We're getting closer to the conclusion of our SaGa Frontier completion with only a few dungeons and the final rank left to cover. Let's get this chapter started off by flying out to the Magic Kingdom, unfortunately having to leave Rouge behind. In the west of the Kingdom, between the houses and outcrop of trees, looms Furdo's Workspace; one of the truly optional dungeons no character has to visit during their story.
This place is completely frozen, much like TimeLord's Region, and nothing can be accomplished until we breath a little life into it. From the entrance, exit to your right and follow along the pathway passing statues of beasts lining the way. In the following room, with a giant and petrified chest standing in front of you, pass under the archway to your left and use the semi-concealed exit there. Search the crystalline pillar in the center of the massive room to unseal the fairies on the top floor who will now populate the entirety of the Workspace. The key now is that these fairies will sometimes, stubbornly, bring monsters, and treasures, in the area to life and you can fight/acquire them. You'll need to be patient as they frequently take their time, being fairies and all. If you kill a fairy, it will return to being sealed back on the top floor and you'll need to activate the pillar again.
If you exit north of the pillar, there's an imposing dragon statue the fairy will bring to life, which you might think will be a Red or BlackDragon, but is always a Minidragon. This, and the giant-type encounters are fixed in the Workspace; the giant ones always being Ettins. Ettins hold two rare items that you can learn about back in the beginning of
Chapter 6 if you would prefer to farm them here instead of the Mu's Tomb chests.
In the room with the pillar, return back northeast to the giant and treasure. Bide your time for the fairy to unpetrify the chest and open it for a GlowRobe. This armor is not bad at all with +18 slash, blunt, and cold, +28 to pierce, electric, force, and ailment, and a great +53 heat defense. All the while protecting against stone and a +7 to Intelligence/Will.
Speaking of the GlowRobe, the female Mystic-type fairies,
at a late battle rank, are guaranteed to be rank 9 Sirens who will occasionally drop one for you if you want more. Sirens also hold onto HarmoniumBangles, but farming them from the Wormbroods in the Natural Cave is the better option, in my opinion.
Climb the stairs on the right-side of the room and use the passage that leads down at the top. You'll wrap around a small section with human-type statues and enter a large circular area overlooking the entrance housing two treasures and aquatic-types waiting to be unsealed by a fairy. Patiently wait for the fairy to do her work and grab the PearlHeart and UnicornTear accessories. The latter is a weak addition: with a minuscule +1 all defenses and to Psychic, but is the only accessory that protects against poison. Unicorns frequently drop them, also. With those in-hand, take the exit to the north. You can ignore the entire well-lit, western-wing of the Workspace unless you just want to fight.
Further north places you on the floor above the crystalline pillar where all of the fairies departed from. Unless you killed one of fairies and it's blocking entry once again, you can pass through the opening seen in the screenshot above. You'll be in a weird astral plane-like area with bird-type statues and a fairy. Proceed across the carved-out platform and exit at your top-left. Run through the theater panorama and into Furdo's chambers. Put the monster you want to gain a one-time addition to their prime HP into your main character's party and save your game. Furdo doesn't bother to speak; just jumps out of his chair and waits for you to make contact with him.
Furdo always casts GlassShield on the first turn, so use magic and a long-range physical attack like a gun shot to shatter it without deadly reprisal before selecting anything else. Furdo has quite a bit of HP, but is fairly lacking in the offense department unless you get countered by the GlassShield. His primary attack is usually StoneGas, but it's laughable in comparison to the BlackDragon's in the previous chapter. He'll sometimes pull out Fascination and try to charm you, so be aware of this and just pound him into submission between his meager attempts to taunt you between turns.
