Final Fantasy Cheat Codes & Secrets
Complete collection of cheat codes, passwords, unlockables, and hidden secrets for Final Fantasy (1987).
Save System — No Passwords, No Built-In Codes
Final Fantasy on the NES uses battery-backed SRAM rather than a password system. Three save slots (GAME A, B, C) are available from the title screen; you save by resting at inns or using a Tent/Cabin/House in the field. There are no native developer cheat codes, no Konami Code sequences, and no accessible debug menu on the retail cartridge. All code-based cheating requires an external device such as the Game Genie. That said, the NES version is riddled with formula bugs and exploitable mechanics that players have used for decades.
Game Genie Codes
Enter these at the Game Genie boot screen before the cartridge loads. Codes target the North American NES release (1990).
| Code | Effect | Notes |
|---|---|---|
AAKKYTZA | Start new game with 65,535 GP | New game only; carry-over doesn’t apply |
SXKGPISA | Character 1 never runs out of MP in battle | Slot 1 only; stack with per-character codes |
SZUIYVSA | All party members retain HP through lethal hits | Effectively prevents death in most scenarios |
GXVPLOVS | Party earns no experience points | Useful for low-level challenge runs |
ATNNYOZU | All shop items cost 1 GP | Makes gold grinding irrelevant |
OXKXKXSX | Walk through most walls | Can cause softlocks — keep a separate clean save |
Caution: The walk-through-walls code can place the party in invalid map regions, corrupting the current save slot. Always test on a sacrificial file.
Beneficial Glitches and Combat Exploits
The Dead-Target Waste (Most Critical Exploit Awareness)
This is the single most impactful bug in the game and affects every player. When you queue an action targeting an enemy, and that enemy dies before your character’s turn resolves, your character attacks the empty space and does nothing. The game does not auto-retarget.
How to exploit it: Always queue attacks on enemies that are unlikely to die before your turn. More importantly, use this knowledge defensively — if you see a party member queued to hit a nearly-dead enemy, use the round to cast a spell instead. Experienced players assign kill targets verbally before confirming selections in order to avoid wasted actions.
FAST Spell Stacking
The FAST spell (level 4 White Magic, buyable in Crescent Lake) doubles the number of hits for the target character. In the NES version, multiple castings stack multiplicatively, not additively. A Knight hit with FAST twice attacks four times per round; three castings give eight hits. Combined with the Masamune, this produces output that trivializes every endgame encounter including Chaos.
| Casts of FAST | Attack Multiplier |
|---|---|
| 1 | ×2 |
| 2 | ×4 |
| 3 | ×8 |
Intelligence Stat Does Nothing
A well-documented formula bug: the Intelligence stat was never correctly wired to spell damage in the NES version. Black Mages and Red Mages deal the same spell damage regardless of their INT score. Do not prioritize INT-boosting equipment thinking it increases output — it doesn’t. The stat was fixed in later remakes (Origins, Dawn of Souls).
Critical Hit Rate Is Effectively Zero
The critical hit formula contains an off-by-one or truncation error that produces a near-zero critical rate for all weapons under normal conditions. The Fighter/Knight class shows a non-zero display in stats, but empirical testing shows crits are vanishingly rare. Do not factor critical hits into damage planning.
BANE and WARP on Bosses
Several spells that appear to be field-clearing tools work on bosses the game implies are immune:
- BANE (Poison Wind, level 8 Black Magic): Inflicts instant death. In the NES version, it checks a flag set independently from standard boss immunity. Tiamat, Kraken, and some Chaos-shrine fiends can be KO’d by BANE.
- TOAD and STONE (level 4 Black Magic): The polymorph/petrify spells bypass some boss defenses. Notably useful in the early-midgame on encounters that resist FIRE and BLIZ families.
- SLOW (level 1 Black Magic): Works on many boss-type enemies despite expectations. Halves their action frequency and is worth casting before FAST.
| Spell | Level | Key Boss It Works On |
|---|---|---|
| BANE | 8 BLK | Tiamat, Kraken (partial) |
| TOAD | 4 BLK | Several fiend-shrine minibosses |
| SLOW | 1 BLK | Marilith, Lich |
Running From Unrunnable Fights
The run formula in the NES version is tied to Agility comparisons, but the check has a threshold quirk: if your party’s combined Agility exceeds the enemy group’s threshold by a sufficient margin, the game allows escape even from encounters flagged as boss-type. This is inconsistent and save-dependent — but if you are over-leveled, attempting to run from Chaos himself on the first round occasionally succeeds.
Ribbon Equip Exploit
The Ribbon accessory (found in the Flying Fortress and the Chaos Shrine) grants immunity to all status effects, but the NES game does not display this in the equipment screen — leading players to undervalue it. Any character class can equip the Ribbon. Putting it on a Black Mage or Red Mage protects them from the one-shot Glare/Gaze petrify attacks that kill unprotected mages in the endgame.
