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Final Fantasy VI Walkthrough

Written by  Djibriel
Contributor

1.32: Imperial Magitek Research Facility: The Lab

Stairs
6/16
3
5/16
2
5/16
1
2
Tube Room
6/16
2
1
5/16
1
5/16
2

Enemies: Trapper, Flan, General, Destroyer, Lenergia, Number 024

Treasures: SwordStoneblade

When all is done, Ifrit and Shiva will realize their position and will offer themselves to you as Magicite. It's possible to leave the Magicite of EsperIfrit here and miss it forever; note that there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to do so. I say you grab EsperShiva and EsperIfrit and equip them if you think their x5 OBlizzara and OFira spell learn rates look yummy to your tummy. EsperShiva's ORasp and OOsmose spells do not hurt your cause at the slightest; ORasp is a great tactical spell, and OOsmose simply means you won't need any MP-restoring potions anymore. Ever. Rather than using the crane to escape, I suggest you press on and open the door. On the other side are stairs. A whole mother lode of them. You'll find new enemies here, of which the most dangerous ones are the Trapper robots.

Trapper robots care not for personal safety or any kind of intelligence or battle skill. They care for nothing; as robots, they are nihilists. They perform only three tasks: Casting Lv. 3 Confuse, casting OLv. 4 Flare, and casting OLv. 5 Death. They will throw fits if you let them be. The spells will do what you would have kind of guessed they did: Lv. 3 Confuse confuses any character whose level is divisible by 3, OLv. 4 Flare casts a OFlare-like attack on every character whose level is divisible by 4, which means pure sonic death at this stage of the game, and OLv. 5 Death... well, it kills any character whose level is divisible by 5. If you find that all your characters are level 18, you might want to go back and steal some Magicite Shards from the Flan until you've collectively reached 19, and if your level is 15 or (especially) 20 you'll need to do this, as you'll never make it otherwise. To take care of Trappers with utmost efficiency, summon EsperRamuh or cast OThundara if you have it. If you brought Edgar, ToolsNoiseblaster works very well, and like you could expect, Gau's Anguiform-induced OAqua Breath kills them straight up.

Generals, finally, are mere humans. Their Defense is high but not sky-high, and they're normal and weak to OPoison attacks. Unleash the new-found fury of EsperIfrit and EsperShiva if you want; these decorated officers are unassuming compared to the enemies you've found so far. They have restorative powers in an actual spell they learned, OCura, but they won't make a lot of use out of it, as they're often too busy being dead to use it.

Lenergia. Is it any surprise the Lenergia appears to be so weak, especially next to horned demons from the underworld? They're unassuming opponents you can take down any way you want, but know that when left alone, they start attacking with Shamshir attacks non-stop. They make for a great MP-refiller for Celes, as it's basically a 20 MP gain every turn the Lenergia takes.

Oh, right, then there are the horned demons from the underworld. They're called Destroyer. I hope I didn't get you all worried; stress is bad. And they're not that dangerous once you get to know them. They make silly physical swipes with their claws, and on occasion try to poison you with !Poison Strike, but it's not until they are met with solitude that they start showing their true colors, which are very, very, incompetent. When alone, the Destroyer tries to cast the overly cheap Reraise spell, the spell that grants an automatic revive of a fallen character right after he dies. Sadly, the spell takes 50 MP, and Destroyer only has 35. So sorry. Their incredible defense, one-hit KO protection, and Lightning-absorbing can make them tedious to take down; a combination of ToolsFlash and Rising Phoenix, not mentioning the trusted OAqua Breath, will get the job done.

The room you enter after the Stairs of Seeming Infinity contain five vacant tubes; three to the top of the screen, two to the bottom. Hidden to the left of the bottom-left tube is a SwordStoneblade. The SwordStoneblade sadly lacks any special stat bonus properties, but makes up for it with having impressive Attack and a rather interesting randomly cast spell in OBreak, a petrifying move.

