My first intention was to keep these screenshots for my second and third playthroughs because I wanted to play faster for a perfect game with all achievements and collect all items. Later, I realized I could share this guide with other FFIV players because even myself struggling in finding hidden items and paths throughout the game. With all maps captured in pictures, it helps me walk through the game faster without remembering all the little details.

Let's make this short. if you are like me who don't like reading long paragraphs of walkthroughs, you probably find this easy to complete the game. This walkthrough followed Action Walkthrough for DS[gamefaqs.gamespot.com] version with some modifications since Steam version doesn't have Whyt and mini-games. I recommend reading from Action's walkthrough if you want to know all the details of the entire game.

If you just want to fnish the game, you can still use this walkthrough by skipping all optional sections. Before we start, here is a a few thing you must do in order to get 100% achievements.

• You must complete 100% map. I guess it's not hard to do since you can foresee the maps before you even proceed.
  
• You must complete the game at least 2 times (at least 1 time in "Hard" mode).
  
• You must own at least 1 suit of Onion Equipment and 1 Adamant Armor (See Tail Hunt section).
  
• You must unlock all hidden summons (see Hidden Summon section).
  
• You must steal Dark Matter from Zeromus in order to fight Proto-Babil.
  
• You must defeat Geryon and Proto-Babil.
  
• You must complete 100% Bestiary.

*** I only covered permanently missable and difficult achievements throughout the game, others can be obtained at late game or whenever you feel like doing them.

*If you are here for Stats Maxing guide and calculator, skip to Stats Maxing section.

Since you are committing for a perfect game, here are a few suggestions that you should keep in mind:

• 100% Achievements: You can complete all achievement in the second playthrough. However, it's going to be very hard to defeat Proto-Babil, so it is recommended to max out all stats in the third playthrough before confronting Proto-Babil.
  
• Rare item: Do not attempt to farm any rare items before getting Treasure Hunter Augment. Well, for example, if you spend 10 hours hunting Bomb Summon, it's 5 hours with Treasure Hunter. I hope you get it and you don't want to know how frustrated it is to farm those rare items (they are very rare), but you have to do it for achievements.
  
• One time entry: There are some areas where you can enter once, so make sure that you kill all types of monsters within the area for Bestiary.
  
• Notice: Pay attention to the notes "Unequip", it means that one of the member will leave the party soon. (monster) means that there are monster inside the chests.
  
• maxing stats: If you want to max stats for all characters, you should follow this guide how to distribute augments for the final five, but you must give a specific numbers of augments to other characters to get all augments. For example, you must give Fusoya 2 augments to get Phoenix, Omnicast, and Bless from him.
  
• New Game+ Carry Over: Onion Equipment, Adamant Armor, Tails, Apple, Soma Drop, augments, map completion, and hidden summons.
  
• Apple and Soma Drop: Do not waste your Apple and Soma Drop in the first and second playthroughs as you can only max all your characters' stats in the third playthrough.
  
• Play style: how you like to rearrange your party and how you setup for boss fights are completely up to you. There are some bosses you may find them very difficult to defeat so I wrote some notes along the way. Make sure you read them.

Seriously do not try to farm gil even with Gil Farmer augment, The Gil Farmer augment is not very useful. Why? The best way to get rich in this game is selling equipment and items.
Killing Red Dragon (one of the strongest monster) only drop 2,500 gil.

Here are the best ways to become a gillionaire:
The fastest way to get rich
You can sell Megalixir for 325,000 gil, huh? get rich in a second. You can obtain it when completed Sealed Cave - B5.

Armored Fiend or Red Dragon
Use Siren to fight Armored Fiend, it can drop Poison Axe (sell for 47,000 gil) and Orgekiller (sell for 12,000 gil). Red Dragon also drops good equipment that can be sold up to 32,000 gil.
Normally, you farm Armored Fiend and Red Dragon for Black Tail and Red Tail (see Tail Hunt section).

Rainbow Pudding
Yes, it's Rainbow Pudding. After farming Pink Tail, you probably own a few of them and you can sell them for 100,000 gil each.