Hidden Encounters
WarMECH (Sky Warrior)
The most famous hidden encounter in the original Final Fantasy. WarMECH (called “Sky Warrior” in some fan documentation) appears only on the bridge tiles of the Flying Fortress leading toward Tiamat’s chamber. The encounter rate is approximately 1-in-64 per step on those specific tiles, making it one of the rarest random encounters in the game.
- Location: Flying Fortress, 4F bridge (the long horizontal corridor before Tiamat’s antechamber)
- Encounter rate: ~1.5% per tile step on bridge segments
- Stats: WarMECH hits harder than Tiamat and uses NuclearBlast, which deals massive non-elemental damage to all party members
- Reward: 32,000 EXP and 32,000 GP — more than any other enemy in the game
Players who want to grind WarMECH for the EXP/GP should save at the Flying Fortress entrance before attempting the bridge. The reward is exceptional but the encounter is punishing without maximum gear.
Class Change and Promotion Secrets
Bahamut’s Cube — Class Promotion
Once you obtain all four Orbs (Crystals) and the Rat Tail from the Citadel of Trials, bring it to Bahamut in his cave on the Cardia Islands. Each base class promotes to an advanced class:
| Starting Class | Promoted Class | Key Gained Ability |
|---|---|---|
| Fighter | Knight | Can equip White Magic (levels 1–3) |
| Thief | Ninja | Gains Black Magic (levels 1–4), higher speed |
| Black Belt | Master | Unarmed damage continues scaling |
| Red Mage | Red Wizard | Can cast level 7–8 spells |
| White Mage | White Wizard | Full spell access through level 8 |
| Black Mage | Black Wizard | Full spell access through level 8 |
The Knight White Magic Bug: Knights can equip White Magic tomes after promotion, but the game displays spell slots incorrectly in some cases. The spells still function — trust the spell menu, not the equip screen.
Masamune — Universal Equip
The Masamune is the strongest weapon in the game and is found in the Chaos Shrine’s lowest floor (B4, in a specific treasure chest). Critically, every character class can equip it regardless of weapon restrictions — including Black Mages and White Mages who cannot normally use swords. A White Wizard swinging the Masamune is the fastest route to physical damage output on a mage character.
- Location: Chaos Shrine, basement floor B4, fixed chest (not random)
- Equippable by: All six base and promoted classes
Spell and Item Tricks
Heal Potion Abuse Before Boss Fights
The NES version’s Heal (Potion/Tent/Cabin/House) items can be used on the overworld immediately before entering a dungeon transition, fully restoring HP and some MP. There is no cooldown. Players routinely step one tile from a dungeon entrance, use a House, and step in — bypassing the need to backtrack to inns mid-dungeon.
WARP and WARP2 Dungeon Exit
The WARP spell (level 4 Black Magic) sends the party back one dungeon level per cast. WARP2 (level 8) exits the dungeon entirely to the world map. This works in every dungeon including the endgame Chaos Shrine, allowing a full retreat, inn recovery, and re-entry without losing progress since the game’s fixed chest items are one-time pickups saved to the battery file.
Chaos Re-Fight After Defeating Him
After defeating Chaos and watching the ending, your save file remains intact. Loading that file places you just before the final dungeon descent. All four Elemental Fiends (Lich, Marilith, Kraken, Tiamat) and Chaos himself respawn, allowing repeated farming of the endgame for EXP and equipment. The Masamune chest does not restock, but all monster drops do.
Easter Eggs and Developer Notes
The Time Loop Paradox Ending
Not a glitch, but deliberately hidden lore: the ending reveals that Garland — the first boss, defeated in the game’s opening — was sent back in time by the four Fiends from 2,000 years in the past. In turn, Garland (now Chaos) sent the Fiends to the future to empower themselves, creating a causality loop with no origin point. This revelation requires reading the dialogue carefully in the Chaos confrontation; many players who rushed through missed it on original hardware.
Temple of Chaos Monster Names
The random encounters in the deepest floors of the Chaos Shrine include enemies named after mythological and pop-culture references uncommon for a 1987 game: Phantom, Zombie Dragon, Death Knight, and Ahriman (a Zoroastrian deity of evil). These were preserved verbatim in the North American localization, making them notable for their specificity compared to the generic enemy names elsewhere.
Garland’s Dialogue Foreshadowing
Garland’s line at the game’s opening — “I, Garland, will knock you all down!” — became a meme in the fan community for its awkward localization, but the original Japanese text is a direct threat about dragging the Warriors of Light into the time loop. The English translation was done under significant memory constraints (limited character space per text box) by a small team, resulting in compressed phrasing throughout the North American release.