This massive Tower is going to preoccupy us for quite a bit of time, but thankfully there is a Manillo merchant outside. Buy an extra Gauntlet for a character that is about to join us and consider, again, a Glass Domino for Ryu. There's going to be a lot of fighting upcoming and no new equipment to buy soon, so it's okay to pick up whatever you are lacking.
You'll quickly notice a treasure chest submerged in the water at the center of the courtyard. This presents us with an optional, but rewarding, time-based puzzle. You'll spot a giant crystal further inside by taking either door to the sides of the pool. Using Nina, strike this with her magic and a timer will appear. You then need to rush upstairs, through the front door, and back down the Tower and activate the four smaller crystals on the four points overlooking the water. The time remaining determines one of three items you receive from the then-drained pool's chest. If over six minutes are left, you nab the excellent Ring of Ice that absorbs ice-based attacks as HP, between five and six minutes is a Wisdom Fruit, and anything under five is a MultiVitamin. You can obtain all three items by leaving the Tower to reset the puzzle, but can only be gotten once. You'll know you have all three when the treasure chest remains open even after leaving the Tower and resetting the puzzle.
There's not too much in the way of strategy here: it's all about lining up your shots with Nina, and since her magic cannot extend diagonally, you have to quickly face the crystals to connect with them. To start, stand to the left of the large crystal, against the pillar, with the staircase to your north. Activate it and rush for the stairs followed by hugging the wall at the bottom until you exit through the front door. As you move down the stairs, my preference is to use the left-side of the Tower, and always hug the right-hand-sides so you can sharply take the turn at the bottom and up to the four crystals. There, it's just a matter of positioning and hitting your targets: remembering that you need to go around the rock to reach the upper-left crystal. Equip the Ring of Ice on Nina since there is an ice-elemental menace found further in and she is likely to have less Intelligence and HP than Ryu.
Note: Once you enter the Tower, encounters begin to occur outside, as well.
On the landing before the front door, search behind the solitary tree on the right to pick up a Silver Knife. You can sell this back at the Manillo for 700 zenny, if you didn't already sell your previous one in Genmel. Through the entrance, take a right and enter the door at the end. Up the stairs and through the door to your right is an area you can rest and save. On the next floor we will be locked inside the Tower, so this will be our only way to do so, also access to the outside shop and the crystal puzzle will be temporarily unavailable.
Take the stairs in the lower-left-hand corner to the next floor. As we approach the doors on the side, a tiny robot scurries out and an explosion is heard from within. Inside, we meet Momo who has just become hard-of-hearing from the blast. When she recovers, she is humbled to be able to take the princess of Wyndia back home, but mentions that some rough-looking fellows were seen outside. She joins your party with the reveal there is a way out at the top of the Tower, although this sounds a bit sketchy to me.
Momo comes equipped with the one-of-a-kind Ammo weapon, so don't accidentally sell it. Equip her with the extra Gauntlet you purchased, and if her levels are way below Nina's, give her the Ring of Ice and the Bat Amulet. Momo's natural accuracy is only 70%, so expect to see many, many misses throughout the game. When in the lead of the party, Momo fires her chrysm cannon that can destroy breakable objects and walls as well as plunder small mounts of zenny from NPCs like Ryu's slash (But potential for a bit more).
Note: Momo's Identify ability will not show the enemy's available steal and drop if her level is below their's, furthermore, the item will remain unidentified if you have never found it before. Her Foretell ability reveals the elemental weakness to one of the monsters in the current battle shown the easily-identified color (Grey is no weakness), while the quote shown is in regards to your party's average level versus the opponent's.
At the lower levels of the Tower, Orcs will appear if you didn't get Last Resort yet. Lizard's continually use Blind, which is another opportunity to learn, so the Light Bangle and Bat Amulet are essential for Ryu and Momo. Proto and ArmorBots are rather uninspiring, but the latter has Charge to learn, and you can confuse them by casting Jolt with Nina. If you get lucky, a Curiass from ProtoBot or Breastplate from the ArmorBot may drop. Their rates are not unreasonable. The Ice Toad with its potentially-devastating Icebreath should be targeted immediately with Simoon to lower their HP, and effectiveness of the attack.
Note: Try to keep Momo's level below 12 for an upcoming master.
