Final Fantasy VI World of Ruin
World of Ruin
Now that you have the Falcon, the world is in your hands. You can go a lot of different directions, the game is entirely linear and you can even end it now if you want. First though, let’s make some quick stops around the globe to find some helpful things.
Go to the Deserted Island to see Cid. At the beach is the Palidor Esper, a fine one at that, allowing you to get the vital spell Haste 2. Now fly to where Narshe is and go to the weird 5-tree formation northeast of Narshe. This is Duncan’s House, and he’ll teach Sabin the ultimate Blitz, Bum Rush. This monstrosity of an attack takes of mid-thousands right away and eventually gets close to 9999.
With the airship, you may encounter a random battle against Doom Gaze. He’ll cast L5 Doom right away, and then proceed to use other attacks like Doom and Aero. He then escapes after a few turns. The trick is, his damage is cumulative. You won’t be able to do much damage now, but Bum Rush is the main ingredient for taking him down. It should take four or five battles to kill thim, but when you do you get the Bahamut Esper (allows you to learn Flare). This won’t be for a while unless you fly around for him. There’s no real evidence to say he appears anywhere – it’s all random.
Maranda / Zozo
So where should you actually go now that you have the whole world at your fingertips? Probably should follow that pigeon to the house in Maranda, where some lady is getting lots of flowers. Strange, didn’t this Mobliz guy die? Looking at the letters it looks like Cyan, so go along with the farce and attach Lola’s thing to the bird and it’ll fly away.
It goes to Zozo, so go there. It flies further up when you get to Zozo, so go west and north to talk to a dude who sells you a Rust-Rid. Then go in the building to the east of him (entrance is south though). All the way up and the door that was rusted shut will now open. You are now at Mt. Zozo.
Go west inside and get the Ice Shld, and then south for the Red Cap. South more then west for a Thunder Shld, and then north for an Aegis Shld. Take the exit north of this for a Gold Hairpin (told you you’d get another one a long time later than Lone Wolf). Now return and go east and north to continue along.
You’ll come to a Save Point and a switch, and a treasure a far ways away. Rest, Save, and hit the switch. A dragon pops out, so get in it’s line of direction and it’ll fight you. This is the Storm Dragon, one of the many dragons released. His HP is around 45,000 so you can expect a long grueling battle, and considering he has Rage, Cyclonic and other powerful Wind Spells, you could easily die. Use Bolt if you have it, Drill / Chain Saw works well, and of course Bum Rush (5000 damage each time). You get Force Armor for beating him, and if it was your first dragon kill it’ll say “7 dragons left”.
Further along is a room full of flowers (that were in Lola’s house) and then further east is Cyan on a mountain top, sending another letter. He says he’ll rejoin and quickly runs in to hide all the flowers, but explains the situation. He also mentions Gau was going to the Veldt to get stronger. Before you leave, go back to the mountain top and search the flashing blue light for a key to Cyan’s treasure, and go there to get some machinery magazines of no worth whatsoever.
Use Warp to leave.
Veldt
Put three members in your party and go to the Veldt. You’ll find Gau after a battle and he’ll join. Learn some more abilities if you want or head into the cave.
It’s much different now. Follow your way in until you get to four thief-looking guys. They have some good advice, most of it is about Gau though. Go west for a Rage Ring and then north to continue into the cave. You’ll walk through an area where you can’t see, but try to go north and west instead of south and you’ll get to a treasure. This is a monster, and it is Allo Ver. He is undead and can be rather difficult although a Bum Rush and Drill should bring him down to his knees. Tiger Fangs are your rewards, and you now have Sabin’s two best weapons.
Further along until you get to a blocked exit (by three stones). Go south and get the Striker, and do not lose this. You need this to get Shadow back in your party (if you waited for him at the end of World I, before jumping in the airship at the last second). Now hit the switch and go east. You’ll see Shadow above you as you continue along the path, so rest and save at the Save Point. Go up to Shadow and a Sr Behemoth will surprise you. Use Bum Rush, Drill, Poison – Fire based magic. After he dies, an undead Behemoth will show up behind you. Use a Phoenix Down on him to kill him immediately or continue with the same strateg. A BehemothSuit and a Thunder Blade are your rewards for killing these two.
