Final Fantasy IX FF9 walkthrough version 1.3 (part 1 of 2) By: Squall Squall Created: December 11, 2001 E-mail: Squall_ar@hotmail.com Hi folks, this is my second walkthrough and I feel I’m improving, I’m doing this one in my own though unlike my FF8 walkthrough. Please E-mail me a lot so that I can have the walkthrough and all the bestiaries complete. Also send suggestions comments or critics if you want. But read the E-mail policy first! I’m also working with a friend to make the FF8 walkthrough and I’m writing a fanfic too which I’d also like you to check, so don’t expect me to update every day. I can promise you an update weekly though. Despite all my problems I’ll try to make the best walkthrough. Thank you for reading News: I’m almost ready with part II which will include item bestiary (items, equipment and key items, Quina’s Blue Magic, characters info and abilities and Trance abilities and effects) Disclaimer Every piece of information that is written in parts 1 and 2 of this guide is for personal usage only and can’t be used to earn profit. That means you CAN’T sell it nor you can give it as a free gift with something you sold. You can post it in your site without having to ask me as long as you don’t change anything. If you want to post a part of this guide, remember to add my name in the credits section and again, don’t change anything. Intro I’m not very good at making introductions… One would say I’m not very good with words… Maybe like Laguna in FF8 so please don’t get angry at me if you see orthographical or grammatical mistakes as I’m from Argentina, a country where we speak Spanish. Anyway I made this for you to have a guide on what you must do in the game, what you should buy and good strategies on beating difficult enemies, monsters and, of course, those bosses that seem impossible to defeat. FF9 is my favorite game of all times and I recommend you buying it if you still haven’t, I know it is getting a bit old even if I ant to deny it but as my favorite game I definitely had to make this guide. Contents Part I 1 E-mail policy 2 Game information 2.1 Controls 2.2 Basic information 2.2.1 Field and Here Icons 2.2.2 Equipping 2.2.3 Learning abilities 2.2.4 Random battles 2.2.5 Battle description 2.2.6 Saving and resting 2.2.7 Mognet 2.2.8 Trance 3 Disc 1 walkthrough 3.1 Getting started 3.2 Pupi in Alexandria 3.3 Prima Vista Theater Ship 3.4 The Forest of Evil Mist 3.5 Ice Cavern 3.6 My Li’l Village 3.7 On the way to Lindblum 3.8 Lindblum Grand Castle 3.9 The Festival of the Hunt 3.10 Getting to Gizamaluke’s Grotto 3.10.1 Qu’s Marsh 3.10.2 Chocobo’s Forest 3.11 Gizamaluke’s Grotto 3.12 South Gate, Getting Back to Alexandria 3.13 The Realm of Eternal Rain 4 Disc 2 walkthrough 4.1 Summit Station, Getting Back to Alexandria 4.2 The City that Never Sleeps 4.3 Through Gargan Roo to Alexandria 4.4 The Storm 4.5 Cleyra 4.6 Cleyra Under Attack 4.7 Red Rose 4.8 Alexandria Dungeon 4.9 Getting to Treno 4.10 Acquiring your first Eidolon 4.11 Lindblum Under Attack 4.12 Fossil Roo 4.13 Outer Continent 4.14 Rally-ho! 4.15 Vivi’s hometown? 4.16 Conde Petie 4.17 Mountain Path 4.18 Village of the Lost Summoners 4.19 Lifa Tree 4.20 The robbery 4.21 Unsealing the sealed 5 Disc 3 walkthrough 5.1 Queen Dagger? 5.2 Treno 5.2.1 Fighting in Treno Weapon Shop I 5.3 The Holy Judgement 5.4 Lindblum 5.5 Blue Narciss 5.5.1 Blue Narciss controls 5.5.2 Getting Alexandria card 5.6 Black Mage Village 5.7 Kuja’s Mission 5.8 Heading towards Oeilvert… Better off Catch Frogs 5.9 Desert Palace 5.10 Esto Gaza 5.11 Mt Gulug 5.12 Lindblum and Alexandria 5.13 Sealing the Skies 5.13.1 Hilda Garde III controls 5.13.2 The Hidden City, Daguerreo 5.13.3 Chocobo Side Quest 5.13.4 Quan’s Dwelling Side Quest 5.13.5 The Twelve Stellazzios 5.13.6 Fighting in the Treno Weapon Shop II 5.13.7 Qu’s Marshes Side Quest 5.13.8 Ozma Side Quest 5.13.9 Pop Quiz 5.13.10 Character Renaming 5.13.11 Carbuncle’s hidden abilities 5.14 Ipsen’s Castle 5.15 The Four Shrines 5.15.1 Quina’s Blue Magic 5.15.2 Entering the Earth Shrine 5.16 Visiting the soon-to-be-closed places 5.16.1 Observatory Mountain 5.16.2 South Gates 5.16.3 North Gates 5.16.4 Esto Gaza 5.16.5 Mount Gulug 5.16.6 Conde Petie 5.17 The Space Portal 5.18 Bran Bal 5.19 Pandemonium 6 Disc 4 walkthrough 6.1 Black Mage Village 6.2 Mist World 6.3 Side Quest 6.3.1 Ultima Weapon 6.3.2 Excalibur 6.3.3 Fighting in Treno Weapon Shop III 6.3.4 Madain Sari 6.3.5 Mognet Central 6.3.6 The Thirteenth Stellazzio 6.3.7 Excalibur 6.3.8 Excalibur II 6.3.9 Friendly Monsters 6.3.10 Ozma 6.3.11 Yans in Vile Island 6.3.12 Becoming a Rank S Treasure Hunter 6.3.13 Final Fantasy 3 Music 6.4 Within the Lifa Tree - Memoria 6.5 Crystal World 6.6 Final Battles 6.7 Game Ending 6.7.1 Game Ending Description 6.7.2 Playing Black Jack Revision history/Updates Version 1.0 - Added disclaimer and E-mail policy - Wrote the introduction - Finished the contents of the guide - Finished the “Game Information” section - Started disc 1 walkthrough - Decided to start writing part 2 after part 1 gets posted Version 1.1 - Completed section 2. - Changed section 3.6 title from “My Little Village” to “My Li’l Village - Started writing part 2 of this guide but won’t post it yet until I get enough info for it - Changed the stupid mistake I did at the end: from “End of FF8 guide” to “End of FF9 guide” - Continued Disc 1 Walkthrough section Version 1.2 - Continued Walkthrough - Changed some parts so they look better - Corrected a few grammatical and orthographical mistakes - Changed some strategies which were bad - Added which monsters Quina should eat in each part of the world so that s/he learns new abilities Version 1.3 - Continued Walkthrough - Added which party you start with at the beginning of some sections in the walkthrough 1 E-mail policy As you know I love when you E-mail me, that’s why I want you to know how to do it. You can always E-mail me and I’ll give you a response generally in about four days but it may variate… I’ll answer any E-mail regarding the game even if the answer is in the walkthrough, the item bestiary or in any other section. I just want to ask you to include in the subject “FF9” or anything like that for me to know what it is about or directly the subject of the question you have e.g. “I can’t beat the first boss” (Actually if you can’t beat him you’re hopeless…). I won’t answer any mail that has any bad words. I accept critics, but I don’t want to have a ton of E-mails with non-sense critics and not explaining my mistake like “your walkthrough is the worst I’ve ever read”. I won’t pay any kind of attention to such E-mails. Don’t send executable files as I won’t open them, I won’t open any attachment either so don’t send attachments. If your E-mail hasn’t been responded in nine days, E-mail again politely and I’ll answer you, if I still don’t answer you I may be abroad or really busy with school. Thanks for reading. I’d like to hear from you very often. E-mail me if you either need answers or someone to speak to, I’m interested in talking to FF9 experts and that kind of people who play a lot. Me? I play 25 hours a day : ) 2 Game Information This section contains the game default controls and the game basics that you need to know in order to play it. 2.1 Controls Field Controls D-Pad = Move around X = Examine/Talk/Accept option Square = Play card game/Talk Triangle = Open main menu/Cancel Circle = Toggle between Walk/Run SELECT = Activate ATE/Activate or deactivate Here icon START = Pause game R1/R2/L1/L2 = No use R1+R2+L1+L2+SELECT+START = Restart game without asking Battle Controls Up arrow/down arrow = Choose commands Right arrow = Change row Left arrow = Defend X = Accept commands Square = Hide commands Triangle = Switch character Circle = Cancel SELECT = Help START = Pause game R1 = Page down L1 = Page Up R1+L1 = Escape L2/R2 = No use R1+R2+L1+L2+SELECT+START = Restart game without asking World Map D-Pad = Move around X = Accept/examine/get on vehicle/chocobo Square = Use Moogle’s Flute Triangle = Open menu Circle = Cancel SELECT = No use START = Pause game R1 = Rotate camera right L1 = Rotate camera left R2 = Change POV (Point of View) L2 = No use R1+R2+L1+L2+SELECT+START = Restart game without asking 2.2 Basic Information In this section you’ll find some info regarding battle systems and some tips and help to explain you how to equip, learn abilities, etc. 2.2.1 Field and Here Icons The field Icons are either a “?” or a “!”. Whenever you see one of those you can press X and something will happen. When you see the ? icon, that means you’ll be given a choice, for example jump or not from the ladder or jump either left or right or just keep going up/down, etc. When you see the ! icon, most of the time you’ll get hidden items like Potions, weapons or money, every hidden item and hidden money there is in the game is included in the walkthrough. When you see that icon, press the X button (default field controller configuration). Most of the time it is something you can keep but sometimes you’ll see a message instead of receiving money. Like for example at the beginning of the game, check the sign next to the items shop when using Vivi to see what the sign says. 2.2.2 Equipping As the game progresses, you’ll get tons of equipment like armor or weapons for your characters. Each equipment has a certain number of abilities to learn from it, some equipments don’t have any, like the Tin Armor or the Pearl Armlet; but most of them have two or three. First, to equip a character, access the menu and choose “equip”, choose the character and choose equip, choose where you want to equip what you want to equip (I hope that wasn’t too confusing : D), then choose the equipment and you’ll see that the lower right box shows the abilities that can be learned through that equipment. Check the abilities section under the Basic Information section for more information about abilities. Once a character has the equipment equipped, he/she will automatically start learning the abilities. Not all the equipments you get/buy can be equipped to everyone, some equipments are only for women and some others only for knights, etc. You must know that only one person can equip a certain type of weapon, I mean you can’t equip any kind of dagger to Dagger nor you can equip them to Steiner but only to Zidane, the same happens with every other character. Check the characters section in part II for more details about each character’s weapon. By equipping weapons, accessories, bracelets/armlets, helms/hats and armors you don’t only get a certain amount of defense/attack/magic, etc. but you also get other things as well, like elemental attack and defense or status attack or you may even be weaker against certain elements, e.g. Silk shirt, the description says it burns easily meaning you get weak against Fire. For more information about elements, check the elemental properties section. 