Rabanastre Downtown


after the speech
map to downtown
(14) After some more cool CG, you
discover a new part of the cityYou'll see a few more scenes, including a CG (14), before Vaan decides he wants to see someone Downtown. Yep, if you thought Rabanastre was big already, there's a whole new level to the city that's now available! But there's no need to head downstairs just yet. Apart from shops (while you don't have much money at this point, you may want to buy Cure for your next trip outside town at Yugri's Magicks - just sell the loots you've gotten from your visit to Dalmasca's Estersand), there are two places of interest. One is the Clan Centrio's headquarters if you haven't joined the clan yet (please see chapter #1.1 and the Hunts section (coming soon!) for more details); the other is the Sandsea bar to get your reward for defeating rogue tomato guy from Tomaj. You can find him standing by the bar now. You'll get 300 gils, 2 Potions and 1 Teleport Stone (while they appear in your loot inventory, don't sell them, they'll come in handy quickly! more about those in a little while). You can already get your new Hunts contract by checking the add board on the wall, then talk to the guy sitting nearby on the ground. You may want to try and complete it within the next hours of the game....When you're done, head towards Downtown Rabanastre (see the bottom frame (14) for one of the ways to get there - the stairs on the right in the northern section)

outside daran's house
new type of save crystal
(15) Visit Downtown before heading
to Giza PlainsOnce in Downtown, you can visit a little around. There are a couple of shops, but nothing of great importance at this point. You may also see a few treasure chests along the way. Here is something important: treasures appear randomly in given spots. You have a certain % of chances to get one or another item, or some gils. Most appear again at the same place after a while, but a few disappear for good after you check them once. Sometimes it's not really of great importance since they only contain a random item. But there are two exceptions to that: either the chest will contain a really important item, or a lot of money, later on, and you're better off leaving them for now. Some also, if left untouched, give you a chance to get what may turn out as the most powerful weapon in the game! I'll explain all this more in details in the game principles section (coming soon!) but what you need to remember for now is that you can pick up all items in treasure chests except the one on the other side of the street before Dalan's house (15). Go inside and talk to Dalan. You now need to head to Giza Plains to obtain a sunstone - luckily, the exit is just outside, all the way south to Downtown Rabanastre. Outside awaits a crystal: you'll notice that it isn't blue but orange. Those crystals offer you, on top of the save option, the possibility to teleport, but it will cost you one teleport stone. You've received one from Tomaji, but it's not worth using it now. Just exit this screen to enter the Giza Plains


Giza Plains


giza plains
talk with Mashua
(16) Once in Giza Plains, head first for
the nomads VillageGiza Plains is actually a pretty big region, but head first to the southern exit to reach the nomads' village. You'll encounter a few hyenas and some giza rabbits. If you look closely, you'll see the giza rabbits have a green bar, very much like the tiny Cactites in Dalmasca Estersand. I strongly recommend not to kill them, especially if you haven't bought Cure in Rabanastre, because not only do they not target you unless attacked, but they actually heal you when your HP become low and you pass before one! When you enter the Village, you can buy a map of Giza Plains from the moogle at the entrance if you haven't already done so in Rabanastre. It's only 30 gils, so don't hesitate. There's also a shop. You may be tempted to buy a better equipment for Vaan and get the Broadsword, but don't do this - you'll find one in one of the chests around Giza Plains (not that I had a lot of trouble getting my hans on it in the European version of the game). Go talk to the woman standing alone called Masyua (16). She'll send you looking for a young boy called Jinn. Penelo also happens to be here and joins your party: you're not fighting on your own anymore, yeah! Exit the settlement to look for Jinn: Penelo will stop you to give you 3x Potion and 2x Phoenix Down. She will also explain to you the principles of gambits that you can now turn on or off in your battle menu for both characters (but you can't set them up yourself yet). Have them on for both characters since it will save you from having to select "attack" - but remember to steal items from your enemies - that's a command you will still have to input.

random battle in Giza Plains
(17) It looks impressive but you
shouldn't have any difficulty against itIf you bring up your map, Jinn's location will clearly appear in the small southern area called Crystal Glade. But before covering that part of your mission here, let's explore the area a little, as Giza Plains is a good place to level up a little, as well as win and steal some loots you can sell to make more money and buy equipment; there are also quite a lot of treasure chests, including one with the Broadsword in the southernmost chest of the southeast area (Giza South Bank). You will meet new enemies here, but no matter how big, you shouldn't have much problem; there's one exception though. Don't even think of trying to take on the two big werewolves that keep walking around idle in the southwest area - you are no match for them at this point. If you ever come too close and they target you, run, it's your only hope, really! Also, remember when I told you about chests you shouldn't open at the moment? There's another one of them, in the same southeast area where you can find the broad sword: there are chances you'll see a treasure chest in the middle of the easternmost bridge. You can open it now, but know you'll miss on 50,000 gils later on, as it won't come back once opened. It's up to you....beyond that bridge, there's a passage to an area that's outside the Giza Plains region. It's part of the Dalmasca Estersand, and you can also visit there for more chests and some more levelling up. However, the enemies found in the region west of Giza Plains that you can reach from an exit of the Starfall field area may prove much more challenging....


meeting with jinn
map of southern Giza Plains
(18) Listen to Jinn and don't hesitate
to bring up the map to help youBack to the task at hand: head for Crystal Glade. You'll see a young boy sitting by a black stone on the ground: talk to him and he'll hand you a Shadestone. It's not quite what you need to bring back to Rabanastre though. To get the Sunstone, you need to expose the one you have to dark crystals scattered throughout the Giza Plains to fill up the energy bar that appears on your screen (18). Bring up the map and the four dark crystals available will be marked neatly. Usually, exposing your Shadestone to three out of four is enough to fill up the bar up to 100% - once this is done, you're automatically brought back to Jinn. Back to the nomads' village, you get your reward from Masyua: 50 gils, 2x Potion and 2x Teleport stones; you also get to keep the Sunstone. You can head back to Rabanastre