Note that if you didn’t wait for Shadow, Relm will be here instead. That helps explain why the dialog says “let’s take her back to Thamasa”, even if it’s Shadow! Back in Thamasa, Shadow (or Relm) will leave.
Colosseum
Wage the Striker and you’ll get in a fight with Shadow. After defeating him easily, he’ll rejoin you. This is all under the assumption that you still have the Striker from the Veldt and that you waited for him at the Floating Continent. You can do more things at the coliseum if you’d like but you can’t do the real valuable things for a while yet.
Opera House
Check out the Opera House. There seems to be a problem, a dragon in fact, sitting on the stage. Cast Float on everyone, go to the northeast part where the switches are and hit the far right when you are ready. This is the Dirt Dragon, earth-based of course. He’ll try using Quake on you but that’s why you casted Float. He does however have a method of removing Float from your characters but you can just cast it again. Dirt Dragon also counterattacks with Honed Tusk, which takes off 1500-2300 depending on your armor. Chances are you won’t survive this so try to do the best attacks you have to minimize the amount of counterattacks he’ll get. Bum Rush, Catscratch and Drill / Chain Saw are the best options to use. You get a Magus Rod for your efforts.
Narshe
It’s kind of risky to go here at this point but there is a lot of opportunity for you to get ahead here. If you go to where the Moogle’s are, you can get Mog (whether you got him initially or not). Search behing him for a Moogle Charm, allowing you to never fight a random encounter.
To the north parth of Narshe, where the snow field is, you’ll find an Ice Dragon roaming about. Try to avoid this for now and continue north where you will find Tritoch. This is one of the hardest boss fights you’ve had so far, as Tritoch will use all the level 3 attack magic spells, and can use Cold Dust to neutralize a character temporarily (until you cast Fire on that character). Use things like Bum Rush, Chain Saw and Catscratch, as normal attacks don’t really do anything and you don’t have enough powerful magic attacks to put a dent in him either. The level 3 magic attacks aren’t quite as strong as you think, unless done on one of your characters, so Tritoch will eventually go down and will give you 7 Magic Points and the Tritoch Esper. This esper allows you to get Bolt 3, Fire 3 and Ice 3.
Where Tritoch was, a path will open. This leads to Umaro, you can do this now if you’d like. Or you can learn Fire 3 and help the Ice Dragon fight go easily. If you choose to fight the Ice Dragon, use the same attacks as before. I won’t explain the tactics any longer – Bum Rum along with Edgar’s top two tools and Gau’s best rage’s (primarily Stray Cat) will usually do around 10,000 damage per turn. This can whittle down the best bosses’ HP fast.
Now for Umaro. Bring Mog, otherwise you can’t recruit Umaro. When you are there, go through that opening in the back of where Tritoch was and you’ll fall through. Work your way west, not stepping on the dark spots (if you do you fall through the hole). You’ll get to a treasure chest with three Pugs. These things have a powerful attack and move closer to you, eventually hitting you with really large amounts once they get close enough. Because of this you’ll want to treat them like bosses and use your best attacks to get rid of them fast.
Go back where you initially fell in and take the middle path. You won’t fall through this way but as you get in the next room, work your way west and stick to the south wall while you do it. You’ll get the X-Ether and then you can fall down. In this lower floor, go to the southwest for a Gauntlet and stay on this raised floor, following the bridges east and then north to the exit. In this floor, go to the far east switch and hit it. You’ll fall in someone’s room it seems like. Search the skull for Terrato, a powerful snake esper. Umaro doesn’t like that and he comes out to challenge you.
Umaro has some powerful physical attacks and can use a Green Cherry (not the one that cures Imp status) that makes his power up 100 times and all his other stats up too. This usually means he’s on his way to death though, and he doesn’t have a lot of HP. If you have Bum Rush, this won’t last more than a few turns. Again, if you didn’t bring Mog you can’t recruit him. But you don’t have to fight him again when you bring Mog to get him if you didn’t the first time.
