Table of Contents
In this article, I'll guide you through the Mt. Nibel in Normal Mode. Let's start by discussing the enemies you'll encounter in this dungeon.
Enemies:
| Image | Name | Notes | Weakness | Resistance | Sigils |
 | Baloir Knight | Immunities: None Inflicts DEF Down on all targets with Intimidate. | Earth | Water, Wind | |
 | Baloir Queen | Immunities: None Uses earth-element physical attacks. Inflicts fatigue with Resin Bomb, and grants all allies ≤MDEF Up with Unearthly Rain. Multi-target attacks are effective against this enemy. | Earth | Water, Wind |  |
 | Vajradhara Wu | Immunities: Darkness / Stun / ATK Down / DEF Down /MATK Down / MDEF Down Uses many physical attacks. Unleashes a powerful linked attack with Vajradhara Tai, but afterward becomes incapacitated for a certain amount of time and inflicts DEF Down on self. | Earth | Wind |  |
 | Vajradhara Tai | Immunities: Darkness / Stun / ATK Down / DEF Down /MATK Down / MDEF Down Uses many physical attacks. Unleashes a powerful linked attack with Vajradhara Wu, but afterward becomes incapacitated for a certain amount of time and inflicts DEF Down on self. | Earth | Wind | |
 | Dragon | Immunities: Poison / Darkness / Silence / Stun / ? Fog Uses many physical attacks. Inflicts poison with Poison Breath and Poison Shriek, and PDEF Down with Crushing Bite. | None | | |
 | Baloir King | Immunities: None Uses water-element magic attacks including the powerful multi-target attack Water Surge. Calls additional allies to battle, and becomes aggressive when allies are defeated. Magic attacks and multi-target attacks are effective against this enemy. | Earth | |
Map:
Permanent Rewards:
Defaith Materia Recipe
Team Building Guide:
All the enemies in Mount Nibel are weak to the earth element. Unfortunately, there isn't a specialized earth attacker available in the game yet, so we'll have to make do with using the Quake and Quake Blow materia. The former is more effective against the Baloir King since magical attacks deal more damage to it. I brought Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith since they were at level 60 due to the training event. Cloud was my main damage dealer equipped with a Quake Blow materia. Tifa acted as my healer and breaker, while Aerith served as my magic damage dealer and breaker. The most challenging enemy in this dungeon is the Dragon, which doesn't have any weaknesses. It employs a lot of hard-hitting physical attacks, so I suggest using Tifa or another physical attack breaker to mitigate its physical assault. Otherwise, feel free to bring any party member, as, like I mentioned, there isn't any specific weapon or build that can exploit their earth weaknesses.
Walkthrough:
From the starting point, go west and open a chest containing 3 ethers and 4 supplements. Head north and punch the rocks to open a pathway. You will find two chests inside a nook, one containing 4 quake cocktails and another containing 5 synth catalyst slivers. You will also encounter some mobs here.
Head west and punch more rocks to open a pathway. Then head south, east, and finally north to fight the first symbol enemy.
Baloir Queen
The queen and knights are weak to earth attacks, so simply hit them with Quake or Quake Blow. Watch out for Earthquake, which is an area-of-effect physical earth attack. It also significantly buffs their magical defense, but it doesn't really matter when Cloud is hitting them with earth-based physical attacks.
Trance Ability Choices:
Pick Earth Potency +10% as your bonus, or choose Physical Defense +40% if you have trouble with the Dragon later.
Head north and slightly east to open the chest containing a tent and 4 potions. Then head east and punch some rocks to open up a pathway.
You will enter a random encounter here. Quickly dispatch the enemies. Head further east and open a chest that contains a cottage. Continue east to claim a permanent reward of 100 blue crystals.
Go back the way you came from and take the south path this time. Head east and open another chest containing 2 stimulants. Return to the fork and prepare to fight the next symbol enemy.
Vajradhara Wu and Tai
To the west are the Vajradhara twins, and to the east is the Dragon. I would recommend going for the duo first as it will be much easier to deal with them. Save the dragon for last. Aim for Vajradhara Wu first, then deal with the other one. Watch out for their cross strike combination attack; it's a physical AoE attack that hits pretty hard if you didn't acquire the Physical Defense Trance ability. They debuff their own physical defense after executing that attack, so spam your earth attacks while they are debuffed.
Trance Ability Choices:
Pick Earth Potency +10%.
Dragon
Head back east and fight the dragon. Its opening attack is a poison breath, so make sure everyone has high HP, or else it'll wipe out your party.
It also performs the Dragon Stomp, which is an AoE (Area of Effect) physical attack. It's truly a good idea to lower its physical attack stat to increase your party's survival rate.
Trance Ability Choices:
I would choose the 60% physical defense if you defeated the dragon before the twins. Otherwise, pick the middle one if you have a magic defense buffer in your party.
Baloir King
Head north, then southeast to fight the Baloir King. It will be alone at the start, but it will summon its companions. It's best to focus all your attacks on it. It will buff its physical defense and water potency, so make sure to bring a physical defense debuffer to have an easier time dealing damage to it.