The prize of the entire dungeon is a monster can attempt to absorb the IllStorm ability upon Furdo's defeat. Outside of Riki's game, this is the only enemy you can acquire it from and no monster character comes with it pre-absorbed. Unfortunately, it's lackluster (no damage, but attempts poison on all enemies), but for completionists, adding another +4 HP to their monster is worth it! Be prepared to reset several times to get it, however. That's everything there is to this dungeon. Head back to Koorong (Picking back up Rouge in Luminous if you were using him) and fly out to Shingrow for the next two dungeons.
With three dungeons left to explore, head northeast on the map and into the Shingrow Ruins. Presented with a fork at the very beginning, head off to your right and follow the stone road to a door at the end. In the corner is a chest with a TwinSword in it which is purchasable in Koorong, but if you waited, you saved some Credits. It has a power of 20 and mecs get a +80 HP and +10 Strength/Quickness.
The door in this small room is a fake and booby-trapped, like several in the Ruins are, but it actually works to our advantage because it presents us with guaranteed battles! Although you start the battle asleep, a YellowFighter and two MecDobby challenge you and hold some unique items. The YellowFighter can drop RubberSuits, which was a treasure early on, but if you want more than one for your inventory, this is your best spot. The MecDobby have two items: the special DOBBY Bazooka weapon and the FlashBomb. Not acquirable outside monster drop, the simple FlashBomb attempts to blind all enemies, with no damage. The DOBBY Bazooka is very weak, with only 10 attack and 3 shots, but targets all enemies on the screen. Mec characters get a minuscule +60 HP and +8 Strength, Will and Vitality. You can repeat these trapped-door battles by simply reentering the room.
Note: MecDobby have the MaxwellProgram if you didn't get it from the earlier Hermes.
Return back and take a left at the split. As you climb the stairs in the middle of the foliage, you'll hear a bellowing croak from behind the door. Sure enough, a Gaeatoad is blocking the way. This is no different than a rank 5 Gaeatoad, so dispatch it however you like.
The Gaeatoad drops a solid weapon: the BehemothRifle. It has a power of 47, which is better than all buyable handguns, besides the much superior LethalGun. Mechanical pals get a robust +200 HP, but kind of meh +10 to Strength, Will, and Vitality. You can also pawn this at the Scrap Junk Shop for a solid 3000 Credits.
The Gaeatoad has two monster abilities that are fairly rare and easiest to get here: AcidBreath and Grasp.
Note: All mini-boss battles in the Shingrow Ruins can be fought again by entering the Shingrow skyport and exiting back out to the map.
Beyond the Gaeatoad room, run straight across the new area, passing stairs leading down, and across an archway to an exit. Follow the walkway around the pooled room, fighting through three male Mystics (Good farming room), and into the door. At the bottom of the steps if a MagicStone chest to collect and another fake door that induces a battle. This time, the YellowFighter is joined by two Rockbaboons and your party starts paralyzed. The Rockbaboons are of some interest for drops and abilities, but TimeLord's Region is a much better place to engage them due to the paralysis battle start, in my opinion.
Head back to the area just past the Gaeatoad room and descend the steps to the ground floor. Pass under the archway and through to the next area. Move off the stoned path and look for the HarmoniumArmor treasure in the upper-right of the following room. A bit underwhelming at this point, it provides +24 physical and electric, +20 heat and cold, and +40 defenses to force and ailment while protecting completely against sonic attacks. Mecs get +75 to HP and +15 Quickness and Vitality.
The door on the opposite end takes us to the Ruins next mini-boss: a Sword and SpearValkyrie who are not only obstructing your way, but interrupting your attempts to raid the chest. Don't let the Gaeatoad make you complacent: the Valkyries can cause you some trouble. They frequently will use LightBall and Windblast, while not devastating, are more damaging than you would expect when hit with twice in one turn. CharmGaze is also surprisingly effective and can lead to disastrous results. They're both equipped with shields leading to frequent blocking of abilities, as well. At this point in the game, your strongest attacks should be enough to finish them quickly, however, don't underestimate them.
