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Lunar Subterrane
- Before making for the final dungeon, stock up on restorative items. You’ll want Cottages, Hi-Potions, Ethers, and if you can afford them, a few Remedies. This place is quite long, with the strongest monsters you’ve ever fought, and there are no merchants waiting within.
- Head to the moon and make the trip to the Crystal Palace. Save up once there, heal if you need, then enter the crystal chamber behind FuSoYa’s throne. The tile in the very middle of the room will shuttle you down to Lunar Subterrane.
- The Lunar Subterrane has some hefty beasts, though at first they’re not much different from the enemies you’d encounter in the Cave of Bahamut. Not too much trouble; stick to neutral attacks.
- B1. Start by checking the wall to the right of the teleport spot. You’ll find a secret path leading north, then sweeping around to the west. At the end is a chest containing two Giant Warriors; they’ll drop a Black Garb. Move back to the beginning, then pass through the wall on the left. It’ll take you to a teleporter. There’s a chest on this path; it contains a monster battle and a Sage’s Staff.
- Continue to the next teleporter to the west. South is a doorway to a small chamber containing a floating sword. To claim it you must destroy a boss-level creature.
White Dragon
The White Dragon uses powerful physical attacks, a devastating attack called Maelstrom that will probably kill one character (though is rarely used), Slow to counter physical attacks, and Earthquake to counter magic attacks that do not heal it - namely, anything non-elemental. Stick to strong, neutral summons such as Bahamut, as well as physical commands like Jump or simple Attack, to take it down. You’ll receive a Murasame for beating the White Dragon.
- This is a dead end, so make your way back / Teleport to the beginning. Head south to the next set of stairs.
- B2. Head east and through a secret wall, then north. To the right up this hidden corridor is a Fire Whip. (You need to loop around behind the chest to reach it.) To the far north and then east you’ll find a Dragon Shield beside a set of stairs.
- B3. East and west are useless, so head south, past the next set of stairs. There’s a fake wall on your right that leads to a Dragon Helm, and another fake wall on the next right leading to Dragon Mail and Dragon Gloves. Backtrack and go down the stairs.
- B4. You’ll run into some new enemies here, but they’re still not too bad. Head east past the first set of stairs to find an Artemis Arrow, then backtrack and head south down the stairs. Take a left and you’ll find a small chamber containing an Elixir, then go right from the stairs and down another set. There’s a branching chamber in the next cave. To the northeast is a White Fang, and a short trip west of the exit is an X-Potion. The final chest near the exit of B4 contains a Stardust Rod, though you’ll have to fight a Behemoth to get it.
- B5. The enemies down here get a fair bit stronger, and you may want to flee battles ’til you find a save point. The Red and Blue Dragons are your worst opponents here; use ice magic to bring down the Red Dragons and neutral magic / physical attacks to defeat the Blue Dragons. You can berserk them to stop both types of Dragons from using their special attacks, which is highly advised. If you get lucky a Red Dragon will drop a Wyvern Lance, a weapon that will help Kain kill dragons in general more easily.
- Head south down the stairs and check the chest near the cave on your left. It contains a Red Dragon and a Blue Dragon. Take out the Red Dragon first with Blizzaga, then chip away at the Blue Dragon. They leave behind a Crystal Shield.
- Enter the cave. There’s a secret path to the north, and through it a chest containing a Protect Ring. Continue through the next wall on the right and you’ll find a small room with exits to the north and south. The southern exit leads to a chest containing a Behemoth; it’ll drop Crystal Mail. The northern exit leads out to a ledge; check to the right of the cave for a chest. It contains two Red Dragons that are guarding Crystal Gloves.
- Head west and into the next cave. There’s a chest in here containing a White Robe. Out the back of this cave you’ll find a set of stairs leading south. Check to the west for a chest containing an easy battle and a Crystal Helm, check the cave next to the stairs for a Red Fang, and then go down the stairs.
- B6. If you haven’t jumped ahead already, this is a good time to find the nearest save point, which is a straight path from the entrance down to a horizontal line of caves. It’s in the first cave. Jumping back to the beginning, check the chests to the left and right of the entrance for an Artemis Arrow and a Fuma Shuriken.
- Take the left staircase to the south to find a Cottage. Next, head up and to the left. You can walk across a gap in the ground to reach the island on the left. Wander up to the northwest wall and you can enter it and walk south, down to a chest containing a Golden Apple. Continue to the east and you’ll find a line of teleporters. Along the way from teleporter to teleporter you’ll come to a chest containing a Behemoth and a Protect Ring, and at the end you’ll find another save point. Beyond is a sword on a pedestal; approaching it will get you into a boss fight.
Dark Bahamut
This is one of the most difficult battles in the Lunar Subterrane. Dark Bahamut starts out like the normal Bahamut by using Mega Flare, no countdown included, and he’ll almost certainly kill three or four of your party members. After that it will cast Reflect on itself, refreshing as necessary, and then bounce Flare off of itself and at you. Use a summon to attack at any time and Dark Bahamut will counter with Mega Flare. In short, you need to use physical attacks for the majority of this fight. Heal your team back up to full with Rosa’s Curaja, then go on the offensive and beat Dark Bahamut down with your strongest attacks. This is a good time to use Throw items on Edge, as well as Kain’s Jump. Rydia can use Quake if everyone gets Float cast on them first. You can’t do anything special here, really - just keep picking away at the beast ’til it dies. Dark Bahamut drops Ragnarok upon defeat, Cecil’s most powerful weapon in the original game.