The room next door to Momo's has a floor puzzle to solve. Start by examining the plaque on the wall and starting Ryu on the file seen above. From there: move up, left, left, left, down, down, down, right, up, right, up, right, down, left, down, and right to open the door. Inside are chests with a Skill Ink, Flame Chrysm, and Ice Chrysm. The latter two weapons are elemental-based weapons for Momo that are weaker than the Ammo, and not worth equipping at the moment even though the Flame-based one can heavily damage the Ice Toad. The rest of the Tower creatures are strong or neutral against the two elements.
Climb the stairs outside the floor puzzle room, then work your way around to the door on the opposite-end to find yourself in the room seen above. Momo, inventor of these puzzles, doesn't bother to offer any solutions to them, but if you read the plaque in the treasure room, you have some idea. You have to press the switch on the devices holding the identical cube of the one spinning in the room's center. From the left, hit the second and fourth switches, otherwise trying to advance will drop you back down near the save room.
Past the cube room, the HyperBot enemy begins to appear. This oddball machine has two turns to, potentially, use the learnable Blitz skill, and then loses power. Thankfully, Nina can cast Jolt on it every two turns to give it another chance to use the skill. Blitz is three hits of 50% of your basic attack against all enemies at the expense of losing half of your HP, but doesn't cost any AP. This is good stuff and can make mincemeat out of regular encounters using the Attack formation, but remember to keep an eye on your HP.
Staying on the linear ascent, you'll find yourself in a room with two moveable platforms and red/blue switches. Flip the blue switch and cross over to the door on the other side of the room. The second door at the end of the hallway holds a chest with 800 zenny. Out to the switch room again, move back across where you came from and hit the blue switch, then the red one, and cross over to your left and through the door. Follow the light-filled hallway to another door and chest containing Moon Tears. This item is incredibly rare and recovers the entire party's HP and status. Return to the switch room and across the red platform and up the stairs this time. There's yet another long, twisting corridor leading to stairs after it.
The next puzzle room is fairly simple: use the grey platform to move across the gap and work yourself up to the top of the room where a giant chrysm crystal awaits. Using Nina, you must charge the crystal a set number of times to power the red platform with enough energy to reach two treasures and the stairs leading further on. Two charges will land you next to a Breastplate armor Ryu should equip. Six charges places you next to an Ivory Dice item. Ivory Dice double the amount of zenny and experience of the targeted enemy if used before they are defeated. Eight charges are needed to reach the stairs on the far-end.
Continue along the path and enter the door after the next set of stairs to pick the Bamboo Rod out of the chest. A unique item, it outclasses the Wooden Rod by most metrics and can cast much further out. Fishing is a lot less troublesome with it!
After two final flights of stairs we reach the top and the last puzzle. From behind the red beam, activate the chyrsm crystal with Nina. Stand just before the purple beam and charge the crystal again. Move Nina and your party members a few steps off the blue beam, with them not tailing behind anywhere near the middle-most beam emitter, and charge it again to remove the blue beam. If a character touched the purple beam, they will have become poisoned unlike the other two colors that just cause damage.
At the pinnacle of the Tower is Momo's father, Repsol's, room. Steer young Ryu's eyes away froom the bookshelves packed with "adult" books and take the Panacea and 40 zenny from the shelves in the back before activating a hidden button behind the center console. A janky-looking rocket extends from the floor and the trio grabs hold and blasts off for Wyndia, I'm sure the kids hope, only to be deposited just a bit outside the Tower. Momo forgot to read the manual, apparently, but at least nobody died. There are monsters here, also, at the crash site, but nothing we haven't already seen before.
You'll spot a new dragon gene, Thorn, to the upper-right of the crashed rocket, nestled next to a tree. The Thorn gene further amplifies other genes in the splice; both positive and negative. For example: combined with Flame, it bolsters fire immunity to absorb the elemental damage as HP rather than just take the usual 0, but makes you even more susceptible to ice. Combo'd with the Flame and Reverse genes, you get the exact opposite effect of the two elements. In the case of Defender, Thorn gives a double bonus to HP and Defense, but drops their Agility even further down. As you can see, it can be an extremely versatile in a splice if you are knowledgeable about the other genes with it.
Now that we have access to the camp, I recommend that you use a Skill Ink to transfer some skills over to Momo. Although a sort of the jack-of-all-trades character, Momo, by default, is actually a better mage than Nina is despite learning few attack spells. As such, giving her the Magic Ball and Typhoon skills taught by Mygas is advised.
