Eyes on Plays Final Fantasy V!

[rubah]

Apparently I lied. Rugore doesn't actually have -Aga spells apparently, which is pretty lame. But you get some [not very] exciting spells like Blink, Comet, etc, assuming you don't have half of them already >:[

there is some nice gold armor and some protips about the mysteeeeeeeeeeeerious castle down to the south (and some hints about how you can fight the enemies inside!)

Anyways, stock up on gold armors and wizard hats and equip your best Beastmaster with !Control and head down to the castle!

If you're like me, you enjoy your levelling a little more when it's tinged with that extra hint of sadomasochism.

Excellent setups here would include:
Holy Waters
Any classes you want to level up x3 + Beastmaster x1 (not necessarily has to be a beastmaster, but you will be doing a lot of controlling here)
#First Strike (times as many as you have slots for)
!Time (especially Haste)
White Magic
and something nice and simple to attack rather passively with, like. . .
!Gaia. (But I guess !Animals or !DragonSword would work too. Just save before you try these ;D)

Save outside the castle.

Save outside the castle.

Put everyone in the backrow and head inside. (Just to be safe. I'm level 30, so his attacks didn't really kill anyone, but there is a significant Zombie threat, which may instead).

Go ahead and run through the first room, then circle back and forth just inside the door in the second room. Eventually, this nice creature called Shield Dragon will come say hi
(hi!)

shield dragon has some fairly impressive stats if you've never met him before. 19999 HP, 40 Def, 25 MDef. . . You realize that the monsters you passed on the way here have somewhere between 0 and 5 Def and MDef? yeah, I know.

HOWEVER, that is why we have this funtime trick!

Hopefully, you will get a preemptive strike, if not, well, all is not lost!

Cast haste on your Beastmaster, have your Beastmaster use Control (and pray it works), Have your auxilery attacker (!Gaia!) attack, and your fourth guy stand by.

If the Shield Dragon gets Controlled, congrats, you just got 10000/4 exp, 1000Gil, and 5 AP! (well, not immediately, you have to use his Blaze attack four times in addition to at least one auxilery attack).

If not, well, keep everyone alive and unzombied, and try, try again!

For me, the danger is what makes this kind of levelling more interesting than the easier ways. Of course, I also spend hours upon hours fighting nutkins hoping to get the solitary skull eater. That's just the kind of person I am.

[edit- you also run the risk of running into the occasional ExDeath Soul in this castle, but they're not quite as scary(to me). You can run away if you really want to (or really want the chicken knife)]

[arcanedude34]

Kinda late, but I'm doing a video LP of FFV, check it out in my sig if you want.

[rubah]

When you get bored of that, head south and along the brown swampy area until you reach the eastern coast, then turn north, and go through the little mountain pass. There is a solitary moogle in there. He knocks a hole in the ground, and of course your friends and you decide to hop in there. Turns out it's an underground river. Check that you're all healed, and let the river whisk you off.

There will be a few waves of battles, nothing too very hard, and you get to rest on two plots of ground. At the second one, go around to the right for the chest with 4400 Gil then ride the waterfall (more battles) down. On the fourth little stop, go to the left for a chest, then heal heal heal (there isn't anything through the door to the south, so ignore it for now), and assign some people with magnificent white magic, then go to the right where the moogle and a DINOSAUR?! await.

Tyrannosaur is all skeleton and bones, so some good cure/fire spells should finish him off. He only has 5000 HP, which is nothing on those Shield Dragons, right?!

After fighting him, the moogle walks off and shows you the way to the SUPAR SEKRIT MOOGLE FOREST. He has some round about route that avoids the OMG DESERT, but if you obtained the World Map, it's simple enough to just walk over the narrowest portions of the sand and avoid the battles that way (the battles are rather hard, but we've been grinding in the seal castle, haven't we?)

When you get to the forest, step on the hidden entry way square (yeah it took me a few times, I forgot to pay attention while the moogle was showing me ) and bam, MOOGLES EVERYWHERE.

Actually they go hide as soon as you get there, locking the doors behind you, so head to the right side of the town and walk up to the tree there to talk with our Moogle. He remembers you saved him from the Tyrannosaur, and offers the chests that surround him.

