Dragon Warrior IV Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Finally in the fifth chapter you are allowed to use the Hero. Regardless of whether you decide to have your Hero male or female, you'll have the best overall character in the game at your disposal. At this point though you're young and feeble. Talk to everyone and you'll learn that you are a very important person for the future of the world. As you return from giving your father lunch, the monsters have found you (must have been that bard they let in last night). You are brought to an underground area in the northeast of the little village. You are instructed to wait here, and eventually your friend Cecilia comes in and transforms into you, baiting the enemies into thinking you are dead. When the coast is clear, go out (search the barrels first for a Medical Herb) and head south to the shack. Supposedly, this is your father's house. He is a cranky, pirate-looking guy, who eventually warms up to you. The three vases in the separate room give you 50 gold coins, a Medical Herb and a Leather Armor. From hear you can go to Branca or back to Endor (through the recently-built Taloon tunnel). I'd suggest going to Endor, as you get new characters here. But you have time and Branca is so close so just stop in there to get some advice. You'll learn that a certain Fortuneteller and Dancer are looking for the Hero. Makes sense. You probably don't have the money to buy anything here and there's really not much to do, so now go to Endor.

Low and behold, you'll see Nara telling Strom his fate outside the House of Healing. For ten gold coins, she'll tell you your fate too! Nara reveals that you are indeed the Hero that she has been searching for and joins you. In the Casino, Mara will be there gambling her money away. She joins you as well and now you suddenly have a powerful party. If you bought a bunch of random items like I advised, you can sell them now and buy the Hero a Broad Sword, Half Plate Armor, Wooden Hat and an Iron Shield. Make sure he/she has these because the following cave more or less demands a competent Hero. Because of this, I'd level up until level 9-11 with the Hero. Go back to the Branca area, and east of this is a valley that heads south. An Inn is here, but you cannot cross due to the sand. You need a wagon, but the wagon-owner in this area doesn't trust anyone, including you. You'll hear about the eastern cave and the situation that happened to Hector, the Inn-keeper's son (guy with the wagon). Before you go off to the cave let me say a thing or two about TACTICS. Generally, I use Offensive especially with good attack spell casters, because the random battles get mopped up really quickly. You'll run out of magic fast though and it'll be inefficient. When I'm going through a cave I'll generally use either Normal or Use No MP for a while to make sure that my time using Offensive doesn't suck my MP dry. These are the only three I tend to use in battle, except for extreme cases.

This cave is interesting to say the least. You don't fight random battles and you need all three characters present in your party to destroy the boulders. As you walk through, Mara and Nara will fall into a pit, leaving you to fend for yourself. Walking along you'll come up to what looks to be Nara and Mara, but they are imposters! Two Liclicks to be exact, and be careful; this battle is difficult if they get Surround off on you. Dispose of one at a time, isolation is the key. You'll fall into a pit with two monsters chasing Mara and Nara. This is yet another trap unfortunately, as two Tricksy Urchins are here with two Vampire Bats. The Bats are easy so you may wish to get them down quick incase they put you to sleep with their attacks. The Tricky Urchins aren't that special although their attack is rather high, and they give a ton of EXP. When this group is dead you'll come to Mara and Nara again, and they'll question you about which one of them was at the casino in Endor. Obviously they fought some monsters just as you did. They trust you even if you answer wrong, and with them back you can continue into a puzzle of blocks with the Symbol of Faith hidden underneath one of them. With this, head back to Hector and he'll join you with Primrose and his carriage. Great, now rest up and head south through the desert.

When you reach grass you'll be at Aneaux. Not much to do here, although this town does have some history so talk to everyone. The middle grave in the upper-left area of the map nets a Strength Seed for you. Again, not much to do so leave. Southwest of here is Konenber, a port town that is stalled due to monsters controlling the waters via the Lighthouse to the east of Konenber. Check out the area and go on the ship that is waiting; in the housing area underneath is a Small Medal. These are vital; collect them vigorously. At the armor store is a Golden Barrette; if you have a female Hero (like I do this time around) buy her one, along with two for the 'Ara sisters. Basically it's going to come down to you and your party going to the Lighthouse to save Taloon and destroy the monsters controlling the sea, because there really is no else on land for you to explore. Head east when you are ready and equipped. Enter this purple-clad "lighthouse" and go north, avoiding the structure. Before you reach Taloon, head into the middle of the blocked off structure and you'll see two treasures, 400 gold coins and a Luck Seed. Now go see Taloon, who should be just north of you as you leave this area. He will beg of you to help him and will thoroughly explain the situation, even asking to repeat it. Taloon then runs off to Konenber where he will be waiting until you are finished here. The first staircase takes you to an area with several permutations. The upper left and right paths lead to nothing, while the mid-western path takes you to a Magic Potion ( a long path; probably not worth you getting). The path directly across from this takes you to a Strength Seed, and the single path under these two takes you to the staircase to advance. Careful here as you don't want to fall into the pit. Take the east path to see a Xemime-like creature try to cast Return, only to hit his head and pass out. Continue on and follow the path as it wraps it's way across the eastern part of the level. Take the east fork for a Full Moon Herb. Now take the west path and continue west and south. Two treasures are here, with the left being a Man-Eater Chest and the other being a Boomerang. The Man-Eater is pretty tricky so you may wish to avoid it. Head back now and take the north passage with the two statues, this leads to the second to last level where the Fire of Serenity is. Pick this up and then take the upper-right staircase. The other two are closed in. Walk around now and you'll see two Flamers (lol) and a Lighthouse Bengal running around a pot. So these are the trouble-makers messing with the boats. They are pretty tough but hardly boss-level. The two Flamers are tricky since Mara uses blaze-based attack spells, so she'll miss often. Hopefully she'll knock out the Lighthouse Bengal, who isn't much of a threat other than to make your characters cower. Heal when you are hit with the Flamers magic/techniques. When the battle is over, pour the Fire of Serenity into the cauldron. Peace settles, so head to Konenber.

