The Earthgift Shrine is one of the four bonus dungeons in the Dawn of Souls version of the original Final Fantasy, and one of the five in the 20th Anniversary Edition and iOS and Windows Phone versions. It does not appear in the Android version or the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster.
The entrance to the shrine is located northwest of Cornelia and south of the Chaos Shrine. It is the shortest optional dungeon, with only five floors:
- Two replicas of the Altar Cave from Final Fantasy III.
- An endless desert.
- A dark forest.
- The final floor that contains bosses from Final Fantasy III, who appear here as cameos.
The Earthgift Shrine unlocks when the Fiend of Earth, Lich, is defeated.
It is not possible to exit the Earthgift Shrine until the final floor, where the player must defeat a Final Fantasy III boss. Entering this battle too early is a common mistake, but losing to one of the bosses will eject the player from the dungeon as opposed to just sending back to the title screen. Earthgift Shrine is open to players as early as after defeating Lich, yet contains bosses that have over four times as much HP as Lich does in his first battle.
To battle every Final Fantasy III cameo boss on the final floor, the Earthgift Shrine must be completed no fewer than four times because once the player defeats a boss, they cannot retrace their steps. The bosses will re-spawn upon defeat and reentry.
Floors[]
The Altar Cave floors use the environment tiles of the Cavern of Earth. They are the easiest floors to traverse because of their brevity and abundance of treasure chests.
The endless desert floor is a wide expanse of sand with a few palm trees and the exit staircase near an oasis. These features are located at primary compass directions from each other. When the player does run into a set of palm trees, there are usually three of them in a triangle formation, pointing to a compass direction the player should follow. Locating the staircase quickly is important, as the dangerous Abyss Worm may attack during the trek through the sands.
The dark forest floor is perhaps the most time-consuming. The narrow breaks in the trees are blocked by an enemy sprite who must be defeated to move on. Many of these gaps are dead ends, and so forced battles may happen for naught. Random encounters are frequent on this floor, often involving dummied Black Goblin enemies.
Items[]
In the Earthgift Shrine, treasure lists are static on each floor, but the number of chests varies, and they are randomly sorted for each run.
A treasure chest is also located on the fifth floor, which can be opened after defeating Ahriman.
|
|
Enemies[]
- Outside
- Goblin x3/x4/x5
- Goblin Guard x1/x3
- Wolf x1/x2
- Crazy Horse x1
- Inside
- Abyss Worm (very rare - Endless Desert floor)
- Black Goblin
- Gloom Widow
- Skuldier
- Desertpede
- Wild Nakk
- Catoblepas
- Two-Headed Dragon (Boss)
- Ahriman (Boss)
- Cerberus (Boss)
- Echidna (Boss)
Musical themes[]
In the 20th Anniversary version, a remix of the Final Fantasy III boss theme plays while fighting the bosses. Previously, the Dawn of Souls version used "Boss Battle A" for that purpose.