Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection Missable Achievements Guide - RetroAchievements/guides GitHub Wiki
Set developed by SnowPin, Ryudo and Hexadigital. Guide written by benit149
Hello, and welcome to my guide for all of the missable achievements seen throughout the three games available in this collection: Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy IV -Interlude-, and Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. Of the trilogy, The After Years (abbreviated as TAY) comprises the bulk of the set, which I tallied at 70% for TAY, 4% for Interlude, and 26% for FF4. Thus the majority of the missables will be for TAY, but there are some for the other two. This guide assumes you’re familiar with the story routes for all three games, so this will not be a complete and comprehensive walkthrough for anything other than missable achievements.
Due to these achievements relying on story triggers, there will be spoilers involved. If you wish not to have the story spoiled for you, please do not read further.
Not much else to say here, so let’s get right into it. For easier searching, use the Find function and look up either (FFINT) for Interlude’s missables, or (FF4TAY) for The After Years’.
FINAL FANTASY IV
Defeat the Mist Dragon without it turning to Mist form more than once
Nothing too hard here. You don’t even need to do any grinding beyond the natural amount of battles you’ll fight while collecting the treasures in Mist Cavern. Have Kain use the Jump command so his damage output will be doubled, while Cecil just attacks. With standard leveling, you will be guaranteed to see Mist Dragon turn into mist once. When this happens, don’t do anything until it returns to dragon form. If you do extra grinding like trying to get the Goblin and/or Cockatrice summon items outside Baron (which I don’t recommend, but you do you), you might even not see the dragon become mist at all. Seriously, if you wind up seeing the dragon become mist twice, you’re probably playing the wrong genre of video games.
Defeat the General before any of the Baron Soldiers
This occurs in Kaipo when Cecil brings Rydia to the inn. The story sequence happens automatically when you step into Kaipo for the first time, so be sure Cecil is leveled enough before entering. I didn’t do any powerleveling, but it is recommended to have some Potions on hand since this is a one vs. four fight. The General is the different-colored soldier in the back, so you need to select him each time you attack. He is pretty beefy compared to the minions, so this will take a few turns. Never use the Dark command since that is an AoE attack that can potentially kill the minions. Once the General is down, you’re free to use it.
The Snack That Snaps Back (10)
Defeat the Antlion without triggering it's counter attack
The Antlion will counterattack any time you use the Attack command, so you don’t want this to happen. Cecil can only use Darkness, and Edward is a worthless attacker anyway so he’s on item duty either with regular items or the Salve command. Rydia has some options available – either using the Ice Rod as an item, casting Blizzard/Thunder, or summoning Chocobo. I personally used Chocobo since its damage output is the highest, but the MP cost is also more expensive. You could use up her MP for Chocobo, then switch to the Ice Rod.
Defeat all six bombs at once during Mom Bomb fight
This is definitely one of the most complicated missables for FF4’s set – maybe even across the entire trilogy. Once Mom Bomb explodes and separates into three Bombs and three Grey Bombs, all six of them need to be defeated in one action. The Bombs have 55 HP and the Grey Bombs have 111 HP, so you’d want to weaken the grey ones a bit. The added difficulty is that they will self-destruct if their health is critical, so if that happens, you need to reset. Since I’m the type who likes grinding in JRPGs, I fought a bunch of battles at the entrance of Mt. Hobs until I got the Cockatrice summon, and Rydia wound up learning Bio in the process. It is a powerful poison-type spell that can one-shot the bombs easily.
I understand that this is not feasible for everyone, so these are some alternate strategies others have suggested. You have Bronze Hourglasses from various chests, so throw one to cast Stop on the enemies. There is a chance for it to miss though, and the effect only lasts a short while, so knowing when to use it will be crucial. From there, your AoE options are Cecil’s Darkness, Yang’s Kick, and Rydia’s magic. The magic is not a good idea since her starting spells are not very strong, so it’s up to Dark and/or Kick to do the job. You can do at least one of either attack at the beginning without risk of the bombs self-destructing, but I suggest weakening the Gray Bombs with single target attacks, then throwing the Bronze Hourglass and letting loose with the Darkness and Kicks. It is a delicate balancing act, so don’t be surprised if this takes you more than one try.
