Air elemental difficulty (possible spoilers)

[duckwizard]

Are there really any spoilers about the main plot for the people in this forum? If you never played the original QFG2, I'm not sure whether I envy your opportunity to play the remake for the first time, or pity your deprived childhood

Anyway, I'm having trouble as a thief trying to defeat the air elemental. I'm not sure if I'm missing a step, or if my throwing skill is just too low, but I got up at dawn on day 8 and started chucking fooler's earth at the tornado, but it always glances off of him. It's now midday and I've been repeating that all day, going back to Keapon for a refill and promptly throwing it all at the air elemental. I must have gone through 50 pots of the stuff by now. I don't remember there being another step to this; am I missing something?

[Quest For Glory Fan]

throwing sand at the wind is a poor choice. Throwing sand INTO the wind. Might get you somewhere. You could even say you might need to be a person of HIGHER standing to accomplish this feat.

[duckwizard]

Good hint, thanks! I got it now.

I don't remember this being necessary in the original, is it a new thing in the remake?

[Morningstar]

yes it was, there are three options for defeating the wind elemental
push your way into the funnel through pure strength,
levitate above it and drop
or throw dirt and aim for the top

[Quest For Glory Fan]

I had high stats all around when I did this the first time so I just took the fighter approach as it was all I could think of.

[duckwizard]

I *was* aiming for the top, but I couldn't get it in there. When I levitated (thief with magic) I was able to drop it in no problem. I remember from the original that as a thief, you just had to throw the dirt at the top of the funnel. Didn't work for me this time. Maybe I just didn't have enough throwing skill (85 or so).

[Quest For Glory Fan]

actually you're supposed to use the rope like you did the levitate. I didn't figure that out til after though and just ran straight into and dropped it.

[Crowley9]

I guess I might as well post here instead of starting a new thread. How can you get the dirt from the flower merchant outside Keapon's shop? I've learned that I need dirt from Keapon, and I even went to see Aziza about the Air Elemental. The good katta keeps saying he's (she's?) happy to give me some dirt if I need it, but I just can't find a way to actually get it.

[ATMachine]

Keapon will give you dirt, too. Did you ask him about Fooler's Earth?

[Crowley9]

Yeah, I did. It just seems too easy like that, considering how the katta keeps offering help and as I recall you had to pay Keapon for that.

[adeyke]

Whenever you need an item, explain to them why you need them. You can often get an item for free if the merchant knows you need it to save the city.

[Crowley9]

Thanks, that did the trick.

[Goilveig]

Oh, and you CAN throw the dirt in straight. No rope, no levitate, nada.

I did it on the first shot with 125 and (when I started over) 200 skill. No particular aiming, just click the earth on the tornado.