You can’t control Umaro so that lessens his value to an extent. You can get relics specifically to aid him (like the Rage Ring at the Veldt Cave, that you should already have). He’s a physical beast but has some different attacks also. Experiment with him if you want, just don’t rely on a character that is berserk all the time.
ZoneEater’s and Gogo
Go to the northeast island, you know, the one with the Intangir’s in world one. You’ll fight ZoneEater’s instead. Don’t attack them, let them Engulf you. They may use Demi, don’t worry though.
You’ll get sucked into some underground thing. You can leave by going north, but go south and then west. You’ll see guys with green suits running around – don’t let them near you when you jump, they’ll push you off. The first item is the best armor on the game, the Genji Armor. Next to that is the Magical Brush and then the hardest one to get (farther to the left) is the FakeMustache. This might be my favorite relic in the game, allowing Relm to change Sketch to Control (similar the Monster Trainer class in FF5). Before you continue on, you’ll eventually want to fall down and work your way back up. This is because there is an Ether and Red Jacket (great armor for Sabin) if you fall).
The next room is tricky. There is a falling wall along with treasures as you go. You’ll have to be patient and see where you can wait. At first, go under the first two treasures (Zephyr Cape and Hero Ring respectively). Next, work your way south as fast as you can, ignoring that treasure chest. You’ll get far enough to save yourself, and then you can work your way back up to get the treasure quick (Tack Star).
In the next room you’ll have treasures to jump on to move yourself around. Work your way north and then east and south a little to jump on that switch – this extends some of the bridges. Now go all the way west and get the Thunder Shld. Go north after this and “talk” to Gogo. He is definitely an odd creature, but he joins you. At first sight, he doesn’t add much, but when you learn about his true abilities, he can be better than any other character you have.
Gogo is the most unique character in the game. If you go to the status screen, you can choose any three abilities to go with Mime (yeah, any!) Want to try that FakeMustache out? Give it to him and he can use Control (Sketch). Or Bum Rush (Blitz). Or Magic, or Tool, or Item, etc. He’s versatile, needless to say.
Return to Mobliz
Now that you are more powerful and have the airship, let’s see how Terra is doing. Prepare yourself with your best characters. Go to the house west of the initial underground hideout in Mobliz, and you’ll find a dog that runs behind a staircase. Walk around here and you’ll go downstairs and see Katarin and Terra talking about Katarin’s baby.
Of course as soon as you get there again, Phunbaba comes back! Do about 10,000 worth of damage to him and he’ll use BabaBreath (similar to Sneeze) to get rid of your top two characters. Terra then comes out to help you fight, equipped with the optimum equipment and in Morph mode. Use Bio with everyone if you can, it takes off a bunch (4000 with Terra in Morph mode). Phunbaba does have a ton of HP though so beware of this. Afterwards you get no magic points or items…but you get Terra.
Jidoor
We’re running out of things to do in this vast world. Okay, not yet at least. This was the last hint after the Veldt / Thamasa, to go to Jidoor and look for Relm.
Go to the northmost house (the big one) and turn the lights on. Continue west and now you’ll be by a bunch of pictures. Search the flower one to fight some flowers, and then the magician in the southwest to fight two Dahling’s. They are easy to defeat and a door opens up. Enter in and then look at the picture with the stool. Another fight comes up, easy and giving you nothing. Take the left path for a Moogle Suit and then the right one to continue on, keeping north. Search around here and you’ll find a Relic Ring, and then go back to the doors that change. Take the left-most one and continue on until you’re dropped in a room with hovering treasure chests.
You can go under these treasures to fight battles to get the treasures. However the treasures are Ethers, Potions and other pointless items so you can just skip all of this and search the samurai-like picture in the center of the room for a battle against Still-Life. A door opens, Save, and do not take the left path. Take the right one and prepare for battle.
When you get in that room, you’ll see a weird looking guy on a couch and Relm. Talk to the weird-looking guy and a battle with Chadarnook will begin. This is a monster who has infiltrated this picture and you cannot attack the lady (well, you can but it’s not advised) and rather should attack the blue/black demon Chadarnook. He uses Bolt-based spells, but I wouldn’t worry about using spells on him. Bum Rush, high level Cyan Swordtechs and Tools should be fine. Careful when he’s changing – sometimes he changes to the monster and immediately back to the lady.
