_ _ ___ _ _ _____ ___ ____ _____ _____ | | | | / _ \ | | | | |_ _| / _ \ / ___| | ___| |_ _| | |_| | | | | | | | A | | | | | | | | | | _ | |__ | | | _ | | | | | | |/ \| | | | | | | | | | | | | __| | | | | | | | |_| | | ' A ' | | | | |_| | | |_| | | |___ | | |_| |_| \___/ |__/ \__| |_| \___/ \___/ |_____| |_| _ _______ _ _ _______ _ _____ _____ | | | _____| | | | | | _____| | | / ___ \ / ___ \ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |___ \ \ / / | |___ | | | |___| | | |___| | | | | ___| | | | | | ___| | | \____ | \____ | | | | | | | | | | | | | _ | | _ | | | |_____ | |_____ \ V / | |_____ | |_____ | |___| | | |___| | |_______| |_______| \_/ |_______| |_______| \_____/ \_____/ _ _ _____ ____ _ _ _____ ___ ____ _____ | | | | | ___| | _ \ | | | | | ___| / _ \ / ___| |_ _| | | | | | |__ | |_| | | | | | | |__ | |_| | \ \ | | | | | | | __| | _ < \ V / | __| | _ | \ \ | | \ V / | |___ | | | | | | | | | | | | __\ \ | | \_/ |_____| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |____/ |_| ___ __ _ ____ _____ ___ ____ _ _ _ / _ \ | \ | | | _ \ | ___| / _ \ | _ \ | | | | | | | |_| | | A \ | | | | | | | |__ | |_| | | |_| | | | | | | | | _ | | |\ \| | | | | | | __| | _ | | _ < | | \ V / | | | | | | \ ' | | |_| | | |___ | | | | | | | | | |___ | | |_| |_| |_| \__| |____/ |_____| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_____| |_| An extreme powerleveling guide focused on being as fast and early as possible Would you like to go through essentially the entire game of Final Fantasy 12 at level 99 from start to finish without using cheats? This guide focuses on extreme powerleveling, both fast and early. Depending on the method you choose, each having their own pros and cons, this is doable in 70, 65, 40, 35, or even 25 hours (on the game clock), even though you won't have access to the embroidered tippet. Not only that, I've also detailed how, only 35% of the way through the game (after receiving the dawn shard), you can get 11 pieces of very high end equipment that you normally wouldn't see until nearly the end of the game. There are 6 available methods and 15 unique routines. Not all routines need to be done though for each method. While the initial parts of each method generally go by quite quickly, the final stage of each method is the longest of all, typically 5 times longer than all others combined. What's more is that I've provided a brief walkthrough as to how to squeeze out another 350-450 HP (700-900 with bubble) and 40-50 MP (120-150 with all 3 mist charges) that you probably didn't realize you could have. Being a guide focusing on extreme powerleveling, this is fitting for my guide. ___ ___ __ _ _____ _____ __ _ _____ ____ / _ \ / _ \ | \ | | |_ _| | ___| | \ | | |_ _| / ___| | | |_| | | | | | A \ | | | | | |__ | A \ | | | | \ \ | | _ | | | | | |\ \| | | | | __| | |\ \| | | | \ \ | |_| | | |_| | | | \ ' | | | | |___ | | \ ' | | | __\ \ \___/ \___/ |_| \__| |_| |_____| |_| \__| |_| |____/ ############### ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 0 Table of contents **020000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ############### Tip: use control+F to use your browser's find feature to jump to the specific sections. The string you search for is in the "search" column - note how it relates to the section number in the **AABBCD** format where A is a major section (using 2 digits, with a leading zero if needed), B is a section (using 2 digits, with a leading zero if needed), C is a subsection (using 1 digit), and D is a sub-subsection (using 1 digit). Do note that the table of contents completely leaves out all level 4 headers (the D) and low-importance level 3 headers (the C) to better compact it. +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | Section | Title | Search | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 0 | Table of Contents | **000000** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 1 | My history and using the guide | **010000** | | 1.1 | My powerleveling history | **010100** | | 1.2 | Using this guide | **010200** | | 1.2.1 | The concepts | **010210** | | 1.2.2 | Extra features | **010220** | | 1.2.3 | The method of organization | **010230** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 2 | Deciding which method to use | **020000** | | 2.1 | An overview of the 6 methods | **020100** | | 2.2 | The 70-hour method | **020200** | | 2.3 | The 65-hour method | **020300** | | 2.4 | The 40-hour method | **020400** | | 2.5 | The 35-hour method | **020500** | | 2.6 | The 25-hour method | **020600** | | 2.7 | The optimization method | **020700** | | 2.8 | Method compatibility | **020800** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 3 | Helpful tips and tricks | **030000** | | 3.1 | Configuration-related | **030100** | | 3.2 | Battle-related | **030200** | | 3.3 | Navigation-related | **030300** | | 3.4 | Other tips | **030400** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 4 | The tutorial and rogue tomato | **040000** | | 4.1 | Rush the tutorial | **040100** | | 4.2 | Hunting the rogue tomato | **040200** | | 4.3 | Obtain cure | **040300** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 5 | The rod in the Estersand | **050000** | | 5.1 | Cross the Yardang Labyrinth | **050100** | | 5.2 | Beware of nekhbet | **050200** | | 5.3 | Obtain and license the rod | **050300** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 6 | The crazy fast dustia method | **060000** | | 6.1 | About dustia | **060100** | | 6.2 | Preparing for the dustia method | **060200** | | 6.3 | The short first cycle | **060300** | | 6.3.1 | The basics of defeating dustia | **060310** | | 6.3.2 | Healing loot is your enemy | **060320** | | 6.3.3 | The first cycle's requirements | **060330** | | 6.4 | The longer second cycle | **060400** | | 6.5 | The third cycle and beyond | **060500** | | 6.6 | Obtain a quickening - red spiral | **060600** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 7 | Ichthon, fast LP, and reload | **070000** | | 7.1 | To South Bank Village | **070100** | | 7.2 | The strong battle harness | **070200** | | 7.3 | Ichthons and fast LP | **070300** | | 7.4 | Obtain a quickening - red spiral | **070400** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 8 | Shopping in Nalbina Town | **080000** | | 8.1 | Travel to Nalbina Town | **080100** | | 8.2 | Buy onion arrows | **080200** | | 8.3 | Buy new armor | **080300** | | 8.4 | Buy the poach technick | **080400** | | 8.5 | Buy some magicks | **080500** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 9 | The burn of the burning bow | **090000** | | 9.1 | Off to the Westersand | **090100** | | 9.2 | Defeating dive talon | **090200** | | 9.2.1 | Quickening the dive talon | **090210** | | 9.2.2 | The chain-status-death trick | **090220** | | 9.2.3 | Direct chaining | **090230** | | 9.2.4 | When the burning bow drops... | **090240** | | 9.3 | The very unfriendly odds | **090300** | | 9.4 | The burning bow's 8 major advantages | **090400** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 10 | Focusing on augment licenses | **100000** | | 10.1 | An overview of augments | **100100** | | 10.1.1 | The junk augments | **100110** | | 10.1.2 | Partially useful augments | **100120** | | 10.1.3 | The must-have augments | **100130** | | 10.2 | The route you need to take | **100200** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 11 | Advance the story: Passing Barheim Passage | **110000** | | 11.1 | Why advance the story? | **110100** | | 11.2 | Avoid those 3 chests | **110200** | | 11.3 | 2 tanned hides in Giza Plains | **110300** | | 11.4 | The rats and bats of Garamsythe Waterway | **110400** | | 11.5 | The palace puzzles | **110500** | | 11.6 | Garamsythe again and gambits | **110600** | | 11.7 | Escaping Nalbina Dungeons | **110700** | | 11.8 | Barheim Passage | **110800** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 12 | The powerful traveler's garb set | **120000** | | 12.1 | About the traveler's garb set | **120100** | | 12.2 | Gathering 2 of the required items | **120200** | | 12.3 | The risky braid wool of greeden | **120300** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 13 | The slime-covered winged helm | **130000** | | 13.1 | About the winged helm | **130100** | | 13.2 | The spooky Zertinan Caverns | **130200** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 14 | Hunting for the clan rank | **140000** | | 14.1 | Why go on hunts? | **140100** | | 14.2 | Thextera unlocks more hunts | **140200** | | 14.3 | Read the hunt board 20 or 40 times | **140300** | | 14.4 | The effortless flowering cactoid | **140400** | | 14.5 | The doom-loving wraith | **140500** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 15 | Gambiting the return of dustia | **150000** | | 15.1 | Why return to dustia now? | **150100** | | 15.2 | Buying phoenix downs | **150200** | | 15.3 | Setting up the 1 gambit | **150300** | | 15.4 | Going to the last cycle | **150400** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 16 | The hasty hermes sandals | **160000** | | 16.1 | About the hermes sandals | **160100** | | 16.2 | The warmage's monograph | **160200** | | 16.3 | Back to dustia again | **160300** | | 16.4 | Buying the hermes sandals | **160400** | | 16.5 | Buying the last of what's left | **160500** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 17 | Chaining werewolves | **170000** | | 17.1 | About the werewolves | **170100** | | 17.2 | Defeating the werewolves | **170200** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 18 | Urstrix and dive talon mayhem | **180000** | | 18.1 | Why go after dive talon again? | **180100** | | 18.2 | The basic routine | **180200** | | 18.3 | Dive talon is fierce (longer method final stage) | **180300** | | 18.3.1 | Levels 44 to 51 - protected rough training | **180310** | | 18.3.2 | Levels 51 to 54 - optional transition | **180320** | | 18.3.3 | Levels 55 to 67 - getting easier | **180330** | | 18.3.4 | Levels 68 to 70 - transitioning again | **180340** | | 18.3.5 | Levels 71 to 80 - focusing in on 2 hits | **180350** | | 18.3.6 | Levels 81 to 99 - second half at full speed | **180360** | | 18.4 | Dive talon is helpless (the 40-hour method) | **180400** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 19 | Blazing fast grinding in the sewers | **190000** | | 19.1 | About Garamsythe Waterway | **190100** | | 19.2 | Garamsythe's deadly enemies | **190200** | | 19.3 | The routine's first zone | **190300** | | 19.4 | The routine's second zone | **190400** | | 19.5 | The constant immobilization method | **190500** | | 19.5.1 | Before level 57 - immobilization not guaranteed | **190510** | | 19.5.2 | Levels 57 to 65 - the strength of the winged helm | **190520** | | 19.5.3 | Levels 66 to 91 - scaling the scale armor | **190530** | | 19.5.4 | Levels 92 to 99 - full speed ahead | **190540** | | 19.5.5 | The speed of the routine | **190550** | | 19.6 | The direct attacking method | **190600** | | 19.6.1 | Before level 59 - immobilization not guaranteed | **190610** | | 19.6.2 | Levels 59 to 63 - a new route opens | **190620** | | 19.6.3 | Levels 64 to 69 - enforcing immobilize | **190630** | | 19.6.4 | Levels 70 to 73 - ensuring safety | **190640** | | 19.6.5 | Levels 74 to 80 - bursting ahead | **190650** | | 19.6.6 | Levels 81 to 99 - supersonic leveling | **190660** | | 19.6.7 | The speed of the routine | **190670** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 20 | The long-lasting and varied 70-hour method | **200000** | | 20.1 | What is the 70-hour method? | **200100** | | 20.2 | The optimal route through the augments | **200200** | | 20.3 | Stage 1: The beginning | **200300** | | 20.4 | Stage 2: The rod | **200400** | | 20.5 | Stage 3: Rapid licensing | **200500** | | 20.6 | Stage 4: Shopping in Nalbina | **200600** | | 20.7 | Stage 5: The burning bow | **200700** | | 20.8 | Stage 6: The traveler's garb set | **200800** | | 20.9 | Stage 7: Chaining the werewolves | **200900** | | 20.10 | Stage 8: The winged helm | **201000** | | 20.11 | Stage 9: The final stage | **201100** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 21 | The fast and very early 65-hour method | **210000** | | 21.1 | What is the 65-hour method? | **210100** | | 21.2 | The optimal route through the augments | **210200** | | 21.3 | Stage 1: The beginning | **210300** | | 21.4 | Stage 2: The rod | **210400** | | 21.5 | Stage 3: Leveling up on dustia | **210500** | | 21.6 | Stage 4: The burning bow | **210600** | | 21.7 | Stage 5: Shopping in Nalbina | **210700** | | 21.8 | Stage 6: The traveler's garb set | **210800** | | 21.9 | Stage 7: The winged helm | **210900** | | 21.10 | Stage 8: The final stage | **211000** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 22 | The fast and varied 40-hour method | **220000** | | 22.1 | What is the 40-hour method? | **220100** | | 22.2 | The optimal route through the augments | **220200** | | 22.3 | Stage 1: The beginning | **220300** | | 22.4 | Stage 2: The rod | **220400** | | 22.5 | Stage 3: Rapid licensing | **220500** | | 22.6 | Stage 4: Shopping in Nalbina | **220600** | | 22.7 | Stage 5: The burning bow | **220700** | | 22.8 | Stage 6: Advancing the story | **220800** | | 22.9 | Stage 7: The traveler's garb set | **220900** | | 22.10 | Stage 8: The winged helm | **221000** | | 22.11 | Stage 9: Werewolves are for low levels | **221100** | | 22.12 | Stage 10: Dive talon leveling | **221200** | | 22.13 | Stage 11: The final stage | **221300** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 23 | The fast-starting 35-hour method | **230000** | | 23.1 | What is the 35-hour method? | **230100** | | 23.2 | The optimal route through the augments | **230200** | | 23.3 | Stage 1: The beginning | **230300** | | 23.4 | Stage 2: The rod | **230400** | | 23.5 | Stage 3: Leveling up on dustia | **230500** | | 23.6 | Stage 4: The burning bow | **230600** | | 23.7 | Stage 5: Advancing the story | **230700** | | 23.8 | Stage 6: The traveler's garb set | **230800** | | 23.9 | Stage 7: The winged helm | **230900** | | 23.10 | Stage 8: Going on the hunt | **231000** | | 23.11 | Stage 9: The return of dustia | **231100** | | 23.12 | Stage 10: The hermes sandals | **231200** | | 23.13 | Stage 11: The final stage | **231300** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 24 | The insanely fast 25-hour method | **240000** | | 24.1 | What is the 25-hour method? | **240100** | | 24.2 | The optimal route through the augments | **240200** | | 24.3 | Stage 1: The beginning | **240300** | | 24.4 | Stage 2: The rod | **240400** | | 24.5 | Stage 3: Leveling up on dustia | **240500** | | 24.6 | Stage 4: The burning bow | **240600** | | 24.7 | Stage 5: Advancing the story | **240700** | | 24.8 | Stage 6: The traveler's garb set | **240800** | | 24.9 | Stage 7: The winged helm | **240900** | | 24.10 | Stage 8: Going on the hunt | **241000** | | 24.11 | Stage 9: The hermes sandals | **241100** | | 24.12 | Stage 10: The final stage | **241200** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 25 | Advancing the story for the dawn shard | **250000** | | 25.1 | About the afterward section | **250100** | | 25.2 | Obtain the 7 monographs | **250200** | | 25.3 | Through Barheim Passage | **250300** | | 25.4 | Boosting Basch | **250400** | | 25.5 | Get Balthier and Fran back | **250500** | | 25.6 | Obtain 2 extra burning bows | **250600** | | 25.7 | Obtain 2 extra winged helms | **250700** | | 25.8 | The cluckatrice hunt | **250800** | | 25.9 | Story advancement at level 99 | **250900** | | 25.9.1 | Going unarmed? Making the decision | **250910** | | 25.9.2 | The Lhusu Mines - fight instead of escape | **250920** | | 25.9.3 | Boosting Ashe and Penelo | **250930** | | 25.9.4 | Crossing the sandsea | **250940** | | 25.9.5 | The Tomb of Raithwall | **250950** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 26 | Preparing for Nabradia | **260000** | | 26.1 | 3 new hunts on the hunt board | **260100** | | 26.2 | Shopping for the essentials | **260200** | | 26.3 | Recommended gambit and character role setups | **260300** | | 26.4 | Croak the croakadile for new hunts | **260400** | | 26.5 | White mousse's better bow | **260500** | | 26.6 | Hunts in the west | **260600** | | 26.7 | The no-gil-involved gil snapper | **260700** | | 26.8 | The status-effect-loving orthros | **260800** | | 26.9 | New treats at the clan shop | **260900** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 27 | Crossing into the Nabreus Deadlands | **270000** | | 27.1 | The 3 ways into Mosphoran Highwaste | **270100** | | 27.1.1 | The river boat method | **270110** | | 27.1.2 | The earth tyrant method | **270120** | | 27.1.3 | The chocobo method | **270130** | | 27.2 | Luccio's great accessories | **270200** | | 27.3 | To the Salikawood | **270300** | | 27.4 | Through the Salikawood | **270400** | | 27.5 | To the Nabreus Deadlands Gate Crystal | **270500** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 28 | Nabreus Deadland's 7 high-end items | **280000** | | 28.1 | Common chaining techniques used | **280100** | | 28.2 | The powerful and evasive defender | **280200** | | 28.3 | The high-HP crown of laurels | **280300** | | 28.4 | The troublesome minerva bustier | **280400** | | 28.5 | The magickal golden skullcap | **280500** | | 28.6 | The dark-absorbing black mask | **280600** | | 28.7 | The poison-inflicting yakei | **280700** | | 28.8 | The rather weak power rod | **280800** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 29 | The 4 ultimates in the Necrohol of Nabudis | **290000** | | 29.1 | About the Necrohol of Nabudis | **290100** | | 29.2 | The overpowered, power-wasted zodiac spear | **290200** | | 29.3 | The best heavy armor, the maximillian | **290300** | | 29.4 | The shield-allowing runeblade | **290400** | | 29.5 | The not-so-grand grand armor | **290500** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 30 | Leveling up Balthier and Fran | **300000** | | 30.1 | 2 new methods to level up Balthier and Fran | **300100** | | 30.2 | Mosphoran Highwaste - easier than pie | **300200** | | 30.2.1 | Before level 37 - zodiac spear power | **300210** | | 30.2.2 | Levels 37 to 47 - expanding the route | **300220** | | 30.2.3 | Levels 48 to 74 - push for speed | **300230** | | 30.2.4 | Levels 75 to 99 - full throttle | **300240** | | 30.3 | A horde of dead bones - warp speed and challenging | **300300** | | 30.3.1 | Before level 50 - calling for assistance | **300310** | | 30.3.2 | Levels 50 to 99 - engage warp speed | **300320** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 31 | Optimizing and perfecting HP and MP | **310000** | | 31.1 | What is optimizing HP and MP? | **310100** | | 31.2 | The mechanics behind HP and MP growth | **310200** | | 31.2.1 | How HP grows - like a yo-yo | **310210** | | 31.2.2 | How MP grows - not very predictable | **310220** | | 31.3 | The types of optimization | **310300** | | 31.3.1 | True perfection | **310310** | | 31.3.2 | Near perfection | **310320** | | 31.4 | About the routines | **310400** | | 31.5 | Stage 1: Hiring Penelo | **310500** | | 31.6 | Stage 2: Putting Penelo to work | **310600** | | 31.7 | Stage 3: Gathering everyone | **310700** | | 31.8 | How to process a level up | **310800** | | 31.8.1 | The basic process - try, try again | **310810** | | 31.8.2 | The 5 degrees of effort - choose your sacrifice | **310820** | | 31.9 | Stage 4: The early levels | **310900** | | 31.10 | Stage 5: Werewolves | **311000** | | 31.11 | Stage 6: Westersand leveling | **311100** | | 31.12 | Stage 7: Garamsythe Waterway | **311200** | | 31.13 | Stage 8: Defeat 4 marks | **311300** | | 31.14 | Stage 9: Dustia is for arcanae | **311400** | | 31.15 | Stage 10: The Tomb of Raithwall | **311500** | | 31.16 | Stage 11: Prepare for Mosphoran Highwaste | **311600** | | 31.17 | Stage 12: The Mosphoran Highwaste Python Craze | **311700** | | 31.18 | Stage 13: Level up a second character | **311800** | | 31.19 | Stage 14: Raise the clan rank | **311900** | | 31.20 | Stage 15: Obtain Nabradia's high end equipment | **312000** | | 31.21 | Stage 16: Level up the last 4 characters | **312100** | | 31.22 | The list of perfect HP and MP values | **312200** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 32 | Frequently Asked Questions | **320000** | | 32.1 | The basics of powerleveling | **320100** | | 32.2 | About this guide in general | **320200** | | 32.3 | About the video guide | **320300** | | 32.4 | About the routines | **320400** | | 32.5 | General FAQ | **320500** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 33 | Copyright, credits, and other legal stuff | **330000** | | 33.1 | How to contact me | **330100** | | 33.2 | Copyright | **330200** | | 33.3 | Credits | **330300** | | 33.4 | Version history | **330400** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ _____ __ _ _____ ____ ___ |_ _| | \ | | |_ _| | _ \ / _ \ | | | A \ | | | | | |_| | | | | | | | | |\ \| | | | | _ < | | | | _| |_ | | \ ' | | | | | | | | |_| | |_____| |_| \__| |_| |_| |_| \___/ ############################ ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 1 My history and using the guide **010000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ############################ .==========================================. # 1.1 My powerleveling history **010100** # `==========================================` Before 2002, I was used to platformers where there were only 20 to 30 levels. RPGs were mostly completely unknown to me until I played Final Fantasy 7 (FF7). Beforehand, I only saw them from someone else playing them, namely Final Fantasy 6, but I didn't start actively playing RPGs until about 2002 when platformers seem to have mostly disappeared. When I first played FF7, after a bit, I began wondering just how many levels there were as I kept leveling up. From my quest of figuring out how many levels there were, I got into powerleveling, extreme powerleveling. I take it to the extreme in almost any RPG (look no further than what I've done in the Disgaea series, especially Disgaea 2 on the PS2 - 8.45 billion damage with tera fire and nearly 400 billion total damage on just 7 enemies). In fact, I primarily play RPGs not for their story, but for the powerleveling. Although the challenge of battles and boss fights essentially vanish, I enjoy the thrill of how quickly I can wipe out something much more than the challenge or story. From nightmares during my 5th grade year from doing a lot of novels and difficult-for-me reading comprehension, I've never been into stories. Thus, with RPGs being focused on storytelling more, I get far more enjoyment out of an RPG if I can powerlevel to the extreme without having to advance the story. How extreme do I go? Try reaching level 50 in FF1 before defeating the vampire in the Terra Caverns. Try maxing pretty much every stat in FF2 with Mindu still in the party (and without the action-cancel glitch as I wasn't aware of it). Try getting Cecil in FF4 to level 60+ just as he upgrades (and level 50 as a dark knight). Try getting meteor and ultima in the first world of FF6 by reaching level 99 with Terra and Celes. Try 4 playthroughs of FF7 and never going beyond disk 1 without someone on level 99. Try reaching level 100 in FF8 before doing the Dollet mission. Try reaching level 99 in FF9 during disk 2. And in Final Fantasy 12, I've never done the first visit to Jahara without everyone on level 99 in my 5 previous play throughs. Talk about extreme! Despite the dull and boring story in Final Fantasy 12, I have more hours logged on FF12 than any other Final Fantasy game thanks to its extreme powerleveling potential and the battle system it uses (despite its many bugs, flaws, and annoyances). .==================================. # 1.2 Using this guide **010200** # `==================================` .............................. 1.2.1 The concepts **010210** .............................. This guide focuses on Final Fantasy 12. Final Fantasy 12 is among my greatest favorites primarily because you can reach level 99 with virtually no story progress and in reasonable time. I also love its battle system, if it weren't for the very annoying and pointless damage limit of 9999 and a bunch of bugs with ranged attacks and nonleader characters casting spells and technicks. This guide will explain how to do this. Being so early, you won't have access to the embroidered tippet. Even without it, it's surprisingly fast to get level 99, reachable in as little as 23 hours. Yep, 1/8 of the way through the story and you have 4 level 99 characters only 23 hours in without the embroidered tippet - a good example of how unimportant it is when you have to wait so long for it to become available. There are 6 different methods available, each with their own pros and cons. The shorter the method, the more advantegeous it gets but the more disadvantageous it gets, balancing things out. Each method is based on a good idea on the amount of time it will take based on the game clock. If you want to keep the story progress to a bare minimum (just 4% done), the 70-, and 65-hour methods are for you, but it gets extremely repetitive for the final stage (nearly 10 hours are spent on those last 5 level ups alone but it's up to 70% faster than using dustia). If you want to advance the story a small amount, to 1/8 of the way through (that's about 12 1/2% for comparison - I often reference this as 12% - "(LowestEnemyLevelInFocusArea-1)/50" gives you a guide on the amount of story progress you have for the enemies in the active area), the 40-, 35-, and 25-hour methods open up. The 40-hour method is for those that want to safely and easily reach level 99. The 35-hour method is a clone except that it includes the use of dustia. The 35-hour method is generally the most advantageous of the bunch. The 25-hour method is basically the equivalent of speedrunning powerleveling in this game and it involves a lot of risk - one wrong move and it's game over. ................................ 1.2.2 Extra features **010220** ................................ In addition to explaining how to get level 99 as fast and early as absolutely possible, I also have an extra section at the end explaining how to get some of the game's best and near best equipment with still relatively little story progress, about 35% (about 1/3). Near best? You won't see equipment like the crown of laurels, golden skullcap, minerva bustier, zodiac spear, the defender, maximillian, and 5 others until nearly the end of the game... if you know how to get them. This will essentially allow you to go through the last 2/3 of the game with nearly the best possible equipment allowing you to bash through tough marks with ease and race through the story faster and more focused than before! Being a guide focused on powerleveling to the extreme, what better way is there to enhance it than explaining how to get near-perfect (or even fully perfect) HP and MP for every character. Did you know that you could squeeze out another 350-450 HP (700-900 with bubble) and 40-50 MP (120-150 with all 3 mist charges), that you didn't know you could have? Seriously, try, through normal game play, to get Basch with over 6600 HP (with all HP licenses but no equipment). You won't see it. If you focus on HP, you could quite well have Basch with 6700 HP, not the 6250 you'd normally see (imagine the damage balance could do with all the HP-boosting equipment there is - constant 16,600s popping out of everything!). Instead of Ashe having 860 MP, how about naturally having over 1000 MP without any MP-boosting equipment? Yes, it's funny seeing 815 MP and not be able to summon a 2-mist charge esper or having 999 MP and the third mist charge isn't even half full! I've actually experienced both cases (well, 16,550 with Basch)! Throughout the guide, I offer plenty of options, methods for doing a routine, suggestions, and alternatives. I detail quite a bit on the various pieces of equipment you'll run into along the way, why I suggest going after it, and optimal ways of obtaining that piece of equipment. ............................................ 1.2.3 The method of organization **010230** ............................................ In a sense, this guide is 6 guides in one. Why not submit 6 separate guides? All 6 cases are closely related using very similar methods. The order of the routines isn't always constant either. By using the previous design I had, the guide was only turning out to be a mess and quite disorganized, considering that some routines, mainly the winged helm, are best done at different times relative to others, like the winged helm for example. Plus, having you to check to see if that part is needed or, worse yet, jumping around (again, the winged helm is one culprit), only makes things messier. 1.2.3.1 General layout **010231** Because my guide is so big and massive (note the section 33 on the table contents), keeping things organized is essential. Just before each major section, you'll find a word in large, thick letters representing the basic idea covered. Each major section has a wide, extra large, and bold border around it directly below the giant text. A large gap is present between the ends of each section to make them stand out better. Each section within a major section also has a bold border, but it's not as large. There is a smaller gap between such sections. Subsections within a section still stand out, but only lightly. The gap is no longer present. Sub-subsections, the deepest level I go into (and rarely) have no borders or decorations with no gaps. If you're observant, you might notice the Fibonacci Sequence in the styling in many areas. The Fibonacci Sequence is one of my favorites. Basically, start with two ones. Take the current number then add the previous and you'll build it up: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21.... How many places can you find where the Fibonacci Sequence appears? As a consequence to this messy layout I would have had if I used the old format, I decided to split up this guide into 6 main parts. The first 3 sections cover the basics of the guide, explaining the pros and cons between the methods, and offering general tips. Sections 4 through 19 explain the routines, one section per routine (section 10, the augments, being an oddball - it's not a routine). Sections 20 through 24 explain how to use each method and briefly explains what you need to do in each method, as well as any changes needed in the routine specific to that method. Sections 25 through 30 explain how to get the high end equipment normally not seen until the end of the game. Section 31 is the optimization method, a special method. Lastly, the FAQ and legal stuff follow at the end. 1.2.3.2 Organizing routines **010232** Throughout sections 4 through 19, you will find a "used with" field with some numbers following. This indicates which method(s) use the given routine. 70H means the 70-hour method, 65H means the 65-hour method, and so on. The "opt" means the optimization method. Exclusive to the optimization method is the use of "optional" in parentheses to indicate that that routine is not required but may be of use. The routines are not all in sequential order for every method so be sure you check the actual methods themselves. If more than one method uses the routine and if any differences are present, there will be a subsection listing any differences. If major differences are present, a separate routine is used instead. 1.2.3.3 Reading tables **010233** About the imaginary example armor (cost: 750,000): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ Absorbs wind, weak to lightning | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 250 | License path | | Mist points 5 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 86 | License | LP | | Magick resist 2 | License you should have | Start | | Evade 0 | ^ Go up | 60 | | Magick evade 0 | > Go to the right | 45 | | Strength 15 | v Go down | 110 | | Magick power 0 | < Go to the left | 400 | | Vitality 7 | Total | 615 | | Speed 1 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ About the burning bow (cost: dropped from enemy (7500 base)): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ 50% more damage w/ fiery arrows | | Attack power 63 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | Small swords | Start | | Evade 0 | v Bows 1 | 20 | | Magick evade 0 | v Bows 2 | 30 | | Strength 0 | v Axes & Hammers 1 | 15 | | Magick power 0 | > Bows 4 | 40 | | Vitality 0 | Total | 105 | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ When references to equipment or spells are found when explaining the routines, I often provide a table. This table indicates how effective this piece of equipment is compared to what you'd have had beforehand. "Equipment bonuses" indicate the increase in a character's stats while that piece of equipment is equipped. "Extra important properties" refers to special properties that the item has. "License path" is the most efficient route to the needed license. The first license listed is one you should already have obtained. Those following are extras that lead to the important license. You may or, most likely, may not have these licenses. The arrow to the left of the license name is the direction to find it relative to the previous. That is, for the second example (a real case - the first is imaginary for demonstration purposes), from the "small swords" license (one you have by default), you'd go down to obtain "bows 1", down to obtain "bows 2", down to obtain "axes & hammers 1", then right to obtain "bows 4". The LP cost is also stated along with the grand total at the very end (if you've obtained any of the licenses along the path, the grand total you have will be less). 1.2.3.4 Explaining the methods **010234** Sections 20 through 24 explain the various methods, step by step. Each step is a stage, taking after the old style I had. Think of each stage as a milepost. Within each stage are a set of related tasks. Each task is a routine that you need to follow. Unlike the dedicated area, these are only covered briefly, summarized, unless there's differences needed where more depth is used. In the first section of each method, you will find a link to the playlist that includes the segments specific to the given method. While not everything will match exactly, the general idea is very close. Plus, this guide is slightly more up to date than the videos. Be sure to check the annotations at the bottom for a few updates. At the top of each routine entry, you'll see 5 pieces of info. Routine (section): This is the routine used, as based on the giant text. The section number is given in parentheses so you can quickly jump to it. For example, if section 6 is referenced in the 25-hour method, you'd go to section 6 or use the shortcut - press control+F to bring up your browser's "find" feature, type 2 astrisks, then your 2-digit section number, with a leading 0 if below 10, then 4 zeros, then 2 astrisks. That is, type **xx0000** where xx is 06. Segment(s): This is which segment numbers you reference in my narrated YouTube video covering this routine. Long-lasting routines will have multiple segment numbers present, listed in order. Time: This is the time you should have on the game clock when you finish this routine. You're doing good if you're under this time. If you're over it, you must have done something wrong somewhere. Ignore this if you're not focused on time. Level: This is about what level you should be by the end of the routine. Some routines have uncertainty so an approximation is given. When a suggested range is given, the lowest value is used. What to do: This is what you need to do in the given routine, in brief. See the actual routine itself for the full details. This, however, includes any adjustments, changes, and left out information that is specific to this method. Such information goes into the same depth as the routines themselves. Because many of the methods are similar for some parts, you'll see a lot of nearly identical text. 1.2.3.5 About the video walkthrough **010235** To aid you, giving you a real-time visual guidance, complete with narration, I went through the entire process myself, recording videos to explain each and every routine. While I generally do very good on the narration, there are some occasional mistakes or left-out information. The corrections are in each segment's annotations. You'll find the annotations at the bottom of every segment, each lasting 5 seconds. Extra commentary and secrets are also provided on occasion with annotations. For the first 10 seconds of every segment, you will see which methods the given segment is used for. To follow along the given method, reference the playlist given in section xx.1 where xx is the section number for your method (from 20 to 24). I've also set up the audio in the video so you can filter out the narration. By simply adjusting the balance (usually part of your sound card's software or your operating system's audio settings), you can choose what to filter out. Don't like my narration and just want the game's audio? Adjust the balance to the right to completely filter out my narration. Want to clearly hear what I say without the game's audio drowning out my narration? Adjust the balance to the left to filter out the original game audio. The game's audio will still be heard, but it's about 15 to 25 dB fainter, very significant. ___ _ _ ___ _____ ___ _____ ____ / _ \ | | | | / _ \ |_ _| / _ \ | ___| / ___| | | |_| | |_| | | | | | | | | | |_| | |__ \ \ | | _ | _ | | | | | | | | | _ | __| \ \ | |_| | | | | | | |_| | _| |_ | |_| | | |___ __\ \ \___/ |_| |_| \___/ |_____| \___/ |_____| |____/ ########################## ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 2 Deciding which method to use **020000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ########################## .==============================================. # 2.1 An overview of the 6 methods **020100** # `==============================================` There are 6 choices available, rather much. So, I'll drill down each and every one of them to explain the main reasons for choosing them. Each method has their own pros and cons. The faster the method, the better the pros become but also the worse the cons get as well. In the end, the pros usually outweigh the cons by a noticeable amount. Each method is named after how long it takes to reach level 99. If you're fast and focused on keeping the game clock to a minimum, you could get a time less than the advertised time. To best illustrate the pros and cons, here's a table to compare them and the meaning of the grades (which are based on the US system): A - the method excels here. B - the method does well here. C - the method is fair but okay here. D - the method does poor here. F - the method is failing here. + - a small adjustment for being a bit better. - - a small adjustment for being a bit worse. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Method effectiveness report card | +-------------------+---------+---------+--------+--------+--------+----------+ | Attribute | 70H | 65H | 40H | 35H | 25H | Opt | +-------------------+---------+---------+--------+--------+--------+----------+ | Story progress | 4% A+ | 4% A+ | 12% B- | 12% B- | 12% B- | 35% F | +-------------------+---------+---------+--------+--------+--------+----------+ | Lv 99 chars | 6 A+ | 6 A+ | 4 C+ | 4 C+ | 4 C+ | 6* A+ | +-------------------+---------+---------+--------+--------+--------+----------+ | Fast and early** | C | B- | D+ | C+ | A+ | F- | +-------------------+---------+---------+--------+--------+--------+----------+ | Total license | A+ | A+ | C+ | C- | D+ | A+ | | points gained | 25,000 | 24,000 | 7000 | 6000 | 5500 | 65,000 | | (approximate) | -27,000 | -26,000 | -8000 | -7000 | -6500 | -80,000 | +-------------------+---------+---------+--------+--------+--------+----------+ | Total gil earned | D | C | C- | B+ | A+ | A+ | | (approximate) | 120K | 350K | 300K | 600K | 800K | 5000K | | | -150K | -400K | -400K | -800K | -1200K | -12,000K | +-------------------+---------+---------+--------+--------+--------+----------+ | Difficulty*** | C- | B- | A- | A+ | D+ | D- | +-------------------+---------+---------+--------+--------+--------+----------+ | Level of risk^ | C | C+ | A | A+ | F | D | +-------------------+---------+---------+--------+--------+--------+----------+ | Repetitiveness^^ | D+ | F | B | C | A+ | F-- | +-------------------+---------+---------+--------+--------+--------+----------+ | Gambits available | No | No | Yes^^^ | Yes^^^ | Yes^^^ | Yes | +-------------------+---------+---------+--------+--------+--------+----------+ | Boostable chars@ | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 6 | +-------------------+---------+---------+--------+--------+--------+----------+ | Final grade@@ | 55 B- | 60 B | 57 B- | 59 B- | 55 B- | 27 D+ | +-------------------+---------+---------+--------+--------+--------+----------+ Table footnotes: * The optimization method essentially has 6 characters at level 99 when it's done, but you have 0 when all 6 join. The grades are based on when the method is done so it gets the best grade here. ** The faster and earlier, the better the grade, based on a 40/60 weight (40% speed, 60% early). The optimization method fails miserably as you make triple the story progress and it takes more than twice as long (quitting and reloading ignored) as the slowest method. *** The harder the process is to do, the lower the grade. The transitions in the final stage of the 70-hour method hurts it the most. Having to be level 1 through the first 1/3 of the game makes the optimization method score low here, along with leveling up the first 2 characters. ^ The riskier the method, the lower the grade. The 25-hour method really stands out. Being level 1 in the optimization method for the first 1/3 of the game makes it quite risky. ^^ The more repetitive and the less variety there is for the method, the lower the grade. The optimization method fails very miserably as it's so repetitive that it makes the 65-hour method look like good, strong fun. The 70- and 65-hour methods are very repetitive for the final stage. ^^^ The use of gambits is not advised during the final stage due to problems, limitations, and annoyances with the gambit system. This has no effect on the final grade though. @ Boosting characters costs a lot of time and is generally not recommended. This is not a determining factor in the final grade though. @@ The final grade is similar to how the GPA system the US uses. F scores 0 points (including the miserable fails), D- is 1, D is 2, D+ is 3, C- is 4, and so on up to A+ at 12. For reference, the total score and the average are both used. Overall, the methods, with the obvious exception of the optimization method, are all more or less the same. If you can handle the difficulty and the high risk of the 25-hour method, it is easily the most advantegous of them all. If you can handle heavy repetition, the 65-hour method is the best instead. See the following sections for in-depth details. .====================================. # 2.2 The 70-hour method **020200** # `====================================` Pros: Go through 96% of FF12 at level 99 and smash early bosses like never before. Everyone starts at level 99, even guests. A fair balance between fast and early. Obtain every license and have tons of LP to spare. A somewhat safe method to level up with. Cons: Little gil is earned but sufficient enough for most things. A little challenging, especially at the start of a new stage. Very repetitive at the end, but has plenty of variety early on. The 70-hour method is the longest of all the methods. In general, it involves getting the rod, using the ichthons near the river to level up on, getting the burning bow, using the enemies in the Westersand to level up with, getting the traveler's garb set, leveling up on the werewolves, getting the winged helm, then using the dive talons to level up on until the end. Although there is plenty of variety during the earlier stages, the final stage, the dive talons, will really test your patience. Going up and down a course 1800 total times is enough to steer almost anyone away due to boredom. Throw in the fact the last 5 level ups take almost 11 hours alone and you're really in for the long haul. At least you'll be able to go through the bulk of the game at level 99, get everyone to start at level 99, obtain every single license with so much LP left to spare that you could do again (if only you could), and it is fairly safe to use. Transitions to the starting of the next stage, especially toward the end, can be quite difficult. .====================================. # 2.3 The 65-hour method **020300** # `====================================` Pros: Go through 96% of FF12 at level 99 and smash early bosses like never before. Everyone starts at level 99, even guests. A decent balance between fast and early. Obtain every license and have tons of LP to spare. A fair amount of gil obtained, enough for almost anything for later. A fairly safe method to level up with. Cons: Extremely repetitive - just dustia and the final stage is 96% of what's done. A little challenging, especially at the start of the final stage. The 65-hour method is based on the 70-hour method except that it involves using dustia to level up with first thing, all the way to level 45. It is the second best of all the methods, only to the 25-hour method. In general, it involves getting the rod (gathering gil while doing so), using dustia to level up on, getting the burning bow, traveler's garb, and winged helm, then doing the final stage. That's it. No wonder why the 65-hour method fails on repetitiveness - there's hardly any variety. Like with the 70-hour method, you'll be going up and down that course 1800 total times. However, the final half is when the method really gets fast, peaking at about 70% faster than dustia and about 8% faster than the 70-hour method. You'll be able to go through the bulk of the game at level 99, get everyone to start at level 99, obtain every single license with so much LP left to spare that you could do again (if only you could), and it's quite safe to use. The only challenge lies with the transition into the final stage as it is a bit difficult at first. .====================================. # 2.4 The 40-hour method **020400** # `====================================` Pros: A full party of level 99 characters, after a bit. Very easy to use - little challenge is present. Very safe to use - the only noticeable risk is early on. A fair amount of gil obtained, enough for almost anything for later. A little repetitive - quite a bit of variety throughout until the end. Cons: Slight story progress is required, but only 1/8 of the way through. A poor balance between fast and early. About half of the license board will be cleared, sufficient enough though. Balthier and Fran get left far behind, as if you never leveled up. If the 65- or 70-hour methods are far too repetitive for you, then consider the 40-hour method. In general, the 40-hour method has you getting the rod, using the ichthons to level up on, getting the burning bow, advancing the story until Barheim Passage is done (getting the fiery arrows while doing so), getting the traveler's garb and winged helm, using the werewolves to level up on, using dive talons to level up on, then using Garamsythe Waterway for the final leveling. While there is plenty of variety, the last 3 stages of the process are still quite repetitive, especially the final one. It's not as bad as the 70- or 65-hour method's final stage, however. By Balthier and Fran getting left far behind, I really do mean it. Vaan could very well have all of his augments obtained with 4000 LP to spare and yet Balthier and Fran get left exactly how they were when they leave - hardly any LP and very little of the augments cleared. It's as if you never even leveled up at all. This problem, however, is fixed during the final routine of the afterward section (see section 31). Despite that, you'll still be able to get a full party of level 99 characters. The 40-hour method is very easy and safe to use and you do obtain a fair amount of gil. Although story progress is required, you're only 1/8 of the way through the game, still quite early. This method is a poor balance between fast and early. .====================================. # 2.5 The 35-hour method **020500** # `====================================` Pros: A full party of level 99 characters, after a bit. A fair balance between fast and early. Lots of gil is obtained, easily enough for pretty much anything. The easiest methods - just hand phoenix downs, and attacking helpless enemies. The safest method. Cons: Slight story progress is required, but only 1/8 of the way through. Balthier and Fran get left far behind, as if you never leveled up. Moderately repetitive - dustia and the final stage dominate but some variety. About half of the license board will be cleared, sufficient enough though. The 35-hour method is a clone of the 40-hour method except that it involves using dustia to level up with first thing and again later after doing the story events. In general, it involves getting the rod (gathering gil while doing so), using dustia to level up on, doing only 2 rounds, getting the burning bow, advancing the story until Barheim Passage is done (getting the fiery arrows while doing so), getting the traveler's garb and winged helm, doing hunts to raise the clan rank, continuing dustia to level up on, doing one more round of dustia for arcanae to get the hermes sandals, then doing the final stage. This method is the safest because, primarily, all you primarily do is hand dustia phoenix downs and attack immobilized enemies that can't get you (or flee if it misses). Although still fairly repetitive, it's less so than the 65-hour method. By Balthier and Fran getting left far behind, I really do mean it. Vaan could very well have all of his augments obtained with 3000 LP to spare and yet Balthier and Fran get left exactly how they were when they leave - hardly any LP and very little of the augments cleared. It's as if you never even leveled up at all. This problem, however, is fixed during the final routine of the afterward section (see section 31). Despite that, you'll still be able to get a full party of level 99 characters. You do obtain a lot of gil during this. Although story progress is required, you're only 1/8 of the way through the game, still quite early. This method is a fair balance between fast and early. .====================================. # 2.6 The 25-hour method **020600** # `====================================` Pros: A full party of level 99 characters, after a bit. The best balance between fast and early. Tons of gil obtained, so much, over a million, it's hard to spend it all. The least repetitive method of them all. Cons: Slight story progress is required, but only 1/8 of the way through. About 2/5 of the license board will be cleared, sufficient enough though. Balthier and Fran get left far behind, as if you never leveled up. Quite difficult as you must be careful, though only during the final stage. Extremely risky - one wrong move and it's game over. For those that just want to get level 99 as absolutely fast as possible and don't mind the very high risk or challenge, the 25-hour method is a great choice. It's also great for powerleveling-loving speedrunners. In general, it involves getting the rod (gathering gil while doing so), using dustia to level up on, doing only 2 rounds, getting the burning bow, quickly advancing the story (getting the fiery arrows while at it), getting the traveler's garb, quickly getting the winged helm, doing hunts to raise the clan rank, doing one last round of dustia only for arcanae to get the hermes sandals, then diving into the final stage with barely 4 1/3 hours on the game clock upon starting the final stage. Risk and challenge aside, it's by far the best of all the methods and it will show you speed like you've never seen before, putting the embroidered tippet to shame as you only get it so late in the game. Seriously, potentially as high as 14,500 experience per minute on, in a sense, 4 characters at once. What other method in the game can get that (and yet, this is essentially the beginning of the game!)? Seriously, just watch segment 37 and you'll see that I'm gaining a level in under 5 minutes around the upper 20s for the level. The main focus of the 25-hour method is on the game clock - keeping it as low as absolutely possible. The 25-hour method is the best balance between fast and early. Due to the narrow paths involved and the enemies being along it dropping high-value loot, it wouldn't be unusual to get over 1 million gil. This method is also the least repetitive of all of them. By Balthier and Fran getting left far behind, I really do mean it. Vaan could very well have all of his augments obtained with 2500 LP to spare and yet Balthier and Fran get left exactly how they were when they leave - hardly any LP and very little of the augments cleared. It's as if you never even leveled up at all. This problem, however, is fixed during the final routine of the afterward section (see section 31). Despite that, you'll still be able to get a full party of level 99 characters. Although story progress is required, you're only 1/8 of the way through the game, still quite early. .=========================================. # 2.7 The optimization method **020700** # `=========================================` Pros: Get 350-450 more HP and 120-150 more base MP for everyone. Clear the entire board 5 to 6 times over (!). Incomprehensible gil - potentially 10 million with enough focus. Cons: Lots of story progress is required, 1/3 of the way through the game. The least useful for being fast and early. Very difficult initially due to having to remain at the lowest possible level. Quite risky - being at a low level early on means deaths are common. Insanely repetitive - the 65-hour method is a lot of fun compared to this. Extremely time consuming - a good 400 hours is needed. Did you know that you could squeeze out another 350 to 450 HP (700 to 900 with bubble) and 40 to 50 MP (120 to 150 with all 3 mist charges) from every character? If you can easily handle the 70- or 65-hour methods, this might be something you can take up. Keep in mind though that you'll need to spend about 200 to even 400 or more actual real world hours (depending on how much effort you put into quitting and reloading) to doing this. Thus, if you log 8-hour days day in and day out without a gap, this will take you about a month to finish! That's with medium effort though, the one I suggest the most. To gauge this and decide the degree of effort you should put into this, reference this chart: +---------+-----------------------------------+----------+ | Effort | Game time, Q&R time, real time** | Lost HP* | +---------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+ | Minimal | 150 hours | 30 hours | 180 hours | 175-250 | | Low | 150 hours | 50 hours | 200 hours | 140-200 | | Medium | 150 hours | 90 hours | 240 hours | 110-160 | | High | 150 hours | 200 hours | 350 hours | 80-125 | | Extreme | 150 hours | 450 hours | 600 hours | 60-100 | +---------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+ Table footnotes: * Lost HP is approximate and assumes you do not level up any one until everyone joins and that you've boosted the characters upon them joining. It assumes 1.415x as the aptitude, the mid point between the highest and lowest. ** Game time is the time on the game clock. All efforts are the same. Q&R (quit and reload) time is time spent quitting and reloading to force the random number generator in your favor. Real time is the amount of time you spend in the real world doing this. Do note that there are 168 hours in a week and 730.4 hours in a month (assuming 24/7 play - adjust based on how much time you have available to spend on this (e.g. 4 hours means you multiply by "24/4" or 6 so 250 hours means about 9 weeks instead of about 1 1/2 weeks)). As you can see, by looking at this chart, you can see that with a little extra effort, you can get a fairly considerable boost. However, with higher efforts, you gain even less HP per unit of time. The best balance is the medium route. Low is good if you just want a quick taste of a boosted game, high is good for dedicated players. The only difference between near perfection (that I suggest), and true perfection is that true perfection demands about 30 to 50 times more time (you've got odds like 1 in 204 and 1 in 205 to thank for that, faced 18 total times, not to mention 36 more of 1 in 100 or worse) for only another 60 more HP and 12 more MP (based on high effort). That's hardly anything for such a huge time difference! Don't forget about the cases when the characters join - Balthier and Fran joining is the worst of the worst for the odds and time needed for a single attempt. I've undertaken the near perfection case with high effort and boy does it really, REALLY test your patience and persistence to the extreme. To combat this extreme repetitiveness, I do things off the side while waiting for the game to load. For example, watch TV (on a separate display device), write a review for GameFAQs, design your own game, write a book, do job-related stuff, do sudoku puzzles, just find something you can do while still being able to pay attention to and interact with the game. The goal of this method requires that you get all 6 characters on as low of a level as you can (preferrably no higher than level 10, the minimum possible is suggested). You'll definitely want to use the 122333 challenge until all 6 characters join and then start working on the leveling up process from there. The lower the level you can get all 6 characters to join at, the closer to true perfection you can get. I did this with level 18 or so as the starting point and I missed out on about 15 MP and 40 HP. Had I did this with the minimum level instead of level 18, I would have gotten another 12-18 or so extra MP and 30-50 extra HP. .======================================. # 2.8 Method compatibility **020800** # `======================================` The methods are not all compatible with each other. While there are plenty of cases where they are identical, there's plenty of differences. For example, the 40- and 70-hour methods start out exactly the same. They only split apart once you get the burning bow. If you start with the dustia method, every method, except the optimization method, starts out the same way. All methods require the rushing of the tutorial part, but once that's over, the optimization method splits off in one direction and the no dustia start method splits off in another. The 25-, 35-, and 40-hour methods require the same extra story progress in pretty much the same way with the same preparations as well. The ending part of the 25-, 35-, and 40-hour methods is pretty much identical with only a few small differences. It is possible to convert from either of the slow methods to the faster ones (or, at least, using their techniques) but you can't go back once the story progress is made without reloading an older save. Thus, if you wish to use the slower methods but can't stand it for long but still want to do it, consider saving to a separate file before making the story progress. Just make sure you don't overwrite it. When ready, just reload that file and continue the slower method. Because the 25-hour method has focus on the game clock, all other methods are incompatible with it. However, you can still use the techniques the 25-hour method demands during the 35- and 40-hour methods' final stage. The optimization method is a complete oddball. Because it requires you to be at a very low level (the lower, the better) until all 6 characters join, the routines are significantly different from the other methods. Still, there are enough similarities to warrant the use of the standard routines, there are a lot of changes needed. Section 31 covers everything. _____ _____ ____ ____ |_ _| |_ _| | _ \ / ___| | | | | | |_| | \ \ | | | | | __/ \ \ | | _| |_ | | __\ \ |_| |_____| |_| |____/ ##################### ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 3 Helpful tips and tricks **030000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ##################### There are several things you can do to squeeze out more time, speeding up the process. These are pretty much the same, regardless of the method you use. Here's a list of 16 tips, organized by category. .=======================================. # 3.1 Configuration-related **030100** # `=======================================` Tip 1-1. Max out the battle speed. This does not increase the degree of challenge to any noticeable degree, but it makes this process much faster as less waiting is involved. While status effect duration and animation duration remain the same, the charging speed of actions is improved. This doesn't have much of an effect, but it helps greatly, saving about 1 to 3 hours. There is only one case where the slowest battle speed should be used instead. Tip 1-2. Use active mode. While active mode is more challenging, it can easily save an hour or two over the course of the process (3 to 5 hours when going with the 70-hour method). Active mode will take time to get used to, but if it's too much for you to handle, then, by all means, use wait mode. There are a few cases that I strongly advise against active mode and they will be noted accordingly. Due to the extreme danger of the final stage in the 40- or especially the 25-hour methods, never use active mode there. .================================. # 3.2 Battle-related **030200** # `================================` Tip 2-1. Keep breaks between attacking to a minimum. Constantly attacking while moving toward your destination can easily shave off 20 minutes (even an hour in the 70-hour methods). With a bow, just constantly pass by enemies (except when noted) while attacking them. With a close-range weapon like a sword, make your attack and lead the enemy toward where you want to go while your next attack is being charged. The leading of an enemy is more difficult to master and it has a small effect, saving maybe 5 total minutes. The former case is easier and, due to being more common, saves a lot more time. Tip 2-2. Master pseudo running. Pseudo running is the apparent fleeing from an enemy while not actually fleeing (holding R2). Your attack is being charged up while you're keeping your distance from the enemy. With a short range weapon, this is hard to do but still possible. With a ranged weapon like a bow, it's easy to do. In fact, if you've masted pseudo running and you have the space available, you could actually get 2 shots off in the time the enemy only gets one (combos aside), even with slow status. Tip 2-3. Changing equipment can speed things up. In an emergency situation, changing equipment as soon as a cure spell goes through (that is, you see the popup), can eliminate the long delay and allow you to heal almost as fast as potions (potions only being faster). Tip 2-4. Be careful with using R2. If you need to flee, as from immobilize missing, the stop from putting the weapon away with R2 may cause you to get hit when simply running can get you much farther. Only use R2 if you have plenty of distance from your enemy. If you decide to avoid R2 but you're charging an attack, switch to wait mode if using active mode, and alternate between casting cure and attacking. Don't let either action take effect though or you'll stop. By taking effect, I mean from fully charging. Let an action charge about 3/4 then change actions. Never repeatedly target the same target with the same action. You may use the same action only if you change your targets. You may only use the same target if you change your action. .====================================. # 3.3 Navigation-related **030300** # `====================================` Tip 3-1. Cross zone boundaries perpendicular. Since it makes no difference where the zone boundary is crossed to get the system to load the next zone, keeping as perpendicular to it as possible will help save some time. If you can't do it perpendicular, from walls being in the way, use the nearest edge instead. Although this only saves but 1 or 2 frames per crossing, you change zones so much that this amounts to a good 20 minutes being saved. Tip 3-2. Use racing techniques. Unlike cars that skid around when cutting corners too sharply, characters are not affected. Although I see, on rare occasion, sudden and very brief leaning, this doesn't seem to affect anything. Tip 3-3. Avoid checking the map. You should get to know the areas before starting them. This hardly has any effect though, usually about 1 or 2 total minutes. Tip 3-4. Avoid getting chests. Unless you need the gil, as from starting out with the dustia method. There are a few cases where getting a chest is required though. Of course, if a chest is slightly off the path, then feel free to get it. Consider combining tip 2-1 or 2-2 with this. Tip 3-5. Minimize weapon sheathing and unsheathing. When the weapon is sheathed (put away, as from not being in combat), you move 20% faster. Any time you take out the weapon, it costs you about a half second. Thus, if your enemy is just out of range and you can't target anything quickly enough and the weapon gets put away, run at full speed for a second or two then attack to at least kind of make up for it. For nonagressive, green life bar enemies, you can pass right by them and then start attacking, best with a long range weapon. If nearby targets are available and you don't quite want the weapon to get put away, target those but keep out of range to keep the weapon out. Doing so can take about a half second. It's not much, but it adds up and it's rarely available, but enough to save a minute in the longer methods. .============================. # 3.4 Other tips **030200** # `============================` Tip 4-1. Do not speak to anyone unless instructed to. Unless required by the story or I tell you to (usually shop clerks), speaking to someone only wastes time. When speaking to someone is required, just rapidly press the X button. When choices are needed, the default choice is always the one you use. Tip 4-2. Do not spend gil unless instructed to. Some things are not cheap and will take a while to get. By spending gil on junk, you're only wasting time from having to recover that. Tip 4-3. Avoid stealing from enemies. This may seem contradictory to tip 4-2, stealing, except when noted, mostly wastes time. Standard drops, if you avoid getting unnecessary items, can easily cover what you need. If you start with the dustia method, however, that's a different subject. While advancing the story once Balthier and Fran join, stealing will help with getting the hermes sandals sooner. Avoid stealing from rare game and bosses though - it takes too long to score a steal. Also, only steal once per enemy, even if you miss, don't attempt again. Tip 4-4. Do not spend LP unless instructed to. LP takes a while to accumulate, even with that area in the Estersand that has enemies at high density all over. Thus, only spend LP when I tell you to. Yes, thanks to the design of the license board, you frequently have to get junk licenses to reach the you need. Tip 4-5. Skip every story scene you can. To do that, press start then X. If you want to see the story, play another game on a separate save file. It may seem strange, but doing this can actually save you nearly 30 minutes, a huge effect. For the 40- and 25-hour methods, that amounts to almost 2 hours being saved, despite 3 scenes that you can't skip at all (probably a bug with the programmers). ____ _____ ____ _____ __ _ __ _ _____ __ _ ____ | _ \ | ___| / ___| |_ _| | \ | | | \ | | |_ _| | \ | | / ___| | |_| | | |__ | | _ | | | A \ | | | A \ | | | | | A \ | | | | _ | _ < | __| | | | | | | | |\ \| | | |\ \| | | | | |\ \| | | | | | | |_| | | |___ | |_| | _| |_ | | \ ' | | | \ ' | _| |_ | | \ ' | | |_| | |____/ |_____| \___/ |_____| |_| \__| |_| \__| |_____| |_| \__| \___/ ########################### ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 4 The tutorial and rogue tomato **040000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ########################### Used with: 70H, 65H, 40H, 35H, 25H, Opt .===================================. # 4.1 Rush the tutorial **040100** # `===================================` The first part is completely unavoidable. This is the tutorial area. My guide is not intended to be a walkthrough of the game's story. Consult a regular walkthrough or my videos for that. First, obviously, start a new game and set the configuration settings as you see fit. When ready, choose "begin the game" and skip the story scenes that follow. When you first get to fight, bring up the party menu, go to "config", and set the battle speed to the maximum. Set the battle mode to active too, if you're comfortable with it. For the boss, just have Reks use thunder and keep your distance. Let the others use potions. There's no need to get Reks to level 99. If you want to, save to a second file. .==========================================. # 4.2 Hunting the rogue tomato **040200** # `==========================================` Once you gain control of Vaan, after skipping a lot of story scenes, deal with the 3 dire rats that like to run around. Continue on until you're in the Estersand. Here, deal with the 3 cactites you see first, getting those that are awake first before the sleeping ones (so as to avoid bringing several enemies together in a fight (if that happens, just quit and reload)). You may get a sleeping one if the others are too far away. Next, clear out the 4 or 5 wolves around the rogue tomato's area. You should get a level up when you finish the second wolf. Deal with the rogue tomato next. By clearing out the wolves around it, you can quickly get to the rogue tomato before it heals. Use a potion when at least 80 HP is missing, preferrably 100 so as to make full use out of a potion. Before using a potion, unless you have 20 HP or less remaining, finish off whatever enemy you're dealing with. When done, return to Rabanastre. If any of the cactites have respawned along the way back, deal with them. Be ready to skip more story scenes. This is the only story progress you'll make in the 70- or 65-hour method. Since you start right beside clan hall, go there and speak to Montblanc twice. The second time will get you 3 potions, 105 gil essentially. Next, head toward The Sandsea and speak to Tomaj to claim the bounty, essentially 470 gil. .=============================. # 4.3 Obtain cure **040300** # `=============================` About the cure spell (cost: 200): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ None | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | Accessories 1 | Start | | Evade 0 | < White magick 1 | 15 | | Magick evade 0 | Total | 15 | | Strength 0 | | | | Magick power 0 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ The cure spell will almost completely replace the need for potions. Because MP recovers as you run around, you'll never have to use a potion outside an emergency case. Instead of waiting until you have 100 HP missing, cast cure between battles when at about 60% of your HP, or just as you're about to cross a zone boundary. Head toward Yugri's magicks. Sell the loot you got, including all but maybe 2 potions (for emergencies) and buy cure. You may be 1 LP short (2 if unlucky) of being able to license cure. That's expected to happen and is fine. ____ ___ ____ | _ \ / _ \ | _ \ | |_| | | | | | | | | | | _ < | | | | | | | | | | | | | |_| | | |_| | |_| |_| \___/ |____/ ###################### ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 5 The rod in the Estersand **050000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ###################### Used with: 70H, 65H, 40H, 35H, 25H, Opt .=============================================. # 5.1 Cross the Yardang Labyrinth **050100** # `=============================================` Return to the east gate and, this time, continue heading to the northeast. Defeat every enemy along the way, except the wild saurian that does 500 damage (a certain game over). Try to deal with one enemy at a time. This can be difficult with wolves. License cure as soon as you can. In the Outpost zone, just continue straight ahead. There's a 5 gil piece right along the way, but picking it up is not necessary unless you do it real quick. Yardang Labyrinth (a labyrinth is a maze) is more complex because enemies tend to be grouped together more. Try to separate them by dealing with closer ones while the others are far away. This can be difficult and time-consuming to do though. The cockatrices are especially troubling, but are much easier to separate. Get close to a cockatrice, the distance at which they can start going after you, and let one come after you. Have attack charging up before starting though. Let the closer cockatrice start coming toward you - when it does, get back immediately. Should the far cockatrice suddenly start rolling very quickly toward you, get back immediately. Once your first attack hits, lead the cockatrice you're attacking away from the other one. Quite often, however, the game's 6-enemy limit will get in the way, blocking the appearance of one of the cockatrices so you only have to deal with one. The wolves are only half as strong so they're much easier to deal with. For the most part, just hug along the northwest wall. .===================================. # 5.2 Beware of nekhbet **050200** # `===================================` Next, follow the obvious path then head to the north-northeast. Avoid the cockatrices here. They're not worth the difficulty. Plus, there's also a rare game called nekhbet present that looks pretty much exactly like a cockatrice. This enemy will do a good 200 damage per hit with its mucus skill (this can also cause slow status), and its poke does about 130 damage. It's also got 4000 HP. It's easy to spot amongst the cockatrices as, if you see 3 cockatrices, nekhbet is present. In addition, it frequently has one of up to 4 status effect icons to the left of its life bar: protect (a blue hexagonal stone), shell (a green circle with a light green circle inside), bravery (a sword with a blue curved arrow pointing up on the right), and/or faith (a staff with a blue curved arrow pointing up). Should you see Nekhbet, get away immediately! There are 3 areas for which nekhbet will appear - the far western area that's highly out of the way, the area just to the right of the obvious path, and the area far to the east. The middle case is the most common it seems. What should you do when you get sighted and attacked by nekhbet? Run for it! My video for the no-dustia start demonstrates how to spot and deal with nekhbet very well. Head toward the nearest zone boundary and cross it. Nekhbet is very easy to avoid though, even easier if you avoid the cockatrices. Do be warned that, after roughly 80 seconds, the status effects will pretty much expire leaving you at higher risk of thinking it's a normal cockatrice. Before attacking a cockatrice, or what seems to be one, check the target list. Choose "attack" to see the target list. You don't need to select a target though. .============================================. # 5.3 Obtain and license the rod **050300** # `============================================` About the rod (cost: found in treasure chest (1500 base)): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ None | | Attack power 30 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 5 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | Small swords | Start | | Evade 0 | < Staves 1 | 15 | | Magick evade 0 | < Rods 1 | 15 | | Strength 0 | Total | 30 | | Magick power 1 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ What's so special about the rod? First, you'll roughly triple the damage you've been doing. How is it triple when the attack power only goes up a little more than double? Enemy defense. The damage formula explains it (the mythril sword and rod use the same formula): "(SATK*rand(1, 1.125)-TDEF) * (1+SSTR*(SLV+SSTR)/256)". SATK (source attack power) is 13 with the mythril sword and 30 with the rod. TDEF (target defense) is usually 4 or 5. The first part of the formula is the main part that controls damage. This means your attack power is effectively 9.5625 with the mythril sword and 27.75 with the rod (for the average after subtracting defense (based on 4)). 27.75 is slightly less than triple. In fact, you'll be doing over 100 damage at only level 3 thanks to this. Not only that, you also get 5 more MP, useful in healing needs, and 1 added to magick power to make healing slightly more effective. The formula for healing is "MPOW*rand(1, 1.125 * (2+SMAG*(SLV+SMAG))". Since SMAG (source magick power) appears twice in multiplication, it's like it's squared so that 1 point has a somewhat noticeable effect. Not bad for barely 40 minutes into the game! First, if you haven't gotten 30 LP yet, go around whacking wolves (and only wolves) until you do. Once you do, head into the eastern exit and save your game. After saving, head straight north to find the chest containing the rod on the edge of the northern cliff. The chest has a 75% chance of appearing, a 60% chance of being an item, and a 50% chance of that item being the rod. Basically, that means you have a 22.5% chance of getting the rod. If you don't get it, quit and reload. If you do, what you do next depends on your method - either you get more or you continue on. If you don't get the rod, quit and reload. By reloading, you'll force the game to reset the chest (and enemies). Otherwise, you'd have to get 3 zones away (all the way back to the zone with the wild saurian) and return to try again. For the most part, you should only need about 3 to 6 tries. When going after the rod for later attempts, ignore fighting the enemies. Once you get the rod, you'll be able to handle everything here, except nekhbet, with almost no effort. Once you license the rod, feel free to bash whatever enemies are around, except nekhbet. With the rod, the cockatrices are not a problem any more. ____ _ _ ____ _____ _____ ___ | _ \ | | | | / ___| |_ _| |_ _| / _ \ | | | | | | | | \ \ | | | | | |_| | | | | | | | | | \ \ | | | | | _ | | |_| | | |_| | __\ \ | | _| |_ | | | | |____/ \___/ |____/ |_| |_____| |_| |_| ########################## ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 6 The crazy fast dustia method **060000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ########################## Used with: 65H, 35H, 25H .==============================. # 6.1 About dustia **060100** # `==============================` Dustia is what's called rare game. It is found in the Corridor of Sand of the Westersand and only spawns when you have 10% HP remaining or less. Dustia is also an undead enemy (it looks like a fat, bony ghost with very sharp-looking claws) with about 7000 HP and the ability to teleport. It's worth an impressive 1100 exp and 3 LP each should you defeat one. Dustia also drops some pretty valuable loot too and it comes in 2 types. The book of orgain is the 40% (most common) drop and each one sells for 532 gil. The flame staff is a 3% drop (a weapon with no use to any of the methods) and sells for a whopping 1200 gil. This may seem like it's something you can't handle at all, but, surprisingly, dustia is far easier than even the wolves. All you need to do to defeat dustia is nothing more than hand it a phoenix down. Unfortunately, at this early point in the game, phoenix downs are quite expensive but there's ways around that. .=================================================. # 6.2 Preparing for the dustia method **060200** # `=================================================` .......................................... 6.2.1 Obtain more rods for gil **060210** .......................................... The rod sells for 750 gil, a lot. That's enough gil for 3 phoenix downs! With the chest containing the rod always reappearing, it is, thus, possible to repeatedly get the rod and really store up a lot of gil. Whether or not you do this, however, depends on your method. The process is very simple though - once you get the initial rod, license and equip it as usual, then return to the save crystal, save, quit, and reload. Rush to the chest again and attempt for another one. No chest or no rod? Quit and reload. Rod obtained? Return to the save crystal, save, quit, reload, and go at it again. Each run adds barely a minute to the clock but you get 750 gil for every rod you get. The number of rods you get depends on your method. Reference your chosen method for the ideal number to get - the value is higher for the longer methods - 12-20, 8-12, or 6-10. The approximate number of phoenix downs you'll get is the number of rods you get plus about 12. If you get 8 rods, for example, you'll get about 36 phoenix downs. For comparison, it takes about 4 minutes to get 3 phoenix downs without this. It takes but 1 minute on the game clock for 3 using the method of repeatedly getting the rod. Once you're done with dustia, you'll have a ton of gil for another round, and a lot of LP, not to mention level 19 in under an hour on the game clock. ................................................ 