2.2.3 Learning abilities To learn the multiple abilities there are in the game, you first need to equip your characters, check the previous section for more details. Once you equipped the ability, you can already use it, but if you unequip the equipment that allows you to use the ability, you won’t be able to use it anymore unless you actually learn the ability. To learn an ability, you must acquire a certain amount of AP (Ability Points) after the battles, different abilities require different amounts. There are two types of abilities: Action ability (Red jewel) Support ability (Blue jewel) The action abilities are those that you can use during a battle and will affect either the enemy or your party members. E.g. Blizzard, Firaga, Cure, Chakra, etc. The support abilities are those which you must equip before a battle for the ability to work. They are either equipped (filled blue jewel) or unequipped (empty jewel). To equip an ability, access the menu and select ability, then highlight the right option and accept, choose the support abilities that you want to equip. Support abilities require a certain number of Magic Stones that the character has, the number of magic stones increases as the character levels up. As no character can learn all abilities, the ones that cannot be learned appear in a gray color. Others appear with either a red, filled blue or empty blue jewels (See above). Add status is an ability that requires a weapon’s status effect to work, weapons with no status will be useless for add status. You can still equip it though… 2.2.4 Random Battles In some places like the World Map, as you run or walk you’ll enter a battle, that is determined by your luck and is a very common system in a lot of RPGs, in some places, the encounter rate is higher than others. In FF9 there is no way to prevent encounters or make them fewer, but back in FF8 there were abilities like Enc-none that didn’t allow you to engage in random battles and Enc-half that halved the encounter rate. In FF6 there were relics like the Moogle Charm and the charm bangle that had the same respective effects as the mentioned abilities. However there is one way to “prevent” random battles. Walk a little bit, then stop for a second and then keep walking a little more, do this a lot of times until you reach your destination, I think this doesn’t work when in the World Map though. 2.2.5 Battle description Once you enter a battle, the screen will have quite a strange effect, then you’ll hear the battle music which you can download from www.fantasysquare.com or some other Final Fantasy dedicated web sites. Once you entered in a battle you’ll first see your characters (there can be up to four characters in your party) and then the enemy, there are also other things you can see in the screen. ATB (It stands for Active Time Battle): The bars you can see at the lower right side of the screen. The characters can execute their commands only when the bar is full, unless it is full, you won’t be able to use that character. If two or more characters have filled their bars, you can change them by pressing the triangle button unlike FF4 and 5 in which you couldn’t change. Commands list: Once the ATB of a character is completely full, you’ll see a box with the commands a character can use, by selecting commands you can choose the proper ability for your character to use. Try to be fast in selecting the first command (e.g. Be fast at selecting Blk Mag for Vivi and then take as much time as you want to select the magic) this is because, if the ATB is set to “wait” from the configuration menu, the time only advances when you only see the first box appear and not when you choose something like the item, skill or summon commands. Once you have chose the command, watch the character execute it. Target window: The target window can be activated in the configuration menu and indicates the target for the command of a character. If for example you want to heal Zidane because he has only 3 HP, select Cure magic or a potion and choose Zidane in the target window. On the other hand, if you want to heal an enemy (zombies are damaged by healing magic/items), select cure/potion and press left, select the enemy and press the accept button. In some cases, for example when you want to revive a killed character, the target window will automatically start from that killed character. Help Menu: To activate Mogster’s help menu, press the select button. Mogster will give you a short explanation about each command, to deactivate it, just press select again. 2.2.6 Saving and resting To save your game you’ll first need a memory card, then you need to find a save moogle, they are found almost everywhere and there is almost one or two in every place you’ll go and in any place of the World Map. After Vivi tries to go up the clock tower in Alexandria, you’ll meet your first moogle: Kupo. He will enter you in Moogle Diary as a way to say sorry. You’ll also be able to rest in a tent if you have one. This moogle system is very much like what the Save Points were in every other FF, but Moogles are much better, not only because they are cute and say “Kupo!” but also because you don’t need to access the menu to save or use a tent. So it is much faster and funny. 2.2.7 Mognet Once you see the first Moogle, choose the option “Mognet” from the menu and he will give you an explanation, it is a delivery system between Moogles from other places. Choose to help Kupo and he will give you a letter which you’ll have to deliver after a while. This will happen lots of times, so when you see a Moogle, ask him for Mognet before or after saving and resting, also, be sure to always check Mognet, even if you have just checked it as sometimes something happens and everything changes making the Moogle want to deliver a letter to a friend explaining what has changed or something like that. If you deliver the Moogles’ mail properly you’ll get a very good accessory (actually the best one you can get). 2.2.8 Trance The Trance is the most powerful blow of force of each character, it resembles Limit Breaks from Final Fantasy 6, 7 and 8. To achieve Trance, the character needs to be hit by the enemy, it doesn’t matter if it is magically or physically, but it must be the enemy, don’t try to achieve Trance by hitting a character with your own character as it will be useless. Trance will be stopped at the end of a battle and the Trance bar will go down to 0, this is quite annoying, mostly when you’re fighting weak monsters and your character enters Trance, it is useless as another one attacks the enemy and kills it, ending the battle, the character’s bar will have gone back to 0, making the Trance ridiculously useless. 3 Disc 1 Walkthrough Finally started disc 1 walkthrough, I’ll try to make it as simple as possible for you, please E-mail me if you find any mistakes. Thank you. You will start with Zidane level 1, 500 Gil, 7 potions, 2 Hi-Potions, 2 Ether, 2 Phoenix Down, 2 Remedy, 1 Phoenix Pinion, 1 Tent and no key items. 3.1 Getting started Party: ??????? Area(s): Prima Vista Theater Ship Items: Potion, gil Boss: Masked Man After you choose “New Game”, you’ll see a rather interesting FMV which you, like in any other RPG, won’t have any idea what it is about or what is happening. After that you’ll gain the control of the main character of Final Fantasy IX, Zidane. Before lighting the candle, you should check around the room for some gil and a potion. Light the candle now and you’ll be able to name your character, then, Cinna, Marcus and Blank will go in. They are the members of the Tantalus group which is a group of thieves that come from Lindblum. After a short conversation a “something” will go in the room and attack you. Boss: Masked Man Facts: None Difficulty: Very easy Steal: Wrist, Potion, Mage Masher Zidane’s level: 1 Strategy: Does this boss really need a strategy? From the beginning of the battle just steal with everyone until you get everything he has, specially the Mage Masher that is a weapon for Zidane. Then just attack and he should go down quickly. Once you beat him, you’ll get to know that the monster was Baku, the leader of Tantalus. You’ll proceed to the room on the right where you’ll get the briefing of your mission in which you have to kidnap princess Garnet Til Alexandros. Answer the second choice. 