my zidane faq.

version 2: jp->us changes

by: transience.

transience242@hotmail.com



version: 2.0 (us version! and other stuff since i played through it a second 

time)



version: 1.0 (japanese version, strategies that just werenāt as good)



good day.





I. ability list



auto-reflect       15

auto float          6

auto haste          9				

auto regen         10

auto-life          12                              

hp 20% up           8

accuracy+           2

distract            5

long reach         16                           

mp attack           5

bird killer         3

bug killer          3

stone killer        4                              

undead killer       2

devil killer        2                              

beast killer        4

man eater           2

master thief        5

steal gil           5                              

add status          3

gamble defense      1                              

high tide           8

counter             8                              

protect girls       4

eye 4 eye           5                            

body temp           5

alert               4

level up            7

ability up          3

flee-gil            3

insomniac           5                              

antibody            4

bright eyes         4

restore hp          8

jelly               4

auto potion         3

locomotion          4

clear headed        5

mug                 3

bandit              5



for a better and more indepth ability faq, check out red scarlet's ability faqs 

at gamefaqs.com, which is probably 50x more indepth than mine. this is simply 

for when i say "you NEED poison guard equipped!" or something along those lines. 

(this was for the japanese version, but an ability list canāt hurt, ya?)





II. things you should know that will help you immensely:



a: flee. or tonzura in the japanese version. zidaneās first skill, and by far 

the most important. no mp, makes you run away. i would highly suggest employing 

this tech whenever it is needed. and you'll need it a lot.



b: leveling up and all that boring stuff. leveling up is, of course, needed. but 

there are always exceptions. there are times when you just plain out need to run 

from everything in sight. the biggest problem i had was saying to myself, "but 

if i run away now, everything in the next level is gonna beat the crap out of 

me!" but it's not always true. so don't be afraid to run. and again, flee. i'll 

try as hard as i can to suggest when to run, what to fight, how to fight it and 

what not, but not everything is perfect. i'll do the best i can. again, 

suggestions rock.



c: the problem of reviving. people come back to life. with full energy a lot. 

The best way to deal with this is to put everyone in the front row, unequip all 

their armour, and let them get whooped on. (it's so relaxing to not try and keep 

vivi alive, too..) if you keep them on a low level (this means letting them die 

fast instead of saying "well, they'll die eventually..") this will go a lot 

faster. here we go!



d: translation. my apologies for the following translation errors:



jp -> us

salamander ö amarant

shina ö cinna

zon/son ö zorn/thorn



if I mix up these names, just come back here and itāll explain it. talking about 

the game for three months with certain names has made me call them these names 

without thinking of their us name. and besides, cinna is just a bad name. 



III. the 'opening scene' which lasts way too long after you've beaten it once

jp level: 1

us level: 1



from the first fight· STEAL THE MAGE MASHER. DO THIS. NOW.



i don't need to tell you much in this respect. you'll fight lots of wannabe 

bosses. wee. you can't fight with just zidane at this point, because everyone is 

alive. You don't get experience anyway.



IV: the evil forest.

jp level: 1

us level: 1



at this part, you have zidane only. take advantage of this. i got to about level 

3 fighting weakass bad guys. you can obviously beat him on level 1, but trust me 

on this. being level 3 is for a reason.



when you fight the boss, you can try killing off your other guys, but this boss 

is easy enough that you don't even have to heal garnet. just use your free 

energy trance ability.



V: evil forest. part two.

jp level: 3

us level: 3



i put zidane in the back row for this and just had him steal and block (you'd be 

amazed how nice potions are..) after this, i put zidane back in the front row 

and got him back to level 5. i probably should have gotten him higher had i 

thought ahead, but i'll remember that for future reference. i would SUGGEST 

going to 6 or 7, but 5 is ok. get to the save point and save. you can drink the 

water, but it'll revive steiner and vivi. so if you wanna go through killing 

them again, go for it. you won't have many chances for free healing in the 

future, and there's no potion stores for a long time, so try and conserve if you 

can. make sure you run away from the flowers. they have like 200 hp and they 

blind you, which really sucks when your only guy only attacks.



the way that i beat the boss of this place was to get zidane near trance (this 

really doesn't take long, i was right next to it by the time i fought him on 

level 5) and defend until i was tranced. after i was tranced, i used free 

energy, and when i was running low on hp, blank came to my rescue. i had him 

hipotion zidane, and zidane kept using free energy until he was toast.



VI: ice cavern.

jp level: 5

us level: 5



(note: my homeboy bluryamaneko tells me that you can go to north gate before 

going here and buying some potions.. i have not verified this though. but i 

trust him!)



this is where you'll really learn how to fight. having four guys in your party 

for the first time, enemies are four times as hard. this is where you'll wish 

you were on level 7 or so. unequip garnet and put her in the front row along 

with everyone else. the FIRST thing you want to do is get the mage masher. it's 

about two screens up and on the right side. there's two treasure chests, you 

have to let your (dead) vivi cast fire on the little ledge to go down there and 

get it. run up to the save point, and save.



some enemy stuff:



I could go into detail on how to fight enemies, but Iāll just say this: fight 

flans. flans are great. you can kill them in one hit with a mage masher, and 

they canāt put you to sleep or steal your hp. so fight them. everything else you 

can run from. and be careful of your potion count.



save, and run over to the boss. ironically, one of the harder bosses in the 

beginning of the game is quite easy now, because it's meant to be just zidane. 

so you can whoop on these two real simple. just beat up the waltz and then beat 

up sealion. if you trance, all the better. if you don't, that's fine. just keep 

your hp over 150 if his little circle thing turns red. nice and easy. be careful 

now though, you've got another couple of screens. heal, and run. and save.



