Tundra

Size: 4x4 (Large) Overall Terrain: Snowy peninsula Daylight Hours: Long Stage Music: Santa’s Coming Overall Difficulty: 4 Stage Boss: Mizal

City & Roshian Temple Information Cities (15) Hidden Cities (0) Roshian Temples (4) Buried Treasure (7) Wilke’s / Wilke’s Land   RT #1: SW of Ruskayah; 1) W of Shackleton; on Rebel Base   along the southern road the W side of the larger Valhalla   RT #2: W of Els Wahs of the two islands Boss Castle   RT #3: E of Valhalla; on 2) W of Ruskayah; on the Balleny   the S tip of the island W side of the mountain S of Valhalla   RT #4 (H): SE of Wilke’s; 3) S of Herald Coast; in Els Wahs   on the section of green the middle portion of the Slightly SE of Balleny   grass in the SE corner of peninsula Auglanna   the map along the shore 4) NE of Intahi; on the Endis Rohn     same island as the town N of Wilke’s; along the     5) E of Balleny; in the main road     clearing right before the Herald Coast     mountain near the water W of Ruskayah     6) N of Mallibahd & W of Intahi     Maklin Tok NW of Mohnso; on island     7) NW of Valhalla; on the Kotz     NE section of the island E of Els Wahs; above the         main road         Maklin Tok         NE of Nansen; corner of         the map         Mallibahd         N of Endis Rohn; at the         river’s end in the hills         Mohnso         Slightly SW of Els Wahs         on island         Nansen (Shop)         NE of Mallibahd; on road         Ruskayah         NW of Shackleton         Shackleton         SW of Wilke’s         Syble         E of Endis Rohn

Stage Shop Wares

Nansen “HEAL” (Cure Stone) 700 Goth “ALL HEAL” (Cure Ankh) 2,000 Goth “BELL” (Dinner Bell) 2,000 Goth “BOOTS” (7 League Boots) 3,000 Goth “MOONBEAM” (Moon Beam) 4,000 Goth

Another time to stock up on some more “BOOTS” (7 League Boots)!  Gotta love ‘em, but you can burn through them like buttah!  Picking up some “MOONBEAMS” (Moon Beams) might not be a bad idea either, as now you’ve probably got several really powerful evil character classes, and you’d like them to fight as effectively as possible all the time, wouldn’t you?  It’s a fairly uncommon item to show up in a shop anyway, and it can’t hurt to have some in reserve.

Neutral Encounters

LV: 14 Angel LV: 15 Ice Giant LV: 15 Silver Dragon Mountains Mountains Mountains

As you might expect, the types of creatures that you run into on this stage are of the Snow terrain variety. Cute, but not very useful at this point. You should have plenty of both.  The class that might be useful is the Angel.  It’s a shame that they don’t start out with enough Charisma & Alignment to promote them right away to Cherubim, so this might limit their usefulness.  Still, you can never have too many Angels!  Well, that’s what I think anyway...

Enemy Units

Different Types of Units: 9 Total Enemy Unit Deployed: 25 Enemy Level Threshold:   Unit# 17-1

Just like with units from the Kalbian Peninsula, you will see a lot of classes that are cold weather dwellers, like Silver Dragons & Ice Giants.  Fire attacks & weapons will be quite useful once again. The other thing that you will notice with these units is the over abundance of members of the Angel family and other “goodly” classes in these units.  That has to do with the theme of the boss, Mizal.  It seems that she has dragged a whole bunch of other angelic followers with her!  Evil units work very nicely on this stage, but be very very careful with your Undead units.  There is so much White magic thrown around in these enemy units that it will be hard keeping evil units in fighting shape!  Also, something to worry about is the level difference between your units and the enemy units. However, since you should be using mostly evil units on this stage, it won’t be that big of a thing.  This is the last stage that I recommend to do this much out of order, I promise!

Beat The Stage!

Prologue:  Mizal used to be the head of all angels, but she made the mistake of falling in love with Rashidi, a mortal.  Angels are not supposed to interact with humans, and she violated this rule.  To make matters worse, she was merely being used by Rashidi, and he tricked her into giving him an all-powerful relic from the heavens: the forbidden Black Diamond.  This was the final straw for the gods, and she was banished from the heavens, never able to return. Under instructions from Rashidi, Mizal is stuck ruling this frozen wasteland, a very different habitat than the heaven she has been banished from.