Next, with our new Bamboo Rod, let's head off to the fishing spot south of the Tower. The new Rod takes some getting use to though, as the green tracking gauge moves much faster than the Wooden one. There are four new fish to be found here, outlined below:
- Flying Fish (Popper - 20cm)
- Blowfish (Worm, Sinker, or Popper - 20cm)
- Black Porgy (Frog - 60cm)
- Octopus (Worm - 70cm)
- Manillo (Coin - 200cm)
To draw the attention of the Black Porgy, you'll either need a Baby Frog lure or to use tec to entice them. They are fairly difficult to reel in, as are the Octopus, so it's good we waited for the Bamboo Rod. The Porgy is also the first useful fish as an item: recovering 20 AP.
The Manillo shop has an incredible piece of armor to trade for: the Crepe Cape. Pick up three of these: one for Nina, Momo, and a character that will be joining soon. It will be the best armor for Nina and the new character for quite a long time. Trade for a Chain Cap, also, which is actually armor, for Ryu, but a Bass from Central Wyndia is required. There is another spot with Bass to catch not far from here if you didn't bring one, however. This is the only place in the game you can find the Chain Cap, to note.
Just north of the rocket's crash site is a Coffee Shop, although the signs all say "tea", and they are known for their curry, anyway...At the top, the group takes a rest to regroup and hears that Sunder and his goons are guarding the roads leading to Wyndia which I find humorous since these are the King's lands and his daughter is missing, but again, I digress...A balding, scientist-type, Palet, butts into the conversation who knew Momo's father; probably more from trading "adult" magazines than the Plant they worked on. He persuades Momo to visit the chrysm Plant to the west and take a look at the machines since there are problems ongoing that maybe she, in her father's place, can solve. Afterwards, take a look inside the shop and loot the Vitamin from a chest of drawers at the back. There's also a basic item store here, too, but nothing new.
Out back of the shop, on the overlooking hill, is the master we have been saving weapons for: D'lonzo. Equip the Bent Sword on Ryu to place whatever weapon he is current using into the inventory and, if you have been following the guide, should have exactly 15 weapons. They are: PointedStick, Bent Sword, Dagger, Oaken Staff, BallockKnife, Melted Blade, Bronze Sword, Rippers, Mace, Silver Knife, Broad Sword, Scramasax, Claymore, Flame Chrysm, and Ice Chrysm. If you stuck with the Claymore and did not buy the Scramasax, read a bit further on because it is in a treasure chest nearby.
D'lonzo is so important because she can teach a character to finally steal items again, and since we are a long ways away from Rei rejoining us, we need to get it as soon as possible. As a master, she boosts Power and Agility gains +1, but you will loss HP by 1 and AP by 2. Apprenticing under her also gives hidden traits of +5 to your dodge and accuracy, and a +10 to surprise. Sign Ryu and Momo up, for now, although the HP and AP loss is not ideal for either character, we can use Momo's lower levels to learn Steal quicker and you will, likely, want to grow Ryu's Agility to be the user of the Steal skill since he is always a required character. Below are the skills that D'lonzo provides:
- Monopolize (2): All experienced gain from the battle goes to the user. Excellent for leveling up characters that have fallen behind.
- Intimidate (3): Cancels the target's turn, if successful. Obviously, you need to get your turn before theirs to have any hope of success. It's actually Intelligence-based and the enemy's status resistance comes into play, so it will not work on the vast majority of ones you want it to.
- Steal (4): Attempts to steal an enemy's item. Does not deal damage like Pilfer.
Note: Take notice of the extremely shady Vinegar well guardian around the lower-right back of the Coffee Shop. You'll hate them later (Probably Loki's illegitimate child).
You only need four levels to learn Steal, and if you kept Momo's levels low, it shouldn't take much time; especially once you get Monopolize, however, there really isn't much use for Steal until after the next dungeon, so there's no hurry. If you choose to fight on the Eastern Wyndia random battlefields, look for Magic Shards, Life Shards, Baby Frogs (For Black Porgy fishing), and Poppers that can show up in the area satchels. To maximum EXP, though, you should look for HyperBots on the middle/upper floors back in Momo's Tower.
Note: For those needing the Scramasax for D'lonzo, look for the ? location in the middle of the forest north of the Coffee Shop. We won't have business here for a while, but to find the Scramasax, take the first left, then right across the bridge, and follow the narrow path to the chest with the sword in it. When the time comes, this area will be covered in detail.
Northeast of the Coffee Shop is the Wyndian checkpoint that leads to the ocean. Besides the fact you need a Passport to cross, Balio and Sunder's goons from the Tower are here, who can't recognize you despite shoving pictures of you in the guard's faces. Turns out you never even needed the rocket back at the Tower. You could have just walked out and never recognized. Anyway, you can raid the dressers inside the inn for 200 zenny and a Antidote.
