~Hack~ Final Fantasy IV: Ultima Full Guide & Checklists - RetroAchievements/guides GitHub Wiki
Hack created by 8.bit.fan, achievement set developed by SnowPin, guide written by benit149
This guide was designed for the hack’s ver. 2022 Rev25c. If you’re playing a different version, some of the information presented here may not be accurate.
Hello, and welcome to my comprehensive guide for Final Fantasy IV Ultima, a hack of the SNES version of Final Fantasy IV. I’ve played through the game and detailed as much as I could find concerning the new additions while skimming over vanilla FF4’s content. This guide assumes you’re familiar with the original Final Fantasy IV’s story route. If not, I suggest you play any one of the sets for the vanilla version. The hack adds a lot of difficult superbosses and brand new locations that may overwhelm you if you’re not familiar with how the vanilla version is designed.
If you’re interested in the hack developer’s content, please see their official website. I want to extend my thanks to them for creating this hack, as well as SnowPin for developing the achievement set, and NIREXENE for giving me some guidance and providing the developer's website, which were instrumental in helping me finish the treasure chest achievements myself. I also want to thank the YouTubers who uploaded playthroughs of the hack that I used as visual references, and the ROM Hacking Wiki for their suggestions with the superbosses.
I initially wrote this to keep things straight for myself, as I got easily lost with all of the new content combined with the lack of resources beyond YouTube videos to help me out. As I wrote this guide, it became so large that I needed to break it down into several sections:
- Basics & Story Walkthrough
- Achievement Guide
- Treasure Locations
- Monster Scan Locations
- Bestiary Entries
- Superboss & Boss Rush Guide
The Basics & Story Walkthrough is where you are currently. The Achievement Guide is what solidification originally wrote in the WIP section of RAGuides, which I'll keep here for posterity's sake. The Treasure Locations guide is a checklist of all the treasures that count toward their respective achievements. The Monster Scan Locations is a resource for finding all of the 216 monsters and casting Scan on them to add their entry to the in-game Bestiary. The Bestiary Entries guide is simply a numerical list of all the entries so you can cross-reference to figure out which monsters you’re missing. The Superboss & Boss Rush Guide lists the locations of all the new powerful enemies sprinkled throughout the game and the strategies needed to defeat them. It also details all of the encounters in a given boss rush so you can plan accordingly, along with strategies I devised for the hardest fights.
THE BASICS
Before even starting, there are some gameplay and quality of life changes that are important to know.
INVENTORY: There are no Gysahl Greens for summoning Fat Chocobo to store your items. Instead, go into the menu and you’ll see an option called Extra. This opens up a submenu for Key Items and Storage. Fat Chocobo is accessible from here at any time, and the storage space is enormous (though not infinite). In the normal inventory menu, the Sort and Trash icons from the original game have been merged into one. To sort your items, just double click the icon. To discard something, single tap the item, then put the cursor on the Sort/Trash icon and tap again. You can’t navigate through the Key Items menu, but at least they do not take up inventory space anymore. You can also see further details about weapons and armor by double tapping said gear in the inventory. This cannot be done in Storage because you only have the options to Give or Take items.
MAGIC: In the Magic menu, you can see further details for any given spell by single tapping the spell, then selecting the X button to bring up a screen that gives information about cast time, target(s), hit ratio, if it can hit a boss, if it can be reflected, what its effect is, and a brief description.
PARTY COMPOSITION: The Form option merges the Row and Change options from vanilla FF4. To change rows, just move the directional pad left or right. To change the order between characters, choose the first character, then choose the second character.
INFORMATION: You’ll see an option in the main menu called Info. This is another submenu containing the Icon Key and Bestiary options. Icon Key simply explains what all of the symbols seen in status and equip menus are. Bestiary is a compilation of all the monsters you successfully use the spell Scan on, of which there are 216 in total.
SYSTEM OPTIONS: The Custom menu is mainly the same as in vanilla FF4, except for a new option to turn encounters on or off. Sometimes the encounter rate in this hack can get a bit excessive, so this is an excellent workaround if you want to just go through the game quickly. If you’re using Sirens to grind though, turn this option back on or else no battle will occur.
SKIPPING TURNS: You have the option to skip a character's turn by pressing the X button when their menu comes up during battle.
YELLOW CHOCOBOS: On the Overworld, Yellow Chocobos have gained the ability to run along reefs and cross rivers and shallow coasts. This will be important for reaching certain areas that are otherwise inaccessible with any other means of transportation.
CHARACTER ACQUISITION: The only characters you will permanently lose are Tellah and Fusoya. Furthermore, you will gain a brand new character at the end of the story, whom I won’t spoil at this time (it might be spoiled in the other sections though). There is a method available to allow Cecil to swap between his Paladin and Dark Knight classes, which involves defeating an optional boss. Rydia also gets to keep her White magic, although Scan is the only one you really want to use if you wish to complete the bestiary.