This stage is only somewhat difficult because the map is so huge, and there are so many towns to worry about. This is the new record for the total number of towns so far; there’s 15 of them including bases! For some extra story and intrigue, you should have Yushis in your party, if you did Antalia before coming here.  She should confront Mizal.  After all, that is why she joined you in the first place! To seek out her sister and try and save her. Before this reunion can happen, however, there’s a ton of ground to cover...

Deployment Time!
You will feel like Ernest Shackleton (which many of the towns are in reference to if you didn’t notice) when you look at the daunting trek to the boss castle of Valhalla that lies before you! Now’s the time for all of your Silver Dragons, Ice Giants, & Muse to get funky! They will fly across the wide open expanses of snow on this stage. They’ll move faster than they would even on the roads, so keep that in mind as you move these units around.  As an added bonus, these classes probably have high Alignment, which means that you can use them to liberate towns & temples!  You may want to deploy as many as 3 units with the Snow terrain to take full advantage of your surroundings. You will still want your High Sky units, both liberating & fighting, deployed of course. You will also want Yushis out and about too, so make sure that she is in a competent unit. Well, her presence ensures that! What you should do is send most of your units up the road towards Endis Rohn, and then branch off from there.  Also send a few city liberating units west to tackle the towns of Ruskayah & Shackleton, and slowly push west all the way to Herald Coast.  Your Opinion Leader will be your main base defender and/or buried treasure hunter this stage. You can also have him/her liberate the towns that you miss or are way off in the corners.  You should also have him liberate the hidden R.T. #4, which is on the section of green grassland in the extreme SE corner of the map.

Step 1:  At first, you will wonder where the hell all of the enemy units are. Take the opportunity to snag the towns of Endis Rohn to the north, Shackleton to the west, & Syble to the NE.  You will not run into enemy units until you are in the vicinity of Kotz, so you can really advance far into enemy territory.  Once you’re at the town of Endis Rohn, you can afford to send a liberating unit or two off to the north to liberate Mallibahd in the mountains, and NE along the road to Nansen and Maklin Tok.  The enemy should never get this far east, so these units, and towns once liberated, will be safe.  In the southern region, you should be pushing west to Ruskayah and Herald Coast.

Step 2:  When you do get to Kotz, suddenly you’ll see tons of enemy units coming from the west, and occasionally you’ll see some flying units come at you from the NW through the mountains. This is region between Kotz and Ells Wahs is where almost all of the fighting will occur on this stage. While the skirmish has begun, you can have your other units spread out and liberate the towns underneath it.  A nice High Sky city liberating unit, like Canopus, is ideal to free the towns south of Ells Wahs that are on the islands, such as Mohnso & Intahi.  When you do liberate Mohnso, you will get an item.  A Roshian Monk will appear and give you a “BEAST” (Egg of Wonder).  Use it for an instant random encounter while on a stage map, but it’s like a box of chocolates... Ya never know what’cha gonna get!  It’s not that great really.  When you get to the town of Ruskayah, another Roshian Monk will appear, and she’ll give a “FLAME” (Flame Sword), which will help you combat all of the cold creatures this stage. Keep expanding to the fringe cities as you push towards Ells Wahs.

Step 3:  As you liberate the towns on the extreme edges, you’ll learn some vital information. Way up the NE corner of the map is the town of Maklin Tok, and they will tell you the names of the 3 Sky Knights.  Fenril of Ice, Slust the Red, and Fogel the Dragon Rider.  This tidbit should not be anything new, as you should have two of the three by now in your army!  Another bit of information will be revealed at the town of Intahi.  They will tell you that Mizal has a sister named Yushis, and that she came down from the heavens to try and stop her sister. But Rashidi found her, and imprisoned her in Antalia.  Again, this should be old news, as you should have Yushis in your army, ready to confront Mizal on this stage.  The one bit of information that is useful is when you liberate R.T. #2, which is W of Els Wahs.  They will tell you about an item that King Gran had in his possession called the “GRAIL” (Grail), but has now gone missing since his assassination.  Some fear that the Empire is looking for this item.  You will learn more about this important item much later on...

