The Official Final Fantasy II FAQ!

[Wolf Kanno]

I'm surprised this forum has been around for so long and has not recived a proper FAQ. So I humbly ask the good people and the not so good people of EoFF to come together and share their insights and knowledge on some of the trickier aspects of this game. This will also be a place for frequently asked questions as well.

Please also take note to mark if your FAQ or contribution has to do with the variations of the game as the DoS and PSP Anniversary Editions have some features that are not in other editions and so forth.

[jammi567]

Make sure you equip Minwu, Ricard and Josef with the best equipment possible before they leave your party, in preperation for Soul of Rebirth. (GBA and PSP versions only).

[rubah]

Make sure you de-equip Minh, Richard, Gordon, Layla, and Josef before they leave your parties (NES/PSX versions only)

heheheheheh

[Wolf Kanno]

Well, let's get the big ones out of the way...

Basics that every Scrub should know about FFII

Find the Blood swords, I know they are usually pretty blah in the later entries but in FFII they are godlike as they have a funky damage formula that basically allows them to ignore defense. Against most of the bosses in Pandemonium, they have the best chance to cause massive damage even against the final boss.


What doesn't kill you will only make you stronger, by this I mean that FFII has a funky experience system where stats, abilites, and weapon efficiency are raised by using them. Want to make an awesome swordsman, just keep using those swords and your character will soon be able to hit more and harder with it. Casting the same spell over and over will raise its power and ability to hit targets. Using lots of physical attacks will raise your strength, using white or black magic will raise spirit/magic as well as MP. Taking damage will raise HP, defense, and magic defense. Just be careful not to try to go for total balance as raising some skills lowers others, for instance, raising strength will actually lower your magic and spirit stats. The reverse is true as well.

One programmers oversight is another man's easy trek to godhood, this pretty much sums up the most notorious thing FFII is known for, its horribly exploitative battle system. You see, all those stats you can raise don't actually put into account who is attacking you. That's right, monsters and bosses are not the only people who raise your stats, you can actually have your whole party beat the crap out of each other and level up a ton very quickly. Later on, you can get a spell called Swap that exchanges the players HP/MP with the monsters. Go back to the starting town and battle the Goblins that have HP/MP in the single digit and just watch your HP and MP go through the roof.

It gets even more abusive, magic and weapon action XP points are calculated after you confirm the command, not when the command takes place... What this means is that you can have Firion cast Fire and before you put in the action for Maria, you can cancel Firion's action and gave him cast Fire again which will give him 2 Exp. towards his fire spell instead of one. You can pretty much enter, and cancel a hundred times in battle and have the spell go up a level. Weapons work the same way except for Shields I believe. This means some serious crunch time in the beginning of the game can have your whole party with maxed out magic and weapon skills before leaving Fynn. The only trick to this issue is that your fourth party member cannot take part cause once their action is set, the battle commences so this means only Firion, Maria, and Gus can take advantage of this abusive oversight cause FFII does not give the player the ability to reshuffle their party.

Tread softly and remember sometime the monsters carry big sticks, despite its large world map, FFII has a very creative way of making sure the player goes to the next story point. The game has invisible roads that weak monsters traverse that gradually get stronger as you progress through the game, everywhere beyond these roads are filled with monsters you probably won't be able to gight until near the end of the game. Take the first town, all around it are nothing but Goblins but if you head a little too far south from their, you are knee deep in Ogre territory and those things will make mincemeat out of you. This can make progressing through the game very difficult in the early parts. Just remember to always take the quickest and most direct way to the next location. Later, you can find Chocobos who will help you traverse much more easily.

Today's special guest is going to teach us about Chi'uan Tiger Style Death Palm! The one really cool thing about the Guest Characters is that many of them teach you more about the abilites and weapons you can use. The idea of being Barehanded seems like a lame way to fight cause obviously a weapon is better right? Not really, as Josef will teach you cause he's FFII's token monk character who will show off the ungodly power of being bare handed and having high proficiency with said weapon. Minwu shows off the high level healing magic, and Gordon is going to show you how awesome shields are. Basically, pay attention the items and weapons your guest use cause it will help you immensely to better understand the battle system/experience system as well give you better ideas for more diverse party options.

