• Temple of Fiends

Garland is very easy to beat. At level 3 you should have no problem. Have fighters use their weapons, Black/Red Mages use FIRE or LIT, and save your White Mages for curing. Just keep an eye on your HP, because Garland does get in a cheap shot now and then, and if he attacks one character twice in a row he might actually kill him. But, like I said, Garland shouldn't be a problem.

• Pravoka

The Pirates are even easier than Garland was. Each one has 6 HP, and even though you have to fight 9 of them at once, they're still pretty easy to defeat. Be sure to have each member of your party attack a different Pirate each turn, because the Pirates are most likely going to die in one hit. The only way the Pirates could cause serious damage to your party is if they gang up on one of your characters. This isn't likely though, and it's easily fixed by a CURE spell or Heal Potion. Alternately you can try using SLEP. It'll probably work on at least half the Pirates, and then you can kill them at your leisure. Don't even bother with INVS or RUSE or anything, they Pirates don't hit hard enough for it to matter. Luckily FIRE, LIT or ICE should be strong enough to kill a Pirate in one hit, so even a Black Mage can be pretty useful. If you do it right the Pirate shouldn't last more than 3 or 4 rounds, which doesn't give them nearly enough time to hurt you. Enjoy these easy boss battles while they last.

• Earth Cave 4
• Ice Cave 1
• Earth Cave 3

The Wizards in the Marsh Cave can be a bit hard to beat on your first try. It's not that they're all that strong, it's just that getting through the Marsh Cave in one piece with all your HP and MP is kind of difficult. So try to avoid fighting in the Marsh Cave as much as possible when trying to reach the Wizards; save your 3rd level spells (LIT2 in particular) for the Wizard fight.

It's important to start most boss battles with as much HP as possible. You don't want to be wasting time DURING battle healing, when you could do it for free before the battle starts. So once you get to the Wizards, use Heal Potions or white magic to get your party to full strength before attacking. If you have FAST, this'll be a simple battle; use it on your best fighter and hack away. If not, use LIT2 to deal some nice damage to all the Wizards at once, and use LIT once you run out of that. If you have a few mages, they're going to be easy targets, so first thing, cast INVS on them; it's not that great a spell, but at this point in the game it can definitely help a mage dodge. Your white mage will have nothing better to do than INVS anyways, at least not for a couple rounds. Then she can heal. Be careful; the Wizards have strong attacks, and if they all decide to attack the same party member, especially a Mage, he's pretty much dead.

• Northwest Castle

Astos the Dark Elf is kind of annoying. The first spell he uses on your party every time is RUB, which kills on character instantly no matter how many HP he has. Dead characters don't get any of the EXP that you'll get for beating Astos, so I like to have all my characters alive at the end of the battle. If he uses RUB and it hits you, I'd just reset and start the battle over. As long as you use a Tent or Cabin or House right outside the Northwest Castle, it'll only take a second or two to reset and run back in and start the fight up again.

Other than his nice array of magic, Astos isn't all that difficult. FAST will end this battle quickly if you use it on a Fighter. Use your most powerful offensive magic (FIR2, LIT2, or ICE2) and save your White Mage for healing (as always). Astos does have a pretty strong physical attack too, so you might want to INVS your mages; your white mage isn't going to do much damage with a Wooden Hammer anyways. Don't let the battle go on too long, or Astos will get in another cheap shot of RUB. Just wail on him and he should be dead long before that though.

• Mirage Tower 1
• Mirage Tower 2
• Temple of Fiends Air
• Earth Cave 3
• Mirage Tower 3

The Vampire in the Earth Cave is pretty easy. Being Undead, he's weak against FIRE and HARM magic. A quick blast of FIR3 and HRM3 (or a couple blasts of FIR2 and HRM2) and the Vampire is toast. If your Mages should by some freak chance be paralyzed by the Vampire's DAZZLE before they can kill him, just keep them healed until they recover (which shouldn't be longer than a few rounds) and then use your magic. DAZZLE is pretty much the only way the Vampire could possibly kill you. If you're worried, first thing, use FAST on a Fighter; that way if your Mages get paralyzed before they can use FIR3 or HRM3, you have a backup plan. Chances are you're going to be able to magic him to death before he gets a chance to do much of anything though. FIR3 can kill the Vampire in one hit. Like I said, he's not hard.

• Earth Cave 5

Lich, Fiend of Earth, is the first of the Fiends you get to fight, and he's one of the hardest, in a way. Lich knows quite a few nasty spells; he can use ICE2, LIT2, and FIR2, which will hurt everyone in your party.

Lich is Undead. Meaning FIRE and HARM will damage him alot. If you have FIR3, don't use it on the way through the Earth Cave; save it for Lich. Also save a couple higher-level CURE spells for the last battle. Before starting the battle, use Heal Potions to get your party to full strength.