You Require Much Training (1) AND
In Mysidia, get poisoned, turned into a pig, and turned into a frog respectively
These three are bunched up together since you can do these any time before Cecil becomes a Paladin at Mt. Ordeals. Mysidia’s residents aren’t too happy with Cecil returning after what he and the Red Wings did to them earlier, so they have some punishments in store for him that you want to experience. For the poison, talk to the barkeeper at the inn. For the pig status, talk to the dancer in the same bar. For the frog status, talk to the Black Mage wandering around at Mysidia’s entrance. If you don’t have their respective curing items, sleep at the inn. If you neglect to do these before Cecil becomes a Paladin, the residents’ behavior will change since he’s proved himself to them, making their attitude more favorable to him.
Defeat Baigan while only killing his arms once
Baigan’s arms are separate targets that can be attacked, but he will regenerate them pretty quickly. You’re free to kill them only one time, but leave them alone afterward and stick to physical attacks on Baigan himself. If you use magic on him, he’ll erect a Reflect spell. This will wear off eventually, so you want the spell to count. Use Tellah’s Bio, as it does good damage for 20 MP – an excellent balance between MP cost and damage output. The others will heal each other or attack Baigan himself until he goes down. The arms will be left behind and self-destruct shortly afterward, doing damage according to how much HP they have remaining to a single target. This is fine since they’re destroying themselves, rather than you destroying them, but be at full health when this happens so you don’t lose out on the experience points.
Nothing’s Gonna Save You From the Tidal Wave (10)
Defeat Cagnazzo without getting hit from a Tidal Wave
When Cagnazzo begins to gather water around himself, he’s preparing for a Tidal Wave attack. Dispel this barrier by constantly using lightning-elemental spells from Palom and Tellah. Thunder is okay if you just want the quickest cast possible to get rid of the water, but it does no damage. Tellah does have access to Thundaga for excellent damage, but it costs 30 MP and he can only cast it three times at full MP. Using Thundara from both mages is your best option since you’re most likely to hit Cagnazzo before he’ll ever do Tidal Wave while having decent damage output. Cecil and Yang both attack, with Yang preferably having Lightning Claws equipped from Baron’s weapon shop, while Porom heals or throws Ethers on the spellcasters. The fight might be a bit tedious due to Cagnazzo retreating into his shell and healing, but just keep up the pressure and he’ll go down.
All Alone He Turns To Stone (10)
Defeat Barbariccia without anyone becoming Petrified
Barbaricca has two distinct forms – her normal form where you see her entire body, and her tornado form when she has her hair spiraling around her. In tornado form, she will counterattack with a hit and a gradual petrify ability that are both randomly targeted. Break her out of tornado form by using Kain’s Jump command. Since I had powerleveled while trying to get the Mindflayer summon in Lodestone Cavern, I had walloped Barbariccia without triggering her counterattack when she was in tornado form. I assume that Gradual Petrify is okay for this achievement, so long as the character doesn’t become fully Petrified. If you weren’t as strong as my party was, have some Gold Needles on hand as well as Cecil and Rosa’s Esuna to cure it as soon as you can.
Obtain 100 treasures from Underworld locations
This is missable because none of the treasures in the Feymarch count toward this, meaning you have to be diligent with exploring everywhere else in the Underworld. Both visits to the Tower of Babil are one-time dungeons, so if you neglect to collect the treasures then, you will not have enough to complete this achievement. I’m not sure why it’s designed like this other than to have a nice round number, so look everywhere. Don’t forget to check out Kokkol’s Forge and Tomra.
Defeat the Calca's and Brina's before they merge
There are three Calca and three Brina enemies for this fight. After enough time passes, they will merge into a giant doll called Calcabrina. The trouble with your current party is that you don’t have any substantial AoE attacks aside from Yang’s Kick command. Luckily, if you’ve been diligent with collecting treasures, you should have a couple of Bronze Hourglasses on hand. Just like with All For One, using one is imperative here, being sure to kill any dolls that the hourglass misses. Since the effect doesn’t last long, you want to be quick. The Brinas have less HP than the Calcas and prevent you from doing full damage to them, so get rid of the Brinas first before using your best attacks on the Calcas.