Second/Third Playthrough
In post game, especially after maxed out your characters, you probably want to max their HP and MP as well. This requires thousands of Siren (3000 gil) and you properly running out of money in a few runs. It becomes much easier in the post game to farm Gil with Gil Farmer augment by defeating Geryon. He started his career as a super-boss and becomes a mini-boss in late game. Geryon drops 99,999 Gil and 149,998 with Gil Farmer. Good news, you can fight him indefinitely by talking to the tombstone on top of Mount Ordeals (see super-bosses section).

Below is the list of all augments and descriptions from the game. I added extra info in parentheses since some of them are not very clear:

Some useful augment combinations:

• Attack, Counter, Draw Attacks: work pretty well on Cecil against physical attacks through out the game.
  
• Love, Focus, Darkness, Limit Break: this combination works on both Cecil and Kain depending on who you give Limit Break to. Focus 2 times, enter Darkness mode, then attack using Love augment. I was able to deal 99,999 damage to Geryon.
  
• Dualcast, Omnicasting, Fast Talker: provide the most efficiency as a white mage for Rosa.
  
• Dualcast, Summon, Bluff, Fast Talker: Best overall as a black mage/summoner for Rydia. Bluff doubles intellect, hence, replace it with something if you maxed out intellect.
  
• Brace, Draw Attacks, Phoenix: best for tanking high damage bosses.
  
• Throw, Hide:while hiding, Edge and still use Throw, this make him invincible.
  
• Aim, Hide: Rosa can do it as well, this is for fun only because it's not practical since Rosa's role is support.
  
• Stardust Rod (as item), Counter, Draw Attacks: This allows Rydia to cast Stardust instantly at the cost of 0 MP when she is hit by physical attacks.
  
• Salve, Item-Lore: use items on entire party with double effectiveness.

Tips and tricks here don't affect your overall gameplay and achievements, but it's good to know if you are a diehard fan of FFIV.

• Golden rule: always use Slow, Haste, Shell, Protect, and Cry whenever you fight bosses.
  
• when you purchase items/equipment, you'll get a discount when you buy 4 or more, the discount apply to every 4 items.
  
• You can use Left/Right buttons to de/select items by 10 when buying/selling.
  
• Bows and whips deal the same damage from both front and back row. that's why you should always put Rosa and Rydia at the back row.
  
• Staves and rods can be used as items to cast spells with the cost of 0 MP, sweet, isn't it? For example, when equip with Ice Rod, go to Ability, select any slot, select items, select Ice Rod.
  
• When casting magics that cause damage/heals to all targets, its effectiveness is halved. this applies to both White and Black magic.
  
• Ninjutsu elemental attacks can pierce through Reflect.
  
• Crystal Mail is the only item that prevents Berserk.
  
• Break (black magic) is very effective against high HP monsters like Orges and Golems, it instantly KO them with 100% accuracy, so make sure to take advantage of that. It's available when Tellah and Rydia rejoin the party, and Fusoya.
  
• You can move items/abilities around by holding X button then drag it to a new location.

Boss: Mist Dragon
Do not attack it when it's in mist form.

Livingway

Boss: Octomammoth

Boss: Antlion

Boss: Mom Bomb

Augments:

• Give Counter to Cecil.
  
• Give Item Lore to Polom.
  
• Give Auto-Potion to Porom.

You will be forced to sell all your tents to Campingway. But it's more profitable to sell in Mysidia. So sell all your tents but keep only one for him.

*** ACHIEVEMENT
Before you talk to the stone on Mount Ordeals (After defeated Scarmiglione), make sure that Dark Cecil is at least level 25.

Boss: Scarmiglione
Weakness: Fire and Healing properties (Cure/Cura/Potion/Hi-Potion etc.)

Backtrack to pick up Curse augment after becoming Paladin.

Augment:
Give Curse to Polom.

Boss: Baigan

Boss: Cagnazzo
Use lightning-based magic/items when there is water surrounding him, Tsunami is scary and you don't want to restart the game.
These are the lightning based that can stop his surrounding water: Thunder/Thundera/Thunder Rod (as an item)/Zeus's Wrath/Heavenly Wrath.

