It’s an old saying that failing to plan is planning to fail, and a trip through Dragon’s Den with only Celes, Edgar and Setzer will require one hell of a plan.

There are several examples of multi-party dungeons in Final Fantasy VI, and the Dragon’s Den takes this gimmick and cranks it up to 11. Deadly enemies with terrible drops will assault my one-member teams around every corner. Pumped-up bosses, each requiring a special method to kill them that might prove impossible with my diminished resources and singular manpower.

Each step of the way will require picking the right character with the right buildout, as new paths are unlocked when each boss dies. Mercifully, if I’m willing to backtrack all the parties far enough, I can swap members between them when they are all in certain rooms, allowing me to fight any battle with any character I wish. Guiding me in this plan are the very notes I took when I bought Final Fantasy VI Advance back when it came out.

The eight dragons… again

Ice Dragon

Appears in a group of four. All of them counter spells with physical attacks, so whoever casts, say, Ultima, will eat four physical attacks. (Drops Final Trump for Setzer)

This fight is pretty straightforward, as fitting for the first battle. Sticking to physical attacks will be the easy way through, so all three party members will do fine here.

Storm Dragon

Can be fought after Ice Dragon. Most attacks are absorbed by a Thunder Shield. It vastly increases its speed and attack power near the end of the fight. (Drops the Longinus for Edgar)

Any character should be good for this one, too, thanks for the power of the Thunder Shield. I’ll have to make sure to keep myself hasted and watch my HP for quick, physical attacks. Easy enough.

Earth Dragon

Can be fought after Ice Dragon. High attack and magic power. Doublecasts Magnitude 8 and Quake (which also heals itself for 4500 HP). Always counters Float status with 50 Gs. Later in the fight, he gains an unblockable physical attack that might also ignore defence. Its basic attack power jumps dramatically, so keep your HP above 5000. Counters spells with a physical attack.

Gaia Gear sounds like a no-brainer to help with healing after the punishing physical attacks, but its lower defense value (53, absorbs Earth) compared to Force Armor (69), the Minerva Busier (88, halves Earth) or Genji Armor (90) will mean I’ll need to heal all the more anyway. So I might be better off with an Angel Feather for irrevocable Float and tough armor to shrug off regular attacks. Agan, all characters are equally useable for this fight.

Blue Dragon

Can be fought after Ice (and/or Storm?) Dragon. Lowers own defence, then casts Rippler to make somebody vulnerable. Only other attacks are Stop and water spells. (Drops Save the Queen for Celes)

Getting hit by Rippler, and then Stop, may very well ruin my day. As there’s no way to become immune to Stop short of 128% MBlock, so I may want to gear for that (Lightbringer, Force Shield and Force Armor get me to 130%). If Rippler is also evadeable, that would be enough to win the fight right there. Otherwise, immunity to Imp also bestows immunity to Rippler, so a Ribbon can ward it off. I can take advantage of the fact that this dragon doesn’t counter, so I can assail it with its magic weakness to my heart’s content and take it down fast. Any character works for this fight, though Setzer would need the Merit Award.

Red Dragon

Can be fought after Earth Dragon (and Storm?). The game says the Red Dragon sacrifices its life force to make itself stronger. It gets free kill attacks that override instant death protection. It counters any attack or spell with an eight-hit combo, but that would be stupid, as it is immune to all physical and magical damage, even ones that ignore defense or do fixed amounts of damage. It Doublecasts fire elemental spells. It will eventually cast a very high powered Ultima, and then die.

The only way to beat this guy is to survive. Without Reraise. If I remember correctly, his Ultima doesn’t hit for maximum damage (but still very close) so the name of the game will be keeping myself at maximum HP. This may be troublesome if that eight-hit counterattack goes off even when the target isn’t the dragon. A Fire Shield might be necessary in order to heal from fire spells instead. Another way to avoid Ultima would be a timely summon of Quetzalli or equipping Dragon Boots and using Jump. The easiest way by far, though, would be to have Celes Runic the spell and be done with it. It’ll be a nice catharsis for not having that option in the Cultist’s Tower

Skull Dragon

Can be fought after Red Dragon, (and possibly Blue Dragon). Casts Level 5 Death, Fear (causes Zombie), Bio, Will O’ the Wisp and Disaster (causes Mute, Muddle, Imp, Float and Doom). Make sure you’re not level multiple of 5, and protected against Zombie, Mute, Muddle, and Imp, or it’ll be a long, long battle. It reanimates if killed, all 14,000 MP must be drained to kill it.