VII: world map enemies around dali

jp level: 8

us level: 8



cave spider: easy. fire hits you for 75 or so, but nothing you can't take. kill 

them in two hits. about 48 exp. i found these shmucks in the forest.



python: e-a-s-y. hits for no more than 30, i don't think.



VIII: dali.

jp level: 8

us level: 9



BUY POTIONS! and the best equipment. i bought 70 potions here, i had about 5k 

gil. you can go as far as to selling anything non-zidane (but be careful, 

remember you have to switch over to steina/garnet on cd2 unfortunately, and you 

also might need to combine some stuff) if you need gil. inside the windmill 

stuff:



ghost: hits hard when uses fire (60) but otherwise, is easy. you can kill them 

in one hit (or i could)



get through this, do the steiner part, fight black waltz 2. all your guys are 

alive. for this reason, i made sure to cast fire so that he'd cast fira on all 

of my guys. everyone but garnet/zidane was dead. from then on, i just attacked 

with zidane and healed with garnet. an odd thing was that he would only attack 

zidane. i'm not sure if this is cause only zidane attacked or that he wouldn't

attack garnet. so i attacked with garnet, and the same happened. he didn't even 

touch garnet. i wonder if this is purposeful, cos fire didn't hurt garnet 

either. anyway, after a while, i won. 



(note: you can steal two things from black waltz 2 that increase your armour by 

like a point, but no new abilities can be learned from the stuff you get. 

sorry.)



(note 2: my homeboy bluryamaneko tells me that waltz 2 will indeed attack 

garnet, since his uber-low level guys got killed by waltz 2)



waltz 3. simple. just kill everyone off and attack when he's on the ground. 

defend otherwise. heal when needed with potions. eventually, you'll be tranced, 

and tidal flame will own him. save. you canāt equip anything that you can steal 

from him, so i suggest passing on that stuff.



IX: lindbulm

jp level: 9

us level: 9



blah. buy stuff. get the ogre. (what a bad translation. what kinda weapon is 

called the ogre.)  do the stupid lindbulm part. you SHOULD win at hunting, 

unless you're stupid like me. go off to gizamaluke.

(note: i don't go to qu's marsh or the chocobo stable because, well, i just 

don't care..)



(note 2: itās actually quite good if freya wins the hunt, too. he gets a coral 

ring, which is hella helpful versus beatrix..)



X: world enemies

jp level: 9

us level: 10



(note: i would highly suggest equipping man eater for the next cd or so, because 

you hit just so much harder..)



there are some nasties, and some nice ones. 

hedgehog pie: the little red jumpy things are okay to fight. they can gang up on 

you in bunches, though, so watch your hp. you can always steal hipotions from 

them, which can come in handy bigtime against a certain boss at the end of cd1 

that i'm still afraid of. 



ladybug: the bats in the forest you don't want to fight. the way that i beat 

them was defended until my almost-full trance bar was there, and used my 16 mp 

trance and beat the crap out of them. their fire attack hits for over 100, and 

100 x 3 = bad when you only have about 400 hp. 



clipper: i killed in 1 hit. he's easy to kill. in general, except for the bats, 

nothing was too hard to kill for me. 



XI: gizamaluke

jp level: 10

us level: 10



oh. i forgot to say it earlier, as if you couldn't guess. i killed my freya. i 

thought it was kinda funny, jp level 2 vivi hit my level 5 freya for 212 damage 

with his cheap first weapon. anyway, he's dead. anyway. here's some enemy info:



and another side note: in the jp version, i was hitting for about 400. now, i 

hit for like 650. i donāt know whatās different, but my guy in this one is 

stronger.



skeleton: pretty simple. hits for 150 or so, 300 on a critical hit. not too bad.



type a: two together are kinda nasty. gotta be careful with these guys. 400 hp. 



lamia: OUCH. the first one i fought on level 12 killed me. i once got hit for 

350 hp. they can dizzy you. my new idea: run. i'll see how it works. (note: it 

works)



(note: they have about 1200 hp or so. theyāre beatable. just you have to attack 

it when it entices you..)



hornet: berzerks you. woopie.



boss: this was just funny. i was near trance, so after i saved, i went and 

fought him. i used two shift flame (16 mp attack) that hit for 1500 each, and 

then one trance attack cos i was out of mp. this is a back row fight, but i was 

in the front. on level 11, i got him. as for the enemies, i can't beat them.



XII: south gate steiner

level: uh. not very high.



nothing here, really. get the treasure chests. equip up weapons for your guys, 

as they'll need them soon. donāt miss garnetās multina racket, which is straight 

left and kinda out of view once you get into south gate.



XIII: world map enemies

jp level: 11. i am so suicidal.

us level: 12



i decided level 11 was just nuts. here's some enemy info:



skeletons: there's two now. but you can still kill them. at level 11, the front 

row is a bit tough, but chances are you're not as stupid as i am. either way, my 

guys are in the back row, so i had no problems with these guys. 400 hp.



yeti: they have a blind attack that i guard from. their attacks otherwise are 

pretty weak. good things to fight for exp, esp. if there's two of them. about 

500 or so hp. 



razor demon: these are the tough guys. two of them is lethal. they hit hard, 

they cast protect. not too hard to fight, though. just be careful.



