The Forest Ruins

Written by MSG Commander

The Forest Ruins is in an area west of Ortia Castle that's entirely closed in by mountains. Fly your phoenix into this area and land in the clearing, then go northwest to reach the Forest Ruins.

This is probably the first dungeon in the game that's actually hard to navigate. (It's a lot easier though if you have the Dungeon Map.)

Ground Level

When you enter the Forest Ruins, there's a teleporter right in front of you. Before you step on it, go west to the room with a pot in the middle. Search the pot to get the Map of the Dark Side of the Moon. It gives you three Intensifying Gems.

The Basement

Now go back and step on the teleporter. Once you do, you'll be transported to the basement of the Forest Ruins. There are eight sets of stairs that all lead up to the first floor, and to get through the Forest Ruins you have to take these stairs in the correct order.

The stairs just southeast of the Red door lead to a Recovery point.

1. For starters, take the stairs in the far southeast corner. They lead to a corridor that has a button on the wall. This button unlocks the door by the stairs in the far southwest corner.

2. Go back to the basement, and up the stairs in the far southwest corner, to another corridor with a button at the end. This button unlocks the door in the northwest corner.

3. Go back down the stairs you just came from, and take the stairs in the northwest corner.

Follow that corridor to unlock the door on the east side of the dungeon. (Just above the far southeast corner.)

4. Go back through the basement to the stairs in the southeast (due east of the stairs that lead to the Recovery point).

The path on the first floor splits several times; just keep following it to unlock another door in the northwest.

5. Go back to the basement, and go up the stairs that are due north of the stairs leading to the Recovery point.

There's a section of this path where it looks like you can't go any further, but it's just because part of the path is hidden behind the wall. Press the button to unlock the door in the far northeast.

6. Now take the top set of stairs in the northeast (due east of the stairs you just came from) to unlock the door into the room with the gravestones and the monsters, and then, if you need to, go use the Recovery point and save your game.

7. Finally, take the last set of stairs and enter the room with the gravestones. You'll fight four sets of Hell Messengers in this room. They're not hard, as long as you kill them before they use all the Defense boosting skills (and then a lot of your attacks will do 0 damage). Definitely use your Skills in these battles!

Push the button in this room to unlock the door blocking the stairs that lead up to the ground floor. To get to these stairs, go back to the basement, and take the stairs in the far northwest corner (the third set of stairs).Then just follow the path, and go through the door you just unlocked and take the stairs up.

On the ground level, go north to get the Key to the Tower of the Skies. Now go to the west, and follow the path around to get the two Reinforcing Gems in this area before you step on the teleporter. Now step on the teleporter in the southeast corner. It transports you into the pot that held the Map of the Dark Side of the Moon oopart. Now you're done in the Forest Ruins.

Side Note

The next few locations are not part of the main story, and probably should be in Bonus Material. However, each one has some useful items (plus if you want to fill in all the item lists, monster lists etc. in your history, you need to visit these locations.)

If you want to, you can just skip to the Tower of the Skies, and as far as the story goes, you won't be missing anything.

Treasure

Enemies

Oopart

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