The Dragon's Neck Colosseum

The Colosseum is but a dream in the World of Balance, but once you reach the World of Ruin, the proprietor has a thriving gladiatorial combat center - with prizes! Fighters from all over the world gather here to test their skills against each other, as do several creatures. The stakes? Rare relics, priceless weaponry, the greatest of armor. Whatever you have, it can be found at the Colosseum twice as sturdy or sharp.

First, let's scout around here. Ultros is a receptionist now; he warns you about Chupon and is a pest like usual, but doesn't attack you, in a surprising turn of events. The real Siegfried resides in a room where he warns you of his imposter (yes, you can fight Siegfried in the Colosseum, but not immediately). The last Imperial soldier is also here, and he gives you a hint about 'talking to the Emperor twice'. Strange, since the Emperor is quite thoroughly dead. In the Japanese game, this soldier mentions he gave this info to a certain friend of he'd met earlier: A friend with a bandana.

How does the Colosseum work? First, you bet an item. An opponent will rise to meet your challenge based on which item you bet: You will always meet the same opponent for any given item. You'll lose your bet item regardless, but if you win, you'll be given an item in return, which is often greater than the one you bet in the first place. If you cast Warp in-battle or are Sneezed out of the battle, you'll keep your bet item.

In battle, your characters will act as if they were Confused, yet they will attack only the 'normal' targets. This means that characters in the Colosseum will never use Item, Revert, Throw, Control, Slot, Leap, Def., or Possess. Item and Throw are great to have listed as such, as you don't have to have a chance of using that single Megalixir or throwing a unique weapon away. You can't run away successfully in the Colosseum (you'll just start running but will never get anywhere - you won't lose any turns though) but the Warp spell does work.

Not all items can be traded for superior goodies here; most weak or common items will pit you against Chupon, who will promptly use Sneeze to end the battle (you can defeat him, but it'll take a long while before you'll even come close). If Chupon Sneezes you away, the battle is considered a draw and you'll keep the Item you wagered.

This guide covers some of the more interesting trades you can make at various points of the game. You can also see a sortable full list of wagers.

Early Visits

It's possible to visit and fight at the Colosseum as soon as you've recruited Edgar in the WoR. At this point, here's what you can do to make your life better, or at least different:

Easy wins:

Win	Wager	Opponent	Strategy
Magicite	Fenix Down	Cactrot	Equip Setzer with the Dice you bought in Kohlingen. Relics, equipment, it's not needed. The Coin Toss Relic is a negative factor as that could make him win while losing some money as opposed to making him win without any unnecessary downsides. Every time Setzer's turn comes up, he tosses out his Dice and wins.
Rename Card	Elixir	Cactrot	See above!

Doable wins:

Win	Wager	Opponent	Strategy
Ogre Nix	Flame Sabre	Evil Oscar	Equip Sabin with two Fire Knuckles and a Ribbon. If Evil Oscar uses Sneeze, the battle is over and you'll still have your Flame Sabre. Eventually, Sabin's Fire Knuckles will pound Evil Oscar into burning pulp and you'll have won a new sword, the Ogre Nix.
Aura	Murasame	Borras	Equip Sabin with two Poison Claws and a Black Belt. Make sure you Save, as this battle will be over soon, regardless of its outcome. All Sabin needs at a decent level is two Fight commands; all that Borras needs if Sabin is at a decent level is two !Uppercuts. The Black Belt increases your chances at killing him before he kills you.
Exp. Egg	Tintinabar	Dark Force	Dark Force has about 9000 HP, and has a 1/4 chance at using Pearl Wind. Odds are you don't have the offensive strength to take him down before he takes you down. What you'll want to do is rely on your Instant Death weapons, as that's what Dark Force is susceptible to. Setzer's Trump weapons, paired up with a Genji Glove if possible, can take him out easily, as can a Soul Sabre.
Gold Hairpin	Ribbon	Dark Force	If you think you really don't need full Ribbon coverage (and you really don't, to be honest), you can bet a Ribbon for a Gold Hairpin in order to fight a Dark Force (possibly with the intent of swapping it with a Dragon Horn later).
Dragon Horn	Gold Hairpin	Evil Oscar	If you chose the Gold Hairpin over Mog earlier or decided you weren't going to use that Ribbon anyway, you can easily trade your Gold Hairpin for a Dragon Horn right now. For strategy, just take a look at what I said earlier.

