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| Final Fantasy VI copyright Square Enix. Images used for educational purposes only. |
Esper Caves
- After a small confrontation with Shadow outside Strago’s house you’ll be westbound to find the Esper Caves. Head south from Thamasa until you hit forested areas, then wander north to find a mountain range. The Caves are here. (They also don’t appear until after you’ve completed the whole burning house thing.)
- These Caves are relatively small, but you nevertheless have to put up with two branches of enemies, one outside and one indoors. The most notable and dangerous of these foes are Adamankarys, which are highly resistant to physical attacks and will sometimes use a move called Blaster which stands a good chance of instantly killing a character. Maul these things as quickly as possible with magic.
- Head north a short ways to find a chest on your left containing a Healing Rod. (As the name implies these heal anyone they hit, so don’t use one as an offensive weapon.) The cave exits to the west and the north loop around to one another and are utterly useless, so ignore ‘em both and take the partially-hidden path leading to the right instead.
- After a brief trip outside you’ll find a path leading into a wide room, free of enemies and populated by three golden statues. Don’t approach them yet! Instead, enter the room to the top-left and use the save point. Then you’re free to approach the statues. Doing so will bring down an old friend to bust up your day…
Ultros
Ahhhh, he’s back for a third round. Ultros starts off like his old self, albeit with a slightly-stronger-than-normal offence and the ability to confuse your characters. Nothing special, really. The battle only gets dangerous if you use the same brand of elemental spell (likely fire) on him three times in a row. Do that and he’ll gain a Tri-Elemental state, wherein he’ll automatically counter any elemental attacks with a third-tier form of the spell. Use Fira on him, for example, and he’ll counter with Firaga. Ouuuuuch. This will likely kill your character in one hit. Use elemental magic sparingly against him, opting instead for fire-based weaponry to dish out most of your damage.
Hit Ultros enough and Relm will join the battle on your side. Though physically weaker than just about anyone you’ve ever had on your team, Relm is the strongest natural magic user you’ll ever get. She doesn’t have any spells now, though, so you’ll have to use her Sketch command. This creates an image of its target and uses one of their spells or moves. Use Sketch on Ultros once and he’ll retreat in horror.
- Relm is now on your team, so set her up with some magicite and head for the save point in the northwest. In this same room there are three obvious drop points on your right. The top drop leads to a Chocobo Suit and a Tabby Suit; the right drop leads to an X-Potion; the bottom drop leads, ultimately, to the Espers. You can return to the original path from all three walkways.
- Proceed to the back of the cave to find the Espers and a long cut scene. In the midst of it you’ll get a chance to play as none other than General Leo, but, er, don’t get too used to him.
- Once the fiasco of Thamasa is all done you’ll have your team back, though… when you try to climb onto the Blackjack, which is working again… er.
- Yeah. That’s probably bad.