Both the Spear and SwordValkyrie have two notable items. The SpearValkyrie drops AngelArmor, which we found one of in the Natural Cave, but this is the best place to get more than one. It also has HarmoniumBangles. The SwordValkyrie has superb ExcelShields and the RuneSword. You can purchase the RuneSword in either Koorong or Magic Kingdom, but at a cost of 2850 Credits, so I usually wait to get one as a drop. It has an attack of 50, while also allowing you to cast VictoryRune. If you equip the RuneSword and StasisRune, the stone-inducing Cockatrice Mirage-type spell is usable, also. Mecs get a +100 HP and +20 Strength and Psychic from the RuneSword, but can't cast VictoryRune.
The SpearValkyrie is the only normally-encounterable monster in the game you can absorb the BattleSong ability from. It raises the attack power of both friend and foe, but it doesn't seem to be any more effective than a party-only ability like Da-dum, though.
With the Valkyries gone, you can pop open the chest at the base of the stairs for a HarmoniumEarring. For sale in Manhattan, the accessory provides + 11 to all elemental defenses, +21 to ailment, and nulls any sonic attacks. They give mecs +50 HP and +10 Intelligence, to note. Climb the stairs to continue further into the dungeon.
You'll be out on an elevated, S-shaped wall that has another two exits to choose from. Use the stairs heading below and search in the bottom-right corner for a semi-obscured bag of 250 Credits. From there, pass under the wall through either the passage to the left of the stairs or the bottom-left of the screen to enter through to the next area.
Look further back of the giant tree in the center of the next room to find a SanctuaryStone item, then use the door off to the left of it.
The room that follows looks ominous; the door is even guarded by three undead. You better save. It's another trap by the dastardly YellowFighter and you'll have to face it and two Aperiders, however, this time your party is confused! Hopefully you won't take yourself out and recover the next turn to try to get the Kick ability from one of the Aperiders that is fairly rare to find late in the game. Fortunately, that's the only use you'll get out of that battle, so fall back to the room just past the Valkyrie twins and head through the door near the top of the stairs. Passing through the door at the far-end of the ground floor takes you to the Shingrow Ruins' boss: a big collection of Slimes!
This is the same exact battle as in Tanzer for the VitalityRune with three regenerating BigSlimes and one HugeSlime; they even forgot to remove the line at the end about the opening to touch the Rune! Fortunately, late in the game, these stand almost no chance if you unleash multi-target abilities and spells. One round of a combination TotalShot, VermilionSand, 2GaleSlash, or MegaWindblast and they're done for.
Both Slime types provide two, late-game rare monster abilities: PoisonGun and Solvent.
Note: Believe it or not, the HugeSlime has the highest stat-raising potential of any enemy in the entire game! This battle is essential for, theoretically, maxing out your character's statistics, for those that want to take on such an arduous task. Even using the HugeSlime, which you have to battle through the Gaeatoad and Valkyries each time, once your character reaches 900 HP and 85 base statistics, they become incredibly hard to raise.
The reward for clearing out the Slimes is a really hard to see chest containing an ExcelShield. The door on your right is trapped, but doesn't do anything at all unlike the others. Would have been nice had they used this as a quick exit from the dungeon, but whatever...If you examine the sculpture behind the Slimes you can explore an additional, but empty room that only has relevance in Red's game. Backtrack through the Ruins and return to Koorong to rest before heading back to Shingrow once more and entering the Ancient Ship dungeon that is to the northwest on the map.
To start the dungeon, climb up the hill and across the fallen tree on the middle-right of the screen and follow it up and into the Ancient Ship. Everything is dimly lit and green inside, like Tanzer, making for an eyesore. Begin by heading north and into a small room with a mec. Search the overgrowth/slime at the top of the screen to slide open a hidden door.