NEW GAME PLUS: After beating the main storyline’s final boss and going through the credits, you have the option to transfer all of your data into New Game Plus. Follow the in-game instructions to make a new save file with a star. You get to keep your characters' levels and any items in your inventory and storage. Make sure to unequip everyone you’re not using in the Lunar Whale, and whomever you are using for the final boss in this special save point before proceeding. The characters’ maximum level is increased to 149, their maximum statuses are increased from 99 to 255, and their Hit Points (HP) are increased from 9999 to 14,999. Maximum MP is never increased beyond 999. This is especially useful if you’re having trouble with some of the tougher superbosses and want an additional edge for your party. Be warned that if you’re trying to get 100% of all treasures, your progress will not be transferred.
That should cover the basics of this comprehensive guide, so let’s proceed with the story route. I’ve broken it down into Early Game, Mid Game, and Late Game chunks to make things easier to follow. The Late Game chunk is particularly involved since it entails finding and defeating a specific superboss in the final dungeon to unlock even more superbosses, so be prepared for it.
EARLY GAME
Baron to Magnes Cave
The story plays out the same until you get the airship in Baron, so just be mindful of monster scans (especially bosses) and treasures until then. There is a new boss included in Mt. Hobs, but it does not affect the storyline. It’s not a winnable boss either (at least in New Game), so just survive against it. I won’t spoil who it is for the moment, but let’s just say it’s an interesting Final Fantasy cameo. On the way to Fabul Castle, you’ll spot a cave that you can’t reach by foot. Go to the Chocobo Forest nearby, get a Yellow Chocobo and ride it across the short bit of coast to reach the cave. There are two chests each with high-level encounters from the Underworld, and they contain an All-Potion and a Strength Ring.
During the Mt. Ordeals segment, you can actually reach Silvera early by getting a Yellow Chocobo near the mountain and riding it north along the reefs.
Once you acquire the airship, you’ll need to find a new way to access Troia since the patch of land next to the castle is no longer available to land on. Before that, you have the choice to raid Castle Eblan’s treasure, though the monsters in the chests can be quite dangerous at this point in the game. There is also one chest that is completely inaccessible in the castle. If you’re thinking it’s a mistake, it isn’t – you need Edge in the party for him to go through the wall. This chest contains a Thief Glove for him, which you should get as soon as you recruit him. Anyway, if you haven’t raided Mist Village of its goodies yet, you can do so now. There are some new areas you can check out too, detailed below.
Ancient Grotto #1: Return to where you left the Hovercraft at the entrance to Mt. Hobs. You’ll see that there is a long line of reefs running all the way south from Hobs, so drive the Hovercraft down until you reach east of Kaipo, then keep going south along some more new reefs until you reach an island with a cave entrance. You can’t do much here except get some scans and a couple of chests for now. You’ll be back here after the first Tower of Babil run in the Underworld.
Cave Oasis: From Ancient Grotto, go south and west along some reefs, crossing the first small strip of land. When you reach the second bit of land, go north along the reefs and you’ll come across another cave entrance. This houses a few treasure chests, which you need to navigate some invisible paths to reach. The layout is symmetrical, so it shouldn’t be too hard to navigate. Two of them contain better armor for Tellah. Note that if you try to continue west along the other reefs, you’ll see a cave in front of a desert, but you can’t reach it with the Hovercraft. You’ll need the upgraded Enterprise for that.
Southwest Baron Cave: From Baron, take the airship just slightly southwest, where you’ll see a mountain range with a new cave entrance. There’s a lone treasure chest guarded by a Green Dragon containing a Dwarf Hammer, a nice upgrade for Cid. It is a magnetic weapon however, so switch it out during Magnes Cave. The Green Dragon may be a bit tough for your party right off the bat, so do some exploring first before attempting this.
Troia Cave: This cave doesn’t have a name in-game, so I’ll use this as a placeholder. You’ll notice that immediately south of the Magnes Cave is another cave that doesn’t have enough reefs for the Hovercraft to access. To get here, land the airship at the Chocobo Forest just southeast of the Magnes Cave island and catch a Yellow Chocobo. Ride the Chocobo along the curved reefs until you can disembark at the small pond. Inside are just two chests containing a Stardust and a Chocobo Helm. Kind of lame, considering the obtuse method needed to get here.
So now you’re ready to take on the Dark Elf and his gimmick cave. You’ll find a new patch of land immediately left to the waterfall next to the town. Go across the two bridges east, then go southwest to the third bridge, which leads to a Chocobo Forest. Get a Chocobo, and ride it over the rivers to the town. Speak to Edward in the castle, then go to the Chocobo Forest north of town. Before you can get your Black Chocobo though, you’ll have to deal with a new boss.
Vulture: This guy’s weak to lightning, so have Tellah pummel him with Lit3 while the others attack. I still had the Thunder Claws on Yang from Baron, so they were helpful as well. I equipped Cecil with a Thunder Arrow and a bow, and Cid had the Dwarf Hammer from Southwest Baron Cave.
Once Vulture is down and you get a Black Chocobo, this is the first opportunity to get the I’m Tired of Carrying You achievement. Simply fly and disembark in a forest over and over again. Even at fast forward speed, this still took a couple of minutes for me to get. Use 10x speed and just be patient. I did this in front of the Chocobo Forest to be sure I didn’t softlock myself, but the Black Chocobo will fly back to the forest anyway, so you don’t have to worry if this happens to you elsewhere. Once that’s out of the way, you now have the choice to do some more exploring with the Black Chocobo.