Everybody’s Level 99, so it would have been more dangerous with the normal Death spell. Anybody with a Ribbon and patience can defeat this guy, but with only one party member and no Reraise, Doom status is a VERY fast deadline for Rasp-ing away all those MP. While Disaster can be Runic’d, it would be very irritating to have to fight the entire battle as Quick>Rasp>Runic>Quick>Rasp>Runic>Quick>Rasp>Runic>Quick>Rasp>Runic>Quick>Rasp>Runic>Quick>Turbo Ether>Runic>etc. I should just equip a Safety Bit and a Ribbon.

Holy Dragon

Can be fought after Skull Dragon. Has innate Regen. Counters with Curaga. Uses Heartless Angel, Saintly Beam and Holy. Can double, triple, and quadruple cast. Attacks for four-hit combos. Also has Heavenly Wrath, a physical attack that ignores row.

Here’s where the luck kicks in. Without Reraise, absorbing the Holy element is a must but I can’t rely on a Paladin Shield. The remaining options do not absorb or negate Holy; the Cat-Ear Hood and Minerva Bustier, only resist it. This is a problem for any time the Holy Dragon casts Heartless Angel and follows up with an immediate attack. Absorbing Holy, I have a very good chance at healing a bevy of HP instead of dying.

So the name of the game is going to have to be cheating with Setzer’s slots (not prefered) getting damn lucky and having Heartless Angel never get used or only used as the final attack in the Dragon’s barrages (damn near impossible) or avoiding getting hit in the first place (tricky).

Holy can be reflected or evaded. It and Saintly Beam can also be Runic’d, but only one at a time, obviously. Heavenly Wrath can be evaded. Heartless Angel is unblockable, and is used as a counterattack. If any of these dragons was an occasion for Quick+Master’s Scroll+Genji Glove+Ultima Weapon+Ultima Weapon (not Lightbringer, because it’s Holy elemental) in an effort to produce a one-turn win, this is it. It would also have the side effect of rendering it’s healing trivial.

Gold Dragon

Can be fought after Holy Dragon. This one has a permanent Runic status, so you have to be careful what you cast. Uses lightning-element magic and has a physical attack that inflicts confuse.

The last Dragon’s gimmick is more of an annoyance than anything; at level 99, nobody has to rely on magic. I just need to remember to use my X-potions when I need a heal,

So with the eight dragons gone, the Kaiser dragon’s next, right? Wrong! There’s plenty of other bosses that stand in our way throughout our dragon slaying quest.

And the rest

Plague

Casts doom on all at the start of fight, then counterattacks by casting Haste on the doomed. Has perfect Magic block.

As fun as it is to race the clock, a Safety Bit makes this fight trivial.

Flan Princess

Five appear. Casts Imp Song, Lullaby, Mysterious Waltz and Berzerk. Susceptible to X-type instant death. Each has a Megaelixir or super ball to steal.

Five Megaelixirs is a tempting prize. I might bring Edgar with the Merit Award and Thief’s Knife to take a chance at them. Why Edgar? Because I don’t have to worry about gimping my attack with the knife, as I can Chainsaw spam them to death, with a chance to OHKO them thrown in for good measure. Getting my MP zapped by the Mysterious Waltz won’t matter much with this strategy.

Neslug

Shell monster. The shell never takes damage, even from defense-ignoring attacks. Shell counters with Megaton Smash, a physical OHKO (remember, Safety Bit only wards off magical death attacks). The shell continuously heals head with White Wind. Because the shell cannot be damaged, it will always heal 9,999 HP. The head has attacks that can cause Slow and Stop.

The healing isn’t that much of a problem with a full party, but only making one attack a tun is futile with that much White Wind flying about. Using a Master’s Scroll multiple attack risks hitting the shell and triggering the physical KO attack. 128% Evade or Vanish status would be necessary to emerge victorious.

Earth Eater

Counterattacks anything used against him with a physical OHKO. His normal attacks are pretty powerful too, but has no magic attacks.

I’ll cast Vanish and win.

Gargantua

High attack. Has a physical attack that causes slow. No magical attacks.

Again, Vanish. You’re making this too easy, Dragon’s Den.

Malboro Menace

Uses Bad Breath and counterattacks with Blaster. Vulnerable to X-type instant death. First you fight one, then two, then four.