On the western road of Eastern Wyndia, near where Sunder is standing guard, is another fishing hole. Unfortunately, this one currently sucks to use. There is only one new type, the Black Bass, but it masquerades as the regular Bass, and with the other fish types clogging the lower-portion of the water, the Bass love to stay at the far-end where the Bamboo Rod cannot reach. If you're patient, you can still catch a few Black Bass, though, which I recommend you do for later Manillo shops. They are also helpful as items in battle, too, recovering the party by 80 HP. Below are this spot's potential catches:
- Pirana (Any - 40cm)
- Trout (Worm/Sinker - 70cm)
- RainbowTrout (Worm/Sinker - 70cm)
- Bass (Any - 40cm)
- Black Bass (Any - 90cm)
Finally, the Plant is west of the Coffee Shop. Due to the attraction of monsters from the chrysm, the Plant is built on multiple levels of ground with slopes and conveyor belts needed to travel between each one. There is an inn and item shop on the bottom level which marks the first appearance of the Mandrake item that fully recovers HP, but at the expense of dropping the target's maximum HP and requiring rest at an inn to recover from. Not useful unless a total emergency. The Plant is the only place in the game you can purchase it, though. Upstairs, you can take 80 zenny and a Healing Herb from the shelves.
To find Palet, head to your left and flip the blue-colored switch to ride the conveyor belt upward. Climb the slope further to the north and use the conveyor around the corner, also. To the upper-right is another steep climb with a belt on either side, but you only want the one heading to your left. Further left, ignore the switch, and take the belt again. Next, hit the blue switch and take the conveyor south. Turn right and you can ride the last conveyor down to the Plant's center where Palet is. Speak to him with Momo in the lead of your party and he'll tell you about how mutants have been being created by using chrysm to modify the crops. They are normally taken to be disposed of at the nearby Dump, but there has been a particularly large mutant causing problems there and Palet asks for your help in getting rid of it. Momo, feeling obligated by her father's work, accepts. Afterward, enter the nearby building and pluck the Healing Herb and Ginseng from the shelves before using the slope to the lower-left to return to the entrance and leaving for the Dump to the west.
The Dump presents us with a slew of new, abnormal creatures to battle. Most but the PainWeed, which absorbs both, have a weakness to either fire or ice. Ice is generally more effective, but I equip Momo with the Fire Chrysm since it is more all-around for every encounter and very damaging against the boss. The red-eyed Bomber monster we can pick up the Air Raid skill from. This is, essentially, a physically-based, and damaging, version of Intimidate. Like with it, you'll need to take your turn before the enemy or it's moot.
Look for the tiny Eye Bulb to learn Rest. It is a much-lesser form of Snooze, restoring a Eye Bulb-size tiny amount of HP/AP, but with no sleep effect tacked on. Just dump this in your skill notes as the recovery is so low it's a waste of a turn. The little bugger can also be blinded with Blind to further increase his EXP after battle, like his googly chums.
Note: Eye Bulbs can drop Vitamins (The +100 HP to all variety), while FireSlugs cough up the incredibly rare Moxa, both at a fair rate, however, the latter is the rarest encounter here. There is a better enemy to farm Vitamins, however, in my opinion, while FireSlugs will show up in a later dungeon at a much more frequent rate than the Dump to pick up Moxas.
The Plant is a fairly short dungeon, but with a few complications needed to reach worthwhile treasures. To start, head to your right, then downward, and taking a left to curve up into the alcove. Further to the left is a switch that moves the crates on the conveyor belt. Flip the switch 10 times where the crates line up like seen in the screenshot above. Squeeze between the crate to the lower-left to access the 1200 zenny chest.
Head back to the entrance and take the path to the left-side, this time. Move up the slope and around to the second path leading downward, able to cross the crates and take the High Boots treasure. If you didn't pick this up from the Ghoul at the Wyndia Catacombs, this accessory provides a +5 defense and should be equipped to either Nina or Momo.
Backtrack to near the switch, but instead of going up into the alcove, continue left and then through the exit at the bottom. Head down the slopes to the lower-portion of the area, and keep moving in that direction to find a Magic Shard near the end of the magma pool.
