullonde Cathedral. You do NOT have

to have completed the other Agrias quest (Agrias’s Birthday) to access it.

First, after clearing the Cathedral, make tracks for Zeltennia Castle, in the

upper right corner of the map. As long as Agrias is still with you, when you

reach Zeltennia, you’ll see a scene in which Agrias meets with Ovelia and sets

up an important later plot point. (If Alicia and Lavian are still around,

they’ll also participate in this scene, but they’re not required.)

Nothing else happens here, but now head to the Magick City of Gariland or

Eagrose Castle and hit up the Tavern. If you saw the above, there will be a

new rumor, "Disorder in the Order." Listen to it.

Now, if you head back to the Brigands’ Den south of Mandalia Plain, you’ll

get into a battle against some deserters from the Order of the Northern Sky.

Agrias functions as a Guest in this battle. Be SURE to bring a character who

can steal, as there are a lot of great rare items you can get here. (Balthier

may be particularly useful, since his Plunder skills a little bit more likely

to succeed than regular Steals.) While none of the stealable items are

available ONLY in this battle, it’s a chance to grab second copies of some

items you can’t buy in stores. The extra Venetian Shield and Kaiser Shield you

can get here are particularly handy, and you can also get more magick guns, a

Sasuke’s Blade, and Ninja Gear and a Barette. If you bring Orlandeau along,

you can also see a few extra lines of dialogue.

The actual battle should be fairly easy. Nothing special happens when you

clear it--it’s mostly just an avenue for stealing a lot of great items :)

%%%LIONEL’S NEW LIEGE LORD%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%00lio

QUEST BECOMES AVAILABLE: After Mullonde battles AND completing Nelveska Temple

quest

REWARDS: Genji Armor, Zeus Mace, Sortile’ge, stealable Masamune and Chantage,

Hydrascale Bag, other equipment

To begin the new Beowulf subquest, you must first complete the Nelveska Temple

quest. At this point, you will have recruited Beowulf and Reis and returned

Reis to human form. Beowulf and Reis must also still be alive and on your

roster. (It’s not necessary to do to the quest to recruit Cloud or get his

Materia Blade.) You also have to completed the battle against Zalbaag at

Mullonde in the main storyline.

Finally, to activate the quest, you have to have read the "Lionel’s New Liege

Lord" rumor that appears in Taverns after you’ve completed the battle at

Bervenia Free City during Chapter IV. This rumor can be read before or after

you recruit Beowulf and Reis.

The main purpose of this quest is to acquire the Masamune and Genji Armor, as

well as a few other goodies.

This quest, of course, takes place at Lionel Castle. As soon as you visit

Lionel Castle after meeting the requirements above, you’re thrown into the

quest, so you’ll want to prepare first. Make sure you have a character able to

steal, as this subquest gives you a chance to steal a Masamune and a Chantage.

When you reach Lionel Castle, you’ll see a story scene and Reis will be

spirited away. You’re given a chance to save and adjust your roster before

being booted into battle. (Since Reis is presently kidnapped, you won’t be

able to select her as part of your team for this battle.) Note that Beowulf

functions as a guest in this subquest. If he’s KOed in the first battle, you

lose, so be sure to equip with some decent armor and/or a shield and deploy a

healer. (In thesecond battle, it doesn’t matter if he’s KOed.) The bosses

here have Safeguard, which renders them immune to Meliadoul’s Unyielding Blade

attacks, so you probably won’t want to deploy her unless she has some good

other abilities.

You’ll fight a sequence of two battles at Lionel. The first is against

Beowulf’s old pal Aliste. When you win here, you’ll get the Genji Armor, the

second strongest suit of armor in the game. You’ll have another chance to

save and adjust your team -- so equip that Genji Armor -- before moving on to

the second battle, against Bremondt himself. Be sure to deploy your stealing

character here, as one of the enemy samurai has the Masamune and this is the

by far the best place to get it. (See the battle strategies for more info.)

When Bremondt goes down, you’ll receive a Zeus Mace, a very nice staff, for

your efforts. (There’s a second Zeus Mace in Midlight’s Deep, but it doesn’t

hurt to have two!)