Start off using FAST on your fighting characters, and use AFIR, AICE, ALIT, and INVS to protect your characters (INVS first, probably, then AFIR, then the others, unless you need to heal at that point in the battle). Then use FIR3, HRM3, etc. and have FASTed fighters attack. Make sure your White Mage is healing everyone; don't let your HP fall too low. It's more important to stay healed than to use HARM, just remember that. A lot of battles in FF1 are a matter of luck; if you're at low levels, Lich might manage to kill you before you even have a chance to hurt him much. If that's the case just level up some more and then try again. If you're at high enough levels to use FIR3 though, you should be fine. FIR3 will take off most of Lich's HP.

(Is Lich male or female? I can't make up my mind.)

• Ice Cave 2
• Sky Castle 1
• Sky Castle 2

The Floater stone is guarded in the Ice Cave by the Eye. The Eye is a large floating eyeball with strong magic attacks and big sharp teeth. But he's not too hard to kill. He can use strong spells like XXXX and BRAK, but if you act fast, he won't have a chance to use them. Don't bother with defensive magic; just use FIR3 and physical attacks to destroy the Eye before it has a chance to use magic on you. With only 162 HP, the Eye can sometimes be killed with one good spell or physical attack. The Eye also gives a lot of G and EXP, so this is actually a very good place to gain levels and make money. Just make sure you have enough strength left to make it out of the Ice Cave when you're done (of course, if you have WARP or EXIT, that won't be a problem, either...) If this if your first time through the Cave and you're looking for the Floater, just grab it and run. The less time spent here the better. But later in the game feel free to come back here to level up.

• Ice Cave 3
• Temple of Fiends 1

Frost Dragons aren't really a boss, since you can find them all over the place in the Ice Cave (if you're unlucky), but they do guard the Ice Armor, and they are hard. BLIZZARD is just a nasty spell, that causes a whole lot of damage to everyone in your party. It'll often cause upwards of 100 damage easily. If you find Frost Dragons, cast AICE first thing. If you're fighting more than one of them at once, use FIR3 if you have it, you're not going to find anything harder than these guys to use it on. If you don't have FIR3, use FIR2 or LIT2 or whatever you have. If you're just fighting one Dragon, you might want to just use FAST on a fighter instead; it's almost a waste to use FIR3 on one Dragon, and FAST will work just as well. Try not to let this battle go for too long, because one extra hit from BLIZZARD is often the difference between life and death. If you're in the Cave to get the Floater, it's a really good idea to get it and get out of the cave, save using a Tent/Cabin/House, and then come back to fight the Dragons for the Ice Armor. They really do have a good chance of obliterating your party.

• Castle of Ordeal 3
• Temple of Fiends Air
• Temple of Fiends 2

The Zombie Dragons guard the Rat Tail in the Castle of Ordeals. They're not especially difficult; once again, this boss is Undead, so FIRE and HARM will take care of them nicely. You may have a bit of a problem with them if you've been decimated on the way through the Castle; fighting Red Gargoyles and Sorcerors takes its toll, after all. Hopefully you have a good supply of Heal Potions so that you can take on the Dragons with full strength. If you're fighting one of them, you might want to FAST yourself and just hack it to bits. If you're fighting two of them, use FIR3 and HRM3, then FIR2 and HRM2 once you run out of the others. One hit from FIR3 and HRM3 is pretty much guaranteed to kill the Dragons completely, so if you have those spells, this battle is a piece of cake. This is another good place to level up later in the game.

• Gurgu Volcano 4
• Gurgu Volcano 5

The Red Dragon is not really a boss, but there is only one of them in the Volcano that I know of, and it's rather hard to defeat, so I listed it here. The Red Dragon guards the Flame Armor in the Gurgu Volcano. It's completely optional whether or not you fight the Red Dragon, but the Flame Armor is a nice piece of equipment, so you might as well. The Red Dragon is weak against ICE, so ICE2 is your best bet; chances are you don't have ICE3 at this point in the game, but it sure is helpful if you do. Use AFIR to protect against it's flame attacks. If you're feeling lucky, try using BANE to kill it in one hit. It doesn't work often, but you might get lucky. FAST is helpful as always. So is INV2 if you have it; dragons have very strong physical attacks, and dodging them is helpful if you can manage to. This is probably going to be a tough battle if your levels are low, but the reward is more than worth it.

• Gurgu Volcano 5

Kary, Fiend of Fire, is a nasty opponent, as you might expect. As far as Fiends go she's not all that difficult though. She has powerful physical attacks and can use FIR2, but compared to other Fiends, she is a rather easy battle.

First of all, make sure you're at full HP before you start this fight. When the battle starts protect yourself with AFIR, and use FAST on your warriors, as always. You may think that ICE would hurt Kary alot, since she's made of fire and all, but no elemental spell hurts Kary more than any other. So use your strongest spells on Kary; if FIR3 is the best you have, use it, it actually will hurt Kary. Other than that, keep your HP up and rely on your fighters. Kary's strongest weapon is her physical attacks, so INVS or INV2 are helpful, and it's important to have good armor (Ice Armor is pretty darn helpful if you've been to the Ice Cave already). Likewise your strongest weapon against Kary is your physical attack, so keep your fighters healed and able to fight.

