Lufia and the Fortress of Doom Walkthrough - Chapter 1
The game begins with you playing the old team of heroes inside of the Fortress of Doom. Explore the tower, collect the treasures and learn the combat system is my advice. There are many spells available to you right now, use them and see what they do and experiment as much as you desire.
As you'll quickly see, the Fortress of Doom layout is pretty linear and it's hard to get lost in here. Keep going up the stairs each time you find them and eventually you'll reach the big baddies of this place. You'll fight each of them one at a time which gives you plenty of time to heal up between the fights.
Watch the scenes play out after you've eliminated all four and you will eventually gain control of your main character. During the first scenes you'll meet Lufia, the person that the game is named after. Once you finally gain control you'll want to explore town and collect any loots that you find.
Unlike most guides online, my guide isn't going to cover all of the minor hidden items in town and things of that nature. I'll let you explore as much as you'd like to and I will cover how to advance the story forward. During the game I will point out powerful items we pass and I will also point out any side quests as they become available and things of that nature. Dungeon and town exploration will mostly be left up to you unless there is a puzzle that needs to be solved.
Tip: Just like in almost all RPGs of this era - inspect shelves, dressers and things like that inside of buildings in town to find hidden loot. These items are mostly basic consumables and are optional; sometimes you'll find something good though.
The first important thing that I can point out to you is the Inn that's in Alekia. You'll be grinding a lot during the early game and you'll be coming back here to rest each time. How long you want to grind for is your call but I recommend at most level 4. North of Alekia you'll find a small town named Chatam.
When you're ready to advance the story, northwest of Chatam there will be stairs leading down by the mountain - this is where we need to go. This cave will lead you to a castle town by the name of Sheran. Enter Sheran and talk with everyone that is on the ground. Continue north into the palace and loot all of the very easy to find chests, you'll find a lot of stuff.
Return to Alekia when you're done with the bad news, you need to talk to Roman, he's found in the upper left room on the first floor of the castle. He's the man dressed in armor, when you enter the castle go straight back and he's to the left, can't miss him. After talking with Roman go to the Inn and rest, you can talk with Lufia upstairs if you'd like.
Exit Alekia and when you get back to the World Map there will be a scene with Lufia. She will join your party now and you should return to Alekia so that you can buy her a basic weapon and equipment. I'd recommend a Dagger and Cloth for Lufia but if you can't afford that buy at least the Dagger.
After you're done fighting with the menus in this game (they really aren't good) it's time to return to Sheran. On your way back to Sheran I recommend you hit up the cave northeast of the one we typically use. Now that we have Lufia we can handle it and collect the 200 Gold & Potion inside.
Now we can return to Sheran, on your way through the tunnel talk to the guy on the ground, he'll give you the Key to Sheran Castle. This is an important item that we need to complete this next part. Enter Sheran and go straight to the castle. Go upstairs to the top and use the Sheran Key to open both doors, one has 100 Gold and the other has a switch you can lower.
Pull the switch then exit the throne room. Before going down any stairs you'll want to follow the rampart of the castle around to the back end - like you see in my screenshot below. There will be an entrance on the left and right hand sides of the castle, you can use either one as they both lead you to the same spot. Go through the door here and down the many stairs.
After pulling the switch go downstairs via the stairs in the room behind me
Follow the linear path downstairs and you will eventually come to the King and Queen who are being held prisoner. Approach their cell for a scene, during which you'll free them. Go inside of their cell and inspect the bookcase for a Great Potion, exit the castle and you'll encounter someone named Gades who will defeat you. It's one of those fights you need to lose in order to advance the story so don't bother trying to win.
When you regain control of your characters you'll be back in Alekia. Go north into the castle and up to the second floor. You'll find Lilah waiting for you here, we need to take her to Chatam which is north of town on the World Map. Once you're in Chatam run to the right and cross the bridge to trigger a scene, when it's over leave Chatam.