Extra hints: expand your horizons

Exploration: even though you're really in the early stages of the game, there's more that can be done and explored at this point. If you take the exit to Dalmasca Esternsand, you can go all the way north up to the Southern Nebra River Bank. There are a lot of Wolves and Cockatrices there. Don't hesitate to chain hyenas and wolves between Giza Plains and the Dalmasca Estersand for more droppings and better items. If you're careful and avoid the cockatrices, you can easily chain over 100 if you want

Another intersesting thing in that area is that you can find a Rod with a 30 attack power, twice as much as the Broadsword, which is the best equipment at this point that you can get otherwise (in theory, there's one exception to that but....see in "challenges" below). Also, rods are very effective weapons for magicians as they increase their magick power. You can get it from a treasure chest in the Sand-Swept Naze area. There can be two chests on the cliff from which you can see the Banks of the Nebra north. It can be found in the treasure chest closer to the NE corner. You can have one of your characters equiped with it already, but don't forget, if you equip it on Penelo, to take it from her before you go back to Downtown, as she will leave your party first thing, and will keep whatever equipment she has on at this stage. Always equipment-related, there's a shop selling a whole range of accessories at the South Bank Village. You can notably get a Tourmaline Ring which protects from Poison - it might be a good idea to buy one or two if you can afford it, since one of the next bosses likes to cast Poison a lot....

Challenges: there are also two battle challenges available. One is to complete the "Wolf in the Waste (Thextera)" Hunt. Check the text above or the Hunts section (coming soon) for more informations. You'll find Thextera in the Galtea Downs section of Dalmasca Westersand. Don't go there from the Giza Plains exit to Dalmasca Westersand if you're below level 5 and you don't have the Rod and a lot of potions: you'd have to cross regions where regular monsters are just too tough for you at this point. Instead, go there from Rabanastre - Western Gate. It's a breeze if you got the right equipment and are around level 6

The other is to head west in Dalmasca Westersand to the next area. There, enemies look the same as in Giza Plains: Wolves, Urstrixes and Sleipnirs. But, they are a lot more powerful. Defeating an Urstrix there is a lot more challenging than the Thextera Hunt. If you've got the Rod and traded for some extra equipment already (see equipment section below), it will make it easier, but expect to use easily 10-20 Potions, especially since they tend to attack you in pairs. Sleipnirs are not as dangerous though. The whole point of fighting them is the EXP: up to 100+, which will make levelling up a lot quicker

There's one last challenge that's actually really more of a suicide mission unless you've leveled up like crazy: if you chain 20+ wolves without exiting the Dalmasca Westersand, you can go to that small portion of land south of Galtea Downs where you're likely to encounter a Linburg Wolf. The whole point is to try and steal a Gladius which is attack 45. If you've paid attention, you've noted that I haven't mentioned it when I was talking about weapons at this stage above. That's because you'll have very little chance to survive long enough to steal said Gradius. My characters were both level 8, yet it managed to whip out my party in one attack - inflicting 400+ HP damages to each! So, make sure you've saved your game before heading there!

Equipment: before completing the mission at Giza Plains and returning to Rabanastre, your choice in shops is really minimal. But there are a few things you can get from trading with loots easy to get at this stage, and which are better equipments than available in shops: 2x Wolf Pelt and 1x Earth Stone will get you an Unassuming Surcoat (-> Chromed Leathers), and 1x Molting (stolen from Giza's Sleipnir) and 1x Fire Stone will get you a Gilt Shield (-> Escutcheon). There are also other combinations of goods that will earn you healing items packages (see Trading section - coming soon!)


Back to Rabnastre Downtown


a small talk with penelo
on the way to Garamsythe Waterway
(19) Prepare to head for the
Garamsythe WaterwayBack to Rabnastre, enter the Downtown area by the door on the side of the South Gate area. Approach Dalan's house to trigger a scene, at the end of which Penelo leaves your party for the time being. Talk to the old man and you'll receive the Crescent Stone. Your next goal is the Garamsythe Waterway (the place where you started as Vaan). Before that, it is strongly recommended that you acquire a few things if you haven't already made a visit to the shops, especially since you're gonna be away from Rabnastre for a little while. Head upstairs: go ahead and sell your loots - you should have a lot of fire and wind stones, as well as wolf pelts. Selling them may actually allow you to access special trade items (more about this above and in the trading section - coming soon!). As for what you'll need - you don't have to buy any weapon, armor or accessory (see however the suggestions in the Extra Hints section above) but buying some magic, and in particular white magic, is recommended. Cure is your priority if you haven't bought it already, and even if a character that will join your party soon has it already - in the meanwhile, Cure will come in handy. Don't hesitate also to acquire Blindna and Poisona that cure blind and poison respectively. Remember that in battle, consuming an item takes less time than magick, but you may run out of items, in which case you'll be very happy to have these spells. I know it is often recommended to buy Blizzard for the boss in the next section, but I think Slow is more useful - however, get both if you can afford them, as well as Protect. You don't have to buy Fire since you'll soon have this ability through a new team member. Same for the "First-Aid" tecknics, so don't waste your gils on that. Once you're all ready, head Downtown again: in the north-west quarter of the district, you'll see a few kids sitting on crates before a door: behind the door awaits Kytes who will open the entrance to the Garamsythe Waterway; he'll also give you 2x Potion and 4x Eye Drops before you take the left door


Next stop: The Garamsythe Waterway and the Royal Palace of Rabnastre