Final Fantasy VI Walkthrough
Written by Djibriel
Contributor
3.2: The Seals of Ice, Wind and Earth
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Burning Labyrinth |
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Enemies: Chimera, Vector Lythos, Great Malboro, Great Behemoth, Vector Chimera, Ahriman, Zurvan, Vilia, Great Dragon, Abaddon, Dragon Aevis, Dinozombie, Death Rider, Shield Dragon, Maximera, Hexadragon, Magic Dragon, Armodullahan, Crystal Dragon, Plague, Flan Princess, Neslug (Head), Neslug (Shell), Earth Eater, Gargantua, Malboro Menace, Abyss Worm, Dark Behemoth, Red Dragon (Redux), Blue Dragon (Redux), Gold Dragon (Redux), Ice Dragon (Redux), Storm Dragon (Redux), Earth Dragon (Redux),
Skull Dragon (Redux), Holy Dragon (Redux), Kaiser Dragon
Treasures: 
Bone Wrist, Celestriad, Crystal Orb, 
Dueling Mask, Elixir x3, 
Force Armor, Genji Glove, Hi-Ether, Magicite Shard, Magus Robe, Megalixir, Phoenix Down, Remedy, Rename Card, Ribbon x2, 
Stardust Rod, Teleport Stone, X-Ether, X-Potion x2
Lore: 
Reflect ???, Aero, Lv. 3 Confuse, Lv. 4 Flare, Lv. ? Holy, Lv. 5 Death, Roulette, Doom, Bad Breath, Mighty Guard, Tsunami
Start with Party 1
You're dropped in with three teams of four characters, just like in Kefka's Tower. Pick any one party to start with. This'll be the one to fight Ice Dragon (Redux), so characters with
Firaga spells are well-suited for this first entry mission.Zurvan is an Apocrypha palette swap with misguided magical intentions. It may randomly use
Gravity, Drain, or 
Osmose on any first turn, an -aga spell on its second and Dispel, Rasp or !Drain Touch (drains HP) on the third turn. Zurvan's spells are fairly strong, so be wary of them. When attacked by a Magic spell, Zurvan will cast Reflect on itself; when struck by a Magic spell regardless of Reflect, Zurvan will assume you bounced it off yourself and use the Reflect ??? Lore out of spite for your advanced planning. All this shouldn't matter though; Zurvan is vulnerable to both Silence (which doesn't miss) and Instant Death attacks. If you strike Zurvan with a Death spell, it will attempt to cast Reflect on itself, but since dead targets can't be struck by the Reflect spell, it will fail. Cast Death spells on any Zurvan you see and move on.Vilia is one of the most annoying enemies of the Dragon's Den, and this close to the entrance no less! Befitting of her sprite, she's immune to all status ailments, possesses great magical prowess and uses those most horrible of all attacks, Overture and Entice. She wields the -aga spells with extreme power, may use Imp spells and Entice attacks (some of which is actually her special !Entice in disguise, which sets the normal Confuse), and will counter any Attack command with the Overture attack to protect herself from any such physical molestation. Try to take down Vilia ASAP. If you have Relm or Gogo with Control in your team, make her your top priority.
Slow works, but since her most dangerous attack comes the very first turn, it matters little.Great Dragon is very much like the Dragon we faced on the Floating Continent. It has powerful physical attacks (!Devastate will deal 400% damage), powerful multi-target magical attacks (Atomic Rays, Blaze and Southern Cross) and may use Revenge Blast if you're unlucky. Any Great Dragon has a 33% chance of countering any attack dealt to it with a Snort attack, and will use
Quake upon death. Like the Dragon, it's vulnerable to Sleep, Slow and Stop, so set the ailments and hit the Great Dragon with powerful spells; it's weak to Lightning-elemental attacks (again, like the Dragon), so Thundaga spells will serve you well.You'll see two entrances to the bowels of the Dragon's Den. Entering the left one will get you to a small room where both passageways further into the cave have been blocked by two Seals of Ice. Remember the Eightfold Seal we broke to release
Crusader and obtain the invitation to haunt these strange caverns in the first place? This is a bit like that. We'll have to hunt down the Legendary Eight again, the elemental dragons that each hold their respective Seal in place. However, I'll give it to you up front: they'll be a lot more challenging this time around.At any rate, if you came to see the Seals, get out and enter the right entrance. You'll see a Seal of Ice when passing through here. You'll come across a stairway to a level above you; it's blocked by a Seal of Wind. Too bad we can't club them like those Norse fashion industry people do...