These rules apply to all version of FFII

[Wolf Kanno]

Some interesting information on Weapons...

[qwertysaur]

Remember to note that Bows are a two handed weapon.

[Wolf Kanno]

How to raise agility quickly

I have been finding in my playthrough that only two combinations work on raising Agility fairly quickly. You must be equipped with either a Staff/Mace or a Spear with the other hand using a shield. No other combination seems to be effective. You should also be careful of the type of weapon cause you have to keep their weight in mind as well. Finally a practical use for Staffs/Maces and Spears and another reason why Shields kick ass in this game.


Raising HP/MP quickly

Tired of beating the crap out of your party members? Don' like raising Magic levels so you can blow through your MP faster, so you can get more MP? One spell will fix it all: Swap. This spell switches the HP/MP of the caster with its target. Used on a low level enemy like a Goblin and you'll find your HP reduced to 6HP and 0MP like that. It will usually raise one of the two stats every time its used (just make sure the character who uses the spell doesn't get any HP/MP restored after using it in battle, it only counts based on how much they lose in when the battle is over).

How do you get this little spell. Well its in Mysidia, which is a location you won't be visiting until the second half of the game. Though it is possibly to go there early if you have the Canoe (which you get very early in the game). Baiscally take the river heading South from Fynn all the way south until you reach the mouth of the river, from there head west from the river and immediately south from there hugging the eastern edge of the map. You will come across a huge lake you can use the canoe on and on the southern side is a forest, Mysidia is in the southeastern part of these woods. Here you can get tons of powerful gear and high level spells but if you only want Swap cause you don't want to grind for gil to get the rest of the gear, you will need 24,000 gil to purchase three scrolls.

BEWARE as expected, this area is swarming with high level monsters that will murder you instantly if you are low level so you may want to wait until you acquire mythril gear (or Golden Armors from the Soldiers in Fynn) and raise your stats significantly. If you plan on fighting, I suggest raising Bare-handed and any elemental Magic spells or instant death spells like Warp and Banish, cause you will not have access to weapons that will do great damage to these creatures until much later when you naturally go to this location. Bare-Handed is not affected by this stigma and all non-instant death spells should be used on single targets for better use. Also, save after every encounter you survive or flee from. After you get the goods, return to Altair and let the magic swapping begin.

[Wolf Kanno]

Why Magic Sometimes Sucks

Much like the weight issue, I've been informed thanks to sco412's FAQ on Gamefaqs that all equipment have a hidden penalty on them that lowers INT/SPR. Basically these equips can lower your natural stats into the negatives sometimes and sadly its hidden in all versions. Though the PS/GBA versions seem to have removed the stat from weapons but remains with armor.

Regretfully sco412's FAQ is the only one that gives a pretty decent listing of these penalties so definetly check them out. For those who don't want to bother, the basic rule of thumb is that you need to equip your characters like other FF job classes i.e. to make optimal mages you need to keep them in robes, using rods, non-helmets and gauntlets. Also Bows have a steep penalty but not nearly as bad as Genji Gear. So if you want to have a good mage, you need to start equipping them like mages.

[Wolf Kanno]

Alright, Though I haven't finished my FFII playthrough, I have decided there isn't a whole lot left to talk about in terms of a FAQ. There are lists and walkthroughs but you can find them on the front-page so take a look for those wanting to go through this overlooked and unappreciated game.

I may add in more as time goes on but for now, I feel this covers the main basics of the games rather odd leveling system.

[Wolf Kanno]

Fun Facts!

When you go to Mysidia Tower to get the Ultima Scroll, you find four crystals with it that say they raise certain stats. They have another effect, they remove the limit on some of the abilities in the game. The easiest example is the Bare Handed weapon. Before the crystals it maxes at Lv 15 -99, after you can finally get it to Lv. 16 -99. Sadly I was as proficient with Magic to tell you if it removes any limiters on them.

