Stage 1 - Dire Rat x 6¶

You will be fighting six Dire Rats in the debut stage of Trial Mode, which are the easiest of enemies and something you will probably be able to do without any trouble at all, especially with just Vaan himself. The only highlight of this stage is the fact that you can get a Diamond Armlet from one of the chests. This doesn’t really have much of an effect on chest contents until much later in the game, but there is one good thing you can take from this, though. The Diamond Armlet sells for 6,000 gil and since it’s very simple to get them, as it’s just repeating the first stage over and over, you can build up a nice amount of money without doing much of anything.

Stage 2 - Thextera, Alpha Wolf, Alpha Hyena¶

This stage has nothing special to note so just kill the enemies and move on.

Stage 3 - Ripe Rampager (Optional), Flowering Cactoid, Cactoids x2, Cactite x4¶

The third stage is your first instance of an optional monster you can spawn, but it also houses something else of much greater value. You are facing the Flowering Cactoid here, along with two Cactoids and four Cactites. While the enemies are nothing to write home about, you can steal a very powerful weapon from the Flowering Cactoid, called the Karkata. It’s a rare steal, which has a base 3% chance, but it has 92 ATK and a 100% chance to inflict Confuse on enemies when you strike with it (provided they aren’t immune). Considering you can get this fairly early in the main game (you might want to wait for a full party), it will make a character (Knight only) that can equip it very powerful, once you grind the necessary LP.

Remember the mention about the game autosaving at the beginning of every stage? You will be using that in order to procure a Karkata (or more if you have multiple Knights), especially if you lack Thief’s Cuffs. You will want to basically start the save, attempt a steal on the Flowering Cactoid and if you don’t get the Karkata, then simply exit out to the title screen, reload the Trial Mode save and try again. It can take a long time without Thief’s Cuffs and the Karkata is not really needed to progress in the game, but it’s always nice to be a little bit overpowered.

On to the other matter at hand with the optional foe:- from where you start out, go to the opposite end of the arena and down the incline, where you should see a cactus. Get close to this cactus and the Ripe Rampager will pop out of the ground for you. To finish this stage, you just need to defeat the Cactoids, Cactites and the Flowering Cactoid.

Stage 4 - Razorfin, Ichthon x4¶

Another easy stage with nothing much of note. Simply kill the enemies and move to the next stage.

Stage 5 - Nekhbet, Werewolf, Cockatrice x4¶

Steal from the Werewolf if you want the items. The Berserker Bracers are quite a rare drop so may take a few tries to get.

Stage 6 - Cluckatrice, Chickatrice x4¶

These giant chickens should fall quite quickly with even a lower level party. There’s nothing else to mention about this stage.

Stage 7 - Judge x2, Imperial Swordsman x2 and Imperial Magus (optional)¶

You don’t have to fight the other Imperial troops to complete this level. Simply kill the two Judges to move on.

Stage 8 - Imdugud (optional), Bagoly x5¶

This stage has another optional mob for you, which can be a little tricky to spawn, simply because of where you have to stand. On the platform with all of the Bagoly enemies, stand towards the center, still mind you, and just wait until you see Imdugud flying in from one of the sides. Its steals aren’t anything special, being a Killer Bow, Sirius, or Paramina Crossbow (in rarity order, from common to rare).

Stage 9 - Cultsworn Lich (Optional), Lich x3¶

You will find another optional enemy here, the Cultsworn Lich, that you can spawn by heading into the little alcove where one of the chests is located. It does contain a few goodies for stealing, but nothing spectacular. The Lamia’s Tiara is its rare steal, but the other Rare Game in Tomb of Raithwall, where you will find Cultsworn in the main game, has a guaranteed Lamia’s Tiara as a steal. The other two items you can steal from the Cultsworn Lich include a Golden Shield (common) and Flame Shield (uncommon).

Stage 10 - Belias¶

This is the final stage in the first set and it will have you facing off against Belias. While not a incredibly challenging fight, Belias can inflict Oil on your characters with his Firaja special attack, making his fire attacks stronger. The biggest thing about Belias in Trial Mode is that his uncommon steal is the Sword of Kings, a weapon you won’t get until the Stilshrine of Miriam. While not terribly impressive, the catch with the Sword of Kings is that it doesn’t require a license to equip, so anyone can equip it. Belias’s rare steal is the Goddess’s Magicite, which is a fairly useless accessory.