Final Fantasy VI Walkthrough

Written by Djibriel

Contributor

1.9: Escape on the River

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The Returner's Hideo…

Monster Pack 1
3/4	Nautiloid	1
3/4	Exocite	1
1/4	Lesser Lopros	1
1/4	Exocite	2

Monster Pack 2
3/4	Lesser Lopros	2
1/4	Nautiloid	1
	Exocite	1
	Lesser Lopros	1

Enemies: Lesser Lopros, Nautiloid, Exocite, Ultros

The Empire invaded South Figaro (notice how Edgar didn't respond whatsoever to that notion?) and is now coming to the Hideout. Time to run – er, raft - like the wind. We'll escape using a raft and the flowing water that carries it. Fun! Set everybody in the Back Row. You can strip the Relic

Star Pendants from your characters and apply Relic

Gigas Glove/ Relic

Hermes Sandals to Edgar, Relic

Hyper Wrist and Relic

Knight's Code to Sabin, and a Relic

White Cape to Terra. There's nothing remotely useful you can put in Terra's second Relic Slot (you'll want to have those Relic

Sprint Shoes in your inventory, and you won't be walking anyway).

First, I want you to exit the hallway you find yourself in through the northern entrance. Not only will you now know where you can find it from the Returners' Hideout, you can also walk over to the room where Terra woke up in and find the wounded Returner in bed. If you stand beneath the chest here, as mentioned last chapter, you'll catch the poor sap having a nightmare. You can trigger this cutscene every time you re-enter the room.

Welcome to Lethe River. The first rule of Lethe River is: You don't talk about Lethe River. The second rule of Lethe River is: You do not talk about Lethe River. The third rule of Lethe River is when Banon goes down, the game is over. Read: If Banon receives KO status, you'll get a Game Over. Protecting Banon should be your first priority. If you fail, you'll get a neat message saying, "Banon has fallen..." Read: Annoying. Fun fact: if you level Terra up to level 68 before meeting Banon, you can set Petrify with the

Break spell she learned and make him invincible. Then again, if you're leveled like that, you really needn't worry in the first place.

Exocite is your average physical attacker. He seems to have a specifically strong, instinct-based hatred for the elderly, as he will always target Banon for a single Attack after every six turns. You should have turned Exocite into little bits of Exocite nuggets by then, though.

Nautiloid is more annoying. Rather than doing damage with his Special, !Ink sets Dark, which is a useless thing to do but still looks rather stupid on your characters. To top that, his Defense is very strong (partly thanks to an inherent Protect status), so the Tools

Auto Crossbow and Attack commands will do little here. Also, after three turns he'll turn on Banon for an Attack, so beware.

Lesser Lopros are the strongest enemies here. They can use Attack, execute !Wing to set Sap on the party the second turn and can actually use Fireball the third one, which is a multi-target Fire-elemental attack and particularly dangerous. Lesser Lopros should be subdued by Tools

Noiseblaster at all times and taken out first if possible.

The strategy is simple. Keep the monsters at bay with Tools

Noiseblaster, use

Fire and Aura Cannon to deliver damage, and have Banon recover from any damage you might have taken with his special skill. As soon as you decide to hop on board the raft, you'll be taken down the Lethe River. However, there are many ways to Rome, and many ways to travel the Lethe River. At two points in the trip, you'll be asked to pick a direction. Each direction has an influence on the monsters you face.

Here's the run-down of your possibilities, with the monsters referenced by number corresponding to the formations chart herein. You'll first be required to have an encounter with a #1 group, and then you'll face a Straight/Left/Right decision. You'll want to pick Left for the shortest time of passing through and the potentially least amount of battles. If you're going for the most battles, or want to make sure you encounter a Lesser Lopros, pick 'Straight'. Most of these encounters happen only half the time, so it's possible that you might encounter just one battle, or even zero if you take the left path. If there's no percentage noted, though, you'll definitely have a battle at that point.

Straight:

Set 1 50% of the time
Set 2
Set 1 50% of the time
Set 1 50% of the time
Set 1

Left:

Set 1 50% of the time
Set 1 50% of the time
Set 2 50% of the time

Right:

Set 1
Set 1 50% of the time
Set 1 50% of the time

Regardless of your choice, you will end up at a small cave with a Save Point in it. When you get back on, you'll meet a group from set #1 again, and then reach a decision between up and left.

Up:

Set 2 50% of the time
Set 1 50% of the time
Set 1 50% of the time
Set 1 50% of the time
Set 1

You're back at the Up/Left decision, having circled.

Left:

Set 2 50% of the time

This path leads to a cave with a mandatory Save Point. If you've never stepped into a Save Point before, this will be when you see the the 'strange light fills the air' dialogue, and it will never again appear.

