Hidden Summons + Adamant Armor & Missables

[DexTepa]

So, there are 15 summons in total:

 

- 6 are obtained automatically (Chocobo, Mist Dragon, Ifrit, Shiva, Ramuh, Titan)
- 4 are obtained by beating optional bosses (Asura, Leviathan, Odin, Bahamut)
- 1 is obtained from an NPC (Sylph)
- 4 are obtained by getting rare drops (Goblin, Cockatrice, Mindflayer, Bomb)

 

You can fight Asura and Leviathan in the Sylph Cave in the Underworld. Asura can be a little tricky, since she can heal herself, but you can cast Reflect on her to prevent that. You can also loop her into casting the same spell (preferably Raise) over and over again if you attack her once every time she casts a spell.

 

Odin is in the Baron Castle basement. His Zantetsuken kind of stings, so don't hold back and go for the jugular. Give Edge a Lightning Claw (in addition to a sword), and he can deal some very nice damage.

 

Bahamut is hanging out in his cave on the Moon. You can't fight him unless you already have Asura and Leviathan. His Mega-Flare is pretty nasty, but you can use Reflect to guarantee a few characters will survive (unless they changed it). It's very much possible to take him out before he even gets to use it.

 

You can get the Sylph summon from one of the fairies in the Sylph Cave *regardless* of whether you complete the frying pan side quest or not. Doing the side quest just means you'll get it a little earlier. And getting the Kitchen Knife is *not* required for Plat (I carelessly missed it, so I know).

 

And then we have the four rare drop summons:

 

1. Goblin from Goblin.
2. Cockatrice from Dive Eagle or Cockatrice.
3. Mindflayer from Mindflayer.
4. Bomb from Remedy Bomb or Dark Grenade.

 

(The enemy names may be slightly different in this version, and they might've messed around with the enemy sets as well.)

 

First off, you can use Alarms/Sirens to get the first three (much) more easily. You can now just buy Alarms on the Moon for 3000 gil, so there's no need to farm them in the Tower of Babil.

 

1. The Baron region and North Damcyan (ie. where Damcyan Castle is) have Goblins in the greatest numbers. Using Alarms in the Baron region gets you an encounter with 6 of them.

 

2. Dive Eagles are also found in the Baron region, but if you have Alarms/Sirens, you can use those in the Mysidia region to fight 3 Cockatrices.

 

3. Mind Flayers are only found in Cave Magnes. You can only fight two of them at most in a single encounter, and even that basically requires Alarms.

 

4. The first place where you can get the Bomb summon is on B1 of Tower of Babil 2, ie. the part of the tower you explore right after Edge joins. There's one encounter with three of them and another with four. You can just run away from the other enemies. If you've completed the dungeon, you can't access that part of the tower anymore. In that case, you have to go with the Bombs you can encounter on the surface of the Moon and in the two small caves that you have to go through on your way to the Crystal Palace. The first cave (just a little west of the palace) is the best option (one encounter with 3, another with 4). If you cast Thunder on a Dark Grenade, the enemies will die instantly.

 

 

As for the infamous Adamant Armor, you need to score a Pink Tail from the enemy formerly known as the Pink Puff (Purin Princess in the Japanese version). It's a slot 8 encounter in one specific room on B5 of the final dungeon. It's the room where you find a Red Fang (if they haven't changed it). Alarms are a must. Once you get one, take it to the tail collector on the little island near the town of Mythril. It's the same place where you got the Adamantite for the Excalibur.

 

 

The drop rates may or may not have been increased. In the original, the overall drop rate is 5%. If you get a drop, a second roll is made to determine the actual item. There are four item drop slots, and the odds of getting the fourth one are 4/256. Combined with the overall drop rate, you get... 1/1280. Yeah...

 

Update: The drop rates are still the same, but what they've done is move the aforementioned slot 4 drops and put them in higher slots, making them *much* easier to farm. You can get the easier ones in 30 minutes. Bomb and Pink Tail could take a while. Better have something playing in the background while you're farming. Maybe some Hololive, for instance? I just finished Miko's playthrough of Super Mario Bros. 3 myself.

 

 

Visiting every map location is pretty simple. The only things you might easily miss are the chocobo forest located on an island northwest of Kaipo and another one south of Troia.

 

There are a bunch of missable enemies, since there are four dungeons that you (eventually) lose access to: Tower of Zot, the two separate sections of the Tower of Babil, and the Giant of Babil. The first section of the Tower of Babil (the one accessed from the Underworld) will remain accessible until you complete the Sealed Cavern. The other three become inaccessible when you complete them.