Beowulf and Reis are reunited, and in gratitude for all your help, Beowulf

hands over all his treasure, including a Gold Hairpin, a Hydrascale Bag, a

pair of Hermes Shoes, a Diamond Bracelet, and the Sortile’ge perfume. You’re

now prompted to add Beowulf and Reis back into your roster, and this subquest

is now complete!

%%%MIDLIGHT’S DEEP%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%00md

QUEST BECOMES AVAILABLE: After Mullonde battles

REWARDS: Numerous rare items, Zodiark summon, the Byblos joins the party

Midlight’s Deep is a dungeon with ten floors (each a separate battle), each

packed with really powerful equipment. It’s completely optional, and in

fact is more difficult than the actual end of the game.

You can only access Midlight’s Deep after you beat Mullonde Holy Place. Then

go to the Port City of Warjilis. When you arrive, you’ll automatically see a

scene in the tavern in which Ramza overhears a rumor about the Deep. (Fans of

the original PSone version of FF Tactics may get a kick out of some of the

dialogue here.) When you leave town, a route will automatically pop up to the

tiny island to the east, which contains Midlight’s Deep, a ten-floor bonus

dungeon.

To enter Midlight’s Deep, move to the island. Then, click on Midlight’s Deep a

second time. Choose the floor you want to enter. (At the beginning, only the

first floor will be accessible, but you’ll open up more as you progress.)

---General Instructions--------------------------------------------------------

BATTLES IN THE DEEP

Midlight’s Deep battles are basically considered random battles, which means

that the exact line-up of enemies changes each time. It also means that you

don’t have to deploy Ramza. The exception is the initial encounter on the last

floor, which has a fixed set of enemies AND requires Ramza to be deployed.

NAVIGATING THE DARKNESS

To make things challenging, every floor of Midlight’s Deep is completely dark.

You can see your team and the enemies, but you can’t see the terrain. Crystals

left by dead enemies will light up much of the area, but there’s another way to

see. Select an attack with a really long range, like a gun attack, Beowulf’s

Vengeance, Construct 8’s Dispose, or best of all, Teleport (which lights up the

*whole* map). When you’re choosing a target, most of the panels on the

battlefield will be highlighted, giving you a chance to study the terrain. You

don’t even have to USE the selected attack, just select it, look at the map,

and then cancel back to the menu. Since you can do this every round, you

shouldn’t have too much trouble seeing what you’re doing.

FINDING THE EXITS

But not only do you have to beat the enemies on each level, you ALSO have to

find the exit to open up the next level. If you kill all the enemies without

finding the exit, you’ll just be kicked back to the map screen and have to

replay the level before you can advance. To find the exit, you simply have to

move a character onto the tile that contains the exit, at which point you’ll

get a message telling you that you "found a passage leading deeper." Once you

finish off the remaining enemies and return to the map, you’ll be able to

select the next floor.

You do NOT need the Treasure Hunter ability to find the exits.

To make things tricky, the exit is RANDOMLY placed on one of several possible

tiles -- so you don’t know where it is! But, the exit is usually on the

enemy’s side of the battlefield, and often on a tile that’s in a corner and/or

has a low "height" value. Not always, though.

Remember, the battle ends when you KO the last enemy, and if you didn’t find

the exit, you’ll have to replay the level. So, you need to find the exit

BEFORE you KO that last enemy. The easiest way to do this is to KO all but one

enemy, then use Beowulf’s Chicken spell on the last one to turn it into a

chicken. (If the enemy has 60 or more Bravery, you’ll have to use Chicken

twice before it actually turns into a chicken.) Once the last enemy is a

harmless chicken, it’s easy to walk around the level and look for the exit.

Chicken lasts for quite a while, but each turn the enemy gets 1 point of

Bravery back, and when it has 10 Bravery, the Chicken spell will wear off.

But, if you always recast Chicken when it’s close to wearing off, you can keep

the enemy a chicken forever :). Of course, you don’t HAVE to use the Chicken

trick to find the exit -- it just makes it a lot easier.

While you do need to find the exits to advance, there’s no obligation to find

the exit on your first visit. If the battle gets rough, it’s fine to just

finish off the enemies and forget about finding the exit. You can look for it

on your next visit.

Also, once you’ve found a floor’s exit once, you never need to look for it

again. So, if you return to a previous floor to hunt for items or poach

monsters, you don’t need to worry about looking for the exit.

