Think Smart Tools

Ancient Cave Rules

Contents

Basic Rules

Inside the Cave

  • A dungeon near Gruberik that goes down to B99
  • Floors B1 to B98 are rebuilt each time you enter, including the layout, enemies, and chests
  • Your goal is to defeat the Master waiting on B99
  • Defeating the Master gives you the Ancient key, which opens the chests at the front desk

Entering

  • All party members drop to Lv1 and leave behind their equipment, learned spells, items, and gold
  • Only the 41 kinds of blue chest items can be brought in
  • Items that can come from blue chests can be brought in even if you got them elsewhere (such as the Catfish jwl.)

Leaving

  • Using Providence takes you back to the front desk on the spot
  • Providence is found in chests on B21 and deeper
  • Defeating the Master on B99 gives you Providence
  • If your party is wiped out, you are sent back to the front desk

Taking Items Home

  • Leaving with Providence lets you keep blue chest items and Iris Treasures
  • Leaving after defeating the Master lets you keep the same things
  • Items from red chests cannot be taken home, except Iris Treasures
  • If your party is wiped out, you lose everything found in the cave, and only the items you brought in come back

Others

  • A floor has at most 8 chests
  • These 8 include blue chests; the count covers red and blue together
  • The 4x EXP and gold bonus of RETRY mode does not apply inside the cave

Healing Circles

  • Each floor has a 6.25% chance to hide one magic circle that restores HP
  • The circle is under a special bush and appears when you cut the bush
  • The healing bush is round and looks slightly different from ordinary bushes
  • Stepping on it fully restores HP for party members who are not knocked out (not MP), and it can be used any number of times
  • Magic circles that restore MP do not appear in the cave

Ancient Cave Exclusives

Spells

  • Dread and Deflect can be found only in the cave's red chests
  • A spell from a red chest becomes a restorative if someone in the party already knows it

Equipment

  • 46 kinds of equipment can be found only in the cave
  • 14 of them come only from red chests
  • 32 of the 41 blue chest items are found only in the cave

Items

  • Providence and Curselifter can be found only inside the cave
  • Both disappear when you leave the cave

Monsters

  • Besides the Master on B99, 15 kinds of monsters appear only in the cave
  • Blue Mimic, Ghost Ship, Orky, Earth Genie, Flame genie, Archfiend, Well Genie, Wind Genie, Hades, Ice Roge, Great Coca, Copper Dragon, Silver Dragon, Gold Dragon, Dark Sum'ner

Cautions

When Your Bag Overflows

  • If you return with more items than you can carry, the GET ITEM screen (the item management screen) appears at the front desk
  • Pressing B on this screen discards the shown item without confirmation, and it never comes back
  • Only the items you brought back can be lost; items you had before entering are safe
  • Blue chest items you brought into the cave count as brought back, so they can be lost too
  • Iris Treasures cannot be lost
  • If they do not fit, DROP items you do not need, then choose GET
  • If you bring back 2 or more of the same item stacked in one bag slot and they do not fit, they all vanish without the screen
  • Always sort out your items and save before entering the cave

When You Cannot Find the Stairs

  • Very rarely, a floor is built where you cannot reach the stairs down
  • In that case, the only ways out are Providence or a party wipe
  • The cause is a bug in how floors are built
  • When two doors connect the same rooms, the game removes one to merge them
  • At this point, it can remove a door that is actually needed
  • As a result, there is no path to the side with the stairs

Others

  • Uncursing the Dark mirror with Curselifter inside the cave makes it impossible to take home
  • A Dark mirror uncursed outside the cave after taking it home can no longer be brought in