Final Fantasy VI Walkthrough
Written by Djibriel
Contributor
1.18: Reunited: Defend that Esper!
Enemies: Heavy Armor, Fidor, Corporal, Hunting Hound, Hell's Rider, Kefka
Reality split the Returners into factions, but due to the power of Friendship and Plot Device, they all found their way to Narshe to reunite, bigger and badder than before! Lo and behold, it was just in time to thwart the execution of evil plans! As Locke learned in South Figaro, a detachment from the Empire led by Kefka is planning to finish the job Terra started - obtain the mysterious Esper located in Narshe. For no particular reason at all, it was moved to the snowy hills behind Narshe, so it is here that the seven of you will have to make a stand. Obviously, Narshe guards will not be helping you whatsoever.Preparation: You have an abundance of equipment and seven characters to equip it on. I'll give a brief overview on how to treat the seven characters now that the good relics seem surprisingly small in number:
Terra - Back Row
Great Sword
Heavy Shield
Magus Hat/Green Beret
Silk Robe
EarringEdgar - Back Row
Mythril SpearHeavy ShieldGreen BeretIron ArmorLocke - Front Row
Air Knife/Main GaucheAir Knife/Main GaucheGreen BeretNinja GearGenji GloveCeles - Back Row
Great SwordHeavy ShieldMagus Hat/Green BeretSilk RobeSabin - Back Row
Mythril ClawsBucklerGreen BeretKenpo GiCyan - Back Row
KotetsuHeavy ShieldGreen BeretIron ArmorGau - Front Row
Mythril ShieldGreen BeretKenpo GiEarringI'll leave most of the relics up to you. I'd really advise one pair of
Earring on Gau, as he'll be doing monster multi-target magical damage. If you have Rising Phoenix, equip one more pair of Earring on Sabin as well. Hermes Sandals are great for those you want to attack first: Either Locke (for Stealing before killing) or Gau (for killing ASAP). Gigas Glove is nice for those you'll be doing physical with (Locke, Cyan; not Edgar), and the Black Belt is only worth it on Locke.The teams! The monster hitters at this point of the game are Edgar and Gau. Edgar's
Bioblaster, that one Tool you kept ignoring, will now hit the weak spot of a lot of enemies here and will take them down in one hit. You can complement him with a weaker character, so I would suggest Terra; her 
Fire spells are starting to become really poor when talking damage output, and Edgar will like the 
Cure spells.Gau rules this part of the game even more than he rules most parts. He will be doing superior multi-target damage when using Lesser Lopros' Fireball or Guard Leader's Wind Slash, and is by far the best choice for both 'boss battles' you'll be battling. Gau should be the core of your superior team, and should be complemented by the other two characters that have things to offer besides damage: Locke (for Steal) and Celes (for Runic).
This leaves us with Sabin and Cyan. If Sabin knows Rising Phoenix, this team will more than make up for its lack of
Cure spells; if not, this is easily the weakest team out of the three. Both Cyan and Sabin will have sufficient single-target damage without the ability to heal beyond Hi-Potions, so they'll require your maintenance.As soon as you are done with equipping everybody, talk to Banon to make your teams. My personal choice, as I've explained, is the following:
- Edgar, Terra
- Locke, Celes, Gau
- Cyan, Sabin
When you're done, Kefka will appear with a frighteningly large amount of enemy soldiers at his disposal. They will line up and start walking to you. This is very much like defending Terra from the Guard Leader's minions; if the soldiers reach Banon, it's Game Over. Your job is to serve and protect. Block all three pathways to him with your three teams and have out-battle control over the one with Sabin and Cyan (as you'll be needing to feed them Potions outside of battle). When you run into a green soldier, you'll either fight a pack of four Corporals (75% of the time) or two Corporals and a Hunting Hound (25%). The brown soldiers, meanwhile, put you up against a Fidor and Corporal (75%) or two Corporals and a Heavy Armor (25%). When you get to the end, you will fight a Hell's Rider (the last brown soldier) and finally Kefka.
The battle strategy here is simple. If you have a strong multi-target character (Gau, possibly Sabin, Edgar against Troopers), let them do their killing. Strong single-target characters (Locke with
Genji Glove, Sabin, Cyan) should pick apart single enemies. Weak offensive characters (Locke without Genji Glove, Terra, Celes) can support the general party by Stealing and Curing.Corporals fall to
Bioblaster and are generally weak units. Avoid the Attack command against them as their strong point is !Swing, which they'll only use to as a counter to Attack.Hunting Hounds, like their palette swaps, Flee when alone. In a Corporal x2, Hunting Hound monster formation, you can take out the Corporals and ignore the dogs if you like.
Fidor dogs are heavily armored brutes that will probably survive single attacks if they're not really strong ones. They only get stronger when alone (they will start using !Pounce every time as opposed to only 33 % of the possible times), so weaken them/kill them first before you finish of the rest.