 

The Tower of Zot is the only place where you can encounter:

 

Marion / Puppet
Hell Turtle (1F & 2F)
Prakti / Gremlin (1F, 2F, 4F)
Centaur Knight
Breeze Beast
Blizlizard
Black Knight
Lady Guarder / Soldieress
Sorceress

 

Tower of Babil 1 is the only place where you can encounter:

 

Evil Doll
Flame Knight
Chimera
Security Eye
Naga (6F-8F, spawned by Security Eye)

 

Tower of Babil 2 is the only place where you can encounter:

 

Reikishi / Ghost Knight
Sorcerer
Raisei / Grudger
Mother Lamia (8F-6F, ie. after falling down from the Crystal Room)
Mythril Golem (8F-6F)

 

The Giant of Babil is the only place where you can encounter:

 

Beamer

Mech Soldier

Centaurion

Searcher

Giant Soldier

Mech Dragon (spawned by some Searchers in the last two areas, rare on its own)

 

It doesn't seem like you can miss any boss entries like the Doctor, Barnaba-Z, or Calcabrina. You also can't miss the entries for the commanding officers you fight in some event battles (in Kaipo and Fabul), even though they might run away.

 

When it comes to normal enemies, you have to actually kill it to get the entry. So, yeah, you'll have to kill at least one Zemus Mind. Make sure you have enough MP for a few Flares and everyone is equipped with either a Ribbon or a Headband (buy them in Baron).

 

The southern Sylvan region has some enemies you won't find elsewhere (Misleader, Gloomwing, Gorgon, Araune, Yellow Dragon), but they're not really missable, just elusive. The Yellow Dragon is a rare one, so it's best to use a Siren. You might end up seeing one in the Sealed Cavern as well, though, when fighting one of the Trap Doors.

 

 

The three most elusive hidden items are the ones you find by checking the bookshelves in the shops in the Summon Monster town and the bookshelf in the Sylvan Cave. They don't appear until you've gotten Bahamut.

 

The single most elusive chest in the original was found at Kokkol the Smith's place in the Underworld, but they removed it in this one.

 

 

The original enemy Exp values are multiplied by 0,7, but they've cut all level xp requirements in half. That means you level up 40% faster (without taking the faster flow of battle into account).

 

 

If you're curious about enemy behavior, I wrote a detailed enemy list that includes the AI scripts. The names are from the Japanese version, though.

 

https://pastebin.com/UVYEC57L

 

That's just one part of my FF4 guide. You can find the rest here:
https://pastebin.com/u/3vrB257ncl4qg9s?sort=name

Edited April 26, 2023 by DexTepa

[MagusCreed]

I was pretty keen on getting these Platinums but holy moly, getting Adamant armor and all the rare summon drops is bonkers.  

[MidnightDragon]

This will be very helpful. Thank you.

[Snake2410]

On 4/18/2023 at 11:10 AM, MagusCreed said:

I was pretty keen on getting these Platinums but holy moly, getting Adamant armor and all the rare summon drops is bonkers.  

I have never in my probably 20ish times beating this game been able to get a pink tail to drop, so this'll be interesting. 

 

Farmed it a bunch on the SNES, the PSP, and PS1 versions but gave up after a while on each.  Out of all of these remasters IV is the one I want the platinum on the most, so we'll see how that turns out.  Maybe my luck will finally change for the better.

[Karnacharya]

Unless the drop rates for the secret summons have been buffed, I'm not going for this Platinum. I remember grinding for 25 hours before Mindflayer finally dropped back when I was a teen, but I don't really have time for that shit now that I'm almost forty.

[DQDQDQ]

I have the plat. The drop rates are either significantly improved or I was unbelievably lucky. Never played the PC/Mobile versions so I don't know how this compares.

 

My drop rates were:

 

Summons

Goblin - I ended with 47 but I got this in my second encounter of the entire game right outside Baron

Cockatrice - 60               Mt. Hobbs by save point on I think the second screen

Mind Flayer - 44           Used sirens one step inside Magnetic Cavern

Dark Grenade, Balloon - 63, 27      Used West Lunar Passage

 

Pink Tail

Flan Princess - 20       Two sirens initially and decided to come back later. Got it on 4th siren used the second time in there.

 

[VegaTheGreat]

Can you confirm that Sirens/ Alarms are purchasable in the console versions and that you don't have to grind for 198 of them on that missable enemy?

[DQDQDQ]

1 hour ago, VegaTheGreat said:

Can you confirm that Sirens/ Alarms are purchasable in the console versions and that you don't have to grind for 198 of them on that missable enemy?

 

Yes you can buy them eventually.

 

Spoiler

You can buy them from the Hummingway location on the Moon for 3000 each. I bought a full stack end game and didn't even use half of them before getting all the drops needed for trophies.

 

Edited April 21, 2023 by DQDQDQ

[ZeromusF4]

Im at around 300 kills of the flan princess and have not gotten a single tail yet

 

*edit* next kill after posting this and it dropped, thats usually how it works isnt it lol

Edited April 23, 2023 by ZeromusF4
more info

[Siwz]

I got the Cocatrice one after my third Battle against them in the Story. Guess im lucky.

[ThatMuttGuy]

I used up all my luck for a while. Got the Pink Tail after my 4th Siren use. 

[Claymorw]

I think the summon drop rate is very high in this version. I got all 4 summons after 20 minutes. Each of them, took less than 10 groups kill. Even the tail was about 8 groups, without a doubt, much quicker than previous version. 