If the next room is devoid of any monsters: LEAVE immediately! That indicates the boss is ready to fight and we aren't prepared for that yet. It shouldn't be there unless you have spent ample time fighting already, though. Take out all of the Sonicbat monsters flying around the T-shaped room, grab the Junk accessory treasure to the north, then exit to the west. Tucked away in the corner is an obscured treasure with the RottenMeat item of which there are only two to be found in the entire game for Emelia.
Note: The Sonicbat is a unique enemy inside the Ancient Ship that while you can find it grouped with other types, is the main monster in this dungeon. As pointed out early in the guide, it can drop the useful PurpleEye accessory that is 8000 Credits in Manhattan to purchase! It also guarantees to at least drop a BeastLeather that you can pawn for Credits in Koorong. The Sonicbat is the key to fighting the optional boss within the Ship, as well. As you explore the ship, defeat each one that you come across.
Return to the Ship's entrance and head south now. In the small, cramped room exit west this time. On the bottom floor are two treasures: a well hidden 200 Credits sack in the bottom-left of the screen and a treasure with a JumpSuit armor. Woefully outdated at this point, but rare, the JumpSuit gives mecs a +75 HP and +15 to Strength/Quickness and its defenses are +25 slash/pierce, +15 blunt, electric, force, status, and +30 to heat/cold. Use the walkway to climb to the second floor and enter the doorway directly at the top, then use the ladder to move to the Ship's top floor.
At the top of the ladder is a room littered with slimes and three exits. Leave through the bottom-most one to find what looks like the former Ship's bridge. Grab up the bag of 300 Credits near what could have been the captain's seat and search for a treasure at the bottom-right of the screen to find the one-of-a-kind DuelGun. It has an attack of 55, with only 1 bullet, but makes a good Twogun to pair with the LethalGun. Equipped to a mec, it provides a +50 HP and +20 to Quickness, Will, and Vitality.
Up and to the left of the bridge room you'll find the next to explore. Clear out the monsters and take the HyperScale armor treasure that's waiting. If you aren't using WarLordArmor, CelestialLeather, GoldenFleece, or ElectroArmor the HyperScale is a good alternative. It has +30 defense against slash/pierce and +20 to all other defenses, expect for cold which is only +10. Mec friends get a +75 HP and +15 Vitality from the HyperScale.
Exiting directly to the north of the slime-infested corridor brings you to the massive room that was on the opposite end of where you found the RottenMeat. Cross the walkways to the left-side of the room and search the covered wall seen in the screenshot above to enter a small room with 500 Credits.
Lastly, move down the stairs and search around at the end of the walkway to pick up a Bolt Thrower weapon. You likely have a couple of these from mec-type drops and they were also for sale in the Koorong backstreets.
We need to retrace our steps back down the ladder in the previous room, and in the large area we found the JumpSuit item, while still at the top of the walkway, exit to the southwest. Get by the undead and mec rushing towards you in the small corridor and leave to your left. Bag the 200 Credits and in the back a mec's MemoryBoard treasure here. That's all there is to find in the Ancient Ship; head right and then north to find yourself back at the dungeon's entrance. Leave and head over to the Shingrow Palace's top floor where the attendant heals Emelia's party in preparation for taking on the Ancient Ship's boss: the Abyssbat. Do NOT leave the region unless absolutely necessary!
The Abyssbat is waiting for the party north of the entrance, in the T-shaped room, if no monsters are present meaning you have fulfilled the requirement. To bring it out of hiding, you must defeat 13 Sonicbats in the Ancient Ship; this is the actual number of the icons you run into on the map, not the ones in battle. Leaving the region resets this number, so keep that in mind! In terms of damage and overall threat to the party, the Abyssbat is the hardest fight in the entire game outside of the final bosses and preparation is key.
The first thing to note is the Abyssbat is a Mystic-type monster, so Mystic party members deal more damage, and receive less, from it. Damage will be first priority as the rewards from the Abyssbat are, sadly, tied to us having to farm it. Bringing the DSC, which is the Sliding, Suplex, GiantSwing, and BabelCrumble martial abilities equipped is highly recommend. For sword users, LifeSprinkler, TurbidCurrent, and RisingNova abilities. Gunners should have LethalGuns along with Twogun and BoundShot. Both of the latter two you can give the Lordstar and use Braveheart on the first turn. Any users of Shadow-based magic can bring out a ShadowServant for double the damage, also.