Mystery Forest: Just go straight east from Troia, and you’ll come across a cluster of Chocobo Forest-like trees. This is a maze where you need to choose the correct order out of paths to traverse through. From the starting point, go northeast, then east, then northeast, then east. You’ll come upon the Deep Woods, where the optional bosses Magissa and Tonberry are found. Note that there are two well-hidden treasures hiding in the grassy screens, and were two of the last ones I needed for my own completion due to how obscure they were.
W. Fabul Basin Trail: From Fabul, go west for a short bit, where you’ll see a forest completely surrounded by mountains. This is a short trail that has some treasures. Of note is the chest containing an encounter with a Conjurer and two Lamias. This fight is pretty dangerous if you let it drag on, so kill one of the Lamias before concentrating on the Conjurer. The final chest at the end of the trail has six Guards, which reward you with the Piggy Stick, a huge upgrade for Cecil that lasts you quite a while. If your characters have Ruby Rings equipped, you won’t have to worry about the Guards’ Piggy counterattack spells. The Piggy Stick is also not magnetic, making it excellent for Magnes Cave.
Now you can proceed with Magnes Cave as normal.
MID GAME
Tower of Zot to Sealed Cave
There’s nothing else to do, so carry on with Tower of Zot and Dwarven Castle. Note that in Tower of Zot, you are allowed to exit and temporarily return to Troia, but will be forced to return via the airship. Be mindful that the treasure chests in Tower of Zot are missable, so be 100% sure you got them all. Once you’re allowed to exit Dwarven Castle through the secret entrance on your way to Tower of Babil, you’ll now want to head northeast along a thin strip of land until you come across a new cave.
Unknown Cave: Since there’s no name attributed to this cavern, I went with this as a placeholder. There are two chests inside, one with an encounter against 5 Warriors that contains an Assassin Dagger for Rydia, the other containing 10 Charm Arrows.
At the Tower of Babil’s entrance, you’ll encounter an NPC blocking your path, who turns out to be the next original boss.
Magma Giant: Well, he should be obviously weak to ice, so have Rydia cast Ice2 or Shiva. But when you scan him, you’ll see that he’s also weak to lightning. Kain with Dwarf Hammer equipped and doing his Jump command is surprisingly effective here. Yang should be attacking with his Kaiser and Cat Claws, while Cecil and Rosa provide support with healing or attacks. Once he’s down, you’re free to proceed with Tower of Babil as normal. Note that there’s a chest in the second room that’s inaccessible unless you have Edge. It contains a Thief Ring for him, which is an upgrade over the Thief Gloves from Castle Eblan.
Ancient Grotto #2: Once you’re done here and back on the Overworld, return to the green strips of land near the Ancient Grotto. At the first light, you’ll have a simple encounter, after which Rydia learns the Witch summon. This is a dark-elemental summon that was sorely missing from her kit in the vanilla version, and is very useful for the Mt. Heavensward optional dungeon. The second light will not do anything at this time – you need to defeat Goddess for the Ultima Sword, then speak to the light to fight against Marilith.
Now that we have the hook attached to the airship, the Hovercraft can be carried to new areas for exploration.
Island Peak: From Fabul, deposit the Hovercraft as far south from the castle as you can and ride it along the reefs. There will be an island with a small mountain and a pond in front of it. There are two chests to the left, but more importantly is the optional boss Calofisteri. You’ll notice that while you can land the Hovercraft and airship outside of Silvera, you actually can’t drive the craft over the reefs to Adamant Grotto like in vanilla FF4. Simply move over to one of the grassy islands just south of the grotto and go north instead.
Skyway/Mt. Heavensward: From Mt. Ordeals, carry the Hovercraft to the southeastern area where you’ll see some reefs and an island with a mountain entrance. Drive the craft onto the sandy patch and head over to the mountain. At the end of the short path is an orange crystal which teleports the party to a flying dungeon. After crossing through the next exit, you are in Mt. Heavensward proper. You’ll find a sword at the top, which triggers an encounter with 3 Sky Dragons layered over each other, accompanied by a Green Dragon and a Yellow Dragon. Here’s where Rydia’s Witch summon shines, since Sky Dragons are weak to darkness elemental attacks. Cecil and Kain should just focus on weakening the Sky Dragons, and Rosa heals. The good thing is that all three Sky Dragons will take damage simultaneously from multi-target spells, even if you can’t see it. Your reward is the Thunder Sword for Cecil.
After defeating Goddess, you’ll see a cutscene of a shining light appearing in Mt. Heavensward. Go back to the entrance of the last room you can reach normally, and go around behind the door to access an invisible path to the upper right. There is another room with more treasures. Make sure Edge is in the party as well since he needs to use his wall-jumping technique to cross a platform to an isolated chest. Interact with the light to fight against Shinryu.
Ice Cave: You’ll see a mountain range to the far north of Troia continent, which you normally have no business going to in the original version. There’s now a new cave there, but in order to reach it, you have to deposit the Hovercraft near the cave, then go find the Black Chocobo and fly it to the tiny forest just west of the cave. Take the craft over the reefs, and you’re there. At the entrance, there’s a chest with an X-Potion, and to the right is a bit of water that can be examined, which causes an encounter with 4 Dark Dragons (from the Dark Elf battle). Use Ultima, but not Meteo as it will heal them. Otherwise, they should be straightforward. The reward is an Experience Ring and some battle drops (this is considered a chest for the 245 count).
