Part 9: Mt. Myrneg

Main Walkthrough

After a bad-luck meeting with Balio and Sunder Ryu finds himself locked in Wyndia's dungeon, part of a scam that was entirely not his fault. Salvation comes quickly at the hands of Nina, Wyndia's happy-go-lucky princess, though she also proves rather gullible. She'll release the horse brothers from jail, and they will promptly kidnap her. Sigh.

Check the door of Ryu's cell and try to break it down a few times to get him out of containment. Check Balio and Sunder's former cell for some Skill Ink, as well as a diary that you can use to save your game. You can't enter the rest of the castle from here, so you'd best follow Balio and Sunder and try to save Nina.

Balio and Sunder

Steal: Nothing
Drop: Nothing?
Skills: Nothing

Your second encounter with Balio and Sunder is another trick battle, though unlike the first it's winnable. The brothers will smack Ryu around just as hard as before, but they're also focused on Nina, who is unconscious nearby. If you last a few rounds against Balio and Sunder Nina will wake up and run away. Do enough damage to either of them after this point and they, too, will flee.

Realistically you do not need to win this battle, as the horse brothers will disappear after the fight either way. That said, there's a strategy that works if you have the right Skills on hand:

  • First, wake up Nina. You can either use a Panacea on her or hit her. She'll run away.
  • Next, use Influence on Sunder. Point him at Balio and brother one will spend the rest of the fight hitting brother two.
  • Use Rejuvenate or items to keep Ryu healed until Baio takes enough damage. The horse brothers will run off and the battle will end.
Do not turn into a dragon if you're using Influence, as it will break and Sunder will go back to attacking Ryu. 

(Note that, according to an old strategy guide, you get a Broad Sword and some Asbestos Armor for winning this battle. I have no idea if this is the case or not, but as far as I can tell you usually don't get anything besides XP for driving Balio and Sunder away.)

Win or lose, Nina will thank Ryu for his help after the fight. She'll then join the party. Nina is heavily weighted towards speed and offensive spells, and can't take a ton of abuse before she collapses. Be sure to keep her healed. (Particularly since she starts off at level 5.) Ryu will also gain a very important ability thanks to this battle.

Accession

Once Ryu has fought Balio and Sunder a second time he'll gain the Accession Ability. Accession is, as you may have discovered, the power of the Brood, and it allows Ryu to transform into a dragon in battle. At the moment Ryu can only change into a Flame Whelp, though as he progresses through Breath of Fire III Ryu can unlock many more forms. (And for now, being a Whelp still puts Ryu heads and tails above most of his opponents.)

Accession's transformations are governed by Genes. When you use Accession you can choose up to three Genes, and the combination you choose will determine Ryu's form, elemental strengths / weaknesses, abilities, and AP usage. For the moment you only have the Flame Gene, though storyline events and the discovery of specific chrysm shards will grant you additional Genes. Experimentation with Gene combinations can make Ryu a one-man wrecking crew.

A few extra notes regarding Accession:

  • Transforming into a dragon and staying transformed expends AP each turn. As a rule of thumb, the more powerful the form, the more AP it will use up each turn. If Ryu runs out of AP he'll turn back into a human.
  • Human Ryu and dragon Ryu have separate HP totals. If Ryu as a dragon runs out of health as a dragon he'll just turn back into a human, and can continue to fight. This makes Accession a handy skill for staving off imminent death in certain situations.
  • Some dragon forms are enormous, and will effectively engulf the whole party. If this happens any damage the dragon incurs will not be reflected on the rest of the party.
  • Ryu can't use items or Examine enemies while in dragon form.
Accession is a powerful tool once you get used to combining Genes properly, and even now it can help Ryu and Nina breeze through the next area. It is nevertheless quite expensive, so try to use Accession sparingly if Ryu doesn't have a ton of AP.


Wyndia Catacombs

Monsters
  • Ghoul - Steal Leather Armor, Drop High Boots
  • Nut Mage - Steal Molotov, Drop Berries / Molotov
  • NutTroop - Steal Berries, Drop Broad Sword, Learn Double Blow
  • Thunder - Steal Taser
  • Volt - Steal Taser, Learn Charge
  • Zombie - Steal Clothing, Drop Bracers
First thing's first: Deal with Nina. She's rather vulnerable as you explore the catacombs, and will get knocked out if you're not careful. Check your inventory to see if you have anything she can equip, then either choose the Attack Formation and put Nina in the second slot or choose the Defense Formation. Either way, Nina will be a little more protected from attacks. She has a Soul Gem that will revive her if Nina gets knocked out, though this only works once (and is useful enough that you don't want to break it down here).


Before you start fiddling with the mechanics of the dungeon, have a quick look around. If you check the far south you'll find a chest containing a Panacea.

This little dungeon can be surprisingly annoying if you don't know what you're doing. The Wyndia Catacombs consist largely of an open, dirt-filled area with a number of large gravestones. There are eight of interest to you: 
  • Four of the gravestones are in the northeast, by the stairs into the area
  • The fifth is to the southwest of the first four
  • The sixth is down a ledge to the southwest of the fifth
  • The seventh (and another that's important to leaving the area) is up a hill near the fifth
The buttons on the gravestones serve two purposes.


If you press the green buttons on the graves you'll open a path to treasure. Trigger all of the gravestones, then head west of the entry stairs. You'll find a stone bridge leading southwest to a large, onyx monument. If you press the button on this monument after triggering the green buttons on the other seven gravestones it will dump you below, to a chest containing a Light Bangle.

The green words are as follows:

  • Above
  • Outside
  • That
  • Secrets
  • You
  • Green
  • Here

If you push the red button on any of the gravestones you'll be dumped into a belowground area filled with furnaces. Drop down using any of the gravestones and you'll be forced to use a ladder in the north of the underground to return to the upper level. At the top of this ladder you'll find a chest containing a Glass Domino. It's a good idea to put this on Nina to boost her defenses. 


In the south of the catacombs, just beyond the seventh tombstone, is a final tombstone that doesn't have colored buttons - though it does still have buttons. In order to trigger its secret you need to enter the proper combination of button presses, based on the red buttons you (probably didn't) touch earlier. The buttons you need to press are as follows:
  • Red
  • Climbing
  • I
  • Is
  • Look
  • Beneath
  • This
Do this and the kids will be dropped into another, smaller furnace room. Walk a short ways southwest of where they land to fall into another hole, which will drop them into Wyndia's royal crypt. Congrats, you've made it out... almost. Once Nina is done speaking to Ryu, check the second large tombstone to the west to find a chest containing a Wisdom Fruit. Then head southwest and you'll find the path out of the dark and into Wyndia.

Main Walkthrough