Final Fantasy VI Walkthrough
Written by Djibriel
Contributor
1.30: Magitek Research Facility
First Room |
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Second Room |
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Enemies: Onion Knight, Sergeant, Belzecue, Proto Armor
Treasures: 
Dragoon Boots, Ether, 
Flametongue, 
Golden Armor, 
Golden Helm, 
Golden Shield, Icebrand, Tent, Thunder Blade, Remedy, X-Potion, Zephyr Cloak
Preparation: Everybody in the Back Row. This is a theme-based dungeon, and the theme is "If ye can't top 200 Defense, ye ain't no kinda man." If your physical attack isn't specifically barrier-piercing, the result will be analogous to butting your head against a brick wall. So, Front Row is useless.
Genji Glove is useless. A weapon's Attack is useless; if your Locke runs around with a 
Boomerang, you might as well switch it to a 
Thief's Knife as neither will do even a remotely impressive amount of damage, though the Thief's Knife at least has added benefits. The same goes for swords, so if you have a Rune Blade granting you that extra 10% Evasion, go for it.So yes, if it can't penetrate defenses and doesn't boast any additional properties, you'll be hard-pressed to find a use for it. I think it might be wise to give a quick recap on what's useful here and what's not:
Useful:
- Magic, especially
Thunder and Thundara - Summon attacks, which especially means
Ramuh right now 
Flash, Drill, Chainsaw- Raging Fist, Meteor Strike, Aura Cannon, Rising Phoenix
- Fang, Sky, Tiger
- Rage-inflicted magical attacks, which besides Magic, includes Aspiran's Gigavolt, Anguiform's
Aqua Breath, Guard Leader's Wind Slash and Hill Gigas' Magnitude 8
Not useful:
- Attack
- Auto Crossbow
- Flurry
- Rage-inflicted physical attacks, which include Specials such as !Cat Scratch
So yes, try to boost your magical attacks. Cyan will be especially boring and useless here, as Fang starts to definitely lack in power and is only single-target. Locke, unless he can make use of some of the more-potent magic, such as
Siren or a Thunder spell, should do nothing but Steal (wear a Thief's Bracer; Brigand's Glove is nigh useless) and use some Hi-Potions, if necessary. If you have a Gau around who can Rage Anguiform, you should just wait for him to use Aqua Breath and stall with Noiseblaster, Runic, 
Cure, and Steal, as he will end the battle when he attacks with it. If you're low-leveled, some Earrings might help. If you lack Gau and/or his Anguiform Rage but have the Figaro brothers, a Flash/Rising Phoenix combo with some Earring behind it should end all. If you lack both, you'll have to employ some more sneaky tactics.The ultimate way of dealing with enemies here is having a character with (1 or 2)
Earring, especially Celes, summon Ramuh for Judgment Bolt. Judgment Bolt will kill everything it touches, and it's not random like Gau's Aqua Breath. However, it will cost you 25 MP per summon, so unless you switch Ramuh around (which is a lot of trouble as it slows spell learning down) you'll have to use Ethers to keep it up.The most common foe is the one you found earlier in the Imperial Observation Post and strolling about the streets of Vector: Sergeant. Their most attractive feature is their common Tent Steal, and otherwise they're very straightforward. Cid programmed them with Program 65, which, when executed, will silence the target for the duration of the battle. Their set of elemental weaknesses is rather strange; humans tend to succumb to Poison whereas machines are usually more likely to have a problem with Lightning and Water. Maybe this and the fact that they're apparently programmed is a hint they are some kind of cyborgs? At any rate, normal cannon fodder you have to plow through.
Sergeants are often accompanied by Belzecue dogs. They're canine versions of the Sergeant, really. Cid has provided them with Program 95, which ignites madness in the target, confusing them for the rest of the battle. Same weaknesses, same treatment. Don't worry too much about them confusing your Sabin when he is about to execute a Rising Phoenix Blitz; they will never use it unless they're alone, and you're bound to take them on with multi-target attacks anyway, right?
The metallic vermin of the IMRF are the Onion Knight robots. They're small, have little HP, are kinda weak, and only attack in large numbers. To compensate for their lack in offensive power, Cid set them up to use Program 55, one that turns the target into the illustrious Imp creature that is incapable of doing anything that isn't rolling over and dying. The
Flash Tool alone will finish them off without a lot of trouble, let alone Rising Phoenix and Aqua Breath.The Empire is about to release a new kind of Magitek Armor, but they have created nothing but prototypes for them yet; the Proto Armor is the pure chassis of the new model, but fully operational. Its powers over the standard Magitek Armor include, besides the standard electricity-based Magitek Laser, a missile support unit to fire off either a single Missile or go for the massive Launcher attack to attack multiple targets simultaneously, a blinding flash of light called Scintillation (also used by the Satellite) to blind the offensive party, and Cid's personal touch, Program 35, which by magical means fuels the body to deliver physical damage.