Everyone is happy and the town is thriving. Taloon is at the port and asks you to protect him from the monsters that are furious at him. Now the boat is yours, and Taloon suggests going to Mintos in the south. Do so by going straight south and following the coast to the east and you'll see it. Land and enter. Go to the Inn and rest, and then go to the second floor. Brey and Cristo are here! Brey asks you for help and will join if you allow him to. Now you're starting to get a decent amount of party members. At this point, I'm using Brey, Mara, Hero and Taloon. Brey and Mara have Metal Babble Shields, while all the saved up items from Taloon's quest gave me enough money to give him and the Hero a very good arsenal of weapons and armor. The Sword of Malice is good for both, as is the Iron Helmet. Take Howden's quiz and say nothing, which you automatically do. You get the Treasure Map, which is more or less a good compass for you. Leave Mintos now and head due east, stopping in the Portal Shrine to get a Small Medal (following the exterior path along the exterior of the place until you get to where it converges at the very center of the top and head down and search. Nothing else to do here so head east a little and south to Soretta. This poor rural castle houses the Padequia, the cure-all herb. There is a drought and the only thing left to save the plants is buried deep in the southern cave, which is guarded by monsters. Of course you must go to save both Soretta and Cristo.

This cave has an interesting concept, blocks that act as "ice" that you slide across. You must have foresight to see where you are going (or patience). Right as you enter you'll have a practice session around an Agility Seed. Continue on to the stairway, where you'll see Alena and her party walking in circles looking for the Padequia Seed also. Great, well head to the northwest to go on, and take the left-most passage. Don't hit the arrows here, just follow the path to a set of Mystic Acorns. Now hit the ice to your right and it'll take you to another fork. Take the left-most passage, and then go left and take the left-most passage once again. Follow this up and west and open the huge door to get a Robe of Serenity. This is great defense for females, I'd give this to Mara. Continue east again as you go back and out the door you just opened. Take the ice blocks that lead to the treasure, which is 800 gold coins. Now you're back at the initial fork, so take another left path. Instead of going left again though, following the path right and take the staircase. This will take you to the final room, which is a pretty crazy room. It's hard to follow where things go, so pay attention. Head north and take the far right path, the one against the wall. This will get you in the northern area. Go left now and take one of the last three paths to get to the west side of the structure now. The chest that is reachable now is a Man-Eater Chest. Ignore it or kill it, then take the path that is just above the water patch, facing east of you. You will land right on the Padequia Seed. Cast Outside and Return to Soretta. The king will plant the Padequia Seed and give you a Padequia Root! Wonderful! Go to Mintos and administer this to Cristo ASAP, and the two of them (or the three of them if you didn't get Brey earlier) will join you. The guy outside tells you of Ragnar who was in Keeleon. Ragnar is the last one to get, so you may want to head over there. As you leave, Hector will announce that he is going to study management under Howden. Great, bye Hector, thanks for the carriage.

The game really opens up at this point. I'd suggest heading back to the Mara/Nara continent that is Keeleon and exploring that. The monsters (and weapons/armor at Kievs) are very advanced. This is good but dangerous. Head due west of Mintos to get to Keeleon, but instead go back to Kievs. Rest for free at the inn, then talk to the guy staying there. Turns out he was at the Bazaar, and he has improved weapons and armor for you. An Iron Mask for the Hero is imperative. Cloak of Evasion for Alena or Mara or Brey is useful too. For the record, I'm using Mara and Brey and Alena for the rest of the game (with Ragnar switched in for Mara or Brey occasionally). Throughout my experience, I've found that this group has too much firepower, and as long as you can be a competent healer for them, you should be able to tear through just about anyone. Also at Kievs you'll hear (from a slime no less) that there may be a Magic Key in that western cave. The shop owner who is still stumbling around looking for the elevator confirms that you must search at the bottom of another treasure chest to find it. Go to where Orin was and search the Lamp of Darkness treasure chest, and you will find a button. This opens another staircase, so go down here and search the barrells for a Small Medal. The treasure at the bottom right of the room is the Magic Key. Now you have some things you can do. First off, I would go to Endor and head east as soon as you get in. Use your keys to get in and get to the armor shop, where you can buy Metal Babble Armor for 15,000. This is well worth it; the best armor in the game. A slight detour, but I'd head back to Keeleon to get Ragnar now.