Go back into the village, and all the moogs come out to play. Go to the trees on the left (that were locked before), go in the first one (on the right). You can try on the mog suit here 8)

Take it next door and talk to the moogle there. They will be impressed. After this, head back over to the right side of the forest and talk to the moogle. He'll use his psychic power to contact Cara I mean Krile, I mean Klululu's moogle friend in Bal Castle, after which they will launch an air rescue attempt and take you back to Bal.

First, go to the bottom left corner of the throne room. There are some chests here, including one that is hidden. There is a little alcove on the bottom wall, just walk through it. Then head outside and to the far left to enter a building that houses all the stuff you've ever wanted to buy. Skip the weapons and magics first and walk back to the stairs in the back of the room. Up up up up over down down down and bam, boxen! RAID! Head back and stock up on weapons and armor galore (you should have all the magicks already!)

Then, go back to the throne room and take the staircase in the lower right corner up through the royal apartments, then up onto the dragon ledge where Krilu awaits. She gives you your next quest, finding dragon grass for the dying Hiryû whose only mistake was saving you lot.

However, if you are like me, and I assume that you are, you won't be leaving Bal Castle for a loooooong time.

MEGA AP HARVESTING TIME:
There is a small room in the basement of Bal Castle that contains encounters. Take the staircase from the second castle room down into a small room with a save point (SAVE). Then go through the door.

The Objets d'Art are easily killed in a number of ways, the easiest of which is casting Lvl 5 Death. The next easiest is using a Golden Needle on them. (btw I recommend you do this at least once because it's kinda cool looking). Of course you can still attack them normally, but at 4/8 AP a battle and only having to cast one spell, you will want to be gaining lots and lots of AP.

Objets d'Art have more or less just one strategy they use. "Break". Their normal attacks can hit for about 300hp, so break may or may not be the least of your worries.

If you go the lvl5 death route, you will run out of MP pretty quickly. There is an inn on the palace grounds for only 50gil/night, but another effective method to regain mp if you need it is to use the Dragoon's lvl 1 ability, !Lance. If you don't have !Lance yet, it's only a measly 150 AP if you're a level 1 dragoon already, and 200 if you haven't started the class yet.

You can also use the Dancing Dirk you acquired and pray it uses Mysterious Waltz, but !Lance is more dependable

What I did was deëquip all the "heavy" armors (bye bye gold shield ) and make sure someone had the elven mantle equipped. The Objets d'Art are pretty fast, so you may want to keep First Attack or something equipped. If you run into the party of five and they all use Break on your party successfully, well, there's not much you can do

Anyways, this should keep you occupied for a long time!

geographic spoilers for part 3 of the gameAn interesting thing to note is that when the three worlds merge, your two favorite AP levelling spots from world 1 and world 2 OVERLAP. Yes, Bal Castle lies right on top of Jachol Cave You can actually get somewhere from the little climby area in the back of Jachol, but I'm not going to tell you yet!

[Leeza]

rubah, will you get this done in time for FFVII?

[rubah]

I felt kinda bored with ff6 so I regressed xD I have to finish my walkthrough, though!

[Leeza]

Yes. Yes, you do.

[rubah]

When you finally get bored of levelling your job classes (I fully expect you to master half of them per character!), head to the front gate of Bal Castle and try to exit. The soldiers there will verify your desire to head out into the wild wastes of World 2, and sure enough, as soon as the gates are drawn, some goons (and I don't mean from SA) show up. Well, just one goon, an Abductor.

He's a bit higher level, and has Power Armlet as a steal, but should be much easier than trying to fight Tyrannosaur without resorting to healing magic.

LVL: 29 (no lvl5 death here 8))
HP: 2500
MP: 1000
STR: 40
DEF: 0
MDEF: 0

Also important to note, I guess, is that this one is green while the first one was blue. Idk.

Anyways, once you're free of the castle, check your handy dandy world map to ascertain that absolutely none of those blinky blink lights are flashing anywhere remotely close to you, and head north, hopefully towards Quelb and the DRAGON LAND.