From the chest, move back up the magma pool and take a right to locate two switches by a conveyor. Flip the red switch eight times to position the crate as seen in the screenshot. Head back toward the slope you descended, but take a right before, then use the slope to your upper-left to climb to a higher position. Head right, then you can work your way south, then around north, passing over two perfectly-positioned crates to snag the Artemis' Cap accessory. Taylor-made for Momo, it boosts your accuracy by +10 (80% accuracy for her w/o D'lonzo) and you will likely want her with it for the entirety of the game.
When prepared for the boss, move past the conveyor switches and enter the pathway wrapped in plant vines. The Mutant speaks when he hears the party's plans to dispose of him. The party has deep confliction on what to do, but draw their weapons anyway. The Mutant is incredibly easy due to its weakness against fire. Ascension with Ryu splicing Flame + Defender genes together and using the Flame Claw will deplete nearly half of its HP in one turn (In Attack formation). Nina can contribute casting Simoon and Momo attacking with the Flame Chrysm. The Mutant does regenerate 250 HP each turn, but multiple hits from fire will generate the "Mutant is in pain!" message and the regeneration is nulled. Offensively, the Mutant can only poison or put you to sleep with their Breath attacks, so you have very little to concern yourself with.
Placing itself on the conveyor outside, the out of control Mutant wants to be disposed of; thinking an abomination such as it should never have existed. Hit the red switch, or the blue one instead for a chuckle, for the sorrowful Mutant to do his best Terminator impression into the lava below. Suddenly: a peculiar sound is heard from the lava and a small onion mutant launches out that looks just like the one at the Plant! Momo thinks that the dying Mutant would have wanted us to take the little tyke with us as his final wish. Nina names him Peco and he officially joins the party!
Despite him joining, I HIGHLY advise you not to fight with Peco in your party at this moment. Starting at level 1, he is the most versatile of all characters in terms of master progression. After the next portion of the game, the world will finally open back up to us and we can use Peco's low level to build his statistics whichever way we choose and learn skills much more easy through masters. If you prefer to go ahead and use him, equip him with the Rippers (Or Melted Blade), Cloth Shield, Glass Domino (Giving Ryu back the Iron Helm), and Crepe Cape. A better shield and helmet will be available soon, however.
As party leader, Peco takes over Teepo's role as thumper of trees, rocks, and NPCs. Peco not only comes with an innate minor HP regeneration each turn, but also possesses the game's highest reprisal rate at 50%. If you place him at the spear of the Attack formation, this gives him a guaranteed counter after every hit! He has resistance, but not immunity to death attacks, also. Built correctly through masters, Peco has potential to be the best offensive character in the game. He has the highest HP, Defense, and second-most Power of all the characters, but suffers from abysmal Agility and Intelligence. Because of his high Defense, make sure he gets the Charge and Last Resort skills. Unfortunately, his equipment options are limited, though, and the Crepe Cape is his second-best armor in the game.
If you make camp now, talk to Peco to see Ryu speak for the only time in the entire game!
With Peco in our party we can apprentice under a new master. With him in the lead, enter the forest with the solitary tree to the southeast of the Plant. Search the ancient tree to discover the voice of Yggrasil! If you give him a Wisdom Fruit he will take you on as his student! A mage-based master, Yggrasil provides a +2 bonus to Int and a +1 to AP and Defense. Your Power will take a big hit at -2 and your HP growth by -1. Unfortunately, learning from Yggrasil gives you a weakness to fire-based attacks, too, and you should always factor in! Sign both Nina and Momo up (If finished with D'lonzo) to bolster their magic growth; assuming you want to take Momo in that direction. Keep in mind that you always need Peco with you to talk with Yggrasil. Below are the skills that he teaches:
- Sanctuary (2): This removes any statistical increases brought on by items/abilities for both for you and the enemy. Has a few uses, but not many.
- Recall (5): Another gimmicky skill. For 2 AP, a spell is chosen from a pool of spells and cast. This might not be that bad except for that fact that support spells are in there too and you're likely looking for offense instead.
- Shield (8): The same as Ryu's spell that increases the entire party's physical defense by 20%. This can stack three times up to a 50% increase like most all other statistical increase spells of its kind.
Note: Before you head back to the Plant, make sure that you have acquired Steal from D'lonzo. You are going to want it for the next section of the game.
At the Plant, minus Peco automatically, Palet thanks you for your "work" and as "thanks" has a way to get you back into Wyndia. Be advised that once you enter the Plant, you can't leave, so your only course of action is to rest at the inn. The next morning, Palet stuffs you into a cart filled with crops headed to Wyndia with the assurance it won't be searched. Of course, he's sold you out to Balio and Sunder and because the Wyndian king isn't having his guards patrolling the roads looking for his missing daughter, the green-haired oaf is free to carry you back to Genmel where the Contest of Champions is happening.
