With most of the game cleared, and your path into the end-game open, you will have to decide at what point you’re actually ready to enter the final dungeon. You will need a build you're comfortable with, one that you think can actually clear the final dungeon. Bear in mind that, at its longest, a trip through the Temple of Fiends Revisited (ToFR) can take ten minutes. If you’re in a race, and you wipe in ToFR, those ten minutes can mean the difference between a win and a loss. You will need to figure out the right balance, between being prepared and being over-prepared, for the flags you’re playing.
There are basic guidelines you can follow to help in your preparation for the end-game:
¶ Get Your Weapons Ready
For the end-game you’re going to want at least one melee dealer who has the right weapon, or weapons, for the dungeon ahead. If you’re using a Black Belt, that obviously means their fists, with enough levels behind them to deal a hefty chunk of damage. For a Fighter or a Thief, you will need to find a good weapon for them, though. The best of those options are a Masamune, Xcalibur, Vorpal Sword, or Katana. Each of them have their benefits to weigh and balance:
- Masamune: Arguably the strongest sword in the game, it can be used by any of the heroes (including all the mages and the Black Belt). It deals solid damage, has a perfectly acceptable crit rate, and because it can be swung by anyone, at any time, it’s usable throughout the game as soon as you find it. Just note that with Blursed Weapons on, the Masa’s hit stat is capped, meaning it cannot go over its vanilla stat (because otherwise it would cause the hero’s hit chance to overflow and suddenly go down to 0, leaving him swinging like a three year old at a piñata).
- Excalibur (Xcal): The Xcal has solid damage although its crit rate is not the best of the “Legendary Weapons”. The reason you want to use this weapon is that it has bonus damage against all enemy types. Any enemy, of any class, will take bonus damage from the Xcal, and with the damage bonuses actually functioning properly in the randomizer (unlike in the vanilla game) and the extra bonuses normally turned on in the randomizer, the Xcal becomes a potent, powerful weapon. Just note that Chaos is the only enemy in the game without a “type” so he’s also the only enemy that won’t see bonus damage from the Xcal, meaning for his fight you may want to switch to a different weapon (if you’ve found anything better).
- Vorpal: Although its damage isn’t the strongest, the Vorpal (in the randomizer, which uses corrected critical hit stats that were improperly coded in the vanilla game) has an amazing crit stat. Although jokingly called the “Nerf Bat” because when it doesn’t hit the Vorpal won’t do much damage, when it does crit it does a lot of damage. Crit is an amazing stat in the game and, especially against bosses that are evasive, or don’t have a type to affect (i.e., Chaos), you’ll want to maximize your crit to do the most effective damage. That makes the Vorpal a strong contender for the end-game fights.
- Katana: The Katana is, effectively, a “Vorpal-and-a-half”. If you took all the stats (except crit) from the Vorpal and added an extra half-again to the blade, you’d have the Katana. That makes it an amazing weapon if you have a character that can equip it. By default, though, the only character capable of swinging the katana is the Ninja, so you’ll want a thief you can class change, or a character with the “Legendary Swords” blursing (meaning they can swing all Legendary weapons) to use the Katana (assuming you find one, of course).
Just because you have a weapon doesn’t mean your characters will automatically be able to use it effectively. Characters in Final Fantasy (and, thus, FFR), need certain levels to be able to effectively swing their weapons. This is because (and this is going to be just a touch technical) Final Fantasy didn’t have any kind of “Active Time Battle” system. Instead of letting characters build up their speed and take turns more often (like in the SNES, and later, games in the series), each character only gets one turn per round in the NES titles. The character’s speed (which does increase over time as they level up) instead affects how many hits with a weapon they get during their one “attack” that round. The faster they are, which is contingent on what level they are, dictates how many hits they get.