XIV: burmecia

jp level: 14

us level: 12



this place is easier than i thought it would be. enemies:



basilisk: these guys are great. you can kill them in one hit. the only problem 

is that they cast death sentence on you, so if you can't make it, you can't make 

it. 



magic vice: steals magic points. steals potions. other than that, this guy is 

cake. i just kill these things in one hit, good for experience..



mimic: like you havenāt fought these things for ten years..



ironite: good thing to fight. kill it, get a hipotion. hit it 3 times from front 

row. hits for about 200, but oh well. coral ring will absorb thundara. you need 

to kill these anyway for...





beatrix: you have to be able to survive shock to win this, which means you 

should about level 16 or so. i was on seventeen or eighteen. thgere are two ways 

to win this:



a.) just get zidane near trance, throw him in the back row, and wait to be 

tranced. three shift flames will defeat beatrix. the fact that i was wearing 

the coral ring helped a bit, too, cos she hit me and healed me for 300. in 

fact, this helps a lot for everything from gizamaluke on. 

b.) this goes for all the beatrix fights. beatrix is on a timer. after x number 

of attacks, she will do her attack that hits you down to 1. so concentrate 

on healing, go in the back row, steal, do whatever, but STAY ALIVE. again, 

you need to be able to survive shock, so be careful.



on this fight, i think way a is better.



either way, end of disk 1. this was what i was afraid of, and i beat her. maybe 

i can actually win. :p



jp:

cd1 completion time: 6:45

level: 18



us:

cd1 completion time: 4:45

level: 17



XV: beating up black waltz 3

jp level: 1/2/3

us level: 1/2/1



you know something's wrong when marcus is your strongest. actually, garnet was 

my strongest, hitting for a whole 100. marcus was level 2. beating waltz 3 is 

tricky, but not hard. just heal with garnet, attack, and use all those phoenix 

downs you haven't used in the past cd.



XVI: treno

jp level: 2

us level: 2



i buy anything i can here. combine some stuff and make an accessory that gives 

you auto potion. thereās another that gives you ability up. do the stuff here. 

head into gargan roo. this is kinda nastee if youāre on level 3 like i am this 

time around. but just be careful.



XVII: cleyra

jp level: 18

us level: 17



this is simple. there's not even anything to tell you about here... i thought 

this would be harder than it was, but i didn't even blink on the way up. if you 

have autopotion, at least. without autopotion, though, nothing hits you for more 

than 300.



(note: this time, i left my autopotion accessory on steiner. and iām still not 

having much of a problem, but i do flee from the sand golems..)



(note 2: Īmythril vestā, right before where the town of cleyra is, a hidden 

item, has auto potion.)



XVIII: cleyra settlement

jp level: 20 (i would suggest going above twenty...definitely suggest)

us level: 18 (i donāt listen to me)



the antlion is _not_ easy. you better have hi potions. you should probably near 

trance before the fight, but i didn't. i just beat him up real good, and healed 

when he hit me with sandstorm. eventually, i won.



when you're back in cleyra after pak comes and gets you, things get a little 

trickier. i hope you have a lot of potions. just let autopotion do its thing and 

fight. lots of experience here, and you'll need it. 



beatrix 2: not as bad as i first thought. use tactic b this time (donāt attack, 

back row) and make sure the coral ring is equipped. steal, and if she gets ya 

with shock, use a hipotion. she has ten attacks, so try and live through all 

ten. i did easily, and i only had 1005 hp on level 20. the first time through, 

though, i killed her, as i did every time the first time through.



XIX: save garnet!

jp level: 22

us level: 20



do the steiner part. make sure to unequip marcus and steiner. flip back to 

zidane. kill off your other guys, run on down to where garnet is, and get ready 

for zon/son (or zone/sone or zorn/thorn or whatever you wanna call them) they're 

easy. you can never get hit if you just fight whatever one powers up, or you can 

just kill the one and win the fight. i did the latter. be sure to save, and then 

get ready for beatrix 3. again, get on your knees. 



beatrix 3 is hard. donāt ven think of doing way a. the first time through, it 

took me 20 times to even come close. this time, on the first try in the back 

row, i just stole and defended, and i was all set. try and steal the survival 

vest, but youāll get it later, so donāt worry if you canāt.s



as for the part afterwards, this is hard. make sure to do all you can to keep 

freya and beatrix alive. climhazzard will kill everything in one hit, but you 

only get to use it once. there are three fights here. elixirs are probably in 

order here. keeping freya alive lets her heal beatrix. careful of those thingsā 

sleep attacks. 



XX: the gargant

jp level: 23

us level: 23



this guy was simple to kill. i just attacked. when he defended, i stole. when he 

stopped, i attacked. he never even hit me. i got like three different items, 

too. wee. go through pinnacle rocks. don't bother getting ramuh. just leave. go 

through lindbulm. do that stuff. BUY POTIONS! and go to fossil roo.



(note: the last item in the synth shop, the power belt, teaches you mp attack 

and counter. get this. to do so, buy a chain mail from the store. also, forge 

the exploda.)

	

XXI: fossil roo

jp level: 23

us level: 23



random monster encounters are so nice to have again. be sure to take advantage 

of them. run away from the first boss that chases you, and steal the gladius 

from lani. 

	

be sure to go to the second gargant before switching things over, as it has 

something that teaches you level up. enemies here aren't hard at all; just beat 

on them and use shift break when you get tranced. focus on learning different 

skills, make sure to keep your potions high whenever you can, and kick some butt 

while you're here. after what i had to do to beatrix, i decided i didn't wanna 

be stuck in a part like thatagain. even though the next bit is pretty simple, 

it's no fun being way too low in level. there's something you can equip that has 

level up in here, too, so be sure to not miss that. this makes gaining levels 

almost too easy, because you get 6x the amount of experience you're used to 

getting. i gained seven levels here. 



XXII: new continent!

jp level: 30

us level: 25



the enemies here so far haven't given me a problem. none of them have hit for 

over 400, and i have like 1700 hp. (on level 30) this is relatively easy, 

compared to the other times when you have four characters in your party that 

i've faced (ice cavern, beatrix 3..) i would suggest running from the goblins 

that do vanish, though. you have no real wayto stop this, except your 6 mp 

skill.



(note: i neglected to mention this the first time through, but iām sure anybody 

bothering to do this already knows... cactrots are here, and their counter hits 

for 1000. so make sure you have more than 1k hit points, and clear headed 

helps...)



