Dungeons, caverns and the tower
Each Greater Craymel sits at the end of its own themed lair, the Glimmer Spire is optional and guarded by Valkyrie, and Nereid's Labyrinth is the post-game run.
Every Greater Craymel sits at the end of its own lair, and the lairs are where the game's difficulty actually lives. This is the list, what each one gates, and which ones you can skip.
The Inferian lairs
| Lair | Craymel | Element | What it unlocks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Undine Stream | Undine | Water | Water Craymel artes and healing summons |
| Sylph Cavern | Sylph | Wind | Wind artes, the earliest triple combo tool |
| Efreet Gorge | Efreet | Fire | Fire artes and the first real damage spike |
| Regulus Knoll (crypt) | Rem | Light | Inferia's Governing Craymel; story gate |
| Glimmer Spire (optional) | Valkyrie | — | No story value; the hardest Inferian fight |
Regulus Knoll deserves a warning. It is the ruin the party visits as children, and it is where the monster sealed under the knoll is waiting. It also holds Rem, which means the dungeon you thought was a flashback is a real, scaled boss encounter.
The Celestian lairs
| Lair | Craymel | Element | What it unlocks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mine of Gnome | Gnome | Earth | Earth artes; several late-game key items |
| Mt. Celsius | Celsius | Ice | Ice artes and the fight's signature freezer |
| Ruins of Volt | Volt | Lightning | Lightning artes; paralysing attacks |
| Shadow Cave | Shadow | Darkness | Celestia's Governing Craymel; story gate |
| Farlos Sanctuary | Maxwell | Elements | Supreme Craymel; the strongest non-boss magic |
| Shizel's Castle | Sekundes | Time | The endgame's own dungeon |
Both worlds' lairs follow the same shape: a themed approach region, a mid-dungeon key item, and a single boss room. The mid-dungeon item is usually the thing that opens the boss door, so if you are stuck, search the floor you are on before you assume a puzzle is unsolved.
The optional content
The Glimmer Spire is a tower in Inferia with a boss at the top that warns intruders away. It is entirely optional, scaled for a late-game party, and one of the few fights in the game that punishes a party that only prepared physical damage.
Nereid's Labyrinth is the post-game dungeon: a long descent with the hardest regular enemies in the game and a boss that hits for numbers the story never asked you to survive.
Dungeon habits that pay off
- Bring a Craymel Cage with the element the lair's enemies are weak to. Every lair telegraphs its theme in the first room.
- Turn Boost down in dungeons. Extra encounters cost more than the experience is worth when you are trying to arrive at the boss at full TP.
- Keep one character with an escape or teleport item if the lair has one-way drops. Several do.
- Save before the boss room, not at the entrance. Iterating on a Greater Craymel is normal.
