Walkthrough:Final Fantasy IV: The After Years/Drake/Part 29

Part 29, we continue through the Subterrane of the True Moon.

Zombie Apocalypse

The 7th floor looks like the last floor of the Red Moon's Subterrane, but with a yellow tint. Enter the first cave and find another save point, use it for a scene. Porom and Leonora discuss how highly Palom spoke of Leonora to his sister, then Luca comes in and bluntly asks if Leonora likes Palom. Leonora stumbles over her answer but eventually admits she does. Speaking of Palom, he's been eavesdropping on them.We now learn the Ice Crush Band for Leonora, Palom and Luca. Enter the middle door for a powerful katana, the Murasame. The third door has a Dragon Shield and a Protect Ring. The Ring halves all elemental damage and has awesome defenses, if you want to give up the Giant's Gloves on a fighter for it, go ahead. The Dragon Shield also resists all elements. Go around and inspect the Crystal to fight a pack of Skulnants. They die quickly, but their boss wants to have a word with us.

Boss
Scarmiglione
HP	MP	Dangerous Attack
22,000 35,000	N/A	None
Steal	Morph	Drops
N/A	N/A	Nothing
Weakness	Resistance	Difficulty
Nothing	Nothing	1/5

Scarmiglione summons six Revenants, I used a Makeshift Cannon to clear them all out and do heavy damage to Scarmiglione. He counters all damage with Thundaga, so keep your HP high. He's weak to Fire so cast Firaga with your Black Mage while everyone else attacks. When he dies Scarmiglione rises again and initiates a Back Attack, swap rows quickly. Slow and Haste as usual, then get to work. Firaga works as before, and so do Holy-elemental weapons. Swap your Defender for the Lustrous Sword to hit his Holy weakness and do heightened damage. The Delta Evolution Band with Luca, Ceodore and Ursula combining their Attack skills was particularly hard-hitting. Eventually Scarmiglione will keel over dead. With him gone a chest appears containing the Stardust Rod. It gives the same +10 Intelligence as the Faerie Rod, so now when we need two Black Mages later on we have two +10 Rods for them. Go back and save and heal if needed, it probably is.

Go through the door to find a long bridge leading up. From here on out the familiar-looking dungeons are over, now we get into new territory. This floor is water-themed, as you'll quickly notice. Thunder weapons and spells work well. Go left and down the ramp to a White Fang, then right from the entrance, down a ramp and up to an X-Potion. Go through the left wall to find Dragon Mail, then back to the entrance. Go down over a bridge from the X-Potion, then follow the path, skipping the bridge to find a Unicorn Horn. Down the bridge is a save point room, use it and we'll see a scene between Luca and Cid where they discuss if Luca is ready for the challenges ahead, then they argue over Cid being too rough with Luca's dolls. Thus we learn the Final Calcabrina Band between the dolls, Luca and Cid. Head outside to the left and to the next Crystal.

Cagnazzo, Archfiend of Water, strikes. He's got a tough carapace so physical attacks don't do much, but he's weak to ice so smash away with Blizzaga. When he summons water to himself strike him with Thundaga to disperse it, otherwise he'll use Tsunami. With three or four Shells up I took 1000-1200 damage to the entire party, without Shell it'll obviously be a lot stronger, so try and keep your HP up in case your Black Mage can't zap him in time. If he withdraws into his shell physical attacks do nothing, and he'll heal himself for 4000 damage each turn. However Blizzaga will still do full damage so cast away. Cagnazzo shouldn't be too hard to put down. He leaves two chests with the Sage's Staff and Sage's Robe. The Robe grants +10 Speed and Intelligence while the Staff grants +10 Spirit and casts Raise as an item. Give these two awesome equipment pieces to your mages, then move on.

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Lots of flying enemies here. The Thunderbirds are annoying pricks who can counter with Electromagnetism. It inflicts a Stop-like status that cannot be cured, you must wait for it to wear off. Fortunately they die easily. Follow the path until you see a fork with a short north path into a wall. Follow that path through the wall to an Ether, then take the main path to a door. Remember this room, it's important. Go through the upper-right wall to go around to a doorway that leads to a ledge with Dragon Gloves. Go back to the entrance of the hidden path and south to a door to another ledge with a Blue Fang. Back in the room go to the upper-left and down to a door, you'll see another door in view soon here with a path leading down. Enter the door for an X-Potion and check the left wall for a path to a Dragon Helm. Continue along the path outside to a save point, rest for a scene with Edward and Harley. Yippie-frickin'-doo. When they shut up and we awaken, go right to the next Crystal and the next boss.

Boss
Barbariccia
HP	MP	Dangerous Attack
60,000	N/A	Tornado
Steal	Morph	Drops
N/A	N/A	Nothing
Weakness	Resistance	Difficulty
Nothing	Nothing	1/5

Barbariccia, here to remind us that Evil Is Sexy. She's arguably the hardest fiend yet with no elemental weaknesses and a lot more HP. Her main danger is that she routinely spins into a whirlwind. In this state physical attacks do little damage, and she counters all attacks with Tornado to drop a party member to critical HP, than Stone Gaze to petrify someone. Toss a Gold Needle and a Curaga/X-Potion and stay back until she shifts back. When she does, go all out. She lacks any really strong attacks, but her high HP, lack of weaknesses and tornado shield will make this a long battle. Don't be afraid to toss an Elixir or Dry Ether if needed. If Kain is in your party, a Jump attack will dispel her tornado instantly. Eventually she'll cast Tornado on herself, at which point the next attack finishes her. She leaves a chest containing the Gungnir. On to the next area!

