Final Fantasy VI Walkthrough
Written by Djibriel
Contributor
1.2: Escape through the Mines
Enemies: Were-Rat, Vaporite, Repo Man, Lobo, Vomammoth, Marshal
Treasures: Elixir, Fenix Down, Sleeping Bag
Terra wakes up alone, scared, and confused. An old man found you in the mines and nursed you back to health, but to make matters worse, you have to flee as soon as there's somebody to explain the situation to you. Such plot device! You get the fact that Narshe guards outside are trying to get to you. Scones will not be involved in the meeting, so you'd better make a run for it.Remember when you were in the Back Row? Let's stick to that.
When you awoke, you received two Sleeping Bags (from the old man, we could assume). Sleeping Bags are like Tents, but for one person only. They completely restore HP/MP and remove any status ailment except for Zombie, but are only usable on a Save Point or the Overworld Map. Before you go, grab the Elixir in the clock.
Remember those Magitek attacks you just did? They're gone. Your party members have been magically consumed, and your magical tank of happiness exploded under your seat. Everything you love is finite. But don't fear too much, for a Final Fantasy tradition of old is about to set in: You can now hurt stuff with pointy things that you push into them using your muscles. Use it to your advantage.
If you're in for some leveling, I suggest moving to the Front Row. You'll take more damage, sure, but you can also kill Were-Rat and Vaporite with a single Attack command now, which is much more MP-friendly in the long run. If you seek to breeze through, stick to the Back Row and use
Fire. Out-of-battle 
Cure is your friend.These monsters and monster formations seem awfully familiar, don't you think? The difference is, though, now you're by your lonesome, without magical machines of malice and maniacal maiming under your command. I guess we can do it the old-fashioned way, then. Double Vaporite should be taken care of with a multi-target
Fire spell, as should a double Were-Rat. Start the Repo Man/Vaporite battle off with an multi-target Fire spell and finish Repo Man off with a physical. You can't do anything about !Wrench now, so suffer in silence.There are two chests here. Feel free to grab the left one; it contains a Sleeping Bag. Later it turns into an Elixir, which is much better, but you can steal them in large quantities by then so there's no need to wait. It'd be best to leave the right chest alone; while the Fenix Down it now contains is nice, the
Pod Bracelet Relic it transforms into later will be much nicer.When you're past the two chests and the Save Point, remove Terra's
Mithril Knife and 
Buckler, and press on. The Narshe Guards will corner Terra, but she has a plan: Quickly, she collapses down a conveniently thin layer of rock that caves in underneath her. One could argue this isn't so much a plan as it is sheer luck, but I'm willing to give our heroine some credit here. Three flashbacks will be seen now: Terra getting her Slave Crown from Kefka, Terra being tested as the Imperial weapon she was meant to be, Terra at an Imperial parade. Behind the Emperor here, from left to right: Kefka Palazzo, General Leo Christophe, and General Celes Chere. A cozy bunch.Locke arrives to the game! Locke and the old man chat about bygones and memories past, while the old man takes care of some exposition. Basic points: The Empire is evil, the Returners are fighting the Empire, and Narshe should join the Returners, but right now has not done a thing. Locke manages to reach Terra before the Narshe guards do, which is a good thing all in all. Terra is still unconscious, so she needs to be rescued. Locke is your new permanent character. That naming screen sure is a dead give-away, is it not? You can now control him using your controller. It won't be for long though, as the half dozen enemies, which come storming into the place, will ensure Terra is captured and Locke smacked around. But lo and behold, there are eleven Moogle friends for you to exploit as well! Sadly, you cannot enter their equipment menus, except for one, Mog. How bizarre. Foreshadowing?
Equip Locke with the equipment you snatched from Terra; the
Buckler will be especially nice. You can put Mogret, Molulu, Moguel and Cosmog in the Back Row, as their weapons will still do full damage. Now, head into battle. Already know which team you want to use for the boss battle - it should be either the Locke party or the Mog party. Try to avoid fighting with this group, and catch the other monsters with your inferior groups. If you fail, the monsters will reach Terra, prompting Locke to say: "No...! I failed her..."There are two battles here. First, I'll talk about the battle you engage in when you meet the walking monsters. This is the Vomammoth and the Lobo formation. Aim all attacks on the Vomammoth at first, then the Lobo. Don't bother using Steal with Locke; they carry nothing of importance. If you use Mog's party, you will notice that Mog learns the Dusk Requiem after one battle. Have him use this Dance for the other battles, as it kills stuff dead very seriously.
