Gamer Corner Guides

Castle Palamecia is a long and difficult dungeon. You can't Teleport out, except from the starting floor, and you don't want to anyway—if you do, you'll need to walk all the way back to Fynn to retrieve your airship. The good news is, there is a ton of great Treasure and no actual boss, not even a new color of dragon. The bad news is, many of the Random Encounters here are fundamentally unfair and can end your quest abruptly, similar to the Coliseum. Make sure you are prepared before you take on this challenge. When you're ready, land your airship on top of the tallest tower of the castle (located in the mountains east of the Coliseum) to enter.

Castle Palamecia 7F

You'll start off on the 7F, but you don't have much choice what to do from there. Simply follow the hallway north into the empty room. Walk into the room and between the pillars, after which you'll fall into a pit to the 1F.

Both the 7F and 1F share encounter tables, at least this first time you're here (and again when you're headed to the Treasure Room). There's a wide variety of Monsters that will attack you here. Killer Mantises once again appear with Vampire Girls, and the latter's Charm 6 ability remains the most immediate threat. Large groups of Pit Fiends can use high-level Stun and Fire Spells but are relatively easy to kill—just avoid using Ice or Fire. Eyemoebas resist Status Ailment magic but their six Poisonous attacks aren't a major threat. Rounding out the common encounters, Gottoses are mostly notable for their 2,000 HP. They can enhance their own attacks and become more dangerous over time, but a focused attack will take them out before that should be an issue.

The rarer encounters are where you'll find brand new Monsters. Stone Golems are much hardier versions of the Wood Golems from the Cyclone. They not only resist every Element, but have impenetrable Magic Resistance on top of that. Non-Elemental Spells will have some effect, but casting Spells like Berserk on your own Characters may be a better bet. With 150 Defense and 1,800 HP, there's no easy way to kill them. Just to make things a bit more annoying, they often have Vampire Girls assisting them, and the Stone Golems themselves can cast Stop 8.

A long-forgotten Monster sprite appears in the form of the Skull, spellcasting Undead that appear alongside Devil's Blooms. Skulls will usually cast Blizzard 12, or less frequently Stun 16 or Toad 10. Both Monster types are vulnerable to Fire, and Skulls in particular have only 640 HP and aren't hard to defeat.

The rare encounters on the floor are bad news. First, there's the same General or two you may have seen guarding the Diamond Armor in the Cyclone. Their 10 attacks will be a major threat to your front lines almost regardless of your Evasion, and they are best taken out quickly with spells that KO or entirely disable them, like Toad or Curse. The rarer Imperial Shadow is less of a threat, but by no means a pushover. A tougher, Undead version of the Emperor, they like to inflict Curse and cast Death, and have considerable Defense and 3,000 HP. Holy and Flare are a good bet here, since they resist every Element except Fire. Don't be tempted to use a Blood Sword on one!

Castle Palamecia 1F

The 1F is large and open in a way you haven't seen in a while. You'll start off in the northwest corner, with two paths available to you. There is a chest containing a Diamond Cuirass to the south, and beyond that a door to a trap room. While the Diamond Cuirass offers the most Defense of any light armor, the resistances and stat bonuses of the White and Black Robe make it of questionable value in comparison. The path east branches south, but that branch is a dead end, so continue to the northeast corner of the floor. Continuing south, you'll see a staircase that leads to an Hourglass on the 2F. Once you reach the next corner and turn west, the northern route leads to the stairs up to the main part of the 2F, while you'll find Garlic in a chest if you continue to the southwest corner.

With the same encounters as on the 7F and a lot of walking to do, this is already a dangerous floor and the dungeon just got started. Since there is a ton of Treasure and a lot of walking remaining, make liberal use of Osmose and Swap to keep your MP up, and stay alert for anything. There's no shame in failing to complete this nasty dungeon on your first attempt.

Castle Palamecia 2F

Castle Palamecia does an interesting thing with its encounter tables. The Imperial Shadow fight remains in the rare slot through the 3F, with new encounters appearing at a higher probability than usual. The new uncommon encounter in this case is against a group of Lamias. With up to four appearing at once, it is difficult to take them all out before they use Charm 6 to potentially cause problems. Stone Golems have also become more common, and Wood Golems from the Cyclone make an appearance as well. Their allies have been upgraded from Royal Guards to Black Knights, which you may recall from the start of the game. They are tougher than Royal Guards but their attacks do not inflict Poison and they have some great drops. Despite being a new encounter, this one is quite common. You won't see either Killer Mantises or Pit Fiends on the 2F as a result.