Now on the fire floor, head left to a Remedy at the bottom of the second ramp, then right to a door. Follow the path to a door to a ledge with a Godhand for Yang or Ursula. Head back to that fork and take the third bridge down, then down either of the two bridges. The door between them has a save point. Now, this room has many doors. Take the first one you see to the left to a small ledge with an Ether. Go down afterwards to the wall and enter the door to your left to a longer ledge to the right with a Fuma Shuriken. Go right to a doorway with another doorway on the wall next to it, enter that door for an Apollo's Harp. Go up and you'll see a doorway directly above this one, take the door to the left of it for a small ledge with a Red Fang. Enter the door up and between them for an X-Potion. Now go back to the door to the room with the Apollo's Harp and take the door to the right of it, follow the path to a cave, go past it to a Red Cave then enter the cave to find a save point. Rest and we'll view a scene with Yang and Edge. They discuss the future of their kingdoms, and we learn the Oboro Strike Band for them. Now, if you don't have Edge in your party, swap him in and suit him up, then go north.

Rubicante will challenge Edge to single combat if he's with you. Accept and you'll fight him alone. There's a simple strategy, throw a Hermes Sandals on Edge and a Spider's Silk on Rubicante, and you'll outspeed him so much you can just turn on the Auto-Battle and attack over and over to kill him. Add in a Lunar Curtain to give Edge Reflect and block Rubicante's spells for extra safety. When Rubicante closes his cloak he gains the powerful Inferno attack, use Mug on him to get it back open and avoid the danger. If you fight Ruby with your full party, know when he cloases his cloak all elemental damage heals him, and he still has Inferno at this time. His normal offense consists of attacks and Firaga spells. Shell is very useful here, cast it several times if you can. Overall Ruby hits hard, but if you can stay on top of his attacks you should be able to take him down. If you beat him one-on-one with Edge he'll leave the Fire Scarf behind. It has awesome defenses, absorbs Fire, and grants +3 to all stats except Spirit. It isn't too hard to do with Edge alone, with the Sandals, Silk and Curtain Rubicante is heavily crippled, only Inferno when his cloak is closed poses a threat and then you know how to get his cloak open again. The Fire Scarf, by the way, can only be used by the ninjas, but is still best for Edge.

Go north of Rubicante' waiting area to head forward. Your party should be around Level 50 or higher for this area. high 40s is acceptable.

Clockwork

Now we're in a technological area. As in the Tower of Babil, many monsters here gain a Confuse-like status and attack their allies when hit with an electric attack. Head north then left, taking the first path north you see to a small area with a Cottage. Go back and go left to a fork, head all the way south to a chest with a Poison Axe. It's pretty strong but sadly is two-handed. Take either of the two paths to the west now, both curve up to a door. Go through the area to the left and come back out. Go left to see a chest with an Ether. Go south, ignoring all side-paths, you'll come to a dead end but a chest with be in plain sight to the left, it has a Moonring Blade. Go back and take the first path right, the purple circle tile is a save point. Rest here for a scene with Golbez and Ceodore that doesn't serve much purpose for plot or character, basically Ceodore just asks Golbez a couple questions anyone would ask - are you really my father's brother, what's it like where you come from, why did you come back now. In the morning save and go south, following the path to our next boss.

Boss
CPU, Attack Node and Node
HP	MP	Dangerous Attack
33,000 5,000	N/A	Globe 199
Steal	Morph	Drops
N/A	N/A	Nothing
Weakness	Resistance	Difficulty
Nothing	Nothing	2/5

There are two strategies to this fight. The CPU will use Reflect on itself, the Attack Node will use Laser Barrage to attack the party, and the Defense Node uses Heal to heal itself or one of the other nodes. If both Nodes are killed, the CPU uses Globe 199 to instantly kill a party member, then regenerates the nodes. The two ways to win are the fast and slightly more dangerous way, while the other is a slower and safe way. To do it the safe way, kill the Attack Node and leave the Defense Node alive. The enemy party now has no offense, you just need to out-damage the Defense Node's healing. The fast way is to kill the Defense Node and then wail on the CPU. The Attack Node still attacks but the lower its HP the less damage Laser Barrage does so attack it a few times, don't kill it though, it has 5,000 HP so keep track of how hurt it is. Both ways, use Spider Silk at the start of the fight to Slow all three of them, and Haste your party. It isn't too difficult no matter what you do, these bosses as a whole were difficult in FF4, but Bands add a whole new element to things this time around.

The CPU drops chests with the Yoichi Bow and Yoichi Arrows, both effective weapons. Take your prizes, we're almost done this first part of the dungeon.