Siren is massively useful to halt all magical attacks should you wish to disable them prior to destroying them. Noiseblaster works too. Besides, Scintillation and Launcher, both more dangerous than Missile, are only carried out if the Proto Armor is either alone or has just been targeted by an Attack command, which is just foolishness to begin with.You are now entering what the Bestiary refers to as the Magitek Factory: The part of the building where the Magitek Armors are being created. What you'll want to do first is go all the way to the left, through a pipe, on a conveyer belt, to a chest that contains, oh sweetness, a
Flametongue. It's a nice Fire-elemental sword that mildly boosts your Magic; give it to either Celes or Edgar (with a slight preference to Edgar, as you'll be using him more). You'll notice a crane going back and forth. Face the crane, and when it's on your side, quickly jump onto it with the Action button to let it carry you across the gap. Over here, you'll see two pipes where the ends that are facing the screen kinda look like eyes. You'll want to enter the right one first to obtain access to the chest - an Ether - before climbing back and allowing your party to climb down the left one.The stairs will drop you on another conveyer belt, which drops you off near a chest and another pipe. The pipe will take you back should you so desire (with an elevator! Oh, my!), but you probably won't. Grab the chest (X-Potion). The path downwards will get you exactly nowhere (you can't make the elevator go down to where you are), so get on the conveyer belt that takes you further into the factory.
It delivers you to another chest! The
Thunder Blade is waiting for you. If you had an Edgar or Celes left to equip it on, do so (there's really no point in switching it with the Flametongue, but if it pleases ye...). Move down a little and there'll be another chest. Such treasury! It's a Remedy. Get on the newly visible conveyer belt and don't forget about the chest you see on the way down; we'll be coming for it later. No chest left behind.There's a slight break from the conveyer belt here. Continuing right on will simply get you to advance the dungeon, but you'll miss treasures! Rather nice ones, actually, although nothing can compare to the two blades you've already picked up here.
To the bottom-left is the first accessible chest, which contains
Dragoon Boots. Going up the ladder near it will get you (through a door) to the chest you passed earlier, which will contain a Golden Shield. It's also the way out if you still want to sissy out of the mission. Descending the stairs near the Dragoon Boots chest again, you'll want to go all the way to the right (just past a crane that has no use here) and all the way to the bottom, where you'll see a door leading to a chest containing a Golden Helm. Exit the door and go all the way to the right, where you'll see a small chamber of which only the inner wall is visible. Here, a chest is hidden with Golden Armor. Exit the room and walk up the stairs for the Tent in the chest. Hike back to the place where the conveyer belt dropped you off in this room, but don't continue just yet; go up the stairs above the conveyer belt. You'll meet plenty of crates here (with, as your sharp eye has probably noticed, the Imperial Logo on 'em). There's a hidden entrance to the right just below the fifth crate. If you're having trouble finding it, face the first crate you come across, take five steps down, go all the way to the right, and take one step back. Go down a while and you'll see the hidden chamber with two chests; one the Icebrand sword, a blade made entirely out of never-melting ice which serves as the Ice-elemental equivalent of the Flametongue and Thunder Blade, as well as the Zephyr Cloak, which boosts both Evasion stats by 10% and introduces a spiffy cape animation when you block something with it.When you're done, it doesn't matter if you hike back or continue down; if you go down, you'll fall out of the end, and a while later, appear at the end of a pipe close to the conveyor belt you were just thinking of continuing.
Get on the conveyor belt and simply walk on until you meet a friendly face, by which I mean a certain kind of friend who would like to hit you in the abdomen with a rather large and heavy object and who would probably enjoy extra ice in his drinks.
Caves of Narshe: Final Fantasy VI
Version 6
©1997–2025 Josh Alvies (Rangers51)
All fanfiction and fanart (including original artwork in forum avatars) is property of the original authors. Some graphics property of Square Enix.
Version 6
©1997–2025 Josh Alvies (Rangers51)
All fanfiction and fanart (including original artwork in forum avatars) is property of the original authors. Some graphics property of Square Enix.