ACQUIRING THE RARE ITEMS

But wait! There’s more! Each level contains a number of rare items that you

can find using the Treasure Hunter ability. Simply move a character with

Treasure Hunter onto the correct tile and a new item is yours. If a character

without Treasure Hunter steps on the tile, you’ll often spring a trap instead,

but the item remains there, waiting for a character with Treasure Hunter.

(Note that even once the item is picked up, any trap on the tile remains there,

and then even a Treasure Hunter can spring it.)

As with most rare Treasure Hunter finds, you need a LOW Bravery level to pick

up the special item. The higher your Bravery, the higher your chance you’ll

get a crummy Phoenix Down instead. (The chance of getting the Phoenix Down is

simply equal to the character’s current Bravery -- so a lower Bravery decreases

your chance of getting it.) If you DO pick up the Phoenix Down, the "good"

item is gone forever, even if you leave the map and come back later. So, if

you want to get all the items, you may want to save pretty frequently and only

try picking up one or two items at a time. That way, it’s easy to reset and

try again if you don’t get the item you want.

Rapha is great for finding the items because her Bravery already starts pretty

low. For the best odds, though, you’ll want to lower it even further. The

best way to do this is probably with the Orator ability Intimidate; for every

use of this ability, she’ll lose 20 points of Bravery during the battle but

5 points permanently. Be careful not to reduce her permanent Bravery TOO low,

though, or she will quit the party--so using Beowulf’s Chicken may not be a

good idea. 15 to 20 is probably a safe number and will give you some margin of

error in case she gets with a Bravery-lowering ability during a battle.

STRATEGIES FOR FINDING ITEMS AND EXITS

To make Rapha (or whomever you’re using as a Treasure Hunter) more mobile, give

her Germinas Boots to increase her move and jump range. If available, you can

also switch her to an agile job like Thief, Dragoon, or Monk. This is helpful

both for picking up the treasures and for finding the exits.

Alternately (or in addition), you can have her ride a chocobo to increase her

mobility. A Black Chocobo is particularly advantageous since it can fly right

over enemies. Just deploy the chocobo next to her, and then move her onto the

tile with the chocobo to have her ride it. You won’t actually be able to claim

items while on the chocobo, though, so park the chocobo NEXT to the tile with

the treasure and have Rapha use the Dismount command to step down onto the

treasure tile. It takes three turns just to move the chocobo, dismount, and

remount, so chocobos are mostly helpful on maps with tricky terrain that would

be even slower to navigate on foot.

If you’re having trouble with Rapha getting KOed quickly, try equipping her

with the Invisibility Cloak found on Mount Germinas (see Advanced Tactics and

Secrets). This cloak causes her to start the battle invisible. As long as she

doesn’t take any action and just moves around the battlefield looking for items

and exits, she will stay invisible and will be virtually ignored by the

enemies. (She’s still vulnerable to area-effect spells.) The Septie`me

perfume, poachable from the Greater Hydras found in the Deep, and the Ninja

Gear found on the sixth floor of the dungeon (The Palings) also have the same

invisibility effect. And since the Ninja Gear is body armor instead of an

accessory, it allows you to also equip Germinas Boots at the same time.

You can also combine this with chocobo-riding; if you’re Invisible when you

board a chocobo, the chocobo becomes Invisible too (even though it doesn’t look

like it on the screen :P). Be careful, though; dismounting from the chocobo

removes the chocobo’s Invisibility and gives the enemies a chance to attack it.

Note that you can also still pick up items as a Chicken, although you can’t

control the character. Since Chicken-ified characters usually run into a

corner, you can use this tactic for picking up items in the corner of a map.

Having a Bravery below 10 almost guarantees you’ll get the rare item.

As a caution, note that enemy characters with Treasure Hunter can also pick up

the rare items, which will prevent you from getting them! At the start of each

battle, you may want to check all the enemy humans to see if they have Treasure

Hunter. If they do, either KO or Immobilize them quickly to prevent them from

beating you to the loot!

