If you have Golem in your party, use his skill points to get Smash level 2 as quickly as possible. Golem has a passive skill where his melee attack has a chance to knock an enemy back on the timeline.

5. The Deep Dark Well, Child of Light

In this area, you will recruit Finn to your party. Finn is a magic caster and his skills will be useful during later areas of the game. His melee attack isn’t as strong as his elemental attacks, but Finn can still be used to help you bump an enemy out of the Cast stage. For Finn to be a permanent member of your party, you must complete his quest line. Interact with Finn, exhaust his dialogue, and descend the nearby well to advance his quest line.

Inside the well, you will encounter enemies that can deal elemental damage, notably fire and water damage. Consider diversifying the elemental damage of your party members. Equip a Faceted Sapphire in a weapon slot of Rubella and equip at least a Tumbled Citrine in the weapon slot of Aurora. You don’t want to use a fire weapon to fight an enemy that is resistant against fire. Some enemies deal water damage. You want to equip at least a Tumbled Emerald in the weapon slot of Rubella (or Golem) to deal lightning damage against a water-based enemy. Finn should only be used during the fight against the area boss because his magic skills are useful against this boss. Conserve Finn’s MP as much as possible until you have to fight the boss.

Notable loots:

• Healing Tonic x 3
• Lull Elixir x 2. Decrease the speed of an enemy by 50%, lasting for four turns. Later in the game, a new member who has a similar skill would join your party. Conserve the Lull Elixir until absolutely necessary and use it during boss fights only.
• Quicken Elixir x 3. Increase a party member’s speed by 50%, lasting for four turns. In a later area of the game, a member would join your party who has a similar skill. Conserve the Quicken Elixir as much as possible, only using it during desperate situations against a boss.
• Firefly Elixir x 2
• HP Stardust
• Magic Stardust
• Rough Emerald x 3
• Tumbled Emerald
• Rough Ruby x 4
• Rough Sapphire x 4

An enemy you should be wary of is the gargoyle. This enemy has the skill Stony Stare that can temporarily paralyze an affected party member. The effect lasts for a few seconds, but enough for another enemy to attack the affected member. Another enemy that can manipulate your speed on the timeline is the fire wolf. The fire wolf’s skill, called Infernal Howl, can decrease the speed of an affected party member. Whenever possible, concentrate on defeating a fire wolf as quickly as possible. Finally, the boar’s skill Quake can knock a party member back on the timeline.

Use Finn’s skill points to upgrade his defense and strength as much as possible. If possible, upgrade his skill to at least Monsoon level 2. Equip a Tumbled Diamond in his accessory slot to increase his casting speed by 6%. The upcoming boss deals three types of elemental damage: fire, water, and earth. You can only protect Finn against one of these elemental damage. Equip at least a Faceted Ruby in Finn’s armour slot to boost his fire defense. Finn will be relying on his magic skills so it doesn’t matter which oculi you equip in his weapon slot.

Hydra

This boss has three heads, each dealing a different elemental damage. The left-most head deals fire damage, the middle head deals earth damage, and the right-most head deals water damage. It doesn’t matter which head you defeat first. However, since Finn has the skill Monsoon level 2 you should concentrate on dispatching of the fire head as soon as possible. Start the fight by using a Quicken Elixir to boost Finn’s casting speed. Also use a Lull Elixir to decrease the speed of one of the heads, preferably not the head that deals fire damage. Use Finn’s skill Monsoon to defeat the fire head. While Finn does most of the fighting, use Aurora (or Rubella) to heal Finn. Rubella can also be used to cast Ailment Protection on Finn because the boss can paralyze a party member for a few seconds. Use Finn’s Wild Fire and Aurora’s Light Ray to fight the head that deals earth damage. Finally, use Finn’s Lightning Strike to fight the head that deals water damage.