Introduction: Assault on Narshe

Narshe Town

After a dramatic introductory sequence, you'll gain control of your party for the first time in the town of Narshe. You have three characters: soldiers named Vicks and Wedge (each LV 1) and an anonymous LV 3 woman, all riding MagiTek armor. During this sequence you'll fight a number of simple battles to get you used to the combat system. You do have some agency, though—several battles can be avoided, and you can even go out of your way to fight an extra one!

If you want as much experience (both in the in-game and general sense) as possible, make a right at the inn to trigger an optional fight with a single Lobo. Continuing on, you'll meet 2 Guards that can't be avoided. Stepping onto the tile in the middle of the crossroads will trigger fights with 2 Lobos then 2 Guards in sequence, but you can skip these by walking around that tile. Finally, you'll be caught in a pincer attack with Lobo, 2 Guards as you continue north. Your party should be more than capable of taking all these foes out easily with any beam-type MagiTek Ability, and you can use Heal Force to heal if needed.

The woman, currently named "?????", is a special case. She has four extra MagiTek Abilities the others don't, and she knows the Cure and Fire spells. Unlike Heal Force, you can target multiple characters with Cure and use it outside of combat, though it costs MP to use. Her fancy MagiTek Abilities are mostly too fancy to bother with here, except Bio Blast which is Poison-Elemental and can take out entire groups at this point. Guards, like many human monsters, are especially vulnerable to Poison (not that you need to exploit that weakness!). The Fire spell is much weaker than the MagiTek Abilities available at this point and can be ignored for the moment.

More unavoidable battles await you on the second map, featuring the new Vomammoth enemy. Their Blizzard attack is nasty, but fortunately they won't use it against you at this point. They are vulnerable to Fire but any beam or the Bio Blast should take them out easily enough.

Narshe Mines

Once you enter the mines, you're faced with a new mechanic: random battles. You'll usually fight 3 Were-Rats but can also see a Were-Rat, Repo Man combination. Bio Blast is useless here because Were-Rats absorb Poison. You can take them out one-by-one, or have ????? use Fire on the group if she has the MP available.

This map introduces your very first save point, the blue glowing star off to the left. This is usually an indicator of a boss fight coming up, and this is no exception. Now is a good time to save (and get an explanation of save points, if you want).

The boss appears after you break through the barrier to the north. The monster here is a two-part fiend called a Whelk which has the most complicated battle mechanics you've seen yet. Vicks and Wedge will have a helpful conversation as combat begins that tells you what you need to know: don't attack the shell! The target you want is the Whelk's head. TekMissile is your best attack, and your soldiers should use Bolt Beam. While it seems thematically inappropriate, it does slightly more damage than the other beams, and it heals the shell, which prevents its counterattack.

The trick to this fight is that every two rounds or so, the Whelk's head will disappear, leaving only the shell. If you've queued up an attack at this point, it will hit the shell instead, causing it to counterattack with the powerful Mega Volt. Bolt Beam won't trigger a counterattack (since it's considered healing) but any other attack, such as TekMissile, will. You can use the time waiting for the head to reappear using Heal Force to heal up from any Mega Volts.

Depending on how paranoid you are, you may want to head back to the save point before proceeding. This part of the game is pretty easy, but you never know. More random battles await you in the inner mine. There is a new enemy here, the Vaporite. It's vulnerable to Fire but doesn't appear with Were-Rats so Bio Blast is once again a good option.

You'll find the frozen esper you're looking for up ahead. Approach it to trigger a cutscene which is probably not what the imperial soldiers were expecting. When you're done, you'll wake up fully rested in an old man's house and you'll finally get the name the woman. Though the game never mentions it, two Sleeping Bags are added to your inventory as well. Narshe soldiers show up, and the man instructs you to flee. Note that you can go out of your way to pick up an Elixir in the clock near the entrance at this point if you're so inclined.