About the closest thing to harmless you can get. Killed in one shot by just
about anyone's melee attack, they should be long dead before they can even
get to the second move in their script, the Jump Kick.

The slightly more defensive Slate Imp, these will counter with the Jump Kick
should you attack and fail to kill it. They also possess an earthquake-like
move and can inflict Slow.

Rubbles with a lot more than a new coat of paint. Severely jacked up defense
and a Pyroclast counter (lava to entire party) means you can't just spam the
attack command until you land a hit and kill one. For what it's worth, they
don't just sit there anymore, either, and can Pyroclast or Drain your health
if they haven't already fled. That lava *hurts*, so you wouldn't be unwise to
equip whatever Red Vests or Plates you have beforehand to absorb it.

To get Lumicite from one, have Ayla Charm one with the Alluring Top
immediately. To actually kill one, I recommend using Antipode Bomb III
(Lucca, Marle, Flare + Ice II) and following up with another character's
strongest tech. Luminaire certainly works. In the 50s you should at least be
able to hit it for over 2000 with Antipode V3. The boatload of EXP, money and
TP pale in comparison to the armor you can craft from that Lumicite. Bring it
to the Reptite in Lost Sanctum post haste!

Chrono Trigger is no stranger to skeletons with lances. New to the fraternity
is this guy, lacking a fire weakness but packing crappy MDef anyway, so a good
Fire II is still the bane of their existence. Apart from stabbing you with
that spear they like to use Grudge. I've never seen them use their water
attack "Torrential Blast" but I'm guessing it's a renamed Water Surge.

These little octopi are easy to kill with any level 2 spell not of the shadow
element, and you'll want to as they've got some nasty moves, namely Grudge and
draining HP. They'll counter attacks with the latter, and also pack Flame.

Don't bother using magic on these guys, as their MDef is very high. I tend to
prefer using physical techs on them, since they can survive the usual attack
if it isn't a crit or the Crisis Arm. Falcon Hit does the job. Like the Ocean
Palace mages they pack the energy spheres and Lock ability; these things also
have the Psychokinesis move Azala liked to spam and Dark Flare. Not too tough.

I totally called one of the new enemies being another Heckran palette swap!
Like Heckran they use water spells, Ice II and Water II; they also use his
adorable slap-happy attack. Its moves go unwaveringly in that order, and each
time you attack it its strength and magic are boosted.

New helmet for the ladies. Auto haste and status immunity. Very sexy.

Location Summary: During the randomly generated room segment you may come
across a prehistoric-themed place the game calls "Strath." Look for a leafy
patch of trees on the right shortly after the beginning and you'll find a
hidden passage leading to a chest with this item.


Designed for Magus, this robe gives him a sickening +20 MDef and Auto-Barrier.
Even the meanest magic attacks won't be killing him with this thing on.

Location Summary: During the Frozen Cliffs, take the left exit from the top of
the huge sloping area, then climb down the wall right before you, to a chest.


Marle's ultimate weapon. Guaranteed to land 777 damage, this thing is awful
for anyone but her. Unless an enemy has preset full immunity to attacks like
Spekkio or Jadewings, it ignores all manner of defense. Up yours, Nizbel.

Location Summary: During the Frozen Cliffs, take to the far right once you
enter the huge sloping area, and once you descend a ways take the first
rightmost exit you find. Drop to the snow in the next room, and walk to the
far left of the screen to enter a familiar cave. The first hidden passage
leads to the chest with this weapon.


Best armor for the ladies, it gives both Auto-Shell and Barrier. Still sexy.

Location Summary: During the Frozen Cliffs, following the snowy slope you'll
reach a vast, open area. On the far, lower right of this area is a chest with
the gown; when you pass through an opening between two ridges (a Snowbeast
will be prowling beneath it) take a right from that Snowbeast and you'll come
across the chest.

