Showdown at the Coliseum

The Palamecia Desert

The Coliseum is a short (but difficult) dungeon, but getting there is half the battle. You'll want to bring a Cottage to heal up when you arrive. There are three main routes to the vicinity of Castle Palamecia: from the north, west, or south. Which you take will likely depend on where your ship is anchored.

If you decide to approach from the west, you'll want to dock in the middle of the strait between the inner and outer seas. There is a narrow mountain range on the coast, and you'll want to land just south of it. Your destination is to the southeast from this point. The enemies West of Palamecia Desert are all tough and feature high HP totals. Most of them, including the Adamantoises and Gigantoads, have a vulnerability to Ice that you can exploit. The new Antlion has the same weakness, and is also weak against Poison. Spells will serve you well in these battles, as Antlions have a Paralyzing triple attack that can lock down a front line lacking in evasion. Your mages will remain safe in the back row to finish the job, though.

Occasionally, Antlions are accompanied by a Chimera or two. These former bosses are still tough, and have no exploitable weaknesses. The rarest encounter is with a group of Land Rays, another Paralysis-inducing Monster, albeit one with no Elemental weaknesses. Expect to slog it out with them physically taking advantage of Spells like Berserk and Blink.

As you near the Coliseum and enter the Palamecia Desert proper, the encounters become even more dangerous. Antlions and Land Rays even more common, to the point where you will quickly tire of them. The rare encounter is with an eclectic mix of tough old enemies (and possibly a Land Ray) and should cause you no special trouble.

If you want to avoid these nasty encounters, at least on the approach to the Coliseum, you can ride a chocobo instead. The Chocobo Forest is just north of the Palamecia Desert, so you can head to Kashuan Keep and ride in safety.

There is a third possible approach, from the south. You can either walk the same route you did to the Dreadnought, continuing northwest until you reach the Palamecia Desert, or you can land your ship at the southern edge of the mountains nearby. This is a shorter walk, but you'll exclusively face the tougher encounters for the duration. If your ship is still in the outer sea, this can be a good sailing option.

The Coliseum

Approach the Emperor in the Coliseum and you'll be put into a boss fight with a Behemoth, the first series appearance of this iconic Monster. While it certainly looks nasty, it is essentially just a tougher Hill Gigas and can be taken down the same way: Berserk and Curse for offense, Blink for defense. Unfortunately, defeating the Behemoth does not get you Hilda, but instead gets you thrown in a cell.

Coliseum B2

There are no Random Encounters on the bottom level of the Coliseum, though they make up for that lack on B1. Paul will break you out of your cell if you examine the bars, and then you are free to explore. There are six rooms on B2, four of which are trap rooms featuring Monsters from B1. If you follow the southern hallway east and then turn north, you'll find a guarded chest containing a lowly Antidote. The Stalagmites are new but uninteresting enemies, and are accompanied by some Dual Heads and Dual Deads. They should pose little threat.

The room along the southern hall is a trap room, as are the three smaller rooms on the west side of B2. The hallway to their east has a door leading to a Treasure room where you'll find a Cottage, an Elixir, and an Ether. The stairs up to B1 are found in the northeastern room. You can follow the waterway all the way there.

Coliseum B1

While there is only one floor of the Coliseum with Random Encounters, it's a doozy. Arguably the toughest floor in the game so far, particularly if you're unlucky, it's filled with a wide variety of dangerous Monsters. Parasites are the least dangerous of these. Their basic attacks drain MP, but since they can only attack front-row fighters, this is unlikely to be a problem. They are vulnerable to Ice or can be taken down with basic attacks—as Magic Beasts, the Demon Spear and Wing Sword are particularly effective. Magicians return from the Dreadnought, no longer accompanied by any other Monsters. Their spells are annoying but are a minor threat at this point in the game, and their 80 HP is laughable.

Specters are the most common Monsters on the floor, sometimes accompanied by Revenants. Both have the usual Undead weakness to Fire, and you'll want to take out the Specters with extreme prejudice. While their stats are nothing to worry about, each hit will drain 1/16th of the target's maximum HP, giving it to the Specter as healing. With only three attacks, good evasion is your best friend for anyone on the front lines. Gordon may be a liability, and you might even consider putting him in the back row just so he can't be used as a means of healing. Specters also use the dangerous Break spell to turn your Characters to Stone.

More rarely, you may encounter groups of Chimeras, or Death Flowers with Revenant support. As with Specters, the danger from Death Flowers comes from their attack, which inflicts Confuse. Once again, evasion is your best defense, and Gordon may end up hurting more than helping. The good news is both Fire and Ice are highly effective against Death Flowers. The rarest encounter in the area combines Chimeras and Death Flowers together.

All of the other encounters are manageable, but 4.7% of the time you will be faced with the nastiest Monster group in the game thus far: a combination of Captains, Sergeants, Sorcerers, and Wizards. The attacks of Captains are still significant, but almost all of the threat here comes from the spellcasters. With only 140 HP, Sorcerers should be easy enough to take out if they're in the first two rows. Otherwise, you'll have to rely on Spells to take them out, and without an Elemental weakness to take advantage of. All of their Spells are cast at level 6–8, and include Stun, Confuse, Curse, and Death. The good news is they drop such a variety of amazing Spell tomes that you're likely to see something good. They are the only source of the amazing Haste Spell for some time, but also drop tomes of Toad, Aura, and Death.

Wizards (the green ones) are another story. They cast a variety of what are essentially death spells as well as nasty damage spells like Flare 10 and Fire 11, and can drain your mages' MP with Osmose 8 just for good measure. But the real problem is they have 540 HP, so even single-target Spells won't take them down quickly. Single target Status Spells may be more effective (though Silence is unlikely to last). Like Sorcerers, they drop great tomes, including Flare and Osmose.

Unfortunately, the layout of B1 is such that you'll have to do a lot of walking to make it out. The stairs lead to a hallway that circles around the entire floor, and the set of cells where you'll find Hilda are in the center. You'll need to free her before you leave, and Gordon will leave the party permanently at that time. He won't return, so make sure to remove any valuable or unique equipment he's using. You'll then have to fight the rest of the way out as a party of three (though as mentioned above, this may be a blessing in disguise). Needless to say, Teleport doesn't work.

Once you're back on the 1F, you're home free. Well, at least as far as the Coliseum. You still need to walk back to your ship or at least the Chocobo Forest before you're truly safe. Use the Cottage you found on B2 if needed, and don't forget to save.