The brothers plan to just kill the others and ransom Nina, but the princess presents a challenge that they be allowed to fight in the Contest for their freedom. The notion is scoffed at until Balio realizes nobody will bet on the kid dragon Ryu and they can cash-in on his victories. The party is free to wander around, but either Momo or Peco has to stay behind as a hostage for insurance (You can interchange them by speaking with Sunder). There's no way back to Eastern Wyndia, at this moment, however. If you did not purchase the Ranger Garb or Curiass from the outside shops, you might want to add those to your inventory, but don't buy a BronzeShield if you haven't since we can steal them.
The Arena is fairly massive with new shops (No Flier discount, unfortunately) and a few items to find. From outside Balio and Sunder's room, head down the stairs and through the entrance behind the bunny girl. Take a left past the Arena's tournament bracket, passing the stairs, and using the door at the end. Head down the hall, past the massive Dodais, into the room at the end that houses your opponents for the first round. There's a Healing Herb you can take out of the dresser. Return back and enter the room before the Dodais. A Coin fishing lure is inside one of the dressers that are always valuable. Talking to the bunny girl by the door will take you to your first Arena match, but we're not ready just yet.
Take a right outside your ready room and descend the stairs to locate the shops. Purchase the Moon Sword for Ryu, and personally, even though the Claymore is still 11 points higher in attack, I would not equip it again due to the weight.
For armor, keep the Chain Cap on Ryu and ignore the Scale Mail; we can steal one soon, and Momo is fine with the Crepe Cape unless you have an excess of zenny. Get Bucklers for everyone and the Knight'sHelm for Ryu. This is just for the future, however, because we're going to want to modify Ryu's equipment for the first round. More about that in a minute.
The item shop has several new ones to purchase, but nothing you really need. If you want Vitamins, purchase them outside the Arena for the Flier discount, and we can steal MultiVitamin from a monster to save zenny (Talk about soon). Napalm is a bit of a rarity, however, that casts the fire-wind-elemental Sirocco spell, and we won't see in shops for quite a while. When through shopping, enter the doorway to the right of the shops. The contestant's room at the end of the hall contains a Bandana in the dresser. Move back to the shops and depart through the entrance to the right, this time. Up the stairs and in the contestant's room at the end of the hall is another dresser with 40 zenny (If you can squeeze between the fatsos). We're then ready to take on the Contest of Champion's first battle from the room that had the Coin in your dresser, but make sure your equipment is set, Ryu has Steal, and you have saved at the shop counter's inn. Below is my recommended equipment for each character:
- Ryu: Moon Sword, Gauntlet, Glass Domino, Breastplate, Bat Amulet, High Boots
- Nina: Magician Rod, Buckler, Glass Domino, Crepe Cape, High Boots, Life Sandals
- Momo: Ice Chrysm, Buckler, Iron Helm, Crepe Cape, Artemis' Cap, Light Bangle
- Peco: Rippers, Buckler, Glass Domino, Crepe Cape, Talisman, Midas Stone/None
Ryu's equipment is optimized so he will be quicker than his three opponents. We want him with at least 18 Agility, so you may need to choose lesser armor to achieve this if he didn't pick up any D'lonzo levels. Make sure you don't have the Ring of Ice equipped on anyone, though, because we will be swapping it out mid-battle to Ryu. Because the Hall of Fire rules are single elimination, you'll want to set your party member's formation in the order that they will fight; with Ryu in the lead, obviously, and Momo with the Ice Chrysm in secondary just as a precaution. While defeating all three opponents in the Hall of Fire is enough, you can achieve a massive amount of experience by eliminating their team's Dodais, in the final round preferably, but keep in mind that the Dodais' HP is continuous throughout all three battles, so you can take shots to weaken it during the first two battles, also.
Note: The items you find inside the Arena dressers are missable before long!
Ryu is pitted against the thief-like Claw to start. She'll try to use Blind, but will be thwarted by the Bat Amulet. Otherwise, she'll try to use Double Blow on you for damage. You can steal a Silver Knife from her, but you're going to want to take her out as quickly as possible because she holds an incredibly valuable accessory to drop, and it is reasonable to obtain. Counter with your own Double Blows to take her out in, hopefully, three turns. We want to save our AP for a dragon transformation in the third fight, so resist the urge. With a bit of luck on your side, she may drop the Speed Boots which bolsters your Agility by +10. A must-have, we won't be able to obtain one otherwise for a long time. It is frustrating having to keep resetting the game and having to go back through all the dialogue and such, though, and understand completely those that would prefer to not waste their time.
