HCBailly plays Final Fantasy IV (Super Famicom) - Part 6 of 70

Our journey takes us into an underground cave where we meet a wise old sage with magic that will greatly help our adventure.

Overworld Map (by Rick Bruns)

Underground Waterway/Underground Channel

Map (by FlyingArmor)

This place will be the first to contain enemies with elemental weaknesses such as weakness to fire, ice and lightning. As a rule of thumb, toads are weak to ice, fish are weak to lightning and undead enemies are weak to fire. You'll get fire attacks later on.

Fly Killers and Fang Shells are both weak to lightning. Rydia won't be able to take down multiple enemies with Bolt, so use Cecil's Dark Wave when facing multiple enemies.

The LuckyMallet (also known as just the Mallet) cures the Mini status. Enemies can have random item drops throughout the game, and you just might get one in this area from a Fang Shell.

The Gigantoads are all weak to ice, but don't rule out using Dark Wave, either. These enemies can cast Toad on your party and turn party members into toads, but MaidenKisses can cure the Toad status.

You'll eventually run into an old man. This old man is the Sage Tellah, and will ask Cecil for help. He will tell you that his daughter Anna was tricked by a bard and went off to Damcyan, and he senses great evil there. He also tells you there is a powerful monster ahead, but he cannot beat it without your help. After he realizes Cecil is a dark knight and that Rydia is a summoner, he joins the party.

Tellah is a powerful sage, and he has a few magic spells. He is a very high level, and he will barely get any stronger than he actually is. Move him to the back row to make up for his low defense, and equip a LeatherHat on him. One of his spells is Cure 2. Utilize that if you need to heal up badly.

The Bomb Fragment casts Fire on all enemies when used as an item in battle. Save these for later; they'll be put to better use then.

Equip the Iron Bangle on Tellah to give him even more defense, since Rydia already has some equipped and Cecil cannot equip them at all.

The big waterfall near Tellah contains a hidden room. If you walk into it, you'll find a Dry Ether, an X-Potion and a Phoenix Down. Those two items are much better versions of the Ether and the Potion, respectively. Save these for later; you won't find these again until much later in the game.

Kill the Sea Pots before they run away. Hitting it with Bolt from Tellah will take it down. Thankfully, you can pass your turn over to Tellah by pressing Right and selecting Defend while choosing a command for a character. If you press Left instead of right, you'll be able to access the Change command, which changes the positions of the front and back rows in battle.

Tellah's "Remember" command is only in the Super Famicom version, and it allows him to cast a random spell that he once knew that he is not able to access normally. (This was removed in the Super Nintendo version in the West.)