Also note that there are only two other locations on your continent and it appears to be relatively landlocked and your only source of transportation is a dying Hiryû. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Anyways, head North, young man!

You come to a village in a pass, filled with sheep. When you enter, Galuf makes some vague comments about hoping the gates will be open. Approaching any of the shops, you'll see that they're all closed, so head for the house in the middle of the town that is kinda bridge shaped (AKA the one with the unlocked door)

Go inside, then try to leave, and BAM . . ninja wolves?
Faris makes a good point about the worth of enemies if even friends are pointing sharp things at you, then Galuf's old friend shows up.

Sit back and watch some footage, learn some faxx EXPOSITION EXPOSITION.

Afterwards, Kelger agrees to let you all into Drakenvale, and you're free to roam the city, now that the inhabitants aren't trying to eat you. Head for the Inn and talk to the wolf in the back room. Then sit at the table to get your HP/MP restored and free potions! This can be repeated

Go over to the leftmost side by the well and talk to it. A little wizard pops out and asks for a frog. There are some Kornago out in the swampy areas outside of Quelb, so equip a beastmaster or !Catch and head out there.

Be careful, Kornago only have 1000 hp, so don't over hit them They will also use Flee pretty readily, so be quick about it! You might want to use Gravity, Stop, Slow to help you out. Or in a battle with Cursed Beings, use Alluring Air or Tango of Temptation. They have some pretty nice Time spells that will help you if they cast them opposite of how they will.

Hopefully you also have somewhere around 10,000 Gil. The wizard wants that in addition to your frog (DON"T RELEASE IT btw) In return, he gives you the Kornago Gourd, proven to make your time catching enemies easier. Key inside the locked box, anyone? Btw, if you don't have 10,000 gil, you can always get infinite potions from the wolf in the inn and sell them for *ahem* massive profits

The last thing you'll want to make sure you do before leaving for Drakenvale is talk to the wolves dancing in the upper right corner. One of them will give you Requiem. SWEET, could've used that on tyrannosaur. . Oh well.

As you head through the north gates of town, you'll end up in a very small area which consists of lots of forests and one mountain. Since there's not much else in the way of choices, and because it falls under that pretty sparkly dot, head for the mountain. The path is straight-forward. Go into the first entrance you see to get a chest, turn around and go up through the next one. There aren't very many decisions to make here.
You'll start seeing rocks and bones on the ground, I suggest equipping a Bard, so if you run into dinosaurs/dragons, you can use Requiem on them for massive (2000~) damage.

You may run into a cute little rock dude named ???, but he'll run away pretty quickly. Go through some more tunnels, topping to get a chest with a Cottage (it's so cleverly hidden, right on screen). After you cross a little bridge, you'll run into an encounter with little rock guy and two dinosaurs/dragons (he has a name now!) Requiem conveniently damages both of them without hurting the little dude (you can see that they're fighting him because 1) they're turned backwards, and 2) he cries out for help). So kill the dragons, keep him alive, and just wait after they die! He'll join your party.

IMPORTANT: you actually NEED to use the Golem item in your inventory to be able to !Summon him.

As you go on, you'll eventually come to a dead-end. No fear, there's a trap door towards the right of the room. Fall through (unless you're a silly geomancer, then you'll just kinda bounce off first) then grab the chest for 7000 gil. Go through the door to your left and pull the skull switch for massive earthquakage, then go up the stairs through the door you had assumed you would be progressing through. No fear, the earthquake slid some crucial rocks out of the way, so let us be on our merry way. Just don't walk on the trap door again.

Back in the air again, go over to the right and inspect some bones to find a set of Bone Mail. (YAY)

A note on Bone Mail. It will make your team member essentially undead. So don't cast Cure on them, k?

In the next tunnel, take the left fork all the way down and walk through the blackness to the right to get a Wind Slash and Hypno Crown. Go back and take the right fork, also walking through the blackness into another room. At the bottom of the stairs, go through the immediate doorway to find a sweet sweet save point.

Going back into the previous room and then leaving out the left takes out outside again. Go around the rocks and voila, a boss!

Dragon Pod and Dragon Flowers:
These things are pretty annoying because they will pelt you with statuses ad infinitum.
They're very resistant to magic, so your best bet would be to use physical attacks and summons.

