FF1 Efficiency Walkthrough
Nicholas J. Kain 2001-2003
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Suggested party: Fighter, two Black Belts, (Red, White) Mage

This is by far the most efficient party in the game at lower levels.
At higher levels, the red mage would best be replaced by a white mage,
who will tend to be more useful.  The mage is necessary for exit,
otherwise 3 blackbelts would be used.

The fighter will act as your damage sponge, the two black belts will
inflict amazing damage while enjoying a strong defense at higher levels
if you use the armor bug, and the mage will fight fine with a masamune
at the very end of the game.

Many people may not be aware of the "armor bug".  As detailed in
Ben Siron's FF1 Handbook, when a BB/MA gains a level, his base absorb
will be set to be equal to his level and his base dodge will be
set to his level multiplied by two.  However, if the armor subscreen
is visited, this effect will vanish.  Therefore, it is a good idea at
low levels to visit the armor subscreen whenever your BB/MAs gain a level.
At higher levels, the opposite behavior is prudent; it is probably best
to arrange your armor as you may like and then never visit the armor
subscreen again.

A lesser, always detrimental effect exists for armed BB/MA characters
that have gained a level.  The decreased damage is corrected by visiting
the weapon subscreen.  However, since BB/MA characters should almost
always fight unarmed except at the very lowest levels, this bug is not
of great importance.

It is highly suggested that persons interested in the detailed mechanics
of FF1 consult Ben Siron's FF1 Handbook.  It may be found either by
a choice Google query or at:

http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/nes/file/final_fantasy.txt

Note that while red mages have high hit points in the early game, they
will have significantly lower hitpoints on average than any other
class by the endgame.  They do, however, have the advantage of casting
FAST, the most powerful indirectly offensive spell in the game.  This
advantage is however mitigated by the fact that a high level MA
can kill the end boss in a single strike even without FAST.

Other parties may be used instead of the one that I suggest, but they
will almost surely be weaker and require higher levels to successfully
complete the game.  When time is a concern, this is a big issue.

If you ask about offensive magic, understand that in ff1, the proper
way to use magic is not to cast it directly, but instead to use items
to cast spells for free.  With correct inventory management, your
party members will be able to cast in combat very useful spells at no
memorization expense.  For this reason, make sure that you keep every
item that casts a spell when used.

Also note that beneficial spell effects always stack.  Therefore,
using INV2 or RUSE multiple times will make your characters extremely
hard to kill via physical attack.  For this reason, make sure to hang
on to the white shirt (INV2) and the defense sword (RUSE)!

Three ribbons exist in the game and therefore one character will have
to be ribbonless.  This character should be your fighter, as the
dragon armor, aegis shield, opal or heal helm, and proring provide
essentially all the protection that the ribbon provides.

Don't bother with the special swords that you may find (such as
DRAGON, WERE, CORAL, etc) with names that correspond to monster types.
The necessary flags for the swords to do increased damage were never
implemented and properly populated, so the swords always inflict
generic physical damage.  Therefore, they are worthless except as
overpriced items to sell.

Despite the information contained in some inaccurate, older guides,
the opal bracelet is the strongest bracelet in the game, with more
absorb than the gold bracelets that may be purchased.  It should
always be given to the white wizard in the optimal party.

Always buy HEL2 for your white mage.  It is bugged such that in
combat it has the same effect as HEL3.  In the same vein, never
use the LOCK, TMPR, and SABR spells; they have no effect at all.
SLO2 is also a wasted spell; it has the same effect as SLOW, but
only affects one target.

Note that elemental spell damage does have an effect in this game.
This statement can easily be verified by casting fire or harm spells
against undead (bonus damage) and comparing against ice (damage
penalty) and lightning spells (normal effect).

The beginning of this walkthrough is written from memory.  There may
be some slight inaccuracies, but I doubt it.  I've played this game
many times, and I'm fairly sure the method outlined here is optimal,
or very nearly so.


.1. :Corneria: 

Buy weapons and armor in Corneria.  Don't bother with magic, you won't
need it until later and it is more beneficial to save your gold
for some nice later items.  Level to 2 outside of Corneria.

After reaching level 2, go northwards and level to 3 outside the
Temple of Fiends.  Return to Corneria to use the inn as necessary.

Upon reaching level 3, save at the inn, and go northwards to the
Temple of Fiends.  I'm sure there's some treasures in here, but I
really didn't miss them.  Go straight for the boss.  Own him with
physical attacks.  It should be an easy fight.  The ghouls that you
may encounter in here are nastier than the actual boss; they can hit
multiple times for large amounts of damage and their blows have a
paralyzing status ailment.


.2. :Provoka: 

Talk to the princess.  You'll be warped to Corneria castle.  Talk to
the king and princess again.  Get the lute.  The king will build a
bridge to the north in honor of your saving the princess.