Be patient and you’ll have him dead, afterwards you get the Starlet Esper (Cure 3) and Relm back in your party. Put her in and go to that tower on the way to Nikeah
Cult of Kefka Tower
Strago will snap to his senses and join you with Relm along. For now, bring Mog and his Moogle Charm with and start climbing this tower, we’re going to get the important items.
On the first floor, get the Safety Bit and search north (one space to the right on the chest). Go back outside and down a set of stairs and inside to get the Air Anchor, Edgar’s final tool. Continue up until you get to the next room. A Genji Shield is in here, arguably the best shield in the game (Paladin Shield might have something to say about that though). Next is the Stunner, and also a White Dragon. This battle is tough, this is a Pearl-based Dragon. This means you can use Bolt 3-Fire 3-Ice 3 if you’d like but Flare is probably your best option. If you have Ultima, by all means use that. Keep yourself rested, the Pearl attacks can be vicious. For some reason the White Dragon spent 3-4 turns trying to Dispel one of my characters (they had RunningShoes on), but of course it did no good and was a wasted turn.
One more area and you’ll get the Force Armor. If you continue further you’ll reach the top and the Gem Box, but you have to fight a really hard battle that you probably aren’t prepared for unless you have Phoenix. Actually, we’ll go do that shortly. But first.
Doma
My least favorite part of the World of Ruin. Actually I don’t like Doma or Cyan in general, but hopefully you’ve built him up. Take him and three of his friends (Mog/Sabin/Edgar for me) and go into the castle. Rest as soon as you get in, and Cyan will be dreaming. Three Dream Stooges enter him, so your three party members jump in. They are all separated, starting off with one of them having three doors to choose from.
Choose the right door twice and you’ll have one of your characters back. Return to the initial section and take the left door to get the other character back. Now you’re going to want to work your way to the bigger room that has the door you couldn’t access initially. Larry Curley and Moe will be there to stop you however. Kill Curley (top guy) first as he can use Life. Then I usually kill the guy in front and so on. With Bum Rush or Cat Scratch you can’t control who it hits anyway. You get 6 Magic Points for that victory, and then the dream continues on the phantom train.
Continue west, Cyan will be dreaming he’s running from ghosts. Further west and hit the switch and work your way over. It’ll switch back but keep going and it’ll be a Genji Glove. You can’t do anything about the empty treasure that follows you that is just west of this, but with the six empty treasures it is vital you remember which order they are in. Hit the switch above them to see which ones are empty and which are closed, and remember this. Grab the Lump of Metal to the left and put it in the moving empty treasure, allowing you to move past it to get a Flame Shld.
In this new room, hit the switch and move west to get the Ice Shld and X Potion. Hit the third switch, and then the first again. Hit the second, the first, the third and that should open up the bottom for you to run by. Now choose the same treasure formation that was in the previous room (for me, it was the upper right, lower middle and lower left that were closed). This will open up the next room, a Save Point, and then go in the main area. Leave and you’ll be in Magitek equipment?
Strange indeed. Continue south into a new area and east into a new area. Quick go back south and west across the bridge, but you’ll fall through. Now you’ll be in Doma castle with Cyan’s wife and kid in front of you. They’ll beg you to save Cyan, so rest and save. Continue to the north part of Doma, the throne room. Here you’ll fight Wrexsoul.
Wrexsoul for me is usually one of the harder bosses on the game. Not that he does a lot of damage, but it’s so hard to get him to come out. Some people say it requires characters getting into critical, but I’ve noticed that it generally requires two characters to be dead and sometimes a third to be low in HP. Wrexsoul will then appear and you can attack the main area (the two little things regenerate so don’t bother with them). He’s only around for a few turns so get your hits in and you’ll have to use Life / Phoenix Down and do it all again after he “Zinger’s’ away.
