If you didn't complete the tasks laid out in the the Exploring the World of Balance document, such as finding the three hidden Espers or encountering a Grenade, you have another opportunity to do so now, before tackling the Floating Continent.
Gearing Up
Now that Thamasa's shops are open, you have access to all of the best Weapons, Armors, and Relics sold in the World of Balance. You'll be bringing a party of three to the Floating Continent, plus Shadow, so prepare accordingly. If Celes isn't among the three you bring, she will briefly join up later, so make sure she has some equipment as well. If you have the money, it pays to buy the best available gear for every character, if only to make sure you have a good baseline in the World of Ruin.
Strago and Lores
There are a variety of Lores Strago can learn in the World of Balance. Many of these require you to fight on the Veldt until you see now otherwise inaccessible Monsters. All Veldt Monsters remain available in the World of Ruin, so it's not vital to do this now, though it may be worthwhile if you're planning to use Strago on the Floating Continent. There are a few Lores you can learn more reliably, though:
- Condemned: Gau's Zombone Rage includes Condemned, a slow-acting Wound spell.
- Pearl Wind: On the slops of the Espers' Gathering Place, find a pair of Abolishers and let them attack for three rounds. They will use the healing Pearl Wind Lore as long as they are both alive.
- L.3 Muddle: Gau's Trapper Rage includes L.3 Muddle, which inflicts Muddled on enemies with a level evenly divisible by 3.
- Step Mine: Use Muddle or the NoiseBlaster to inflict Muddled on a GreaseMonk in the South Figaro Area. They will sometimes use Step Mine, a Lore that deals damage based on how many steps you've taken.
- Pep Up: Gau's Intangir Rage includes Pep Up, which sacrifices the caster to heal one ally.
- Exploder: Bombs and Grenades, found on the World Map Island West of the Veldt, use this as a counterattack.
The Intangir
The most powerful Monster in the World of Balance is undoubtedly the Intangir, which only appears on the Northeast Island of the World Map. It is slightly more likely to appear in the tiny forest than on the plains, and the other encounters on this island are trivially easy. The Intangir starts off with several defensive Statuses, including Clear, so it's not even obvious what kind of Monster it is at first. It is in fact a huge blue Behemoth that likes to use Meteo do deal 900 damage or so any time it is disturbed.
There are three strategies for fighting an Intangir. The first is to simply run away, as the main purpose in fighting one at all is to make them appear on the Veldt so Gau can learn their Rage. (It's a good defensive Rage except for the fact that Gau is likely to sacrifice himself with Pep Up, but you can at least use it to teach Strago that Lore).
The second strategy is to cast Doom (taught by Shoat), which will immediately Wound the Intangir. However, Intangirs are immune to Wound, so this only works due to the Vanish bug.
If you want to actually defeat an Intangir and don't want to exploit a bug to do it, you have your work cut out for you. Physical attacks are all but useless, as they automatically miss due to Clear, even if they normally can't miss. The Intangir will respond to any attack that does hit (i.e., a magic attack, which will remove Clear) by casting Meteo and then re-applying Clear. This isn't an actual counterattack, so you may have a brief period to follow up the initial magic attack with any attack you have available, but the Intangir has 32,000 HP and chipping away at it like this is impractical. It also absorbs every Element and has very high Defense and Mag.Def. Even if you did manage to get it down to 1,280 HP or less, it will run away on its next turn.
Since attack spells are out of the question, and you need to avoid Meteo, there's really only one option: Golem's Stop. Intangirs are not immune to Stop, and it will prevent them from counterattacking or re-applying Clear until it wears off. Follow up Stop with your best non-Elemental, Defense-ignoring attacks. Here's a partial list of offensive moves you might consider:
- Edgar's Drill or Chain Saw both ignore Defense.
- Sabin can Suplex the Intangir
- Cyan's level 1 SwdTech Dispatch works well.
- Strago's Step Mine is effective if you've spent a lot of time wandering. If Strago happens to be exactly level 26, Stone will be quite powerful.
- Relm's Sketch results in Step Mine 75% of the time.
- The Atma Weapon ignores Defense, though unless you're very high level its damage will be limited.
- Drain doesn't ignore Mag.Def, but will deal damage and can help you recover from Meteo.
The Intangir will cast Meteo upon death, but only targeting the Character that was responsible for the final blow. This isn't anything to worry about unless you only have one Character left alive at the time.