Advance into the next room and you’ll be dropped into an icy area. Proceed until you find a save point, and a blue sword shortly after. Interacting with it triggers a fight with a Behemoth. He isn’t any different from vanilla FF4, so just take him down slowly and carefully, healing up after any nasty counterattacks. The reward is the Defender Sword. I gave this to Cecil, while Kain got the Thunder Sword. Continue on after that and you’ll re-enter the cavern, where you can reach the strange blue figure at the end. At this point, he does nothing but growl at you, so come back later. Once you go through the door behind him, you’ll wind up near the forest with the Black Chocobo. Fly back to the airship, then go retrieve the Hovercraft. I returned after exploring most of the Lunar Core, and the blue figure finally responded. This is the superboss Yeti.
Northeast Baron Cave: From Baron, you’ll see a patch of desert and a new cave to the northeast. Deposit the Hovercraft on the green patch of land just south of this section and ride the reefs up to the cave. Before doing anything, cast Float on your party members. One of the chests contains an encounter with an Alarune, a Arachne, and 2 Coeurls. The Alarune and Arachne love to spam Quake, so Float will keep you out of trouble. It contains a Power Vest, which should be saved for Edge. To the left is an orange burst-like flame, which interacting with will trigger a fight with the optional boss Tunnel Armor.
Let’s carry on with Eblan Cave. Okay, so if you’ve played Final Fantasy V, do you remember how Omega wandered around in a specific room in the Interdimensional Rift? We’ve got the same thing going on with Gamma here. For the love of god, do not interact with it. It will destroy you, no questions asked. You can walk into it like any NPC, but don't talk to it.
Carry on with looting the treasures, being sure to swap the Thunder Sword with either the Gorgon Sword or the Ogre Axe from monster chests (the Were Bats absorb lighting damage). I strongly recommend the Ogre Axe because Tower of Babil has Lamias who can charm your allies. If your ally with the Gorgon Sword is confused, he’ll petrify whoever he attacks, which can be extremely dangerous. Recruit Edge and breach into Tower of Babil, make a mental note of the new locked door you’ll find as you explore, defeat Rubicant and fall down the trap door.
Be absolutely certain you get the two chests in this section before the party finds the Falcon – once that cutscene triggers, you can never return here. Just stay away from the bottom left-most door and explore around the right section. If you revisit this area of Babil later, you may notice that these two particular chests appear to be unopened. Don’t worry – this is a visual error due to the hack using pre-existing assets, as you’re not supposed to be able to return to Babil in vanilla FF4, so those chests never get updated visually. The chests are indeed opened, so you can ignore them.
After Cid upgrades the airship, you can now explore the entire Underworld. Go to Kokkol’s Forge, plunder its treasures, then walk northeast until you come upon a new cave.
Magma Cavern/Ruins: The Magma Cavern portion uses the same gimmick as the Passage to Feymarch and Sylph’s Cavern, so cast Float on the party. You’ll eventually venture far enough in for the dungeon to become the Magma Ruins. There are three paths to go down – left, center, and right. Go down the left path first until you come across a brown patch that can be examined, triggering a fight with a BogWitch and 6 TinyToads. Just the same encounter as vanilla FF4, so waste them with ease. The reward is the Ancient Sword, which I don’t find as useful as the Defender since it gives more defense than the Ancient Sword gives offense.
You’ll spot a red-colored Cagnazzo monster nearby, but you need to backtrack to the right path to reach him. The ‘stairs’ beneath him is a save point. For now he’ll tell you to leave him alone, so a revisit is in order. The center path is a dead end. On a side note, you’ll encounter Malboros and Mammons in the Magma Ruins. If you’re trying to scan every monster in the game, I would suggest doing the scan and run method since Malboros are now more dangerous compared to vanilla FF4.
I returned to Magma Cavern/Ruins much later and interacted with Red Cagnazzo, who finally reacted to me by initiating a fight due to him being annoyed about me bothering him. This was against the Magma Golem and two Flamedogs. I’m not sure what exactly caused him to react - whether it was story progression, defeating Goddess, or speaking to him multiple times.
Volcano: From Kokkol’s Forge, hug the rightmost wall of the Underworld until you can travel east through a narrow path. The first northern opening you come across will be the Volcano. Travel the path and you’ll notice a purple thing at the top. Interact with it and you’ll trigger a fight with a Fossil Dragon and a Bone Dragon. They are a bit tough, but also weak to fire (ironic, considering their location), so it’s nothing you can’t handle. Your rewards are Dragon Helmet and Dragon Shield drops, and Elf Cloak and Ethereal Mantle items. Go down the stairs and head down to the save point. Further down is a small fire, which when touched will trigger a battle with 3 White Dragons and 3 Red Dragons. Once you’re able to handle such groups in Lunar Core, these guys will be easy. The reward is a Rune Axe.
