The Staff of Cyrenia

***** SPOILER ALERT *****

Being a hints and tips section that spans the whole game, this is likely to contain some spoilage. Not that my storyline in the game is epic or anything close to that meaning, but just for your own warning if you're picky like that!

Note also, I'm going to leave out generally easy stuff.. the dungeons/areas nearer the end of the game may end up being close to full-on walkthroughs.

***** AREA RUNDOWN AND TIPS *****

Cyrenia - this is the town the characters live in. There's nothing remotely complicated about this place.

Cyrenia Tower - this is the first dungeon you go to in the game, off to the northeast of town. Very basic dungeon with two treasures. The monsters are also straightforward.

Boss - you get to fight a rat and two of his minions. There are no tricks to beating these other than simply to attack away, and heal if necessary. The rat king has 255HP, and his minions have 100HP apiece.

West "Ring" Forest - again, a pretty uncomplicated place. Watch out for the Whompers, they can do some damage and they can soak up a lot of it too.

West Plain - from here you could head north and into the small ruin. There are a few items in there that could be of use in the future.

Forest Tower - on the first floor, there is a switch puzzle that must be done to open the pathway to the second floor. The middle tablet on the north wall of the room will tell you what number you need - when you flip a switch down, it adds either 1 (red), 2 (blue), 4 (yellow), or 8 (green) to your current number. For example, if you need 52, a good way to get that would be to flip down all six green levers and then a yellow lever.

It might not be totally obvious but to get from the second floor to the third floor, you have to climb a vine in a room on the western end of the floor. The dungeon the rest of the way is pretty straightforward. There are a number of treasures to be had if you look hard enough! As far as the monsters go, the Whompers here are slightly more powerful than the ones in the West "Ring" Forest, but give out almost triple the EXP. If Elaire has a bow, have her target the Imps, as they are weak against shooting weapons, and put Jerek and Otto on the Snappers, since they're weak against slicing weapons.

Boss - the strange man will summon a werewolf. The werewolf has enough magic for six of its Bimen heals, and is more likely to heal as you damage him. When his health starts to get low, he will power up, which means to be watchful of your characters' HP levels. At this point he gets rather dangerous. He's weak against light spells and is strong against bludgeoning weapons (staff).

South "Ring" Forest - this place is pretty straightforward as well. If Elaire has a bow, she'll have a field day with the monsters.

World Map - once you exit the South "Ring" Forest, there is a cave off to the east. If Elaire has a Long Bow or better equipped, you can get through this very short cave and get the Light Spell Book for Kelan to use later on. I highly recommend this one, more than any of the other books.

Also to the southwest once you cross the river, there is a forest entry point, from which you can pick up some Truffles and find the Wind Spell Book. It's probably the most useless out of the spell books, but it's a find nonetheless.

Sandbelt Mountains - this place is pretty straightforward. If you find you can't go any further, use the action button (I use Z) to jump across the one-square gap you can find. If you find the rope near the end of the mountains, it can be used at the scattering of leaves to explore the rest of the mountain. Beware the Red Widows, as they can shoot a thread and bind a party member, leaving him/her unable to attack.

The Desert - there is a lot that can be found here. Two caves to the east, the Ancient Desert Tower to the direct south, a cave to the west, and two desert ruins, one to the east and one to the west. If you're wondering, I recommend tackling the one to the east first.

Eastern Desert Ruin - the first main draw here is the puzzle with the black ball. This has been a source of issues at times earlier because of how I programmed the puzzle - it only worked with the intended ball-pushing path. I have since re-programmed it to work properly as long as you get the ball where it needs to go. Just download the map from my Downloads page and replace the one in your game download.

That aside.. I'm pretty sure you can figure out the bottom floor puzzle. BTW, those Flare enemies are annoying, aren't they? You can either attack them four times for a kill, or use a water/earth/light based spell to dispatch of them immediately.

Western Desert Ruin - this is IMO the tougher of the two ruins. You have to open every treasure chest nestled between the colored orb pillars, and four of these chests are Mimics. Careful with these, as the Mimics can hit for a lot of damage and they can take their fair share of it as well. What's worse yet, the Mimics are flanked with two Flares.

The eighth chest will give you the unlock code for the other half of the Ancient Desert Tower key. The left chest in the upper center room provides a complete recovery to the party, much like an inn. After this ruin, you can't say that isn't rewarding.

Ancient Desert Tower - you can actually enter this place once you finish both ruins and have both halves of the Ancient Desert Tower key. This whole tower is pretty straightforward. There are magic balls here and there that require magic to activate. The torches and/or the room itself should give a decent hint as to which magic to use.

In the higher floors, there are holes in the floor. Spikes may puncture you as you walk over these holes - and some of them are not avoidable. Good chance you'll take some environmental damage here. If you didn't read the tablet by the entrance to the tower, don't open treasure chests that are near a "peeled" wall - you'll get a face full of poison to your whole party.