As with the 1F, you'll need to walk all the way around the 2F to proceed. The hallway in the center leads to an Hourglass, but most of the floor goes around the outside. From the stairs, proceed west to the outer path. You'll find a basic Knife to the south, which you can freely ignore. To make it to the 3F, you'll need to head north and then all the way around the floor. You'll find a Buckler in the northeast corner, but the other two corners are empty. The stairs to the 3F are in the middle of the southern part of the floor.

Castle Palamecia 3F

As quickly as they appeared, the Wood Golem/Black Knight encounter is gone from the Castle Palamecia 3F. The Devil's Bloom/Skull encounter is now common, and the new encounter for the floor is with a large group of Flying Rays and Cockatrices. Neither are new or threatening, and you should be glad to see them. The deadly Generals are twice as likely to appear, and many times more deadly.

The 3F has the simplest layout so far, but that won't reduce your walking. The stairs open into a wide room filled with circular columns. A the north end, the path splits. You can head east and then south to reach the 4F, while the same route to the west leads to a chest. Unlike some of the useless Treasure you've seen, you don't want to miss this chest. It contains the Thunder Spear, which is not only a nice upgrade for polearm users, but casts Thunderbolt 16 for free as many times as you want. It is guarded by a lone Imperial Shadow, and is worth both the trip and the fight.

Castle Palamecia 4F

The 4F introduces no new Monsters, but encounters with Generals are now common, so that's not really good news. You'll no longer fight Eyemoebas at all. The new encounter mixes a Stone Golem with Black Knights rather than the usual Vampire Girls, making for a longer fight but potentially a less dangerous one. Imperial Shadows have finally left town as well, replaced in this case with a rare encounter with a group of Death Flowers.

The 4F reverts to a more complicated layout. You begin in the southeast corner and the only initial route is north. This leads to a wide east-west hallway with a few branches of note. Take the southern loop to find a Saint's Spirit, and head to the west end of the hall for some Sleepgrass. When you're ready, head north to continue on. The stairs to the 5F are a short walk to the east, but a nice Treasure Room awaits you if you follow the western path to its end. Inside, you'll find three different magic staves. The new one of the three is the amazing Healing Staff, which serves double duty. First, you can attack allies with it to heal them for a considerable amount; and second, it absolutely devastates undead. (Maybe the Imperial Shadows left because they saw it coming!) Using it well requires considerable micro-management, but it is a great Weapon to have on-hand.

Note that the Castle Palamecia Treasure Rooms have their own set of nasty encounters, so you'll want to get the Treasure and get out quickly. Two Monster groups in particular can ruin your day, and they're both common. First is the combination of Captains and Coeurls. The danger here comes from the latter (as series veterans might expect). Coeurls are basically re-branded Mindflayers: they spend some of their time using the unresistable Paralysis ability Blaster 10, and the rest attacking 7 times with an instant KO effect. Paralysis prevents Evasion, so this is a very effective combination. They lack strong Defense but do have 1,000 HP to get through, so use your most powerful offense.

Surprisingly, Coeurls are not necessarily the biggest threat. You'll also fight combinations of a General with Captains and Wizards. You can probably handle Wizards relatively quickly by now, though their wide variety of nasty Spells remain a threat, but pairing them with a General is just downright mean. You could give them all a taste of their own medicine and toss some KO spells their way.

Castle Palamecia 5F

The 5F introduces a new rare encounter which you may have seen in the Treasure Room on the 4F: a large group of Skulls. Fire remains your best offense against them. At this point the majority of Random Encounters you'll see are ones you'd rather not. On the upside, if you're still standing at this point, you've likely gained a lot of stats (especially HP).

The layout of the 5F is the least interesting yet, though it offers a branching path that stretches all the way (back) to the 7F. It's a path worth taking, as you'll find the mighty Sun Blade as well as three Elixirs along it. To start on this Treasure path, simply take the stairs west from your starting point. When you're ready to head for the Dark Knight instead, head south and around the castle walls to the other set of stairs to the 6F.

Castle Palamecia 6F

The General/Captain/Wizard encounter from the Treasure Rooms appears here as the rare encounter for the floor. It pushes out the Stone Golem/Vampire Girl combo, though you'll still see Stone Golems appear alongside Black Knights. For a mercy, the newly common encounter on the 6F is the one against Flying Rays and Cockatrices. Rare encounter aside, this may be a less dangerous floor than the 5F.