XXIII: conde petie

jp level: 31

us level: 26

only two things worth mentioning here: get the diamond accessory in a hidden 

treasure box in the big open space room, and buy the hat that teaches you 

counter. nothing else, really. stockpile your potions, i guess. 



XXIV: forest/black mage village

jp level: 32

us level: 26



enemies in the forest are simple. enemies are getting boring here, nothing to 

write about them anymore. they don't hit hard, they don't give me problems, they 

don't really inflict dangerous status ailments... oh well. guess that's better 

than having a dude who hits for 6000, eh? (thinks of beatrix) as for black mage 

village, the important thing here is hi potions. i bought 50 of them, thinking i 

shouldn't need 99 quite yet. we'll see if i'm wrong. (note: after playing 

through, 99 isn't such a bad idea..)



XXV: conde petie/mountain path

jp level: 33

us level: 29

nothing new in conde petie. just do the sequence and get eiko. unequip her, 

throw her in the front row, and kill her too. who cares if she's six. six year 

olds shouldn't be taught to fight anyway. as for enemies, the nools vanish, so i 

flee from them. as for the hill gigas, i just used solution 9 (48 mp trance) 

twice on him. i happened to be right next to trance when i came upon him. he was 

toast.



XXVI: madain sari/iifa

jp level: 34

us level: 30



nothing important is in madain sari, so i'll just go to iifa. 



enemies in iifa:



(note: undead killer öis- a good thing.)



myconid: two hits == dead. nothing big. 



stroper (those big trees): they hit for 300 tops. i think they have a death 

sentence attack, but i guard it so i can't tell what it is. i won this in four 

hits or so.



zombie: their suicide attack hits for 1k. so be careful when you fight them. 

otherwise, no problem.



dracozombie: level five death. yuck. otherwise, piece of cake. (big note: he 

turns you into zombie, too. flee.)

(bigger note: these things are definitely killable. just donāt freak out when 

you get zombied.)



the boss: in the beginning, i was kinda afraid of this one. and rightfully so. 

he has two attacks that are deadly: level 5 death and mustard bomb. however, if 

you have hot/cold protection on, and you're not a multiple of 5, this fight is 

cake. he hits for 500 max. i attacked until i tranced and solution 9'd him for 

4788 damage. he dead.



XXVII: madain sari. again.

jp level: 38

us level: 34

salamander is a joke when you're so strong. i found myself saying to myself, 

"this is a waste of potions.." after this, i found out that i had a weapon that 

was one point stronger. it also has a new ability, so i threw it on. mind you, 

that ability kills you, but hey. anyway, back to iifa again. this part is short. 

unequip salamander and get his anti-back attack accessory and equip it. stuff 

here is easy - no bosses or anything. monsters put you to sleep but you can stop 

that. watch the neat scenes, and boo ya. cd3.



jp:

cd2 completion time: 15:49

level: 39



us:

cd2 completion time: 11:22

level: 36



well, 2 cds down, 2 to go. 39 levels down, 60 to go. chances of me being able to 

win are good. of course, death attacks go up tenfold now. 



XXVII: alexandria

jp level: 39

us level: 36



first thing to do here when you get zidane: go to the weapon/combination shop. i 

made a 44 point weapon as opposed to 31, and i got an item that gives me auto 

levitate. thereās a bunch of other ones that you can make, too, so use your 

brain and figure it out. iām gonna try and throw together a list of stuff and 

what teaches you each at the end, so check there if youāre missing abilities or 

want certain ones. when you get to treno, be sure to fight the monster. i killed 

him with my 60 point trance in one hit. 15k gil is your reward, so it's worth 

it. go play cards, the second silliest thing ever invented to the draw command. 

when you switch back to steiner/beatrix, be careful. sure, at first this is 

easy, but when you fight four of those things in a row on a low level (or at 

least i was) it's a little tricky. just be careful. watch the long scene, and 

you'll be in lindbulm.



(note: beating the card champion gives you the rebirth ring, which teaches auto-

life, which will be come extremely important..)



OPTIONAL: TANTARIAN (THE BOOK)

see the end.



XXVIII: lindbulm

jp level: 39

us level: 36



do all the necessary stuff. get the three things cid wants. head over to black 

mage village, and then to the desert land over near fossil roo, with the 

whirlpools. the one farthest away from where i parked my boat was the right one. 

if i got the wrong one, i just reset, because the energy wasted to beat up an 

antlion just isn't worth it. for the three i chose when i got inside, i chose 

(for a reason, too) vivi, quina, and freya. however, freya is good for desert 

empress, too, so changing him with salamander isn't too bad of an idea.



XIX: the forgotten continent

jp level: 41

us level: 38

first thing first: potions. you can talk to the airship, and zone/sone will let 

you buy potions. get 99 hipotions, and sell off your normal ones. from here on 

out, potions will be obsolete, so normal potions will just mess up your 

autopotion. enemy info here:



catoblepas (big green dragon thing): he has, again, something that looks like 

death sentence, but i block all status ailments, so i wouldn't know. (note: itās 

stop, so have locomotion equipped) his attack hits for about 500, and he has 

about 5k hit points. not a problem for me.



adamantoise (the big turtle thing): he has an earthquake attack that i assume 

auto levitate will dodge, but it's too many ap for me. his normal attack hits 

for between 200 and 1000. thundara does 500. not hard, per se, but does hit 

hard.



armstrong (house): this thing is dangerous. he hit me once for 1200, and then 

the next turn he had attacks which demi'd me twice in a row, so in effect, like 

the old gravity spells. he also has thundara for 500, and something called matra 

magic which has yet to hit me. about 5k hp. 7k exp. dangerous, though. i suggest 

flee.



cactaur: you know the drill. donāt hit when itās hiding, and be careful of its 

head attack and make sure you have clear headed on.