Boss - the Flamerous Spirit (of the tower's once-inhabitants) believes you are working for evil, and will guard the way to its treasure. Unfortunately, this means you have to take it (and the two Flares that accompany it) out. Obviously, fire spells will do nothing here, and ice spells will be your best friend. Healing spells will be too, because this boss has attacks that can roast your entire party and he can even cast Bifir (which is a likely one-hit kill if it hits Elaire). Note also, Otto's earth spells are not very effective here. This boss guards the Earthshaker hammer.

Otto can equip the Earthshaker. Its main use, however, is on those three odd pillars jutting out of the third floor. Whack all three of those and you can get to the previously-inaccessible treasures on the first floor, which includes the next part of the Staff of Cyrenia.

East "Ring" Forest - this place is pretty straightforward - stay north to progress through, or to the south to find Magic Truffles. The Dry Oaks here are extremely vulnerable to fire spells.

Badland Mines - the only thing not totally straightforward about this level is the mine cart switch puzzle. When you get to it, there are two switches immediately available. Flip the lower one to the left, and hop onto the mine cart. It will drop you off at a spot with another switch - flip that switch to the left and hop back on the mine cart, which will take you back to where you started. Now flip the upper switch to the left, and hop onto the mine cart. Easy enough, eh?

One of the skeletons in the open area shortly afterwards holds an Opal Ring. This will come in handy later on! Equip it to Kelan or Elaire. The monsters in this area tend to inflict some poison status. The Mystics fall easily with physical attacks, but are impervious to magic, and can cast any family of spell on you, so take them out quickly when you find them.

Badland Ruins - when you're down to the confessional jail sector (the floor with no jail cells), you'll need to have taken the stairs to the right side of the floor first. At the end of the passage, in the middle cabinet, you'll find a jail key which can be used to progress further on the left side of this floor.

The "Rubik's Cube" type puzzle must be completed to move to the lowest level of the dungeon. The colors must all be lined up horizontally or vertically.

Ahh, enemies. The Beholders are just straight up annoying with their nasty ability to steal MP.. the Ghouls are a hardy beast that can cause quite a bit of damage with each blow. On the Reanimates, I recommend Rock or Lumin magic. If Elaire has a staff, she will be your best attacker against these guys. If you find Cloakers though, I would take them out as quickly as possible, especially in the presence of Reanimates. The Cloaker's attacks always hit multiple targets, and it also possesses a fairly potent full party healing skill.

Boss - I hope you've levelled some, because this is a grueling battle. Pava is strong against every weapon except Kelan's spear. With Kelan, I would spam your strongest light magic (most likely Bilum), but I would also leave some MP left over in case he needs to cast Revive. Kelan also has the only weapon that works at normal strength against Pava, so attacks are always a decent option. With Elaire, I would recommend keeping good tabs on character health, and to cast Atlas on everyone at some point in time, but especially Kelan. The best offense she can put up here is ice magic. With Otto, your choices are either to attack or to use his best fire spell. And with Jerek, the best bet by far is Momentus. In this battle, Momentus will do more damage than Double Slash.. and if you've really gone insane on levelling, Frenzy would land tons of damage.

Opal Rings would be a great item for everyone to have equipped, because Pava's dark breath attack can insta-kill.. and that is, if the damage itself wasn't lethal. Pava's attacks can and will do a lot of damage, so keeping everyone healed up is a must for this battle! I hope you have a Life/Golden Feather available, because if you end up losing both Kelan and Elaire, your chances of winning this battle are going to drop steeply.

Arctic North - the Coldbind guards guarding the castle off to the east are impossible to kill currently, so you must head west into the tower, as it is actually open for play.

Frost Tower - for the first floor, activate the switch found up the staircase to the left; then head to the right side of the map, up the stairs, and hit that switch. Go back and hit the first switch again, and you can get through both the first and second floors. As for the monsters, dispatch of the Spellbinds first. Their magic is generally going to be more harmful than the Kretcha's sting.

The third floor basically consists of two small puzzles that test your reflexes just a bit. You must use a wind spell on the torches to the left to extinguish the flames, which will also deactivate the spikes around the blue floor switch. On the right hand side, you must start a fire in the torch, and then step back onto the arrow (facing up of course) and hit an action button. This will cause Daliyra to shoot an arrow, which will hit the once-frozen switch. With the spikes no longer surrounding the box in the middle of the room, it can be pushed directly north and then used as a stepping stone. Take your treasure here, and head out to those Coldbind guards.

Ice Castle - tantalizing as it is, Elaire is right there at the entrance, but behind bars. Beware the monsters here - the Magis and Ice Urchins are more or less straightforward, but both Kelan and Daliyra's weapons stink against the Blue Slimes. Fire is your best friend against all enemies here except the Walugu - it sounds weird, but use your freezing spells against Walugu. Unless you want to take some damage, because Walugus can deal it out in spades.

On the second floor, the best way to destroy the barrier is to start with Rock, and then cast Wind the rest of the way. Wind by itself doesn't do that much but cast after Rock, it does more damage than either Rock or Fire.