A humanized Healie is chilling to the west as you enter Keeleon, and he confirms Ragnar's involvement. Well, use your nice new Magic Key, because you know something bad is going on in there. Towards the King's room (you DO remember, right?) is Ragnar with two soldiers. As you approach him, he decks both of the soldiers and recognizes you as the Hero. You barge into the King's room and Keeleon calls a bunch of guards. Ragnar takes the guards while your party takes Keeleon. Fear not, he is no where near as dominant as he was when you saw him with the two girls. Use Offensive tactics for sure, and hopefully Mara can spray him with Blazemore and Brey with Snowstorm. Better yet, if Brey could Bikill Alena or the Hero that would be even better. In three or four turns he should be dead with this party; but be careful as this party could also die quickly. Obviously if you have Metal Babble Shields for Brey and Mara, they'll go from being a defensive liability to being a straight up rock. Again, if you keep your health up Keeleon should go down, thus uniting the eight lights. Head back to the western prophet; she'll disappear in a fateful moment.

What to do now? Feel free to explore, you have the boat and can check out everything you've already seen or haven't seen. With the Magic Key, look for treasures that you can now get. One thing I like to do at this juncture (once I get everyone) is go to the Royal Crypt (via boat, south of Endor on a cape by itself) and fight Metal Babbles until I gain a sufficient amount of levels. On an emulator this is very easy. They don't appear as frequently as you'd probably like, but these little buggers can get you from the early 20's in levels to the early to mid 30's in a couple of hours. Also with all the new characters, try to find a group of four (or narrow it down to 5 or 6) characters that you use the majority of the time. For me, that's the Hero, Mara, Brey, Alena, Ragnar and maybe Cristo. I just can't justify using Nara at all, and Taloon is a likeable character and has some nice random moves he does, but usually doesn't provide the firepower of a magic user or Ragnar/Alena. Cristo is on the maybe list because I hate how the AI controls him, too often he wastes his turn on a status ailment or Beat spell that won't work against bosses or certain creatures. Now with this group, try to only get their weapons and armor, as you'll save time not buying for every last person with you. Around Keeleon you'll hear of Balzack taking refuge in Santeem castle, so head there. You may wish to Return to Endor and then work your way back, checking on Frenor, Tempe and Surene before you go. Orin is at Frenor and gives you some advice about the Secret of Evolution you keep hearing about. In Surene (the newly accessible area with your new Magic Key) you'll hear of Zenithian tales in Stancia, far to the northwest. We'll deal with that afterwards. Rest up, be in your early to mid 20's in level, and head to Santeem. Finally, it's time to mow down Balzack. Some Mini-Demons are roaming the area, and a Flamer (?) is guarding some treasures that you could have gotten too with your Magic Key. Balzack is sitting on the throne. Again, I'm using Brey, Mara, and Alena along with the Hero. Make sure you act as the primary healer, because that's what you are. Hopefully Brey will Bikill Alena, and hopefully Mara will make contact with a Blazemore or two. He likes to use Snowstorm on you and emit freezing winds. The former takes off 35-40 on everyone while the latter takes off about 10 on everyone. Oh, he goes twice a round too. So if he gets off two Snowstorms, you're in trouble. Again, just make sure the Hero is there to boost up whoever gets low and you should be fine. With Balzack dead, three Mini-Demons come in and bark about the Secret of Evolution being rushed and not ready to use. Get the three treasures that were previously guarded, and you'll have a Strength Seed, Flute of Uncovering, and a Magma Staff. Those last two are very important. Now though head to Stancia as that Surene sign instructed you.

Basically, go straight north from the western coast of the Surene/Santeem continent. You will come up to the Stancia area, and you must get out (towards the right side of the land mass) and walk around the water to get to Stancia. The Sacred Robe and Dragon Mail are nice, but I wouldn't waste any money here. Just talk to everyone and you'll learn much regarding Zenithia and it's importance. In the first area, take your boat to the upper-right portion of the screen and enter the stairs. In this woman's house you'll find a Small Medal. Continue north towards the king's area and take the side paths and search around them. Another Small Medal will be found in a drawer so be sure to get it. When you speak with the king, you won't be able to make him laugh. You will hear however, about an entertainer named Panon who could make him laugh. If you searched Monbaraba during your last visit to that continent, you may have already met Panon. At any rate, he's at Monbaraba so go there and he'll join you. He must be in front of your party, and instead of making the Stancia king laugh, he'll just convince him to give you the Zenithian Helm. This is the best helmet for your Hero, so leave it on him/her for the rest of the game. Panon leaves, and you're left to search for more. If you recall, someone mentioned the Zenithian Shield being in Burland, so head east and south a little and continue past Frenor and Lakanaba until you get to Burland.

