Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles

What is this game?

Players take on the role of adventurers who travel in a caravan gathering mystical fuel (Myrrh) for crystals which protect the world's settlements from the destructive Miasma. The single-player campaign has the player escort the vessel carrying the crystal's energy, defending it from enemies and solving puzzles to progress. Multiplayer, which uses Game Boy Advance units connected using the console's link cable, has up to four players protecting the vessel.

Ported to Archipelago, this World provides the following:

• Items, Food, Magicite, Artifacts
• Chest Locations
• Shop slots as checks (Shop Checks), or shuffled shop stock and prices
• Dolphin automatic integration (No Support For Bizhawk)

Where is the options page?

The player options page for this game contains all the options you need to configure and export a config file.

What does randomization do to this game?

The items in every dungeon chest are shuffled into the multiworld, for each of the three cycles a dungeon can be on. Options can also lock every dungeon behind a key, shuffle which dungeon each world-map spot leads to, change the elements the Miasma Streams ask for, and shuffle shop stock and prices. With all options enabled, there are over 1000 checks!

What is the goal?

Depending on the Victory Goal option, either collect a Myrrh drop from all 13 dungeons' trees, defeat the final boss at Mount Vellenge and reach the credits, or complete the Monster Hunt (see below).

What items and locations get shuffled?

Locations are the dungeon chests, counted separately for each cycle a chest can be opened in. Optionally, reaching a dungeon's second and third cycle, the start of each new year, defeating enemies (Monster Hunt Checks) and buying from the towns' shops (Shop Checks) are checks too.

Items are artifacts, spell rings, magicite, materials, food, recipes and phoenix downs, plus stage keys, progressive artifacts and progressive equipment when those options are on, and traps.

What does another world's item look like in this game?

A chest holding another player's item gives an "AP Item" when opened.

Gold chests

With Chest Color Matches Contents (on by default), a chest holding a progression or useful item, for you or for another player, is gold, and a chest holding filler looks normal. A chest can hold something different in each cycle, so its color can change from one cycle to the next.

When the player receives an item, what happens?

The client puts the item into the game while you are in a dungeon (items that arrive elsewhere wait until you enter one): artifacts and stage keys go to your artifact list, progressive equipment upgrades what you have equipped, traps take effect, and everything else goes in your bag. If the bag is full, the item waits until there is room unless you change the options in the yaml.

A chest's check is sent when you open it, so keep the client connected while playing. Chests can be opened again on a later visit in the same cycle if a check was missed.

Items dropped at your feet

With Items Dropped At Your Feet, received items are put on the ground in front of you instead of in your bag, so you only pick up what you want and the bag doesn't fill up by itself. Materials, food, recipes, magicite and Phoenix Downs are dropped. Progressive Equipment always goes in your bag . Artifacts, stage keys and Spell Rings still go straight to you unless you enable Keep picked-up artifacts.

An item counts as received as soon as it is on the ground. Items are only given inside a dungeon or a town, one at a time. Items left on the ground are gone once you leave the area. If you missed one, use /resend in the client to drop the last item again, or /resend <item name> for any item you have received.

Keep picked-up artifacts

Normally an artifact picked up in a dungeon only lasts until the end of the dungeon, where you keep one of them. With Keep Picked-Up Artifacts, every artifact you pick up goes straight into your artifact list and is kept. The end-of-dungeon screen then only offers its bonus items.

Together with Items Dropped At Your Feet, artifacts you receive are also dropped at your feet (stage keys and Spell Rings still go straight to you), and /resend <artifact name> can drop one again.

Stage Keys

With the Stage Keys option, every dungeon except River Belle Path needs its key to enter. The element menus on the world map work without the key, and without having cleared the stage first: walk to a stage such as Selepation Cave, press A, and pick "Change element". So the element a Miasma Stream asks for this year can always be picked up on your side of it, whichever keys you have.

Hotspot Elements

The elemental pools (hotspots) inside dungeons set the chalice's element, which is what the Miasma Streams ask for. The Hotspot Elements option changes what each pool gives, and it changes every year:

• Match Miasma Streams - each year, the dungeons on each side of the streams share out the elements its streams ask for that year: first the streams leading on, then the ones leading back. This pairs well with Randomize Miasma Streams and Shuffle Loading Zones, where it keeps a year from leaving you without the element you need.
• Shuffled - every dungeon gives random elements each year. Seeds are only kept if every year can still be finished.

A dungeon always gives as many different elements as it usually does (River Belle Path two, the Mine of Cathuriges one), and its pools keep their pattern: River Belle Path's water, wind and water pools become, say, fire, water and fire. Its name bubble on the world map shows the same elements.

With either setting, the world map's "Change element" menus change with the years too. The stops on each side of the streams share out that year's elements for its streams, on and back, so between them they offer every one. With Match Miasma Streams, a dungeon on its own stop gives the same elements its menu offers. A stop keeps its number of choices (two at River Belle Path, Goblin Wall, Tida and Moschet Manor, one at the others), and its menu text names the elements it offers. With Stage Keys the menus work without the key, so the element for the streams around you is always on offer at the stops on your side.

