Gamer Corner Guides

Pandaemonium is longer and more dangerous than the Jade Passage, with Monsters that are considerably more deadly. Most floors are connected by one-way teleporters, so you'll need to use Teleport or Warp to backtrack. You'll also find many false walls, usually serving as shortcuts, but in one case leading to a secret room and the best Weapon in the game. Use these to your advantage, and once again, do not hesitate to leave if you need to. Better to regroup and save than lose all that progress.

Pandaemonium 1F

The encounter list on the Pandaemonium 1F is entirely different than what you saw in the Jade Passage. The most common foes here are Death Riders, which are essentially the main reason Evasion is king in FFII. Their 8 attacks are powerful, but they also have the drain effect of the Blood Sword. You're not powerless, though: they are weak against Fire, as well as the Cat Claws and Rune Axe, and they have a small chance to drop Ribbons. One silver lining is that if they do hit a Character, they will always have a chance of gaining HP!

The other most common Monster on the 1F are Mantis Devils, which can appear alone or alongside Death Riders. Their attacks cause Paralysis, and they can cast Fire 16, but as Pandaemonium enemies go, they're actually pretty weak. Like Death Riders, they are Spellcasters, but unlike them, they lack an Elemental weakness.

Next on the rarity list are Lamia Queens. They are usually accompanied by Lamias, and sometimes up to two Coeurls. As you delve deeper, most of your party will gain resistance to Charm, which will be helpful here. Coeurls, if present, are always your top priority. Lamia Queens have very nice drops including Protect Rings and Ribbons.

Slightly less common are Mythril Golems, which are tougher versions of Stone Golems. They don't cast any Spells, but that actually makes them more dangerous due to their 8 150-Power attacks. Enhanced physical attacks, non-Elemental Spells, and Blood Swords are all good options. They sometimes appear with Death Riders, who should be treated as the greater threat. Oddly, the rare encounter with a group of Beast Demons might be the easiest battle you'll have on the 1F. With low Defense and only 1,000 HP, they're easy to kill, and they lack any powerful attacks anyway.

The layout of the 1F is simple, leading to a grueling trip. Head south through the doorway, then continue east ignoring all the other doorways (which lead nowhere). The stairs to the north lead to a large room and a path that heads southwest, then northwest, then south and hooking back north to reach the stairs to the 2F. There are no shortcuts, and no Treasure to find on this floor, so just keep on walking.

Pandaemonium 2F

The Monsters on the 2F are far less likely to take out your Characters than those on the 1F. Groups of just Death Riders and Mantis Devils are both gone, though the combination remains. Lamia Queens are now much more common, and Coeurls along with them. A potentially large group of Coeurls can also appear, albeit rarely. You'll see more Mythril Golems and Beast Demons than you did on the 1F as well. The rare encounter mixes Beast Demons with Devil's Blooms, neither of which should present a problem.

Once again, this is a large open floor that will require a lot of walking. Head south and west, then follow the stairs north. The lone chest on the 2F, which contains an Ether, is at the north end of this area. To proceed, head west and down the other staircase. That path leads to another open area and eventually the teleporter to the 3F.

Pandaemonium 3F

The Monsters just keep getting easier as you ascend. (Don't expect that trend to continue indefinitely.) You'll no longer see Death Riders at all, except sometimes assisting a Mythril Golem. Lamia Queens and Mythril Golems are the order of the day, with the majority of encounters here featuring one or the other. Coeurls are your most dangerous foe, and can appear in more than a quarter of your battles here. The new Monster on the floor is the Devil Wolf, which can appear in groups in the rare encounter. They're even easier to kill than Beast Demons, but don't hesitate when fighting them. Most of their attacks are relatively tame, but Confuse 16 and Warp 9 can cause problems for Characters without the relevant resistances.

This is another open floor with one mediocre treasure, but at least there's a shortcut to use! You'll start off in the northwest area, and have two choices of where to go. If you head south and east, you'll find Eye Drops in a chest. The path to the 4F instead lies north and east from the entrance. You'll descend some stairs into an east-west hallway, and there are two ways to proceed. Head south and east to reach the next floor the "normal" way, or you can instead head west and south into a small, dead-end hallway. The end of this hallway is a false wall, allowing you quick access to the teleporter to the 3F just to the south.

Pandaemonium 4FA

The 4F of Pandaemonium is made up of three large areas. This is where you'll find all the best Treasure, as well as some bosses guarding it. Each section has its own encounter list. For the main part of the floor (4FA), Death Riders are back as a common encounter, albeit only in combination with Mantis Devils (and therefore in limited numbers). The encounter list is essentially splitting the difference between 2F and 3F, so there's nothing here you haven't seen before.

4FA has a simple layout, split into two parts. You'll start in the lower part, where you're presented with four passages leading to four doors. Each leads to a different boss-guarded Treasure, and the second door from the right leads onward to the other half of 4FA. Therefore, on your first trip I recommend proceeding through the westernmost door first. In order from west to east, you'll find the Genji Gloves (and Masamune) beyond the first door, the Genji Helm past the second, a Ribbon past the third, and the Genji Armor past the fourth. When you do find yourself teleported to the upper half of the floor, simply proceed north and then east to find the teleporter to the 5F.

