Final Fantasy VI Walkthrough
Written by Djibriel
Contributor
2.31: Gungho's Assignment
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Enemies: Warlock, Mahadeva, Sorath, Medusa Chicken, Creature, Moonform, Aspidochelon,
Hidon, Erebus, Erebus (2), Erebus (3), Erebus (4)
Lore: 
Grand Delta
Party: Relm, Strago Optional: Terra, Cyan, Shadow, Edgar, Sabin, Celes, Setzer, Mog, Gau, Umaro
There is a small island to the north of Thamasa called Ebot's Rock. It's closed for now. Foreshadowing? Back in Thamasa, as soon as you cross between the Armor Shop and the Item Shop, Relm will get excited about being back home. However, not all is well on the home front; Gungho, Strago's former battle partner, took on Hidon, the legendary beast Strago hunted together with Gungho when they were young. Hidon was submerged under water along with Ebot's Rock itself, but, now that the cave has resurfaced, Gungho had another go. That didn't go over too well; he's been defeated and is now bed-ridden. After listening to Gungho's pleas, Strago decides to go after the beast, and after a while, accepts Relm's help. Note that, after this scene, Strago is actually required to complete the dungeon that is Ebot's Rock. Relm, however, is not. There's a theme here: Warp stones are found throughout the dungeon and all monsters have a Teleport Stone as both their rare drop and rare steal. That's kind of them.
The Warlock is an annoying little... warlock. Evil and vile throughout, it makes a mockery of the holy light by attacking with the
Holy spell, which is actually all it uses for attacking. It may try to drain back some of its lost MP with !Magic Drain, but it'll be attacking you almost exclusively with the Holy spell (and entirely exclusively when it's alone). The Warlock's Defenses are also very strong; its Defense is high, its Magic Defense extremely so. Barrier-piercing attacks should be your main priority against him; you might even use the 
Stop spell to make sure he doesn't hurt you in the meantime.The Mahadeva needn't worry you. It looks dangerous, but this is not the case. It may randomly use Crypt Dust on the second, fifth, eighth (etc.) turn but it will be a wasted turn like always; its Special is called !Rib and, unlike what you would expect, does Battle x2 damage rather than setting Zombie. Common Undead weaknesses in Fire and Holy can also be found in this opponent.
Sorath bears a close resemblance to Purusa, wouldn't you agree? See, it's funny because... Oh man, I'm too funny to bear. Again! If you haven't figured out that I'm stalling because Sorath is a rather boring enemy, you haven't had enough sleep. They attack with Battle and !Choke (Battle * 1.5). They're not very powerful with it. The only interesting thing to say about them is the fact they take a distant liking to percentage-based attacks (75% Shimsham through Sketch, Cave In through Rage) while being immune to it themselves.
Medusa Chicken are upgraded Litwor Chicken. Weak to Ice like their WoB brethren, they now also absorb Poison-elemental attacks. They have
Quake written all over them, in Sketch, Control, and Rage alike; they'll have a 33% chance of using it when alone. Every second turn when not alone, Medusa Chicken has a 33% chance at using !Lick, which sets Petrify and should be avoided.Creatures... these little oddities are weak against Lightning, and they attack with Battle and !Stench, which sets Confuse. Control, Sketch and Rage all grant access to the spell. Unlike Humpty, they're not Undead, and that's why they don't absorb
Bio attacks either. Moonform is worth nothing. It attacks with Battle and !Mouth Clamp, which sets Seizure. It may counter any Magic attack with the Poison- or Water-elemental Acid Rain (which sets Seizure), and it can counter any other form of attack with the much more powerful Ice- or Water-elemental Flash Rain attack. Both attacks also feature Sketch and Control potentiality, and the Rage list features Flash Rain. The best way to deal with them is by casting
Rasp; they have 82 MP and will die from sub-zero MP, leaving them unable to use final counters.Aspidochelon are very similar to Devoahan, almost so much so that there's no doubt it's intentional; just like Devoahan, they will use nothing but Battle for four turns before letting loose with Battle, Battle, and !Rage (which once again is Battle * 1.5, unsurprisingly like Devoahan's Special of the same name). When hit by Magic, Devoahan responded with Sun Bath; Aspidochelon responds by casting Wind Slash. The main difference is the fact that Aspidochelon is Undead, with the standard elemental properties of Undeads too.