This battle will take a long time because of all of this, but you’ll get a Pod Bracelet for winning and Cyan will gain all of his Swordtechs. Before you leave Doma for good, go to the throne room and get the Esper Alexandr, one of the best in the game (thanks to Pearl and a bunch of mediocre spells).
Thamasa
Return to Thamasa with Strago and Relm. They’ll begin to celebrate like old times, but Strago’s buddy Gung Ho is hurt. It was their old enemy Hidon that did it, someone Strago doesn’t get along with personally. He’s ready to go himself but Relm convinces him to use his help. So take a party with Strago and Relm in it and fly north of Thamasa into a recently-opened cave.
Okay so in this strange cave you step on switches and they bring you to different rooms. There is the exit room, the save room, the treasure chest room, etc. The idea is to collect as many Coral as you can (about 20 pieces) until the Coral collector treasure chest is satisfied. You’ll have to keep going through rooms until this happens. Eventually you’ll be able to continue north past the chest to fight Hidon!
Hidon is a tough boss and he has four henchmen. Hidon specializes in poison-based magic so you might as well not use Antidote as he’ll keep you poisoned. If he is near death and you killed all of his henchmen, he’ll use GrandTrain, the best Lore magic available for Strago. Since he’s along, he’ll learn it. Take your 6 magical points and Strago will be bragging right away. Turns out Gung Ho wasn’t even actually hurt but Strago still talks it up nonetheless.
Figaro Castle / Ancient Castle
This is one of those side quests you’d never come across if it weren’t for me. Well, okay, not really, but it’s hard to come across. I mean you have the airship, why would you go to Figaro and use their underground travel system? Well, go do it, and it’ll get stuck – option to go out and explore, so go right and through the hole. You’ll be in a new cave like area.
Go directly south for a Wing Edge, and further south for some Doom Darts. North and east for an Ether and take the right path but make sure you are ready before you get this treasure. It is a Master Pug, one of the most dangerous creatures ever. You have to make sure you are on your heels as far as keeping your HP up or else he’ll kill ya. If you want to be cheap and Vanish-Doom him then okay, but you can use Flare and Pearl to gradually whittle him down. Your reward, the excellent Graedus Dirk. Exit out the west now and go to the southwest corner for a Magicite and an X-Potion, and then down the stairs. Save and you’ll see a scene if you go north.
In front of this castle, don’t go in the front doors. Take the right door (you can barely see it) to get a Punisher. Rest up and go to the left to see another treasure chest. This is KatanaSoul. Careful, he’s even tougher than the Master Pug. He has two different instant kill attacks and he has GP Toss which takes off 1300 or so to each member. Needless to say every turn you let this guy leave you’re leaving yourself vulnerable to death whether you’re built up or not. Use your best attacks and bring your best characters, he’s weak against Bio but Flare and other stronger spells do more damage anyway.
Your reward is the Offering, which lets you attack four times with one weapon (meaning 8 times with a Genji Glove). This is otherwise known as your key to making any Colosseum battle easy. Return and head back inside through the center and go straight north to Odin. He’ll turn into magicite and join you, but something seems wrong. Anyway his Esper itself is awesome and he can learn Meteor.
Go through one of the northeast doors for another Gold Hairpin and a Blizzard Orb (the second Umaro relic). Go back to the throne and look at the picture above. Search there and a path will open up downstairs. Read the flashing light and it’ll be some junk about Odin and a human in love. Search the pot to the east for an X-Ether and go downstairs.
The Blue Drgn is down here. He is obviously the water dragon that is susceptible to Bolt (badly at that). Bolt 3 devastates this guy. If Strago is along he can learn Rippler (status exchange) from him, and also you get the Scimitar for your efforts.
Search the stoned statue to make Odin turn to Raiden. You may think this is bad initially but Quick is more useful than Meteor and you can learn Meteor from another esper later.
Phoenix Cave
It’s time for one of the more fun caves in the World of Ruin, and this is basically what you do for Kefka’s Tower (except you have three parties for that). As for who to use, it’s strictly up to who you use. If you have everyone (except for Locke of course) that means that you’ll have to hold 5 members back. Sabin, Edgar and Gau are my top three so I take them along naturally, and I like Relm’s Control with Strago’s Lore so I put them in a party together. Shadow, Terra and Celes round out the group (Shadow/Gau/Edgar/Sabin and Celes/Terra/Strago/Relm to be exact).
