Gamer Corner Guides

Semitt Falls is the first dungeon you'll encounter in FFII, and it's a doozy. It's not a particularly memorable or difficult dungeon compared to the others in the game, but it's the first time you'll be faced with a lot of the flaws in the game's leveling system that can make it so frustrating. That said, with the right approach it can be a pretty good experience. It's comparable in many ways to the Marsh Cave in FFI, in that you'll likely have to take multiple trips to explore all of it, running all the way back to town each time.

The core issue at play is how black magic works. To gain Intelligence and level your Spells, you need to cast them as often as possible. To gain Maximum MP, you need to use up as much of it as you can per battle (at least 1/8 of your total for even a chance of an increase). For maximum effect, you should therefore be using black magic on every turn of every fight. However, if you do that, you will quickly run out of MP and be left unable to deal with the nastiest Monsters in the Semitt Falls. If on the other hand you conserve MP, your growth as a magic user will stall, and you may even lose Intelligence because you are attacking instead. There's no perfect solution. I recommend leaning towards the former strategy, using MP with reckless abandon and using Teleport (which you fortunately find a tome of in this dungeon) and running back to Salamand when you run out of it.

Semitt Falls B1

The top floor of the Semitt Falls has a simple map and introduces an interesting new Monster. This is the Balloon, the first Bomb-type Monster in the game and indeed the entire series. They frequently use the Self-Destruct Ability, which works in an interesting way. If the Balloon has not yet taken damage, they will do nothing, essentially passing their turn. But if they have taken any damage at all, they will instead explode for big damage that is mitigated only by raw Defense. If you can safely take each out in a single hit, you can avoid this attack entirely. Fire or Thunder can do that easily, as can a reasonably powerful (e.g., level 2) basic attack.

You'll also see Soldiers grouped with Goblin Guards, resulting in large groups that can all use Bow 1 attacks. If you've left your mages in the front row hoping they would take damage and gain some Maximum HP, now might be an appropriate time to move them to the back, since so many Monsters in the Semitt Falls can hit them anyway. Let the normal attacks be concentrated on characters with better Defense and Evasion.

The layout of the floor is a basic S shape with four branching paths. You'll notice a bright blue object in the first, but that is (surprisingly) irrelevant at the moment and can be ignored. The second branch, leading northwest, ends in a chest containing a mere 10 gil. The two eastern branches in the southern part of the floor are both optional. The top one is a dead end, while the bottom has a chest containing another 200 gil. The stairs downward are found in the southwest corner of the map.

Semitt Falls B2

The second floor of the Semitt Falls introduces a few annoying new concepts. First, there are monsters that essentially cannot be hurt with physical attacks. In this case, Green Slimes. While you can damage them with critical hits, this is not a reliable way to defeat them or their many-colored brethren. Each type of slime has one or more Elemental weaknesses that will do a number on them. In this case, either Fire or Blizzard will take them out quickly, even if cast on the whole group. The other new concept introduced here is the trap room, but we'll get to that in a moment.

The layout is once again a sinuous path with several branches. To find the way forward, head east and hug the southern wall. There are two branches to the north, each with a chest to open: Eye Drops to the west, and a Potion to the east. You'll find a third chest, this one containing another Potion, along the main path in the southeast corner of the floor.

Once you reach the northeast corner, you'll be faced with four identical doors. The far left door leads to the stairs to B3, while the other three lead to trap rooms. A "trap room" is an empty room you reach from a door in a dungeon, which has a very high encounter rate and is normally populated with the nastiest monsters in the dungeon. They usually appear either as part of a set with one correct door, as is the case here, or they are found throughout a dungeon floor posing as potential treasure rooms. Either way, if you enter one, there is a good chance you'll find yourself in a difficult battle. You will sometimes get away scot free, but don't count on it.

Whether you want to enter trap rooms or not is up to you. In most dungeons, including the Semitt Falls, the encounter table is the same as that of the bottom floor (in this case, B5). For brevity's sake, I won't discuss the new monsters here, but you can look at the strategies presented for the lower floors to get an idea what you're up against.