XXX (figures): oeilvert

jp level: 43

us level: 41

first thing: buy new stuff. you need it badly.



enemies:



ogre: pretty simple. they sadden you but that's all. good exp for what they do 

to you.



epitaph: these things dopplegang you. you're fine if it doesn't do zidane. but 

if you do, you're dead. so flee. oh yeah, and they petrify. oops. 



garuda: these things are cake. except that they weak you. they actually don't 

kill you if you have autopotion on, because they don't hit harder than 450. good 

things to fight, but you may have to heal a lot after the fight. they also cast 

stop, by the way.



ark (the boss): ark is simple. he also has a weak spell, but have no fear. i 

don't think he hits you for more than 500 anyway. just be careful when he does 

weak you, and heal up. his other attacks are simple to get around: a whirlwind 

one that hits for about 200, a propellar wind attack that hits for about the 

same, and some kind of spell that i guard and that makes me float for a couple 

of turns. no big deal.



XXXI: desert empress/desert palace

jp level: my highest is.. err.. 19 (steiner)

us level: 18 (steiner)



anybody who knows me knows my hatred of desert empress. this part really doesn't 

need words because you're gonna be using four people for the last time.



i will comment on the boss though. it's weak, but has strong defence. just have 

steiner attack and have salamander throw stuff like crayzee. i beat it on level 

15 or so with my main dude, eiko. 



(note: donāt even bother throwing stuff. this is a joke. but it does hit hard.)



XXXII: back to zidane!

jp level: 45

us level: 43



nothing new here right now. just more ogres that you can whoop on. when you get 

your party back together, take along with you the guys you brought to desert 

empress, and unequip them and give stuff to zidane he needs. 



when you get back to sealed continent, switch in your weak dudes because they 

die easier. enemy info:



vapor: does no more than 500 damage, assuming you have hot/cold protection on. 

if you don't, you're dead.



holy zombie: these things scare me. only because they have mini and death. can't 

hurt it, could die from it.. tell me to flee.



there are others, but nothing is worth mentioning



XXXIII: esto gaza

level: 49



enemy stuff:



there are garudas here too (see oeilvert)



worm hydra: better have antibody on from here til the end. they have attacks for 

up to about 1500 damage (to be safe) and about 7k hp. they also have a freeze 

attack, so hot/cold should be on. (as if it isnāt..)



grenade: i flee from these things. they hit for 1800 on me sometimes. usually 

they fight with other things. i learned my lesson the first time.



vepal: these guys have attacks that hit for a good amount of damage, but itās 

the fact that i always see them in threes that makes me flee from this one.



i've beaten the two dragons that come flying out of the wall without ever 

trancing. or healing. so it's possible.



meltigemini: Īwingsā hits you for about 1k. other than that, nothing here is a 

problem at all, as long as you have antibody. you can steal a golden hairpin 

from him, along with a demonās vest. golden hairpin teaches auto regen, which 

you can get when you go to ipsen. three grand lethals kills him.



XXXIV: the airship!

jp level: 54

us level: 50



things i did with my airship:



-went to treno, beat up the monster

-went to daggureo and combined some new stuff.

(you can buy a coronet from the shop. and you can make the sarangantas, and if 

you have money, you can then make the thief gloves, which teaches you master 

thief.. everything else i had or i couldnāt equip with zidane.)

-went to see how strong grand dragons were 



XXXV: ipsen

jp level: 54

us level: 50



enemy info:



i could write up a thing on each enemy, but it'd be boring, because they're all 

the same. monsters here are STRONG against physical attacks. i've yet to beat 

one without trancing. auto regen keeps me in check just fine. i hit for about 

300 and eventually i trance, use free energy, and kill them. the only exception 

to this rule is the cerberus. he has an attack that hits for 1700 which, if he 

uses it a few times in a row, can be nasty. therefore, be careful if you wanna 

try and beat him. the big eye also has a death attack, but it's never hit me. 

other things have hot/cold stuff, stop stuff, and some other stuff, but i guard 

against it all. i was very proud of the way i got ability up, level up, auto 

haste, auto regen, and able to block all the monsters' attacks at this point. 



as for the boss, fight him the same way as you do the other guys. steal an 

elixir, sit in the back row, and get bored. come back ten minutes later, and hit 

him hard. three solution 9's and 1 shift break killed him (and left me with 1 

mp) which means he has approx. 30k hp or so.



XXXVI: the four thingies

jp level: 57

us level: 50



gotta go to the four spots now that were on the map. to help you out, they're in 

a whirlpool south of ipsen, gulg volcano near esto gaza, down near oeilvert, and 

in the desert where you fought those antlions. 



as for the boss, i just stole the two items he has and then attacked until he 

was dead. no trance needed.



XXXVII: terra

level: 57



new things to worry about:



ring leader: casts virus, which is the spell that makes you not get exp. so just 

run.



hecteyes: casts roulette. flee.

 

it's hard to run away from movers, if any of you know them from past final 

fantasies. but you have to beause you just can't hit hard enough.



just run from everything. and equip auto life.



XXXVIII (these are getting long): branbul

jp level: 57

us level: 50



BUY THINGS! i've been waiting for my 70 point weapon for forever.

(note: you can steal the orichalcon from someone earlier.. but i forget who)



as for when you go and fight here, this is tricky. the first fight is easy.. the 

second is hard though cos there's no zidane to start. just defend like crazy and 

hope you get zidane. he comes after two full rounds. then it's easy. as for the 

last boss, he has a million hit points. (note: my 16 point trance hits for 9999 

now, so no point in wasting mp..) i throw 5 9999 damage techs at him and he 

finally died. 