6.2.2 Nalbina Town for phoenix downs **060220** ................................................ Once you get the rod (or multiple rods), the methods involving starting with dustia split apart from those that don't. Those that don't have you heading farther north. Starting with dustia has you heading back where you came from, Yardang Labyrinth. In this area, simply head south until the path splits in two. Take the path heading east. You'll find a surprise cactoid that pops out of the ground. When the path splits again, take the north route (south leads to Giza Plains - you don't need to go there). At the end, you'll find the entrance to Nalbina Town off to the east. Once here, you'll see a shop and save crystal right in front of you. Save at the save crystal. Optionally, quit and reload what you just saved to reset the enemies. At the shop, sell pretty much everything you have, except the currently equipped equipment and Vaan's starting mythril sword. With the rod, you can bash enemies with minimal effort. With the cure spell, there's no need for potions, so long as you watch your HP closely. When you've sold everything, buy as many phoenix downs as you can get. I strongly suggest having at least 16 phoenix downs. With the stealing method, you're likely to have 18. With the rod method, you could get 40. If you don't get enough, use the rod method until you do. Much less than 16 and you'll likely be doing a lot of quitting and reloading just to get started. The more you can get now, the less quitting and reloading you'll need and the faster things will be. ....................................... 6.2.3 Reaching the key area **060230** ....................................... Return to Yardang Labyrinth and head as much west as you can. If you enter Giza Plains, you went too far south - quit and reload or backtrack (backtracking costs time). If you enter the Outpost, you're good to go - just pass through and continue back to Rabanastre, bashing whatever enemies are along the way, except wild saurian as usual. Continue heading west through Rabanastre and take the west gate. Make sure you save at this save crystal. If something goes wrong, you'll have to back track a lot. Head to the northwest bashing whatever enemies are along the way near your route and reach, but don't cross, the zone boundary. .................................... 6.2.4 Going below 10% HP **060240** .................................... At this point, you'll need to satisfy the only condition needed to get dustia to appear. That is, you must be at or below 10% HP remaining. To find the upper limit, simply drop the ones digit. Yep, that means you'll need 20 HP or less (for the most part), next to nothing. The obvious way to get low HP like that is to get into a fight with an enemy and let the enemy do the work, but that's quite slow, especially when you've got a long way to go such as from being around level 30. There's another method - attack yourself. Attacking yourself, however, presents 2 problems. The first is that there's the risk of combos happening when you don't expect them or want them. The solution to that problem is simple - just as the damage popup appears, open the party menu and change your equipment immediately. The second problem is that the damage you do to yourself is, initially, greater than the maximum allowed HP. You may go from 11% HP remaining to death, causing a game over. To help control the damage, take note of how much damage your mythril sword does that you start with and also how much damage you do when unarmed. The formula for the damage of swords is "(SATK*rand(1, 1.125)-TDEF) * (1+SSTR*(SLV*SSTR)/256)" and the damage formula for going unarmed is "(11*rand(1, 1.125)-TDEF) * SSTR * (SLV+SSTR) / 256". They are both quite similar. SATK is source attack, 13 for the mythril sword. The "rand" is a random number generator function that returns a value from and including the left value to and including the right value. TDEF is the target defense, 4 in this case. SSTR, source strength, and SLV, source level, are the other variables. Due to differences in damage calculation, for the second half of the formula (where strength and level play a role), unarmed is slightly more than half as powerful as the mythril sword. Based on level 5, for which you'll likely be by this point, the mythril sword should do about 38.6 damage on average with your armor, 54.3 without. Going unarmed does 22.5 damage with your armor, 34.2 without. These values vary by about 10% in both directions. These are averages. Given that you'll have around 207 max HP, going unarmed, even with your armor, can still take you from 11% HP remaining to a game over. ........................................... 6.2.5 Wait at the slowest speed **060250** ........................................... Before starting to deal with dustia, there are 3 other things you must do. The first is to set the battle mode to wait mode. When dustia gets defeated, you must grab the loot and quickly change zones. You have just one second from the moment dustia is defeated to the moment you must have crossed the zone boundary. During that, you must grab the loot. If using active mode, you have to wait for the loot bag to drop enough before it can even be picked up, costing valuable time. By using wait mode, you can bring up the battle menu as soon as dustia is declared defeated by the game to pause the 1-second limit but still let the loot bag drop. By unpausing and quickly pausing again, you can grab the loot bag and very easily make it in time. The second is reducing the battle speed to the bare minimum. Because you have to wait for dustia to fully materialize before you can even target dustia, and while you're waiting, dustia is charging up dark. Because dark requires a charge time and the use of items don't, reducing the battle speed actually gives you a significant advantage. By reducing the battle speed to the minimum, dustia's dark will take twice as long. It takes so long in fact that, once the red life bar appears, you still have a whole 2 1/2 seconds to initiate the use of a phoenix down before dustia's dark spell will begin taking effect. That's a lot of time to spare! The third preparation is to move the phoenix downs up to the very top of your item inventory list. This way, you're not sorting through a list of items repeatedly, wasting time. If you followed my advice of selling the unnecessary items, this step is already done for you. .=======================================. # 6.3 The short first cycle **060300** # `=======================================` ................................................ 6.3.1 The basics of defeating dustia **060310** ................................................ With every preparation now set, you're ready to level up like you've never seen before, very likely even gaining 2 levels at once (like I did in my video, jumping from level 5 to level 7 (or from 6 to 8)). Cross the zone boundary to the north. Once the zone loads, run back toward the zone boundary line but don't cross it. Wait for dustia to appear. When it does, noted by a glittering light effect, run up to it so that you are touching it. If dustia decides to teleport first thing, go to whereever dustia teleports to, usually 1 to 3 meters away from the previous position, almost always right next to you. Regardless if dustia decides to teleport first thing or not, wait until you see the red life bar appear. At this point, hand dustia a phoenix down. Why a phoenix down? Dustia is an undead enemy and they get harmed with healing items (hand dustia a potion and it'll take 100 damage). Phoenix downs revive someone. The opposite of revival is death. Thus, the restorative item that the phoenix down is turns into instant death on the undead. It's this reason that you need the phoenix downs and also why you can handle dustia so easily at even level 1 (if you defeated your first dustia at level 1, you'd jump clear to level 5 on your first one then 7 on your second). Once the phoenix down connects, press X and wait for the loot bag to drop to the ground. Once it's on the ground, press O while moving toward dustia to resume time and being sure you get the loot bag but immediately press X again to confirm you got it. If you didn't get it try again, using the same method - be sure you are moving toward dustia at all times when grabbing the loot - this ensures you get it. Once you get the loot, press O and immediately head toward the zone line. If you don't cross the zone boundary within one second after the phoenix down claims dustia, you won't get another one to appear - you'll have to go way back to Rabanastre and back to get another one, costing you a whole minute (and in that time, you could defeat 3 more dustias!). My video demonstrates this loot-grabbing technique perfectly. Missing the loot will cost you early on quite significantly, especially if you didn't repeatedly go after the rod, as you need a 50% return to at least get break even. You may only stick around after defeating a dustia if you defeated the last dustia (from using the last phoenix down you had). Once you cross the zone boundary, return, run back to the zone boundary without crossing it like before, and, whaddaya know, another dustia. If you took more than a second to leave upon the phoenix down claiming dustia, dustia won't appear forcing you to have to run to Rabanastre and return. If dustia isn't appearing, you took too long to leave. I would suggest quitting and reloading if that happens, but if done right, that should never happen. For the most part, repeat this process until you've used up all of your phoenix downs. The chain number should exactly match the number of phoenix downs you started with. Starting with 38 phoenix downs means you're done once you see "38-chain" appearing. With 40 phoenix downs used, you should be already at level 19 and still have under an hour on the game clock! Talk about extreme! There's only one Final Fantasy game I've played that has a faster leveling up speed - Final Fantasy Tactics (but it doesn't allow you to gain more than one level up at a time; 50 levels within 10 minutes is just insane). From in-depth statistical analysis of this, I average about 22 1/2 seconds per dustia (with a 0.275-second standard deviation in 43 points of data) if dustia doesn't drop anything. I average 23 4/9 seconds per dustia if dustia drops an item (with a 0.275-second standard deviation in 44 points of data). Of course, this is with a lot of practice and doing it for so long. When you first start, you might be about 1/2 to 1 second longer, but you'll get faster with practice. Don't get too fast though as control-disabling animation will get in the way. Pace yourself. ............................................ 6.3.2 Healing loot is your enemy **060320** ............................................ This subsection's title seems contractory, but it is for real. Should the chain level up, there's a small chance, 10% per drop, that you'll get healed 10%. Do note that that is per drop. At chain level 2, there's a 48.3% chance of a drop meaning that the odds are not 10% per dustia, but a much more comfortable 4.83% per dustia. Should that happen, dustia won't appear again when you return. You'll have no choice but to either fiddle around with equipment to get back under 10% or simply attack yourself again (punching is sufficient enough until higher levels where the mythril sword is better). Once you're back under 10% HP remaining, dustia will be back and you can continue on. The drops will also recover your MP. Don't confuse MP recovery with HP recovery. MP recovery has very small numbers whereas HP has considerably bigger ones. If the chain levels up again, protect and shell may be added on. Protect can be a problem when you get a healing loot drop and need to get back under 10% HP remaining. With a 20% chance of a heal per loot drop and 54% chance of a loot drop, that's still an 10.8% chance of being healed per dustia, quite low. The next chain level up has a 25% chance of a heal and a 60.4% chance of a drop pointing to a 15.1% chance of being healed per dustia, fairly high but still not too bad. Grabbing the loot will help prevent the chain from leveling up, unless the number is flashing a lot where, in that case, it's unavoidable. Because it's critical that you get the loot drops, you must continue the chain. Once you can start buying 99 phoenix downs on demand, then you may consider breaking the chain after it levels up twice. A 10% chance of healing isn't a problem. To break the chain, just smash a wolf or cactoid. Entering Rabanastre also works, but not recommended after the second cycle and it costs a lot more time. It only costs about 15 extra seconds to get back under 10% HP remaining. ................................................ 6.3.3 The first cycle's requirements **060330** ................................................ The first cycle is the roughest one. Getting down to 10% HP the first time is minor in comparison. Why? With so little gil, you can't get enough phoenix downs to really make use of multiple drops. Before that, the drops are more against you. To get ahead, you have to force the game to get you sufficient enough drops to get enough gil to quickly get started. Doing that involves using quitting and reloading until you've met the required conditions. What conditions do you need to meet? Well, it's actually only one condition that needs to be met - getting at least 10 books of orgain (about a 5% chance). This may seem like you're going to be going at it for quite a while, but remember that dustia also drops flame staves? For every flame staff you get, you can deduct 2 books of orgain off the requirement. If you get 1 flame staff, you only need 8 books of orgain (this has a much nicer 12% chance). If you get 2 flame staves, you only need 6 books of orgain (this has about a 7% chance). Overall, you have about a 25% chance of meeting this goal (based on having 15 phoenix downs to start with). Since all cases are mutually exclusive, the probabilities get added. If you don't meet the requirements, quit and reload and retry the first cycle (if you saved at the west gate, you should only need to head into the Westersand and immediately go at it again). You can expect to meet the goal in about 1 to 4 trials. .=========================================. # 6.4 The longer second cycle **060400** # `=========================================` If you used the rod method for quick gil first thing, skip this as it doesn't apply. ...................................... 6.4.1 Back to Nalbina Town **060410** ...................................... To replenish your phoenix downs, once you've met the requirement on the first round, reset your settings (active mode, if you've been using it, and maxing the battle speed), heal yourself once, then return to Rabanastre bashing whatever enemies are along the way, doing far more damage than you were when you first came here. Save once you reach the save crystal. When you're done, head back to Nalbina Town, bashing enemies along the way. Sell everything in the same way as before, including all flame staves you got. Buy as many phoenix downs as you can. If you did well, you should have about 30 phoenix downs right now. Return to the Rabanastre and the west gate again. ........................................................ 6.4.2 Dustia vs phoenix down, round 2, ding! **060420** ........................................................ Defeating dustia for the second round is pretty much the same as the first except that it lasts much longer. Unlike the first cycle's requirement, there really isn't any condition you need to meet. The reason for that is simple: multiple item drops. Once the chain count reaches 11, you'll have a chance of getting 2 books of orgain from a single dustia. That increases to 3 at 19 and 4 at 27. At 27, should a book of orgain drop, you're guaranteed 2 of them. You won't see multiples of the flame staff until 19, with 2. At 27, you could get up to 4 flame staves, but that, with max chain level, only means a 0.6% chance of getting per dustia. There's a 5.5% chance of getting 4 books of orgain per dustia. That's a 0.033% chance of both (about 1 in 3000). Consider yourself very lucky if that ever happens. When you run out of phoenix downs again, you'll be around level 19 to 21, depending on how many phoenix downs you've had. Head back into Rabanastre to save. .============================================. # 6.5 The third cycle and beyond **060500** # `============================================` ........................................ 6.5.1 Through the Westersand **060510** ........................................ This time, instead of going all the way to Nalbina, head west, deeper into the Westersand. For the most part, just ignore the enemies here. Defeating dustias is far faster for leveling up, 3 times faster, if not more. Only the regular wolves are of any worth as you can defeat those in one hit, but they're only good for LP, not exp. The alpha wolves, urstrixes, dive talons, and sleipnirs are things you must avoid. Definitely avoid the alraunes though. They do 50 damage and they combo frequently. If you've been targeted by one, run for it. The enemies here give around 260 exp each and take several hits to defeat. Dustia is at least 3 times faster than that. Thus, it's best to just avoid them. Although R2 helps, sometimes, however, it's just not possible. Should you engage combat, any urstrixes or alraunes that are fully opaque will start walking toward where the action is. As a consequence, keep an eye on the minimap as well. Should one be approaching, get back. Once you finish off the enemy, heal all the way. Feel free to get any regular wolves though - you can take them out in one hit and they're essentially free license points and a little extra gil. They do have a special attack called "fangs" that's defense-ignoring and does nearly 70 damage though. Avoid alpha wolf though - it's not like those in the Estersand where you can bash them in one hit. ..................................... 6.5.2 Avoid the sandstorm **060520** ..................................... If you get a sandstorm upon leaving Rabanastre (there's a pretty decent chance of it), you'll encounter an enemy called gnoma entite in 2 zones. If you see the green life bar and begin using magic, gnoma entite will turn aggressive and start using some powerful magick that deals about 1300 damage per cast, not to mention silencega and sleepga. To avoid this risk, leave Rabanastre after saving to check for a sandstorm. You can tell by the sounds upon the music starting. If it's windy, you have a sandstorm. There are 2 ways to fix this. The first is to return to Rabanastre then, once the west gate zone loads, return to the Westersand right away (you don't need to do anything, just change regions). It may take a few tries though. The second method is quitting then reloading your save, friendly on the game clock. I would strongly suggest going after getting a clear blue sky. Why? It's for something that's to come later - the burning bow. Without a blue sky, the burning bow will miss about 50% of the time, quite frequently. ........................................... 6.5.3 Lohen sells phoenix downs **060530** ........................................... Continue as far west as you can. You'll find a gate crystal and a shop in the same small zone when you're there. Speak to Lohen here. Sell dustia's loot along with other loot and items you picked up. Again, buy as many phoenix downs as you can. When you can pick up around 40, you have a very good chance of picking up the full 99 on the next and all future trips all thanks to multiple drops. .==================================================. # 6.6 Obtain a quickening - red spiral **060600** # `==================================================` About red spiral (cost: free (character skill)): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Effects | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ Rank 1 quickening | | Attack power 90 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | Accessories 1 | Start | | Evade 0 | ^ Accessories 2 | 15 | | Magick evade 0 | ^ Accessories 4 | 35 | | Strength 0 | ^ Red spiral | 50 | | Magick power 0 | Total | 100 | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ Quickenings have one key advantage. They serve as an easy way to drastically increase your maximum MP. Quickenings, early on, are extremely powerful attacks. They are also, when set up properly, the way to getting the highest single damage popups possible, even passing 131,072 damage in a single damage popup with enough hits and plenty of luck. The MP increase isn't why you need the quickening, since MP is practically a nonissue. The reason for it is the burning bow that's coming up very soon, but only if you decide to take the quickening route, the best for the game clock. You will need to license a quickening later on though, but that can wait until the time comes should you not get it now. _____ ___ _ _ _____ _ _ ___ __ _ |_ _| / _ \ | | | | |_ _| | | | | / _ \ | \ | | | | | | |_| | |_| | | | | |_| | | | | | | A \ | | | | | | _ | _ | | | | _ | | | | | | |\ \| | _| |_ | |_| | | | | | | | | | | | | |_| | | | \ ' | |_____| \___/ |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| \___/ |_| \__| ########################## ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 7 Ichthon, fast LP, and reload **070000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ########################## Used with: 70H, 40H, Opt .=======================================. # 7.1 To South Bank Village **070100** # `=======================================` With the rod in hand, bashing wolves, cockatrices, and cactoids along the way, continue northward toward that village where those palm trees are. There's no risk for nekhbet in this zone but there is an enemy called greeden that appears if you haven't messed with the cactoids here for 3 minutes. Just defeat a cactoid to block greeden from appearing (and being worth almost 40 exp, they're quite valuable). Unlike before, you can handle the cockatrices very easily now, going down in 2 hits instead of 5 or 6 and they'll usually only attack once instead of 4 to 5 times, allowing you to face a few cockatrices at once or several in a row before needing to heal. .===========================================. # 7.2 The strong battle harness **070200** # `===========================================` About the battle harness (cost: 1000): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ Allows for counterattacks | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | Accessories 1 | Start | | Evade 0 | ^ Accessories 2 | 15 | | Magick evade 0 | ^ Accessories 4 | 35 | | Strength 2 | Total | 50 | | Magick power 0 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ The battle harness has 2 advantages, both fairly small. The first is that it raises strength by 2 points. Remember the damage formula? That's "(SATK*rand(1, 1.125)-TDEF) * (1+SSTR*(SLV+SSTR)/256)" - note how SSTR (source strength) appears twice in multiplication. This means a squaring effect is going on so a small increase has a huge effect. At level 5, this means you'll do about 11 1/3% more damage, quite noticeable. The second advantage is that it allows for counterattacks, but they seem to have about 2% chance of occurring per regular physical hit, too slight to be depended on. Because of the boost in strength, this item will come in handy not just now, but throughout the entire process as there's no better accessory outside the hermes sandals (not available in the 70-, 65-, or 40-hour methods). Once in the village, speak to unlucky merchant, sell your loot (leave behind some items, depending on your method - see your method for what to avoid selling), then buy the "battle harness". You likely don't have enough LP to license it just yet, but if you do, then license it. Do not buy anything else. .======================================. # 7.3 Ichthons and fast LP **070300** # `======================================` Once done, save your game, quit, and reload. Why quit and reload? This will reset the enemies so you can quickly get more LP. Once you've reloaded, leave the village, then head west then north to follow along the river. Here, you will encounter a quite colorful fish with a lot of crazy fins called ichthon. These are fairly powerful, doing about 20 to 25 damage, but, with that rod of yours, they're quite easy to handle. Be warned though. If you get too far from them, they'll begin to use a special skill called "water cannon". This skill will do over 100 damage to you. To avoid it, always keep right next to ichthon. There's still that very slight chance it will use it despite always keeping ridiculously close to it. How? The very annoying and pointless feature called knockback that you can't stop from happening. However, the ichthons are worth about 187 exp, essentially 17 wolves in one. You might also consider, starting at level 7, 6 at the earliest, stealing from ichthon. The fish scale it has is worth 151 gil, quite significant. Also, after defeating an ichthon, fully heal. If your HP is dropping below 70, use a potion to quickly heal. This, however, shouldn't really happen, even at level 4. Just focus on defeating the ichthon - you can heal right after defeating it. Be sure to get the second ichthon farther west - just follow the river's banks toward the west to find the other. Heal as needed as well. Later on, the need to heal will be less or even no longer needed. After dealing with the 2 ichthons, go around bashing the cockatrices, cactoids, and the numerous wolves around the zone you're in (and only the zone you're in). The 2 cockatrices should be your next obvious targets. Head south to get a wolf and cactoid (the cactoid is often out of sight so I tend to ignore it as it's too far off the path). Continue heading south, east, north a bit for 2 wolves, back to the south for a cockatrice, the east for a cactoid, more to the east for 3 wolves, the north for a pack of 3, sometimes 4 wolves, then check the river again for more ichthons (there's a fair chance that they've respawned). For speed, just check just the one nearest to the village. If it's there, fully heal then deal with it. You can pick up about 18 total LP and about 500 total exp doing all this, not bad for only 4 minutes. Return to the village when you're done. Once here, just save, quit, and reload. After some time, you'll be defeating everything here except the ichthons, in one hit. Make sure you pick up the loot bags as you're going to need a lot of gil. Repeat this process until you've licensed the battle harness and you've stocked at least 130 extra LP, 150 preferably. For the most part, you should be about level 10 or just starting 11 by then. .==================================================. # 7.4 Obtain a quickening - red spiral **070400** # `==================================================` About red spiral (cost: free (character skill)): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Effects | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ Rank 1 quickening | | Attack power 90 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | Accessories 4 | Start | | Evade 0 | ^ Red spiral | 50 | | Magick evade 0 | Total | 50 | | Strength 0 | | | | Magick power 0 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ Quickenings have one key advantage. They serve as an easy way to drastically increase your maximum MP. Quickenings, early on, are extremely powerful attacks. They are also, when set up properly, the way to getting the highest single damage popups possible passing 131,072 damage in a single damage popup. The MP increase isn't why you need the quickening, since MP is practically a nonissue. The reason for it is the burning bow that's coming up very soon, but only if you decide to take the quickening route, the best for the game clock. You will need to license a quickening later on though, but that can wait until the time comes should you not get it now. __ _ ___ _ ____ _____ __ _ ___ | \ | | / _ \ | | | _ \ |_ _| | \ | | / _ \ | A \ | | | |_| | | | | |_| | | | | A \ | | | |_| | | |\ \| | | _ | | | | _ < | | | |\ \| | | _ | | | \ ' | | | | | | |___ | |_| | _| |_ | | \ ' | | | | | |_| \__| |_| |_| |_____| |____/ |_____| |_| \__| |_| |_| ###################### ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 8 Shopping in Nalbina Town **080000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ###################### Used with: 70H, 65H, 40H, 35H, 25H, Opt .========================================. # 8.1 Travel to Nalbina Town **080100** # `========================================` Once you reach the goal, begin heading toward the south again, bashing whatever enemies are along the way. Remember to avoid Nekhbet - you still don't stand a chance against it and for only 600 exp and 3 LP, it's not worth it. Get the other enemies around the area though - you need the LP and gil so go for it. You should be defeating pretty much everything in one hit now. Continue heading southwest to get to the entrance of that path that leads to Yardang Labyrinth. Here, continue bashing enemies and picking up their loot. When the path splits, make the turn - you should be heading southeast. In this, a cactoid will come out - bash it for a quick LP and about 37 exp. When the path splits again, take the left path to head north, bashing whatever enemies are along the way. The entrance to Nalbina Town is on the east. .==================================. # 8.2 Buy onion arrows **080200** # `==================================` About the onion arrows (cost: 100 gil): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ Must be equipped with a bow | | Attack power 1 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | License not required | --- | | Evade 0 | | | | Magick evade 0 | | | | Strength 0 | | | | Magick power 0 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ The onion arrows require the use of a bow in order to be put to use. They are a basic arrow. Since the quantity of arrows you get is infinite, you only need to buy one set. Equipping arrows adds slightly more attack power on a bow as well. First, upon entering town, speak to the seeq that has a shop. Buy just the onion arrows here. I know, you just got the rod and you've been using to bash wolves and cockatrices like crazy. Why would you get arrows? It's a preparation for the burning bow that you're about to get that is far more effective than the rod (think: 2 1/2 times more damage). Be sure to save at the save crystal that's present here. If you make a mistake, simply quit and reload. .===============================. # 8.3 Buy new armor **080300** # `===============================` There are 5 pieces of armor that have any worth in consideration. I'll list the 5 in the order of the most useful to the least useful. About the bronze helm (cost: 700): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ None | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 6 | Light armor 1 | Start | | Evade 0 | > Heavy armor 1 | 20 | | Magick evade 0 | Total | 20 | | Strength 2 | | | | Magick power 0 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ Because the enemies you're going to be dealing with do not use magic (or if they do, they're going down in one hit or using it on themselves), magick resist is a completely irrelevant stat. Thus, because helms focus on magick resist, a heavy armor helm offering as much strength as possible will be the most beneficial. About the bronze chestplate (cost: 500): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ None | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 40 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 8 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | Heavy armor 1 | Start | | Evade 0 | ^ Shields 1 | 15 | | Magick evade 0 | > Light armor 3 | 20 | | Strength 0 | Total | 35 | | Magick power 0 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ The bronze chestplate may not raise strength, but the 8 on defense and 40 extra HP can be useful for what's to come after you're done shopping though the usefulness of this depends on your method. About the bronze armor (cost: 700): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ None | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 7 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | Heavy armor 1 | Start | | Evade 0 | Total | 0 | | Magick evade 0 | | | | Strength 2 | | | | Magick power 0 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ I find it strange that the best heavy armor for the body, which is normally geared for defense, has the lowest devense of the 3 body armors. Still, the 2 on strength is useful and it requires the same license as the bronze helm. About the kilmweave shirt (cost: 500): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ None | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 8 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | Shields 1 | Start | | Evade 0 | ^ Mystic armor 2 | 20 | | Magick evade 0 | Total | 20 | | Strength 0 | | | | Magick power 3 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ Even stranger is that mystic armor for the body, not normally geared toward defense, offers the best defense available (tied with the light armor). This armor is only good for quicker healing, should that be necessary, thanks to the +3 on magick power. About the topkapi hat (cost: 500): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ None | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 8 | Mystic armor 2 | Start | | Evade 0 | Total | 0 | | Magick evade 0 | | | | Strength 0 | | | | Magick power 3 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ To go together with the kilmweave shirt, the topkapi hat offers the same +3 on magick power. This, for the most part, isn't needed. Head into town and pass through the first zone. You'll find the armor shop pretty much straight ahead. The armor you buy depends heavily on the method you're using. Reference the method to see what you should get. .========================================. # 8.4 Buy the poach technick **080400** # `========================================` About the poach technick (cost: 7000 gil): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ Works only on HP critical enemy | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | Steal | Start | | Evade 0 | v First aid | 20 | | Magick evade 0 | v Poach | 30 | | Strength 0 | Total | 50 | | Magick power 0 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ The poach technick allows for you to be guaranteed an item when used on an HP critical enemy, instantly defeating it. Being so overpriced (I wonder if the game designers intended on it being 700 gil), you might not have the gil to obtain it. It can wait a little more, but getting it now while you can is preferred, saving quite a bit of time. Return to the previous zone to find Troublesome Technicks first thing along the path. Whether or not you get this depends on the method you're using. Be sure to check this. .==================================. # 8.5 Buy some magicks **080500** # `==================================` About the poison spell (cost: 500 gil): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ Adds "poison" status | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | White magick 1 | Start | | Evade 0 | < White magick 2 | 20 | | Magick evade 0 | ^ Green magick 1 | 25 | | Strength 0 | < Green magick 2 | 30 | | Magick power 0 | Total | 75 | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ The poison spell causes an enemy to take damage equal to 1/16 their max HP (rounded down) once every 12 seconds. This only has use if you want to make use of a bug to get the burning bow faster in real world time, but not on the game clock. About the protect spell (cost: 500 gil): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ Adds "protect" status | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | White magick 2 | Start | | Evade 0 | ^ Green magick 1 | 25 | | Magick evade 0 | Total | 25 | | Strength 0 | | | | Magick power 0 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ The protect spell cuts physical damage by 25%. The usefulness of this depends heavily on your method. About the blindna spell (cost: 200 gil): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ Removes "blind" status | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | White magick 1 | Start | | Evade 0 | Total | 0 | | Magick evade 0 | | | | Strength 0 | | | | Magick power 0 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ The blindna spell simply removes the "blind" status effect without the need of consuming eye drops. Continue toward the town exit to find Mysterious Magicks. Here, you'll find these 3 spells. As to which one(s) you get, that depends entirely on which method you have and how much gil you have available. When you're done shopping, leave town and return to Yardang Labyrinth. I find it very disappointing you can't get into the area to the north as that place is far better for leveling up at than even the final place in the 40- and 35-hour methods, up to 50% faster even (which ties the 25-hour method's potential speed). ____ _ _ ____ __ _ ____ ___ _ _ | _ \ | | | | | _ \ | \ | | | _ \ / _ \ | | | | | |_| | | | | | | |_| | | A \ | | | |_| | | | | | | | A | | | _ < | | | | | _ < | |\ \| | | _ < | | | | | |/ \| | | |_| | | |_| | | | | | | | \ ' | | |_| | | |_| | | ' A ' | |____/ \___/ |_| |_| |_| \__| |____/ \___/ |__/ \__| ######################### ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 9 The burn of the burning bow **080000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ######################### Used with: 70H, 65H, 40H, 35H, 25H, Opt .=======================================. # 9.1 Off to the Westersand **090100** # `=======================================` Regardless of which method you're using, the burning bow is required before continuing. Before starting, however, you need to head into the Westersand's far western area. There's a gate crystal and Lohen running a shop in this small zone with 2 guards blocking the route farther west (disappointingly, since you can't get the fiery arrows at this point). There are 2 ways to get into the Westersand. The first and most obvious is through Rabanastre. This is the quickest way, but it comes with a catch - there's a low chance of getting a clear blue sky. In order for the burning bow to work properly (not miss frequently), you need good weather. You could save at the save crystal by the Westersand's entrance then enter the Westersand. If you get something other than a blue sky, quit and reload. The other method, costing time, is to return to Rabanastre then return to the Westersand. You don't need to do anything in Rabanastre. By changing regions, you change the weather. Change regions often enough and you can force the game to get you the weather you want, but only in select areas (and only with adequate story progress). The second way to get there is through Giza Plains. This route yields the highest chance of all for getting the required clear blue sky, but it takes much longer. The route you take depends mostly on dustia. In the Westersand, you'll find a lot of urstrixes and quite a few wolves. For speed, avoid engaging combat with these enemies as they're quite tough and they'll take several hits to defeat. It's not really worth the time for 263 exp until you can upgrade the rod to the burning bow. If you do insist on fighting the enemies here, I very strongly advise that you don't fight the alraunes. First, they combo frequently. Second, should they use "war song", they're even more powerful. Third, they are quite evasive, hard to hit. Fourth, and lastly, they are attracted to fights. Even facing one of them is very challenging, especially at level 10. If you get sighted by them and they attempt to attack you, just run for it. Also, if you fight something, and an urstrix (or alraune) is fully opaque (not being made transparent from extreme distance), chances are, that urstrix (or alraune) will walk over to where the action is - get away should that happen. Also, do not attack dive talon. First, you can't hit them with your regular weapon anyway. Second, they can do about 500 damage. While you can target them with a quickening, do not do so... yet. .======================================. # 9.2 Defeating dive talon **090200** # `======================================` After you reach the westernmost zone with the gate crystal and Lohen (the shop), switch to wait mode then save your game and I mean it. What you do at this point depends. There are 3 ways to get the burning bow from dive talon. ........................................... 9.2.1 Quickening the dive talon **090210** ........................................... My preferred method is the quickening method as it keeps the game clock to a minimum and it's also the easiest and least risky to use. The only downside, and a major downside, is that it costs a lot of real world time, really testing your patience. You can expect an average of about 2 1/4 to 7 hours at this in real world time. However, it only costs about 2 minutes (on average) on the game clock. The use of this method also requires you to license a quickening, found 3 blocks above "accessories 1". 9.2.1.1 How to use this method **090211** To use the quickening method, return to the previous zone with the dive talon right at the entrance. Use red spiral on the dive talon, easiest if done from the rear or sides (use the front only if you're skilled), and try to connect 2 more hits. Why only 2 more? I'll explain in a bit. When your quickening run is over, immediately pause the action by bringing up the battle menu. If you did not defeat dive talon from this, turn the camera around with the battle menu still up, resume the action by canceling, and immediately run to the zone with the save crystal. Don't bother using R2 to flee either - the delay from putting the weapon away costs valuable time and you run at pretty much the same speed as the enemy does (the enemy is about 10% faster, not much but sufficiently slow enough to be a nonissue). If dive talon is far away upon reaching but not yet crossing the zone boundary line, you might consider letting it catch up a little at the zone boundary. When within striking range of quickenings, cross the zone boundary, touch the save crystal, then return. Once the zone loads upon the return, immediately bring up the battle menu to pause the action and get a quickening fired off. The quicker you are, the better. Should dive talon decide to attack and lunge at you or, worse yet, go suicidal with kamikaze, you'll need to make sure your quickening will fire off in time. In fact, as soon as you see the yellow arrow, bring up the battle menu again and cancel to get the quickening to fire off immediately. Failing to do so will result in dive talon's lunge or kamikaze connecting, doing a huge 500 damage. If kamikaze hits, you get nothing for it forcing you to have to quit and reload (or get a game over if you have little HP - both have the same effect though quitting and reloading is 10 seconds faster) to get another one. If dive talon is defeated, check to see if it dropped any loot - grab it if it does. Wait a few seconds for the item list to go through to see if you got a burning bow. If no loot drops or there wasn't a burning bow, quit and reload to try again. 9.2.1.2 How to use quickenings **090212** To use the quickening, you first need to set off the quickening chain by choosing "mist", "quickening", then "red spiral". Choose your target (dive talon) and get in range. Quickenings are long-range attacks, having the same range as magicks and ranged weapons. Once the system loads the quickening chain system, you'll see the main content you interact with at the bottom - a 4-second timer with a fuse-like effect and the button controls for each character above the fuse. For one character, only triangle is ever used. For 2 characters, triangle is for the top character in the list, square for the bottom. For 3 characters, triangle is the top, square is the middle, and X is the bottom. Guests don't count as they can never use quickenings, making them useless bystanders that only just get in the way. Characters that cannot take commands (as from being disabled, sleeping, gone berserk, or KO'ed) cannot participate in the quickening chain and will thus be removed. You'll also see a "R2 shuffle" on the bottom left, left of the fuse. Pressing R2 causes the available choices to be regenerated and takes about a quarter second. On the far right of each character's line, you'll see a list of actions and an assortment of red disks. The number of red disks represents how many mist charges you'll need for that skill, from 1 to 3. The "mist charge" option doesn't show any disks but will fully restore all mist charges. "Mist charge" will only show up if at least 1 mist charge is missing. The object in quickenings is to get as many hits as you can. Press R2 until you get a desired action or "mist charge". There are exceptions to this though, rare ones mainly for efficiency reasons in this guide. 9.2.1.3 Quickenings for the burning bow **090213** For the purpose of getting the burning bow, you only need to get "mist charge" to appear then rapidly press triangle to activate it and the following red spiral. For the most part, just watch the disk in the bottom right corner as you're pressing R2. When it disappears, stop pressing R2 and immediately start pressing triangle. You only need to connect 3 hits, getting "mist charge" twice with the following "red spiral" right after. Why only 3 hits instead of more? There are 2 reasons for this. By getting 3 hits, you also get a concurrence, inferno. This is important in that it has completely predictable damage. Simply take 90 (inferno's attack power) and muliply it by the enemy's level. Dive talon happens to be level 27 or 28 so that means inferno will do 2430 or 2520 damage. The remaining roughly 1500 will have to come from the regular hits or a second cycle. The next higher concurrence demands 7 hits, but that's so difficult to get with just one character and one mist charge that it's not worth going for (and for 550 extra damage, hardly worth it as there's no real guarantee). The second reason is that the damage output with regular quickening hits is about as unpredictable as a weather forecast will be for a day that's exactly 217 days from now. A random number from 1 to 90 is multiplied by another random number from 1 to your character's strength stat. Quickenings ignore defense and buffs like bravery, focus, sleep, and protect. Yep, you can do as little as 1 damage in a single hit to as much as 8910. For so much MP being used up, you do so little damage. If only quickenings weren't so random and based the damage on the amount of MP you use up, then, yes, they would be much more reasonable (and even open up the possibility of 7-figure damage popups should you get enough hits (that would be fun!)). Basically, with strength at about 32, you can really only expect about 900 damage per hit. That doesn't seem like much for all that MP and it really isn't. However, compared to what you have while after the burning bow, they are significantly more powerful. .............................................. 9.2.2 The chain-status-death trick **090220** .............................................. I call this method the chain-status-death trick because it involves a glitch where, if an enemy is defeated through a status effect (excluding instant death), the chain does not break and the chain level is not affected but you can still get loot from other enemy types as if you've been chaining them all along. For example, if you go around chaining mirror knights in the Feywood then decide to see what mu has in the same area, first, disable it so it can't move or act. Then cast either break, poison, or countdown on it, get back, and watch. Feel free to throw other status effects on it, but don't defeat it. When the timer runs out or poison makes its final strike, you'll claim the exp, LP, and... you'll get a gold coin that might offer you MP recovery. If you just want to get the burning bow as quickly as you can in real world time and don't care about the game clock, this method is a good choice. Still, expect to take about an hour and you'll need to have bought and licensed the "poison" spell. This method is also significantly riskier unless you really level up a lot or use a large group of characters that you can put away should things go wrong. 9.2.2.1 Preparations **090221** Before you start, preparing for this is a must. First, buy the strongest bow you can buy from Nalbina. A gun could work too since dive talon's defense is pretty high (17 or 18). Equip armor that raises magick power as high as you can. The kilmweave shirt and topkapi hat add 6 to magick power, increasing the success rate by 6 percentage points (e.g. going from a 52% chance to a 58%). For best results, license "serenity" to help. Serenity will double the success rate of poisoning dive talon, pretty much guaranteeing it, if it hits. To start, you need to first get the chain level up as high as you can. The fastest way to level up the chain is to simply ignore all loot that drops. Instead of having to wait for a 60-chain or higher, you could easily have chain level 4, noted by large, bright, pure gold coins by a 30-chain at the highest (if you go above 30, chances are, you accidentally picked up loot somewhere). I seem to average around 22 to 25. The earliest possible is 18, but consider yourself very lucky if you get chain level 4 with the chain count only in the teens as that's very rare. Begin by chaining urstrixes. Why the urstrix? They are attracted to any battles and they'll only get in the way. There's also a ton of them around. Just simply ignore the other enemies. Got sighted? Just run away and they'll eventually return. Be warned of fideliant though - that undead enemy easily does over 100 damage per hit, upwards of 200 with bone toss. Fideliant, however, is easily defeated with a phoenix down but doing so will break the chain. Since I suggest using the dive talons in the zone where the Zertinan Caverns' entrance is - there's 3 of them in a small area and there's also a lot of urstrixes around, and it clearly takes more than 5 minutes to defeat them, it's best to just ignore fideliant as it'll only respawn anyway. By spending more than 5 minutes in a zone, the enemies in all neighboring zones will respawn which will include the back tracking. Early on, while trying to get the chain to level up, do go after fideliant as early as you can. To get fideliant to appear on demand, repeatedly enter and exit that zone, going back and forth a lot. There's a 20% chance per attempt - so 5 attempts means a 67.2% chance of getting fideliant to be present. When you do, hand it a phoenix down to get rid of it. From there, this middle zone will be cleared - get the urstrixes afterward to level up the chain. Early on, they'll be very difficult to defeat. Avoid taking on more than one urstrix at a time. One coming your way? Get away immediately. This is the reason for the need of a higher level. The only problem, then, are the wolves - you'll have to ignore them. They're quite weak at least... except for their "fangs" attack but fortunately, that's rarely used. 9.2.2.2 Using the method **090222** Once you max the chain level, you can begin exploiting this very useful bug in the game. There are 4 choices. How you use them works like how the gambit system works - priorities. Here's how these work. First, if poison is not active on dive talon, poison dive talon. If you licensed "serenity", heal before poisoning. You should be practically guaranteed to get poison to work with serenity and full HP. Keeping poison active is key as you'll, over time, defeat dive talon. Because a status effect caused the death, you won't break the chain. Thus, you may see a nice, big, bright, pure gold coin popping out. That means you have a 5% chance of it dropping the burning bow instead of a 1% chance. Second, if poison is active and you have more than 4 hits left before dive talon is defeated, attack it with the bow or gun you got from Nalbina. This will accelerate the damage. By having a 5-hits-remaining minimum limit, you be sure that you won't accidentally defeat dive talon should poison take a hit while attacking or you get an unexpected critical hit. This second case, however, is optional. Third, if 15 seconds have passed since dive talon has return to its territory (noted by it slowing down) and 15 seconds have passed, provoke it in some way. Cast poison on it again as usual, even if already poisoned. Blind it, slow it, zap it with thunder (only if the second case applies), do something to get its attention. If you wait too long, dive talon will begin healing, undoing your efforts. Fourth, if poison is active and you can't or don't want to attack, simply get sighted by dive talon. To do that, just get in the line of sight of dive talon (basically, the front of it). While attempting however, hold R2 and always be ready to run. Dive talon will turn its head when you've been sighted and you'll see a red target line connect to Vaan. 9.2.2.3 The big chase **090223** Regardless of which one you do, as soon as the attack connects ("poison", "miss", a number, or "parry" pops out), immediately change your equipment. I would strongly suggest the accessory as it hardly has any effect. By changing equipment, I mean the removal, replacement, or addition of something, anything. Since the accessory is the least useful, I find it the best choice. By changing equipment, you eliminate any "stun" effect that happen, allowing you to instantly be able to move again (disabling status effects aside). This can allow you to heal or cast far more rapidly per unit of actual battle time, great in an emergency. Once you leave the party menu or, instead, you get sighted by dive talon (dive talon turns its head to look at you and/or a red target line is coming from dive talon), hold R2 and run for it, hugging along the northern wall. Watch dive talon on the minimap. When it begins to return, chase after it, keeping it on the minimap, while still fleeing. If it chases after you again, run away. If it doesn't chase after you, keep chasing it until it slows down and get ready for your next action. By keeping dive talon on the move, you can prevent it from healing. It normally takes about 15 or so seconds before that starts, healing 1% per half second. Just, whatever you do, do not get close. Remember the horizontal range of Vaan's starting sword? When dive talon gets that close, it will be able to attack. Dive talon can and will do a good 500 damage. Should it decide to suicide with kamikaze, all your efforts on that dive talon go down the drain plus over 500 damage. One problem you may face while doing this is enemies respawning. After at least 3 minutes, there's a chance that the urstrixes you've dealt with earlier are back - be very careful with this. Either ignore them (if dive talon is chasing you or not what you decided to chain), or attack them (if that's what you were chaining and dive talon is back in its territory). If you spend more than 5 minutes in a given zone, all enemies in all surrounding zones will respawn. This means you must ignore fideliant. ................................. 9.2.3 Direct chaining **090230** ................................. This method is only available if you've leveled up a ton or, the best option, you advanced the story as the 40- and 25-hour methods require and obtained and licensed immobilize. This method's usefulness depending on your leveling method. Unlike the other 2 methods, this method involves directly chaining dive talon. This involves ignoring all the enemies along the way and there are a lot of them making this difficult. Thus, this method is only recommended with the 40- and 35-hour methods. With immobilize, you can just give the unwanted enemies the boot (after the icon for the status effect) and ignore them. 9.2.3.1 Preparations **090231** The key to this method's success is attacking safely. Thus, preparing is important. First, buy the best bow or gun you can from Rabanastre or Nalbina (or use the longbow in the "arrows alight" bazaar package and use the onion or fiery arrows for it - there's no difference which you use (the only difference is when you get the burning bow)). Second, buy the best armor that raises magick power as high as you can. Third, license serenity to help ensure immobilize will hit. 9.2.3.2 Mastering immobilize **090232** Immobilize is the key to this whole method. For every unwanted enemy along the way, immobilize it then just leave it alone. Being immobilized, it can't chase you. Try keeping the area around the northern wall clear of enemies, in case you need to run. For dive talon, be sure you heal first as the success rate is much lower without serenity taking effect. Immobilize dive talon then attack with that longbow. Pay close attention to how many actions dive talon makes. When dive talon is starting its third action, you have about 15 seconds left before immobilize expires, enough for about 2 or 3 more hits. Immobilize lasts 77 or 77 1/2 seconds. Once the third action has started, immobilize is about to expire - make 2 more attacks and get ready to run. Change your equipment to stop the attacking once the attack goes through (you see the damage popup - changing the accessory is the best choice). Once out of the party menu or immobilize missed in the first place, hold R2 and continue doing so but get your distance. If dive talon starts going after you, run for it. When you see dive talon begin to return to its territory, give chase, keeping R2 held. If dive talon decides to go after you again, return to running away from it. If dive talon doesn't give chase, it'll return to its territory, noted by slowing down. For best results, when you notice the slow down, get immobilize charging again and repeat. You should be behind the enemy so it should be easy to hit and get away. Once immobilize hits, you should easily be able to finish off dive talon. When you do, move on to the next one. 9.2.3.3 Don't be greedy! **090233** While it may seem dumb, potentially missing out on a burning bow or two, I suggest completely ignoring the loot until chain level 3 at least (noted by a bronze emblem), preferrably level 4 (giant gold coins). Why? You'll quickly get the chain level up. The difference between level 3 and 4 isn't very significant, but it's enough to make level 4 worthwhile. It takes an average of about 9 more dive talons to go from level 3 to 4. That seems like a lot, but consider this: at chain level 3, you need an average of 33 1/3 dive talons per burning bow and at chain level 4, it's only 20. You need 13 fewer for 9 extra, a net difference of 4. This makes chain level 4 the best choice though the difference isn't significant. By getting the loot every time it drops, you'll have to wait a lot longer to get the chain to level up. I've had a 50+-chain and still only chain level 2. However, through ignoring the loot entirely, I've had chain level 4 by only a 19 chain at the earliest I recall - 18 is the absolute soonest. ............................................... 9.2.4 When the burning bow drops... **090240** ............................................... If a burning bow does drop, regardless of what method you used to get it, SAVE IMMEDIATELY! If you make a mistake from this point until the time you save again, you'll have to go through that effort all over again. It's best to save even before you bother to license it. The risk is yours - take it safe. .==========================================. # 9.3 The very unfriendly odds **090300** # `==========================================` The biggest problem with getting the burning bow is the horrible odds and poor equipment. The burning bow is a 1% drop from dive talon. Even if you max the chain level, it's still only a 5% drop, rather tiny. To see how much time you're expected to spend at this method, refer to these tables: ............................................ 9.3.1 The statistics at a glance **090310** ............................................ Odds for a given number of trials for each of the methods: +-------------------------------+ +-------------------------------+ | The quickening method | | The chain-status-death method | +--------+---------+------------+ +--------+---------+------------+ | | Odds | Total time | | | Odds | Total time | | Trials | (%) | (H:MM:SS)* | | Trials | (%) | (H:MM:SS)* | +--------+---------+------------+ +--------+---------+------------+ | 1 | 1 | 0:02:30 | | 1 | 5 | 0:20:00 | | 5 | 4.9 | 0:12:30 | | 5 | 22.62 | 0:36:00 | | 10 | 9.56 | 0:25:00 | | 10 | 40.13 | 0:56:00 | | 20 | 18.21 | 0:50:00 | | ** 20 | 64.15 | 1:36:00 | | 30 | 26.03 | 1:15:00 | | 30 | 78.54 | 2:16:00 | | 40 | 33.1 | 1:40:00 | | 40 | 87.15 | 2:56:00 | | 50 | 39.5 | 2:05:00 | | 50 | 92.31 | 3:36:00 | | 60 | 45.28 | 2:30:00 | | 60 | 95.39 | 4:16:00 | | 75 | 52.94 | 3:07:30 | | 75 | 97.87 | 5:16:00 | | ** 100 | 63.4 | 4:10:00 | | 100 | 99.41 | 6:56:00 | | 125 | 71.53 | 5:12:30 | | 125 | 99.84 | 8:36:00 | | 150 | 77.85 | 6:15:00 | | 150 | 99.95 | 10:16:00 | | 200 | 86.6 | 8:20:00 | | 200 | > 99.99 | 13:36:00 | | 250 | 91.89 | 10:25:00 | | 250 | > 99.99 | 16:56:00 | | 300 | 95.1 | 12:30:00 | | 300 | > 99.99 | 20:16:00 | | 400 | 98.2 | 16:40:00 | | 400 | > 99.99 | 26:56:00 | | 500 | 99.34 | 20:50:00 | | 500 | > 99.99 | 33:36:00 | +--------+---------+------------+ +--------+---------+------------+ To find the odds for any number of trials, use this formula: TargetOdds = 1 - (1-DropChance)^Trials Trials: the number of attempts used Trials needed for a given targeted probability for each of the methods: +------------------------------------+ +------------------------------------+ | The quickening method | | The chain-status-death method | +----------+------------+------------+ +----------+------------+------------+ | Target | Avg Trials | Total time | | Target | Avg Trials | Total time | | odds (%) | Needed | (H:MM:SS)* | | odds (%) | Needed | (H:MM:SS)* | +----------+------------+------------+ +----------+------------+------------+ | 1 | 1 | 0:02:30 | | 1 | < 1 | < 0:16:00 | | 5 | 5.1 | 0:12:46 | | 5 | 1 | 0:16:00 | | 10 | 10.48 | 0:26:12 | | 10 | 2.05 | 0:24:13 | | 20 | 22.2 | 0:55:30 | | 20 | 4.35 | 0:33:24 | | 30 | 35.49 | 1:28:44 | | 30 | 6.95 | 0:43:49 | | 40 | 50.83 | 2:07:05 | | 40 | 9.96 | 0:55:50 | | 50 | 68.97 | 2:52:26 | | 50 | 13.51 | 1:10:03 | | 60 | 91.17 | 3:47:56 | | 60 | 17.86 | 1:27:27 | | 70 | 119.79 | 4:59:29 | | 70 | 23.47 | 1:49:53 | | 75 | 137.94 | 5:44:51 | | 75 | 27.03 | 2:04:06 | | 80 | 160.14 | 6:40:21 | | 80 | 31.38 | 2:21:31 | | 85 | 188.76 | 7:51:54 | | 85 | 36.99 | 2:43:57 | | 90 | 229.11 | 9:32:47 | | 90 | 44.89 | 3:15:34 | | 95 | 298.07 | 12:25:11 | | 95 | 58.4 | 4:09:37 | | 99 | 458.21 | 19:05:32 | | 99 | 89.78 | 6:15:07 | | *** 100 | impossible | impossible | | *** 100 | impossible | impossible | +----------+------------+------------+ +----------+------------+------------+ To find the average number of tries needed for any target odds, use this formula: Tries = log(1-TargetOdds) / log(1-DropChance) log: the logarithm function (any positive base will work) TargetOdds: the targeted probability you're seeking Table footnotes: * Approximate total time is based on 2 1/2 minutes per try for the quickening method or 4 minutes per try plus 16 minutes to set up for the chain-status-death method, a rough average for real world time. ** This is what the average is and about what to expect. *** 100% is impossible because there is no solution for the logarithm of 0. .......................................... 9.3.2 Analyzing the statistics **090320** .......................................... For the most part, anywhere from about 60 to 160 attempts is about normal for the quickening method, and about 12 to 33 attempts for the the chain-status-death method (assuming you've maxed the chain level first). From actual data I collected during the recording of my videos, if you get the 3 hits with the quickenings on your first attempt upon a reload, it's 1 minute and 40 seconds per attempt. For each time you need to return to the save crystal to restore your mist charge(s) to get another quickening round available, add 50 seconds onto that. For the most part, I get an even mix of 1 and 2 tries (2 meaning I needed to return to the save crystal once), occasionally 3, and rarely anything beyond (I've had a 7 once - if you don't have it after the 5th cycle (4 returns to the save crystal), just consider reloading). This points to something more around 2 minutes and 24 seconds per attempt or more around 4 hours on average as opposed to the 4 1/6 hours the charts indicate. Just looking at these charts tells of a long ordeal about to come. Right away, at about 9 tries or almost a half hour in, you can see that both methods use the same amount of time only for the chain-poison method to eventually get to the point of using just 1/3 the time. Thus, the longer you go at the chain-poison trick, the faster it becomes overall. However, if you only do sessions lasting less than 30 minutes, there isn't really that much of an advantage. You have so stick at it for a while and the longer, the better the chain-poison method becomes. You cut the time in half only 45 minutes in, a 60% reduction by about 75 minutes in, and a nice 2/3 reduction 4 hours in though by 4 hours, you're quite likely to have it with this method. ........................................... 9.3.3 Rumor: RNG manipulation? **090330** ........................................... In addition, I've heard rumors that's actually possible to manipulate the RNG (random number generator). Now, how to go about doing that to get the burning bow on demand, I have no clue. If anyone knows, could you please E-mail me. I would very greatly appreciate it. If it is possible to manipulate the RNG to get the burning bow on demand, then I could add a fourth method to the list and combine it with the quickening method to severely speed up the process. .======================================================. # 9.4 The burning bow's 8 major advantages **090400** # `======================================================` About the burning bow (cost: dropped from enemy (7500 base)): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ 50% more damage w/ fiery arrows | | Attack power 63 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | Small swords | Start | | Evade 0 | v Bows 1 | 20 | | Magick evade 0 | v Bows 2 | 30 | | Strength 0 | v Axes & Hammers 1 | 15 | | Magick power 0 | > Bows 4 | 40 | | Vitality 0 | Total | 105 | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ The burning bow seems like it robs you of a lot of what the rod provided. You get no evasion, no boost on magick power and no MP boost. The benefit comes in numerous forms. The first is that it has more than double the attack power of the rod, dishing out more than twice the damage after taking enemy defense into account. This truly is the most powerful weapon you can get your hands on just 4% of the way through the game, more than half as powerful what you normally encounter at the end of the game! You won't be able to buy one clear until you reach the Phon Coast more than halfway through the game's story! Second, the burning bow is a ranged weapon. You don't have to get so close to the enemy to attack with. You can keep your distance and easily sneak up on them clearing enemies out before their other comrades even have any idea that someone was after them for quick and easy license points. Third, If you master pseudo running, you can very well get 2 shots off in the time it takes the enemy to only get 1, even with slow status and the slowest battle speed. In fact, what used to be extremely troublesome is no longer a threat thanks to that. You can, even at level 15, defeat nearly any enemy in the Westersand without getting hit thanks to pseudo running. The exception is when enemies gang up on you in groups. Even then, the very dangerous alraunes are now far easier to handle, to the point I now recommend going after them should they be along your route. Fourth, should you have a lot of distance to cover and easy enemies are along the way, you can simply attack along the way without having to draw an enemy toward you constantly. This saves a huge amount of time. Fifth, only available when not doing the 70-hour method, once you acquire the fiery arrows, you can boost damage by another 50% putting the burning bow along the lines of the saggitarius, the game's best bow! However, the actual damage without them is only multiplied by 1.5 to get the actual damage. Get an enemy with a defense of 70 (and there aren't any - 51 is the highest I see - foobar) and you'll barely even scratch it. However, should you use the fiery arrows on an enemy that is immune to or, worse yet, absorbs fire, you're only holding yourself back. Going after regular, nonelemental arrows is all you need to fix that. Onion arrows and parallel arrows are the only options you have. Sixth, when an enemy has no long range attacks, gets immobilized, and you've got the burning bow, you can easily defeat pretty much any enemy with practically no effort. Just give the enemy the boot and attack away for about 70 to 80 seconds for the most part (that depends on the enemy's vitality)! Yep, constantly attacking, making 12+ shots, and the enemy just sits there unable to do anything about it. Seventh, you cannot effectively do the final stages of any of the processes without it. For the 70-hour method, the best you could do is dustia or the werewolves, peaking only 2/3 as fast. The other methods are too unsafe without it as you wouldn't last long, especially at such low levels when they become available. Should you be able to handle them without problems as far as the damage and status effects go, they'll take a ton of hits to defeat with the rod, even at the end of the process. Eighth, and finally, you can take advantage of the terrain, forcing enemies with short range attacks to have to take a detour around an obstacle, costing them time while they constantly get hit. Overall, despite the fact you lose out on evasion, magick power and MP, along with attacks needing a somewhat longer time to charge up, the burning bow is so advantageous that that 4-hour ordeal is well worth the effort. You can begin to see why it's required and how useful it really is in the videos. For reference, the damage the burning bow does uses both strength and speed. The formula is "(SATK*rand(1, 1.125)-TDEF) * (1+SSTR*(SLV+SSPD)/218)". Note that strength (SSTR - source strength) only appears once meaning it has a small effect. Also note that speed (SSPD - source speed) is also a determining factor and that it doesn't have as much of an effect. Also, note the 218 for a division instead of the 256 - you'll do quite a bit more damage thanks to that, if strength and speed match. ___ _ _ ____ __ __ _____ __ _ _____ ____ / _ \ | | | | / ___| | \ / | | ___| | \ | | |_ _| / ___| | |_| | | | | | | | _ | A V A | | |__ | A \ | | | | \ \ | _ | | | | | | | | | | |\ /| | | __| | |\ \| | | | \ \ | | | | | |_| | | |_| | | | V | | | |___ | | \ ' | | | __\ \ |_| |_| \___/ \___/ |_| |_| |_____| |_| \__| |_| |____/ ########################### ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 10 Focusing on augment licenses **100000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ########################### Used with: 70H, 65H, 40H, 35H, 25H, Opt .==========================================. # 10.1 An overview of augments **100100** # `==========================================` Augmentation licenses are special in that they provide permanent bonuses. These bonuses include a permanent increase of 5 on strength and magick power. They include a 30% reduction in MP costs for casting. There's also speeding up charging by over 56%. Don't forget the 1000 extra HP that you can get as well and the numerous MP-recovery licenses. While many augmentations have no use to this process, there are some that are. Here's a brief run down on the augments: .................................... 10.1.1 The junk augments **100110** .................................... Junk augments are those of minimal or no use for my guide in any of the methods. Avoid getting these unless there's no other way around them. Potion lore. These make potions restore more HP. The cure spell will, very soon, exceed what potions can restore making these junk. MP, of which cure spells use, is completely renewable but potions are not. Only the 65- and 25-hour methods have any use for these, albeit very rarely. Ether lore. These make ethers restore more MP. This is pure junk as you won't be using ethers at all outside, perhaps, emergencies and if you're watching your MP closely enough, that shouldn't happen. Phoenix lore. These make phoenix downs restore more HP. This is pure junk as you're soloing 99% of the time. If you time the use of a phoenix down just before you're dealt the final blow, you might prevent a game over, but I have yet to confirm that. Remedy lore. These make remedies recover more status effects in addition to the default ones. Aside from removing slow, something pseudo running can counter, these are pure junk until the afterward section where, combined with the nihopalaoa, can severely cripple any enemy though that's only needed twice at the most. Shield block. These add 5 percentage points to the evasion a shield provides. This is pure junk as pseudo running works wonders and bows and the rod don't allow them. Gambit slot. These add an extra gambit slot, up to 10 total extras. These aren't even available in the 70-hour method and gambits are not recommended for the main leveling making these junk. They are very strongly recommended in the afterward section though, but only then. Warmage. This restores MP upon dealing magick damage. This is pure junk as you're only using physical attacks. The only magic you're using is for healing yourself. Spellbound. This makes status effects last 50% longer. Because, for the most part, you won't be using status effects, this is junk. The 70-hour method does have some use and the 65-hour method even less use, but it's very minimal. The afterward section has a much greater use in this. Brawler. This makes attacking unarmed deal more damage, significantly increasing attack power, even though it doesn't show. The attack power is based on the average of the level and strength stat. In short, it's not very useful and it will interfere with the dustia method. This, however, will make going unarmed your most powerful attack in the afterward section, beating even the burning bow with the fiery arrows. Last stand. When HP critical, this makes damage received be cut by 50%. This is pure junk. Martyr. This makes you recover MP as you receive HP damage. This is pretty much pure junk as you'll only get 1 MP per hit until the final stage where you're either rarely getting hit or you have to avoid getting hit because the enemies are too powerful. ............................................ 10.1.2 Partially useful augments **100120** ............................................ These augments are partially useful, mainly depending on your leveling method. One method may totally require one or more of these, but another method would consider it pure junk, of no use at all. Some methods require these, others have them as junk. Some have limited usefulness in every method. Be sure to read the descriptions for how these fit in. Focus. When at full HP, this increases damage output by 20%. This is only junk to the 25-hour method, required in the other methods. Adrenaline. When HP critical, this doubles damage output. This is only used in the 65- and 25-hour methods and is required. Serenity. When at full HP, this increases magick damage output by 20%, healing by 50%, and doubles the success rate of status effects. This is required by the 40- and 35-hour methods. Spellbreaker. When HP critical, this doubles magick damage output, healing potential, and the success rate of status effects. This is only used and required in the 25-hour method. +%1d HP. These add extra HP to your maximum, up to 1000 total. They are only of real use to the 70-hour method. Headsman. When you defeat an enemy, you'll restore MP. Take the enemy's level and divide by 4, rounding down and having a minimum of 1, to determine the MP recovered. This is only junk to the 70- and 65-hour methods. Inquisitor. When you deal physical damage to an enemy, you'll restore MP. The amount depends on the damage you do. This is only of use to the 40- and 35-hour methods. Of too insignificant of use to the others. Magick lore. These increase magick power by 1 point each and there are 5 of them in all. These are slightly useful in the 70- and 65-hour methods, but only for increasing the healing you do per cast. They are must-haves for the other methods. These are generally found at the top half of the augments. Channeling. These reduce MP consumption by 10% each, up to 30%. Fractions are rounded down. They are very slightly useful, if at all, in the 70-hour method, complete junk in the 65-hour method as, by the time they're put to use, you already have a few hundred MP. They are, however, quite useful, though not strongly, in the other methods due to heavy use of immobilize. ......................................... 10.1.3 The must-have augments **100130** ......................................... There are only 2 types of augments that all methods use. They are definitely well worth getting in all regards. Swiftness. These reduce charging time by 12% making regular attacks take about 10% less time. Actions charge about 13% faster. This may not seem like much, but it adds up over time. The second one cuts charging time by 24%, making attacks charge up 31.1% faster. The third one is the big one. It cuts the charging time by a whole 36%, making attacks charge up 56 1/4% faster. Basically, compared to not having any swiftness licenses, having all 3 is like having a permanent haste effect, plus a bit faster. Being a guide focused on speed, these are often priority 1 and absolute must-haves. Getting them as soon as you can will seriously speed things up. Battle lore. These increase strength by 1 point each and there are 5 of them in all. These are second priority because a lot of what you do is attacking physically. They are generally found in the bottom half of the augments. .=============================================. # 10.2 The route you need to take **100200** # `=============================================` Each method has it's own route, but there's a lot of similarities present. For the 70- or 65-hour methods, start focusing on the augments once you begin dealing with the werewolves or after finishing up on dustia. For the others, wait until the gambit system is available. For the most part, the initial focus is on the required licenses for your method. The swiftness licenses follow, then, from there, it depends entirely on your method. Reference your method (section X.2 within your method) for details on how to best go through the augmentations section. ____ _____ ___ ____ _ _ / ___| |_ _| / _ \ | _ \ | | | | \ \ | | | | | | | |_| | | | | | \ \ | | | | | | | _ < \ V / __\ \ | | | |_| | | | | | | | |____/ |_| \___/ |_| |_| |_| ########################################## ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 11 Advance the story: Passing Barheim Passage **110000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ########################################## Used with: 40H, 35H, 25H, Opt .