So, the strategy is clear. Cast
Float on everybody to protect against a stray Quake attack, and make everybody invisible with Fader or Vanish. Aside from this, don't let Medusa Chicken be the last monster on the battlefield, don't cast Magic on Aspidochelon, and kill Moonform with Rasp and you're invincible here until Hidon.Here's the deal in this cave. The first warp stone (not capitalized to differentiate from the item Teleport Stone) takes you to a living, talking chest that won't grant you passage since he's hungry. He's also a chest, lacking opposable thumbs, abstract thought, or even the most rudimentary of senses. Let's face it; bossing around other people to bring him food is really his most effective way of feeding himself. Your task here is to feed him enough Coral, the stuff of magic you find in the chests all around Ebot's Rock. In every chest, there's an equal 25% chance you find one, two, three, or five pieces of coral. The talking chest will let you pass on two conditions. One: You need to have Strago. If you don't have Strago in your party, you can feed him all you want but won't accomplish anything, either for you or for the chest. He eats, like so many young people of our time, because he's unhappy. It's a destructive and endless cycle of finding consolation in the very weakness he despises. Two: You need to feed him 22 pieces of Coral in one go. If you feed him 18, he'll send you off for more, and in the meantime he'll get hungry enough to need all 22 pieces of Coral again.
So, while you scurry off to find a pencil and a slip of paper to write down how much Coral you're finding all around, I'm going to try to explain how the layout of Ebot's Rock is constructed.
Just kidding. Every warp stone has up to four different locations it can warp you to. They're all in the same room, and in most cases there's only one warp stone to walk towards after possibly raiding a chest. There's no possible advantage of knowing where you are; warp, open chest, warp. Repeat if necessary. In the end, you'll have your 22 pieces of Coral and you can go 'find' the talking chest. It's up to luck how soon you come across it, obviously. Feed him, and you're allowed to continue. Finally, Hidon! The mere sight of the horrid creature sends shivers down Strago's spine. Can we assume Strago knows that this creature can teach him the most powerful of Lores, the fabled
Grand Delta? The Japanese game sure mentions it, so it's time to pound him for the sake of great, sweet justice.Hidon  Bestiary #332 |
Type |
Level |
HP |
MP |
Gil |
EXP |
Undead | 43 | 25000 | 12500 | 0 | 0 | |
Strength |
Magic Atk. |
Evasion |
Defense |
Mag. Def. |
Mag. Evade |
|
13 | 10 | 0 | 110 | 160 | 0 | |
Stolen Items |
Dropped Items |
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Common: Teleport Stone | ||||||
Status Immunities | Elemental Immunities | |||||
          | None | |||||
Elemental Absorb | Elemental Weakness | |||||
|    | |||||
Lores | Command Immunities | |||||
Control | ||||||
Strategy | ||||||
Hidon attacks with Battle and Bio. That's what he does. He has a 33% shot at using Bio, and a 66% shot at Battle. If you hit him with something, he has a small chance of countering with the Poison spell. Whenever a character dies in-battle (aka the Wound status), Hidon will try to revive the fallen character as a Zombie with the Crypt Dust attack, which will fail if the fallen character is immune to the Zombie status ailment. When Hidon is alone, its first turn will be devoted to glowing with an eerie yellow light and attacking with the magnificent Lore Grand Delta, which will deal between 900 and 950 damage on your sorry posterior. That's about when you'll notice that Hidon is particularly mean when it's by itself; it'll start attacking with all kinds of crazy spells, including Venomist (the multi-target Poison-elemental attack that misses a lot yet looks funky) and Leech (the non-elemental HP draining spell). Eighty seconds after the last of the Erebus has perished, Hidon will call his minions back into existence. If you kill them all again, Hidon will cast Grand Delta again, and then revive them again.Throw up your barriers where possible ( Hastega, Mighty Guard,  Golem/Fenrir, Kirin) and set Slow on Hidon. Evasion of physical attacks is doubly important, as all the Erebuses will try to set nasty status ailments on you with their Specials. Now, it's time to take care of the Erebuses. While Bahamut's Mega Flare attack is by far the best