Heavy Armor are opponents you still recognize from Locke's scenario, where they were used as more-or-less unbeatable monster you had to run around. Here, you'll have to defeat them, which is considerably easier given the fact you have more than one character to work with. When Celes is in your party, the Imperial tank will recognize her and fear her magic, prompting him to use Magitek Barrier, which sets Protect and Reflect. You shouldn't be using
Blizzard anyway, so that won't be a concern. Don't start using Cloud or Templar, though.After the two waves of 'normal' enemies are over, there are but two opponents remaining: Hell's Rider and Kefka. Rider is surfing around Kefka so you'll need to take him out first.
If a team is entirely killed, the characters will find themselves with 1 HP on the spot where the Save Point used to reside. This means that you can engage a battle, get yourself killed, and engage again. This also means you can Steal from what is supposed to be a single encounter time after time. Hell's Rider has a common
Mythril Vest, a piece of armor everybody can equip that is superior to everything so far but the Ninja Gear. There's also a rare Elixir. Kefka features the same rare Elixir and common Hi-Ethers, a superior version to the insanely expensive Ether. I'd advise you to steal three Mythril Vests (you'll take one Ninja Gear along) and as many Hi-Ethers as you want. Hi-Ethers are very rare, very useful, and you're not going to get unlimited amounts of them until near the end of the game, and even then it's a huge stretch to try to obtain them. I've dubbed it the OnionRider trick, so make me proud and mention it wherever you go! You see, because like an onion, the beast has layers, and you peel several Mythril Vests off of him? OnionRider!Hell's Rider  Bestiary #286 |
Type |
Level |
HP |
MP |
Gil |
EXP |
Humanoid | 14 | 1300 | 170 | 1290 | 400 | |
Strength |
Magic Atk. |
Evasion |
Defense |
Mag. Def. |
Mag. Evade |
|
48 | 10 | 0 | 120 | 150 | 0 | |
Stolen Items |
Dropped Items |
|||||
Common: Remedy | ||||||
Status Immunities | Elemental Immunities | |||||
  | None | |||||
Elemental Absorb | Elemental Weakness | |||||
None |   | |||||
Lores | Command Immunities | |||||
None | None | |||||
Metamorph Package | ||||||
Strategy | ||||||
Hell's Rider is a durable fellow who has an extremely strong physical attack in !Silver Lance, which he also uses to counter a successful Steal attempt. Every fourth attack, he has a 1/3 chance of using Venomist, a multi-target Poison-elemental attack with low accuracy that also sets the Poison status. Gau can take him out in a single hit with Mu's Snare and the Break spell from Darkwind and/or Commander. If you have nothing along those lines, Areneid's !Numb and Primordite's !Numbclaw will stop him in his actions. If you lack Gau (shame on you), Cyan's Tiger works great if used first, and any combination of your strongest attacks should suffice. He can also counter any Attack with Reverse Polarity on that character. Expand Full Strategy | ||||||
Now, this is finally the confrontation with Kefka. He enslaved Terra's mind, set fire to castle Figaro, and destroyed Cyan's life. It's time to give him some payback for all that he's done.
Kefka  Bestiary #287 |
Type |
Level |
HP |
MP |
Gil |
EXP |
Humanoid | 18 | 3000 | 3000 | 0 | 0 | |
Strength |
Magic Atk. |
Evasion |
Defense |
Mag. Def. |
Mag. Evade |
|
25 | 9 | 30 | 55 | 160 | 30 | |
Stolen Items |
Dropped Items |
|||||
Common: Peace Ring | ||||||
Status Immunities | Elemental Immunities | |||||
      | None | |||||
Elemental Absorb | Elemental Weakness | |||||
None | None | |||||
Lores | Command Immunities | |||||
None | Control, Scan | |||||
Strategy | ||||||
Kefka is vulnerable to Stop, so have Gau use the Alacran and/or Acrophies Rages for best results. Always have Runic in place, as he knows some very powerful spells that can one-hit KO your characters when focused in a single-target blast, regardless of row. Have your other character(s) give it their best shot. Terra's Fire cannot be used with Runic in place so she should focus on her other powers; she can cast Magic when Celes isn't on Runic stand-by or simply wield the Rune Blade to some very nice result. Locke should Attack, Edgar should unload his Auto Crossbow, Sabin relies on good old Aura Cannon, Cyan can use Fang or his fourth Bushido, Flurry, if he has access to it, and that's about it. The battle is slightly anti-climactic when you consider the implications of it, but you'll pull through. Expand Full Strategy | ||||||
When Kefka is defeated, he'll manage to escape, leaving behind an utterly useless, albeit new,
Peace Ring.And that was that. Terra leaves behind the equipment she had on her, thoughtfully.
Caves of Narshe: Final Fantasy VI
Version 6
©1997–2025 Josh Alvies (Rangers51)
All fanfiction and fanart (including original artwork in forum avatars) is property of the original authors. Some graphics property of Square Enix.
Version 6
©1997–2025 Josh Alvies (Rangers51)
All fanfiction and fanart (including original artwork in forum avatars) is property of the original authors. Some graphics property of Square Enix.