3.2 Pupi in Alexandria Party: ??????? Area(s): Alexandria Items: 4 Potions, Phoenix Pinion, Ether, Eye Drop, Gil, Lizard Man Card, 2 Goblin Cards, Skeleton Card, 2 Fang Cards, Flan Card, Ironite Card, Bomb Card, Cactuar Card, Genji Card, Tiger Racket Card, Ticket (*) Boss: None “(*)” Means this is a key item You must be wondering why I named this section like that, well… it’s simple, I named the little Black Mage Pupi so I named the section like that, don’t worry, I’ll call him by his default name in the walkthrough and the other sections. You’ll start in a narrow, straight street, someone will crash you and make you drop to the floor, a girl (Ilia) will help you and give you the ticket you just dropped. Go south a bit and check the rounded area for the Lizard Man Card (north of the statue) and a Potion (left side of the rounded area). Go back to the place where you started and search the left side of the street to find a Potion, enter the house to your right and check the table for a Potion and get 9 gil from the chest to the left. Go up and search for a Fang Card. Go back to the place where you started and go north, a boy will crash you and run away (if he hasn’t done it already). Keep going north and you’ll see some nobles from Treno, a city to the southeast of Alexandria, search the grass for gil and a Goblin Card, enter the bar, search near the steps to the left for some more gil and the tables for a Flan Card and a Potion. Go outside and to the left, you’ll arrive at a street with an item shop to the right, enter and search around for some gil and leave (unless you’d want to buy some items first…). Go north and you’ll see another round area, search a bit to the north of the ticket boot to get a Phoenix Pinion, then, go into the rightmost house and search there for an Ether. If you talk to the girl jumping the rope, you’ll be able to jump yourself. You’ll get something depending on how much you jump. Mini-game: Rope Jumping Win: Gil, Cards Description: Press the X button just as you see the ! appear, if you manage to jump a certain number of times in a row, you’ll get the following: 20 times = 10 Gil 50 times = Cactuar Card 100 Times = Genji Card 300 Times = Tiger Racket Card There might be other prices but, as my record was 367 successful jumps, I don’t know what the other prices are. If you know what they give you, please E-mail me and tell me about it. Enter the ticket boot and talk to the ticket master. You can ask him about the play, about Alexandria, about Princess Garnet and about Queen Brahne. Show him the ticket and he will tell you it’s a fake and give you three cards. Go out of the ticket boot, go left first and the rat-boy who you saw before will come and talk to you, answer the bottom option, then the first option, then tell him you don’t want to be his slave and go south to the next screen, here, go left and enter the first door, this is Ilia’s house, if Ilia is blocking the way to the second floor, go out of her house and wait for her to go out too, then enter and she won’t be blocking the way anymore, search there for 3 gil and an Eye Drop, go out and to the end of that street, at the top of the wooden ramp, you’ll see a kid that asks you to help him find his kitten, Mittens, answer “Yes” and go back to the first rounded screen you saw where there was that statue in the middle, you’ll see the cat, talk to it and the boy will appear and get it. Go back to where you first met him and he will give you the Bomb card, go to the church which is next door from Ilia’s house. Climb the ladder and ring the bell to receive three cards. Go back to where you met the rat-kid, talk to him and tell him you’ve changed your mind, then tell him there’s no one coming and he will get the ladder and run off. Follow him and enter the church, there, he will tell you to go up first. When you try to go up, a Moogle will fall. He will enter you in Moogle Diary (Check section 2.2.6 for more details), then Stiltzkin, another Moogle which surprisingly doesn’t say “Kupo” will appear and tell Kupo he will go on a journey. Later on you’ll be able to buy great items at a really low price, so be sure to buy from him. Once you regain control of the black mage, talk to the moogle and choose Mognet, check section 2.2.7 for more information, he will give you a letter, be sure to deliver it later. Save if you want to and go up the ladder, follow the rat-kid through those ramps and after the one that falls, search that thing near the edge of the roof to receive some gil, then go north and you’ll be able to name the Black Mage, the rat-kid’s name is Puck. Go down the steps and search another thing just like the previous one to receive some more gil (I think it was 66, I’m not sure…), backtrack to the steps and this time go north through one of the parallel ramps, check another thing to receive more gil. Then backtrack to the steps once again and move to the right, keep going through that straightforward path until you meet with Puck and get inside the castle. 3.3 Prima Vista Theater Ship Party: Zidane, Blank, Marcus, Cinna Area(s): Alexandria Castle, Prima Vista Theater Ship Items: Gil, 2 Elixirs, Potion, Phoenix Down, Phoenix Pinion, Silver Pendant(*) Boss: Just several easy mini-bosses You’ll see a good FMV and the play “I Want to be Your Canary” starts. After some dialogue you’ll fight against King Leo (Whose name comes from FF6, there was a character named General Leo). For this battle, just use the attack command as the SFX deal 0 damage, their names are Poly (which I think resembles the Holy magic in some way…) Pyro (I guess this one is the Fire magic, in the Spanish version of FF8, Fire magic was called Piro) and Meteo (Which definitely resembles Meteor). Those creatures at King Leo’s side will go down very easily (like I say, one attack from anyone but Cinna). Leo will be a bit more difficult but nothing to worry about. After the battle, Leo will run off, then, a mini-game between Zidane and Blank will begin. Mini-game: Simon Says Win: 1-10000 Gil Description: Blank will tell you which buttons you must press, if you press those buttons quickly enough, everything will work out, but if you make a mistake, the people won’t be surprised and you won’t get that much gil. If you manage to press every button correctly and quickly, you’ll impress 100 nobles thus receiving 10000 gil and even Queen Brahne will be impressed. Once Blank gives you 50 orders, the game will end and you’ll see how many nobles were impressed out of 100 and if Queen Brahne was impressed or not. Then you’ll get two options, that is to perform the scene again or leave it like that. If the people demand an encore, end the scene there as you’ll receive more gil than if they didn’t like it. Try to impress as much nobles as you can. You can perform this scene as many times as you like. After the mini-game, Zidane and Blank will knock out some guards and put on their armors. Go left and up the steps, you’ll meet a hooded girl. You’ll get two options, choose the one that you like. And after some talk Zidane will realize that it was princess Garnet and follow her. Zorn and Thorn will tell Queen Brahne that Garnet has escaped and the queen will summon her knights: Beatrix and Steiner. You’ll use Steiner, now there will be a mini-game. Before doing anything, go back to where the queen was and she will give you something depending on how many nobles were impressed. 100-100 = Moonstone ?-99 = Silk Shirt ?-70 = Elixir The ? means it is any number but I don’t know which, please E-mail me for this information. Mini-game: Find the Pluto Knights Win: Elixir Description: Find all the Pluto Knights, it shouldn’t be very difficult, just look everywhere inside the castle before getting out of it. Don’t forget to talk to the one that looks like it is running from you. When you get to the docks right after you get outside the castle, go right first and talk to another knight near the door, then backtrack to the dock and go left, talk to the knight that is asking an Alexandrian soldier for a date, enter the tower and go up the stairs, you’ll find a Pluto Knight running up, if you talk to him after finding the others, he’ll give you an Elixir. When you reach the top, fatigue will show its ugly face. Steiner will see Zidane running after Garnet. Then you’ll see a funny FMV : ). Follow Garnet and talk to Ruby. Just keep following Garnet and she will finally stop running and ask Zidane to kidnap her (!!!) and Zidane will promise her he will kidnap her. Garnet has the Silver Pendant which is one of the four jewels. Cinna will come from the right room and tell you to follow him, then Steiner will appear from the left and yell out “Princess!” everywhere, then Cinna will open up an escape pad and then they will all jump down. Steiner will barge in with Blank (disguised as a Pluto Knight), Blank will jump first and will tell Steiner he is stuck and can’t get out so Steiner can’t go down. However you’ll regain control of Zidane, check the machine and choose the first option first and then, the second option to make two treasure chest fall. Get them for an Elixir and a Potion, there are also a Phoenix Down and a Phoenix Pinion. Go in the room through the door between Garnet and Cinna and you’ll see Steiner who managed to get there, Blank will also get there and a fight will start. The battle will be very easy as Steiner doesn’t have much HP. Be sure to steal a Silk Shirt and a Leather Hat from him. When you’ve dealt enough damage to him, he will use his sword to destroy Blank’s armor, thus releasing the oglops that were inside the armor. Everyone will start to panic except for Zidane and Garnet who will just keep going. They will go up to the stage where the play was and they will start improvising. After the play you’ll see that some soldiers spotted Vivi and Puck and will run after them to the stage where Vivi will cast a Fire spell burning Garnet’s cloak. She will get up suddenly and a battle will start. Just attack Steiner and the other knights. After the battle the Prima Vista airship will take off and Queen Brahne will shoot a Bomb (Bombs are monsters that come from FF4; Bombs explode after growing and growing bigger, they don’t grow in FF4 though, however