Our next destination is a town by the name of Treck which is found to the southwest of Sheran. In Treck you need to speak with the old man who is looking out to the sea. There will be a short scene when you talk to him after which you'll be tasked with visiting the cave far to the east of Treck. Our destination is Guy's House but to get there we'll need to go through the linear cave first.
Inside of the cave you'll find Cloth Shoes on the first floor, equip them immediately. The rest of the route is linear, your companion will open the locked door on the second floor when you get there. Other than that, follow the linear path through the remaining part of the cave back to the World Map; once you're on the World Map go to Guy's House nearby.
Enter Guy's House and a scene will automatically play out. When it's finished inspect the bookshelf in Guy's House for a Great Potion and inspect his gravestone for a Short Sword. From here we'll want to return to Treck. Enter Treck and go straight south to the port, you'll find a guy with green hair here who you'll want to talk to.
Aguro is his name and he will be joining your party from this point onward. During your dialogue with Aguro you'll be interrupted by 4 Demon Lords, as long as your level is 7 or 8 you should be fine. You may have noticed the combat system in this game is about as bad as the menus in this game by now too. When fighting you can't choose a monster to hit, only a group of monsters. So this will often result in your characters spreading around your damage instead of eliminating targets one by one. This mechanic can make this boss fight way harder than it needs to be depending on what monsters the game chooses to hit.
When the fight is over there will be more dialogue, after which you'll have a new task - find a boat! Exit Treck and travel northwest along the coast until you find a set of stairs that go down. There are a few treasures in here but the best one contains a Daze Ring. Keep going west after finding the Daze Ring and you'll find the path that takes you to an exit. When you're back on the World Map go south to find the boat.
Approach the boat to start a boss fight
You'll have to fight 3 Goblins when you interact with the boat, one tip I have to make these fights easier is to use your Mid Arrow items. After beating them you'll sail the boat back to Treck and disembark back in town. Speak with the sailor on the second floor of the Tavern for a scene - after which you can sail the boat.
Talk with the sailor on the dock to sail the boat to Lorbenia. Once in town Aguro will leave you, the only two things you have to do to advance the story are visit the dress shop and rest at the Inn. You'll find the dress shop on the third floor of the shop building in town. When you enter the shop there will be a scene with Lufia - you also need to talk with the woman standing inbetween the rooms for another scene. This second scene involves you catching a kid who was shoplifting. Lufia will find you as you accuse him and let him go.
Rest at the Inn and when you leave Aguro will return to you, there will be some dialogue after which he joins you. Now it's time to exit this town and travel west on the World Map to Grenoble. There are a couple of things for us to do in Grenoble, the first of which involves paying someone 50g to access the stairs behind them. You can find this NPC blocking your way in one of the buildings in town.
Going down the stairs behind this NPC lets you surface near the patch of flowers with stairs in the middle of them. Normally this area is blocked off by the other NPC who doesn't let you pass. When you go down this second set of stairs you'll find what I would describe as the Grenoble Adventurer's Guild.
Talk with the old man down here to get your story quest, he asks you to get the Fairy Kiss treasure on the second floor of the Old Cave. If you talk with the guy behind the counter he will give you another task too, get the Secret Map from the same location. You need to be at least level 5 to get these quests.
You can find the Old Cave that these quests reference north of Grenoble. When you exit town you'll notice a large cave mouth on a small island, this is the Old Cave. Inside you will find a man behind the counter, he'll tell you to pull the switch inside and go down to the desired floor.
For right now you can only visit level 2. When you arrive you'll quickly notice that there are chests everywhere. You'll find the Secret Map in the south and the Fairy Kiss is found in the northeast, there is a door that only girls can pass through... The Fairy Kiss is inside of that room; that same room has almost an entire set of gear that Lufia can wear too, I recommend equipping her with any new items ASAP.
