The Legend of Legacy Walkthrough, Part 29: Shifting Sands, Desert Hollow

Part 28: Bottomless Pit - Lower Stratum, Lair of Shadows

Main Walkthrough

Prerequisites

The easiest way to find Shifting Sands is to head to Seaside Ruins. On the left side of the entrance is a dead end stretch of path; walk to the end of it to unlock the desert. You can also find NPCs in other, later maps that can point the way to Shifting Sands, assuming you’ve sold the maps for those areas. I found NPCs who mentioned Shifting Sands in Great Crag, the Tabletop Mountains, and Bogsaur Swamp.

Shifting Sands - Desert Entrance - Enemies

• Blazing Whelp
• Death's Reaper
• Dragonkin Fiend
• Dragonkin Guard
• Elite Wasp
• Fey Wyvern
• Fire Whelp
• Poison Wyvern
• Sunbrushed Whelp
• Thunder Whelp
• Wandering Soul

The first thing to note about this area is your utter inability to chart the place. You’re never going to get a map, so hopefully you can navigate without. Shrug? You’ll also wind up facing a new bunch of baddies when you arrive:

• Fey Wyverns. Though not especially difficult on their own, Fey Wyverns are painful because they tend to appear in large groups. AOE attacks are recommended when hitting one of these mobs. Unless you’re really confident in your speed, make sure somebody defends!
• Poison Wyverns. Thought Fey Wyverns were annoying? Their rarer counterparts hit twice a turn and can Poison your characters. They also tend to appear with large groups of Fey Wyverns. Multi-target attacks are highly recommended.
• Dragonkin Guards. You know all those Lizardmen you’ve fought before? Yep. Not much different. They like to Stun your characters more often than other Lizardmen, which can get rather annoying. There are also Dragonkin Fiends that work in more or less the same way.
• Sunbrushed Whelps. They're so similar to Flame Whelps that you might not even notice the difference - at least not until they keep using breath attacks over and over to batter your team. Steal away Fire elementals to negate some of their power.

Much of this area consists of open terrain and enemies, and there’s not a whole lot to see. Head northeast from the entrance and you can find an oasis; on the right side of it you may find a Chest. Otherwise, all you can really find here is the exit in the north.

Shifting Sands - In the Desert…

From this point the desert opens up substantially, and there are exits on every side of the map. Every map is also now named ‘In the Desert…’, meaning you can’t use map names to navigate, and if you keep travelling in the same direction for long enough you’ll start to loop between maps. Oh, and there are also sink holes, and if you stray into one you’ll probably wind up on a different map, and completely lost. Also, because that isn’t enough, you’ll see mirages here and there - and looking at some of them will zip you to other areas entirely, and out of the desert. 

Which area you’ll hit each time changes, as Shifting Sands is almost entirely random. Expect to find three different screens with the following:

• An area with an oasis in the middle and an ancient device to one side. Activate it to turn the water to ice. Cross to the middle of the oasis to find a singing stone. Its Whispering Shard teaches the Phoenix’s Grace charm. There’s another ancient device on the right side of this oasis that brings Fire elementals into the area, if you feel like activating it.
• A flat, largely featureless area with a large rock in the middle. There’s an ancient device of Air in the southeast, and lots of holes.
• Another flat, largely featureless area - though this one has two ancient devices, one in the east, one in the west. The western one brings air elementals, and activating it will uncover a singing stone in the southwest corner of the map. The Whispering Shard it bestows teaches the Berserker Rage charm.

You’ll also occasionally get shunted back to the Desert Entrance. 

Desert Hollow - Enemies

• Death's Reaper
• Demoncat
• Elite Wasp
• Lamia Spearmaiden
• Poison Wyvern
• Raging Mantis
• Runefox Fanatic
• Timber Troll
• Trogg Mercenary
• Trogg Totemic
• Wraithfang

While exploring, as noted above, you’ll occasionally come across mirages. Interacting with some of these will have no effect, while others will shunt you to maps you’ve already visited, such as Forest Ruins, Ship Graveyard, Bottomless Pit, and so forth. Every now and then, though, you’ll come across multiple mirages that lead to other places. These are the Desert Hollow locations, and they represent the primary draw for coming here.