Just pass it until the road is blocked by... a dragon? That was kinda quick! Maybe this ordeal isn't too bad...
"Ice Dragon creates 3 mirror images!"
Ice Dragon (Redux) .png "Ice Dragon (Redux)") Bestiary #378 |
Type |
Level |
HP |
MP |
Gil |
EXP |
None | 97 | 32000 | 20000 | 0 | 0 | |
Strength |
Magic Atk. |
Evasion |
Defense |
Mag. Def. |
Mag. Evade |
|
40 | 15 | 20 | 150 | 150 | 20 | |
Stolen Items |
Dropped Items |
|||||
None | Common:  Final Trump | |||||
Status Immunities | Elemental Immunities | |||||
           | None | |||||
Elemental Absorb | Elemental Weakness | |||||
 |  | |||||
Lores | Command Immunities | |||||
None | Control | |||||
Strategy | ||||||
What's cooler than bein' cool? Ice Cold, that's what. Ice Dragon (Redux) is the living, breathing proof of one of the few certainties in this life: the small ones always have to overcompensate. Once upon a time, the Ice Dragon was just a cool brother chilling in the snowfields of Narshe (puns intended). These days, he's pumped himself up to measure up to the expectations of his larger brethren in the most pathetic way possible: By means of his mirror images. As soon as you enter the battle with Ice Dragon (Redux), he'll create three more of himself, presumably out of ice or something. They stack behind each other on-screen, so you'll only ever see a single one. All four are identical, but the more mirror images you destroy the more aggressive the remaining combatants get. When all four targets are still alive, they will attack with physical attacks, !Freeze (which sets Stop), and a rare Blizzaga spell. Do note that these physicals are rather nasty coming from a level 97 monster and that there will be four monsters attacking you, so this ain't no cakewalk. It'll counter with a physical Attack every time you hit one, meaning that when you use a multi-target attack you'll have to endure four separate counters. When you destroy a mirror image, it will use one final multi-target Ice-elemental attack against its killer (making it a very strong single-target multi-hit attack): either Northern Cross, Absolute Zero or Avalanche.Once one mirror image has been destroyed, the Ice Dragons will start using (Umaro's) Snowstorm and Freezing Dust. Once a second mirror image is dust, the two Ice Dragons will stop goofing around and start attacking every round (as opposed to randomly doing nothing). In addition, they'll adapt their counter to include a possible !Freeze attack. Once the three mirror images have been destroyed, Ice Dragon (Redux) will start trying to multi-target Freeze you with Northern Cross and straight-up kill you with Absolute Zero and Avalanche attacks. My, oh my. The prescription here is easy. If you don't absorb or negate Ice-elemental attacks, you're dead in the water. Snow Scarfs,  Ice Shields and Minerva Bustiers all work. Flame Shields work too, but not as well. Either way, the only source of damage you should have to worry about is physical. Obviously, with all the magical attacks flying around the Invisible status is no help, so we'll have to go with substitutes. With the mass amounts of pounding Ice Dragon (Redux) will unleash, nothing is too much. Fenrir's Howling Moon will set Image on every character; Shadow and Gogo can self-apply the status with a Shadow Scroll once Howling Moon's effects have expired. Prayer Beads make sure that even before taking Evasion into account, 50% of the incoming physical attacks will be avoided. Should neither Fenrir nor Prayer Beads be good enough, Golem can stop physical attacks, but the Earthen Wall can't last forever, so if you have acces to Mighty Guard, apply it.So, with our defenses in place, it's time to go on the offense. Even with our carefully planned strategy, it's likely that before the end is reached you will see physical attacks rain upon your head, so  Reraise is a good idea to cast in the early stages of the fight. Since every multi-target attack from the party provokes up to four counters, stick to single-target