Blaster, thankfully, is a magic death attack. But that in itself forces my hand on Relics: Ribbon and Safety Bit. If I can hit it wish Banish or another X-type instant death attack, it’ll stop the fight without summoning more Malboro Menaces. That’s clearly the way to go.

Abyss Worm

Uses Acid, Landslide, Magnitude 8, Gravity Bomb, 50 G’s. Is immune to all elements except Holy. Has an Elixir to steal.

The Abyss Worm is one of five of these bosses that can be fought repeatedly, so it’s tempting to farm some Elixirs that I am undoubtedly using up in this hellish dungeon crawl. The other bonus is that fighting this means NOT fighting the Dark Behemoth. It doesn’t have much HP or deal high damage, so that sounds like a plan.

Dark Behemoth

Uses Mighty Guard. Counterattacks with Heave. Casts Meteor (sometimes Ultima) on death. Vulnerable to X-type instant death.

I’m not totally sure, but its final attack might not go off if I kill it with Banish. Sounds like a plan if I take the wrong path by accident.

And now, the main event(s)

Kaiser Dragon

Can fight after Gold Dragon. Uses Barrier Change, and attacks viciously with the same element he becomes weak to. Notable elemental attacks include using Freezing Dust in Ice form to inflict Stop, and Doom and Zombie when in Poison form. He’ll have to be killed five times, regenerating each time you deplete what would normally be the game’s maximum possible HP amount of 65,535. In his final form, he can counter with Revenge Blast for an Auto-Hit defence ignoring 9,999 damage, and casts Ultima on death which did well over 7,000 damage to everyone in the party my first time through the game.

No way at all am I going to gear myself to steal a Celestriad. I already have some, anyway.

Frankly, I may have little choice but to cheese the guy. With Quick+Genji Glove+Master’s Scroll+Ultima Weapon+Ultima Weapon, I could kill it in two turns. I’ll have to be sure I’m still at full HP on the second turn to ensure I survive Ultima. However, it could be the damage from bumping off one of Kaiser’s “lifebars” won’t overflow into the next, so it may take five turns. If so, I can use the first turn of Quick to heal. Without a Ribbon or a shield, I’ll be very susceptible to elemental attacks, and it’ll probably get one off for each form. In this case, Celes will be my fighter, as her Minerva Busier provides the most protection against all forms of damage. I’ll just have to get lucky on status ailments and also hope that the Revenge Blast counterattack is overridden by the casting of Ultima.

My rewards for this fight are the Diablos Magicite, which teaches the last of the three new spells, Gravija; The Soul Shrine will unlock because I already had beat the game; and one more thing…

Omega WEAPON

The Omega Weapon might seem like a joke at first, with more than 100,000 less HP than the Kaiser Dragon but don’t underestimate it. They found a way to break the 65k HP limit, and its power just keeps on growing.

Omega starts with Freezing Dust, L3 Confusde, L4 Flare, L5 Death and the top elemental spells. It starts using petrification, Blaster, multi-status effect attacks later on. It can counter with Freezing Dust, Blaster and Discord and is all-around unfair. It has so much defense, a 90 strength hit with the Lightbringer only did 3300 damage. It’s also immune to Osmose.

So I have two ways about this: Offensive, as with Kaiser Dragon, or defensive. On offense, I’ll need three turns if each “lifebar” has to be defeated separately. That’ll leave me open to a litany of possible game-stoppers, including Stop, Frozen, Petrify, Zombie, Doom and straight-up Death.

Defensively, a Ribbon is a must-use. A Safety Bit also is mandatory for this fight, not only to avoid Blaster (especially since it always hits a stopped target), but also because it protects against the stat-crushing effects of Discord (as a bonus, it also make Launcher and Missile ineffective for some reason). That helps make the counterattacks more manageable, but with Freezing Dust unblockable (and not a thing in the game grants immunity to Stop), provoking a counterattack is still dangerous in its first and third lives. I can also nullify L? Holy by making sure the last digit of my Gil isn’t 1, 3 or 9. Other than that, most of Omega’s attacks are unblockable. I’ll have to keep my HP high, my elemental defenses, immunities and absorptions tip-top to stay in there.

Not that it has to do with anything, but…

While working on this post, I checked out this quiz. I don’t think the results are anywhere near perfect, but I found the design interesting.

See my full results here. You can try for yourself here.

For previous parts of this CES Challenge series, read the following:

The begining

Beating the main game

After the end, but before the Den