Both the main route and the Treasure route on the 6F are very straightforward, though long. You'll find a chest slightly off the beaten path on the Treasure route, this one containing the Sun Blade. This sword is a noticeable offensive improvement over the Defender, though it lacks that sword's Evasion bonuses. It also offers extra power against Undead, though you'll find few that could withstand it even without that bonus. The Sun Blade is guarded by the closest thing Castle Palamecia has to a boss encounter: a Lamia Queen and up to five Coeurls.

Depending on how many Coeurls show up, this encounter can pose a serious problem. You could get lucky and fight a lone Lamia Queen—not a trivial Monster, but one you defeated already much earlier in your quest. While her Charm 9 ability can cause problems, the Coeurls' Blaster is the real threat. Do anything you can to take them out as fast as possible, or there's a good chance you'll have to repeat the entire dungeon to this point.)

Return to Castle Palamecia 7F

On the Treasure path, you'll find the same Random Encounters on the 7F that you saw when you first arrived in Castle Palamecia, which will be a nice break. (The Monsters in the Treasure Room are still nasty, though.) On the other hand, on the short path to the 8F, you'll fight the same Monsters as you'll see on that floor. (You also can't Teleport from this part of the floor, unlike the other parts, implying they are actually different floors in the game's reckoning.)

The majority of the floor is taken up by the Treasure route, where you will start in the northeast corner. Follow the path west and south to find a Treasure Room that contains a trio of Elixirs. There are several further branches in the halls, but they lead to dead ends. Once you've obtained the Elixirs, you can Warp your way back to the 6F, but no further (unless your Warp Spell is above level 1, possibly the only time in the game this would be useful!).

Castle Palamecia 8F

Finally, you've reached the top, and unnecessarily large, floor of Castle Palamecia! You'll start in the northeast corner and have to work your way south and then west before you can enter the gigantic throne room in the center. However, before you do so you may want to continue west and north to find two final chests. They contain Hellfire and a Wind Flute, both nice Items but perhaps not worth the risk of extra encounters at this point.

The 8F and the small hallway on the 7F leading to it contain the nastiest set of Monsters you've seen outside the Treasure Rooms. Stone Golems are now common again, you'll see more Generals with Wizards in tow, and the rare encounter features Coeurls. The good news is, there's no boss fight here. As soon as you speak to the Dark Knight on the throne, a series of cutscenes will play out and the dungeon will be over. Despite the lack of a boss, though, you'll want to prepare before you do so.

A number of things happen when you speak to the Dark Knight, chief among them that Ricard will leave the party for good. There's a very good chance he's carrying some fantastic gear you'll want to keep, such as the Defender, Sun Blade, and perhaps a Blood Sword. Swap out any gear you want to keep, and consider giving Ricard the Wyvern if you haven't already. Its Blaze 7 ability isn't very useful and you can't throw it away, but letting Ricard leave with it will permanently free up a slot of your very limited inventory. After speaking to the Dark Knight, Castle Palamecia will transform into Pandaemonium and you'll end up back in Castle Fynn. In a somewhat questionable decision, Leon will join your party as its permanent fourth member.

Leon

Leon has some decent starting stats, at least on offense. He has skill in many Weapons, chief among them swords and axes. He comes sporting full Diamond Armor and dual-wielding, and you should revise both of those decisions quickly. He starts at the low Evasion level of 3, which will be a serious problem going forward. You can power-level it by putting everyone else in the back row (to make sure he gets all the skill ups) but he'll be a liability for a while. As such it may be tempting to keep his heavy Armor to maximize Defense and let his Evasion % languish, but I don't recommend this. Another option is to maximize his Evasion% to get him some Agility boosts, though this is complicated by his miserable 3 Shield skill. Since dual-wielding doesn't actually work as intended, you'll want to train that up regardless. (Also note that Leon is left-handed, which is not obvious given his starting gear!) With the Defender and a good shield, as well as a few lighter Armor pieces, you can get Leon up to Evasion % snuff pretty easily, at least.

Whatever you do, the nice thing is that Leon is here to stay so anything you do to improve his stats will not be wasted. From here on out, you have the party you'll be using to confront the Emperor once and for all.

Excalibur

With Ricard gone, you can return to Castle Deist and speak to his widow. Say [Dragoons] to her and she will give you the mighty Excalibur. This sword is absurdly powerful, combining 100 Power with effectiveness against every Element and five Monster Monster Families. Those bonuses don't stack, but apply to almost every Monster in the game, making Excalibur's effective Power usually 120. It even comes with a reasonable 30% Magic Penalty! Don't miss this excellent weapon, which can be used to great effect by any sword user (including Leon.