Chapter 3: The Forest Clan

TANTAR & TUNTAR

          After crossing the bridge, follow the road Southeast to Tantar & Tuntar. Along your way, make use of the E.Key and the Rang to defeat your enemies. Also, note the Forest you pass on your way, it is the next board you will fight in, but for now, remember where it is. When you arrive in Tantar (the one on the left side of the river), get the Bandana for Nina and the SuedeAR for Ryu. Enter the Elder's house and nab a W.Ptn. Next, Visit the Blacksmith in the bottom right house and give him the I.Ore (Iron Ore) so he can make you the Saw. The Saw lets you enter the Forest of Despair. Then, talk to the townsfolk, save, and head over to Tuntar.

          In Tuntar, talk to all the townspeople and stop by the Inn to find a Charm. After talking with the Elder, head to the Forest of Despair.

FOREST OF DESPAIR

          Once inside the Base, be careful. The floor opens up if you try to cut corners, forcing you to walk back upstairs to where you were. The point for this board: Always take the long way. There are lots of treasure chests in the Base. Here what you can find: 3 T.Drops, 5 Herbs, 2 Lifes, 1 Life2, 1 LongSD, 1 Acorn, and 1 WolfHT.  I'll leave the treasure hunting to you, but I'll give you the way to go:

          From the entrance, go north and fight the 2 guards. Have Ryu use the Rang and Nina use the E.Key. This will make it MUCH easier. After beating the Guards, take the path left and then North. Continue until you come to an intersection. Go North again and come across 2 more guards. From here, go left and go down the stairs. Once you are down the stairs, follow the path to right and ignore the path to the north. Follow the path around the wall and go left when the path intersects. Ignore the doorway and keep going left. Walk up to the three Guards and let 'em have it. After beating the 3 Guards, the group follows the 'Elder' and walks into a trap. The General was disguised as the Elder! Now you must fight Pog!

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Boss Alert: Pog

Pog is a two-headed beast. So every now and then he will get two attacks. However, the strategy is the same, Ryu uses the Rang and Nina the E.Key, healling when necessary. Pog's second wind only takes a few rounds to knock off, so it isn't too bad yet. After beating Pog, Bo shows up to save the day! Prepare to fight the General!

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The General

The General is a tough opponent, but at least Bo knows Freeze Spells. The strategy is the same, but I would have Bo attack at first, and save the spells for the General's second wind. Remember to keep your HP fairly high towards the end of the fight.

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          After you defeat the General, equip Bo with the WolfHT. While you are here, charge up your characters. Before you leave, Nina should be at Level 13 (That is when she gets the Warp Spell). You may need to return to Tantar to rest at least once during this time. The idea is to get as much Meat and C.Stn's as possible. Warhogs drop Meat and C.Stn's can be acquired from Zargs and S.Riders. If you do not do this, you will have a hard time with the bosses soon to come.

          After this, head back to Tantar/Tuntar to sell any excess weapons and armor, buy and equip Bo with the ShortBW & SuedeAR. Talk to the townspeople to clues about the Stone Robot  up north and then Save your game.

AGUA

          Your next quest will be to acquire the Stone Robot to give the villagers back their water. To do this, you must enter Agua to find the Key to operate it. If you have talked to all the townsfolk, you know that the Elder of Romero knows how to enter Agua. However, make sure that you have talked to the Elder of Tuntar's Daughter. Walk outside and Warp to Romero.

          Talk to the Elder in Romero. He agrees to help you if you can get rid of the Zombies. To do this, you need to re-enter Romero at Night. After coming back during the Night, talk to the Elder's Daughter (upstairs), and then talk to the Old Woman near the village entrance. Her Zombie husband will open the way to the WtrJr. Get the WtrJr and exit the town.

          You must now go southwest through the woods to get to the Water Cave. To move in the woods, Bo must be leading the party(Note: While in the lead, Bo can also Hunt on the World Map by pressing the A Button). The Water Cave is relatively small, but has some neat secrets that you won't find out about for a while yet. Make your way to the bottom, making sure to get the treasure along the way. You should find these items: 2 Herbs, F.Stn, T.Drop, Apple, BronzHT, and a NiceHT. Once you make your way to the bottom, fill the WtrJr by walking into the spring. You will be taken back to Romero. Talk to the village Elder and receive the Tablet, which allows you to enter Agua.