- Backtrack to the beginning of B6 and take the right path. It leads to a cave with a chest, inside which you’ll battle some meh enemies for a Minerva’s Plate. Past here is the cave with the save point, as well as two more caves. Make sure you save before taking them on - they’ve got some tricky enemies.
- B7. The second cave from the left contains a creature called Plague. It will create a doom countdown on all characters. When it reaches zero, you’re all dead. Use your most powerful attacks - the Bahamut summon is a great choice - to quickly take it down. You can also trick your way through by killing one character and bringing them back before the ticker drops to zero, as they won’t be affected by it twice. The Plague will leave a Holy Lance behind, one of Kain’s most powerful weapons.
- In the next room over you’ll be confronted by a pair of Lunasaurs. Though they look tough, these creatures aren’t too bad so long as you don’t try and go after them with magic, which they’ll typically reflect back. Holy weapons will do a number on them, particularly the Ragnarok you may have found earlier. It shreds these things. Beyond you’ll find two Ribbons.
- Save, then keep following the eastern path until it leads you to a doorway. Let me stress this: save. The game’s about to become very, very dangerous.
- The final area of Lunar Subterrane is populated by a slew of new enemies. They are all fantastically tough, most of them on par with boss battles, and if you’re trying to get to the final boss I recommend running or Teleporting out of battle pretty much every time you get in a fight. The struggle just isn’t worth the rewards.
- Take a right from the entrance and follow the path west past the stairs. At the far end you’ll find a Fuma Shuriken. Head south down the next staircase, then look to your right. The stairs out of here are nearby; south of them is another floating weapon that you can fight an enemy to claim.
Ogopogo
The dark reflection of Leviathan, Ogopogo utilizes a familiar Deluge attack to do most of its damage. Besides that it can instantly reduce one character to extremely low HP, and an ice blast that is moderately powerful. Aside from the occasional double hit of Deluge, which it does right at the beginning of the fight, Ogopogo is kind of underwhelming compared to many of the other opponents in the Lunar Subterrane. Use your strongest attacks to take it down. You’ll receive the Masamune for defeating Ogopogo.
- Head down the stairs and into another area. Go south down another set of stairs, then go right. There’s an Elixir near yet more stairs. Wander south, then west, then south again, then east. On the way to a teleporting pad you’ll find a chest containing a Gysahl Whistle.
- Follow the stairways. There are two chests in this next area, one containing a Fuma Shuriken, the other… a Fuma Shuriken. Sounds good. Make your way southeast and you’ll find a teleportation pad.
- One final area. This place is populated by enemies named specifically after their master. They’re not terribly difficult, and net a nice amount of experience. This is, weirdly, a good place to level. There’s no save point, though, so you’ll need to do some walking to get here… and if you step on the teleportation pad in the bottom-left corner of the area, you’ll come to the final room of the Lunar Subterrane. Gear up, folks, ‘cause you have one hefty battle coming once you wade through all the cut scenes.
Zeromus
First thing’s first: use the Crystal you were just given. This will turn Zeromus from this…
… into this. Now we have a final boss. You can’t hurt Zeromus until he changes forms, so don’t waste your attacks. (Though you can buff yourself, if you like. Not much point, though - you’ll see why soon.) Cecil will have to do the honours with the Crystal.
Zeromus is a brutal opponent. Ignoring physical attacks entirely, Zeromus uses magic to brutalize your team. His signature attack - and deadliest by far - is Big Bang, which hits everyone in your party for over 2,000 HP of damage (though Rosa and Rydia typically take less). Zeromus uses this more often than any other attack. He also pulls out high-power magic like Bio and Flare, the latter of which will probably kill a character in one hit, and occasionally uses Black Hole to nullify any boosting effects you’ve cast on your party. Nuts. When the battle is reaching its end Zeromus will swap to Meteor, which, despite its mythic status in the game, is not nearly as dangerous in this battle.
The outcome of this battle hinges on having a strong healer, in this case Rosa. She needs to be using Curaja constantly if you want to survive the effects of Big Bang. Kain can escape it with judicious use of Jump, but everyone else will just have to bear the brunt of the attack. In the meantime your other characters should batter Zeromus with, y’know, their strongest attacks. Cecil attacks; Kain jumps; Edge Throws; Rydia Summons, preferably Bahamut, or uses high-power magic. You’ll quickly hit a pattern of healing and attacking, and depending on your level you’ll also learn which characters never survive Big Bang. It’s not worth it to bring these guys back - just work with what you have left. It’ll take a while, but Zeromus is very much beatable.
Congratulations! You have presumably defeated Zeromus, which brings Final Fantasy IV to an end. You’re now treated to the end credits, and if you’re playing the SNES or PSX versions, this really is the end of the game. If you’re playing on the GBA or the PSP, however, you have a looooot more stuff to see.
Part Twenty: Cave of Trials