Despite their proximity to Shifting Sands, the enemies of Desert Hollow are significantly harder, some of the most difficult in the game. You shouldn't mess around in the Oases of this area until you're at end game levels of power, with most - if not all - charms under your belt. (That said, this is a good place to grind - but Quick Save often.)

One other thing to note. Desert Hollow is technically its own map, so if you run from a battle you’ll reappear at the beginning of that section of Desert Hollow. If you leave altogether, though, you’ll have to go looking for Desert Hollow again, as it doesn’t appear independent of Shifting Sands.

(Can’t find these mirages? I found hopping into sinkholes to be the best way to make them appear. That said, making them show up still appears to be random, so you just need to keep exploring until you find one.)

Desert Hollow - Secret Oasis

This area appears as a mirage with a rainbow in one corner of a grassy glade. The enemies here are different from other parts of Shifting Sands:

• Lamia Spearmaidens. These things are similar to other Stickbugs, but they use Fire charms if given the chance. Steal Fire elementals away from them at your first opportunity to avoid being hit by Inferno.
• Lamia Gypsies. You'll probably run into these things against the Lamia Queen, noted below. They're near identical to their Spearmaiden kin, though they have more health and can confuse you with Gaze. Gaze alone is annoying enough to make them viable first targets.
• Timber Trolls. Hefty hulks with physical skills. Not much you can do against ‘em besides defend and wipe them out with your best attacks.
• Dragonkin Fiends. Though largely identical to Dragonkin Guards, Fiends are a bit stronger - and they have a Fire attack that can slag a single character rather quickly. Steal Fire elementals away from them to deaden this attack.
• Avalanche Trolls. Basically upgraded versions of Timber Trolls, but they have an extra AOE attack called Earthquake that can demolish your team. 

The area’s large, but there’s not a lot to see. Move around the oasis to the north or the south. You’ll probably find lots of Sparkles on your way to the west side of the water, where you’ll find a stretch of land leading towards the middle of the water. Be careful approaching it, as a huuuuuge enemy will appear, one that's way too easy to blunder into. Boss!



Lamia Queen

The Lamia Queen on its own is not that big a deal, as she's an upgraded Lamia Fill-in-the-Blank enemy who can use two attacks, including the annoying Gaze attack, which confuses one character. What's more difficult is the horde of meanies accompanying her. You should take immediate measures to steal elements, throw up a Shield, defend your characters, and then wipe out the opposition with AOE attacks.

Ideally you'll have two characters you can kill at least a few members of the opposition during the first round. Once you've slaughtered a few, the rest aren't that big a deal, mainly because the lot of them seem to like spamming Fire charms. Prevent that from happening - and deaden the effects of physical attacks by abusing Air elemental Contracts - and the fight's a breeze.

Defeating the Lamia Queen opens a path to a singing stone. This one gives you the Whispering Shard of... uh... something? (Does anybody know? I'm really tired of the game doing this to me.)

Desert Hollow - Sandstone Chamber

This mirage appears as rocky terrain with what appear to be termite mounds. The Sandstone Chamber has a new enemy:

• Raging Mantises. Similar to Armored Stalkers from the Summit of the Gods, but with more emphasis on physical attacks. Put up a strong defense and turn their attacks back on them.

Your destination here is south of your starting point, but you need to move roughly clockwise around the area to get there. You'll know you're in the right spot when you see a huge insect enemy to the west, down on lower ground. Approach it to trigger the area's boss battle.

Royal Mantis

An upgraded version of the Raging Mantises in this area, the Royal Mantis is accompanied by a squad of Elite and Crimson Wasps, making it a solid threat. The Royal Mantis exclusively uses the Devour attack, twice per round, while the Wasps attack and use Poison Cloud to inflict Poison status on your characters.