Floor three is where things start to get a little more complicated. From the stairwell you took up, head left and flip the switch there. Then, head south of the stairs and flip that switch. Go back to the switch off to the left, and flip that one back to where it was originally. After this, you can head all the way right and then down to flip the switch at the end of this branch. Finally, you can take the next passage down..

..right into a room that is filled with floating ice blocks that you must jump on. From the entrance of the room, head to the switch in the northwest corner, and flip it on. Now, head to the switch in the southeast corner, and flip that one on. Head back to the switch in the northwest corner, and turn it back off. Now head to the southwestern corner of the room, and flip that switch on. Go back yet again to the switch on the northwest side of the room, and turn it back on again. Now, that switch in the southeast corner. Turn it back off. Now you can progress through the room and to the fourth floor, which is going to be even more fun.

You're now in a room that looks like a giant plus, with the stairs in the middle and four teletiles at each end. From the stairwell, take the teletile to the left. Head to the left from where you appear, and take the next teletile. There is a switch at the end of this short hall - flip it. Head back to the original stairwell to this floor. From here, use the northern teletile. From where you appear, go left a bit and then up. There will be a switch to your left - flip that one. Go back down, and to the northeast of where you started this room. There's another teletile to take, and with this you have found the Ice Castle Key! There are other treasures that can be found here, including a Moon Bow, that can be helpful, but I'll let you find those on your own since they're more optional.

Make sure you are rested up before using the key on Elaire's cell. You don't want to lose progress after all this.

Boss - Fritizzia is another spawn of the strange man, and she is pretty feisty. Daliyra's bow and arrow isn't so good against this beast, so feel free to primarily use her for recovery - you'll probably end up doing that anyway. Fire magic is the best way to knock off lots of HP here, so it helps greatly if you have Trifir available on one or more characters. Fritizzia can and often will attack multiple characters - when this is with her wind attack, it isn't so bad, but when she whips out Frenzy (which happens increasingly as you bring her closer to death), that's when you're going to want to use the Halo healing spells, or Mint Leaves if you must. IMO this battle is slightly easier than Pava in ways, but at the same time, she does have almost double the HP he had.

Water Shrine - this dungeon is fairly simple in being a giant square, but this is a giant square spread over four maps with seven switches that need to be flipped in order for completion. The enemies aren't anything special, but chances are you will run into plenty of them. Elaire's ice magic works quite nicely on anything in this shrine. I will detail the order of switches here.

Switch 1 - enter the shrine from the west side of the bottom tile on the overworld to be closer to here. From the entrance, head north a bit, and jump the first gaps to the right that you see. Follow this path, and jump the gap downward. There is a switch at the end of this path - flip it!

Switch 2 - from the first switch, head back north across the gap, and just follow the path to the right and up. This switch is an easy find as well.

Switch 3 - from the second switch, head back to the west side of the shrine. Follow the path north along the western perimeter of the shrine, and after turning eastward, you'll have an offshoot to the south. Cross the gap and flip the switch there.

Switch 4 - this is where it gets more complicated. For this, I recommend leaving the shrine and re-entering from the southeast end. Along the south side of the shrine, you'll see a gap to cross. If there are statues to the sides of the pathway, you have the right path. Follow this path, and when you get to where you can jump a gap to the east or take a ladder, take the ladder. A short bit later, you'll have the option of climbing down a ladder or heading west. Head west. Follow this around some more, and you'll come to another part where you can jump a gap or take a ladder. Take the ladder, and you should be at the fourth switch. You guessed it, flip that thing.

Switch 5 - you remember the first time you had to choose between a ladder and jumping a gap? It's just after where the statues were. Go back there, and jump the gap eastward. Follow the path all the way from here, and you'll end up at the fifth switch. Flip that baby.

Switch 6 - all right, now you remember the fourth switch? The gap to the left that we skipped leads to the sixth switch. So, go there and flip that.

Switch 7 - unless you are pretty damned hardy or feel like battling even more, I would warp back to the shrine entrance. The gap you're looking for here is along the northwest side of the shrine. It's the first one to the south if you go from the northwest corner. There are two gaps to jump, after which you get to a switch. Make sure you are healthy before you flip this switch!

Boss - just when you thought you were home free, a serpent rises from the sea. Her tail rattle can strike fear into your party and reduce your attack power, which is not something you want when you're facing a monster with over 18,000 HP. Her snakeheads attack is the most common, and it often comes with a status ailment. Her bite attack is damaging, but it is her constriction that can be a potentially lethal one-hitter. Neither of Elaire's weapon selections are good on this beast, but you should be using her to heal when necessary, and her strongest ice skill otherwise. Oh, and make sure she uses Atlas on Jerek and Otto as well. For Otto, just attack, and with Jerek, abuse Double Slash, as it will do massive damage, especially if he's powered up with Atlas. With Kelan, just use regular attacks, and use his healing magic if it becomes really necessary. The Serpent has a lot of HP, but I'd say she's an easier fight even than Fritizzia.
***** MORE TO COME!