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Forest Ruins - Fallen Cathedral
- Elite Drone
- Maneater
- Shadowcat
- Spectral Soul
- Warrior Drone
- Wild Familiar
Your next destination in the Forest Ruins is less-than-obvious, because you may not think to go back this way. Remember where you found that first singing stone and battled Dreadwing, in the northwest of Singing Grove? Beside that stone was a set of stairs that’s easy to forget - but if you give the stairs a look you’ll find a new area at the top. The enemies here are the same as in the Forest Ruins, so you might as well give it a look.
Head north from the entrance. The pathway zig zags from north to south. Keep an eye open for a Sparkle halfway to the north. In the far north, northeast of the entrance to the cathedral, you'll find a yellow pad. Inspect it and the little cat dude will give you a Fox Statue. You can proceed in this fashion throughout the area to easily cover the whole map. Activate the two fountains in the east and west for almost full Water-elemental coverage.
There are two points of exit from this map. The first is in the southwest corner of the map, and is represented as a small cliff jump. It will take you into the Clearing, more or less back to the entrance of the Forest Ruins. The other exit, such as it is, is a glowing purple dome in front of the Fallen Cathedral’s entrance. Trying to get through will put you in two normal battles from which you cannot escape. They’re harder-than-average for this area, but nothing you can’t handle by now. Besting both sets of baddies unlocks the cathedral.
Forest Ruins - Altar Room
- Elite Drone
- Maneater
- Shadowcat
- Spectral Soul
- Warrior Drone
- Wild Familiar
This area’s fairly small, so there’s not much to see, and the enemies are the same as outside. You can find a Chest in the room to the left of the entrance, a Sparkle in the room to the right, another Chest along the eastern wall, and another Sparkle along the western wall. In the northwestern corner you can find a singing stone that’ll give you a Whispering Shard. This one allows you to cast Purify.
There’s a huge orb atop the altar of the Altar Room. Quick Save before approaching it, because inspecting the orb spawns a new enemy near the entrance. Boss fight!
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Water Golem
Unpleasant surprise! The Water Golem can use the following attacks:
- Elimination, a single-target physical attack
- Detection, a multi-target physical attack
- Water Calling, which pulls Water elements to the Water Golem's side and uses another Water attack
- Bubble Launcher, a single-target Water attack
- Hailstorm, a multi-target Water attack
- Water Shield, which reduces damage to the Water Golem
This is a nasty battle if you’re not set up properly. Water Golem is true to its name, and employs a large number of Water-elemental spells - Hailstorm, Bubble Launcher, Water Shield, pretty much anything you could have learned by now - to protect itself, and to pummel you. While the Water Golem has the Water elementals on its side it will rejuvenate 90 HP per round, prolonging the battle.
Nevertheless, it’s really not that bad a fight. To make the most of your turns you need to have one character continually using Water Contract to pull the Water elementals back to you. This won’t rob Water Golem of its attacks, but they will lack some of their normal kick. Employ your fastest character in healing while the third lays on the strongest physical Skills you have available, preferably some Awakened attacks that require SP. Water Golem’s Water Shield buffers some of the damage, but not enough to prevent a victory. Deploy your own Water Shield up to protect your own guys, as you probably won’t have your tank available to defend every round. It won’t take too many hits to bring the Water Golem down, so long as you rob it of its regeneration.
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Defeat the Water Golem and you’ll receive the Water Core. You can use the Water Core on the orb upon the altar. This restores water to the Forest Ruins and makes the area more aesthetically pleasing in general. (As far as I can tell, the only real effect this seems to have on your game is to make Chests spawn near the two refilled lakes in the Forest Ruins. Better than nothing?)
Go back to Initium and tell the King of Adventurers what you've done and he'll give you 500 St. Not too shabby. This more or less brings our time in the Forest Ruins to a close, and paves the way to the next major area: Roaring Valley.