Part 12: Genmel and Mt. Boumore
Tower
Monsters
- Armor Bot - Steal Breast Plate, Drop Marbles, Learn Charge
- Berserker - Steal Cuirass, Drop Vodka Shot, Learn Blitz
- Gonger - Steal MultiVitamin, Drop Life Shard
- Ice Toad - Steal Life Shard, Drop Soul Gem
- Lizard - Steal Panacea, Learn Blind
- Orc - Steal Bronze Shield, Drop Titan Belt, Learn Last Resort
- ProtoBot - Steal Cuirass, Drop Marbles
Ryu and Nina continue their flight from Balio and Sunder, heading north towards Wyndia. Along the way they've discovered a tall building known only as Tower, and since it's right in their path you don't have much choice but to check it out.
Exterior
Northeast of the entrance to the Tower you'll come across a Manillo merchant. He's the only guy hereabouts who will sell you anything, and past a certain point you can't get at him without completing the Tower, so buy anything you want or need now. Some Vitamins and an Ammonia or two couldn't hurt.
If you explore the grounds you'll find a watery channel surrounded in crystals, a chest in the water that you can't reach, a traveler near the water, and, in a little niche along the northwest end of the Tower's facade, a robot. The robot will teach you about elemental weaknesses, which will come in handy as you trek through the Tower. Look behind a solitary tree on the upper-east side of the grounds for a hidden Silver Knife, which is... probably past the point of being useful.
To progress into the Tower you need to enter the door in the northeast of the area. If you want a little bit of side treasure, however, you should check the two doorways beside the fountain first. We'll start there.
B1 - Fountain Puzzle
Once you enter the Tower you'll start running into monsters. You'll fight a lot of different enemies as you explore the Tower, and a few of them have some extreme weaknesses to the elements:
- Lizards die easily to Nina's Jolt spell
- The ProtoBots are similarly weak to Jolt - though, curiously, the other robots are not
- Ice Toads are quite vulnerable to anything fire-related
Inside the Tower's little basement you'll find stairs leading up, a side room with nothing in it, and a path into the water that leads outside. Near the pathway you'll find a big, black crystal. If you put Nina in the lead she can fire a magical blast at the crystal, which will activate a nearby security beam, preventing you from running outside. A 30 second countdown will begin.
Activate the crystal while standing northwest of it, then run up the stairs to the first floor. Dash southeast to find the front door of the Tower. Run out, then follow the path to the west, southwest, and then east, over to the fountain. Once you're there you need to run around the edges of the fountain and activate the four crystals using Nina's magic before time runs out. Wedging yourself up against the fountain and firing at point-blank range tends to work best, unless you're a wizard at aiming.
Do this all within 30 seconds and the water in the fountain will disappear. You can then reenter the Tower to claim the contents of the chest. What you'll find depends on how quickly you reached the chest:
- 0 to 5 seconds left - MultiVitamin
- 5 to 6 seconds left - Wisdom Fruit
- 6+ seconds left - Ring of Ice
1F
Across from the front door you'll find a note on the wall from someone named Momo. Good advice. Follow the path southeast of here, then upstairs. You'll wind up in a large, open area. In the northeast of this area is a safe side room with beds for sleeping and a diary to save your game. In the northwest of this room are six bookshelves that provide information on the robots in the Tower, as well as their power source, chrysm.
To the southwest of the clearing you'll find a path to the next floor.
2F
A short way down this hallway a little robot will pop out of a room, and an explosion will follow. Investigate the room and you'll run into Momo, the Tower's sole human(ish) resident. She'll happily agree to escort the kids back to Wyndia - though while Momo's busy prepping for the journey, she'll notice that some of Balio and Sunder's associates are waiting outside. You'll need to go up the Tower to escape, not down.
As a party member Momo is a little similar to Ryu. She has more bulk than Nina and is a good spellcaster, but leans more towards healing (at least for the moment - she'll get Earth-based spells later). Momo also hits hard with her huge cannons, but she's very inaccurate. There are ways to mitigate her poor aim later in the game, but for now you might want to outfit Momo with some Skills that don't rely on accuracy.
Check out the bookshelves in Momo's lab for some info on Honey, her robotic assistant, then leave. You can't exit the Tower at this point, so unless you need to save and heal back at the rest room you'll need to continue northeast. There's another door ahead, and though what you'll find on the other side is optional you should absolutely check it out.
- Step onto the eastern-most silver tile
- Walk two tiles southwest
- Walk three tiles northwest
- Walk one tile northeast
- Walk one tile southeast
- Walk one tile northeast (this should be a silver tile)
- Walk one tile northwest
- Walk one tile northeast
- Walk one tile southeast
- Walk one tile southwest
- Walk two tiles southeast
- Walk one tile northeast
- Walk one tile southeast
- Walk one tile southwest
- Step off of the puzzle
If you did all that correctly the door on the north side of the room will pop open. Inside you'll find three chests containing Skill Ink, Flame Chrysm, and Ice Chrysm. The Flame and Ice Chrysm are weapons for Momo that do less damage than her normal cannon against most enemies, though if you're targeting weaknesses they'll do substantially more. The Flame Chrysm is particularly useful against the Ice Toads of the Tower... assuming Momo can hit them. There's also a sign in this room that provides a solution to an upcoming puzzle.
Head back to the main corridor and continue northeast.
3F
The first section of this floor is just corridor. Follow it east long enough and it will bring you to a room with five colored cubes. The cubes are rotating slowly, making it a little difficult to tell them apart, though two of the cubes on your side of the room are identical to the cube to the northwest.
You need to choose the two cubes that match the northwestern cube in order to proceed. If you try to cross without doing this the floor will give out, dumping you near the rest room on 1F. (Which is, admittedly, handy if you need to have a nap and save.) The cubes you need to inspect are the second from the left and the furthest to the right.
Head up the stairs beyond the cubes.
4F
Beyond a quick entry hallway you'll find an area with isolated chunks of flooring and moving platforms. You can create paths through this area by moving the platforms around using the two colored switches by the entrance, as well as two more to the north. Take the following steps to gather everything and leave the room:
- Press the blue switch first. It will create a path north, as well as a path to the northwest. To the northwest is a hallway with two doors. In the second door you'll find a chest containing 800 zenny.
- Return to the platform room and leave to reset the puzzle. Hit the red switch to create a path north, as well as northwest. The corridor to the northwest will take you to a chest containing Moon Tears.
- Return to the platform room and go up the stairs in the north.
- Step onto the first platform. It will take you northwest.
- Go up the stairs. You'll find a sign near a darkened crystal and a red platform. The red platform will move across the room based on the number of times Nina strikes the crystal with her magic. Hit the crystal twice, then step aboard to reach a chest containing a Breastplate.
- Jump off of the platform and return to the crystal. Strike it with magic six times, then ride the platform. It will take you to a chest containing Ivory Dice.
- Jump off the platform and return to the crystal again. Keep striking it until it doesn't get any brighter. Ten or more magic blasts from Nina should do it. The platform will shuttle you over to a final platform, where you'll find stairs.
