Gamer Corner Guides

Travel To and From Kashuan Keep

Following your foray into the Snow Cavern, you likely have a lot of gil in your pocket. This may be a good time to return to Altair and the surrounding towns to buy [Mythril] equipment or any Spells you missed earlier. Once you are satisfied with your preparations, your next destination is Kashuan Keep, the door to which can be opened with the Goddess's Bell.

There are two obvious routes to Kashuan Keep. If you return to Poft, Cid will fly you there for a fee of 400 gil. Alternately, you can walk. Kashuan Keep lies beyond Bafsk, to the southwest. It is surrounded by a large circular mountain range, which you can enter via the gap in its northeast. The Keep itself is in the center of the range, in the middle of a lake. The Monsters in the Area are tougher than other World Map Monsters you've seen so far, though not as tough as Snow Cavern encounters. If you see a rare Goblin Prince, take it out with Spells before it can put the party to Sleep.

If you need to return to Bafsk or anywhere else, you need to travel on foot. However, you can save yourself a lot of time and trivial battles by riding a chocobo instead of walking. The one Chocobo Forest in the game (and the first in the series) lies directly south of Kashuan Keep. It is not marked in any way, but you will enter it if you head due south from the bridge leading to the Keep. Once inside, you'll see a white chocobo moving quickly and unpredictably. If you manage to speak to it, you will "catch" it. It's not immediately obvious how this works, as the game brings up the Keyword menu when you do so, but you don't need to use any Keywords or Items to ride the chocobo. Instead, simply leave the forest after catching one, and you'll find the chocobo waiting for you. Press A to get on, and press A again to get off. You will move quickly and avoid all enemy encounters while on the chocobo, allowing you to travel anywhere safely. You can even travel into areas filled with extremely dangerous encounters which you will have to fight on your way back, so be careful! You have to return to this Chocobo Forest to catch another chocobo.

Kashuan Keep 1F

The First Floor, unlike the upper floors of Kashuan Keep, is populated with relatively tame Monsters. Most Encounters here are similar to those outside, save the addition of a rare encounter with a Sergeant. Though this was once a boss, it should not pose a great challenge at this point in the game. Spells are your surest bet for breaking through its considerable Defense.

The Sunfire is sitting out in plain view in the courtyard, but you can't carry it without Egil's Torch, which is found on the Fourth Floor. The door here is locked, and if you come here without the Goddess's Bell, this is as far as you can go. With it, you can proceed through to an inner hallway where you'll find Gordon. He will join the party after you speak to him.

Gordon is an interesting Character, with little in terms of immediate power, but a lot of potential. He has no skill in any Weapons & Shields, nor does he know any Spells, but his stats are quite high. Even if you don't make him a spellcaster, you may want to have him cast spells until he gets an MP increase, which will jump his starting 5 Maximum MP up to at least a respectable 27. If nothing else, he works well as a backup healer—there's even a Cure Tome to be found shortly after he joins!

You'll have Gordon with you for this and another challenging dungeon, so it pays to build up his skills a bit. If you make him a physical fighter, be sure to outfit him with spare Armor if you have any. Since he starts with no skill, you can give him any Weapon, preferably one no one else in the party is using. If you don't have a staff user, this may be a good choice for Gordon, as you'll find the powerful Werebuster in Kashuan Keep. Whatever you do, be aware that Gordon's low starting HP will be a liability until it increases a few times.

The hallway where Gordon is waiting leads to an outer hallway on the main part of the floor. The southern path leads to the aforementioned Cure Tome, while the eastern path leads to a door and a staircase. The door leads to a dangerous trap room which is filled not with the relatively tame Monsters of the 1F, but the extremely nasty Monsters you'll find on the upper floors. The south path leads to the staircase to 2F, where things get much more dangerous.

Kashuan Keep 2F

Kashuan Keep 2F introduces a whole group of dangerous new Monsters to fight. The groups of Undead can (and should) be taken out quickly with Fire, particularly Wraiths. These Monsters are not too difficult to kill, but each hit will drain 1/16 of the maximum HP of the target. Another annoying new foe is the Wererat, which will show up in groups and lacks any weakness to exploit. Their attacks inflict Poison, which will require Esuna 2 or an Antidote to remove. Poisoned Characters cannot gain stat advancement at the end of combat, so it pays to remove this status quickly.

Relatively weak, gimmicky Monsters are the least of your concerns, however. Groups of Ogres behave similar to the Dual Heads of the Snow Cavern, absorbing a lot of damage and making powerful physical attacks. Fortunately they only hit once, so a good Evasion (perhaps aided by Blink) can blunt their attack significantly. In rare cases, Ogres may be accompanied by Land Turtles or Ogre Mages. Blizzard can deal with the Land Turtles, but Ogre Mages are both dangerous and difficult to kill. They have high HP and Defense without any Elemental weaknesses, and like to cast Blizzard 5 on the whole party. This can chip away at the HP of even your back-line mages.

