The Lethe River (レテ川, Rete Gawa^?), also known as Lete River, is a river that flows through Final Fantasy VI in the World of Balance. Its origin is in the Sabre Mountains, and the river flows through the mountains and has two discharges. One of them is near the port city of Nikeah and the other is near Gau's Father's House. The river also runs into a lake close to Narshe. It conveniently passes by the Returner Hideout, and the Returners built rafts in order to escape their hideout in an emergency.

StoryEdit

When news reach the Returners that the Gestahlian Empire has invaded South Figaro, Terra, Edgar, Sabin, and Banon escape on a raft down the river. They ride towards Narshe, but have to fight Ultros on the way. They defeat him easily, but Ultros sticks one of his tentacles to Terra's leg and Sabin leaps into the water to fight Ultros off, and is washed down another part of the river. Terra, Edgar and Banon continue on to Narshe, while Sabin washes ashore at Gau's father's house.

The Lethe River has two points at which the player party has to choose a path. At the first spot, all three paths converge at the first of two save points, but the other path puts the party in a loop if they choose to go up. The player can ride this loop infinitely if they wish to level up before fighting Ultros. If playing the SNES edition of the game, it is possible to exploit this using a turbo controller to level up automatically.

Going down the Lethe River a second time puts the party at Gau's father's house. This is useful if the player wishes to return to the Veldt before acquiring the airship, though it makes for a long journey on foot.

The river, along with most of the Sabre Mountains, is gone in the World of Ruin and appears to have sunk beneath the ocean.

StrategyEdit

Many experienced players tend to play a so-called low-level game, trying to get through the first half of the game on as low levels as possible. When doing this, repeatedly fleeing battles to avoid leveling-up can often leave the player short of money. The Lethe River offers an early solution to this dilemma, in the form of Banon.

After using the first save point on the river the player should go round and round the looped river section and have the party members whittle down the enemies to the extent where there is only one enemy left that requires one hit to kill. Banon should then cast Health on the party. As soon as he starts to cast it, the rest of the party should try to flee the battle. They will be cured before they can flee, and leave Banon to deal the killing blow, get all the Experience Points, level up quickly, become strong, and earn lots of gil.

This method quickly reverses the normal game strategy, where the tougher party members would try to protect Banon, making Banon a powerful protector. Leveling him up will not affect the levels of other regular playable characters who are not currently in the group, which would be the case if Sabin, Edgar, or Terra were receiving experience and gaining levels.

Banon can also be used this way in the caves at Narshe, when the player selects the Banon-Edgar-Terra scenario.

Monster FormationsEdit

• Nautiloid, Exocite
• Lesser Lopros x2
• Lesser Lopros, Exocite x2
• Lesser Lopros, Nautiloid, Exocite
• Ultros (Boss)

GalleryEdit

Battle background.

EtymologyEdit

In Greek mythology, Lethe was one of five rivers in the underworld, as well as the name of a spirit associated with the river. The spirit Lethe was the spirit of forgetfulness and oblivion, and drinking the water of the river caused forgetfulness. The Lethe River was portrayed in the Divine Comedy as a river in Purgatory, which Dante drank from to wipe memories of sin from his mind, preparing him to enter Heaven.