they do grow in FF8). Another fight will start, Steiner doesn’t seem to notice the Bomb behind him and he starts attacking your party even though everyone tells him to look back, he thinks it’s just a trick to make him lose concentration. Just wait and use Garnet’s Cure when necessary, you can heal everyone by pressing R1/L1, this also happens with some other magic, like Fire or Thunder. When the Bomb has grown enough, it will explode and take the airship down, destroying part of the houses of Alexandria and fall to the forest south of there… The Evil Forest 3.4 The Forest of Evil Mist Party: Zidane Area(s): Evil Forest, Prima Vista Theater Ship, Prima Vista Crash Site, Mist Continent Items: Phoenix Down, Potion, Ether, Bronze Gloves, Rubber Helm, Iron Sword, Wrist, Leather Hat, Gil, Blank’s Medicine (*), Moogle’s Flute (*), Continental Map (*) Boss: Baku, Plant Brain You’ll see Zidane alone in the middle of the forest, when you arrive at the crash site you’ll see a Moogle in a tree and the Tantalus team taking some people out of the ship, then you’ll speak with Cinna and a Moogle will explain you about the ATE (Active Time Event system. When you’re done, check the place near the wounded to get a Phoenix Down. Now, go south and you’ll enter the Evil Forest itself, go to the right, here, you’ll find your first random battles. There are fangs and goblins which are easy to beat if you have the Mage Masher (they are easy if you don’t have it anyway). In the next screen, you’ll see Vivi and Steiner, a monster has gotten Garnet! After some talk you’ll engage in a battle against the Prison Cage. Boss: Prison Cage Facts: Weak against Fire Difficulty: Quite easy Steal: Who would steal a broadsword and a Leather Wrist while having Zidane in Trance…? Well… Me! Zidane’s level: 1 Strategy: At he beginning of the battle, Zidane will achieve Trance automatically, Zidane has the most powerful skills while in Trance, but, if you have the Mage Masher don’t EVER use Tidal Flame: it will kill Garnet! Just use Free Energy in the Prison Cage and it should go down pretty fast. Use Steiner to heal either Zidane or Garnet if they happen to get weak. After the battle, Vivi will be caught by another similar monster and you’ll have to fight it. Boss: Prison Cage Facts: Weak against Fire Difficulty: Quite easy Steal: Broadsword, Leather Wrist Zidane’s level: 1 Strategy: This battle is easy even though you’re no longer in Trance, just use normal physical attacks and heal whenever needed, remember to heal Vivi if he gets too absorbed. After the battle, the plant monster will spread its seeds and you’ll be brought back to the Prima Vista Crash Site. You’ll see a couple of scenes and when you regain control of Zidane, search near the globe to get a Bronze Glove. Go to the left and you’ll be in a spiral staircase, you’ll see some ATEs here., when you’re done, get the wrist in the chest to left and go right, talk to Blank and he’ll say that Vivi feels a bit depressed. Go talk to him, he’s in the room to the right of there. Get the Ether from the chest and go up the bed for some gil (a hundred and so I guess…). Talk to Vivi and leave the room. Zidane will now have some backflashes about the first time he saw Garnet. The you’ll have to choose between go helping her or stay with the Tantalus group. If you answer you’ll go looking for her, the game will continue just normally. If you say you won’t, you’ll see another backflash and then the game will continue normally, I recommend you saying no so you can see some more of the game (after all, Square did it so you can have more interaction). After the choice you’ll speak to Blank and he’ll tell you to talk to Baku about that. Go left and get the Ether in the chest, go down the stairs and go north and get the rubber helm. Go right and you’ll find Baku, he’ll talk to you, search the room for a chest with a Potion and go out to fight Baku. Boss: Baku Facts: None Difficulty: Easy Steal: Hi-Potion, Iron Sword Zidane’s level: 3 Strategy: First, be sure to steal the Iron Sword from him and the Hi-Potion if you want it. Then, just pound him with your attack command, if you have the Mage Masher, he’ll be down in three hits. Use Potions to restore HP when needed. After the battle, go get help from Steiner in the room to the left after you go up the stairs. You’ll speak to Steiner and he’ll tell you to ask “Master” Vivi for help, so go to his room and tell him to join you. He will, and he will also help Steiner to use a Magic Sword. You can now use Vivi’s magic in Steiner’s sword. If for example Vivi has learned (or is learning) Thunder magic, and you enter a battle, use Steiner’s third command and select Thunder. You’ll use Steiner’s MP though, not Vivi’s, and you can’t use this command if Vivi is KO’d, stopped, petrified, “venomed” or any other status that doesn’t allow him to enter commands (I’m not sure if Silence prevents the magic sword) or if Vivi is not in the party. Get out of the Prima Vista and go into Evil Forest once again, in the way, you’ll find Blank. He will give you the key item: Blank’s Medicine. In Evil Forest the way is pretty straightforward, when you get to the spring, talk to the moogle hidden in the trunk and ask him about Mognet, you’ll deliver the letter that Kupo gave you in Alexandria, so remember to talk about mognet EVERY TIME you a see a moogle, even if you have seen him before, you don’t want to lose the chance of helping them and pay back the favor they always give you by letting you save your game and rest in a tent or even buy items. Don’t use a tent here since you can drink from the spring and recover completely. Go right and then north to find a giant plant which will be obviously the boss. Boss: Plant Brain Facts: Weak against Fire Difficulty: Average Steal: Eye Drops, Iron Helm Strategy: Don’t forget to steal the Iron Helm from it, then use Fie, Fire Sword and attack with Zidane. After some time, Blank will come in and join the battle. If you haven’t stolen all the items yet, use Blank to help steal them. Beware of the plant’s pollen attack as it blinds all your party members, don’t worry, Fire Sword and Fire magic never misses! It’s not really that difficult if you don’t let it take your HP down. Vivi may be KO’d if a Thunder attack is aimed right onto him, but odds are that it won’t happen so don’t worry, this is the first real boss fight as the others were just too easy : ) When you beat it, a lot of plant minions will come and run after your party. So you should run quickly (unless you want to train a bit). They just keep coming but it’s not difficult to escape. Just keep going south all the time. After two or three screens, you’ll see a great FMV and will receive the Continental Map key item from Blank who sacrificed himself for Zidane… He got petrified and the party won’t be able to do anything for him for the moment… You’ll find everyone around a fire. They will talk for a while and then a moogle will come and give you the Moogle’s Flute key item which will allow you to summon Moguo in the world map. 3.5 Ice Cavern Party: Zidane, Vivi, Steiner, Garnet Area(s): World Map, North Gate, Ice Cavern Items: Eye Drops, 3 Potions, Tent, 2 Phoenix Downs, Ether, Hi-Potion, Mage Masher, Leather Wrist Boss: Black Waltz No. 1, Sea Lion You’ll be in the world map, check the control section for more information. Go to the gate to the east before entering the cavern to the south. In the North Gate you’ll be able to buy items from a girl that is in the other side of the gate, check the chests for and Eye Drops and a Potion. Go out when you’re done and look for the Ice Cavern which is to the south of Evil Forest. Upon entering you’ll see a CGI of your characters talking and then you’ll enter the cavern. Go north and get the chest containing a tent, go north to the next screen, here, go right and examine the icy wall to make Vivi use Fire magic to destroy it, you’ll find an Ether inside a chest, now go through the left path and around there and get the chest containing a Potion, go back to the stairs and move north to get to the next screen. Here, go to the right to where that ice “bridge” is, first, go through it to get a chest containing another Potion, then, examine the bridge from the lower part and Vivi will make it fall. Go through it to get to a chest containing a Mage Masher (you probably already have it, but get it anyway, you’ll need it later). Examine the wall to the north to make Vivi melt it and get access to another chest containing the fabled Elixir. Then, just get to the next screen. Get the Phoenix Down in the chest and examine the wall to the left to access a path leading to a Leather Wrist. Go to the north and you’ll reach the next screen. You’ll see two paths here, go to the left first, you’ll see a frozen moogle here, melt the ice and the moogle will be burned (not to death, fortunately). He will call you bastard first but then will become aware he can move again and will thank you. Remember to check mognet now! This will be the last time I’ll remind you of it. Save and backtrack to the area where the path splits and go to the right now. In this area, everyone will fall unconscious. Staring from Pupi, err, I mean, Vivi, then Steiner, Garnet and finally Zidane. After a while, Zidane will wake up. Go back to the room with the moogle and save again. Be sure to be equipped properly for the upcoming battle. Go again to the place where your party collapsed and go to the right. You’ll meet the Black Waltz N° 1. Then a battle will start. Boss: Black Waltz No.1, Sea Lion Facts: Black Waltz: None Sea Lion: Weak against Fire, Water has no effect on it, absorbs Ice Difficulty: Hard Steal: Black Waltz: Remedy, Silk Shirt Sea Lion: Ether, Mythril Dagger Zidane’s level: 5-6 Strategy: Don’t even bother to steal as you can get those