Major Game Hint!

Want to get two of the best weapons in the game? Sure you do or you're crazy.

Blood Sword - In the earlier versions of the game, there are two Blood Swords. One is found in the basement of Fynn but only in a few versions. The main one that is in all of the games can only be found at a certain point and its a missable item. When the Emperor starts destroying the cities with his Cyclone fortress, learn the word Cyclone from Hilda and Gordon. Before using the Wind Drake to reach the Cyclone, stop by in Fynn and talk to Paul/Pavil (The Ninja looking guy) Mention the Cyclone to him and he'll reveal his "secret Stash" most of the items are not good but this is where the Blood Sword can be obtained. If you don't talk to him before taking out the Cyclone, the items are gone forever.

Excalibur - This just involves doing a bit of bactracking once you reach a point. After the Emperor returns as the King of Hell and you lose the Dragoon; return to Deist Castle and talk to the Mother and Child. She will give you the Excalibur to stop Emperor Mateus.

[Crossblades]

[B]
Raising HP/MP quickly

Tired of beating the crap out of your party members? Don' like raising Magic levels so you can blow through your MP faster, so you can get more MP? One spell will fix it all: Swap. This spell switches the HP/MP of the caster with its target. Used on a low level enemy like a Goblin and you'll find your HP reduced to 6HP and 0MP like that. It will usually raise one of the two stats every time its used (just make sure the character who uses the spell doesn't get any HP/MP restored after using it in battle, it only counts based on how much they lose in when the battle is over).

How do you get this little spell. Well its in Mysidia, which is a location you won't be visiting until the second half of the game. Though it is possibly to go there early if you have the Canoe (which you get very early in the game). Baiscally take the river heading South from Fynn all the way south until you reach the mouth of the river, from there head west from the river and immediately south from there hugging the eastern edge of the map. You will come across a huge lake you can use the canoe on and on the southern side is a forest, Mysidia is in the southeastern part of these woods. Here you can get tons of powerful gear and high level spells but if you only want Swap cause you don't want to grind for gil to get the rest of the gear, you will need 24,000 gil to purchase three scrolls.

BEWARE as expected, this area is swarming with high level monsters that will murder you instantly if you are low level so you may want to wait until you acquire mythril gear (or Golden Armors from the Soldiers in Fynn) and raise your stats significantly. If you plan on fighting, I suggest raising Bare-handed and any elemental Magic spells or instant death spells like Warp and Banish, cause you will not have access to weapons that will do great damage to these creatures until much later when you naturally go to this location. Bare-Handed is not affected by this stigma and all non-instant death spells should be used on single targets for better use. Also, save after every encounter you survive or flee from. After you get the goods, return to Altair and let the magic swapping begin.

Does this work in the GBA version as well? I've been wanting to replay this game, but I grow tired of statgrinding everytime I play it :/

[Wolf Kanno]

I don't know cause I don't actually own the GBA/PSP versions. I would guess that if the version allows for the usual "beat your own party up" shenanigans then it should work. If they fixed that bug in the game, then most likely not.

A good chunk of my info is from the PS1 entry which is pretty faithful to the original Famicom version.

[Evastio]

Wolf Kanno is right. The "beat your own party up" tactic still works, but levelling up using "fake commands" doesn't (Eg: casting Esuna and cancelling it repeatedly to level it up). However, spells and weapon levels have an experience bar instead of a percent, and the amount of uses needed to level up a spell/weapon skill is much less than what it takes in the NES/PS version. I think it takes around 5 or 6 uses to level up a spell from level 1 to 2 targetting Rank 1 enemies. So basically, they removed the cheating method of levelling up spells and weapons, but you don't even need it anymore.