LOCATING THE RARE ITEMS

So WHERE are all these great items? Of course, on each floor, the items are in

different locations. Since the tiles are not given any names or numbers in the

game, I’ve had to assign my own numbers to them. Here’s the scheme I’ve used:

When the battle starts, tilt the analog stick on the PSP left or right. When

you do this, the screen will change perspective and you’ll be looking at the

battlefield from a different angle. Keep doing this until your characters are

facing down and to the left on the screen.

Now, move the cursor to the lower left corner. This tile is (X: 0, Y: 0). If

you move the cursor to the left (using the left arrow on the D-pad), you’ll

be at (X: 1, Y: 0), then (X: 2, Y: 0), (X: 3, Y: 0), and so on. If you start

at (X: 0, Y: 0) and move upwards (up arrow on the D-pad), you’ll be at (X: 0,

Y: 1). So a tile like (X: 4, Y: 3) would be four tiles to the right and three

tiles up from the lower-left corner (again, this is when your team is facing

DOWN and to the LEFT at the start of the battle). I’ve given the locations of

all the items using this coordinate system.

For exact item locations, see each level’s battle strategy.

POACHING

There are also a number of rare monsters in Midlight’s Deep, and poaching them

can get you some unique items you can’t find anywhere else. (See the Poaching

List for the complete list.) Fortunately, since Warjilis Trade City is a trade

city, it has a Poachers’ Den. So, after poaching some monsters, it’s easy to

head back to Warjilis and check on your haul.

If you’re serious about poaching (and have space on your roster), the best

tactic for getting these rare items is to recruit a monster from the species

using the Orator abilities Entice or Tame. (The Dragon’s Charm ability

possessed by Reis can also be used to recruit dragons and hydras, and works

100% of the time.) Once you’ve recruited the monster, just walk back and forth

between Warjilis and the Deep. As the days pass, the monster will lay eggs and

the eggs will hatch into new monsters. (You can use the Preview Monster Eggs

trick from the Advanced Tactics section to see what monsters you’re getting and

delete any that aren’t the exact type you want.) Poach THESE hatched monsters,

but leave the original in your roster. That way, you have a limitless supply

of monsters to poach. This is a great way to poach rare monsters that you

don’t appear in the wild very frequently.

In fact, breeding monsters is the ONLY way to get a Wild Boar, which in turn

is your only source for two super-rare items (the Ribbon and the Fallingstar

Bag).

---Floor-by-Floor Walkthrough--------------------------------------------------

Whew! I think that’s all the instruction you need. Now head on in! The first

floor, The Crevasse, is just kind of practice; the monsters here are very weak.

You can find two of the magickal guns here, although you may already have a

Glacial Gun if you stole one earlier. The Blaze Gun is a little stronger than

the Glacial Gun, though, and both are worth picking up. These "magickal" guns

do elemental attacks. Their damage varies; sometimes you get a -ra or a -ga

spell visual effect and increased damage. The damage estimate you see when

preparing to attack is the "low" estimate if you just get the regular spell.

Note that the Kiyomori hidden on this level is just a regular Kiyomori katana

like you could buy in a store, making it the most useless pickup in the Deep.

After you find the exit in The Crevasse, you’ll open up The Stair. It’s

similar in layout to The Crevasse, but is a lot more challenging. Bringing

Archer’s Bane or Shirahadori is a good idea as there are a lot of enemy

Archers. After that comes The Hollow. Here, you’ll want to deploy range

attackers as the enemies start at a distance and can easily be picked off. The

Hollow also contains two good pieces of equipment: the Yoichi Bow and the Zeus

Mace. Be sure to pick them up! In general, collecting all the Elixirs is not

necessary as there are quite a few of them and you can do fine without getting

them all (or even any).

The fourth floor, The Catacombs, is also quite challenging. It may take you a

few tries to collect everything here, especially if you get a tough group of

monsters. But, the equipment available here is also quite good: the Kaiser

Shield as well as the Rod of Faith. The Rod of Faith is particularly valuable

and available here only. It’s a rod that maximizes its wielder’s Faith while

equipped, increasing their magick power (but also the magick damage they

receive). You can also whack other characters with it to give *them* Faith

status as well. This is particularly useful for Marach, if you’re using him.