attacks and take out one target at a time. Your main annoyance will likely be the Stop and Freeze statuses. As soon as a single mirror image has been blasted to bits, Freezing Dust will start appearing which is unblockable and ignores any kind of defense you could've possibly set up. You can't prevent it, but you can fight it! Hastega serves more than the obvious cause in this fight, as it means a faster dispelling of Stop of Freeze. Of course, Freeze is more easily removed by any Fire-elemental attacks. Ice and Shields and the Minerva Bustier deal with Fire as easily is Ice, so no problem there.Firaga is the ultimate spell to cast, as it's single-target by default. Meltdown is awesome as well once you absorb/nullify Fire-elemental attacks, as it's wicked powerful and will heal any character lucky enough to absorb the element. It's multi-target, but the healing will offset the damage. Thrown  Flametongues will deal massive amounts of damage as well. Ragers will like using Devil Fist (inherent Haste and the single-target Will o' the Wisp) or Io (Flare Star, which is very powerful dealing with a level 97 enemy weak to the element), assuming the Rager in question absorbs Ice-elemental attacks. If not, Twinscythe or Leaf Bunny will be defensive choices. Expand Full Strategy | ||||||
Ice Dragon (Redux) is not one of the hardest fights of the Dragon's Den, but after beating it you can congratulate yourself; it's an energizing fight. The
Final Trump you obtain from the fight is nice enough; it's a Back Row OK weapon which uses MP to inflict critical hits like the Rune Blade and Lightbringer. Without the Master's Scroll, this weapon will be better to have around than the Fixed Dice, especially in parties that like to buff with Valor spells.By the way, since the nulling of the relevant element and near-nullifying of physical attacks is such a prominent strategy in this dungeon, I've come up with a name for the
Golem/Fenrir/Prayer Beads/possible Mighty Guard combo to make life easier for whoever got stuck with writing this thing. I call this the Maginot Line, after the airtight (okay, so not) French defense system constructed just prior to the Second World War. "The Seal of Ice is broken!"
Turns out the three Seals of Ice you saw so far - two past the left entrance, one past the right - were the only ones.
If you press on you'll wind up in another part of the multi-layered Dragon's Den, the Burning Labyrinth. You can spot but not reach another dragon in this room and open a chest containing a Hi-Ether, but you'll have no choice but to go back. We're going to try to get to that dragon now. It's Storm Dragon (Redux), and it's looking forward to you. Leave the Burning Labyrinth and start to exit the Dragon's Den until you come across the passageway which was previously blocked by the Seal of Ice. It's very close to the entrance. Here, you'll reach a button tile. Oh joy, button tiles. Go stand on it to open up another door.
Switch to Party 2
This next party will eventually have the choice of fighting one or both of the next two Redux Dragons, those being the Storm Dragon (Redux) and the Earth Dragon (Redux). So it's doesn't really matter which party of the two you bring, since when it matters you'll still be able to choose.
You'll want the left entrance this time, as obviously there's nothing past the right entrance yet. There are three choices here: two entrances which were blocked earlier by Seals of Ice and one which Party 1 is holding open. Let's get this one first, as it's the only one of temporary nature. It's the one in the middle, for those of you who have forgotten.
You'll enter the Burning Labyrinth we're seen earlier. You can see a chest but you can't reach it; all there's to it here is a button tile. You can see the effects of it when you get off the button tile by walking down, as the button tile creates two rocks in the lava just below your screen. Let's switch to the third party to get the chest. It will likely contain bliss.
