The Mage's/Cult of Kefka Tower, I HATE the Mage's Tower

[Cyrodeus]

I know no one really cares, but I hate this area so much. It took me 2 hours at least of playtime just to manage to kill the Holy Dragon and leave before getting killed by a random encounter. I'll be honest. This is the first FF game I've played, and I haven't played many traditional RPGs. I'm strategy also is probably based more around plain attacks than it should be. That said this area is still ridicolous. Even some of the earlier enemies had spells that could kill multiple of my Lv 38 party members in one hit. And at some point I'm going to have to try and reach the top. I hate it so much.

[ladynadiad]

One word of advice, don't try and do it at that low of level. This is something you should be doing towards the end of the game once you've found most of your party members, have most of the magicite and are nearly ready to tackle the final dungeon. Level 38 is way too low.

[Zunnoab #931]

Wall (Reflect) Rings can help too. Not against everything, but it can help survive.

[rocthehut]

When I played the original on the SNES, I used mog's relic that prevented random encounters, and just ran to the top. I think it was called the Moogle charm or something like that.

[Cyrodeus]

I already had all my party members and had done most of the sidequests. Thanks for the advice.

[LadyShrin]

It's not impossible if you prepare right. Reflect rings help, but you might benefit from Float magic during the middle floors, and some sort of 100%/absorption fire defense for the top floors. Also Life 3 (reraise?) for the boss as he casts Ultima on death. Oh, and of course Osmose if you don't already have it.

I think at least one enemy is susceptible to the Revivify/Holy water/phoenix down trick.

[Bamethyst38]

There are 2 enemies that are Undead on the way up.

I have seen my share of Rookie mistakes climbing this place and using the Molulu Charm here is ill advised as you need to slay each Magic Level for Bestiary and encounter Magic Urn for King of Beasts. Save it for the descent or if you want to kill Holy Dragon.

Your team needs to have 4000+ hp each and you need as many status and elemental defense items as possible. Your team also cannot have ♥♥♥♥ Magic Power stats. Safety Bits, Ribbons help a lot, the former helps as this makes you Banish, Tornado, Gravity AND Deathproof! You get 1 there, a Memento Ring for Shadow/Relm and the rest need to be morphed from Alluring Riders, Clymenus or Baalzephons.

Good characters to take up are Terra and Celes as they both can wear Minerva Bustiers for major resistances. The Cat Ear Hood on Relm is also nice. Thunder, Fire, Aegis, Force and Paladin Shields also help immensely.

In the SNES version, I remember there was a bug that allowed Gogo to bypass the effects of the Cultist Tower so you can use any command pool, but they fixed it in this version.

My Gau Guide also covers a few things you should watch for when climbing the Tower. Take advantage of it.

[Cyrodeus]

Thanks for the tips everyone. I've curently but the Cultist tower on hold and have actually almost made it to Kefka, but I intend to return to the Cultist tower at some point and will use the advice.

[Cyrodeus]

put instead of the first but. That was my own little typo.

[Well Butter my Biscuit]

You should level up more before you complain. This game is rather simple if you actually play it right and you know...try hard?

[Zunnoab #931]

Originally posted by Well Butter my Biscuit:

You should level up more before you complain. This game is rather simple if you actually play it right and you know...try hard?

Better gear helps as much or more when it comes to leveling, as do strategies, of which you provided none but others already have.

Playing this genre eventually one gets used to common mechanics. Going in as one of the first RPGs the original poster played will make it more difficult.

[Bamethyst38]

Originally posted by Well Butter my Biscuit:

You should level up more before you complain. This game is rather simple if you actually play it right and you know...try hard?

There are some areas, like Dragons Den, Soul Shrine and the Palace parts of Kefka Tower where even being high level can be punishing, especially if you play stupid and go all out offense and throw caution to the wind. Also, not all of us are Ultima, Phantom Rush, Valiant Knife/Ultima Weapon Master Scroll spamming scrubs. I for one barred all that ♥♥♥♥ from my PT.

Also, levels dont mean crap if you use Espers correctly. I got level 40s right now, nobody has 4000 hp at the moment and their attack stats are 60-80 right now.

Finally, just because he asked for help doesn't make him a complainer. He simply overestimated his strength and wants help improving his chances. It would be stupid if he didn't ask for help.

[RegalStar]

Holy Dragon is vulnerable to Silence. It also casts nothing but magic.

As for the random encounters, Banish will kill most of them, except for Level 40, 60 and 90. 40 and 60 are also vulnerable to silence, while level 90 magic is vulnerable to Stop and Berserk (though you have to bounce it off someone to hit it since it's also inherently reflective). There's also Magic Urn but yeah.

Unlike a lot of RPGs out there, status ailments can really help you in any battle (including boss battles) if you know what to set. Consult a bestiary for help.

[Cyrodeus]

Thanks for the tips.

[Zunnoab #931]

It's actually incredible what status spells can do when you know how to use them. In particular the Death spell works on a ton of enemies that are bad news, such as ninja types, malboros, and even behemoths. That does not help for that tower but way back when I first played the game I didn't realize how powerful status magic can be.

[Cyrodeus]

I actually just beat the tower a few hours ago. My strategy was the smartest (I basically had two party members basically serve as white mages with curaga, araise, and reraise, umarou for basic physical damage, and I had one guy span Ultima), but it worked.
Still don't really like the Tower's mechanic. I'm glad to be done with it.