Final Fantasy VI Walkthrough

Written by Djibriel

Contributor

3.3: The Seals of Water and Fire

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The Seals of Ice, Wi…

Dragon Temple
5/16	Vector Chimera	1
5/16	Great Malboro	1
5/16	Outsider	2
5/16	Yojimbo	1
5/16	Dinozombie	1
1/16	Death Rider	1

Flame Labyrinth
5/16	Abaddon	1
5/16	Dragon Aevis	1
5/16	Great Behemoth	1
1/16	Abaddon	1
1/16	Vector Lythos	1

Grand Cavern
5/16	Hexadragon	1
5/16	Primeval Dragon	1
	Magic Dragon	1
	Vector Lythos	1
5/16	Magic Dragon	3
1/16	Armodullahan	1

Let's continue. We'll be going south, and for a good while we'll need a Party to keep down the button near the entrance of the Shrine of Serenity. Sounds like a plan for Party 1! Have 'em do as you want them to.

Switch to Party 2

Dinozombie is one of the easier opponents. It may rarely Petrify a character with Dread Gaze and could in theory revive a character as a Zombie with Crypt Dust, but you won't see it working since it won't specifically target KO'd characters. It will counter attacks with Blaze, but since its Magic Power is so low it will deal little damage. The Dinozombie is vulnerable to all status ailments excluding Imp, so you can use

Banish to send it away or set Stop, Berserk, whatever. Since the Dinozombie is (quite obviously) Undead, a

Raise spell will instantly kill it. Remember the stairwell that was blocked by the Seal of Wind? The one around where Ice Dragon Redux used to be? Right, let's go there and ascend it. Just go down until you encounter the stairwell. You'll enter the Dragon Temple, built by god-knows-who for some divine purpose long forgotten. To the right, the road is blocked by a Seal of Lightning, so we have no choice but to walk upwards to the water and mess around with the turtle. Press the action button when facing the water to call the turtle towards you, and you can surf the shelladelic tortoise to the other side.

On the other side, it appears the Seal of Lightning was entirely ridiculous as once you go right and explore the area, you can just go visit the same Seal of Lightning from the other side. A Seal of Heaven blocks a door as well, so there's nothing here. Going up after saying goodbye to the turtle will get you to a skeleton button. Ominous: "When the door is opened, the Red shall be awoken." Yeah, whatever, the in-game writing is pretty horrid at this stage of the game. Press the button. What disaster could possibly come from unleashing an ancient evil long since locked away, right? A distant door opens. Pressin' on! There's a blocked door to the right protected by the Seal of Fire, and an empty gravestone to the left. Also, I guess a dragon is attacking you in the middle.

Blue Dragon (Redux) Bestiary #376	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	97	57000	16000	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	40	15	20	150	150	10
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	Common: X-Potion			Common: Save The Queen
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness

	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control
	Strategy
	While the name 'Redux' is simply a gimmick to help distinguish between the two sets of dragons, it might as well have stood for 'reduction' in this case. Maybe Blue Dragon was flipping through his big brother's lad mags when they were dealing out the fancy upgrades, or maybe the head of the GBA remake team has a severe disliking for all things blue. We may never know the cause, but one thing is clear; Blue Dragon (Redux) is the almost comically inept one of the gang. Blue Dragon (Redux) will attack twice every turn, either physically, with !Blue Fang (sets Stop) or with an multi-target Water-elemental attack. He'll counter any damage done to him with a 33 % shot at Attack. Whenever a character has the Protect, Shell or Haste status, Blue Dragon (Redux) will set Darkness, Poison and Slow on itself and try to swap the statuses with a Rippler attack. That's about it. All Water-elemental attacks are easily absorbed with one of the three defensive pieces of Imp equipment, so no worries there. Rippler, due to the Imp immunity bug, can be blocked with a Ribbon. Alternatively, you could just not apply the positive statuses and cast Slow and Bio on Blue Dragon (Redux) to see it throw itself around its apartment. Fenrir's Howling Moon and Golem's Earthen Wall are the part of the Maginot Line that isn't a target of Rippler so feel free to apply them. Thundaga spells are very powerful, obviously. Any old attacks works like a charm in this fight. Gau and Gogo can Rage something like Aspiran or Trillium to absorb the Water-elemental onslaught. This is really the easiest fight in the Dragon's Den. Seriously, for fun I sometimes don't listedlisten to my own strategies and just damage and heal to the best of my poorly leveled abilities; it was easy enough in this fight every time I gave it a go. Just equip the Tortoise Shield you should have and cast Thundaga and such. Expand Full Strategy