equipments later and the battle is two against one so you already have disadvantage. Start by killing the Black Waltz and leave the Sea Lion for later. You’ll surely enter in Trance in this battle, use Potions to restore your HP. If you enter in Trance, keep using the Tidal Flame. When you see the Sea Lion’s core has gone red, don’t use any command because the enemy will use Tsunami, when the Tsunami ends, use a Potion and keep attacking, otherwise you may be killed before you know it. This is the first battle I lost, and it was because I didn’t heal myself; I wasn’t used to use items (I played FF8 before FF9 and I really never used the item command seriously). After the battle you’ll see Zorn and Thorn, then, you’ll go back to your party and they will be ok. You’ll go out of the cavern and you’ll see a CGI in which Garnet has to change her name, pick up a name for her (I named her after my sweetheart the first time I played it as I named Zidane after me : ) ). Her name for this walkthrough will be Dagger, her default name. 3.6 My Li’l Village Hehe, I guess the new title sounds better : ) Party: Zidane, Dagger, Vivi, Steiner Area(s): World Map, South Gate, Observatory Mountain, Dali Items: 3 Potions, Antidote, Ether, Hi-Potion, Aries, Phoenix Down, Phoenix Pinion, Aries Stellazzio(*), Gil Boss: Black Waltz N°2 Once in the world map, go to that gate to the south: South Gate. You can ask questions to the guard while you wait part-time worker Mary to come. Once she came, you can either buy items from her or rest. Leave South Gate and head northwest to find a village near a mountain, enter the mountain first. Check the area for a Hi-Potion and enter the house to the north, here, you’ll find Morrid and he will ask you to get him three kinds of rare coffee and he will give you the Mini Prima Vista key item. Leave and enter the village. Here, everyone will go into the inn and rest there, the following morning, Zidane will be alone in the room. Get the Antidote and the Potion from the chests at each side of the room Exit the inn while watching every ATE as they will give you clues of where your party members are. You can enter the equipment shop to the left of the inn where you’ll meet Dagger and buy useful equipment for almost everyone. Be sure to learn everything for Zidane now by exiting Dali and fighting in the forest near there. You may even find the Ragtime Mouse who will ask you questions about the game, check the side quests sections (which I’ll write later) for more information. When you’re done, go back to Dali and check the window of the inn near the well to see Dagger practicing how to talk like normal people. Keep going north and you’ll find Vivi, after they talk, leave and go back to the inn, Vivi will be kidnapped. You can buy items from the item shop that is the house further to the north and a bit to the right. The house that is to the northwest is the windmill, you can enter here and get the Aries Stellazzio from behind the thingy with sand, don’t go up yet as the chests there can’t be accessed as the windmill is turning, and if you go to the door to the left you’ll be kicked out, so just go back to the inn and talk to Dagger. After a while, they’ll start to be concerned about Vivi that still hasn’t come back. Go back to where you first saw him and you’ll hear him, go to the windmill and examine the hatch to the right to enter the undergrounds of Dali. Go south and get the gil from the chest, then go to the next screen. Here, you’ll overhear a conversation and you’ll see Vivi being carried away by them, when Zidane wants to help him, Dagger stops him because she saw some barrels that looked like the ones that were in Alexandria. Get the Potion in the chest near the place where those men were, then, get the chest with an Eye Drops towards the south of the screen, then, go right to the next screen. Climb the boxes to access a chest containing an Ether, then, kick the wheel and another chest will fall containing a Potion. Examine the barrel with a pompom and a moogle will come out, save your game and go to the next screen. Get the chests for an Iron Helm and a Leather Wrist which are quite easy to find, then, go to the next screen where you’ll hear Vivi. Zidane will take Vivi out from a box and he will join you. Go to big door to the north and choose to open it. Monsters will come out as there is a lot of Mist inside. After you beat those easy monsters, get in that room and get the chests there for a Phoenix Down and a Phoenix Pinion. Go out of the room and to the right. Keep going to that straightforward way and you’ll see a creepy place, I won’t spoil it though. You’ll gain control of Steiner, equip him properly with the new weapon and stuff and go down the stairs, wait for Morrid to get inside his house and talk to him. He will tell you that a Cargo Ship goes from Dali to Alexandria and he tells you that maybe it has arrived. Go out of there and Steiner will see the cargo ship and the barrel, then you’ll be given a choice, select whatever you want. After a short talk, you’ll see Black Waltz N°2 coming for Dagger Boss: Black Waltz No. 2 Facts: Counterattacks level 1 magic with the same magic Difficulty: Easy Steal: Leather Plate, Steepled Hat Zidane’s Level: 7-8 Strategy: This battle isn’t too hard, just steal with Zidane, use magic sword of Steiner to deal about 100-200 damage and use Vivi’s magic wisely as the enemy will counter it with the same magic. After Zidane is done stealing, use him to attack, Dagger should be the healer as her attacks are really weak. When the boss uses magical attacks that affect all members, he will not hurt Dagger as his mission is to take her back to the castle alive. If the three characters are KO’d, the boss will use Sleep magic to make Garnet fall asleep and it will strangely be game over for you… Just keep your characters alive and everything will be OK. 3.7 On the Way to Lindblum Area(s): Cargo Ship Items: None Boss: Black Waltz N°3 After the battle you’ll have a choice: rest at the inn or go in the cargo ship, go to the inn first and rest there, save your game and go back to the cargo ship, there, your characters will talk for a while and then you’ll enter the ship. Inside you’ll see some black mages, go north and to the next screen, here you’ll meet Steiner, he thought the ship had taken off without Dagger. Talk to him and go into the room to the left, you’ll see a short scene now and then Black Waltz N°3 will appear killing the Black mages. After some more talk, Zidane will go help Steiner and Vivi fight the Black Waltz. Boss: Black Waltz No. 3 Facts: None Difficulty: Average Steal: Linen Cuirass, Steepled Hat, Silver Gloves Zidane’s Level: 7-8 Strategy: Vivi will be in Trance from the beginning of this battle, use his Trance command to use two magics in one turn, use either Fire, Thunder or Blizzard. For Steiner use the magic sword with Fire, Thunder or Blizzard. Zidane should steal first and attack later. As you don’t have a healer in this battle, make use of Potions to restore lost HP. A good tip if you are having problems beating this boss is not to use Zidane, just skip his turn until you need to use a Potion, Vivi and Steiner should do about 200 damage with the above strategy. After the battle the Black Waltz will break and go berserk. You’ll see Zorn and Thorn and they will escape as the Black Waltz is approaching to them, it will steal Zorn and Thorn’s ship and will try to ram the Cargo Ship. After the cool FMV you’ll arrive at Lindblum Grand Castle… 3.8 Lindblum Grand Castle Area(s): Lindblum Grand Castle, Lindblum City Items: Ether, Glass Armlet, Hi-Potion, Echo Screen, Ore, Gil, Leather Plate, Leather Wrist, Bronze Vest, Silver Gloves, Steepled Hat, Mimic Card, Kupo Nut (*), Mini-Burmecia (*), Master Hunter (*), Moogle Suit (*),Autograph (*) In the castle you’ll see some scenes. Follow Artania until you get to a room with a statue, here, go up the stairs to the right and go through the passageway in the net room to get to the Guest Room where you can find two chests containing an Ether and a Glass Armlet. You should also Save your game. Go back to the room with the statue, take the south path now to the elevator. Artania will give you a brief explanation of all the floors of the castle, after that, you’ll see the Regent of Lindblum, another Cid : ). After more scenes, you’ll see Zidane in a pub. He will enter and will ask for the “Stupid Special”, the pub owner seems to know him. Zidane will then try to hit on a girl by inviting her on an airship cruise… Then a rat-girl will speak to him, Freya… You’ll get to see a lot more scenes and an ATE. When you regain control of Zidane, you can save your game if you want, then go down the stairs and search the room for some gil, then get out. Go into the house on the lower right and you’ll see another ATE in which Vivi gets the Kupo Nut Key Item, he will also talk about the Festival of the Hunt and will leave then. Get out of there and continue north and watch the ATEs if you want, once you reach the place where Steiner was and ate a Gysahl Pickle, go into the house to the north and get the two chests here for an Echo Screen and a Hi-Potion. Go back down and take the upper right path. You’ll arrive at an area with lots of shops, be sure to have almost two Mythril Daggers so you can refine them into a The Ogre in the Synthesis Shop to the north, also get another Mythril Dagger and a Mage Masher (Which you should already have) and Synthesize them into a Butterfly Sword as it has the What’s That!? Ability (I think no other equipment has that ability) and this may be your last choice to buy it, if you have more money spend it carelessly as you’ll need as many supplies as you can for further battles. If you check the area near the old man at the synthesis shop you can get the