Chapter 1: Coneria

Recommended Level: 1 to 3
Treasures:

• Temple of Fiends: Cap, Cabin, Heal Potion

Recommended Equipment:

• Fighters: Rapier, Chain Armor
• Red Mage: Rapier, Chain Armor

To begin, put your cart in your dusty NES (or some other method), and push the start button when asked to.

Note: You will be asked about game speed. This is a pretty slow game overall and it has turn based battles, so you don’t have to worry about speed at all. Just set it to “8” before starting.

Choosing Your Party

You will be asked to choose a party. There are around 100 different parties you can choose from, but any party that has a Fighter will succeed. Why? Because the Fighter can succeed in this game alone! In general, any party that has a Fighter, White Mage, and a Black Mage will be very successful. However, any party that has two Fighters and a Red Mage will also succeed… It just happens that for 10 years FT/?/WM/BM was the best.

Now people want power and most continue choosing FT/FT/?/RM. It’s really your choice on whether you like magic or fighting power. However, as the new style requires less leveling up, I will go with it (the old skool style requires you to be around 5 levels higher).

A party with three Fighters and a Red Mage might not seem very versatile, but it is. The Fighters are your main damage dealers. They will kick around every enemy in the world. Their only drawback is the extreme cost of buying equipment. Although, it is possible to go through the game in a way where you find all of the Fighter’s equipment. If that’s the case, then you really don’t have to buy anything for the Fighter.

The Red Mage is a jack of all trades – he tries everything, and, unlike some people who do that (I come to mind), he actually isn’t horrible at everything he does. He can use most of the strong weapons that the Fighters use and can also use most White and Black magic. Unfortunately, he can’t use the strongest spells from the previous – such as LV8 spells. However, you only get LV8 spell charges at LV25. By that level, you would’ve already finished the game! And the Red Mage/Wizard has all the main spells – EXIT and FAST.

Once you have chosen your party, you will appear in front of Coneria town and castle. First, you should visit the town and make some purchases. I suggest that you buy some weapons and armor first and then worry about magic. Note that unlike in the more recent FFs, you cannot move within a shop!

Stocking Up

What you really want from the weapon shop is: 4 Rapiers for the Fighters and the Red Mage. Not very versatile, are we? That will total at 40 G, so it’s real cheap.

What you want from the armor shop is: 4 Chain armors for your Fighters and Red Mage. That will total at 320 G, so not too cheap…

This classic mistake is the one most people new to FF1 make: You must equip your weapon and armor before you can use it. I know it sounds like common sense, but almost everyone new to FF1 forgets that manual equipping is required in pretty much every RPG.

Equipping is very easy:

1. Open the menu.
2. Select either the Weapon or Armor option.
3. Select Equip.
4. Select a weapon/armor you want to equip. An “E-” will appear next to it, just like in the picture.

As you can see, the princess of Coneria has been kidnapped. So what are you waiting for? Go to Castle of Coneria and save her! Note: There is actually an Invisible Lady inside the Castle of Coneria! Check the Invisible Lady on the Strategies page.

Actually, not yet. First, I suggest you walk northwest (all the enemies are really easy!) and go inside the Temple of Fiends.

Temple of Fiends

Once inside, walk upwards and you will find Garland. Don’t talk to him just yet, but explore the place first.

From the entrance, take the first path to your left. You will come to a room with a treasure chest that contains a Cap. Put it on your Red Mage since he has the worst defense. Now go upwards. There you will find two treasure chests – 1 with a Heal Potion and the other with a Cabin. The rest of the treasure chests are locked by the “Mystic Key”. You will get that key later on, so be sure to return here once you get it.

After you have received your treasures, walk back to the Town of Coneria. Rest (which saves your game and restores your HP) and then walk back to the Temple of Fiends. As you walk there, avoid any random fights (RUN!!!) so you don’t get hurt.

Walk inside to face Garland. After his beautiful “I, Garland, will knock you all down” speech, you will have to face your first boss fight!

Garland

This boss is really easy, even if you are at LV1. Just use your normal physical attacks and he should go down in no time. As in all FFs, the first boss is very easy.

Once you have taken care of Garland, feel free to talk to the princess, and you will be teleported back to the Coneria Castle. Talk to the king and you will have a bridge built. Finally, talk to the princess. She will give you the Lute (which is completely useless for the time being).