Pandaemonium 4FB

The two western doors from 4FA lead to different parts of this floor. The encounters here are distributed quite differently from previous floors. Large groups of Coeurls are common and act as the most likely threat. Mythril Golem and Death Riders are also common, but more than half of all encounters involve Beast Demons or Devil Wolves. The latter may appear with Great Malboros and/or Ice Lizards as well as in homogeneous groups. Lamia Queen/Coeurl combinations round out the uncommon encounters. The rare encounter is with FFII's "superboss," a la WarMECH from FFI: the Iron Giant. More on him a bit later.

The westmost door from 4FA leads to the center of the southern wall of 4FB. Follow the first three archways, after which you'll have two choices. You can head through the false wall to a narrow hallway to the west, using a second false wall to approach the chest containing the Genji Gloves, or you can head east and follow that archway instead. The Genji Gloves are guarded by a boss, but of the Treasure guardians in Pandaemonium, Zombie Borghen is by far the easiest. As you would expect, he's Undead, so Fire is effective but the Blood Sword is not. He can target individual Characters with Flare 16, but you should be able to chop through his 2,500 HP before he can dish out too much damage. The Genji Gloves offer superior Defense and Magic Resistance at the cost of a ridiculous −47% Evasion penalty. They also offer Mind resistance, which will block the Charm ability, which could be very useful for anyone who lacks that resistance on your front lines.

The aforementioned eastern path splits in two: the stairs to the west lead to the same chest, while the archway to the east leads to a long path to the northeast corner of the floor and an apparent dead end. Instead of following the winding path, you can take a shortcut through two more false walls at the northern edge of the floor. When you reach the dead end with the pillar, walk east through the wall's southernmost square. This leads to a small Secret Room with an unguarded chest containing the best weapon in the game: the Masamune. It is hard to overstate how good the Masamune is: it has 50% more Power than the next-best weapon (the Excalibur), it grants double the usual Evasion bonus, it has no Magic Penalty, and it casts Haste 11 on the party when used as an Item, without limit. While the chest itself is unguarded, the Random Encounters in this room are literally all former bosses. You could encounter a Red or Blue Dragon, a King Behemoth, an Elemental Gigas, or Roundworms. Don't tarry in this room unless you're hunting for drops. Once you have what you came for, you can warp from 4FB back to 4FA.

The other half of 4FB, reached via the second door from the left on 4FA, leads to the Genji Helm. This part of the floor is much less complicated. Head north through the archway west of the entrance to reach a large room with wide stairs. A false wall on the western side will save you having to go north and then back southwest. The chest is through a nearby archway to the north. Like the Genji Gloves, the Genji Helm offers high Defense and Magic Resistance at the cost of a large Evasion penalty. The resistance they grant is to Matter, which will block most form-changing effects.

The guardian of the Genji Helm is Tiamat, who is similar to her FFI incarnation. She can use all four Dragon Elemental attacks at level 16, and usually will do just that. Her 8 attacks are quite powerful, but the main difficulty here is her 180 Defense, 5,000 HP, and ability to absorb all four attack Elements. Stick to non-Elemental Spells, buffs, and the Blood Sword for best results. Once again, once you have the Treasure you can Warp back to 4FA.

Pandaemonium 4FC

The two eastern doors on 4FA lead to 4FC. Like 4FB, the encounter tables are somewhat different than on previous floors. Coeurls are very common, appearing in groups alone or with Lamia Queens. The other common encounters feature the less threatening Beast Demons, Devil's Blooms, and Devil Wolves. What sets 4FC apart is potential uncommon encounters with a Fire or Ice Gigas, alongside a group of Bombs. Neither should present any challenge you can't handle (and the Bombs can be ignored, perhaps after poking them with an all-target Spell to trigger Self-Destruct). As in 4FB, the rare encounter here is with an Iron Giant.

Since the second door from the right on 4FA leads onward through the dungeon, it's best to start with the easternmost door. This leads to the Genji Armor, and the path to its chest is a straighforward hallway with no branches. This chest is guarded by Beelzebub. This monstrosity has similar defensive stats to Tiamat and can be taken out in the same way. However, Beelzebub can cause a lot of problems depending on what Spells it casts. If it uses Blink 16, your physical attack game will be completely shut down. Chipping away at 5,000 HP even with Flare and Holy will take some time. (This would likely be a great use case for Dispel, if it wasn't bugged.) You could use Osmose to absorb all 450 of Beelzebub's HP, leaving it only with its 8 powerful basic attacks. They aren't exactly harmless, but it will take the luck of the draw largely out of the equation. The Genji Armor is, as you would expect, super heavy armor with great stats except for its mind-boggling &minus79% Evasion penalty. Even Death resistance is probably not worth that, unless you've decided to give up on Leon ever evading anything anyway. Just be aware that this will make the wearer that much more susceptible to the KO attacks of Coeurls and similar added effects, not to mention Death Riders (and the Emperor's!) HP draining attacks.