I would not recommend monsters, but instead Mesarthim, being a Mystic, and can cast LifeRain in their place and hopefully has MagicHeal on one of her weapons. Mecs can use the Magnify ability with weapons like the HG-Cannon and HyperBlaster for massive damage in one turn, but bring at least two of them with you since it exhausts your ammo. Mystics should use the Asura, if you have it, or strong abilities such as GriffithScratch or Assasinate that can combo well. Mages can cast MegaWindblast and Shield. SharpPain will not work. Equipping the DodgeDrain and/or Touch abilities, if you have them, is extremely useful.
The Abyssbat is heavy on electric, force, and ailment-based attacks like instant-death. Its MagneticStorm is fearsome and easily capable of wiping out your entire party, so we need all the protection we can get. Below I'll list the equipment in which to outfit your characters in order of importance. If you were lucky enough to have received the best armor in the game, the PlutoArmor, from a Dullahan, it prevents the Abyssbat's instant-death attacks. The StardustRobe, while lacking in most defenses, has strong electric
defense and also protects against instant-death. Equip it to whomever has the
highest HP. I would advise against the BloodChalice to
defend against instant-death due to it making you weak against force/ailment. The AngelBroach can shield against charm.
PlutoArmor, StardustRobe, GoldenFleece, ElectroArmor, WarLordArmor
HarmoniumBangle
WindShell
AngelBroach
Magihat
DanceShoes
Start the battle with using Braveheart and ShadowServant, if you brought them, but note that neither will not work with the DSC. The Abyssbat loves to use combos of FireKiss, which steals HP and attempts to charm, LifeSteal, which drains HP, 1 LP, and afflicts instant-death, and DeathTouch which does the same, but without the HP absorption. Mesarthim, or your monster, should cast LifeRain every turn to keep your offense flowing in case a character falls to one of the instant-death attacks and will certainly be needed if MagneticStorm is performed. Hopefully you'll get lucky and the Abyssbat will instead use the single-target Tornado or blockable GliderSpike. The character with the backpack shoulder administer a SnakeOil if a character becomes charmed. The battle will basically be a slugfest: kill it as quickly as possible to see if it drops the LightRifle! I estimated that it has at least 60,000 HP this late in the game.
Note: The damage to the Abyssbat seems to wildly fluctuate. I think it is dependent on what stance it is taking, but seems to change from attack to attack instead of the turn. I'm not sure what causes this, honestly, but you'll see what I mean.
Each defeat of the Abyssbat will, at least, net you this item: the Egg Hat, which only it and the very early rank Platoonpus are available from. For completionist sake, it carries a +5 physical, cold, and electric defense, a +10 for heat, force, and ailment, with a +5 Charm bonus. Mecs take a +50 HP and +10 Intelligence/Will.
The crown jewel of the Abyssbat battle is hopefully picking up a LightRifle. The strongest handgun in the game at a massive attack of 88, which is the highest of any weapon period, but comes with the drawback of only having 1 bullet. Of course, you can use this with Twogun and a LethalGun to avoid the no bullet penalty of going last in battle, but either way the attack power more than makes up for being last in the turn order. It has a bonus of +20 Psychic, also, which is great for mages and Mystics, and a nice gun alternative to the SilverSpread sword. Mec characters benefit to an incredible +150 HP and +30 Quickness, Will, and Psychic. The Psychic boost, which is rare for mec equipment, can greatly benefit their defense against magic. Thankfully, it is not in the rarest drop slot, which is occupied by the WindShell accessory we can get elsewhere, so chances of obtaining one are not as hopeless as they may appear. Remain vigilant! It took me around 20 battles to get one.