XXXIX: pandemonium

jp level: 60

us level: 52



after beatrix, this is the part i was scared of. enemy info:



marlboro: nothing dangerous, really. good exp. i kill it in four hits. 



abadon: he has a normal attack that hits for 1000, a thundaga attack for about 

700, a stupid big attack that stops you from learning exp (i flee if he hits me 

with this), and another one for 1000. nothing too dangerous, but if he hits you 

with the one, flee. he has a lot of hp, too.. about 15k.



note: both of these enemies have nasty spells that will stop experience gaining. 

and they do it a lot. you can try and get lucky, but unfortunately, it doesn't 

happen often with one guy.



this is what i was scared of.



silver dragon: this is hard. if you don't have the ribbon equipped. then it's 

pathetic. just attack and all his attacks will pretty much heal you. 



garland: he has a flare attack for 1200, an attack i can't read for 2000, a 

counter for 1100, and a stop spell. 2000 and under is no problem for auto potion 

and auto regen. so you should be ok. hit points i don't know, but he filled 

about 2/3 of my trance bar, so judge it that way.



kuja: thundaga does 800-1000 damage. gravity does 1500-2000 damage. basically, 

this is easy. he/she has about 40000-45000 hp. i used shift break four times, 

and then attacked once. i tried to steal like crazy until i tranced, which 

wasn't long, since my trance bar was 2/3 the way there. 



watch the fun scenes. save.



jp:

cd3 completion time: 26:57

level: 62



us:

cd3 completion time: 19:26

level: 52





XL: things to do on the world map

level: 62



-go beat the behemoth in treno and get a red cap

-go to black mage village and buy potions, 99 of all the status ailment stuff, 

and new weapons/armour you don't have (thief hat)

-gain experience if you think you need it

-if you want to, there are grand dragons to be beaten up in the place above 

gizamaluke in the beginning of cd1 if you remember. just make sure you have 

poison guard on. i didn't do this until the end, though.

-if youāve been doing chocobo stuff, go grab the ultima weapon, which is 

obtained by taking a golden chocobo to where the shimmering island was via 

water, and using a dead pepper



OPTIONAL: OZMA

see the end. 



(BIG NOTE: the rest of these are written being level 62, since i figured 

anything on level 62 could be done on level 99 just as easily. so, if you say 

Īhe hits me WAY lighter than that!ā, understand this.



XLI: nova dragon

jp level: 62

us level: 99



nova dragon is simple. i used the same strategy as i did on kuja - steal til 

trance. he has about 50k hp. his strongest attack is tidal wave, which hits for 

about 1500 damage. he's simple.

(note: iāve had both psychokinesis and shockwave hit for over 2k before.. but 

thatās not a problem, either)





XLII: inside



this will scare you. enemy info:

(note: to survive here, i would suggest having poison guard and hot/cold 

protection on. i won't say what you need it for, just take it for granted that 

you need it period. reraise/omnijinai is highly recommended as well)



chimera: chimera has a wide variety of attacks. thunderbolt hits for moderate 

damage, his attack where he eats you hits for moderate damage and puts the 

ailment that won't let you gain experience, he has a cold breath attack, a 

powder attack, firaga, and probably something else. he also has 25k hp. 42785 

exp, 4 ap.



ash: he has a stop spell and a death sentence spell. he also has a weak cold 

spell. (update: he also has a death spell that sucks..) approx. 25k hp. 



behemoth: hits unusually hard. back row is the way i'd tackle him, 53198 exp 4 

ap. nothing special, just beats the crap out of you. about 30k hp.



iron man: looks like ff7's end dudes. i'm sure you know who i mean. he has an 

attack that reduces your hp to one, protect, a power up spell, and hits 

moderate-hard (usually depending on his power up spell). 42996 exp, 4 ap. if you 

can take his hits, go for it. if not, i suggest flee. about.. 20-25k hp?



aariman: has roulette. what more do you need to know? either you're dead or 

he/she is. omnijinai lets you have two chances at living.



stylra: has an attack that hits you for 2k, and another one for 2k, and firaga. 

and thatās all he ever did to me. 25k hp.



one last thing. zidane's best weapon (with the exception of the ultima weapon) 

is in the screen before kary, right before the exit. find it. you'll need it.



fiends:



XLIII: maliris/maririsu/kary

jp level: 62



i just sat in the back row and let her hit me til i tranced. she never hit for 

more than 3k or so. then i used my 24 point trance attack five times and she was 

gone, so she has 40-50k hp. 



XLIV: tiamat

jp level: 62



this is very tricky to explain, but i'll do my best. tiamat has.. like five 

attacks. he has a jet attack, a silent voice attack which silences you and hits 

you, a power down attack, an asper spell (but it never hits me for any magic at 

all..) and i believe that's it. now comes the tricky part. tiamat's counter 

attack is the power down. people like me say "yay! he didn't hit me! i can 

heal!" but this isn't a good thing. this brings down your attack power AND 

defence. eventually, his silent voice attack, which normally hits you for like 

1500, hits for 6000 or so the second time he does it, and 8000 the next time. 

here's how i won. my abilities, i put on auto haste/regen/potion, and hp 20% up. 

i put myself in the front row, got near trance (the chimeras are great for this 

since they attack you normally and not deathly) and didn't try to steal at ALL. 

stealing makes him do the power down attack. when i got tranced, i started with 

the one that i thought would hit for 9999 for sure before he powered me down, 

and that was the 24 point trance. then i slowly went up, until i had hit him for 

50000 damage with 5 trances. my last shot was a free energy, cause i only had 10 

mp left, and that hit for 4k. i attacked him a couple more times and he was 

dead. he didn't even kill me. but he had killed me three times before. 



OPTIONAL: HADES

see the end for hades.