Now is the time to start buffing regularly for boss battles. Golem is your first buff. He will stop physical attacks for a certain length of time/duration of damage. If the flowers' attacks can't hit you, they can't inflict statuses Equip someone with !Summon lvl 4 or make them a Summoner. Titan will also do massive damages here.

Don't worry about killing the flowers. They have very low HP and will regenerate anyways. Don't worry about stealing, there's nothing to steal. Have everyone focus on doing damage to the big Dragon Pod. If you got any Twin Lances from Bal Castle, they will be good to use, either as a Ninja or a Thief.

Afterwards, you get the Dragon Grass, whereupon you may either walk back along the annoying path up the mountain, or simply cast Teleport.

Back in Quelb, everyone expresses amazement at your safe return. also, the guy at the inn is no longer giving out free dinner/potions Since there's nothing more of interest here, continue on to Bal Castle.

At Bal, the soldiers think you are some ruse of Ex-Death's and refuse to let you in. Galuf jumps right into the moat and the party follows. Head around to the upper left corner, where there is a small switch. Pull that and your party will be sucked back into the castle proper. I wonder what they would've done if the enemies had seen that?

Let's go give Krile the dragon grass! Run upstairs through the throne room, but her maid stops you, she's fallen ill! Krile tells you to seek out a sage named Ghido who lives on an island not too far from Drakenvale.

Go upstairs and heal the wind drake, and after a scene, you're off!

This dragon features all the standard amenities; no flying over mountains, etc etc. If you go to the extreme eastern side of the valley Bal Castle is located in, you can find an underground route to the Big Bridge, however as every soldier in Bal has probably said to you, there is a huge energy barrier blocking the way. So don't go there.

Turn right at Drakenvale, and exit through the little pass at the north. If you fly slightly west, the first thing you should see is another castle. This is Surgate castle, home to another of the Dawn Warriors. It's worth a trip inside, if only because they let you have anything you find (without even having to steal it!) From the throne room, go up the lower left staircase into the King's Chamber. There's a red book, read it to get Swift Song.

Up the upper left staircase, you find yourself in a library with a very familiar book. Go up the stairs to the left and talk to the old woman in the next room. She wants help restocking books. Pick up the three books on the table (one at a time) and go inspect the shelves. Put the Weird Ronka book on the W-X shelf, Register of Monsters on the R shelf, forbidden monsters on the D-F shelf. Talk to the woman again, and she'll leave through a secret passageway at the top of the room. Follow her, then go through the doorway at the bottom of that room. You can talk to a wizard there or get the chest with 5000 Gil at the bottom right corner. Go through the doorway there to come outside. Go down a little and head to the left under the bridge. There's a door all the way to the right. Go in, go up the stairs, and you'll come in a little room with chests and boxes. Open the chest for the Float spell (Time lvl 2) Head back to the throne room.

Down the righthand staircase from the throne room, you enter the soldiers quarters. Asking around gives some interesting tidbits: you can land the wind drake on the king's ship, Exdeath's castle is well-protected only on the big bridge side, all unnecessary since I just told you

Going down again, there's an inn, if you'd like, and YAY WEAPONS. No new spells and you already have most of the armors, I believe. Rest up if you want, 60 gil is a mere pittance to us!

That's about it for Castle Surgate, so go back and remount your wind drake, and let's find Ghido! It's actually straight north from the little pass we left Drakenvale from. (made that easy, didn't they). If you want, you can also return to Castle Kuza and Rugore, but there's no need atm.

The minute you walk into Ghido's cave, something terrible happens! And the next moment, the obvious perpetrator is revealed. EX-DEATH.

Where to now? You can talk to Kelger in Quelb if you'd like, but the simplest route of action to take would be to fly the wind drake over to the eastern side of CASTLE EX-DEATHU and find the fleet of ships there. Land on the biggest one and Xezat will parley with you.

He tells you to go get some rest, so head belowships. As soon as you lay your head on the pillow, bam "MONSTERS!!"

There are three little goblins running around, then one on the prow. After that, who should show up but your ol' buddy Gilgamesh! (EQUIP STEAL).