Prior to the Frozen Cliffs, you'll encounter one of these sets of rooms:

1. Guardia Forest -> Strath -> Dactyl Nest -> Site 16 -> Manolia Cathedral

2. Manolia Cathedral -> Site 16 -> Sunken Desert -> Strath -> Mountain of Woe

3. Dactyl Nest -> Mountain of Woe -> Manolia Cathedral -> Guardia Forest ->
-> Site 16

4. Sunken Desert -> Guardia Forest -> Site 16 -> Dactyl Nest ->
-> Fiendlord's Keep

5. Strath -> Manolia Cathedral -> Fiendlord's Keep -> Mountain of Woe ->
-> Guardia Forest

6. Site 16 -> Fiendlord's Keep -> Mountain of Woe -> Sunken Desert -> Strath

7. Fiendlord's Keep -> Sunken Desert -> Strath -> Manolia Cathedral ->
-> Dactyl Nest

8. Mountain of Woe -> Dactyl Nest -> Guardia Forest -> Fiendlord's Keep ->
-> Sunken Desert

--------------
--------------
Enemies: Amantia, Scarab, Gilded Bellbird
Treasure: None
Descrip: This is the 1000 A.D. forest, complete with pathetic encounters.
They start you at the exit leading to the castle; avoiding encounters is easy.

------
------
Enemies: Pink Imp, Slate Imp
Treasure: Angel's Tiara
Descrip: A vertical passage through some prehistoric cliffs, with some forced
Imp encounters along the way. To get your hands on the Angel's Tiara, look for
the large group of leaves below and to the right of the huge circular platform
you immediately come across. Walk beneath the leaves and into an invisible
passage, which if taken down and to the right, will lead you to the chest
holding the item.

-----------
-----------
Enemies: Cave Ape, Schist, Avian Rex
Treasure: None
Descrip: This is the final stretch of the nest leading to the cliffs where you
actually meet the Dactyls. Avoiding the lone unenforced encounter is just a
matter of not touching one of the Schists.

-------
-------
Enemies: Ruin Stalker, Floral Horror, Crater, Rat
Treasure: None
Descrip: The rats will still steal your Potions or money rather than fight.
You can avoid all of the encounters here if you hug the walls opposite where
enemies are present, or in the case of Craters, simply avoid touching them.
If you do set off an encounter in a spot that had no enemies, next time take
the opposite side and you'll avoid it.

-----------------
-----------------
Enemies: Diablo, Underling, Mad Bat
Treasure: None
Descrip: You're inside the large room with the trap staircase and must play
the organ again to unlock the door on the rearmost wall. That means pressing
the two skull switches again to retract the spikes and engaging five enemies
in the room with the organ. Apart from that battle which can't be run from,
avoiding all other encounters is just a matter of staying away from every
enemy. There's a lot of them.

-------------
-------------
Enemies: Sandrago, Vilepillar
Treasure: None
Descrip: Making it from one side to the other is incredibly simple; avoiding
the enemies isn't as so thanks to the sand. If you stay away from the sides
and the center of the area immediately before each staircase, though, you can
certainly try. I always manage to set just one off.

---------------
---------------
Enemies: Rubble, Bomber Bird, Stone Imp, Gargoyle
Treasure: None
Descrip: You're placed at the end of the large second area, which contained
the respawning Rubble and save point. Both Rubbles in the area are still there
for that matter, so if you somehow haven't learned all your techs, kill them.
Otherwise work your way around, setting off all the encounters which AFAIK are
forced apart from a set of Bomber Birds before the chain leading to the Rubble
that would respawn. Naturally, like the treasure, there's also no save point.

----------------
----------------
Enemies: Roundillo, Vampire Bat, Juggler
Treasure: None
Descrip: The first of the outer tower areas, with zigzagging staircases and
enemies rolling down them. Since I don't care to fight with Jugglers and use
my MP, I take to the underhangs whenever a Roundillo approaches.

