As you go up the Barrier tower, (hint, don't follow Xezat, take the lower staircase), the first room has two chests. You have to fight a red dragon for the one on the left, but you'll get a Bloodsword for your trouble. The other has 9000 gil. Btw, if you run into a beast called "Traveller" you can steal a Dream Harp from it if you wait long enough.

It's pretty straight forward up until level 9. Take the left hand staircase there to find a chest to fight another red dragon for to get a Golden Hairpin. This little baby will halve your MP usage in battle! Incredible!

On the 10th floor, there is a save point, so do save.
You may run into a monster called Ziggurat Gigas. If so, STEAL from him. They have Partisan lances, which have 8+ attack compared to Heavy Lances! If you do manage to steal one, please go back and save.

At the top of the tower, there is a boss battle. You may have heard of this guy. His name is Atomos. He's basically a galactic vacuum of the dead.

Atomos:
LVL 41
HP: 19997 MP: 10000
Strength: 10
Defense: 14
Magic: 80
MDef: 20
Steal: Ether, Flail
Drop: Dark Matter

Kudos to Jowy for this strategy:
Normally, Atomos will spam Comet on you until you die, and then he will suck you into his mouth like the galactic vacuum cleaner he is. However, while he is immune to Darkness, Mini, Petrify, Silence, Confuse, Old, Stop, Poison, Toad, Death, Berserk, Paralyze, and Slow, he is *not* immune to Sleep.

Ergo, load up on magic users, cast Sleep, and spam Comet/Bio on him!

Afterwards, there is a scene and you get control of the submarine.

You are supposed to find Ghido, because apparently he could survive being underwater, but first, allow me to make the suggestion of doing a couple of sidequests first.

1) Stock up on massive magicks. I don't know about you guys, but I have been yearning for -aga magic since getting to world 2. Take your submarine to the left bottom dot on your underwater map and surface. You'll find yourself in a lake in front of a little village. Go inside and there are wonderful wonderful weapons and magics. Go around the back of the Pub and check the barrels for a Main Gauche, as well! (The building straight in front of those barrels is locked. . . Hmmmmm)

The bridge leads to a forest that the pub patrons talk lovingly of, but it bars your entry right now. Get back on your submarine, and go to the dot to the north of this one.

2) This leads into a little cave. Enter it and walk around and you'll come out into the overworld. There is a [useless] chocobo forest, but just walk around in the forest proper. You'll come across a chap named Catoblepas, who likes to cast Stone Gaze on you. He has 5000 HP and not much defense, so as long as you stay unpetrified, you should do okay. He will drop a Catoblepas item, and much like Golem and Ramuh, use it to gain the Catoblepas summon! yay

In the sub, go to the last dot. Surprisingly, it is right over the place where the Ghido's Cave dot was in the overland map.

Inside, it looks remarkable cavelike. Proceed to an area with five treasure chests, four of them open. Open the fifth and place the rock inside the upper left chest. Go through the door that opens and throw the skull switch. Return and take teh rock out of the chest and put it in the lower left chest and go through that door.

In the next room, there is a hidden passage at the bottom left hand side, there's a little alcove right there. Go down and to the right to push the skull switch, then take the stairs that just appeared. In the next room, there's another hidden passage. Just walk straight down and to the left. Go to the bottom left and walk through yet another passageway. At the end of that passage, go right through another passage and through the door.

This will bring you to a turtle. Jump in after him and walk up the narrow bridge in the next room.

There is a short scene where Bartz proves once again how naîve he is, and it is revealed that Ex-Death is closely related to that forest you almost went to!

Get your quest to go to Moore Forest and recieve the Guardian Branch that will grant you access, then teleport the heck out of there. (or walk. Exercise will do you good)

Take the sub back to the lower left hand underwater dot, surface, visit the town if you need anything(get the Main Gauche if you haven't already), then cross the bridge to the forest.

Walk up to the little opening in the bushes and the forest will accept your proposal of the Guardian Branch and grant you access. This forest is hard to navigate because of all its shadowy bushes. If you're playing on an emulator, feel free to turn off the layer with the upper trees on it.

Go over to the right and top, and there's a tree with a hole in its trunk. Inspect it and a woodsprite will make its tunnel pop open. Go through into another tree area.

Make your way alllllllll the way over to the right, then go up under the tree cover of the tree at the top there for a chest of gilz. Back towards the middle of the glade, inspect another tree with a hole in its trunk for another sprite tunnel.

In the next screen, go up onto the roots in front of you and to the left for a Cottage chest, then go all the way to the right for a chest with a Goliath Tonic. If you go up from there, you'll see a firy circle. This is a save point, so please please please please use it.

Go to the far left up, and left again and dig around in the foilage. There is a chest with an Elixir hidden within. Step back to the right and go straight up (you can see this one) for a chest containing a Morning Star for your WM. Consider going straight back down and to the right to save again.

From the Morning star, walk to the left and there will be a horrible horrible scene. I can scarcely dare describe it.

Okay, so it involves fire. After you regain control of your characters, walk up, over the tree roots to the right and up again to get an Aegis Shield. EQUIP THIS THING. Shortly, a moogle will pop up out of the ground and indicate that you should fall into a hole. Do so. There is a healing stream, and you decide to hide until the flames are gone. Soon, the moogle guarding the door will begin walking back and forth, indicating you may leave.