The Bio Research Lab in the southeast of Shrike is the last stop before Emelia's finale with Joker. There are no treasures, besides the one guarded by the boss, but instead, the Bio Research Lab is a training ground. Every encounter will be rank 9 monster (Assuming you are rank 7), making it the ideal place to farm most types of monsters. Humans, mecs, and aquatics do not appear in the Lab, nor the ultra rare ones like living items and giants. There is also only one female Mystic, so I would recommend Furdo's Workspace instead for them.
Note: You should consider buying a pair of JetBoots in Koorong for each member of your party for the upcoming boss.
Encounters are represented by a mad scientist sprite, so you won't know which monster type you are fighting until you touch it. As such, I'll cover each room so you can determine if it is worth visiting for your specific farming needs. The Research Lab's entrance has a plant near the start, an undead in the center, and a beast-type towards the bottom.
The middle-right door from the entrance hall takes you to the above room. All the scientists in here are male Mystics.
From the entrance, climb the staircase in the lower-left on the screen to the next floor. Just off the landing is yet another male Mystic. The first door up the set of stairs contains a hardworking undead-type masquerading as a scientist.
In the back of the hall is another door that leads to a library of sorts. The maddening scientist in the corner is a plant-type and there are two bookcases you can examine near it to read research notes from some bad guys. The bookshelf across from the entrance will slide away when examined allowing you to descend a ladder back to the lower floor.
You'll find yourself down in a stairwell with two more nutjobs. The lower-floor one is a slime-type and top-side is an undead. Heading through the door at the top of the stairs takes you to the room where you might have recruited the monster Cotton earlier. If not, its still waiting to be rescued, with only a minor battle in your way.
Leaving through the bottom exit of the stairwell takes you to this nightmarish landscape. There's a locked door to the north, three smalls rooms to explore, and three mad scientists milling about the toxic-looking vegetation. The one in the northeastern part, near the locked door, is a plant-type. If you move around to the lower-right-side of the screen, past the first room, you'll run into a bird-type, then a bug-type further back.
Near the bug-type scientist, where there are three light blue flowers growing and a tree in front, you can move around behind the building to the front to go inside. There's a plant-type sitting at the controls, then further up, the pink-haired lunatic turns out to be a female Mystic. Examine the control with the red button to unlock the door at the northeast-end.
As you make your way back around to the now-unlocked door, enter the first room you pass with the green light coming from the top. Near the entrance is a slime-type and in the back, amongst the tortured souls, is a bug-type.
The other room that is tucked away to the northwest, where they appear to be experimenting on animals, has a bird-type on the left side and a beast-type on the right. Unfortunately, the fox (?) and chicken cannot be freed and the experiments will continue when you leave the room and the wackos respawn.
Past the previously-locked door lies the Research Lab's boss: not a female Mystic, but an EarthDragon! This is not nearly as difficult as the Abyssbat battle, but does need a bit of preparation. Also, a three-way decision on the battle's outcome has to be made. The EarthDragon has two item drops that cannot be obtained anywhere else in Emelia's game: The HyperionBazooka and SprigganSuit, both of which are mec-oriented. Thirdly, a Mystic can absorb it into their weapon, but doing so negates the chance of an item dropping.
The HyperionBazooka is the second-strongest weapon in the game, behind the LightRifle, with an attack of 85, but only two shots, although they do have a fire-based area-of-effect. Mecs get a +250 HP and +40 to Will. The HG-Cannon is, arguably, a better all-around weapon having more ammo, able to use Magnify, and has the HP bonus and +30 to Quickness and Will. This is the easiest of the two items to get from the EarthDragon and if you don't want either item, you can pawn it at the Scrap Junk Shop for 10,000 Credits!