- All you can do at the moment is go up, killing the Imps should you decide
to, climbing the cliff walls as you find them. When you first head left and
find a climbable spot trailing up and another trailing down, the downward one
will take you to a Megalixir. Take the upward one and climb the next wall you
see close by, then trek a short distance to the left for another chest, this
one containing a Lapis. Proceed all the way over to the right side of the
cliffs to another climbable wall, take it and the wall afterward, and you'll
be standing in a large clearing filled with Imps. You'll be seeing this place
a few times, so I wouldn't bother fighting them. To the left of that clearing
is another wall, which when climbed leads to a new area.

- Climb the next two walls and you'll get a forced encounter with four
Bone Knights. If you're going to take the opportunity to find and kill a
Wonder Rock during this vortex, you may want to run from the battle as you
could end up reloading the room (and that encounter) many times. Now, to the
right of that area is a spot to climb down, leading to another, and then a
chest containing a Hi-Potion. To the immediate right of that first climbable
wall, if luck is being nice to you, is a spawning point for Wonder Rocks.
If one isn't there, take the walls back down to the previous area and try
exiting then re-entering the room. When you do find one, remember that these
blue boys are NOT to be treated the same as Rubbles on Mt. Woe. See the New
Enemies section earlier in this portion of the guide to see how to handle one
of them. Anyway, Wonder Rock or not, to the right is a perfectly straight line
of snow. Stepping onto it will send you sliding into the next area.

- This huge room is one big slope, which will send you sliding to the very
bottom if you don't control your descent. There are multiple exits, two of
which leading to some ultimate equipment, so take those first. Start with the
one you can see to your left, on the map. Once you press a direction, hold up
and left so you can guide yourself to the little cliff with a wall to climb
down to the opening there.

- Immediately below you is a wall climb, which leads to a chest with the
Shadowplume Robe for Magus. Head back up and to the right, where there's
another wall climb, which isn't fully blocked by the Bone Knight and Chaos
Mages in front of it. If you don't want to battle, you can easily slip by
once the Mages reach the top of their arc. The chest to the right of that
downward climb contains an Elixir. To the right of that, another climb,
followed by a high drop to the snow below. To the right is the exit to the
next area of this vortex; to get the next ultimate equip, though, climb the
wall to the immediate left of the exit and step onto the snow, which sends
you uncontrollably sliding into the clearing with Imps. Back up the walls,
through the forced 4x Bone Knights encounter, back down the snowy slope and
into the huge multi-exit room. Wait for me, though, I have to get back to that
point, myself ;)

- Now, you want to move to the far right before you descend (skip the exit
you see there in the middle) and eventually you'll slide to a cliff with an
exit. Take it and you'll be perched on the edge of an opening in the cliff;
drop down and head to the left for a battle with a Chaos Mage and some Soul
Stalkers. While it looks like nothing else is here, walk to the left of the
screen and you'll enter a new area, the Winding Passage. It's the same passage
you took to the Tyrano Lair segment of the Lost Sanctum, complete with hidden
paths to the three treasure chests within.

- Once the passage slants downward, the first hidden passage will be on the
lower right, in the dip before the path slants upward again. The chest by the
torch in that little room contains Marle's weak yet suitable Venus Bow. At the
next downward slant and dip is the second hidden passage, leading to a
Megalixir. The passage furthest north which isn't even hidden leads to a Turbo
Ether. Now, get out of this place and back into the howling wind, deal with
the enemies as you see fit, and take the cut-off climbable wall downward.
The chest at your feet contains a Hi-Ether. Now head right, touching the Bone
Knight to trigger a battle with it and a Soul Stalker, then further right to
another cut-off wall climb. You've gotten everything, so head right instead of
climbing the wall that leads to the clearing again.