In Burland you'll hear that the Zenithian Shield is probably in Gardenbur, and that Gardenbur is sealed off and you need the Magma Staff to unseal it. Thank the heavens, you already have it. Raid the treasure area in Burland, for 2 treasures of gold (total of roughly 500 gold coins), a Strength Seed, Iron Helmet, Agility Seed, and a Lifeforce Nuts. Other than this there is not much else to do here, so head to Izmit. It seems you can have strange, repetitive dreams at the Inn here. The one I got when I went here was Saro going to tell Rosa of his ambitions. Again, not much to do here so take the river south of Izmit and follow it east, taking the first south exit past Burland. Walk south and east and north as it wraps around, and use the Magma Staff at the end of the road, where one mountain blocks your advancement. The mountain will crumble after using it, so head on into Gardenbur now! This is a female-only castle, yet there are a male or two around. The Pink Leotard is a great piece of armor for females, so you may wish to get one for Alena. Before you do anything else, head to the staircase in the center of the first floor. Enter it, and re-enter it on the other side to go back to the first floor. Now head north, even though it looks like you can't go north. You'll find a secret passage, leading to the Fire Claw, which just so happens to be Alena's best weapon in the entire game. On the first floor, there is a small medal in the south-western portion of the screen, while an Agility Seed is in a drawer on the second floor. As you search around, you'll see a guy who looks like Laurent searching a drawer. When you talk to him, he'll flee and the lady who bragged about the Bronze Amulet will come in and say you stole it. Alas, you don't have the amulet but you're still in trouble. The queen of Gardenbur throws you in jail but allows you to look for the thief, on the condition that you leave one of your friends there. I'd put in Nara or someone you're not going to use, and then go to the southeastern cave that you're advised to visit.

This cave is big and houses some dangerous monsters, not to mention there is a boss at the end. Keep all this in mind and conserve the best you can. Head south and at your first intersection, go west. You'll get to a four-way stop as you approach southwards. Head east for a Small Medal, and west to continue onwards. This will wrap around for a while, and take the south path instead of the east one, when you can. This will take you to a three-way intersection, so take the east path for an Agility Seed and then go north to continue. Ignore the south passage for a second and take the second southern passage to get that treasure of 1200 gold coins that is mounted on that plateau. Then take that first south exit as it wraps around to the south and eventually to the staircase to get you to the basement level. Take the western bridges here, and then take the south exit when you can. This will take you to two small ladders, climb them both and head north to pick up the Strength Seed. Take the southeastern ladders now and take the first west you can. This will go on for a while, and the north path nets you an Iron Mask while the southern one gives you a Dragon Shield. This is a nice addition for the Hero for the 5 minutes before you get the Zenithian Shield. So now head back to where you initially went west, and go south instead. This takes you to the last staircase, and ultimately to the real thief. He has a nice pad here, and also is sleeping with the Bronze Amulet. When you "talk" to him, he'll get up and try to run. You don't want this to happen, so head south to the exit and cut him off, or just catch him and talk to him. The man, Bakor, will fight you. He can cast Snowstorm and Increase on himself, so be careful. Brey likes to use Snowstorm on Bakor but it works rarely, hopefully Brey is wise enough to cast Bikill on you and Alena. Again, with the well-oiled offensive machine of Mara, Brey and Alena going full force, Bakor probably should go down in 5 rounds. Increase might help him a bit, but Alena can still plug him with a critical hit to negate that, and Increase doesn't stop Blazemore. A Gardenbur guard comes with you to apprehend Bakor, so cast Outside and Return to Gardenbur. The Queen thanks you for your efforts and gives you the Final Key to open your jailmate's cell and also to receive the Zenithian Shield! Go to the two basements to do this. With the Final Key, there are plenty of places you can go now. I'd suggest Returning to Izmit and sailing east, and wrap south when you can. You'll come to the Shrine of Breaking Waves and also the shrine where the king of Small Medals dwells. Give him all that you have, you should have about seven if you followed my guide in order. I bought a Hat of Happiness for Brey, but you can save up for that Metal Babble Helmet if you want. Remember, throughout Dragon Warrior IV there are enough Small Medals to buy ONE of everything, so use them how you wish.

Since you're in the area, head north to the Shrine of Breaking Waves. Be warned; these monsters are tough in here, although the layout of the cave is rather simple. Completely ignore the left and north passages, they lead nowhere. Instead, go east with your boat. You'll begin sailing north and the passages will be separated by giant blocks. Take the fourth western passage and you'll walk through the wall to get that treasure, which is a Small Medal. Continue north and don't get off the boat. You'll get to a stone maze, but it's easy to navigate. Get to the west exit of the room and head south after that and take the stairs. You're there already! Grab the Zenithian Armor and the Small Medal. Alas, the Zenithian Armor is significantly worse than the Metal Babble Armor (at least at this point) so leave the Metal Babble Armor on the Hero. Cast exit and drop off those two Small Medals you acquired. Then begin sailing south along the eastern part of the Burland/Gardenbur/Rosatown continent. You're looking for Rosatown, as the Queen of Gardenpur did refer you to them. Anyway, as you begin following the south part of the continent, a river will come up. Take this all the way to Rosatown. The old man to the left is all the shops, you just have to talk to him in the different booths. At the weapon shop I'd pick up a Dragon Killer if you can. I had a Sword of Malice for the Hero still, pretty weak. By the way, you should go to Lakanaba (Return to Bonmalmo and walk north) and visit Taloon's old store. Remember the Final Key door in his shop? It leads to a Strength Seed, Chain Sickle, and the Ice Blade! This is worse than the Dragon Killer, but is the free alternative (albeit 15 points less attack power) to the Dragon Killer. Anyway, at Rosaville use the Flute of Uncovering near that tower, as Saro did. A Saroknight will be up there, and he's pretty tough. He has a Sphere of Silence that will silence your entire party. If he doesn't get that off in round 1 he probably has no shot of beating you. When he dies, you get the Sphere. Rosa and the Slime have some advice for you. Heed the Slime's and go to Endor, rest up, and sail south. Actually, before you go you can put your Final Key to work once more. Head into Endor castle and head to the very north part of this room, just above the staircase leading down. Use the Door button on the wall (you can't see the door, just the middle-black space above the staircase) and you'll go through the wall. Talk to the guy at the very top and jump down; you'll be in the Metal Babble Armor shop. Grab the Multi-Edge Sword and the Strength Seed. Now go to the Royal Crypt.