=========================================. # 11.1 Why advance the story? **110100** # `=========================================` My guide is focused on being both as fast and early as possible. So, then, why is extra story progress one of the things you do? There are several reasons for this. First, you'll gain ready access to enemies in Garamsythe Waterway that are worth 3000 experience each right after palace and Nalbina Dungeons events of the story. This area, later on, becomes about 2 1/3 times as fast as the 70- and 65-hour methods' fastest using the safe route and 50% faster still in the 25-hour method. Um, but don't the malboro overkings and lizards do 700 to 900 damage when you've only got 900 HP? And what about their horrible status effects they add? That's where another element comes into play only possible if you advance the story - the extremely powerful immobilize spell. Should an enemy not have any long range attacks (both the lizards (worth about 2600 exp each) and malboro overkings (worth about 3000 exp each) have no attacks with a range anywhere near that of your hard-earned burning bow. Should you immobilize them, you can render them 100% harmless until you get too close or you need so many hits that you can't really defeat them in time (that's unlikely if you go prepared). "Until you get too close" - the gambit system's automatic movements can cause problems with that but gambits aren't really necessary. The bugs with the gambit system become very apparent in this area. Attack the lizard over the edge of the cliff and the gambit system insists you have to go a long way around to get to it or the target is too far away when all you really need to do is just walk up to the edge of the cliff and you're easily in range. Ranged attacks and terrain utilization are apparently poorly tested in FF12. Disabling gambits will eliminate these problems and the automatic movement that you can't stop short of disabling gambits. All you're doing is immobilizing and attacking - very simple. You do need to keep an eye on the minimap and nearby enemies' actions too while you're at it, but you've already been doing this from going after the rod. Before bothering with advancing the story, be sure to save the story-advanced part to a separate save file. Why? If you want to return to the more beneficial 70- or 65-hour method, you'll have to reload your older save. Also, make sure you have bought poach and blindna (don't license them though). The latest you can buy poach and blindna is right after the sunstone event, but it's more efficient to get it before that. .=======================================. # 11.2 Avoid those 3 chests **110200** # `=======================================` As you make the story progress, you'll run across 3 cases of treasures that you must avoid at all costs if you want to get the zodiac spear. "3 chests? Every guide I've seen tells you there are 4 to avoid. Why is yours inconsistent?" You might be thinking that very thing. The reason is simple: you'll be getting the zodiac spear well before you even see the Phon Coast - you can't even get into the Phon Coast when you get the zodiac spear. The Phon Coast is first seen and accessible about 55% of the way through the game. You can get it when you're supposed to be heading to Jahara, right after you get the dawn shard. That's only 35% of the way through the game, about 2/3 as far. This leaves only 3 chests that you must avoid instead of 4 and hence the reason I use 3. See the "afterward" section for details. Perhaps the most tempting chest of them all, because it's the most obviously visible and seen so frequently, is the one straight ahead from Old Dalan's place, mixed in among the boxes and crates. The second one you likely won't even see - it's the one in the southeast corner of the palace. The third is also tempting, but you only see it once and it's not as obvious. This is the chest in the area where you get your belongings back during Nalbina Dungeons. If you avoid the last 2 chests, you'll only see the one in front of Old Dalan's place during this. With the chests only giving small bits of gil and almost never anything of use, you should pretty much be ignoring the chests as you're only wasting time if you do. .================================================. # 11.3 2 tanned hides in Giza Plains **110300** # `================================================` ............................................. 11.3.1 While getting the sunstone **110310** ............................................. While doing the sunstone event in Giza Plains with Penelo, be sure you license Penelo for stealing. Because your burning bow will tear up every enemy in one hit with no effort, Penelo won't be able to do anything other than just follow. Thus, there's no need to waste 5 to 10 minutes to license up Penelo for anything else - that will be done in the afterward section. Save at the save crystal in the southwestern part of the village. Take the east exit from there and steal from then defeat the slaven that's present here. Slaven has tanned hides and you need 2 of them. Since tanned hides are not the most common item and not the rarest, it may be a bit to get one. While it's not necessary that you do at this point, consider yourself very lucky if you got both already. Head south then west to find Jinn. Remember Jinn's remark on the werewolves, being warned to stay away from them. Go back east, getting the dark crystal here, then north to the zone to find another slaven, since that zone respawned its enemies. Be sure to get the dark crystal here too. Do not clear out every single enemy out of this zone though. There's a bug involving the cluckatrice hunt. Even though the hunt is not active or even available, once you clear this zone, enemies won't respawn until you leave the region or quit and reload. Pick something that's quite out of the way to spare. Once you deal with the slaven here, continue north one zone then head west 2 zones bashing whatever's along the way for easy LP. If you don't have the 2 tanned hides yet, do not go for the dark crystal just yet. Deal with the last slaven along the normal route that's present here. For the most part, you should only need 3 crystals. There's a small chance you'll need all 4 or just 2. If you need all 4, consider quitting and reloading and trying again. Once you get 100% energy, you'll automatically be returned to the village. ........................................... 11.3.2 Not enough tanned hides? **110320** ........................................... If you still don't have a single tanned hide after the third slaven has been dealt with during your route to getting the sunstone, just quit and reload. This has a 31.1% chance of happening, kind of moderate. The tanned hide is a 25% drop. Stealing has 10% but the 3% takes priority giving you an actual chance of 9.7% for the steal. If you have just one tanned hide, you're fine for now - you can get the other one when done with the dark crystal. Save in the village's southwestern part then take the east exit and get that slaven. If it doesn't give you a tanned hide at this point, quit and reload and try again. If it does, continue north, west, then north to get back into Rabanastre. If you already got 2 tanned hides at this point (lucky you), just head straight north and continue to Rabanastre. .................................................. 11.3.3 Warning: fully unequip Penelo! **110330** .................................................. Once in Rabanastre, regardless on which option you needed, save your game. After saving and before going back to Lowtown, fully unequip Penelo. Why? You won't be seeing her again until you're level 99. You can make use of her equipment later on, especially for going after the hermes sandals for the 35- and 25-hour methods. .===========================================================. # 11.4 The rats and bats of Garamsythe Waterway **110400** # `===========================================================` Once in the Garamsythe Waterway, you generally need to head north. Along the way, bash whatever enemies you encounter along your path. It is unnecessary to get each and every one. While you certainly need the LP, spending 15 seconds chasing down a single enemy going in the wrong direction is not worth it. It's right along your route or very slightly off the side, then, yes, it's a good choice, especially if you have the burning bow. In addition, you also have the choice of whether or not to go after the parallel arrows. You'll be obtaining something a lot better so you may prefer to skip the obtaining of them. I suggest you skip going after them because, by the time the parallel arrows will be of use, you'll be level 99. This is because they're needed in the afterward section, a long ways down the list of tasks. Of course, if you get lucky on the most troublesome ingredient or you just spam quitting and reloading, then, feel free to go for them. You need to get 1 bat fang from the steelings (steal from them). Should you get these on your trek through the Garamsythe Waterway, great - you'll save a little time for later. Just make sure you don't sell these key items. You're now only missing one last ingredient - 2 dark stones. Those will have to come later. .=====================================. # 11.5 The palace puzzles **110500** # `=====================================` The Royal Palace of Rabanastre involves a lot of puzzle solving. Fortunately, they're quick to go through. First, of course, get the map urn and optionally save. Through the doors, you'll enter a downstairs chamber of sorts, a cellar. There are treasure chests here, one of which you must not get. Simply ignoring the mostly-useless chests (saving time too) is all you need, but if you insist, do not get those in the southeast corner. Head toward the group, rush through the text, approach the guard, speak to the seeq, holler, run to the stairs while going away, wait for the guard to get halfway past the yellow tile and run along the edge to get upstairs. In the next room, there are 4 hallways, 3 of which with guards. To call the guards, get to the edge of the middle rug closest to the guards and holler. You'll need to get past the hawk signet which doesn't do any good. Immediately turn around and go to where the guard-free passage is. Head north 2 hallways and use the crescent stone on the lion signet. Return without calling the guards and head one more hallway north. Call the guards here, go one hallway south, call again, one hallway south, call again, one hallway south without guards, then hug along the western route, now free of guards. Turn left at the northern end. .===============================================. # 11.6 Garamsythe again and gambits **110600** # `===============================================` After skipping some cut scenes, Balthier and Fran join at a level 1 higher than Vaan. Save at the save crystal, go down the stairs, and rush the gambit tutorial. Once done, licensing Balthier and Fran are needed. First, give Balthier the quickening to the right of accessories 2. Give Balthier the white magick 1 license and poach license as well. Give Fran the quickening 2 licenses directly below where the burning bow license is. About the flame staff (cost: dropped from enemy (2400 base)): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ 50% more damage w/ fire magick | | Attack power 33 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | Rods 1 | Start | | Evade 0 | v Staves 2 | 25 | | Magick evade 0 | Total | 25 | | Strength 0 | | | | Magick power 4 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ The flame staff is much like the rod only a bit better but doesn't raise max MP. With a higher attack power, the staff will do a bit more damage than the rod does. With 4 extra on magick power, you can heal considerably more HP with healing magick. Because of the higher attack power, this is mainly being used not for casting, since healing is very rare, but physical combat, something staves are not meant for. As far as how you deal with weapons, that depends. If you plan on stealing from every enemy you can (repeatedly obtaining the rod first thing for dustia is the best way for gil early on), give Balthier Vaan's burning bow and Vaan the rod. Give Fran the flame staff or the rod, whichever you have. If you don't want to constantly steal, then give flame staves to Balthier and Fran (or, if you don't have them, the rod to Fran and Fran's bow to Balthier). Fran is strangely slower with bows and Balthier's gun is very weak. Being level 20, even the mythril sword regularly does more damage than the gun and the gun is very slow as well. Thus, get rid of it. Whatever you do, do not license Vaan for any weapons - his LP is needed for quickly getting started with leveling up once all the preparations are done. As far as setting the gambits, have the character with the burning bow only ever attack. This character will tear up enemies like a fly to a fly swatter. Have the others as healers as needed. Change the "first aid" on Balthier to "cure" and, as usual, on any ally below 70% HP (since that's all you can really use). From the powerleveling, you shouldn't have a problem with HP at all. You practically won't even need to have to heal at all. One gambit I do suggest, if you license an extra gambit slot, is "ally: any = blindna". This is because one of the bosses you'll run into likes to blind characters and backtracking to the save crystal is only a waste of time. There's no need to license poisona though. Although there is a boss at the end of Garamsythe Waterway that likes to poison everyone, simply defeating it will remove the poison status effect (and fully heal you as well). .============================================. # 11.7 Escaping Nalbina Dungeons **110700** # `============================================` Nalbina Dungeons is probably the single shortest area you'll do in the entire game, perhaps even a little shorter than the tutorial area. First, skip the 4 story scenes then just head north to the save crystal (don't bother saving - you just did). You'll be using punches during this but you can, for Balthier anyway, license thunder (black magick 1) and use it to deal significantly more damage. When done, skip the story scenes again. Get your equipment back but do not get the chests in this room. Don't bother saving though - it's not really necessary. Continue straight then head into the north central part of this zone, bashing the imperials along the way. That's really all you do. So quick and simple! .==================================. # 11.8 Barheim Passage **110800** # `==================================` Once you skip more story scenes, you'll be in the Barheim Passage. ............................................. 11.8.1 License Balthier for poach **110810** ............................................. If you haven't licensed Balthier for poach, do so now. Why Balthier? He's only one license panel away from it instead of 2 like Fran is. Plus, it's only needed for this area and not beyond. Once back in free roaming areas, there is no need for poach (monographs will usually do that work). Thus, giving it to Balthier will save some LP for Vaan so he can get more important stuff. .............................................. 11.8.2 The fuse and battery mimics **110820** .............................................. The first step is to go in the dead end area off to the right. You'll find about 1600 easy gil in the 3 chests here. Next, check the power unit in the narrow side path that's present. Go to the shop owner, ignoring the save crystal, and get a tube fuse from him (it's free). Do not buy or sell anything with Burrogh. Return to the power unit and install the fuse. At this point, save your game. Activate the gate and go through it. Deal with the battery mimics (you might get a mage's habit dropped by them if you're lucky - it's the 1% drop) and head into the next zone. ........................................ 11.8.3 Those 2 crooked fangs **110830** ........................................ Once in The Great Eastern Passage, you'll find an enemy called "seeker" that replaces one of the steelings (with a 5% chance). Seekers are silver- and/or white-colored bats instead of a maroon color so they are easily distinguished, as hinted at in my videos - I spot them before I even see their names being available in the target list. 11.8.3.1 Gain damage control - kill the guest! **110831** When you see a seeker, get back so you can't see its life bar. This is where you need to use poach. But, you can't just use poach first thing as is. To use poach, the enemy has to be HP critical meaning that you have to get the seeker's HP to 107 or less and you can't defeat it. To effectively do this, you must have complete control over your damage output. This is actually a lot easier than you think. Unfortunately, you are forced to have a tagalong that you absolutely cannot control at this crucial point. This is the guest, Basch, who will only attack. To gain the critical control you need, you must kill the guest (give him KO status by simply attacking him - the burning bow works wonders for this, doing about as much damage as the wild saurian would if one was present). At the level 5 to 7 that you're normally supposed to be while going through this area, Basch is quite useful. At level 18 with the burning bow, you could solo this entire part of the game and rarely ever need to heal. By removing the guest out of the equation, you can then begin controling the damage. 11.8.3.2 Control the damage **110832** At this point, you are now ready. Before starting, switch to wait mode so you can carefully plan out your actions. Have one character doing damage and the others using technicks or nondamaging attacks like slow or steal. Even if you steal something, keep stealing so as to prevent these characters from attacking. You can also get poach being used constantly too. The damage dealer must be careful. I suggest having Vaan as the damage dealer. First, I start with the rod. It should do close to 200 damage out of the 535 the seeker has at the minimum. After 2 hits, you should get it close to HP critical. If not, change the rod to the mythril sword. This will significantly reduce the damage giving you great control. If a combo starts, be ready to change equipment to stop the combo. Once HP critical, have the one who licensed poach (Balthier) use it on seeker. Do note that seeker has skills to heal itself. To help combat that, keep the mythril sword ready, attacking with it as needed. Go unarmed for finer damage control (as long as you don't have the brawler license that is). Once poach hits, you'll win a crooked fang but you won't gain any exp, LP, or clan points. 11.8.3.3 Going for the second seeker **110833** You need 2 crooked fangs though so find another seeker. If you didn't get any seekers or only one, head south into the next zone to the south (ignore the one off the side). Go into the eastern route and follow the path to open the gate. Avoid the dead ends along the way. Back track then continue south. Basch mysteriously revives if you've KOed him - save your game and return to the north. There's no need to quit and reload because you're already 2 zones away. Pass through the zone to the north. Repeat the check for the seekers. None present? Quit and reload. Found one? Poach it in the same way as before. .................................. 11.8.4 The mimic queen **110840** .................................. Once done with the seekers, reset to active mode if you've been using it. Don't bother reviving the guest though. Just continue south and reach the mimic queen. Save at the save crystal just before the boss. This boss, thanks to that burning bow, is very easy thanks to the powerleveling you've done. 500 damage per hit is way ahead of what you should be doing. Just focus all of your effects on the mimic queen, having the burning bow user constantly attack. Once defeated, you'll have more story scenes to skip (one of which can't be skipped, strangely), you'll be in familiar territory. You might even remember this very spot from going after the rod. _____ ____ ___ _ _ ____ ___ ____ ____ |_ _| | _ \ / _ \ | | | | / ___| / _ \ | _ \ | _ \ | | | |_| | | |_| | | | | | | | _ | |_| | | |_| | | |_| | | | | _ < | _ | | | | | | | | | | _ | | _ < | _ < | | | | | | | | | | \ V / | |_| | | | | | | | | | | |_| | |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| \_/ \___/ |_| |_| |_| |_| |____/ ############################### ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 12 The powerful traveler's garb set **120000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ############################### Used with: 70H, 65H, 40H, 35H, 25H, Opt .================================================. # 12.1 About the traveler's garb set **120100** # `================================================` About the feathered cap (cost: 3280 for set (1900 base)): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ None | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 18 | Mystic armor 2 | Start | | Evade 0 | ^ Mystic armor 3 | 20 | | Magick evade 0 | ^ Mystic armor 4 | 25 | | Strength 0 | Total | 45 | | Magick power 5 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ About the traveler's vestment (3280 for set (1900 base)): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ None | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 16 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | Mystic armor 4 | Start | | Evade 0 | Total | 0 | | Magick evade 0 | | | | Strength 0 | | | | Magick power 5 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ Since you won't be facing enemies that use attack magic on you (except those you can simply hand a phoenix down to to defeat), the magick resist stat is of practically no use. The defense stat, thus, has a very strong effect. It just so happens that, of all the types of armor the game has, the best armor for defense at this point just happens to be mystic armor, something not geared toward defense. With a magick resist of 18 and a defense of 16, you can render most of what you've faced at this point 100% harmless and many other enemies become very weak. Only the cactoids, greeden, and nekhbet in the Estersand will do any damage, the cactoids only on occasion. .====================================================. # 12.2 Gathering 2 of the required items **120200** # `====================================================` There are 3 ingredients that you need to get. You need 2 tanned hides, 5 water stones, and 2 braid wools to get the traveler's garb set. The order in which you get them depends on your method. Since 2 of the items are in Giza Plains, I'll cover that first and it's usually the first area you go to after getting the burning bow. Stock up on LP while working for this - you'll need it. ..................................... 12.2.1 The 2 tanned hides **120210** ..................................... Tanned hides are stolen from and dropped from slaven in Giza Plains. From the Nomad Village in the center of the plains (save here first), you'll find a slaven in the zone immediately to the east. Steal from it first, making sure you get something. Chances are, it's an earth stone. One robbed, defeat it, grabbing the loot it drops, if any. If you didn't get any tanned hides, quit and reload. If you got one, return to the village, save, quit, reload, and go for your second one in the same way. You have a 16% chance of stealing a tanned hide through repeated stealing and a 25% chance of it being dropped. Thus, you have a 37% chance of getting a single tanned hide per attempt, a 4% chance of getting both in a single slaven. ..................................... 12.2.2 The 5 water stones **120220** ..................................... The 5 water stones come from either the ichthons, if you took that route, or giza rabbits. If you're already in Giza Plains, steal from every giza rabbit you run across. Chances are, they'll run away - chase it down. Defeat it when you stole something from it. You have a pretty nice 90.6% chance of stealing a water stone. You have a 25% chance of a giza rabbit dropping one. Thus, you have a 92.9% chance of getting a water stone from a giza rabbit. The best place to get them is in the southwest zone where 2 giza rabbits are. Just straight east is another one. If any of the giza rabbits are heading toward the werewolves, attack the giza rabbit right away before it gets too close. You're not ready for the werewolves yet. .==================================================. # 12.3 The risky braid wool of greeden **120300** # `==================================================` The braid wool is not found in Giza Plains (at this point in the game). It's, instead, found in the Estersand. So, head there and to where the South Bank Village is (farther north from where you got the rod). Along the way, if you haven't picked up the bronze armor and bronze helm yet, do so now as the extra +4 on strength will help a little. Pick up "blindna" from the magick shop while you're at it - you'll need it for later. And feel free to defeat Nekhbet should you run across it. You can handle it now though it would be a bit tough. Make sure you save your game at the save crystal, buying the battle harness if you haven't already. If you licensed the quickening from going after the burning bow, you should have the battle harness already licensed. ......................................................... 12.3.1 Waiting 3 minutes - spare the cactoids **120310** ......................................................... In order to get the braid wool, you need to wait for 3 minutes in the zone just outside South Bank Village until an enemy called greeden shows up. Since you're forced to wait for a while, I strong recommend going around bashing all wolves, cockatrices, and ichthons. Whatever you do, do not attack a cactoid. Just ignore the cactoids. Why? In order for greeden to show up, you must ignore the cactoids for 3 minutes. If you accidentally get one, quit and reload. If you accidentally target one, either get back, quickly get cure casting, or target something else (ordered from the easiest and safest to the most risky). I would also suggest going after the loot the enemies drop here, since you need to pass the time anyway and the burning bow will just tear these enemies up like there's nothing to it. Get any chests you find as well. When you're done, return to the river. .................................... 12.3.2 Defeating greeden **120320** .................................... Greeden is rare game, like dustia (if you took that route) and Nekhbet (of which you can handle now). While you can't hand it a phoenix down like you can with dustia or fideliant and call it good to go, you have to do HP damage to it. The problem is, Greeden has 7000 HP and does about 240 damage and can even cause blindness. How you defeat greeden depends entirely on your method. See your method's details on the approach to use. Once greeden is defeated every method is the same - check to see if it drops something. If it does, grab the loot. If you get braid wool, head back into South Bank Village (feel free to defeat any cactoids along the way now), save your game, quit, then reload. If nothing drops or what you get isn't the braid wool (don't confuse braid wool with the blood wool, the 3% drop), just quit and reload, repeating the process. Since you need 2 braid wools, the 40% drop, you will need an average of 5 rounds of this - expect about 3 to 7 for the most part. ................................................. 12.3.3 A new bazaar item is available **120330** ................................................. Once you get your second braid wool, return to South Bank Village and sell them along with the 2 tanned hides and 5 water stones. When you leave the sell screen, you'll find a notice stating that new bazaar items are available. You'll find "traveler's garb" in the list, costing 3280 gil. Buy this, license it (see section 12.1), and equip it. Now the wolves and cockatrices in the Estersand are completely harmless. Nekhbet and greeden aren't though. The cactoids will only occasionally do damage, and if they do, it's hardly anything. The enemies in the Westersand are rendered very weak. _ _ _____ __ _ ____ _ _ _____ _ __ __ | | | | |_ _| | \ | | / ___| | | | | | ___| | | | \ / | | | A | | | | | A \ | | | | _ | |_| | | |__ | | | A V A | | |/ \| | | | | |\ \| | | | | | | _ | | __| | | | |\ /| | | ' A ' | _| |_ | | \ ' | | |_| | | | | | | |___ | |___ | | V | | |__/ \__| |_____| |_| \__| \___/ |_| |_| |_____| |_____| |_| |_| ############################ ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 13 The slime-covered winged helm **130000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ############################ Used with: 70H, 65H, 40H, 35H, 25H, Opt .========================================. # 13.1 About the winged helm **130100** # `========================================` About the winged helm (cost: dropped from enemy (2500 base)): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ None | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 13 | Shields 1 | Start | | Evade 0 | > Light armor 3 | 20 | | Magick evade 0 | > Heavy armor 3 | 30 | | Strength 5 | Total | 50 | | Magick power 0 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 3 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ The winged helm is a great heavy armor helm for your burning bow. The +5 on strength is especially useful. The +3 on speed may seem like it'll make charging up attacks go faster, but that's not the only benefit that has. The other benefit is that it will also increase damage output even more than the +5 on strength. This is because bows have speed as a secondary stat for determining damage. Raising speed raises bow damage. This is a great item to get so early in the game, accessible even in the longer, earliest methods, but best obtained when at a high level (as from after the chaining of the werewolves) or with a party. .==============================================. # 13.2 The spooky Zertinan Caverns **130200** # `==============================================` ................................. 13.2.1 Enter the cave **130210** ................................. Remember that cave in the Westersand that I told you to not enter? Well, this time, enter it. However, if you haven't picked up the "blindna" spell yet, do so now as you will need it. Why not enter it earlier? The enemies here are very powerful, able to do over 100 damage (considerably less with your traveler's vestment). But, now that you've leveled up a lot or you have a party to help (and fiery arrows to really dish out big damage, depending on your method), you can easily handle these enemies. Be sure you save at the nearest save crystal to the cave that you can. Giza Plains works in all methods. Rabanastre only works in the 70- and 65-hour methods. Pick one and save. I would suggest the Giza Plains one, the one at the southernmost part of the village, as it's closer and you have a high chance of getting a blue sky. Upon entering, skip the movie (start, X) as usual and head straight. ....................................... 13.2.2 Attacking the slimes **130220** ....................................... There's a few singing speartongues around but just ignore them. Speartongues love to use angelsong and magick ballad, nothing more than basic buffs on them. However, the enemy you're after is one that you can't readily see - slime. When you reach certain points, an enemy called "slime" will drop down from the ceiling. Simply attack it. Slime likes casting blind and sleep. For sleep, have someone that's unarmed attack that character, after defeating the slime, unless it's your damage dealer - get your damage dealer immediately. If solo, you'll have to wait for slime to attack you or for it to expire should sleep hit just as you defeat slime. For blind, just use blindna. The other attacks aren't a problem. Slime is primarily physical but does cast spells quite often. If it casts aero, separate your members so only one character gets hit instead of 2. If slime uses "divide", let it as you'll quickly get another slime to speed the process up. ............................................. 13.2.3 Danger: beware of 2 traps **130230** ............................................. There are 2 traps that you must avoid, only visible with libra active. However, libra is not required if you learn the locations. Where are the traps? The best way is to reference the walkthrough video. The first trap is in the small alcove as you round a V-shaped bend. A slime drops very near it. Stay away from the alcove and you're fine. The second is on the side away from the alcove, a bigger alcove, but near it, also where a slime happens to drop. Just remember: small is confined and is thus a trap. Big is open and secure and thus not a trap. Don't forget the 2 slimes at the end of the corridor. You'll often encounter only 1 slime though. This is because of the 6-enemy limit getting in the way, thanks to those speartongues that you must ignore. Take the same path back out, sticking to the big alcove and avoiding the small one near the V. These traps are easy to avoid, fortunately. You just need to remember their locations. ........................................ 13.2.4 Caution: rarest drop **130240** ........................................ Unfortunately, the winged helm is the 1% drop from slime. Fortunately, unlike the burning bow, slime is easily chained. For best results, ignore the loot until the chain levels up 3 times, noted by giant gold coins popping out and a red-colored chain number. This way, instead of a 1% chance of getting it, it's 5%, much higher. You could start at the previous chain level if you want. The difference is small. At chain level 3, you need an average of 33 1/3 slimes for a winged helm. At chain level 4, it's only 20. However, it takes about an extra 9 slimes to get chain level 4 giving a difference of only 4 1/3. It normally takes about 15 for the chain to get to level 3, 24 for the chain to get to level 4. If you don't have the winged helm by a 50 chain, 60 at the highest, I would recommend quitting and reloading and trying again if you're focused on the game clock. If not, just keep going until you get it. Once you get the winged helm, what you do depends on your method. See your method's details to learn what to do. ............................................................ 13.2.5 Warning: fully unequip Balthier and Fran **130250** ............................................................ If you're doing either the 70- or 65-hour methods, this does not apply. Because you'll need to head into Rabanastre for the next part, causing Balthier and Fran to leave, you must unequip them in full. Why? You won't see them again until you're level 99. You must do so before crossing any zone boundary that leads into Rabanastre. _ _ _ _ __ _ _____ ____ | | | | | | | | | \ | | |_ _| / ___| | |_| | | | | | | A \ | | | | \ \ | _ | | | | | | |\ \| | | | \ \ | | | | | |_| | | | \ ' | | | __\ \ |_| |_| \___/ |_| \__| |_| |____/ ######################## ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 14 Hunting for the clan rank **140000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ######################## Used with: 35H, 25H, Opt .===================================. # 14.1 Why go on hunts? **140100** # `===================================` You might be wondering why there would be a routine involving the hunts. The reason is simple: getting the hermes sandals requires an ingredient you can only obtain at this early point from the clan shop. For that to happen, you must raise your clan rank from Moppet to Rear Guard. This requires that you defeat 4 marks and have accumulated 8000 clan points. You should easily have 20 times that CP by now so it's just a matter of having enough marks. .==============================================. # 14.2 Thextera unlocks more hunts **140200** # `==============================================` Unfortunately, it seems as if only one hunt is available: thextera. Montblanc doesn't have anything either. Aside from story progress, marks also require that your clan rank is high enough before they even show up. This means you must do the thextera hunt first. Because you must enter Rabanastre to read the hunt board, causing Balthier, Fran, and Basch to leave, you must do these hunts solo. Fortunately, at level 20, they're effortless. Fortunately, this hunt is very quick. Gatsly just so happens to be but 2 meters away, along the same wall as the hunt board! Accept the hunt then rush toward the Westersand via the west gate. Don't worry about the weather and save as well since you just got the winged helm. Outside Rabanastre, follow the obvious path, then head south when you can. In the path to the southeast, you'll find thextera. You should be able to defeat it in one hit, missing from bad weather aside. With the traveler's garb, thextera can't damage you outside the "fangs" attack. So, just attack and be done with it. Ignore the lesser wolves until thextera is defeated - they're completely harmless anyway thanks to the traveler's garb. .=====================================================. # 14.3 Read the hunt board 20 or 40 times **140300** # `=====================================================` Return to Gatsly, claim the bounty then read the hunt board to discover that 2 new hunts available: flowering cactoid and wraith. These are the last of the hunts you'll need to do. Accept both hunts. While you're at it, read the hunt board 37 additional times. This seems like you're wasting time, but it's not. After all, I can get about 70 reads a minute. What do you do? Easy: X, up, X, X, up, X. Repeat this 35 more times. Each one, if you're fast, takes 5/6 of a second. Why so many times though? I'll explain later. Since you're here, you might as well do it now, to make efficient use of time. .===================================================. # 14.4 The effortless flowering cactoid **140400** # `===================================================` Dantro is in the Estersand's Outpost. Head out the east gate and bash everything except the wild saurian for easy and quick LP. You don't need to save in East Gate. Head along the same route as you did with getting the rod. Once in the outpost, you'll find Dantro near the fire in the middle. Head off into the northeast, following the northwest wall and continue until the second turn off at the northern end. You'll find the flowering cactoid in the area where the surprise cactoid pops out of the ground. You should be able to take it down in 2 hits, easy enough. If you recall, the flowering cactoid has a 1000 needles technick that does 1000 damage and you likely don't have 1000 HP. Thanks to some powerleveling and that mighty burning bow with the fiery arrows, the flowering cactoid is practically effortless, to the point it won't even use that technick. In fact, as soon as you make the first hit, it tries to run away. If it attacks, it practically won't do any damage (1s and 2s anyone?) Return to Dantro and claim the bounty. 10 potions for a reward seems pointless at this point, but think of it this way: it's 350 gil. .=========================================. # 14.5 The doom-loving wraith **140500** # `=========================================` Milha is in the northeastern end of Lowtown just before you turn to the west for Garamsythe Waterway. She's right in front of the house crouching down. Speak with her. Head into Garamsythe Waterway and head into the middle of the first zone. You'll find wraith here appearing out of nowhere. Just stay near it and attack, ignoring the doom status effect. It may seem that, if doom's timer runs out, it's game over. Don't worry, I've defeated wraith with the timer at 7 at the lowest, leaving plenty of time. Simply attack and just let wraith do whatever. Your traveler's garb set will absorb nearly all of the damage it will do. When defeated, just return to Lowtown. You'll remove the doom status effect later, when you save before going to the next part. Return to Milha and claim the bounty. ____ _ _ ____ _____ _____ ___ ____ ____ ___ | _ \ | | | | / ___| |_ _| |_ _| / _ \ | _ \ | _ \ / _ \ | | | | | | | | \ \ | | | | | |_| | | |_| | | | | | |_| | | | | | | | | | | \ \ | | | | | _ | | _ < | | | | / / | |_| | | |_| | __\ \ | | _| |_ | | | | | | | | | |_| | _ / /__ |____/ \___/ |____/ |_| |_____| |_| |_| |_| |_| |____/ |_| |_____| ############################# ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 15 Gambiting the return of dustia **150000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ############################# Used with: 35H, 25H .============================================. # 15.1 Why return to dustia now? **150100** # `============================================` You've now advanced the story a fair amount so why return to dustia now? It may seem strange, but there are actually 3 good reasons. First, the initial 1 or 2 runs of the dustia method were mainly for getting enough LP to license a quickening and possibly the burning bow (depending if you decided to repeatedly obtain the rod) and also to get enough gil for what's to come next. Second, the dustia method is faster since you have gambits available. Third, from running previous routines like the winged helm and traveler's garb, you can accumulate extra gil to make this easier and faster to get going. .=======================================. # 15.2 Buying phoenix downs **150200** # `=======================================` As you probably know by now, since you started with dustia if you're using this routine, simply handing dustia a phoenix down is all you need to defeat it for 1100 exp and 3 LP. Unlike before where you had to go to Nalbina Town (or the Westersand) to buy phoenix downs, you can now buy them from Migelo's Sundries in Rabanastre. This means it takes less time to reset. However, unlike before, you probably have a lot of other junk as well. What exactly do you sell? Well, here's the full list: 1. Sell all of your loot, including teleport stones. You can get more during the afterward section from clan rank increases then even buy them. 2. Buy the "tail of the phoenix" and "first-aid kit" bazaar items first as you'll get 4 phoenix downs for 850 gil (780 with the junk potions being sold) at a modest discount, almost getting one for free. You may not have these available though, as from previously buying them from starting with dustia. 3. All consumables, except for phoenix downs, can be sold. Potions (including the 2 from the first aid kit) are useless when cure restores far more HP and you pretty much literally don't even need to heal. 4. All accessories. The gauntlets from the wraith hunt are a good 600 gil. Selling the battle harness is optional. You won't be making use of a shield for a very long time. You can always buy the gauntlets and battle harness back later on as needed. 5. All ammunition, except for the fiery arrows and parallel arrows (since you can't get them again), can be sold. You can buy the onion arrows again as needed. The same goes for shot as well. 6. All weapons except the burning bow, the rod, and the mythril sword. These are needed for damage control. Although the long bow is the second-most powerful weapon you have, sell it as you'll be getting more burning bows for everyone after you've reached level 99, done early in the afterward section. 7. All armor except the leather clothing (sell all but one), your traveler's garb set, the winged helm, and, if you got one, the mage's habit. This is for damage control. 8. Buy as many phoenix downs as you can get, up to 99 in stock if you can afford that many (quite likely, inevitable if you started out going after the rod repeatedly). Although you can still get away with 20 phoenix downs, you'll have to come back to Migelo's Sundries far more frequently, essentially wasting time. If you followed my earlier advise, this shouldn't be a problem. .==========================================. # 15.3 Setting up the 1 gambit **150300** # `==========================================` Just... 1 gambit? It seems strange but seriously, that's all you need for this. What is that gambit? "Foe: nearest visible = phoenix down". While other enemies are in the area, they are outside the range of the gambit system and thus have no effect. Dustia always appears close and will, thus, take effect and only on dustia. Dustia is the one that needs the phoenix downs so this one gambit setup is all you need. Just make sure you disable it when you're done. It'll save about a second per dustia. .==========================================. # 15.4 Going to the last cycle **150400** # `==========================================` Just follow the usual method for dealing with dustia - wait mode, the slowest battle speed, utilizing the battle menu to grab the loot, and attack yourself as needed. When you run out of phoenix downs, just return to Migelo's Sundries, sell the books and flame staves, buy 99 more phoenix downs, save, and go back at it again. Repeat until you're just about done as the last cycle will be different, covered in the next routine below. _ _ _____ ____ __ __ _____ ____ | | | | | ___| | _ \ | \ / | | ___| / ___| | |_| | | |__ | |_| | | A V A | | |__ \ \ | _ | | __| | _ < | |\ /| | | __| \ \ | | | | | |___ | | | | | | V | | | |___ __\ \ |_| |_| |_____| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_____| |____/ ######################### ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 16 The hasty hermes sandals **160000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ######################### Used with: 40H (optional), 35H, 25H, Opt .===========================================. # 16.1 About the hermes sandals **160100** # `===========================================` About the hermes sandals (cost: 18,000 (20,000 base)): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ Haste always on if equipped | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | Quickening (red spiral) | Start | | Evade 0 | > Accessories 8 | 45 | | Magick evade 0 | > Accessories 12 | 60 | | Strength 0 | > Accessories 15 | 70 | | Magick power 0 | ^ Quickening (white wh) | 50 | | Vitality 0 | > Accessories 18 | 50 | | Speed 0 | Total | 275 | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ The hermes sandals has the haste status effect always on, making attacks charge up 50% faster making attacks happen about 30% more often. This may not seem like much, but with the huge number of attacks you'll be making, this will seriously pay off in the end. It may only be 250 milliseconds per attack that you save, almost the blink of an eye, but with the nearly 16,000 actions you'll be making (maybe a thousand or two more), that amounts to nearly 3/4 of an hour being saved, after taking other things into account (and 3/4 of an hour is a lot on 25 hours, 3%). For best results, only go after licening the Hermes sandals after you've obtained the first 2 swiftness licenses, the quickest ones to get. The third takes about 50% more LP to reach than the Hermes sandals and comparing a roughly 19% increase in charge time to a whopping 50% increase really says why this is. .==========================================. # 16.2 The warmage's monograph **160200** # `==========================================` When you have at least 25,000 gil (more, up to 44,750, is preferred, depending on your method), you are ready for the final cycle of the dustia method. First, buy the warmage's monograph, costing 20,000 gil. The warmage's monograph is in the bazaar and is the reason for reading the hunt board 20 times. You'll notice another costing 22,000 gil - don't get that one yet but it will come in very handy. See the routine in section 15 above to see how to use the dustia method at this point in the game. What is such an extremely expensive bazaar item for? One of the ingredients for the Hermes sandals is 15 arcanas but you don't have the canopic jar nor do you have access to it at this early point in the game. Fortunately, there is a way around that - that's what the monograph is for. .=======================================. # 16.3 Back to dustia again **160300** # `=======================================` Buy as many phoenix downs as needed (the amount depends on your method) but don't get fewer than 40 unless you plan on heavy quitting and reloading or making an extra trip(s) to Migelo's Sundries to buy more. There is a 30% chance dustia will drop an arcana in addition to the usual books and staves. Since you need 15 arcanas, that means 50 dustias is the average (since, strangely, chains don't affect monograph drops at all). When dealing with dustia, you should definitely be very aware of how annoying healing loot is. Unfortunately, healing, with the warmage's monograph taking effect, becomes considerably more likely to happen. From only about a 60.4% chance of a loot drop and 15.1% chance of a heal at chain level 4, the monograph increases this to a 72.28% chance of a loot drop or an 18.07% chance of a heal. By postponing the monograph until your last round, you can keep the heals to a minimum and thus saving time. Still, you'll quite inevitably get healed. Either continue until you've run out of phoenix downs or you get the 15 arcanas. What you do depends on your method. .============================================. # 16.4 Buying the hermes sandals **160400** # `============================================` The Hermes sandals are now just moments away. Head to the clan shop in the southern part of Muthru Bazaar (use the moogling). Sell the books of orgain only. Now buy 33 gyshal greens, costing 108 gil each for a total of 3564. Next, sell those gyshal greens you just bought and the 15 arcanas. You'll find that new bazaar items are now available. The "wind walkers" cost 18,000 gil, quite expensive, but if you went heavy on phoenix downs or you started with repeatedly getting the rod, you should easily have a ton of gil. If you have at least 21,300 gil, go ahead and buy them but don't license them until you've obtained the first 2 swiftness licenses. Once licensed, equip them. You may lose out on strength but the sheer speed of attacking easily makes up for the very tiny loss (remember that strength plays a very small role in determining damage with a bow thanks to strength only appearing once (as opposed to twice) in the formula). If you don't have 21,300 gil, then hold off buying the hermes sandals and focus on the more important stuff first. .=================================================. # 16.5 Buying the last of what's left **160500** # `=================================================` Before you even start on the next stage, there are a few things you need to get. While you're still in Rabanastre, now's a good time to get them. You'll need at least 3300 gil. ................................................ 16.5.1 The ultra powerful immobilize **160510** ................................................ About the immobilize spell (cost: 600 gil): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ Adds "immobilize" status | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | White magick 2 | Start | | Evade 0 | ^ Green magick 1 | 25 | | Magick evade 0 | ^ Time magick 1 | 20 | | Strength 0 | Total | 45 | | Magick power 0 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ Immobilize: it doesn't do any damage, it just makes an enemy unable to move. So, then, how can this spell be so powerful? If an enemy is hit with immobilize, and it does not have any long range attacks available when you do (the burning bow that you worked so hard for), that affected enemy is rendered 100% helpless. That is what makes immobilize so powerful. Enemy with 7000 HP, able to do 700 damage when you only have 900 HP, and you can only do 800 damage to it per hit? With immobilize, that enemy is much easier than the wolves you first started with, so long as it doesn't have any ranged attacks. Just give it a boot and calmly attack away like there's nothing to it. Immobilize has 3 other advantages as well. First, it's an area-of-effect spell so you can immobilize multiple enemies at once in a single cast. Second, it usually lasts about 70 to 80 seconds (depending entirely on the enemy's vitality), long enough to allow you to get more than a dozen shots off, usually well more than enough to defeat the enemy in question. Third, it also prevents an enemy from evading attacks which comes in very useful in the afterward section. This spell is required. You cannot do what's to come next without it. You're probably thinking, why not just use disable instead as that completely prevents the enemy from acting. There are several problems. First, disable requires a higher magick power to get the guarantee of it working. Second, enemies tend to be immune to it more often than immobilize. Third it lasts only 40% as long, enough for only a few hits (and often not enough). The only good disable really has is slipping past an enemy that's right in the way while constantly attacking it. ...................................... 16.5.2 Charging up your MP **160520** ...................................... About the charge technick (cost: 1700 gil): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ Recovers MP or lose all if miss | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | Steal | Start | | Evade 0 | > Libra | 20 | | Magick evade 0 | v Charge | 30 | | Strength 0 | Total | 50 | | Magick power 0 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ With the very heavy use of immobilize coming up, your MP will be getting drained very quickly. Should you run out, you'll need to recover it. Running around takes a long time and ethers are very hard to come by at this point. There's one thing that's always available that will quickly help you restore your MP: charge. The charge technick restores MP based entirely on your character's level. It is multiplied by a random number from 1 to 1.33. Being level 25 means you'll get anywhere from 25 to 33 MP recovered. At level 40, that turns into something from 40 to 53. There's one major downside to charge though - if it misses, you lose all of your MP. Thus, only use it when your MP is really low (such as being unable to cast a much-needed spell). While not required, I very strongly recommend this, especially first thing. The headsman license will help significantly, but it's not entirely enough. ............................................... 16.5.3 The scale of the scale armor **160530** ............................................... About the scale armor (cost: 1000 gil): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ None | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 9 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | Light armor 1 | Start | | Evade 0 | > Heavy armor 1 | 20 | | Magick evade 0 | > Heavy armor 2 | 25 | | Strength 3 | Total | 45 | | Magick power 0 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 3 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ You might be wondering why you'd get this when you've just got the traveler's garb set. This isn't for immediate use, it's for later. When you get to the point when magick power reaches 60, swapping in the winged helm and then the scale armor will improve damage output while having no effect on the success rate of immobilize. This is because, at 55 for magick power, immobilize, with serenity or spellbreaker taking effect, is guaranteed to work, never missing. Thus, any extra magick power is only going to waste so trade in the magick-power-boosting equipment that the traveler's garb set is for something that increases damage output. For efficiency, it's best to get it now. The scale armor is much like the winged helm except that strength goes up only 3 instead of 5. Still, an increase in speed like that only means that your already powerful burning bow will now only get much more powerful. This is needed during the final stage though. _ _ _____ ____ _____ _ _ ___ _ _____ | | | | | ___| | _ \ | ___| | | | | / _ \ | | | ___| | | A | | | |__ | |_| | | |__ | | A | | | | | | | | | |__ | |/ \| | | __| | _ < | __| | |/ \| | | | | | | | | __| | ' A ' | | |___ | | | | | |___ | ' A ' | | |_| | | |___ | | |__/ \__| |_____| |_| |_| |_____| |__/ \__| \___/ |_____| |_| ################## ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 17 Chaining werewolves **170000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ################## Used with: 70H, 40H .=======================================. # 17.1 About the werewolves **170100** # `=======================================` If you did the sunstone event or recall it, Jinn mentions of staying away from the werewolves. Well, you're now going after them and, taking things four steps higher, chaining them. With the burning bow, they'll be defeated very quickly. With pseudo running, you can, with skill and some luck, get 2 shots off for every 1 the werewolves do. With the traveler's vestment armor, you're absorbing nearly half the damage they would have done, protect cutting that down even more. Instead of about 200 damage per hit, they only do about 80. The only worry point there is with the werewolves, however, is the "smite of rage" technick. This special skill ignores defense and does nearly 450 to even 600 damage but it's only ever used when HP critical and not berserk. The werewolves sometimes use bacchus's wine, causing them to go berserk. This, thanks to pseudo running, isn't a problem either even though the werewolf charges up attacks twice as fast and deals 50% more damage. You can still quite well get 1 or still even 2 shots off for every shot they make thanks to pseudo running. The items the werewolves drop are quite valuable - the quality hide sells for 384 gil each and that's the 40% drop, the most common. There's also the 1% drop that is the kotetsu, selling for 1900 gil. The kotetsu is a short range weapon and weaker than your burning bow so it's only worthwhile for the gil. Each werewolf is worth 1206 exp and 2 LP making it very worthwhile, worth more exp than dustia but it takes longer to defeat the werewolves than dustia making the dustia method still faster though only by about 5 to 10% at the peak of this method's fastest. .===========================================. # 17.2 Defeating the werewolves **170200** # `===========================================` The process for how you defeat the werewolves depends entirely on your method and accessibility to immobilize. Before starting, save your game in the south central zone, one zone east from the werewolves. Why don't the dustia versions have this in their routines? For the 65-hour method, dustia is faster though not by much (about 8%). For the 35-hour method, you'll almost certainly be level 18 or higher, the minimum (usually around 20 or 21, 22 if you got lucky, 19 if unlucky). ........................................... 17.2.1 Going without immobilize **170210** ........................................... Without immobilize, the case with the 70-hour method, you must depend on pseudo running and protect. Level 18 is the absolute earliest I recommend for starting this, 25 for the later end. Start by attacking the nearest werewolf you see. The other is almost certain to chase, to investigate what's going on. As soon as you make your first attack, keeping as much distance as you can, begin pseudo running back to where the zone with the save crystal is. Keep an eye on the minimap to see where you're running to so you don't run toward where a wall is and end up having to take more hits. As you lure the werewolves too far from their starting points, they'll begin to return. If needed, heal but only heal twice at the most. Return to the weakened werewolf and continue attacking. If healing isn't needed, to be the case later on, simply chase after them. If you're close enough to them upon returning to their territory, they'll stop and resume attacking - pseudo run again and repeat as needed. If, however, the next shot is bound to make the werewolf you're attacking HP critical, I strongly recommend deliberately having the werewolf's attack connect by letting it attack you. This will delay the use of smite of rage allowing you get another shot or two off before it does which should pretty much inevitably defeat it. With one werewolf defeated, heal yourself, if needed, then attack the other one in the same way. With only one werewolf, you don't have to put as much effort into keeping out of sight of the other one which makes it easier. Once both werewolves are defeated, heal yourself along the way back. Unless you have the focus license, it's fine to be short by about 50 HP, otherwise, fully heal yourself. By picking up the "headsman" license or getting a big enough chain going, MP shouldn't be a problem. Cross into the zone with the save crystal and continue east without touching the save crystal. When that zone loads, return to the zone with the werewolves to find 2 more present. Just before returning to the werewolves, cast protect on yourself again, even if protect is still active. Why? This just resets the timer and won't have to worry about protect expiring (this isn't in my walkthrough videos as I didn't think about it then). Defeat them in the same way as before. For best results, ignore the loot until the chain reaches level 4, noted by giant, brilliant gold coins being dropped. At that point, and when the last werewolf you defeat causes the chain to level up, grab the loot. Otherwise, ignore the loot. For speed, just flat out ignore the loot altogether, getting the sleipnir along the way if you want some extra LP. When the chain reaches 100 to 120, sell your loot at the village and save your game in either the village or the southern zone. Repeat this process until level 45 at the most recommended (you can get away with 44). Level 55 is the highest I'd recommend. .......................................... 17.2.2 The power of immobilize **170220** .......................................... With immobilize, the werewolves are effortless so long as you have the serenity license, full HP, and a ranged weapon. You have a ranged weapon: the burning bow. To get full HP, just cast cure until you have it. The serenity license is covered in section 10 above and 20.2 below. With these 3 put together, the werewolves are pretty much completely helpless along as immobilize hits (it's guaranteed with magick power at 36). You can defeat them even at level 1! For this, I strongly recommend turning off your gambits and using wait mode. The automatic movement is untrustworthy. Get just a little outside the range and, out of nowhere, Vaan is running at full speed toward the werewolves and if you're not paying attention, you'll get hit. Plus, I find it very annoying. All you're doing, however, is nothing more than immobilizing and attacking, 2 simple actions. Save at the save crystal in the southern zone of Giza Plains. Head west and continue west until you see 2 werewolves in the southern part of this zone. Cast immobilize on them always keeping out of their sight (right at the limit of range with magicks). If immobilize misses, hold that R2 button and run back east at full speed! After you get near the zone boundary, the werewolves will return to where they were, wait a half second then give chase. The exception to this is if a werewolf has gone berserk - just cross the zone boundary in this case (or if it happens first thing, quit and reload). If immobilize hits, simply start attacking and keep your distance. The other werewolf will attempt to investigate... but it's dumb. It doesn't check to see where the attacks are coming from and since it's not bothering to see you, it'll just stand there. When this werewolf, however, gets very close to the immobilized one, consider casting immobilize on the immobilized werewolf to get the one that isn't. You'll see "miss" appear on the werewolf that's immobilized - don't worry about that one. If it appears on the one that wasn't immobilized, however, run for it as usual. With both werewolves essentially disabled, just attack away. They're now 100% helpless, unable to do anything about your constant attacking. Claim that effortless 1206 exp and 2 LP. When defeated, head east, through the zone with the save crystal without touching it, then return back west to get 2 more werewolves. Repeat the process in the same way and repeat until you're at least level 18, 25 at the highest. It is not necessary that you chain the werewolves as you'll level up so quickly it's almost ridiculous. The dustia method is still faster, though not significantly so. ____ _____ _ _ _____ _____ ___ _ ___ __ _ | _ \ |_ _| | | | | | ___| |_ _| / _ \ | | / _ \ | \ | | | | | | | | | | | | | |__ | | | |_| | | | | | | | | A \ | | | | | | | | | | | | | __| | | | _ | | | | | | | | |\ \| | | |_| | _| |_ \ V / | |___ | | | | | | | |___ | |_| | | | \ ' | |____/ |_____| \_/ |_____| |_| |_| |_| |_____| \___/ |_| \__| ############################ ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 18 Urstrix and dive talon mayhem **180000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ############################ Used with: 70H, 65H, 40H .=================================================. # 18.1 Why go after dive talon again? **180100** # `=================================================` You should be familiar with dive talon since you got the burning bow from it. However, instead of going for a burning bow this time, you're using dive talon for leveling up on as the 2000 exp they are worth is well above anything else around (except what's offered in the 35- and 25-hour methods). The 2 LP they give is very nice too. .====================================. # 18.2 The basic routine **180200** # `====================================` There is plenty in common with every method. The general concepts are the same in every method. I'll assume you're starting from the zone nearest to Rabanastre in the Westersand, 2 zones away from the main zone you'll be working in. From there, head west, taking the west exit. If you encounter a skeleton-like enemy with an eerie, dark glow or haze around it called fideliant, simply hand it a phoenix down to defeat it. Why pass up on 930 exp and 3 LP? Get any urstrixes along the way too - some might respawn in later visits to this zone. Regardless, head southwest to the south exit. Follow the obvious path. If the wolves are far away, ignore them and head directly to the left. There are 2 urstrixes here - get them for 528 exp and 2 LP. If the wolves are very near, wait before attacking so you can get sighted by them. Remember the behavior of the urstrix where, if there's activity going on somewhere and they are not fully opaque that they'd come over to investigate? Earlier, this behavior was a nightmare. Now, it's extremely beneficial as it speeds up the routine. Of course, if the urstrix is busy casting protect, it won't come or even care that any commotion was going on, be it a wolf or another urstrix. While dealing with the 2 urstrixes, try getting sighted by one of them to draw the other near by. If these urstrixes aren't visible or are heading in the wrong direction (away from you), ignore them - they're usually not worth the time. There is still the small chance (about 5% it seems) that being sighted won't draw the urstrixes over. How can getting these 2 urstrixes be worth it? See the FAQ in section 32.4 for details. After those 2 urstrixes, continuing to the southwest, you'll find 2 more urstrixes - try to get sighted by the nearest one, unless both are together. The sleipnir, a horse-like enemy, doesn't care if a fight is going on so you can ignore it. Do, however, get it as the 277 exp that it gives is worth it and it's right along your route. The next part is the dive talons. See the following sections (18.3 and 18.4) below for details on this as it varies depending on whether or not you have immobilize. Dive talons only have 3 actions: a regular attack, "lunge", and the rare "kamikaze". Dive talons seem to like lunging at you the most, a fiercely powerful attack that can combo (albeit slowly) but is very fast to charge up and does close to 30% more damage. Kamikaze is the worst of them all. It ignores defense, doing over 500 damage, and you lose all of your efforts as you get absolutely no credit for it - 0 exp and 0 LP. Ignore the cave - there's no need to go in there and risk losing your blue sky that you need for accuracy (not to mention gnoma entite that pretty much means game over if it starts attacking as from using magicks near it). When done with the dive talons, head back to the northeast. If the wolves on the left start heading outward, get back so you can avoid fighting them. Of course, if they're too far or pointing in the wrong direction (so they can't see you running by), you're fine. Backtrack the way you came, heading into that familiar north exit. Head to the northeast to the east exit then back to repeat the whole process again. As a tip, any time you have a lot of distance to cover between enemies and you're stuck having to put the weapon away, consider running at full speed for at least 2 seconds, preferrably 3 or more if you can. This way, you can make up for the time spent from stopping to put the weapon away and take it back out again (I wished you could do that manually). Oh, and two things. First, you'll get roughly 7330 total exp - 4 urstrixes, 1 wolf (average), 1 sleipnir, and 3 dive talons. Second, and the most scary-looking one, is that you'll be going up and down this route a total of... 1800 times. Yeah, that's right, nearly two thousand times up and down this course. Now can you see why the 70- and 65-hour methods gets very poor grades for repetitiveness as it's so extremely repetitive. Yep, 60+ hours of this. .===================================================================. # 18.3 Dive talon is fierce (longer method final stage) **180300** # `===================================================================` This routine is the final stage of the 70- and 65-hour methods and is the same whether or not you started with dustia. Without immobilize, dive talons are fierce and tricky, but you can now handle them without the need of a save crystal or quickening chain. Jinn remarked on the werewolves being something to avoid. Dive talons are worse, much worse, but they're worth a lot of exp and LP, making them more worthwhile. Early on, kamikaze is often unavoidable, slowing things down some. Later on, this becomes far less of a problem, thanks to pseudo running, knock back, and taking dive talon down in fewer hits. Should dive talon decide to go suicidal, keep back and try to defeat it while you still can. ............................................................. 18.3.1 Levels 44 to 51 - protected rough training **180310** ............................................................. When you first start out in this very long-lasting stage, the final stage of the 70-hour method, dive talon will really take a toll on you, being difficult and powerful and will take 4 hits to defeat. Even with the traveler's vestment absorbing about 3/8 of the damage it does, you still take close to 350 damage per hit. Thus, be sure you use protect and keep it active, especially when fighting the dive talons. After you defeat a dive talon or it decides to go suicidal, heal. Fully healing is not a necessity, but get close. During this span, you'll be averaging close to about 150 seconds per run. This may seem slow, but that's about 2820 exp per minute, or about 20% faster than the dustia method. This takes into account the higher odds of getting hit with kamikaze. ........................................................ 18.3.2 Levels 51 to 54 - optional transition **180320** ........................................................ During the area from level 51 to 54, you're in a transition zone from taking dive talon down in 3 hits or 4 hits. You might consider changing the traveler's vestment to the bronze armor to increase strength to more frequently get dive talon in 3 hits instead of 4, but the effect isn't very strong and you'll take a lot more damage. In fact, I can't tell if doing this has any benefit. I prefer to just keep the traveler's vestment equipped so that healing is faster and the dive talon won't do as much damage. ................................................... 18.3.3 Levels 55 to 67 - getting easier **180330** ................................................... From levels 55 clear until 67, you'll be taking dive talon down in 3 hits constantly. You're not taking anywhere near as many hits and, should a critical hit happen during one of the first 2 hits (if a miss doesn't occur on the first hit, from the enemy dodging the attack), you won't be attacked at all, speeding up the process. You're also not taking anywhere near as much damage so you no longer need to cast protect any more. You'll also generally only need to have to heal along the long backtrack back to the north zone exit instead of between each dive talon. This speeds up the process still more. During this span, you'll be averaging about 132 seconds per run, or about 3270 exp per minute, nearly 40% faster than the dustia method, quite significant, and this will only get faster still. This takes into account the lower odds of being hit with kamikaze. ........................................................ 18.3.4 Levels 68 to 70 - transitioning again **180340** ........................................................ Levels 68 to 70 are another transitional zone as, during this point, you can take dive talon down in 2 hits, provided the focus license is taking effect. This means you won't be getting attacked by dive talon any more... unless that first shot misses and knock back or a critical doesn't occur on the second hit. This is the only time I really recommend trading in the defense for a little extra strength. .......................................................... 18.3.5 Levels 71 to 80 - focusing in on 2 hits **180350** .......................................................... During the area from levels 71 to 80, fully heal yourself, if any HP is missing, just as you are about to begin attacking the dive talons (usually after defeating the sleipnir). This way, the focus license takes effect and you'll take dive talon down in just 2 hits. Unless the first attack misses, you won't take damage. Of course, not watching the minimap while pseudo running and carelessness will cause you to still take hits - you'll need to heal before going to the next dive talon. The speed of this process is getting very close to the maximum at this point, averaging about 124 seconds per run or about 3540 exp per minute, about 50% faster than the dustia method. As a tip, wait before attacking the first dive talon, running toward it as usual though get to the point when you're after attacking but haven't selected a target yet. When you get to the halfway point (slightly earlier if dive talon is going in the opposite direction, later if going in your direction), confirm the attack. This way, you can run at full speed longer and get the dive talon to follow you toward your main destination. .............................................................. 18.3.6 Levels 81 to 99 - second half at full speed **180360** .............................................................. At level 81, and onward to level 99, you no longer need the focus license to take dive talon down in 2 hits. This is when both methods max their speed. For the 70-hour method, focus on defeating dive talon - you no longer need to have to heal. Each round will last about 119 seconds or about 3700 exp per minute, about 60% faster than dustia. For the 65-hour method, there's a riskier approach you'll use that trims about 7 or so seconds off each round making it 8% faster. Instead of taking dive talon down in 2 hits, you can defeat it in just 1. This remains for the final half of the process. For this to work, you must be at HP critical, with the HP showing up in red, occurring at 20% HP remaining or less. Yep, just 700 HP or less remaining, constantly. You'll need to have purchased the "adrenaline" license though - you should have cleared the entire augments section at this point too. The "last stand" license will, in a way, double that HP as you're only taking half damage. I've seen the urstrixes doing 2 damage, 8 at the highest, with normal attacks and slap. "Gust" is the only troublesome one, doing about 18 damage (as opposed to 36). You shouldn't need protect though. With the traveler's vestment, you're absorbing nearly all of the damage the lesser enemies do and they're the ones doing the damage, not the dive talons. In fact, I've gone on 5 hours straight using up only 600 total HP. With dive talon going down in 1 hit, you can do the last nearly 900 runs of this without ever taking a hit from dive talon. If you do, you should be able to still handle it. Don't let HP drop below 400 though - use potions and hi-potions to heal instead of casting cure. If you don't have either of these, then cast cure then attack yourself with a weaker weapon (like the mythril sword together with the bronze armor). From in-depth statistical analysis of this routine, only obtained for the 65-hour method, with over 150 data points (!), I'm getting an average time of 111.9 seconds with a standard deviation of 3.9 seconds per run. This means 3925 exp per minute on average, an impressive 70% faster than the dustia method. Some of your fastest runs can even dip below 105 seconds. Bad and unlucky runs can pass 2 minutes. Once you reach level 99, you're done. Have fun going through Nalbina Dungeons doing 4000+ damage to everything in sight. If you go unarmed and make use of adrenaline, you'll do 9999 damage to essentially everything in sight (just make sure you raise strength as high as you can as the higher, the better). 9999 damage on mimic queen? Comin' right up! .==============================================================. # 18.4 Dive talon is helpless (the 40-hour method) **180400** # `==============================================================` The difference between the longer method and the 40-hour method is that this route isn't the last step. For the 40-hour method, you continue this until somewhere from level 30 to 40 (the choice is yours - the lower the level, the riskier the final stage is from immobilize missing more frequently. The routine is otherwise exactly identical to the longer methods except that, instead of just attacking the dive talons, you immobilize them, fully healing before attempting. Once immobilized, just attack away, keeping your distance. None of dive talon's attacks are ranged so dive talon is completely helpless should it get hit with immobilize. If immobilize misses, run for it - when dive talon begins to return to its territory, wait until dive talon is about 1/3 of the way to the edge of the minimap from the center then chase after it. When it begins to slow down, try casting immobilize again, always from behind. Repeat for all of the dive talons. Ignore the cave though - you don't need to go back into it, risking losing your accuracy-helping (and thus speed-boosting) blue sky. __ __ ___ _ ____ ___ ____ ___ | \ / | / _ \ | | | _ \ / _ \ | _ \ / _ \ | A V A | | |_| | | | | |_| | | | | | | |_| | | | | | | |\ /| | | _ | | | | _ < | | | | | _ < | | | | | | V | | | | | | | |___ | |_| | | |_| | | | | | | |_| | |_| |_| |_| |_| |_____| |____/ \___/ |_| |_| \___/ ################################## ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 19 Blazing fast grinding in the sewers **190000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ################################## Used with: 40H, 35H, 25H .============================================. # 19.1 About Garamsythe Waterway **190100** # `============================================` Dire rats and steelings that later became ghosts, gigantoads, and garchimaceras that are hardly worth any exp... why would you even come here? Well, instead of those enemies, there's enemies here that offer you not 130 exp but a whopping 3000! You might be thinking that, if they're worth 3000 exp, then they must be terrifyingly powerful, way too powerful for you to handle at even level 60. After all, they do about 700 to even 850 damage when you only have about 800-1500 HP. This is where immobilize comes in. Remember: if an enemy is hit with immobilize and doesn't have any long-range attacks and you do (what was that burning bow for again?), that enemy is rendered completely helpless. None of these enemies have long range attacks, except water elemental but if you follow my advice, you won't see it for a long time. This is why immobilize is required. You'll make these enemies look easier at level 25 (when they can defeat you in 2 hits) than the wolves that you started with and they really are very easy to handle thanks to immobilize. Sure they'll take probably 10 hits to defeat, the enemy is completely helpless until immobilize expires after about 73 seconds. You'll be making progress very rapidly, especially if you're using the 25-hour method. .==============================================. # 19.2 Garamsythe's deadly enemies **190200** # `==============================================` There are 3 different types of enemies in the area. The malboro overkings are the most common. Lizards are the next most common. Water elemental is the last one and rarest. .............................................. 