Clearing FF1 with Zero EXP and Zero Gil: How Level 1 Warriors of Light Got Through the Boss Fights

The party consists of four members: Warrior, White Mage, Black Mage and Black Mage. Since this game doesn't allow job changes partway through, the party has to stick with the jobs chosen at the start all the way to the end.

The creator explains each job's role as follows. The Warrior has high defense and is well suited to taking enemy attacks. They also contribute on offense. The White Mage is mainly a support role that raises defense, and according to the creator, most attacks in the early game can be neutralized with Protect. Against the undead, the White Mage also joins in on offense with white magic. The Black Mages are valuable attackers up through the midgame. At level 1, they only have enough MP for two black magic spells, but the creator figures that restoring MP with items will make it work. The creator expected battles up to the midgame to be tough and planned to push through with the firepower of the two Black Mages.

The first boss is Garland, the knight who kidnapped the princess and holed up in a temple. The party bolstered the Warrior's defenses with white magic and attacked with the two Black Mages' spells. Garland has 212 HP; four Thunders took off 160, and regular attacks finished him off. As befits a first boss, he was an easy opponent, the creator says.

The party then defeated the pirates who had taken over the port town and obtained a ship from the pirate leader.

The fight against the Piscodemons guarding the treasure in the Marsh Cave required some defensive ingenuity. Their HP is 84. The party first took down one with two Thunders and physical attacks, while casting Protect on the Warrior at the same time.

Piscodemons have extremely high attack power. Still, as long as their physical attacks are kept in check, they can be dealt with, so the plan was to stack Protect and leave things to the Warrior. According to the creator, stacking Protect three times makes things nearly safe. However, there was only enough MP for two casts of Protect, so the party had to hold out while restoring MP with Ethers until the third cast. Even partway through the stacking, bad RNG could lead to big damage, so they couldn't let their guard down.

After successfully stacking it three times, they switched to offense. They kept hitting with physical attacks of around 10 damage, healing with Potions when HP dropped. Repeating this, they whittled down the enemy numbers and finally won. The creator looked back on it as "a tough enemy, very FF1, that's hard to cheese."

During the later fight against Chaos, the creator added that there was another way to handle this battle. If the White Mage stacks Blink three times, they can dodge most attacks. However, critical hits still land. Also, relying on the White Mage's attacks would drag the fight out. For these two reasons, the creator ultimately didn't go with the Blink strategy.

When the party hands the Crown obtained from the Piscodemons to the king, the king is revealed to be the Dark Elf Astos.

This battle took advantage of the properties of party order. According to the creator, characters higher up in the party are more likely to be attacked. So the top two, the Warrior and White Mage, focused on defending and took the enemy's attacks. The two Black Mages kept attacking with magic, while the other two kept restoring the Black Mages' MP with Ethers.

Astos has 420 HP, which by the numbers can be taken down with 13 Thunders. It was a race: if Astos used an all-party attack, the party would lose; if they could whittle him down before that, they would win. Going through cycles of sleep and waking, they pushed him to within one more Thunder. But the Black Mage who was supposed to cast that final Thunder was killed by an instant death spell. In the end, they landed the finishing blow with a physical attack and won. The creator says that around this point, bosses that depend on luck started to appear.

Afterward, the party gave the Crystal Eye to the witch Matoya, received the Jolt Tonic, and woke the elf prince who had been sleeping under Astos's curse. They received the Mystic Key from the prince, opened the canal, and headed for the Earth Crystal.

A Vampire blocks the way just before the Earth Crystal. Since big damage couldn't be expected in this fight, the Warrior was put on defense. The White Mage attacked with Dia and the Black Mages with Fire.

The Vampire has 280 HP. It heals every turn, but the creator calculated that six spell hits would bring it down. The enemy's attacks hurt, and the party was taken down one by one from the front. Even so, by the numbers, they could win if they got the first move on the final turn. After landing five spells in total, only one more Fire was needed, but the MP had run out, so they spent that turn restoring MP. On the next turn, they landed Fire first and defeated it. With only single-target attacks and low HP, it was an easy opponent, the creator says.

Deep in the cave, the party faces the Fiend of Earth, Lich. The creator considered this boss one of the toughest enemies of the whole adventure. That's because Lich has many actions that would instantly wipe the party, such as Fira, Blizzara and Thundara.

Lich has 1,200 HP, which by the numbers can be taken down with about 20 Fires. The plan was to pray that no magic attacks came and defeat it before the party got wiped. The basic setup had the top two restoring the Black Mages' MP with Ethers while the two Black Mages attacked with Fire. If a physical attack knocked out an ally, they revived them with items. The Warrior, the creator says, can generally survive one physical hit. Enemy actions could also inflict paralysis or sleep. When a Black Mage couldn't act, the White Mage joined in on offense, and there were also moments when a Black Mage used an Ether on themselves.