Steal a pair of Genji Gloves from him. After you do a bit of damage, his friend Enkidu will show up (a dog, if you played ff12). Enkidu is actually capable and will cast things like White Wind (4000hp healing) and Aera (yuck), so kill him first. Some Jumps (he's in the backrow, so physical attacks are yuck) and Bio should take him out reasonably quickly. Then go back to harshin' on gilgie.

Afterwards, it's back to the plan! If you need to sleep, go back over there, else, go to the opposite room and help Xezat.

WOOHOO SUBMARINE!

[rubah]

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.

. . . .

Spoiler Padding

. . . .

Spoiler Padding

. . . .

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.

[rubah]

Carrying on into the next room, ignore the chest (it's empty) and head to the upper right corner. Go through the door to a Fuuma Shuriken and Partisan spear.

Try to leave out the uppermost room (straight up from the chest). Who should accost you but Gilgamesh!?

Gilgamesh: LVL 53
HP: ????
MP: 2000
STR: 60
DEF: 10
EVA: 0
MAG: 1
MDEF: 15
Steal: Gauntlets, Hi-Potion

After you fight a while, he'll get chatty. His attacks aren't too difficult at all. You might not even need to buff (but of course I'm overlevelled so my perception is skewed )

After he chats a bit, he starts bragging about his unstoppable weapon. then GILGAMESH MORPH

Gilgamesh Pt 2: LVL 67
HP: ????
MP: 9000
STR: 50
DEF: 20
EVA: 0
MAG: 0
MDEF: 10
Steal: Genji Helm <-- STEAL THIS.

His super weapon is ah. . . less than stellar. It's so bad in fact that. . .

Well I won't say, but you have to feel kinda sorry for the guy!

Go back and save, equip your genji helm if able, then head up to take on the Man Upstairs.
Ex-death has some evil scheme hatched, so engage him in battle to put it to a stop!

Exdeath LVL 66
HP: 32768
MP: 32768
STR: 58
DEF: 25
EVA: 10
MAG: 0
MDEF: 25

Steal: Judgment Staff, Elixir

This guy is pretty annoying. He will barrage you with debuffs. Dispel, 100G (G as in gravity) etc. He also has an annoying move that switches your rows.

When he's not breaking down your defenses, he might be hitting you with pretty strong physical attacks, or doublecasting magic. He likes to use Zombie breath, so don't let anyone get too close to 600-1000 HP (or just keep some holy waters around)

After the battle, Exdeath will continue to put his evil plans into motion.

Whatever he does, you get flung in front of. . . Tycoon Castle? Might as well go in. The Chancellor makes a big deal out of Lenna and Faris being back, and Bartz and Krile get a little. . neglected. Krile runs up to the balcony, so follow her, then leave the castle.

Bartz recalls his dear chocobo Boko, so head to the west and north into the cave (does this landscape look weird to you or is it just me?). You'll be introduced to an... ahem friend of Boko's whereupon you will be allowed to mount his feathery back. . . I'll just stop here

Go ahead and run back up to the castle then vaguely north/northwest as you are able. You'll notice the town of Tule (you can go in there if you want). Go past it to the west and enter the little pass that is there. As you ride through, an earthquake will tumble you down!

In the hole in the ground resides ANTLION

Antlion: LVL 34
HP: 8100
MP: 1000
STR: 48
DEF: 20
EVA: 10
MAG: 0
MDEF: 20

Steal: Hi-Potion

Just don't summon Titan (immune) or Catoblepas (also immune) and he shouldn't be too hard. A simple party of Fighters + black/time/summon magic should suffice.

After the battle, try to figure a way out of the hole. I dare you. Sooner or later, someone will lower a rope down to you, just out of your grasp. Hilarious antics ensue.

Anyways, you get one of the princesses back in your party ^_^ But Krile has. . . a splinter? Hm, that doesn't seem suspicious at all. (SPOILER)There was totally not a stick that followed you around in ff3 that turned out to be a bad guy, and Ex-Death is totally not a tree, MADE OF WOOD. ahahaha of course not.