Silver Gloves. Backtrack to the fork and take the upper left path, go directly north and you’ll reach a church, enter, climb the ladder and search for a Leather Plate. Backtrack to the street where the inn is and enter the door to the right where you can board the air cabs to the Industrial District, go up the stairs and search in the next room for a Leather Wrist. Go north and get the Bronze Vest. Go into the house at the end of the District and get the two chests here, one contains Mimic Card, and the other contains a Steepled Hat. Backtrack to the air cab and take it to the Theater District. When you arrive there, leave the room and go down the stairs to the left side of the screen, you’ll see an ATE about Steiner (He’s lost again), an old man tells him that airships are able to fly without mist therefore breaking Steiner’s bubble. When the ATE ends, go into the building, it’s the hideout of the Tantalus team. You’ll see an ATE, after that you’ll see two kids coming and they will speak with Zidane (There’s something that beats me… How did those kids beat a Trick Sparrow to steal its wings?). Get the three chests for some more gil and climb the ladder to the top of the bed where you’ll find the Mini-Burmecia Key Item. Leave and you’ll see another ATE, then go down the stairs to the south and you’ll see a bunch of people waiting for Lowell, talk to them and Zidane will try to introduce himself as Sir Zidane of Tantalus but no one will pay attention to him, then, a moogle will show up but no one will pay attention to him either because they are only interested in seeing Lowell… Actually the moogle is Lowell in a disguise, the moogle will leave. Check the wall to the left and you’ll see a message saying that there is a play called “Moogle Wannabe” from the same creators as “I wish I were a Chocobo” (My old password for lots of sites in which I registered; I changed just because it was too long) Backtrack to the place with the Tantalus’ Hideout, go north and enter the house to the right, talk to Lowell and he will give you an autograph, search near him to get the Moogle Suit. Leave and go into the air cab, go to Lindblum Castle. Go south and into the Guest Room, Steiner will be there, he will say Dagger has run off, backtrack to the room with statue and you’ll hear someone singing. Try to get in the elevator and the guard won’t allow you to, then go back to that room that connects the room with the statue with the Guest Room, go down the stairs and talk to the left most guard that is sleeping, Zidane will hit him and steal his armor. You can now enter the elevator, go up to the highest level and to the left, the way is quite straightforward, when you get to the top of the castle you’ll find Dagger singing. You’ll see some scenes and you’ll be able to use the telescope, aim for every spot in which you see the “!” field icon, there are six spots more or less one next to the other aligned in two files, three spots in each file (I emphasize “more or less”). When you’re done looking Dagger will take a look too, they will speak for a while and Zidane will get confused and ask Dagger when did she want to go on “that” airship cruise (Remember he invited the girl at the pub, NOT Dagger!). So Dagger will get jealous (I think, I’m not sure what Dagger feels for Zidane in this moment of the game), also (I don’t remember if the following happened before or after Zidane messed everything up) Dagger will take some Sleeping Herbs from Zidane giving the excuse she has a hard time sleeping… Anyway, Zidane told Dagger that if he won the Festival of the Hunt, she and he would go on a date. After (or before, I don’t remember!) you’ll see the other party members and Cid, they are thinking about their biggest problems… It’s kinda a sad moment… 3.9 Festival of the Hunt Area(s): Lindblum Castle, Lindblum City Items: [Gil or Coral Ring or Theater Ship Card] After some events about the Festival of the Hunt, you’ll see your characters and a man will explain the rules, Zidane signed Vivi so that he participates but he didn’t even asked him if he wanted! Freya also signed up… After some more talk and some more scenes the Festival of the Hunt will start Mini-game: Festival of the Hunt Win: Master Hunter Key Item If Zidane wins you’ll get Gil If Freya wins you’ll get the Coral Ring add on If Vivi wins you’ll get the Theater Ship Card Description: You have 13 minutes to kill as many enemies as you can, there isn’t a game over even if you loose a battle so don’t worry. The Ogre weapon will allow you to kill most enemies with one hit, saving a lot of time. You’ll start at the theater district In the first screen fight the Mu that is running around the old man, the bird monster that comes while you are approaching the left stairs and then go down. Here fight all the enemies there are (I think there’s only one…) and go down the south stairs to arrive at the place where Lowell was. Fight the Fang and go all the way back to the first screen, board the air cab to the Business District and go out to the streets, try to get the Mu and a bird will take it, then another bird will come and attack you, defeat it and keep following north where you will see Vivi running away from a Fang which you may kill if you approach to it. Take the upper left path and keep going north fighting all the enemies you see, when you get to the church, turn around and take the upper right path where you saw Vivi. If you killed all the other monsters, Zaghnol will be there, he won’t appear if you don’t get rid of the monsters in the Theater and Business Districts, Freya will also fight against the Zaghnol. This beast isn’t that hard, just attack with both Zidane and Freya the first two turns and then stop attacking with Freya, if she kills him, the points will go for her and she will win no matter what, use Potions to restore HP and keep attacking, if you have The Ogre it will really be much easier. After the battle you’ll get your prize based on who won the festival and you’ll get the Master Hunter key item no matter who won. As Artania congratulates the winner, a Burmecian soldier will go in, he’s injured so badly that he can’t see… After the dialogue and some more events which I won’t spoil (You really won’t believe what your eyes will see…) you’ll regain control of your party. Go to the elevator and ride It to the Base Level, get in the vehicle to the left and you’ll arrive at an are with a man which will sell you items and equipment and a Moogle, save and go into the world map by the door to the north 3.10 Getting to Gizamaluke’s Grotto Area(s): World Map Item(s): None Boss: None Before going to Gizamaluke’s Grotto, you’ll want to go to the marsh that is near there. 3.10.1 Qu’s Marsh Area(s): Qu’s Marsh, World Map Item(s): Does a frog count as an item? Boss: None Go north and you’ll see Mogster, ask him for directions or tell hi to teach you if you need to, go north through that open, you’ll see a lot of grass, just keep going north and you’ll get to an area with a strange creature, a small lake, a bridge and lots of frogs. Mini-game: Frog catching 1 Win: Nothing (But you’ll surely want to catch a frog now) Description: It’s easy, just catch a frog, when a frog touches a part you can walk through, press X (Examine the frog) and you’ll catch it. Great Tip!: You can actually catch frogs when they are touching the tip of the water, if a frog is close enough but not in a “walkable” place, just pres the X button a LOT of times very fast and move against the frog, it’s really easier to do with a rapid fire button. Another good tip: Don’t go to the frog, let the frog come to you… If you run to the frog it will try to escape from you, but if you wait in a far place or in the opposite part of the water, maybe the frog will touch the land making it much easier to catch frogs! Once you caught one, give it to the fat one and talk to his/her master for s/he to join your party, his/her name is Quina. Note: Quina will learn his/her action abilities (red jewels) by eating enemies, to eat an enemy, you first have to weaken him, then use the command Eat (Cook when in Trance) and Quina will learn the ability the enemy has. Blue Magic was also seen in FF5, the way to learn the magic is different though, in FF5 you needed to be attacked by the enemy with that Blue Magic you wanted to learn. In FF6 it was called Lore and it was the same way, in FF7 it was called Enemy Skill and you needed an Enemy Skill Materia in order for your characters to learn Enemy Skills the same way as FF5 and 6, in FF8 it was Blue Magic again but to learn it you needed items called Blue Magic items and Blue Magic was a Limit Break used by Quistis. In FF9 the Blue Magic system is completely different as you need to eat the enemy to learn that ability. I’ll specify which enemies you should eat to learn all of Quina’s action abilities. Qu’s Marsh monsters you should eat: Giantoad (Frog Drop), Axolotl (Aqua Breath). Now go out to the World Map… 3.10.2 Chocobo’s Forest Area(s): World Map, Chocobo’s Forest Item(s): 1 Gysahl Greens Boss: None World Map monsters you should eat: Lady Bug/Skeleton (Pumpkin Head), Vice (Vanish), Serpion (Mighty Guard), Ironite (Angel’s Snack) This is my favorite section along with the Moogle one, everything related about Chocobos makes me happy. This is the FF in which the Chocobo is your friend (Quite like FF5) and you don’t get any other Chocobo than Choco (unlike FF7 and 8 in which you could catch lots of Chocobos, in FF8 you couldn’t even name them except the little Bocco… but you needed a Pocket Station to play with him). The Chocobo’s Forest is marked on the map (not as a white dot yet but as a forest), it is somewhere after crossing a bridge to the east, just follow the river and then, once you crossed the bridge, keep going east and you’ll find it. Upon