This is it. Across plains, oceans, wastelands, deserts, and ruins, Ryu and company have finally made their way to the inner sanctum of Myria, Goddess of the Urkan and enemy of the Brood. The western door from the front entrance of Myria Station will take you into the heart of Myria's operation, and with Card Key A you can now enter that door. Good luck.
A small word of warning, before you head inside. Although this is not a point of no return by any means, the road back outdoors is long, and filled with enemies. If you have any unfinished business to conduct - say, visiting Masters - you might want to do it now, before getting in over your head.
Myria Station
Monsters
- Goo King (final corridor only) - Steal Green Apple, Drop Goo King Sword, Learn Charge / Burn
- Mist Man - Steal Seeking Sword, Drop Mist Armor (can't be hit by physical attacks for a chance of Mist Armor dropping)
- Night Bat - Steal Power Food, Drop Protein, Learn Gloom
- Revenant - Steal Belladonna, Drop Diana's Dress, Learn Multistrike
- Vampire - Steal Burglar Garb, Drop Lifestealer, Learn Frost / Triple Blow
There are plenty of strong enemies on the road to the goddess, some of which you've seen before. The enemy worth noting is the Vampire. Accompanied by Night Bats, Vampires will continuously rejuvenate their health until you've defeated all of their Night Bats. Once you do that the Vampire will become vulnerable - but also use more powerful attacks. Using Accession to wipe out the Vampire with a single, strong blow isn't a bad idea.
This first area is a maze-like series of corridors. Go northeast, northwest, southwest, and down the slope to find the exit. There are no items to collect on the side paths, so don't bother with any of them.
Next up you'll find yourself in a narrow room with two doors, each bearing a red light. Within these rooms you'll face off against bosses from earlier in Breath of Fire III, and in most cases you'll have to fight two or more of the boss at a time. You don't need to fight every boss to proceed through this area, though you will need to defeat several.
This section is quite convoluted, and rather difficult to describe in text alone. This guide will instead provide a quick breakdown of the enemies you'll face, and roughly where you'll fight them:
- Sample 1 - Three Nues. Through the northeast door at the entrance. Very weak.
- Sample 2 - Two Huge Slugs. Northwest and northeast of the entrance. Extremely weak to Flame attacks.
- Sample 3 - Two Mikbas. Northeast of the room with the Nues. Venom Breath is annoying, otherwise not a problem.
- Sample 4 - One Dodo. The only new boss. Can Paralyze characters with Evil Eye, but is otherwise just a nuisance. Transform Ryu into a dragon and demolish it with elemental attacks.
- Sample 5 - One Angler. Up the ladder from the Huge Slugs, on the left. Avoid Electric attacks and you'll be fine.
- Sample 6 - Two Ammonites. Up the ladder from the Huge Slugs, on the right. Same battle as last time, pretty much. Watch out for Tsunami. Otherwise, not a big deal.
- Sample 7 - One Manmo. Right after the Dodo. Not a big deal all around. Lost its severe weakness to Frost attacks - though it also doesn't counterattack melee strikes nearly as often, so this fight is easier than the original.
- Sample 8 - Five Rockies. Through two doors northwest of the entrance. Very, very weak.
- Sample 9 - One Gaist. Through the northeast door from the Mikbas. Very easy since you're fighting him with three party members rather than just Ryu.
- Sample 10, 11, 12 - Three Stallions, leaning towards Frost, Flame, and Electric resistances, in that order. Northeast of the Rockies. Either target other elements or stick to neutral attacks. Not a big deal.
Once you reach a room with a diary you'll have escaped the little labyrinth. You should nevertheless have a look through all of the rooms, as there are several items for you to collect.
- In the north of the save room is a door to a bedroom. Use the beds to recover your health. In here you'll find a chest containing a Cupid's Lyre.
- Go up the ladder from the save room and enter the northeastern door. Inside is a chest containing Moon Tears. Southwest of the ladder, down a bit of a blind, dead-end alley, you'll find a hidden chest containing an Hourglass.
- Head northwest of the entrance, northeast to a small intersection, northwest one room, and up the ladder you find. In the room on the left at the top of the ladder is a chest containing a Swallow Eye.
All that leaves is the ladder leading into the depths below the save room. Honey will open the way for the group, granting you access to a lift... and Myria's inner sanctum. The green-tinted corridor beneath the save room is the last place you'll run into random battles, and since it's a breeding ground for Goo Kings this is probably the best place in the game to level your characters, aside from powering up Lava Men at Mt. Zublo. This is also where you're best off looking for a Goo King Sword, if you're... really keen on getting one.
One of Myria's holographic attendants will greet you at the bottom of the lift, and as you explore the next area - which is a twisting, but straightforward, path around a huge chamber - other holograms will explain Myria's role in safekeeping the order of the world. You'll learn a great deal about the Machine Age, the Brood, and why Myria did what she did. Eventually a lift will take you to a central platform...
Myria will then agree to let Ryu make a choice: Give up his powers willingly and remain with Myria, or fight for a different, more uncertain future. Speak to everyone in the party, then talk to Myria again. You're now forced to choose between two options, and your decision will change the ending of the game. If you opt to remain with Myria, Breath of Fire III will end without a struggle...
... and Ryu will settle in for a comfortable, lonely life at Myria Station.