way to take care of them all at once, well-timed doses of Cyan's Eclipse attack, possibly paired with Edgar's  Auto Crossbow or Flash Tools, should get the job done. The most difficult Erebuses to dispatch is the one in the lower-left corner (it is inherently Reflective, absorbs all elements, and has Instant Death protection). Shadow's stronger throwing stars work well against this one, as does Strago's Traveler attack, Setzer's  Fixed Dice, and Edgar's Drill. Also, don't forget to throw around stealing attempts until you've stolen something from Hidon; the common steal is a meager Teleport Stone, but the rare steal is a  Thornlet, an elusive item that, provided you choose the  Ragnarok sword over the Ragnarok Esper once the time comes, can only be found here.The Thornlet is an odd piece of Headgear. The only thing it has going for it is the fact that its Defense is superior to everything, not including the Saucer on Imps. On the downside, the Thornlet grants inherent Seizure to the wearer (thorns inflict pain) and has no Magic Defense whatsoever. The verdict, then, is that the Thornlet should be ignored. The only valid reasons for getting one are either to complete your item list as much as possible or to bet it later for a  Mirage Vest.Now, behold the power of Grand Delta! As soon as that's all over, it's time to defeat this wretched being. Valigarmanda's Tri-Disaster attack, Fira, Firaga, and Quake spells really hurt, as does Shadow's  Flame Scroll. Having Shadow Throw a Flametongue,  Gravity Rod, or Holy Rod hurts Hidon very badly. Equipping Mog or Edgar as a  Dragon Horn Dragoon paired with a  Holy Lance can also deal great amounts of damage. Mog should definitely refrain from using Dances; the Twilight Requiem sucks. Phantom Rush and Fixed Dice are reliable as always. Strago and Relm themselves really need to rely on their Magic skillset if used; if Strago's selection is extremely poor, I would suggest Aero or Traveler. Obviously, if Strago is level 43, his Stone attack surpasses all other options (except Firaga). Cyan should probably stick to his Flurry skill, unless you've put in the time to teach him Firaga. Gau has a few options, but most of them are kind of odd. Devil Fist is nice enough, as it allows Gau to absorb Poison, Bio, and Venomist. Inherent Haste and Will o' the Wisp are good enough too. If you're not too concerned about that Poison ailment, have Gau engage (don't forget to cast Float on yourselves beforehand, since Litwor Chicken uses Quake). Finally, Magic Urn turns Gau into an ever-present tank that heals your party. Nice. And Umaro? Just let him go, man. Expand Full Strategy | ||||||
After the fight, Strago will giggle like a little girl and run off to tell his friend. Gungho seems surprised and oddly vital when hearing the news, and both aging men stay up late to celebrate. Relm, just like the stereotype demands, is smarter and more mature than her old grandpa, and explains to the moronic player that Gungho was faking his wounds. When the player regains control over the party, you may or may not notice that the party hasn't been healed from the fight against Hidon, although they did spend the night in Thamasa. It's possible that some of your characters are still poisoned, so you might as well take them to the cheap Inn and heal them with a good night's rest.
A pretty important note here: after this event, Gungho can be found walking around the outside of Strago's house. Normally he'll just ask you if everything's okay, but any time you talk to him, there's a 12.5% chance that he'll say: "Hidon's appeared at Ebot's Rock again!". As soon as Gungho says this, Hidon will indeed appear on his original spot. To reach him, you'll have to gather another 22 Coral for the living chest that has also reappeared. Re-fighting Hidon is only important if you either haven't learned
Grand Delta from the first fight or need a Thornlet, possibly to wager at the Colosseum for the Mirage Vest. It should also be noted that after the first time you defeat Hidon, Strago is no longer required to find Hidon.Now, you probably taught Relm at least the level 3 spells or
Flare while she was still equipped with that awesome Cat-Ear Hood or possibly the awesome Magus Rod, and Strago has the best multi-target damage of any character at the moment, so we can all celebrate their Thamasian existence. I think we've done pretty darn well with our Thamasian friends.
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.