From second Save Point to exit:

Set 2 50% of the time
Set 1 50% of the time

At the end of the Lethe River ordeal, assuming you're doing the river for the first time (it's possible to come back later!), you'll encounter what looks like the ultimate Nautiloid. It's a huge purple octopus who goes by the name of Ultros...

Ultros Bestiary #282	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	13	3000	640	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	15	3	0	40	140	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	Common: Dried Meat			None
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness

	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control, Scan
	Strategy
	Ultros is a tough octopod whose Tentacle attack can be a huge pain if you're playing the game without over leveling. Everybody must be in the Back Row. If you are a moron and played with any of your characters in the Front Row, fix that. He'll start by delivering his intro speech and using an Attack. Then, if 10 seconds have passed (and they will have), he'll say "Oh, that one's a tasty morsel! I'd love to get my tentacles around her... sluuuuuurp!" and target Terra with a single-target Tentacle attack. If at his next turn another 10 seconds have passed, he'll say "Muscle heads? Hate 'em!" target Sabin with a single-target Tentacle attack and use a multi-target Tentacle attack on his next turn, followed by either Attack, !Ink or a single-target Tentacle in that very same turn; if not, he'll spread the happiness with a multi-target Tentacle/follow up with Attack/!Ink/ single-target Tentacle, wait a turn, and then hate on Sabin for his body. His next turn is devoted to an Attack and either an Attack, !Ink or single-target or multi-target Tentacle attack in the same turn. Then, he'll say "Your ugly mug gives me the creeps!" and use a single-target Tentacle attack on Banon, from where he'll start at his first multi-target Tentacle-Attack/!Ink/single-target Tentacle turn again. Also, every time he is targeted by a Fire-elemental attack, which at this stage is either a Fire spell from Terra or Sabin's Rising Phoenix Blitz, he will say "Yeeeouch! Seafood soup is NOT on the menu!" and counter with an !Ink attack... yeah, he's a talkative guy. Beating Ultros down is relatively simple if you pay close attention to his AI script. Have at the very least Terra and Banon in the Back Row using their Defend skill to reduce the power of Tentacle when you know they'll be targeted by it. Have Banon use Pray at all times, as his Attack is nothing to consider seriously (even though he possesses a snazzy weapon that you won't get on other characters for a long, long time). For damage output, have Terra use her Fire spells, Edgar fire off arrows with the Auto Crossbow, and Sabin use Aura Cannon. If he knows Rising Phoenix at this point, it's stronger than Aura Cannon, but if you're that highly leveled you probably don't need to worry much in the first place. Expand Full Strategy

If you defeat him, he'll escape underwater. Sabin won't like this and he'll go after him; sadly, Sabin does not consider he's more of a 'land-based' guy and Ultros appears to sane people as a generally aqua-themed creature. In other words: Sabin is dead in the water. Pun!

You'll now see a change of pace and a unique menu screen. There were initial plans for a normal menu screen where you could select your scenario from, but I guess they figured this would be more fun. They were right. It's Mog! Unlike your previous moogle encounter, you can't access this guy's equipment or relics, so don't bother. It's here that you'll need to decide what scenario to do first. Here's a quick list what you can gain from each scenario:

Terra/Edgar/Banon: A Sword

Rune Blade, and the ability to de-equip, most likely freeing a Relic

Gigas Glove and Relic

Hermes Sandals.

Locke: Helmet

Iron Helms, a Relic

Ribbon, one set of Relic

Earring, and a Rod

Thunder Rod if you left the Phoenix Down alone when you passed through the Cave of Figaro with Edgar, Locke, and Terra. This scenario ends with a boss fight, so it's dangerous to de-equip at the end.

Sabin: A Relic

Mythril Glove, a Relic

Barrier Ring, Helmet

Green Berets, Relic

Earring, a Relic

Sniper Eye, a Relic

Tintinnabulum and the ability to buy new equipment, including Helmet

Magus Hats, Armor

Iron Armor, Armor

Silk Robes, and Helmet

Bandanas. You are able to de-equip at the end.

Thus, I would advise you take the scenarios in the following order: Terra, Sabin, and Locke.

Terra's scenario is a cinch where no extra items are needed by a long shot. However, it does contain some strong Relics you can't free until you've played through it. Therefore, Terra's scenario first. Now, Locke's scenario could use Sabin's items and vice versa, but because Locke's scenario is probably the more difficult of the two and you can't properly de-equip at the end of Locke's means you should save it until the end.

On to the three scenarios: I'll handle them in the same order I advise you to take them in.

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Caves of Narshe: Final Fantasy VI
Version 6
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