Once you've washed Blue Dragon (Redux) down the undoubtedly impressive baroque drain they've installed in the Dragon Temple, you should receive a Save The Queen for your troubles.

"The Seal of Water is broken!" God, I hope that doesn't mean something is giving birth at the moment... Nope, we're safe. A Seal of Water back in the Burning Labyrinth dissolves, and revealing two Seals we haven't had the luxury of seeing so far. Probably awesome anyway. Past the hallway Blue Dragon (Redux) had squeezed itself into is nothing but another Seal of Lightning, so all Party 2 has to do is head back to the Shrine of Serenity.

The Save The Queen, by the way, is an awesome sword for Celes. It grants her a +7 on her Magic Power like her other options at this point, but also ups her Speed and Stamina, is wicked powerful, and raises both her Evasion and Magic Evasion stats by 40%. It doesn't beat the Sword

Lightbringer or Sword

Ragnarok, especially since it doesn't perform MP-based automatic criticals or has any random spells attached, but it does beat any other sword she may have equipped. It's awesome.

Take the party back to the Shrine of Serenity. Walk down, ride the turtle and exit the Dragon Temple into the Earth Labyrinth. Walk around the stairway column all the way up to the bridge that's being kept present for you, and enter the Shrine of Serenity for some saving.

Start with Party 1

Abaddon is another Undead fiend easily dispatched with any revival magic or item. When active, it will try to set minor status ailments on you (Slow, Silence, Sleep, Confuse, Imp or rarely the Disaster attack) but on noccasion will just set Berserk on itself. It will counter damage done with normal physicals or !Sharpened Claw, which deals twice as much damage. Whatever,

Raise it and then laugh at the remains. If you don't wanna, set Berserk to stop the nastiness of its spells and attack it with Fire- and Holy-elemental attacks, which hurt all Undead alike. Abaddon may rarely drop the elusive Relic

Lich Ring, which is pretty neat since they're pretty hard to come by, generally useless as they may be.

Dragon Aevis is quite aggressive, attacking with physical attacks, Wind Slash and !Wing Spike, which deals double damage. When struck by a Magic spell, it has a 66% chance of counterattacking with Cyclonic, which is bad. Dragon Aevis is vulnerable to

Silence and

Berserk which stop the Cyclonic danger. Also, Instant Death attacks work like a charm, but keep in mind that Berserk and/or Silence are removed when Death is set, so it may still pull out a last Cyclonic.

Banish gets rid of this problem, as do Snare, Shin-Zantetsuken and Cyan's Oblivion Bushido technique. You can rarely steal a Relic

Dragon Horn from them, but since Dragon Aevis' level is so high (77, which is about average in the Dragon's Den), you'll need a high-leveled thief to even stand a chance.

Pick a defensive party now, one that has learned

Reraise, please. For the purposes of the walkthrough I'll just call Party 3 into action. Walk out of the Shrine of Serenity and to the right, where a staircase is located. You'll enter the Flame Labyrinth here. Walk around, ignoring the other staircase for now. In the inward curve of the bottom-left corner, a hidden chest contains a Magicite Shard. A chest containing a Teleport Stone is also located in this room: all the way to the southeast, past a button tile. When you're done treasure hunting, go up the stairwell you ignored earlier. If you were a bad boy in the Dragon Temple and pushed the skeleton button, Red Dragon (Redux) should be waiting for you just past the opened door of its prison.

