Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicles: How to rescue Orran (Mining Town of Gollund)

In Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicles, you occasionally have to rescue or protect characters, such as Orran in the Mining Town of Gollund. This is easily one of the most frustrating protection fights in the entire game, mostly due to the AI. Sometimes, Orran won’t use his most powerful ability, that can keep him safe from most attackers. By “sometimes”, I mean “most of the time”, in my experience. You may have an easier time on other difficulties, but on Tactician, he almost never uses his special power.

As the adopted son of Thunder God Cidolfuls Orlandeau, he’s an important character, even though he never joins your party. With a high elevation, and lots of mobile enemies, rescuing Orran in Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicles is going to be frustrating. I have a few tips that just might get you through.

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Tips to rescue Orran in Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicles

You’ll find Orran on top of the highest point in Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicle’s Mining Town of Gollund map. Completely surrounded by enemies, Orran has a low health pool, and only one skill worth anything.

The first step is to either buff/protect Orran from a distance, or get someone up there right away, like a Ninja (Image via Square Enix)

It just so happens that it’s easily one of the most powerful skills in the whole game: Celestial Stasis (Galaxy Stop). It has a chance to inflict Immobilize, Disable, and Stop on every enemy, no matter the range. Ideally, he should use it on the first turn he can, but more often than not, he attacks with his book instead.

That’s not your only danger in this fight; a female Thief on the left side of the map will immediately target one of your male characters and try to inflict them with Steal Heart, so they’re charmed. If you don’t equip Nu Kai Armlets, you may have to reset a few times. The odds of it succeeding were ~50% in my experience.

That’s my first advice: Buy Nu Kai Armlets for 10,000 gold each at Lionel Castle, after you defeat Cuchlainn, and make sure all male units have one. This is a group of Thieves, Chemists and one Orator. The Chemists have guns that hit incredibly hard, so you also have to worry about that.

If you're lucky, and Celestial Stasis hits several enemies, the fight gets much easier (Image via Square Enix)

Your first order of business is to get an ally up to the top of the building, so he can eliminate the Orator that’s up there. They will melee Orran in Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicles for about 100 damage (and his health pool is barely 200). They will also, if threatened, drop down to the ground and drain his life with a spell.

I recommend a high-mobility Ninja with at least Jump +1/+3 to reach Orran quickly. If you’re worried about his health, give that Ninja Monk as a Sub-Job to use Chakra while up there, and heal him. Giving the Ninja Critical HP as a counter is also great, to offer a full heal when things get grim in Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicles' Orran battle.

Depending on how much movement you have, you may have to contend with a Thief on your way up, or the one nearby who can use Dragoon Jump. This is just one more reason you want some kind of healing; whether it's Monk Chakra or White Magic.

Monks are filled with amazing abilities to keep the damage coming, and heal allies for fights like this (Image via Square Enix)

My general strategy to rescue Orran in Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicles is to run Ramza (Monk/Squire) along the left side of the building to sweep up enemies, a Monk/Squire along the left side to pick off the stragglers, and get someone to the roof.

Then, I use a Dancer to constantly debuff the enemies; the more enemies that get hit with Stop/Toad, the better. Make sure to give her Dragonheart as a passive, because Chemists can and will try to kill her with their gun attacks. You can also use Agrias, if she’s mobile enough, or a healer with range. I recommend either a Bard, or an Arithmitician, that has access to decent curing spells.

Though my Arithimitician was primary job, using White Mage as the primary will likely get you faster cast times, or Black Mage. I also recommend this setup to bombard the enemies with Holy, and very quickly defeat groups of foes at one time (potentially).

Sometimes, Orran will just run away, so keep an eye on him and move accordingly to succeed in this Final Fantasy Tactics fight (Image via Square Enix)

Once someone’s on the rooftop, eliminate the Orator, and heal Orran. Should the Orator (or Orran) drop down to the ground, don't worry about having someone on the roof, just use that Ninja to quickly eliminate enemies before they can go up.

Once all the enemies have been defeated, the fight will end. Other than the guns from the Chemists, the regular foes don’t pose much of a threat. Below is the rough team I used to overcome this fight.

Ramza	Monk/Squire/Two-Swords/First Strike/Movement +1
NPC #1	Ninja/Monk/Two-Swords/Critical-HP/Jump+1
NPC #2	Monk/Squire/Two-Swords/First Strike/Movement +1
NPC #3	Dancer/Squire/Dragonheart/Ignore Terrain
NPC #4	Arithmitician/Squire/Manafont/Fly (or Teleport)
Agrias (Alt)	Holy Sword/Knight/Counter/Movement+3

The hardest part of the Orran rescue in Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicles is frankly, overcoming the frustrating AI. Even if Orran doesn’t use Celestial Stasis, you can still win. You just absolutely have to move fast to get someone to Orran and keep him safe. From there, use the rest of the party to do cleanup, and you’ll be done in no time.

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Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicles launches on September 30, 2025, and is truly a masterpiece. You can learn more about the revived genre-defining tactical RPG in our in-depth review.