Hardly doable wins:

Win	Wager	Opponent	Strategy
Dragon Horn	Charm Bangle	Retainer	Retainer's three bad habits are all Instant Death-related. He has a 25% at using !Tradeoff every turn, which kills you. He also can cast Condemned, giving you only a limited time to off him. The worst part is that he will always use !Tradeoff when he dies. High Magic Block increases the chance to circumvent that guaranteed !Tradeoff, but you won't be able to deal enough damage in that case. If you really want to give this battle a shot, my personal luck has always been with Sabin, dual Poison Claws, and a White Cape. It's a slim chance, but it's as good as it gets at this point and the Dragon Horn is really awesome.

An explanation on the new items you can obtain here:

The Rename Card is a 'secret' item that can only be found by fighting at the Colosseum. It enables you to rename one of your characters, after which it disappears.

The Ogre Nix is a very odd weapon. It's stronger than what you've seen so far, and uses MP to inflict Critical hits. It can deal an incredible physical blow for only 12 to 19 MP a hit. In fact, it deals more damage on a critical blow than two Enhancers. Sadly, there is also a downside to the Ogre Nix. Namely, it can break while being used, and the chance is pretty big: an average of 28%. It's determined by taking a random number between zero and the last digit of the attacker's HP, plus one. If that digit is zero, bye-bye sword. You don't really want to risk losing your precious Ogre Nix; on the other hand, if you can't use it, what good does it do for you? There is one way to circumvent the whole breaking thing without it losing its charm; use the Black Belt! When countering, the Ogre Nix will never break. So, the best way to use the Ogre Nix is equip it on Celes and/or Edgar, stick to level 2 spells and/or Tools and swing the Ogre Nix only in self-defense.

The Aura is simply superior to the Murasame. The Exp. Egg (Experience Egg) doubles the Experience Points gained by the wearer. Two Exp. Eggs don't stack, and only the wearer receives twice as many Experience Points. The Dragon Horn is a beauty. Whenever the wearer uses a Jump command (by either wearing Dragoon Boots or by being picked up by the Palidor Esper you'll find later), the wearer won't come down once but twice (75% of the time), thrice (18.75%), or sometimes even four times (6.25%).

After Some Airship Travels

Welcome (back) to the Dragon's Neck Colosseum, a monument to combat. You've had a nice trip around the world, so it's time to bet your newly acquired prizes to gain more prowess in combat.

Easy wins:

Win	Wager	Opponent	Strategy
Bone Club	Rising Sun	Allosaurus	Allosaurus is weak, but has a 1/3 chance of casting Doom. Equip a Wall Ring to reflect it back at him (he's vulnerable to instant death). Any strong attack will take him out.

Doable wins:

Win	Wager	Opponent	Strategy
Minerva	Czarina Gown	Sky Base	75% of the time, Sky Base will cast Doom. Sky Base itself is also vulnerable to Instant Death attacks. Grab a Wall Ring and equip it, and send in a warrior with weapons with intant-death properties; Setzer's Trump or the Soul Sabre will do. If your character attacks, Sky Base can counter with up to four Blaster attacks. Thus, if your character damages Sky Base without killing him, the battle is over. With this in mind, start running as soon as you enter the fight! Your character will just run and never attack. He obviously won't succeed in running away, and but he will Reflect Sky Base's Doom spell for the win.
Rising Sun	Tack Star	Opinicus	Opinicus is a joke. He has little HP (3210), little Defense, and a weakness against Pearl-elemental attacks. Sabin equipped with two Dragon Claws, a Black Belt, and Gaia Gear is almost sure to win. His Slide attack will be absorbed by the Gaia Gear, so the only worry is Surge, of which Sabin can take at least two before rolling over and dying. If you want to be really sure, try getting an Ice Shield first so that you absorb both Slide and Surge.
Red Jacket	Bone Club	Test Rider	It's better to hold out on this battle until after you've gotten yourself an Ice Shield so that your character can absorb Flash Rain. If you have a Titanium to equip or perhaps a Tortoise Shield, that method should work too (Flash Rain is Ice/Water, despite its Lightning-elemental appearance). Edgar would make a nice Dragon Horn Dragoon with an Ice Shield in this fight. Test Rider isn't really something to worry about.
Ice Shield	Flame Shield	Ironhitman	Ironhitman has little HP and weak defenses. Sending in Sabin with dual Dragon Claws and a Black Belt will guarantee you victory unless Sabin pulls off a Spiraler.
Bone Club	Sniper	Borras	An alternate route to Bone Clubs and Red Jackets. Fighting Borras has been described above.
Strato	Aura	Rhyos	Rhyos is a mean upgrade from the Chimera. He can use Surge (strong), Aero (even stronger), and Flare Star, which will kill you unless you have any way of nullifying it/absorbing it. Send in a character with a Flame Shield, as he or she will be protected from both Surge and Flare Star. An Ice Shield is not as smart as Aero will do double damage to such a target. Dragoon Edgar works best.
Pearl Lance	Strato	Aquila	Aquila is a big bird. It uses Battle, !Flap, Shimsham, and Cyclonic. You can't protect against the latter two yet, so just send in Dragoon Edgar and hope for the best. If you don't have him, I regret to inform you that instant death attacks don't work against this bird and you won't win the battle.