Augments:

• Give one Twincast to Cecil.
  
• Give another Twincast to Tellah.

If you are a very very lucky person, you may get Rainbow Pudding along the way. Give it to Puddingway if you have it, otherwise, wait until you get Treasure Hunter augment.

Boss: Dark Elf
You cannot defeat him in the first fight, so don't bother healing your party. After Edward playing a song through a phone (Whisperweed) he gave to Cecil, you can now defeat him. First use Silence and then auto attack.

Augment:

• Give Bardsong to Tellah. (I know it sounds weird but you have to give Tellah 2 augments in total; Bardsong is kinda useless anyway).

This is a one time visit, make sure to farm Bestiary. Here is the bestiary checklist:
_ Centaur Knight
_ Sorceress
_ Purple Bavarois
_ Gremlin
_ Black Knight
_ Frostbeast
_ Ice Lizard
_ Fell Turtle
_ Marionetteer (First Floor)
_ Marionette (First Floor)
_ Soldieress
_ Flamehound

Bosses: Sisters (Sandy, Cindy, Mindy)
Just kill them in this order: Cindy, Sandy, and Mindy

Augments:

• Give Dualcast to Rosa and assign to her ability slot immediately; it allows you to cast magic twice.
  
• Give Recall and Last Stand to Yang.
  
• This one is up to you, but I recommend give Cry to Kain.

Boss: Barbariccia
You cannot hit her when she is in Tornado state, ONLY Kain can break it by using Jump.

Bosses: Calcas and Brinas
Kill one Calca, then kill all Brina to trigger a second boss. If you kill all of them at the same time, you'll miss the second boss (again bestiary).

Boss: Calcabrina

Boss: Golbez
Cecil uses Libra to check his weakness, Rydia uses summon accordingly. Note: Golbez can change his weakness multiple times, so make Cecil uses Libra to check whenever he changed.

This is a one time visit, make sure to farm all Bestiary.
Here is a bestiary checklist:
_ Leshy
_ Ironback
_ Armadillo
_ Goblin Captain
_ Magma Tortoise
_ Security Eye
_ Chimera
_ Black Lizard
_ Stone Golem
_ Naga
_ Evil Doll
_ Flamehound
_ Flame Knight
_ White Mousse
_ Medusa
_ Mystery Egg
_ Skuldier
_ Steel Golem

Aguments:

• Give Draw Attacks to Cecil; Draw Attacks and Counter is a perfect pair of augments.
  
• Give Fast Talker and Bluff to Rydia. I would equip Rydia with Fast Talker and Bluff immediately. Fast Talker reduce casting time, and Bluff doubles intellect for the next magic attack.

Boss: Dr. Lugae and Barnabas
First Playthrough
Kill Barnabas first so that you can fight Barnabas-Z to complete your bestiary.
Second Playthrough
Kill Dr. Lugae first to complete your bestiary.

After defeated Barnabas-Z, you'll fight Dr. Lugae in his true form.
Boss: Dr. Lugae (true form)
He has a nasty attack called Reverse Gas, you may die multiple times if you don't know the trick.
When he use Reverse Gas, all damages become heal, and all heals become damage. During the Reverse Gas, have your characters attack each other to heal and use Cure/Cura/Curaga (any type of healing) on Dr. Lugae, when he use the Reverse Gas again, everything becomes normal.

Augment:

• This one is not required but I recommend giving Reach augment to Edge because it fits him well.

This is a one time visit, make sure to farm all bestiary:
_ Leshy
_ Ironback
_ Armadillo
_ Black Lizard
_ White Mousse
_ Medusa
_ Mystery Egg
_ Skuldier
_ Blood Bat
_ Steel Golem
_ Coeurl
_ Sorcerer
_ Mad Ogre
_ Lamia Matriarch
_ Mythril Golem
_ Storm Anima
_ Lamia
_ Ghost Knight
_ Balloon

Bosses: King and Queen Eblan
Well, it's very sinful to kill your own parents. So, just defend and heal, and everything will be fine.