The other set of stairs takes you further into the dungeon. One of the chests contains a Gold Seed, while the other has an encounter with 2 Liquid Flames. Fighting one of them is a little scary, so two of them is potentially dangerous. They can cast Wall, so using single target spells regularly isn’t a good idea. Instead have Rydia summon Shiva while Edge throws Shurikens. Cecil should Fortify before attacking, while Kain jumps and Rosa heals. The reward is a Glass Helmet for Cecil, which will last a very long time. This dungeon also has two well-hidden treasures actually hiding within the lava itself, and were the final two I needed for my completion.
Go back to the save point and head north, where you’ll find a red sword in the ground. You’ll see a message that says, “Sealed by an unknown force.” You’re going to see this message quite a bit as you explore the new dungeons. To break this seal, you need to defeat Goddess in Lunar Core. Come back here, and you’ll get to fight the superboss Fire Dragon.
Trader’s Cave (“?” cavern): From the Volcano, keep going east until you emerge back out in the far west of the Underworld. You’ll easily see another mound that can be entered. This place has a man in a yellow robe who asks for an item from you to brew with. Since you’re essentially trading items with him, I called this cavern the Trader’s Cave as a placeholder. To get the Sulfurous Magma achievement, give him a Lunar Gem and you’ll receive an All-Potion. I tried giving him other items, but he only ever reacted with the Lunar Gem. Farming the PinkPuffs will drop some Lunar Gems, and All-Potions will be a valuable resource for the superbosses if you’re not using Edward’s Salve command (this is not a good idea, as I'll explain shortly), so it’s worth it to get a bunch.
We’re done with the new content for now, so do Passage to Feymarch, the boss battles in Feymarch, and Sylph Cave. After defeating Asura, she’ll not only be summonable, she’ll also give Rydia the Summoner’s Key. Once you’re done everything with the optional dungeons, move on to Sealed Cave. After Kain leaves and you return to the Overworld to get the Lunar Whale, don’t forget to do the Yang mini-quest before meeting Fusoya, and trade the Rat Tail for Adamant so Kokkol can forge the Excalibur! Take a short jaunt to the Moon and come right back so Kokkol will give you the Excalibur.
LATE GAME
First Moon Visit to Final Boss
All set? Okay, onward to exploring the Moon!
Crater Cave: This is a cave tucked within a crescent-shaped land formation. On the right side of the cave is a chest with an encounter of 3 Mech Dragons, rewarding you with a Zeus Gauntlet. The left side of the cave has a light with a voice accusing you of being weak. Again, defeat Goddess and the light will finally acknowledge you to a battle with the superboss Crystal Dragon.
Cave Moore: Slightly southwest from Crater Cave (or slightly northwest from the first Lunar Path entrance) is another cave. The first floor has some treasures, while the second floor has eight different paths to follow. You start at 6:00, and all but one of the paths return you to the first floor. The relevant path is the 7:30 path, immediately to the left of your position. This leads to an encounter with the superboss Ultima Weapon. Its rewards are the Brave Blade and the Chicken Knife. Their gimmick is similar as their Final Fantasy V incarnations – the Brave Blade gains strength the more you win battles, while the Chicken Knife’s power increases the more you flee. They’re connected with each other as well, so if one gets stronger, the other will get weaker.
For the achievement set, you need to max out the Chicken Blade’s power to 255 for the Chicken No More achievement. This process might be a little annoying with Rydia if you got Odin since he randomly interrupts with his instant kill attack, so swap her out until you’re ready. You can check the knife’s attack power by using it as an item in the Item menu while in the field. Once it’s maxed out, equip it on Cecil and win a battle.
Crystal Spire: Out in the middle of the lunar field is a very obvious tall structure over a cave entrance. The room in the back has a “strange crystalline formation” that you have the option of touching. This triggers an encounter with the Four Crystals superboss. The second floor in the center has a black sword that is sealed by an unknown force. This is another superboss gated by Goddess, which is Selene.
Cave of Bahamut: Although its location is the same, the adapted mountain formation means you need to go around. You get the usual Genji equipment, although I kept the Aegis Shield on Cecil for the status protection. There is a chest near the second floor save point with a monster encounter consisting of a Red Dragon and a Blue Dragon. Otherwise it’s the standard Bahamut boss fight.
Hummingway Cave: Just south of the Lunarian Lair is the usual cave housing the Hummingways, although the mountain formation has been changed somewhat. Inside are some Hummingways with one as a Namingway, plus a white Hummingway who sells items, and a purple Bomb who sells armor. The white Hummingway’s wares finally include X-Potions, Remedies and Elixirs, so stock up here and get rid of your Heals and Abilifys now that they’re obsolete.
Once you’re ready, take the Lunar Path to the Lunarian Lair. There is a new entrance found in the second Lunar Path that is sealed by an unseen force. It’ll be unlocked a little later in the story, which is just a shortcut back to the Lunar Whale. Recruit Fusoya and return to Earth for the Giant of Babil segment. Please refer to the Superboss & Boss Rush guide for more details about stealing Sirens and farming other items here. The treasure chests in Giant of Babil are also missable, so be sure to get everything before defeating CPU.
Use the save point at the beginning, because you’ll encounter our Final Fantasy cameo boss once again; the multi-armed, interdimensional traveling Mesopotamian weapon collector, Gilgamesh. His monster scan is the very same as in Mt. Hobs, and again it’s a survival battle. Stealing from him yields a Rising Sun. Note that you can’t steal when Gilgamesh jumps, so you need to time it correctly before the timer runs out. Snag two of them if you can, since they’re equippable weapons for Edge that are pretty decent. You do get a free Rising Sun in Lunar Subterrane, so stealing just one is fine as well.
