Ancient Zelmea
Ancient Zelmea (or just Zelmea) is side content that unlocks midway through version 2. It is a randomly generated dungeon that drops armor equipment of a chosen level, making it a very lucrative way to obtain this type of equipment.
Requirements
- Received the Dragon's Flute key item in Version 2.3
- Level 90+
- Version 4 Registered
How to Start
Zelmea does not unlock on its own, so you must head there yourself to get started. Once you receive your flying dragon during the story, fly off the eastern coast of the True Al-Ahagiro Region and land on the Isle of Ruins. After landing, speak with Dr. Nanalee straight ahead near the stairs. She will give you a rundown of Zelmea as well as one Zelmea Crest.
Entering Zelmea requires Zelmea Crests, which can be obtained in a variety of ways. One way is through the Energy Charge system, and 1 crest can be exchanged for 20 hours of Charge Time. You may only hold a maximum of 20 Zelmea Crests at a time. For each human player in the party, the party leader will need to spend that many Zelmea Crests to enter. You are allowed to go in alone with NPC party members and monsters if you like.
How it Works
Zelmea is a randomly generated dungeon that contains several rooms on each floor. Each room is locked by a door that requires an Abyss Scale to open, and may contain a variety of things such as keys to open more doors, enemies, and treasure chests that hold Abyss Orbs. The goal is try to descend as far as possible to the bottom floor in each section, which contains bonus treasure.
When you begin Zelmea, and each time you descend a floor, you are given a set number of Abyss Scales to navigate the floor and try to find the exit to the next floor down. Your collected keys will carry over between floors. If you manage to make it to the bottom floor or run out of keys on the current floor, a large door called the Door of Return will appear before you. Here, you can break open the Abyss Orbs you've obtained from chests to take the equipment inside. The amount of equipment you are allowed to take is based on several factors, which will be explained later.
If you decide to leave Zelmea prematurely, or if your party is wiped out, you will lose all Abyss Orbs you are currently carrying, so be careful.
This is just the gist, as there are many mechanics and gimmicks to be aware of, which will be explained in the following sections.
Secrets of Exploration
Before heading inside Zelmea, you may wish to speak with Adventurer Jiguro standing outside the entrance. In exchange for 1 Zelmea Crest, he will give your next Zelmea run a bonus.
| Secret | Description |
|---|---|
| Begin with 3 Scales | Starts a Zelmea exploration with an additional 3 Abyss Scales, allowing more rooms to be explored. |
| Find All +3 Equipment | All equipment you find in Zelmea will be +3 quality (have a guaranteed 3 alchemy effects attached to it). |
| Can Take 2 Extra Equips | The amount of equipment you can take along at the Door of Return will increase by 2. |
Your chosen secret will remain until the next time you enter Zelmea as party leader, and does not expire. This means entering Zelmea with someone else as party leader will not consume your currently chosen secret.
Choosing a Destination
When approaching the chasm to begin Zelmea, you will be presented with the Destination screen.
The Destination screen allows you to choose which floor to start at. At first, only B1F is available, but progressing further down will allow you to unlock more floors. The lower floors are larger and have more gimmicks, which allow you to obtain more treasure. The gimmicks accumulate as you go further down, making the lower floors more lucrative.
Each section contains 5 floors including itself (for example, starting from B1F, the lowest floor you can go to is B4F).
| Starting Floor | Last Floor | Gimmick(s) Added |
|---|---|---|
| B1F | B4F | - |
| B5F | B9F | - |
| B10F | B14F | Mysterious Candlestick may appear. |
| B15F | B19F | Adventurer Jiguro may appear. Red Abyss Scales may appear. |
| B20F | B24F | Mysterious Mirror may appear. |
Depending on which floor you have unlocked also dictates the equipment level you are able to choose, which is the equipment that will appear in the dungeon. Clearing each floor section will unlock the next one. (You do not need to reach the very bottom of each section to consider it cleared, so long as you reach the Door of Return).
| Floors Cleared | Selectable Floors | Choosable Equipment Level |
|---|---|---|
| None | B1F | Lv 42 - 96 |
| Cleared from B1F | B1F, B5F | Lv 42 - 99 |
| Cleared from B5F | B1F, B5F, B10F | Lv 42 - 100 |
| Cleared from B10F | B1F, B5F, B10F, B15F | Lv 42 - 105 |
| Cleared from B15F | B1F, B5F, B10F, B15F, B20F | Lv 42 - 120 |
(Once you unlock B20F, you can select any equipment level on any floor.)
After selecting a destination floor, you'll be asked to select what level equipment you'd like to appear inside. Afterwards, you'll be sent inside Zelmea.
Inside Zelmea
Once inside Zelmea, you will appear in a starting room with three Abyss Scales. They will allow you to unlock the doors between rooms. The amount of keys you have remaining will be shown at the top of the screen. You'll also see the map at the bottom left corner of the screen, split into two parts:
The top half shows all the rooms on the current floor. Bright blue rooms are rooms you've already explored, and dark blue rooms are unexplored rooms. Any icons that appear on a room square will dictate what will be inside of it. Door icons are displayed that connect rooms together, and require Abyss Scales to open.
The bottom half shows possible contents of any unexplored rooms. If a room is explored that contains one of the icons inside the box, it will disappear (unless there are multiple, in which it will count down by 1.) Depending on the floor you're on, several different types of icons may appear.
| Icon | Description |
|---|---|
|
Starting point of a floor. Examine this to leave and surrender any Abyss Orbs you've collected. |
   