Switch to Party 3
It's time for the third and last party to enter the Dragon's Den. Following Party 2 and opening the chest reveals a mere Rename Card. If you are confused by the fact I hardly ever advise you to change your name, understand that this is because it is utterly and completely pointless. Exit until you're outside of the Dragon's Den and enter the right entrance. Entering anything past the left one now will only get you to two dead ends and a Seal of Water. One might hope that the Seal of Water would actually contain a seal. Alas.
Walk past the previous location of the late Ice Dragon (Redux) until you enter the Burning Labyrinth. Grab the Hi-Ether if you haven't already and go stand on the button tile. Let's switch to Party 2, the party on the other button tile! You're not going to get a new header here, because the only reason you're switching is so that Party 2 won't get trapped when Party 1 moves, next.
Switch to Party 1
Get off the button tile and walk outside. Enter the left entrance and pursue the right path. Where you previously would've encountered a dead end, you'll now see the rock Party 3 is holding up for you by means of the button tile. There's nothing here but yet another button tile, so I guess we'll go stand on it and explore the cave with Party 2 to see if it can go any further.
Switch to Party 2
Left entrance, left path. Walk past the Seal of Water and go up and around the lava until you see rocks in the lava. Celebrations! Jump across to see a button tile. You can now either walk around and approach Storm Dragon (Redux) with Party 2 or go stand on the button tile present here and switch to Party 1 so it can deal with Storm Dragon (Redux). I'm going to assume you fought with Party 2.
Storm Dragon (Redux) .png "Storm Dragon (Redux)") Bestiary #379 |
Type |
Level |
HP |
MP |
Gil |
EXP |
None | 97 | 62000 | 10000 | 0 | 0 | |
Strength |
Magic Atk. |
Evasion |
Defense |
Mag. Def. |
Mag. Evade |
|
40 | 12 | 200 | 150 | 150 | 80 | |
Stolen Items |
Dropped Items |
|||||
Common: Hi-Ether | Common:  Longinus | |||||
Status Immunities | Elemental Immunities | |||||
| None | |||||
Elemental Absorb | Elemental Weakness | |||||
 |  | |||||
Lores | Command Immunities | |||||
None | Control | |||||
Strategy | ||||||
When we met the Storm Dragon in Mt. Zozo, it was already the nastiest of the eight. There are Redux dragons more threatening than Storm Dragon (Redux), but this one got some tricks up its proverbial sleeves, make no mistake. Storm Dragon (Redux) is one slick bastard; not so insecure it needs to be all big and stuff, and everything on that body is sharper than its evolutionary pattern should have required it to be. The provocative pterosaur will randomly use physical attacks, the powerful !Icarus Wing, the well-known Wind Slash and Leaf Swirl, the non-elemental and unblockable attack. Any damage done to him may be countered by up to two physical attacks, so you'll likely see more physical attacks coming from him than magical attacks. Once Storm Dragon (Redux) hits 25600 HP he'll 'cloak himself in wind!' and set Image and Haste on himself. This move is so uncharacteristically idiotic for Storm Dragon (Redux)' generally intelligent repertoire I see no way but blaming it on the game designers. Haste won't work because Storm Dragon is immune to Slow; a common goof they should've known about by now. However, the attempt at setting the Image status is even more embarrassing, since the creature is specifically immune to Image itself. That's hard to miss. In addition, Image wouldn't really have done anything for Storm Dragon (Redux), seeing as how its Evasion was already perfect to begin with.Past this point, his AI script darkens, including two attacks every turn and more powerful attacks. There's a higher frequency of !Icarus Wing, it will start to feature Aero and the Tornado spell (which will always miss on Storm Dragon (Redux), obviously). Leaf Swirl will stop appearing, so for those of you who brought a 255 Defense Gau or Mog to this fight that also nullifies or absorbs Wind-elemental attacks, you're in the clear at this point.Thunder Shields across the board! They're really the only thing that successfully deals with Wind-elemental attacks (apart from the Paladin Shield), so I