To Be a Pillar...

Your party returns to Baskar Village for kudos and lots of drinking and partying. Check out Harold's crazy-go-nuts dancing, and when the scene comes to a halt, look around the village and talk to Shane. After another scene, it becomes apparent that something is VERY wrong. Talk to everyone in town and pay attention to the text about the Hydra!

Our next destination is the Sacrificial Altar, which is north of Baskar Village, over the gigantic mountain. Fly Lombardia over there and search co-ordinates X: 12950 Y: 12659 to find the northern sanctuary where Shane ran off to. How in holy hell did he get over here anyway?

Enemies in this area:

Name:	HP:	EXP:	Gella:	Halved:	Resistant:	Weakness:	Active:	Absorbed:
Eel Volk	1600	256	280	NONE	NONE	NONE	WATER, LIGHTNING	NONE
Imitator	350	180	100	NONE	NONE	NONE	NONE	NONE
Gargoyle	1730	270	300	THUNDER	EARTH, WIND	NONE	NONE	NONE
Scorpius	1500	245	260	EARTH	NONE	WATER	NONE	NONE
Strategy: You'll want to up your elemental wards for this dungeon, particularily your earth, lightning, water and wind ones. The enemies here use lots of elemental attacks to spoil your fun, and they have no weaknesses aside from the Scorpius's weakness to water Arcana. Show no mercy in your attacks and Arcana, and focus on destroying the enemies quickly before the damage accumulates. Of course, with a Migrant Level of 18, you can easily skip any encounter this dungeon throws at you.

Items in this area: Revive Fruit Gella Card X 3 Gimel Coin Growth Egg Mini Carrot

Wild ARMs Fun Fact: The Sacrificial Altar existed in Wild ARMs 2 as well. It was the place where a young Baskar hopeful could go someday to sacrifice his humanity and become a "pillar" that holds Filgaia together. Desperate times sometimes call for sacrifice, but luckily, the Sacrificial Altar has never been used. In Wild ARMs 2, you found the statues for Raftina, Justine and Zephyr here. After the opening scene, walk around the outside of the sanctuary. You can find a Revive Fruit in one of the crates here, and there are 2 chests that contain a Gella Card X 3 and a Gimel Coin, then enter through the bottom entrance. Head through the first room, taking note of the surroundings... this place is much like the Guardian Shrines from way back in Chapter 2, isn't it? In the next room, you'll find what appears to be a Galecrest "bridge", only some of the pieces are out of place! Use the Steady Dolls to push the blocks into the centers of the platforms, then Galecrest across, ignoring the lone candle. Now walk downstairs, and look to the western wall for a Duplicator Door. Open the Duplicator Door and use the Steady Dolls to grab the chests inside for a Gimel Coin and a Growth Egg, then head back out and into the next room. Here's a fairly tricky puzzle; what you must do is extinguish all the flames with the Steady Doll, then wait about 10 seconds for 2 of the candles to relight. Walk through the doorway that's between whatever candles relit, and you'll reach an identical room where you must do the same thing; extinguish the candles and wait for the "true path". Do this 3 times, and you'll finally appear in a new room. Descend the steps, and save your game. Well, I hope you've been reading up on the Baskar textbook, because now you've disturbed the Pillar, and if you had been reading up on your Baskarology, you'd know that bothering a Pillar results in a Hydra battle.