This battle is quite straightforward. Most of the attacks flying your way are physical, so put your tank on the front lines and use multi-target attacks to wipe out the Wasps. Once they're gone you can use more concentrated attacks to wipe out the Royal Mantis. Any defensive Art will prevent the Royal Mantis from harming your party members.

Defeating the Royal Mantis grants you access to a singing stone, which contains the Whispering Shard for Windsweep. That's all for this section of the Desert Hollow.

Desert Hollow - Lonely Grotto

This mirage appears as a dull-grey cavern. You'll run into the following new enemies in this area:

• Runefox Maguses. These are more powerful versions of their other Runefox brethren. They all like to use Fire charms, making it nigh-pointless to try and use them yourself.
• Trogg Mercenaries. Arguably the most dangerous enemies in the Desert Hollow areas, they use powerful Explosives to damage your characters - and can wipe your party out completely if there's more than one. You may want to run if you meet one.
• Trogg Totemics. Stronger versions of Trogg Mercenaries, mercifully rare.
• Wraithfangs. These creatures lower your party's defenses and then inflict massive amounts of damage with their physical attacks. Shields help, but ultimately you should wipe out Wraithfangs before they can attack.

The Lonely Grotto is quite straightforward. All you have to do to reach the end is move clockwise from the entrance, fighting or avoiding enemies, until you come to a narrowed pathway with a huge, humanoid enemy. This is the area's boss.

Trogg Totemic

This battle is less a boss battle and more a very dangerous normal battle. There are two different types of enemies:

• The Trogg Mercenaries and Trogg Totemics use Explosives to quickly chip away at your party's HP.
• Other assorted enemies - Lunar Envoys, Whelps, Wyverns, etc. These enemies are randomized.

Key to this battle is wiping out the Trogg Mercenaries as quickly as possible. If given a chance they can use Explosives to wipe your whole team. Spend the first turn on multi-target attacks that will rip through their HP. With the Mercenaries gone you can slowly wipe out the other attackers. Given that the party composition of the enemy is random, you may want to Quick Save next to the boss and reload if you don't like the enemies you wind up fighting.

Wipe out this group of enemies and you'll find one final section of cave to the west. There's a singing stone over here with a Whispering Shard that teaches Sunlight Veil.

Desert Hollow - Secret Oasis

This mirage appears as a green landscape with a rainbow on one side. There aren't any enemies around the Desert Hollow that you haven't seen before, but the mixtures of foes are quite potent here, making this one of the most dangerous areas in The Legend of Legacy. On the plus side, it is quite short.

The Secret Oasis is a large pool of water, and you need to travel along the north or south side, over to the west end. Here you'll find a path extending into the middle of the oasis, guarded by a boss battle.

Lamia Spearmaiden

The boss of the Secret Oasis, the Lamia Spearmaiden is, like most monsters in Desert Hollow, less dangerous than the group of accompanying monsters. You'll likely face the following:

• The Lamia itself, which can jab your party members and inflict Confusion
• Other Lamias, which also inflict Confusion
• Runefox Fanatics and Runefox Maguses, which steal the elements and use status-inducing Charms to bedevil your party
• Dragonkin, which attack physically, inflict Stun, and can use Scorch (but usually won't)

As with other boss battles in Desert Hollow, you should Quick Save before tackling this fight. If you're fighting a heap of melee enemies it'll be easy; if you're fighting Runefox enemies you'll be hit by constant status ailments, making the battle a nightmare. Reload until you run into a favorable combination of monsters.

Clear out the Lamia Gypsy and you'll find a singing stone on the other side. It grants you a Whispering Shard for Renew.

Desert Hollow - Kitty Clan’s Grove

This mirage appears as a large tree in the middle of a grassy clearing. There’s... nothing here, really, besides a clan of the cats that appear when you save your game.

Part Thirty: Summit of the Gods - First Stage to Ninth Stage

Main Walkthrough