[PostGameBlues]

You guys got really lucky then. Each secret summon drop took me around 1 hr+, with Mindflayer taking more than 90 minutes or so. For the pink tail it took me one hour as well (killed like 200+ flan princesses). With that being said, the grind is definitely easier on this version. The fact that you can buy Sirens alone from Hummingway is already a godsend. 

[Masamune_Riku]

I got Goblin my first battle with them, and now Cockatrice an hour later.

[Blackmist_FFXI]

Took a out 231 goblins before goblin dropped, 20min later I'm sitting on 4.  Still no cockatice, think I've killed 80 helldivers.

 

Lv23 start of story lol. Going to be so dam overpowered for a while. Almost feel sorry for the mist dragon.

[Caldor2K2]

I got the shaft with Mindflayer earlier lol. Got an hourglass item from them which is their 4th (ultra rare) drop. Seems in this version Mindflayer summon (Goblin too), has been bumped from 4th to 3rd drops. If I was playing any other version I would have got it.

 

Oh well I guess that's what the sirens are for later. ?

Edited May 6, 2023 by Caldor2K2

[DragoonBilly]

On 4/18/2023 at 10:10 AM, MagusCreed said:

I was pretty keen on getting these Platinums but holy moly, getting Adamant armor and all the rare summon drops is bonkers.  

It took me 2 hours using Sirens to summon the 5x Flan Princess fight for every battle to get that damn drop.  

[Caldor2K2]

5 hours ago, DragoonBilly said:

It took me 2 hours using Sirens to summon the 5x Flan Princess fight for every battle to get that damn drop.  

2 hours isn't so bad. I remember trying to get it in the non siren buying versions and sometimes it took 2 hours to fight them once.

[gibbeynator]

Boy I must have pissed off RNGsus something bad because I'm wasting sirens left, right and center trying to get these drops. It took me 50 sirens just to get Mind Flayer and that was my second one...

[Demortuus]

On 4/21/2023 at 4:04 AM, DQDQDQ said:

I have the plat. The drop rates are either significantly improved or I was unbelievably lucky. Never played the PC/Mobile versions so I don't know how this compares.

 

My drop rates were:

 

Summons

Goblin - I ended with 47 but I got this in my second encounter of the entire game right outside Baron

Cockatrice - 60               Mt. Hobbs by save point on I think the second screen

Mind Flayer - 44           Used sirens one step inside Magnetic Cavern

Dark Grenade, Balloon - 63, 27      Used West Lunar Passage

 

Pink Tail

Flan Princess - 20       Two sirens initially and decided to come back later. Got it on 4th siren used the second time in there.

 

 

Summons

Goblin - 3

Cockatrice - 3

Mind Flayer - 3

Dark Grenade, Balloon - 10

 

Pink Tail

Flan Princess - I lost count, 3h

 

I also encountered the Mech thing in 1 after 10mins and the Iron Giant in 2 as my first encounter. What was the difficult one in 3, don't remember the name, but that was also in a 10min timeframe.

 

It seems my luck finally ran out.

 

I've always been lucky with this kind of thing. When I went to farm the Crusader enchant in WoW with a droprate of 0.1% or something I got it in 2006 after 1h and in Classic in 2019 after my 3rd mob lol

Edited May 16, 2023 by Demortuus
Updated timeframe for Pink Tail

[oYazmat]

3 hours ago, Demortuus said:

 

Summons

Goblin - 3

Cockatrice - 3

Mind Flayer - 3

Dark Grenade, Balloon - 10

 

Pink Tail

Flan Princess - I lost count, 3h

 

I also encountered the Mech thing in 1 after 10mins and the Iron Giant in 2 as my first encounter. What was the difficult one in 3, don't remember the name, but that was also in a 10min timeframe.

 

It seems my luck finally ran out.

 

I've always been lucky with this kind of thing. When I went to farm the Crusader enchant in WoW with a droprate of 0.1% or something I got it in 2006 after 1h and in Classic in 2019 after my 3rd mob lol

 

Same here, got everything in a few fights... until I had to farm Pink Tails... used 50+ alarms.

[DQDQDQ]

I did a few sirens a day to get an Adamant Armor for the entire party. It only took 160 Flan Princesses total, so 32 sirens.

[Ichigo0xx]

I killed 519 cockatrice and no luck 

[Seqqeqeth]

well with quick save, farming should not use too many items. I remember farming for the 3D remake on pc, and I used to use a few alarms, if nothing dropped, just reload the quick save.

 

I suspected the drops had been boosted, just looking at the %s for the trophies. Shouldn't be too hard.

[Veritas7Ax]

I think I got sort of lucky with these? I already had Goblin and Bomb from just playing normal battles during the story. Have had them since the first like 3-5 hours, without any farming. So that’s half done already.

 

I tried Mindflayer for a few mins last night, 38 sirens, didn’t get anything. Will try again later.

 

Edit: Got Mindflayer on my 99th siren (reloading save method)

 

Edit 2: Got cockatrice with about 20-25 sirens, I lost count. All done.

Edited June 14, 2023 by Veritas7Ax