Boss: Rubycante
Edge steals him when he open his cloak, trust me you don't want to see Inferno.

*** Note: Rat Tail is important, you need it to exchange for Adamantite.

Augments:
Give Kick and Brace to Cecil, again this is not required but recommended.

Boss: Odin
Just fight him normally until you see Odin raise his sword above his head, be prepare to have everyone Defend.

Give Darkness to Cecil, this will come in handy in second and third playthrough.

I recommend give it to Rosa, she need more MP than Rydia.

Sell Megalixir if you do not have enough gil.

Augments:
Give Analyze and Gil Farmer augments to Fusoya.
NOTE: if you happen to talk to the Crystal on the ship, you can move on with the event and come back after for the Bahamut summon.

Mini Bosses: Behemoth
You'll have to fight 3 Behemoth along the way to Bahamut. You'll die for sure if you don't know the trick. Behemoth Counter attack when you hit him with physical attack and Counter a nasty magic attack if you hit him with magic. The best strategy to beat him is to use Blink on Cecil and Edge. Cecil attack normally, Edge throws Shuriken, and Rydia summon Titan.

Boss: Bahamut
Try to kill him before he uses Megaflare.

This is a one time visit, make sure to farm all Bestiary. Here is a checklist:
_ Clockwork Soldier
_ Beam Cannon
_ Clockwork Dragon
_ Armor Construct
_ Searcher
_ Centaurion

Bosses: Scarmiglione, Cagnazzo, Barbariccia, Rubycante
Boss: CPU

Augments:

• You should give HP+50 to Cecil it synergizes well with Draw Attacks and Counter augments.

*** NOTE: if you just want to go straight and fight Zeromus, skip to the "Final Battle" section.

Boss: White Dragon
Obtain: Murasame (Edge's Ultimate Weapon)

Mini-Boss: Behemoth
Obtain: Stardust Rod (Rydia's Ultimate Weapon)

Boss: Dark Bahamut
Obtain: Ragnarok (Cecil's Ultimate Weapon)

Boss: Plague Horror
Obtain: Holy Lance (Kain Ultimate Weapon)

Boss: Ogopogo
Obtain: Masamune (Edge's Ultimate Weapon)

Where is Rosa Ultimate Weapon? maybe Sage's Staff, but she is way better with Bow & Arrow.
Artemis Arrows can be found in a chest on Lunar Subterrane - B4. Artemis Bow is a rare drop from Moonmaiden. I don't think it worth it to farm Artemis Bow.

Rainbow Pudding can be farmed with all jelly-type monsters, but Flan Princess has highest drop rate among them. Here is a strategy that I use (probably everyone else):
Flan Princess

• Cecil must equip Crystal Mail (the ONLY item that prevents Berserk).
  
• Equip Cecil with Stardust (must be first slot), Draw Attacks, Counter, Treasure Hunter augments.
  
• Swap him to back row.
  
• Now go to Lunar Subterrane - B5 (Southeast Room).
  
• Set to auto-battle, then heal Cecil when he is low in HP and repeat the Siren.
  
• You can choose to restart the game after 30 or 40 Siren (this way, you do not need to run back to buy Siren and Stardust).

Augments:
Give Love and Safe Travel augments to Cecil.

You should've already talked to 3 Eidolons at Kokkol, Sylph Cave, and Lair of the Father if you follow this guide. After talking to all 8 Eidolons, go back to The Feymarch then talk to the same guy you who asked you to look for his friends. He'll thank you and give Piercing Magic.

Augment:
Give Piercing Magic to Rydia.

Love Augment works like Attack with additional attack bonus based on how many battle Cecil have covered party members.

I highly recommend maxing Love Augment (cap at 99) if you want your second and third playthroughs faster especially when you use Safe Travel since you can't level up your characters, it'll help clear early bosses in a few hits. It also help you with tail hunting.

Maxing Love augment is about 45 min, here is the fastest strategy:

• Buy 99 Sirens.
  
• Equip Cecil with Kick (first slot), Cover augments.
  