For each weapon, and each class, there are effective levels-per-hits that characters can have. We call these “break points”, meaning that at a certain level the character’s hits “break” to the next higher number of hits (from 1 to 2 to 4 to 6, etc.). When leveling you’ll want to try and get your heroes (especially those that are swinging weapons) to certain levels to gain the most effective number of hits for their chosen blade:
- Fighter/Knight:
- Masamune: 3, 13, 24, 35, 45
- Xcalibur: 8, 18, 29, 40, 50 *
- Vorpal: 11, 22,32, 43 *
- Defense Sword: 18, 29 *
- Sun Sword: 9, 20, 31, 41
- Thief/Ninja (and Thief/Ninja with Doubled Hit Growth Flag):
- Masamune: 22, 38 (20, 28, 36, 44)
- Katana: 13, 29, 37, 45 (15, 23, 31, 39, 47) *
- Vorpal: 18, 34, 50 (18, 26, 34, 42, 50) *
- Defense: 13, 29 *
- Coral: (20, 28, 36, 44)
- Red Wizard:
- Masamune: 5, 21, 37
- Vorpal: 17, 33, 49 *
- Defense: 12, 28 *
- BB
- Unarmed: 10, 21, 32, 42
- Masamune: 4, 15, 26, 36, 47
* Indicates a weapon requiring promotion to wield.
Note that weapon blursings will affect these numbers. When looking at the level needed you can subtract one level for every positive blursing on the weapon (so a Katana +1 requires only level 12 for its first break point instead of level 13) and add one level for every negative blursing (so a Katana -1 needs level 14 instead of 13 for its first break point).
¶ A New Job, a New You
Since we likely need to class change to use these weapons, we’ll want to go to Bahamut and get our upgrades. It is encouraged that you class change before you do a grind because, in the case of the knight and the ninja, when they class change affects when they gain spell levels. A class changed knight or ninja can start earning spell charges at level 15, and will gain one more charge per level (up to four total) at each odd level afterwards. However, they cannot earn these spell charges until they class change and they won’t get any past charges for levels missed. So, if you don’t class change until level 24 you won’t get your first spell charge until level 25 (and then 27, 29, and 31).
Note, though, that the Black Belt is the only class penalized by class change. For whatever reason, while all other classes in the game improve when they upgrade their jobs (getting new magic, new weapons, new armor), class change is a decided downgrade for the Black Belt. A Black Belt earns 4 Magic Defense (MDef) points per level while their “upgrade”, the Master, gains only 1 MDef point per level. A level 42 Black Belt effectively has enough MDef to equal the protection of a ribbon (the best magic-defense armor in the game) while a Master, leveled up the same way, could have up to a quarter of that (depending on when they class changed). Thus, it is generally better to wait on a class change until after the Black Belt has been fully charged up (if class change is even really needed at that point for the mages).
With that said, it is worth mentioning that to make up for an early class change on a Master you could give them a ribbon, but this adds its own complication: The absorb (their defense) for a Black Belt or Master is based on their level unless they wear something, and then it’s based on what they’re wearing. A vanilla, un-blursed ribbon has a base defense of 1; that means that a level 42 Black Belt / Master wearing just a ribbon would have a defense of 1 instead of their naked defense of 42. If you do put a ribbon on a Black Belt or Mastrer you’ll also want to put other armor on them (a Gold Bracelet, a ProRing) as well to make up for the hit in defense they’re going to take.
¶ Level Up
With your end-game weapons (and possibly a class change) in hand, we now need to determine how best to get levels. That means we’ll need some kind of grind, although which, and where, and how are all factors that need to be taken into account.
The easiest, and most effective, grind is the kind that you don’t even really think about. When you’re exploring later dungeons, such as the Sea Shrine (aka Sea Cave, Ocean Palace, Sunken Shrine, Kraken’s House, etc.) and Mirage Tower / Sky Palace (aka Sky Cave, Cloud Castle, Desert Tower, Dragon Hut, etc.) you can take fights as you go through these dungeons. As these are the last two main dungeons of the game they also feature some of the toughest (and thus, when it comes to experience, the most lucrative) enemies in the game. Some packs to look for in these dungeons include:
- Sea Shrine:
- Naga and Waters: Nagas and Waters are lucrative on their own, but better together. Note that Waters are not weak to Lightning magic (unlike most water-based enemies) but instead take bonus damage from Ice magic.
- Sea Trolls, Lobsters, and Sea Snakes. Also known as the “Seafood Party Pack”. These show up, generally, in packs full of enemies which, along with their high base EXP values, gives bonus EXP in the randomizer (using default scaling) due to pack size.