Finally, you will sometimes encounter a single Adamantoise. Yes, the boss from the previous dungeon is back as a Random Encounter here. As before, Blizzard is your best bet—the higher level, the better.

The layout of 2F is quite simple. You start off near the center of the floor, with two directions open to you. The eastern hall leads nowhere, so head south to begin with. At the outer wall, you'll want to head east, as the west hall leads to another dead end. The eastern path will wrap around to the north, bringing you to a chest containing 300 gil before turning west. Follow this path to the end to reach the stairs to the Third Floor.

Kashuan Keep 3F

The Third Floor features most of the same Monsters as the Second Floor, albeit with more Ogres. By this point your resources may be getting low. Remember that you can Teleport (or Warp) out and head to the Chocobo Forest at any time to recover. This is a difficult dungeon, but it's easier to manage than the Snow Cavern was with its Teleport restrictions.

The layout of 3F involves several false paths. The stairs from 2F lead to a narrow hall that eventually turns back on itself and widens. In the large hall lined with columns, you'll see three available paths, all leading south. You can find a Golden Shield guarded by Wererats if you take the middle path and then turn west. The Golden Shield provides the wielder with Poison resistance, which can help somewhat against the boss of this area. The eastmost path from the large hall loops around and leads to the stairs to 4F. The remaining path, along the western edge of the floor, leads only to a dead end.

Kashuan Keep 4F

The Fourth Floor has an interesting layout unlike any you've seen in previous dungeons. There are four doors to be found here, and three are trap rooms as usual. But rather than hiding a staircase or plot-relevant room, the fourth door leads to a treasure room. The trap rooms are filled with the usual nasty Monsters (taken from the Fifth Floor), but the treasure rooms on 4F and 5F have their own nasty set of Encounters.

You will rarely encounter Ghasts on the Fourth Floor, Undead who can Paralyze like Ghouls but hit twice and can take considerably more punishment. As with other Undead, Fire is effective (as is a high-level Cure). You'll find many more Ghasts in the Treasure Rooms, as well as various combinations of Ogres, Ogre Mages, and Land Turtles. Try to get the Treasure within and get out quickly before you have to fight too many battles.

You start in the northeast corner of 4F. The stairs to 5F are found in the southwest, and can be reached by heading either west or south. You'll find trap rooms on both paths, one in the northwest corner, and one along the southern hallway. The other two doors can be found along a hallway that divides the middle of the floor, creating a large room in the northeast, near the stairs. The western of these two doors leads to the Treasure Room containing a Mythril Axe, Mythril Sword, and the Werebuster. The Werebuster is a phenomenally powerful staff that you should not hesitate to use if anyone has the appropriate skill. Its strength against Werebeasts is unfortunately not applicable here, even to Wererats for some reason, but its raw power is quite enough despite that.

Kashuan Keep 5F

The Monsters on the Fifth Floor are more of the same. As with the previous floor, you'll find several trap rooms as well as one Treasure Room here. The layout is relatively simple: you start off in the western hallway, and a path heads north and then loops around clockwise until you reach the stairs to the boss (back on 4F) in the southwest corner. Each other corner holds a single door. The northwest and southeast are trap rooms, but in the northwest you'll find a Treasure Room with three basic items: an Antidote, a Mallet, and Eye Drops. In addition, there is an open area in the middle of the floor that opens to the north, south, and east. Right in the center of this area, you'll find a chest guarded by Mines and Balloons. Fire and Thunder are needed to take out the Mines without them unleashing their devastating Self-Destruct 5 Ability. The item they are guarding is the Golden Armor, a heavy body piece that will be especially useful in the immediate future because it grants resistance to Poison.

Red Soul

The Red Soul is a high Defense, high HP foe like several of the bosses you've fought before, with one major catch: unlike those bosses, it not only lacks an Elemental weakness, it actually absorbs all eight Elements! You won't have any Spells at this point in the game which can injure it in any way, not even to inflict a Status Ailment. Instead, you'll have to fight physically, somehow dealing 540 damage past its 40 Defense. The Ancient Sword can be used to inflict Curse and halve that Defense, which will make a huge difference. (If you went and found it, Berserk is also quite powerful here.) However, the Red Soul will almost certainly get off four level-8 Elemental Spells before you can take it down. With any luck, it will use Scourge a few times, blunting the damage done to anyone using a Golden Shield or the Golden Armor, but your party will take a lot of damage regardless. After four rounds, it will be out of MP and will switch to a powerful single-hit physical attack. At this point, perhaps aided by Blink, the party should be able to turn the tide.

Once the Red Soul is defeated, take Egil's Torch and return to the First Floor. Teleport or Warp are probably your safest bets here. Interact with the Sunfire in the courtyard and use Egil's Torch to obtain it. Congratulations, your work here is done! As you leave Kashuan Keep, you'll see the [Dreadnought] chasing down Cid's [Airship]. You can visit the Chocobo Forest for a quick ride back to Altair if you want.