XLV: kraken

jp level: 62

us level: 99

kraken is simple, much like kary. kraken has four main attacks: a freeze attack, 

so you better have hot/cold resistance on (as if you wouldn't), a "wataga" 

spell, which hits for about 1500, some kinda spell i can't read which just 

reminds me of a real bad ugly bad guy with a watergun, and something called 

'sumi' which looks like it would inflict a status ailment but didn't to me. he 

also has a regular attack. kraken has 55k hp or so, and his tentacles have about 

15k. i just sat in the front row and attacked over and over and over until i 

eventally tranced, and three shift breaks killed him. simple.



XLVI: lich

level: 62



this is hard.



lich's attacks are: powder which is that freaky petrify thing that kills you 

automatically, l5 death, death which kills you automatically, death sentence 

which kills you in ten seconds, some earthquake attack, stop, and probably some 

more than i want to forget. 



how to beat him: equip the following: stop protection, auto haste, omajinai 

(reraise), mp consuming attack, and poison guard. after this, pray. then go try. 

put yourself in the front row and start wailing away. get near trance before the 

fight, too. i was hitting for about 5000, and then he tranced me. he doesn't hit 

hard at all, but that doesn't matter. what does matter is that you don't need 

auto regen/auto potion. if he does indeed trance you, throw the world at him. if 

he doesn't just keep attacking like normal. after a couple of tries, i did 

indeed win, luck or not. this was probably the most fun i've had, too, trying to 

figure out how to beat this death dude. the next bosses can't be harder. i bet i 

said that too soon.



go on ahead. and run a lot more.



XLVII: deathguise

jp level: 62 (yes, still)

us level: 99



once again, you need to get near trance before entering this fight. deathguise 

has a lot of attacks. he starts out with meteor, which hits for 3k. his other 

attacks are relatively tame. they hit for around 1500-2000. there a twister one 

(remember that the ribbon absorbs twister stuff), a tail attack, a level 5 death 

attack, and the nasty one, a death attack. he usually doesn't do a death attack 

until i whoop on him a little bit though. what i do is sit in the front row and 

hit him with everything i have. (mp consuming blow i have equipped) when i 

trance, i just throw random trances at him. i try to use my trances in according 

to how long they are, because that way i can heal. auto-life has to be on for 

you to win this, i think. deathguise has like 55k hp. all my trances and one mp 

consuming blow of about 6k killed him.



(note: deathguise opens and closes. does anyone know what it means?)



at this point, i was completely out of potions, and i decided i wanted to get a 

few more levels before attempting kuja. so, i teleported out.



XLVIII: leveling up

level: 62



first, go buy potions and tents. a lot of them. next, go to the top of 

gizamaluke, where you fight grand dragons. info:



grand dragons have three attacks: powder, poison claw, and thundaga. thundaga 

doesn't hurt for much, maybe 1500 to 2000 max. poison claw is the nasty one, 

hitting for up to about 3000, and poisoning. powder is the stupid petrify 

attack. grand dragons have about 13000-14000 hp. they give you 35000 exp, and 

about 52000 if you have level up equipped. here's how i fight:

equip mp consuming blow, auto regen, auto haste, auto potion if you feel you 

need it, hp 20% up, level up, ability up if you have extra abilities to get, and 

poison guard. then add on whatever else you need. throw zidane in the front row, 

and just attack. you should win in three hits, two when you get to about level 

75. within two or three hours, you can make it to level 99. i only went to 94 

(only), bought 99 of every kind of potion/tent, and headed back to iifa.



IL: trance kuja

level: 97



yay. last boss. kuja's attacks: holy hits for 1500, flare hits for 1500, and the 

nasty one, flare star, hits for about 3500. he/she/it has curaga for 3000, also. 

i just threw mp consuming blow on, sat in the front row, and started waiting on 

kuja. eventually i won. kuja has a little over 50000 hp.



L: eternal darkness/chaos/necron

level: 97



ED's attacks:



firaga: 1000 damage or so

blizzaga: the same

grand cross: does all sortsa weird things.. i don't think anyone actually knows 

exactly how it works. basically, it gives you all the status ailments youāre not 

protecting against, and hits you for some damage.

neutron ring: this is a pretty hard-hitting attack. knocks you for about 4k or 

so, though it varies.

blue shockwave: when it does hit, hits you to 1 damage



how i fought it: put on ALL your anti-status ailment attacks, auto 

regen/potion/haste/raise. put mp consuming blow on. sit in the front row. just 

start kicking some butt. nothing really hurt my too much when i fought: grand 

cross silenced me and nothing more, the 1 hp attack hit me once. other than 

that, this was easy. i won in about four minutes. no dark matters needed. watch 

the ending.



LI: secrets



a,) TANTARIAN (the book!)

us level: 36



for those who arenāt in the know, the book is a secret boss in the library of 

alexandria that you can fight at any point up until now. however, beating it is 

quite difficult, ESPECIALLY if you only have one guy. here we go:



to fight the book, you have to hit it repeatedly (about six times) before it 

actually opens and you can hurt it. when it opens, the idea is to throw the 

kitchen sink at it. the bookās attacks while itās closed consist of an attack 

that hits for about 500, and an attack called edge which hits for between 500 

and 1000. the best way to fight the boss is to time everything near right, and 

trance when you hit the book to open, and use grand lethal. the book has a lot 

of hp, though, so chances are one round of trance wonāt do it because youāll run 

out, or itāll close. make sure before the fight that you have ö0- potions, and a 

bunch of hipotions. that way, you heal along with how much it hits you for. i 

threw myself in the back row. you must have antibody on to fight this fight, as 

it tries to poison you when it opens, along with other things. repeat, and you 

should be able to get it. 



