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Finishing Up
The end is night. Taking to the sky after the debacle in Thamasa, the Floating Continent is the last dungeon in Final Fantasy VI’s first half. Completing it radically changes the face of the game, and many of your options will disappear - either temporarily or permanently. Here are a few things you may want to do before you ascend to the Floating Continent:
- If you haven’t already recruited him, now’s the time to grab Mog. This article will help you find him in Narshe. Do so now if you’re playing the Super Nintendo version of Final Fantasy VI, as you’ll lose your only chance to get one of his Dances once you move past the game’s halfway point.
- Assuming you gained this boon from Gestahl, visit Doma Castle. Check Cyan’s room for an X-Potion and a storeroom on the ramparts for a Phoenix Down and Prayer Beads. If you didn’t open the castle already you can enter later, though you won’t get in for quite a while.
- If you unlocked the Imperial Observation Post east of Albrook but didn’t already snag its treasures, get them now. It’ll all disappear forever if you don’t.
- To the far northeast, mentioned in a previous article, is a triangular island that’s home to a beast called the Intangir. It is fiendishly powerful, as it’s naturally invisible and will retort will a painful Meteor attack against your whole party if disturbed. SNES and PSX players can kill Intangirs without too much trouble by using a Doom while it’s invisible attack to kill it instantly, but later editions of Final Fantasy VI remove this vulnerability and force you to just kill the thing with powerful magic. Not fun, as the Intangir is easily the strongest monster at this point in the game. Fortunately, you can get it on the Veldt just by running into one, allowing you to put the rest off until later in the game.
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- The Auction House in Jidoor is now open. You can go here and bid on a variety of items. All are good… except when they’re useless… but two in particular you should probably pick up now: The Golem (20,000 gil) and the Zona Seeker (10,000 gil) Magicite shards. You can get them later, but they’re quite handy now.
- Get Celes some levels. She rejoins the party at this point, and plays a minor role on the Floating Continnent, whether you put her in your main party or not. She's also extremely important after you're done with the Floating Continent, and you should get her up to level 25+ so she's not struggling to survive.
Landing on the Floating Continent - Enemies
After the Floating Continent rises you’ll gain an extra option when approaching the wheel of the Blackjack to land on the thing. Be ready before you make this choice, as you’ll be forced to get most of the way through an expansive dungeon to leave again - and on your first visit, you’ll have to face the Imperial Air Force... with a party of only three members. (Why? You’ll find out soon.)
The IAF consists of two types of enemies, Sky Armors and Spitfires, which aren’t that different from one another. Pull out your Lightning attacks and they won’t last that long. Destroy enough of these things (you have a bit of time between battles to heal) and a familiar face will show up for one final battle.
Ultros…
HP: 17,000
Weakness: Fire, Poison
Awww, c’mon, man. He’s back again. Ultros is at his easiest here, using basic attacks (Tentacle and Ink) to dish out some rather petty amounts of damage. He’s not that bad at all on his own…
… and Typhon
HP: 10,000
Weakness: Ice, Water
Absorbs: Fire
… until you dish out a decent amount of damage, at which point Ultros brings in his buddy Typhon. Typhon doesn’t add a whole lot to the fight, and the only thing to really keep in mind is that, unlike Ultros, he absorbs Fire. Beat Typhon down and the fight will end as you’re blown off the side of the airship. (You can kill Ultros if you want, but it’s really not necessary.)
Air Force
HP:
- 8,000 (Air Force)
- 3,300 (Laser Gun)
- 3,000 (Missile Bay)
Weakness: Lightning, Water (all)
Drop: Princess Ring (Air Force)
Steal:
- Elixir (Air Force)
- X-Ether (Laser Gun)
- Debilitator (Missile Bay)
Consisting of three pieces - Air Force, Missile Bay, and Laser Gun - Air Force is the real boss of this section. It uses the following attacks:
- Normal melee attacks
- Magitek Laser, a single-target magic attack (Air Force, Laser Gun)
- Diffractive Laser, a Lightning attack against your whole party (Air Force, Laser Gun)
- Wave Cannon, a stronger Lightning attack against your whole party (Air Force)
- Missile, which reduces a single target's HP by 3/4 and inflicts Sap (Missile Bay)
- Launcher, unleashing eight missiles that halve HP with each hit on random targets (Missile Bay)
All three parts will assault your team, though Air Force itself doesn’t really get into the fun until you destroy the other two pieces. The Missile Bay loves to use Launcher to painfully stunt your whole party’s health, so it’s wise to demolish it first with Lightning-based attacks. The Laser Gun is not as bad and can be ignored if you like, though only if you have a half-decent healer on your team, probably with Cura.
If Air Force is left on its own it will launch a Bit, a small enemy that absorbs all magical attacks until it’s destroyed. If magic is your primary weapon, ignore the Laser Gun altogether. Otherwise you’ll get a short reprieve while Air Force charges up its Wave Cannon attack, which, preferably, you don’t want to land.
You’ll receive a Princess Ring for destroying the Air Force. If you Steal from the Missle Bay you have a chance of getting a Debilitator, a Tool for Edgar that's not otherwise available for a little while.
The Floating Continent - Enemies
Upon landing on the Floating Continent you’ll wind up beside a save point. Use it, then check out the fallen body that's laying nearby. Shadow! You now have a fourth person for your party, and you should reequip his items. Every time you make the trip across the Floating Continent you'll have to take Shadow along, and if you decide to leave he'll remain on the Floating Continent.