Hopefully, you've already been here. Metal Babbles are everywhere, just asking for Alena to give them a critical hit. When you get to the main floor (with the Soretta cave-like steps) head north. These will take you to a staircase to the north. Take one of the paths here, they lead to the same staircase. Hit the path again, and you'll come to a treasure just north of you. Grab the Staff of Antimagic and head west as east leads you back to the start. You'll wrap around to the south and have the choice of continuing or detouring east. Go east and grab the Small Medal, and then go further south, not hitting the steps. Take the east fork when you are going north, and you'll hit a staircase. The path to the north just in front of you is a recovery pond. Go south, again not hitting the steps, as you've been down that staircase. Head to the bottom of the left without hitting anything and you'll be at yet another staircase. Take the lower of the two west exits, and this one will wrap down and to the east. Now take the lower of the east paths and you'll see a treasure, which is the Staff of Transform. That about does it, you can leave now. With this you can go to Riverton and ultimately the Dire Palace, where the monsters live, now that you have the Staff of Transform. I'd suggest doing some sidequests, so you can skip these if you wish and just head to Riverton.

Near Rosatown is the Cascade Cave. Now you can't enter this because a waterfall blocks you from doing so. However there is something to relieve this, in the Seaside Village. You may have stopped by this town; it's not necessary that you do so. You'll want the Metal Babble Sword though, so let's do this. Sail to the southwest of the Birdsong Tower and you'll come to a land mass that is the Seaside Village. Talk to everyone here, you'll get some info on things you haven't heard of before. Head back at night and you'll discover some more useful things. First off the item shop owner tells you of the Sandglass of Regression, which is a wonderful item used to reverse time after a bad move in battle. You'll get this later. Also note that east of the Inn is a dry space within all the water. Remember this and search it during the day (it's in the picture if you need). The Stone of Drought is here! Before you leave, search the statue just above the counselor for another Small Medal. With the Stone of Drought in hand, Return to Rosaville. There is no easy way to get to the Cascade cave but this is probably the easiest. Take the river north of Rosaville until you get past the Symbol of Faith cave. When you can, go east onto the land and then wrap around south, hugging the west mountain range. You'll get to the Cascade cave eventually this way, make sure you bring the Stone of Drought. As you enter this sharp looking area, you'll notice the best sea monsters are here. Use the Stone on the dimmer wall and it'll reveal a passage. Enter and open the doors, grabbing the Sandglass of Regression along the way. In this new area, go west and ignore the first north passage, but take the second for a Small Medal. Head south and this wraps a long way now, as it goes north, east, and south along the outskirts of the room. It brings you to a staircase, and go down when you get out. You'll get a Mask of Corruption, which is very powerful but is cursed so you should never equip it. Go back north and east by the staircase. When you have a choice of north or south choose south for 1040 gold coins. Follow the north path now and keep east as it wraps around. You'll be at a staircase, which leads all the way down to the lovable Metal Babble Sword. Equip this on the Hero for a 40 point attack power boost over the Dragon Killer. Oh my. At this point, your Hero should have a Metal Babble Sword and Armor, along with the Zenithian Helmet and Shield, and a Meteorite Armband to boot. Now you're in real good shape. Head to Riverton now.

