Golbez and Fusoya will find their Challenge Dungeon waiting for them back on the Moon after your trip into the Lunar Subterrane. The Challengingway who guards the Dungeon is waiting in the Hummingway Abode, in a cave south of the Crystal Palace.
The Lunarians’ Challenge Dungeon is a little tougher than the outside world, but you can easily carve a path through here the same way you probably did elsewhere: using Quake over and over. Don’t use your MP up too quickly, mind, as you’ll need it at the end. This Dungeon has no shtick, and is a fairly straightforward jaunt through hordes of enemies.
- Head east on the first floor. You’ll hit a split leading north and south; north is the way out. Nuthin’ here… except for an Ether at the end of a secret route, found on the left side of the northbound tunnel.
- In the next room the path splits again. Take a right to find a secret passage leading north; at the end is an Ether. Head back to the entrance and go northwest this time, then look on the right side for another secret path that will take you to an X-Potion. Loop clockwise ‘round the rest of the tunnel to find Hermes Sandals, then backtrack and use the exit in the northeast corner.
- The exit in the next room is straight north, but you can head east at this same split to find another X-Potion (south) and a Bacchus’s Wine (though a wall on your left). You need to go this way, as well, since the first exit is just a save point.
- To the north in the next area there’s a split at the top of some stairs. Go west and you’ll eventually find a Dry Ether. You can pass through the right wall by the entrance to find a loooong path south; it leads, eventually, to a Dry Ether and a Master’s Staff. Mind that the exits to other rooms look rather small when approached from the north. Head back to the north-west split and head north to find another room, at the end of it an X-Potion - and a save point. Ominous. The boss waits!
Kirin
This is a deceptive boss fight. Kirin starts out fairly tame, using a variety of rather meh spells and physically hitting both characters for low amounts of pain, but as you do damage to the thing it will start to ramp up its output significantly. Expect to see the -ga spells, Slow, Quake, and, worst by far, Holy. Holy can inflict upwards of 2,000 points of damage, and will kill if you haven’t been healing. Relegate Fusoya to restoration duties while Golbez peppers the beast with his strongest magic. Shell helps deaden the damage (so does approaching on the correct Moon Phase), and Slow will buy you more time to react and dish out pain of your own. It’s not a horrible fight - especially if you think to cast Float before it starts - but it might take a while to finish. Don’t use Holy back on this thing! You’ll heal it for a ridiculous amount!
Looking for an easier battle? Put Golbez in the front row and cast Berserk and Haste on him, along with Slow on Kirin. Golbez will maul the thing so long as Fusoya keeps his health high. This gets even easier if / when you get the Enhancement Sword listed below.
Best Kirin and the final chest will be yours for the taking. It may contain the following items:
- Diamond Armor
- Diamond Gloves
- Diamond Helm
- Diamond Shield
- Enhancement Sword
- Proof of Courage
What’s that? This seems like a sparse list? Rightly so, as this is only the first of two Challenge Dungeons. In order to access the second you must first collect the Proof of Courage. Once that’s done, you need to take it south of the Hummingway Abode, until you see a mountain range. There’s a face in the ground here, and if you enter it you’ll find Challengingway waiting. Speak to the rabbit to open the way into the Lunar Face.
Challenge Dungeon 2
- Head north in the first room until you hit a split. Head east to find a secret wall, then follow the passage within south to find an Ether. There’s an X-Potion on your left back on the main path, an Ether and a Coeurl Whisker through a secret passage to your right, and an exit straight ahead.
- There’s a Remedy straight ahead in the next room, then an X-Potion in the northwest on the main path. The exit is in the northeast; go through a secret path to the left of the exit to find a Lunar Curtain.
- There’s a three-way split in the next room. Left is a dead end; right leads to an X-Potion; straight ahead is another three-way. Left here leads to another X-Potion, as well as a Dry Ether beneath the ground to the south; right leads to a Light Curtain and a save point; straight ahead leads to stairs into the basement.
- To the left of the entrance here there’s a door leading into a hidden pathway. Follow it south to find an Ether. There’s more pathway north, as well, and it will lead you to the southeast corner of the area; you’ll have to do some fumbling to get there. (If you wind up on the middle platform in the east you took a wrong turn.) There’s a Remedy near the exit in the southeast.
- There are three doorways to the west in the next room; take the middle path north. (You can take the left path to find a Remedy, as well.) There are two more doors along the northern wall. Go through either of them and head north, then west, then south, to find an Ether. (Go through the left door for a quicker trip.) Back on the main path and to the west you can find the exit; keep going south to find a Dry Ether before heading west to the exit.
- Final room. There’s a save point in the middle and an exit on the left. Use one, ignore the other unless you’re really hurting, and travel north to fight the boss of the area.
Armstrong
This battle runs counter to everything you’ve done in this Tale thus far. Armstrong is a powerful opponent whose physical attack doesn’t do much damage, considering his size, but whose Firaga attacks are pretty powerful. He also boasts a beefy Laser Barrage attack that can hit one character for more than half their health most of the time. Sounds straightforward enough - except for the one caveat which makes this a terrible fight for your team: casting magic on Armstrong will increase his attack power. Worse, there’s no upper limit. Eventually he’ll do so much damage that he can one shot both of your characters in one round.
The solution? You don’t use magic, of course. Cast Berserk on Golbez, as well as Haste, and let him wail on Armstrong until the robot goes down. Aside from casting Protect and Shell, Fusoya shouldn’t do anything besides heal himself and Golbez. It’ll take a while, but eventually Armstrong will bite the dust. Not too hard so long as you keep on your healing rather consistently. The only caveat to the no-casting-spells-on-the-robot I’d ever advise is Slow - it’s not enough to make Armstrong really powerful, and it should allow Golbez to get in two or three attacks to every one of the boss.
Take out Armstrong and you’ll gain access to another chest, It may contain one of the following items:
- Adamantite
- Aegis Shield
- Defender
- Megalixir
- Rare Band
This is the last Challenge Dungeon, and it’s nice and short, so I suggest you take advantage of the gear you can grab. Onward to the final chapters, where everything finally comes together!