19.2.1 About the malboro overkings **190210** .............................................. When you first ran through this game, you probably thought the malboro overkings were frustrating enemies to deal with. Here, you're soloing them (and for the 25-hour method, at critical HP, one hit from death and game over) with inferior armor and at least a halfway decent weapon. They have around 6600 HP so they'll take several hits with the burning bow with the fiery arrows to defeat, so many hits that you won't defeat them by the time they start attacking... for 500 to 800 damage. This means you're only 3 hits from a game over. How can you possibly stand a chance? That's where immobilize and your ranged weapon that the burning bow is comes in. The malboro overkings only have short range attacks. As a consequence, should they be immobilized, they will be completely unable to reach you, thus rendering them 100% helpless. Simply attack away and an effortless 2903 or 3087 exp is yours. Yep, roughly 3000 exp for these enemies here, it's no wonder why this place is so crazy fast! There are 3 of these present, 7 in the later part of the 25-hour method. The malboro overkings, however, have another major weakness. No it's not holy-elemental attacks or the complete lack of long-range attacks, it's, instead, their behavior. They love playing with their crown, tossing it up 10 feet in the air complete with acrobatic twists and catching it. In fact, if you let a malboro overking approach you, wait for it to begin toss its crown up in the air then quickly get back. The malboro overking will toss its crown up again and return to standing. If you time the use of immobilize right, you can have the malboro overking begin to return to normal standing just a tad before immobilize takes effect (about 4 to 8 game frames, if that). Yep, a whole 10 seconds is spent doing absolutely nothing but playing with its crown while you're already attacking away or getting a ridiculously massive head start in fleeing if immobilize misses. Mastering the exploitation of this behavior will make the 25-hour method go faster as you can actually get 2 casts of immobilize off during all that crown tossing. The malboro overkings have 4 main attacks: attack, lunge, bad breath, and cloying breath. The standard attack does around 500 damage with the scale armor equipped and it combos as well. Lunge does close to 750 damage. Bad breath and cloying breath just add a lot of negative status effects such as poison, blind, and slow. Late in the process, near the end, bad breath and cloying breath miss very frequently (I couldn't demonstrate cloying breath in over an hour of attempts because it kept missing and that's level 92, let alone 99). Early on, the breaths are especially troubling. At least they're very easy to avoid - just immobilize them and keep your distance. .................................... 19.2.2 About the lizards **190220** .................................... There are 2 lizards around as well. One lizard is in the low-lying area, the other in the far southwestern part of the map. Lizards have over 7000 HP and are frightfully powerful, the most powerful enemy present. Although they are powerful, they don't give as much experience - 2525 or 2618. Still, for about 2572 experience, they're not that bad. Or are they? Lizards are swift. Unlike the malboro overkings that just have to play with their crown upon getting close, lizards are instant to attack. They require far more caution than the malboro overkings. Should you need to have to immobilize one from the front, use caution. If the lizard is not moving, approach it very slowly with immobilize at the ready. If the lizard is moving toward you with its squishy-sounding walks, let it approach you while you stand still with immobilize at the ready. Lizards have 4 actions as well: attack, flee, gnaw, and angelsong. The regular attack does around 550 damage. Gnaw does nearly 850 damage, very extreme. Angelsong just adds the "regen" status effect to all nearby enemies, including itself. On occasion, though only with the first sighting that I'm aware of, lizard will, instead of attacking, quickly get away. ........................................ 19.2.3 About water elemental **190230** ........................................ Exclusive to the 25-hour method after a while is an annoying enemy called water elemental. While it may seem innocent enough with a green life bar, this thing will prevent you from using immobilize. Should you use any magick near it (near being that you can see the green life bar), it will turn aggressive and unleash some severely devistating attacks that, even at level 99 with full HP, can pretty much mean game over. You won't, however, find it in the 40- or 35-hour methods' routines but you will in the 25-hour method's routine. Water elemental has 3 main attacks: watera, silence, sleep, shell, and protect. Watera does around 400-500 damage and is very fast to charge. I find it disappointing that characters cannot get watera or waterga, just water, a very weak spell making the cloud staff practically worthless for its bonus. Silence will prevent you from using immobilize making you unable to return unless you can very sneakily sneak past the malboros and lizards. If, of course, you have echo herbs, use those though it's unlikely you will. The worst one of them all is sleep. Sleep may seem innocent enough, but it's the fact that the endless barrage of watera won't wake up the character... doing 50% more damage while at it. You can't move or get away so if sleep hits and you're in range of water elemental, as from not immobilizing it, game over is just moments away, even at level 99 with full HP and possibly even bubble (which doubles max HP). It is actually possible to fully prevent sleep, indirectly. How? As soon as sleep's spell effects start, use an alarm clock. Action being carried out at that moment? Change equipment to cancel it instantly. While you will get put to sleep with some chance for some time, the alarm clock has been readied and will take effect, waking up the character less than a second after falling asleep. Basically, the order of events is this: sleep spell effects, alarm clock used a reaction time later (300 ms), alarm clock's animation effects start, character is put to sleep, alarm clock's effects take effect, character wakes up. I've done this once and it literally saved me from a game over. Of course, chances are, you won't have an alarm clock. If a malboro finds you, it may save you, but, chances are, you've already immobilized them, defeated them, or they're just too far away and they can't help you. Thus, the best way to deal with water elemental is to simply ignore it and not use magick near it, nothing more. For the 40- and 35-hour methods, simply avoid the zone that has it. For the 25-hour method, you don't even use immobilize when you get to go into here - only the protect will cause problems early on. While not after attacking you (it has the green bar), it will randomly cast protect and shell on not only itself but any other enemies, if it starts near them. .===========================================. # 19.3 The routine's first zone **190300** # `===========================================` This section covers the early part of the routine, involving the first zone. This is always the same in all methods early on. The 25-hour method branches off at about level 59. ............................... 19.3.1 Starting out **190310** ............................... As you return to Rabanastre, upon getting all of the required licenses, the equipment, and other preparations, head into Lowtown, heading far to the north. From the wraith hunt and the story advancement beforehand, you should be familiar with how to get here. Go past the metal gates and save your game. One wrong move now and you'll have to redo the stuff up to this point from your last save so I urge you to save now while you can. There are so many zone exits here, you might be confused as to which one to use. After saving, head to the east and take the 4th zone counterclockwise around the circle. My videos demonstrate this very well. 19.3.1.1 Immobilization not guaranteed **190311** Early on, immobilize has a fair chance of missing. If that happens, run for it. If the enemy is far away (such as from playing with the crown), hold R2 and run. If the enemy is close, don't use R2 as the character stopping from putting the weapon away will pretty much guarantee you a hit. If a hit in inevitable, then use R2. You'll take the hit but at least you'll get a head start, if you survive and the enemy doesn't combo. If you already have an action charging up, alternate between attack and cure without letting them execute from fully charging. I would suggest letting them charge to about 80% then change actions. As long as the action doesn't take effect, you'll keep running at full speed. My 25-hour method video demonstrates why R2 isn't always the best way to flee (it was unintentional). I could have escaped had I not used R2 - the delay from putting the weapon away cost me a game over (thankfully, only about 15 minutes of effort was lost and it was a bad take as I wanted to record something). If immobilize hits, defeat the affected enemy(ies). However, should another one creep up, be ready to immobilize it. If immobilize fails on it, you'll have to sacrifice the enemy you were attacking and run away. It's fine if immobilize misses on an enemy already affected by immobilize, however. Because of the high frequency of immobilize missing early on, you'll need to avoid immobilizing several enemies at a time unless it's the only option you have. Remember that time is important. 19.3.1.2 The first section **190312** The first zone has 2 sections, in a sense. The first section has a malboro overking often very close and a lizard in the low-lying area. Never go into this low-lying area as it's full of traps. There are treasures present, but they're not worth getting. Stick to the high area at all times where you won't run into any traps. The low-lying area is reachable with the burning bow and immobilize by simply standing at the edge of the cliff. If the malboro overking is very close as you're going toward the lizard, deal with it first. Do not cut around the corner to get the malboro as, just because you can't get to it because the wall is blocking it doesn't mean the malboro can't get you. I've had quite a few surprise attacks because of that. If the malboro overking is near the edge, wait for it to approach. If it stops moving, get back, just in case it's playing with its crown and/or getting ready to attack. If it's heading in the other direction, wait for it to get out of the way and then go for it. The low-lying lizard can cost you some experience. Why? See that transparent U-shaped part on the minimap? If that lizard crosses farther to the west from the center point of the easternmost part of that U's top, you can't get it at all. If this lizard is very close to this point, don't immobilize it, attack it. This will draw it out. If you immobilize it and the very annoying knock back happens, you won't be able to finish it off. As a consequence, you essentially lost it. By attacking it, you can draw it away into an area where you can easily get to it without knock back causing problems, unless it decides to use angelsong where you should just continue attacking it (or wait if knockback sends it out of range). Immobilize it as soon as you can, such as after the first attack. To illustrate what I mean, consider this diagram (about to scale): _ _ | | |X| | |___| | |_______| The X is the point of no return. Farther to the west and the lizard is completely inaccessible without going into the lower area (and that's one crazy long detour). Farther to the east and you can get it. 19.3.1.3 The second section **190313** The second section has 2 more malboro overkings and another lizard. The order you deal with these enemies is pretty much closest to farthest. Whether or not the lizard is first, middle, or last is almost purely random. Unlike the lizard in the first section, this lizard is the most troublesome one, especially early on when immobilize is not guaranteed to hit. If it's facing toward you, either approach it very slowly after immobilize has charged or, if the lizard is moving in your direction, stay put slightly out of range and let it approach you. If immobilize misses and the lizard decides to use angelsong, you can try again, but be ready to run immediately. Treat the 2 malboros here in the usual way. Whatever you do, do not go into that zone to the south. There is an enemy called "water elemental" that's here that pretty much spells game over should you use any magicks near it or even just attack it. Just stay in this zone and the area near the entrance to Lowtown. ......................................... 19.3.2 Respawning the enemies **190320** ......................................... Once the 5 enemies have been dealt with, check to see if that lizard is accessible, if you couldn't get to it. If it is now accessible, deal with it. Otherwise, just ignore it and respawn the enemies. To respawn the enemies, back track to the zone immediately before the point in which you entered - the second route to the right. Follow along the obvious path, then hold the stick to the bottom left to quickly get into the zone you were just in barely 10 seconds ago. With a 3-zone roundabout completed, you can get an infinite supply of enemies, making for an effective way to accumulate license points and level up while also keeping loading times to a minimum. ........................................... 19.3.3 Your magick number is 55 **190330** ........................................... No, this isn't the speed limit on rural roads in the US. Instead, it's a special threshold for the magick power stat. Why is 55 special for the magick power stat? When it reaches 55, immobilize is guaranteed to work. Why is it guaranteed to work? The formula for calculating the success rate of immobilize is "(50+SourceMagickPower-TargetVitality)*2". The malboro overkings have up to 55 on vitality and the lizards have up to 54. The multiplication by 2 is from the serenity license. Without serenity, even if magick power is maxed at 99, there's still no guarantee on these enemies. You can see just how critical serenity (and magick power) is for getting status effects to work successfully. Once immobilize is guaranteed to work, you no longer need to be as cautious. You still do need to be careful, however, thanks to these enemies being so frightfully powerful. At least you'll be able to run the course more quickly, speeding things up. Once you can begin regularly defeating the low-lying lizard in 3 hits (4 hits maximum, mainly if far from the stairs), you no longer have to immobilize that lizard. This is thanks to the ridiculously long detour it has to take just to reach you. If you follow it along the route, you should be able to get 5 or even 6 total shots off. It's only the fact you're not guaranteed to hit it that makes attacking the lizards directly strongly not advised. It's only the fact that the low-lying one takes such a long detour just to reach you that it's more dependable. However, if you have 2 or more shots left to defeat that low-lying lizard and it's reached the bottom of the stairs, immobilize it and begin running toward the zone boundary as needed. How far you go with this first zone depends on your method. See section 19.5 below for details. .============================================. # 19.4 The routine's second zone **190400** # `============================================` The zone to the south from the first zone you deal with is the second zone. It is exclusive to the 25-hour method thanks to water elemental being present. In this zone, there are 4 malboro overkings, 1 lizard (that only appears when in the right location), and 1 water elemental. Do not bother with the lizard found in an isolated, out-of-the-way corner that's at the end of the route and in the northwest corner. Wait until level 74 before attempting to get the hidden lizard, if you want to risk it. While it is possible to just immobilize it, the fact you must be careful and that water elemental is present makes this not worth the risk. To respawn the enemies, continue heading far to the east until into the next zone to the east. Back track to find 4 more malboro overkings, another hidden lizard, and the usual water elemental that must be avoided. Continue through the first zone, dealing with the enemies there, only going in reverse. If immobilize misses during the reverse trek, get 2 zones away, fleeing if safe to do so, and head into the zone you used to reset the second zone's enemies and try again. You may immediately reenter the zone you fled from to give it another go, but only do so if the target enemy is far from the zone line. If the lizard goes after you again upon the zone loading, just get 2 zones away again. .=====================================================. # 19.5 The constant immobilization method **190500** # `=====================================================` The 40- and 35-hour methods only ever use the first zone and are exactly the same for the final stage. This way, water elemental won't cause you problems. Everything, except that low-lying lizard, is immobilized. The low-lying lizard is only immobilized early on in the process, but once you can begin defeating it in 3 hits (4 at the most, mainly if around the corner far from the stairs), there isn't a need to immobilize it unless it's right next to the stairs. As you level up during these methods, certain thresholds come up, mostly revolving around magick power being 55 or higher (you might consider 54 (using 54 means a 99% success rate on the malboros (comfortably high) and a guarantee on the lizards)). If you decide to use 54, keep alert until magick power goes up again (usually after 2 level ups). Just remember that any time a level up occurs, you must heal yourself so that serenity can take effect. The following subsections will explain these thresholds in detail and what makes them important. .................................................................. 19.5.1 Before level 57 - immobilization not guaranteed **190510** .................................................................. In the earliest part of the process, immobilize will miss fairly often, but improving as you level up more. During this time, be cautious when approaching an enemy. Mastering the luring of the malboro overkings to play with their crowns will really help. If you do it right, you can easily get a huge head start on escaping if immobilize misses, sometimes so much of a head start that you can almost have the malboro overking completely off the minimap by the time it even starts attacking. During these early levels, you'll be leveling up quickly even though immobilize misses quite a bit. As you level up, immobilize misses less and less often, eventually getting to the point where immobilize is guaranteed. Remember that 55 is your magick number - when magick power reaches that point, immobilize is guaranteed to work. .................................................................... 19.5.2 Levels 57 to 65 - the strength of the winged helm **190520** .................................................................... When you reach level 57, your magick power stat is 59 with 4 magick lore licenses. If you only have 3 magick lores (or have 4 but want the guarantee), level 59 is the threshold. If you can obtain a 4th magick lore during the area from level 57 to 59, do this part once you obtain it. At this point, license and equip the winged helm that you went after a while ago. This lowers magick power to 54. The winged helm should increase your damage output by a whole 10%. This doesn't seem like much, but it can knock off an entire hit early on and when fewer hits are needed, time is saved - saved time means the process speeds up. ............................................................ 19.5.3 Levels 66 to 91 - scaling the scale armor **190530** ............................................................ At level 66 (68 if you want the guarantee), swap out the traveler's vestment for the scale armor, licensing the scale armor before equipping as usual. I'm assuming you have all 5 magick lore licenses at this point. Although magick power will be 54 again, you won't have to bother changing equipment again from this point on. During this, you'll also be constantly defeating the enemies in 3 hits - this means you no longer have to immobilize that low-lying lizard. The exception, as usual, is if it's very close to the stairs and it doesn't decide to flee like it often seems to when there. ..................................................... 19.5.4 Levels 92 to 99 - full speed ahead **190540** ..................................................... Level 92 is the point in which the method maxes out its speed. This is because you're guaranteed to defeat every enemy here in 2 hits, 1 if you get a critical on the first hit. ........................................... 19.5.5 The speed of the routine **190550** ........................................... From in-depth analysis of the routine during the time from level 97 to the end, I've figured out how fast the routine really is. You obtain about 14,050 experience per round (slightly less due to the occasional case, about a 3% chance, of the low-lying lizard being inaccessible). Each round takes about 89.52 seconds with a standard deviation of about 5.82 seconds. This means you gain about 9400 experience per minute on average, just pushing past 10,000 experience per minute on the fast end. This is with 113 total data points being analyzed accurate to the frame. .==============================================. # 19.6 The direct attacking method **190600** # `==============================================` The 25-hour method is nearly identical to the safer methods early on, but once you reach level 59, that's when things really change and in more ways than one. How things change in the 25-hour method depends almost entirely on when you can get the battle lores. Focusing on them will seriously speed things up far more so than immobilize hitting. The following subsections will explain these thresholds in detail and what makes them important. .................................................................. 19.6.1 Before level 59 - immobilization not guaranteed **190610** .................................................................. When you start this routine, the fact immobilize misses fairly often makes it not very dependable. Despite this, you'll level up significantly faster than the dustia method as just one of these enemies is worth about 2 1/2 dustias and they take roughly 20 seconds to defeat instead of 30. You could gain a level once every 5 minutes, 4 minutes on a fast run, first thing when you start. Of course, this slows down considerably as level increases but you're still gaining several levels in an hour. While at this, you'll be focusing on getting faster, at least getting the first 2 swiftness licenses and licensing the hermes sandals. Once you get that, focus on getting as many battle lores as you can. You're doing good if you can get 4 by level 59. You'll also need to make sure you have at least 75 LP stocked before you reach level 59. ...................................................... 19.6.2 Levels 59 to 63 - a new route opens **190620** ...................................................... Once you reach level 59, license the winged helm and scale armor both, equipping them. This will boost damage output enough so that you will be guaranteed, with 4 battle lores, to defeat the malboro overkings in 2 hits. If you only have 3 battle lores, start at level 60 unless you can license the 4th one during 59. Once 2 hits becomes possible, this routine really takes off on speed. Although you sacrifice the guarantee of immobilize working, you don't really need it any more, except on that one lizard in the western part of the first zone. Just one enemy, that's it. Not having to immobilize everything before attacking easily saves a whole 5 seconds per enemy and for the number of enemies you deal with, that's quite significant. What about the numerous malboro overkings though? Unlike the safer methods, you directly attack them without immobilizing them. Since they spend so much time playing with their crown, you can easily get 2 shots off. However, should knock back happen, there's a chance that the malboro will go after you right away. Solving that is not a problem though - remember all that pseudo running you've been doing during the parts before the final stage starts? Time to put that to great use! Be warned though - if a malboro overking is near one you're attacking, it'll dart toward you as usual. Simply let it approach without you approaching it, let it begin to toss up the crown, then get back as soon as you see it tossing up the crown. It'll toss its crown after a bit. If you have an attack that's just about to connect as the malboro overking gets in range, get back immediately. To push out more speed, if no other malboro overking is nearby, approach the malboro overking while still attacking but still keep out of range. If knock back happens, keep back as usual, approaching only if you realize that the malboro is not already attacking yet. It takes practice and careful observation to know this but remember that, if the malboro begins attacking right away, pseudo run from it. If you can start 3/4 of a second closer to your intended destination, you've saved 3/4 of a second. That's hardly anything, but it's the sheer number of times where this can be put to use that makes it far more worthwhile. In just one round, you could do it about 10 times, saving 7 1/2 seconds. You'll be doing close to 200 to 250 rounds of this so that's a very impressive 1800 seconds saved, a whole half hour (and a half hour is a lot against 25 hours)! You might be wondering - why not just directly attack that lizard? There are 2 reasons why you shouldn't. First, and most importantly, lizards can evade attacks. With no guarantee on hitting them, missing on the first shot pretty much spells doom. The second is that they are very swift to attack should they decide to attack. While angelsong is practically harmless, allowing you to get 2 more shots off, it's just not worth the risk. Thus, immobilizing it is the only way to safely deal with that lizard. The lizard cannot reach you when it's in the lower area and you're above. If it's fully on the stairs, it's too high and can and will reach you. Thus, you can safely attack while on your way south. Deal with any malboros along the way though. The low-lying liazard, however, you can directly attack. Even if it gets to the stairs, constantly attack it but get ready to cross the zone boundary if things go wrong. If immobilize misses on that troublesome lizard, run in the direction you've cleared the enemies out of and respawn the enemies in that zone (or the southern one as well if you want). Unlike the safer version of this routine, you need to head to the south exit and continue through. With only malboros present, it's easy to deal with. Just master the crown playing during the first few levels and you'll find this very easy to deal with. There is an exception though. If water elemental is present and puts protect on one of those malboros, you won't be able to defeat it in 2 hits any more. Should that happen, return to the previous zone you were in and respawn the enemies to try again. It is, fortunately, very rare that this happens. If you use the speed up with the malboros, you can reduce the odds of that happening. ......................................................... 19.6.3 Levels 64 to 69 - enforcing immobilize **190630** ......................................................... Once you reach level 64, if you have 4 battle lores by then (66 if you only have 3), change the scale armor into the traveler's vestment to now guarantee immobilize on the one lizard that needs it. Still approach that lizard very carefully. Once immobilized, just proceed as usual. This threshold comes from needing to keep the 2-hit guarantee. The boosting of the success rate is just as effective if you only have 1 magick lore due to the lizards only needing 54 magick power to guarantee immobilizing. My videos show of dealing with the hidden lizard. It's not worth using and it costed me about 5 to 10 minutes on the game clock from doing it. Having to be careful around it is the problem, not to mention water elemental. The only effective way to deal with the hidden lizard is to directly attack it but wait until at least level 74 before you do. Doing so will speed up the process a slight amount, about 0.7%. That hardly seems like anything, but over the course of only 5 hours, you save nearly 2 minutes. It's not much, but for the risk, I don't think it's worth it. ................................................... 19.6.4 Levels 70 to 73 - ensuring safety **190640** ................................................... At level 70, the scale armor can be returned as immobilize is guaranteed, but only if you have 3 magick lores obtained (level 72 if only have 2 magick lores obtained). Other than this, no change in the routine is needed. The threshold comes from the guarantee of immobilization. Once you get a fifth battle lore licensed, go after "last stand" next as this will give you an extra chance or 2, preventing a one-hit game over. Just buy some potions from the shop just outside Garamsythe Waterway's entrance and use them to heal as needed instead of the cure spell, healing only when not in combat and far from an enemy, as from backtracking. ................................................... 19.6.5 Levels 74 to 80 - bursting ahead **190650** ................................................... When you reach level 74, assuming you have all 5 battle lores obtained, protect on the malboro overkings no longer presents an issue - you're now guaranteed to defeat them in 2 hits even with protect. You'll also notice that some critical hits do 9999 damage, doing that more frequently as level increases. At this point, you're already hovering around 12,100 exp per minute, 5 1/4 times faster than the dustia method and more than 3 times faster than the 70-hour method. No kidding this is fast and it's still only getting faster yet! Oh and focus on getting the "last stand" license if you haven't gone after it yet. With this, you can take more risks and with more risk comes even more speed. This means you can get that hidden lizard. I wouldn't advise that you do, however. ........................................................ 19.6.6 Levels 81 to 99 - supersonic leveling **190660** ........................................................ Level 81 is special in a different way than you might expect. How? It's at this point, with all 5 battle lores, that you now start having the chance of defeating a malboro overking in just 1 hit without the need of a critical. In fact, by this time, you're now picking up even more speed on the routine. By the time you reach about level 88, still not even the 3/4 mark, you're able to push past 13,000 experience per minute as the average and still getting faster. ........................................... 19.6.7 The speed of the routine **190670** ........................................... So, okay, you're well aware of the 25-hour method being so fast, right? Well, how fast is it? From 35 data points, I find that, toward the end (levels 95 to 99), the average time per run is 226.75 seconds with a standard deviation of 6.41 seconds. Each 3-3/4-minute run gets you a total of about 52,070 experience per run (less than the 52,216 that's expected due to that low-lying lizard that you can't get to on rare occasion - my value is based on losing out on 2 lizards which actually did happen in my data collection run). This means I was averaging about 13,780 experience per minute. Fast runs pushed past 14,000 experience per minute. It's thanks to defeating the malboro overkings in 1 hit quite frequently that makes this get so fast. Yep, the last 1/4 of the process (from level 91) hovers around 13,500 experience per minute, so fast that you only need under 40 minutes to level up. Yes, I know that 35 data points doesn't seem like much, it's the fact each run lasts much longer and I started the exact-to-the-frame logging from level 95. _____ ___ _ _ ___ _ _ ____ |___ | / _ \ | | | | / _ \ | | | | | _ \ / / | | | | ___ | |_| | | | | | | | | | | |_| | / / | | | | |___| | _ | | | | | | | | | | _ < / / | |_| | | | | | | |_| | | |_| | | | | | /_/ \___/ |_| |_| \___/ \___/ |_| |_| ######################################### ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 20 The long-lasting and varied 70-hour method **200000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ######################################### .==============================================. # 20.1 What is the 70-hour method? **200100** # `==============================================` The 70-hour method is a lower-risk early powerleveling method in Final Fantasy 12 that keeps story progress at a bare minimum, does not involve starting out with using dustia to level up on, and does not involve utilizing the adrenaline license near the end. You'll reach level 99 only 4% of the way through the game's story - right after the parade in Rabanastre and before you even see Lowtown for the first time. I call it the 70-hour method as you'll be level 99 within 70 hours. For the video walkthrough of how the 70-hour method works, at least for the general idea, reference this play list on my YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLUkzkTsdHsoVKyZPkexLKhsFuByfGMzr .=========================================================. # 20.2 The optimal route through the augments **200200** # `=========================================================` Routine: Augments (10) Video: Undefined Time: Undefined Level: Undefined What to do: The time you start going after the augments in the 70-hour method is once you get the burning bow. The sooner you dig into them, the better. There is a problem though. You can't obtain any of the gambit slot licenses, creating a barrier to the augments. There is a way around that though and the most efficient way is digging through the white magick licenses until you've obtained white magick 4. From there, that's where the route starts. Because the route through the augments that you use depends entirely on your method, the routine itself only briefly covers this. Here, you'll learn the entire details, step by step. The 70-hour method has focus on strength, HP, and swiftness. This means the battle lores and +HP licenses are very important. Of top priority, however, are the swiftness licenses. This is the entire route, from start to finish, as I suggest. The first steps - going for HP and swiftness: X. White magick 4 - the starting point 1. v Ether lore 1 (20 LP) - pure junk 2. v Spellbreaker (65 LP) - pure junk 3. v Headsman (30 LP) - slightly useful 4. < Swiftness (30 LP) - must-have! 5. < +150 HP (70 LP) - useful 6. v Potion lore 3 (70 LP) - junk 7. < Swiftness (50 LP) - must-have! 8. v Focus (70 LP) - must-have! 9. < +200 HP (100 LP) - useful 10. v Battle lore (80 LP) - very useful 11. < +500 HP (155 LP) - very useful 12. < Swiftness (80 LP) - must-have! This route will get you dealing damage very quickly, charging up attacks quickly and making what's to come easier to handle. The other 4 battle lores: X. Headsman (30 LP) - the starting point 13. v Potion lore 2 (35 LP) - junk 14. > Phoenix lore (30 LP) - pure junk 15. > Remedy lore 1 (20 LP) - pure junk 16. ^ Battle lore (25 LP) - very useful X. Remedy lore 1 (20 LP) - the starting point 17. > Shield block (25 LP) - pure junk 18. v Battle lore (40 LP) - very useful X. Swiftness (80 LP) - the starting point 19. ^ Battle lore (120 LP) - very useful X. Focus (70 LP) - the starting point 20. v Shield block (75 LP) - pure junk 21. > Battle lore (55 LP) - very useful Getting the 4 battle lores requires digging through a lot of junk just to get to them but will help increase the damage output. The first one costs 110 LP with the next being only 65 more LP away. Those that follow are 120 total then 130. Thus, by going after the 2 on the right right away, you can increase strength the fastest. The 5 magick lores: X. Spellbreaker (65 LP) - the starting point 22. > Magick lore (25 LP) - slightly useful X. Ether lore 1 (20 LP) - the starting point 23. < Magick lore (40 LP) - slightly useful X. +200 HP (100 LP) - the starting point 24. ^ Remedy lore 3 (70 LP) - pure junk 25. ^ Channeling (80 LP) - slight junk 26. ^ Magick lore (55 LP) - slightly useful X. Channeling (80 LP) - the starting point 27. < Magick lore (80 LP) - slightly useful X. Battle lore (120 LP) - the starting point 28. ^ Magick lore (120 LP) - slightly useful The magick lores only serve to speed up healing, nothing more. The remaining stuff of worth: X. Battle lore (40 LP) - the starting point 29. v +100 HP (50 LP) - somewhat useful X. White magick 2 - the starting point 30. v +50 HP (30 LP) - slightly useful X. Magick lore (120 LP) - the starting point 31. ^ Quickening (50 LP) - slightly useful X. +100 HP (50 LP) - the starting point 32. v Quickening (50 LP) - slightly useful X. Remedy lore 1 (20 LP) - the starting point 33. v Adrenaline (65 LP) - very useful at level 81 34. v Last stand (70 LP) - somewhat useful at level 81 X. Obtain the rest of the augments The remaining stuff is to get the last of the HP bonuses that are available, which don't have much of an effect, get you up to 2 more quickenings (skip one if you decided to get the second one during the routine for getting the traveler's garb set). The final one is only needed for the 65-hour method during the second half of the final stage, needed to push the speed limit to the max (3800-4050 exp per minute instead of 3600-3800 exp per minute). .==========================================. # 20.3 Stage 1: The beginning **200300** # `==========================================` Routine: Beginning (4) Video segments: 1, 2 Time: 5 minutes Level: 2 What to do: Nothing changes with the tutorial part. Be sure you max the battle speed during this, and use active mode (if you're comfortable enough with it). For the rogue tomato hunt, simply attack the necessary enemies around the rogue tomato, using a potion when about 60 HP is missing at least finishing off your current enemy before using one. Claiming the bounty and getting the 3 potions from Montblanc are useful but not required. Do buy cure though, licensing it. .====================================. # 20.4 Stage 2: The rod **200400** # `====================================` Routine: Rod (5) Video segment: 4 Time: 15 minutes Level: 3 What to do: Defeat the enemies along the way, taking them on one at a time the best you can. Ignore the cockatrices unless there's no way around them and definitely only deal with one at a time. Definitely avoid nekhbet though. Do go after the wolves though as they're easy to deal with. Avoid the bigger alpha wolf, for now. Accumulate 30 LP by defeating wolves as needed then save in the southeast zone exit from the area where the rod is and get the rod, licensing it. The rod is almost due north from the save crystal at the edge of a cliff - ignore the enemies while going after the rod. .============================================. # 20.5 Stage 3: Rapid licensing **200500** # `============================================` Routine: Ichthon (7) Video segment: 8 Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes Level: 10 What to do: Go to South Bank Village, whacking wolves and cockatrices along the way (avoid nekhbet and ichthon). Buy the battle harness, licensing and equipping it as soon as you can. Save your game, quit, reload, then defeat the ichthons, cockatrices, cactoids, and the numerous wolves around this area heading from east to west. When done, save in the village, quit, and reload. Repeat until you've licensed the battle harness, quickening, and stocked up on at least 80 extra LP, 100 LP suggested. .================================================. # 20.6 Stage 4: Shopping in Nalbina **200600** # `================================================` Routine: Nalbina (8) Video segments: 9, 10 Time: 1 hour, 45 minutes Level: 10 What to do: Return to the south, heading to the northeastern exit in Yardang Labyrinth to get into Nalbina. Buy one set of onion arrows for 100 total gil. Go into the town itself and buy the bronze armor, bronze helm, and, optionally, the bronze chestplate at the armor shop. The kilmweave shirt and topkapi hat are optional but not needed. Buy protect and blindna at the magick shop. If you want to use the chain-status-death method for getting the burning bow, buy poison. .============================================. # 20.7 Stage 5: The burning bow **200700** # `============================================` Routine: Burn bow (9) Video segment: 11 Time: 2 hours Level: 18 What to do: Go south from Nalbina to the Giza Plains, bashing every enemy along the way and saving at the southern save crystal. If you need to practice the use of quickenings, do so here, quitting and reloading without saving when you're done practicing. Head into the Westersand and be sure you get a blue sky (return to Giza Plains then back until you do). Ignore the enemies (strongly recommended). If you have to fight, make sure you don't take on one enemy at a time. Continue west, heading as far west as you can. Beware of the attraction to fights that the urstrixes have - keep them separate. Definitely ignore the alraunes but feel free to whack the wolves, except alpha wolf (found in only one place). Switch to wait mode, equip armor to get as much strength as you can, then save at the save crystal. After saving, use a quickening on dive talon, going for 3 hits, and only 3 hits. If you don't defeat dive talon, return to the save crystal without using R2, touch it, then return and immediately fire off another quickening. When defeated, grab the loot. If you get a burning bow, save immediately! If you don't get one, save only if you defeated dive talon on the first round of quickenings and you're under level 18, otherwise just quit and reload to try again. Expect to spend about 4 hours doing this, or about 100 tries. This will only add about 2 to 3 minutes on the game clock from the initial save. Reach at least level 18 before continuing on, defeating the enemies in the Westersand via pseudo running and the burning bow. .====================================================. # 20.8 Stage 6: The traveler's garb set **200800** # `====================================================` Routine: Trav Garb (12) Video segment: 19 Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes Level: 18 What to do: Return to South Bank Village, bashing whatever enemies are along the way for quick LP. License a second quickening if you want (2 below the burning bow license), and save, quit, and reload. Spend 3 minutes defeating enemies in the zone just outside the village, ignoring all cactoids, then return to the river. If you don't see greeden, head a bit south, going 1 second farther away than the top of the sand dune and return to check again. If you see greeden, fire a quickening off trying to get as many hits as you can (7 at the most if you manage to get that high). If greeden is not defeated, finish it off with your burning bow. If no braid wool drops, quit and reload, repeating the process. If braid wool does drop, return to the village, save your game, then quit and reload, repeating the process a second time. When you get your second braid wool, sell the 2 braid wools together with 5 water stones (from giza rabbit or icthons) and 2 tanned hides (from slavens) then buy, license, and equip the traveler's garb set for a massive boost on defense and magick power. .====================================================. # 20.9 Stage 7: Chaining the werewolves **200900** # `====================================================` Routine: Werewolf (18) Video segment: 27 Time: 10 hours Level: 45 What to do: Return to Giza Plains, saving at the southernmost save crystal. Cast protect, then begin attacking the werewolves, pseudo running as needed. When defeated, head back east, healing as needed and recasting protect, even if already active. Pass through the zone with the save crystal without using it, then return, repeating the process. It'll be difficult at first, but, when you can constantly defeat the werewolves in 3 hits without the need of focus, around level 35, or when you get the +500 HP license, you won't need protect any more. By level 43, the werewolves will be always going down in 2 hits with the focus license. While defeating the werewolves, ignore the loot until the chain level maxes. Once it does, grab the loot. Sell your loot when the chain gets to about 100 to 125. Continue the process until level 45. You can get away with level 44 at the absolute lowest. For the final stage to be safer, you can go up to 55, but I don't recommend it as the final stage becomes faster. .=============================================. # 20.10 Stage 8: The winged helm **201000** # `=============================================` Routine: Wing helm (13) Video segment: 29 Time: 10 hours, 30 minutes Level: 45 What to do: Go back to the Westersand, saving at the southernmost save crystal in Giza Plains. Head into the Zertinan Caverns in the first zone you visit in the Westersand, found in the southwest area. Begin chaining the slimes that drop from the ceiling, attacking them. Avoid the 2 traps present. Big is open and safe, small is confined and dangerous - remember this for the locations of the traps, referencing the odd wall indents. Ignore the loot until chain level 3. Have blindna ready should slime blind you. For sleep, you can only wait until slime decides to attack physically which is pretty common. If you get a winged helm, license it and equip it, leave the cave, getting the speartongues along the way. If you don't get a winged helm by a 50-chain (60 at the highest), consider quitting and reloading to try again and keep the game clock to a minimum. .=============================================. # 20.11 Stage 9: The final stage **201100** # `=============================================` Routine: Dive talon (19) Video segments: 31, 32, 33 Time: 70 hours Level: 99 What to do: Head to the westernmost part of the Westersand where Lohen is, and save your game, quit, and reload. Back track to the zone with the cave and cast protect on yourself before entering this zone. Defeat the 2 dive talons along the way from the save crystal. If the wolves are too far, ignore them and head to the left getting the 2 urstrixes here. Head to the southwest and get these 2 urstrixes then the sleipnir. The dive talons follow - defeat them, pseudo running as much as you can. When you defeat a dive talon, heal. When you reach level 57, you no longer need protect. At level 70, equip your strength-boosting body armor so you can defeat dive talon in 2 hits with the focus license. At level 81, equip your traveler's vestment body armor, and you no longer need to heal. The speed of this routine has been maxed. Around level 85, you should have enough LP to obtain every license on the license board - do so. Continue this until you're at level 99. Once there, save your game and you're done and continue on to the afterward section. ____ _____ _ _ ___ _ _ ____ / ___| | ___| | | | | / _ \ | | | | | _ \ | |__ | |__ ___ | |_| | | | | | | | | | | |_| | | _ \ |___ \ |___| | _ | | | | | | | | | | _ < | |_| | ___| | | | | | | |_| | | |_| | | | | | \___/ |____/ |_| |_| \___/ \___/ |_| |_| ##################################### ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 21 The fast and very early 65-hour method **210000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ##################################### .==============================================. # 21.1 What is the 65-hour method? **210100** # `==============================================` The 65-hour method is a fast and very early powerleveling method in Final Fantasy 12 that keeps story progress at a bare minimum, involves starting out with using dustia to level up on, and involves utilizing the adrenaline license near the end. You'll reach level 99 only 4% of the way through the game's story - right after the parade in Rabanastre and before you even see Lowtown for the first time. I call it the 65-hour method as you'll be level 99 within 65 hours. For the video walkthrough of how the 65-hour method works, at least for the general idea, reference this play list on my YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLUkzkTsdHsrhYOgNmHZhXOJYjhETXt6c .=========================================================. # 21.2 The optimal route through the augments **210200** # `=========================================================` Routine: Augments (10) What to do: The time you start going after the augments in the 65-hour method is once you get the burning bow. You may start earlier, but be sure to spare 105 LP for the burning bow. The sooner you dig into them, the better. There is a problem though. You can't obtain any of the gambit slot licenses, creating a barrier to the augments. There is a way around that though and the most efficient way is digging through the white magick licenses until you've obtained white magick 4. From there, that's where the route starts. The route through the augments in the 65-hour method is exactly the same as the 70-hour method. See section 20.2 for details. .==========================================. # 21.3 Stage 1: The beginning **210300** # `==========================================` Routine: Beginning (4) Video segments: 1, 3 Time: 5 minutes Level: 2 What to do: Nothing changes with the tutorial part. Be sure you max the battle speed during this, and use active mode (if you're comfortable enough with it). For the rogue tomato hunt, steal from then defeat the necessary enemies around the rogue tomato. Steal only once - if it misses, just attack. Use a potion after finishing your current enemy when at least 100 HP is missing. Only use a potion when fighting an enemy when HP drops to 20 or less. This is all because you really need the gil - the more you can get, the better you'll start off. Claiming the bounty and getting the 3 potions from Montblanc are required along with buying and licensing cure. .====================================. # 21.4 Stage 2: The rod **210400** # `====================================` Routine: Rod (5) Video segment: 5 Time: 15 minutes Level: 3 What to do: If you plan to repeatedly obtain the rod, then just defeat the enemies along the way. If not, then steal from then defeat the enemies along the way instead. Only make one attempt at stealing. Try to take them on one at a time the best you can. Ignore the cockatrices unless there's no way around them and definitely only deal with one at a time. Definitely avoid nekhbet though. Do go after the wolves though as they're easy to deal with. Avoid the bigger alpha wolf, for now. Accumulate 30 LP by defeating wolves as needed then save in the southeast zone exit from the area where the rod is and get the rod, licensing it. The rod is almost due north from the save crystal at the edge of a cliff - ignore the enemies while going after the rod. .==================================================. # 21.5 Stage 3: Leveling up on dustia **210500** # `==================================================` Routine: Dustia (6) Video segments: 6, 7, 13 Time: 6 hours Level: 45 What to do: Optionally obtain several more rods, at least 9, though as many as 16 are preferred. Go back south and then east to Nalbina Town. If you repeatedly obtained the rod, just defeat every enemy along the way. If not, steal from then defeat every enemy along the way. Only make one attempt at stealing. Never bother with nekhbet. Once there, sell almost everything you have then buy as many phoenix downs as you can possibly get - the more, the easier and faster it'll be getting started. If you get less than 15, consider either quitting and reloading or repeatedly obtaining the rod. 17 or 18 is about average, far more if you repeatedly obtained the rod. Save at the save crystal, quit, reload, then return to Rabanastre. Only defeat what's along the way - stealing is no longer needed. Head out west gate, saving at the save crystal there. Head out into the Westersand and to the northwest. Attack yourself until at or below 10% HP remaining. Set the battle mode to wait and reduce the battle speed to the bare minimum. Cross the zone boundary to the north. When dustia's life bar appears, hand it a phoenix down. Utilize the motion pausing to grab the loot and quickly get out of that zone then return to get more dustias. Continue until you're out of phoenix downs. Make sure you have at least 10 books of orgain - deduct 2 books for every flame staff you got. If a loot drop heals you, attack yourself after crossing to the south. Return to Nalbina for onion arrows and as many phoenix downs as you can get, selling the books and flame staves. Repeat dustia again. This time, head into the Westersand, heading as far west as you can. Sell the books and flame staves to Lohen and buy as many phoenix downs as you can. Go back and forth between dustia and Lohen until you're level 45 (44 is marginal but fine). .============================================. # 21.6 Stage 4: The burning bow **210600** # `============================================` Routine: Burn bow (9) Video segments: 11 (for the basics), 12 Time: up to 6 hours Level: not after 45 What to do: The burning bow can be obtained at any time during the dustia method, but it must be obtained before going any further. Switch to wait mode then save at the save crystal near Lohen. After saving, use a quickening on dive talon, going for 3 hits, and only 3 hits. If you don't defeat dive talon, return to the save crystal without using R2, touch it, then return and immediately fire off another quickening. When defeated, grab the loot. If you get a burning bow, save immediately! If you don't get one, just quit and reload to try again. Expect to spend about 4 hours doing this, or about 100 tries. This will only add about 2 to 3 minutes on the game clock from the initial save. .================================================. # 21.7 Stage 5: Shopping in Nalbina **210700** # `================================================` Routine: Nalbina (8) Video segment: 13 Time: 6 hours, 20 minutes Level: 45 What to do: Return to Nalbina and, this time, go into the town itself and buy the bronze armor and bronze helm. Buy protect and blindna at the magick shop. License and equip as needed. .====================================================. # 21.8 Stage 6: The traveler's garb set **210800** # `====================================================` Routine: Trav Garb (12) Video segment: 20 Time: 6 hours, 30 minutes Level: 45 What to do: Head to the west and then the north to get to South Bank Village, bashing whatever enemies are along the way for quick LP. Save, quit, and reload your game. Spend 3 minutes defeating enemies in the zone just outside the village, ignoring all cactoids, then return to the river. If you don't see greeden, go a bit south, going 1 second farther away than the top of the sand dune and return to check again. If you see greeden, just attack. You can easily defeat greeden at level 45 without the need for quickenings or protect despite it being able to do 240 damage and having 7000 HP, thanks to pseudo running and its own stupidity. If no braid wool drops, quit and reload, repeating the process. If braid wool does drop, return to the village, save your game, then quit and reload, repeating the process a second time. When you get your second braid wool, what you do next depends. If you have 5 water stones and 2 tanned hides already, return to the village and sell them with the 2 braid wools. If not, get the 5 water stones (from giza rabbits and ichthons) and 2 tanned hides (from slavens) and then sell the items. Buy, license, and equip the traveler's garb set for a massive boost on defense and magick power. .============================================. # 21.9 Stage 7: The winged helm **210900** # `============================================` Routine: Wing helm (13) Video segment: 29 Time: 7 hours Level: 45 What to do: Go back to the Westersand, saving at the southernmost save crystal in Giza Plains. Head into the Zertinan Caverns in the first zone you visit in the Westersand, found in the southwest area. Begin chaining the slimes that drop from the ceiling, attacking them. Avoid the 2 traps present. Big is open and safe, small is confined and dangerous - remember this for the locations of the traps, referencing the odd wall indents. Ignore the loot until chain level 4 then get it. Have blindna ready should slime blind you. For sleep, you can only wait until slime decides to attack physically which is pretty common. If you get a winged helm, license it and equip it, leave the cave, getting the speartongues along the way. If you don't get a winged helm by a 50-chain (60 at the highest), consider quitting and reloading to try again and keep the game clock to a minimum. .=============================================. # 21.10 Stage 8: The final stage **211000** # `=============================================` Routine: Dive talon (17) Video segments: 31, 32, 33 Time: 65 hours Level: 99 What to do: Head to the westernmost part of the Westersand where Lohen is, and save your game, quit, and reload. Back track to the zone with the cave and cast protect on yourself before entering this zone. Defeat the 2 dive talons along the way from the save crystal. If the wolves are too far, ignore them and head to the left getting the 2 urstrixes here. Head to the southwest and get these 2 urstrixes then the sleipnir. The dive talons follow - defeat them, pseudo running as much as you can. When you defeat a dive talon, heal. When you reach level 57, you no longer need protect. At level 70, equip your strength-boosting body armor so you can defeat dive talon in 2 hits with the focus license. At level 81, get yourself to HP critical status, equip your traveler's vestment body armor, then have fun defeating dive talon in one hit, maxing the speed of this routine. Around level 85, you should have enough LP to obtain every license on the license board - do so. Continue this until you're at level 99. Once there, save your game and you're done and continue on to the afterward section. _ _ ___ _ _ ___ _ _ ____ | | | | / _ \ | | | | / _ \ | | | | | _ \ | |_| | | | | | ___ | |_| | | | | | | | | | | |_| | |___ | | | | | |___| | _ | | | | | | | | | | _ < | | | |_| | | | | | | |_| | | |_| | | | | | |_| \___/ |_| |_| \___/ \___/ |_| |_| ################################# ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 22 The fast and varied 40-hour method **220000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ################################# .==============================================. # 22.1 What is the 40-hour method? **220100** # `==============================================` The 40-hour method is a fast and varied powerleveling method in Final Fantasy 12 to get a full party of level 99 characters. It does not involve using dustia to level up on, and requires that immobilize is always used at the end. You'll reach level 99 only 12% of the way through the game's story - right after the Barheim Passage event is done and Balthier and Fran leave leaving Vaan alone for the final time in the game. I call it the 40-hour method as you'll be level 99 within 40 hours. For the video walkthrough of how the 40-hour method works, at least for the general idea, reference this play list on my YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLUkzkTsdHsrVv95TJgMmHBB94MkhYBVf .=========================================================. # 22.2 The optimal route through the augments **220200** # `=========================================================` Routine: Augments (10) What to do: The time you start going after the augments in the 40-hour method is once the gambit system becomes available and you've obtained the required licenses. The required licenses are serenity, immobilize, and charge. Once the required licenses have been obtained, focus on the augments. Because the route you use depends entirely on your method, the routine itself only briefly covers this. Here, you'll learn the entire details, step by step. The 40-hour method requires the serenity license in the augments. This doubles the success rate of the required immobilize spell. Swiftness, strength, and magick power are the main focus in the 40-hour method. This means the battle lores and magick lores licenses are very important. After the serenity license, the swiftness licenses follow. The required serenity license: X. White magick 1 - the starting point 1. v Gambit slot (15 LP) - junk 2. < +50 HP (30 LP) - slightly junk 3. < Gambit slot (20 LP) - junk 4. < Ether lore 1 (20 LP) - pure junk 5. < Magick lore (40 LP) - useful 6. < Channeling (30 LP) - somewhat useful 7. < Warmage (30 LP) - pure junk 8. < Ether lore 3 (70 LP) - pure junk 9. < Serenity (70 LP) - required! The serenity license will double the success rate of immobilize, but only when you are fully healed. You absolutely cannot go without immobilize after stage 10. The first swiftness - going fast and strong: X. Warmage (30 LP) - the starting point 10. v Channeling (50 LP) - somewhat useful 11. v Gambit slot (50 LP) - junk 12. v Swiftness (50 LP) - must-have! 13. v Focus (70 LP) - must-have! The second swiftness - getting faster: X. Magick lore (40 LP) - the starting point 14. v Gambit slot (40 LP) - junk 15. v Swiftness (30 LP) - must-have! 16. > Headsman (30 LP) - very useful You might be wondering why I have the longer route to a swiftness license first. This is because of the focus license. A 13% increase in charging speed with a 20% increase in damage (which means speed) immediately following means it's faster. The second swiftness will further boost the speed, and more quickly. It's like 3 quick speed boosts in one. In addition, thanks to the heavy use of immobilize, the channeling license first thing will help cut down the MP cost still more - 12 instead of 14 or 16. However, before continuing any more, buy and license the hermes sandals. The third swiftness license requires far more LP to get than the hermes sandals do and the hermes sandals provide more of a speed boost than the third swiftness license does. Thus, go for the hermes sandals before continuing. By getting the headsman license, you can significantly reduce the need to have to use charge. The third swiftness - going supersonic: X. Focus (70 LP) - the starting point 17. v Shield block - pure junk 18. < Battle lore (80 LP) - useful 19. < +500 HP (155 LP) - slightly useful 20. < Swiftness (80 LP) - must-have! With this third swiftness license, you're now going at full speed, already very fast. The 3 other easy magick lores: X. Gambit slot (20 LP) - the starting point 21. v Magick lore (25 LP) - useful X. Gambit slot (50 LP) - the starting point 22. < Channeling (80 LP) - somewhat useful 23. ^ Magick lore (55 LP) - useful X. Channeling (80 LP) - the starting point 24. < Magick lore (80 LP) - useful In order to get immobilize to hit successfully, the higher magick power is, up to 55, the better the odds. Each point on magick power adds 2 percentage points to the success rate. Thus, by focusing on those first you can speed up the process by not having to run as often from immobilize missing. Thus, focusing on those first is high priroty. The last magick lore takes a lot of time to get to. With the last of the channeling licenses, immobilize now costs 11 MP to use instead of 12. The remaining stuff: X. Magick lore (25 LP) - the starting point 25. > Gambit slot (30 LP) - junk 26. v Battle lore (25 LP) - useful 27. v Remedy lore 1 (20 LP) - pure junk 28. > Shield block (25 LP) - pure junk 29. v Battle lore (40 LP) - useful X. Swiftness (80 LP) - the starting point 30. ^ Battle lore (120 LP) - useful 31. ^ Magick lore (120 LP) - useful X. Shield block (75 LP) - the starting point 32. > Battle lore (55 LP) - useful 33. > Remedy lore 2 (30 LP) - pure junk 34. > Inquisitor (30 LP) - very useful X. Obtain the rest of the augments The rest of the battle lores, the reamining magick lore, then inquisitor round out the last of what's needed for this method. Why inquisitor? That combined with headsman will pretty much mean you're at full MP almost constantly, never again having to use charge until you're level 99. .==========================================. # 22.3 Stage 1: The beginning **220300** # `==========================================` Routine: Beginning (4) Video segments: 1, 2 Time: 5 minutes Level: 2 What to do: Nothing changes with the tutorial part. Be sure you max the battle speed during this, and use active mode (if you're comfortable enough with it). For the rogue tomato hunt, simply attack the necessary enemies around the rogue tomato, using a potion when about 60 HP is missing at least finishing off your current enemy before using one. Claiming the bounty and getting the 3 potions from Montblanc are useful but not required. Do buy cure though, licensing it. .====================================. # 22.4 Stage 2: The rod **220400** # `====================================` Routine: Rod (5) Video segment: 4 Time: 15 minutes Level: 3 What to do: Defeat the enemies along the way, taking them on one at a time the best you can. Ignore the cockatrices unless there's no way around them and definitely only deal with one at a time. Definitely avoid nekhbet though. Do go after the wolves though as they're easy to deal with. Avoid the bigger alpha wolf, for now. Accumulate 30 LP by defeating wolves as needed then save in the southeast zone exit from the area where the rod is and get the rod, licensing it. The rod is almost due north from the save crystal at the edge of a cliff - ignore the enemies while going after the rod. .============================================. # 22.5 Stage 3: Rapid licensing **220500** # `============================================` Routine: Ichthon (7) Video segment: 8 Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes Level: 10 What to do: Go to South Bank Village, whacking wolves and cockatrices along the way (avoid nekhbet and ichthon). Buy the battle harness, licensing and equipping it as soon as you can. Save your game, quit, reload, then defeat the ichthons, cockatrices, cactoids, and the numerous wolves around this area heading from east to west. When done, save in the village, quit, and reload. Repeat until you've licensed the battle harness, quickening, and stocked up on at least 80 extra LP, 100 LP suggested. .================================================. # 22.6 Stage 4: Shopping in Nalbina **220600** # `================================================` Routine: Nalbina (8) Video segment: 9, 10 Time: 1 hour, 45 minutes Level: 10 What to do: Return to the south, heading to the northeastern exit in Yardang Labyrinth to get into Nalbina. Buy one set of onion arrows for 100 total gil. Go into the town itself and buy the bronze armor, bronze helm, and, optionally, the bronze chestplate at the armor shop. The kilmweave shirt and topkapi hat are optional but not needed. Buy protect and blindna at the magick shop. If you want to use the chain-status-death method for getting the burning bow, buy poison. .============================================. # 22.7 Stage 5: The burning bow **220700** # `============================================` Routine: Burn bow (9) Video segment: 11 Time: 2 hours Level: 15 What to do: Go south from Nalbina to the Giza Plains, bashing every enemy along the way and saving at the southern save crystal. If you need to practice the use of quickenings, do so here, quitting and reloading without saving when you're done practicing. Head into the Westersand and be sure you get a blue sky (return to Giza Plains then back until you do). Ignore the enemies (strongly recommended). If you have to fight, make sure you don't take on one enemy at a time. Continue west, heading as far west as you can. Beware of the attraction to fights that the urstrixes have - keep them separate. Definitely ignore the alraunes but feel free to whack the wolves, except alpha wolf (found in only one place). Switch to wait mode, equip armor to get as much strength as you can, then save at the save crystal. After saving, use a quickening on dive talon, going for 3 hits, and only 3 hits. If you don't defeat dive talon, return to the save crystal without using R2, touch it, then return and immediately fire off another quickening. When defeated, grab the loot. If you get a burning bow, save immediately! If you don't get one, save only if you defeated dive talon on the first round of quickenings and you're under level 18, otherwise just quit and reload to try again. Expect to spend about 4 hours doing this, or about 100 tries. This will only add about 2 to 3 minutes on the game clock from the initial save. Reach at least level 18 before continuing on, defeating the enemies in the Westersand via pseudo running and the burning bow. .================================================. # 22.8 Stage 6: Advancing the story **220800** # `================================================` Routine: Story (11) Video segments: 15, 16, 17, 18 Time: 3 hours, 30 minutes Level: 16 What to do: If you haven't bought poach yet, do so now - go to Nalbina's technicks shop for that. You must get poach before you head into Garamsythe Waterway for the palace events. Buy blindna too while there. During the story advancement, there are 3 chests to avoid opening if you want the zodiac spear - the obvious one in front of Old Dalan's place, one in the southeast corner of the cellar in palace and the chests in the spot where you get your belongings back in Nalbina Dungeons. While in Giza Plains after the sunstone, steal from then defeat the slavens (east exit from village gives the best chance) to get 2 tanned hides. Giza rabbits have water stones and you need 5 of them. Before going into Lowtown after getting the sunstone, fully unequip Penelo - you won't see her again until you're level 99. During the Barheim Passage events, make sure you poach the seeker (it replaces one of the steelings in the Great Eastern Passage zone with a 5% chance). Kill the guest then swap weapons to control the damage. Get 2 crooked fangs this way. License poach on Balthier or Fran and not Vaan. Continue until you're back in a familiar-looking place in the Estersand - that's the spot where you saved when going after the rod! .====================================================. # 22.9 Stage 7: The traveler's garb set **220900** # `====================================================` Routine: Trav Garb (12) Video segment: 21 Time: 3 hours, 45 minutes Level: 16 What to do: Instead of heading toward Rabanastre as the story says, head north to South Bank Village, bashing enemies along the way for easy LP. Once there, sell 4 fire stones and the 2 crooked fangs and buy the arrows alight for 3800 gil. Trade Fran's bow for the longbow provided. Equip the fiery arrows on the one with the burning bow. Save, quit, and reload your game. Spend 3 minutes defeating enemies in the zone just outside the village, ignoring all cactoids, then return to the river. If you don't see greeden, head a bit south, going 1 second farther away than the top of the sand dune and return to check again. If you see greeden, fire a quickening off to get as many hits as you can (7 at the most, fairly easy to do with 3 characters at it). If greeden is not defeated, finish it off with your burning bow, long bow, and rod. If no braid wool drops, quit and reload, repeating the process. If braid wool does drop, return to the village, save your game, then quit and reload, repeating the process a second time. When you get your second braid wool, sell the 2 braid wools together with 5 water stones and 2 tanned hides then buy, license, and equip the traveler's garb set for a massive boost on defense and magick power. .=============================================. # 22.10 Stage 8: The winged helm **221000** # `=============================================` Routine: Wing helm (13) Video segment: 22 Time: 4 hours, 15 minutes Level: 17 What to do: Go back to the Westersand, saving at the southernmost save crystal in Giza Plains. Head into the Zertinan Caverns in the first zone you visit in the Westersand, found in the southwest area. Optionally kill Basch as he can't do anything outside take some of the damage the slimes do. Begin chaining the slimes that drop from the ceiling, attacking them. Avoid the 2 traps present. Big is open and safe, small is confined and dangerous - remember this for the locations of the traps, referencing the odd wall indents. Ignore the loot until chain level 4 then get it. Have a blindna gambit ready on those that don't have the burning bow, ready in the event the slimes blind you. For sleep, either wait until slime decides to attack physically (which is pretty common), or if it's on your damage dealer, have one of your other members go unarmed and attack the sleeping ally. If you get a winged helm, license it and equip it on Vaan, leave the cave, getting the speartongues along the way. If you don't get a winged helm by a 50-chain (60 at the highest), consider quitting and reloading to try again and keep the game clock to a minimum. .===========================================================. # 22.11 Stage 9: Werewolves are for low levels **221200** # `===========================================================` Routine: Werewolf (17) Video segment: 28 Time: 5 hours, 15 minutes Level: 18 What to do: Skip this if you're level 18 or higher. Otherwise, you'll want to level up quickly before going to the next stage. Head to Giza Plains, disable your gambits (thanks to the annoying automatic movement that's untrustworthy), then save at the southernmost save crystal. Continue west. Immobilize the nearest werewolf then attack. If immobilize misses when the werewolf doesn't already have it, run for it. When both are defeated in this fashion, get 2 zones away to the east, return, and repeat. Don't bother chaining them though. .==================================================. # 22.12 Stage 10: Dive talon leveling **221300** # `==================================================` Routine: Dive talon (18) Video segment: 30 Time: 6 hours Level: 35 What to do: Go to the Westersand, being sure you get a blue sky. Run through the first zone of the Westersand from Giza Plains much like the 70-hour method. Ignore or get sighted by the wolves and defeat them. Get the urstrixes you've attracted the attention to off to the left. Go southwest getting the urstrixes and the sleipnir along the way. Fully heal if needed upon getting the sleipnir. Instead of attacking the dive talons, immobilize them first (otherwise, you don't stand a chance). If immobilize misses, run for it. If it hits, defeat the dive talon. Head to the northeast and then the east and return, repeating until you've accumulated enough LP to get the required licenses. .==============================================. # 22.13 Stage 11: The final stage **221400** # `==============================================` Routine: Malboro (19) Video segments: 34, 35, 36 Time: 40 hours Level: 99 What to do: Head into Lowtown, go north, then west to reach the Garamsythe Waterway. Save at the save crystal before starting. One wrong move and rotten luck means it's game over. Take the southwest zone exit. Immobilize the malboro overking. If it misses, run for it. Otherwise, defeat it. It will take a lot of hits at first, but for 3000 exp, it's worth it. Immobilize the lizard in the low area next. You have 2 chances in this case. If both miss, immediately cross the nearest zone boundary. Continue to the west for the 2 malboros and 1 lizard here. Be careful with the lizard when approaching it on the front. If it's moving, stop when just out of range of immobilize and stand still to let it approach you. If it's not moving, approach it slowly. Get the malboro overkings in the usual way. Never go into the zone to the south. To respawn the enemies, use the second-closest zone boundary on the back track. Continue this until level 99. Once there, save your game and you're done and continue on to the afterward section. ____ _____ _ _ ___ _ _ ____ |___ \ | ___| | | | | / _ \ | | | | | _ \ __| | | |__ ___ | |_| | | | | | | | | | | |_| | |__ < |___ \ |___| | _ | | | | | | | | | | _ < ___| | ___| | | | | | | |_| | | |_| | | | | | |____/ |____/ |_| |_| \___/ \___/ |_| |_| ############################### ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 23 The fast-starting 35-hour method **230000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ############################### .==============================================. # 23.1 What is the 35-hour method? **230100** # `==============================================` The 35-hour method is a fast, easy, and safe powerleveling method in Final Fantasy 12 to get a full party of level 99 characters. It involves using dustia to level up with and requires that immobilize is always used at the end. You'll reach level 99 only 12% of the way through the game's story - right after the Barheim Passage event is done and Balthier and Fran leave leaving Vaan alone for the final time in the game. I call it the 35-hour method as you'll be level 99 within 35 hours. For the video walkthrough of how the 35-hour method works, at least for the general idea, reference this play list on my YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLUkzkTsdHsrTL3WpdkclWjmqEliV7T_y .=========================================================. # 23.2 The optimal route through the augments **230200** # `=========================================================` Routine: Augments (10) What to do: The time you start going after the augments in the 35-hour method is once the gambit system becomes available and you've obtained the required licenses. The required licenses are serenity, immobilize, and charge. Once the required licenses have been obtained, focus on the augments. The route through the augments in the 35-hour method is exactly the same as the 40-hour method. See section 22.2 for details. .==========================================. # 23.3 Stage 1: The beginning **230300** # `==========================================` Routine: Beginning (4) Video segments: 1, 3 Time: 5 minutes Level: 2 What to do: Nothing changes with the tutorial part. Be sure you max the battle speed during this, and use active mode (if you're comfortable enough with it). For the rogue tomato hunt, steal from then defeat the necessary enemies around the rogue tomato. Steal only once - if it misses, just attack. Use a potion after finishing your current enemy when at least 100 HP is missing. Only use a potion when fighting an enemy when HP drops to 20 or less. This is all because you really need the gil - the more you can get, the better you'll start off. Claiming the bounty and getting the 3 potions from Montblanc are required along with buying and licensing cure. .====================================. # 23.4 Stage 2: The rod **230400** # `====================================` Routine: Rod (5) Video segment: 5 Time: 15 minutes Level: 3 What to do: If you plan to repeatedly obtain the rod, then just defeat the enemies along the way. If not, then steal from then defeat the enemies along the way instead. Only make one attempt at stealing. Try to take them on one at a time the best you can. Ignore the cockatrices unless there's no way around them and definitely only deal with one at a time. Definitely avoid nekhbet though. Do go after the wolves though as they're easy to deal with. Avoid the bigger alpha wolf, for now. Accumulate 30 LP by defeating wolves as needed then save in the southeast zone exit from the area where the rod is and get the rod, licensing it. The rod is almost due north from the save crystal at the edge of a cliff - ignore the enemies while going after the rod. .