• Kill all you all party members except Cecil.
  
• Use Phoenix Down to revive Rosa (or any one you like), her HP will be in critical (yellow) and this will activate Cover Augment's passive automatically during battle.
  
• Go to Mist Cave and use Siren inside; you will always encounter 4 Goblins.
  
• Wait Until Rosa is hit (Cecil will cover Rosa automatically), then use Kick to kill all of them.
  
• Repeat this 99 times.

To check how many cover you have provided, simply go to menu -> ability -> select Love Augment.

Again, I highly recommend that you equip Cecil with Treasure Hunter before started hunting these tails. Also, it is best if you Netflix playing at the same time.

You only need one each to get achievement. Still, it's up to you whether you want 5 suits of Onion Equipment for your final five. To be honest, the only Onion equipment that is worth farming is Onion Sword, other than that, Adamant Armor is the best Armor.

To exchange for equipment, go to Adamant Isle Grotto.

Here are strategies that I used for tail hunts:

Flan Princess

• Cecil must equip Crystal Mail (the ONLY item that prevents Berserk).
  
• Equip Cecil with Stardust (must be first slot), Draw Attacks, Counter, Treasure Hunter augments.
  
• Swap him to back row.
  
• Now go to Lunar Subterrane - B5 (Southeast Room).
  
• Set to auto-battle, then heal Cecil when he is low in HP and repeat the Siren.
  
• You can choose to restart the game after 30 or 40 Siren (this way, you do not need to run back to buy Siren and Stardust).

Red Dragon

• Equip Cecil with Love (first slot), Draw Attacks, Counter, Treasure Hunter augments.
  
• Equip Rosa with Dualcast and Omnicast augments.
  
• Have Rosa uses Berserk on Red Dragon.
  
• if you are level 99, you shouldn't have any problem to set auto-battle on, otherwise, you need Rosa to use Blink on everyone.
  
• Heal everyone and repeat the Siren.

Armor Fiend

Armor Fiend is not as strong as Red Dragon. The strategy is quite simliar to the Red Dragon except that you do not need to use Berserk on him. Have everyone attacks or set auto-battle on.

Thunder Dragon

You do not lose a single HP when farming thunder dragons.

• Equip Cecil with Crystal Mail (or Adamant Armor) and Cursed Ring (Cursed Ring convert magic resistance from equipment to absorb).
  
• Equip Cecil with Love, Draw Attacks, and Treasure Hunter augments.
  
• Set auto attack and repeat.

Yellow Dragon and Green Dragon
Well, just auto attack!


Here is my tail hunt records in case you want to know:
Pink Tail: ~2 hours
Red Tail: ~2-3 hours
Black Tail: ~3 hours
Blue Tail: ~1 hours
Yellow Tail: ~1 hours
Green Tail: ~1 hours

Here I only list the best locations for farming these summons. Most people give up because it takes so long that's why, again, catching up some episodes on Netflix is the best time to farm them.

Hidden summons are way harder to farm than tails, especially the Bomb summon since you cannot use Siren to encounter Balloon nor Dark Grenade.I recommend farming Cocketrice first at Baron area. with Siren, there are 25% chance to encounter Helldiver and another 25% to encounter Goblin, so you either get Cocketrice or Goblin summon for a 50% encounter chance in total. If you get Cocketrice first, it's great, you can then farm Goblin in Mist cave for 100% chance of Goblin encounter. Other people suggest that you farm Cocketrice in Mysidia area but remember that the drop item is also random among monsters. For instance, in Mysidia area:

50% chance encountering Cocketrice (with other monster) -> chances of item drop divided by 2 or 3 if there are other types of monsters => 50% or 33% respectively of items drop by Cocketrice => 0.4% chance of Cocketrice drop (0.8% with Treasure Hunter).

The drop rate for for these summon is roughly 0.4%.

Here is my Hidden Summon farming records:
Cocketrice: ~2-3 hours
Goblin: ~30 minutes
Mindflayer: ~1-2 hours
Bomb: ~14 hours

Dark Matter is the key to unlock superboss Proto-Babil,so make sure you steal it from Zeromus.