Defeat Barnabas-Z
This fight has two targets – Lugae and Barnabas. To make Barnabas-Z appear, focus all of your attacks on Barnabas until he goes down. Don’t attack Lugae though! Wait for him to say, “My baby! You’ve left me with no choice! I’ll control him myself!” You can then defeat him, though you want to be careful of his powerful self-destruct move. You’ll want to do this on a separate attempt from the next achievement, so reset immediately after getting this.
Taste of Your Own Medicine (5)
Defeat Doctor
This is mutually exclusive from Mecha Barnabas since this time you need to defeat Lugae first. After a short time, Barnabas will self-destruct for massive damage on a single character. You’ll have to heal that character up during the second Lugae battle.
The Doctor Will See You Now (5)
Defeat Dr. Lugae
Good grief, how many missables can a single boss have? This is done during the second battle against Lugae by himself. Normally in other versions of FF4, he will immediately transform into his monstrous form. That isn’t the case here. He takes his sweet time doing so, only countering your attacks with Sleeping Gas. Bronze Hourglass is your friend, or Rydia’s Stop spell. I had leveled up quite a bit while getting the Mindflayer summon, so I could just wallop him into next week, being sure to keep Cecil and Rosa awake for their Esuna spells.
Defeat the Demon Wall without it moving forward more than 7 times
Once you’re allowed to go to Sealed Cave, you will want to explore Feymarch and Sylph’s Cave first. Sylph’s Cave will reward Cecil with an Avenger sword, which puts him in Berserk status where you lose control of him in exchange for boosting his attack power. It is a two-handed weapon though, so you need to remove his shield. If you don’t have the Avenger, Rosa can cast Berserk on Cecil to achieve the same effect, although this method burns a bit of time. Either way, you want her to cast Haste on him too. The Feymarch rewards Rydia with the Leviathan summon, which can do fantastic damage for this point in the game. Rosa heals, casts support spells or cures Gradual Petrify, Kain jumps, and Edge throws Shurikens and/or weapons. Slow or Spider Silk also works.
Obtain the Kitchen Knife
First off, you need to go to Sylph’s Cave and find Yang resting in the Sylphs’ house. You actually do need to talk to him to activate a flag involving his wife Sheila. Once Kain leaves the party and Cid attaches the drill to the Falcon to let you return to the Overworld, immediately go to Fabul and speak to Sheila, who will give you a Frying Pan. Go back to Yang and use it on him. Rydia will gain the Sylphs as a summon thanks to this. Now go back to Fabul and return the Frying Pan to Sheila, and she will reward you with the Kitchen Knife. This has a very narrow timeframe because the cutoff is recruiting Fusoya on the Moon, which forces you into the Giant of Babil segment when you return to Earth. Fusoya’s recruitment happens very shortly after acquiring the Lunar Whale in Mysidia, so it’s easy to forget to do this sidequest.
I experimented with going to the Moon and defeating Bahamut without recruiting Fusoya (yes, I gained a ton of levels while grinding for the Bomb summon drop in Tower of Babil). You are allowed to do this, which also activates the flag for Kokkol giving Cecil the Excalibur from the Rat Tail sidequest as well. You just can't recruit Fusoya until you get the Kitchen Knife. I know that in other versions of FF4, the Knife/Spoon can still be missed even if you get the Sylph summon but neglect returning the Frying Pan to Sheila before recruiting Fusoya. I'm not positive if that exists in this version, so get this done ASAP to be on the safe side.
Obtain the Adamant Armor
While this achievement is not missable in itself, it might as well be if you don’t steal a bunch of Sirens during the Giant of Babil segment. A specific room in the Lunar Subterrane is the only spot where you can find the Flan Princesses – they have a 1/64 chance of appearing (or approximately 1.5625%), and they have a 1/64 chance of dropping the Pink Tail required to exchange for the Adamant Armor. Those odds thus become approximately 0.0244%, or 61/250000. So yeah… unless you don’t mind running around in that room for god knows how long, steal a bunch of Sirens to eliminate the 1/64 enemy spawn rate, since Sirens always spawn the rarest monsters in any given room. My personal preference is six full stacks of Sirens, but you can always do one full stack and reset if you don’t get the drop.
