Final Fantasy II — Rare Summon Farming Log

A personal log of farming the rare Mage, Imp, and Bomb summons in Final Fantasy II (FFIV) on SNES over Christmas break.

From the desktop window

I recently felt the urge to rehook my SNES and play FFII-US (FF4) over the Christmas break. I had previously received the "Imp" and "Bomb" summons a few playthroughs ago (I even had a saved file with one of each on the cartridge), but I had a nagging feeling there were more.

I decided to check some FAQs on GameFAQs.com and discovered that there was a Mage summon! I never knew about it before, so I decided to farm it. It made sense why I never got it: it's in Magnes Cave, and when I was young, I'd just run until I got to the Dark Elf. Even in my teenage years when I replayed the game, I would just get to the Elf and leave.

I tried for several days to no avail, then decided to start keeping a text file of encounters and the number of Mages killed. (Side note: it dawned on me all these years later — 35+ — that the Mage is the "Wizard" from the original Final Fantasy.) This tracking actually helped my sanity, and eventually it dropped! (Along with the Zeus Gauntlet from the Ogres.)

I was creating this app at the same time, and in my excitement over completing FFII with all three summons, I thought I'd add it here as well.

Final Fantasy II — Rare Summon Farming Log

I recently felt the urge to rehook my SNES and play FFII-US (FF4) over the Christmas break. I had previously received the Imp and Bomb summons a few playthroughs ago, but I had a nagging feeling there were more. I decided to check some FAQs on GameFAQs.com and discovered that there was a Mage summon. I tried for several days to no avail, then decided to start keeping a text file of encounters and the number of Mages killed. This tracking actually helped my sanity, and eventually it dropped — along with the Zeus Gauntlet from the Ogres. I killed 218 Mages before the Mage summon dropped, 424 Imps before the Imp summon dropped, and 143 Balloons before the Bomb summon dropped.

A personal farming log kept over Christmas, tracking rare summon drop rates in Final Fantasy II (FFII-US / FFIV) on SNES after 35+ years away from the game. Discovered via GameFAQs that a Mage summon existed in Magnes Cave — a location previously rushed through as a child just to reach the Dark Elf, never farmed. Notable realization made during the session: the Mage enemy is the same as the Wizard from the original Final Fantasy. A text file of encounter counts was kept battle-by-battle to preserve sanity. Written and archived while building the Doors 98 app simultaneously.