The easiest way to get there is to Return to Monbaraba and go north about 10 spaces and straight east, you should run into the continent that Riverton is on. At the top there will be a river going south, take this and you'll be in Riverton. Not much to do here. They talk often about air balloons so you can assume you'll be getting one of them in the near future. The weapon and armor shops are nice but probably don't have anything worth buying. There is another Small Medal in the center island of town where the Laurent-looking guy is. Search the very south of that island and you'll find it. Move on south now, and you'll be at the stone giant. Enter via the Final Key and head north. Don't go in the staircase, but further north you should grab the Small Medal. Now hit the staircase. In this room, there is 640 gold coins to your left and a staircase to your right. Quickly hop in the next staircase to the northwest now. Follow this path and take the east most of your choices for an Agility Seed. Now go south and follow as it wraps west to the staircase. You're in a big room now, on the exterior of a large structure. Head west until you get to a staircase; take that for a Demon Hammer. Go back and keep going north along the exterior and you'll come to a room with a staircase; enter it and grab the treasure you see for a Mimic! These are like Maneater Chests but more difficult. Shouldn't be an issue for you though, hit the staircase when you're done. On this top floor, jump off the LEFT side. If you jump off the right side you'll be by the Demon Hammer. Head north now and you'll get to the head of the colossus. Hit the lever anywhere and it'll move to the other side of the lake. You're probably decimated in terms of MP, so just head east and get to Dire Palace. Now Return somewhere nice and rest, and then Return back to Dire Palace. Nice, eh? Inside Dire Palace is interesting. There are monsters who will make conversation with you if you are a monster, or will attack you if you're a human. Search around as both, you can always leave and they'll reappear. In the basement there is a Small Medal in one of the jars. Work your way to the floor where the throne room is, and take the exit to the northwest of you. You'll be in a courtyard-type area. Go left and stick south, but don't leave the Dire Palace. Instead, hug the western edge of the map and move north in order to get to the staircase you see. Inside is four treasures; the bottom two are Mimics and the top two are a Small Medal and an Aeolus' Shield. The Aeolus' Shield is probably the best shield Ragnar can get at this point. Back at the throne room level, jump off to the south and you'll be in another courtyard area with the option to use Stepguard. Go to the east now and search the grave after hitting the staircase; you'll find some Lifeforce Nuts. Okay, all the treasures are procured, so head to the throne room for the meeting. Change into a monster and wait next to the Minidemon, Sara will come. He'll tell of Esturk reviving at Aktemto! That explains the poor health in that town. Return over there now, but only when you're ready as Esturk is a tough boss. Try to be around level 29 or so.

Aktemto is worse than ever. There are three people here, and one of them is near death. Head in and follow the path you took to get to the Gunpowder. Go north past the Bengal and then east when you can. Go north when you can, and then east when you can for a staircase. Go straight north from here and you'll come to another miner who is bragging about getting to gold. However he just knocked open the evil lair it seems as when you enter you'll be in a completely open space. North is a room with a recovery spring, so use this to your advantage. Head east into the big structure, and go north upon entry. Grab all the treasures here for 2480 gold coins, a Small Medal, a Mimic, a Strength Seed and an Agility Seed. Continue on to the staircase and go east and then south, ignoring the first staircase. Now you are at two treasures, with the left being a Small Medal and the right being a Mimic. Follow this to the northwest and before you know it, you'll be right in front of Esturk. Well, his cronies are there, but the Rhinoking and Bengal aren't much more than a short delay. Afterwards, heal up and go up to the great Esturk! Who to use? Well again, I like Brey and Mara and Alena. Healing is rough but if the Hero can do it for 3 or 4 turns, you probably have him. You have to hope Mara and Brey connect with their powerful spells, and also hope that Brey has the wherewithall to Bikill either you or Alena or both. As far as Esturk, well, he's the ruler of evil! He is not fully revived fortunately, and he starts off sleeping. However an eerie light emanates from his fingers and assaults your party by 50 hit points each. If you brought Cristo, hopefully he'll use Healus. If you're using the Hero, well, I'd wait another turn and then use Healusall. In the meantime, Have the Hero use Lightning if you have it, and Mara should be using Blazemost while Alena should be getting critical hits. Brey's dumbass decided to use Chaos 3 or 4 times against Esturk, so you may wish to bring someone more competent like Cristo instead. He'll cure the Poison you inevitably got from the Ryverns. Anyway, Esturk can do some damage when he wakes up as well. Sometimes he goes twice a turn, and he often uses lights from his fingers to erase Bikill or any other status effects you have on your characters. His physical attack is devastating and could take out Brey or Mara easily. Remember though, he is weak and it shows in his overall hit point level. After a while he'll go down for good, dead prematurely. Saro is dumbstruck as he realizes you're the Hero. He flees and you should too, but not before you grab the Gas Canister from the treasure chest that was guarded by the Skeleton. Leave and head to Riverton and present the Gas Canister to the guy at the shop below the weapon shop. He tells you to come back the next day, and when you do you have a balloon!

Take this north of Soretta, to a previously unaccessible mountain range. Elfville is here. Not much to do here, other than get the idea to go up the tree. Before you go, you may wish to get a Shield of Strength, or more likely some Water Flying Clothes for Brey or Mara. Lastly, make sure you only bring up three people otherwise your trip will be in vain. I'm taking Mara and Alena with the Hero. Take the left entry for a Staff of Healing, then go right to continue. From this staircase, ignore the north pass and go south, being careful not to fall. Hit the staircase, and then go south when you have a choice. This leads you to a Dew of the World Tree. Return back and head north onto the leaf. Take this all the way to the south, and then west, and then north, and then east to the staircase. On the next floor you work in a counter clockwise manner until you get to the next staircase. On this final floor, head to the middle and recruit Lucia, the Zenithian. She asks you to take her there and you need to go there anyway. Before you jump off, head to the southeast of this floor and grab the Zenithian Sword (remember that this is FAR worse than the Metal Babble Sword).