FINAL FANTASY IV -INTERLUDE- (FFINT)
Booty (5) AND
Obtain 55 treasure from the Overworld locations AND 30 treasures from the Underworld locations
Standard treasure chest collection cheevos, but since the story is on rails and constantly changes locations, you need to keep your eyes peeled for all of the goodies each time you go to a new location. Once you proceed to the next segment, you cannot backtrack to the previous. All of the chests and hidden locations are the same as in FF4. These are the locations you will be going to during the story:
- Baron Castle
- Feymarch (town portion only)
- Damcyan Castle
- Mt. Hobs (has new screens from TAY included)
- Fabul Castle
- Dwarf Castle
- Sealed Cave
- Eblan Cave
- Tower of Babil (same as during the Underworld segment in FF4)
Defeat the Demon Wall without it moving more than 9 times
Same principle as Not So Fast! from the FF4 set, but you have a little more leniency due to having a weaker party here. I strongly suggest grinding Cecil, Cid, Palom and Porom at the entrance of Sealed Cave to both boost their levels and earn enough money to buy the gear available from the dwarven shopkeepers on the Falcon. The armor is expensive, but it’ll be worth it. Also stock up on plenty of Gold Needles.
Once you’re ready, have Porom cast Slow and the others throw one or two Spider Silks. I believe the effect stacks up to three times. If Porom learned Haste, slap it on Palom at least so he can get his best attack spells off more frequently. I had Palom learn Quake, so he kept using that while Cecil and Cid either attacked or used Gold Needles to cure the petrify that Demon Wall will cast on your party members as a counter. If Palom isn’t that high leveled, other good options are the strongest elemental spells and Bio. If Porom does not have Haste, have her cast Berserk on Cecil and/or Cid so their physical attacks can do more damage at the sacrifice of losing control of them.
FINAL FANTASY IV: THE AFTER YEARS (FF4TAY)
Since the individual characters’ chapters can be repeated, I won’t cover things like treasures and Challenge Dungeons since it’s assumed you’re following a detailed walkthrough for those. These will be for specific actions that don’t fall under those categories. There is a gameplay mechanic that needs to be explained for an upcoming achievement – the moon phases.
TAY uses a moon phase system with four distinct phases – Full (bright moon), Waning, New (dark moon), and Waxing. These will change when you use a Tent/Cottage, or let enough time pass naturally. This time will also pass while in menus. Each moon phase will strengthen one type of battle command while weakening another, as follows:
- Full: Black Magic is strengthened, and Attack abilities are weakened
- Waning: Attack abilities are strengthened, and Skill abilities are weakened
- New: Skill abilities are strengthened, and White Magic is weakened
- Waxing: White Magic is strengthened, and Black Magic is weakened
Attack abilities simply refers to the regular Attack command, as well as the Monks’ Kick command. Skill abilities cover Jump, Risk Strike, Aim, Big Throw, Tenketsu, Chakra, Ninjutsu, Bardsong, Piercing Sight, Gil Toss, Jive, Dance, Illusions, and Human Kite. The moon phases will never affect Awaken, Analyze, Blessing, Summon, Focus, Cover Counter, Bluff, Throw, Mug, Pray, Salve, Escape, Pressure, Taunt, Cover, Shuriken, and Steal. The moon phases also affect when certain monsters will appear in a specific area of a dungeon to get specific item drops, and you need to be in the Full Moon phase to get the Sand Pearl in Antlion Den during Edward’s tale.
Witness Ceodore gain his true power under any Moon phase except Waning
Now that you have a better understanding of how the moon phases work, simply use a Tent/Cottage or let time pass so that you get any phase other than Waning before engaging the boss in Adamant Isle Grotto. Waning would normally boost Ceodore’s attack ability, so you don’t want that to happen. I suggest using Waxing so that he has no penalties while his White Magic is boosted. Full is the worst phase since his attack abilities will be weakened, and New will weaken his White Magic.