Hardly doable wins:

Win	Wager	Opponent	Strategy
Tack Star	Ninja Star	Chaos Drgn	Chaos Drgn has three attacks that are prone to screw you over. !Cinderizer will kill you if it connects. Disaster turns you into a Confused Imp, which pretty much means it's over. Meteor is just outright strong. You won't' be able to take two and live to tell the tale. Your best bet is to send in Dragoon Edgar and hope for Battle/Meteor. Chaos Drgn has quite some HP but weak defenses, so while you'll die in most cases, it's worth dying a few times to get to the Red Jackets in the end.
Flame Shield	Falchion	Outsider	Outsider is vulnerable to instant death, and that's your savior. Outsider uses Battle, !Ruin, Flare, and X-Zone. !Ruin kills you if it connects. X-Zone kills you if it connects. Every time you hurt Outsider, he's going to respond with Shurikens, Ninja Stars, or Tack Stars down your throat. Send in Setzer with dual Trumps and a Noblack Belt and you should be winning more battles than you lose. Sadly, you're just gonna have to rely on the X-type instant death kicking in, or else you'll see Setzer eating dust like it's 1311 B.C.
Marvel Shoes	Rename Card	Doom Drgn	Doom Drgn has four attacks, the first of which is the common Battle. While Battle normally wouldn't be that much of a threat, it will prove most fatal to your character in this battle. His second move is N. Cross, which has a small chance of freezing you. S. Cross, which is a strong Fire-elemental attack, is another of Doom Drgn's attacks. The last and perhaps the nastiest of its attacks is Fallen One, an unblockable attack that sets your character's HP to 1. Equip a Flame Shield (a Red Jacket or Ice Shield won't be sufficient) on Dragoon Edgar. The only way you can be killed is by receiving a Battle attack with 1 HP remaining. The best you can do is pray that doesn't happen and that S. Cross heals you back up whenever you reach that level.

An explanation on the new items you can obtain here:

The Rising Sun is a Full Moon upgrade. It's weaker than the Sniper Special weapon and can only be gotten *later* than it. It's a passageway item at the Colosseum and should only be collected for that very purpose.

The Bone Club is equally useless. Only one character, Umaro, can equip it, he comes with one and cannot be (un)equipped anyway. Another passageway item collected for completion and betting at the Colosseum.

The Minerva is the piece of Armor you'll wind up keeping on Celes and Terra for the remainder of the game because it's the BEST armor in the game. Fire, Ice, Lightning, and Wind are nullified, and Water, Earth, Pearl, and Poison only deal 50% as much damage. To top it off, it grants the wearer an all-round stat boost (+1 Vigor, +2 Speed, +1 Stamina and +4 Magic Power for dessert) and 10% additional Magic Block. Minerva's special effect is granting the wearer 25% extra MP. In other words, you'll want this on your armored girls.

The Red Jacket is Sabin's ultimate Armor. Sadly for Sabin, it's the second-worst piece of ultimate Armor in the game. It nullifies any Fire-elemental attack and is superior to Diamond Vests and Crystal Mail and all that, but comes nowhere near other end-game pieces of equipment and has no special effect. It's also useful on Edgar for a short while, I might add.