The Faith status maximizes the damage from *both* his Nether Mantra abilities

(which normally do more damage when his Faith is low) and regular magicks

(which do more damage when Faith is high). Since the Rod maximizes your Faith

regardless of its normal value, you can also reduce a character’s Faith to make

them strong against enemy magick and then only give them the Rod when you want

them using magick. (See the related item under Advanced Tactics for more on

strategies using the Rod.)

The Catacombs also holds the Faerie Harp. If you don’t use Bards, you can skip

it. It’s worth noting, though, that the Faerie Harp is the only attack or

ability that can Charm all targets regardless of gender or human/monster status

-- plus it’s the strongest harp, so it’s a good pickup if you DO have a Bard

around.

Level 5 is The Oubliette. Here, you can get a second Excalibur sword, which is

definitely worth picking up (especially since it’s right next to where you

start!). Although you should already have one since Orlandeau comes with one,

two never hurts ... the automatic Haste effect is incredibly useful! You can

give the second to another character who uses knight’s swords, like Agrias,

Beowulf, Meliadoul, or Ramza -- or any character in the Knight job. You can

also find the Iga Blade ninja blade here.

Next stop is The Palings. All four items are right at the starting point, so

they’re easy to grab. These include the Blaster (the lightning-elemental

magickal gun and the strongest gun overall), the invisibility-granting Ninja

Gear, the Cursed Ring, and the Elixir. If you plan on tackling all the co-op

Rendezvous Mode missions, the Cursed Ring is quite important to one of the

missions and this is the only one you can get in the game, so don’t miss it or

lose it later!

Floor seven is The Crossing. The items here aren’t all that great. There’s

the Koga Blade ninja blade, and a Staff of the Magi. The Staff of the Magi

isn’t very good; it has a higher *attack power* than the Zeus Mace, but no

benefit to your magick strength -- and how often do your magick-users hit

people with their staves? But, you want to bring Luso or somebody else with

the Poach skill, as there’s a chance of running into the stronger minotaur

monster here. Either of the items you get from poaching it cannot be found

anywhere else.

By now, you’re getting near the bottom, and the difficulty level is rising.

again. The next two floors will be quite tough, but they also contain some

very strong items. The Switchback holds the Ragnarok sword (not actually as

good as Excalibur as it doesn’t cast Haste), Robe of Lords (a GREAT robe), and

the best bow, the Perseus Bow. (You can also steal additional Yoichi Bows

from the Archers that sometimes appear here.) The final normal floor is The

Interstice. It holds the game’s best heavy armor -- the Maximillian and Grand

Helm -- as well as the Venetian Shield, second only to the Escutcheon (II) as a

shield. You want this stuff.

There’s only one level left after this, appropriately named Terminus. There’s

a boss encounter the first time you enter here, and it’s your one chance in the

single-player game to learn the game’s best Summon, Zodiark. If you want to

learn it, deploy your best Summoner (with Summoner as his/her current job) and

arm him/her with the Time Mage ability Mana Shield for protection.

When you enter Terminus, you’ll meet some weird old guy named Elidibus, who

will turn himself into a Lucavi. You’ll be accompanied in this battle by a

purple Byblos monster (its personal name varies). After defeating Elidibus

(and hopefully learning Zodiark from him), you’ll get the 13th (!) Zodiac

Stone, Serpentarius. The Byblos will offer to join your party. This is your

one opportunity to get this character, so sign it up. He’s only OK, though.

Congratulations! You’ve beaten Midlight’s Deep! You may notice that the Deep

stays a red dot on the map screen even after you’ve finished off Elidibus.

Don’t worry; you haven’t missed anything. It just stays red forever.

But, there’s still a few more things to do. Go back into Terminus after you

defeat Elidibus, and bring a Treasure Hunter. On the top level (where Elidibus

was), there are four items: two Elixirs, the Chirijiraden (the best samurai

sword), and the Chaos Blade. The Chaos Blade is one of the best weapons in the

game; it has a whopping 40 attack points, automatically Regens you, and

petrifies enemies!

If you’re into poaching, you can find Pigs and Swines on Terminus, as well as

all the members of the hydra family. All of these monsters yield rare items

when poached. (And if you want REALLY rare items, recruit a Pig or Swine and

wait until you breed a Wild Boar, then poach that!) You can also use Reis’s

Dragon’s Charm to recruit a Tiamat. They’re THE best monster in the game, and

they’re almost as strong as (if not stronger than) Orlandeau!

