Danger Level: 30
Location: South Quarrycrest Pass, east of Quarrycrest
A challenge for more intermediate players, the Derelict Mine is probably a little over your party's heads when they first make the trip to Quarrycrest. Once you have one or two Chapter 2s under your belt, however, this place is a great spot to build up your team and gather some valuable items. You'll run into the following enemies in Derelict Mine:
- Skull Roller - Weak to Polearm, Ice, and Dark. The weak link in Derelict Mine. Should be a pushover by the time you can handle this area.
- Marionette Bones - Weak to Staff, Wind, and Light. Can use Horrific Claw to seal your Boosting. Good chance you've fought these before.
- Puppet Bones - Weak to Staff, Fire, and Light. Similar to Marionette Bones, only they buff themselves rather than debuffing you.
- Brawler Bones - Weak to Axe, Staff, Fire, and Light. Much more powerful skeletal enemy that is, fortunately, easy to break. Target a weakness immediately when you see one.
- Dark Elemental - Weak to Fire and Light. Uses powerful Dark Skills, no surprise. A bit of a problem if you can't target its weaknesses, of which it has few. Use magic-based Skills if you can't, as it doesn't take a ton of damage from normal attacks.
- Dark Curator - Weak to Polearm, Bow, Staff, and Light. Enemy that favors Dark Skills. Has more health than the Dark Elemental, but is a bit easier to fight thanks to the larger number of weaknesses.
- Fire Elemental - Weak to Ice and Wind. The Fire version of the Dark Elemental. Same tips apply.
- Fire Curator - Weak to Polearm, Bow, Staff, and Ice. Fire version of the Dark Curator. Yadda yadda.
- Skulking Fungoid - Weak to Polearm and Ice. Uses attacks to blind one or more characters in your party. Can also summon in Shambling Weeds. Quite annoying, and worth taking out early.
- Mutant Mushroom - Weak to Dagger and Fire. Can buff its party as well as put your characters to sleep. Less annoying than Skulking Fungoids, but still a pain.
You'll start off near a save point, per usual with dungeons. Check the path to the left of the save point to find a chest containing a Wind Soulstone (L), then start making your way east. Go north at the first torch after the save point, then take a left to find a purple chest containing a Conscious Stone.
Make your way to the east wall of the area. You'll see a treasure chest below you, but no way down to it. The path is right beside the torch that' flush with the eastern wall. The chest contains 10,000 leaves. Wind back up to ground level and head north. The first left takes you to an Inspiriting Plum (M), while the second takes you higher, to the west. Off the main path and further west you'll see a chest; wander over to it and you'll find an Olive of Life (L) inside.
Go up the ramps to the east and you'll see a chest ahead, on your left. As you approach you'll sense overwhelming danger. Say you're ready and you'll be facing off against the weird master(s?) of the Derelict Mine.
Weakness: Sword, Axe, Fire
Huh. Don't see that every day. Taking a page from the Malboros of Final Fantasy, Manymaws is a foul creature that deals in status ailments. It can attack and debuff you, yes, but its most dangerous attacks are Toxic Breath - hitting everyone with poison status, as well as an unhealthy dose of damage - and Foul Odor, which can hit every party member on your team with five status ailments, namely confusion, poison, sleep, silence, and/or blindness. You won't see Foul Odor too often, which is good, because it makes an unholy mess of your party most of the time.
Unless you're powerful enough to stun Manymaws and keep it that way for the majority of the fight, you'll want to bring Alfyn along. He's the only character who can cure status ailments en masse with Concoct, and his Resist Ailments Support Skill will provide extra protection against the effects of Foul Odor. So long as Alfyn isn't confused or put to sleep he can use Soothing / Purifying Powder and a healing component to quickly get rid of status ailments and get your team back in the fight. Purifying Dust in particular will also heal everyone up in case they're being stung by poison. This element aside, the fight is pretty simple: Stun the Manymaws and beat the holy heaven out of it.
With the Manymaws out of the way - though if you search the mine enough you can fight another one - you can get at the final treasure chest of the Derelict Mine, which contains a Carnage Blade. Very nice reward for the trek. You're all done here, so feel free to warp out and heal up back in Quarrycrest.