Coliseum Guide

Overview

A simple guide to show what items you can bet, what you fight, and what you can win.

Introduction

Using this guide, you will be able to quickly tell what items you need to farm other items in the Coliseum, along with a few suggested fight chains for some particularly useful items.

About the Coliseum

The Dragon’s Neck Coliseum is a battle arena where a party member can fight enemies by betting items.

In the World of Balance the coliseum is yet to exist, but a cabin stands in its future location. The owner decides to build a coliseum, because he believes people are at their best when they are at war.

A year after the end of the world the coliseum has been completed, and the owner is pleased with Kefka for creating a world full of war. Ultros acts as the coliseum’s receptionist to pay off his debt. Other people to hang out at the coliseum include Siegfried and the lone surviving Imperial soldier.

If Shadow survived the end of the world and was rescued from the Cave on the Veldt he takes up fighting in the coliseum, but will join his old companions in a quest to save the world if they come and face him in battle.

Players can fight in the coliseum at will. When the player chooses to fight, they must wager an item. They will see their opponent and the item they have wagered, and must choose a party member to do battle. The coliseum fights are one-on-one, and the player’s character is AI-controlled and will use any commands and spells they know. Nothing stops them from using acquired moves which injure or even kill themselves, such as Self-Destruct or Soul Spiral.

Monsters fighting at the coliseum will not use their regular AI scripts; they instead use the abilities in Relm’s Control options for that monster. The Control option has a maximum of four abilities, and one of the abilities will be picked at random when their turn comes up.

If the player wins, they will lose their wagered item and win the opponent’s wagered item. If the player loses the battle, or if both the player’s character and the opponent are killed simultaneously, the player loses their wagered item and wins nothing. If the player’s character warps out of battle using Teleport, they will retain their wagered item.

The following battle commands are disabled within the coliseum battles: Items, Revert, Throw, Control, Slot, Leap, Defend, and Possess.

The coliseum removes KO, Invisible, Petrify, and Zombie statuses before a match, but not Imp, Float, or Poison, and restores HP and MP to their max before the match begins. There is no need to heal those statuses or restore HP/MP to prepare for the match, except if a status prevents the player from properly equipping a character.

If all party members are killed in the coliseum, the player can walk around with a party of dead people until they encounter a battle outside of the coliseum that transforms into an instant Game Over.

Character Setup

There are several good pieces of equipment to have equip on the character. The first would be the Paladin’s Shield to negate/absorb all elemental damage, and it possesses the highest evasion of any shield. The shield can be obtained the easiest by fighting on the Solitary Island to dispel the Cursed Shield. Master’s Scroll is another good choice, found in the Ancient Castle. Other good ones include the Merit Award and Miracle Shoes (both can be won in the Coliseum), Ribbon, and Safety Bit/Memento Ring depending on the situation. Weapons vary from character to character, but the Lightbringer paired with Merit Award is an excellent combo. Many Coliseum opponents are vulnerable to Death attacks, which can be used through some weaponry.

Shadow is a good character to fight at the Coliseum as he will never use Throw during a Coliseum match, and having him without any magic learned at this point is possible. Shadow joins the party twice after the party has acquired magicite: once on their way to Thamasa, and the other during the portion of the Floating Continent. He has weaponry that can inflict instant death, such as Assassin’s Dagger or Ichigeki, which has a 25% chance to kill an enemy in a single blow, but the player should not use these weapons when fighting an undead opponent. An alternate weapon is the Kagenui, that can randomly cast Stop on the attacked target. Shadow has 28% evasion, having the highest raw evasion out of the party, and being the second speediest character (tied with Gau). When evading an attack, there’s a chance of Interceptor attacking the enemy without losing a turn, but this attack will miss on floating opponents.

Setzer is another good choice as a fighter, as he never uses his Slot command, but there’s a good chance the player will have Setzer with more magic spells compared to Shadow, due to him having spent more time in the party. The Viper Darts can kill an enemy in one blow much like some of Shadow’s weaponry, with a 25% chance.

Gogo is another good choice as players will be able to prepare him/her for any situation. The player can equip him/her with three Tools commands where the player sells all tools except for the Drill, giving Gogo a 3/4 chance of using Drill. Six out of the eight tools can be bought back in Figaro Castle, Chainsaw can be stolen from Duel Armor, and Air Anchor from Gamma; both of these enemies are found in Kefka’s Tower. Gogo is also a fine choice for making Steal attempts in coliseum battles, as you can set him up to do nothing but Steal/Mug.

Umaro is another choice, who has 1/2 chance of either using Attack (four times in a row if equip with Master’s Scroll) or Tackle (a single unblockable attack that ignores defense) during battle. He is limited in the equipment department, being unable to equip any pieces of armor leaving only the two relic slots to play with. Umaro can benefit from the Gauntlet relic since Umaro only holds a single Bone Club in his right hand, and has nothing to sacrifice in his left hand, making the Gauntlet and Master’s Scroll makes a good combo. Umaro comes down to luck compared to the other characters mentioned above if Shadow and/or Setzer have no magic spells, and depends on who his opponent is. However, his raw strength can finish a battle quicker than most.