The forest is bare. You don't need to worry about not being able to see anything The chest containing the Aegis Shield is empty now (it would have contained a Flame Shield if you hadn't picked it up beforehand). Going to the left, there is a chest containing Ash (a throwing item). Further to the left is Flametongue, a sword.

From there, head straight up as far as you can, and the seal tree will be revealed. The Guardian Branch opens a path for you, so make sure you are healed and have Float cast, and walk up into the tree.

Inside, the Seals attack.

Seals (x4):
HP: 7777
MP: 10000
Str: 40
Def: 10
Mag: VARIES, 1-15
MagDef: 20

You can steal four Elixirs if you care to. Each seal guardian has a different elemental absorption. They start off doing a lot of physical attacks, so summon Golem. If you have pretty good mdef, you can then just start attacking them, else start casting Shell for when they switch to magic attacks. Consider having a Blue Mage or Learning equipped to learn Aeroga.

The simplest way to go about this is to summon Titan, find out which one absorbs Earth magic, then attack all of the others with Physicals/Titan. Once they all die, proceed to either use Comet or Physical attacks on the remaining one. Four Monks will !Summon level 4 or four Summoners with Barehanded would be ideal, but you can use many different combinations. Black magic is almost worthless in this battle because of all the elemental absorptions and immunities (Each seal is immune to Wind, Ice, Poison, and Holy, and two of them absorb fire and earth). Time magic is useful for Hasteaga and regen, and White magic with Curaga and Shell. The Earth seal has a nasty surprise though, which is Earthshaker, but you should be floated, so no worries.

Afterwards is probably one of the most emotional parts of the game, so grab a hanky.

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Spoiler Padding

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Afterwards, you end up with Krile in your party, with all of Galuf's abilities.

It's time to teach Ex-Death a lesson about killing your friends and loved ones. Get in the submarine (you can't exit the Moore Area with the wind drake, makes a lot of sense, I know) and sail to his castle. As you enter, there are half a dozen of Xezat's men lying prone on the floor, informing you your quarry is on the top floor. If you open the door at the top of the room (i.e. not the one immediately before you), you will find a familiar save point and beyond that, healing springs. Convenient.

Take the other door, then go up the stairs. In the next room, go around the outside perimeter of the lower side of the room for two chests: a diamond shield, an ether. Then take the stairs in the center of the room.

In the next room, go up and around. If you go under the eaves so that you are hidden, you can go past the little barrier there. Turns out there's nothing in the room, so go back.

Krile gets a flash of inspiration however, and calls on the help of friends to break the illusion.

YUCK. The castle is made of living body parts. Gross I know, right?

Go through the walkway that opened up into the next room. Walk around and up to the switch. Throw it and get the Ice Shield from the chest. Go through the little walkway underneath it. Weave in and out of these alcoves and exit the room to the left. Go all the way to the top and walk through the black area to the chest for an Ether, then exit through the ribcage immediately to the right.

In the next room, make someone a Geomancer or give them Light Step, and walk down into the Lava right at the beginning, go all the way down and head right through the passage to get a Hayate Bow. Go back and around the stairs at the bottom to the chest which holds an Elixir, then take the stairs.

In the next room, you have to step on a skull-tile on the floor to make a bridge stop. Get the two chests first, an Icebrand and Kotestsu, then go through the door.
Save point says Save.

In the next room, head to the right and down. Stop a few squares before the end of the passage and go to the right and down for the Elixir. Go back and to the left, skip the hall to the top and go up the far left for 9900 Gil. Then take the hall up and through the door of ribs.

Go up the stairs, go down the stairs, then HALT. Do you have Light Step/Geomancer/Float? We'll be walking through a LOT of damage floors, and you don't want to lose all your hp, do you?!

First, go all the way to the right and up the staircase for a chest, then backtrack and go up the middle staircase on Floor 9. Use a Geomancer or "Find Pits" and navigate your way very carefully to the Twin Lance chest on the other side. Then, on the way back, step on the very lowest tile to untrigger the retractable bridge to the next area. In the next area, there is a welcome save point.

Let's backtrack just a little (wanted to save before doing this), and return to the previous room. This time, head for the very top tile. It will warp you in front of an Esper.

Carbuncle:
Lvl 44
HP: 15000
MP: 10000
Str: 50
Def: 50
Eva: 70
Mag: 50
MDef: 50
Steal: Goliath Tonic, Reflect Ring.

Carbuncle is typically a cute cuddly creature, except when he's battling you to ascertain your strength. The key thing to note here is that he has always got Reflect cast on him. Always. What you'll want to do is equip a Reflect Ring if you've somehow come across one, or keep someone with White Mage Lv 5 in the party. His Eva is so high, that you'll rarely hit him, and his Def is so high that if you do hit him, it won't do much good.

So use his own strategy against him. Cast reflect on a team-member and blast that person with -Aga magic. You can also use Summons and Comet (cast comet on carbuncle, plz). Just remember to use potions to heal the reflected person.

When you defeat him, you will have for your very own, a cute cuddly Reflect spammer.

Afterwards, walk down the staircase and into the next room. Keep walking forward and you'll be warped elsewhere in the room (got your damage floor boots on?). Return to the save point and save again.