The SprigganSuit has a physical defense of +55 and +35 to all elements, which compared to the buyable PoweredSuit's +50 physical/cold and +30 all other elements, isn't an incredible upgrade, plus the Powered has a bonus of +10 Strength/Quickness. However, the Spriggan grants mecs a +200 HP and +25 to Strength, Quickness, and Intelligence, the latter guaranteeing an additional ability slot. That's quite a bit better than the Powered's +100 HP and +20 Strength/Quickness. So, for mecs, the Spriggan is more desirable, while humans would be just fine with a PoweredSuit. You decide which one you want for yourself!
If you choose to absorb the EarthDragon in a Mystic weapon, you'll receive a buffer of +36 Strength and Vitality, which is easily the highest in the game, but when you consider the BlackDragon gives +30 to Strength, Will, and Vitality, it is not worth the trouble at all. The BlackDragon has superior abilities, also. Still, it is an option, but at the cost of your sanity (Its going to block the Mystic weapon most times) and a super rare item. Sword gives you the HeatSmash ability, which is decent if you have the Strength for it, Glove provides GrapeShot that is basically only of use for multiple targets, and Boots contain TitasWave, which is probably the best, but is the same Boots absorb for the BlackDragon.
In terms of setups for the EarthDragon battle, offense will largely remain the same as outlined in the Abyssbat one, except you can expect plenty of blocking from the big monstrosity. The NoMoment, Still Stream, Blizzard, and LifeSprinkler sword abilities cannot be blocked, nor can BoundShot. I regret to have to inform you that the DSC is ineffective, though! Instead, I would highly recommend bringing as many sword users (Or Mystic casting LightSword) as you can with Deflect and the above-mentioned abilities. You may consider equipping a handgun character with the ReactionShot ability for one possible strategy, however. Besides that, a shield is absolutely essential, either the Excel, Dragon, or Durahan versions. For magic, LifeRain, Mind/MagicHeal, and Shield are a no-brainer for this physical powerhouse, but MirrorShade or Magician can be quite useful, for once.
For equipment, I would set-up like this:
Pluto or WarLordArmor
Hyperwear
SH-Armlet or HarmoniumBangle
JetBoots or SH-Anklet
If no JetBoots:
PoweredSuit
Hyperwear
AngelBroach/WindShell/EMES Tag/SeaStone
DodgeTremor ability
Unlike the Abyssbat that is almost always a challenge, battling the EarthDragon can either go real smooth or frustrating. It only has two attacks of concern: Quake and IronBall. The former can be completely evaded if you equipped JetBoots, otherwise you'll have to rely upon your blunt-type defense. IronBall is your biggest challenge to overcome. This blunt-based attacks hits extremely hard and it can throw them out at upwards of 7 per turn! Maybe even more than that. Shield will need to be cast to soften the blow. Thankfully, we have some trump cards to play against the IronBall. First, Mystics and those with the Arcane gift can cast MirrorShade and Magician to create decoy targets on the battlefield that can become targets of the IronBall. Second, it can be Deflected by sword users or mages that cast LightSword. And third will prolong the battle, but is worth trying if you are struggling. Bring a handgun user and have them setup with ReactionShot each turn in case IronBall is used. It will not always activate, but if it does, the EarthDragon's turn is ended and IronBall is neutralized for the round. Bring out Braveheart and ShadowServant to increase your offense and try to stick with the abilities talked about in the above paragraph that are unblockable. BoundShot and NoMoment/LifeSprinkler combo spectacularly together, especially if you have multiple using the same ability. I estimated the EarthDragon has around 62,000 HP. Godspeed for those going for the Mystic absorb!
Hopefully you got your desired item. If not, keep trying. It took me a lot longer to get a SprigganSuit than it did the LightRifle from the Abyssbat. Luck of the draw, I'm afraid.
Past the EarthDragon is the final treasure in the game: a DragonShield. It not only can block physical attacks, but heat, cold, and electric, too. Next, in the final chapter, we'll cover rank 9 and witness the final confrontation between Gradius and Joker.