Find the Sylphs in Sylph Cave and leave the dungeon through the 2nd floor of their home
During Rydia’s tale, you don’t need to go to Sylph Cave for story purposes whatsoever. Once the story takes you to the Overworld, you cannot go back to the Underworld. Have Rydia finish her business in Dwarven Castle, look for goodies in Tomra and Kokkol’s Forge, then go to Sylph Cave in the northwest of the Underworld. Go through the dungeon and reach the house to find the Sylphs, then exit through the second floor of their home.
Return to the Falcon with all of the required materials to repair Calca and Brina
Progress the story until Rydia and Luca need to explore Agart Mine. You lose Calca and Brina as party members, and your actions will determine if they will survive for the final chapters. To repair them, you need to find three specific items; Mythril Bolt, Mythril Spring, and Mythril Nut. The Mythril Spring is found in a chest in Agart Mine B4. The Mythril Bolt and Mythril Nut are a bit harder to find – go to a specific room in B4 that has no treasure in it during a Waxing moon phase, and you’ll encounter Quarto Puppets. They can give Mythril Bolts as a common drop, and Mythril Nuts as a rare drop. You only need one of each, although the likelihood of getting the Mythril Nut is low and random. If the moon phase changes during the grind, use Tents/Cottages to return to Waxing. The cutoff is bringing the Agartite to the airship and speaking to Luca.
Honor Upheld (5) AND
Have Gekkou, Izayoi, Tsukinowa and Zangetsu survive their missions respectively
During Edge’s tale, the Eblan Four will go off on their own separate reconnaissance missions to see how the other nations are faring. Gekkou goes to Fabul and must survive exploring the Impact Crater; Izayoi goes to Troia and must survive climbing the Tower of Trials; Tsukinowa goes to Mysidia and must survive climbing Mt. Ordeals; and Zangetsu goes to the Dwarven Castle and must survive going through the Dwarven Mine. If any of them die during these missions, you permanently lose them as party members and cannot be imported into the final chapter. If your character dies during a battle, immediately reset.
Everyone except Gekkou has access to a town to buy consumables, and the inventory is transferred between characters, so I suggest saving Gekkou’s mission for last. Furthermore, Gekkou has a choice he can make at the end of his mission which determines if he’ll survive or not. He’ll see the Mysterious Girl attacking Fabul’s monks, and he has the choice to either intervene or hang back. Have him hang back! If he intervenes, Mysterious Girl will kill him!
Once you’re past these four missions and gain control of Edge, he’ll venture into Eblan Cave and breach into Tower of Babil. One by one, the four ninjas will return to him as he progresses through Babil, netting you those respective missable achievements as well.
Let Titan give you a shortcut down
This was one I personally missed during my own playthrough, so keep your eyes peeled. During the first part of the Crystal chapter, Rydia’s party will be going around rescuing several Eidolons in various cities on the Overworld. To get this, go to Agart and confront Mysterious Girl standing in the center of the town. You will fight against Titan, but because you haven’t met the requirements for actually completing the battle properly, Titan will knock the party down into the Agart Subterrane dungeon. To meet the requirements and save Titan, go to Mysidia to save Ramuh and recruit Porom.
Shiva has returned
There is the potential to actually kill Shiva during her boss battle in Lodestone Cavern, thus permanently losing her as a summon. I’ll quote the walkthrough I used to explain what to do.
“As the battle starts, deal damage to her until she starts using the Blizzaga spell against your entire party. At this point, Luca and Edge should cease their attacks. Now have Rydia or Man in Black cast Fira on Shiva. If she doesn't stop attacking, cast one more Fira on her. Rydia should now say that she's stopped. Now take no action at all, don't attack Shiva, just sit and watch her. She'll recognize Rydia and the battle will end, and Shiva will become an available summon to Rydia. If you attack Shiva while she's stopped, she'll become enraged and attack you with Diamond Dust. Cast another Fira spell to make her stop again.”
Ramuh has returned
Just like with Shiva, Ramuh can be lost as a summon if you kill him in Mysidia. I’ll quote the same walkthrough for what to do here.
“The trick here is to gradually wear Ramuh down without actually killing him. One of the easier ways to do this is to have Rydia use a Hermes Sandal and then use her Sylph Summon to heal your party while simultaneously dealing damage to Ramuh. This may be a long battle as if you do too much damage, you'll destroy Ramuh and he'll be gone forever. You need to be patient and slowly chip away at him without going overboard. If extra healing is needed, have the others chip in with Edge's Heal Pill and Hi-Potions or X-Potions. Even if you don't have a Cursed Ring, you should equip your characters diamond gear. The lightning resistance doesn't stack, so one piece is all a character needs.