Continue onward, then use the save point before the Four Fiends boss battle in vanilla FF4. This time though, before stepping on the teleport pad, you have a new boss battle against Warmech, a Searcher and a Last Arm. I tried stealing from Warmech, but it didn’t have anything.
Warmech: Just like its notorious Final Fantasy I incarnation, this guy is no joke, representing a steep difficulty spike for this point in the story. The biggest problem is Electro Magnet, which permanently casts Stop on a character. Either use a Time Egg on them, or kill them off and revive them. The three enemies use Beam, which deals 10% of a character’s HP, but Warmech’s Laser is the one to watch out for. It is essentially a one-hit kill, although it can be helpful if it targets a Stopped character. It also does an AoE fire attack for around 500-600 damage. Use AoE spells and items, especially Fusoya’s Meteo and Rydia’s Leviathan. The damage cap has been raised to 14,999 for the hack, so you can do over 10,000 damage with Meteo. At the end, Warmech will explode and deal about 650 damage to everyone.
Afterwards you have the usual Four Fiends and CPU bosses. The strategy against CPU is the same, and it’s imperative you do so here. If both the Attacker and Defender are defeated, CPU will use Globe199, a guaranteed one-hit kill on a character, which can spiral out of control quickly. Keep the Attacker alive while beating down the Defender first, then CPU with physical attacks. CPU casts Wall, so magic is not a good idea, and neither are AoE summons. Once CPU is down, Attacker is a complete pushover.
The story continues as normal, and Kain gives Cecil the Babil Key. Also, the other party members minus Tellah and Fusoya come aboard. Don’t worry about their levels, as they’ve been leveling up in the background to match Cecil’s… that is, except for Edward. He’s still at the level when he left the party. Furthermore, Edward’s gear gets removed whenever he is taken out of the party.
Edward may seem worthless at face value, but he is extremely versatile with being able to equip a lot of the same gear as the other characters, and has some broken abilities with his Sing command depending on the harp he has equipped (hint: Loki’s Harp). Salve is also absolutely busted, being able to apply party buffs and healing with single target items. Sorry, Elixirs don’t work here, but X-Potions are a free AoE Cure4, and you definitely want to use Salve + Elf Cloak for some superbosses. Edward no longer automatically hides when at critical health, but you have the Hide command if you want him to dodge damage, much like Kain’s Jump command. I’m willing to bet the hardest superbosses were intentionally designed with Edward’s mechanics in mind, so include him in your late-game party.
To remove characters from the party, speak to the Hummingway in the Lunar Whale’s engine room. New rooms have been added – Rosa, Rydia and Kain are in the cabin along with two shopkeeper Hummingways, Cid is in the engine room with the party-clearing Hummingway, and the others are on the bridge. To add characters, speak to them and have an empty slot for them. Yang will mention that he wants to return to Fabul, and Palom and Porom wish to return to Mysidia. On that note, let’s do some backtracking to nab some goodies in preparation for the final dungeon.
Odin and Bahamut are still available, if you haven’t gotten them yet. Odin has the added bonus of infrequently destroying random encounter enemies for free, akin to his Final Fantasy VIII appearance, as long as Rydia is in the party. I was able to defeat Calofisteri for her rewards, but the other superbosses may be too difficult without doing the Lunar Subterrane run and a lot of grinding.
Go to Mysidia with Palom and Porom in the party, and head into the room behind the Crystal Room where the Elder is. He’ll bestow them with a new Twin spell and better staves, unlocking the Twins of Mysidia achievement. Now bring Yang to Fabul and speak to the King in his room. He’ll grant Yang an upgraded Brace ability that gives him physical invulnerability, unlocking the Monk of Fabul achievement. For Edward, bring him to Troia and go to the room where he was resting for most of the game. His Gilbert Harp is still there, so get it for the Bard of Troia achievement. Cid doesn’t have anything special, so you can swap to your desired party. Edge and Rydia have new content, so include them at least.
If you haven’t done the two specific Edge-only chests in Castle Eblan and Tower of Babil – Underworld entrance, do so. Go to Eblan Cave via the Hovercraft, and you’ll notice a blue flame in the first room where Gamma is wandering around. This is a cutscene between Edge and his deceased parents, who grant him the new spells Comet and Pyro, and you get the Ninja of Eblan achievement. For Rydia, bring her to Mist Village and use the Summoner’s Key you got from Asura on the locked door. Her mother’s spirit will grant her the Phoenix summon, and you get the Summoner of Mist achievement.
Remember the Babil Key that Kain gave you? With Edge in the party, go back to Tower of Babil through the Eblan Cave entrance, and return to that mysterious locked door you couldn’t go through during the Rubicant segment. Now you can unlock this door to enter the Omega Corridor and the Omega Sector. There’s a hidden path just above the black orb object leading to a Tiger Mask. Further east of the Merit Cap chest is an invisible path (not quite invisible if you pay attention to the background) leading to a platform with another Gamma-like enemy wandering around. If you haven’t guessed by now, this is Omega’s location. Due to the wall-jumping mechanic, Cecil and Edge are mandatory inclusions for this fight.