Leave town, save at the inn.  Go due north and cross the bridge.
Enjoy the cutscene.  Here you have a choice.  You can go northeast to
the Witch's cave to get the map keypress and some rather weak items,
or you can go east to Provoka.  I suggest going east.  

Upon reaching Provoka, go to the weapons shop and buy a short sword.
Give it to your Red Mage.  Go to the northwest of town and talk to the
pirate.  His men will attack you.  Kill them with physical attacks;
they have pathetically low hit points.  After winning this fight, talk
to the pirate again; he will give you his ship.  

Buy weapons as necessary.  You should get another short sword for your
fighter.  Buy iron armor, gloves, and a wooden shield for your
fighter.  Your red mage should purchase some gloves.  Don't bother
buying spells here either; you still want to conserve gold.  If you
need money, get on your boat and fight on the ocean.  The ocean fights
in this area have roughly the same experience as the land fights, but
vastly more gold.  Continue to fight until you have at least 4100gp.


.3. :Elfland: 

Once you have the gold, sail southwest and land at the docks.  Walk a
short ways southwest and enter the town.  Buy a silver sword for your
red mage.  These swords are what you've been conserving your money
for.  Save at the inn and rack up some more gold on the high seas.
After you get another 4100gp, buy a silver sword for your fighter.
Save at the inn again.  Purchase a wooden helm and iron shield for
your fighter and a cap for your red mage.

Now, you will need some more money and some more levels.  Your black
belts are still weak at this point; they are probably still under
level 8 and are still using the wooden nunchucks from the beginning of
the game.  Don't bother buying the iron nunchucks for them in Elfland.
Once you reach level 8, disarm them of their weapons.  Their offensive
strength from this point onwards will be greater without weapons than
with.  While leveling to 8, I would fight east of elfland near the
mountains.  Make sure you have some pure potions here; the asps and
arachnids here can poison you.
    
.3.1. :Leveling: 

After reaching level 8, you now have a choice.  You can continue to
level here, or you can take a riskier but more profitable and far
faster path.  I favor the high risk method, as I'm an impatient
person.

If you choose the high risk route, go back to Provoka and travel east
through the mountains.  When you see a dock, head northwards along the
peninsula.  Move back and forth on the top two squares of this
peninsula.  You'll encounter groups of giants and frost wolves here.
Carrying cabins will make the process easier; you will want to heal
and save after each fight, and you will make more than enough gold to
still make a profit here.  

Giants come in groups of two to three.  Take them out one by one.
Your fighter will take large amounts of damage (30ish) from them.
Your other characters will fare even worse, taking 50-60 damage per
hit.  Below level 10, the giants will often critical hit your fighter
for over 100 damage.  Despite the difficulty of the fights, if you are
fighting properly, you should barely win each fight with only
occasional deaths; return to Provoka to revive party members if they
die or if you only have a single cabin left.  After each fight, use a
cabin to save and heal.  You will get 400-600 exp and 1200-1700 gold
from each encounter with giants.  

The other mobs that you will encounter here are frost wolves.  These
are much stronger than giants and can easily wipe your entire party out
with their "FROST" attack.  Frost will do 30-70 points of ice damage
to your entire team.  Frost wolves also hit with about half the
strength of giants, making them very dangerous.  However, they have
very few hit points.  Your fighter should kill them in one blow, with
your red mage and one black belt being able to finish off another.
Just try your best against these.  They tend to come in groups of
four.  Winning will get you 400 exp and 800 gold.

Keep fighting here until you are level 10.  You should have over 20k
gold now.  Go to Provoka and buy 60 heal potions, 15 pure potions, and
a few cabins.  If you wish, you can go to Elfland and buy the FAST
spell for your red mage for 4000gp.  I prefer to save my money for
later.  Save at the inn, and get ready for your next destination, the
marsh cave.


.4. :Marsh cave: 

items: long dagger, short sword, 2x 680gp (north path)

This cave is generally regarded as being one of the harder areas in
ff1.  However, with this party type and the method I have outlined,
this area isn't really very hard at all.

.4.1. :Astos Castle:

Astos is easy.  It is worth noting that the fixed mummy encounter in
the treasure room is one of the better places to level up at this
stage of the game.

.4.2. :Elfland:

Cure the pathetic elf monarch so that you may receive the key you
rightfully deserve.  Then laugh, knowing that his empire will one day fall.

.4.3. :Corneria:

Use your newly acquired key to loot the Corneria treasure room.
The critical item here is the TNT that will allow a certain dwarven
engineer to blast open a very useful canal.

.4.4. :Dwarf Canal:

Give the TNT to the dwarf at the bottom of the map.

.5.0. :Melmond:

.5.1. :Earth Cave:

.6.0. :Crescent Lake:

Giant's Cave:

Earth Cave:

Castle of Ordeals:

Greet your new friend, the run command.  You will be using it often in
this area.  

Ice Cave:

Dragon Island: