Party Order
Yes, it is possible to re-arrange the party order in FF1, just press the select button on your joystick (or keyboard if you got yourself a ROM). This is useful because the first person standing in the party will receive the most damage, the second the second most, and the fourth obviously the least. So, put the person you want to receive the most hits first. For example, if you had a party of 2 Fighters, 1 Red Mage, and 1 Black Mage, put the fighters in the first two slots to take maximum damage, and put the Black Mage in the 4th slot to take the least damage.
Killing Undead Monsters
If you want to kill undeads, then HARM type spells are for you. Actually, that is the only use of HARM spells. In case you don’t have a White Mage/wizard with you to perform this undead genocide, you can also use the FIRE type spells to hurt them badly (so yes, FIR3 will make a toast of them).
Elementals
Some monsters are elemental monsters, that means they belong to a certain element – water, air, fire, etc. Usually you would expect the opposite element of the enemy you are facing to hurt your enemy more. However, that is not the case in FF1. It’s obvious that the programmers of FF1 tried to make it so that elemental properties are in the game, but hundreds of coding mistakes later they gave up.
Quite simply put – elements do not work in FF1. The Fire sword won’t do more damage to any monster than the Ice sword. The Dragon sword does not do more damage to Dragons. Forget it.
Ineffective message
Note that this has been “fixed” in WSC and FFOrigins versions of FF1. “Fixed” in upside down commas because some gamers might argue that there was nothing to fix. This is the message that appears if you attack an enemy that is already killed, that is – in FF1 there is no attack redirect. So if I set one of two of my fighters to kill 1 enemy, and the first fighter kills it, then the second fighter will still try to attack that same dead enemy, and you will get a “Ineffective” message on the screen.
The best way to avoid this is to try and estimate when an enemy is going to die, and try to spread out your attacks. So if you are attacking 3 IMPs, do not have all 4 characters attack 1 IMP, instead make the strongest two attack one IMP each, and the weakest two attack the third IMP – that way damage you do will be spread out. It just requires additional strategy.
Magic: RUSE
An incedible piece of magic that is missed incredibly often. Only a White Mage/Wizard can use it. It’s effect is staggering – RUSE increases the evade stat of your White mage by 80 points. Result? Use RUSE 2 times in a row (it stacks!) and pretty much no physical attacks, other than the critical ones, will be able to hit you. This magic is essential if you want to finish FF1 with a single White Mage.
99 Potions
Yes, considering FF1’s difficulty, you’ll be much better off and have your survival chances doubled if you always carry 99 heal potions into dungeons (starting at Marsh Cave is a good habit). Your White Mage can heal you throughout the battles, but save his magic in field – use potions instead. Make sure you carry around with yourself some 20 Pure potions (I take 50) and 20 Soft Potions. There is nothing worse than arriving at the boss of the dungeon with 1 character dead, another petrified, and the last two poisoned.
Don’t Run From Battles! Always Fight!
People who say that they can’t beat Final Fantasy likely don’t fight enough battles to level up their characters. At level 50 (that’s the last level) there is nothing that can stop you. If you try to get past the last dungeon at level 15, you’ll just get your butt handed to you over and over. Don’t make the game experience worse by seeing the game over screen over and over – just fight and level up.
SOME Battles Aren’t Worth It
Did I just say always fight? Well, not always. There are some enemies you will be better off running away from. Usually they are the enemies that can kill your guys with one hit, like the Sorcerers. You don’t want to get needlessly killed, so just RUN! Also, enemies that reward 1 EXP or 1 G… What’s the use of killing those guys? So just get out of there!
Train In The Right Places
There are 6 key places where to level up:
- Elfland – fight some Ogres and Creeps there, very good to get cash to get those Silver swords…
- The Peninsula. See the secrets section about the peninsula east of Pravoka. Some very strong monsters early in the game, you can get a lot of EXP and G there, that is if you can beat them.
- In the sea you will meat enemies called Kyzoku. They are worth 120 G a piece, and sometimes you will meet 5 of them. They are also extremely weak. However, you won’t meet them very often…
- In the Northwest castle, after you get the Mystic key, some of the treasure chests are guarded by very powerful enemies – Images. They are worth 231 G a piece. However, they are undead. One shot of HRM2 and FIR2 at the same time and they are goners. And you can meet upto 6 of them in one battle!
- In the earth basement, first floor, west side. On every step you will take you will meet up with some Giants. They give you quite a lot of EXP and G for that time and you will meet them on every step, plus it is easy to get in and out.
- The ultimate level up enemy – the Eye. Killing it will give you 3250 EXP and G. The only attacks it has are one hit killers, which you can be protected from by wearing a ProRing (see lower part of this page). It only has 162 HP. Easy! This is The Best level up and G gaining place. Nothing compares to this. As you will meet it every time you step on the particular square (see the walkthrough for more details) it is not random, so takes less time. Spend a lot of time here, since the game will become easier if you do.
Don’t Forget To Save
Always save; Save whenever you are leaving a town, arriving in a new town, when you buy new weapons… Just save for no reason! It is so easy to loose track of time but forgetting to save regularly can cause hours of hard work to vanish if the game crashes or you lose power, etc.
Ribbon Item
Unfortunately, there are only 3 ribbons in the whole game. You probably think that its stats suck; That Evade and Absorb are pathetic and you can sell it for only 1 G. So what’s so great about it? It protects you against enemy magic and status attacks. It is the BEST piece of armour you can get. So get all three of them and equip them.
ProRing
ProRings, unlike Ribbons, can be bought in a store in Gaia. So go and buy them. Why? Because they protect your guys from one hit kill spells like RUB and XXXX. Beating the eye becomes extremely easy if you have 4 of these equipped on your guys.
Heal Staff
While playing the game you will get a couple of magical items, like the Heal staff and the Heal Helmet. Use those items while fighting a battle and they will heal ALL of your guys. It is not very strong, but instead of using Heal potions you can use these.
Take the Ship to the Castle of Ordeals
The airship can only land on grasslands. Well, when you go to the Castle of Ordeals then you will notice that there aren’t any squares near that place. So instead of flying there take the ship. Park it at the mouth of the river and then take the canoe. After that get out of canoe and walk. It is much safer this way.