hope you have enough of 'em. Throw up the Maginot Line as well; this is vital. Remember the Maginot Line? Fenrir, Golem, Prayer Beads, Protect. Hastega is great in order to keep up with Storm Dragon (Redux)' speed, which even without his Haste status is quite impressive. Then, go on the offense.Storm Dragon (Redux)' main trump card is its perfect Evasion and Magic Evasion rating of 80, meaning that even relatively accurate spells such as Thundaga will miss more often than not. Luckily mostly just Thundaga casters that will experience trouble, as Dragon Horn Jumpers, Master's Scroll Attackers and those using Bushido, Blitz or Throw will have little problem delivering unblockable attacks. Gau's attacks will require a Sniper Eye to make his physical hit, but you may not want to spend a Relic slot for it, focusing on his magical attack instead. Luridan's Rock Slide and Io's Flare Star are unblockable attacks while the Io Rage will even nullify Wind-elemental attacks if Gau's equipment won't let him. The Io Rage is a great choice for Gogo as well. Expand Full Strategy | ||||||
You'll get a
Longinus for your troubles, the strongest Spear that can be equipped by Edgar. Sadly, the Longinus lacks the double multiplier on Jump that all Spears have, making it the inferior choice when it comes to Jump attacks. If you plan on sticking to Tools though, the Longinus will give you better stat boosts."The Seal of Wind is broken!"
Only a single Seal is dispelled; the one that blocked the stairway near Ice Dragon (Redux). We're going to totally ignore it right now, as the third Redux dragon is so close we can smell it. It smells like Earth. Which, depending on your location, might be the smell of cow manure, bison manure, giraffe manure, or yellow snow with a faint hint of frozen penguin. I'm going to assume you're still walking with Party 2 at the moment, but if you'd rather have Party 1 battle the next great evil, there's still the possibility of switching.
Enter the hole on the island to the left of the location of the late Storm Dragon (Redux). It'll take you to an unexplored part of the Dragon's Den, the Earth Labyrinth. If you walk on through the hole right in front of you, you'll see Earth Dragon (Redux) waiting for you on top of a pillar of stone.
Earth Dragon (Redux) .png "Earth Dragon (Redux)") Bestiary #380 |
Type |
Level |
HP |
MP |
Gil |
EXP |
None | 97 | 58000 | 24000 | 0 | 0 | |
Strength |
Magic Atk. |
Evasion |
Defense |
Mag. Def. |
Mag. Evade |
|
100 | 18 | 10 | 220 | 150 | 20 | |
Stolen Items |
Dropped Items |
|||||
Common: X-Potion | Common:  Godhand | |||||
Status Immunities | Elemental Immunities | |||||
| None | |||||
Elemental Absorb | Elemental Weakness | |||||
 |  | |||||
Lores | Command Immunities | |||||
None | Control | |||||
Strategy | ||||||
Earth Dragon was once not so terrifying. That was before he got his two feet firmly planted on the ground. Disregarding its own menacing looks, it was a floating monster that you could gently put to sleep and wash away like so much mud on your jeans. Having been pushed around one time too many (this being one), Earth Dragon (Redux) pulled a Batman and swore to avenge his previous weakness by training his body to perfection and getting real good at science. Except for the science. Earth Dragon (Redux), knowing full well that the element he got stuck with is the only one both vulnerable to elemental protection and generally avoided with an easily applied status - Float - has taken his own weaknesses into account. Earth Dragon (Redux) has enough physical strength to have an army of Greater Mantii soil themselves. Normally it'll just attack physically and with the occasional supremely powerful Earth-elemental attack. Quake is the nastiest; not only is it barrier-piercing and easily the most powerful one, it will also hit Earth Dragon (Redux), healing it for an average of 4400 damage. Obviously, there's an Attack omni-counter.Whenever Earth Dragon (Redux) detects the Float status, he'll forego his normal AI script in favor of a combo attack of 50 Gs, Magnitude 8 and a Quake spell. This means that if you have even one character with unremovable Float due to Angel Wings or a Float-inducing Rage, this is all you'll see for the first part of the fight. Note that