The element icons in a dungeon's name bubble on the world map follow the year's elements. The pools themselves keep their usual colour, so check the chalice after touching one. Lynari Desert's Unknown pool always gives Unknown. The pack's hotspot map icons show the usual elements.

Progressive Equipment

With the Progressive Equipment option, the item pool gets 6 each of Progressive Weapon, Progressive Armor and Progressive Tribal Gear (shield, gauntlets, helm or belt, depending on your tribe). Each one puts the next piece for your tribe in your bag, for example a Lilty's lance goes Partisan, Sonic Lance, Titan Lance, Halberd, Gungnir, Longinus. Equip it from the menu. It needs a free bag slot: with a full bag, it (and any items after it) arrives once you make room.

The Jegon River

From Year 5 the Jegon River dries up, and the ferry to the Plains of Fum (and so Rebena Plains and the Abyss) stops until the river is refilled. To refill it, go to Veo Lu Sluice and cast Life on its six pumpflowers. Otherwise it only fills again in Year 8.

The logic makes sure you can always do this:

• Everything across the river is only in logic once you have the Ring of Life and can reach Veo Lu Sluice, so the ring is never placed where the dry river could cut you off from it.
• With Shuffle Loading Zones, Veo Lu Sluice always stays on this side of the river (Tipa Peninsula, Iron Mine Downs, Vale of Alfitaria or Veo Lu).

Mount Kilanda

Mount Kilanda is only reached by boat, and the boats offer it in different years: the Jegon River pier from Year 4 (and again once the river is refilled), Port Tipa only while the river is dry, and Leuda from Year 5. The logic expects you to get there from the Jegon River pier, so Mount Kilanda is in logic from Year 4 once you can reach Iron Mine Downs. With Stage Keys, the boatmen won't take you without the Mount Kilanda Key.

Playing fewer cycles

Each dungeon has three cycles: the first visit is Cycle 1, and every visit after you clear it is Cycle 2 and then Cycle 3. With Progression Cycles set to 1 or 2, only those cycles can hold progression and useful items. Chests in later cycles are still checks but only hold filler, so you never need to play them. You still revisit dungeons for Myrrh each year, but the later-cycle chests can be skipped.

Progressive Artifact Order

With Progressive Artifacts on, Progressive Artifact Order picks which artifacts come first: Strength, Magic or Defense first (handy for a fighter, a mage or a tank), the game's own order, or a random order. Every artifact still arrives in the end. To start with a few already, add Progressive Artifacts to your start_inventory.

Magicite and the bonus

• Magicite Needs Its Ring: Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, Cure and Life magicite only go into your command list once you have the matching ring. Receiving a Ring of Fire, Blizzard, Thunder or Life unlocks its magicite right away. The Ring of Cure is an artifact, so Cure stays locked until you find it.
• Always Best Bonus Tier: the end-of-dungeon bonus always gives the best reward tier your score reached, instead of a random tier up to it.

Bonus rewards

At the end of a dungeon, the bonus screen offers four items from that dungeon's bonus pool. Which four depends on the cycle and on the tier your bonus points reach. With Randomize Bonus Pools the items are shuffled for the seed (never Spell Rings, stage keys or AP Items). Otherwise they are the game's own. In the client, /bonus shows the current dungeon's tiers for this cycle: the points one player needs, the items, and which you've picked. The PopTracker pack's Bonus Rewards tab shows the same for every dungeon and marks your picks as you make them.

Monster Hunt

The Monster Hunt is a list of 108 enemy types: 93 normal enemies and the 15 bosses (the Moschet Manor fight counts as two, the Gigas Lord and the Lamia Queen). Ice Ahriman and Vampire Bat only appear with more than one player, so they aren't on it. The copies of normal enemies that join a boss fight count as that enemy, so an Orc defeated in the Orc King fight counts as an Orc.

• Victory Goal: Monster Hunt - defeat at least one of every enemy type.
• Monster Hunt Checks: Enemy Types - defeating the first enemy of each type is a check ("Monster Hunt - Goblin (Sword)"). The enemies replace the chests: chests aren't checks, and they don't appear in the dungeons. With about 100 checks instead of about 450, the item pool is smaller: every progression item is kept, then progressive equipment, then as many other useful items (artifacts and such) as fit.
• Monster Hunt Checks: Every Enemy - defeating each enemy in each dungeon is a check, about 960 of them ("River Belle Path - Goblin (Sword) 3", and a boss is "River Belle Path - Giant Crab"). An enemy that comes back in later cycles is one check, in the first cycle it appears in. As with Enemy Types, chests aren't checks and don't appear.
• Monster Hunt Bosses (on by default) - the bosses are part of the hunt. Turn it off to leave them out of the goal and the checks.