• Sea Shrine 1

Kraken, Fiend of Water, is a joke. A one-eyed squirrel armed with a piece of wet spaghetti could kill 20 Krakens before it needed to heal itself. Kraken's favorite attack is... DARK! Oh no! Not DARK! Unless you're scared of the Boogey Man, DARK isn't going to cause you any troubles. Kraken's physical attacks should be no problem for you at this point in the game, especially with all the levels you should've gained in the Ice Cave, Castle of Ordeals, and Waterfall.

Use FAST on your warriors, cast ALIT in case Kraken uses LIT2 on you, then attack Kraken with LIT3 and your best physical attacks. Kraken will be dead soon enough. If you're not strong enough to take Kraken, you should consider leveling up a bit. He does get in around 8 attacks a round (8 arms, get it?), I'll give him that much, but use INV2 a couple times and you'll be fine. Even if you don't use / have INV2, Kraken is most likely the easiest Fiend.

• Mirage Tower 3

The Blue Dragon is kind of a mini-boss. It guards the teleporter room in the Mirage Tower. It has a decent amount of HP and rather strong attacks, so be prepared. Use FAST on your fighters, and start hacking away; no elemental magic really works well. Blue Dragons aren't all that strong though, especially at this point in the game. It does have a LIT-based spell which can be very nasty, so use ALIT if you want. Either way you should be fine.

• Sky Castle 5

Warmech is the quite possibly the hardest battle in the game (that's counting the Fiends and the Last Boss, too). You'll find Warmech on the long bridge to Tiamat's room in the Sky Castle. Warmech is a walking death machine; his physical attack is strong enough to kill a Mage in one hit, and his NUCLEAR attack hits all of your characters for MAJOR damage. Your party won't be able to survive more than a few NUCLEARS unless you're at a very high level (by high, I mean higher than 30, seriously).

If you should happen to run across Warmech, say a prayer, and cast AFIR and INV2. Warmech VERY often gets a preemptive strike before you get a turn, which make this even harder, especially if the jerk kills one of your mages. Use FAST on your fighters (if your Black Mage lives long enough to do it). Then start attacking. Save your White Mage for exclusive healing; you're going to need it. If you have Ribbons, they should lower the damage from Nuclear by a little bit at least. But it might not matter. In the end, whether you kill Warmech or not depends on what level your characters are at, and how lucky you get. Most often Warmech battles quickly turn into pure desperation as your players die one by one. If you do manage to kill Warmech, you are rewarded with a king's ransom in gold and a crapload of EXP. Later in the game, come back here to gain levels and get rich quick fighting Warmech, if you're feeling stupid brave.

• Sky Castle 5

Tiamat, Fiend of Air, is one of the hardest Fiends to kill... unless you know the secret. Tiamat has a weakness to BANE, which will kill him in one hit. If you have the Bane Sword and a good Black or Red Mage, you can win this battle quite easily. Give the Bane Sword to someone other than your Mage so that you can cast it at Tiamat twice a round, because BANE often misses. BRAK works OK too, if you have that.

If you feel like fighting fair (ha ha ha ha!) you can kill Tiamat the old fashioned way. Use FAST and INV2, then have your fighters fight, and your mages use magic, blah blah blah, you know the drill. Make sure you're at full HP before entering the battle, of course (I really shouldn't have to say that at this point in the game, should I?). Tiamat can use the elemental attacks three of the dragons in the game use on you, so ALIT, AICE and AFIR are all a good idea. Tiamat is pretty much just strong all around, in terms of defense, magic and physical attacks, but he's not all that strong in any one area. The key to winning this battle is patience and keeping yourself alive as long as possible. You're not going to kill Tiamat in one hit like you did with lots of other bosses, so just take it easy, set up some defensive magic, and wear away at Tiamat until you kill him.

• Temple of Fiends Chaos

The last enemy in Final Fantasy is the almighty Chaos. Chaos is a nasty foe. He can use any spell he feels like using, plus he has spells (weird and powerful spells) that you've never seen before. He can CUR4 himself back to full HP any time he wants, although he doesn't do it often. His physical attack really hurts alot too.

First things first, use INV2 and FAST. If you have a Ninja, have him use FAST too before attacking. If you gave the Masamune to one of your mages, don't forget to FAST him/her too. Your White Mage should use WALL on as many of your party memebers as she can. Then start attacking. Your Black Mage should use NUKE and any other powerful elemental attacks he has; no magic hurts Chaos very well, though. FADE works very well, use it if you have it. But make sure your White Mage keeps everyone's HP up, because Chaos could easily pull a Spell of Death out of nowhere and wipe you out. Chaos has 2000 HP, so this fight may take awhile; just hang in there. Most of Chaos' "special" spells just do tons of damage to all of your party members, but CRACK is actually an instant-death spell (like QAKE), so there's not much you can do about that. Give your Ribbons to the three characters you want to live, because there's a good chance the other one is going to die.

This battle probably more than any other is all about luck. Sometimes Chaos will be pathetically easy, and sometimes CRACK will kill every single one of your characters. If you kill him very quickly, good job, you're lucky. If he mashes you into Light Warrior goo in two rounds, just try again, he'll probably be easier next time.