When you were venturing to Riverton, you may have came across an inaccessible area, near the center of the world. Well, make your way here with the balloon. Land anywhere in this area and you'll be put in the southwestern point of this island. Make your way east and you'll find Gottside. All your answers lie in this little town. Turns out there is a tower to Zenithia in this area. There is even a fallen Zenithian who begs of you to go there ASAP. First though, go east to the Shrine of the Baron's Horn. Head north upon entry and jump down the pit; head south and go down the staircase afterwards. The Baron's Horn is here, but don't leave quite yet. Go to the bottom floor and bring the elevator up. Now use the stairs to the bottom, and you'll have revealed a staircase underneath where the elevator was on the bottom floor. Down here is a Dress of Radiance, great equipment for Mara or Alena. Now you can leave, rest up at Gottside, and go south to the Zenithian Tower. You must have all the Zenithian items equipped for you to have access; if you don't you'll be send back. You can re-equip your Metal Babble wear right after though. Inside this unique place, go left first and take the path all the way to a Magic Potion. Go back and take the right path now, and go in the building immediately to your left for some Mystic Acorns. Go north into the next room, and take the first left passage for a Small Medal. The right one is a dead end, so take the north one. Follow this until you reach a fork where you can go south down a staircase or up into a room. Take the staircase and follow the winding room as you get to a staircase or a mini-ladder. Take the ladder and follow that path until you get a Mysterious Bolero, an armor that is a little weaker than the Water Flying Clothes. Now go back and take the stairs instead, until you get to a two-way fork. Go right to get a Dragon Shield, and then go west and follow the red rug until you get to the next staircase, and from there you'll be transported to Zenithia! Put Lucia in your party to drop her off, and go left when you get in and find her. She'll be in the basement with Doran, who is a Baby Dragon. Doran is useful but unreliable, keep this in mind. Searching the room in the lower floor will net you a Small Medal. Not much else to do, but the information here is vital so be sure to talk to everyone. The dragon that runs the area is through the double doors. He gives you experience points and upgrades your Zenithian Sword. Now go to the basement and drop off to get to the cave leading to the land of evil.

As you enter this gigantic cave, go north twice to get a Dress of Radiance. Go west and follow this north and you'll have a choice to go down or left. Go left and navigate the easy floor tiles to get the Small Medal, and then leave going down this time. This looks like you're going in a circle, but more or less you're going down a level. Take the LONG path around and take a left again at this intersection. Continue left and you'll have the Staff of Jubilation. Turn around and head down and use Stepguard, then get the chest. It's a Mimic though, so you may want to rethink that, depending on whether you want to be amused or not. You'll come to a staircase after a long walk, and from hear head south and hit the far left floor panel to take you to the cursed Demon Armor. Now hit the panel that'll get you to the right portion of the screen, and go down the staircase. You'll be by four treasures, 3280 gold coins, a Strength Seed, Agility Seed, and Lifeforce Nuts. Continue on and you'll be in the middle of a lake with a boat by you. In the upper left corner you find Lifeforce Nuts and in the low-middle area you'll find a pair of Water Flying Clothes. When you want to advance, head to the staircase leading down in the middle of the lake, just a bit right of your initial starting point. Follow this long path and you'll be in a new area, with blue walls and red floors. Dive down the pit when you get a chance, you'll get a Mirror Shield. Use the staircase to get back up and get the Lifeforce Nuts afterwards. Now keep going down and you will be out of here, so go to the building immediately left of you. You are at the last refuge, where the ghost will turn into a Zenithian and allow you to rest and save.

There are four barriers here, in each corner of the land. You must destroy each before having access to the Final Castle that is directly north of you. There are boss fights in each one, but they are all relatively weak. Also, keep in mind you have the Last Refuge just steps away, so throw Mara and/or Brey in there and have them throw everything they have. Head to the southwest temple first, the Den of the Gigademon. Cast Stepguard and make your way to the other side of the swamp and search the very far corner for a Small Medal. Head into the staircase and you'll come to a dead end, so leave and take the southernmost one. You'll be in a room with a bunch of statues that move corresponding to how you move. If they touch you, you'll be sent out. The idea is to obstruct them with the walls, and you can do it in various ways. What I do is walk four steps north (from the staircase) so that I'm one spot south of where the lowest walls are. Then, I go east four steps, and then north to the wall. From here, head west and exit, not too bad eh. Before you walk through the wall here, you may wish to cast Stepguard. Go up and talk to the Gigademon, who will try to trick you by telling you he has something behind you. He then battles you, and is not much of an issue. His attacks are good and he can defend, along with going twice per turn. Throw Lightning at him, and hopefully Mara will use Blazemost, with Brey and Alena (or whomever) using their best Offensive tactics. He'll die and a barrier will break. Rest up and take a trip to the northwest temple. No trickery here, just the Infernus Shadow waiting for you. He emits a blaze and a blizzard of some sort, with the former taking off 80-90 and the later doing 50-60. In addition he has Explodet which is no fun either. Fortunately he has one attack per round and should be gobbled in by round 3. Your reward is a Sword of Miracles, which may or may not be useful to you at this point, depending on your party of preference (ie I never need it, I don't use Cristo). Again, rest up and take the southeast temple. You have to do some walking to get to this boss, but it's easy walking. In this battle, you fight three Anderoug's, which are black dragons basically. They emit some sort of tactic on you and can reproduce, but are easily the weakest of these minibosses you're fighting. Use offensive tactics that attack all three of them, which will completely destroy their means of reproducing. Rest and go to the northeast one now, the Den of Radimvice. This is the final one and Radimvice is arguably the toughest of these four, which isn't necessarily saying much. Take the northeast staircase when you're left with the option, and you'll pick up a worthless Zombie Mail. Then take the southwest one to get you to Radimvice, and don't fall! Radimvice is an evil priest, and he taunts you by saying he ordered the abduction of Rosa. In battle, he has Bounce up constantly and he will use Infermost frequently. He comes with three Demighouls, who can be dispatched with a group attack on them. Sometimes I'll just use Lightning and absorb the reflection hit, because it'll trounce the three Demighouls. When alone, Radimvice isn't too tricky, just throw Ragnar in there or some physically powerful character. The barriers are broken!