Boss Battle: Hydra

Boss Name:	HP:	EXP:	Gella:	Halved:	Resistant:	Weakness:	Active:	Absorbed:
Hydra:
	22000	10000	12000	NONE	NONE	ICE	WATER	NONE
Boss' Attacks: Hydra Combination (physical attack to one with a chance of poison status) Maelstrom (water-elemental damage to your entire party) Vitalizer (restores HP, also used as a counterattack to fire elemental Arcana. Amount of HP recovered is always the same, but is cut in half every time Hydra is struck with fire elemental Arcana)
How To Win: Though you may be inclined to start blasting Hydra with Cremate Arcana, hold off for a second. Hydra's Vitalizer heals no more than 2700 damage, and he doesn't even use it all that often! In addition, he has a weakness to Ice. With the Weakness Personal skill and Refrigerate spells equipped on Gallows, you'll be doing nearly twice as much as he can heal, and you won't have to worry about wasting turns casting Cremate, either! You will probably be fresh out of Lucky Cards by this point, so forget about the usual first turn procedure (use a Gella Card though). Cast Fragile and perhaps Feeble Mind, and Extend a Valiant spell. The Hydra's most powerful attack, Maelstrom, is not too much to worry about, and Hydra Combination is pretty standard fare. Plug away at the big beast, healing if your HP gets too low. And if HIS healing starts to bother you, spend a few rounds using Fire Gems to... eww... well, I won't give you the gruesome explanation, but I will tell you that it cuts his healing ability's effectiveness down by half. If you keep it up, you'll eventually get it down to nothing!

Items in this area: Talisman Potion Berry Lucky Card

Proceed through the next room to another set of stairs, and do not miss the wall to the east that the gems are pointing to. It's bombable and fairly easy to miss, so go on over there and blow it up so bad that it looks like a wall that only a mother wall could love. Inside, grab the chests for a Talisman (Imitator guarded, but that's no big deal), a Potion Berry, and a Lucky Card. Save that Lucky Card for one of the optional bosses later on. When you're all done, move on to the next room. Walk through another simple room, and you'll reach a slate that's dirty; clean it off with a little Freezer Doll cleanser, then check-a-roony, because there is important information etched into it. The "white breath" is what we need to cross that huge chasm that lies ahead of us, so keep your Freezer Dolls handy and approach the pit. There is an invisible walkway bridging this chasm to the other side, and the only way to see it is to keep the Freezer Doll going. Therefore, take the walkway really slowly, using the Freezer Doll to reveal a bit of the path at a time. There's no rush, so do it carefully and don't fall into the pit. Upon reaching the stairway, save your game and run downstairs. Another Hydra appears!

Boss Battle: Salamandra

Boss Name:	HP:	EXP:	Gella:	Halved:	Resistant:	Weakness:	Active:	Absorbed:
Salamandra:
	32000	12000	14000	NONE	NONE	ICE	FIRE	NONE
Boss' Attacks: Heat Stream (fire elemental damage to one target) Salamandra Burn (MASSIVE fire-elemental damage to one, used as a counter if his weakness is hit) Volcannon Trap (fire elemental damage to all party members)
How To Win: The well-prepared Drifter always thinks ahead. The well-prepared Drifter always looks for some sort of weakness to defeat his enemies with, and then exploits it. The Drifter gets immolated by 10000 degrees of Salamandra Burn, and if he's in a REALLY cranky mood, he ups it to Celsius temperature. What I'm saying here is that there's an easy way to defeat this boss, courtesy of Andvareel, the genius behind endgame strategies. Begin by changing your Medium setup so that Gallows has Raftina, Luceid and Moor Gault equipped. Fill the Weakness Personal Skill up as high as it goes. Now, cast Weaken on Salamandra to give him a Fire elemental weakness, Feeble Mind on him to lower his MGR, and use a Mini Carrot on Gallows to get his FP up. Next turn, have Gallows use Copy Ability to acquire Salamandra's enemy skills. Finally, have Gallows use Salamandra Burn. Laugh as Salamandra takes 5-digit amounts of damage. You win. If you don't win, repeat. 8P

A scene will play, and take note of what happens. This is the part of the game where Gallows casts off his shackles and becomes the hero he's always been meant to be. The next 3 dungeons have similar effects, but with different characters. 8P Watch the very touching scene, and your party will unite outside of the Sacrificial Altar, and the true villian of Wild ARMs 3 will finally be revealed, though I have a feeling you've seen her before. Rest up in Baskar, and prepare for your next dungeon.