Screen-by-Screen Walkthroughs for the Snow Ruins

I am working on screen-by-screen walkthroughs of the Snow Ruins now. E3 is in progress this week, which means that updates to my guides will not be uploaded on IGN until Friday at the earliest. I therefore will post the walkthroughs here instead.

I suggest that players disregard the preliminary Screen-by-Screen Walkthrough for the Snow Ruins that is in the actual Bestiary and Caves Guide until the next update is uploaded as it is too confusing! Apologies for that... I was writing quickly for a player who requested the information but a poorly written guide is worse than no guide at all.

What I will post first here are the direct routes to each stairway on each floor.

Afterwards, I will post the complete walkthrough, giving every chamber and its contents, whether hostile or in the form of treasure or tillable fields.

In the first 'direct' walkthrough, I will give the location of BOTH stairways. Whenever you first explore a new floor in a dungeon, you will have two goals in terms of finding a stairway. You need to find the preliminary stairway that leads downward to the next floor, of course, but you need to open the sliding door that leads back to the shortcut stairway as well.


Screen-by-Screen Walkthrough of the Snow Ruins

The Snow Ruins is a maze and there are many chambers that resemble one another. One frame of reference is direction. Another is borders. Always look outside the walls. If you see darkness on any side, you will know that you are at the border of the dungeon. I will use this darkness as a frame of reference when describing various chambers.
The first Walkthrough section will give the direct path from one floor to the next, explaining the path that you need to take to find the first stairway to the next floor as well as the path you need to take to open the sliding door to the ‘shortcut stairway’.
Remember that you have two initial goals when you first explore a new floor in a dungeon in Rune Factory Frontier. One is to find the stairway that leads to the next floor and the other is to find the sliding door that leads to the shortcut stairway to ‘unlock’ it for future visits.

There are some 'new' obstacles for the player in the Snow Ruins. The first is an ice barrier that often blocks a path. It can be destroyed with an ordinary hammer or any Fire Weapon.

The second is what I named an 'Eye Generator'. This is a device with an eye in the centre that blasts out puffs of ice air that cause damage. The 'Eye Generator' is controlled by an arch of wires. You may or may not find it next to the Generator. On lower floors, it often will be on a different platform or in a corner somewhere. Destroy the arch and the Eye Generator will explode. The arch causes no damage, but you need a fire weapon to destroy it.

The third is ice that freezes a sliding door. When you see this, look for an Eye Generator nearby and destroy it. The ensuing explosion will melt the ice, allowing the door to open. Note that Eye Generators often are found in the same chambers as large Monsters encased in ice. If the explosion is close enough to the Monster, it will free it from the ice and you will be forced to deal with it. It often is best to destroy the ice-encased Monster BEFORE you cause any explosions in the chamber.

The fourth is a swiveling cannon. This will react to your own movements but it is controlled by an arch of wires as well. Destroy the arch and the cannon will explode. You can hit the cannon directly as well.

The fifth is large ball held in place by ice. As in the Lava Ruins, if you release the ball, it will roll, smashing everything in its path, allowing you to gain access to an area that otherwise would be inaccessible. You will find these only on the lowest floors of the Snow Ruins.


1st Direct Path from 1st to 2nd Floor

The entrance to the Snow Ruins is at the eastern limit of this dungeon. When you go north to the first chamber, you will see only darkness in the east beyond the wall. Keep this in mind.
From the entrance, go north, then find the ice barrier in the west that is guarded by a hornet spawned by a generator in the east. Continue west, destroying the Eye Generator in the chamber with an ice barrier that blocks an exit in the southwest. Destroy the ice barrier, go down the short stairway and through the sliding door as this will open the shortcut stairway to all floors.
As none of the lower floors have been opened yet, return to the chamber in the north where you destroyed the eye generator.
You will find another ice barrier in the northwest. Destroy it and go down the short stairway. Here you will be in a small antechamber with two Hornets spawned by a single generator. If you go west, you will find your first tillable fields. Go north instead up the short stairway to find a large ice chamber with a single generator that spawns both Shadow Panthers and Hornets.
If you take the exit in the north, you will find yourself in a similar large ice chamber with an Eye Generator, scorpions and glaces but the door to the north is blocked by ice. Whenever you see a sliding door that is ‘frozen’ by ice at the bottom of it, you need to create an explosion to melt the ice.
When you destroy any Eye Generator, whether by hitting it directly or by destroying the arch that controls it, the resulting explosion will melt all ice in the vicinity. Sometimes the only ice will be that on a sliding door. Often, however, there will be a large Monster encased in ice and the explosion simply may melt the ice to free the Monster. It is a good idea to use any Fire Weapon directly on the ice-encased Monster before you create any explosion in the chamber, as this will eliminate the Monster rather than allowing it to become free.
Destroy the Eye Generator, therefore, to melt the ice that freezes the sliding door. When you go north through this sliding door, you will find your first stairway to the 2nd floor. Near the stairs, you will find a single white urn.

First Direct path from 2nd to 3rd Floor

Go down the stairway to find a large ice chamber in the south, a real ‘chamber of death’ dominated by Glaces and Shadow Panthers in the north, two Eye Generators and a Mamoo encased in ice in the southeast.
You will see a sliding door frozen with ice in the west of the chamber of death leading to a downward ramp. To unfreeze the sliding door, destroy the Eye Generator in the west. Now go through the sliding door and down the ramp to a narrow corridor that goes both north and south.
Go south down the narrow corridor to find a large peaceful chamber with a single tillable field with four plots and 1 white urn.
An exit in the southeast leads to a small chamber with a single Monster Generator that spawns three Shadow panthers in the east and three rocks that can be smashed for Ores/Gems in the west. You often can find Platinum in one of these rocks.
In the southwest of the small chamber is an ice barrier. Smash it and when you go west, you will find yourself at the northern end of another large ice chamber with four Glaces spawned by a generator at the northern end, an Eye Generator in the centre and two scorpions and a Demon spawned by another Generator at the southern end. The only other exit from this chamber is at the southern end, guarded by an ice-encased Mamoo. Destroy the ice-encased Mamoo and go south into a small chamber with the first stairway that leads to the third floor.
Do not take it yet as you first need to open the sliding door to the shortcut stairway. Go north, therefore, back into the ice chamber. You will see an exit in the east consisting of a narrow corridor that leads to a downward ice ramp. Take it and you will find yourself in a peaceful chamber with three rocks that can be smashed for ores/gems and a single tillable field that contains four plots. This peaceful chamber has many exits but it is the exit on the western side of the southern wall that leads you to the shortcut stairway. Destroy the ice barrier that prevents entry and continue south to a sliding door. Open it to find yourself at the shortcut stairway. Now return to the peaceful chamber as you will not have access to the third floor via this stairway until you have opened the sliding door to THAT floor from the other side.