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World Map - Narshe - Enemies
Narshe - Outdoor Enemies
Narshe - Mines Enemies
Once you gain control of the Falcon you'll have a significant number of places to explore, and one that you may want to target early on is Narshe. You might not be powerful enough to fully explore this place just yet, but at the very least you can pick up a former party member without much trouble. Once your party is in the 40s level-wise you can probably handle all of Narshe.
Narshe as a town is pretty much done for, overrun as it is by monsters. They’re not too tough if you’ve been collecting characters already, and Fire in general works well here. With the exception of the Adventuring School and Arvis's old house all of the buildings in Narshe are locked and inaccessible. You'll need to recruit a certain someone before you can pick all the locks and enter the buildings.
(Side note: If you ignored the chests in the Narshe Mines earlier in Final Fantasy VI you'll find better items waiting inside each of them. The chest in the home of the Moogles now contains a Ribbon, while the two chests in the tunnel Terra traveled alone at the beginning of the game contain an Elixir and a Guard Bracelet.)
Put Mog in your party if he isn’t there already and head for the Frozen Esper, beyond the snow field where you fought Kefka’s forces. You can find it by entering the Narshe Mines through Narshe, the route Terra, Biggs, and Wedge took at the beginning of Final Fantasy VI, and taking a right in the first tunnel. Be careful wandering in the snow field, as it’s home to one of the Eight Dragons, the Ice Dragon. Unlike many other Dragons it’s in constant motion, and can be difficult to avoid.
Use the save point in the north of the ice field, before approaching the Frozen Esper. It’s now partially awake, and a little angry.
Valigarmanda
HP: 30,000
Weakness: Fire
Immune: All other elements
Yes, it's finally time to wrap up this section of the plot. Valigarmanda, the Frozen Esper, uses the following attacks:
- Normal melee hits
- Blizzaga, an Ice spell
- Freezing Dust, which can inflict Freeze on a party member
- Rasp, which reduces a single target's MP
The Frozen Esper is a big jerk. Valigarmanda employs strong elemental attacks and can Freeze your characters, but its most annoying attribute by far is its capacity to destroy your MP via Rasp. It will use Rasp over... and over... and over. This is bad, as physical attacks are virtually useless against Valigarmanda. You need to use magic, specifically Fire, to end this fight.
Barring repeated assaults of Fira you can harm Valigarmanda using Sabin’s Rising Phoenix or any neutral special attacks, such as Edgar’s Tools or Cyan’s Bushidos. You can also cast Reflect on your party members (or equip Reflect Rings) to bounce Rasp back at Valigarmanda, protecting your party's MP stores.
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You’ll receive the Valigarmanda Magicite after the battle. The Frozen Esper will then disappear, leaving a gap in the cliff where it was sitting. Approach the gap and you can leap down, down, down...
(Don’t bother going down here without Mog. Seriously. You’ll have to redo the whole dungeon if you leave him behind. It’s not long, but still.)
Yeti’s Cave
Leaping from Valigarmanda's perch will drop you into an odd little cave. This place is populated by monsters that, while not terribly strong, have a propensity for inflicting Imp on your characters. You’ll get Green Cherries for winning most battles, and if you don't have relics to protect against Imp you'll need a lot of the things.
There are three passages in this first area. Go through the middle door to start. There are two chests on your left. The first contains an X-Ether, while the second... will drop you into a lower area if you try to get it from here. You can get at the chest by going through the western door in the first chamber, sticking close to the northern wall to avoid an invisible hole in the floor.
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The chest contains a battle against three Tonberries, creatures that use the Holy spell, strong physical hits, and an instant-killing attack that only goes off if they move close enough to your characters. Tonberries are best handled with strong magic attacks. These creatures may drop a Minerva Bustier if you’re lucky.
Drop into the lower chamber after collecting these chests - any of the holes in this dungeon will do - and climb onto the wooden walkways, in the southwest. In the bottom-left corner of this area is a Gauntlet. Head east and north from here, along the walkways.
There are two switches in the next room. Hit the right switch and you’ll fall into a chamber with a skull sculpture. Approach and inspect the sculpture - and steal the Midgardsormr Magicite within - to trigger a fight.
Yeti
HP: 17,200
Weakness: Fire, Poison
You may have spotted this guy earlier in the game, poking his head out of the rock walls of the Narshe Mines, and now you get to take him on. The Yeti uses the following attacks:
- Normal physical hits
- Tackle, a stronger physical attack
- Jump, which sends the Yeti into the air for a few rounds before dropping onto a single target
- Snowball, which reduces a single target's HP by half
- Hailstone, which reduces a single target's HP to 1/4 of it total
- Snowstorm / Avalanche, which hit your entire party for Ice damage
This is an easy fight. The Yeti prefers physical attacks, using its Tackle strike to do most of the damage. Deplete enough of its HP and it will eat a Green Cherry, increasing its stats almost across the board... but not changing the situation a whole lot. After this the Yeti begins using its Ice attacks, which are not a big deal.
For the most part this is a standard battle. Use Fire, Poison, or both elements to rip through the Yeti's HP. The percentage attacks can whittle your party down, but as long as someone in the party knows Cura or Curaga you can get everyone back on their feet in an instant. Keep attacking and the fight will end soon enough.
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Speak to the Yeti after the fight. Assuming Mog is in your battle, you’ll learn that the Yeti's default name is Umaro, and he’ll rush out to the Falcon and join your party. Umaro is a perpetually-Berserk character who can nevertheless dish out a lot of damage while he’s alive. Not a great choice for boss battles, but a decent choice if you're exploring dungeons. Note that you can only equip relics on Umaro, and he's stuck with his starting weapons and armor.
Follow Umaro up the long stairs nearby and you’ll drop out of the Mines and back into Narshe. From here you can return to the entrance and leave the area.