Boss Battle: Astos

Astos. King of the Dark Elves. Responsible for the theft of the witch Matoya's crystal eye and the eternal slumber spell that has kept the King of the Forest Elves in stasis for the last five years. Finally, a boss! Technically Garland, the corrupted Cornelian Knight is the first boss of FF1, but the fight with Garland lasts about 2.5 seconds and I'm confident that you don't my help in defeating him. Astos might be a different story.

The fight with Astos commences when you attempt to return the stolen Crown from the Marsh Cave to the oversized King of the Western Kingdom. The polar bear proportions of the chubby king might have tipped you off that he isn't altogether wholesome, but in event that it didn't, he reveal his true intentions when you attempt to hand over the crown.

Astos is virtually immune to physical hits, so if you haven't bought along either a black of red mage you're going to have some difficulties. Critical attacks will still deal substantial damage, but the average physical attack is going to be sadly ineffective. Fortunately black magic users make up 1/3 of the total available character classes, so chances are high that you've got one in toe.

Unload with your most powerful spells from turn one, no particular element is more effective than any other. My attempts to sleep, silence, slow, or blind Astos all failed, and while I don't know for sure that he is immune to these status ailments the use of them was surplus to victory. Hit him with spells and he should die in relatively short order.

Offensively Astos follows a fairly simple pattern. (I only fought him twice, but his actions were identical for both fights.) He begins the battle by casting an instant death spell on a member of your party. If it hits, simply reload and start the battle over again, as you don't really want anyone to miss out on experience for this fight. If it misses, which it did in both battles for me, he'll follow up by casting Slow II on one of your characters, and then Haste II on himself. At this point if you have a red or white mage with the NulFire spell you'll want to cast it, as Astos will follow the Haste II spell with Fire II, and this can do some damage if you're not prepared (though it wasn't enough to kill any of my party members even without the use of the NulFire.) After the Fire spell he'll begin using physical attacks, but by this point in the battle, if you've been using black magic each turn, he's nearly dead. Get in your last hits and congratulate yourself on your first real boss fight.

Your reward for dethroning the Dark Elf King is the Matoya's crystal eye. Take the eye to the witch in her cave to the north and she'll reward you with a Jolt Potion. The Jolt Potion can be used to awaken the sleeping Elf King, who will then reward you with something of actual value, the mystic key. Hurray! You can now open all of the Sealed doors that you've been encountering - assuming you remember where they all are.