The enemies up here are quite tough, and you’ll have to pull out your strongest attacks to survive the trip. Second-tier magic and special moves are highly recommended, since quite a few enemies - notably Behemoths - counter normal physical hits. The Floating Continent is fantastic spot for learning Lores for Strago, particularly from the Apocryphas. Locke can also Steal a bunch of useful items:
- Apocrypha - Angel Ring
- Behemoth - Hermes Sandals
- Brainpan - Earrings
- Dragon - Genji Glove
- Misfit - Alarm Earring
- Platinum Dragon - Dragoon Boots
Suffice it to say that you may not want to complete the Floating Continent on your first trip. Once you defeat the boss and go through the story events you won't get a second chance to come back.
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Head east of the entrance. You’ll quickly learn that you can touch certain walls and make them recede, revealing paths. Past the first of these, which you're forced to touch, you’ll see a blue orb in the north. Investigate it to reveal a Murasame. This is what treasure chests look like on the Floating Continent, not that you'll see a whole lot of them.
Next to the treasure orb is a strange platform that you can move through the wall to reach. Before you do, however, check the walls on the far right to find a different hidden path leading to another blue sphere. It contains a fight with a one-of-a-kind monster, the Gigantos, which is basically a miniboss. The Gigantos can inflict ridiculous amounts of physical damage and should be killed very quickly. Making your characters Vanish will really help in this battle. Killing it earns you a Sasuke.
Step onto the platform you passed earlier to jump to a different section of the island. Head south and take a right to find a switch that will extend a path to the east. Follow the path southeast until you hit another transporter. It will jump you to a pair of two more transporters. Take the left one to reach two switches, one in the north and one in the south. Hit both, then take the westbound route until you reach an earlier path. Wander all the way south, then head east.
To the far east is a transporter along the south of the island that leads to a save point. Hop back onto the surface from here and head all the way east to find a Beret, then wander back west to find a switch. It reveals another nearby transporter. This one leads to a spot where you can leap back to the Blackjack. Doing so will force you to redo the dungeon, including all of the switches, and remove Shadow from the party. Fortunately, you will not have to redo the battle against the Imperial Air Force.
Eventually you’ll have to carry onward, to the north. The final serious boss of the first half of Final Fantasy VI is waiting.
Ultima Weapon
HP: 24,000
Drop: Elixir
Steal: Elixir / Ribbon
Nope, not the sword. The largest enemy you've fought to date, Ultima Weapon is a fitting final boss for the Floating Continent. It uses the following attacks:
- Normal melee attacks
- Full Power, a stronger physical attack
- Fire / Blaze / Flare Star, Fire-elemental spells
- Bio, a Poison spell
- Tornado, a Wind spell against your whole party
- Quake, an Earth spell against your whole party
- Meteor, a non-elemental spell against your whole party
- Graviga, a Gravity spell that reduces everyone's HP to 3/4 of their total
- Mind Blast, which inflicts random status ailments on four random targets
- Rasp, which reduces the MP of a single target
Ultima Weapon is quite a hefty boss, but it’s not as difficult as it looks. This massive creature employs a slew of teamwide, destructive spells, the most troublesome of the lot typically being Quake. If you have a team equipped with Gaia Gears this is no problem, as Quake will simply heal you; otherwise, cast Float on your teammates to prevent the effects. Dish out enough damage and Ultima Weapon will begin employing status attacks, quickly followed by a painful all-hitting attack called Flare Star that shares out damage between your characters... and hurts a lot more if you have fewer than four conscious characters on your team.
Bolster your magic defense or bring along magically-defensive characters - Terra and Celes jump to mind - then pound away at the beast. Any second tier spell, as well as special attacks, work well against Ultima Weapon. If you have any items of particular strength (Thrown weapons or Rods), save them for the second half of the battle, as Ultima Weapon isn’t nearly as bad an opponent before it pulls out Flare Star and its more powerful elemental attacks. Always have someone ready to heal, as Ultima’s Graviga attack can prove fatal if the next spell hits your whole party.
Shadow leaves your party again after you destroy Ultima Weapon. Continue north and you’ll hit a lengthy cut scene, wherein Celes takes Shadow’s place (assuming she wasn’t already in the party). After it’s done...
Escaping the Floating Continent - Enemies
... run! You have six minutes to get off the Floating Continent before it crashes to the ground. Don’t worry, this is pretty easy. Along the way you’ll fight Naudes, and the only thing to note about them is that you shouldn't use Ice attacks.
The path through here is pretty simple, leading steadily east. The only caveat is the blue sphere you’ll see along the way. Don’t take the direct path to get to the orb. Instead, go around the hole in the ground to the south of the orb, and instead come at it from the right side. It contains an Elixir. If you try to take the direct route you'll be prevented from getting the Elixir.
At the end of the course is a creature called the Nelapa. More a nuisance than a real threat, Nelapa inflicts Doom status on the whole party, triggering a countdown timer. Smack it around with your strongest attacks until it dies. Don't use magic, as Nelapa automatically has Reflect status, bouncing any spells back at you and wasting precious time.
Past the Nelapa is the jump point off of the Floating Continent, and though your first instinct is to jump, you should wait. Approach this jump point twice without jumping and you’ll see that you’re waiting around for Shadow. Let time whittle down to nothing while standing here and he’ll show up, guaranteeing his inclusion as a recruitable character in the second half of Final Fantasy VI. Fail to wait for Shadow, though, and he’ll perish on the Floating Continent. You’ll never see him again. A ninja is better than no ninja at all, so, c’mon. Wait for the guy.
Once you flee the Floating Continent... well. Things are about to change, and not for the better.