======================================================== FINAL FANTASY IX U.S. VERSION ALEXANDRIA BOOK SURVIVAL GUIDE v. 2.3 by Ruk Chan kraiders@yahoo.com http://www.disc13.com ======================================================== ============================ INTRODUCTION ============================ [v. 2.3 January 15, 2001] - Okay, a few people have added their suggestions on beating this boss so I'm listing their methods here, which I think would be highly useful to most of you out there. I also have to change some minor typo errors which I always do a lot... Remember when I said "Kyaro" instead of "Harmonia" in my Suikoden 2 guide? Well, I did it again by saying "Treno" instead of "Alexandria" in some parts of this guide. Thanks to the many people who pointed this out to me. *Sigh* It's really hard when you're both working 8 to 5 and going through post-graduate studies at the same time. Wait till I get my doctorate... you'd all be complaining about the characters' names by that time, I'm sure. ^_- [v. 2.0 January 08, 2001] - He he, I obviously had a lot of spare time in my hands at the office so I had updated 3 other FAQs (Suikoden II, FFVIII and Lunar 2). Anyways, I finally got the name of the book, it's Tantarian (a month and a half of doing nothing but re-playing FF9 makes you go crazy). I also added a few notes about Vivi. [v. 1.0 November 23, 2000] - Hmmm... I just can't find the English name of this book. (I idiotically overwrote my saved file so I can't check >_< ) Maybe I'll just keep it that way in case we get Portugese and French translations, or even Mandarin! At least everybody knows it by its solitary distinction of being one of the most annoying bosses in the history of FFIX. OH! And that it's found in Alexandria Castle's Library. A lot of my friends have complained about the difficulty of this boss inside the Alexandria Castle Library. Is this thing the Omega Weapon of Final Fantasy IX? Many people have asked this. It actually took me 4-5 resets (I can't exactly remember 'cause I think I literally got dazed and confused) before I finally realized how stupid I was and saw the pattern. Anyway, here is how I survived this battle with all my characters alive... ============================================ TABLE OF CONTENTS ============================================ I. Basic Information II. Useful Abilities, Items and Equipment III. The Battle IV. Winning V. Credits ============================================ I. BASIC INFORMATION ============================================ You can begin battling this horrid creature in disc 1. I battled it in Disc 3, though, and I'm thankful because I already have learned great abilities. If you want to learn auto-haste earlier in the game, however, perhaps you can try your luck in disc 1. Anyways, on with the directions... In Treno Castle's main hall, before you go up the stairs to Garnet's bedroom, there are two main libraries. Go to the left-hand side door and then go to the very back of this library. There is a strange book on the last shelf on the bottom area of the left-hand side corner. If you go near the corner of the shelf, a question mark (?) will appear on top of Zidane's head. When this happens, press X. It will ask you if you would like to listen or not. Choose the first option. Then it will ask again if you would like to challenge it or not. Choose to challenge it. Now, your battle begins. ============================================ II. USEFUL ABILITIES, ITEMS & EQUIPMENT ============================================ NOTE: It isn't necessary to have all of these. They just kind of kept my characters alive. Also, not all the items where the abilities can be learned from are listed here. The equipment listed are the ones available before the battle. A. Abilities 1. Freya's Reis Wind LEARNED FROM: Mythril Spear USE: Regen on all party members 2. Auto-potion LEARNED FROM: Gold Choker, Survival Vest, Magician Robe USE: D-uh! Doesn't the name already speak for itself? It heals automatically everytime a character gets hit. NOTE: Just remember that it's important that Vivi has this ability equipped. If you don't have this, it's ok, but it would be easier if you do. 3. Amarant's Chakra LEARNED FROM: Cat's Claws USE: Minimal restoration of HP and MP 4. Gamble Defense LEARNED FROM: Barette, Twisted Headband USE: Strengthens defense at random occasions 5. Antibody LEARNED FROM: Glass Armlet, Survival Vest USE: This item guards against poison. NOTE: This is also recommended for Vivi, and at least 2 other party members. 6. Counterattack LEARNED FROM: Power Belt, Ritual Hat USE: Character attacks automatically when being attacked. 7. Steal LEARNED FROM: Zidane's default skill USE: You will not believe the number of great items you can get from this thing! Now, if you have Steal, it would probably be great if you can also equip Bandit. IMPORTANT NOTE: When stealing, make sure you DON'T have Mug equipped. Mug will most definitely ruin your chances of having a relaxed battle. 8. Bandit LEARNED FROM: Mythril Dagger USE: Increases your chances of successful stealing. B. Items - Its recommended to save lots of items when you go through different quests. That way, those items that can't be bought can be used for emergency purposes. Zidane's greatest ability, in my opinion, is Steal, since I was able to get all those rare items through using this method throughout the entire game. As in, if you keep stealing since Disc 1, you'd probably have a decent rare medicines collection. 