- Immediately after emerging from the Gate you’ll wind up in a pair of battles, these against reptilian creatures called Reptites. They’re not terribly difficult, though you’ll find all-hitting Techs, particularly anything to do with lightning, the most effective. Once you plow through both swarms of Reptites a new party member will appear, default name Ayla, and lead you out of the Mystic Mountains. (You’ll get her on your team soon enough.)
- (Feel like leaving? Return to the screen where you dropped in and head up and to the left along the cliff’s edge. You’ll find a ledge at the top that you can jump off and into the Gate.)
- Follow Ayla south after the introduction. To your left upon hitting the next screen is a chest (they look like green, leafy boxes here) containing a Berserker Ring. South of them is a pack of four Crested Sprinters, best dispatched with magic or other Techs, and past them battles with Kilwalas. These critters are easy to demolish with physical hits. There are two more combos of both to the south, but you can avoid them easily. Note that you get various items - Horns, Petals, Feathers, Fangs - rather than money for killing enemies in 65,000,000 BC; more on that in a bit.
Ioka Village
- Head northeast of the Mystic Mountains to find Ioka Village, Ayla’s home. The first two huts are nothing special, though a woman in the hut on the right has ‘happy water’ that will restore your health.
- Head to the northwestern hut in Ioka, the Chief’s Hut. Speaking to Ayla inside will trigger a big party. Wander around and talk to people - you can also dance, if you brought Marle along - then chat with Ayla until she offers you Dreamstone in exchange for winning a drinking contest. Mash the indicated button until Ayla gives in to end the sequence…
- … and to wake up the next day with your Gate Key missing. Ouch. No time traveling until you get that puppy back. Visit Ayla to get her on your team to help with the search. Ayla is the strongest physical hitter in the game, can take almost as much abuse as Robo, moves as quickly as Crono, and doesn’t need any weapons! Pretty danged good.
- Now that you’ve become acquainted with Ayla, head to the northeastern hut in Ioka. The elderly gentleman inside will give you equipment in exchange for the items you pick up from killing enemies. You need to give him three of an item, combined with three of another item, to get one piece of equipment. A man to the side explains what you’ll get for each combination, but for the sake of simplicity:
- Petal and Fang = Ruby Gun
- Petal and Horn = Shaman’s Bow
- Petal and Feather = Stone Arm
- Fang and Horn = Mammoth Tusk
- Fang and Feather = Ruby Vest
- Horn and Feather = Stone Helm
At the very least you should get some Ruby Vests for everyone, as they resist fire attacks. You’ll run into plenty of those soon enough. (You can also purchase items normally from another dude in this same hut. He’s less interesting.)
- Looking for more items to purchase all this stuff? There are two other places you can hunt.
Hunting Range
To the north and the right of the path is the Hunting Range. Here you’ll find a few enemies that offer decent amounts of Petals, Fangs, Feathers and Horns and put up very little resistance. This is the best place to stockpile these items. Even better, a Nu will appear whenever it begins to rain (and it rains fairly often here, if you wait long enough) and, if you manage to get to the thing before the rain ends, you can challenge it, beat it up, and earn three of each item. Nice haul, and good TP besides.
Dactyl Nest
To the far north is the Dactyl Nest, an area that you can access now but don’t really need to enter until later in the game. The enemies here are quite strong and yield lots of experience compared to what you normally battle, but, y’know, they’re strong. You can kill them at the average level for this point of the game, but I don’t advise it unless you have some really good all-hitting Techs ready.
Done looking around? Head south of Ioka. You’ll find a large cluster of trees surrounding a cave. Approach the northernmost border of the forest to find the Forest Maze. One small cut scene later, you’ll be allowed to enter.
Part Seventeen: Forest Maze, 65,000,000 BC
Part Seventeen: Forest Maze, 65,000,000 BC