The Ice Shield is a shield that, well, absorbs Ice-elemental attacks. It nullifies damage done by Fire-elemental attacks, and the wearer will receive twice as much damage from Wind-elemental attacks. It teaches the Ice 2 spell at a x5 rate and will cast an unblockable, barrier-piercing Ice 3 spell when used in combat, after which it breaks. Its Defense rate is 1 point above that of the Flame Shield, which basically serves the same purpose. It's inferior to the Crystal Shield in terms of Defense and Magic Defense, but the elemental properties and the extra 10% Magic Block make it come out superior in my book.

The Strato, or Ame no Murakumo (Sword of the Billowing Clouds, or shortened as Heaven's Cloud), is the strongest weapon from Japanese mythology. Here, though, it's a rather uninteresting weapon and the third-strongest weapon Cyan gets to lay his hands on without crossing the border of weapons he can normally equip. It's a very simple upgrade in Battle Power over the Aura.

The Pearl Lance is a Pearl-elemental Lance that gives a +3 on Magic Power and has a 25% at casting Pearl every time you Fight with it or on every last Jump attack the wielder makes. The Pearl Lance is argued to be the best Lance out there, because the only one higher in Battle Power doesn't have a random spell casting clause.

The Tack Star is the ultimate throwing star. It eh.... yeah, it damages. A lot. You can't really buy them anywhere, they are hardly ever found in chests, and and their only appearance on an enemy is as a rare steal from a late-game enemy, so the Colosseum is your source for them.

The Flame Shield is a shield that, well, absorbs Fire-elemental attacks. It nullifies damage done by Ice-elemental attacks, and the wearer will receive twice as much damage from Water-elemental attacks. It teaches the Fire 2 spell at a x5 rate and will cast an unblockable, barrier-piercing Fire 3 spell when used in combat, after which it breaks. Its Defense rate is 1 point below that of the Ice Shield, which means it basically serves the same purpose. It's inferior to the Crystal Shield in terms of Defense and Magic Defense, but the elemental properties and the extra 10% Magic Block, as with the Ice Shield, make it come out superior in my book.

Marvel Shoes are grand. They set Safe, Shell, Haste, and Regen on a character. This will make him or her take only 2/3 of the damage every attack normally does that isn't barrier-piercing, grants an immunity to Slow and Seizure, and basically makes sure that a character will stick around longer and act faster than he or she normally does. Marvel Shoes are great filler Relics; while Marvel Shoes will require a slot that a Hero Ring could've filled, some prefer the defensive route to the offensive one.

Recovering Shadow

Shadow's just a stone's throw away. Fly the airship to the Colosseum, and remember that notion about the Striker. Once you bet it, you won't find a monster fighting you for it (after you've fought this battle, or if you haven't met the criteria so far, this'll be Chupon), but the merciless mercenary himself: Shadow. Shadow is a complete pushover; unequipped, unarmed, and unable to use the Throw command in the Colosseum, Shadow is pathetic. But it doesn't even matter if you win or not; whether you win, lose (equipped a Heal Rod or something, right?), or Warp out of battle with the aptly named spell, Shadow will join you afterwards. And it's permanent this time!

Poor Shadow, though; his only joy left in this world is to fight. At least we can turn this into a positive force now that he intends to face Kefka. And boy, does he do it well! Skeans are very strong, and now you have the finances to really buy them en masse. Fire Skeans often nail elemental weaknesses especially well, so buy lots of those and a few of the other ones to make them feel appreciated.

Now you're here at the Colosseum, you might as well bet the BehemothSuit nobody can equip yet for the Snow Muffler. I told you above how to defeat the Outsider that guards it, so go find it if you're having trouble. The Snow Muffler is awesome, awesome, absolutely awesome equipment for both Mog and Gau.

The Late-Game Trip

Sure, why the heck not, eh? Most of the below described items are "provided you have them" or "provided you want them", but I have to put them somewhere and this seems like a nice place. I'll go easy on you and start out with the really helpful ones!