          To get to Agua, go Northwest form Romero. It is the floatng tower you will see.  To enter, walk to the end of the dock and your lead character will automatically read the Tablet. Walk up the steps to procede. Once inside, the basic idea is to ride the floating platforms across the holes in the floor. Not a difficlut board, but full of lots of goodies! You should find the following as you make your way up: 2 Herbs, Life2, SunHT, IronSH, TheifCL, Apple, Acorn, Bracelet and a Hairband. All very good items! There will be 4 chests that you cannot get yet, you will need to come back here with someone who can break down crumbling walls.......

          As you are on your way up, you will come across locked doors. For now these are unopenable, but they will be soon. When you arrive at the top, you will see a pillar with a 'ghost' in front of it. Prepare to fight, but equip Ryu with the LongSD first.

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Boss Alert: Wisp

Wisp is tough opponent, but he has no second wind, which is nice. To wallop him, have Ryu attack, Nina can use the E.Key between healings, and have Bo cast the Frost spell. Once you whittle away his HP, he gives you the KngKey as your reward.

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          Once you have the KngKey, walk back down through Agua, and Warp to Tantar, stay at the Inn, and Save your game. (Don't sell any extra equipment just yet.....)

THE WATER RETURNS

          Now you finally have the means to operate the Stone Robot! From Tuntar, walk North and enter the Stone Robot by walking into its Left foot. The treasure in this board consists of an Herb, 1 BronzHT, 1 Acorn, and a Mrbl1. Once you get to the 5th floor, you'll meet the General, again. Prepare to fight him again.

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Boss Alert: General (again)

This fight is just like the last one, except he has two Lancers. This fight is pretty easy and the General's 2nd wind is fairly small.

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          Once you beat the General, activate the Stone Robot by walking up to the altar and pressing the A Button. Now, you must make your way to the Robot's controls. The going gets a little confusing now, cause each glowing dot on the floor warps you to another glowing dot somewhere else. There is alot of treasure along the way, but here is how to get to the control room:

          Starting at the Heart Altar, head back to the steps and step on the teleport (glowing dot) just to the left of the stairs. In the next room, walk along the right-hand wall and follow the path up and around to another teleport. After emerging in the next room, walk all the way to the end of the hallway, and take the Northeast teleport. In this room, walk up the path and ignore the first teleport and continue until you come to a large room with two pillars. Take the teleport in this room. Walk up and take the next teleport. Welcome to the control room. Walk up to the Altar and press the A Button. The Stone Robot will walk to the damn and release the water for the villagers.  Walk back to Tantar and talk to the Elder. He will ask you to look for their treasure, the Ring. Also, he will give you the Key to open the door guarding the Ring.

THE RING

          Once you have the Key, save your game and head North, back to where the Stone Robot is. Enter the cave. This is basically a 2 screen filler to bring you to the Ring Cave, no big deal. Once in the Ring Cave, you will find it is pretty straightforward. Besides the Ring, you will find: 2000GP, Life, Life2, Herb, Acorn, and a SkySH. This cave is about as hard as the Water Cave, which means that you should have no problem with it at all. You will find the Ring at the bottom of the Cave surrounded by 3 pillars and a teleport. Once you have the Ring, step into the teleport and walk South to exit the cave. Beforre heading back to Tantar, make sure Nina has the SkySH and Ryu has the Ring.

          When you get back, you find that Terry and Amelia are having a wedding! Cool! During the wedding, a huge explosion rocks the village! That bastard General steals the Stone Robot and destroys Tuntar! You must stop him before he destroy Tantar. Enter the Robot and head for the control room. Before you get there, equip Ryu with the LongSD instead of the Rang. Once you arrive, the General transforms into the Gremlin!!!

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Boss Alert: Gremlin

This is the nastiest Boss you have faced so far. If your party isn't charged up, you'll be a lot of trouble. I suggest that Ryu be at Level 17 or 18. His attacks are very strong, especially against Bo. His main attack hits all the party members, so keep your HP high. This is a good fight to make use of all those C.Stn's you been saving(hopefully). Gremlin's 2nd is 600HP and the going gets even rougher when he gets mad. Just keep healing(use Meat if possible, it heals everyone) and using C.Stn's to make your life easier.

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          After you defeat the Gremlin, the Stone Robot, tired of being used for human ambition, walks into the volcano. This is sad, but it does open up the way south past the river.

On to Chapter 4:  The Light & Dark Keys