Another alternative is to have Gogo as an Imp, fully equipped with the Imp Equipment that comes with high Defense, Magic Defense, and Water absorption. Imp characters’ special command is disabled, but they can still access the Magic command, meaning they may waste turn(s) trying to cast spells that will fail and abort. The only available spell that will not abort is the Imp spell, and for this reason, Gogo is the obvious option. Since s/he will only use the Attack command every turn, this makes the Master’s Scroll and Genji Glove a deadly combo.

The remaining characters are poor choices since they likely have more spells/abilities compared to the characters mentioned above making them more of a gamble. Nevertheless, a player can use a soft reset and reenter the Coliseum if the character of their choosing has lost the match.

Wager List

Click the images to enlarge.

Don’t see your item on the list? That’s because you’ll get a fight against Chupon/Typhon for an Elixir.

Recommended Fights

Weredragon is vulnerable to instant death, so you can equip a weapon with
instant death properties like Zantetsuken and Wing Edge for a potentially
quick win. Equipping a Reflect Ring can bounce Weredragon’s Death spell back
at it, or you could send Gogo in with three Sketch commands to have Weredragon
cast Death on itself.

Yes, this is a rather long chain, but it grants you a virtually limitless
amount of Genji Armors, which is pretty freakin’ sweet. Tabby Suits, Chocobo
Suits, and Moogle Suits are all stealable from enemies inside Owzer’s Mansion
(Couerl Cats, Caladrius, and Blade Dancers respectively). Betting any of these
will eventually net you a Nutkin Suit, which you can then wager for a shiny
new Genji Armor. The fights go something like this:

Vector Lythos is a piddly little enemy that shouldn’t pose any challenge
whatsoever. No real strategy needed here.

Mog with 255 defense in the back row with a Safety Bit will be invincible
against Ahriman. 255 defense can be achieved with a Snow Scarf, a Genji Helm,
and any decent shield.

Against Cherry, a Reflect Ring will repel all of her nasty spells back at her.
Attacking her may incur a Meteor counterattack (which is unreflectable and
very painful) so it’s best to hold L and R to run and wait until she kills
herself with her own spells.

Aspidochelon is listed below.

Send Mog in with the following setup:

Holy Lance
Paladin’s Shield/Flame Shield
Genji Helm
Snow Scarf
Reflect Ring
Safety Bit

Put him in the back row, and he’ll be literally impossible to kill. Any
physical attack will do 0 damage to him, the Paladin’s/Flame Shield will
absorb Flare Star and Fire Wall, the Reflect Ring will reflect Flare, and the
Safety Bit will protect against Blaster.

Mog in the back row with 255 defense and a Ribbon/Jeweled Ring will be
completely invincible. Keep in mind that Tonberry uses Traveler when it dies,
so if you don’t have high enough HP to survive it, a Muscle Belt might be in
order.

Send Mog in with a Paladin’s Shield/Thunder Shield, a Genji Helm, a Snow
Scarf, and Angel Wings. In the back row, he will be impossible to kill. The
shield will protect from Sandstorm, the Angel Wings will protect from Quake,
and 255 defense in the back row will ensure 0 damage from physical attacks.

Death Machine will cast Death 75% of the time, and counters any attack with
Blaster. It’s vulnerable to instant death, so your best bet is to equip a
Reflect Ring to reflect Death back at it. As soon as the fight starts, hold L
and R to make your character run so they can’t attack and get Blastered.

Cactuar has ridiculously high defense and evasion scores, but only 3 HP, so
you can take it down very easily if you’re equipped properly. Gogo with three
Attack commands and a Master’s Scroll should make quick work of it.

Against Fiend Dragon, send Mog in with a Paladin’s Shield/Flame Shield, a
Genji Helm, and a Snow Scarf. Put him in the back row and he will be
impossible to kill. The shield will take care of Southern Cross, and 255
defense in the back row will ensure all physical attacks will do 0 damage.

Aspidochelon uses attacks of multiple elements, including Earth, Ice, and
Wind. You can equip the appropriate gear to protect against these elements, or
you could just take the easy way out and exploit its vulnerability to instant
death. Your call.

Outsider has two instant death attacks (one of which is physical, so it can’t
be protected from by Safety Bit/Memento Ring), and a variety of unblockable
Throw attacks. Even with perfect evasion/magic evasion, it will be difficult
to take him on mano a mano. So in order to take him down as quickly as
possible, you should exploit his biggest weakness: instant death. Use similar
strategies as against Weredragon, but keep in mind that Sketch will only
result in instant death 25% of the time.

Celestriads

So you want a bunch of Celestriads, but you’re far too lazy to spend hours trying to win them off Brachiosaurs or steal them from Galydes? That’s understandable. Luckily for you, there is a relatively quick and painless way to score multiple Celestriads within the coliseum!

This trick involves wagering the Murakumo in order to fight the monster Galypdes. Galypdes is usually an extremely rare enounter in the Phoenix Cave, so this will save you the trouble of hunting them down. Set Gogo up with three Steal commands, a Brigand’s Glove, and a Safety Bit (to protect from Galypdes’Cyclonic and Shamshir attacks). As he fights Galypdes, he will Mug it every turn until it dies. If that particular Galypdes wasn’t holding a Celestriad,that’s no problem!

By winning the fight, you will receive a Holy Lance, which you can then wager to get the Murakumo back. You can then wager the Murakumo again, and continue the cycle until you have all the Celestriads you want.

Outro

Hopefully this guide helps!

Info was gathered from various sources, including GameFAQs, Caves of Narshe, and FF Wiki.