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World Map - Thamasa Region - Enemies
Upon landing at the new continent you’ll have a team consisting of Terra, Locke, and Shadow. You should spend a bit of time teaching Shadow spells - he probably won’t have any, and though he doesn’t stick around for long at the moment he plays a large part in a major dungeon rather soon.
The enemies in this part of the world are tough against physical attacks, but the Throw command and second tier magic should make short work of most beasties with little trouble. There are two foes of note:
- Briarieuses aren't too difficult, but they can use the Snort move to knock characters out of the fight - not dead, just... gone. Try to wipe them out quickly. You can Steal Gaia Gear from these creatures.
- Chimeras, which only appear in forests, have miniboss-level amounts of HP, and use a bunch of strong elemental attacks against the whole party. You can Steal Hyper Wrists from Chimeras, and there's a chance they will drop Golden Armor when defeated.
Head northeast from the shoreline and you’ll wind up in Thamasa.
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Thamasa - Weapon Shop
Thamasa - Armor Shop
Thamasa - Item Shop
Thamasa - Relic Shop
Now that you’ve ‘officially’ arrived in Thamasa the merchants will sell you weapons, armor and items, the best you’ll find in the first half of Final Fantasy VI. Don’t bother stocking up for everyone right now, though - just purchase enough equipment for Terra, Locke, and Shadow. Everything here is quite expensive, and you'll have two new party members to buy for soon.
Poke around town. There are some items to pick up:
- There are Eye Drops hidden in one of the barrels beside the item shop
- There's a Gold Needle in a barrel beside the relic shop
- There's a Green Cherry in a barrel beside a house to the north
- There's an Echo Screen in a barrel beside the house through the fence to the north
The innkeeper currently charges you 1,500 gil a night to stay. Ouch. That will change shortly - but if you want to grind out levels for Shadow, you’ll either have to do that or shell out for Tents to restore everyone’s health. Your call, though Tents are just a smidge cheaper.
Have a look in the northeastern house once you're done leveling. Inside this home you'll meet two new characters, with the default names of Strago and Relm. They will join the party soon enough, but for now they stay in their home. Speaking to them lowers the price at the inn to one gil.
We're done with Shadow for a while. Leave Shadow’s equipment on, but strip him of Magicite. If you don’t he’ll keep it on him until you see him next, which won’t be until the next dungeon. Stay at the inn when you're ready to move on...
... and then prepare for a late-night intrusion as Strago bursts in, demanding help. Speak to him outside the inn to learn that, yeah, these people are hiding something. Rush into the building that's on fire.
Burning Home - Enemies
- Balloon - 555 HP - Weak to Ice, Water
You're now in a house that's on fire. Very smart. Shadow leave the party, but he’s replaced by Strago. Strago doesn’t know any conventional magic as of yet, but he possesses the Lore ability, which allows him to learn magic used on him by monsters in battle. Even if Strago collapses you’ll still learn a Lore so long as you won the fight. In his current repertoire is Aqua Breath, a Water attack that is quite useful on the enemies in the Burning Home.
On the second screen you’ll encounter Balloons, the Burning Home’s sole enemy, as roving fireballs on the map. You can avoid them if you wish, but they’re really easy to kill with a Blizzara from Terra or a single use of Strago's Aqua Breath. Equipping an Icebrand or an Ice Rod for your physical attacks will also usually defeat Balloons in one hit.
There are two doors in the next hallway. The left leads to endless battles against Balloons, as they’ll keep popping out and surrounding you. You’ll always be caught in a pincer attack, so this isn’t the best place to grind. The right door leads to another hallway with two more doors; take the right to find a Flame Rod (so helpful in here) or the left to continue to another hallway.
The next hallway has two more doors. The right leads to an Ice Rod, which is a good weapon for Strago if you don’t already have one, while the left leads to the source of the blaze. A boss battle follows.
Flame Eater
HP:
- 8,400 HP (Flame Eater)
- 555 (Balloons)
- 3,000 (Grenade)
Weakness: Ice, Water
Immune: Lightning, Earth, Poison, Holy (Flame Eater)
Steal:
- Flametongue (Flame Eater)
- Flame Scroll (Grenade)
Apparently all the Flame Rods kept in this house conjured a beast of fire and fury. Guess who has to deal with it! The Flame Eater uses the following attacks:
- Normal, physical strikes
- Bomblet, which summons Bombs or a Grenade to help Flame Eater
- Fire / Fira / Firaga, Fire-elemental spells
- Graviga, which reduces the HP of your party to 1/4 their current amount
- Flare, a strong non-elemental spell
- Protect, which raises Flame Eater's physical defenses
- Reflect, which bounces spells aimed at Flame Eater back at the party
This battle is less obvious than it looks. Flame Eater attacks rather predictably, employing a variety of Fire-based attacks to dish out some serious damage. This can get especially bad if it uses high-tier Fire magic on a single character rather than spreading it out to everyone in your party. At first wiping out Flame Eater with Ice magic seems the natural path, and it does work rather well - until Flame Eater uses Reflect on itself to send your magic back at you. You can get around this by casting Reflect on one of your own party members and bouncing magic off of them, but Flame Eater’s propensity for summoning Balloons and the occasional Grenade may send spells at them intead.
The best way to win this fight is to equip one of your fighters, probably Terra, with a Genji Glove and two Icebrands. With Terra in Trance and dual-wielding she’ll deal terrific amounts of damage to anyone she targets, and if Strago uses Aqua Breath to clear out the Balloons she’ll be targeting Flame Eater most of the time. Smack away at it until it goes down. You can also have Terra go Trance and use an Ice Rod as an item on the thing, which has a good chance of defeating Flame Eater in a single hit.
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Defeating Flame Eater triggers several cut scenes and gets the party out of the Burning Home. Strago remains with the group as you prepare for a new destination: The Esper Caves.
Part 19: Esper Caves