entering the forest, a moogle will talk to you, the Chocobo that is with him, Choco, will run away. After that he will give you a Gysahl Greens and tell you to use them in the World Map where you see Chocobo tracks. So exit the forest and turn your camera with R1/L1 until you see the tracks, stand on them and use the Gysahl Greens, Choco will appear, go with him to the Chocobo Forest and Mene will explain you another mini-game in which you have to pay 60 Gil to play but you can get awesome treasures from it, including Zidane’s best weapon (not now though…)… Mini-game: Choco-treasures Win: Whew… lotsa kinds of items… it depends on your luck Description: Use Choco to dig treasures, press Square where you think there is a treasure, and Choco will say something depending on how close you are to the treasure: Kweh!: The treasure is far away, look for it somewhere else… Kweeeh!!: The treasure is more or less in that place Kweeeeeeeeeeeeehhhh!!!!: The treasure is really close, keep digging near there! KWEEEEEEEEHHH!!!: Found the treasure! Once you found a treasure, you’ll see some numbers to the left, that is how deep the treasure is, and if you press square a lot of times, you’ll get the treasure. Its as if the floor had HP, just peck it and you will make some damage based on Choco’s level. Sometimes you may find a Chocograph, Mene will explain you what they are. Don’t worry about them now, you’ll have time to complete everything at disc 3-4. When you’re done get out of there and go to the place marked as Gizamaluke’s Grotto in the map, if you’re riding on Choco, it will be much easier and faster to get there as you don’t encounter random enemies when riding a Chocobo. 3.11 Gizamaluke’s Grotto Area(s): Gizamaluke’s Grotto; World Map Item(s): Magus Hat, Mythril Gloves, Quite a lot of Gizamaluke Bells (*), Holy Bell (*) Boss: Gizamaluke Note: Careful with Lamias! These monsters are more difficult than you think and if you let them use might too much, they will be able to deal up to 500 HP damage with one hit… Just be careful, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to take the challenge… If you ask me, it’s not worth enough EXP to beat a Lamia… Gizamaluke’s Grotto Monsters you should eat: Lamia (Lv 3 Def-less) Enter the grotto and talk to the almost-dead soldier to the right, he will give you a bell that you need in order to open the door to the north, open it and the Gizamaluke bell will shatter, enter and Zorn and Thorn will be there, they will call the black mages, after you beat them, the two bozos will escape. Go to the black mage that follows you around, beat him and you’ll get another bell, go up the stairs and go into the door to the left, open it and get that item hidden (I forgot which one it was, sorry, I only remember it was worth it, was it a helmet? Barbut probably, damn I can’t remember) talk to the soldier at the end of the way and he will give you another Gizamaluke Bell, now backtrack to that place go down the stairs, open the door at the right and the bell will shatter, in the next room, go up the steps and search in the stairs to find Mythril Gloves and get the Magus Hat that is hidden under the bridge, in the center, you’ll see a female moogle, she will tell you her husband got trapped inside the bell, she will then ask Vivi to give her the Kupo Nut he got in Lindblum. The trapped moogle will get out of the bell as he smells the kupo nut because he loves them. Keep this in mind: Every time you get a Kupo Nut, return here and he will give you something like a Tent or a Phoenix Pinion. Get the bell that is in the place the bell was and use it in the upper right door to find the two Moogles, talk to them, you can save your game and use a tent, go up the vines to the north… You’ll be out in the World Map, you can encounter a friendly Garuda in the forest but you won’t have what he asks for (Lapis Lazuli) unless you’re using Gameshark, the real reason why you are here is… well… to fight a Grand Dragon… Mini-boss: Grand Dragon Facts: None Difficulty: Start praying… Location: Outside Gizamaluke’s Grotto (Mountain) Steal: Are you kidding? Zidane’s Level: Doesn’t matter… Strategy: To beat a Grand Dragon now is almost impossible but if I could, anyone can do it! You can use lotsa strategies but this is the best one I found myself: Your healing abilities are quite poor, so don’t worry about healing. Be sure to have antibody for everyone so you won’t be poisoned or venomed, have the Coral Ring equipped for one party member in case the ugly dragon uses Thundaga, just revive when KO’d, and attack, you need a LOT of Phoenix Downs, I used about 60 or more when I fought it, don’t heal as he will kill you again and you’ll be spending useful items. Fortunately you have the Coral Ring that absorbs thunder meaning you won’t lose if the Grand Dragon uses Thundaga-all, in this case, use a Phoenix Down on someone and revive the others A.S.A.P. Remember the Grand Dragon has over 12000 HP and also remember this is completely OPTIONAL. It took me four attempts just to kill it once as he is still quite fast and could use Thundaga and attack before I could revive someone. Go back and try to leave, the Moogle will stop you and give you a Holy Bell, go out of that room and use the bell in the door to the left. Prepare yourself well and be sure to be healed or you’ll have a hard time… If you happen to have loudmouth, equip it for Vivi (I’m not sure if it’s possible to have Loudmouth now though…) and equip Bird Killer for Zidane and Freya. When you are ready, enter the door you just opened. Freya will talk to a soldier and he will tell her Master Gizamaluke has gone berserk and attacked them… Gizamaluke will appear and attack you… Boss: Gizamaluke Facts: Weak against Thunder, absorbs Water elemental attack Difficulty: Just easy Steal: Magus Hat, Elixir, Ice Staff Zidane’s Level: 10-13 Strategy: My friend Nicolás had a lot of problems against this boss and I was quite surprised… he is not a bad player either. I didn’t have any problems against it. However, use Thunder but keep in mind that Gizamaluke will use Silent Voice as a counter attack for any magic you use against him. Use Lancer for Freya and when you don’t have any more MP, just use physical attacks, for Zidane, first Steal and then attack, Quina should be either using Potions if someone was hurt or Echo Screens if Vivi was silenced, otherwise he is almost useless. Without Quina the battle will be harder, but still not impossible to win. Once you beat him, your characters will talk a bit more and the screen will fade… 3.12 South Gate, Getting Back to Alexandria Area(s): South Gate Items: Potion Boss: None Note: You can’t get the chest that is up the ladder at this point, it contains an Elixir Card. Upon arriving at South Gate, the guards will start checking your bag (in which Dagger is), then, they will let you pass, once inside talk to the strange creature to the left and Steiner will think about killing him, answer any way you like and talk to the man to the north, then talk to Part-time worker Mary and console her, then talk to the man to the south called Ernest, they will leave and you’ll be able to go ahead, Dagger will get changed there and when she is ready you’ll go to the cable cars. You should get the chest to the left and buy something from the shop to the right before leaving, also save and ASK FOR MOGNET, I hope you have asked for mognet to all the other Moogles… the poor things can’t communicate with their friends otherwise… Board the cable car and off you go… 3.12 The Realm of Eternal Rain Area(s): World Map, North Gate, Burmecia Items: Hi-Potion, 2 Tents, Potion, 2 Softs, Germinas Boots, Phoenix Down, Mythril Spear, Lighting Staff, Cancer Stellazzio (*) Boss: Beatrix You’ll be at the World Map, look for a gate structure and enter it, it is North Gate where you can get a Tent and a Hi-Potion. Go out and keep going to Burmecia. Monsters you should eat: Magic Vice (Magic Hammer) Once inside, get the Cancer Stellazzio from the back of that pile of broken things and keep going North, you’ll see Zorn and Thorn (aren’t they like Biggs and Wedge from FF8?) they will send two Black Mages so you fight them. They are not difficult at all, mostly with Devil Killer and Man Eater equipped. When you beat them, go up the stairs to the right, there, get the hidden chest near the stairs for a Soft. The other chest you see is a Mimic, it’s a monster which I’d recommend fighting it as it may give you Ethers and it calls Magic Vices, making it easy for you to eat one. Also it’s a good way to train your characters. When you are done, go through the door to the left, in the next room, go past the door with a bell as you can’t open it yet and go to the next screen. Here, you can get the chest by walking slowly, if you run through the ramp, it’ll fall down and you won’t have access to it, it contains a Germinas Boots. Now run so the ramp falls and allows you to go through it in the floor below, go back to the part where Zorn and Thorn threw you those black mages and take the left door now, get the chests for a Potion and a Soft, you can fight another mimic if you get close to the other chest near the door. In the next screen go out to the balcony and talk to the wounded Burmecian soldier, then, check under the bed (from the north part of the bed) to get the Protection Bell key item which will allow you to open the door that was to the other side, get the Ether from the chest to the left. Go to the previously mentioned door and open it, the bell will shatter and you’ll be able to get in. After the CGI, go up the stairs to the next screen, enter the door to the left and after some talk, a statue will fall, go out and through the upper left door. Here, get the Tent and the Phoenix Down from the chests and fight the Mimic that is