==================================================. # 23.5 Stage 3: Leveling up on dustia **230500** # `==================================================` Routine: Dustia (6) Video segments: 6, 7 Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes Level: 20 or 21 (about) What to do: Optionally obtain several more rods, at least 9, though as many as 16 are preferred. Go back south and then east to Nalbina Town. If you repeatedly obtained the rod, just defeat every enemy along the way. If not, steal from then defeat every enemy along the way. Only make one attempt at stealing. Never bother with nekhbet. Once there, sell almost everything you have then buy as many phoenix downs as you can possibly get - the more, the easier and faster it'll be getting started. If you get less than 15, consider either quitting and reloading or repeatedly obtaining the rod. 17 or 18 is about average, far more if you repeatedly obtained the rod. Save at the save crystal, quit, reload, then return to Rabanastre. Only defeat what's along the way - stealing is no longer needed. Head out west gate, saving at the save crystal there. Head out into the Westersand and to the northwest. Attack yourself until at or below 10% HP remaining. Set the battle mode to wait and reduce the battle speed to the bare minimum. Cross the zone boundary to the north. When dustia's life bar appears, hand it a phoenix down. Utilize the motion pausing to grab the loot and quickly get out of that zone then return to get more dustias. Continue until you're out of phoenix downs. Make sure you have at least 10 books of orgain - deduct 2 books for every flame staff you got. If a loot drop heals you, attack yourself after crossing to the south. Return to Nalbina for onion arrows and as many phoenix downs as you can get, selling the books and flame staves. Repeat dustia again. This time, head into the Westersand, heading as far west as you can. Sell the books and flame staves to Lohen and buy as many phoenix downs as you can. Go back and forth between dustia and Lohen until you're level 32 (27 to 38 is recommended). .============================================. # 23.6 Stage 4: The burning bow **230600** # `============================================` Routine: Burn bow (9) Video segments: 11 (for the basics), 12 Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes Level: 20 or 21 (about) What to do: The burning bow must be obtained before advancing the story. Switch to wait mode then save at the save crystal near Lohen. After saving, use a quickening on dive talon, going for 3 hits, and only 3 hits. If you don't defeat dive talon, return to the save crystal without using R2, touch it, then return and immediately fire off another quickening. When defeated, grab the loot. If you get a burning bow, save immediately! If you don't get one, just quit and reload to try again. Expect to spend about 4 hours doing this, or about 100 tries. This will only add about 2 to 3 minutes on the game clock from the initial save. .================================================. # 23.7 Stage 5: Advancing the story **230700** # `================================================` Routine: Story (11) Video segments: 15, 16, 17, 18 Time: 3 hours Level: 22 What to do: If you haven't bought poach yet, do so now - go to Nalbina's technicks shop for that. You must get poach before you head into Garamsythe Waterway for the palace events. Buy blindna too while there. During the story advancement, there are 3 chests to avoid opening if you want the zodiac spear - the obvious one in front of Old Dalan's place, one in the southeast corner of the cellar in palace and the chests in the spot where you get your belongings back in Nalbina Dungeons. While in Giza Plains after the sunstone, steal from then defeat the slavens (east exit from village gives the best chance) to get 2 tanned hides. Giza rabbits have water stones and you need 5 of them. Before going into Lowtown after getting the sunstone, fully unequip Penelo - you won't see her again until you're level 99. During the Barheim Passage events, make sure you poach the seeker (it replaces one of the steelings in the Great Eastern Passage zone with a 5% chance). Kill the guest then swap weapons to control the damage. Get 2 crooked fangs this way. License poach on Balthier or Fran and not Vaan. Continue until you're back in a familiar-looking place in the Estersand - that's the spot where you saved when going after the rod! .====================================================. # 23.8 Stage 6: The traveler's garb set **230800** # `====================================================` Routine: Trav Garb (12) Video segment: 21 Time: 3 hours, 15 minutes Level: 22 What to do: Instead of heading toward Rabanastre as the story says, head north to South Bank Village, bashing enemies along the way for easy LP. Once there, sell 4 fire stones and the 2 crooked fangs and buy the arrows alight for 3800 gil. Trade Fran's bow for the longbow provided. Equip the fiery arrows on the one with the burning bow. Save, quit, and reload your game. Spend 3 minutes defeating enemies in the zone just outside the village, ignoring all cactoids, then return to the river. If you don't see greeden, head a bit south, going 1 second farther away than the top of the sand dune and return to check again. If you see greeden, fire a quickening off to get as many hits as you can (7 at the most, fairly easy to do with 3 characters at it). If greeden is not defeated, finish it off with your burning bow, long bow, and rod. If no braid wool drops, quit and reload, repeating the process. If braid wool does drop, return to the village, save your game, then quit and reload, repeating the process a second time. When you get your second braid wool, sell the 2 braid wools together with 5 water stones and 2 tanned hides then buy, license, and equip the traveler's garb set for a massive boost on defense and magick power. .============================================. # 23.9 Stage 7: The winged helm **230900** # `============================================` Routine: Wing helm (13) Video segment: 22 Time: 3 hours, 45 minutes Level: 23 What to do: Go back to the Westersand, saving at the southernmost save crystal in Giza Plains. Head into the Zertinan Caverns in the first zone you visit in the Westersand, found in the southwest area. Optionally kill Basch as he can't do anything outside take some of the damage the slimes do. Begin chaining the slimes that drop from the ceiling, attacking them. Avoid the 2 traps present. Big is open and safe, small is confined and dangerous - remember this for the locations of the traps, referencing the odd wall indents. Ignore the loot until chain level 4 then get it. Have a blindna gambit ready on those that don't have the burning bow, ready in the event the slimes blind you. For sleep, either wait until slime decides to attack physically (which is pretty common), or if it's on your damage dealer, have one of your other members go unarmed and attack the sleeping ally. If you get a winged helm, license it and equip it on Vaan, leave the cave, getting the speartongues along the way. If you don't get a winged helm by a 50-chain (60 at the highest), consider quitting and reloading to try again and keep the game clock to a minimum. .===============================================. # 23.10 Stage 8: Going on the hunt **231000** # `===============================================` Routine: Hunts (14) Video segment: 23 Time: 4 hours Level: 23 What to do: To get the hermes sandals, you have to get gyshal greens and the only way to get them at this point in the game is to buy them from the clan shop when you've reached the "rear guard" rank, after defeating 4 marks (3 extras). Return to Rabanastre now, but, before entering, fully unequip both Balthier and Fran - you won't see them again until you're level 99. Use the moogling to go to the sandsea and read the hunt board - accept the thextera hunt, required to get the next 2 to show up. You'll find it in the Westersand just outside Rabanastre to the south - you should be able to defeat it in one hit, weather-related accuracy aside. Return to the hunt board and accept the 2 new hunts that show up. While here, claim the bounty and read the hunt board 40 total times (37 extra). The second is the flowering cactoid, defeated in 2 hits (parry aside) and found in the Estersand in northern Yardang Labyrinth. Claim the bounty on the way back to Rabanastre. The third is wraith, found right in the entrance to Garamsythe Waterway, the first area you see. It should take about 6 to 8 hits to defeat, depending on your level and luck with critical hits. Claim the bounty on the way back. .==================================================. # 23.11 Stage 9: The return of dustia **231100** # `==================================================` Routine: Dustia Rd. 2 (15) Video segment: 24 (kind of) Time: 6 hours Level: Around 33 What to do: Repeat the same process as before with dustia except that you can use Migelo's Sundries to buy phoenix downs from. Be sure to save at the save crystal to get rid of the doom status effect as well. Continue using dustia until level 27 to 38, if you haven't gotten that far yet. .=================================================. # 23.12 Stage 10: The hermes sandals **231200** # `=================================================` Routine: Hermes (16) Video segment: 25 (kind of) Time: 6 hours, 30 minutes Level: Around 35 What to do: When you only have one more round of dustia left to do, buy the warmage's monograph and go one last round at dustia, now getting arcanae from it. Buy the "wind walkers", immobilize, charge, and scale armor. License immobilize and charge only. Focus on the swiftness augments then the hermes sandals should you still have spare LP. .==============================================. # 23.13 Stage 11: The final stage **231300** # `==============================================` Routine: Malboro (19) Video segments: 34, 35, 36 Time: 35 hours Level: 99 What to do: Head into Lowtown, go north, then west to reach the Garamsythe Waterway. Save at the save crystal before starting. One wrong move and rotten luck means it's game over. Take the southwest zone exit. Immobilize the malboro overking. If it misses, run for it. Otherwise, defeat it. It will take a lot of hits at first, but for 3000 exp, it's worth it. Immobilize the lizard in the low area next. You have 2 chances in this case. If both miss, immediately cross the nearest zone boundary. Continue to the west for the 2 malboros and 1 lizard here. Be careful with the lizard when approaching it on the front. If it's moving, stop when just out of range of immobilize and stand still to let it approach you. If it's not moving, approach it slowly. Get the malboro overkings in the usual way. Never go into the zone to the south. To respawn the enemies, use the second-closest zone boundary on the back track. Continue this until level 99. Once there, save your game and you're done and continue on to the afterward section. _______ ___ _____ _ _ ___ _ _ ____ _______ /______/ / _ \ | ___| | | | | / _ \ | | | | | _ \ /______/ _______ |_| | | | |__ ___ | |_| | | | | | | | | | | |_| | _______ /______/ / / |___ \ |___| | _ | | | | | | | | | | _ < /______/ _______ / /__ ___| | | | | | | |_| | | |_| | | | | | _______ /______/ |_____| |____/ |_| |_| \___/ \___/ |_| |_| /______/ ############################### ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 24 The insanely fast 25-hour method **240000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ############################### .==============================================. # 24.1 What is the 25-hour method? **240100** # `==============================================` The 25-hour method is a powerleveling method in Final Fantasy 12 that allows you to get a full party of level 99 characters as fast and early as absolutely possible. The sheer speed of this method will blow your mind away! It involves focusing every bit of speed as possible, taking great risks, and putting heavy focus on the game clock. You'll reach level 99 only 12% of the way through the game's story - right after the Barheim Passage event is done and Balthier and Fran leave leaving Vaan alone for the final time in the game. I call it the 25-hour method as you'll be level 99 within 25 hours. On my first try of using this method, I got the time under 24 1/2 hours and I can definitely see plenty of improvement is possible. In fact, I think 23 hours might be the absolute fastest meaningful time, perhaps 22 hours if you really push everything to the absolute max (luck aside). Had I ignored the loot more often, didn't have to explain everything, made fewer mistakes, risked the hidden lizard, and used the repeated rod method for gil to get started, I likely would have dropped the time under 23 hours though it's hard to say. If load times were completely absent, this is doable in under 20 hours. There is no faster way to get a full party of level 99 characters than this method. It starts off almost identical to the 35-hour method, but it focuses heavily on the game clock. For the video walkthrough of how the 25-hour method works, at least for the general idea, reference this play list on my YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLUkzkTsdHsrG5hP_UfgrfJmNYHSsf60r .=========================================================. # 24.2 The optimal route through the augments **240200** # `=========================================================` Routine: Augments (10) What to do: The time you start going after the augments in the 25-hour method is once the gambit system becomes available and you've obtained the required licenses. The required licenses are spellbreaker, adrenaline, immobilize, and charge. Once the required licenses have been obtained, focus on the augments. Because the route you use depends entirely on your method, the routine itself only briefly covers this. Here, you'll learn the entire details, step by step. The 25-hour method requires the spellbreaker license in the augments. This doubles the success rate of the required immobilize spell. Adrenaline, swiftness, and strength, are the main focus in the 25-hour method. This means the battle lores licenses are very important. After the spellbreaker and adrenaline licenses, the swiftness licenses follow. The required spellbreaker license: X. White magick 1 - the starting point 1. v Gambit slot (15 LP) - junk 2. < +50 HP (30 LP) - slightly useful 3. v Gambit slot (30 LP) - junk 4. < Magick lore (25 LP) - useful 5. < Spellbreaker (65 LP) - required! 6. v Headsman (30 LP) - useful The spellbreaker license will double the success rate of immobilize, but only when you are HP critical (under 20% HP remaining). You absolutely cannot go without immobilize for stage 10. By going after the headsman license, charge is needed far less frequently, saving time. Whether or not this actually helps in the end, I'm not sure. It's almost too close to tell. The adrenaline rush - double the damage output: X. Gambit slot (30 LP) - the starting point 7. v Battle lore (25 LP) - useful 8. v Remedy lore 1 (20 LP) - pure junk 9. v Adrenaline (65 LP) - must-have! By going after adrenaline as soon as possible, your damage output will jump significantly as adrenaline will double your damage output. That, however, only happens when HP critical, the same timing as spellbreaker. In fact, it's thanks to adrenaline that the 25-hour method can seriously go fast. You'll reach the point where you can one-hit defeat the malboro overkings in the final stage in 1 hit quite frequently (there's still no guarantee though). A second magick lore - better immobilization odds: X. Spellbreaker (65 LP) - the starting point 10. ^ Ether lore 1 (20 LP) - pure junk 11. < Magick lore (40 LP) - useful This is the second magick lore, useful in getting immobilize's success rate up - having to flee only wastes time. The other 3 are quite far away and not worth it early on. They will be needed though but much later. The first 2 swiftness - going fast: X. Headsman (30 LP) - the starting point 12. < Swiftness (30 LP) - must-have! 13. v Spellbound (30 LP) - pure junk 14. < Potion lore 3 (70 LP) - slightly useful 15. < Swiftness (50 LP) - must-have! With 2 swiftness licenses out of the way, your attacks will be going very quickly. You might find it odd how potion lore actually has some slight use. It's for later though, much later. At this point, however, go after licensing the hermes sandals before continuing the augments. Going for 4 battle lores - needing strength: X. Adrenaline (65 LP) - the starting point 16. > Battle lore (40 LP) - useful X. Swiftness (50 LP) - the starting point 17. v Focus (70 LP) - pure junk 18. v Shield block (75 LP) - pure junk 19. > Battle lore (55 LP) - useful X. Shield block (75 LP) - the starting point 20. < Battle lore (80 LP) - useful You'll need to get 4 battle loes by the time level 59 rolls around. This way, you can really speed up the process drastically. The sooner you can get 4 battle lores, the better. Remember to spare 75 LP after getting the fourth battle lore for the winged helm and scale armor though. The third swiftness - going supersonic: X. Battle lore (80 LP) - the starting point 21. < +500 HP (155 LP) - somewhat useful 22. < Swiftness (80 LP) - must-have! This third swiftness license takes a while to get to thanks to the bulky HP bonus that's in the way but once you get it, you'll really be cruising. The 2 somewhat quick magick lores - ensuring immobilize X. Swiftness (50 LP) - the starting point 23. ^ Gambit slot (50 LP) - junk 24. < Channelling (80 LP) - useful 25. ^ Magick lore (55 LP) - useful X. Channelling (80 LP) - the starting point 26. < Magick lore (80 LP) - useful With 2 more magick lore licenses, immobilize's success rate goes up 4 percentage points. The sooner you can ensure it beyond level 59, the sooner you don't have to be as cautious around the troublesome lizard. The difference is about 4 or 5 levels, quite a bit and for a nice 10% boost on speed, it's definitely worth it. The last stand - a hint of survival X. Adrenaline (65 LP) - the starting point 27. v Last Stand (70 LP) - very useful By going after last stand at this point, you should be able to survive a hit, should something not work in your favor. While not a strong necessity (you may prefer to get the last 2 lores before going after this), it does help. The last 2 lores - going full on X. Swiftness (80 LP) - the starting point 28. ^ Battle lore (120 LP) - useful 29. ^ Magick lore (120 LP) - useful The last 2 lores will dish out all the damage you can and help get immobilize to succeed without the need of magick-power-raising equipment (aka mystic armor). This way, you can focus purely on damage. Extra HP - helping with survival X. Swiftness (50 LP) - the starting point 30. < +150 HP (70 LP) - slightly useful X. Last stand (70 LP) - the starting point 31. > +100 HP (50 LP) - slightly useful X. Focus (70 LP) - the starting point 32. < +200 HP (100 LP) - somewhat useful In the off chance something goes wrong, having a little extra HP will make it easier to survive. You might be wondering why I have the HP gains in this order. The case for the 150 is simple - it's the most cost effective per LP. The 100 and 200 each have a 2:1 ratio exactly - for every 2 LP, you get 1 HP. The 150 has a 2.14:1 ratio, a little better. By starting with the small one, you can get a quick boost earlier. Of course, whether you do the 100 or 200 first is mainly up to you. This is just what I suggest. The potion lores - faster potion healing X. Gambit slot (15 LP) - the starting point 33. v Potion lore 1 (20 LP) - slightly useful X. Headsman (30 LP) - the starting point 34. v Potion lore 2 (35 LP) - slightly useful X. Obtain the rest of the augments This may seem odd going after the potion lores, but should you take a hit, you'll need to heal when you can (along the route to respawn the enemies). Cure will restore so much HP, even without any mystic armor equipped, that you will always be out of HP critical status. With that, you'll have to change equipment around, attack yourself repeatedly, being careful of combos, change the equipment back, then resume. Since it's usually only one hit that you take instead of 2, the 300 damage only means needing 2 quick potions to restore, 3 at the most. It's far faster using potions than fiddling around with equipment and attempting to block combos when they happen (not to mention the character blocking his own attack). By getting the potion lores, you'll need fewer potions to heal with. Hi-potions only come in when more than 600 HP is missing. .==========================================. # 24.3 Stage 1: The beginning **240300** # `==========================================` Routine: Beginning (4) Video segments: 1, 3 Time: 4 minutes Level: 2 What to do: Nothing changes with the tutorial part. Be sure you max the battle speed during this, and use active mode (if you're comfortable enough with it). For the rogue tomato hunt, defeat the necessary enemies around the rogue tomato. Use a potion after finishing your current enemy when at least 100 HP is missing. Only use a potion when fighting an enemy when HP drops to 20 or less. This is all because you really need the gil - the more you can get, the faster you'll start off. Claiming the bounty and getting the 3 potions from Montblanc are required along with buying and licensing cure. .====================================. # 24.4 Stage 2: The rod **240400** # `====================================` Routine: Rod (5) Video segment: 5 Time: 12 minutes Level: 3 What to do: Defeat the enemies along the way, taking them on one at a time the best you can. Ignore the cockatrices unless there's no way around them and definitely only deal with one at a time. Definitely avoid nekhbet though. Do go after the wolves though as they're easy to deal with. Avoid the bigger alpha wolf, for now. Accumulate 30 LP by defeating wolves as needed then save in the southeast zone exit from the area where the rod is and get the rod, licensing it. The rod is almost due north from the save crystal at the edge of a cliff - ignore the enemies while going after the rod. .==================================================. # 24.5 Stage 3: Leveling up on dustia **240500** # `==================================================` Routine: Dustia (6) Video segments: 6, 7 (kind of) Time: 45 minutes Level: 18 or 19 (about) What to do: Repeatedly obtain the rod so you get 21 total, 18 at the minimum, 24 at the maximum. Save your game after obtaining the initial rod, quit, reload, and get the rod again. Didn't get it? Quit and reload. Got another one? Save, quit, reload, and go again. Ignore the enemies the best you can unless directly along your path. Go back south and then east to Nalbina Town defeating every enemy along the way, except nekhbet. Once there, go to the technick shop and sell almost everything you have, including all but one rod. Buy poach but don't license it. Go to the magick shop and buy just blindna but don't license it. Go to the shop just outside the town, buy the onion arrows, then as many phoenix downs as you can possibly get - the more, the easier and faster it'll be getting started. You should have at least 30 phoenix downs, perhaps even as many as 40. Save at the save crystal, quit, reload, then return to Rabanastre bashing enemies along the way. Head out west gate, saving at the save crystal there. Go into the Westersand and to the northwest. Attack yourself until at or below 10% HP remaining. Set the battle mode to wait and reduce the battle speed to the bare minimum. Cross the zone boundary to the north. When dustia's life bar appears, hand it a phoenix down. Utilize the motion pausing to grab the loot and quickly get out of that zone then return to get more dustias. If a loot drop heals you, attack yourself after crossing to the south. Continue until you're out of phoenix downs. Make sure you have at least 40 books of orgain - deduct 2 books for every flame staff you got. If you don't have this minimum, quit and reload and try again until you do. The multiple item drops later on will really help. .============================================. # 24.6 Stage 4: The burning bow **240600** # `============================================` Routine: Burn bow (9) Video segment: 11 (for the basics), 12 Time: 55 minutes Level: 18 or 19 (about) What to do: The burning bow must be obtained before advancing the story. Rush into the Westersand completely ignorning all the enemies here except the regular wolves (since you can defeat them in one hit), and only if they're right along your route. License the quickening above accessories 4. Switch to wait mode then save at the save crystal near Lohen. After saving, use a quickening on dive talon, going for 3 hits, and only 3 hits. If you don't defeat dive talon, then you have a choice. You could do one more try, returning to the save crystal without using R2, touch it, then return and immediately fire off another quickening. Or you may choose to flat out quit and reload to keep the game clock at the bare minimum. When defeated, grab the loot. If you get a burning bow, save immediately! You likely won't be able to license it yet though. If you don't get one, just quit and reload regardless to try again. Expect to spend about 4 hours doing this, or about 100 tries. This will only add about 2 minutes on the game clock from the initial save. .================================================. # 24.7 Stage 5: Advancing the story **240700** # `================================================` Routine: Story (11) Video segment: 15, 16, 17, 18, check 26 for adjustments Time: 2 hours, 10 minutes Level: 20 What to do: During the story advancement, license and equip the burning bow as soon as you can. There are 3 chests to avoid opening if you want the zodiac spear - the obvious one in front of Old Dalan's place, one in the southeast corner of the cellar in palace and the chests in the spot where you get your belongings back in Nalbina Dungeons. While in Giza Plains after the sunstone, save at the save crystal in the village, steal from then defeat the slaven in the east exit and get a tanned hide now. If you don't get one, quit and reload. If you do, speak with Jinn, save your game again, then be sure you get another tanned hide while after getting the sunstone. If you don't get one or you must use all 4 crystals, quit and reload. Get 5 water stones from the Giza rabbits. Before going into Lowtown after getting the sunstone, fully unequip Penelo - you won't see her again until you're level 99. During the Barheim Passage events, get past the unskippable story scene, save at the save crystal, then get a seeker along the way south. The seeker replaces one of the steelings with a 5% chance. If you don't get one, quit and reload. If you do, get the crooked fang from it (quit and reload if you don't), and continue south. Go for your second crooked fang preferably within the first 2 bats but no later than 3. To poach seeker, license poach on Balthier or Fran only and not Vaan, kill the guest, then swap weapons to control the damage. Continue until you're back in a familiar-looking place in the Estersand - that's the spot where you saved when going after the rod! Ignore the map urn in Barheim Passage as you can always come back here. .====================================================. # 24.8 Stage 6: The traveler's garb set **240800** # `====================================================` Routine: Trav Garb (12) Video segment: 21, check 26 for adjustments Time: 2 hours, 20 minutes Level: 20 What to do: Instead of heading toward Rabanastre as the story says, head north to South Bank Village, bashing enemies along the way for easy LP. Once there, sell 4 fire stones and the 2 crooked fangs and buy the arrows alight for 3800 gil. Trade Fran's bow for the longbow provided. Equip the fiery arrows on the one with the burning bow. Save, quit, and reload your game. Spend 3 minutes defeating enemies in the zone just outside the village, ignoring all cactoids. Have the leader constantly steal from every enemy and let the others do the damage. Return to the river. If you don't see greeden, head a bit south, going 1 second farther away than the top of the sand dune and return to check again. If you see greeden, attack it while using the obstacles like the trees and rocks to severely delay greeden's attacking. If no braid wool drops, quit and reload, repeating the process. If braid wool does drop, return to the village, save your game, then quit and reload, repeating the process a second time. When you get your second braid wool, sell the 2 braid wools together with 5 water stones and 2 tanned hides then buy, license, and equip the traveler's garb set for a massive boost on defense and magick power. .============================================. # 24.9 Stage 7: The winged helm **240900** # `============================================` Routine: Wing helm (13) Video segment: 22, check 26 for adjustments Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes Level: 21 What to do: Go back to the Westersand, saving at the southernmost save crystal in Giza Plains. Head into the Zertinan Caverns in the first zone you visit in the Westersand, found in the southwest area. You must get a winged helm within the 5 slimes that are present here. If you don't, quit and reload and try again. Make sure you get the speartongue near the first slime so you can make sure you get all of the slimes available. Sure the winged helm is a 1% drop, you get 5 chances in about 6 to 7 minutes. It's more than twice as fast as the burning bow despite the very long runs. Avoid the 2 traps present. Big is open and safe, small is confined and dangerous - remember this for the locations of the traps, referencing the odd wall indents. Ignore the loot until chain level 4 then get it. Have a blindna gambit ready on those that don't have the burning bow, ready in the event the slimes blind you. For sleep, either wait until slime decides to attack physically (which is pretty common), or if it's on your damage dealer, have one of your other members go unarmed and attack the sleeping ally. If you don't get a winged helm in the 5 slimes present (6 if you're lucky), quit and reload. .===============================================. # 24.10 Stage 8: Going on the hunt **241000** # `===============================================` Routine: Hunts (14) Video segment: 23 Time: 2 hours, 45 minutes Level: 21 What to do: To get the hermes sandals, you have to get gyshal greens and the only way to get them at this point in the game is to buy them from the clan shop when you've reached the "rear guard" rank, after defeating 4 marks (3 extras). Return to Rabanastre now, but, before entering, fully unequip both Balthier and Fran - you won't see them again until you're level 99. Use the moogling to go to the sandsea and read the hunt board - accept the thextera hunt, required to get the next 2 to show up. You'll find it in the Westersand just outside Rabanastre to the south - you should be able to defeat it in one hit, weather-related accuracy aside. Return to the hunt board and accept the 2 new hunts that show up. While here, claim the bounty and read the hunt board 40 total times (37 extra). The second is the flowering cactoid, defeated in 2 hits (parry aside) and found in the Estersand in northern Yardang Labyrinth. Claim the bounty on the way back to Rabanastre. The third is wraith, found right in the entrance to Garamsythe Waterway, the first area you see. It should take about 6 to 8 hits to defeat, depending on your level and luck with critical hits. Claim the bounty on the way back. .================================================. # 24.11 Stage 9: The hermes sandals **241100** # `================================================` Routine: Hermes (16) Video segment: 24 (partial), 25 (partial), check 26 for adjustments Time: 3 hours, 15 minutes Level: About 25 or 26 What to do: Buy the warmage's monograph, 50 phoenix downs (60 maximum, 40 minimum - the fewer, the better the game clock but the more quitting and reloading is needed), save at the Westersand save crystal (which also gets rid of the doom status effect) and go at dustia once more, now getting arcanae from it. Continue until you get 15 arcanae then stop (check your inventory's loot for this). Out of phoenix downs and don't have 15 arcanae? Quit and reload to try again. Buy immobilize, charge, and the scale armor. If you can afford it, buy the "wind walkers" as well. Don't bother with the other monograph yet unless you can afford it. License immobilize and charge only. Focus on the swiftness augments then the hermes sandals should you still have spare LP. .==============================================. # 24.12 Stage 10: The final stage **241200** # `==============================================` Routine: Malboro (19) Video segments: 37, 38, 39 Time: 25 hours Level: 99 What to do: Head into Lowtown, go north, then west to reach the Garamsythe Waterway. Save at the save crystal before starting. One wrong move and rotten luck means it's game over. Take the southwest zone exit. Immobilize the malboro overking. If it misses, run for it. Otherwise, defeat it. It will take a lot of hits at first, but for 3000 exp, it's worth it. Immobilize the lizard in the low area next. You have 2 chances in this case. If both miss, immediately cross the nearest zone boundary. Continue to the west for the 2 malboros and 1 lizard here. Be careful with the lizard when approaching it on the front. If it's moving, stop when just out of range of immobilize and stand still to let it approach you. If it's not moving, approach it slowly. Get the malboro overkings in the usual way. Never go into the zone to the south. To respawn the enemies, use the second-closest zone boundary on the back track. Once level 59 is reached, license the winged helm and scale armor, equipping them. From there, directly attack the malboro overkings without immobilizing them but do immobilize the lizard in the southwest section of the first area. Continue south and attack the 4 malboro overkings here. Never attack or use magicks of any kind near water elemental. Unless at least level 74 with all 5 battle lores, if water elemental casts protect on a malboro, back track to the previous zone exit and respawn the enemies as usual. Over time, the malboro overkings will start to fall in a single hit and when that happens, the process only gets faster. Continue this until level 99. Once there, save your game and you're done and continue on to the afterward section. ____ ___ _ _ __ _ ____ _ _ ___ ____ ____ | _ \ / _ \ | | | | | \ | | / ___| | | | | / _ \ | _ \ | _ \ | | | | | |_| | | | A | | | A \ | | \ \ | |_| | | |_| | | |_| | | | | | | | | | | _ | | |/ \| | | |\ \| | \ \ | _ | | _ | | _ < | | | | | |_| | | | | | | ' A ' | | | \ ' | __\ \ | | | | | | | | | | | | | |_| | |____/ |_| |_| |__/ \__| |_| \__| |____/ |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |____/ ##################################### ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 25 Advancing the story for the dawn shard **250000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ##################################### .==============================================. # 25.1 About the afterward section **250100** # `==============================================` You might have noticed odd new routines that are out of place with the rest of the routines. This is the afterward section, a special section that all methods use after you've reached level 99 in any of the methods. There are some great benefits you'll gain in this section. The first and biggest is that you'll have access to equipment you probably didn't know you could have only 35% of the way through the game. Ever wanted the maximillian, zodiac spear, crown of laurels, defender, golden skullcap, and 5 other pieces of such end-game equipment without going all the way to, well, the end of the game? You will be able to get such equipment just 35% of the way through the game, barely 1/3. You only need to know how, and get well-prepared. There are other benefits as well, but not as significant. The next biggest benefit is that you'll have all the monographs pretty much first thing (you can do it during the 70- or 65-hour methods but you likely won't have the gil for them). The third benefit is that you'll learn the real potential of the Nihopalaoa. The last is that you'll gain gil at a blinding fast speed. At first, you'll be getting the 7 monographs. Then you'll want to get to the point where all of the methods are at the same point in the story. That's what the following 2 subsections are for. From there, all of the methods are mostly identical for the routines used except for the Balth Fran section at the end (section 30), something the 70- and 65-hour methods don't use as Balthier and Fran start at level 99 when you first get them. Like with the standard methods for reaching level 99, I also have narrated videos for the afterward section as well. Like with the standard methods, be sure to check the annotations for any corrections, updates, and extra commentary: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLUkzkTsdHsofRBtzU612uBQw56Wx7aQJ .==========================================. # 25.2 Obtain the 7 monographs **250200** # `==========================================` Before setting out for the next part, I strongly recommend getting the 7 monographs. I'll explain how to do so here. Hunter - do the thextera hunt then speak to Gatsly in the Muthru Bazaar. Knight - activate shop system for a weapon shop 30 times. Warmage - read the hunt board 20 times. Mage - activate shop system for a magick shop 25 times. Scholar - activate shop system for an armor shop 15 times. Dragoon - read the hunt board 40 times. Sage - activate shop system for any shop 100 combined times. The hunter's monograph is often easy to miss because Gatsly is quite hidden. If you went for the hermes sandals, you've already got the warmage's monograph along with the dragoon's monograph. The other 4 come from visiting shops repeatedly. You don't have to do anything, just get the shop system to load. The sage's monograph combines all shops, including traveling merchants (like Lohen), Migelo's Sundries, technick, and gambit shops. You've already racked up 70 from the specific shops cases and likely several more from other shops from selling your loot. In general, just keep activating the shop system until you see that new bazaar items are available. Don't confuse the sage's monograph, costing 25,000 gil, the most, with the less expensive ones from the specific shop types. If you get the sage's monograph first while, for example, going after the scholar's monograph, buy the sage's monograph but keep going until you get the scholar's monograph to appear. The only monograph-like item you can't get is the canopic jar as you can't get the items for it for quite a while (you'll have the high-end equipment before you'll even start to be able to get them). .==========================================. # 25.3 Through Barheim Passage **250300** # `==========================================` If you used either the 65- or 70-hour methods, you will need to do this. If you used one of the shorter methods, skip this part as you've already made the story progress. Because you still haven't done the Nalbina Dungeons part for the longer methods, you'll need to advance the story at this point to do so. The process is pretty much identical to the "Story" section (section 11) but there are a few differences, thanks to being level 99 with every single license obtained. The first difference is that you don't need to have to steal from slaven during the sunstone event. You already have the traveler's garb set. The second difference is that you can license Penelo in full, obtaining every single one of her licenses. The third difference is that, when Balthier and Fran join, do not obtain the "brawler" license - you'll need the weak damage output for the obtaining of crooked fangs from the seeker. Sure you'll do around 176 damage, rather much, it's the absolute weakest you have available. The mythril sword will do around 319 damage, almost too much. This assumes Balthier with all 5 battle lores, the winged helm, the bronze armor, and the battle harness. If all else, you might even have to hand the seeker a potion to help control its HP so poach works successfully. Balthier's starting gun can help too since the damage it does is always fixed but there's the risk of critical hits so use the gun with caution. Once you get the crooked fangs though, feel free to license brawler on both. Speaking of brawler, did you know that, with the adrenaline license taking effect and as much strength as you can get, you could be doing 9999 damage to pretty much everything in sight? Fun times that! 9999 damage on firemane? Go for it! 9999 damage on mimic queen? Feel free! .=================================. # 25.4 Boosting Basch **250400** # `=================================` Regardless of the method you used, this part is the same. The title of this section may seem confusing, but how would you like to get your Basch to have a little more HP and/or MP than average? It does take about 2 minutes per run, but it's worth the effort as you could get Basch an extra 30 to 50 HP and/or 8 to 15 MP, depending on the amount of effort you put into it and what your focus is. This seems odd, but it's entirely possible. First, visit Old Dalan to get the Sword of the Order. Before handing this item to Balzac in the westernmost part of Lowtown, save your game at the very nearby gate crystal. Once saved, go to Balzac and skip the story scenes. Return to the gate crystal and save your game to a second file (preferrably one that's adjacent to the one you just saved). Don't bother licensing Basch or anything. If you focus on HP (like I usually do for Basch since he's the HP king), write down the HP he has. If you focus on MP, write down the MP. If you want both, write down both. When you're done, quit and reload your slightly earlier save, from before Basch joining. Repeat the process again of getting Basch to join. Once he does, check his HP and/or MP. You'll find that it's different. If your focused stat is an improvement, return to the gate crystal and update your newer save. If no improvement occurred, just quit and reload. Repeat this process as many times as you want. Don't expect to get the perfect HP of 5778 and the perfect MP of 264 the odds of that happening are absolutely insane: 1 in 9.27323E154 (92 11/15 quinquagintillion). Do note that the 4 bottom stats (strength, magick power, vitality, and speed) are fixed so don't focus on those. Focus, instead, purely on HP and/or MP as those are the ones that are randomized. .=============================================. # 25.5 Get Balthier and Fran back **250500** # `=============================================` When Balthier and Fran leave, they stop earning experience and, worst of all, LP. If you used any of the shorter methods and Balthier and Fran rejoin, you'll find that they were left exactly the way you had them. Whereas Vaan and Basch have around 2000 to 4000 LP with the entire augments section cleared (the amount depends on your method) and every available piece of equipment, technick, and magick licensed, Balthier and Fran have hardly any LP and have almost no progress in the augments. They really do get left in the dust. I wonder if this is a bug or oversight by the programmers considering that characters who haven't officially joined and characters not active in battle still get the same LP. This, however, is not a problem if you used the longer methods - they'll initially join with so much LP that they can clear their entire license board with enough LP to spare to almost do it again. By getting Balthier and Fran back now, you can at least get them to accumulate LP. .==============================================. # 25.6 Obtain 2 extra burning bows **250600** # `==============================================` If you used the slower methods, chances are, you already have 6 or more burning bows - skip this part if you have at least 3 burning bows. If you used the faster methods, you almost certainly only have 1 burning bow. This is now a great time to get more burning bows, since it's the most powerful weapon you can get your hands on for quite a long time to come. Unlike before where you had to use quickenings (or the chain-status-death method), you can use the direct chaining method. With the fiery arrows, dive talon will go down in 1 hit so it's actually pretty easy. You're probably thinking that it's going to take 8 hours to get 2 more burning bows. Nope, it's only about 1 hour, and that's if you're unlucky. ................................... 25.6.1 The easy process **250610** ................................... For this to work, first get a blue sky so that your accuracy is as good as it'll get, follow the path in the "dive talon" routine (section 18). Initially, you may bash the urstrixes, wolves, and whatever else is along the way for LP. Once you defeat your first dive talon, you cannot attack the other enemies. It's inevitable that they'll get in the way though but there's an easy fix for that: just immobilize them then ignore them. Equip the traveler's vestment as well so that the wolves are at least harmless (outside their "fangs" attack). Ignore the loot from dive talon until the chain reaches level 4. When it does, grab the loot and keep doing so until you've obtained 2 burning bows. I got my 2 extra burning bows in under an hour and that's with fiddling around (adding more status effects than needed - you can freely add any status effects to enemies as you want, just so long as you don't defeat them (chain-status-death bug case aside) to the unwanted enemies and immobilizing those that are clearly not an issue). From ignoring the junk enemies, you'll often find that only 2 or even just 1 dive talon is present. By going into the zone to the north and returning, you can refresh the enemies in the key area which should get the dive talons that didn't show up due to the 6-enemy limit to appear. Do not use the cave though as you need a clear blue sky at all times and you can't face gnoma entite yet although you could survive it. ............................................ 25.6.2 Kotetsu: the alternative **250620** ............................................ Don't want more burning bows for whatever reason? There's an alternative available that's much easier to get. It's also slower to get. This is the kotetsu, dropped from the werewolves. The kotetsu doesn't have the damage potential or the range of the burning bow though so I don't advise you get it. ............................................................... 25.6.3 Unarmed: the alternative to the alternative **250630** ............................................................... If you've obtained the brawler license, there is yet another alternative that doesn't seem obvious. If you go unarmed, you can actually deal more damage than the burning bow with the fiery arrows. The benefit goes even higher as enemy defense increases. More details, including the exact reasoning behind it, are explained in section 25.9.1 a little below. .==============================================. # 25.7 Obtain 2 extra winged helms **250700** # `==============================================` Once you get your 2 burning bows, get 2 more winged helms so that way everyone has one. It's the strongest helm you can get for a while and the damage boost it provides is great, especially if you decide to go with the unarmed approach where it's vastly more effective. Like before, defeat the slimes, now going down in 1 hit, and ignore the loot until chain level 4. Get your 2 winged helms then leave. If you see gnoma entite on the way out of the cave, there is a way to steal from it completely safely, 2 ways even. The first method is the safest method. Bring out one extra character, preferably Basch, and have Basch steal from it. Keep your leader very far but you must be able to see the green life bar. As soon as steal connects, immediately bring up the party menu and put Basch away. Although gnoma entite will now have a red bar, it hasn't targeted Basch yet so it can't get the thief so it continues to wonder around like nothing happened. The second method is riskier and it requires that you are within about 4 seconds of a zone boundary. Have 2 of your characters steal from gnoma while you keep the leader separate and as far as you can. As soon as the others connect the steal, have one of them cast something (cure is nice) so as to get silencega instead of a damaging spell, and, once you set that action, immediately make the leader cross the nearest zone boundary. If done right, you'll double your chances of stealing and you'll likely only get silenced which can simply be ignored or echo herbed out. Attacks only take effect if the damage or output popup has appeared. The action may execute, but as soon as a zone boundary is crossed, the action becomes 100% harmless. I've actually prevented a game over from crossing a zone boundary (from going after the burning bow at only level 12 and dive talon lunging). .=======================================. # 25.8 The cluckatrice hunt **250800** # `=======================================` Before advancing the story, I strongly recommend doing the cluckatrice hunt. Why? When it comes to preparing for the final 2 routines, you'll need to get stuff from the clan shop that you can't get otherwise. Because Giza Plains is fixed to be rainy during the main hunting season, you have to do the cluckatrice hunt while Giza is still in the dry. You must do it before doing the Tomb of Raithwall events. To start, speak with Montblanc to get the hunt available. Accept the rocktoise hunt while you're at it since you'll be going there anyway. You're probably well aware of the petrification cluckatrice can cause. Being level 99 with an overpowered burning bow, you could practically defeat cluckatice in a single hit. The chicks for sure, but the cluckatrice itself requires the adrenaline license to take effect, thanks to protect. Plus, you have other party members too so you won't get a game over in the extreme off chance your character gets turned to stone. I've soloed it without any trouble at all. Dania is found in the pen with the friendly cockatrices in the Nomad Village. Speak with her to accept the hunt. Take the east exit then clear out every single enemy in this zone. You're guaranteed 9999 damage on the giza rabbits thanks to the fiery arrows. Once cleared out, leave the zone then return to find cluckatrice and the 3 chicks. Simply attack these and you're done. Return to the Nomad Village and claim the bounty from Dania then return to Rabanastre. .================================================. # 25.9 Story advancement at level 99 **250900** # `================================================` ...................................................... 25.9.1 Going unarmed? Making the decision **250910** ...................................................... Since you now have a full party, I would suggest having one character serve as a damage dealer. One interesting option is having one character being unarmed. How can that be beneficial, considering the attack power is only 11? The 11 is actually misleading once you get the brawler license. The real attack power is actually the average of your "strength" and "level" stats. Thus, raise strength as much as you can as, unlike traditional weapons, raising strength has a 3-fold effect instead of 2 (or 1 in the case of weapons that use a secondary stat). Why is it a 3-fold effect? It comes down to the damage formula (the top one is unarmed with brawler, the bottom is for the burning bow with the fiery arrows): ((SLV+SSTR)*rand(0.5, 0.5625)-TDEF) * SSTR * (SLV+SSTR)/256 (SATK*rand(1, 1.125)-TDEF) * (1+SSTR*(SLV+SSPD)/218 * 1.5 Note how SSTR (source strength) appears 3 times in multiplication in the top formula, the one used for going unarmed with the brawler license, and only once in the bottom formula, the one for the burning bow with the fiery arrows. With strength as high as you can get it, you can do some major damage going unarmed. Because target defense (TDEF) generally remains the same within an area, the higher attack power that going unarmed has only makes going unarmed far more worthy despite the 50% damage bonus the fiery arrows have. Let's compare this to an enemy with a defense of 8, about typical for what you'll face in the Lhusu Mines. In my comparison, I'll assume you have the winged helm, scale armor, battle harness, all 5 battle lores, and that focus or adrenaline are not taking effect (multiply by 1.2 for focus, 2 for adrenaline). Going with the burning bow and the fiery arrows, you'll deal about 4683 damage on average. Going unarmed means an average of 6416 damage, 37% more damage, quite significant. However, you don't need that kind of damage for the bulk of what you'll be doing. Still, having the unarmed character with adrenaline taking effect always doing 9999 damage is quite fun. Plus, should a combo take effect, scoring multiple hits of 9999 damage is even better! Given this, I very strongly recommend having one character unarmed. Being HP critical, however, is not a necessity. Have Vaan with the burning bow with the fiery arrows and have him lead so he can always get the first shot. Have Basch go unarmed. The reason is that Basch doesn't have as much speed as Vaan does and speed is a determining factor for damage dealing. Basch also has the same high strength as Vaan. Vaan could use the haste of the hermes sandals. While it doesn't affect damage, the quicker charging time helps a lot, especially for a first strike. When your next level 99 character joins, have both Vaan and Basch go unarmed and have your other character (usually Ashe in my case as she's good with magick and healing), have the ranged weapon since ranged weapons are great for first strikes and there's always pseudo running available. My videos don't show the going unarmed case as I didn't think about it until I started dealing with the entites as their defense of 48 makes going unarmed far, far more effective than your burning bow ever could, even if the entite was weak against fire. I also wanted the near-instant enemy removal for the surprise enemies that only possible with a ranged weapon. In fact on an entite, you could do nearly 2569 damage per hit instead of 728 (don't forget that entites have a 30% damage reduction ability and the use of the onion arrows are used instead, cancelling the 1.5 multiplier), over 3 1/2 times as much (and the burning bow's damage varies a lot as the entite is absorbing a huge fraction of the damage). In general, going unarmed is more beneficial the later you get, until you can get your hands on better weapons as is the case in the "Nabradia" and "Necrohol" sections of the process. ............................................................ 25.9.2 The Lhusu Mines - fight instead of escape **250920** ............................................................ Now comes the fun part - blasting bosses like you never thought possible. Return to Rabanastre and get to Bhujerba. When Lamont joins, you'll find that he/she (can't tell what it is) is level 99 as well. In fact, every single guest is going to be level 99 and you're always stronger than the guests thanks to those burning bows or going unarmed. During the case where Ba' Gamnan attacks where you're normally supposed to escape at full speed, you can very easily handle them. Attack at will and you won't have to bother escaping. If you can handle the far more dangerous dive talon, you can handle Ba' Gamnan and his grew without any effort. Fire a quickening off on them and show them a 5-figure damage popup if you want. For optimal damage, focus on level 1 quickenings - the higher ones are more of a waste. With skill and moderate luck, you could quite well approach 25 hits. In addition, thanks to the traveler's garb set, they'll barely even damage you, only the more reason to get them with. Be sure to accept the Nidhogg hunt when the story scene has you resuming control in the Cloudborne. The hunt board is hard to miss. Seek Pilika in the western area that you couldn't get to earlier and Aekom just before the entrance to the Lhusu Mines. Repeat your run through the mines and the 2 marks are hard to miss. Nidhogg happens to be weak against fire so you'll very easily take it out in 1 hit, even with protect. Rocktoise is vulnerable to fire but has a return damage ability that causes any character that deals damage to it to also suffer damage, 5% of what you dealt. This, however, is not a problem. I just cast slow and blind on it while the damage dealer just rips away. ........................................... 25.9.3 Boosting Ashe and Penelo **250930** ........................................... Like you did with Basch, you can do the same with Ashe and Penelo. Ashe is the quickest, taking a mere 40 seconds per attempt. She's good with healing and magicks so giving her a lot of MP is recommended. Try for at least 290, preferrably 295. Visit the shop and do the usual saving before bothering with Ashe though. Ashe joins at level 99 as well with enough LP to clear the entire augments section plus a lot left over. Swap Balthier or Fran (whichever one you used as your third character) for Ashe so that way you have a full party of level 99 characters. Save before continuing as you can do Penelo immediately after. Penelo is the worst one of them all. This is because, to get her to join, you have to fight through a constant supply of imperials. You might as well wipe out the entire imperial army while you're at it.... Each run takes 3 minutes. Yep, no kidding she's the worst one. You could do the same for Balthier and Fran during that part, but that's even worse, much worse (and exclusive to the longer methods). The fastest way for Penelo is to go around one of the sides instead of going straight when the path splits in 3 directions. Left or right doesn't matter in this case as both routes are the same. In the next zone, you'll find a lot of imperials present. After bashing them, take the west exit as it's the closest one. There's no need to remove the alarm. The next zone doesn't have any enemies but focus on going as much west as you can. In the open square-shaped area, Penelo will join. Back track as needed. For Penelo, I would suggest MP because her HP is the worst of all the characters. 288 is recommended because the route takes 3 minutes to do, not including the backtracking to save. 290 is preferred though you could go for 295 if you are willing. Of course, you could just hold R2 and just run for it constantly. The imperials are quite weak and you've got a ton of HP. By using R2 constantly, you'll do each run in around 2 minutes. ....................................... 25.9.4 Crossing the sandsea **250940** ....................................... While heading through the sandseas, stay away from salamand entite. This entite is much like gnoma entite except that it always uses firaga for nearly 2000 damage. With just the "cure" spell available, you don't stand much of a chance. If you do insist on picking a fight with it, keep your leader apart from the others - the others should go unarmed for massive damage. All entites have a defense of 48 so if you only have kotetsus, you'll barely even damage it. The burning bow will only do about 700 damage as the entite is absorbing so much of the damage. By going unarmed, you can really do some serious damage, 3 1/2 times more than what the burning bow offers, literally. Have 2 characters constantly attacking while the other stands back with a rose coursage equipped casting shell and cure whenever possible. By keeping your leader separate from the rest, only one character will get hit with silencega and likely firaga. Have your leader cast shell constantly to minimize the usage of firaga. Have nonleader characters only attack or use items - turn off all magick gambits. The guest, Vossler, is more of a damage absorber than anything else, completely helpless to do any damage. Use alarm clocks to remove sleep, if that goes through (shell reduces the success rate). Once defeated, continue on as usual, healing with healing magicks instead of items. If you can defeat salamand entite at this point, you'll find the Nabreus Deadlands and Necrohol of Nabudis very easy for you. While crossing the sandsea, stick to the northern route. The "urutan eater" is worth a fair amount of LP is definitely worth it. The urutans only do about 25 to 30 damage to it, next to nothing, but your strongest damage dealer could almost very well do 4000+ damage to it, bringing it down in 2 or 3 hits as opposed to the 300 or so the urutans need. Fire off a quickening and a nice 5-figure damage popup appears, over 1000 times more damage than the urutans can! Isn't it fun being so overpowered? There is no need to return to get the eksir berries. About the cura spell (cost: 1500): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ None | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | White magick 1 | Start | | Evade 0 | < White magick 2 | 20 | | Magick evade 0 | < White magick 3 | 30 | | Strength 0 | Total | 50 | | Magick power 0 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ Cura is a major step up from cure. Not only is it 2 1/4 times as effective, it also heals every character in your active party in a single quick cast. Oh and it has a very calming and peaceful sound effect, my top favorite in the entire game. While it doesn't have much use now, it will for what's to come later. One key benefit is that the elementals (the big ball entites and random mess elementals) are now easy and safe to handle. About the raise spell (cost: 1900): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ None | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | White magick 3 | Start | | Evade 0 | Total | 0 | | Magick evade 0 | | | | Strength 0 | | | | Magick power 0 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ Raise has the advantage of preventing the need for a phoenix down. It can also be used as an instant death attack on the undead (if they're not immune to it). You'll find Dyce along the way just before you reach the Tomb of Raithwall. He has cura available - make sure you get it. It has more than double the healing power as cure and it heals everyone in your party. Raise is somewhat decent though not necessary at this point (it will come in useful later though). The rest are not necessary but feel free to get them. Garuda will go down pretty much before it even gets a chance to make its first strike thanks to your burning bows and pseudo running. Yep, with that, there's no need for the eksir berries. The burning bow with the fiery arrows will do far more damage than those berries will. Just continue along. ........................................ 25.9.5 The Tomb of Raithwall **250950** ........................................ For the Tomb of Raithwall event, if you haven't gotten the fiery arrows yet, do so. The seekers here are always present. Feel free to get both demon walls. The first one you can normally ignore and run from, but the second one is required. You can so effortlessly blast both of the demon walls. In fact, it takes 4 times more time just getting to the second demon wall than it takes to defeat it. When you reach Belias, switch out the fiery arrows for either the onion arrows or go unarmed. This is because Belias absorbs fire - you will heal it instead. Of course, a big quickening chain for a 5-figure damage popup is always nice. Feel free to unleash your wrath on the boss in the following event with a quickening chain. While a 21-hit quickening like I have in my video is excessive, I loved the huge 5-figure damage popup that came with it. _ _ _ _ __ _ _____ ____ ___ ___ | | | | | | | | | \ | | |_ _| / ___| _ / _ \ / _ \ | |_| | | | | | | A \ | | | | \ \ _| |_ | |_| | | |_| | | _ | | | | | | |\ \| | | | \ \ |_ _| \__ | \__ | | | | | | |_| | | | \ ' | | | __\ \ |_| ___| | ___| | |_| |_| \___/ |_| \__| |_| |____/ |____/ |____/ ##################### ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 26 Preparing for Nabradia **260000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ##################### .================================================. # 26.1 3 new hunts on the hunt board **260100** # `================================================` At this point, the Nabreus Deadlands are now accessible. However, it's a very dangerous place and you're poorly equipped to handle it right now. You can certainly go there now if you want, but it'll be a lot more challenging and it is still doable with adequate skill. Balthier's remark about "it's best that we go prepared" is right on the mark in this case, but not for the story advancement. This is actually as far into the story as you're going to get in my guide, still only 1/3 of the way through. While you can't really get much better equipment, you can, however, get some very helpful spells. The problem is, the magick shop doesn't have anything significant. There is one shop, however, that does carry something very helpful, 3 things actually. That shop is the clan shop. Getting all of those 3 things requires that you have defeated 14 marks and have 100,000 clan points. Chances are, you have a few million clan points so the only limiting factor is the defeating of 14 marks. If you went after the hermes sandals, you already have 4 down. You've dealt with cluckatrice and the 2 in the Lhusu Mines. This means only 7 marks remain. In addition to the new spells, you can also get the nihopalaoa. This item can cripple an enemy like you've never thought possible and it completely ignores vitality so the effect is guaranteed! Have you played Final Fantasy 8? Do you remember how the malboros in that game cause pretty much every single negative status effect in the book (except KO and hp critical)? With the nihopalaoa and a remedy with the 3 remedy lores, you can do that same thing on the enemy! Yep, up to 14 negative status effects can be applied at once (13 maximum since petrify and doom cannot coexist). Due to advancing the story more, new hunts have become available. Check the hunt board to see that 3 new hunts that are available. Croakadile and wyvern lord are 2 that you can do without further advancing the story. Enkelados is the only hunt you cannot do as it requires still more story progress (though not much). Accept all 3 anyway. .==============================================. # 26.2 Shopping for the essentials **260200** # `==============================================` About the berserk spell (cost: 1000): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ Adds "berserk" status | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | Time magick 1 | Start | | Evade 0 | < Arcane magick 1 | 25 | | Magick evade 0 | Total | 25 | | Strength 0 | | | | Magick power 0 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ Berserk. If you're familiar with Final Fantasy series, berserk is often treated as a negative status effect. After all, it does completely sacrifice control on the affected character as that character will only attack. In Final Fantasy 12, however, it is extremely useful, practically a must-have. Once you get a hold of it, you won't turn back. Why? What can go wrong with double the charging speed and 50% more damage? Berserk is best on a character that serves as a damage dealer. Simply have the other 2 characters serve as support, healing, keeping status effects in check, and so forth. In fact, the berserker, when unarmed, will frequently do 9999 damage early on, especially with focus taking effect. There's also a hidden bonus with berserk - it'll make that character immune to confusion. This is because confusion and berserk cannot coexist. Before starting, I strongly recommend visiting the magick shop and buying berserk. There's nothing worthwhile in the technick shop. The weapon shop has nothing worthy of buying since your burning bows are still superior to the best the weapon shop has (and going unarmed is superior to the burning bows but lacks the range). However, stop by the weapon shop anyway because the petitioner, Sherral, is there. About the golden armor (cost: 3200): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ None | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 20 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | Heavy armor 3 | Start | | Evade 0 | > Heavy armor 4 | 35 | | Magick evade 0 | Total | 35 | | Strength 4 | | | | Magick power 0 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ For bow users, the golden armor is weaker than the scale armor. Sure you get a bigger boost on strength, it's the fact speed is also a determining factor in damage that makes the scale armor better for damage. The reason for getting this, however, is if you plan on going unarmed (with the brawler license). Thanks to the cubing of strength, every one point has a huge effect on damage output. The defense of 20 is also very nice though with what you're about to face when you're done with the hunts, the defense bonus isn't very worthwhile. The armor shop now starts to finally get the stuff you've had for a long time now - the winged helm, traveler's vestment, and feathered cap. A few items even exceed what you have, though not entirely advantageous. I would suggest, if you're going the unarmed route, getting the golden mail for the +4 in strength instead of +3. Get one for each character you want to go unarmed with (2 suggested at most). Keep the scale armor for the bow user(s) though - it does more damage because of the +3 on speed. There are some things that still demand ranged attacks so you'll want to keep the scale armor for the potential need for bows. .===============================================================. # 26.3 Recommended gambit and character role setups **260300** # `===============================================================` Now that you're prepared as far as equipment goes, I'll explain the character roles and gambit setup I use. For reference, I have my gambits setup like this, for the formatting I use: "5. Foe: status = silence = attack (disabled)" or "7. Ally: [damage dealer] = berserk". The number on the left is the slot number (slot 5). The part to the left of the rightmost equal sign (Foe: status = silence) is the target condition and the part to the right is the action (attack). The part in parentheses, if present, are special flags for notes. Read the description afterward for details. If no parenthecal part is present, assume the gambit is active. Because later section refer to the gambit setup, I'm also filling in things you don't have at this point. For those marked "to be filled in", you can either leave the slot blank or fill in the target. When a specific character is referenced, the role is given. For example, if you make Vaan your damage dealer (it doesn't have to be him), I'll reference it in square brackets. In the second example, instead of "Ally: [damage dealer]", you'd have "Ally: Vaan" if you make Vaan your damage dealer. Do note that using Balthier and Fran are strongly not recommended if they're not level 99 as they're too weak to do much good. .................................... 26.3.1 The damage dealer **260310** .................................... You can only have 3 characters in the active party. Out of those 3, I strongly suggest having one of them as a damage dealer. This character pretty much just focuses on dealing damage. He/she only comes in for aid when there's an emergency such as revival or dangerously low HP. This character is often berserked so damage is amplified and his/her gambits don't have much of an effect, only working if berserk lapses and no enemies are around. Vaan and Basch are great candidates for this role as they have a very high strength. Vaan is the best for the burning bow with the fiery arrows though as he's also fast. 1. Ally: any = phoenix down 2. Ally: HP < 30% = cura 3. Ally: any = esuna (disabled) 4. Foe: nearest = attack 5. Ally: any = bubble (to be filled in) As to the gambits of the damage dealer, I always have revival in the first slot. The sooner you can bring a downed ally back up again, the better. Phoenix downs are instant. Raise is not. Both are pretty much just as effective so go for the speed. Just make sure you have at least 20 before setting off though it's unlikely you'll need them outside the small chance for the "Necrohol" section. For healing thresholds, I'm only offering a suggestion. You may adjust it as you see fit such as using something from 20% to 50%. When enemies go heavy on status effects, removing them is important though there are some you can't effectively remove, mainly slow. I have the esuna case disabled (turned off) so that way it doesn't take effect. Damage dealers aren't healers so I tend to not have an esuna gambit active. I only make it take effect when there's a need for it and that's pretty rare. With all emergency stuff out of the way, attacking is done. A good offense is a good defense - by getting rid of the enemies, you can defend yourself, in a sense. The last one only kicks in when berserk expires at almost the same time bubble does, bubble expiring less than a second later, and only when not in battle. Bubble is a must-have and is very important to keep it active at all times. You'll see why at the end of this section. ........................................... 26.3.2 The status effect keeper **260320** ........................................... The second character serves as a status effect keeper. This character will keep status effects in check, since status effects are very skilled at one thing - expiring. This character, however, only focuses on adding the status effects that are guaranteed to work. The exception is berserk, but only when not in battle (you may choose otherwise, especially when faith becomes available). Bubble and faith are always guaranteed to work. Berserk is not. They'll also get involved in combat as well, should no status effects be in need of reapplication. Thus, a character high in MP is a good choice. I use Basch in my videos who isn't very decent for this role. Vaan, Ashe, and Penelo are good alternatives, mainly Penelo and Vaan. 1. Ally: any = phoenix down 2. Ally: any = bubble (to be filled in) 3. Ally: HP < 40% = cura 4. Ally: any = shell (disabled) 5. Ally: [healer] = faith (to be filled in) 6. Ally: any = esuna 7. Ally: any = protect (disabled) 8. Self = faith (to be filled in) 9. Self = libra (optional - one character needs it) 10. Foe: nearest = attack 11. Ally: [damage dealer] = berserk Like with the damage dealer, the status effect keeper only does healing when there's an emergency need for it. A threshold from 30 to 60% is suggested for the healing point. The status effect keeper's form of healing, however, is through the use of keeping bubble in check at all times since, in a way, it doubles the amount of HP the target character currently has. For much later to come, shell is needed so this will be disabled for a while. Since faith makes healing magick 50% more effective, having faith on the healer will help ensure the healer can heal a lot when needed. Removal of negative status effects is essential, though not that much for a status effect keeper. Protect isn't as useful, but if you're having difficulties later on, you can turn this gambit on. Keeping faith active on the status effect keeper can help with any emergency healing or berserking Vaan. To see traps, you need libra. It doesn't matter which of the 2 supporters it goes on, but someone needs it. This would be a good choice for the status effect keeper though. When none of the main status effects need to be reapplied, combat will continue. Because berserk isn't guaranteed, having the status effect keeper apply it outside of battle is recommended. You might consider disabling the berserk gambit and having the high magick power healer do the work instead. ............................. 26.3.3 The healer **260330** ............................. The third character serves mainly as a healer and also has a backup role as a status effect keeper. This user is high in magick power to help ensure berserk is successful, even doing it during battle. I tend to make my healer the party leader for an assortment of reasons. First, magicks are long range attacks. Second, the party leader tends to get the first shot (and the first hit but can be avoided to some extent with pseudo running) so crippling an enemy right away with immobilize or something will really help. 1. Ally: any = phoenix down 2. Ally: HP < 70% = cura 3. Ally: any = esuna 4. Ally: any = shell (disabled) 5. Ally: any = bubble (to be filled in) 6. Ally: [damage dealer] = berserk 7. Self = faith (to be filled in) 8. Ally: [status effect keeper] = faith (to be filled in) 9. Self = libra (optional - one character needs it) 10. Foe: undead = cura 11. Foe: nearest = attack 12. Self = cura The usual revival is at the top. For a healer, however, the threshold is much higher. A value from 50 to 90% is recommended. Healers focus on removing status effects so the esuna gambit is higher. Shell is needed for much later so it's disabled as usual. Since bubble doubles the current HP, bubble also serves as an indirect way to heal. If bubble is good to go, keeping berserk on the damage dealer follows since the healer's higher magick power makes berserk much more likely to be applied. Keeping faith active follows. Since the only way to see traps is through the use of libra, keeping this on gambit is a must. Libra doesn't have to be on the healer, it can also be on the status effect keeper. Just pick someone, it doesn't matter who (I suggest the status effect keeper myself). The next one on the list seems like a strange one. Why use healing magick on an enemy? The undead (your zombies and ghosts) take damage from healing actions. With the huge amount of undead that you face near the end, this is a very useful gambit as it's also an area of effect skill. Of course, if the enemy isn't undead, a regular attack will be used instead. The last gambit entry is also a curious one. By having the healer target him/herself with cura, you can get serenity to take effect which then means 50% more healing on the other 2 allies. This isn't a must, but it's very useful during the Necrohol section. .=====================================================. # 26.4 Croak the croakadile for new hunts **260400** # `=====================================================` ...................................... 26.4.1 Reaching croakadile **260410** ...................................... The first hunt to do is the croakadile hunt. Croakadile is pretty easy, but takes a while to get there. First, head into Giza Plains from Rabanastre and proceed to the southeast then south. When the path splits going due west and due east, choose the west route so you can go to the nomad village where Sadeen is. Along the way, before entering the village, you'll encounter a white withered tree that looks bone dry. Be sure you strike it to knock it over as you have 6 of these to get for a future hunt. Once in the village, head slightly to the left to find Sadeen near the cockatrice fence. You'll see another withered tree in the view - strike it after dealing with Sadeen, accepting the hunt. Take the west exit, the only option you have. Follow the path to the west then head south and back east again. Before crossing into the zone to the south, don't forget the withered tree. Just as you enter the southwestern zone, head left to get the fourth withered tree. You won't find enemies here as the croakadile is on the loose. .............................................. 26.4.2 Dealing with the elementals **260420** .............................................. Along the way, if the weather conditions are favorable, you'll find 2 strange-looking types of enemies present. One seems like a random mess with bits of lightning, storm elemental, and the other looks like a giant ball of deep-violet-colored lightning, mardu entite. You can now very easily handle these entites, thanks to cura. Have your berserker go unarmed to really dish out some serious damage. Make the healer constantly cast so that the healer is the target. Don't forget to equip a rose coursage on the healer. Shell will really help with mardu entite though not needed with storm elemental. For best results, keep your healer separate from the rest of your party and avoid using the fiery arrows as the elementals here are immune to fire. The parallel arrows (or onion arrows if you don't have them) are a great choice. While you won't do much damage to mardu entite with the burning bow, just have these characters attack. For the healer, just use shell and cura as much as you can while keeping your distance from the others. ....................................... 26.4.3 Defeating croakadile **260430** ....................................... When you reach the end of the bridge, let your berserker(s) catch up. When they do, turn to the left and croakadile will quickly jump out. With the fiery arrows, 9999 damage is guaranteed as croakadile is weak against fire. Going unarmed, especially for the nonberserker(s) is a good choice too since you won't have weather-related accuracy penalties to bother with. When defeated, head toward the nomad village and claim the bounty from Sadeen. ......................................... 