Chapter 23: We Be Side-Questin' Mon

And we’re back for more Final Fantasy IX. Where we last left off, we beat Kuja’s minions into the ground and rescued Eiko and Hilda. Hilda returned Cid to his human form and Zidane woke up once again in the castle’s guest room.

And now, the continuation...

We begin the chapter by going to the meeting room where Hilda informs us that Kuja has a big mouth. But uh oh, where is Dagger? Steiner runs off to try and find her while Hilda tells us what she learned from Kuja.  

In an auto-ATE, Steiner actually gets Tantalus to help find her (unintentionally). We actually get a few auto-ATEs to watch and get us up to speed on what’s going on. After she gives us our next plot destination (Ipsen’s Castle), Steiner runs back in and tells us that Dagger cannot be found anywhere. Zidane decides to go look for her and the scene switches to Alexandria.

After a funny scene of trying to pin down Beatrix, she tells Zidane that if Dagger is there, she would be at her mother’s grave. Zidane goes there and indeed, that is where Dagger has been all this time. And yea, she has her voice back. FMV time.

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After some discussion, we can now create a new party. Take Vivi, Quina and one of the lower leveled. We need Vivi and Quina to get another treasure. Before we take off for uncharted skies, reenter the Lindblum Airship Dock and get on the airship again, choosing to go to the bridge. Climb down the ladder, past Amarant, through the golden door and up the ladder that was once occupied by the engineer. Examine the ! for an Elixir. Follow the path to the bridge and talk to Erin to take off.

Controls are the same as the boat, however if you enter the world map and select a location, Erin will automatically take us there.

Our first destination at this time, is Quan’s Dwelling. When we enter the main room, we get a special scene. When the scene is over, examine the grandfather clock. Return to the ship. Drive the short distance to Treno and head to the Weapon Shop. Equip Zidane with the “Bird Killer” ability and ask to fight the monster, Amdusias. Use Thievery and heal as necessary. Or you can give Zidane the Sargatanas and use the Soul Blade skill to petrify the monster for an instant win. Prize: Running Shoes!

Our next mission is to hit all of the Qu’s Marshes again, including the marsh on the Forgotten Continent that we couldn’t get before. Catch frogs.

Now that we’ve caught all the frogs we possibly can at this time, it’s finally time to finish the Chocobo Sidequest. Stop at any of the many Chocobo Tracks and call Choco. Head over to the Lagoon and dig up the last two Chocograph Pieces. These pieces form the Mist Ocean chocograph. 

Now that we’ve found it, activate it and off we go. The treasure can be found on the Northeastern side of the Mist Continent, in between the two tiny islands you see on the map.

The chest opens and a puff of smoke comes out. We finally get the last upgrade to our dear Choco, the Golden/Flying Chocobo. Flying is as easy as entering a forest and pressing the confirm button while on Choco. Landing is as simple as pressing the cancel button over a forest. This mechanic obviously pays homage to the original Black Chocobo design from earlier Final Fantasy games (Final Fantasy IV and V). 

With Golden Choco, we can finally access the last special Chocobo ONLY location known as the Chocobo’s Air Garden. Fly around until you find a dark, round shadow and feed Choco a Dead Pepper. You can find the last three Chocographs in this location. Digging is a little more difficult and navigating this place is needlessly complicated but it’s worth it.

After you’ve found the three chocographs, let’s go hunting for the treasures. I’m going to detail them from the bottom and working up (call me weird) but you can find them in any order you want.

Forgotten Island is the previously unreachable island just north of the Forgotten Continent. Just use the map above. Inside: 1 Ribbon, 1 Rebirth Ring, 13 Amethyst, and 1 Ark Card.

Fairy Island is the previously unreachable island (noticing a pattern yet?) a touch south-west of the Iifa Tree. The treasure can be located on the side closest to the tree at the base of the mountain. Inside: 33 Potion, 15 Annoyntment, 1 Holy Miter, 1 Dark Matter Card.

Outer Island 2 is the previously unreachable island close to the shore we docked at to reach Kuja’s Palace. The treasure is found in the forest tip pointing at said shore. Inside: 11 Sapphire, 1 Circlet, 1 Pumice Piece, and 1 Hilda Garde 3 Card.

And the last one (if you’re following my order) is Outer Island. It’s the small island off the north-eastern tip of the Outer Continent. Inside: 21 Amethyst, 16 Garnet, 1 Genji Armor, and 1 Ragnarok. Assuming Steiner’s learned the abilities off the earlier swords, you want to equip this ASAP.

Our next destination is a special place only accessible with the Airship or the Golden Chocobo. We want to go ahead and use airship so go pick it up where you left it (follow the blinking blue light on the map if you forgot). Use the auto-fly option to fly to Chocobo’s Lagoon and go to the large island with the plateau just a couple islands away. We find a new place called Daguerro, a secret library with many secrets we can have fun finding.

At the entrance, go right and down the stairs. Check the dead-end path for Capricorn. Continue on the path and enter a room where you’ll see the Four-Armed Man from the beginning of the game (Alleyway Jack) talk to him to find out your treasure hunting rank. If you are Rank S (if you’ve been following the walkthrough this should not be a problem), he will flee. Follow him back to the entrance and talk to him to find out his real name (FFV reference alert).

Return to the right-hand room now and take the elevator to the second floor where a moogle waits for us. Save, Tent, Mognet and run out the door on the left. In this room, talk to the men arguing at the item shop. Agree with one of them enough to get one of the cards in list. You can only get one but really it doesn’t matter since unless you’re a masochist and a glutton for boring card games we probably won’t be playing any cards for the foreseeable future. 

Next to the item shop, in between it and stairs, is a strange looking statue. Touch it to send it to the first floor.

At the far left end of this floor, at another set of shelves, talk to the scholar to find out he is looking for a specific title. This title is located on the far right side of the room, amongst a pile of books. Tell him where it is to get him to move out of the way. This lets you access a secret area. Choose to go down the ladder. At the end of the path to the left is an Elixir. Talk to the guy on this side to get the option of renaming one of your characters. On the far right side of this secret spot is another Elixir. Return to the second floor and now go down the stairs. Talk to the Green Weapon Shop Man to initiate another small mission for this area. He tells you that the left is broken. Take the long way back to the entrance of the library. Take the left path to the lower floor of the weapon shop room. Fiddle with the levers and lower the left lever twice. Talk to the hole that was revealed. Next, take the rod leaning against the bookshelves and put it into the hole revealed. Lower the right lever twice now. The lift is now repaired. Use the lift to go up to the Weapon Shop.

Shopping:
Rune Blade
Obelisk
Tiger Fangs
2 Defense Gloves
6 Coronets
2 Diamond Helms
2 Diamond Armor

Buy the Rune Blade and Obelisk now because after Disc 3, they will disappear forever, never  to be seen again.

Synthesis
Sargatanas

If you’re not playing the Frog Quest, go ahead and buy a Glutton’s Robe. If you are, save the money.

Back on the first floor, if you go to the statue beneath the Leviathan etching on the wall. The statue will let you synthesize Aquamarines with Ores at a 4:1 ratio. The Synthesis Shop will also let you synthesize other gem stones using Ores and various healing items.

Exit the library and grab your airship. It is now time to go to Ipsen’s Castle. Next time!