- Gray Sharks and Big Eyes: Also known as the “EXP Piñatas”. These enemies are the most lucrative in the sea, especially considering their effective EXP against the size (just two enemies) of their pack. Easy to handle, and great for leveling.
- Mirage Tower:
- Vampires: The Vampire is a sub-boss in Earth Cave, but now he can show up in packs of up to five in Mirage. Although two of them aren’t great EXP on their own, four or five together could net heroes a level. And since they’re still scaled to their Earth Cave stats it doesn’t take a lot to kill a vampire.
- Guards: Robots that patrol the lower levels of the tower. They’re effective EXP, although they can sometimes scale up in experience making them less ideal that some other packs.
- Cerberuses: Another enemy from earlier in the game, the Cerberus was found in Volcano. They’re weak to Ice magic (which you will likely have plenty of by now) and they will still have their low-scale energy. Their EXP isn’t the best, but their low health can make them a tasty snack as you're swinging through the tower.
- Sky Palace:
- Eye: The Eye hails from Ice Cave, meaning their health isn’t that high, and they’re good experience. Although the Eye was a scary fight in the vanilla game (due to their instant death attacks) having their spells shuffled around (and likely off) in the randomizer makes them very tasty as you’re leveling up.
- GrMedusas: These enemies are great EXP if you find them in larger packs (four or more). Just a couple aren’t worth the effort, but if you can net them in larger packs, their relatively low health against their high experience yield makes them a tempting fight.
- Slimes: These can also be good fights, for the same reasons as GrMedusas. In large packs, and with a good spell, you can clean these up for solid EXP. You'll want FIR3, FADE, or NUKE as they can be pretty strong, and tend to shrug off most physical attacks. In small packs, or without the magic to defeat them, it's better to take a pass on these.
- WzVampire: Although these enemies can scale up, they can be decent fights to take as long as you can finish them off quickly. Being undead, they’re susceptible to both Harm and Fire magics, so it’s possible to use these underappreciated spells against these beasts.
- Fighters: These evil elves have a fantastic experience yield, especially for their relative health. They show up frequently on the final bridge of the tower leading to Tiamat, so keep an eye out for these.
- Naochos: Also known as “Nachos”. These are the upgraded form of Ochos from the river systems of the world, the Naochos are great for EXP but they can sometimes scale up on health. If you can kill them quickly then you should try to grab a plate or two of these tasty “chips”.
- R.Hydras: Also known as “Fire Hydrants”. A Volcano enemy, these can show up in packs of up to four in Sky Cave. Good experience, so long as they’re a quick fight, although certainly they’re outclassed by other fights on this list.
For speed, taking fights along the way is better than sitting in one spot and grinding. We call this a “walking grind,” and we encourage these, when you can, because in the process of taking fights you’re also clearing dungeons, meaning you’re still making forward progress. This can put you ahead of a player that decides to sit in one spot to grind, although they may be able to gain faster levels, and can catch up quicker afterwards.
- "Take Fights As You Go" List (contributed by Thunderclaude)
Sometimes the stationary grind is better than a walking grind. This comes into play when you need a lot of levels (due to having a Black Belt in your party, or high scaling of boss fights, or both) and thus have to take the time to really get levels as effectively as possible. A stationary grind can be done in a couple of different ways:
The first is via Spike Tiles. These are tiles in the dungeons with fixed enemy fights. A couple of fights in the vanilla game were found in mid-game dungeons (Agamas in Volcano, Eyes in Ice Cave) and could be used to get the levels needed to clear the rest of the game. The randomizer, of course, allows for the shuffling, and even randomizing, of these tiles, meaning there are some fights that are more effective than others, especially if you can find them early in a dungeon, where you can grab it quickly along your path:
- Agamas: In vanilla these could be found on the fifth floor of the Volcano (note that the Volcano loops up and down on its floors, so technically the fifth floor isn’t, actually, it’s fifth, but it is the fifth path reached in the basement of the dungeon, so we call if Floor B5). They were most effectively taken on their two side-by-side tiles right before the exit of the floor, allowing players to move back and forth along these two tiles without ever getting any other encounters (because, as we discussed before, spike tiles cannot increase the encounter table and, as such, two tiles next to each other will always have predictable fights).