Red Dragon (Redux) Bestiary #375	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	97	59000	12000	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	40	15	20	150	150	10
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	Common: X-Ether			Common: Apocalypse
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness

	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control
	Strategy
	What draconic misdeeds Red Dragon (Redux) performed to deserve being confined even within the walls of the Dragon's Den is a mystery, especially since the rampaging Earth Dragon Redux and the vicousvicious little Ice Dragon (Redux) were both free to wander up and down its derelict halls. At any rate, its fiery temper, moral degeneration and the ability to set things aflame with its mere gaze - all common stereotypes associated with redheads - will provide you with a formidable foe. The thing about Red Dragon (Redux) is that it can't be killed. By giving up its lifeforce it effectively becomes immune to all damage done by you, including elemental attacks it is weak against such as Blizzaga. Attacks that normally dealt a fixed amount of damage such as Traveler or 1000 Needles will result in 0 damage. Ultima, physical attacks of any kind, magical attacks of any kind; Red Dragon (Redux) possesses the same invincibility as the WoB Guardian did, and after 12 years of trying, we have yet to find a way to damage the thing. It can't be done. However, Red Dragon (Redux) is using it's its very lifeforce to gain this expert defense, so this isn't a fight of trading blows, it's an attempt to stay alive among the attacks of Red Dragon (Redux). Of course, the Joker's Death attack produced by the Slot command can kill this thing, but it'll be a cold day in Ethiopia when I'll tell you lot to start counting on Joker's Death. Yeah, anyway. Red Dragon's arsenal is pretty much what you'd expect. The first turn he'll use three attacks, all of which can be either a normal physical attack, the instant-kill attack !Red Fang or a strong magical attack, either Firaga, Flare or Meltdown. The second turn features eight physical attacks. The third turn both Blaze and Flare Star. Loop from there. He'll keep this up, without counterattacks of any kind until he dies. When he dies he'll cast two final spells; an Ultima spell and a Flare spell. Red Dragon (Redux) will deal after 100 Doom timer units, which is either just before or after the third time Red Dragon (Redux) uses his eight-hit physical barrage. The Ultima spell will deal around 5000 damage to all characters, so you'll likely perish on the scene. We'll need to focus on staying alive through the fight and somehow circumventing dying due to his final Ultima. The Maginot Line (Golem/Fenrir/Prayer Beads/possible Mighty Guard combo) is more than competent in dealing with the physical attacks and !Red Fang. Any magical attack is easily absorbed by a Fire Shield or negated with an Ice Shield or Red Jacket. Raging any Rage that absorbs Fire-elemental attacks works since damage output isn't an issue: creatures such as Lich, Bomb and Grenade will heal Red Dragon (Redux) but will have the Rager absorbing anything but Flare, which is too rare to use Reflect Rings for. The best way to deal with the final Ultima depends on the characters present. If one or more characters know Reraise, it's clearly the safest route to victory. You can try to Jump to safety, but you'll have to make sure you know when Red Dragon (Redux) uses Ultima, something which you can't predict as accurately as you might like. Runic can just be applied after you're sure Red Dragon (Redux) just finished its first turn for the third time; if you have no characters casting spells, Runic will absorb Ultima and only a single character will die from the Flare spell. Expand Full Strategy

For your troubles, you get the Sword

Apocalypse for Terra, and: "The Seal of Fire is broken!" We saw a single Seal of Fire in the Dragon Temple, and it seems a Seal was dissolved in the large cavern area we haven't accessed so far. Right. The Sword

Apocalypse is a Sword

Ragnarok sword with fewer stat boosts and no

Flare casting; it's a better Enhancer with superior Evasion and Magic Evasion boosts and the MP critical feature. It's Terra's weapon of choice if she hasn't got a Sword

Ragnarok or Sword

Lightbringer equipped.