The magician, Cawer, enters the Hall next. Immediately enter the item menu and swap Ryu's accessories to the Ring of Ice and the Speed Boots. If you didn't get the latter, the High Boots are fine, but the Speed Boots will grant you an EX turn in the next two fights. With the Ring of Ice, his Frost spell will heal you, and his only form of offense is Cyclone. Steal the Dream Ring accessory from him, which prevents the sleep status, and then you can easily pound him into submission with basic attacks. In fact, if you don't care about the next fight at all, Cawer will eventually run out of AP and you can attack his Dodai freely (If he still has AP, he may even buffer/heal your own Dodai in retaliation!).
Note: With the Dream Ring equipped, you can use the Snooze skill to self-recover HP/AP without the sleep repercussions.
Team leader Patrio, with his incessant Lucky Strikes, is no pushover like the other two. Begin by trying to steal his Scale Mail, then attack him with normal attacks until around 180 HP is inflicted. Once Patrio is at half HP, he will begin to use the learnable Frost Strike skill; which having the Ring of Ice equipped will cause to miss. You want to acquire Frost Strike now because, not only will it be extremely useful in an upcoming dungeon, we won't see it again for a long time. If you have EX turns, use those to recover your HP with a Vitamin. When you have the Scale Mail and Frost Strike, splice the Flame, Reverse, and Thorn genes together to create a frost dragon, then target the opposition's Dodai with Frost Claw, which should do nearly 200 damage. Patrio will respond in kind with Frost Strike on your own Dodai, but will not be able to match your damage output and you will eventually win by attrition, assuming you don't run out of AP. If Ryu happens to fall, Momo equipped with the Ice Chrysm can also heavily damage the Dodai which has 2000 HP.
Note: Frost Strike is a basic weapon attack, that still has the ability to critical, but is ice-based and can inflict sleep on the target.
3000 experience is rewarded to the active character if the Dodai is defeated instead.
Having won, you'll need to reset your battle formation that has become displaced, but make absolutely sure that you are in Attack formation and Ryu is spear-heading it for the next round. You can then equip Ryu with the items you purchased and stole. I have him with: Moon Sword, Buckler, Knight'sHelm, Speed Boots, and Light Bangle, but if you didn't get the Speed Boots, I would use the Chain Cap instead of the Scale Mail. You can give the Mail to Momo, if you want, but make sure she has switched back to the non-elemental Ammo. The semi-final matchup is held in the Null-Magic Hall, which guess what: magic if forbidden. To find it, head down to the shops, making sure to rest and save, then head through the bottom-right exit, up the stairs, and enter the door connect to the hall on the right. Before confirming, Emitai will enter your ready room and drop a sob-story about needing the prize money for his daughter's surgery, or else the worst, which Nina buys hook, line, and sinker, but we need to win for our freedom, too.
Magic may be sealed, but being able to ascend to a dragon makes this rather unfair. Options are limited, but have Ryu steal from both Golems, who have Life Shards, and Emitai who has a Mage's Robe we can sell. The Golems will alternate using the Spirit Blast skill we can learn, so on each turn, examine the opposite one that previously performed the skill. After you've swiped the items, splice the Flame and Defender genes together and perform Flame Claw with Ryu on Emitai until he falls. Nina should defend and disperse healing items, while Ammo attacks once Spirit Blast is picked up. Having lost their leader, the Golems will begin attack each other and you can pick them off easily.
Note: Spirit Blast looks intimidating, but sadly very underwhelming. It does about a fourth of the damage of a basic damage, but since it ignores the defense of the target, it can inflict some damage on high-defense enemies that basic attacks normally wouldn't scratch.
You're now set for the final match, much to the delight of our archenemies. If you head over to Emitai's room, down the hall from yours, you'll see that his entire spiel was a ruse: shocker. The Hall of Kings awaits through the door next to the guard down near the shop, with the ready room on your left. Balio and Sunder pay your opponent, perennial champion, Garr, a visit. The winged behemoth questions them on what makes Ryu, a mere child, so strong, with his identification as a dragon appearing most interesting to him.