If, however, Ryu decides to walk his own path... well. Choose your party and get ready.
Myria
Steal: Napalm
Drop: Nothing
Learn: Nothing
The Goddess cometh. Myria isn't messing around in this battle, and she's prepared to throw everything she's got at the party. Myria will use the following attacks over the course of the battle:
- A (rather gross) melee attack
- Sanctuary, which nullifies any stat buffs on the party
- Restore, which replenishes some of Myria's HP
- Venom, which can Poison, Blind, and Confuse the whole party
- Evil Eye, which can Paralyze a single target
- Inferno, a Flame attack against the whole party
- Sirocco, a Flame and Wind attack against the whole party
- Blizzard, a Frost attack against the whole party
- Death, a OHKO attack against a single target
- Myollnir, an Electric attack against a single target
- Holocaust, a high-damage magic attack against the whole party
Phew. That's quite a laundry list. Myria will spend the first half of the battle cycling through all of those moves except Myollnir and Holocaust. Sanctuary will stop you from applying stat buffs for meaningful lengths of time, while Evil Eye and Venom can prove annoying if you're not protected by status ailments. Death is pure good or bad luck. The rest of Myria's attacks are elemental in nature, and may or may not badly harm your party members.
Once Myria reaches half of her health - which would be 10,000 HP, since she has a grand total of 20,000 HP - she'll stop using Sanctuary and start blasting the party with Myollnir and Holocaust. Both moves are quite painful if you aren't using Barrier to offset the damage. Beyond this point it's a race to see who can do more damage, more quickly.
Ryu is a must-have in this battle, as always, but your other party members are a matter of debate. Let's have a look at a potential team.
- Momo is a great choice for this fight. Her buffs won't be terribly useful early on, but they prove invaluable once Myria stops using Sanctuary. In the meantime she can provide healing services when Ryu can't, and is capable of inflicting respectable amounts of damage with her cannon.
- Rei is another great choice. He hits fairly hard, depending on your build, but his greatest asset is his speed. If Rei is fast enough he may receive EX turns, which will allow him to apply buffs, use items, and otherwise just attack Myria. Rei's a good candidate for your stronger physical attacks, like Shadowwalk.
- Nina is a decent choice in this fight for the same reason as Rei, though she likely won't be as fast. Her magic also won't put as much of a dent in Myria. Expect Nina to provide healing via items, which is quite useful in this battle.
- Peco can be handy if you beefed up his health and attack power, though his Skills and slow speed put him at a bit of a disadvantage. His high Reprisal rate also won't get much of a workout since Myria doesn't attack physically all that often.
- Garr's resistance to Flame gives him a bit of an advantage against two of Myria's spells, though for the most part he suffers from the same issues as Peco, and probably won't have as much HP to stand toe-to-toe with the onion. Garr nevertheless probably has better survivability than much of the rest of the party.
Regardless of the party composition you choose, there are a number of different ways to get through this fight. Here are some suggestions.
- The first, most obvious method is to let Ryu take point and turn into a high-power dragon. He can either choose a form that encompasses everybody - Behemoth and Tiamat can hold their own - or choose a smaller form, like Kaiser, which will allow your other party members to feed him Wisdom Fruits. Use strong moves like Aura and Shadowwalk to carve a path through Myria's HP, buffing Ryu to increase his attack power as you go. Heal as necessary.
- Second, you can keep Ryu human and let him handle support work as well as offence. Have someone buff your party, in spite of Sanctuary, and pummel Myria with your best attacks. Immediately heal away Paralysis. Throw up Barrier once you think you're around halfway through Myria's HP so she can't slaughter the party with Myollnir and Holocaust.
- Third, you can let Ryu transform into a dragon, but choose a lower-power form so your other party members don't need to worry as much about replenishing his AP. This more balanced approach will allow you to block off one of Ryu's elemental vulnerabilities (or all of them, if you use the Flame, Frost, and Thunder Genes) and keep him attacking Myria for long periods of time. He'll run out of AP eventually, but if you stick with Claw attacks Ryu will stay a dragon for most of the fight.
- Fourth, assuming you've been picking them up, you can take the cheap route through the fight and freeze Myria with Hourglasses. Have your strongest offensively-minded character use an Hourglass to halt the rest of the field, then let them go to town on Myria with their most powerful attack. Apply another Hourglass once you run out and repeat the process. Even if you don't have enough Hourglasses to cover the entire fight, you will manage to carve a huge chunk out of Myria's HP if you play your cards right.
Regardless of your approach, keep in mind that this is the final fight of Breath of Fire III. There are no super bosses, besides the enemies at the Container Yard, and they probably won't give you as much trouble as Myria. If you've been saving up Moon Tears, Hourglasses, Wisdom Fruit, or any number of high-level fish, now's the time to use 'em. Moon Tears in particular are great against Myria, as they will instantly clean up the effects of Venom on the whole party. Whales will do the same thing, if you stockpiled any.
If you manage to defeat Myria, then, congratulations! You've beaten Breath of Fire III! The credits will roll, and if you wait long enough at the screen pictured above you'll receive the option to save your game. Reload it and you'll appear back in Dragnier, and can explore the world as you please, tying up loose ends - or heading back to Myria Station to go another round with the Goddess. It's your call from here on out. Well done!