Anyway, in the now-derelict prison there's a secret passage leading to a Megalixir. It's on the right wall. Grab it, and get the party to the button tile in this room and switch to Party 2!

Switch to Party 2

With Party 3 still on the button tile holding up the bridge, Party 2 is now going to get the treasure that was waiting for you behind the Seal of Water that we actually encountered. It's all the way back, so walk down until you're outside the Dragon's Den, enter the left entrance, pick the left opening and continue through the Burning Labyrinth to find an opening into the Earth Labyrinth. Here, you find two chests containing an X-Potion and a Remedy.

Now, trace back your steps until you're outside of the Dragon's Den again, and pick the right entrance. Go to the right (ignoring the branch leading to the button tile) and go up the first staircase that you see to enter the Dragon Temple. In the Dragon Temple, to the northwest, you can now access a gravestone with the following inscription: "If ye would face a drake divine, search ye between the molten pools within the Inner Eye..."

That's not stupid at all and we'll totally be sure to keep that it in mind. Never mind all that nonsense, we need to get Party 2 to Party 1. Exit the Dragon Temple, walk around the staircase column to the north, across the little one-tile bridge, and leave the Earth Labyrinth to the south-east of the Shrine of Serenity, into the Flame Labyrinth. Here, find Party 1 to the south-east of the entrance, and find the other button tile near Party 1. Go stand on it. Another rock disappears! I guess we have little choice but to get Party 3 and go there.

Switch to Party 3

Armodullahan are quite nasty as opponents, but you'd be surprised how many can forgive this thing the grossest of transgressions due to the fact it has a rare Relic

Genji Glove for stealing. Being level 83, Armodullahan guards his artifacts with great care so you won't find acquiring one easy, but past level 33 it's certainly possible. Look at me, going on about useless Relics. Whee!

Armodullahan is immune to your status ailments (including Death), isn't Undead and inherently Hasted, so it's an unyielding target. Its favored weapon is the instant death attack; Armodullahan can use

Lv. 5 Death on its first turn and may also use

Roulette and Blaster randomly. Some physical attacks and a random

Thundaga spell is fairly tame, though. When damaged, it strikes with two !Spear attack, which deal double damage. Armodullahan is weak against Fire-elemental attacks but will absorb Ice-elemental ones, so use this to your advantage. The easiest way out of a fight with Armodullahan is a

Raise spell, though.

Magic Dragon doesn't look that threatening, but it's surprisingly adept at maintaining itself while inflicting more damage than you would give them credit for. They use an assortiment of Lores randomly, including

Aero,

White Wind and

Lv. ? Holy. When they attack physically they'll always use !Wonder Wing which deals double normal Attack damage. They're weak to Ice- and Water-elemental attacks, so

Blizzaga and

Flood are powerful spells to cast. In addition, they're vulnerable to

Silence and

Imp, which stops their attacks adequately. They're fast and come in packs, but disable them quickly before killing them and you shouldn't suffer too much.

Hexadragon is a powerful Fire-elemental adversary. Its power with Fire-elemental attacks is intimidating, but luckily it's not immune to the element itself and is it vulnerable to both Confuse (which you can set easily) and Instant Death attacks. Tools

Noiseblaster is great versus the hellish hazard, and

Death will take care of it most of the time. It has a 1/3 chance of casting

Meltdown upon dying;

Banish prevents this, as does Shin-Zantetsuken.

Make it so. Pass Party 1 and 2 on the right side and find the Grand Cavern. If you're in the Inner Eye Labyrinth, you're in the wrong place. Many bridges extend to the right, but there's nothing you can do there at the moment. Ignore the fork at the end and just go in the opening, which is the Shrine of Repose. This looks like a nice place to gather our troops again. Use the Save Point if you want.

Even though this section doesn't wrap up as nicely as the previous one, at least one of the three parties has reached a new Shrine and hey, the next section's impressive enough by itself so I'm gonna go ahead and switch now. No, to another chapter. Not another party.

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Caves of Narshe: Final Fantasy VI
Version 6
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