If you have a difficulty finding the way to the final battle, let me walk you through one more time.

Congratulation on your journey to defeat Zemus, I mean Zeromus. Now save the game in an empty slot, DO NOT override your existing one.

Here is a summary of augment distribution to side characters if you've followed this guide:

As you can see that there are 4 augments left to complete the augment achievement in the second playthrough.

The final five:
If you forgot to give any augments to the last five, you can do so in the second playthrough.

Remaining augments:
Tsunami, Whirlwind, Inferno, Eye Gouge, and Limit Break.

At this point, you should have at least 1 suit of Onion Equipment and 1 Adamant Armor. Trust me, your hard working will pay off in the next playthrough. With these equipment, you can easily rush through the game without any problem.

You may wonder are all weapons and armors you can find at the last chapter the best Equipment? The answer is It depends on the enemies and levels of your characters. For example, Onion equipment grows stronger with your characters' level, some weapons are designed to kill specific type of monsters like Dragon Whisker and Wyvern Lance, as name suggested have attack bonus against dragons, while Ragnarok and Holy Lance are best against dark monsters.

Below is a list of the best overall equipment that you can get:

• Onion Sword has 198 attack at level 99 compares to Ragnarok 150 attack points. Additionally, Onion Sword is non-elemental weapon which is good overall.
  
• Kain can also equip with Onion Sword compares to Holy Lance with 120 attack points.
  
• Stardust Rod and Dragon Whisker, in my opinion are equal in rank. Stardust Rod would be better if its casting time is little faster.
  
• Adamant Armor is best of best armors in this game with immunity to almost all ailments highest defend and magic assistance. Plus, it halves elemental magic attack (Lightning, Fire, Ice).
  
• Ribbon provides immunity to all ailments and has higher magic defend than Crystal Helm/Dragon Helm.
  
• Protect Ring has higher magic defense than Crystal Ring and halves elemental magic attack (Lightning, Fire, Ice).

I hope you already save your game in a new slot. Now, if you started your first playthrough in "Normal" mode, you should start your second playthrough in "Hard" mode (honestly, I did not see any difference) or vice versa. Because the "Bitter Battle" achievement requires you to play in Hard mode.

What carry over:

• Apple, Soma Drop
  
• Tails, Onion Equipment, Adamant Armor
  
• Augments
  
• Hidden Summon
  
• Map Completion

Repeat this guide for the second and third playthroughs except that you cannot repeat the Namingway quest and the most importantly see the IMPORTANT section below:

Seriously, I put 3 stars and all caps!

Augments:
Since all augments are carried over to new game+, I mistakenly gave augments to side characters again, so DO NOT give them any augments. The only 2 characters that you have to give are in second playthrough are Edward and Cid.

Dr. Lugae
Another thing to keep in mind is Dr. Lugae. Remember In the first playthrough, if you follow this gudie, you kill Barnabas first. So, this time in the second playthrough, kill Dr. Lugae first because he is a different bestiary.

Deep into Darkness
This is just a reminder in case you haven't got "Deep into Darkness" achievement which I stated in "012. Mount Ordeals" section, simply raise Dark Cecil to level 25 before talking to the stone on top of mount Odeals.

Now with Love and Darkness augments, you can pretty much kill any bosses in a few hits (feel like you're cheating huh?) so farming exp is not necessary until late game. Cecil always equip with Safe Travel augment when traveling, and equip with Love, Darkness, and Level Lust augments when fighting bosses. This strategy will help you finish your 2nd and 3rd playthroughs very quickly.

So in this playthrough, give the following augments to Edward and Cid:

Congratulation! You now obtained all augments and unlocked another achievement.

*** BESTIARY
When you face Dr. Lugae at 034. Tower of Babil - First Visit, this time kill Dr. Lugae first complete your bestiary.