- This area just might be the single largest room in the game. It's wide
open space apart from some snowy ridges along the ground which force you to
walk around them. Of course, there's a handful of encounters, including the
new Snowbeasts. They give pretty good EXP, so go ahead and pummel them.
Don't just attack if you have a weak party, though, as they have 4000 HP and
taking damage repeatedly will considerably buff their magic. Anyway, if you
head down and adhere to the ridge, following along to the right, you'll
eventually come to a triangular shaped point. Stand here for a moment and look
closely. See the sparkles? The one you can grab right away is a Magic Capsule;
the other two are a Strength and Speed Capsule, which can be gotten after you
walk all the way around the ridge blocking your way. Head up, deal with that
Snowbeast and straight back down for your Speed Capsule. Move right and you'll
notice an opening in the wall for you to walk down through (stepping on a
patch of snow a little ways above that triggers a battle with some Chaos Mages
and a Bone Knight) if you look closely. If you don't see it, just head down
and you should simply walk on through. First, head left and return to that
triangular point to get the Strength Capsule, then straight down to a
Snowbeast on the prowl. Between the ridges and to the right of that Snowbeast
is a chest containing the Regal Gown. As far as ultimate equipment is
concerned, you've now fully pillaged the place.

- Anyway, proceed to the left and you'll find an opening between two
ridges, which when stepped into triggers a battle with more Bone Knights.
If you want an Athenian Water, first head up and to the left until you find
the chest sitting there. Head through the opening and to the left of the
Snowbeast nearby for a chest with an Elixir. From there, walk a long ways to
the right and into the final area of this vortex. Move right and you'll
trigger an encounter with two Snowbeasts. This happens to be one of the better
post-Geno Dome EXP farming spots, so if you're very highly leveled and feel
like taking a few minutes to gulp down some more experience, knock yourself
out. Otherwise head up the slanting ramps of snow and into the warp at the
top. Proceed along through this echoey cave and you'll find a save point.
Use it, refresh the party (equipping any Blue Plates or Vests you may have,
including one for Marle) and continue along, skipping the first gate, until
your party is stopped by Marle. She'll tell you she's being called forward or
something to that effect and be put in the lead of your party.

HP: 16000
Defense: 150
Magic Defense: 67
EXP: 5000
Charm: Haste Helm
Weak: Shadow, Fire
Absorbs: ---
Immune: Water

Techs: Barrage, Icefall, Recuperate
Counters: Barrage, Icefall

Strategy: Unlike your very own Marle, her crossbow actually packs a wallop in
relation to your party's own HP levels. Marle herself can take at least 300
damage from it, while in the low 50s. Even so, being a single target attack it
isn't too troublesome, and if you've equipped your Blue stuff her Icefall will
do you a favor. If you have Lucca with the Aegis, your Blue Plate and Vest go
to Marle & Co; otherwise give Lucca and your non-mandatory character the blue
equipment. Marle should be okay just healing repeatedly since she won't be
countered. Any unprotected character is sure to take a few hundreds' worth of
damage from Icefall, unless you're really packing on the levels at this point.

She also happens to be the easiest boss in this sidequest. Her HP is not
whittled down but quickly plummeted by the likes of Antipode Bomb III and
Blaze Kick; my suggested cohorts are either Lucca and Ayla or Lucca and Robo
for the obscenely powerful fire double techs at your disposal. If you want to
Antipode as your primary damage source, use Robo for healing. Otherwise, leave
that to Marle, who is well suited to restore you after the single-target blows
stack up, and let Lucca do all the work with Ayla or Robo. Without Lucca, Robo
and Ayla make an excellent team with Beast Toss. In this case (or any case,
really) give Robo the Crisis Arm and Prism Specs to ensure his share of the
attack is as strong as possible. Ayla can have the Sunglasses since she won't
be reaping the benefits from Valor Crest much.

After the fight ends almost as quickly as it began, Alabaster Shade will
approach and merge with Marle, powering up her Speed by 2, and both her
Accuracy and Stamina by 5.