Final Fantasy
Cie'th Stone Missions - 4
Mission 26: So Shrill, the Cry
Rank: B
Mark: Penanggalan
Cie'th Stone location: Taejin's Tower – Fifth Tier
Mark location: Taejin's Tower – Sixth Tier
Reward: Diamond Bangle
Bats, bats everywhere! Penanggalan’s really not too tough, mainly because both he and his crew are weak to Ruin and Ruinga. Time to go Commando and blast these bats back to kingdom come!
Mission 27: Mithridates, the Lone
Rank: B
Mark: Mithridates
Cie'th Stone location: Taejin's Tower – The Cloven Spire
Mark location: Taejin's Tower – Ground Tier
Reward: Blaze Ring
This where things get a lot harder. Mithridates is the “hidden” hunt of the Tower – in order to encounter it, you’ll need to defeat all the other marks and set up the central elevator so that it can run from the tower apex to the bottom floor. Once that’s taken care of, run the elevator from the top to the bottom and you’ll encounter Mithridates immediately upon stepping outside.
Mithridates is tough, to boot. He’s nearly impossible to stagger and can hit you with poison, numerous debuffs, and some very damaging spell attacks. A Synergist is must to have on hand for at least part of this fight to counter its debuffs, and a Medic or two are essential. You’ll want to Paradigm Shift regularly between focusing on recovery and attacking once your team can withstand a few more of Mithradates’s enchantments. He’s weak to Fire, Wind, Ice, and Water elements, so keep those spells coming – just don’t go too deep into the red, because he can easily go in for the kill.
Mission 28: Faded Glory
Rank: C
Mark: Ceratosaur
Cie'th Stone location: Oerba – Village Proper (Waystone)
Mark location: Oerba – Village Proper
Reward: Giant's Glove
Ceratosaurs aren’t terribly difficult enemies – they’re weak to Fire and Earth and don’t have too much HP, though staggering them’s a little tough. Still, there are a lot of them here, so use spells and strikes with a large area of effect to hit as many of them at once as you can.
Mission 29: Faltering Faith
Rank: B
Mark: Juggernaut
Cie'th Stone location: Mah'habara – Maw of the Abyss
Mark location: Taejin's Tower – The Palisades
Reward: Uraninite
You’ll essentially have to fight the Juggernaut twice for this mission: once to access the Cie'th stone (it’s guarded by a tough enemy similar to the mark), and once to actually complete the mission. The Juggernaut has heavy defenses and hits hard with fire attacks, so be sure to have a Synergist on hand to set up appropriate elemental protection. Fortunately, its stagger percentage is pretty low. Commando skills won’t work too well initially, so get your Ravagers in, stagger him, then Shift back in a melee attacker or two to go in for the launcher.
Mission 30: Syphax, the Insidious
Rank: B
Mark: Syphax
Cie'th Stone location: Archylte Steppe – The Haerii Oldroad (near the ring of Cie'th Stones)
Mark location: Mah'habara – Abandoned Dig
Reward: Uraninite
Another red barrier mission. You can only access the area where this mission sits on Chocobo-back – and there are many other fights, including the Titan quests, lying just behind this barrier. But you’ll have to tread back to Mah'habara first… and trek a long ways in to find Syphax’s lair.
This can be a hard fight – not due to any inherent strength of the enemies (they’re pretty weak), but because there are just so damn many of them – and they keep on coming! You’ll have to fell over thirty or forty of the smaller bat-like beasties before Syphax will even turn up, and they are proof that strength lies in numbers. Keep a Medic on hand to make sure they don’t suck out too much of your HP. Syphax will reveal itself once enough of its underlings have been decimated, and while he has a decent-sized HP buffer, he also had a fairly low stagger percentage and a weakness to wind elemental attacks.
Mission 31: Newfound Purpose
Rank: B
Mark: Pulsework Champion
Cie'th Stone location: Archylte Steppe – Haerii Archaeopolis (Waystone)
Mark Location: Archylte Steppe – Haerii Archaeopolis
Reward: Perfect Conductor (x3)
Pulsework Champion returns with a gang of floppy Seeker enemies serving as backup. You’ve likely encountered both of these foes before so you should know what to expect from them. They can put some hurt on you if you don’t pay attention, however, so don’t be afraid to Paradigm Shift if things don’t go as planned.
Mission 32: And Then There Was One
Rank: B
Mark: Amam
Cie'th Stone location: Vallis Media – Earthen Bosom
Mark location: Archylte Steppe – Western Benchland
Reward: Glass Buckle
Amam is the evolution of Uridimmu and its ilk. He’s got a higher HP and stagger percentage, but for the most part he’s very similar in looks and attacks to the other feral foes you’ve felled to this point. He has a breath attack that will lower the attack power of your party, so you might consider a Synergist to offset the status drop. Beyond that, hit him with Ice and Earth elemental spells (avoid Wind and Thunder), juggle him when you get a chance, and don’t let his fairly forceful strikes deplete your health too far.
