Final Fantasy IX Disc 3
Pandemonium
You’re Not Alone
When you first get control of Zidane inside Pandemonium, make sure you are equipped and head forward. You’ll have a short discussion with Garland, then you’ll follow him. Jump from platform to platform and listen to him go on (and on, and on…) After a very long time, you’ll get into several fights on rails.
- Scripted Pandemonium Amdusias: Freya and Amarant will help out.
- EnemyPandemonium enemy. Randomly encountered Abadons can be eaten by Quina to learn Twister; the scripted Abadon during You're Not Alone cannot be eaten.: Quina and Steiner will assist. Note: If you didn’t learn Blue Magic22 MP Blue Magic. Wind-elemental damage to all enemies. from the Red Dragons in Mount Gulug, you can usually learn Blue Magic22 MP Blue Magic. Wind-elemental damage to all enemies. by eating an EnemyPandemonium enemy. Randomly encountered Abadons can be eaten by Quina to learn Twister; the scripted Abadon during You're Not Alone cannot be eaten.. Unfortunately, Quina can’t eat this one.
- EnemyPandemonium enemy whose Smash attack reduces its target to 1 HP. Quina can eat a randomly encountered Shell Dragon to learn Earth Shake.: You can steal an ItemFully restores one character's HP and MP. from him, if you try hard enough, and Thievery probably will do quite a bit of damage. This guy will use an attack called “Smash” that will reduce you to one HP. Then you’ll get healed by Dagger, who is apparently the only one Zidane will listen to. You get 4 AP from him, though, which is pretty cool.
Regrouping
After a bit of conversation, you’ll get an opportunity to level up with Dagger, Quina, and Steiner. If you have it (and haven’t already equipped it) be sure to equip the EquipmentAdd-on for: Female Only to Dagger. You’ll want to equip Clear Headed to your characters, too.
This is another place where it pays to pay close attention to the Area Enemies & Blue Magic panel. By now your characters’ special abilities should be pretty damaging. Steiner’s Shock and Zidane’s Thievery should be doing serious damage to enemies now.
Head back through the doorway you came in via and follow that hallway all the way to the rest of your party. Moorock has followed you here, so be sure to use him to ItemIf used in battle, inflicts Silence, Darkness and Poison. If used in the field, restores HP/MP at save moogle./mogshop/switch out party members. Choose your party and head past the Moogle. That’s right, backtrack one screen and grab the EquipmentHead Armor for: Eiko, Vivi, Quina and Dagger on the chair. Now go ahead and head back to the right.
The Maze of Lights
When you pass the room you found Dagger in, you’ll enter a little maze. Examine the controls at the top of the screen, then try to avoid the lighted bubbles. to see how to do this.
The Elevator Controls
Walk quickly through the maze and across the light bridge. In the next room, you’ll find a device used to control a platform a little further on. There are two values here:
- One controls the direction the platform faces, and the other controls the height where it stops. The way this works is, if you examine any ledge that’s on a different level than the elevator, it’ll come down to your level.
- The heading determines which direction the elevator entrance faces.
Enter a value of 3, then head left and get onto the platform where you can. Once you get off, continue up, and you should be able to jump on again and get 20,007 Gil. Ride back down and go back to the control room, and this time choose a value of 4.
Go back and keep getting on and off the elevator until you get to a circular room. If this works for you and you’ve made it to the 4th floor, skip the next section.
(Optional) Note: It looks like there are a few things that can happen here. One time I ended up having my second party show up to help “man the controls” while you go play with the elevator. When that happens, have Zidane’s party go left to where the elevator is. The ATE will let you switch between parties. If that happens to you, here’s the magic formula:
| Step | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | Use the ATE to become party 2. |
| 2 | Set the Heading to 4 and press “X”. Then press “O”. If you don’t do it in that order, it doesn’t stay toggled. |
| 3 | Switch to Zidane and get on the Elevator. You’ll go up. |
| 4 | When you get off the elevator, go all the way around and up, up up (you’ll be on the 3rd floor). |
| 5 | At the very top and far left, examine the far edge. |
| 6 | Switch to party 2. |
| 7 | Use the ATE to change the heading to 4. |
| 8 | Hop on and “Go up to the fourth floor.” |
The Teleporter Maze
When you get to the fourth floor, it’s tough to see - but there are three elevators here. You can find one by going to the bottom of the screen, then heading left, you can find another by going right and up, then coming toward the bottom of the screen, and the final one is up and left, then cuts back to the right.