For other rare weapons, equip all your characters with Sticky Fingers and go

to The Interstice. If you can run into some Ninjas here, they’ll throw a

variety of nice weapons at you, which -- assuming you have Sticky Fingers --

you’ll catch and claim for your own. If you’re at a high enough level, you can

even get Chaos Blades! Masamunes, Chirijiradens, Javelin IIs, and most other

rare weapons can also be obtained here. (The exceptions are the weapons that

can’t be thrown, like staves.)

What else is there left to do? If you leave Midlight’s Deep and head back

around the overworld, each wilderness locations has a "special" random battle

that you can occasionally run into. Some of these, like the infamous all-Monk

melee on Grogh Heights, can be pretty challenging. The special battle at Mount

Germinas also pits you against some gun-wielding Chemists and Orators, where

you can steal additional copies of the magick guns, and sometimes the

Stoneshooter. (For a complete list of these special battles, see the Random

Battles section under Other Game Information.) You can also continue poaching

monsters if you’re looking to complete your collection of items -- see the Rare

Item Locations for where you can find everything. And, if you haven’t finished

the other subquests, those are still out there to complete!

Finally, you can team up a friend who owns a copy of the game to complete the

game’s multiplayer team missions in Rendezvous Mode, or battle against each

other in the Melee mode. (Note that you need to complete the main quest first

in order to unlock the last four Rendezvous Mode missions.) These missions are

some of the biggest challenges in the game, but you can also win a lot of

super-powered equipment not available in the single-player game.

*******************************************************************************

V. BATTLE STRATEGIES

*******************************************************************************

%%%CHAPTER I: THE MEAGER%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%00bs1

---Battle 1: Gariland----------------------------------------------------------

YOUR FORCES: Ramza, Delita [guest], 4 others

ENEMY FORCES: Squire (male) x3, Squire (female) x1, Chemist (male) x1

--STRATEGY--

The key in this battle is advance slowly and not to let your characters get

spread out. Stay on the left side, away from the bulk of the houses.

The enemy Chemist has the ability to heal the other enemies, which can be a

pain. If you have the chance to take him out, do so; otherwise, he’ll heal the

enemy soldiers you’ve been attacking. Actually, you can stop him from doing

this even if you attack him just once. He’ll use up his turn healing himself

instead of healing any of the other enemies.

Attack from the enemy from behind or from the side whenever possible, as you’re

more likely to land a hit that way. (In general, rear attacks are best as they

also cancel out enemy shields -- but no enemies have shields yet, so side and

rear attacks will be equally effective.) At the end of each character’s turn,

you choose which direction they facing. Make sure you end your turns facing

the enemies, which will make it harder for them to hit you from behind! (When

possible, you can even put your back to the side of a building to protect it

completely!)

Make good use of your Chemists for healing--you start out with 5 Potions and

you can use them to heal a character who gets injured. If you don’t have

teammates who need healing, the Chemists can also attack. (Note that Chemists

have an inherent Throw Item ability, so they don’t have to be next to a

character to use an item on him/her. This is NOT true for other characters

using the Item ability, however.)

Don’t worry about Delita; the Guest AI is pretty reckless and it’s likely he’ll

get himself KOed. Since he’s a Guest character, though, he can’t die

permanently and will be revived at the end of the battle.

BATTLE TROPHIES: 2000 gil, Mythril Knife, Phoenix Down, Potion

---Battle 2: Mandalia Plain----------------------------------------------------

YOUR FORCES: Ramza, Delita [guest], Argath [guest], 3 others

ENEMY FORCES: Squire (male) x4, Thief (male) x1, Red Panther x1

--STRATEGY--

Your choice before the battle affects your victory conditions here. If you

chose just to fight the Corpse Brigade, you only have to KO all the enemies.

If you chose the second option, then there’s an additional requirement: You

must also keep Argath from being KOed, as you will lose the battle if he gets

KOed. The first option is better, of course, since it makes the battle easier

and

If you DID choose to help Argath, though, you need to protect him. Start

moving a Chemist towards Argath right away. Fortunately, Argath will probably

flee away from the enemies and into one corner. Heal him just to be on the

safe side, and then you’re free to concentrate on the enemies.