Rest one more time at the Last Refuge, and the guy there will remind you to call the Baron's Horn before you get to Necrosaro. Anyway, this is it, so be smart about it. Most of the monsters are repeats here. As you enter, watch out for the three Clay Dolls. They will fight you and can use Beat to kill a character of yours. They come by themselves though so shouldn't be a problem. Cast Stepguard and follow this path until you get to an area with a pit, and a staircase going up and one going down. The staircase and pit lead to a Small Medal at the bottom of that swampy area. Now take the staircase up and follow that path until you get to an elevator and a staircase going up that is just above the elevator. Don't use the elevator, but hit the staircase. From here, cast Stepguard again and head directly north and you'll go through the wall. Follow this LONG path and you'll come to a Sage's Stone, which casts Healus only in battle. Still very useful, plug that on the Hero and you can go through this area without using any MP and just healing with that. Return to that original room that you walked through the wall in, and head southeast instead. You'll come to a Lifeforce Nuts and a Staff of Thunder. The former casts Firebane on one group of enemies. Return back to the elevator and take it. After getting off, go south then east, and then north up the staircase. Take the elevator back down, and then go back up the staircase to reach a previously inaccessible area. Follow this path north and well, you're outta here. Careful, you're at a black mountain. Can't be good. You KNOW Necrosaro is here.

This is it, so let's do some pre-battle consultation here. First off, before you enter this mountainous structure, USE the Baron's Horn to get the carriage with you. You can't use it inside the mountain, and you have to make sure someone in your active party of four has it in their inventory. Of course, you could always re-enter the castle and give the item to one of the four. At any rate, make sure the Hero has the Sage's Stone, and also be wary of the items your other characters have; you don't want Ragnar using the Staff of Thunder in battle, you know. Now in terms of who you should use, well with the Baron's Horn you can rotate in and out. I usually do the Healing with the Hero's Sage's Stone or Healall spell. Alena, Ragnar and Mara tend to do the most damage for me so they start the battle. If I'm getting hammered I'll get Cristo in there to clean things up. Brey can help with Bikill, while Taloon is another force you can use. Nara, well, I don't use her, but you may have some need for her (or Doran for that matter). Blazemost will deal a lot of damage, as will Alena's critical hits and Ragnar's regular hits. My Ragnar has the Metal Babble Sword, Armor and Helmet, so I suggest you get those three for him as well. Now Necrosaro himself has some powerful spells, and goes through plenty of transformations. The first Necrosaro looks like an orange Esturk. All he does is attack, but he does it twice per round and still warrants attention. Keep yourself clean with the Sage's Stone and after a little under a thousand damage points, he'll lose an arm. Now he only goes once per turn, but still takes off the same amount. Take off another 800 or so and he'll lose that second arm. He's screwed, right? Well now he casts Snowstorm and Firebane and Beat and even puts you to sleep with sweet breath. After about 1000-1100 hit points, he loses his head. At the beginning of this next battle, he begins to "writhe grotesquely". A head pops out and he turns green and looks more menacing than ever before. Take off another 1000 or so and he'll grow new arms. During all this, he'll probably use a violent breath on you to take off 100 on everyone. He can also use what Esturk was notorious for, the shooting waves of light to cancel positive effects (Bikill, Upper, etc). Eventually he'll grow new legs as well, and for some reason his attack is nearly doubled. After this mutation, you'll see him grow another head and cast Bounce immediately. Okay, your strategy needs to change here. Mara probably should be dumped, in favor of another healer like Cristo or in favor of another warrior like Taloon. Personally, I threw in Taloon to join Alena and Ragnar, and used the Hero to heal vigorously. Look, this is Necrosaro at his most powerful form. He still has more than 2000 hit points to eat up, so you're not out of the clear yet. He attacks twice per round, and has an icy attack that takes off upwards of 130-140 on your entire party! Needless to say if he pulls this off twice in one round (I don't know if he ever does that) you're screwed, period. Use Healusall and do whatever you can to buy yourself time. You're still going to be taking off a decent amount on him, it's just a matter of weathering the storm and having Ragnar and Alena and Taloon hack away. When he goes down, his body flashes white and disappears slowly. The mountain begins to crumble, and your party is saved by the dragon from Zenithia. You are carried to Zenithia and commended for saving the world. Each character has their own distinction, and when you are ready talk to everyone and leave. The ending sequence begins, and congratulations, you just beat arguably the deepest NES RPG made.