at the end of the way (if you want). Go through the northern door. Here, take the left path, go in through the door and get the Mythril Spear, then, go right and enter the other door to find a Moogle, Stiltzkin will also go there if you wait long enough. Buy items from him and from the moogle (he will open a Mogshop for you). Get the Lighting Staff from the statue to the north, rest and save. Go out, before doing anything else, put EVERY character in the back row… Then, go north. Now you’ll see more CGIs, and a long scene… You’ll see Queen Brahne, the queen of Alexandria, Kuja, a sinister, unknown young man, and Beatrix, the Alexandrian General. After some more talk you’ll face Beatrix in a battle. Boss: Beatrix Facts: None Difficulty: Quite hard Steal: Phoenix Down, Chain Plate Zidane’s Level: 15-17 Strategy: This battle is quite strange, you can’t win it, so… do the following: Make everyone but Zidane Defend by pressing the right arrow in the abilities menu, then make Zidane steal some items from Beatrix and when he’s done (if he could manage to steal everything before Beatrix finishes you) make him Defend, but when you make someone defend, don’t make him/her defend again in the next turn as it would be useless. Just wait for Beatrix’s attack, and if someone gets KO’d, revive him/her. Then, defend again. Use two characters when reviving. One should use a Phoenix Down, and the other one a Hi- Potion. Once you’ve waited enough, Beatrix will make a Stock Break and leave your party with 1 HP. The battle is over. A bit more talk and a FMV… It’s a bummer you lost but… hey! You’re in Disc 2! 4 Disc 2 Walkthrough Well… I’ve been working really hard and finally got to this point… I know you might be sad for that last battle but cheer up. There will be better moments! I promise! I tell you I really got depressed and turned the PSX off after disc 1, then I didn’t play for 1 day (Which is a lot!!!!). But then thought of all the other battles I won and how I enjoyed the game so I decided to keep fighting. 4.1 Summit Station, Getting Back to Alexandria Party: Dagger, Steiner Area(s): Summit Station, South Gate, World Map Item(s): Phoenix Down, Gil Boss: Black Waltz No 3 After you put on Final Fantasy IX Disc 2 and the confirmation sound is played, you’ll see the two guards of South Gate talking about Steiner. Then, you’ll regain control of Dagger who’ll be in the Summit Station, here, you’ll have to wait for the other car to come, go into the rest area and talk to the man by the north counter. The car where Dagger was went off already and someone missed it. Dagger will think that voice is familiar to her. Go out and you’ll see Marcus and Cinna. They will talk and go in again. Here, talk to them and to Steiner, he will be scolded and an the cable car to Alexandria will get there, before leaving, get the Phoenix Down from the chest to the lower left and save your game by talking to the moogle to the right. Then just leave the rest area and talk to the soldier near the northern cable car. Inside the car talk to Marcus a few times and the car will suddenly stop… When you go out, you’ll see Black Waltz No 3 and another battle will start. Boss: Black Waltz No 3 Facts: None Difficulty: Easy Steal: Steepled Hat, Lighting Staff, Flame Staff Zidane’s Level: Zidane? You’re not using Zidane in this battle, are you? Strategy: This will be a really easy battle if you’re well equipped… If you’re not… you’ll need Dagger a lot to heal… Have Marcus steal all the time until there is nothing more to steal and have him attack. Steiner should always be attacking unless Dagger is KO’d or you need extra healing/reviving. Skip Dagger’s turn until you need to use Cure/Protect/Shell (I don’t recommend using Protect/Shell as they will wear off in time and it will spend Dagger’s MP) After the battle, the cable car will move again. You’ll be at South Gate now, keep going and they will open the gate, go through the right path at the fork as the left one takes you to Dali. Go through the broken bridge (jump) and go down the steps to access a chest with about 1500 Gil. Then, keep going right. Now you’ll be in the world map, you can see Treno if you open the big map but don’t go in yet… You should equip your characters with the abilities that require most AP or the important ones you want to learn so that you can change your equipment. Run around near the cliffs where it is night… It may take some time but you’ll encounter a friendly ghost there… Friendly Monster: Ghost Asks For: Ore Quantity: 1 Gives: 10 AP Tells About: Lady Bug Once you found him and received 10 AP, go into Treno 4.2 The City That Never Sleeps Party: Dagger, Steiner, Marcus Area(s): Treno Item(s): Ether, Mythril Dagger, Power Belt, Yeti Card, Gil, Gemini Stellazzio (*), Taurus Stellazzio (*), Supersoft (*), Mini-Cid (*), -1000 Gil Upon entering, you’ll see a CGI and Steiner will be left alone, throw a coin in the fountain 11 times, then you’ll get the Gemini Stellazzio. See the ATE “Treno Tradition” and move to the left to the next screen, here see the ATE “Pursuit”, get the chest that is to the left for a Mythril Dagger and backtrack a bit, and go north through the path Dagger went. In this screen, see the ATE “Confusion”, and go into the mansion to the north and to the left. Here, quickly talk to that man who stole from Dagger to receive a Power Belt. Now go left and south to reach the synthesis shop. Buy some equipment and go out, then get out of the mansion and go through the lower right path, here, you’ll see the card stadium. Keep going right and in the next screen, go up the stairs to where a drunk man is sitting and go south from there to reach a place with an inn to the left and an items shop to the right, go down the ladder and buy something from the shop if you need to, then check the northern area for a Taurus Stellazzio, then get the chest for 1 Gil. Backtrack to the place where Dagger lost the pickpocket (outside the mansion leading to the synthesis shop) and go north to reach Stella’s place. Examine the area to the left of her house to find an Ether, then enter and trade your Stellazzios for items: 1st Stellazzio: 1000 Gil 2nd Stellazzio: Phoenix Pinion 3rd Stellazzio: 2000 Gil By the time you should have only 3 Stellazzios. Leave her place and backtrack to where the drunk man was sitting. Here, take the north path and go through the doors to get to the equipments shop, buy all new weapons and armors here and ask about the monster, then, choose to fight it. Mini-boss: Griffin Facts: Weak against Wind Difficulty: Hard Location: Equipment Shop in Treno Steal: ???? Zidane’s Level: Zidane? Not again! Requirements: Lots of Tents and patience Strategy: Start by using a tent on the Griffin, you have a very small chance to get a snake bite the Griffin thus poisoning, blinding and silencing it. You’ll know that the snake bit it when you see a message. I had to fight it five times to get it to work. Don’t worry if the Griffin KO’s you as you don’t lose but your HP goes to 1. Once the Griffin was bitten, you can kill it easily, still… keep your HPs up ‘cause the Griffin can’t use magic but may be lucky enough to hit you. After you beat him, you’ll receive your rewards, it’s not much but you can tell your friends you beat the Griffin! Now, get out of the shop and go left, enter the big mansion, it’s an auction house. You may want to buy the Mini-Cid Key Item (it’s useless but it’s the Mini-Cid so I guess you can’t miss it… It’s not sooooo expensive either…) Anyway, you’ll find Dagger here, she will join you, now go back all the way to Treno entrance and go to the right again, here, enter the inn and go down, you’ll find Marcus who’ll ask you if you are ready, say yes and then just follow him into the boat and ignore Steiner. You’ll now see a FMV, after that, you’ll be inside a counter in the synthesis shop, just keep watching the scene until you regain control of Dagger. Go through the left path and keep going to the left until you reach a big tower, the door will be open now, go in and you’ll see doctor Tot, follow him and you’ll get to his place, Marcus will get the Supersoft from the chest and doctor Tot will start talking to Dagger, when he is done he will tell you to go through Gargan Roo to get to Alexandria, so go up the stairs and then down. After some more talk you’ll hear a great music. 4.3 Through Gargan Roo to Alexandria Party: Dagger, Steiner, Marcus Area(s): Gargan Roo, Alexandria Castle Item(s): Phoenix Down, Chain Plate Now save the game and go to the left path, flip the switch there and get the Chain Plate from the chest backtrack to the fork, now go right and to the south, flip another switch and go north to flip another one. The Gargan will come out and after some more talk you’ll start your journey to Alexandria. In the way, the Gargant will suddenly stop and your characters will go down to check what happened… They’ll find a monster, Ralvurahva. Boss: Ralvurahva Facts: None Difficulty: Easy Steal: Bone Wrist, Mythril Fork Zidane’s Level: … Strategy: Have Marcus steal and then attack, Steiner using Shock (just kidding), have him attack and Dagger should either use Cure or Panacea to cure the poison from Ralvurahva’s Devil Kiss. The battle is not hard at all. After the fight, Dagger and the others will get back in the Gargant and keep on moving to Alexandria… Once they get there, they will walk in and… pretty strange, huh? 4.4 The Storm Party: Zidane, Vivi, Freya, Quina Area(s): World Map, Cleyra’s Trunk Item(s): Phoenix Down, Tent, Ether, Remedy, Potion, Hi-Potion, Magician Shoes, Flame Staff, Ice Staff, Desert Boots, Gil Boss: None After a bit of talk, you’ll find yourself in the World Map, open the map and check the point to the west, that’s Cleyra. Go there More coming very soon! End of FF9 guide part 1of 2 Squall Squall