Here is my recommendation on other augments:

• Twincast: anyone
  
• Dualcast: Rydia
  
• Hide: Edge
  
• Fast Talker: Rosa
  
• Analyze: Cecil
  
• MP+50: Rydia
  
• Darkness: Kain
  
• Focus: Cecil
  
• Kick: Kain or Edge
  
• Brace: Kain or Edge
  
• HP+50: Kain or Edge
  
• Omnicast: Rydia

Again, the list above is just my recommendation as I see fit but the choice is yours. Another decision you have to make is whether you want to max out stats or not? Remember I noted in early that you can complete 100% achievements here but I highly NOT recommend it since it's very hard to defeat Proto-Babil.

The reason that I didn't mention about some augments because they are critical in maxing character stats such as Love, Limit Break, Tsunami, Inferno, Curse, Whirlwind. They give the most stats when leveling up. In addition, I want you to have options to create your own combination in stats maxing. For example, if you choose to give Limit Break to Cecil, Kain or Rydia, then you will have to adjust other augments. However if you don't like math, you can simply follow the next section where I give Limit Break to Cecil.

Here are augments left in the third playthrough if you haven't given to any characters:

• Auto-Potion (x1)
  
• Item Lore (x1)
  
• Counter (x2)
  
• Curse (x2)
  
• Tsunami (x3)
  
• Twincast (x2)
  
• Bluff (x2)
  
• Cry (x2)
  
• Dualcast (x1)
  
• Gil Farmer (x2)
  
• Bardsong (x2)
  
• Salve (x2)
  
• Hide (x2)
  
• Recall (x1)
  
• Last Stand (x2)
  
• Fast Talker (x1)
  
• Whirlwind (x3)
  
• Draw Attacks (x2)
  
• Reach (x2)
  
• Analyze (x1)
  
• Adrenaline (x2)
  
• Upgrade (x2)
  
• MP+50 (x1)
  
• Inferno (x3)
  
• Darkness (x1)
  
• Focus (x1)
  
• Kick (x1)
  
• Brace (x1)
  
• Level Lust (x2)
  
• HP+50 (x1)
  
• Piercing Magic (x2)
  
• Bless (x2)
  
• Omnicast (x1)
  
• Phoenix (x2)
  
• Limit Break (x1)

Reminder: you can max all characters stats only in the third playthrough. Also, you have an option to create your own combination if you don't want to follow this section because I give Limit Break to Cecil, but you pretty much can give the Limit Break to anyone you like. If this is the case, you can download Stats Calculator[docs.google.com] I created; I'll explain how to use it later.

All stats are cap at 99, you gain stats by leveling up your characters. However, start from level 70 to 99, your stats increase depending on what augments you equipped. For example, if you only equip "Attack" augment to Cecil, he only gains +29 STR from 70-99 level.

Here are the base stats at level 70 (without equipment):

Since we relay on augments to increase stats from level 70 which means that we have 29 levels left. Remember that we have 5 ability slots, but only 4 that are swappable ("Items" is permanently attached). This give us 29 * 4 = 116 total level points. So, you can use these points in "Level" columns to distribute among augments. Each augment can use up to 29 points.

Stats Calculator Spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Fh8aBxDi4x0FaMzfrTATK-efMXt03WuW/edit?usp=share_link&ouid=116771001049603594249&rtpof=true&sd=true

• The only column you need to change is "Level" from 1 to 29 (highlighted in light blue).
  
• Pay attention to the remaining augments, total level points (up to 116), and total stats (cap 99).

If you follow this document that I gave Cecil Limit Break, you just simply follow level point distribution below:
Cecil:

Rydia

Rosa

*** Edge
Be careful when leveling up Edge, you may not be able to max all stats, pay attention to "Level" column for each augment:

Kain
*** I tried my best, but he really need 1 more level point.

See chart below for more detail (from Stats Calculator)

You can now give all the remaining augments to any characters you like.

It is not enough to max your HP and MP from augments alone. Golden Apple increases HP by 100, Silver Apple increases HP by 50, and Soma Drop raise MP by 10.

NOTE: Farming Silver Apple and Soma Drop requires thousands of Sirens, therefore, you do not have enough gil to buy them. So go back to Gil Farming section on how to grind money.