there are no physical attacks here except for the counterattack, so if you have a single permanent Floater, Gaia Gear will be more than sufficient. This is a life-saver if you find yourself, against my recommendations, without enough Angel Wings.When Earth Dragon (Redux) hits 25600 HP, he'll get enraged. This means that your life is over. Nah, just kidding. He will drop his Earth-elemental attacks, as they obviously didn't succeed in killing you. Enraged, the Earth Dragon (Redux) unleashes a physical barrage unlike any other in the game. He'll start by four Attacks after the initial message, then start his new AI script. It's four Attacks in a row, then four physical attacks of which the last one has a 2/3 chance of being the !Savage special, and two !Savage attacks every third turn. He'll counter any damage done with either attack or !Savage. If you're not outright immune to physical attacks, this will kill you. Here's the thing. With Angel Wings or Float-inducing Rages, you'll need to stick him in his 50 Gs loop, where you'll just have to deal with Earth-elemental attacks which are easily dealt with Gaia Gear and Angel Wings. An alternate strategy is using the Maginot Line paired with Gaia Gear to survive the first part of the fight. Now, unleash the damage until he gets mad at you for it. Now, quickly cast Vanish on the survivors of the first round of attacks. If you manage to turn even a single character Invisible, you've won the fight as it's just dealing damage from this point on.As far as damage is concerned, Earth Dragon (Redux) is weak to Water- and Wind- elemental attacks. The introduction of the Flood spell makes life a lot easier for the spellcasters of your team, while Strago's Aero is stronger than his Grand Delta attack versus this foe. Any Float-inducing Rage will make a 255 Defense Gau unbeatable in this fight, but Marchosias has the best offense in Aero, which is also a tip for Gogo if he lacks Angel Wings. If you're having trouble beating the initial healing of Earth Dragon (Redux), you can cast Esuna on him so Quake will no longer heal him. In addition, it will be a painful reminder to him that once a floating sissy, always a floating sissy. Expand Full Strategy | ||||||
After Earth Dragon (Redux) bit the dust he was so familiar with, you obtain the
Godhand for Sabin, a Holy-elemental Claw with comparable stat boosts to the Tigerfang and a higher Attack Power. A lower Magic Power boost though, which is pretty much the only thing that Sabin needs."The Seal of Earth is broken!"
We haven't seen any Seals of Earth in our journey so far, but apparently one got dispelled. Can't be a bad thing, I guess. It's time to reunite somewhere, we have stories to share. Go down and to the right, where you'll first pass a passageway to the Burning Labyrinth. Enter it to grab an Elixir out of a chest and return. If you press on, you'll see a button tile, and two ways to proceed. The stairway will just take you to more dungeon, we'll get to that later. The opening above you leads to the Shrine of Serenity, where you can find a Save Point and swap party members of all three parties are in there. Let's do that right now! Exit the Shrine of Serenity, find the button tile and go stand on the button tile to extend the bridge.
Switch to Party 2
Party 1 needs to remain on the button tile, else Party 2 won't be able to off of the island. Walk Party 2 outside, enter the right entrance to the Dragon's Den walk past the location of the late Ice Dragon (Redux), past the bridge and into the Shrine of Serenity.
Switch to Party 1
Party 3 must remain on the button tile, as Party 1 will need the same bridge. Go outside the Burning Labyrinth, and you should find yourself near the bridge already. Walk into the Shrine of Serenity.
Switch to Party 3
Walk into the Shrine of Serenity. Good Lord, it feels good to have some respite. We've taken down three of the powerful enemies here. Presumably there are five more and then whatever invited us into this den. Now go build a campfire and talk about the Entity. It's the planet, okay? It's the planet. Jeez.
Caves of Narshe: Final Fantasy VI
Version 6
©1997–2024 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
©1997–2024 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.