26.4.4 Back to the hunt board **260440** ......................................... Return to Rabanastre (you'll get the other 2 withered trees later) and check the hunt board again to find 3 new hunts: white mousse, ring wyrm, and marilith. Accept all 3 of them. Since the tavernmaster happens to be barely 5 meters away in the area you're already in, don't forget to speak with him! .============================================. # 26.5 White mousse's better bow **260500** # `============================================` ........................................ 26.5.1 Reaching white mousse **260510** ........................................ Leave the Sandsea and use the moogling to get to west gate. Speak with sorbet which also happens to run the moogling. Accept the hunt. Use the moogling again to return to the Sandsea and head north into the northern Lowtown entrance. Head into Garamsythe Waterway and follow the route in the 25-hour method. Unlike the 25-hour method, you don't need to be HP critical and you don't need to immobilize these enemies either. Just let your berserker do the work though have the party leader get the first strike. Head to the west then the south. Bash the 4 malboro overkings here following the obvious path. ......................................... 26.5.2 Defeating white mousse **260520** ......................................... Once you head down the stairs, white mousse will appear. White mousse is weak against fire so put the burning bow with the fiery arrows on the damage dealer and let him do frequent 9999 damage to white mousse. The others aren't as strong but can still dish out a fair amount of damage. White mousse loves using waterga though so be prepared for that. Have the healer use cura as needed and have the damage dealer dish out 9999 damage every rapid hit he/she makes. White mousse should go down very quickly. When it does, simply back track to Lowtown. ..................................... 26.5.3 Balzac's ring wyrm **260530** ..................................... Do you remember Balzac? You spoke to him for the part of boosting Basch. The far southwestern part of the north sprawl is where you need to go. Accept the hunt. ....................................... 26.5.4 Claim the bow bounty **260540** ....................................... Return to Rabanastre's west gate then speak with Sorbet to claim the bounty. You will receive the yoichi bow. In addition, you'll also get a key to operate the sluices in Garamsythe Waterway. It's not necessary right now, however, and I strongly advise against going after Cuchulainn at this point - you're not prepared for it (but you are prepared in regards to story progress requirements). It's best to wait for bubble and faith to become available before going after cuchulainn, or, to make things even easier, the high end equipment that's to be obtained soon. About the yoichi bow (cost: hunt reward (12,500 base)): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ None | | Attack power 75 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | Bows 4 | Start | | Evade 0 | ^ Bows 3 | 35 | | Magick evade 0 | > Bows 5 | 45 | | Strength 0 | Total | 80 | | Magick power 0 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ The yoichi bow is the most powerful bow you can get until nearly the end of the game. Despite the higher attack power, the burning bow with the fiery arrows is still more powerful, unless dealing with an enemy that's resistent to, immune to, or absorbs fire, or the enemy has a very high defense (like the big ball elementals, the entites). In that case, the yoichi bow is stronger. Beating them all, however, is going unarmed. Thus, you may prefer to have the yoichi bow on your party leader for that first strike potential. .====================================. # 26.6 Hunts in the west **260600** # `====================================` At this point, you have 4 hunts to deal with. The wyvern lord, the ring wyrm, and the marilith are the ones you'll be dealing with here. The other one, enkelados, will not be done. ................................................. 26.6.1 The out-of-the-way wyvern lord **260610** ................................................. Use the moogling to head to south gate then use the gate crystal to teleport to the Tomb of Raithwall, the closest point to the wyvern lord. Once you arrive, head east, following the obvious path for quite a while. When you begin to see urutan yensa present (which are cheap license points), head to the northeast exit that's off the path. Follow the path to the left, the lower route, and head to the far north to find the wyvern lord amongst the bagolies. The bagolies, however, drop bent staves which sell for a ton of gil. Wyvern lord is a flying monster so equip bows. The burning bow with the fiery arrows is the best on the berserker. Use the yoichi bow with the parallel arrows on the party leader and the other burning bow with the onion arrows on the other character. Make the first strike then pseudo run. If done right, you shouldn't even get hit at all. ................................................. 26.6.2 Rabanastre for the nihopalaoa? **260620** ................................................. This part is optional but can help if you're having difficulties with marilith. Return to the gate crystal in the Tomb of Raithwall to teleport to Rabanastre. Why? If you visit the clan shop, you'll find that the nihopalaoa is available and you can buy teleport stones. Buy the nihopalaoa to make a lot of what's coming up very easy. However, it only works if you have a remedy and all 3 remedy lores. You can't buy remedies but you can get them in the Westersand's treasure chests. It's not a must, however, but if you have at least one remedy, you'll make one of the marks far easier and that mark is marilith, a powerful beast. Be sure to buy teleport stones though. I usually don't go below 10 but buy around 20 to even 30. Either way, when you're done, return to south gate's gate crystal and teleport to the Westersand. .................................................... 26.6.3 The effortlessly-soloed ring wyrm **260630** .................................................... If you decided to skip the case of going after Rabanastre, return to the gate crystal in the Tomb of Raithwall to teleport to the Westersand. Either way, you'll now be only one zone away from the ring wyrm itself. Head east, which will force a sandstorm to be present, then follow the southern part of the zone to find it. Ring wyrm is my second-most-liked mark in the entire game, only behind death gaze. If you've ever wanted to really see the potential of immobilize, look no farther than ring wyrm. It's so effortless that you can easily solo it, even without taking a hit, literally. My video walkthrough even proves this. Yep, just give it a boot and simply wait. After the second action that ring wyrm makes expires, give ring wyrm another boot as immobilize is on the verge of expiring. Chances are, however, it'll use "restore" which recovers about 40,000 HP. With it being immobilized, it's completely helpless, or so you'd think. Ring wyrm does have some ranged attacks but from all the times I've dealt with it, they are rarely used. If you really want a challenge and to really see the potential of immobilize in its full glory, equip the short bow, the onion arrows, and defeat it with that, immobilizing as needed. Yes, it'll take a very long time to finish it, but it's still so easy that it's nothing to worry about. ...................................... 26.6.4 The boring marilith **260640** ...................................... Continue to the north and follow a familiar route (if you've done the 70- or 65-hour methods). Along the way, you'll find gnoma entite. Unlike before, you can now very easily handle it, but not solo. Section 26.3.2 above explains how to deal with gnoma entite. Gnoma entite is actually very easy compared to mardu entite (or salamand entite if you bothered crossing the sandseas again). Your destination is the Zertinan Caverns - enter it from the Westersand. Once you enter this zone, you need to stay here for a whole 5 minutes before marilith will even show up. While waiting, go around bashing the enemies that appear. There are 5 slimes and 3 speartongues. Throw status effects on them, fiddle around, do whatever. You'll need to clear out the enemies though, since the 6-enemy limit will get in the way of getting marilith to appear. Once you've cleared out the 8 enemies, good for gil and license points, go around grabbing the various chests scattered around. One thing you could do while waiting is attempting to see just how far you can leave your berserker behind. Start from the entrance and follow the course going around the loop in the southwest, then heading back to the entrance. Chances are, if berserk doesn't expire during this, you can get your berserker well off the map. After some time, however, the enemies will respawn. This is your 3-minute marker. Go around bashing these enemies for some license points and gil, following the full course as usual. When you've cleared them out, head into the sunlit room where the 2 speartongues are. At the far corner, you'll find marilith. However, before approaching, have everyone get the protect status effect and have your berserker go unarmed. If you bothered to go after the nihopalaoa, equip it and simply hand marilith a rememdy immediately upon seeing it to cripple it as far as crippled can get for it. Marilith is very powerful, doing close to 1000 damage per hit and it combos quite well. Near the end where the combos are crazy, just because one character is handling the healing doesn't mean you should continue attacking. This is where one of the flaws in the gambit system kicks in. Picture this. Vaan, my berserker, has 3000/6200 HP remaining and Ashe, my healer, just fires off cura to fully restore that. Marilith decides to get a big combo going but the main healer has only just activated and there's a long delay before the next action can occur from the healer. Vaan's HP is rapidly dropping because of the combo. At this point, when you realize this, manually input a healing command from the status effect keeper (Basch in my case - don't bother with healing using the damage dealer - have him only attack). This way, you can override the annoying flaw in the gambit system. I've had cura being fired off and a character being HP critical and the other character still doesn't get healing being charging up, only attempting to reapply a status effect lower down in the priorities. ....................................................... 26.6.5 Bounties and Montblanc's 2 new hunts **260650** ....................................................... Once defeated, leave the cave then head into Rabanastre. Use the moogling to go to the muthru bazaar. At this point, you can get bubble from the clan shop, but you don't really need it right now. You can, however, get the Nihopalaoa. That, however, is not essential but it does help if you have remedies. I would suggest waiting on bubble though as there's a really annoying bug in the game that will just get in the way. Head into the clan hall and speak to Montblanc. You'll get plenty of rewards from raising your clan rank and defeating bosses. After a bit, Montblanc finally offers you 2 new hunts: orthros and gil snapper. Accept both hunts. Continue off to the east without using the moogling then enter the Sandsea to claim the bounty from the tavernmaster. Continue to the weapon shop to claim the bounty from Sherral off to the left (remember that imperial?). .==================================================. # 26.7 The no-gil-involved gil snapper **260700** # `==================================================` Return to the moogling or continue on. You need to get into south gate for Giza Plains. Head to the southeast then south. When the path splits, instead of going due west this time, head due east. Straight ahead in the next zone is a withered tree in an odd right-angled corner - be sure to get it, your fifth one. Continue south hugging the eastern side. In the southeast zone, you'll find a series of trees making a path but you can't cross it yet - those are the withered trees you've been knocking down. Continue to the west to find Nanau resting against the small dark crystal in the same area where Jinn was to be found. Nanau and Roaklo speak a lot so just repeatedly press the X button to skip over the conversation quickly and accept the hunt. You'll find the sixth and final withered tree almost directly behind them - be sure to get it. You'll hear a special sound effect play as well, absent when the previous 5 were dealt with. Return to the east and that path of trees. Inspect it to find that it's now crossable and cross over. Bansat attempts to join in for this. If you decided to get bubble, you'll find your characters trying to cast bubble on Bansat, just for an "immune" to pop out. This is a glitch (oversight) in the game as bubble should only affect the main 6 party members. To get gil snapper to appear, you need to get the heaviest rain. There are 3 visual cues to let you know. The first is that the scene will be tilted downward initially instead of more straight across. This is the easiest way to tell. The second is that the rain is very intense. The third is that you'll see lightning in the sky. Fourth, though not obviously visual, Bansat will mention that he saw the mark. Once the gil snapper has appeared, it's time to begin attacking it. First, before attacking, have your damage dealer go unarmed as the gil snapper's defense is quite high. Next, once you see it, cripple it with negative status effects. First, silence it. Second, immobilize it. Third, blind it. Fourth, slow it down. Of course, if you got the nihopalaoa, equip it and hand the mark a remedy to instantly inflict it with up to 14 negative status effects at once (minus those its immune to and the petrify/doom conflict). Bansat will both attack and attempt to help by putting positive status effects on your characters. Shell can be very annoying when you've got missing HP and berserk expires - recasting it may take several tries as it will miss quite often. Have your status effect keeper heal the healer (the one with the highest magick power) to get serenity to take effect. Don't worry about the case with having to draw it into the urn upon the final blow. This is done automatically so just focus on the attacking. Chances are, your berserker will end up dealing the final blow as it's the only one doing 4-figure damage, even with protect and the damage reduction abilities taking effect (Bansat barely even gets 3-figure damage as he's very weak compared to you). .===================================================. # 26.8 The status-effect-loving orthros **260800** # `===================================================` Return to Rabanastre again and use the moogling to go to the Sandsea for the northern entrance to Lowtown. Head toward Garamsythe Waterway but don't enter it just yet. Speak to the odd seeq laying on the floor, contrite thief. She will jabber a lot so just press the X button repeatedly for a while. When done, accepting the hunt, do exactly as you did with the white mousse hunt until you reach the area white mousse was encountered. Before continuing into the eastern exit, change your party so that Fran, Ashe, and Penelo are the active members, and only that combination. If you've used the faster methods, you'll probably think that this is a bad idea because Fran is incredibly weak with likely under 1000 HP. This, however, isn't a problem. Just deal with the enemies along the way before making the change then change the party just before entering the eastern zone. When you enter the zone continue to a familiar location - this is where you found the 4 flans. While you're heading here, watch very closely and get the triangle button ready. The moment you see the red life bar of orthros, switch out the female-only party with your original party. From here, the battle begins and orthros won't vanish. Orthros is weak against fire so you'll definitely want your berserker to have the fiery arrows and burning bow equipped along with the usual winged helm and scale armor. This way, you'll frequently deal 9999 damage to orthros with focus taking effect. Spread out your members as much as you can to minimize the effectiveness of area of effect skills. The biggest problem with orthros that makes this battle very difficult is the fact that orthros loves using status effects. While there's nothing you can do about the slow status effect other than using a remedy (not advised), esuna works for the rest. If someone gets hit with confusion, have that character equip the weakest weapon you have. You could have your healer constantly cast cura to at least attempt to delay the use of mythril bubbles. Already used? Use the next weakest. Never use unarmed as the brawler license will pretty much mean instant death. Do note that the berserker is immune to confusion, a major plus. As a consequence, you might consider having 2 berserkers for this battle. The other one is just the healer. Once confusion is removed, reequip your original weapon. Once orthros is defeated, return to Lowtown and claim the bounty from contrite thief. You'll have to wait a few seconds for the game to load her though. Be sure to pick up the bounty from Balzac as well. .==============================================. # 26.9 New treats at the clan shop **260900** # `==============================================` Return to Rabanastre and use the moogling to head to the muthru bazaar and go to the clan shop. The clan shop now has a lot of new stuff available. ......................................................... 26.9.1 The hidden potential of the nihopalaoa **260910** ......................................................... About the nihopalaoa (cost: 30,000): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ Reverses healing item effects | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | Accessories 18 | Start | | Evade 0 | > Accessories 20 | 120 | | Magick evade 0 | Total | 120 | | Strength 0 | | | | Magick power 0 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ This accessory may seem like a major disadvantage, making potions deadly and knots of rust just as deadly as they were. However, when used properly, the nihopalaoa is almost a must-have for tough enemies. When have all 3 remedy lores obtained, you can restore up to 14 total negative status effects. Since this item reverses the effects of healing items, restoring becomes damaging. Instead of restoring 14 negative status effects, it adds 14 negative status effects and all at once: poison, blind, slow, stop, silence, sleep, sap, oil, doom, petrify, confuse, immobilize, disable, and disease all get added at once at the same time, minus those that the target is immune to and the petrify/doom compatibility problem (since doom and petrify cannot coexist - petrify takes priority). Unlike the individual status attack magicks, this is all guaranteed at once as vitality is ignored when checking the success rate (it is considered when setting the duration though. It's now like you've turned into the malboros from Final Fantasy 8, using their status effect nightmares against the enemy. Now, every time you encounter a mark, boss, or rare game enemy, just equip this accessory and hand it a remedy to cripple it like you've never seen before. Of course, once the effect is done and you see the numerous popups appearing at once (what a mess!), equip the original accessory you had, if you want. The first one you'll notice is the nihopalaoa. This item is a special item that will make some of what's to come far easier as you'll be able to cripple some of the toughest enemies in the game without vitality or shell blocking it, only actual immunity. ........................................ 26.9.2 The must-have magicks **260920** ........................................ About the faith spell (cost: 5800): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ Adds "faith" status | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | Arcane magick 1 | Start | | Evade 0 | < Arcane magick 2 | 30 | | Magick evade 0 | < Green magick 5 | 45 | | Strength 0 | < Green magick 6 | 50 | | Magick power 0 | Total | 125 | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ The faith spell is like serenity and spell breaker except that it's an additional boost. It makes healing magicks and status effect magicks 50% more effective and makes attack magicks 20% more effective. Combined with serenity, cura can now restore about 7000 HP with the traveler's garb set equipped. About the bubble spell (cost: 3300): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ Adds "bubble" status | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | Green magick 6 | Start | | Evade 0 | ^ Arcane magick 5 | 60 | | Magick evade 0 | Total | 60 | | Strength 0 | | | | Magick power 0 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ The bubble spell is something you should never go without. It offers numerous advantages (and thanks to a bug (an oversight) a disadvantage). First, it doubles your maximum HP. If you thought the 6350 Basch had was impressive, try again - 12,700 is far better. There is a bug present in the game - the displayed HP stops at 9999 causing many to think that you only have 9999 HP. If you were to target that character, however, you'll see that you really do have 12,700 HP. If you were to take 2500 damage, you'll see that 9999 is still displayed but the life bars are noticeably depleted and the focus license isn't taking effect. In addition, you'll see "10200" instead of "12700" upon targeting that character. An "Ally: HP < 80% = cura" gambit will fire off too. This, however, is not the disadvantage I'm referring to (that case is much worse). Second, bubble makes you immune to the disease status effect because both bubble and disease cannot coexist. Third, when combined with HP critical and the balance spell, you can regularly do 5-figure damage, exceeding the annoying and pointless 9999 damage limit that you've probably already seen a lot of. There is, however, an annoying disadvantage. All guests and allies are immune to bubble and yet the gambits are always going off. This very annoying oversight causes you to either drain your MP to nothing from endlessly casting it (and you can't get rid of guests without killing them (and then the revival gambit goes off)) or waste gambit slots to individually target each of the active main characters. Of course, there's another downside - the effect is only temporary so it often has to get recast (just put it on gambit, placing it high on the list). All of those hunts you did were for these 2 spells. While you can go without them, the area you're about to deal with is very difficult without them thanks to having inferior armor and mediocre weapons. .................................. 26.9.3 The other items **260930** .................................. The other spell, reverse, isn't of use until much later in the game. While it does have some use, it's not very much. There is another useful item available here too - the teleport stone. Buy a good chunk of them. At this point, travel between gate crystals can become quite routine so get them while you can. ...................................... 26.9.4 Adjust your gambits **260940** ...................................... Now that bubble and faith have been obtained and licensed, it's time to adjust your gambits to fill in the new gaps. See section 26.3 for details on what goes where. __ __ ___ ____ ____ _ _ ___ ____ ___ __ _ | \ / | / _ \ / ___| | _ \ | | | | / _ \ | _ \ / _ \ | \ | | | A V A | | | | | \ \ | |_| | | |_| | | | | | | |_| | | |_| | | A \ | | | |\ /| | | | | | \ \ | __/ | _ | | | | | | _ < | _ | | |\ \| | | | V | | | |_| | __\ \ | | | | | | | |_| | | | | | | | | | | | \ ' | |_| |_| \___/ |____/ |_| |_| |_| \___/ |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| \__| ################################## ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 27 Crossing into the Nabreus Deadlands **270000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ################################## .======================================================. # 27.1 The 3 ways into Mosphoran Highwaste **270100** # `======================================================` To get into the Nabreus Deadlands, you first have to get into the Mosphoran Highwaste. Before the story progress was made, Mosphoran Highwaste was inaccessible. Now it is. However, there's not 1 way to get there but 3. Each method has its pros and cons but they all lead to the same point - the gate crystal in the Babbling Vale area in the center of Mosphoran Highwaste. I'll explain them in the following subsections, along with what to do. All the methods are named after what they involve. ........................................ 27.1.1 The river boat method **270110** ........................................ The first method is great for LP, useful if you want to get Balthier and Fran to catch up on LP. It does involve a lot of waiting around for the game though, however, and a lot of back and forth movement initially. Use the moogling to teleport to the east gate and head off into the Estersand. Make sure you get a blue sky because the large number of enemies you're about to be bashing will make a strong accuracy worthwhile. Go into the Outpost. You can now defeat the wild saurian in one hit with your berserker - immobilize it and let every one rip away. Once in the Outpost, speak with Dantro, found near the fire. Remember him? He was involved with the flowering cactoid hunt. He has a favor to ask. Continue to the South Bank Village and bash enemies along your route though you don't have to go after each and every single one though. Once in the South Bank Village, head almost straight across to find a hut with someone standing just out the door. Speak to her, Dantro's wife. She has a patient she's dealing with though the completion of that quest is not a necessity for this guide. She also has another favor to ask. Return to Dantro and speak with him once more. You'll learn that something is a bit strange. Again, return to South Bank Village. This time, there's a group standing in the river and the river boat is there. Speak to the one on the dock and agree to go with Tchigri. You'll now be on the North Bank Village, but you can't leave yet. Speak to Ruksel straight ahead - Tchigri stands directly in front of him. The game will automatically return you to South Bank Village. Speak with Dantro's wife to learn about the flower. Go to the back side of the hut to find a flower. Examine it then wait about 20 seconds. When done waiting for the game to do its love for animation, since you can't skip it, lead Dran, the cactoid, to Tchigri and cross the river again. Approach the giant cactoid and, again, wait for more animation. Once you receive the 1000 gil and wyrmfire shot (how a cactus can have or even get this, I don't know), you can proceed into the west exit. Head to the north-northwest, bashing the numerous worgens and dive talons present. In the next zone, the path splits in 2 first thing - take the left route. Head into the north exit to enter the Mosphoran Highwaste. Be sure to get a blue sky (not overcast) - return to the Esterand and reenter to force another weather rerandomization. Head to the northwest to enter Babbling Vale. Save at the gate crystal present. .......................................... 27.1.2 The earth tyrant method **270120** .......................................... If you like boss fights, this is a good method to use. While it doesn't offer as much LP, it's, at least, more challenging (for those that like it), quicker, and a bit more varied. Use the moogling to teleport to the west gate. You'll find Rimzat near a sack - speak with him. He'll tell you to find Cotze. Head into the Southern Plaza (go through West Gate) and you'll find Cotze in the fountain straight ahead in the southwest corner of the fountain. He mentions of going to Northon. Go into the area near the entrance to Garamsythe Waterway and look almost due south of the entrance. Milha is there as well, the petitioner for the Wraith hunt - Northon is just a tad more south. He mentions of a windvane being near a giant cactus. Head into the Westersand (the weather doesn't matter much) and go to where the entrance to the Zertinan Caverns is and the 3 dive talons. Head into the zone exit to the north of the cave then hug the southern edge. Inspect the giant cactus here to find a wind globe. Return to West Gate to find the 3 involved grouped up - speak with one of them, any one you want. You will receive the wind vane. Return to the Westersand (again, the weather doesn't matter much) and take the north exit in the first zone, an exit you should be very familiar with if you used dustia to level up on. You're not after dustia so there's no need to go after 10% HP remaining - just continue on. Follow the obvious course to the west then around to the east. Here, if you don't have a sand storm right now, you are forced to get one. Continue straight ahead to find the earth tyrant boss (you can skip the scene). Have your berserker go unarmed to ensure accuracy and considerably increase the damage output. Also, first thing, equip the Nihopalaoa on someone and have that character hand the earth tyrant a remedy to cripple it with a ton of negative status effects. Just let your berserker rip and the earth tyrant will go down faster than you've ever seen before. Once defeated, head to the east and you'll be in the Estersand. I would suggest trying to get a blue sky here since there's a lot of enemies along the way. Head straight to the north, bashing the numerous worgens and dive talons present. In the next zone, the path splits in 2 first thing - take the left route. Head into the north exit to enter the Mosphoran Highwaste. Be sure to get a blue sky (not overcast) - return to the Esterand and reenter to force another weather rerandomization. Head to the northwest to enter Babbling Vale. Save at the gate crystal present. ..................................... 27.1.3 The chocobo method **270130** ..................................... While this method yields no LP and costs 800 gil, it's the king of all the methods as it's easily 5 times faster than all the others. For this, use the moogling to teleport to the south gate. Use the gate crystal to teleport to Nalbina Town (noted as "Nalbina Fortress"). Buy a chocobo for 800 gil from the moogle a few steps away. With the chocobo in hand, go to the guards blocking the way to find that one of them is chicken - scared of a chocobo. After plenty of jabbering, you'll find that the path is fully cleared - cross to the north. I would suggest getting a blue sky though (not overcast) since there's a lot of enemies along the way, fliers. Once you get one, head to the north-northwest. The path is almost a straight line with a few gentle curves so feel free to use the sprints the chocobo has and really zoom by. You'll eventually reach a red zone line. Simply dismount and head into Babbling Vale. Save at the gate crystal present. .=============================================. # 27.2 Luccio's great accessories **270200** # `=============================================` Regardless of the method you used to get into the Mosphoran Highwaste, everything is the same at this point until further notice. About the golden amulet (cost: 4500): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ Doubles LP gained | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | Accessories 4 | Start | | Evade 0 | > Accessories 7 | 40 | | Magick evade 0 | ^ Accessories 8 | 45 | | Strength 0 | Total | 85 | | Magick power 0 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ The golden amulet will allow all characters, even those not active, to accumulate LP at double the rate you were. If you used the slower methods where Balthier and Fran start at level 99 and you've got every license obtained (with enough LP to spare to clear the entire board all over again), this item is completely useless. For the faster methods, this will come in very handy for finally allowing Balthier and Fran to catch up. About the thief's cuffs (cost: 3000): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ Improves steal chances & amount | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | Accessories 7 | Start | | Evade 0 | > Accessories 10 | 40 | | Magick evade 0 | Total | 40 | | Strength 0 | | | | Magick power 0 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ The thief's cuffs have 2 advantages. First, the success rate of stealing goes up. Instead of a 3, 10, and 55 combination, it's 6, 30, and 80. In addition, you can also steal multiple items at once instead of just one. Basically, without the thief's cuffs, you have a 3% chance of stealing the rarest item. If that succeeds, the 10 and 55 are ignored. This means the 10% steal is actually a 9.7% chance. If that succeeds, the 55 is ignored. This means the 55 is actually a 50.635% chance. With the thief's cuffs, the rarest item is 6% instead of 3, double. However, instead of just stopping there if it succeeds, the other items are checked as well. This means you can have up to 3 items in a single steal instead of just 1. In fact, the odds of getting a successful steal go from 60.715% to 86.84%. Obviously, if the steal misses, you can keep trying until it works but once something is stolen, the enemy has no more. Thus, if you steal constantly until you get that item, the actual odds are actually a little higher - the order being (approximately), 4.94, 15.98, and 83.4% without the thief's cuffs and 6.91, 34.55, and 92.12% with the thief's cuffs. Thus, the rarest item improves by about 40%, the middle item improves by more than double, and the most common hardly improves at all. After saving, speak with Luccio, the shop owner to the east-northeast. He has 2 major things you should get: the golden amulet and the thief's cuffs. In addition, you can buy a good supply of remedies to put that nihopalaoa to great use. I would suggest having at least 10 remedies, 20 preferrably. You can have more though, but 20 is a good quantity to have for the most part. You might prefer 50 or even 80. Feel free to pick up any other items Luccio has. The nishijin belt is a good choice too, though not really needed for this guide (since it became accessible too late in the game). .====================================. # 27.3 To the Salikawood **270300** # `====================================` You won't be seeing a shop again for a very long time so make sure you get all the stuff you can now while you still can. When you're ready, head to the northwest, heading to the far northwesternmost zone line as it's the only way to continue farther north. The first python you deal with is what I often call the "level up python" or the "level up snake" as it's used a lot in the optimization method. The path here splits in 2 - pick a route, any route. I prefer the upper route as it's got chests present and you're less likely to have to deal with fire elemental. Plus, the vultures are very good for gil as their loot drops of a very high value. The black cowl is an upgrade to your feathered cap (from the traveler's garb set), but it's only a 3% drop. You don't need it, however, as there's something far better that you can get. The main plus with the black cowl is that you get a speed boost. Although rocks block the southern exit that you can strike to create a path that way, you don't need to go there. Head north. This zone is one of my favorites because it's one of the best areas in the game to level up and get fast LP. It's the leveling ground for the optimization method. The reason is simple - the enemies are in high density and there's kind of a roundabout as well which helps with the 6-enemy limit and getting a constant supply of enemies. Still, some of the pythons may not always appear. You should be able to defeat everything here in one hit anyway, especially with the berserker. Feel free to bash the enemies around here for close to about 20 LP (40 with the golden amulet) and a lot of gil. You might be back here again for leveling up Balthier and Fran. Either way, continue north following the obvious path then cross the bridge to enter the Salikawood. .=========================================. # 27.4 Through the Salikawood **270400** # `=========================================` ................................................. 27.4.1 Bone mail for unarmed warriors **270410** ................................................. When you first enter the Salikawood, you'll encounter a green-life-bar wyrdhare popping out of the ground. Just attack it for a quick license point. Ahead are 4 pumpkinheads that like to add status effects to you. Just pseudo run and let your berserker do the work. They tend to be sleeping on the job quite often though. Just pass through. In the next zone, you'll find the path splitting in 2 and a save crystal. If you want to get the bone mail for your unarmed warriors to get even more powerful, save at the save crystal. If you don't want the bone mail, skip the rest of this part and go to section 27.4.2 below. From the blue save crystal, head straight then take the east route when the path splits, avoiding the bridge leading west. Head north at the next split then east at the turn. You'll find the chest in question very near the zone boundary leading farther east. The chest appears 45% of the time, has a 40% chance of containing an item, and the usual 50% chance of it being what you want. This means you have an actual chance of 9%. If the chest isn't there, contains gil, or is a hi-potion, quit and reload to try again. Your other option is going after the wild saurians just before the entrance to Mosphoran Highwaste, but it's a 1% drop and not worth it. The chest method is much faster and easier. I would only suggest getting 1 bone mail, 2 at the most, one for each of your unarmed damage dealers. About the bone mail (cost: found in chest (5900 base)): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ Weak to holy, 50% dark resist | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 34 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | Heavy armor 3 | Start | | Evade 0 | ^ Light armor 5 | 25 | | Magick evade 0 | > Light armor 6 | 30 | | Strength 6 | > Heavy armor 5 | 40 | | Magick power 0 | Total | 95 | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ The bone mail seems iffy for effectiveness, but it's actually very useful. First, you'll get a massive defense boost which will help for what's to come next. Second, you'll add 2 more points on strength compared to the golden armor which will make your unarmed characters much more powerful. Third, the damage reduction from dark magick will help. Although it makes the character weak to holy, it's extremely rare to find holy-elemental attacks so that downside is hardly even a downside at all. Plus, even if it was used, you'll have 9999 HP (thanks to bubble) and the 9999 damage limit to protect you from instant death anyway (and what you face wouldn't do 5000 damage anyway. Once you do get the bone mail, license it and equip it on your berserker so he/she can seriously dish out some major damage. Return to the blue save crystal and continue on. If you want another, save, quit, reload, and repeat the process for more. If you got all that you want, saving is optional upon your last one but continue on. ...................................... 27.4.2 To the gate crystal **270420** ...................................... Cross the bridge. Ahead are more pumpkinheads - dispose of them then take the left path, crossing the bridge. Follow the obvious route until the path splits in 2 - take the right route heading north. If spee shows up along your route (in one of the dead ends), equip the nihopalaoa and hand it a remedy and just let your berserker rip away. The next zone is a bit confusing as it splits in several directions. In general, just head to the north-northeast. You'll find the zone exit heading east. In this zone, another split happens, but the path should be obvious - save at that gate crystal. ......................................... 27.4.3 Dealing with King Bomb **270430** ......................................... A boss fight is coming up, an optional boss for the game's story, but required to get to where you need to be. Have your berserker go unarmed. In addition, first thing, equip the nihopalaoa on someone then hand king bomb a remedy to cripple it with a ton of negative status effects. From there, just let the berserker rip away leaving the boss mostly helpless. Starting to get a new idea on how to handle bosses and tough rare enemies in this game? Yep, just equip the nihopalaoa and hand it a remedy to cripple it as far as it can be crippled. ........................................... 27.4.4 To the Nabreus Deadlands **270440** ........................................... You're now almost there. Continue straight until the path splits - take the right route, heading north. The path splits twice more in the next zone - just take the route leading north in each case. You'll reach the Nabreus Deadlands here. .========================================================. # 27.5 To the Nabreus Deadlands Gate Crystal **270500** # `========================================================` Things are now about to get tough. If you haven't been going unarmed for your berserker, do so now as you'll deal significantly more damage than the burning bow with the fiery arrows will do, easily. This is because these enemies have a high defense, typically around 30 (one enemy pushes 51). This means they're absorbing almost half of the damage your burning bow with the fiery arrows could be doing. Going unarmed means they're only absorbing about 28% of the damage. You'll notice a huge difference in damage going unarmed for this area. The region is also packed with undead enemies so the "foe: undead = cura" gambit will really come in handy. Of course, everything here, except one enemy, is vulnerable to immobilize so immobilize and keep back, letting your berserker work wonders. The crusaders and dead bones here tend to have high evasion as well. However, with immobilize, you can prevent them from evading attacks, really helping. When you first enter, you'll be introduced to one of the game's most annoying enemies - the baknamy. Note that they are around level 44. These enemies are no joke. They can very well do 1000 damage and should they decide to use a fang, they can do several thousand damage. If you're having difficulties, enable your protect gambits. If you're still having difficulties, enable your shell gambit as well or raise your healing threshold. They generally aren't that difficult to deal with, but they can be a pain. If you can handle these quite easily without protect or shell, then you'll have little trouble dealing with what's to come. The baknamies are vulnerable to immobilize which will really help with hitting them. Just immobilize and keep the leader away if you can. Blind and silence also work, though silence isn't of significant use in this area. Either way, follow the obvious path. There's a story scene involving the back history to this area. Basch warns "if you value you life, it's best we turn back". Ignore this advice as you're well prepared for this area, despite the poor armor. With 12,000 HP and a healer that can restore 4000+ HP to all in a single cast, you're definitely ready. I've gone through this area with only 2 characters and only 1 mist charge in much the same way and it wasn't all that difficult. Here, you've got 3 characters and 3 mist charges which makes things even easier. You'll soon run into a zone that's quite empty with 4 crusaders present. These enemies are highly evasive so immobilize them to prevent them from evading your attacks (I didn't think of that when I made the videos for this point). They do have long range attacks, however, so you can't just keep your distance and call it good, but at least preventing evasion is very helpful considering they tend to evade frequently. Cura also works wonders on them as they're undead. Head to the east and take the northern of the exits leading to the east. Hug the northern edge, getting whatever is along the way and cross into the zone to the north. Whether you take the left or right route to continue north doesn't matter as they join up in the same spot. Beware of leamonde entite in this area though. This entite is actually one of the easiest of all the entites, especially once you get the black mask where it's almost completely harmless. Fearga is quite annoying as it pretty much completely drains all of your MP - just use charge to restore some. Continue into the northern exit. Here, you'll find a gate crystal. However, it's not what you think it is. If you were to attempt to use it, you'll be instantly attacked! Touch it and quickly separate your healer. For the most part, just let your unarmed berserker rip away. Going unarmed will result in significantly more damage, nearly 2 1/2 times that of even the yoichi bow. Crystal bug absorbs fire so the yoichi bow is the best choice, easily. Once the crystal bug is defeated, the real crystal will appear - use it to save. __ _ ___ ____ ____ ___ ____ _____ ___ | \ | | / _ \ | _ \ | _ \ / _ \ | _ \ |_ _| / _ \ | A \ | | | |_| | | |_| | | |_| | | |_| | | | | | | | | |_| | | |\ \| | | _ | | _ < | _ < | _ | | | | | | | | _ | | | \ ' | | | | | | |_| | | | | | | | | | | |_| | _| |_ | | | | |_| \__| |_| |_| |____/ |_| |_| |_| |_| |____/ |_____| |_| |_| ################################## ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 28 Nabreus Deadland's 7 high-end items **280000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ################################## .==================================================. # 28.1 Common chaining techniques used **280100** # `==================================================` Now is the moment you've been waiting for! It's time to start getting some of that end-game equipment I've advertised since the beginning that's available only 1/3 of the way through the game. Getting this stuff will get you so far ahead of what's expected for the story that you'll be pretty much invincible and unstoppable for quite a long while. That's powerleveling at its finest! You've gotten this far, you deserve a big reward! Because the bulk of the methods involve chaining enemies to get rare drops to be more common, there are some techniques that common in many cases. I'll explain these techniques in the following subsections. Within each header of the following sections is a recommendation level (from 1 to 5 stars where 5 is the most recommended and 1 is purely optional), the method of obtaining the item, the drop rate (based on chain level 1, the following part is based on chain level 4), a rank compared to the best in the group (weapons focus on attack power within a set (e.g. rods, staves, swords, bows, etc.) , armor focuses on magick resist for helms and defense for body armor), and a suggested rank where other aspects are considered as well. This way, you can see just how high end this equipment really is. .................................... 28.1.1 The basic routine **280110** .................................... The easiest way to chain any enemy is to pass through a zone that has a save crystal present. On one side, first thing, you have one type of enemy. On the other side, you have another (or maybe the same one) but the save crystal zone has no enemies. Simply get the enemy you want to chain right along the way first thing. When defeated, pass through the zone with the save crystal and return, repeating as needed. Ignore the loot in full until the chain reaches level 4. ............................................ 28.1.2 The path-clearing routine **280120** ............................................ The path-clearing routine is the most common of all the methods used. More than half of the equipment involves the use of this method. In the event the zone with the enemy you want to change is not next to the zone with a save crystal, you will have to clear a path. For this, defeat the enemies along the route for getting 2 zones away, cutting a fairly wide path. These enemies will eventually begin to respawn after 3 minutes, but after they've respawned the second time, they will stop respawning. This, in a way, makes this middle zone much like the save crystal zone. While waiting for the respawns to cleared, feel free to grab the loot of the enemy you're chaining - the chain will inevitably get broken anyway while waiting for the respawns to stop so that won't affect anything. However, as soon as you've defeated the second respawning of the junk enemies, ignore the loot until chain level 4 is reached. ......................................................... 28.1.3 The junk-enemies-along-the-way routine **280130** ......................................................... Sometimes, to chain an enemy, you have junk enemies along the way and they need to be dealt with accordingly. There are a few ways to do that. The first is to set up your gambits so that you will only target an enemy affected by a very specific condition such as silence. As for junk enemies though, enemies unrelated to the chain, you will have to either ignore them or put them out of order with one of the 4 disabling status effects - stop (you don't directly have it (nihopalaoa with chronos tear or remedy is the only way)), sleep (not recommended until you get sleepga due to the long pause before you can move again, a bug in the game, an inconsistency), immobilize (you definitely know this one), and disable (not reliable as immunity to it is quite common and it's harder to apply - the enemy will still follow you though be careful). Most enemies tend to be vulnerable to immobilize so that's often the best choice. Don't know what an enemy is vulnerable to? Equip the nihopalaoa and hand it a remedy. When the remedy connects, check that enemy's status effects carefully and note which of the 4 disabling status effects it has and use that one. By ignoring the disabled junk enemies, you can easily keep your chain going. ............................................... 28.1.4 The teleporting enemy glitch **280140** ............................................... The last of the methods has mixed usefulness and is more difficult to use. The only condition is that the enemy must be the type that can teleport. If you've used dustia to level up with, you used this chaining method. For best results, lure a teleporting enemy to a zone boundary then attack it, defeating it. Once defeated, immediately cross the zone boundary and return to find another one. Defeat it and cross again. Repeat until chain level 4, ignoring the loot until then. Once chain level 4 is reached, disable your leader's gambits entirely so you have as much control on movement as you can. When the enemy is about to be defeated, have the leader stand on the side of it and keep a close eye on the target's HP. Pause the action by bringing up the battle menu with wait mode used and be ready for the moment of the final blow. Once the final blow lands, pause the action, let the loot coin drop, unpause then quickly pause again while moving toward your target to ensure you grab the loot and once you have it, immediately cross the zone boundary. It takes a bit of practice but it's well worth the effort. Continue as far as you want. Care for a 100-chain on evil spirit? .====================================================. # 28.2 The powerful and evasive defender **280200** # `====================================================` Recommendation: *** Method of obtaining: basic Drop rate: 1% (5%) Rank: 6th best greatsword Suggested rank: 5th About the defender (cost: dropped from enemy (13,000 base)): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ None | | Attack power 91 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | Bows 4 | Start | | Evade 35 | v Axes & hammers 3 | 25 | | Magick evade 0 | > Axes & hammers 4 | 30 | | Strength 0 | > Axes & hammers 5 | 35 | | Magick power 0 | > Greatswords 1 | 50 | | Vitality 0 | > Katana 3 | 45 | | Speed 0 | v Greatswords 2 | 70 | +-------------------+ Total | 255 | +-------------------------+-------+ The greatswords haven't even been introduced in the normal story progress yet and here you are with needing the second greatswords license. This weapon will greatly improve on damage. While going unarmed actually still does more damage, the benefit behind going after this weapon is the evasion bonus, a monstrous 35. Yep, it blocks more than 1/3 of incoming attacks, quite significant and definitely fitting for the name. The problem, however, is that a lot of enemies, especially later on, tend to ignore evasion so this benefit is not really all that advantageous. To obtain this item, continue north from the save crystal then to the right. Do not go left as there's a risk of a baknamy interfering and breaking the chain. Go around the path present in the eastern area then cast raise on the leynirs, since they're vulnerable to it. The leynirs are undead so raise causes instant death for them. Cura also works well as an alternative. There are actually supposed to be 3 leynirs here, but one of them tends to be absent because of the 6-enemy limit. To get it to appear, get that odd island to the east to be completely off the minimap then return. .===============================================. # 28.3 The high-HP crown of laurels **280300** # `===============================================` Recommendation: **** Method of obtaining: path clearing Drop rate: 3% (12%) Rank: ] 3rd best light armor helm [ Suggested rank: :] 2nd [: About the crown of laurels (cost: dropped from enemy (7500 base)): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ None | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 680 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 42 | Mystic armor 3 | Start | | Evade 0 | > Mystic armor 5 | 25 | | Magick evade 0 | > Mystic armor 7 | 30 | | Strength 0 | > Mystic armor 9 | 35 | | Magick power 0 | ^ Mystic armor 10 | 50 | | Vitality 0 | > Mystic armor 11 | 50 | | Speed 0 | > Light armor 10 | 50 | +-------------------+ Total | 240 | +-------------------------+-------+ The crown of laurels adds a huge amount of extra HP. Do note that bubble will double that 680 to 1360. The 42 on magick resist is more than double what the best armor you can currently buy from a shop. The reason for getting this is the extra HP. It may seem like it would be best to just continue to the right, like I did in my videos, it's actually more efficient to head up to mystic armor 10 as there's an item you'll be getting covered in that license, along with mystic armor 11. Yeah, as advertised, pretty much the top of the line. The crown of laurels is a 3% drop from crusader. You passed through that zone along the way to the save crystal. In the zone before, to the east, you'll need to clear a path and deal with the respawns as usual. For the most part, just immobilize crusader then finish it off with either your berserker or cura. They are immune to instant death from raise, however. .==================================================. # 28.4 The troublesome minerva bustier **280400** # `==================================================` Recommendation: **** Method of obtaining: basic Drop rate: 1% (5%) Rank: 4th best light armor body armor Suggested rank: ] 3rd [ About the minerva bustier (cost: dropped from enemy (12,400 base)): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ None | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 610 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 40 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | Light armor 10 | Start | | Evade 0 | Total | 0 | | Magick evade 0 | | | | Strength 0 | | | | Magick power 0 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ The minerva bustier adds a considerable amount of HP as well, 1220 extra with bubble. In just this and the crown of laurels, that's a whole 2580 extra HP added (with bubble - 1290 without), a fairly significant amount. The main reason for getting it, however, is for the defense boost, twice as powerful as the best you can get from a shop, a huge difference. With this, you can now render the enemies in Giza Plains harmless (defense-ignoring skills aside). Obtaining this item is quite tough but well worth it. The reason is that the enemy that drops it, foobar, is an unfriendly one that isn't all that easy to get. It likes using mythril bubbles which prevents you from using anything but regular attacks for quite a while, and, the worst part, causes confusion. Phantasmal gaze also causes confusion. Of course, confusion with a very powerful weapon against poor armor can really spell trouble. The fix for that is simple though. Any time a character gets confusion, equip the weakest weapon you have on that character (do not go unarmed). Weakest weapon already used by an inactive member? Remove it and use that. If it's already in use by another confused character, just use the next weakest weapon. This way, you can keep damage to a minimum, even getting 0s for someone with the traveler's vestment or golden armor. Once confusion goes away (as from esuna taking effect or the character hits him/herself), reequip what you originally had. Ignore the poison though as it's not that important though it will get esunaed away eventually. Do note that the berserker is inherently immune to confusion because berserk and confusion cannot coexist. The best way to deal with mythril bubbles is to use a spell with a long duration just before it takes effect. There are 2 options. The first is the offensive option. Give your healer the hermes sandals and be sure to raise the "foe: undead = cura" gambit to the top to ensure it goes through, dealing damage to foobar (since it's undead). The second method seems more of a waste, but it's even easier. Start charging cura just before you know foobar appears and let cura go through. This way, regardless of the route you used, if mythril bubbles is used, foobar has to wait for the effects of cura to finish and while it waits, your berserker is ripping away, destroying it. If foobar is defeated before cura's effects are done, mythril bubbles will have no effect at all. In addition, consider having 2 berserkers for this. This way only the healer has the risk of confusion (unless berserk decides to expire just before mythril bubbles takes effect). The reason this works is because berserk and confusion cannot coexist. Because there's only one foobar in easy reach, this will take a long time to chain. You'd have a lot of junk enemies to deal with and quite often, the 6-enemy limit will only get in the way for the others. This means you only have 1 foobar available. Only leamonde entite will get in the way. When it does, just equip the weakest weapons you have and quickly get 2 zones away. .===============================================. # 28.5 The magickal golden skullcap **280500** # `===============================================` Recommendation: ***** Method of obtaining: stealing Drop rate: 3% (6% with thief's cuffs) Rank: :] 2nd best mystic armor helm [: Suggested rank: :] 2nd [: About the golden skullcap (cost: stolen from enemy (16,000 base)): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ None | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 58 | Mystic armor 11 | Start | | Evade 0 | Total | 0 | | Magick evade 0 | | | | Strength 0 | | | | Magick power 10 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 3 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ The golden skullcap is almost the best of all the mystic armor helms, perhaps the best. It's only behind the circlet, and a very close second. The circlet has 60 magick resist +2 on strength, and +10, for comparison. Strength doesn't serve much on magick users so the speed boost is what makes this almost a tie with the circlet. Still, for only 1/3 of the way through the game, this is really, really out there, more than triple the magick resist that you can buy from the shops! What's more is that, when this is equipped along with the maximillian (coming soon) and the dawn shard, you can make spells like fira, thundara, and blizzara completely harmless, doing 0 damage. This is nice on the berserker. From going after the crown of laurels, you already have this license. While there are several dead bones scattered around, the source of the golden skull cap, the best place is in a secret passage, a path not marked on the minimap or even the main map. From the save crystal, head south then go west, hugging the northernmost part of the zone. In an area well hidden by super tall grass (ever heard of grass reaching 30 feet high?), you'll find the secret passage. There is a surprise foobar present, but there's a very high chance the 6-enemy limit gets in the way, preventing it from appearing. Regardless, avoid the area to the left and stick to the right following the obvious path that's present. At the end, you'll begin seeing a lot of dead bones present. When you cross into the next zone, adjust one character's gambits so that, instead of attacking, he/she steals. Consider having your party leader doing some stealing as well. The party leader, the healer in my case, should have the flame staff equipped. The flame staff is decent enough as you'll pretty much entirely be using cura for attacking. Here's a gambit setup I suggest for your thief, of which I've given to my status effect keeper: Status effect keeper (your main thief): 1. Ally: any = phoenix down 2. Ally: any = bubble 3. Ally: HP < 40% = cura 4. Ally: any = esuna 5. Foe: farthest = attack 6. Ally: any = shell (disabled) 7. Ally: [healer] = faith 8. Ally: any = protect (disabled) 9. Self = faith 10. Self = libra (optional - one character needs it) 11. Ally: [damage dealer] = berserk The first 3 are the same as before. Because the dead bones tend to use flash quite often, causing blindness to pretty much everyone, removing blindness becomes more important than usual. If no one needs revival, bubble is active, no one needs emergency healing, and no one has been blinded, the thief will just steal, always targeting the enemy that's the farthest away. This seems strange, but it tends to significantly increase the number of enemies that get robbed. With "foe: nearest", the thief will just keep stealing from the same enemy. With "foe: farthest", the thief will not be targeting the same enemy unless it's the only one in the range of the gambits meaning he/she is off to a different enemy. For the most part, 2 gambits have been moved. This area has 25 dead bones enemies present, all in such a very confined space. In fact, if you move forward a small amount from when the first dead bones appears, another one will appear. Have the party leader steal from the closest dead bones and have the thief steal from the next closest one. By using manual input and doing the split like this, you have a high chance of scoring a steal each time, speeding up the process. Let your berserker rip away and your healer heal, err, damage, away. As you continue forward a small amount, after destroying the first 2, you'll get 3 more. Have the party leader steal from the closest one as usual and your thief steal from the next closest, the middle one. Ahead are 2 more and then 2 more. After this, however, the main party begins. Rush forward and a lot of dead bones will appear. Have the party leader target the one on the inside edge (left) of the path and continue rushing ahead. This way, cura will target 5 dead bones at once. Just let your gambits go off from here, wandering around as your berserker tears these things up, your healer goes crazy on cura, and your thief goes at work stealing. When it seems like you've cleared the area (boy was that intense!), check around again to see if you missed any. If nothing shows up, return. You may get some respawns if you took rather long (at least 3 minutes). In fact, you may even prefer to stick around a little bit just to get the respawns as it's a lot faster than having to run through that junk zone again. You're not after chaining them though this is the best place to go after a 999 chain, the maximum, and my videos show this. When done dealing with any respawns, cross the middle zone and return. Chances are, if you went after the respawns, this middle zone will have fully respawned its enemies, as if you got 2 zones away. That only happens if you haven't visited that zone for more than 5 minutes. Again, it's not chaining that you're after, it's stealing. Since this is the best mystic armor helm you can get until reach the Pharos at the end of the game, I strongly suggest getting 6 of them. The +3 on speed is a nice plus. .================================================. # 28.6 The dark-absorbing black mask **280600** # `================================================` Recommendation: ***** Method of obtaining: path clearing Drop rate: 1% (5%) Rank: 4th best mystic armor helm Suggested rank: ] 3rd [ About the black mask (cost: stolen from enemy (12,400 base)): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ None | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 53 | Mystic armor 10 | Start | | Evade 0 | Total | 0 | | Magick evade 0 | | | | Strength 0 | | | | Magick power 8 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ The black mask may not be as decent on magick resist or the boost on magick power, it's a very useful item in a different way. The key benefit that makes this item worthwhile is that it absorbs dark element. What that means is, instead of taking damage from darkra or darkga (dark is absorbed in full from the magick resist and doesn't count), you actually get healed. Thus, if you're facing a lot of enemies that tend to use darkra or darkga, it's best that you use the black mask. There is a hidden advantage to the black mask as well, one that seems very strange and bizarre. If you equip all 3 characters with a black mask, you can have someone with an "ally: HP < 70% = attack" gambit to heal with if your equipped weapon is dark elemental. Yep, get a hold of a ninja sword (especially the yagyu dark blade) or the fomalhaut with dark shot and you can keep healed through attacking. It's very strange, yes, but it's very useful should enemies decide to use actions that prevent anything but physical attacks from getting through. For long fights like Yiazmat, the yagyu darkblade can serve as a backup for healing when MP runs low - just have that character constantly attack him/herself. One effective use in this is to equip a character constantly under decoy with a black mask and a dark-elemental weapon of some sort. Have this character constantly shoot him/herself with the dark shot to keep healed even while flare and the like are going off. While I have yet to confirm the effectiveness of this trick, it can be quite useful from what I can tell. To obtain the black mask, head south from the save crystal and continue south. Hug the eastern wall as you continue south to ignore the bulk of the junk enemies along the way. Head to the west when you reach the southernmost part. This area is the key area in focus. See those 2 banshees? That will be your source but there's a problem. Hidden along the wall is a foobar. For now, it's okay to deal with since the zone to the west has 5 baknamies that need to be dealt with. Clear this zone of the baknamies and the respawns. For the best results, use the defenders (or the yoichi bow on the leader) to destroy the backnamies. You can also immobilize them to prevent them from evading for which they do quite frequently. When dealing with the banshees, fully heal your highest-magick-power character and raise magick power as high as you can. The golden skullcap, traveler's vestment, and flame staff are a great combo as, when fully healed, you're almost guaranteed to defeat the banshees in one hit with cura. In the event cura doesn't defeat them, from faith expiring just as you execute the cast or just being unlucky, pseudo run and get another cura going. Once the zone with the baknamies has been cleared, reduce your party to just one character, your magick user. Turn off all attack gambits as, chances are, when you get at collecting the loot drops, foobar will join in and you don't want to be attacking it. Do only manual input for attacking. Keep the faith and libra gambits active though. As a tip, when you are back tracking through the middle zone, cast faith manually. This will reset the timer and ensure that faith will not expire just as you're attacking the banshees with cura. If foobar joins in, blind it and run from it. Foobar is immune to all 4 disabling status effects (that is, immobilize, disable, stop, and sleep) so you can't stop it from attacking if it goes after you. You can, however, still cripple it some with blind. Just hold R2 and run from it. If you get hit with confuse from foobar's mythril bubbles, just equip the weakest weapon you have until confusion goes away, often from the character attacking him/herself though foobar can help too if its physical attack connects. .==============================================. # 28.7 The poison-inflicting yakei **280700** # `==============================================` Recommendation: * Method of obtaining: path clearing Drop rate: 1% (5%) Rank: 4th best katana Suggested rank: ] 3rd [ About the yakei (cost: dropped from enemy (12,500 base)): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ Adds "poison" status on contact | | Attack power 74 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | Katana 3 | Start | | Evade 5 | Total | 0 | | Magick evade 0 | | | | Strength 0 | | | | Magick power 0 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ The yakei is the most powerful katana you can get until you have access to both the "Battle on the Big Bridge" hunt and the site 11 key (from the Phon Coast after completing the events in Arcades). Although the attack power is fairly low compared to the defender or even going unarmed, katana have the extra advantage of tending to combo frequently. The masamune is the king of all weapons in the game (thanks in part to the damage limit). The fact the yakei adds the poison status effect to its victim can be of use, it's not that important that you get the yakei. Feel free to get it though. From licensing the defender, you already got this license. To get the yakei, you need to chain the baknamies in the zone you had to clear while going after the black mask. The middle zone is the zone with all the crusaders present. You only need to get the 2 on the eastern side - the one that's obviously along your path and the other that's a little past where you need to go (as this one can sneak up fairly close). Once 2 zones away, return and clear out the baknamies again. The best way to deal with the baknamies is to equip a ranged weapon on your leader and go heavy at immobilizing them. Because the baknamies have ranged attacks, namely the very powerful fangs that can do 4500+ damage, immobilize isn't being used for a safer way to get them. It's, instead, being used to prevent them from dodging attacks as they have a high evasion. When you can finally max the chain level, be sure to quickly grab any loot drops because the baknamies will take it. If you were to ignore a piece of loot, any vanished baknamies will go after it without unvanishing and you'll soon see a "Baknamy B steals your loot" appearing. Once no loot remains, they'll unvanish and go on the attack. The baknamies grabbing the loot has no effect on the slowing of the chain level increase. Immobilizing them also helps prevent this, provided they're far enough away. .============================================. # 28.8 The rather weak power rod **280800** # `============================================` Recommendation: ** Method of obtaining: junk enemies along the way Drop rate: 3% (12%) Rank: 4th best rod Suggested rank: ] 3rd [ About the power rod (cost: dropped from enemy (4500 base)): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ None | | Attack power 44 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 15 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | Rods 1 | Start | | Evade 6 | v Staves 2 | 25 | | Magick evade 0 | v Maces 2 | 20 | | Strength 0 | < Maces 3 | 25 | | Magick power 3 | < Rods 3 | 30 | | Vitality 0 | Total | 100 | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ The power rod is quite a decent weapon, but it's usefulness is very poor for a while. The cause for the poor usefulness is that the best HP-damaging magicks you can get at this point in the game are so weak that they pretty much can't damage or barely even damage the enemies you're dealing with. It's not from elemental effects (fire on a fire-weak enemy), it's from nothing more than magick resist being higher than the magick's attack power. Fire, blizzard, and thunder have an attack power of just 25 (water is 37, dark is 46, and aero is 52). Pretty much every enemy here has a magick resist of 29 or higher which means fire, blizzard, and thunder are completely harmless to them, even if weak against that element. The only worthy attack magick is cura (only when used on the undead). Cura is defense-ignoring and when fully boosted with the golden skullcap, flame staff, and traveler's vestment, you could get as high as 8000 damage on the undead with cura. The 15 bonus on MP (turning into 45 with the 3 mist charges) is pretty nice though. To obtain the power rod, you cannot have a berserker and you have to set things up so that you specifically go after focalor, the source of the power rod. Thus, disable all berserk and attack gambits except for the main one. Change the target condition to something like "foe: status = silence". Focalor is vulnerable to silence. This way, your characters will only target an enemy when it has one of these status effects. Although slow is the most beneficial overall, the problem is that you don't have access to a "foe: status = slow" gambit. Silence, at least, does last forever. It's immune to blind so that's not an option. Head to the south and wait for berserk to expire or bash extra enemies for extra loot (and thus gil) and LP while waiting. When ready, cast slow (or silence, whichever your condition you chose is) on focalor and watch the others go after it. If the banshee shows up during this, just immobilize it. If you unexpectedly get foobar into the mix, blind it (with a nonleader character) and immediately cross the zone boundary and get 2 zones away to respawn everything. If leamonde entite joins in (there's a good chance of that happening), immobilize it and keep your distance (equipping black masks helps as leamonde entite will regularly heal you instead). __ _ _____ ___ ____ ___ _ _ ___ _ | \ | | | ___| / _ \ | _ \ / _ \ | | | | / _ \ | | | A \ | | | |__ | | |_| | |_| | | | | | | |_| | | | | | | | | |\ \| | | __| | | _ | _ < | | | | | _ | | | | | | | | | \ ' | | |___ | |_| | | | | | | |_| | | | | | | |_| | | |___ |_| \__| |_____| \___/ |_| |_| \___/ |_| |_| \___/ |_____| ######################################### ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 29 The 4 ultimates in the Necrohol of Nabudis **290000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ######################################### .================================================. # 29.1 About the Necrohol of Nabudis **290100** # `================================================` The Necrohol of Nabudis is a very difficult area. While getting to it is easy enough, the place itself has enemies very close to but just shy of level 50. They are very powerful. If you haven't prepared much, you'll have a difficult time. If you spent the time going after at least the golden skullcap or crown of laurels (pick one) and the minerva bustier (for HP and defense), this place is actually pretty easy. Bubble and faith will help significantly as well. Immobilize also works very well too as the 2 dominant enemies (baknamy, near the entrances to the place, and elvoret, in the middle) are vulnerable to it, both of which are highly evasive. Since the baknamies here have several new skills, including the use of magicks, you should consider activating shell. The main reason for this is the "death" spell that they have. It's not very common, fortunately, but shell will cut the already low success rate (from your very high vitality) of that in half. Although shell will make it much more difficult to add berserk, it at least helps more than it causes problems in this place. When the baknamies use pyromania or sandstorm, magicks won't work until the effects are done. While waiting, you might as well do something and just attack. Initially, there are a ton of baknamies along the way. Elvorets and babils are in the middle 1/3 of the Necrohol of Nabudis. The third zone is the focus point for all 4 pieces of equipment. Every case involves the use of the middle zone, the third one. Once 20 enemies have been defeated (not just baknamies, but anything and only while in the Necrohol of Nabudis), you'll get an oversoul to appear. Oversoul loves using annul which causes the target character to lose all MP - simply charge (don't charge if it's your berserker - he/she will recover MP insanely fast). When 15 more have been defeated, another oversoul appears. The next appears after 10, 5, 3, and then 1 more enemies. Once the 6th one has been disposed of, helvinek appears, a teleporting, deep-violet horse-like enemy with tentacles for a mane appears. This beast has over 100,000 HP and loves using status effect magicks. The worst one is disablega. When that affects one of the support characters, have the other support character immediately hand over a remedy (no nihopalaoa!) so that way it takes effect. You don't want 3 disabled characters that can't do anything for a while. While you could bring in Penelo and get esuna going, I prefer to use the remedy route as it goes off in an instant. If you have 3 disabled characters and don't want to or can't bring in someone to fix it, quickly run to the nearest zone exit and cross in. Once in that zone, wait about 3 seconds then cross back again. Wait 3 seconds and cross. Repeat until disable expires. Once helvinek is defeated, you won't have to worry about any more oversouls or another helvinek. You will need helvinek, but not at this point. See section 28.1 for details on the fields below as the system is unchanged. .=============================================================. # 29.2 The overpowered, power-wasted zodiac spear **290200** # `=============================================================` Recommendation: ***** Method of obtaining: treasure Drop rate: 100% (100%) Rank: =:] 1st best spear [:= Suggested rank: =:] 1st [:= About the zodiac spear (cost: obtained from chest (0 base)): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ None | | Attack power 150 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | Katana 3 | Start | | Evade 8 | > Katana 4 | 50 | | Magick evade 0 | ^ Sagittarius | 120 | | Strength 0 | > Zodiac spear | 235 | | Magick power 0 | Total | 405 | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ The zodiac spear is the game's most powerful weapon for raw attack power. On a berserked character, 9999 damage is practically inevitable, even without bravery and focus taking effect. With this weapon, you'll really learn to absolutely hate that damage limit. You could very well be doing 11,000+ damage on these enemies, able to defeat them in one hit if it weren't for that pointless damage limit. The zodiac spear, however, is only present in that chest if you ignored the 3 chests I told you to earlier during the advancement of the story in section 11 (and continuing to avoid the one in front of Old Dalan's place throughout). When you reach the third zone in the Necrohol of Nabudis and you see the path splitting into a northern and western route (if coming from the east), take the northern route and hug the western wall. You'll find a room with 16 treasure chests present. Take the one slightly to the left directly in front to obtain the zodiac spear. Equip it on your berserker to really significantly speed things up. .