(note: it casts doom, which is a death sentence. hence, equip auto life)



i hit it for 26000 damage before it died. two grand lethals, one meo twister.



you get the running shoes, which teaches you auto haste. very handy.



b.) OZMA

us level: 99 (donāt even THINK of doing it lower)



for those not in the know, ozma is the Īweaponā of ff9. and yeah, ozmaās 

probably the hardest thing youāll find to fight. for those not in the know, ozma 

can be found by examining the rock in the chocobo air garden. here are his 

attacks:



holy, which hits for about 2-5k

curse, which basically the equivalent of grand cross, plus about 2-4k damage

flare star, which hits for about 5k

meteor, which hit me for 110, and then 7800

flare, which hits for about 3-5k

jihad/doomsday, which hits both you and he for like 4-10k damage

death, which is, yeah, death

berzerk, which is, yeah, berzerk

curaga, the most painful one, which cures for about 9999



before i report how (if itās possible) some notes:



status ailments donāt seem to affect you if you go into trance. however, being 

in trance is another story. 



if you use a trance attack on him, it seems like the gameās ai automatically 

does curse. curse makes you mini. curse is bad.



dead peppers hit for 1300, and dark matter, of course, for 9999. this is kinda 

cheating, but so is a guy that looks like something out of a cracker jack box.



auto life seems to always be met by curse, which kills you, so taking auto life 

off might not be as bad as you think.



the pumice piece heals you from holy attacks. yes, this includes jihad. if only 

theyād kept its real name.



auto reflect blocks berzerk, and nothing more. but if youāve ever taken off 40k 

damage and sat there berzerked and miniād and watching him cure over and over, 

youāll be glad.



how to win:



pray.



equip these abilities: auto reflect/regen/haste/potion, antibody, body temp, 

bright eyes, mp attack, hp + 20%, insomniac, clear headed. on level 99 i could 

equip all these with 0 ap left.



and thatās not a typo, thereās no auto life cause i just didnāt have the ap for 

it. or it wasnāt as helpful as auto reflect was.



hereās how to fight. actually, hereās how he fights. ozma hits you with an 

Īattackā spell (flare star, holy, meteor, doomsday, flare, death), followed by 

curse. this will repeat, unless he needs healing, in which case heāll curaga 

almost like a counter, then hit you with an attack spell, then a curse. berzerk 

he throws in sometimes later on, followed by curse.



what i equipped: ultima weapon, circlet, dark gear, bracer, and pumice piece. on 

the first round, attack. on the second round, wait a second. if you can make it 

so that you trance on the second round (the curse round), you wonāt get small, 

and thatās an added plus. 



if youāre lucky, he wonāt kill you after two rounds. usually, for me, round 

three is where the problem is. meteor and death are the only ones that ever 

really get me. chances are, youāre mini by the third round. so use a remedy. 

next, go after him with everything youāve got, and expect to be miniād yet 

again.



count ozmaās hit points. when he nears about 40k damage, think about using dark 

matter. (note: if you have lots of dark matters, go for it, but i only had one. 

you really donāt need any, since an mp attack ultima weapon in the front row 

hits for 8k, but when youāre mini, itās just faster..) chances are by now heās 

healing. i figured that the only way i would be able to beat ozma is the way i 

did: he has to doomsday/jihad you and you have to hit him. thatās how i won. 



(note: the artist formerly known as bluryamaneko informs me that reflect should 

reflect flare and holy. however, to my knowledge, he never did these attacks 

once i equipped it, so i canāt verify this)



good luck, if you try. it took me about a hundred tries to figure out the 

perfect way to fight him.



c.) HADES

jp level: 97

us level: 99



at this level, hades was cake. here's how to fight him:



throw yourself in the back row. auto regen/haste/potion help a lot here, like 

always. throw anti-hot/cold on, too. his attacks are completely predictable: 

he'll hit you for about 2k, hit you down to 1 hp, then do a countdown, and after 

he hits 0 he does curse. this is basically an uber-status ailment spell. for me, 

it confused me and turned me to mini, so if you have confusion protection, which 

i do somewhere, put that on too. when this happens, use remedy to get big. 

(remedy is the yellow one, for the kanji challenged..) BE SURE TO STEAL HIS 

REFLECT RING. the second time through, he uses jihad, which hits you for about 

for good damage and heals him for 6k. then the whole thing repeats again. the 

way that i beat him was just steal the ring, beat on him, trance him, beat on 

him, trance him.. etc. eventually, you win. 



as with ozma, the pumice piece heals doomsday/jihad. heās not really hard, but 

be careful if he hits you to 1 and then starts whooping on you more.



jp approx. cd4 end time: 33 hours

us approx. cd4 end time: 33 hours (thatās with eight hours of gay chocobo stuff, 

folks!)



jp level: 97

us level: 99



LII: other



iām sure there are things iāve missed. if there are extra bosses or whatever, 

feel free to email me, and youāll be thrown in here. but going through twice is 

probably enough for me.. until i decide to do quina only or something. <gag>



dexdrive saves: you want them? email me. if you want to host them, email me as 

well. 



jp:

ff9z1.gme - beginning to cleyra's trunk

ff9z2.gme - cleyra's trunk to alexandria

ff9z3.gme - alexandria to beginning of cd4

ff9z4.gme - beginning cd4 to last save spot



us:

ff9uscd1.gme ö cd1

ff9uscd2.gme ö cd2

ff9uscd3.gme ö cd3

ff9uscd4.gme ö cd4



LIV: shoutouts



first and foremost, bluryamaneko. my homeboy. check out his boss faq. i owe him 

many things, such as where to go when i'd get stuck, translation (yeah, my 

translation is that bad even after he helped!), helping to show me where to 

steal stuff, and most importantly, him telling me "beatrix will own you! lich 

will death you! grand cross will kill you immediately!" which kept me going. 



eyeleen. my homegirl. who sat and talked to me for hours despite my delayed 

responses. thank you, doll. you rock my world.



thanks ya. if you got this far, i pray for you.



-luke.



transience242@hotmail.com