Introductions begin, and if you look closely, you might spot Street Fighter's own Sakura in the stands on Garr's side! You cannot defeat Garr, but you can try to lift another Scale Mail from him. Trade blows with him, keeping healed if you want; eventually, you'll get the message "Let's Finish This'" and Garr will Lucky Strike little Ryu for an ungodly amount of damage and end the battle. Much to everyone's shock, but even more so Balio and Sunder's, Garr requests Ryu and his friends as his contest prize!
Garr will leave to secure the release of your fourth member and you'll need to follow him back to Balio's office at the Arena's entrance. Before you do that, head back to the shop and buy an additional Buckler and Knight'sHelm and make sure you have taken up the items from inside the dressers in the Arena: they will soon be missable (All shop items are sold elsewhere, however). In Balio's office, the brothers are incensed with Garr and likely aren't planning to simply let this slide...Garr's charitable act does come with a request: that Ryu meets him at Angel Tower in the far-east to learn more about his fellow dragon kind: the Brood. But for now, you need to get Nina back to Wyndia.
Outside Genmel, place Peco into your party and venture to the ? location around the back of the mountain, where you got a Wisdom Fruit in the previous chapter, northwest of the fishing hole. Have him bash the tree with the crow in it outside the tent to receive the Flower Jewel item. Do not sell this item! It is required later to apprentice under a master.
To get to Wyndia, we need to pass over the Maekyss Gorge which was previously blocked by a felled wagon. Balio and Sunder have surrounded the area with an army of look-a-like goons, but thankfully only sends three out to fight you. Save your AP and take them out with basic attacks. You'll be rewarded with three pieces of Beef Jerky that the horse-men likely payed them with. In the meantime, Garr has plowed through the thugs behind you and stands to face-off together against the backstabbing, increasingly-desperate brothers. You're then taken to the party formation screen to select a third member to join Ryu and Garr in battle; Momo is recommended, but Nina is fine, too.
Note: Once you enter Maekyss Gorge, the Genmel Arena will not longer be accessible.
As soon as the battle begins, have Garr open the item menu and equip him with the extra Buckler and Knight'sHelm you purchased and give him an accessory (The Midas Stone is fine since his Agility is extremely low already). Ultraman Stallion opens his turn casting Barrier, which reduces magical damage, and is actually an enemy skill, but cannot be learned from him. You can null this with Yggdrasil's Sanctuary, if you happened to have picked it up, otherwise, this makes Nina a lot less useful. A skill you can learn from Stallion is Resist; one that makes the character completely impervious to damage for that turn, but seems to use it sparingly. If you can't learn it here, a master in the next chapter holds it.
Begin the battle with Ryu casting Shield on the party and splicing the Defender and Thorn genes together to deliver basic attacks to Stallion. Garr can use weapon attacks, with Nina casting Iceblast, or can even attempt to use debuffs like Weaken/Blunt in between healing items. Momo can attack and serve as healer while Ryu is transformed. Offensively, Stallion prefers using Jolt and basic attacks, but when his HP begins to dip, he busts out the UtmostAttack that heavily damages the entire party which could require each character to use a Vitamin on themselves (Or a Black Bass in case of an emergency). Also, make sure to steal a Life Shard before the battle is through. When defeated, Deadly & Dumb are gone for good and we've avenged Rei and Teepo, according to Garr anyway.
Note: Stallion can, very rarely, drop the Holy Mantle accessory that reduces encounter rate. Not recommended to attempt, but it is possible.
Stallion sent off to the glue factory, Garr officially joins the party, and after delivering some harsh, but likely accurate facts on the fate of Ryu's missing friends, concurs with heading to Wyndia, not only to drop off Nina, but obtain a Passport to the east. Like most character's starting weapons, Garr's Spear is one-of-a-kind, so hold onto it. Taking the lead of the party, Garr can push heavy objects out of the way, but otherwise, can't fit through certain spaces and gets stuck a lot wandering around; something he's sensitive about. Our new friend has natural defense against fire-based attacks, but not immunity, while also having the highest willpower (Auto-revive) at 11, and critical rate in the entire game, too.
In control, head down the slope along the left-side and follow the river bank to a lonely house. Ryu can pick up the Frost gene nearby and inside is a chest of drawers with 400 zenny. The Frost gene works the exact same as the Flame one, just ice-elemental. If you splice the two opposing elements together, it will create a non-elemental dragon. Also, note the strange-looking tree around the back that Peco can't shake anything from at the moment. We'll have to return here much later on in the story.