Step 4:  By this time, you should have beaten back the enemy advances, and reached the town of Ells Wahs.  It’s only a quick jaunt up north to the town of Balleny, which is at the doorstep of the boss castle Valhalla.  What enemy units that are left will be pretty concentrated in this little region. This will effectively bottleneck all of the enemy units, so go ahead and liberate any towns or temples that you missed on this stage while you clean up the stragglers.  A few enemy units may get desperate, and try to escape to the east, so have a few units waiting for them. Get Yushis’s unit all primed and ready, and a sad family reunion awaits you at Valhalla.  Yushis just want to take her sister back home, but Mizal will have none of it.  Mizal is depressed about what she has done and wants to die for it. In melodramatic fashion, she feels that she cannot join your rebellion because her judgment has been compromised. And, as her punishment, Yushis must put her out of her misery.

M.O.B.Q. Tip!

The Yushis / Mizal reunion is not necessary to get the “World” ending!  It’s just something that makes the game much more interesting and challenging if you go this route of waiting until now to do this stage. Getting Yushis in your party does matter, but any boss dialogues she has don’t, as with all of the boss dialogues with any character. So, get ready to...

Fight It Out!!

Boss Time!

Mizal Seraphim HP 184 LV 19 STR 139 CHA 70 AGI 157 ALI 67 INT 186 LUK 50   LV: 17 Ice Giant LV: 19 Seraphim     LV: 17 Ice Giant     6 Direct & 1 Hit-All

Even though she wants to die, she will not just stick her head in the guillotine for you and go quietly! I would not recommend using any unit with Undead in it at all, as her Jihad attack will hit your entire unit with White energy! The good thing is that there’s only one Jihad attack to worry about per battle, so it should be manageable.  If you are more daring, you could even use some evil classes for a quicker kill.  Members of the Imp class are ideal here, because they also have a Black attack in both the Front Row & Back Row!  All it takes is a “Fool” Tarot Card to remove the Ice Giants.  If you’ve run out, a “Magician” Tarot Card will help things greatly!  Mizal takes it in the end from Fire attacks as well, not to mention any other elemental attack except for White.  “Tower” & “Devil” cards are also effective.

After the battle, if you used Yushis, you’ll get a sad sibling farewell between her and Mizal.  You don’t even get an item out of the deal!  Just some words of encouragement and thanks from Mizal, even if it is too little too late...

Available Items

There’s a decent amount of items to find on this stage.  Two equippable items is a nice find, especially of these elements given the types of enemies you have been fighting. You won’t be able to get every single item listed below due to Reputation restrictions.

SNES Name: BEAST Selling Price: 6,550 Goth PSX / Full Name: Egg of Wonder Buying Price: - - Description: “An egg that may contain something inside. Can’t tell what’s inside until you open it.”

SNES Name: FLAME Selling Price: 850 Goth PSX / Full Name: Flame Sword Buying Price: - - Description: “Shielded by dozens of tiny flames.” Effects: Strength + 6

SNES Name: RELIEF Selling Price: 168,200 Goth PSX / Full Name: Relief Medallion Buying Price: - - Description:

SNES Name: SNOW CAPE Selling Price: 18,000 Goth PSX / Full Name: Snow Cape Buying Price: - - Description: “Made from Byak.” Effects: Physical + 11, Cold + 6

SNES Name: TURQUOISE Selling Price: 5 Goth PSX / Full Name: Turquoise Buying Price: - - Description: “The twelfth stone of the Zodiac.  Signifies royalty.”

Aftermath

Besides an all important Zodiac Stone, there’s a freebie item at the boss castle of Valhalla as well.

1) Take a trip up & over to the former boss castle of Valhalla.  Here, you’ll receive an item, and it will be different depending on your Reputation.  If it is between half way full and the maximum, you will be greeted by a Roshian Monk, and she’ll give you a “SNOW CAPE” (Snow Cape).  This is especially useful, as the types of creatures you have been fighting, and will continue to run into, use Cold attacks.  If your Reputation Meter is less than half way full, you will run into a band of thieves, and they will give you a  “RELIEF” (Relief Medallion).  It does nothing for you except give you a ton of Goth when you sell it. You’ll probably need the cash with all of your high powered, high level evil characters!

3) Visit R.T. #3, E of the former boss castle of Valhalla.  It’s the one that is on the SE tip of the island in the northern section of the map. and if you have the “TABLET” (Tablet of Yaru), the messenger of the Gods will present you with the “TURQUOISE” (Turquoise), which is the twelfth stone of the Zodiac.

4) Since there were so many buried treasure on this stage, and the map was so big, it is highly possible that you missed one or two of them. If you are in need of better equipment for your troops, fly around and grab those you missed.