[Crossblades]

Wolf Kanno is right. The "beat your own party up" tactic still works, but levelling up using "fake commands" doesn't (Eg: casting Esuna and cancelling it repeatedly to level it up). However, spells and weapon levels have an experience bar instead of a percent, and the amount of uses needed to level up a spell/weapon skill is much less than what it takes in the NES/PS version. I think it takes around 5 or 6 uses to level up a spell from level 1 to 2 targetting Rank 1 enemies. So basically, they removed the cheating method of levelling up spells and weapons, but you don't even need it anymore.

I was talking about the whole "swap" spell thing. I was curious if that works in the GBA version.

[kriminal99]

Spells in this game work like melee attacks. A lvl 12 spell (offensive or defensive) is applied 12 separate times with 12 separate "to - hit" rolls. Even support spells have this calculation. If it's a damage spell, you get just as many free hits on top of the ones with a chance to hit. If it is a status effect spell, there are no free layers but the effect occurs if even a single layer hits. If it's a temporary status effect, then the number of layers that hit determine how long it lasts. If it's permanent or instant death, all that matters is if a single layer hits.

So each spell has a base damage and a base accuracy. Most damage spells it is 10 base damage, holy 15, flare 20, cure 20, life 0. Status effect spells it is 5, except fear which is 20. These count in case the monster absorbs that spell family.

Accuracies, most beneficial spells have 50% base accuracy. Teleport used to have 0 base accuracy, but they upped it seemingly to a ridiculous 50% to match the other white spells in the new versions. That makes it one of the most powerful spells in the game, as very few monsters resist matter attacks and fewer still (like one or 2 bosses) absorbs it so it can't be dispelled.

Warp, Death 10%, Mini, Break 20% Toad 30%. Note that all of these are pretty much inferior to Teleport in battle (death element is resisted more than matter in every case, the rest are matter element) but warp doesn't eat hp out of battle like teleport does, and toad unlocks awesome minigame.

Status effects:
Fog 20%, Stop, Confuse, Silence, Slow, Swap 30%, Sap, Dispel, Curse, Stun 40%
Sleep, Blind 50% (Some inferior spells in here as well)

So you add your INT/SPI minus equipment penalties to the base accuracy. Weapons/Shields have no penalties in the new version, but they were pretty substantial (up to -70)before (save daggers/staffs). Armor penalties are large except for curiasses which only have -1. Protect ring, ribbon, gold hairpin, some other non armourish sounding armor have minimal penalty as well.

So if you have a bunch of heavy armor, you just use the base accuracy of the spell, otherwise you a much better chance to hit. White magic still works ok with armor on, but black insta kill and serious status effects aren't likely to hit and damage spells do less damage do to missing all the non free hits.

Damage, you add INT or SPI divided by 2 (4 in old versions) to the damage. This isn't effected by armor. Also damage is slightly randomized with a 1.5 mean. Since each single attack has so many separately randomized components, overall damage doesn't go to far from the mean (low Standard deviation)

Everyone knows ultima gets stronger with other Spell/Weapon levels.

Rank up formula: Each enemy has a rank, they only go to rank 7. Players are rank 2. It's stupid the way it works really, if you play naturally you will probably never get above lvl 8 spell/skills. XP all depends on number of uses of that spell skill during the battle, the rank of the first target (highest rank for multitarget) and the number of additional times the spell/skill was used. You get a starting bonus in each case that is added to the enemy rank.

Weapons have a higher starting bonus, but spells get 2 xp for every additional use instead of one. If the Rank + Additional uses doesn't exceed the current weapon level you don't get any xp, and if it does, you get weapon level less xp. For spells the spell level is still subtracted from the ending xp, but there is no initial barrier to overcome.

HP and MP, stamina and magic go up based on the percent net loss of hp/mp througout the battle. Anyways you can lose the majority of either before the battle ends will trigger growth. Sap, Swap, instadeath then revive, omsose (the target), etc etc.

Arcane Labrynth, Once you have enough terms to get through it, you should be able to get any weapon at least by the time you get the character it is for. Some of the guides say otherwise, but they are wrong. The timing of when you use each word matters, use the best ones first and make sure you don't use words that are good for someone else unless you have no choice.