Some enemies only appear in a dungeon's second or third cycle, and the logic knows which. With Progression Cycles below 3, an enemy type only found in later cycles only holds filler.

The client sees an enemy die while it's connected, so keep it connected while playing. /hunt in the client lists how many types are defeated and the ones left, by the dungeon they appear in most. The PopTracker pack's Monster Hunt tab shows every enemy type, grouped the same way, and lights each one up when it's defeated (bosses have a gold border). A type still to defeat has a green border when the logic says you can reach it, and a red one when you can't yet. Hover over one to see every dungeon and cycle it appears in.

With either kind of Monster Hunt check, the pack's dungeon maps show a pin for every enemy where it spawns (instead of the chests), and one "Boss Fight" pin per dungeon for the enemies of its boss room. With Enemy Types, every pin of a type you've already defeated is cleared, so the pins left are the enemies still worth hunting. With Every Enemy, each pin is cleared when that enemy is defeated.

Shop Checks

With Shop Checks, the first purchase from each slot of a town's shop is a check, 94 slots in all:

Shop	Slots	Reachable
Marr's Pass Material Shop	16	Year 1, odd years only
Alfitaria Food Shop	4	Year 2
Alfitaria Material Shop	16	Year 2, even years only
Shella Shop	9	Year 2, with a Shella Mark
Fields of Fum Food Shop	6	Year 3, across the Jegon River
Fields of Fum Material Shop	16	Year 3, odd years only
Leuda Recipe Shop	12	Year 5, by boat from Port Tipa
Leuda Material Shop	15	Year 5

A slot sells your own item when it's something a shop can sell (food, materials, recipes or a Phoenix Down), and buying it gives you the item. Anything else is sold as an "AP Item" for 10 gil, and the client sends the check when you buy it. Each shop sells the same list all game, instead of adding items as the story goes on. Some merchants only set up their stall in odd or even years, as in the game.

Only Yukes can enter Shella without a Shella Mark, a material the enemies of Veo Lu Sluice drop, so the logic expects Veo Lu Sluice before Shella's shop.

Tipa's shop isn't a check: it's run by the family of a caravan member whose job is Merchant, so not every game has it. The Selkie Peddler, who turns up on other stages, and the blacksmiths' crafting aren't checks either.

Keep the client connected while shopping: it sees the purchase on the yes/no screen. The PopTracker pack's Shops tab has a map of each town with a green box at every shop, holding a section per slot.

DeathLink

With DeathLink on, running out of hearts in a dungeon sends a death to the other DeathLink players, and a death from them empties your hearts. You can switch it for your slot from the client at any time:

• /deathlink off or /deathlink on
• /deathlink shows whether it's on
• /deathlink default goes back to the seed's setting

The choice is kept on the server, so it stays the same after reconnecting.

Mog Stamp Hints

With Mog Stamp Hints (on by default), every new Mog Stamp from a Moogle Nest hints where one of your progression items is: a stage key, a ring, a Year Key and so on, in your world or anyone else's. It's always one you haven't found yet, picked in a random order set by the seed. There are 23 stamps, one in each Moogle Nest in the dungeons and towns. Tipa's moogle gives your stamp card and first stamp.

The client sends the hint when it sees the new stamp, so keep it connected. It remembers which stamps already gave a hint, so loading an older save doesn't hint again. A stamp only gives a hint the first time you get it.

Dungeon shortcuts

Each of these options opens part of one dungeon from the start. They only make the dungeon quicker: the logic doesn't change.

Option	What it does
River Belle Path Bridges Lowered	Both drawbridges start lowered
Goblin Wall Gates Open	Every gate starts open
Mine of Cathuriges Boxes Cleared	The box piles the mine cart breaks are gone
Tida Webs Cleared	The spider webs are already burnt away
Moschet Manor Doors Open	Tribe switches press themselves, so doors open as you enter
Selepation Cave Elevators Lowered	The three elevators start at the bottom
Conall Curach Log Bridges	The log bridges are there without bombing Daemon's Court's logs
Rebena Te Ra Gates Open	The switch gates and barriers start open (not the item pedestals)
Unknown Element Puzzle Solved	Lynari Desert's hotspot gives Unknown right away, and its element obstacles are gone (saved in your save file)

Chests with extra requirements

• Conall Curach chests 12 and 21 are behind the log bridge, which is blown up with bombs in Daemon's Court. They are only in logic once Daemon's Court can be reached.
• Rebena Te Ra chests 6 and 9 need painful timing to reach alone (Mog has to cast the spell for you). They only hold filler items unless the "Rebena Te Ra Timed Chests" option is on.

Credis / Shoutouts

PaulSRC

• Created the awesome title and AP client logos

Zcanann

• Working hard on the decomp project gave us many insights on how things worked

ACluelessBull, Scionceon

• Other AMAZING devs who have looked into the game and spent HOURS of time collecting research notes / ideas

And of course, the amazing community!

• For all the spend hours sending bug reports / ideas and just great overall research notes :)