Mission 33: A Parent’s Pledge
Rank: B
Mark: Adamanchelid
Cie'th Stone location: Archylte Steppe – Central Expanse
Mark location: Archylte Steppe – Eastern Tors
Reward: White Cape
Adamanchelid isn’t as fierce as its older Adamantoise relatives, but it can still lay down a world of hurt on your party. You’ll definitely want to buff up as much as you can before going in for the kill, so set a Synergist to up your defenses from the start of battle (and Medics to back you up while you do – a Sentinel wouldn’t hurt either) or make use of a Shroud or two. It’s weak to Ice spells and strong against physical strikes, but it’s also vulnerable to a lot of Saboteur-induced inflictions. Once your defenses are fortified and the foe’s are debilitated, start going in for a more focused attack.
Mission 34: Zenobia, the Butcher
Rank: B
Mark: Tonberry
Cie'th Stone location: Archylte Steppe – Way of the Ancients
Mark location: Archylte Steppe – Haerii Archaeopolis
Reward: Hermes Sandals
This red Cie’th stone mark is exceptionally tricky. You’re allegedly out to kill a tentacled terror named Zenobia, but someone’s already got the job handled. Unfortunately for you, he’s far worse than Zenobia ever was.
Tonberry is small but very, very vicious. His knife strikes are rather infrequent but do a decent amount of damage, however; the real threat is his Grudge attacks. As the battle wears on, Tonberry’s rage will begin to seethe, and once it reaches a certain point, he’ll release an attack that hits for a few thousand points worth of damage, recovers all of his health, and resets his combo percentage. Worse yet, every time he uses the attack, the power increases dramatically. Even if you survive the first time, you likely won’t last the second or third time.
The key here is simply to stagger Tonberry as fast as possible and get him in a series of juggles that will drain his HP fast and prevent him from using the Grudge skills. Don’t even worry about buffs of healing unless absolutely necessary, simply hit fast and hard until you’ve got him launched high in the sky. If you even let him get off one Grudge/full HP restore, it’s going to be extremely difficult to recover and beat him.
Mission 35: The Road Less Traveled (Titan Quest A-1)
Rank: C
Mark: Gurangatch
Cie'th Stone location: Faultwarrens – Truthseeker's Rise
Mark location: Faultwarrens – Primeval Crossroads
Reward: Witch's Bracelet
Gurangatch is the first of the Titan Quests, a branching series of battles presented by the Titan himself and ending in one of six tough matchups. He’s very much the same foe as back in Taejin's Tower, so keep to the same strategy and you should emerge victorious. Make sure you remember how to beat him, because you’ll be starting off with this fighter each time you go down one of Titan’s questing paths.
Warrior (Fighter) — A specialist in heavy weapons and armor who can withstand tremendous amounts of punishment. Can become the Knight later in the game, who is able to use the most powerful weapons and some White Magic spells.
Monk (Black Belt) — A martial arts expert who is best left fighting empty-handed, but may also wield nunchaku, and the most basic of staves. Does tremendous amounts of damage in combat, but cannot wear heavy armor. Can become the Master later in the game. In the original Famicom/NES version a high level, barehanded Master who is unencumbered by armor, can do more damage in a single attack than any other character type; a party of four Masters can defeat the final boss monster in less than two full rounds. A rather weak class in the beginning, but you never have to buy much weapons/armor for him.
Thief — A high evasion/accuracy finesse fighter with very limited weapon and armor selection, but greater agility and luck (ability to escape from combat). However, the ability to flee is bugged in versions before the Origins release. Later in the game, the Thief can be upgraded to the Ninja class. Ninja can use almost every weapon and most armor, and can use many Black Magic spells.
White Mage — A specialist in White Magic. Not a good fighter, but can use hammers for physical attacks. Can be upgraded into a White Wizard, which allows the character to use the most powerful White Magic spells in the game.
Black Mage — A specialist in Black Magic and a very weak fighter. Becomes the Black Wizard later on. Black Wizard is the only character who can cast Flare (NUKE in the original North American localization), one of the two damaging spells that retain full effectiveness against Chaos (the White Wizard can cast Holy, the other spell, but it is less powerful than Flare).
Red Mage — A jack-of-all-trades character, able to use most but not all of both White and Black Magic, and possessing fighting abilities similar to but not quite as good as the Fighter. Becomes the Red Wizard later in the game.
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