Minae Cave - Enemies
- Dark Water - 95,000 HP - Resists Water, Earth
- Orange Balloon - 68,000 HP - Weak to Light
- Sunbreaker - 100,000 HP
A dungeon in the southeast of Energy Nede, Minae Cave is one of the locations you can access immediately after you procure a Psynard. You won't find the visit productive, however, as there's a heavy door blocking your way into the cave. You won't get inside until you've visited the Symbological Weapons Laboratory and received the Minae Cave Key Card.
Minae Cave is full of normal enemies. It is also full of Barchians, immobile enemies that open and close their eyes at regular intervals, and if you walk too close to the beams their eyes project they will set off a sort of alarm, drawing every nearby enemy towards you. If you want to get through Minae Cave with a minimum of fuss, avoid the Barchians. (Or, if you want levels, draw the attention of every Barchian you see. Chain Battles abound in here.)
A few notes about the enemies of Minae Cave:
- Although they barely move, the Dark Waters can Petrify your characters. Hit them from a distance.
- The Sunbreakers from the final battle in the Field of Love make a return as normal enemies, and, as before, they love using Star Flare. Stop these guys from casting Spells!
- The normal Orange Balloons of Minae Cave are not a big deal. This changes when you run into the Enemy Leader versions, as their added effect drains your party's health over time. Coupled with Sunbreakers, they are a serious threat. Try to spread your team out so you can stop the Sunbreakers from casting Star Flare while still hacking away at their Orange Balloon leader.
Minae Cave is fairly straightforward, and consists of clusters of wall-bound Barchians. Finding a path around their eyes is usually not much of a problem. You'll start off in a larger cavern with a lot of intertwining paths, and you can find some items before you head off to the east:
- If you take a left from the entrance you'll find a chest containing Fruit Syrup.
- If you head northwest from the entrance you'll find a chamber with a chest containing a Lightning Gun for Chisato.
- If you head north of the entrance you'll find a side path with a chest containing a Mithril Mesh+. This chest will summon monsters to fight you when opened.
To the northeast of the entrance you'll find a thin passage that eventually leads to a split. If you go south at this split you'll find a side chamber with chests containing seven Smith's Hammers and eight Meteorites. The passage is filled with Barchians and normal monsters, so unless you're very careful you won't be claiming the chests without at least one fight.
As you make your way northeast the cave will split in three directions. All three directions will take you to small alcoves with a chest, and if you go northeast you'll find another path that will take you to a fourth chest. From west to east, the chests contain three Medicine Bottles, an Encyclopedia+ for Leon, a Resurrection Mist, and a Luscious Gratin.
North of here you'll find a Save Point. Go any further north and you'll discover why there's a Save Point.
Barchian
HP: 300,000
This is one of the game's stranger fights. The Barchian sits completely still, doing absolutely nothing until it is attacked. Once that happens the Barchian will use its Pain Release move, triggering a powerful shockwave that hits everyone on the field. One of these will badly hurt the party; two will usually wipe everyone out, unless you heal.
The safest way to conduct this battle is to only use one character to smack away at the Barchian, then let Rena or Noel heal the party after each use of Pain Release. This will allow you to control the flow of the fight and gradually chip away at the Barchian's health once you're safely removed from a potential Game Over. You can let the computer flail away at the Barchian, which makes the fight much quicker, though be prepared for a few Game Overs if Pain Release goes off in rapid succession.
You'll receive some Mithrtil and the LEA Metal for defeating the Barchian. This also 'deactivates' all of the other Barchians in Minae Cave, with the added effect of removing all of the enemy encounters. If you didn't grab any of the treasure earlier, you can do so with complete safety now.
Your next stop after Minae Cave is Armlock, to deliver the LEA Metal to Dr. Mirage. That said, if you make a quick stop to Nall's office in City Hall you'll overhear a time-limited conversation between Nall and a mystery figure. It only takes a moment to jump over there, and you won't get another chance at this little scene, so you might want to check it out before heading to Armlock.