Carry on your chocobo riding to the south, whereupon you will find a small cave. WHOA this cave looks familiar, but not from world 2!

Ghido delivers a bombshell.
Our friend Exdeath shows up and delivers a few more!

After that, you get blasted to kingdom come the Library of the Ancients. Ghido is pleased that such an important library is so close, and your party is surprised that the scholars from Surgate are already there!

FINALLY THAT BOOK GETS PUT BACK TOGETHER. It's about time!

We need four tablets to break the seal on the legendary weapons.
1) Rests alongside spirits of the past, blessed by the soil (dead people, earth, burial!)
2) Rests within an island shrine, kissed by wind (the wind shrine!)
3) Rests beneath the Ocean floor, engulfed by flames (submarine!)
4) Rests beyond the river's torrents, protected by water (waterfall, istory falls!)

and there's a vague notion that some things to help you are also sealed: Holy, Flare, Meteor, Leviathan, Bahamut.

Ghido instructs you to start with the pyramid in the Desert of Shifting Sands, which as you remember, is located very conveniently close to the Library of the Ancients. The scholars have some interesting tidbits: There is a town that was sealed into the interdimensional rift which should be showing up; that town sells magnificent supplies; the four tablets are protected by gargoyles.

Go up to the roof and learn Mana's Paean from the Scholar on the right. The pot next to the door still heals you completely

Head to the west, and you will enter a grove. What should rest there but the Guardian Tree? Your warriors reflect sadly on the people gone from their lives.

In the desert, Bartz discovers the sands have stopped shifting. You can just walk across it. Walk across (ignore the pyramid) and go through the forest at the top to visit Moore. A little kid tells you the locked shed is no longer locked, so go around the pub and down to the shed. From the barrels in front of the shed, go down 8 steps, two left, six down, two left, then all the way down. A wizard will appear before you and offer the choice of the Brave Blade or the Chicken Knife. The Brave Blade starts off pretty good, but if you ever run, that ruins it for you. The chicken knife doesn't start off as high in stats, but it can only improve (with Escapes).

[rubah]

Head for the pyramid in the middle of the desert between the Library of the Ancients and Moore. As soon as you enter, you should espy two stone gargoyles sitting conspicuously right in front of you. Try to go through the door to initiate battle.

Gargoyle x2 LVL 33
HP: 5000
MP: 300
STR: 58
DEF: 13
EVA: 10
MAG: 50
MDEF: 2

Steal: Phoenix Down, Potion.

These guys would be straightforward if not for a nasty trick they have about regenerating. You absolutely must kill them either right together, or almost right together, because they will simply pop back into existence if you don't.

After the battle, there is nothing outside the pyramid, so head inside. Keep in mind that a lot of the monsters here are undead, so fire and curative magic work nicely. (Dancing not so much)

Ignore the first door and go down the hallway to the left. Push the left and right switches and carefully walk through the spikes. Fall into the sandfall and touch the chest for a monster attack. You'll get an ice shield. Don't linger here too long, there is a hole in the wall that excretes snakes, which you will inevitably have to fight. Go back up and you'll be on the other side of the sandfall. Go right and around and notice the button to stop the sandfall, but quickly go up instead of left and around into a room with hidden passages and a snake hole. Keep going to an inner room with a sarcophagus. Touch that and you'll fight a Grand Mummy. (Mummy=Poobah?)

The sarcophagus opens and a Cursed Ring awaits you inside. If you can win your battles in 50 seconds or less, this is a good thing to equip, else you'll be getting a lot of Game Overs. It has very nice Defense, but the Doom effect is pretty annoying. Head back to the button, and press it and go back to where you started.

Go through the first doorway you originally passed and into the next room. You'll be locked into a little passage with some Asps. Hit the first and last switches to proceed (hit the middle one to go back)

In the next room, go through the doorway to the chests. They all have monsters in them. The one in the middle contains a Flame Shield. There is a Power Sash next to that and a White Robe on the right.

Head to the right. Notice the spikes at the bottom of the floor. When the floor turns white, you will slide into them. Cross then the floor is grey. They're poison spikes, btw. Cool, I know right?

(this post brought to you by not having internet at OHare airport)