- Eyes: One of the most lucrative, and easiest to kill, fights in the mid-game. Found on a tile in the middle of Ice Cave, the Eyes could give maximum yield for minimum effort. However because they were on a single tile, in the middle of the dungeon, there could still be off-tile encounters that might mess up a grind. Only really effective because of how lucrative they could be (balancing out the annoyance of their location).
Along with these two vanilla spike tiles, the randomizer’s other possible fights (depending on the flags) could also be worth taking:
- Eyes: Although the vanilla encounter is a single eye, there’s a B-Side fight (available in the Trap Tile dropdown selector) that can have two-to-three eyes (which we often call the “Third Eye Grind”). If one Eye is lucrative, three Eyes are downright stupid.
- Worm: The pink worm can be found in ToFR, and when you can get it on a tile it’s even better. The enemy can have a fair bit of health, but that’s balanced out by just how much EXP it can yield.
- WzVamp/ZombieD: Another very lucrative pack. Dragons are, generally, decently high experience (in all forms) and WzVamps are already a pack to keep an eye out for. This pack is well worth taking if you find them, just be warned they can hit like trucks.
You can also take a stationary grind in the Mirage Desert. Mirage sits at the intersection of four encounter zones, each of which have a few lucrative packs. If you have a short walk before your first encounter you can try any of the four zones around Mirage (go into a zone, save, hard reset). You want to find a good fight within the first battle or two in a zone and you want it to come within the first few seconds after your hard reset. Anything more than that, or if there are only bad fights initially, would make this grind less desirable than other methods. These fights are good to see for a desert grind:
- SandWorms: Also known as “sandwiches”. These will come in packs of one-to-two, and they are both lucrative for EXP and fairly weak when it comes to health. If you can find these, we encourage you to sit down at the sandwich buffet and feast all day.
- Tyro/Wyvern: Also known as “steak and wings”. This is another lucrative pack, although it can be tough to take down. The tyro often has a lot of health, and can hit hard, so this may be a fight you take when you already have a few levels under your belt.
- T-Rex: Also known as “blue steak”. This is the ideal fight, if you can find it and beat it. For a single enemy this has the best EXP in the whole game. Usually has a fair bit of health but considering how lucrative it is, this fight is absolutely the best you can get.
Finally, if all else fails, there’s the ToFR Floor 3 grind. Once you have access into ToFR, go down through two staircases until you reach the big, square, third floor. This floor has a ton of great, very lucrative fights, almost all of which are worth taking. Fights to keep an eye out for:
- Gas D: As noted, dragons are all fairly good for EXP, but the Gas Ds. are the best. Up to four can show up in a pack and this is the fight, as we like to say, that broke the randomizer. Due to how much experience they can give, players could potentially get so much that the EXP counter would roll over and suddenly they were getting none. The EXP had to be refactored so that the randomizer could accurately reward players for taking out this fight. It’s that good.
- Worms: The pink worms hail from this dungeon and they can show up in packs here. Generally they aren’t too tough to kill and they are also worth a ton of experience. This is a solid fight to take when you need the experience.
Note, though, that unless you have EXIT, WARP, or the ToFR Exit flag on, you won’t be able to leave ToFR once you enter past the Black Orb. You really do want to save your grind when you’re done so only do the ToFR Floor 3 grind if you have a way back out from the dungeon.
At that point, then, you just need to determine what level you should be going into ToFR. There are some factors to consider, from the length of the final dungeon (Short, Mid, or Long ToFR, which we’ll discuss further below) to the scale of the enemies. In most cases (and this is just a simple guide as there will always be instances where this isn’t always right) you can grind to somewhere between level 21 and 24 and be good enough. What you really want is your next breakpoint for your primary weapons, as well as having at least 401 HP on your key characters (your melee as well as your life caster). NUKE can do, at max, 400 HP, so to truly be safe and survive a round of magic, you need more than that.
Once you hit those key points, you can consider stopping your grind at any point after that. Again, there will always be instances where this loose rule won’t apply (a particularly bad, gate-keeping boss, for example), but you won’t really know if you’re good or not until you try.
