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If you’re playing on either Normal or Easy mode inValkyrie Profile: Lenneth, you’ll encounter the Dragoncastle Caverns in Chapter 2 - if you’re on Hard mode, you’ll have no such luck. This dungeon doesn’t feature too many horrible enemies, but it’s a very large dungeon filled with twists and turns that can get you easily lost.
RELATED:Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth - Difficulty Guide
There’s also a lot of treasure to find in these Caverns, so they’re absolutely worth exploring! With a guide like ours, you can scoop up all the important things quite quickly and efficiently.
Dragoncastle Caverns Overview
Many of the enemies in this dungeon have the ability to poison you, so be sure to stock up on Banishes before you head in! Poison persists even after the battle ends, so you’ll have to deal with it sooner or later.
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None
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Uses Angry Scream, which will deal damage to your entire party. Quite a high-priority target, especially thanks to its high RDM and RST, making its health last longer than you’d expect.
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Fire
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Fire Storm will take care of most of their health - after that, they’re very easily mopped up.
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Can be a bit annoying with their poison attacks if you get poisoned right at the start of a fight. This makes them quite high-priority.
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Ice
840
These can deal quite a lot of damage and will be hard for your physical attackers to take down easily, but they will be instantly killed by an Icicle Edge.
Before you head into this dungeon, it’s recommended to go grab the Dragon Slayer from Artolia - simply head into Arngrim’s house and then into Arngrim’s bedroom to get the sword. Don’t equip it until the boss fight though!
Looting Dragoncastle Caverns
From the entrance,head down the stairs and continue on to the left. When you get to the room with the very longladder,drop all the way to the bottomand then head to the left to find anEye of Heaven.
Return to the ladder and climb it, jumpingover to the leftwhen you see a ledge.Continue on, further to the left, defeating or avoiding the monsters as you go. Eventually, you’ll reach another room with aladder.
First,take the exit to the left at the bottom of the ladder. Platform down to thebottom of this screencarefully, ignoring the exits to the left and being careful not to get caught by the Venomous Spider fight at the bottom, and then take the exit to the right.
On this screen, you’ll findtwo chests mostly obscured by rockson the right. They contain aLong Swordand aQuartz Gem. Headback one screenand thentake the exit to the rearthis time, which is near the exit to the right that you just came from.Head one screen to the lefton this screen to find two more chests containing aLapis Lazuliand aFire Stormspell book. The chest on the left has a large explosion trap, so be sure to run away from it when you open it.
From these chests,start heading all the way to the right, ignoring the alternate paths you could be taking. Eventually, you’ll reach a reach a bend and start heading to theleft, soon encountering another ladder. There is anexit to the left in the middle of this room: take it to find chests containing aShort Spearand aFrigid Damselspell book.
Start backtracking, ignoring the ladder to the top of the screen - the only thing it leads to is an exit to the world map.
When you reach thefirst screen with multiple exits, including one to the front,platform up to the top of the screen. Take theexit to the lefthere to find yet another pair of chests, this time containing aFoxgloveand anElement Scepter. Headback to the right and over the gapto find another pair of chests on the next screen containing aNightshadeand aLapis Lazuli. Both of the larger chests in these rooms are trapped with explosions.
Reaching The Boss
Return to theroom with multiple exitsand now take themiddle exit to the leftto find a save point - this is a good point to save your game.
You canDivine Items at save pointsjust like you can on the world map. If you’ve been struggling forElixirsorBanishes(thanks to poison), you can buy some here from the Divine Items menu in exchange for the Materialize Points that Freya grants you each chapter.
Return one screen to the right and this time, take the exit to the front on the bottom level. Head to the left now, pressing on through thislinear pathand opening the chest for aSavoryon the way. Keep heading to the right and you’ll hit a save point - save here, and then press on, dropping down the long shaft on the next screen.
Don’t take the exit to the right yet, instead,take the left exit rightat the bottom. There are three chests on this screen, containing aFoxglove, someAconite, and aSlanting Rainskill book.
Slanting Rainis a skill that only archers can learn, and it’s not too useful at the moment. Far more useful is theCombo Counterskill, which you can get by transmutating the Slanting Rain skill book. If you don’t already have Combo Counter (it’s a possible reward from Odin during a Sacred Phase), it might be a better use of the skill book.
Once you have those items,return to the right and take the exit a little further upthe screen to confront the dungeon’s boss.
How To Beat The Lesser Dragon
The Lesser Dragon willopen the battle by using Fire Storm, which will deal a very large amount of damage to one of your party members (unless they have theExtreme Guardequipped), making it seem like this is going to be a very difficult boss fight.
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Lightning, Poison, Holy
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Despite the large health pool, the Lesser Dragon should pose no threat, really. Take a look at its weaknesses: one of them islightning. You should still have theJewelled Blade “Grimrist"from the Artolian Mountain Ruins - this sword has the neat effect ofinstantly killing any enemy it hits if the enemy is weak to lightning. One strike from Valkyrie or any other sword-user with Grimrist equipped and you’ve won the battle.
Alternatively, if you do not have Grimrist,Arngrim’s Dragon Slayersword can do the same. The Lesser Dragon is a dragon, after all. One hit with the Dragon Slayer and the boss will go down.
If you have neither of those tools and want to fight the boss in a more standard fashion, be aware that you’ll need somehealing. Eitherhave someone ready to use Elixirs at all times, or useJelanda’s Healspell. You’ll also requireUnion Plumes- the Lesser Dragon’s tail attack deals a ton of damage and will one-shot any sorcerers it can target.
Nanami begins the game with the Lightning Bolt spelland it’s possible that you already have her at this point in the game. Consider swapping Jelanda for Nanami to exploit the Lesser Dragon’s weakness to lightning, or adding them both to the party to use their combined firepower.
Dragoncastle Caverns Artifacts
There aretwo artifactsto grab after beating the Lesser Dragon.
Don’t forget tounequip the Dragon Slayersword if you used it! It has a chance of breaking every round if the fight isn’t over in one round.
Scarlet Lotus Sword
A very decent katana for the early-game.
Spears and katanascan only be used by certain characters, and it’s possible that you don’t have any of them recruited at the moment.
How To Get Out Of Dragoncastle Caverns
There are multiple ways to get out of this dungeon, but all of them will require that youuse a ladder of crystalson the screen just before the boss room. Fire crystals into the wall on the left and use them as platforms to climb back up to the top.
After that, use the map above to find your way out.