Make sure you get the Dragon Egg in the Old Cave (Level 2) as well. This item is part of the Dragon Egg Side Quest which requires you to collect all 8 throughout the game. I'll point out each of the 8 Dragon Eggs as we come across them in this game, this was #1.
Return to Grenoble and talk with the old man again to turn in your quest. You'll also want to talk with the person behind the counter for the extra gold too. If you're above level 10 they will offer you another quest to go to Old Cave Level 3. For this quest you need to collect the Silver Wick item and return it for 1000G. Just like the previous quest, this one is a piece of cake, complete it now if it's available to you.
Tip: Old Cave Level 3 is a great spot to level up right now. Ultimately it is your call if you wanna spend some time grinding here, you need to grind a lot in this game and it's up to you when and where you do it.
Northwest of Grenoble is where we need to go to advance our story, here you'll find a tower (pictured below).
This tower is quite large and it has a bunch of treasures for you to find throughout. As far as progression goes, you'll want to keep going up the stairs that you find until you reach the top. You'll find a lone man inside of a small room with two beds at the top of the tower. Talk with him and when the dialogue is over you'll fight him.
Unlike your previous fights, this one will be one on one which means you have to be much more tactical to win. If you have a Sleep Arrow try that at the start of the fight to give yourself a few rounds for free. Otherwise our strategy is to use the Drain debuff on the enemy and hit him with as many Mid Arrows as you can. They deal much more damage than your regular attacks so use them until you run out then switch to melee attacks.
When the fight is over you'll learn that Artea is in Elfrea. It'll be awhile before we get there, our next stop is a village by the name of Kirof which is to the south of this tower. Drop out of the tower via one of the many exits and travel southwest on the World Map. Hug the western sea and keep going south until you reach Kirof.
Inside Kirof enter the item shop's second entrance and there will be dialogue with someone in bed. That's all there is to do in Kirof, when you're done in town exit and travel east to the next town, Medan. Enter the castle in Medan and you'll get a scene with the same kid from the item shop in Kirof.
Continue straight into the castle, keep going straight and you'll hit the wish room, Lufia will make a wish. Exit the wish room and go to the northeast, you'll find stairs going down. Follow the linear path to a small room where you'll witness a scene with the Princess. After the scene exit the castle and exit Medan, you'll get a scene on the way out of town about the Hope Ruby being stolen.
Return to Kirof and you'll get some news about Reyna. After the scene exit town and travel north to reach the cave that was previously blocked off. Now the NPC has moved to the side and you can enter (pictured below).
Complete the steps in Kirof and Medan to enter the Ghost Cave
This dungeon is pretty big, explore as much as you want and collect the treasures that you find. Make sure to get the Dragon Egg from inside, this is an important treasure. You can find this egg near the HP/MP restoration circles mentioned below. Inside of this dungeon multiple routes will lead you to the same room with two blue circles on the ground (pictured below). These two circles will restore your HP/MP and you'll want to use them as you're exploring.
Tip: Use an Escape item if you'd like to exit the dungeon and return to town to rest. The Escape items use the Warp spell which is this games 'quick dungeon exit' spell.
HP and MP Restoration Circles
When you're ready to complete this dungeon return to the cave entrance. The stairs we need to advance are directly south of here. The first set of stairs to the south that lead down are to the HP/MP Restoration Circles... I'm talking about stairs that are even further south from these. Basically, enter the dungeon and go as far south as you can in that first room, you'll find stairs that go down - take these.
These stairs will take you to the same room as the HP/MP Restoration Circles but you'll be on the outskirts of this room now. In this room you'll want to go as far as you can southeast, there will be a doorway here that leads to two stairs going down. The stairs on the right go to a loot room and the stairs on the left advance you forward into the dungeon.
Going down the stairs on the left will put you into a large red-colored room with 5 sets of stairs that all go down into the same room. Take the stairs in the south-middle of the area and you will find yourself on a small platform in the next room - it will look like you don't have anywhere to go from here but you actually do!