Steal is a new command, and while you will eventually encounter it in other forms, at this time it's just Locke's. Let's talk a bit more about it.
Each monster has two slots in which they can carry items. One slot holds the item you'll most commonly see being stolen, which is generally called the 'common steal'. The other item is the one you'll want, and this is the 'rare steal'. Locke has, when he successfully steals, an 87.5% chance of going for the common steal, and a 12.5% chance of going for the rare steal. If one of these spaces is empty, it will be ignored in the decision between the two items. If the common steal slot is empty, you're already looking at a 7/8 chance of missing before the success rate is even calculated.
Even if both slots are occupied, your Steal attempts won't always be successful. Remember, it is the opponent's interest to keep hold of its belongings. The chance of Steal working depends entirely on your level and the opponent's level. Speed is no issue, so raising it won't increase the success rate of Steal. What will make for a better thief is the
Sneak Ring. The Thief's Bracer doubles your chances at stealing. It won't stack with another Sneak Ring (the +5 on Speed will, but the special effect won't). Steal will let you steal all sorts of items: Healing potions, weapons, armor, relics, you name it. What you can't steal: Vital body parts, girlfriends, money, dignity.On to Mog! Mog's Dance skill is limited to the Dusk Requiem for now, a Dance he will learn as soon as he has fought one battle here. The Dusk Requiem will have the following random effects every turn:
7/16 Cave In - Removes 75% of target's current HP
6/16 Snare - Sets KO to a single enemy, prevents final counters
2/16 Will o' the Wisp - single-target magical, Fire-elemental attack
1/16 Pois. Frog - single-target magical, Poison-elemental attack, also sets Poison
Marshal  |
Type |
Level |
HP |
MP |
Gil |
EXP |
Humanoid | 8 | 420 | 150 | 350 | 0 | |
Strength |
Magic Atk. |
Evasion |
Defense |
Mag. Def. |
Mag. Evade |
|
60 | 9 | 0 | 110 | 140 | 0 | |
Stolen Items |
Dropped Items |
|||||
Common: Mithril Knife | Common: Potion | |||||
Status Immunities | Elemental Immunities | |||||
 | None | |||||
Elemental Absorb | Elemental Weakness | |||||
None | | |||||
Lores | Command Immunities | |||||
None | None | |||||
Strategy | ||||||
Unless both Mog's team and Locke's team have been beaten down severely, there's no good reason to use the four-generic-Moogle party against the Marshal. Between the other two, the choice is up to you. As you cannot get a Game Over in this part of the game - a defeated party is sent back to a certain point with all characters at 1 HP - you can always fight Marshal with Locke until you have stolen a Mithril Knife. If you have trouble with the actual 'killing' part of the Marshal battle (Power-wise, not moral-wise), Mog has extremely dangerous attacks to offer, so you can use him for that.If you picked Mog's team, the Dusk Requiem will make short work of the fight regardless. If you picked Locke's team or the third and inferior party, you will want to kill one Lobo and then focus your attack on the Marshal. As long as he's not alone, he won't use !Charge, an extremely strong physical attack that can kill weaker units in the Front Row. He will, on the other hand, use the Net attack to stop some of your party members. You can try to stall if Locke is hit if you want to. Expand Full Strategy | ||||||
Before you engage in the Marshal battle, remove Mog's
Mithril Pike and Mithril Shield. Equip the Shield on Locke if you're fighting the Marshal with him.For some trivia knowledge some would appreciate, Molulu is Mog's girlfriend. Molulu is the weakest Moogle you'll find here and stands next to Mog on the battlefield on the second position of his group. Male chauvinist pig explanation of Molulu's weakness: She's a woman. Family-friendly support group-evading explanation: Although lacking in combat experience, Molulu excels in other areas and is exhibiting fine moral fiber in supporting her lover in battle anyway. At any rate, the
Moogle Charm you'll find later in the game, a Mog-exclusive Relic, is supposed to be given to him by Molulu.
Caves of Narshe: Final Fantasy VI
Version 6
©1997–2024 Josh Alvies (Rangers51)
All fanfiction and fanart (including original artwork in forum avatars) is property of the original authors. Some graphics property of Square Enix.
Version 6
©1997–2024 Josh Alvies (Rangers51)
All fanfiction and fanart (including original artwork in forum avatars) is property of the original authors. Some graphics property of Square Enix.