How to beat FF2e/4j in under 8 hours By "White Mage" (imahappyduck@aol.com) Version 1.0 Released Sept. 1, 2001 Introduction ------------ Some of us play games. Others master them. Mastering games can become a game in and of itself - "How powerful can I get?" "How weak can I be and still defeat the game?", and "How quickly can I beat this game?" For those of you who think you've mastered this great game I have written up a short FAQ on how to slaughter your way through FF4 in under 8 hours. Note that I will tell you to cut corners here and there, but in the end you'll be at Zeromus with the same levels you'd have if you fought through it in 20 hours. This makes the game much more difficult, but if you know what you're doing it's possible to pull this off without even dieing. However, if you are playing through this game for the second or third time then don't expect for this FAQ to help you much. I would honestly suggest having this game memorized front and back - I'm guessing that you should defeat this game and have found everything about 5 to 8 times before using this FAQ. If you don't know what you're doing then expect a normal game play time. This said, I will offer spoilers without hesitation, and I expect you to fully know what you're doing in this game. For the purposes of this FAQ all places and names I mention will be labeled by their US FF2 SNES version's name. I.E. I will be saying "Golbez" instead of "Golbeze", "Edward" instead of "Gilbert", etc. Another quick note - I have been playing this game since it came out in 1991. Yes, I have been playing this game at least twice a year for the past decade. This FAQ took ten years to write. I'm not asking you to see this as a great and important document or anything, just honor the amount of work (work? Hell, play...) that I put in over the past 10 years to gain the experience contained in this document. Enough rambling, on with the FAQ! General tips ------------ * Don't be afraid to run. In fact, unless notified otherwise you should run from every battle. I'm going to name off places where you can quickly level up, so don't worry too much about your levels. If you know what you're doing then the bosses shouldn't be a problem. * Try to keep 99 Cure or Cure2 potions in your stock at all times. With lower levels comes low MP and weak spells, potions will save your under-developed butt. * Scroll through text as quickly as possible. It will help if you have a turbo controller, and if you don't have a turbo controller then mash the buttons down as quickly as possible. You already know that Golbez is Cecil's brother, so it's not like you need to slow the game down with your reading speed, right? * Get in, kick the boss's butt, and leave. When you enter an area you just to get from point A to point B and back as quickly as possible. Don't walk around getting all the treasure chests. If you got Warp or Exit then use it liberally when exiting a dungeon. We're not here to enjoy the game, we're here to slaughter it. * Don't waste time. Don't talk to townspeople unless it's necessary to progress the story, don't do anything except go straight from point A to point B. * If you got Final Fantasy Chronicles then keep your party running. I don't know how much this will speed up the game seeing as I still have the original FF2 cartridge and have never touched the PSX version, but I would imagine that it would speed up the game considerably. * Obviously, crank your battle and message speed to 1. Quick n' dirty walkthrough -------------------------- I'm going to go through the game and tell you exactly what to do. It's not going to be a detailed walkthrough because you already know what you're doing, but instead it will say "Do this and this in that cave", and will move on. If it seems like I'm telling you to do something stupid then just put your trust in me. *** Baron through Mysidia *** Okay, run from every enemy you come across until Cecil becomes a paladin. Just walk into a cave, kick the boss's butt, and leave. You will be able to survive the bosses and the fight at Fabul. When walking up Mt. Ordeals it is more important now than it ever was not to collect the treasure chests. You see, Cecil becoming a Paladin is the turning point of the game... literally. Let me explain. All your character's levels are defined by how powerful Cecil is. Now, Cecil goes back to Level 1 when he becomes a Paladin, and you can level him up very quickly when that happens. So if you ignore every fight up to this point in the game and then level up Cecil very quickly when he becomes a Paladin you'll have about the same level party that you would have if you fought all the monsters in between Baron to Mt. Ordeals. On your way down the mountain collect all the chests, and fight every enemy you come across. By the time you get to the bottom of the mountain Cecil should have 1000 HP, and the rest of your party should be pretty buff. Once you're out of the mountain you should start running from everything and avoiding chests again. *** Baron (revisited) to Underground *** Run from everything. Don't collect chests. Keep doing this until you reach the underground. The only places you might have problems with is the Dark Elf which will be no problem if you have Tellah cast Weak on him when he turns into a dragon. Valvalis will be a pain in the butt. If Rosa's level is high enough then have her Beserk Cecil and Yang, and have her and Cid heal. Soon you'll be to the underground. (Yes, I know your levels are getting low, bear with me here) *** Entering the Underground to the Sealed Cave *** Okay, enter the castle, and fight Calbrena and Golbez. Make sure Kain jumps first thing when you're fighting Golbez or you WILL die. Once they're done with and you're still in the throne room have Rydia case "Warp" and get the crystal. Exit the crystal room. Now go to the Tower of Bab-Il and fight your way up to the first save point, collecting the chests you may come across. Once you get to the first