Enterprise and Troia

An airship! This is usually where I start wondering how much trouble I can get into before doing what the game asked. We do have optional stops available, but first… When control returns, check your party. Unlike some cutscenes, this one doesn’t appear to heal your party.

For the next stretch, we’ll use Cecil, Yang, Cid, and Tellah’s abilities as they are. Nobody needs to impersonate the twins.

Cid and the First Flight

Cid is a physical fighter. Keep equipped, fill any empty armor slots with suitable spares, and put Tellah in the back row. Cid’s Study reveals enemy information, which is much more useful than guessing that everything with wings has the same weakness.

Agart’s Iron equipment can improve Cid’s physical defense, but replacing a ring can sacrifice magic defense. Compare the whole outfit, not just the biggest number.

WARNING: If you DO upgrade to Iron armor, keep Wooden, Prisoner, Leather pieces, , and RubyRings accessible: the next dungeon will make nonmetal equipment unusually important, so don’t feed them to Fat Chocobo just yet.

If you are having trouble figuring out where things are (or if, like me, the flying overworld looks like visual soup in your emulator), use the world wayfinding diagram. It is a brutalist landmark schematic, not an exact coastline map.

Optional Stops Before Troia

You can make these visits now or continue to the story objective:

Stop	Why visit?
Mist	Replace if needed, and collect the fireplace and grass treasures if you skipped them.
Agart	Browse Cid’s armor options, visit the observatory, and search the western grass below the pond for Boreas.
Mythril Village	Collect the hidden staff, knife, and 5,000 Gil before buying equipment. Keep Wooden even if Cid gets a .

Use First Airship Detours and the linked shop references for the full shopping and treasure reminders. These are optional opportunities, not a required circuit before Troia. Be sure to read a bit further down before buying a bunch of new equipment, though. You might find some in the next castle. Hint hint.

Visit Fat Chocobo if inventory is crowded. Store obsolete armor and duplicates, but don’t bury every bow, rod, claw, or nonmetal alternative. Leave room for the castle’s supplies.

Troia Castle: Talk Before Taking Off Again

Fly toward the wooded northwestern part of the surface world and locate Troia. Land in a suitable clearing and approach the castle and neighboring town on foot.

Speak to the clerics to learn where the Earth Crystal has gone. Then visit Edward in his room.

WARNING: Collect TwinHarp before leaving for the cave. It is part of the solution ahead, not an optional souvenir from an old party member.

The guarded treasury isn’t open yet. We will come back for it after the Crystal errand.

Accessible Castle Supplies

In the eastern basement, check the upper-right pot in the middle section for Bacchus. The switch on the right opens the four treasure bays.

Collect two each of:

HiPotion
Ether1

The free RubyRings are particularly timely. Pick them up rather than buying replacements in town.

Troia Town: Follow the Water

Enter the northeastern pond and follow the water channel west, then north into the smaller pond. Climb its stairs and go through the concealed trees into the northwestern grass.

Search carefully for 1,000 Gil, Illusion, Ether1, and Ether2. The little patch of grass is worth the wet feet.

Shopping for the Cave

Item	Price	Purpose
	2,000 Gil	A nonmetal weapon option for Cecil.
Fire, Ice, or Bolt arrows	30 Gil each	Ammunition for the bow; choose useful elements and keep a working stack.
Wooden	80 Gil	Cid’s nonmetal weapon if you didn’t retain his.
	1,000 Gil	Nonmetal arms protection; count the two free castle pickups first.

Cecil can use with arrows. Pay attention to which hand has which - sometimes that changes the offensive power. Remember: remove both current hand items before equipping the pair if an incompatible item in the other slot blocks the change. In other words, you can’t swap your sword for a bow if you have a shield equipped.

Optional: Court of Kings

The Pub sells Pass for 10,000 Gil. It opens the Court of Kings, an optional entertainment stop. Buy supplies first, then visit if you want to see everything. The Crystal quest does not require a very expensive evening out, this is more of a completionist thing.

Area Enemies: Troia Region

Choose an enemy to open its stats and advice. Choose it again to collapse.

Steal is Edge's item target, not a drop-rarity roll. Drop labels describe relative rarity, not guaranteed rewards. Early enemies may be encountered before Edge joins. “None identified” means unknown, not a guarantee that no item exists.

North to the Chocobo Village

The penned chocobos near town aren’t the flying transport we need. Leave Troia and travel north through the forest toward the separate forest patch near the northern coast.

Don’t ignore StingRat’s Needle counter along the way. Repeated weak attacks can make these groups much more expensive than they look. Finish the other enemies, then use a strong enough attack to remove the rats decisively. Fire3-all works well, while weaker spread spells may not reliably finish them. See the StingRat strategy if the trip becomes painful.

In Chocobo Village, collect all three Gysahl pickups, including the concealed northeastern ones. Use Fat Chocobo to retrieve your nonmetal outfit, then take a black chocobo toward Magnetic Cavern. Keep track of where you land so you can return to it afterward.

Before Entering Magnetic Cavern

Change equipment at the cave entrance, not halfway through the first battle. Equipped metal prevents a character from acting during battle. Carrying it in inventory is fine. also counts as a bad choice here despite its useful item attack.

Character	Hands	Head / Body / Arms	Row
Cecil	Holy arrows RHnd, LHnd	Feather / Leather /	Back
Cid	Wooden	Feather / Prisoner /	Front
Yang	and	Headband / /	Front
Tellah	Thunder	Magus / /	Back

This is a working outfit, not a demand to buy a second copy of everything. Check what you already have. Keep the removed metal gear in inventory for later, and bring recovery supplies and camping items.

Use Order and Row deliberately. Moving Cecil to the back should not accidentally move Tellah forward. Restore HP and MP, save outside, and check that TwinHarp is still with you before entering.