========================================================. # 29.3 The best heavy armor, the maximillian **290300** # `========================================================` Recommendation: ***** Method of obtaining: clear path Drop rate: 1% (5%) Rank: :] 2nd best heavy armor [: Suggested rank: =:] 1st [:= About the maximillian (cost: dropped from enemy (17,000 base)): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ None | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 58 | License | LP | | Magick resist 1 | Light armor 10 | Start | | Evade 0 | v Light armor 8 | 35 | | Magick evade 0 | v Light armor 9 | 35 | | Strength 9 | > Heavy armor 7 | 50 | | Magick power 0 | > Heavy armor 9 | 60 | | Vitality 0 | Total | 180 | | Speed 6 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ The maximillian is often considered the game's best armor simply because of the huge speed bonus it provides. It adds a considerable amount of strength and a tiny boost on magick resist as well. The maximillian is perfect for bow users. Once you get a maximillian, equip it immediately. The maximillian is by far a very impressive suit of armor. It'll make the enemies in Mosphoran Highwaste completely harmless outside defense-ignoring skills (power stun and kamikaze) and the annoying fire elemental (golden skullcap + dawn shard can render it harmless outside the status effects). They'll only do 0 damage. To get the maximillian, for which you should get 6 of them so that every character can get one, you must clear the middle zone, the third zone, of enemies and respawns. Once cleared, there are 4 worthy-of-getting elvorets (the source of the maximillian) in the east and 2 more in the west. Level up the chain to level 4 then grab the loot. When a maximillian drops, put the first one on your berserker to really crank out more damage potential. The eastern route is the best but there's a trap in a very bad spot that makes it nearly impossible to avoid since you can't get float. What I do is that I begin charging up cura when about a half second away from triggering it and deliberately triggering it. This way, cura is pretty much ready to go to heal as needed before any combat is done. From there, deal with the elvorets. Immobilizing them helps as the elvorets have a high evasion. While there are more elvorets present, there's a hidden zombie warlock present beyond the initial 4 that will only result in breaking the chain if you get too close. If you see it, immediately equip the weakest weapon you have and get out of there as soon as you can. The western route only has 2 elvorets and a not-so-troubling trap. Making up for that is dark elemental. If dark elemental is present, simply leave. .================================================. # 29.4 The shield-allowing runeblade **290400** # `================================================` Recommendation: *** Method of obtaining: junk enemies along the way Drop rate: 3% (12%) Rank: 4th best sword Suggested rank: 4th About the runeblade (cost: dropped from enemy (14,500 base)): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ None | | Attack power 85 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 0 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | Sagittarius | Start | | Evade 5 | ^ Dragon Whisker | 60 | | Magick evade 0 | ^ Swords 6 | 60 | | Strength 0 | Total | 120 | | Magick power 0 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ While the rune blade may seem weak compared to your defender, by only 6 points on attack power, the fact that it is a one-handed weapon makes up for that. How? Remember that, with a one-handed weapon, you can equip a shield. You probably only have the golden shield as the best shield so far, with 16 on evasion. With the 3 shield block licenses, it's actually 31%. Factor in the 5% on the weapon's evasion and you have an actual chance of 34.45% for evading an attack, very slightly less than the defender's 35% and the defender has a higher attack power. Later on in the game though, especially once decoy becomes available, the runeblade being combined with a shield will be especially decent for a tank. If you combine the black mask with the fomalhaut and dark shot, you could block a lot of attacks and easily be able to keep healed should a few attacks go through (especially with the ensanguined shield). The main gauche together with a shield is the best combination for blocking attacks. Trouble is, some enemies, especially the big ones, tend to ignore evasion so the high evasion doesn't really have all that much use. This makes attack power more useful than evasion, in my opinion. Once you're done with the maximillian, go after the runeblade if you want one. Getting this involves the babils that love using attack magicks. There are 6 of them all crammed into the western zone from the third one. The trouble is, however, there are 2 elvorets right along your path that are often hard to avoid. You can hit them with immobilize and go after them that way, or you can use the specific target trick to get them with. My preferred method is to simply just reduce your party to 1 character, turn off that 1 character's attack gambits, immobilize the elvorets, and just slip by them. Once clearly out of the range of the gambits, bring back the others. When you need to slip by again, reduce your party to 1, slip by, then bring them back. My videos show my preferred method very well. Start by hugging either the eastern side or the western side, depending on how the elvorets are placed. If the elvorets are mainly to the west, stay to the east and get the 3 babils that are very closely spaced. If the elvorets are mainly to the east, stay to the west to get the 2 babils that are obviously visible then the one at the end of the alley. When you get rid of one set of 3 babils, go to the other. If immobilize expires on the elvorets, simply reimmobilize them. Since they weren't targeting you for a while, due to being out of range, they won't be going after you. As usual, get the chain to level 4, ignoring the loot until it does, then grab the loot. Being a 3% drop, you can get up to 4 runeblades from a single babil. .===============================================. # 29.5 The not-so-grand grand armor **290500** # `===============================================` Recommendation: *** Method of obtaining: teleporting enemy glitch Drop rate: 1% (5%) Rank: =:] 1st best heavy body armor [:= Suggested rank: :] 2nd [: About the grand armor (cost: dropped from enemy (0 base)): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ None | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 61 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | Light armor 10 | Start | | Evade 0 | > Mystic armor 12 | 100 | | Magick evade 0 | > Heavy armor 10 | 90 | | Strength 12 | Total | 190 | | Magick power 0 | | | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ Although the grand armor offers a very high defense and one of the best strength boosts, it's not a very effective item as it lacks any other bonuses. It can, when combined with the ring of renewal, make enemies around level 40 harmless (defense-ignoring attacks, magicks, and status effects aside). Under normal means, getting the grand armor makes getting the burning bow via the quickening method look blazing fast. It's a 1% drop and it takes a lot of time and effort just for a single attempt. The reward isn't really that worthy either (if defense approached 80 and better bonuses were provided (like +10 on vitality, +10 on speed, etc.) like the maximillian has, then it would be worth getting). To obtain the grand armor in a more reasonable way, you have to exploit a bug in the game. If you used dustia to level up on or you went after the hermes sandals, you used this bug to your advantage. When you defeat a teleporting enemy and cross the zone boundary within 1 second and return, you'll find another one present making the chaining of these types of enemies almost effortless. To get the grand armor in reasonable time, you'll have to exploit this bug. The source of the grand armor is helvinek. This deep-violet-colored teleporting mistmare loves using status effects and powerful magicks like firaga and darkra (yes, darkra instead of darkga). Helvinek also happens to have a ton of HP - 104,912 to be exact. The display shows 99,999 but if you hit it with 9999 damage (inevitable with the zodiac spear), you'll see that it's not 90,000 but 94,913 instead. Because you can't just hand helvinek a phoenix down like you can with dustia, you have to very closely watch the HP and always be on the alert on what helvinek is doing, you can easily expect to spend a good 60 minutes just getting 3 suits of grand armor, 90 minutes for 6. The maximillians are nearly twice as fast to get (only longer thanks mainly to having to clear out the middle zone of respawns - it would be triple the speed if that weren't the case). Before going after the grand armor, you'll have to leave the Necrohol of Nabudis if you've already defeated Helvinek, the source of the grand armor. It's a good time to save anyway since you got 3 things already while here. To get Helvinek to appear again, you'll need to get 6 oversouls. One will appear after 20, 15, 10, 5, 3, then 1 enemies have been defeated, 54 total. I'm unsure if chaining oversouls has any effect on speeding things up (it's a teleporting enemy so chaining it is as easy as being near a zone boundary and crossing it upon defeat, much like dustia), but I focus on reaching the middle zone as it's the easiest to use. Focus on defeating every enemy you see, though don't get too carried away. When you reach the end of the middle zone, the third one, you should have 3 or, perhaps, 4 oversouls dealt with already. At this point, you need to be a bit more careful, only defeating enemies near a zone boundary so that you can quickly cross it when helvinek appears. When helvinek appears, several changes need to be made. First, disable your party leader's gambits. Because you must cross the zone boundary within 1 second of defeat, you must have full control over movement so you can't have the party leader firing off berserk or faith. You'll have to leave your status effect keeper to do that. Also, be sure to equip your black masks so that darkra can at least help you from being healed by it. If you want, equip some thief's cuffs and attempt to steal a few magick lamps from helvinek while you're waiting for your berserker to take helvinek down. Although my videos mention of 20,000 as the threshold, it's actually based on 3 hits. Once helvinek goes HP critical, damage is cut to 1/3 of what you were doing (revealing the true power of the zodiac spear - 5000 with no protect and focus taking effect is only but 1/3 of the real damage it does). You also have to factor in one of the game's biggest annoyances - the fact you have absolutely no control over the act of putting the weapon away. From the moment the last action completes, you have 5 seconds before the weapon gets put away if that character is not being targeted or attacking something. Just keep an eye on your characters' HP, healing only when helvinek is absent (as from just having crossed the zone boundary). Regardless of what you do, you must very carefully watch what helvinek does. If helvinek uses disablega, immediately cross the zone boundary. The last thing you want are 3 disabled characters that can't do anything at all. While you can bring in Penelo and esuna it out with her, crossing the zone boundary frequently to prevent helvinek from targeting Penelo, it's just a lot easier to cross the zone boundary before the effects take full effect. That is, if the popup doesn't appear, the action has no effect and crossing a zone boundary causes the action too have no effect. Go ahead and have one of your nonleader characters attempt to cast blizzaga on one of your own allies - even if you see the ice crystal just appear and you cross the zone boundary, you won't take any damage. The only way you can really cripple helvinek is casting slow on it - do so as early as you can. When the chain reaches level 4, as usual, you'll need to grab the loot. For this, you have to be standing on helvinek's side and, like with dustia, utilize the pausing of the action that wait mode offers to quickly grab the loot and get out of there. It does take a bit of practice, but don't focus too much on grabbing the loot. If you feel you can't get it and leave the zone in time, focus on crossing the zone. Failing to cross the zone boundary in time will result in helvinek not appearing again. You'll have no choice but to go through all this all over again. You'll either have to quit and reload or go through the rest of the Necrohol of Nabudis, leave, and return to try again. If you're unsure if the weapon will get put away, have the leader alternate between attack and steal when the final blow is just about to be dealt but neer let either of these actions take effect - change actions when about 3/4 charged. Of course, if Helvinek goes down, the action will get canceled anyway giving you the much-needed control. ____ ___ _ _____ _ _ _____ ____ ___ __ _ | _ \ / _ \ | | |_ _| | | | | | ___| | _ \ / _ \ | \ | | | |_| | | |_| | | | | | | |_| | | |__ | |_| | | |_| | | A \ | | | _ < | _ | | | | | | _ | | __| | _ < | _ | | |\ \| | | |_| | | | | | | |___ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | \ ' | |____/ |_| |_| |_____| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| \__| ############################ ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 30 Leveling up Balthier and Fran **300000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ############################ .==============================================================. # 30.1 2 new methods to level up Balthier and Fran **300100** # `==============================================================` If you used the 70- or 65-hour methods, skip this part as Balthier and Fran joined at level 99. If not, this part is optional, but, if you want to use Balthier and/or Fran, you'll need to do this. If you don't want to use them, then skip this. There are 3 methods available for leveling up Balthier and Fran. At this point, you're probably well aware of Garamsythe Waterway and how effective it was. However, Garamsythe Waterway has lost its favor as there are now 2 faster methods available. I'll explain these in the following sections. I will assume that Balthier is your berserker (he's got the higher strength and speed) and Fran is your supporter and leader (she's got the higher magick power). .========================================================. # 30.2 Mosphoran Highwaste - easier than pie **300200** # `========================================================` The Mosphoran Highwaste method is a great place to level up while solo. With the maximillians and grand armors, these enemies are completely harmless... almost. The vulture's "kamikaze" and the slaven wilder's "power stun" are defense-ignoring and will do damage. The pythons can also cause poison with a small chance per hit. The biggest hazard is fire elemental. With the golden skullcap and dawn shard equipped, it, too, can be rendered harmless outside the status effects it causes (you now have immunity to sleep - the nishijin belt) and the annoying damage return. Other than these cases, you are now invincible to these enemies making this place the easiest to level up at. I'll explain the major steps in the following subsections as level will directly affect which routine you use. Regardless of the progress, you must get a blue sky so your accuracy doesn't suffer. It appears that teleportation via gate crystal doesn't rerandomize the weather like it should so if the first attempt of directly teleporting into Mosphoran Highwaste fails, teleport to Nalbina Fortress, rent a chocobo to rush through the low-value enemies, and go from there. Get the blue sky on the chocobo (time spent loading or checking the map doesn't count against you) then proceed north-northwest. If guards are present, just approach them and, after pressing the X button repeatedly for long enough, you'll get the guards out of the way and you can proceed. Once in Babbling Vale, you'll first need to head to the northwest exit and strike the "weathered rock" that's blocking the path to the south that you'll need to be using for speed. This way, it's very fast to get 2 zones away. ....................................................... 30.2.1 Before level 37 - zodiac spear power **300210** ....................................................... At a low level, the burning bow with the fiery arrows will take a few hits to defeat these enemies, even with berserk. Thus, early on, I would suggest using the zodiac spear on your berserker and only dealing with the 3 (or 4 if it appears) pythons and the 3 humbabas first thing then getting 2 zones away and returning to repeat. Each run is worth about 7286 exp on average so it'll take several runs to reach level 37. Do remember that that 7286 is on one character - you are actually getting double that. With Balthier being berserk and rapidly charging up attacks, you might consider having Fran disabling her attack gambits. For the humbabas, use manual input for attacking. Also, use active mode to further speed things up. ........................................................ 30.2.2 Levels 37 to 47 - expanding the route **300220** ........................................................ At level 37, if you have the winged helm and maximillian on your supporter and berserker, you can defeat the vultures in 2 hits, one from each character. That's, of course, assuming Fran has the yoichi bow with the parallel arrows and Balthier is berserk with the burning bow with the fiery arrows. Both cases assume focus is taking effect. At this point, extend your route to cover the entire zone. As usual, deal with the 2 pythons, the 3 humbabas, and the series of pythons along the way. When you get at the point where you have to turn right (avoid the area to the right initially - there's no enemies there), I tend to ignore the python straight ahead and cut even sharper to the right. I tend to ignore it as that python rarely appears. From here, go around the roundabout, focusing along the edges of the circle, getting the vultures when they get close. When you're done going around the route, be sure to check for that python that off to the right through that narrow passage as it should be there with near certainty. There are so many enemies here that it's easy to get about 18,000 exp per 3-1/2-minute run (to only get faster, much faster). This may seem slow compared to Garamsythe Waterway, but keep in mind that you're splitting the experience among 2 characters instead of 1 so each only gets half of the actual 36,000 exp you'd get. This already makes this route almost as fast as the 25-hour method at around level 80 and the method will still only get faster. ................................................... 30.2.3 Levels 48 to 74 - push for speed **300230** ................................................... By level 48, if you have the winged helm and maximillian equipped on your berserker, you'll now always be able to defeat the numerous pythons in one hit, evasion aside. Thus, something at or slightly before level 48 (46 is the low end I suggest) is when this method will get a significant speed increase, now probably dropping under 3 minutes per run. By then, you'll just be able to run the route while your berserker takes care of the enemies along the way. You'll still want to get Fran involved with attacking the humbabas and vultures though. In addition, by level 50, you should no longer need the golden amulet as you've caught up enough. Give Balthier the hermes sandals so he can strike very quickly and Fran the battle harness for added strength. At level 59, Balthier, while berserk, will be guaranteed to defeat the vultures in one hit as well. .................................................. 30.2.4 Levels 75 to 99 - full throttle **300240** .................................................. At level 75, Balthier, while berserk, will be able to defeat everything here, except fire elemental, in a single hit. Without berserk, he'll be defeating the pythons in one hit as well. This is when the method's speed pretty much maxes out, needing around 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 minutes per run (unconfirmed but estimated). This makes the method slightly faster than Garamsythe Waterway in the 25-hour method though it doesn't seem like it. Remember that the experience is being split among 2 characters. .=====================================================================. # 30.3 A horde of dead bones - warp speed and challenging **300300** # `=====================================================================` Do you remember that secret passage with the 25 dead bones that you used to get the golden skullcap with? That's the focus point of the second method. This method isn't as easy, but it is so fast that it makes even the 25-hour method look slow, literally. The 25-hour method had you soloing, focusing all of the experience on a single character. Here, you're doing 2 characters at once which causes the exp to be split in half with each half going to one character. Even with that, I was averaging around 19,300 exp per minute near the end - 183 seconds per run of 58,950 total exp. That's about 19,300 exp per minute on a single character, about 40% faster than the peak speed of the 25-hour method. However, since you're doing 2 characters at once, the speed is actually nearly tripled! Even when you start out, you're still going at nearly the 25-hour method's peak speed and a whopping 2 to 3 times faster than the 25-hour method would have for the same level, even with the maximillian for a boost. You want speed? Then this method is easily the best choice for you! Oh, and don't forget that you can very easily get a huge amount of gil, several million even. For that, just sell your loot once the chain reaches 300 or 400. 200 is the lowest end, 500 is the higher end, 600 is the max. I'll explain the level thresholds in the following subsections. ........................................................... 30.3.1 Before level 50 - calling for assistance **300310** ........................................................... Early on, Balthier and Fran are just too weak to handle these enemies by themselves. They need help and you have 4 level 99 characters available. Choose a character with a high magick power like Ashe or Penelo. Equip everyone with the grand armor (or maximillian if you didn't go for the grand armor). For the helm, have the black mask on the level 99 character for sure so that way the dead bones' darkra spell will heal you. For Balthier and Fran with their very low HP, you might consider the crown of laurels to give them an extra 1360 HP. Since magicks are slower to use than normal physical attacks (and physical attacks can combo), it's a good idea to sacrifice the small difference in magick resist to almost double their HP (depending on their starting level). By level 30 or so, you can switch in the black masks for darkra's healing though that point is up to you. With Balthier not using magicks at all (from being berserk), consider equipping the dawn shard on him so that magicks do far less damage (and darkra will do a lot less healing). When you switch out the crown of laurels, equip the golden skullcap on Balthier so that only darkra will do any damage, though not much). With fira, thundara, and blizzara having an attack power of 70 and your magick resist being 78 (79 with the maximillian), you won't take any damage at all from such attacks as 78.75 is the required magick resist for complete immunity. I prefer to put a lot of status effect gambits on Fran such as "ally: any = protect", "ally: any = regen", "ally: any = faith", and other such things. Due to the fact nonleader characters get left behind, this will often leave Fran out of the combat as she's staying in the back casting away. Just make sure you watch her MP. If it drops below 22, use charge. Why 22? This is the highest MP cost of any of the spells you have. With the healer only covering the major status effects like faith and especialy bubble, she can focus on using cura on the dead bones to do some serious damage to them, far more than Balthier and Fran. It's from this that will allow you to level up very quickly. ...................................................... 30.3.2 Levels 50 to 99 - engage warp speed **300320** ...................................................... Once you reach a level somewhere from 45 to 60, depending on your preference, you no longer need your healer as Balthier and Fran are now powerful enough to handle the hordes of dead bones fairly well. Just have Fran take on the role of healer and status effect keeper. You only need the essentials - faith (on the healer, Fran, only), bubble, berserk, and libra. Optionally consider regen, though regen isn't all that important at this point any more. With Fran doing nothing but casting and Balthier doing nothing but attacking, give Balthier the argyle armlet for immunity to blind and Fran the hermes sandals for speed. With blind being the only status effect involved, thanks to flash, you can turn off your esuna gambit too. A blind character still has perfect accuracy with magicks and with Fran casting constantly, the blind status effect won't affect her at all so you can just ignore it. For a speed boost, any time there are more than 3 dead bones in close range, force a manual cast of cura if the gambits decide to go off so that way you can get several enemies at once in short notice. ___ ____ _____ _____ __ __ _____ _____ _____ / _ \ | _ \ |_ _| |_ _| | \ / | |_ _| |___ | | ___| | | | | | |_| | | | | | | A V A | | | / / | |__ | | | | | __/ | | | | | |\ /| | | | / / | __| | |_| | | | | | _| |_ | | V | | _| |_ / /__ | |___ \___/ |_| |_| |_____| |_| |_| |_____| |_____| |_____| ################################## ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 31 Optimizing and perfecting HP and MP **310000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ################################## .================================================. # 31.1 What is optimizing HP and MP? **310100** # `================================================` This may seem odd and out of place for my guide, but HP and MP are randomized upon each level up. You will find that, despite the complete lack of HP-boosting equipment on both your side and my side as you followed my guide, you likely don't have exactly the same HP and MP that I got. In fact, thanks to this randomization, you're missing out on around 350-450 HP (700-900 with bubble) and about 40-50 MP (120-150 with all 3 mist charges) that you probably didn't know you could have. You might also recall the cases during the advancement of the story where you could boost Basch, Ashe, and Penelo. In my videos, you'll see that from making another attempt, I gave my Basch 87 extra HP (at the cost of 10 MP). I got my Ashe to have 295 MP (turning into 885 with all 3 mist charges). In the "special" video, the final segment, you'll see an example of optimized HP and MP (though I got everyone at level 18 or 19 unaware of the things I know now so I likely missed out on another 30-50 HP and 5-10 MP (for the base) as I put high effort into it. To optimize HP and MP, you need to utilize repeated quitting and reloading to force the game's random number generator in your favor. I've heard it's possible to manipulate the random number generator, but I don't know how to do so for almost anything. If anyone can fill me in on this, I'd appreciate it. See the "legal" section for contacting me. Either way, the method involved is gathering experience until you're one enemy away from a level up. At that point, save your game. After saving, get the level up and save your game to a second file. Write down the HP and MP you got - you'll need to know this. Now, reload that older file from before you got the level up and get the level up again. If you get an improvement, overwrite your second save. If you didn't get any improvements, just quit and reload as is. When you're done, reload your newer save and repeat the process. If you level up before you save, quit and reload and retry the level up - check the character's status frequently to keep an eye on your progress. Due to the way MP works, I would suggest focusing on getting the highest value for MP then going for HP. I'll explain the mechanics behind HP and MP growth in the next section so you can see why. .========================================================. # 31.2 The mechanics behind HP and MP growth **310200** # `========================================================` The amount of HP and MP growth you get depends on your level, as one might expect. However, it's not as simple as that. HP and MP have their own mechanics though fairly similar. Deeper within the game is a points value that each character has stored up. Each character has a starting points value and an aptitude. When a level up is obtained, the points associated with that level up are added to that character's total points and the new maximums are adjusted based on the aptitude, a simple multiplication. In the 2 subsections, I will explain how HP and MP grow. .............................................. 31.2.1 How HP grows - like a yo-yo **310210** .............................................. The way HP growth works is like a yo-yo. The amount of points you can get per level up goes up and down like one. Here are 2 charts summing up the basics. Character HP aptitudes: Vaan: 1.48 Balthier: 1.44 Fran: 1.38 Basch: 1.5 Ashe: 1.37 Penelo: 1.33 Base points per level up: Levels 1 to 25: base points increase by 1 from 10 to 34. Levels 26 to 34: base points decrease by 1 from 33 to 25. Levels 35 to 49: base points increase by 2 from 27 to 55. Levels 50 to 67: base points decrease by 2 from 53 to 19. Levels 68 to 99: base points increase by 1 from 20 to 51. Base points is the basis for which the upper limit is based on. To find the upper limit of the range, multiply the base by 6/5 and round down. Level 1, for example, has 10 points. 6/5 of that is 12 after rounding down. Level 2, has 11 points for the base. 6/5 of that is 13.2 which rounds down to 13. Level 49, the one that gives the most HP in a single leap, gives something from 55 to 66 points. Unfortunately, getting the highest bonus isn't as simple as a flat 1 in 3 chance for level 2. The actual chance is "mod(Base, 5) in Base". That is, take the modulo (remainder of a division) of the base with 5 as the divisor. This means, for level 2, you have a 1 in 11 chance of getting the 13. You have a 0 in 10 chance of getting 12 in level 1 so that means 11 is the highest possible bonus for level 1, 65 for level 49. 65*1.5 is 97.5 so Basch, the HP king with the highest HP aptitude, could get up to 98 more HP in a single level up, the most out of any character. Level 4 has a 3 in 13 chance of the highest possible. In a way, I find it very strange that level 67 gives the same amount of extra HP as level 10 does. I would have expected level 67 to give somewhere around 40 extra points. ...................................................... 31.2.2 How MP grows - not very predictable **310220** ...................................................... MP works a lot like HP only much simpler. MP growth is slightly focused on being fast early on but really slows down toward the end, getting half of the total level up bonuses by only level 46. Here are 2 charts summing up the basics. Character MP aptitudes: Vaan: 0.54. Balthier: 0.48. Fran: 0.55. Basch: 0.44. Ashe: 0.57. Penelo: 0.55. MP points per level up: Levels 1 to 10: 3 to 5 points. Levels 11 to 29: 4 to 7 points. Levels 30 to 43: 5 to 9 points. Levels 44 to 60: 4 to 7 points. Levels 61 to 80: 3 to 5 points. Levels 81 to 90: 2 to 3 points. Levels 91 to 99: 1 point only. Unlike HP, all possibilities are evenly distributed. Thus, level 4 will give you a 1 in 3 chance of getting 5 points. Level 36 will give you a 1 in 5 chance of getting the full 9 points. 9*0.57 is 5.13 so Ashe could get up to 6 more MP in a single level up, the only character that can. Do note that this is based on the base MP value which, like HP, is rounded down. This rounded down value is what gets tripled with 3 mist charges, always causing the maximum to be a multiple of 3. This is why you don't see a 902 maximum MP - it's either 900 or 903 only. The only way to get 902 maximum MP is either using a Gameshark (or the like) or editing your save file. Do note that the MP aptitude is less than 1. Does your level 2 Vaan have 29.16 or 29.7 MP? There's no way to tell without processing level 3 (for which, if you got the 29.7, you'll see a 32 showing up, something you won't see if you got the 29.16). As a consequence, focus on getting the highest visible value for MP and then focus on HP. Use your charts and the rather simple formulas to get an idea on what to expect. HPPoints = RoundUp(HPObserved/HPAptitude); MPPoints = RoundUp(MPObserved/MPAptitude); Thus, for example, if you see 3608 HP for Vaan, you'll know you have 3608/1.48 or 2437.84 points which rounds up to 2438 points. With 2438 points, you'd have 3608.24 HP which truncates to 3608 as fractions are ignored. MP is more difficult, but you can still get a basic idea on where you are and what to expect next. .============================================. # 31.3 The types of optimization **310300** # `============================================` .................................. 31.3.1 True perfection **310310** .................................. 31.3.1.1 Perfecting both stats is not advised **310311** There are 2 types of optimization. The first is the obvious case of true perfection. I very strongly suggest that you do not go for true perfection. Why? You're battling odds that makes getting the burning bow via the quickening method look like warp drive speed. There are 6 instances where you have to fight odds that are 1 in 200 or worse. That's about the same as going after 2 burning bows via the quickening method (not in a row though). There are plenty of other cases where the odds are 1 in 100 or worse as well. And that's just one character! Try it for all 6 and you're really asking for it. Throw in the fact you cannot tell if you have 29.16 or 29.7 MP for a level 2 Vaan, you may even have to go back a level or even a few levels and retry the level up from level 1 to 2 to get it. Oh, and don't even think about the boosting of the characters when they join. Ashe may be the fastest, but even focusing on her alone will steer you away. Although each attempt takes 40 seconds, you have to get 3 perfected level ups in a row all at once. That involves odds that make getting the burning bow via the quickening method look blazing fast. Level 1 has a 1 in 2 chance of getting perfect HP and a 1 in 3 chance of getting perfect MP for a net chance of perfection 1 in 6, not bad. Level 2 has a 1 in 11 chance of perfecting the HP and a 1 in 3 chance of perfecting the MP - a 1 in 33 chance overall, very unfriendly. These 2 level ups combine, since you must get them simultaneously, for a 1 in 198 chance. Then there's level 3 with the 1 in 6 chance of perfecting the HP and the usual 1 in 3 chance of perfecting the MP, a 1 in 18 chance overall, again not very friendly. These 3 combine for a 1 in 3564 chance since all 3 must be done at the same time. At 40 seconds per attempt, you can expect to spend 39.6 hours at this. Lovely, isn't that? Try getting 10 burning bows via the quickening method (a total, not in a row) and you can get a good sense on how extreme just Ashe is and she's the fastest one. Now try Basch. He takes about 2 minutes per attempt, 3 times longer, thanks to having to wait for the system to load unwanted story scenes and the long distance needed to be covered to reach the key area. You still have the same 1 in 3564 chance but now you're expected to spend 118.8 hours. That's getting 30 burning bows, in a sense. Not bad enough? Penelo is even worse, needing about 2 to 3 minutes per attempt (I'll call it 2 1/2 minutes), 25% longer than Basch. Yep, that's 148.5 hours. That's about the same as getting 37 burning bows via the quickening method. Fun, isn't it? Still not bad enough for you? Wow! You must be the king of patience then! You'll easily change your mind though when Balthier and Fran are considered. Although only 2 levels have to be processed, meaning the 1 in 198 chance, you have to do 2 characters simultaneously. That means... you might want to look away now... a 1 in 39,204 chance. Making matters worse is the fact you have to go through the entire palace event each attempt and that's an easy 10 minutes per attempt. When you combine all of that, that's 9 total months of 24/7 play in just doing that part alone. That probably got your attention, didn't it? Forget a total number of burning bows, try getting 2 consecutive burning bows back to back with the third within the next 2 tries! In other words, forget about true perfection unless you can somehow reduce the time needed per attempt to virtually nothing. Still want true perfection? Forget my method as explained here. Instead, it's nearly a million times faster to just get a Gameshark (or the like) or edit your save file, both of which can do far better than true perfection. In short, if you only spend 4 hours a day at this every day without a gap, you might as well be at this until well into the next decade. 31.3.1.2 Perfecting a single stat is okay **310312** However (and here's the big if), if you want to perfect only one stat, then the odds aren't as troubling. There are 3 advantages to perfecting HP. First, and obviously, you'll be able to take more damage before being KOed. Second balance can potentially do more damage. Third, unlike MP, you can be assured that you have obtained the absolute maximum HP as you're not stuck knowing if you got a x.28 or an x.76. The sole disadvantage, and a major one, is that you'll still have to battle odds like 1 in 51, it's not the 1 in 200+ that you have to deal with and 1 in 51 is very rare. Upon joining, Basch and Ashe have a 1 in 33 chance of the perfect HP which really isn't all that bad. It's about as fast as getting the burning bow via the chain-status-death method, an hour (Ashe being much faster). While perfecting HP, especially when you've got good odds (like 1 in 20 (or perhaps 1 in 30, depending on your preferences) or better), consider trying to boost MP as well, at least trying to get the mid point. Thus, instead of 270 MP for Vaan for a single mist charge, you could get 290 or even 300 if you put more effort into it. Basch is the HP king and the poorest for MP so focusing heavily on perfecting his HP would be something you could consider. You must see a 145 for Basch at level 3 to start with true perfecting his HP. Vaan is also very good for HP so it's worthwhile to perfect his HP (and far, far easier to start with as you only have a 1 in 2 chance to deal with). You must see a 109 when going after the 3 rats to perfect Vaan's HP. There are 4 advantages to perfecting MP. First, and obviously, you'll be able to cast a lot more before running out of MP. Second, you can charge twice in a row with a higher success rate. Third, it will make elixirs more effective. You also have nice odds of 1 in 5 at the worst to deal with (turning into a guarantee at level 91). The sole disadvantage, however, is that you absolutely cannot tell if you have x.28 or x.76 for your MP (or, even worse, x.04, x.48, or x.92). To perfect MP means you have to go back and redo some level ups if you get values you shouldn't be getting. Ashe is the MP queen so true perfecting her MP is worthy. To get some assurance on Ashe, save to a second file the moment she joins then repeatedly reach level 5 with her but don't save. If you see a 35 for her MP on level 4, you missed a point for sure. To be absolutely sure, you must see a 40 at level 5. Try about 25 times, unless the 35 on 4 case applies. If it's not showing up, repeat the joining of Ashe. Penelo is also great for MP perfection. The biggest problem with Penelo, however, is that she takes a very long time to get an attempt, it's also difficult as you're only at level 1, 2, or 3, and you don't get the guarantee again. Whether you have 42.9 or 42.35, you can't tell. You have to do the same thing with Ashe. Even worse than Ashe is that you must go to level 5 with Penelo to even know if you got the perfect. You must not see a 45 at level 5. If you do, you missed a point - repeat the joining attempts. You must, however, see a 48. Give yourself about 25 attempts at reaching level 5 to ensure you get it, stopping, obviously, if you get a 45. .................................. 31.3.2 Near perfection **310320** .................................. This is where the second method comes in, to make the odds more meaningful and the time far more reasonable - near perfection. Although it'll still take a very long time to do, it's way, way better than 15+ years. I've done it and it only took me a month of 10-hour days with high effort (but too high of a starting level so I lost out on a lot more). This table summarizes how effort, time, and lost HP all tie together: +---------+-----------------------------------+----------+ | Effort | Game time, Q&R time, real time** | Lost HP* | +---------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+ | Minimal | 150 hours | 30 hours | 180 hours | 175-250 | | Low | 150 hours | 50 hours | 200 hours | 140-200 | | Medium | 150 hours | 90 hours | 240 hours | 110-160 | | High | 150 hours | 200 hours | 350 hours | 80-125 | | Extreme | 150 hours | 450 hours | 600 hours | 60-100 | +---------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+ Table footnotes: * Lost HP is approximate and assumes you do not level up any one until everyone joins and that you've boosted the characters upon them joining. It assumes 1.415x as the aptitude, the mid point between the highest and lowest. ** Game time is the time on the game clock. All efforts are the same. Q&R (quit and reload) time is time spent quitting and reloading to force the random number generator in your favor. Real time is the amount of time you spend in the real world doing this. Do note that there are 168 hours in a week and 730.4 hours in a month (assuming 24/7 play - adjust based on how much time you have available to spend on this (e.g. 4 hours means you multiply by "24/4" or 6 so 250 hours means about 9 weeks instead of about 1 1/2 weeks)). Going from minimal to low gives you about 43 more HP and you only need another 20 more hours. That's a pretty nice boost for such little time. Going from high to extreme, on the other hand, gives you just 16 extra HP and adds 250 total hours to your time, barely 3% as fast. That's not worth it, is it? This is why I suggest going after the "medium" option as it's the best balance between losses and time spent. If you just want to get a quick taste of a boosted game, then "low" is a good option. If you're really dedicated, then "high" is a good choice. See section 31.8.2 for the fine details behind these numbers and where they come from. In addition, for every level higher starting from the bare minimum that you go, you lose out on about 2 HP (turning into 3 beyond level 8 and 4 beyond level 15) and 0.5 MP (turning into 0.75 beyond level 10). Thus, instead of being level 3, if you were level 10 when you start, you'll be missing about 16 more HP and 7 more MP on everyone (boosting can help, but don't expect much recovery). It is possible to combine true perfection and near perfection, to some extent. While true-perfecting HP, especially when you've got good odds (like 1 in 20 (or perhaps 1 in 30, depending on your preferences and will) or better), consider trying to boost MP as well, at least trying to get the mid point. Thus, instead of 270 MP for Vaan for a single mist charge, you could get 290 or even 300 if you put more effort into it. When perfecting MP, only boost HP when you know for sure there's only 1 possible MP value that you should be getting and have received (the fractional part of the target level is less than the aptitude - such as going from 186.96 to 192.09 for Ashe's MP when going from level 40 to 41). When you don't have the guarantee (such as going from 328.89 to 330.6 for Ashe's MP when going from level 81 to 82), just keep the HP you get. If you wanted my opinion on which stat to true perfect for a given character, I would suggest focusing on HP for Vaan and Basch and MP on Ashe and Penelo. Balthier and Fran are kind of in the middle so I would suggest going with near perfection on both stats, using the standard method, for these two. Their join routine is also ridiculously long as there's so many story scenes and tasks to do just to do it so this presents a severe problem, considering you have to do both at the same time. .=====================================. # 31.4 About the routines **310400** # `=====================================` Unlike the 5 original methods, the optimization routine requires a significantly different approach. You're also not on the clock either (if you chose that route) so take your time as needed and plan strategies. Avoiding battles so you don't level up can sometimes be quite difficult as there's often a lot of enemies around. However, that R2 button will become your friend during this. Only fight what you absolutely must (mainly bosses) and just run (and heal) as needed. Although a lot of what's covered in the standard routines is still used, there's a lot of modifications. The following sections will explain the process in detail. The routines mentioned are just the basic idea. Some routines are completely new to this method but still have some references to the standard routines. Unlike the standard routines, I don't have a direct video walkthrough for the optimization method and some elements haven't been tested yet. .==========================================. # 31.5 Stage 1: Hiring Penelo **310500** # `==========================================` Routine: Beginning (4), Story (11; start only) As usual, rush the tutorial part. It's fine to get Reks to level 99 - this won't affect anything for what's to come though you're mostly wasting time. When you get to the point where you save at the save crystal, save your game. Continue through and skip the story scenes when you can. When you can control Vaan, check his HP and MP. Since you have a 1 in 6 chance of getting him with 104 HP and 27 MP, start with that. If you don't get it, quit and reload. If you do get that, continue on, saving as soon as you can. Before going after the rogue tomato, consider heading to Montblanc and getting the 2 potions from him to help. In the Estersand, ignore every enemy you see except the rogue tomato itself. Defeat just the rogue tomato only so you don't level up. If a single wolf decides to join in, just ignore it and focus all of your efforts on the rogue tomato. If more than 1 wolf joins, then make a decision. You could either finish off the rogue tomato (best if only 1 or 2 hits from defeat (2 hits if you have high HP), ignoring them, or hold R2 and run away. Either that or just quit and reload. If all else, cross the zone boundary and return. Use potions when you need to. When you're done, return to Rabanastre, save your game, then deal with the parade event as you see fit. At this point, you'll need to make story progress until Penelo joins. Enter Lowtown and speak with Old Dalan, avoiding the obvious chest in front of his place. Head into Giza Plains and head south, ignoring the enemies along the way. Speak with Brunoa near the tent and then Masyua near the dark crystal. Penelo joins at this point. .===================================================. # 31.6 Stage 2: Putting Penelo to work **310600** # `===================================================` Routine: [several - follow the 65- or 70-hour method] Once Penelo joins, this is when the main activities starts in familiar grounds. What's so important about Penelo though? Regardless of what you do with Penelo alone, all of your efforts, aside from LP and gathering items, gil, and equipment, are for nothing. Yep, even if you get Penelo to level 99, when she joins again, she'll be... level 3 at the minimum. Thus, KO Vaan then begin following the standard routines of the 70- or 65-hour methods, starting with the rod. Any time you save your game, make sure you KO Vaan before you defeat any enemies. If Vaan levels up during any of this, quit and reload. KOed Vaan will still gain LP (uncertain) but not exp. Start by going after the rod with Penelo, defeating any enemies along the way. Once obtained, either head for Nalbina for phoenix downs for the dustia routine, or continue to the South Bank Village and use the ichthon routine. Dustia is recommended the most as it's a fast way to get Penelo leveled up and ready for the final bits, and it's also a fast way to accumulate LP until the final stage of the slower methods is available. Repeat the use of dustia until you're level 44 or so. Go after the burning bow (this will be even more of a pain as you'll have to remember to KO Vaan every attempt you make unless you use the chain-status-death method for obtaining it where Vaan only needs to be KOed once), traveler's garb, winged helm, and then continue with the final stage until you've obtained 3 burning bows. You may continue with the final stage using Penelo, focusing on the wolves and stuff along the way, until you get enough LP to clear the license board. You're not after leveling up, you're after 3 burning bows and LP. Be sure to pick up poach while in Nalbina, when you can. .===============================================. # 31.7 Stage 3: Gathering everyone **310700** # `===============================================` Routine: Story (11) then dawn shard (25) When done, save your game, to revive Vaan as well, then fully unequip Penelo, giving Vaan the stuff she had. Do not, however, equip Vaan with the battle harness - you can't afford to have counterattacks defeat enemies. Use the orrachea armlet instead. Advance the story until all 6 of the main characters have joined. The only enemies you should ever defeat are those required by the story. For the imperials and Amalia, just let Amalia do the attacking while you stay back and keep her healed. You may make a few attacks to at least weaken them, but don't defeat them with your main party - have Amalia do that. Although it is possible to boost Balthier and Fran, it's not strongly recommended as you have to do the entire palace events every time and that's an easy 10 minutes per attempt, the worst of the worst. You may make a few attempts, but it's not really recommended. You're only losing out on an average of about 5 HP and 2 MP (if they join with Vaan at level 1), hardly anything to be concerned over. Be sure you poach the seeker along the way. A poached enemy does not yield exp or LP. You should have obtained the 4 fire stones while you were working with Penelo. If you failed to get them or you accidentally sold them, you'll have to steal some from the hyenas in Giza Plains when you can return there. Avoid those 3 chests as usual: in front of Old Dalan's place, the southeast corner of the palace, and the area in which you get your equipment back in Nalbina Dungeons. Unlike before, you don't have to fully unequip Balthier and Fran upon returning to Rabanastre as you'll rush right through everything. Make sure you pick up immobilize and charge and license them. This will make a lot of what's to come much easier. Boost Basch when he joins while you're at it. Make a few attempts at it. He joins at level 3 at the absolute lowest. I would suggest, since Basch is the HP king, going for perfecting his HP. If you do, repeat the obtaining of Basch until you see him having 145 HP. Quit and reload, repeating the process, until you get it. Get Balthier and Fran to join again as well. When it comes to Ba' Gamnan and his crew, you'll defeat them quite easily, even with a solo level 1 Vaan (thanks to the +1000 HP from those licenses). Do not use the fiery arrows though as Ba' Gamnan absorbs fire. Those burning bows will seriously help with these guys and the traveler's garb will absorb almost all of the damage they'll do, some even getting 0s out of you). Just target Ba' Gamnan himself - the rest of the crew are not neccessary. You don't get any experience but you do get license points (not that you need them now, thanks to your run with Penelo). Don't forget to boost Ashe and, if you can handle it, Penelo while you're at it. Ashe and Penelo are great for MP so try to focus on that if you want to perfect a stat. .============================================. # 31.8 How to process a level up **310800** # `============================================` Once you're supposed to be heading toward the Tomb of Raithwall, after dealing with the Dreadnaught Leviathon, this is when the main leveling up begins. ..................................................... 31.8.1 The basic process - try, try again **310810** ..................................................... Unlike what you're used to, in order to boost a character, you have to treat a level up in a significantly different way than you're used to. For best results and optimal control, focus on leveling up only one character at a time. While gathering experience, keep an eye on how much experience you have left to get. When you get down to within 1 enemy of a level up, stop defeating enemies and get to a save crystal so you can save your game. If you level up before you save, quit and reload and redo that level up. This is why you must keep a close eye on how much experience you have left to level up. After saving, defeat that one more enemy and save your game to a second file. For example, if you saved to file 5 before the level up, save to file 4 or 6 (being adjacent will speed things up). After saving, write down the HP and MP you got on a piece of paper or update a text file in your computer. This way, you can keep track of what HP and MP you have so you can see patterns and know whether or not there's an improvement available. If you make wise use of a spreadsheet and keep it updated, you can get a good idea on what you're expected to get next and if you get it, you're done and don't need to go at it longer unless you want to attempt to improve on it slightly. Quit then reload your earlier save (file 5 in my example) and repeat the level up to rerandomize your HP and MP. Compare this new value to what you had in your previous save (the reason for writing the data down). The process I use is to first focus on MP thanks to the fractional parts. If MP improves, overwrite your newer save. If MP is worse, just quit and reload without saving. If MP matches your current best, then look to the HP value. If HP improves, overwrite your newer save and if it doesn't, just quit and reload. You'll eventually get to the point where no further improvements are possible. Don't stop on your first attempt though - do a few tries to get a sense of the range available (unless you use a spreadsheet or something and know exactly what you're after). How far you go depends on the degree of effort you want to put in. The following subsections will explain. .................................................................. 31.8.2 The 5 degrees of effort - choose your sacrifice **310820** .................................................................. There are 5 degrees of effort, as explained earlier. The more effort you put in, the higher your HP and MP will be but the more time you will spend quitting and reloading until the game's random number generator is in your favor. All cases demand that you go after the highest MP available (and also disregard the uncertainty on the fractional part of MP). Due to the way HP works, this is the focus point on sacrifice as missing out on 5 points here is about that of missing just 1 point on MP by ratio. Here's a rough guide on how much of a sacrifice you should make for each degree of effort and how much HP you're expected to be short by: Minimal (approximate sacrifice: 153 points, about 216 HP): Levels 1 to 10 - 1 point (about 8 total lost) Levels 11 to 30 - 2 points (about 25 total lost) Levels 31 to 40 - 3 points (about 18 total lost) Levels 41 to 55 - 4 points (about 34 total lost) Levels 56 to 80 - 3 points (about 44 total lost) Levels 81 to 99 - 2 points (about 24 total lost) Low (approximate sacrifice: 122 points, about 173 HP): Levels 1 to 15 - 1 point (about 11 total lost) Levels 16 to 35 - 2 points (about 25 total lost) Levels 36 to 60 - 3 points (about 44 total lost) Levels 61 to 85 - 2 points (about 31 total lost) Levels 86 to 99 - 1 point (about 11 total lost) Medium (approximate sacrifice: 95 points, about 134 HP): Levels 1 to 30 - 1 point (about 23 total lost) Levels 31 to 70 - 2 points (about 50 total lost) Levels 71 to 99 - 1 point (about 22 total lost) High (approximate sacrifice: 73 points, about 103 HP): Levels 1 to 10 - no sacrifice Levels 11 to 35 - 1 point (about 19 total lost) Levels 36 to 60 - 2 points (about 31 total lost) Levels 61 to 90 - 1 point (about 23 total lost) Levels 91 to 99 - no sacrifice Extreme (approximate sacrifice: 57 points, about 81 HP): Levels 1 to 15 - no sacrifice Levels 15 to 40 - 1 point (about 19 total lost) Levels 41 to 55 - 2 points (about 19 total lost) Levels 56 to 80 - 1 point (about 19 total lost) Levels 81 to 99 - no sacrifice I based the amount of sacrifice on the kinds of odds you're dealing with. The worse the odds are for the perfect, the more of a sacrifice you make. .=============================================. # 31.9 Stage 4: The early levels **310900** # `=============================================` Routine: Ichthon (7) You start in the Westersand and it's not an ideal place to level up right now. Instead, if you have a teleport stone, teleport to South Bank Village (marked as "Dalmasca Estersand"). If you're level 1, use the wolves, cockatrices, and cactoids to gain exp with and process level 2. Use the wolves, cockatrices, and cactoids until just before level 3. Your burning bow should easily take these enemies down in one hit, especially with the winged helm. Early on, stay near the save crystal as you'll level up very quickly. At the end of level 2, use the ichthons to level up to level 3 with. One more ichthon will get you to level 4. Once you get level 4, you'll need 2 ichthons. If you just leveled up and confirmed that you got the HP and MP you want, get the second ichthon while you're at it and process level 5. Use the ichthons to level up on, going off to save when you've cleared the zone of enemies or you're right on the verge of a level up. Always use the ichthons to level up on (except if you're level 1). Check your experience needed regularly. If you have more than 188 to go, defeat more enemies. If you have 185 to 188 to go, defeat a wolf or two. If you have 184 or less, save your game then process the level up, using the ichthons. The exception is level 1 going to level 2. In that case, if you have more than 41 to go, defeat more enemies. If you have 31 to 40 to go, defeat a wolf or two. If you have 13 or fewer exp remaining, save your game and level up on a cactoid or use 2 wolves if needed. Continue this process until about level 8. Repeat this process for every character while you're here. .========================================. # 31.10 Stage 5: Werewolves **311000** # `========================================` Routine: Werewolf (17) By level 8, it takes several runs to gather enough experience for a level up. Something faster is needed and the werewolves are great and surprisingly consistent for experience (1206, give or take 5). The werewolves at level 8 are much too powerful to handle, even with your 1300 HP. There is a fix for that though - immobilize. Immobilize the werewolves then attack them if immoblized, fleeing if immobilize misses (immobilize can miss on one already affected by immobilize). It's not exactly necessary that you chain them though so grab the loot if it's safe to do so but don't focus heavily on getting the loot - focus on maximizing the HP and MP and keeping an eye on how much exp remains. Check your experience needed regularly as usual - if it's over 1211, defeat another werewolf. If it's from 1202 to 1211, defeat a giza rabbit. If it's 1201 or under, save your game and process the level up. Repeat this process for every character while you're here. How far you go depends on the character. Pick one character you want to use throughout the rest of the leveling and getting around level that character up to about level 21. I prefer Vaan myself (for his high strength and speed, great for bows), but choose whoever you like most. Pick a second character to level up next. I would suggest Ashe as her magick power is very high. You'll only need to get Ashe to level 23. Penelo needs 28. The other characters have to wait until their 30s, Balthier being the worst at 38. The key is having magick power at 47, to guarantee immobilize in the key area. .=================================================. # 31.11 Stage 6: Westersand leveling **311100** # `=================================================` Routine: Dive talon (18) By level 21, dive talon is manageable, having a high enough success rate to be worthwhile. Early on, you'll mainly want to focus on the urstrixes and sleipnirs, perhaps the alraunes, until you can get to the save crystal from Giza Plains. For the most part, you can just rush through the Westersand until you reach the gate crystal you started near after the previous story events. You should easily be able to make it at level 20 with some experience to spare. Do not get the dive talons until you can save. When you can, use the dive talon for leveling up with. If you have 2045 or more experience to go for the level up, defeat another enemy. If you have from 1953 to 2044 to go, defeat something other than a dive talon - an alraune or urstrix works well. If you have 1952 or less to go, save your game. Use the very near by dive talon to level up on - immobilize it then attack accordingly. If immobilize misses, either quit and reload or quickly cross the zone boundary and return to try again. At level 21, with your traveler's garb set and 5 magick lores, you have a 97% chance of getting immobilize to work. It becomes guaranteed at level 25. Even at level 34, your target, dive talon will take 4 hits to defeat so it's best that you immobilize it or you'll only be KOed before you defeat it. .=================================================. # 31.12 Stage 7: Garamsythe Waterway **311200** # `=================================================` Routine: Malboro (19) The usual malboro overkings and lizards are the next things to deal with, found in the Garamsythe Waterway. These are dealt with in the same way as the standard routine except that you must watch your exp closely. Your magick power is also higher thanks to having all 5 magick lores. Keep the traveler's garb set equipped and focus on immobilizing these enemies in much the same way. At level 34, you have about a 90% success rate on immobilizing an enemy, fairly high. The guarantee doesn't start until level 45. Checking the experience is a bit more difficult in this case as the enemies are closely spaced for how much experience they give. Regardless, if you have 3088 or more to go, defeat another enemy. If you have something from 2904 to 3087 to go, defeat a lizard. If you have 2619 to 2903 to go, you may optionally defeat a lizard or you can focus on just a malboro for leveling up with. I would suggest focusing on the malboro only route as you can simply ignore the low-lying lizard (immobilize it if you have to). Continue to level 48. I'll cover the reason behind 48 in a bit. You'll be returning to this area twice more for processing later level ups. .============================================. # 31.13 Stage 8: Defeat 4 marks **311300** # `============================================` Routine: Hunts (14) Now that you've gained a lot of levels and there's a large span between level ups, this is now a great time to go after the hermes sandals. Whether or not you start with dustia or the hunts, it doesn't matter, but both need to be done. For this, I'll focus on the 3 hunts. You've already brought down the rogue tomato for sure. This means thextera, the flowering cactoid, and wraith are available. These are very easy to deal with - just follow the standard routine as nothing has changed other than having to be careful not to level up during this. Marks only give license points and not experience. It's the other enemies along the way that need to be dealt with. If you feel you're getting too close to a level up, save when you can (giving enemies immobilization as needed) then process the level up. This, however, shouldn't happen. .===================================================. # 31.14 Stage 9: Dustia is for arcanae **311400** # `===================================================` Routine: Hermes (16) Use the gil from the loot drops from the dive talons, alraunes, malboro overkings, lizards, etc. to buy 60 phoenix downs and the warmage's monograph. You don't need to sell anything other than loot drops from enemies as you should easily have the gil from doing the runs with Penelo first thing. 60 dustias is about 66,000 total experience so make sure you have at least 66,500 total experience left as a safety precaution. If you don't, return to stage 7's process and process the next level up or just get fewer phoenix downs. With 50 phoenix downs, the average amount needed, you only need to have about 55,000 total experience - use 55,500 as a safety precaution. Level 45 is just now beyond that point giving you enough opportunity. As usual, get down to 10% HP remaining and start going after dustia. You must get 15 arcanae before your phoenix downs are used up. Save your game before starting. If you fail, from bad luck and not getting 15 arcanae in the 60 phoenix downs you had (50 is the average), quit and reload to try again. Unlike before, if you accidentally KO, you won't get game over - just bring in a reserve and revive. Put the reserve back when you're done though. Try again as needed. That, however, shouldn't happen at all, especially at level 45 with 1000 bonus HP from those licenses. At level 45, if you use the mythril sword and swap out weapons when the last attack connects, you're good to go. When you get 15 arcanae, stop then go off to save your game. Process the next level up using the method in stage 7. .====================================================. # 31.15 Stage 10: The Tomb of Raithwall **311500** # `====================================================` Routine: Dawn shard (25) At this point, you'll likely want to get into the Mosphoran Highwaste as it's a very good place to level up. Before that, you must go through the Tomb of Raithwall. If you haven't done the cluckatrice hunt yet, you must do so now while you still can. This is your final chance! Unlike before, you will be soloing this entire area. Don't worry though, it's actually quite easy, even the first demon wall is fairly quick to go down, healing aside (you can skip the first one, but not the second - the second is much easier anyway and you'll likely spend more time running to it than defeating it). At level 46 with the winged helm and scale armor, you'll be hitting it for 1537 to 1816 damage per hit without focus taking effect (likely the case). This means the first demon wall will go down in about 14 hits. The second demon wall, the required one, will go down in about 7 hits. The hit count assumes no critical hits happen. Although you'll have a guest present, consider it useful as you'll cut the experience you get in half making it easier to go through this area without leveling up. The boss after leaving the tomb isn't that troublesome - the high evasion is the main problem. Still, you can fire a quickening off on the boss, focusing on using level 1 quickenings as much as you can (avoiding level 3 quickenings). If all else, bring in one new character and have that character fire off a quickening chain, leaving your high level one to be able to go at it more with "mist charge". Once you're done, process level 50 using stage 7, again. This will be the last time you'll need to process something using Garamsythe Waterway. .==============================================================. # 31.16 Stage 11: Prepare for Mosphoran Highwaste **311600** # `==============================================================` Routine: Hunts +99 (26; partial) then Mosphoran (27; partial) ............................................................ 31.16.1 Reasons for going to Mosphoran Highwaste **311610** ............................................................ At this point, things are getting significantly different as far as dealing with the routines go. Unlike the standard methods, you're not after doing the hunts right now. You're only doing the preparations part, covered in section 26.2. Buy out the magick shop, technick shop, and gambit shop. Optionally buy the golden armor for defense, though it's not an absolute must. Immobilize is the main thing you really need so you can get by with the scale armor. You might be wondering why level 48 is the point for finishing stage 7. There are 4 reasons for this actually. First, from defeating dustias for getting the hermes sandals, you pretty much gain an entire level but not quite in full. Second, from going through the Tomb of Raithwall, you have yet another level up that's very close. Third, immobilize, with just your 5 magick lores only, is guaranteed which means the winged helm and scale armor can be equipped. Fourth, you'll almost certainly be able to defeat the numerous pythons in 2 hits (rarely 3) as going from level 49 to 50 causes both speed and strength to go up (for Vaan), drastically boosting damage. With these enemies being as powerful as they are with such inferior armor, defeating them in 2 hits is always nice as, with pseudo running, you'll be able to to defeat them before they strike. It's no assurance with the vultures or humbabas though - immobilize will take care of those, or 3 hits. A regen and cura gambit will help too. The reason for level 48 at that point was the processing of 2 level ups and the guarantee of immobilize on these enemies at level 50. You might also be wondering why I even chose Mosphoran Highwaste. First, this place is much easier to handle - the enemies are about 1/3 as strong. Second, the very high density of enemies makes it faster to process, especially toward the end, despite being worth only about 60% of the experience. There's even a round-about of enemies to further speed things up. When you're done preparing, get into Mosphoran Highwaste. The chocobo method is by far the best as you can also avoid getting experience until you really need it. Be sure to get a clear blue sky as you'll be in Mosphoran Highwaste for a long time. .................................... 31.16.2 The gambit setup **311620** .................................... Set up your gambits in a way so that, if things do go wrong, you'll at least be prepared to handle it. This is what I suggest. Do note that this is for the active character you're leveling up. When you change the character you are leveling up, you'll set that character's gambits to these: 1. Ally: HP < 60% = cura 2. Self = regen 3. Foe: Status = HP Critical = attack 4. Foe: HP < 1000 = attack 5. Foe: flying = attack 6. Foe: nearest = attack 7. Self = esuna 8. Self = libra 9. Ally: HP < 90% = cura Because only 1 character is involved, revival has no meaning as, if that character falls, their gambits would stop working. Thus, healing is the first slot. Use any threshold you feel is reasonable - 50 to 80% is decent though I would suggest a lower value more than a higher one mainly due to regen and the after-battle heal. Regen is used for automatic healing should any hits be taken. This is mainly needed for lower levels for your first 2 characters as it helps keep the focus license taking effect. The next 2 gambits are for destroying an enemy that's on the verge of going down. You may switch these 2 around. The flying enemies have the annoying kamikaze skill which, when it hits, causes you to earn absolutely nothing for it. Removing poison, what rare times it does appear, is done after the enemies have been dealt with. Poison hardly does any damage compared to what the enemies can do. Lastly, if the enemy isn't a flier or low on HP, the nearest one to the character gets attacked. Obviously, to see the annoying traps, you need libra so gambit that in. If a noticeable amount of HP is missing after any fighting is done, restoring that follows. .===================================================================. # 31.17 Stage 12: The Mosphoran Highwaste Python Craze **311700** # `===================================================================` Routine: null Because the Mosphoran routine above (section 27) is for getting into and through Mosphoran Highwaste and not for leveling up, that routine does not apply for this. What's needed is an entirely separate process. .......................................... 31.17.1 Setting up the routine **311710** .......................................... First, buy what you need and can from Luccio. You'll definitely want a nishijin belt for sure at this point. Head to the northwestern zone exit - it's the only way to get to the key area for now. The first python you run into here is what I often call the "level up python" or "level up snake" because I use it to process a level up with. You'll have a tough zone to get through, filled with vultures (just immobilize them) and, the worst part, fire elemental. Should fire elemental's life bar become visible, immediately get away as, as explained in the standard routines above, if you use any magicks near an elemental, it'll turn hostile and begin attacking you and fire elemental will easily do 700 damage. If it begins attacking, chances are, it's silence - equip a rose coursage and quickly get out of that zone or, if you just started, quit and reload. You could attempt to defeat it, but it's not easy. It is doable though, especially early on, but be careful. Once you get to the other side of this zone, head to the southern area and strike the weathered rocks to create a path. This will allow you to get 2 zones away from the key area very quickly. Head to the north though - that's the key area you'll be doing the bulk of your experience gathering in. .................................... 31.17.2 The main routine **311720** .................................... You will encounter 2 pythons here, the first on the right and the second on the left. There are 3 humbabas obviously visible but there's a third python on the left. Deal with the python first unless a humbaba is close. In that case, stay away from that corner and immobilize the humbabas. When you reach level 65, you don't really need to immobilize the humbabas as you'll defeat them in 2 hits when focus is taking effect. If they cast protect on themselves before they begin to fight, immobilize them then, until level 83. However, by level 65, regen is quite effective so you could almost just directly attack them anyway and, if needed, let your healing gambits take effect. Once the humbabas have been dealt with, continue on. Avoid the area to the north - there are no enemies there. Stick to the southern wall as you'll find a python on the left in the middle of the alcove in the grassy area. At earlier levels, this is as far as you'd want to go - back track and get 2 zones away to respawn these enemies. At a higher level, continue on. Straight ahead, just around the corner, is another python, your fifth one. Head to the north at this point. There are 2 pythons in the grassy areas. The one in the western patch rarely appears so I tend to skip that one until my way back. Focus, instead, on the one on the east. At this point, you'll have to use ranged weapons, mainly the burning bow with the fiery arrows. This is because of the vultures present. If one is nearby, focus on it. If not, get the python in the grassy area slightly to the north of the previous one beyond the narrow pathway. Defeat the vultures while continuing north without going more west than the westernmost part of the narrow passage you passed through, only doing so if a vulture is a step or two away. This way, you can help ensure you get more pythons to spawn. If you go too far west until you've dealt with the pythons on the eastern part, the western pythons or one or both of those in the east won't appear thanks to the 6 enemy limit. In the northeast corner, you will find one of the pythons, your seventh one. Straight west is another python, near a chest that can contain a pirate hat (good for 2000 gil, a nice find). Continue farther west and go into the alcove near the S-shaped path leading down. There are 2 pythons and a useless chest here. At this point, back track (almost a straight line even) to the end of the zone. If you ignored the western python just past the narrow passage or it just didn't appear, get it now - a quick, sharp, right turn is good enough. Once the 12th python has been dealt with, continue on your way to leave this zone and get 2 zones away. You may get a few respawns along the way back, usually the case at a lower level when you need a lot of hits. Repeat the process again. Once you can begin defeating these enemies in 1 hit on a regular basis, you'll really go fast, getting a total of about 35,813 experience (and 24 license points) in about 2 1/2 minutes if you're fast. That's 14,325 experience per minute, making it slightly faster than the 25-hour method's peak rate. However, I don't have in depth timing data on this routine so I don't know the exact timing. I was approaching 2 5/8 minutes on average and that was without the fiery arrows (as I wasn't aware you could get them or how at the time). .............................................. 31.17.3 When processing a level up **311730** .............................................. When you're ready to save, continue to the south and you'll find 2 clay golems standing a little ahead. The clay golems signal your turn - when you see their life bar appearing, turn right to enter Babbling Vale. For processing a level up, I suggest using the python first thing in the northwestern exit as it's the closest point and easy enough (see why I call it the "level up python"?). When you return to the gathering of experience after processing a level up, take the eastern exit instead. You'll find 2 slaven wilders and 2 magic-using clay golems, both fairly easy. The only enemy in this area not vulnerable to immobilize are the clay golems. Everything else can be immobilized. Take the northeastern exit if you wish to avoid the clay golems (best if you're on a low level until you've completed the next stage). Keeping an eye on the amount of experience you have left to level up as usual is very important. If you have more than 2390 experience left, defeat another enemy. If you have from 2029 to 2390 experience left, defeat just a python then go back to save for processing the level up. If you have from 1750 to 2028 experience left, defeat a slaven wilder (slip around the clay golems to get to one) then save. If you have 1749 or less experience to go, save your game and process the level up. ...................................... 31.17.4 Get some bone mail **311740** ...................................... About the bone mail (cost: found in chest (5900 base)): +-------------------+---------------------------------+ | Equipment bonuses | Extra important properties | +-------------------+ Weak to holy, 50% dark resist | | Attack power 0 +---------------------------------+ | Hit points 0 | License path | | Mist points 0 +-------------------------+-------+ | Defense 34 | License | LP | | Magick resist 0 | Heavy armor 3 | Start | | Evade 0 | ^ Light armor 5 | 25 | | Magick evade 0 | > Light armor 6 | 30 | | Strength 6 | > Heavy armor 5 | 40 | | Magick power 0 | Total | 95 | | Vitality 0 | | | | Speed 0 | | | +-------------------+-------------------------+-------+ The big plus about the bone mail is that you get a massive defense boost which will really help for leveling up the second character. Although it makes you weak against the holy element, you won't be dealing with any enemies that use it so that negative side doesn't apply. The 50% dark resist is a plus though - it cuts damage from dark-elemental spells in half and the clay golems here use it (along with a lot of other enemies). The main reason for getting this, however, is the defense. You'll cut the physical damage these enemies do by about 60%, quite significant. When you reach something around level 70, consider heading into the Salikawood farther to the north and going after some bone mail in a chest. By level 70, you shouldn't have too much trouble with what's in the Salikawood. You may go earlier, but anything less than level 50 is not recommended as you risk leveling up along the way if you're not careful. Pumpkin heads are about the only problem you'll have. If you get hit with confuse, just remember to equip the weakest weapon you have and wait for the attack to hit you for 0 damage then reequip what you had. When you reach the blue save crystal, head straight then take the east route when the path splits. Head north at the next split then east at the turn. You'll find the chest in question very near the zone boundary leading farther east. The chest appears 45% of the time, has a 40% chance of containing an item, and the usual 50% chance of it being what you want. This means you have an actual chance of 9%. If the chest isn't there, contains gil, or is a hi-potion, quit and reload to try again. Your other option is going after the wild saurians just before the entrance to Mosphoran Highwaste, but it's a 1% drop and not worth it. The chest method is much faster and easier. ............................................... 