Finally, we should note that experience is only assigned to living, active party members. If a character is dead, or turned to stone, or simply doesn’t exist (i.e., that slot is a none) then the game will split the experience only among the other characters. This is why you will often see, in races, a player has most of their party die so that the experience from battles is funneled onto the key, surviving member of the crew. This is also why nones can be useful; they aren’t party members, and an empty slot can’t do anything, but that experience that would otherwise be going onto an active party member across the whole of the game is directed towards the other, living members instead.
¶ Get Your Gear In Order
Before you take your big dive into ToFR you’re going to want to make sure you have your gear together. We already discussed weapons, but you also need to consider all your other gear:
- Ribbon, Ribbon, Ribbon: The ribbon doesn’t seem like much, a little hair band that provides only one point of absorb and sells for nothing. What the vanilla game never mentioned, but is vitally important, is that the ribbon protects against all magic. There are plenty of monsters, especially the bosses in ToFR, that have access to instant death spells, and the ribbon is the only piece of gear that protects against everything. It’s the equivalent of a permanent WALL spell, on at all times. It’s too good not to use. Make sure you have a ribbon for at least one character, and ideally two or more for your key party members.
- Wizard Don’t Go Naked: Wizards don’t have access to a ton of great, end-game gear, but there are a few key options to look for. Gold Bracelets are fantastic gear, providing a solid amount of absorb, and they can be purchased in shops (although they are generally expensive). There are Gold Bracelets hidden in chests that you may find, but even better is the one Opal Bracelet secreted somewhere in the game. Also, if you happen to find the shirts (White and Black) your wizards (of the same color) can wear those and they have the equivalent of Gold Bracelet armor (along with some magic protection).
- Bling Out: You’ll also want ProRings, solid arm protection that anyone in the party can wear. ProRings also provide Death protection, making them a must have, especially for anyone that doesn’t have a ribbon.
- Knight’s Get a Ribbon Equivalent: If your knight is lucky you’ll be able to find the Dragon Armor, the Aegis Shield, and a ProRing for them. Between all those bits of gear you’ll be protected against everything except Time, Earth, and Status. It’s not perfect protection but it’s about as close as you can get to a ribbon without actually wearing one.
¶ Magic for the Matter
Finally, you need to have your magic in order as well. As we noted earlier in this guide, there are certain spells you want to have for your characters so they are able to handle ToFR efficiently. If you can learn these, you’ll want:
- Black Magic: TMPR, SABR (on your Melee character), FAST, LOCK/LCK2, NUKE
- White Magic: INV2, RUSE (on your Melee character especially), LIFE/LIF2, CUR4, HEL3
The spells are essentially must haves; if you can use them, they’ll speed up your journey substantially. Being able to get them on your melee characters as well provides a little extra redundancy in case the worst happens and you lose other party members. Getting through Chaos with a single warrior (what we call “man mode”) is much easier if that one character has a bunch of magic to aid them.
Pay attention to your items’ magic as there’s a solid chance you will be able to get at least a couple of items that can provide some of this magical assistance. Magic items in Final Fantasy (and, thus, FFR) are usable in battle and come with unlimited charges, so enjoy casting these to make your battles far easier:
- Defense Sword: In battle, the Defense Sword casts RUSE on the user. It takes six shots of evasion magic, INVS or INV2, to fully protect a character from all melee attacks (outside the very rare, 3/256 critical hit from a boss). RUSE is the equivalent of two shots of evasion, so you can cast RUSE three times and get the same protection.
- In some flags a guaranteed defense item will also be included; this is in addition to the Defense sword. The flag adds a defensive casting spell (INVS, INV2, or RUSE) to the Power Rod (an otherwise unremarkable stick). While the weapon won’t be at the same level as the Defense sword for damage and attack, the defensive casts are what you should really care about, and that makes this item very important if you find it.
- Power Gauntlet: Often called the “Power Bonk” (because you bonk yourself with the gauntlet), this item casts SABR on the user. SABR is a slightly improved version of TMPR and will improve the casters damage a decent chunk as well as slightly buff their hit percent. Against a boss with a lot of absorb, or just a lot of health, a couple of shots from the SABR bonk will greatly improve your chance of getting through the fight. When in doubt, bonk.