1. Ether (just in case Vivi runs out of MP, but I doubt it would) 2. Hi-Potion 3. Phoenix Down 4. Potion - Having 99 of these would probably keep you at ease throughout the battle if you have Auto-Potion equipped (heh) C. Equipment - Actually you can use anything for everybody else, just give Vivi at least the Oak Staff and Fire-Elem Atk booster accessories. What I did was equip everybody (except Vivi) with the weapons that have abilities they have not learned yet. It doesn't really matter if the weapons are weak since you won't be using physical attacks as your main method of killing the boss. ============================================ III. THE BATTLE ============================================ If you battled this annoying little critter in Disc 3, then you probably don't have a choice but to use Zidane, Freya, Vivi, and Amarant. That also means you have no white mages. Tough luck ^_^ he he. Actually it's easy, so don't fret. At least you won't have to reset several times like I did. Anyways... There are two phases that you must watch out for: A. WHEN THE BOOK IS CLOSED... Okay to start off, pray that the book doesn't do the Paper Storm attack because if your Freya has only 800+ HP, she'd be killed instantly. If it does do the Paper Storm attack and kills your Freya, feed her with a Phoenix Down, and then when it's her turn, have her cast Reis Wind. This will cause your party to have Regen abilities. Now, I had been informed by Ben Wommack that the Paper Storm attack is actually a physical attack. Isn't that great! Now, all you have to do is put everybody else at the back. This way no one gets killed (yes even Freya stays alive). Let Vivi focus on his first turn, then have him on standby, in case somebody gets killed when you need that character, so you'd have a healer besides Freya. Just press triangle to skip him without restarting his ATB. You don't want to have all your characters' hands full in case you need to use one of them for emergency purposes. Have Zidane attack the book when it's closed. Physical attacks will open the book. Never mind that you are only doing so little damage to it. It has been my experience that Jump closed the book. Amarant should either attack the book or use Chakra to keep him alive. Be careful with Zidane and Amarant's turns. Attack only when Zidane has finished his move or vice-versa and attack only when the book is closed. If you can trance, then there's no stopping you, just go unleash it out on the book. Kevin Teoh says his Grand Lethal does massive damage even when the book is closed. Sorry, I don't recommend Amarant's Spare Change. I guess it's because I'm a stingy person when it comes to money matters. You go use it if you don't really care much about money. Most players just attack without thinking as soon as their ATBs are full. Please avoid doing this. One of your characters might accidentally end up attacking when the book is exposing the real villain. If somebody dies, just let him or her die. It's important to have Vivi and one other character alive, in case the book casts Doom on Vivi. If the Doom takes effect on Vivi, revive him (only when he dies) and quickly give him Hi-Potion. B. WHEN THE BOOK OPENS AND... When the book opens and a blue creature comes out and says, "I've been found!" or something to that effect, DO NOT ATTACK IT PHYSICALLY. Have Vivi revive one dead character, and then on his next turn, just let him cast Fira. Fira seems to be the most powerful basic elemental spell here. But if you already have higher level spells, by all means, use them ^_^ In my sister's game Blizzara was her most powerful spell, while in SlimShany@aol.com's it was Bio. I guess it just depends on the player's game. The revived characters should, in turn, revive more characters and start healing each other, while Vivi is doing major butt-kicking. Freya should be casting Reis Wind again because it would have already worn off (that's if your characters died previously). Zidane's main ability here, which is Steal, should be put into action. I think I got around 3 items from this book, and I can only remember the last one, which is a Silver Fork for one of my favorite characters (Quina). I dunno if it's just me or it was easier to steal from the book when it is opened. "Jon" told me that the 3 items you can get from the book are Ether, Elixir, Silver Fork and Demon's Mail. No wonder I've had that Demon's mail in my inventory while some of my friends don't. Oh, well! ^_^ The book creature will only lay vulnerable for a LONG LONG time IF Vivi is casting black magic spells on it. Physical attacks will close the book and you'd have to go through all the trouble of exposing the blue critter again. The book will eventually close though, but only after Vivi has done some considerable damage to it. If this happens, you can now go back to your old pattern of trying to open the book and keeping Vivi alive. ============================================ IV. WINNING THE BATTLE ============================================ If you win this battle, you'll get lots of AP (30, I believe), and Running Shoes. Running shoes will let your characters learn Auto-Haste -- a very useful item indeed! This battle is really worth all the trouble, now all you gotta do now is find Quina and equip your new (stolen) fork on him! Yeah! And that Demon Mail works best if you wanna defeat Ozma and Hades in the end of the game... Whoops, that probably answers your question of whether Tantarian (the book) is the Omega Weapon of FFIX. There are still Hades (who was a wuss) and Ozma (who was another wuss) in the 4th disc. ============================================ V. CREDITS ============================================ To my annoying brother Pau, who kept heckling me throughout the battle and saying I don't have the brains of a tactician. I finished the battle nevertheless ;p ;p ;p To my dear sister Jov, who kept her mouth shut during the battle, even though she already defeated the book and knew what to do. For the additional tips and tricks: - Kevin Teoh - Jon for providing info about the stolen items - Ben Wommack for telling me that Paper Storm is a physical attack - SlimShany@aol.com for the additional input about Bio ============================ DISCLAIMER ============================ Under no circumstances can the content of this FAQ sheet be copied. If you want this on your page, please give me and my sources proper credit, and this FAQ must remain intact, without any alterations whatsoever. Disc13.Com http://www.disc13.com E-Mail: kraiders@yahoo.com FINAL FANTASY IX is copyright 2000 by Square Soft Ltd. FINAL FANTASY and SQUARESOFT are registered trademarks of Square Co Ltd. and Dolby.