Y switches the groups of course, and as you walk in you’ll start to see the concept unfold. If you go for that first treasure to the left you’ll fall through a pit and hit spikes. That’s another way of saying you have to not go off and do your own thing, instead you need to stay near your team.
Continue switching off until you get your lower team to the treasure on the right side of the room. It’s empty but the southeast treasure is a Warp Stone. Go downstairs and then left and hit the switch (treasure is empty). Move all the way to the east now until you reach a wall, then switch to your other team.
Isn’t this exciting? Okay, so they’re pretty far back, on a different floor even. From the switch, go to the west and then downstairs. Go south and hit the switch along the way to make a bridge appear so you don’t fall down the hole trying to get that treasure. It’s another Wing Edge. Return from whence you came and go east instead of south.
You’ll continue to switch, it’s pretty straight forward. You’ll get to a switch that lowers the water and lava level, allowing you to get the Ribbon after the lava cools off. You’re just about at the point where both teams meet up at two switches. When this happens, take your more powerful group east and south to find the Red Dragon and a Dragon Horn. The Red Dragon is weak against Ice, you guessed it. Again though, it depends on who you have, Drill / Bum Rush might be better than Ice 3. Either way he shouldn’t be too difficult although Flare will probably kill your character, whoever he does it on. A Strato is your reward, and now there should be two dragons left (both in Kefka’s Tower).
Now head south and you’ll be at Locke’s location. He found the Phoenix Esper in here, and he’s taking it to Rachel to revive her. There are some cracks but it works, and you get the Esper Phoenix. Locke also gives you all the treasures that he had already got (the empty treasures). They are an X Potion, Ether, X-Ether, Elixir, FlameShld, ValiantKnife. Time to go now.
Narshe
With Locke along, you can open some doors now. Open the weapon shop door to talk to a guy in the back who has the Ultima Esper. This is a big decision. Remember, with the Paladin’s Shield you can learn Ultima, so you don’t worry if you take the sword Ragnarok.
Now you’re going to want to check out the house north of the Relic Shop for a Cursed Shld. If you fight 256 battles it turns into a Paladin’s Shield (equip a Ribbon and Cursed Shld together, fight somewhere easy). This takes a really long time and you are tremendously helped if you use the speedup button (~) on ZNES, otherwise it’ll take hours upon hours to break the curse. For this reason, it’s better off that you keep it equipped as you are levelling up or going through the story, as long as you can help it (of course take it off for bosses).
Cult of Kefka Tower
Now it’s time to venture to the top of this. Hopefully you have a good choice of characters with Life 3 and other good spells, you’ll need it. Get four Wall Rings, the Moogle Charm and make your way up there. The treasure at the top is a Gem Box. Okay, now take away the Moogle Charm and give Mog a real relic and make sure everyone has a Wall Ring.
The MagiMaster can be impossible if you don’t have the right magic. First of all, he changes his elemental weaknesses / strengths so you can either keep up with that or cast spells like Flare, Ultima, Meteor and so on that don’t fall into that category. Before you kill him (50,000 HP) make absolutely sure that at least one of your characters has Life 3, as he will cast Ultima on you which will surely kill everyone in your party. There are some tougher alternatives, like using Palidor to stay in the air long enough for some characters to avoid the Ultima, or by using Rasp for half an hour to whittle his MP away. Either way, when he goes down, you get to keep the Gem Box that they wanted returned, and you get a Megalixir. Put the Moogle Charm back on and leave.
easiest way to kill dragons/other bosses, cast vanish on the dragon/boss then immediately follow it with x-zone. this words on nearly every enemy in the game.
That’s true Chance. But that ruins the fun in the game, don’t you think? Besides, you can use Doom too (instead of X Zone) and that’s less MP.
Moreover, the GBA version of Final Fantasy VI doesn’t let you do the Vanish + X Zone or Doom trick. Just doesn’t work. So you’ll need a different strategy even if you do like the cheap Vanish / Doom trick.