The rest of 4FC is dedicated to the Ribbon path, as well as the path that eventually leads to the 5F. You'll have to head north through an archway, then pass through two more while headed east. You can save yourself a trip by using the false wall shortcut east of the fourth archway. This leads to the central room with the Ribbon. This fantastic piece of headgear grants resistances to all eight Elements, making you immune to most Status Ailment Spells and highly resistant to most damage Spells. It doesn't help as much against non-Elemental abilities, though its +21% Magic Def. will still make some difference.

This Ribbon is guarded by Astaroth, a fallen angel with a whopping 7,000 HP. He has the ability to heal himself with his 8 HP draining attacks as well as Drain 16, but otherwise doesn't present a fundamentally different challenge than the other bosses you've fought in Pandaemonium. Elemental resistances will help against Spells like Blind 16 and Death 16 as well.

When you've defeated as many Treasure bosses as you want to, you can continue your journey to the Emperor from this room. There's another false wall in the northwest corner which will save you some walking. You'll want to avoid the narrow staircase hallway, instead traveling south west of the central wall in this area. One final false wall can be exploited northeast of the teleporter back to 4FA.

The Iron Giant

Iron Giants are found as rare encounters (1.6% chance per battle) on 4FB, 4FC, and the 5F. They are the toughest Random Encounter in the game, and as previously mentioned, serve as an analog to WarMECH in FFI. However, while WarMECH required a drawn-out battle to defeat, fights with Iron Giants tend to be short and decisive.

Each Iron Giant only has 3,500 HP and weaknesses to both Lightning and Ice. These weaknesses are worth exploiting, as they also have golem-like Magic Resistance and 180 Defense. A physical assault supported by Berserk and Haste, or using a Blood Sword, can also be very effective.

The danger when fighting Iron Giants is their offense. About 1/3 of the time, they'll use Poison Cloud 16 on the party, and this is what you should be praying to see each round. The other option is their 12 attacks, each with 180 Power. That will be devastating to any Character, even one that has consistently leveled up Evasion. With Blink in place, you may be able to achieve a relatively safe footing, but delaying your offense to cast it may not be worth the opportunity cost.

If you do defeat an Iron Giant, there's a 40% chance you'll get a significant drop. Each piece of Genji Armor has a 10% chance to appear, and the Excalibur and Aegis Shield show up at a rate of 5% each.

Pandaemonium 5F

From here on out, your only real goal is the Emperor. There are a few more Treasure chests containing consumable items, but this wouldn't be a bad time to Teleport out and save. When you're ready to proceed, be prepared for lots of tough enemies. The 5F has similar Monsters to 4FC, adding the Thunder Gigas to the rotation alongside his Fire and Ice cousins. What are gone, though, are groups of Coeurls. They can still appear alongside Lamia Queens but you'll see fewer of them overall.

The 5F is a wide open level with a lot of walking, similar to the first two floors, albeit with a new color tileset. You'll begin in the middle of the floor, south of a series of decorative archways. There's a Sage's Wisdom in a chest northwest of them. You'll find more archways further west, as well as stairs that you can follow to reach the northern part of the floor. Follow the linear path east, south, and back west to reach the teleporter to the 6F.

Pandaemonium 6F

The Monsters on the 6F are turned up a notch. You'll see fewer Beast Demons and Devil Wolves, replaced by Fire and Ice Gigantes. More rarely, you could see a Blue Dragon, King Behemoth, or a group of Roundworms. While all of these monsters are tough to take down, few have truly punishing attacks if your Characters are well prepared.

The final two Treasures in Pandaemonium are found on this floor. Unfortunately, they are both out of the way and in opposite directions. You start in the southwest corner, and can find a Hellfire by heading east or an Acid Phial by heading north. If you're going to grab both, head east first, then return to the entrance. The teleporter to the 7F is in the northeastern part of the floor. You can walk through the false wall east and two steps south of the Acid Phial chest. If you don't need either chest and are taking the northern route but bearing east, you can find a false wall between that area and the teleporter area as well.

Pandaemonium 7F

Mercifully, there are no more Coeurls on the 7F. At this point, if something is going to kill you, it's going to do so by hitting you really hard in the face. You'll fight various Gigantes most of the time, including a rare encounter with up to three Fire Gigantes. You're closing in on the Emperor, so don't give up now.

The 7F has a bizarre layout consisting of an open floor with a bunch of pillars at regular intervals. The teleporter to the Final Floor is in the southwest corner.

Pandaemonium 8F

This featureless floor starts in the south, and you'll find the Emperor due north. The encounters have been turned up one last notch, with groups of Ice Gigantes and solo Red Dragons being added to the mix. When you're ready to end things, speak to the Emperor.