At this point, if any of your characters stuck with EsperCait Sith long enough to learn OFloat, have him or her cast it on the party (this can be done outside of battle), as when you continue, you meet the... yes, what the hell is this guy?
Number 024
Number 024
Bestiary #292
Type
Level
HP
MP
Gil
EXP
Humanoid
24
4777
777
0
0
Strength
Magic Atk.
Evasion
Defense
Mag. Def.
Mag. Evade
20
3
0
170
100
0
Stolen Items
Dropped Items
Common: SwordBlood Sword
Rare: SwordRune Blade
Common: SwordFlametongue
Rare: SwordIcebrand
Status Immunities
Elemental Immunities
darknesspoisonpetrifydeathsilenceberserkconfusionslowstop
None
Elemental Absorb
Elemental Weakness
Variable
None
Lores
Command Immunities
None
Control
 
Strategy
 
Machines tend to have that crippling weakness to Lightning, and they also usually have some sort of Program ## move to dish out. This guy has neither. He uses spells and wields swords, so you'd almost assume he was a human if it wasn't for the 'System error!' message that goes off in the middle of the battle. A cyborg, then, like the Sergeant? We can only guess. The facts remain that Number 024, while no real challenge even if you forget about his status ailment weaknesses, is just so darn versatile we still love him anyway.

The guy's main move, Barrier Change, shuffles all the elemental properties of the caster and picks one element to set as its weakness. Then, it sets one element as the element it absorbs. First effects: You'll never know what exactly your elemental attacks will do: 75% chance they'll do nothing, 12.5% chance they'll heal him, 12.5% chance they'll do double damage. Conclusion: Waste of time, think of alternative means of violence. But this fellow adapts his fighting style according to his weakness. You can sort his weakness from what he hits you with, if you like. If his weakness is fire, you'll see ice attacks. Vice versa, too. If lightning, you'll see water. Again, vice versa. If it's wind, he'll use earth-based attacks like Magnitude 8 and Cave In, and if it's earth he'll go to wind attacks like Sonic Boom and Gale Cut. If he's weak to poison, he'll try to cure himself, and if he's weak to Holy-elemental, he'll try to attack you physically or use Reverse Polarity.

Here's what he'll do. He'll simply strike you physically for 30 seconds (this first round doesn't indicate Holy weakness). Then, he'll do his first Barrier Change. When you manage to strike his weakness (you can figure it out via Libra spell), he'll perform it again. If 30 seconds of action elapses first instead (are you taking a nap?), he'll perform another Barrier Change anyway. After he has performed a Barrier Change three times, he'll go haywire, even though you haven't destroyed him; the result of this 'System error' is apparently calling up Arctic Hares (the more successful branch of the Lagomorph family), enjoying Sunbaths, and finding his true self with the Libra spell. After 30 seconds of this, he'll snap out of it again, starting over as if he had cast his first Barrier Change of the battle. Weird stuff, man.

But you won't have to see all this madness. The OSleep spell, taught to you by EsperSiren, works on the fiend, as does EsperCait Sith's OImp spell. Alone, they severely cripple him; together, they are an unstoppable force. Keep him sleeping and make sure you only cast Magic. If that blasted neutral Tapir shows up and awakens him, cast OSleep again as soon as possible. If Gau is among your forces, just have him relax. Try to steal with Locke; SwordRune Blade or SwordBlood Sword, both are nice additions if nothing else. I'd especially go for the SwordBlood Sword if you have any choice in the matter, as it's quite unique. In the end, Number 024's Hit Points will run out, and he will die. Victory dance, coffee break, et cetera. Expand Full Strategy
  

It seems this Number 024 was guarding the room where the remaining Espers are being subdued in their test tubes. We know that EsperRamuh, EsperKirin, EsperSiren, and EsperCait Sith escaped, which might explain the empty test tubes we saw earlier. In this room, six Espers fuel the Empire's power. Meet EsperBismarck and EsperMaduin, EsperUnicorn and EsperCatoblepas, and EsperPhantom and EsperCarbuncle. There's a lever over there. It's a fictional universe: I'll be damned if the most prominent button or lever in the room isn't at least slightly self-destructive. Use it.



The IMRF shakes on its foundations. Time to save your own lives first and ponder important questions later. Join Cid on the elevator, and get out of the place.

Caves of Narshe: Final Fantasy VI
Version 6
©1997–2025 Josh Alvies (Rangers51)

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