|
Contains Abyss Scales indicated by the number in the icon. Collecting an Abyss Scale will reveal the icon of a random unexplored room. |
 
|
A room containing treasure chests with Abyss Orbs. The number displayed in the icon is how many will appear. |
|
Allows you to go to the next floor down. Each floor you descend reduces your Max HP for the remainder of the exploration. |
|
Allows you to choose an unexplored room on the map and check if there's anything inside. If a chosen room has nothing, you can choose again. Starting from B20F, this becomes the Mysterious Mirror, which will improve the contents of a chosen room. |
|
A room containing 1 to 2 Crankiids, which drop Zelmea Crests. |
 
|
A room containing an enemy (orange icon) or boss (red icon) and treasure chests. You will not be able to open any treasure chests or the doors to other rooms until the enemies are defeated. |
|
Brings you to the Passage Between, a special room with a difficult boss. Defeating this boss will grant you 3-4 shiny treasure chests. |
|
Unknown. May contain Abyss Scales, treasure chests, or enemies. |
Once your exploration finishes and you reach the Door of Return, you can choose to take a number of equipment pieces equal to the floors you explored. (For example, if you started on B5F and ended on B6F, you'd be able to take 2 pieces with you.) If you manage to reach the bottommost floor in a section, you will get a guaranteed 4 shiny chests. This is why trying to reach the bottommost floor is very important.
Additional Gimmicks
Mysterious Candlestick
Mysterious Candlesticks begin appearing in floor B10F and below, and have different effects based on their color. They will randomly appear on some floors, and regardless of the color, will always reveal the room that leads to the next floor down when examined. Each flame color, its effect, and its recommended use are explained in the following table.
| Flame Color | Effect | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Blue | Allows you to specify the type of equipment you want to appear on the following floor. (Head, chest, hands, legs, feet) Chests on the next floor will only contain equipment of this slot. | Recommended. |
| Yellow | Specify the type of monsters that appear on the next floor. Choosing "EXP" will cause Metal monsters to appear, and choosing "Gold" will cause Gold monsters to appear. | Not recommended. |
| Red | The following floor will have many boss monsters, which will give you a lot of shiny treasure chests. | Depends on your situation. |
| White | The next floor will be a bonus floor with many glowing treasure chests that are easy to acquire. | Highly recommended. |