Here are the best locations to farm these items:
Golden Apple
monster: Gold Dragon
Location with Siren: Luanr Subterrane - B4
Drop rate: ~0.5%

Silver Apple
monster: Lilith
Location with Siren: Mount Ordeals - Crossing or Summit
Drop rate: ~10%

Soma Drop
monster: Dark Sage
Location with Siren: Lair of the Father - B1
Drop rate: ~5%

NOTE: You can fight both Geryon and Proto-Babil as many times as you want.

He is an entity reformed by the 4-archfiends aura and wield all the archfields' attacks. he can be found in the second and third playthroughs in 2 locations after defeated the 4 archfiends.

First location
Is where you defeated the 4 archfiends. Talk to the square tile in the middle. You're probably not able to defeat him here if you don't have equipment that immune to Curse, so move on and wait to defeat him at Mount Ordeals instead.

Second location
Is on top of the Mount Ordeals where Cecil became Paladin.



Strategy
There is not much of a strategy here as long as you have equipment that prevent Curse then he is a piece of cake. Here are equipment that prevent Curse: Ribbon, Crystal Shield, Onion Shield, Adamant Armor.

Auto-Battle Attack?
Yes, it's possible to use auto-battle attack against Geryon but you'll need to max out stats and a specific equipment to do so, 5 Adamant Armors and 5 Cursed Rings.

Cursed Ring can be farmed from Soul and Spirit at Mount Ordeals. Use Siren at the entrance to encounter them. The drop rate is quite high, I got 5 rings in 5~10 minutes.


I highly recommend you max out stats and have at least 6000 HP before you want to try your luck. He is so powerful that can KO your entire party in a single hit with Laser Barrage or Divine Judgement. Another power attack is Light of Babil which deals 9999 damage to a single ally.

He is on the Lunar Surface. Fly to the north, slightly east, you'll see a rock shaped like a human face. Talk to it, a dialog appears then select Dark Matter to fight him.

Strategy
Preparation:

• Equip Draw Attacks, Brace, and Phoenix on Kain (or anyone you like) to serve as a tank.
  
• Cecil with Love, Darkness, Focus, and Limit Break.
  
• Rosa with Dualcast, Omnicast, and Fast Talker.
  
• Rydia with Dualcast, Cry, and Fast Talker.
  
• Edge with Throw, Bless, Steal, and Phoenix.

During the battle:

• Kain immediately use Brace; normally Light of Babil deal 9999 damage regardless Adamant Armor, with Brace, the damage reduces 2500.
  
• Rosa casts Slow, Haste, and Shell. After that, keep her standby waiting to heal the party.
  
• Cecil Focus 2 times, enter Darkness mode, then attack with Love augment (between 70,000 to 99,999 damage). Repeat 2-Focus and Attack until Darkness effect wore off, that when you need to use Darkness again.
  
• Rydia uses Cry once, then casts Flare twice (or Meteor, your choice); she deals around 6000 with Flare.
  
• Edge uses Bless and Steal Megalixir. After that, he can attack/throw or heal any ally with Elixir.

There are some circumstances when Proto-Babil keeps spamming Laser Barrage and Divine Judgement. You cannot do anything at this point, that's when the Phoenix helps you survive the annihilation.

Big thanks to Square Enix who have created Final Fantasy games for us to play.
And special thanks to all of you guys who've read my walkthrough from the beginning until the end. ^('@')^^('@')^^('@')^
5 stars rating is appreciated!

I swear I spent hours and hours creating these screenshots and re-watched my entire playthrough to labels all items/tips all over the maps. So, please be respectful. Anyone is permitted to download this guide for personal use only. Do not re-post this document or any materials to other websites, social media, or any platform without my consent. Love you all.... <3

Aither

I'm not sure what's going on with Steam Servers, but this issue has happened many times already and it is not just for this guide but others too, it becomes very frustrating. In case you find missing images, please comment below and I'll try my best to re-upload them. In the meantime, if you want to continue using this guide, you can visit my blog here https://soloplayguide.com/games/final-fantasy-iv-3d-remake/walkthrough/introduction.