Win	Wager	Opponent	Strategy
Tintinabar	Megalixir	Siegfried	Siegfried has three attacks: a 50% chance of using Battle, a 25% chance of using Shrapnel (which is rather painful), and a 25% chance of using HyperDrive, which will most likely kill you. There's no way to circumvent it other than Runic, which isn't reliable enough. HyperDrive is a non-elemental barrier-piercing magical attack that cannot be Reflected. Coming from Siegfried, who is hyped as the greatest warrior that isn't in your team or called Kefka Palazzo, the move delivers around 7200 damage. Your best bet is to take advantage of his vulnerability to the Stop status; equip the Stunner, Dragoon Boots, Dragon Horn, and as much MBlock% raising equipment as you can can find on Shadow. If you're in luck, a random Stop spell coming from the Stunner will kick in and disable Siegfried long enough for you to kill him. And yes, that's a gun he's holding. Sweet, eh?
Magus Rod	Heal Rod	Pug	Pug is a bastard in the Colosseum. The trick here is that he will counter any damage done to him with both !Cleaver (Battle * 8) and a Step Mine attack. Death doesn't stop him from countering, and, as it's highly unlikely you'll be able to survive two Step Mine attacks (not even mentioning the !Cleaver attack), you must take down Pug in one shot, which will be hard since he's quite durable and not vulnerable to instant death attacks. Obviously, he also attacks normally, utilizing Battle, !Cleaver, and the Break spell. First off, you'll want a Wall Ring, Jewel Ring, Ribbon, Safety Bit, or Memento Ring to protect against Break. Second, make sure you can survive the !Cleaver/Step Mine combo. Muscle Belts and Red Caps increase your HP in preparation against Step Mine and you'll either want to evade or nullify !Cleaver entirely, so a high MBlock percentage or 255 Defense does the trick. On the offensive side, the Offering is almost essential, either with the Fixed Dice or a Valiant Knife, whatever you happen to have.
Czarina Gown	Minerva	Pug	See... immediately above.
Mirage Vest	Thornlet	Opinicus	Opinicus has been discussed before. Scroll up, dear reader.
Merit Award	Cat Hood	Hoover	Hoover is, if I'm not mistaken, the toughest enemy out there that's still vulnerable to instant death. Consequently, this is really what you'll want to take advantage of. He'll randomly use Battle, !Crush (Battle * 5), Sand Storm, and Quake. Every type of damage will by countered with up to two Sand Storm attacks. Equip a Cherub Down with Hoover's Quake spell in mind and a Thunder Shield to nullify the Sand Storm attacks. If you can pair this with 255 Defense (Mog), you can't lose. If you can't obtain invulnerability, it's best to go all-out offensive: Offering, possibly the Genji Glove, and either the Scimitar or weapons with the X-type instant death. Remember that the random Doom spell from the Soul Sabre and the Doom Darts won't work with the Offering.
Charm Bangle	Snow Muffler	Retainer	I discussed Retainer earlier, but the situation's so much different now I'd like to mention him again. Get your MBlock as high as possible on a character that's bound to inflict a lot of damage. Fixed Dice, Offering, Force Shield, Force Armor, Bard's Hat, and White Cape are all recommended. The odds are pretty good that Setzer will outlive a Retainer this way.
Genji Armor	Nutkin Suit	Opinicus	If you've not figured out Opinicus yet, that's your problem.
Thief Glove	Sneak Ring	Tap Dancer	All Tap Dancer does is Battle, !WaistShake (sets Confuse), Slow 2, and Haste 2. 255 Defense and a Peace Ring/Ribbon to protect against !WaistShake and you're set.
Thunder Shield	Gauntlet	Vectagoyle	Battle, Giga Volt, Aqua Rake, and Blaze are the moves used by Vectagoyle. A combination of Thunder Shield and Red Jacket insures against all the powerful attacks here, so send in Edgar with this equipment and you're set. Sabin's good too, though he might use Spiraler.
Thunder Shield	Genji Glove	Hemophyte	Hemophyte looks pretty neat, but that doesn't stop him from sucking in all categories. Battle, !CursedGaze (sets Seizure), and Shock Wave are all too useless to worry about, and Pearl can be reflected by a Wall Ring. Equip one and win.

You should know all items except for the Merit Award. The only circumstance under which you should want to trade a Minerva for a Czarina Gown is when you have more than two Minerva and you want to have all items in the game at the end. I've never found a good use for the Gauntlet either, and, in my opinion, the Genji Glove has outlived its usefulness as well. A lot of players are googoo for Genji Gloves, so they may not agree with me when I say that you should turn those Relics into awesome Thunder Shields (save one of each if you're going for that 'perfect' end-game item list). You can steal Thunder Shields in the final dungeon, but that's still a long ways from "now."