Semitt Falls B3

There are no new enemies to be found on B3, though Green Slimes are more common here. You'll generally find tougher encounters in larger numbers as you progress through dungeons, and this is no exception.

You'll find an intersection south of the stairs. If you continue south, you'll find a chest containing a pathetic 1 gil. If you head west, you'll be able to spot a bridge to the west and a door to the east. The door leads to another trap room, while the bridge leads to a chest with 50 gil. A second bridge connected to that area leads to a dead end. Your destination is to the northwest, where you'll find a trio of doors. Once again, the correct door (the one on the far left) will lead onward, while the others lead to more trap rooms. In this case, "onward" means to the room where the prisoners are kept. Speak to Paul here and he will free them, telling you to move on and find the Mythril. The stairs to B4 lie to the east.

Semitt Falls B4

The new, and mercifully rare, encounter on B4 is with a pack of Zombies. They lack much Defense, but pack a wallop. Fire works on them (along with most Undead), as does Cure. Minwu's Cure in particular can take out an entire pack of them at once. If you've gotten any Garlics from dead Soldiers, it can be used against these groups as well. Take them out quickly before they do the same to you.

This floor has an interesting layout, centered on a small island with bridges leading off in all four cardinal directions. You start in the southwest corner, and can cross a bridge to what is effectively the western "island" of the floor. Don't miss the chest in the room to the north, as it contains a valuable Fire Tome. If your black mage has not yet learned Fire, now is the time to do so. If you follow this area further north, ignoring the bridge to the east, you'll find another trap room.

After crossing the bridge to the central island, you'll be faced with three choices. The southern and eastern bridges lead to dead ends, so take the northern bridge and follow the path all the way around the eastern side of the floor. You won't have to deal with a door puzzle this time, instead finding stairs leading directly to B5.

Semitt Falls B5

On the lowest floor of the Semitt Falls, you'll find more Zombies and a new rare encounter with multiple Soldiers. At this point, you should have a good handle on how to defeat all the enemy types that may appear, especially if you've been exploring trap rooms.

There are two paths from the stairs, a normal path to the north and a bridge to the west. Both lead to nasty encounters with Monsters that are all but immune to physical damage, so if your black mage is low on MP, you may want to turn around and rest up before proceeding. The actual boss of the Semitt Falls is the closer of the two, and guards the Mythril from the western room in the northern area. (The eastern door leads to a trap room.) This is the Sergeant, and his physical Defense is likely more than you can overcome. Minwu can help blunt his attack with defensive Spells like Blink, but lacks any offensive potential to deal with him. You'll have to rely mostly on black magic to whittle through his 140 HP. Your black mage should definitely be placed in the back row to keep them safe as long as possible, though the Sergeant can hit them even there with his nasty Bow 3 Ability. Once defeated, you can retrieve the Mythril, but you'll have to leave on your own. You can either fight your way out the way you came in, or use Teleport. Minwu knows the spell, but you can earn a tome of it on this very floor.

If you cross the bridge near the start and follow the path, you'll come across a door to a trap room and then, eventually, a treasure chest. It contains a Teleport Tome, but to earn it you'll need to defeat its guardian: a Land Turtle. Its attack is on par with the Sergeant, though it lacks any special Abilities, and its Defense is even higher. Fortunately, it is weak against Ice, so Blizzard will make short work of it. Blizzard 2 may be enough to take it out in one hit. You should have someone learn Teleport as soon as possible. Consider giving it to your fighter rather than a mage. There's no need to level it up, and it's not a very effective Spell in combat (it's a highly inaccurate KO Spell), plus you don't want to run out of MP and be stuck in a dungeon. As a pure out-of-combat utility spell, anyone can make good use of it.

Return to Salamand

You are not required to head back to Salamand, but as it's the closest town and you are likely in need of a night at an inn, it's probably where you want to go. You should have considerably more money than before, so buy whatever upgrades you want before starting the trek back to Altair. Keep in mind that delivering the Mythril will make new mythril Weapons and Armor available, so you may want to save some of your gil to buy those.