There is some optional loot in the next area. Depending on how tough your characters are, you may want to skip that loot, or you may want to save before going after it.
If you don’t care about the loot (an ItemFully restores one character's HP and MP. and a EquipmentArmor for: Knights Only), skip the loot route and take the Exit Route. Otherwise, take the Loot Route then take the Exit Route.
| Step | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | Take the elevator up and left on the fourth floor. |
| 2 | Take the only elevator you see here. |
| 3 | On the next level, there will be 3 other exits. Take the far right one (it’s blue). |
| 4 | On the next level, open the chest for an ItemFully restores one character's HP and MP.. |
| 5 | Go back to the previous level, this time, take the far left elevator (it’s blue too). |
| 6 | Follow the path here to the chest for a EquipmentArmor for: Knights Only (Steiner finally gets Auto-Regen). |
| 7 | Go back up the elevator to the previous level. |
| 8 | This time, take the pink elevator. |
| 9 | You should be back in the circular room with three exits. |
| Step | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | Take the platform that’s left and down. |
| 2 | Of the two elevators on the next level, take the upper one. |
| 3 | There are two more elevators here - one up and one down. |
| 4 | Optional: Take the elevator down and right, then take the only elevator here and open the chest for EquipmentAdd-on for: All. Go back down. |
| 5 | Take the elevator going up and right. |
| 6 | On the next level, take the only elevator you can get to. |
| 7 | Save/Mognet/etc at the Moogle (Mozme). |
Now prep for a Boss Fight.
Boss Fight Prep
Since you’ll be fighting some tough enemies here, let’s be ready. Here are the abilities you want equipped, in order of (to me anyway) importance. Remember, if you have Reflect enabled on all your characters, you’ll want Reflect-Null for your healer so she can still use cure magics. If you have Freya in your party, don’t bother with Auto-Regen, just use her Rei’s Wind. I recommend Freya, Zidane and Eiko. For your fourth character you can use Quina if you know lots of blue magic, or even Steiner if you need him to learn some skills. You could swap Eiko for Dagger, but Eiko knows Holy.
- Bandit and Master Thief (Zidane only)
- Locomotion
- Auto-Reflect
- Reflect-Null (healer only)
- Ability Up (if you need it)
- Clear Headed
- Insomniac
- Auto-Regen (unless you have Freya)
- Blue Magic14 MP Blue Magic. Gives one target a one-time automatic revive after KO. Support Ability
- Auto-Haste
- Dragon Killer
Steal the EquipmentArmor for: Freya Only if you want (the other stuff is easy to obtain), then attack. Have Freya and your healer keep folks alive as needed. For attacking, Zidane’s Thievery and Freya’s Dragon Killer are powerful. Eiko can use Holy. Quina can use Blue Magic22 MP Blue Magic. Wind-elemental damage to all enemies., if you have it.
Anyway, after the battle, watch a few cut scenes, then fight…
Boss Fight Prep
Garland has no elemental weakness, but Silence or Slow can make the fight easier.
You can steal EquipmentArmor for: All except Knights, EquipmentArmor for: Zidane, Amarant and EquipmentAdd-on for: All from Garland. Use the same attack pattern as above. Use White Draw to replenish your magic, if you need to. Between Holy and Dragon’s Crest, though, you shouldn’t need to do much else. Afterwards, watch some cut scenes then begin the last battle on this disc…
Boss Fight Prep
Avoid Reflect for this fight because it can provoke Flare Star. Use Coral Rings to absorb his Thundaga attacks.
You can steal a EquipmentArmor for: Eiko, Vivi, Quina and Dagger, a EquipmentArmor for: Knights Only and an ItemRestore MP (150 if in battle, 100 otherwise) from Kuja. Watch out for his Flare Star attack. It can REALLY mess you up. Be ready to heal up when that happens. You probably already have the items he carries, so you may not want to steal. Eventually, he’ll SystemFF9 limit-break-like state that temporarily enhances character commands. and cast Ultima, signaling the end of the battle.
Get ready to run. After Kuja’s Fantastic Pyrotechnics Display (TM), you’ll regain control of Zidane. Head forward and around the bend until a light bridge shows up. Go across it and you’ll get to a weird statue. As far as I can tell, there are no random encounters here. Run to where the genomes are and you’ll auto-magically round them up and leave. Watch the cool cut scenes. Save your game (you don’t really want to do all that again, do you?)