In this room when you try to go north over the middle area where there is no bridge - you'll actually float! This will let you access the final room of the dungeon in the north. Before charging in I recommend you equip the Ghost Ring onto your main character, this will make the next fight much easier. Give the Power Ring you were probably using to Aguro.
When you talk with the little girl in the next room you'll trigger a boss fight with a Phantasm. I recommend using the Drain debuff on him at the start of the fight then beating him down with your melee attacks. After the battle there will be some dialogue, during which you'll be transported back to Kirof. When you regain control of your characters talk with the shop owner for a Power Potion and exit town.
Our next destination is Medan which is to the east. All you need to do in Medan is talk with the Princess then exit town. East of Medan you'll find a cave in the mountains, previously there were some guards inside this cave which prevented you from reaching the opposite exit. Those guards have moved aside now and you can proceed through the cave and to the next town, Belgen.
To advance the story in Belgen you'll want to travel north until you reach a set of stairs that lead into a large house. Go right at these stairs and then north when the wall ends to find a cave opening - enter inside of here. You'll find two chests in here and a dead end room with 3 women. Talk to the woman in the back, she will tell you the location of a key if you offer to help her.
After talking to that woman and getting the dialogue flag needed you can exit town. Before we go to the next dungeon though, let's go get some new equipment first and talk a bit about how to not suck at this game. Exit the town of Belgen and travel northeast across two bridges and then east across the desert. You'll find the town of Surinagal by the coastline.
Surinagal has some equipment that is a lot better than anything else you can buy right now. You'll want to get the Axe for both the Hero and Aguro. Also, I recommend the Rapier for Lufia. This may seem minor but it will make a big difference. The monsters around Surinagal are a bit tougher too so keep your health at maximum between battles.
With all of that said, let's talk a bit about how to get gud at this game. The first thing you need to do is start consuming all of the random items that you get and kinda learning what they do. Some of these items will give you permanent increases to stats and you should use them on the characters that will benefit the most. Other items will give you HP/MP back in small, medium or large quantities.
There are also a bunch of items that can only be used in combat. Look for things like Arrows, Mid Arrow, Hi Arrows, Poison Pin - these normally do damage during battle and they are marked with an arrow icon in the menu. You also have consumables like Power Gourd, Mind Gourd and things of that nature. These items can also only be used during combat but they're used to buff your characters instead of to damage foes.
It's normally best to use the items that deal damage on groups of enemies to take them out quickly. Save the Gourd items for boss or mini boss fights, that's normally where they shine the most. That's really all there is to it though, as for your spells - press X while inspecting a spell during combat or in the menu and you can see what it does. Your spells are the things you'll have to learn the names of and what they do - items are much less important.
Back to the Story
Tip: Buy 30 or so Antidote while you're in Belgen, it'll make the next few dungeons much easier.
When you're ready to continue with the main story you'll want to return to Belgen and travel south until you hit the ocean. From here you'll want to go west while following the ocean, you'll cross a bridge and then run into a cave near a mountain. This cave is our next dungeon, all we need to do in here is find a small room with an NPC (pictured below), behind him will be the chest with the Dais Key. If you didn't do the story flag back in Belgen then this guy won't move out of the way for you.
By now you're probably level 15+ on your team which means we can return to the Old Cave and complete another quest here. If you don't feel like walking back to that dungeon - that's ok! Visit Belgen first and purchase some Swing Wing items. You can buy these from most item shops in the game.
Tip: Use the Swing Wing item to Teleport to any town that you've previously visited. To quickly get back to the Old Cave you'll want to Warp to Grenoble. Don't forget to pick up the quest in town first! You gotta pay that guy 50g to get past every time, it's annoying I know.
It won't take you very long to clear out the Old Cave. Some of you are probably already level 20 by this point too which will let you do yet another level of this dungeon. When you're ready to continue with the story you'll want to use another Swing Wing item and return to the town of Belgen.
Continue to Chapter 2 of my Walkthrough