In the end, no magic attack came even once, and the party kept firing off Fire until they defeated it. The creator summed it up as a tough enemy that forced a luck-based fight because of how few options are available early on.

After restoring the Earth Crystal's light, the party holds up the Levistone obtained during their travels in the desert and acquires the airship of the ancients. They fly the airship to the Dragon's Cave, and when the Dragon King Bahamut acknowledges them and grants them the title of hero, the characters' appearance becomes slightly more refined.

In the later boss fights, the nature of the strategy changes significantly. For the fight against the Fiend of Fire, Marilith, three party members were petrified in advance, and the Warrior fought alone. The petrified allies served to absorb enemy attacks.

First, the Warrior used a Giant's Tonic to raise their max HP so they could survive Fira. Next, they powered themselves up with the Giant's Gloves, healing with Hi-Potions when HP dropped while stacking the Gloves to boost physical attack power. The Gloves were used about three times. Marilith has 1,440 HP, and each hit seemed to deal a little over 200, so the estimate was that about six hits would bring her down. The creator says the Giant's Tonic and Gloves made it a fairly easy win.

For the fight against the Fiend of Water, Kraken, three party members were petrified again, just like last time. Kraken's physical attacks are powerful, but it's safe as long as it's hitting the petrified allies. Meanwhile, the Warrior stacked buffs with the Giant's Gloves. Kraken has 1,800 HP, and its only actions are physical attacks and Ink. The Warrior kept hitting it for a while and defeated it. It was a very simple boss with no all-party attacks, the creator says.

The Fiend of Wind, Tiamat, is an opponent whose all-party attacks hurt. Right at the start of the battle, two party members had the Warrior take Giant's Tonics. In the meantime, Tiamat bit the Warrior, but as the creator put it, "they were just way too tough and survived."

After that, the Warrior kept HP high with Hi-Potions while stacking the Giant's Gloves as usual. After using them about four times, they switched to offense. Tiamat has 2,400 HP, and each hit seemed to deal about 300, so by the numbers it would take about eight hits. The creator looked back on it as an opponent that was safe as long as the party made it through the first two turns.

Having dispelled the darkness from the four Crystals, the Warriors of Light pursue the one who sent the Fiends. From the temple where they defeated Garland, they travel 2,000 years into the past with the power of the Crystals. Waiting there is Garland, whom they supposedly defeated long ago. At the moment of his death, Garland had used Chaos's power to return 2,000 years into the past, sending the Fiends into the future, then dying and returning again, creating a time loop. The Warriors of Light crossed into the past to break this cycle, the creator explains of the story.

The final boss fight against Chaos also ultimately came down to a one-on-one between the Warrior and Chaos. While Chaos was hitting the petrified allies, the Warrior powered up with everything they had. First, they drank five Giant's Tonics to maximize HP. Chaos's physical attacks also hurt a lot, so they raised defense with Protect. They also raised evasion with the Defender's Blink, stacking Blink three times as well. Even with what should be the strongest gear, the Warrior took heavy damage, and judging that two strong attacks in a row could finish them off, they shored up their defenses even further.

With defense in place, they boosted offense with the Giant's Gloves. The plan was to stack them roughly ten times. Chaos also uses healing magic and can restore 9,999 HP in a single cast. With 20,000 HP plus this healing, each hit needed to deal enough damage. The creator's approach was to power up thoroughly and then settle things in one go.

In the end, the Warrior finished powering up with 11 Sabers and 2 Speed Drinks and switched to offense. Hits seemed to be dealing about 1,500 damage consistently, so as long as Chaos didn't use the healing spell Curaga, about ten hits would settle it. It went on to the final turn, and Chaos was defeated. The creator looked back on it as an opponent where the first two turns were the crux, and after that, with enough buffs, it was nothing.

With Chaos defeated and the cycle of reincarnation broken, the ending begins. The creator stayed silent during the staff roll.

In closing, the creator reports that at the end of an adventure spanning 2,000 years of time and space, they managed to save the world even at a 0x EXP multiplier. As for the game itself, they praised it as a thoroughly satisfying title, remastered to be easy to play by modern standards while packed with the fun of the original, including plenty of exploration and a battle system that rewards creative thinking.

Looking back, the early- to midgame bosses often came down to the number of spells the Black Mages could cast and luck. The Astos and Lich fights are typical examples. On the other hand, in the later game, once the Giant's Tonic and Giant's Gloves became available, the approach settled almost entirely into petrifying the allies and powering up the Warrior to fight alone. Against Tiamat and Chaos, the deciding moments were concentrated in the first few turns.