Not much else to do for now, so go to Lunar Subterrane and plunder its loot. As a rule of thumb, if you see a save point, use it. They’re frequent for a reason. In the first floor, Zemus will sic a Spirit and a Breath on you as a lesser boss battle. They’re layered on top of each other (Spirit first, then Breath), so you want to space your scans out. For winning this fight, Cecil learns Big Guard.
Continue to the next room, with a save point. The next room has an unexpected surprise – King Baron is there, and he wants to test Cecil. This is the optional battle against Raiden. After he’s defeated, King Baron will wait on the Lunar Whale for Cecil to talk to him, as well as grant Cecil the Cure3 spell and Rydia the Raiden summon. King Baron will let Cecil swap between his Dark Knight and Paladin classes at will, allowing you to use him according to your playstyle. Later on, you get the Lunarian Mirror so you can do the class switching anywhere you want without having to run back to King Baron, though I’m not sure what triggered this. It’s a consumable item, so if you need more, talk to him again. Dark Knight Cecil and Paladin Cecil are treated as two separate characters, so their equips are not shared between each other. You don’t lose any equipped gear if you swap.
Watch out for the chest containing Plague, the notorious enemy who casts Condemn on all of your party members. It’s now in the chest where an Elixir was found in vanilla FF4. It contains a Triton Hammer instead. In the next room, you’ll spot Gilgamesh in front of an opened chest. Talking to him initiates an optional fight. Once he’s beaten, he takes off but drops the Caliburn. Kain can equip it, allowing Cecil to hang on to the Excalibur for now. After this fight, you can find Gilgamesh running around in the Lunar Whale’s engine room. He offers to spar with you once more, and can be sparred as many times as you want for his prizes. See the entries for Gilgamesh #3 and Gilgamesh #4 in the Superboss & Boss Rush guide for more details.
In the next room, you’ll notice a new room above the left-side chest. This is where one of the two Ribbons has been relocated. Yes, it’s a singular Ribbon this time, so you need to decide who to give it to for now. Don’t worry, you’ll get the other one in its normal spot later. The Lunasaurs are weak to fire, so Rydia’s Phoenix summon is a major boon here. Continue on, fighting chest monsters and saving frequently. Near the room with the infamous PinkPuff spawn is another save point and two white Hummingway shopkeepers, who are the same as from the Hummingway Cave. This is your opportunity to do the PinkPuff grind for Pink Tails, Elixirs and Lunar Gems. If you plan on defeating all of the superbosses, it’s pretty much mandatory to get at least five Adamant Armors for everyone since they grant full status immunity on top of huge defense stats. Otherwise, move on. Defeating the Wyvern gives Cecil’s Ragnarok, the Wall spell for him, and a new spell for Rydia called SunFlare.
As you explore, you’ll come across a rather pesky treasure chest that you can’t access no matter how much you explore the immediate area. I watched several LPs of other players trying to get this chest, and they were stumped just as much as I was at first. It wasn’t until I watched MetalSmasherGaming’s video guide (specifically part #40) that the solution became clear. You need to continue on into Lunar Core and fight the AI superboss, then take the teleporter behind it and nudge against the left side of the stairs until you slip into a hidden passage leading to that isolated chest. It contains a monster encounter with 8 PinkPuffs, and the reward is a guaranteed Pink Tail.
Back to the main path, in the original game’s final save point room, there’s a black crystal that gives you a hint about an upcoming boss. The room with the Holy Lance has two Plague enemies. There’s nothing in the achievement set that says you need to get it, but it is a significant improvement for Kain over Caliburn, so try to get it if you can. I had Rosa cast Ultima, Rydia summon Phoenix, Cecil and Edge attack, and Kain jump. Another strategy you can use is to have one character dead already, then revive them after Condemn has been cast. In Lunar Core, continue on until you’re blocked at some stairs by the previously hinted boss, AI Mk. I.
AI Mk. I: It’s accompanied by one Defender and two Attackers, but the gimmick is the same as in Giant of Babil. The Defender will be restored eventually, so you need to take it down again.
Going in further, you’ll see two peculiar items – a yellow cluster and a blue sword. The cluster is a battle with 3 Movers (they also appear as random encounters in this room). You need to defeat all of them simultaneously, or else they’ll rapidly resurrect each other. They also cast Wall on each other. Kain’s Highwind, Ultima and Meteo will bypass this, leaving Cecil and Edge to do other things like heal with items, Big Guard, or steal. The reward is a Magus Rod.
The blue sword is an encounter with 4 FatalEyes. This isn’t as scary as it sounds since they can only Condemn one character at a time, plus they sometimes replenish the countdown. Kain doing jumps with Holy Lance equipped does massive damage, as do Meteo and Ultima. The reward is the Tempest Blade for Edge, which quickly replaces Murasame.
Further left in this room are two more peculiar items – a blue Bomb and a pink sword. The blue Bomb is an encounter with 2 Plagues and 6 Artemises. Ultima and Kain + Holy Lance jumping does amazing damage here. The reward is the Artemis Bow. The pink sword is a fight with 3 Spirits and yields the Lightbringer, which has better attack but slightly lower agility than Ragnarok. Whichever one you choose, remember that Edward can equip the other if you’re using him.