- If the guaranteed offensive item is on, the Power Gauntlet will be renamed to whichever spell is assigned (SABR, TMPR, or FAST). A second item, though, is not added to the pool (unlike the Defense and Power Stick pairing).
It is suggested that you put your casting items, defensive and offensive, in the front slot when organizing your equipment on characters. When you go to use an item in battle, the first slot is the top slot. Having the item in the first slot means you can navigate to it quickly and efficiently. Efficiency, as always, is important for winning races.
¶ Congratulations, You’ve Beaten the Game
And with that (we assume) you have gotten strong enough to kill Chaos. You reach him, talk to the boss three times, and the fight starts up, and then you battle until one side (hopefully yours) is done. You’ll know you’ve won when you got the “Terminated” message in the battle and Chaos slowly fades out of existence. You can now watch the credits, see how you did in the game, and enjoy the splendor of success.
And then go roll another seed when you’re ready and go again. The fun of the randomizer is that, even with the same flags, no two adventures are the same. You can always find a new seed, a new option, and a new quest to play. So go forth and enjoy, traveler!
¶ Advanced Concepts
¶ The Different Lengths of ToFR
While the randomizer originally started with only the standard, vanilla-length Temple of Fiends Revisited (what we now call “Long ToFR”), our developers have since added in newer options to play with as well. The first was “Short ToFR”, which removes all of the floors between the Black Orb behind Garland and Chaos’s floor. Just go in, hit the plate blocking the path with the LUTE (like El Kabong), go through the locked door right beyond that (using the KEY), and you’re off to Chaos.
Then there’s the more recent addition of Mid ToFR. This features a slightly shortened version of the dungeon. Once you go through the Black Orb you’ll see the first floor of ToFR, but instead of having to navigate a path through the next few floors before reaching a fiend floor, the stairs will immediately take you through to the fiend floors, cutting out half the dungeon. Even better, three of the fiend floors will feature shortcuts, trimming down the amount of time you have to spend on those floors as well.
Note: If you have “Fiend Refights” (under Goal) set to “Two Paths” then ToFR will feature stairs on both sides of the first floor. Two fiend floors will follow on each side before leading to Chaos’s floor. Setting it to “All” makes you fight through all four floors of the dungeon. This applies to both Long and Mid ToFR. Meanwhile, for Short ToFR, setting “Fiend Refights” to “Two Paths” will put two spike tiles on the path before Chaos on each side, making you fight two different of the four fiends in the lead up to the final fight, while the “All” option forces you to fight all four bosses, back-to-back in a big grind.
¶ Alternate Fiends
While the traditional elemental fiends of the game are Lich, Kary, Kraken, and Tiamat, they aren’t the only fiends you can battle against. The randomizer features the Alternate fiends option, which has a collection of bosses taken from across the series (with more getting added regularly). These bosses aren’t just palette or sprite swaps of the monsters; they feature entirely new pools of magic inspired by what the bosses could do in their original games. These bosses can be varied and interesting, and the powers they bring with them (pulled from Final Fantasy’s vanilla pool of magic and skills) can add new twists to the ToFR diving experience.
¶ Alternate Final Bosses
Along with Alternate Fiends you can also turn on the options for Alternate Final Bosses as well. This option switches out Chaos for a collection of other packs, from Two WarMechs and some friends to a whole wagon full of Sahags, some of which can be quite difficult. This is a hard-mode option for the final fight, so be prepared for what’s to come:
¶ Lich’s Revenge
Made as a joke one year for Halloween, “Lich’s Revenge” (under the Goal tab) reinvents aspects of the game for a nightmare, undead apocalypse. Talking to NPCs around town will reveal them to be zombies ready to eat your face. Key item NPCs, and many of the sub-bosses in the game, have been replaced with undead, buffed versions just to show how far the zombie plague has spread. And Lich has taken over the world, kicking Chaos to the curb to be the new (buffed up) final boss. Just be warned, Phantom (aka Lich 1) and WarLich (aka WarMech) will be there, guarding final Lich at the Chaos spot, so you will have three fights, back-to-back-to-back to contend with right at the end.
This mode is a lot of fun but it does up the challenge of the base game. Make sure you’re prepared, especially towards the end-game, for all that is to come when you turn “Lich’s Revenge” on.