“If you don't have enough to go around, put it on Man in Black as his HP is probably the highest. If Man in Black uses Taunt in battle, he can divert some of Ramuh's attacks to him. If he's decked out in Diamond gear, this can save your party from a lot damage. Taunt does not guarantee the rest of your party won't be attacked however, so make sure weakened party members heal themself with potions when they need more HP than Sylph will heal. Using Taunt also means Man in Black won't be able to attack, but the damage he prevents to the rest of your party may be worth that price.
“When Rydia calls out to Ramuh during the battle, cease all attacks on him. He'll snap out of his trance and end the battle, returning to Rydia as a summon. If instead you destroy Ramuh, you'll still be able to continue the story, but Ramuh will be permanently lost.”
Missable Final Dungeon Scenes
While traversing through the gargantuan final dungeon, you will come across various save points that will allow you to rest and initiate cutscenes between specific characters. Some will unlock various Bands, while others are just for flavor. Some of these scenes are missable if you do not import every character from every tale. I won’t specify what all of the individual achievements are since as long as you import every possible character into the final chapter, you’re golden. These are the characters you need to import from each tale to get every cutscene:
- Rydia’s Tale - Calca and Brina
- Yang’s Tale - Ursula
- Palom’s Tale - Leonora
- Edward’s Tale - Harley
- Edge’s Tale - Gekkou, Izayoi, Tsukinowa and Zangetsu
Defeat the reborn infernal using only Edge and obtain a special item
During the segment of the final dungeon where you’re fighting the Four Fiends from FF4, you will eventually confront Rubicante as the final elemental fiend. Make sure you have Edge in the party before the fight. You will be given the choice as to whether or not you want him to fight solo. Do so, and defeat Rubicante only using Edge. This fight is simple as long as you use Spider Silk, Hermes Sandals and Light Curtain, then attack and heal as needed. The special item you’ll receive for fulfilling these requirements is a Fire Scarf.
Eidolon King (5) AND
The Father of All Eidolons (10)
Leviathan, Asura and Bahamut return respectively
While there are no special requirements for keeping these Eidolons alive in their battles like with Shiva and Ramuh, you do need to have Rydia in the party when you fight all three of them. If she isn’t with you when you defeat them, you permanently lose them as summons.
Prevent a tragedy from occurring during one of the boss fights in the Subterrane
This is where you need to allow Golbez to survive the battle against the Dark Knight. To do this, bring Cecil, Rosa, Ceodore and Golbez to the battle (the fifth member doesn’t matter). Some story and in-battle sequences will happen, and once Dark Knight is down, you will get this. However, you need to have one save file where you fulfill these requirements and another where you don’t. These will be for the following missable scenes:
Profound Darkness is a scene between Cecil and Rosa that can only be seen if Golbez dies. No More Hiding and Vengeance can only be seen if Golbez survives. Once you’ve done all of this, continue on with the save file where Golbez survives.
The Moon and a Whisperweed (2)
Witness a conversation between your party and some people from Earth
I’m not entirely sure what the requirement for this one is. My hunch is that you need to import Harley from Edward’s tale since the Whisperweed business is from his chapter, but don’t quote me on that. I had imported every possible character and recruited every summon, so perhaps just do that and you’ll be fine. If you know what the requirement is, feel free to send me a PM so I can update this section.
Investigate the Red Crystal and defeat what's inside
Of all the crystals you will encounter in the final dungeon, there’s only one that is red. It is found in B15 after defeating Ghost Train and Ultros. You can bypass this and go finish the game, but you don’t want to do that. Interact with the crystal and you will fight Ultima Weapon. It is a hard-hitting damage sponge, so you need to be more than prepared to take on the challenge. I did a ton of grinding for some of the rare tails, and even then he was still a tough customer. I’m not sure why this is classed as a missable achievement, so just defeat Ultima Weapon as soon as you can before taking on the final boss gauntlet.