Advance on until you reach a room with a blue crystal that says, “At the Crescent’s Horn, there lies a hidden path to the Sword of Power.” Go back into the previous crescent-shaped room and return to the lower teleporter. If you’re standing on top of the teleporter, go down one step, then walk all the way left. You’ll wind up in a secret room, so keep going left until you’re in another room with a blue sword and a black crystal. Interacting with the sword triggers a battle with the optional superboss Goddess. Defeating her nets you the Ultima Sword, and unlocks several superbosses and powerful weapons. See Goddess’ entry in the Superboss & Boss Rush guide for more details. Speaking with the black crystal nearby just shows you the cutscene of all the superboss locations again in case you forget. The Ultima Sword functions the same as Ultima Weapon in Final Fantasy VII, being stronger the more HP the wielder has and getting weaker as they’re damaged.
Back to the Lunar Core and the room with the blue crystal, stay on the upper row. From the teleporter, take 11 steps left, 3 steps down, and continue left into another secret passage. You come upon three machines and two sparkling lights. Approaching them gives you the option to challenge the AI superboss, which you can do as many times as you wish – this is potentially useful for farming Globe199s, the best attack item in the game.
Once you defeat the AI, you can continue past it. The long stairs with two teleports between them has a hidden passage heading left toward the pesky isolated chest with 8 PinkPuffs mentioned previously. Proceed through a winding path to a save point and the next superboss, Ultima Buster. You are allowed to walk around him if you’re not ready to challenge him yet. The rewards for defeating him are a Grand Helm, a Ribbon, a Void Stone and an Anti-Matter. In addition, Dark Knight Cecil’s Dark ability will get an upgrade that no longer consumes his hit points when used.
You can keep going past Ultima Buster’s location down a long path and another set of winding paths. However, at the beginning of the winding paths, just go up to the top of the first ‘hook’ and hug the topmost row. You’ll find an invisible path winding in the darkness, which you need to blindly navigate through. The first objective is to reach a shining light near the area with the blue crystal. Yes, it is unbelievably frustrating to navigate through the maze, and it’s almost impossible for me to describe the directions needed to get there, but I promise you that there is a path. Once you reach it and touch it, a fight is initiated with 2 Lunasaurs and 6 Trickers. The reward is the Lunar Shield, and the Mine Mine Mine achievement. The other item of note is a treasure chest in the upper left of the dark maze near a save point, which is 10 Perseus Arrows.
Make your way through until you reach the lower area with a path leading to a purple-haired woman, a blue crystal and a save point. Talking with the woman makes her disappear. The crystal warns you, “This is a one way ladder. Use caution.” The next room will have two treasures and a red sword. At the bottom of the screen is a ladder leading back out to the Moon’s surface, specifically a section near Lunar Lair. There will be a cavern entrance shaped like a face, in reference to the Lunar Ruins dungeon from later official FF4 releases (this is a reference to the infamous blurred photo of a rock formation that resembled a face taken on Mars). You can backtrack to the Lunar Whale with the upper path, so you don’t have to do that nightmare navigating through the dark area to get back here anymore. If you want to return to the main Lunar Subterrane path though, you’ll have to go back the long way. Anyway, touching the sword triggers a fight with Neo Bahamut.
Once you’re ready to continue the story, return to the main path and the room with the blue crystal who told you about the Crescent’s Horn. At the end of this path is the encounter with Zemus and 2 Illusions. The first scan will hit the Illusion, so get rid of them and scan the last one remaining to get Zemus’ entry. The moment you cast any spell on them, including Scan, they get pissy and cast lots of powerful spells. As long as you have Adamant Armors on everyone, this won’t be a problem. Enter the next room and watch the story unfold as usual. However, Fusoya gives you the option to teleport everyone back to Lunar Lair’s entrance. Do so, and after a cutscene in the Lunar Whale, Fusoya says he’ll stay in the ship, meaning he won’t be playable anymore. However, Golbez takes his place instead. Sweet! I actually renamed him to Theodr for lore reasons. ;)
Golbez is basically a combination of Fusoya, Rydia and Dark Knight Cecil, possessing a smaller list of summons and Black Magic spells compared to her (all grouped under Black Magic, rather than separated into two categories), but being able to equip much stronger weapons and armor from DK Cecil’s kit, making him less squishy than Rydia. He also inherits Fusoya’s Blue Magic. He unfortunately has the same caveat as Edward, not leveling up with the others when absent from the party.
Once you’ve done all of the superbosses, boss rushes and exploration to your heart’s content, come back to the room with Zeromus and fight him to beat the story. Depending on if you cleared all seven boss rushes, you’ll get one of two endings. Not clearing them gets you the normal ending, while clearing them gets you the alternate ending for the If They Can, So Can the Mighty… achievement. To be safe, do the normal ending first, then do the boss rushes and come back for the alternate ending. I actually recommend beating New Game, then transferring your inventory and storage to New Game Plus and building up your characters further for the boss rushes, since the final wave can be too much without additional stats. Be sure to unequip all of your characters since while inventory and storage are transferred, equipped gear is not.