The Holy Cave is located west and a little north of Yugebury, but before you dive into the cave, there is one thing you can do. Approach the cave and you should notice a spritnite column just to the left of it, so go ahead and inspect it. This one will grant you Dianto’s Paradigm Drive, Siphon. Using this will let Dianto’s vulcosuit gain enhancing effects from the target, like HP Absorption and Max HP Up, while still dishing out damage. Both the skill spritnite and monster will influence the effect. You will also unlock a new link skill, Absolute, and artifact knowledge (Praesidis). Alright, that’s it, so enter the Holy Cave.

Holy Cave¶

Upon entering, there will be a scene between your party and some imperial soldiers. This will lead to a battle with them and while they are not difficult, they do have quite a bit of health, so it will take a little bit to defeat them all. After the battle is over, they will run off and you will be able to get back to business. One of the first things you will notice is purple liquid on the map, which will actually deal damage and poison you. This poison will stick with you after you exit the purple liquid, so just avoid it altogether.

If you head straight north from the initial room, you’ll find a closed door blocking your way. Right before it turned into a narrow hallway, there was a lever off to the right, which opens a door off to the east. Pass that newly opened door to find another switch at the dead end. This one will set off some flamethrowers in the adjacent room, which will get rid of the enemies there, allowing you free access to the switch at the north end, opening the previously locked door. Go through it and you’ll encounter the three stooges again, including another fight, which is the same as the last one.

After the battle is over and they run away, you’re left in the main room of the dungeon, which has a lot of poisonous water, a collapsing bridge to the north and conveyor belts on the floor below you. There are two points where you can drop off, one on the right and the other on the left. Unfortunately, dropping off on the right will just place you on the conveyor that runs to the left, which is where you would end up if you just dropped down on the left. So, drop down on the left and follow the path as it leads to a tunnel that heads west, where you’ll meet a four-way intersection.

There is a giant rock blocking the northern path, so destroy it with your vulcosuit and head that way first, fighting off the enemies there and then securing the chest at the end (Blue Sphere). Back at the intersection, the path to the left is short and brings you to a switch that destroys the enemies in the southern room. With the way now clear, continue south to come to a room with some rocks on the right side and a switch to the north. Hitting this lever will reverse the direction of the horizontal conveyor in the main room, letting you drop off to the right. Destroy the rocks to get back to the main room.

Drop off on the right side now and there are a few ways to go here. As you probably see, there is a switch just north of where you dropped down, which doesn’t seem to do anything important. The stairs lead to a conveyor that will put you on another, which should be going right, so do that first. You will find some enemies on this path and south of them will be a large lump that is lost. You should have more than enough memories to restore it, so do that and then destroy it with your vulcosuits. In the room beyond is a chest that contains 2 VP Chargers and a sparkle that yields the Chef’s Pal artifact knowledge.

Return to the main room and take the lower path this time, hitting the switch you find to reverse the direction of the conveyors just above you. Despite the potential for hidden items, there is nothing in the poison water, so ignore the stairs nearby that lead into it. Use the conveyor to the left of the stairs to arrive at more, which will lead you back to where you dropped off on the right. Get back to the conveyor you just changed to arrive on the platform on the opposite side of the bridge that was up, where some enemies will be waiting (the switch that seemingly did nothing before probably spawned these enemies).

After clearing them, check the bottom corner here for a lever that will move the bridge into the down position, creating a shortcut back to the beginning of the dungeon. There is a save point off to your west, with another conveyor below it that will bring you back to a previously visited area, so ignore it. Heal up at the save point, then continue north from the last set of enemies into the next room. You’ll find the supposedly tree mentioned in the village, which is lost. Of course, the trio from earlier show up yet again to get in your way, but before the battle begins, a new challenger appears!

BOSS - Waste Toad¶

This boss can definitely be a pain in the butt, since it likes to inflict status ailments on your party. It will always begin the battle with Ooze, which does no damage, but it can inflict Poison, Confuse and Phys. Weaken on your characters. Naturally, you want to cure these as soon as possibles, so Sherra’s Refresh and the Panacea item will be your biggest friends here. Sleeping Gas does just as its name says…it can put your characters to sleep. While the above can hurt in the long run, Waste Toad has quite a few damaging attacks in its arsenal. Soap Breath is a nasty one that can deal upwards of 100+ damage to everyone, depending on your armor.

Gas Bomb is another attack that seems to hit everyone (or a large AoE), hitting for less than Soap Breath. Discharge is another move that will hit everyone for good damage, but this is thunder-elemental. If you position your characters around the boss, then you might experience a few attacks that deal damage around it, like Gas Leak, Lonely Breath and Short Circuit, but they don’t seem to do much. Tongue Whip will hit a single target, but only those in front of the boss. By far, the most damaging skill Waste Toad has is called Frog Rain, where it’ll jump into the air and slam into the ground, damaging everyone for 150 or even more HP.

First of all, the Waste Toad has a lot of health, so it’s going to be a long fight, especially if your characters are smacking each other. The Exotic Vests have some resistance to Confuse, so all characters participating in battle should be wearing them (upgrading them doesn’t increase the resistance). The usual assortment of skills work here, like Kanata’s Calamity and Aura, but Sherra’s Refresh works wonders as well. Plus, she has access to Heal and more healing is always better. At some point in the battle, you might see the Waste Toad use Sleep, which actually causes it to go to sleep, lowering its physical defenses. It might use Sleeping Gas sometimes during this state, but most of the time, the boss will waste turns and allow you to recover or get free hits on it.

With the battle over, you will receive some new artifact knowledge (Alacrity, Certainty, Soul Tree and Resonance), as well as the memories needed to restore the holy tree. Do just that and you’ll automatically grab the Holy Grass, the ingredient needed to cure the villagers. When you regain control, check the room for a memory sparkle, then make your way back to the overworld. Back in Yugebury, return to the doctor’s house (the one in the northwest) to get four doses of the cure to begin with, so bring the first one to the elder.

If you forgot, the elder’s house is in the northern part of the village and some more scenes will play out upon entering. Once they are over with, return to the inn to give Galdra some medicine for even more scenes. When everything is said and done with, Galdra will join your party. You definitely noticed the sparkle on the ground after the trio left during the previous cutscene, so make sure you pick it up, as it is completely missable (Mislaid Purse). Make sure you recheck the shops for new equipment for Galdra, as well as some new spritnites for everyone. It’s time to continue on your adventure!