save point use a cabin and from then on out run like hell and don't collect chests. That should have given your levels the quick shot in the arm that they needed. Continue through the game as normal, just run from everything. When you get to Edge's parents DO NOT FIGHT!!! Don't even parry, just sit there and they'll do their thing a lot quicker without your party's attack animations. Rubicant will heal you, and equip Cecil and Kain with Ice weapons. This will make the battle go a LOT easier. You'll exit the tower in your new airship. *** Sealed Cave to Ready to go to the moon *** Enter the sealed cave. You remember how I told you to get the crystal in the dwarf castle? Well, this bug will level up your party a LOT. When you enter the cave Kain will grab the crystal and will run from the cave as if you've just finished it. Now, you could skip this cave and go to the moon, but your levels are so low you'll be slaughtered. Time to use this to our advantage. You see, experience is devided upon your party members evenly. If you have 5 members in your party and you get 10,000 Exp, then it'll say "Got 2000 Exp!"... yet if you have four members in your party then it'll say "Got 2500 exp!", and so on. With Kain gone you will gain several levels higher in this cave than if you didn't do this trick. However, you are too weak to fight the trap doors so we have got to do some preparations first. Go to the summoned cave and run like hell from everything, just get to the town. Grab the Rat Tail and Samurai bow. Make sure to fight Asura but not Leviatan. You won't use Leviatan anyways, but you will NEED Asura. Exit the cave, and talk to the king, get out of the underground. Give the tiny guy his tail to get the Adamant, then return underground to the blacksmith's and give him his ore. Get the Big Whale uncovered and return to the blacksmith's. He'll give you the Excalibur, and now you're ready to return to the sealed cave after you finish up by buying 50 life potions. In the sealed cave fight ALL the trap doors, and run from normal enemies. The normal enemies give little EXP, and aren't worth fighting. When you get to the boss turn back, it gives little exp and isn't worth fighting. Exit the cave and return to the Big Whale and go to the moon. Cecil's HP should be pretty close to 2000 right now, just as if you were playing the game normally. *** First visit to the moon to your second visit *** Get to the moon, and get FuSoYa while running from everything. Go to Bahamut's cave, and take him down. Return to earth and run from everything in the giant. Now you're ready to take on the last boss.... almost. NOTE: If you're having trouble with the Behemoths then here's a strategy for you. It takes a lot of time to do but if you keep getting slaughtered then this will help. Have Rosa and FuSoYa cast Reflect on your members in this order - Rydia, FuSoYa, Rosa, and Cecil. Edge can use Image on himself, so you won't need to case Reflect on him. Have only Cecil and Edge fight. The Behemoths will only attack when they're attacked, so if you don't hit him with weak attacks then your images should last you through the battle. *** Final Area *** Quick and simple - ignore everything unless I say otherwise. There's a ton of goodies here that we're going to ignore. First off, new armor is worthless, it'll be barely more powerful than what you have on. All you want are three weapons - the Crystal Sword, the White Spear, and the Masamune. So head straight for the last save point while running from everything. If you can't run, use Smoke or Exit. After you've hit the last save point, go straight into the crystal palace's third level. Here you will run into groups of 2 behemoths, 3 red dragons, 2 evil masks, and so on. This is the best place in the game to level up, so run around kicking butt as quickly as possible. When you feel ready to take on Wyvern return to the final save point, and get the Crystal Sword, White Spear, and Masamune. Then return to the final save point, use a cabin and save. Then go back to where you leveled up, get to about level 60 as quickly as possible, and go straight to Zeromus without saving. Last words from da pimp mage ---------------------------- If you absolutely blasted your way through the game and did everything as quickly as possible then you should have either gotten a game in under 8 hours, or just over it. This will take some practice, I've been playing this game for ten years and I still find it hard to get in a game under 8 hours. However it is possible. And yes, I do realize that I missed a LOT of items and weapons. Hey, the point of this document is to get through FF4 as quickly as possible, not get everything like any idiot easily could. =) Copyright Info / Distribution / Contacting me --------------------------------------------- This FAQ is copyright pending 2001 by White Mage, all rights reserved. You may not put this FAQ on your website without asking permission first by email, nor may you distribute it on a medium that will earn you profit. That means that if you put this on a CD fulla FAQs and sell it to someone, then I'm going to beat you down with Crushie my pet sledgehammer. It may not look like much, but I put a ton of work into this document and I'd at least like to know what's happening to it. Essentially, if you want to distribute it, E-Mail me first and ask. There's a 99% chance I'll say yes. Right now the only sites with permission to host this is GameFAQs.com and FFAddicts.com. If you have anything to add or have comments, feel free to E-Mail me at IMAHappyDuck@AOL.com, and you'll usually get a response within a day. Anyways, hope this helps you master this phenomenal game! -White Mage September 1, 2001 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- "People who are good at a game make it look easy. People who have mastered a game make it look like they're cheating when they're playing normally. And us grandmasters make you wonder what the hell just happened!" - Me.