31.17.5 Finish your first character **311750** ............................................... When you return to Mosphoran Highwaste, be sure to get a blue sky as usual and head to Babbling Vale. Save your game. Continue leveling up your first character as you have been. These enemies will now be doing significantly less damage than they were doing making them far easier to handle. .==========================================================. # 31.18 Stage 13: Level up a second character **311800** # `==========================================================` Routine: null ..................................................... 31.18.1 Difficult and slow early leveling **311810** ..................................................... When your first character reaches level 99, swap that character's equipment for the second character you want to level up. I suggest Ashe or Penelo so you have a strong healer. Give this character the black cowl and the traveler's vestment so you can immobilize enemies as needed with a high chance. Give the character the hermes sandals too to quickly get immobilize going. You should be within one enemy of a level up quite frequently early on, but it will take quite a while to defeat a single enemy at first. Do be patient. When processing a level up, immobilize the usual level up python in the northwestern exit of Babbling Vale then defeat it. ..................................... 31.18.2 The middle levels **311820** ..................................... Over time, you won't need to have to immobilize the level up python which will save some time. This happens at level 23 for Ashe and 24 for Penelo. My basis is guaranteeing 4 hits (evasion aside) and that you have the winged helm and bone mail equipped. When you're done processing the level up, reequip the black cowl and traveler's vestment and use immobilize. When gathering experience, you'll be defeating the numerous pythons in 3 hits with Ashe at level 33 and Penelo at level 34. This is when I suggest that immobilizing them is no longer needed. Immobilize everything else though. At level 42 for Ashe and 43 for Penelo, extend your range to cover the vultures and the rest of that key zone. You will be guaranteed to defeat a vulture in 3 hits at that point. The pythons are guaranteed to be defeated in 2 hits at level 51 with Ashe and level 52 with Penelo. .................................... 31.18.3 The later levels **311830** .................................... The last major threshold is level 56 for Ashe and 58 for Penelo. At this point, you are guaranteed to defeat everything in the key zone in 3 hits, evasion aside. You will no longer have to immobilize anything. At this point, just advance your way to level 99 as usual. .==================================================. # 31.19 Stage 14: Raise the clan rank **311900** # `==================================================` Routine: Hunts + 99 (26) .................................................... 31.19.1 Hints and tips with 2 characters **311910** .................................................... Now that you have 2 level 99 characters, you can go after the high end equipment in the Nabreus Deadlands and the Necrohol of Nabudis without having to worry about a surprise level up. If you don't have a firefly at this point, get one from the slaven wilders (it's a 3% drop), an easy-to-chain enemy using the path-clearing method to chain. The firefly will help should there be a need to have to bring in the unleveled characters. Also, buy a lot of phoenix downs, at least 20, preferrably 30, perhaps as many as 60. At this point, you'll now get a sample as to what a boosted game is really like, especially the MP that Ashe and Penelo can have (with 3 mist charges, they can very well naturally have over 999 MP). I would still suggest using a berserker, at least for now. Berserk will really make enemies go down very quickly. Have the berserker with the burning bow and fiery arrows equipped the entire time, unless I state otherwise. Have your leader (I suggest Ashe or Penelo (whichever you used) as these are great for healing) use a burning bow with the onion arrows. During your run with Penelo first thing in the process, you should have gotten at least 2 burning bows. If you didn't, you'll have to now. Although you do more damage unarmed, considerably more, you need significantly less time to defeat the lesser enemies around, speeding things up. This is because the berserker doesn't have to close the distance. If the leader dies (unlikely for a while), let your berserker finish off any enemies (or berserk will expire and the berserker will revive as needed), then bring in one of your unleveled characters to revive as needed - put that unleveled character back into the reserve as soon as you can (having the firefly equipped on that unleveled character will prevent accidental level ups - if a level up does happen, quit and reload). Alternatively, you can wait for berserk to expire and then let the berserker do the revival. ......................................... 31.19.2 The Lhusu Mines hunts **311920** ......................................... Chances are, from having to advance the story without leveling up, you didn't go after these hunts. This is now the time to do so. Use the gate crystal in Mosphoran Highwaste to teleport to Rabanastre. Check the hunt board and speak with Montblanc to get the Nidhogg and Rocktoise hunts. Teleport to Bhujerba next. From there, you'll need to enter the Lhusu Mines. Since nidhogg is weak against fire, keep the burning bow and fiery arrows. You should bring it down in one hit even. Continue on to find rocktoise. Because rocktoise is so slow to move, keep the burning bow with the fiery arrows to avoid taking damage aside from the annoying return damage effect. Don't forget to claim the bounties along the way back. .................................................. 31.19.3 The croakadile gives new hunts **311930** .................................................. Check the hunt board and accept all 3 hunts available. Speak with the tavernmaster then Sherral to get those hunts started, but don't go after them yet. Instead, head into Giza Plains, speak with Sadeen, then go after the croakadile. As before, the fiery arrows work wonders on it, so it should be one of the easiest marks. Remember to get those withered trees along the way. Claim the bounty and return to Rabanastre. ............................................... 31.19.4 A yoichi bow for the leader **311940** ............................................... Check the hunt board to find 3 more hunts. Accept all 3. Use the moogling to head to west gate and speak with Sorbet to get the white mousse hunt started. Use the moogling to get to the Sandsea, head north, then enter Lowtown. Go after white mousse as before (the fiery arrows will be extremely helpful here - if needed, keep casting cura to delay waterga while your berserker rips away (consider waiting for berserk to expire and be recast before taking on white mousse). Speak with Balzac in the western end of Lowtown before leaving Lowtown. Claim the yoichi bow from Sorbet and equip it on your party leader. .......................................... 31.19.5 The remote wyvern lord **311950** .......................................... Use the moogling to head to south gate then use the gate crystal to teleport to the Tomb of Raithwall. Go after the wyvern lord by heading east from there. You must use ranged attacks for this. When defeated, return to the Tomb of Raithwall and teleport to Rabanastre. You should have 10 marks defeated at this point. ...................................... 31.19.6 Clan shop shopping **311960** ...................................... Visit the clan shop and buy several teleport stones (I usually like to keep at least 20 in stock). Also, buy the nihopalaoa as it'll make a lot of what's to come very easy. If you don't have many remedies (less than 5 for example), buy some from Luccio in Mosphoran Highwaste. .................................................. 31.19.7 The remaining Westersand hunts **311970** .................................................. Head into the Westersand either through west gate or gate crystal. The gate crystal method is the easiest and is what I'll assume. Head east then hug the southern part of that zone. You'll find ring wyrm present. First, equip the nihopalaoa on your leader and hand ring wyrm a remedy to cripple it as far as possible. From there, just let your berserker tear it up effortlessly, waiting for the most part. Next, go into the Zertinan Caverns and spend 5 minutes in this initial zone. Go around defeating the junk enemies, grabbing the chests, and defeating the respawns that eventually show up. When you're ready, head into the lit area where the 2 speartongues were. Before continuing, cast protect on both the berserker and healer. Equip the nihopalaoa on the party leader (best done the moment you see the "protect" popup). Make your berserker go unarmed at this point as well as the fiery arrows cause more trouble than good. Now head toward the key area and hand marilith a remedy as soon as you can to severely cripple it. Near the end, you may need to constantly cast cura if needed. If you're having too much difficulty with marilith, do the gil snapper hunt, buy and license bubble, then try again. .................................... 31.19.8 The last 2 hunts **311980** .................................... Return to Rabanastre, speak with Montblanc, and accept the 2 new hunts available. As to which one you do first, it doesn't matter. I will assume the gil snapper is first. Before starting that, however, claim the bounties from the wyvern lord and marilith hunts. The ring wyrm bounty can wait until you do the orthros hunt. Continue with getting the 6 withered trees in Giza Plains and speak with Nanau in Giza Plains' southern save crystal. Cross the bridge of trees to the southeast and go after the gil snapper. As usual, equip the nihopalaoa and hand the gil snapper a remedy to cripple it. From there, just attack normally and let your berserker rip away unarmed. Return to Rabanastre and enter Lowtown. Claim the bounty from Balzac's ring wyrm and speak with contrite thief near Garamsythe Waterway's entrance. Remember that, just before entering the zone with the mark, set your party to Fran, Ashe, and Penelo. It must be all 3 characters with no variation. When Orthros appears, quickly swap out the female-only party with your original, equip the nihopalaoa on the leader, burning bow with the fiery arrows on your berserker, and go at it as usual. If orthros decides to use mythril bubbles right away, your remedy will seriously delay mythril bubbles, if you're quick to fire it off. When defeated, claim the bounty on your way back. Return to the clan shop and buy bubble and faith, licensing them, and adjusting your gambits accordingly. .===================================================================. # 31.20 Stage 15: Obtain Nabradia's high end equipment **312000** # `===================================================================` Routine: Nabradia (28), Necrohol (29) Teleport to Mosphoran Highwaste and cross the Salikawood and enter the Nabreus Deadlands. With only 2 characters, the Nabreus Deadlands is a bit difficult, but it's not that troublesome. Unlike the standard routine where you just go after every piece of equipment, things are different here. You don't want to be going after everything just yet. .................................. 31.20.1 Raising max HP **312010** .................................. For now, focus on going after raising defense and raising the max HP. The minerva bustier is a good first choice. Going unarmed provides more attack power than the defender. You should consider giving the leader the hermes sandals and giving the berserker the battle harness just to boost damage even more. With the leader having the hermes sandals, a "foe: undead = cura" gambit can kick off right away, causing mythril bubbles to have to wait. Get 2 minerva bustiers, one for each character (equip the first one on the party leader then the second on the berserker). Next, go after the crown of laurels. Immobilize crusader as usual then just let your berserker pound away and cura work its magicks. Get 2 crowns of laurels. ....................................... 31.20.2 Go for the defender **312020** ....................................... Going after the defender next is a good choice before setting off for the Necrohol of Nabudis. The evasion bonus it provides will make dealing with the numerous baknamies much easier. Just cast raise on the leynirs to defeat them. Get 2 defenders, one for each character. The order you equip them on doesn't matter. You may prefer to get just one defender and stick to the yoichi bow or burning bow with the fiery arrows for your leader, making heavy use of immobilize. ................................................. 31.20.3 The power of the zodiac spear **312030** ................................................. The first thing you want to do in the Necrohol of Nabudis is get the zodiac spear. The sooner you can get it, the easier things will be. As usual, put it on your berserker for constant 9999 damage. ................................................ 31.20.4 Maximillians are for defense **312040** ................................................ Next is the maximillian. The defense of 58 will render the enemies in Mosphoran Highwaste pretty much completely harmless. You only need to get one maximillian for now. Feel free to get more if you want. ........................................... 31.20.5 Get the golden skullcap **312050** ........................................... Once done, go after the golden skullcap. The magick resist of 58 (59 with the maximillian) will render everything in Mosphoran Highwaste harmless, except fire elemental. For immunity to that, aside from the status effects, equip the dawn shard. You only need to get 1 golden skull cap for now. ...................................................... 31.20.6 The remaining equipment - optional **312060** ...................................................... If you really wanted to, you could go after the grand armor, but it's not easy with just 2 characters. It is still doable though, just a lot more challenging as your leader pretty much has to do all the work of keeping status effects in check, though only bubble and berserk are really needed. Libra will help though but libra lasts a very long time. You could have your berserker have a "self = berserk" gambit above any attacking to help. The use in the grand armor is only with the use of the zodiac spear, nothing more. The rest of the equipment available in this region is not necessary. You can get it later. .=============================================================. # 31.21 Stage 16: Level up the last 4 characters **312100** # `=============================================================` Routine: null ................................ 31.21.1 Gambit setup **312110** ................................ With the golden skullcap and maximillian, Mosphoran Highwaste couldn't be any easier. By this point, you don't need as much for gambits. In fact, you could even utilize adrenaline to really push out speed as, with these enemies doing 0 damage pretty much all the time, there's no need for much: Without adrenaline: 1. Ally: HP < 50% = cura 2. Foe: flying = attack 3. Foe: HP < 1000 = attack 4. Foe: status = HP critical = attack 5. Foe: nearest = attack 6. Self = esuna 7. Self = libra With adrenaline: 1. Ally: HP < 10% = potion 2. Foe: flying = attack 3. Self = esuna 4. Foe: HP < 1000 = attack 5. Foe: status = HP critical = attack 6. Foe: nearest = attack 7. Self = libra Without going with adrenaline, an unlikely-to-be-used healing gambit is first, from things like kamikaze. The usual prioritization to flying enemies is next, to reduce the problems with kamikaze, followed by getting enemies on the verge of being defeated. Should poison strike, that can be restored after battle. Manually heal after battle to get focus to take effect again - don't gambit it in or it'll only be annoying when processing a level up. If you plan on going with the adrenaline route, you don't want a magick healing gambit. You want something weaker and potions serve well for that. HP critical is 20% so you must use the 10% option. If you have at least 1500 HP, a potion won't take you out of HP critical status. With enemies doing 0 damage so regularly, it's almost perfectly safe to make the most of the adrenaline license. That, however, is only best advised in the main area you gather experience in. When running through the main area, you can use the winged helm as every enemy here, except fire elemental and the clay golems, are purely physical - the winged helm will only increase damage. Due to taking zero damage, immobilize is no longer necessary for anything - just attack and be done with it. Of course, if all else, if the character you're leveling up dies, just bring in one of your level 99 characters to revive. Once the character is revived, put the level 99 character back as soon as you can. ............................................. 31.21.2 The first 50 or so levels **312120** ............................................. Early on, you'll want the golden skullcap as you can use the clay golems for gathering what little experience you need. After a bit, focus on the first part of the main area. This area may be packed full of enemies, but when you're aren't taking damage and the enemies are, you could easily face a whole horde of 100 of them and still not have any trouble taking them down without a single scratch. Just keep an eye on how much experience you have left to go for the next level up and process it using the usual level up python. How far you go with this depends on your character. Go to the next part when the character you are guaranteed a minimum of 2 hits on the vultures. Why this point? It's because the vultures have "kamikaze". If that gets used, you get absolutely no credit for it and you take big damage as it's defense-ignoring. The point of guarantee depends on the character. I will assume you have the winged helm, maximillian, burning bow with fiery arrows, and the hermes sandals and you are using the focus license. Vaan, Balthier, and Basch have level 44. Fran and Ashe have level 47 and Penelo has level 48. If you use adrenaline, those thresholds are much lower, so much so that you wouldn't even be able to an entire round without having to process a level up. Vaan, Balthier, and Basch only need level 23. Fran and Ashe have 25 and Penelo has 26. Because you only need around 15,000 experience for a level up at those low levels, and a full round gives 36,000, you might as well set the threshold so that you defeat them in one hit instead. That threshold is nearly 30 levels higher for every character - 53 for Vaan, Balthier, and Basch, 56 for Fran and Ashe, and 57 for Penelo. Around there, you need a bit over 100,000 experience to level up, essentially 3 full rounds. That's more worthwhile. ............................................. 31.21.3 The last remaining levels **312130** ............................................. Once you pass the threshold, open up the entire zone for leveling up. If a vulture decides to go kamikaze during this, you have 2 choices. You can either attempt to finish it off, best if you know you are 1 hit away from defeating it (evasion aside), or berserk it. Berserk on an enemy, knowing how effective it is on your ally, will actually have no effect. This is because attack power is not increased (as opposed to what the game hints at in the description - "heightened attack power"). The base damage is increased instead. Now do the (very simple) math: what's 0*1.5? Yep, even with berserk, you'll still only ever take 0 damage thanks to that maximillian. If berserk did increase attack power, you would be taking damage then. As usual, just keep an eye on how much experience is needed to level up. When you're done with one character, move on to the next, following the same methods as before. When you hit level 99, feel free to go after more maximillians, crowns of laurels, the black masks, and the many other pieces of equipment you could get. This also includes the grand armor which is only good for the early levels with the zodiac spear. .========================================================. # 31.22 The list of perfect HP and MP values **312200** # `========================================================` If you still insist on going after true perfection for whatever reason, here's a table that list every character's perfect HP and MP values for every level up. I've also listed the probability of getting the best possible boost. Remember that, if the MP's fractional part ends on a value greater than the aptitude, you won't know which of the 2 (or even 3) possibilities you got. As an example, to explain that, consider level 27 for Vaan. His perfect MP at that point is 115.56. Reference the .56 part. Vaan's MP aptitude is 0.54. Since 56 (the part after the decimal - treat a .9 as .90) is greater than 0.54, you are going to have problems with level 27 as there's a chance you'll have to back track. As another example, consider Basch's level 71. This has .92 at the end and 92 is more than double his 44 so that level up has 3 possibilities, really making it a nightmare. Now consider Ashe's level 52. This ends in a .26 and 26 is less than 57. This means you won't have any trouble with that level up at all and it will be worth boosting Ashe's HP while going after it. +----+--------------------+--------------------+--------------------+---------+ | LV | HP Vaan MP | HP Balthier MP | HP Fran MP | Odds | | *0 | 68.08 24.3 | 69.12 17.76 | 56.58 22 | 1 in X | +----+--------------------+--------------------+--------------------+---------+ | 1 | 84.36 27 | 84.96 ** 20.16 | 71.76 ** 24.75 | 6 | | 2 | 103.6 29.7 | 103.68 22.56 | 89.7 27.5 | 33 | | 3 | 124.32 32.4 | 123.84 24.96 | 109.02 30.25 | 18 | | 4 | 146.52 35.1 | 145.44 27.36 | 129.72 33 | 13 | | 5 | 170.2 37.8 | 168.48 29.76 | 151.8 35.75 | 10 1/2 | | 6 | 195.36 40.5 | 192.96 32.16 | 175.26 38.5 | 9 | | 7 | 223.48 43.2 | 220.32 34.56 | 201.48 41.25 | 48 | | 8 | 253.08 45.9 | 249.12 36.96 | 229.08 44 | 25 1/2 | | 9 | 284.16 48.6 | 279.36 39.36 | 258.06 46.75 | 18 | | 10 | 316.72 51.3 | 311.04 41.76 | 288.42 49.5 | 14 1/4 | +----+--------------------+--------------------+--------------------+---------+ | 11 | 350.76 55.08 | 344.16 45.12 | 320.16 53.35 | 16 | | 12 | 387.76 58.86 | 380.16 48.48 | 354.66 57.2 | 84 | | 13 | 426.24 62.64 | 417.6 51.84 | 390.54 61.05 | 44 | | 14 | 466.2 66.42 | 456.48 55.2 | 427.8 64.9 | 30 2/3 | | 15 | 507.64 70.2 | 496.8 58.56 | 466.44 68.75 | 24 | | 16 | 550.56 73.98 | 538.56 61.92 | 506.46 72.6 | 20 | | 17 | 596.44 77.76 | 583.2 65.28 | 549.24 76.45 | 104 | | 18 | 643.8 81.54 | 629.28 68.64 | 593.4 80.3 | 54 | | 19 | 692.64 85.32 | 676.8 72 | 638.94 84.15 | 37 1/3 | | 20 | 742.96 89.1 | 725.76 75.36 | 685.86 88 | 29 | +----+--------------------+--------------------+--------------------+---------+ | 21 | 794.76 92.88 | 776.16 78.72 | 734.16 91.85 | 24 | | 22 | 849.52 96.66 | 829.44 82.08 | 785.22 95.7 | 124 | | 23 | 905.76 100.44 | 884.16 85.44 | 837.66 99.55 | 64 | | 24 | 963.48 104.22 | 940.32 88.8 | 891.48 103.4 | 44 | | 25 | 1022.68 108 | 997.92 92.16 | 946.68 107.25 | 34 | | 26 | 1080.4 111.78 | 1054.08 95.52 | 1000.5 111.1 | 44 | | 27 | 1136.64 115.56 | 1108.8 98.88 | 1052.94 114.95 | 64 | | 28 | 1191.4 119.34 | 1162.08 102.24 | 1104 118.8 | 124 | | 29 | 1243.2 123.12 | 1212.48 105.6 | 1152.3 122.65 | 24 | | 30 | 1293.52 127.98 | 1261.44 109.92 | 1199.22 127.6 | 36 1/4 | +----+--------------------+--------------------+--------------------+---------+ | 31 | 1342.36 132.84 | 1308.96 114.24 | 1244.76 132.55 | 46 2/3 | | 32 | 1389.72 137.7 | 1355.04 118.56 | 1288.92 137.5 | 67 1/2 | | 33 | 1435.6 142.56 | 1399.68 122.88 | 1331.7 142.45 | 130 | | 34 | 1478.52 147.42 | 1441.44 127.2 | 1371.72 147.4 | 25 | | 35 | 1525.88 152.28 | 1487.52 131.52 | 1415.88 152.35 | 67 1/2 | | 36 | 1576.2 157.14 | 1536.48 135.84 | 1462.8 157.3 | 36 1/4 | | 37 | 1630.96 162 | 1589.76 140.16 | 1513.86 162.25 | 155 | | 38 | 1688.68 166.86 | 1645.92 144.48 | 1567.68 167.2 | 55 | | 39 | 1749.36 171.72 | 1704.96 148.8 | 1624.26 172.15 | 35 | | 40 | 1814.48 176.58 | 1768.32 153.12 | 1684.98 177.1 | 92 1/2 | +----+--------------------+--------------------+--------------------+---------+ | 41 | 1882.56 181.44 | 1834.56 157.44 | 1748.46 182.05 | 48 3/4 | | 42 | 1955.08 186.3 | 1905.12 161.76 | 1816.08 187 | 205 | | 43 | 2030.56 191.16 | 1978.56 166.08 | 1886.46 191.95 | 71 2/3 | | 44 | 2109 194.94 | 2054.88 169.44 | 1959.6 195.8 | 36 | | 45 | 2191.88 198.72 | 2135.52 172.8 | 2036.88 199.65 | 94 | | 46 | 2277.72 202.5 | 2219.04 176.16 | 2116.92 203.5 | 49 | | 47 | 2368 206.28 | 2306.88 179.52 | 2201.1 207.35 | 204 | | 48 | 2461.24 210.06 | 2397.6 182.88 | 2288.04 211.2 | 70 2/3 | | 49 | 2557.44 213.84 | 2491.2 186.24 | 2377.74 215.05 | 44 | | 50 | 2650.68 217.62 | 2581.92 189.6 | 2464.68 218.9 | 70 2/3 | +----+--------------------+--------------------+--------------------+---------+ | 51 | 2740.96 221.4 | 2669.76 192.96 | 2548.86 222.75 | 204 | | 52 | 2826.8 225.18 | 2753.28 196.32 | 2628.9 226.6 | 49 | | 53 | 2909.68 228.96 | 2833.92 199.68 | 2706.18 230.45 | 94 | | 54 | 2988.12 232.74 | 2910.24 203.04 | 2779.32 234.3 | 36 | | 55 | 3063.6 236.52 | 2983.68 206.4 | 2849.7 238.15 | 57 1/3 | | 56 | 3136.12 240.3 | 3054.24 209.76 | 2917.32 242 | 164 | | 57 | 3204.2 244.08 | 3120.48 213.12 | 2980.8 245.85 | 39 | | 58 | 3269.32 247.86 | 3183.84 216.48 | 3041.52 249.7 | 74 | | 59 | 3330 251.64 | 3242.88 219.84 | 3098.1 253.55 | 28 | | 60 | 3387.72 255.42 | 3299.04 223.2 | 3151.92 257.4 | 44 | +----+--------------------+--------------------+--------------------+---------+ | 61 | 3442.48 258.12 | 3352.32 225.6 | 3202.98 260.15 | 93 | | 62 | 3492.8 260.82 | 3401.28 228 | 3249.9 262.9 | 21 3/4 | | 63 | 3540.16 263.52 | 3447.36 230.4 | 3294.06 265.65 | 40 1/2 | | 64 | 3583.08 266.22 | 3489.12 232.8 | 3334.08 268.4 | 15 | | 65 | 3623.04 268.92 | 3528 235.2 | 3371.34 271.15 | 23 | | 66 | 3660.04 271.62 | 3564 237.6 | 3405.84 273.9 | 63 | | 67 | 3692.6 274.32 | 3595.68 240 | 3436.2 276.65 | 14 1/4 | | 68 | 3726.64 277.02 | 3628.8 242.4 | 3467.94 279.4 | 12 | | 69 | 3763.64 279.72 | 3664.8 244.8 | 3502.44 282.15 | 63 | | 70 | 3802.12 282.42 | 3702.24 247.2 | 3538.32 284.9 | 33 | +----+--------------------+--------------------+--------------------+---------+ | 71 | 3842.08 285.12 | 3741.12 249.6 | 3575.58 287.65 | 23 | | 72 | 3883.52 287.82 | 3781.44 252 | 3614.22 290.4 | 18 | | 73 | 3926.44 290.52 | 3823.2 254.4 | 3654.24 293.15 | 15 | | 74 | 3972.32 293.22 | 3867.84 256.8 | 3697.02 295.9 | 78 | | 75 | 4019.68 295.92 | 3913.92 259.2 | 3741.18 298.65 | 40 1/2 | | 76 | 4068.52 298.62 | 3961.44 261.6 | 3786.72 301.4 | 28 | | 77 | 4118.84 301.32 | 4010.4 264 | 3833.64 304.15 | 21 3/4 | | 78 | 4170.64 304.02 | 4060.8 266.4 | 3881.94 306.9 | 18 | | 79 | 4225.4 306.72 | 4114.08 268.8 | 3933 309.65 | 93 | | 80 | 4281.64 309.42 | 4168.8 271.2 | 3985.44 312.4 | 48 | +----+--------------------+--------------------+--------------------+---------+ | 81 | 4339.36 311.04 | 4224.96 272.64 | 4039.26 314.05 | 22 | | 82 | 4398.56 312.66 | 4282.56 274.08 | 4094.46 315.7 | 17 | | 83 | 4459.24 314.28 | 4341.6 275.52 | 4151.04 317.35 | 14 | | 84 | 4522.88 315.9 | 4403.52 276.96 | 4210.38 319 | 72 | | 85 | 4588 317.52 | 4466.88 278.4 | 4271.1 320.65 | 37 | | 86 | 4654.6 319.14 | 4531.68 279.84 | 4333.2 322.3 | 25 1/3 | | 87 | 4722.68 320.76 | 4597.92 281.28 | 4396.68 323.95 | 19 1/2 | | 88 | 4792.24 322.38 | 4665.6 282.72 | 4461.54 325.6 | 16 | | 89 | 4864.76 324 | 4736.16 284.16 | 4529.16 327.25 | 82 | | 90 | 4938.76 325.62 | 4808.16 285.6 | 4598.16 328.9 | 42 | +----+--------------------+--------------------+--------------------+---------+ | 91 | 5014.24 326.16 | 4881.6 286.08 | 4668.54 329.45 | 14 1/3 | | 92 | 5091.2 326.7 | 4956.48 286.56 | 4740.3 330 | 11 | | 93 | 5169.64 327.24 | 5032.8 287.04 | 4813.44 330.55 | 9 | | 94 | 5251.04 327.78 | 5112 287.52 | 4889.34 331.1 | 46 | | 95 | 5333.92 328.32 | 5192.64 288 | 4966.62 331.65 | 23 1/2 | | 96 | 5418.28 328.86 | 5274.72 288.48 | 5045.28 332.2 | 16 | | 97 | 5504.12 329.4 | 5358.24 288.96 | 5125.32 332.75 | 12 1/4 | | 98 | 5591.44 329.94 | 5443.2 289.44 | 5206.74 333.3 | 10 | | 99 | 5681.72 330.48 | 5531.04 289.92 | 5290.92 333.85 | 51 | +----+--------------------+--------------------+--------------------+---------+ +----+--------------------+--------------------+--------------------+---------+ | LV | HP Basch*** MP | HP Ashe^ MP | HP Penelo^^ MP | Odds | | *0 | 88.5 15.4 | 54.8 26.22 | 51.87 34.65 | 1 in X | +----+--------------------+--------------------+--------------------+---------+ | 1 | 105 ** 17.6 | 69.87 ** 29.07 | 66.5 ** 37.4 | 6 | | 2 | 124.5 ** 19.8 | 87.68 ** 31.92 | 83.79 ** 40.15 | 33 | | 3 | 145.5 22 | 106.86 34.77 | 102.41 42.9 | 18 | | 4 | 168 24.2 | 127.41 37.62 | 122.36 45.65 | 13 | | 5 | 192 26.4 | 149.33 40.47 | 143.64 48.4 | 10 1/2 | | 6 | 217.5 28.6 | 172.62 43.32 | 166.25 51.15 | 9 | | 7 | 246 30.8 | 198.65 46.17 | 191.52 53.9 | 48 | | 8 | 276 33 | 226.05 49.02 | 218.12 56.65 | 25 1/2 | | 9 | 307.5 35.2 | 254.82 51.87 | 246.05 59.4 | 18 | | 10 | 340.5 37.4 | 284.96 54.72 | 275.31 62.15 | 14 1/4 | +----+--------------------+--------------------+--------------------+---------+ | 11 | 375 40.48 | 316.47 58.71 | 305.9 66 | 16 | | 12 | 412.5 43.56 | 350.72 62.7 | 339.15 69.85 | 84 | | 13 | 451.5 46.64 | 386.34 66.69 | 373.73 73.7 | 44 | | 14 | 492 49.72 | 423.33 70.68 | 409.64 77.55 | 30 2/3 | | 15 | 534 52.8 | 461.69 74.67 | 446.88 81.4 | 24 | | 16 | 577.5 55.88 | 501.42 78.66 | 485.45 85.25 | 20 | | 17 | 624 58.96 | 543.89 82.65 | 526.68 89.1 | 104 | | 18 | 672 62.04 | 587.73 86.64 | 569.24 92.95 | 54 | | 19 | 721.5 65.12 | 632.94 90.63 | 613.13 96.8 | 37 1/3 | | 20 | 772.5 68.2 | 679.52 94.62 | 658.35 100.65 | 29 | +----+--------------------+--------------------+--------------------+---------+ | 21 | 825 71.28 | 727.47 98.61 | 704.9 104.5 | 24 | | 22 | 880.5 74.36 | 778.16 102.6 | 754.11 108.35 | 124 | | 23 | 937.5 77.44 | 830.22 106.59 | 804.65 112.2 | 64 | | 24 | 996 80.52 | 883.65 110.58 | 856.52 116.05 | 44 | | 25 | 1056 83.6 | 938.45 114.57 | 909.72 119.9 | 34 | | 26 | 1114.5 86.68 | 991.88 118.56 | 961.59 123.75 | 44 | | 27 | 1171.5 89.76 | 1043.94 122.55 | 1012.13 127.6 | 64 | | 28 | 1227 92.84 | 1094.63 126.54 | 1061.34 131.45 | 124 | | 29 | 1279.5 95.92 | 1142.58 130.53 | 1107.89 135.3 | 24 | | 30 | 1330.5 99.88 | 1189.16 135.66 | 1153.11 140.25 | 36 1/4 | +----+--------------------+--------------------+--------------------+---------+ | 31 | 1380 103.84 | 1234.37 140.79 | 1197 145.2 | 46 2/3 | | 32 | 1428 107.8 | 1278.21 145.92 | 1239.56 150.15 | 67 1/2 | | 33 | 1474.5 111.76 | 1320.68 151.05 | 1280.79 155.1 | 130 | | 34 | 1518 115.72 | 1360.41 156.18 | 1319.36 160.05 | 25 | | 35 | 1566 119.68 | 1404.25 161.31 | 1361.92 165 | 67 1/2 | | 36 | 1617 123.64 | 1450.83 166.44 | 1407.14 169.95 | 36 1/4 | | 37 | 1672.5 127.6 | 1501.52 171.57 | 1456.35 174.9 | 155 | | 38 | 1731 131.56 | 1554.95 176.7 | 1508.22 179.85 | 55 | | 39 | 1792.5 135.52 | 1611.12 181.83 | 1562.75 184.8 | 35 | | 40 | 1858.5 139.48 | 1671.4 186.96 | 1621.27 189.75 | 92 1/2 | +----+--------------------+--------------------+--------------------+---------+ | 41 | 1927.5 143.44 | 1734.42 192.09 | 1682.45 194.7 | 48 3/4 | | 42 | 2001 147.4 | 1801.55 197.22 | 1747.62 199.65 | 205 | | 43 | 2077.5 151.36 | 1871.42 202.35 | 1815.45 204.6 | 71 2/3 | | 44 | 2157 154.44 | 1944.03 206.34 | 1885.94 208.45 | 36 | | 45 | 2241 157.52 | 2020.75 210.33 | 1960.42 212.3 | 94 | | 46 | 2328 160.6 | 2100.21 214.32 | 2037.56 216.15 | 49 | | 47 | 2419.5 163.68 | 2183.78 218.31 | 2118.69 220 | 204 | | 48 | 2514 166.76 | 2270.09 222.3 | 2202.48 223.85 | 70 2/3 | | 49 | 2611.5 169.84 | 2359.14 226.29 | 2288.93 227.7 | 44 | | 50 | 2706 172.92 | 2445.45 230.28 | 2372.72 231.55 | 70 2/3 | +----+--------------------+--------------------+--------------------+---------+ | 51 | 2797.5 176 | 2529.02 234.27 | 2453.85 235.4 | 204 | | 52 | 2884.5 179.08 | 2608.48 238.26 | 2530.99 239.25 | 49 | | 53 | 2968.5 182.16 | 2685.2 242.25 | 2605.47 243.1 | 94 | | 54 | 3048 185.24 | 2757.81 246.24 | 2675.96 246.95 | 36 | | 55 | 3124.5 188.32 | 2827.68 250.23 | 2743.79 250.8 | 57 1/3 | | 56 | 3198 191.4 | 2894.81 254.22 | 2808.96 254.65 | 164 | | 57 | 3267 194.48 | 2957.83 258.21 | 2870.14 258.5 | 39 | | 58 | 3333 197.56 | 3018.11 262.2 | 2928.66 262.35 | 74 | | 59 | 3394.5 200.64 | 3074.28 266.19 | 2983.19 266.2 | 28 | | 60 | 3453 203.72 | 3127.71 270.18 | 3035.06 270.05 | 44 | +----+--------------------+--------------------+--------------------+---------+ | 61 | 3508.5 205.92 | 3178.4 273.03 | 3084.27 272.8 | 93 | | 62 | 3559.5 208.12 | 3224.98 275.88 | 3129.49 275.55 | 21 3/4 | | 63 | 3607.5 210.32 | 3268.82 278.73 | 3172.05 278.3 | 40 1/2 | | 64 | 3651 212.52 | 3308.55 281.58 | 3210.62 281.05 | 15 | | 65 | 3691.5 214.72 | 3345.54 284.43 | 3246.53 283.8 | 23 | | 66 | 3729 216.92 | 3379.79 287.28 | 3279.78 286.55 | 63 | | 67 | 3762 219.12 | 3409.93 290.13 | 3309.04 289.3 | 14 1/4 | | 68 | 3796.5 221.32 | 3441.44 292.98 | 3339.63 292.05 | 12 | | 69 | 3834 223.52 | 3475.69 295.83 | 3372.88 294.8 | 63 | | 70 | 3873 225.72 | 3511.31 298.68 | 3407.46 297.55 | 33 | +----+--------------------+--------------------+--------------------+---------+ | 71 | 3913.5 227.92 | 3548.3 301.53 | 3443.37 300.3 | 23 | | 72 | 3955.5 230.12 | 3586.66 304.38 | 3480.61 303.05 | 18 | | 73 | 3999 232.32 | 3626.39 307.23 | 3519.18 305.8 | 15 | | 74 | 4045.5 234.52 | 3668.86 310.08 | 3560.41 308.55 | 78 | | 75 | 4093.5 236.72 | 3712.7 312.93 | 3602.97 311.3 | 40 1/2 | | 76 | 4143 238.92 | 3757.91 315.78 | 3646.86 314.05 | 28 | | 77 | 4194 241.12 | 3804.49 318.63 | 3692.08 316.8 | 21 3/4 | | 78 | 4246.5 243.32 | 3852.44 321.48 | 3738.63 319.55 | 18 | | 79 | 4302 245.52 | 3903.13 324.33 | 3787.84 322.3 | 93 | | 80 | 4359 247.72 | 3955.19 327.18 | 3838.38 325.05 | 48 | +----+--------------------+--------------------+--------------------+---------+ | 81 | 4417.5 249.04 | 4008.62 328.89 | 3890.25 326.7 | 22 | | 82 | 4477.5 250.36 | 4063.42 330.6 | 3943.45 328.35 | 17 | | 83 | 4539 251.68 | 4119.59 332.31 | 3997.98 330 | 14 | | 84 | 4603.5 253 | 4178.5 334.02 | 4055.17 331.65 | 72 | | 85 | 4669.5 254.32 | 4238.78 335.73 | 4113.69 333.3 | 37 | | 86 | 4737 255.64 | 4300.43 337.44 | 4173.54 334.95 | 25 1/3 | | 87 | 4806 256.96 | 4363.45 339.15 | 4234.72 336.6 | 19 1/2 | | 88 | 4876.5 258.28 | 4427.84 340.86 | 4297.23 338.25 | 16 | | 89 | 4950 259.6 | 4494.97 342.57 | 4362.4 339.9 | 82 | | 90 | 5025 260.92 | 4563.47 344.28 | 4428.9 341.55 | 42 | +----+--------------------+--------------------+--------------------+---------+ | 91 | 5101.5 261.36 | 4633.34 344.85 | 4496.73 342.1 | 14 1/3 | | 92 | 5179.5 261.8 | 4704.58 345.42 | 4565.89 342.65 | 11 | | 93 | 5259 262.24 | 4777.19 345.99 | 4636.38 343.2 | 9 | | 94 | 5341.5 262.68 | 4852.54 346.56 | 4709.53 343.75 | 46 | | 95 | 5425.5 263.12 | 4929.26 347.13 | 4784.01 344.3 | 23 1/2 | | 96 | 5511 263.56 | 5007.35 347.7 | 4859.82 344.85 | 16 | | 97 | 5598 264 | 5086.81 348.27 | 4936.96 345.4 | 12 1/4 | | 98 | 5686.5 264.44 | 5167.64 348.84 | 5015.43 345.95 | 10 | | 99 | 5778 264.88 | 5251.21 349.41 | 5096.56 346.5 | 51 | +----+--------------------+--------------------+--------------------+---------+ Table footnotes: * Level 0 is being used as the base so you can see how the development goes. ** This level is impossible for this character due to the fact they join at a higher level or the 2 highest's averages are used. *** Basch can have the absolute highest possible HP a character can have - 16,806. To get that, perfect his HP then equip the dueling mask, mirage vest, and orrachea armlet to get his base HP to 8403. Cast bubble on him to make this the 16,806. With 1 HP left, having Basch going around casting balance will regularly inflict 16,805 damage. ^ Ashe can have the absolute highest possible MP a character can have - 1272. To get that, perfect her MP then equip the rod of faith, sorcerer's hat, sorcerer's habit, and get all 3 mist charges in some way (license all 3 quickenings or license an esper that requires 3 mist charges - the former is the easiest and soonest). ^^ Penelo almost ties Ashe for MP and she, like Ashe, can naturally have over 1000 MP (that is, without any MP-boosting equipment being equipped). The display may only show 999, but should you grab a loot drop from a big chain that restores MP, you could very well see a 103 (104 with Ashe) pop out. _____ ___ ___ | ___| / _ \ / _ \ | |__ | |_| | | | | | | __| | _ | | | | | | | _ | | | | _ | |_| |_ _ |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| \______| |_| ######################### ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 32 Frequently Asked Questions **320000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ######################### .==============================================. # 32.1 The basics of powerleveling **320100** # `==============================================` Q. What is powerleveling? A. Powerleveling is becoming far more powerful than the story would normally have you. There are 3 forms of this. The first, and most obvious, is through purposefully engaging combat with enemies repeatedly (for hours, days, or even weeks) and defeating them to gain experience and level up before advancing the story any more. This is often called grinding or level grinding. Wandering around towns and villages for the sole purpose of fighting enemies is the most common form of powerleveling. Normally, by the time you're doing Barheim Passage, you should be about level 6, not 20 (or 99) doing maybe around 50 to 80 damage. You would normally be about level 17 doing around 150 damage by the time you go through the Tomb of Raithwall. You're not supposed to be 99 doing 6000+ damage. Powerleveling can also be the obtaining of equipment that you normally wouldn't be able to get until much later in the game. Defeating enemies you normally couldn't defeat in the story (from grinding) or visiting a town you normally shouldn't be at (either through grinding or taking a risk, fleeing from every battle) is a common way to do this. Normally, you wouldn't be able to get the burning bow until you visit the Phon Coast, about 55% of the way through the game, not a tiny 4%. Equipment like the maximillian, golden skullcap, crown of laurels, etc. normally isn't available until the Pharos or Giruvegan, not before you first see the Ozmone Plain. In addition, powerleveling can be accumulating ability points, skill points, or, in FF12's case, license points, just to get ahead with ability learning. Even before you defeat the rogue tomato, you can very well clear out the entire license board in meaningful time by repeatedly attacking every single wolf and cactite in the initial area (though obtaining 13,330 LP is another matter (espers don't count)). Q. Why would one want to powerlevel? It takes out the challenge! A. Everyone has their own reasons. There are several common reasons. One is for the huge damage popups that come with powerleveling. A second comes from the thrill of destroying otherwise difficult bosses like they were absolute wimps. Some prefer to powerlevel just for the fun of it. A fourth reason is for replay value - if you've played a game normally before, why not try an overpowered game? The fifth reason (and my reason) is that some don't care for the story but love the game play. Q. Is powerleveling cheating? A. Technically, no. You're spending the time and effort through normal game play and using what's available in the game to obtain the power. This includes the quitting and reloading of saves to turn random number generators in your favor. Pressing a button combination (e.g. square, up, right, R2, L1, L2, L2, down, triangle, R1, circle, then circle when on the title screen (I just made this up), something hidden like that) to instantly get level 99 with every item in the game or using a Gameshark, Action Replay, Code Breaker, etc. is cheating though. Q. What is the difference between powerleveling and extreme powerleveling? A. Extreme powerleveling is a term I made up, but it's taking powerleveling far beyond what most would do. Instead of being just 10 or 15 levels above what you'd normally be, being 30, 40, 60, or even more above what you're supposed to be is taking powerleveling to an extreme. Instead of spending a few extra hours at powerleveling, it's spending at least 24 extra hours focusing on it or being at least 5 times more powerful than what you're supposed to be (in my guide, you're doing over 100 times what you're supposed to be doing for the longer methods, over 50 times for the shorter ones). .==============================================. # 32.2 About this guide in general **320200** # `==============================================` Q. Why did you decide to write a guide? A. I'm an extreme powerleveler. I play RPGs not for their stories (stories very rarely ever interest me), but for the powerleveling. I get far more enjoyment out of an RPG the more extreme I can powerlevel in it. From my history, explained in the next question, I learned a lot and decided to make a video series to explain how to get level 99 fast and early, using what I knew back then. Over time, those videos were getting out of date and they absolutely did not cover the 70-hour method at all, the very first thing I used. I decided to write a GameFAQs guide as a way to get a much more up to date routine that also covered the 70-hour method. It was split into 8 stages - the intro and rogue tomato, getting the rod, gathering LP with ichthon, getting the burning bow, getting the traveler's garb set, chaining the werewolves, using dive talon, then lastly, exclusive to the 40-hour method, Garamsythe Waterway. That's what started the guide itself. Now, after a few years have passed, I've since, through fan suggestions and my own understanding of the game, began realizing that the guide I had was starting to get out of date. Considering the fact dustia was hardly covered at all, and the videos I had available were horribly out of date and extremely inefficient for what I knew then. With new comments coming up on those horribly out of date videos, and misfortunes in my move to Fargo causing an opening of availability for recording of several months, I saw an opportunity to not only record an in-depth walkthrough of the entire process, covering everything from the original 70- and 40-hour methods to dustia which splits those into the 65- and 35-hour methods, and even a whole new method as I began studying how the game mechanics work in finer detail. That new method is the 25-hour method, a risky but blazing fast method that makes most any other method in the game look slow (tool-assisted speed runs with no load times could make the 25-hour method more around 18 hours). With the new methods, techniques, and adjustments, I spent 3 months recording, editing, and uploading a detailed walkthrough of every single method and also the afterward section where the high-end equipment in the Nabreus Deadlands and Necrohol of Nabudis can be obtained. With this, I also decided to update the GameFAQs guide to include everything. Q. How did you figure out these methods? A. Right on my very first play of FF12, I was already going heavy on powerleveling, reaching level 8 or so before even defeating the rogue tomato. And then came all the other stuff with the 70-hour method, except I didn't know about the rod. I often used Giza Plains to level up. Once I finally found the rod, at around level 15 to 20, but I focused on what I was dealing with, even attempting nekhbet without success. Once I found the Westersand to be meaningful, I used that place for a while, but I never knew about the burning bow. I was attempting the werewolves around level 30, but the rod just wasn't too decent and I was really struggling. Over time, however, the werewolves became manageable and I continued to about level 50ish when I got bored and advanced the story. I had Basch, Balthier, and Fran join. From there, I was able to use immobilize and the dark spell to defeat dive talons as a way to get the burning bow (I saw it being available in my Brady Games guide). I never knew about the "start, square, up, X" combo to reload and the usual "L1+L2+R1+R2+Select+Start" combo I was familiar with wasn't working so I pressed the reset button on the console, the only way I knew how to reload a game. With the burning bow, Garamsythe Waterway was found to be an awesome place to level up, giving birth to the 40-hour method's final stage. I got Vaan to level 99 but was starting to get bored so I didn't focus too much on Balthier, Fran, and Basch. I advanced the story to the point where I was supposed to be heading to Jahara. Through more exploration, I found Mosphoran Highwaste. The zone focused on in section 31 for the final leveling was found to be the best place for leveling up and it was quite easy too. I got every single character (Ashe joined at level 86 and Penelo at 93) to level 99. With that, I finally advanced the story. I never got the zodiac spear during this because I wasn't aware of the chests you had to avoid. I needed 10 hours to defeat Yiazmat for the first time (today, 3 3/4 hours is my fastest time and I know that can improve quite a bit). Over time, I learned of new tricks and methods, studied the game's mechanics, and got suggestions and details from video comments and E-mails that would improve upon my methods. As of today, I don't know if there's any possible way to go any faster than what I have now while also remaining as early as possible too. Q. What happened to the previous stage-based format you had? A. Because 5 methods are covered at once, each depending on varying factors, I had to change the format. I kept having to mention "if you're using the %d, %d, or %d-hour method, skip this part; otherwise, continue on" and that was showing up very frequently. Some parts had to be done at different times. Take the case of the winged helm for example. With Vaan alone, had you done it after getting the traveler's garb set, you would have a very difficult time in the 70-hour method. However, even at the same level, with Vaan, Balthier, and Fran teaming up, it's much easier to get the winged helm in the shorter methods. You lose Balthier and Fran when you do the hunts and go after the arcanae for the hermes sandals so you have to get the winged helm before that while you still can. Due to the ordering being different and varied depending on your method, I decided to go with a routine-based approach, having one section for each routine, then listing which routines you use in each given method with any modifications as needed, explaining the routine only briefly in the methods part. Q. Why is the "afterward" section after the methods? A. All methods use pretty much the same content in the afterward section, with a few small exceptions at the beginning, another in the middle, and the entire "Balth Fran" routine at the end. The shorter methods will leave out Balthier and Fran for doing this, but you'll still have a full party of level 99 characters. Q. Why is the "optimize" section after everything instead of being part of the methods themselves? A. The optimize section is separate because it involves an entirely different routine, some of which exclusive to it. It's mainly in the fact you can't level up (or keep that to a bare minimum) until all 6 characters join. While the optimization method, the 6th method, does use a lot of what's present in the standard routines, there's often plenty of modifications. Q. You've had an urstrix watch a battle with gnoma entite? Really!? A. Indeed I have and not once but twice, back to back even. This very old video of mine shows it. It's quite funny in a way - they just stand and "watch" what's going on, casting protect as needed, recasting it when it expires. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5PikoQyfXY Q. Does this guide apply to the IZJS version of this game? A. I have no idea. Since the International Zodiac Job System version hasn't been released in the US, I cannot legally play it and thus I cannot test it. The only thing I can say is to try it yourself. If it's any similar to the US version, then my guide should work for it, to some extent at least. Again, I can't confirm or deny anything. Q. How do you get the timing of the methods exact to the frame? A. This is done through recording a video. I mark a starting point, always the first frame in which the scene begins to fade to black from crossing into the key zone with the activity. Let's say it started on frame 29,418. I skip ahead as I view the route being followed, and I continue until I find the case where I cross that same boundary and the first frame of the fade to black is used. Let's say that frame is 32,072. I skip ahead and get to that same point and note the next point where the fade starts. Let's say that frame is 34,903. The first round of this is has a duration of 32,072-29,418 or 2654 frames. The second round has a duration of 34,903-32,072 or 2831 frames. I don't expect it to be the same every round, fluctuations happen, thanks to the randomness in the game. To convert frames into seconds, I simply divide by 30,000 then multiply by 1001, after the NTSC standard (since that's what I use). This gives a duration of 88.555 seconds (a bit under 1 1/2 minutes) for the first round and 94.461 seconds (a bit over 1 1/2 minutes) for the second round. This would be typical during the end of the final stage of the 40- or 35-hour method and would fit my data quite well. This is how I got the timing data exact to the frame and as precise as I have it. For best results, I accumulate a lot of data points, often over 2 hours (usually over 100 data points). Q. What's with the slanted bars for the 25-hour method's big text? A. The 25-hour method is the fastest of all the methods. The slanted bars are a symbol of speed, of which the 25-hour method is focused on. .========================================. # 32.3 About the video guide **320300** # `========================================` Q. How did you record your videos? A. I used a TV tuner to record the videos. Q. How did you get the narration included? How do you process your videos? A. I record the narration as I play. The process involves starting the recording from my microphone in an audio recording program, starting the recording with my TV tuner's software, using some method to synchronize the audio (usually a sudden and loud sound effect like the selecting of an option (choosing "no" for quitting) or the glass breaking sound effect when a mist charge is broken (incomplete) from casting a spell with full MP. The former is the easiest method. There's a third method though, one that works regardless - make a sudden and sharp sound with your voice at the very moment an intended sound effect or visual effect is to occur. From there, I work on the main recording itself, narrating as needed. When done with what I needed, I do another synchronization at the end to make sure the tracks are aligned (due to annoying bugs on my TV tuner's driver). I stop the video recording then the audio recording, saving the audio. If I feel as if I had too many mistakes or I mess up too frequently in my narration, I'd redo what I attempted to record, doing another take. A second take isn't always a worthy option though. When I come to editing the video, when I feel satisfied enough with it, I extract the audio from the original recording, open it, convert it to mono, add my narration track in, set it to the left channel, amplify it by 6 dB so it's easier to hear my voice, then use my synchronization to align the 2 tracks. I save the output and preview it in the video, deleting the lead-in frames and until 1 second before the point where I need to cover where I need (there are rare exceptions). I preview the video to see if it's good or not. If it's bad, I do another take, repeating the process from the beginning (sparing save files helps with that). If there's a sudden misalignment present, typical at the 20-minute mark due to, well, my TV tuner's buggy drivers, I fix it. If there's no misalignment or everything is fixed and everything is good to go, I render the output video with a lossless codec. When a routine is done, I stitch the segments together and perform an archival rendering, a high quality lossy rendering. Once the entire series was done, I compressed the audio instead of leaving it uncompressed (needed so I can stitch segments together) and copied the video stream to finish my archival versions. Then I used a lower quality setting for both the video and audio for use for uploading to YouTube and that is how what you see came to be the way it is. Q. Why do some of the scenes, when I pause the video, look blurred with parts duplicated when the scene moves and others are sharp with no duplication? A. It's my TV tuner's deinterlacing that I have absolutely no control over. FF12 runs at 30 fps instead of 29.97 fps. Should there be a misalignment of about 1/60 of a second, the frequency at which NTSC video updates (updating a half of a frame, every other line), blurring will happen as the first part has the first frame and the second part has the second frame. These get blended together causing the blurring and the duplication. Q. What's this about the game clock being off? A. I'm unsure if it's something in my PS2's clock that's off or a bug in the game, but I frequently notice missing time. For example, I save with the time at exactly 5 PM and spend exactly 5 hours leveling up (such as going from level 88 to 91 via the 65-hour method), then I save. It's now 10 PM and when I compare the 2 saves I see that only 4 hours and 44 minutes have passed - 16 minutes have mysteriously disappeared! When I was using the dustia method which takes about 46 minutes per round of 99 phoenix downs, I found that only 40 minutes on the game clock passed since the last save. Somehow, there's missing time. Q. Where's the videos for the optimization method? A. I didn't record any as this easily takes an entire month to do. I was starting to get bored of FF12 about 2/3 of the way through the afterward section and I knew I couldn't go at it for another month (plus extra time for uploading). By the time this guide was finally updated in full, I was going at FF12 for over 4 1/3 months straight, hardly playing any other games. No wonder why I was bored of it! I do have slight intentions on making such a guide though, but not any time soon. Thus, I posted the details in my GameFAQs guide as that takes but maybe 25 total hours. .=====================================. # 32.4 About the routines **320400** # `=====================================` Q. Why do you go after the rod when starting with dustia? A. Since you can't buy phoenix downs from Migelo's Sundries, you have to go somewhere else. The nearest place, Lohen in the Westersand, is much too dangerous at level 4 or 5. The next nearest place is Nalbina Town in the Estersand. This area also happens to be very near where the rod is although it is before the rod. With the amount of gil you're likely to have at this point, you may only be able to get about 8-10 phoenix downs and with only a 40% drop rate on books that offer a 2:1 return, you're generally losing more than you gain and you don't really get ahead without making heavy use of quitting and reloading and/or making several trips (which only costs time). With more effort to get more gil more quickly, getting enough phoenix downs, multiple items can be dropped from a single dustia which allows you to get ahead more quickly. By spending the time going after the rod, you can get enough gil to buy a fair amount of phoenix downs to get a fast start. By repeatedly obtaining the rod, each one being 750 gil, you can get 3 phoenix downs' worth of gil and it only contributes about a minute on the game clock if you ignore the junk enemies along the way. In addition, the rod is a great way to quickly get down to 10% HP remaining. Q. I've spent 10+ hours getting that burning bow but I'm just not getting it! Are there any alternatives? A. Unfortunately, there isn't any dependable way if you're doing the 70- and 65-hour methods. The best available alternative is to use the chain-status-death glitch but this is quite risky and costs a lot on the game clock. You can continue dustia all the way to level 99, but it'll take well over 100 hours to do so, approaching 120 hours. There's the option of stealing a gladius from the lindbur wolf in the Westersand in that dead end area north of the cave, but it's very risky and not worth getting without leveling up a lot. For the shorter methods, you cannot go without the burning bow so you must get it. Although it costs plenty of time, you can go after it with the long bow you get from the "arrows alight" and immobilize for the 40- and 35-hour methods, directly chaining it. You could also use the chain-status-death glitch and get it that way, but that method is quite risky. For the 25-hour method, due to the focus on the game clock, the quickening method is the only option - just keep trying. Do something on the side while you're waiting such as speaking on an instant messaging program, doing your homework, clean your room, do sudoku puzzles or a word search. Do something while you wait for the game to load. That's what I did and it really helps (and remember that I had to get the bow twice, once for the no-dustia methods and again for the with-dustia methods). Q. Does going after the winged helm really save any time at all? A. Not much but it does. It's more pronounced in the 25-hour method as, when you can guarantee 2 hits for defeating the malboro overkings, the routine suddenly gets far faster. And then there's the greater chance of defeating them in one hit near the end which means less waiting and more running, further speeding things up. For the 70- and 65-hour methods, it cuts thresholds back a few levels. Consider level 81 for the 65-hour method. You're now defeating everything in one hit, thanks to adrenaline. Without the winged helm, that threshold has to be pushed back to a later level, level 85. Basically, during those 6 extra hours, you're taking about 7% longer per run and 7% longer over 6 hours means an extra 25 minutes. Just getting a 40 chain takes almost about that long, and that's just one area you're benefiting from. When you transition into the final stage, it's not level 45 that's the basis with the winged helm, it's all the way to level 49. The final stage starts about 20% faster and for about an hour to gain those extra 4 levels, that doesn't seem like much, barely 12 minutes, but it adds up over time. Oh, and don't forget about the fact you're gaining experience quite fast while going after the winged helm so instead of losing maybe an hour getting it, it's more like 5 to 10 minutes, if that. Overall, getting the winged helm saves over an hour from the 65-hour method, quite considerable. For the faster methods, it's not as much, but it's still around 30 minutes being saved, quite considerable. Q. Wouldn't the gladius be better on the werewolves than the burning bow? A. It's fairly close but no. For this, you need to consider the advantages and disadvantages of each. The gladius is wind elemental and the werewolves are weak against wind. Being a dagger, the gladius charges up slightly faster though this benefit is slight due to the fact the attack animation is just as long. The gladius is a short range weapon which means you have to be right next to the enemy in order to even damage it and that can mean getting both werewolves on you at the same time. The attack power is also lower which means less damage potential. The burning bow has a higher power which means less damage is being absorbed. The burning bow is ranged which allows you to keep your distance constantly, making only one werewolf go after you instead of both (delaying the other one). In addition, the fact the burning bow is ranged allows for effective pseudo running - if done right, you can get 2 shots off for every 1 the werewolves make, effectively doubling damage. This isn't always possible though. The bow does take longer to charge up an attack but pseudo running can help offset that downside. Given this, the burning bow wins though isn't by much. It's the safety part that mainly makes the burning bow win. Q. If Vaan gets to level 98, everyone will start at level 99 so why go to 98 when 99 can get a full party of level 99 characters? A. You may stop at level 98 if you want. My guide is focused on level 99. This can be useful for the 70- and 65-hour methods where it takes 2 1/4 or 2 hours just to get that final level up. It's not as useful for the 40- or 35-hour methods and even less useful for the 25-hour method as that method has you're getting 13,700 experience per minute at that point, so fast it only takes an extra 37 or so minutes (35 minutes if you include the hidden frog along the way, directly attacking it). Q. How can an enemy worth 264 exp be worth getting when there's something worth 2000 exp farther along? How do you know if the extra hidden lizard is worth it? A. Statistics and averages. You'd actually be surprised how a weaker enemy can actually help speed up the process. To understand why getting the urstrixes and the sleipnir are worth it but not the wolves, you have to understand the statistics involved. The math is fairly easy - a multiply and a divide. You only need to know 3 things - the base average rate of the routine without the intended adjustment, how much extra you get for the adjustment, and how long it takes to get it. First, there's the base rate. I've done the math for you for that part. This routine peaks at 3700 exp per minute for the 70-hour method and 3930 exp per minute for the 65-hour method and that includes the extra enemies. The 25-hour method peaks at 13,700 exp per minute, but it's generally slightly slower (slower as you don't one-hit defeat the malboro overkings as often) so I'll call it 13,000 exp per minute as that's roughly how long you spend at it. Next, the amount is 17 exp per wolf, 264 per urstrix, and 277 per sleipnir. The hidden lizard is about 2572. This is based on the average exp you get. Last, how much longer does the routine take if I added in the extra? For the 2 wolves, this is about 3 seconds. It seems longer, but remember that you are running toward your destination while charging attack, only stopping to complete the attack. For the urstrixes on the left, it's about 4 to 8 seconds, depending mainly on their use of protect and raw distance. For the other 2 urstrixes, it's about 3 to 5 seconds, depending on how far they are spread out. Note that raw distance is a factor. By getting sighted, you draw the urstrixes over to you which cuts the distance down and thus the reason for it being faster. The sleipnir only takes about 1.5 to 2 extra seconds to get. The extra lizard takes about 15 extra seconds to get it if you're being careful, potentially only 4 seconds with direct attacking. With those 3 details known, all you have to do is plug it into this formula: AdjustmentRate = ExtraExp*60/TimeSeconds; If the adjustment rate is greater than the base rate, going after the extras is worth it. If it's less, ignore it. If it's roughly the same, then getting it is up to you. I would suggest getting it as it's fewer cycles you'll need. Let's apply that process to first 2 wolves you encounter. Are they really worth going after? They give 17 exp and take about 3 seconds to get them both or 34 exp in 3 seconds. This converts to 680 exp per minute. 680 is clearly far less than even the 3650. Because of that, it's best to ignore them. Try it on the 2 urstrixes to the left. Assuming an average of 6 seconds for them, that's 5280 exp per minute. That's clearly above the average so that means they're well worth it. The next 2 urstrixes take 4 seconds which means 7920, way above. The sleipnir's 2 seconds means 8310, again, way above. This is why I tell you to go after those extra enemies - it increases the final rate. It also helps ensure the dive talons appear, as per the 6-enemy limit. For the extra lizard, that's 10,288, less than the average, so it's not worth it if you take 15 seconds from being careful. If you risk it, with direct attacking, that means you'll pass well over 30,000, well above the rate, making that extra lizard well worth it (which can push the method to peak at about 14,700 exp per minute, perhaps even 15,500 during level 98 when you can defeat it in one hit with a modest chance). To find out how long you can take at the extra for break even, use this formula (essentially solved for TimeSeconds): TimeSeconds = ExtraExp*60/BaseRate; This means you have about 1/4 second to get a single wolf (not possible due to having to stop to attack), 4 seconds per urstrix (easy enough to get), 4 1/4 seconds per sleipnir, and 11 3/4 seconds for the extra lizard for break even. .==============================. # 32.5 General FAQ **320500** # `==============================` Q. Do you have any suggestions for how to deal with Yiazmat? A. There's plenty of options. Here's an easy strategy, one you might find a bit weird. First, you'll need 2 ribbons. There's a chest in the Cerobi Steppe just north of a save crystal that contains a ribbon with a 1.5% chance if you have the diamond armlet equipped. Spam quitting and reloading until you get it. It'll take a while, but just cast death on the junk enemies along the way (it's best to ignore them). You'll also need 2 bubble belts, buyable from the clan shop with a high enough clan rank, and 2 mirage vests, buyable from Lowtown. You'll want a suit of grand armor (see section 29.5 above for how to easily get it) and a magepower shishak for your damage dealer (to maximize magick power and strength for the masamune user). To really help, you'll want a lot of hi-ethers and elixirs. You'll need the diamond armlet equipped on someone in the active party to get these items. For a general hi-ether and elixir mix, go run around the Salikawood. For hi-ethers, go around the Westersand to find them in many of the chests there with the diamond armlet equipped. Go around the 4 zones on the eastern side to continuously get chests. For elixirs, go with either the Nam-Yensa Sandsea (since it's packed with chests that contain them) or the Ridorana Cataract. I find the Ridorana Cataract the best way to get elixirs as you have a 6.5% chance of getting one per chest and there are 4 quick-to-reach chests. For this, head into the area north of the gate crystal, go straight north until you can't go north any more. Back track then go west at the split for the second. Repeat for the southern zone only go as much south as you can. If you don't get an elixir in this, quit and reload. If you do get at least one, return to the gate crystal, quit, reload, and go at it some more. You have a 23.57% chance of getting an elixir per run and each run should only take about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes once you master the routine. The next part is something you'll find very strange. I strongly suggest getting the excalibur. Yes, I know, Yiazmat absorbs holy, but that's not what it's for. It's for, interestingly enough, healing. How? By equipping 2 white masks, one on each of the decoyed characters, constantly attacking them with the excalibur will heal them, and a lot. Forget curaga and curaja (outside an emergency), use the excalibur. If it combos, you'll heal much more quickly. If you don't want to get the excalibur, there are other options. The yagyu darkblade (combined with black masks) is the next best option as it will allow for both big damage on Yiazmat and also healing. While the yagyu dark blade isn't as powerful or as effective for healing, it's an option. It combos quite well too which helps. Getting the yagyu darkblade is another subject though. There's the holy lance (use white masks) and the fomalhaut with dark shot ammo (use black masks) that can serve as alternatives. They are less effective but do have use. At least with the fomalhaut method, you can equip grand armor instead of mirage vests to reduce damage from Yiazmat without reducing the healing potential. Funny how getting shot heals you.... You will need 2 weapons of a given element. Going with holy? Get the excalibur and a holy lance or 2 holy lances. Going with dark? Get a yagyu darkblade (or the best ninja sword you can get) and a fomalhaut with dark shot (you get the dark shot from the piscodaemon hunt). Before starting Yiazmat, set your equipment for the 2 damage absorbers and healers. Equip the black masks or white masks, whichever healing routine you're using, a weapon of the element that that armor absorbs, and the mirage vests (grand armors or maximillians if using the fomalhaut method). Have both characters wearing a ribbon. Have a revival gambit in the first slot (phoenix downs are faster, but arise can mean fully healing) on both characters. The second slot depends. The character who can heal the most through attacking should have healing in the second slot. The other one should have bubble in the second slot. Switch these around for the third slot. Decoy should be the 4th slot. Bravery should be 5th to enhance healing, and haste should be 6th to speed up everything. If you're using dark-elemental attacks, put attacking the enemy next. If using holy-elemental attacks, either cast flare (do so manually and only with the weakest healing character) to delay Yiazmat's nonphysical attacks (anything but the regular attack and rake) for a while, several seconds. The other character will only ever attack and cast berserk when it expires. This character will be HP critical at all times, with as little remaining HP as you can get. The lower, the more likely bigger combos are to happen. To set up for this, cast bubble on that character, use charge or infuse to get rid of MP, attack once with a moderately weak weapon (attack power no more than 60 and no less than 40 recommended), change equipment to the masamune to stop a would-be combo, use infuse, cast berserk, and off you go. Lastly, change your party to the other 3 characters and cast decoy, protect, and bubble on them quickly and put them in reserve again, bringing back your original party. This way, if both of your decoyed characters are out of commision, you'll at least be able to bring in someone who is decoyed and continue on - put that extra one back as soon as you can. Before starting the HP critical part, go around and set off all the traps in the area. They'll only cause problems later. When about to set one off, get cura or curaja ready. When done setting off the traps, separate your berserker from the rest so that they are as far apart as possible, leaving your berserker alone. While the leader goes around setting off the traps, have the weakest healer repeatedly use "expose" on Yiazmat to significantly lower its defense. The first use drops defense to 32. The next drops it to 28 then 25, 22 then 19. The next uses drop it by 2s until 2 then 1s until 0. Expose reduces defense by 10% per use and fractions are dropped which allows the 32 to to jump to 28 or a 4 to decrease to a 3. In all, it takes 19 uses of expose to reduce Yiazmat's defense to 0. As long as you keep decoy active on your other 2 characters, constantly heal with attacking each other, keep the berserker's life bar visible at all times, and keep far enough away so that the others don't go off and target the berserker, the berserker will just rip away doing big damage and huge combos. What about cyclone? By keeping on as opposite of sides from Yiazmat as you can, cyclone won't hit your berserker. Just ready cura or a lot of attacking. With ribbons, you won't get hit with sap. The ribbons will also prevent stop (which removes decoy) and petrify so you only need to focus on attacking each other to heal, keeping status effects and especially decoy active. Manually cast decoy even when its currently active to refresh the timer. Do so every 30 or so seconds on one character to be sure at least one character has decoy active. Optionally do so with both characters. Never decoy the berserker. Any time you're getting low on MP, either cast syphon on the berserker (best only if cyclone was recently used), use the charge-syphon trick to fully restore MP, or use a hi-ether. Elixirs and megalixirs also work. When using syphon on the berserker, have the leader do it so you can quickly get back out of the range of the gambits. If the gambits are insisting on attacking that character, simply manually input a command that targets something other than the berserker, such as decoy. For the other character to do it, just change leaders and repeat. Avoid letting MP drop below 200 - syphon the berserker who will only constantly recover MP when you can. For death strike, revive as quickly as you can and keep close to Yiazmat to reduce the chances of death strike taking effect. Once revived, immediately add decoy then bubble then the rest of the status effects, letting attacking do the healing as usual. When reflectga gets used during the last 5 bars, just use dispelga and, about a half second into the charging of dispelga, have the other character cast bubble on the initial target. Just let your gambits do the rest. You might need to combine curaga/curaja/cura with attacking to keep healed during this as Yiazmat combos very frequently. Reverse can help, but it's best to reduce vitality to the minimum you can before attempting that. There are 3 alternative methods available too for the last 5 bars. In all 3 of them, turn off all gambits, except as noted by the method. Run off around the corner out of sight of Yiazmat and leave your berserker alone. Don't let the others do anything. Assume manual control on everything at this point. Do equip bubble belts and raise maximum MP as high as you can get it on the 2 supporters. Don't change anything on the berserker - keep the grand armor, magepower shishak, masamune, and genji gloves. Now, let your berserker die. When the final blow to the berserker is about to be dealt, begin charging arise and use manual control maintain control to keep behind the wall. Once the berserker revives, what you do depends on your method. The first method is the flare method and requires good timing or control. Early on, Yiazmat will cast a lot of status effects on itself. Turn on your gambits but disable everything except your attack gambits and use manual control for everything else. Equip your strongest weapons. Once the berserker revives, immediately cast decoy then shell on him while still behind the wall. Next, have your supporters get flare charging up but time it so that you get in attack range of flare a bit after the spell's effects start from Yiazmat. Make your damage dealer the leader and have him always closer. Keep out of physical range of Yiazmat but in range of death strike so that Yiazmat is forced to use it in which flare will severely delay. Once you see Yiazmat using death strike, begin attacking Yiazmat. Switch your party leader to the one that discharges flare last. When it discharges, run around the corner again while letting the other 2 attack. After flare's effects are over with, death strike will finally take effect. Wait for the other 2 characters to die while they just constantly attack. When one dies, have the one behind the wall cast arise but stay behind the wall at all times. When the other dies, have the leader cast arise again. Repeat the decoy, shell, and flare method. If, however, Yiazmat casts reflect on itself, you must use dispel instead - have your damage dealer use dispel instead of those behind the wall. Have the others cast haste and shell on the damage dealer to at least delay death strike some Repeat the use of dispel until it works. If cyclone is used, have the one behind the wall use esuna to get rid of sap on only that character, then use curaga twice to fully heal. Over time, Yiazmat won't be casting status effects any more. To get around that, have one of the supporters cast haste before flare. Haste will at least delay flare for some time which then delays death strike. Keep repeating until Yiazmat is defeated. The second method is the quick berserk and revive method and is perhaps the easiest and fastest method to use. For this, have both supporters behind the wall at all times with all of their gambits disabled and only use manual control for everything. Have the leader revive with arise, charging it just before Yiazmat deals the final blow. When the berserker is revived, wait until the leader who revived is available again then have the nonleader cast berserk. At the same time, have the berserker manually input to attack Yiazmat. Have the leader cast shell. By the time berserk takes effect, the berserker should be in range and will continue running toward Yiazmat with death strike being used first thing. If not, use the leader to push the berserker in range but do so quickly. Now wait for death strike to either hit or miss. Regardless, let your berserker die and repeat the same process. If death strike misses, consider using that time to use a hi-ether, heal the supporters, or something to help the supporters. One option, though risky, is to syphon the berserker when MP is low. You could replace shell with syphon as an alternative although it will mean death strike is guaranteed to work. The status effects Yiazmat has doesn't really matter in this method. Just go for maximum damage and not HP. If cyclone is used though, have one character cast esunaga to get rid of sap and the other should cast curaja to heal. Try to keep the supporters behind the wall fully healed. The third method is the attack-and-attack-to-heal method and is nearly a clone of the second method. This method requires the use of a ninja blade, preferably yagyu dark blade. Equip a mirage vest and a black mask on the damage dealer. Set the damage dealer's gambits to attack himself if under 30% HP (you might prefer 50%) remaining. The use of 30% is so that, if a combo does strike, and it's quite common, you'll rapidly heal yourself. Once healed, you'll go back to attacking Yiazmat again. The supporters only need to cast shell and bravery on the damage dealer, doing the usual manual revival. You could cast bubble on the damage dealer with the leader (have the other character just cast haste to leave him/her behind) and quickly return. If needed, have your damage dealer cast dispel on Yiazmat. Any time the berserker dies, just repeat the revival process. While the others behind the wall wait, toss around hi-ethers and elixirs as needed (elixirs only when very low on MP - equip MP-boosting. With as short of a time as you're out of sight of Yiazmat, Yiazmat won't heal. Limit the supporters to 3 actions - a revive and 2 others (shell being an obvious one though that can be replaced with syphon if needed). There are a few things I haven't tested though. The first is how effective the attack-to-heal trick is. The second is casting reflectga to hit everyone then cast scathe on all with both characters without the opal ring. Does scathe get reflected? If so, does it cause 3 back-to-back cases of it one after another per character (meaning 6 cases total)? If that works, you can delay the use of death strike far, far longer in the first method, perhaps even canceling it from it taking too long to execute (that's 30 seconds). Q. Do you have any suggestions for how to defeat Omega Mark XII? A. Reverse, decoy, and manual control are the key. Turn off your leader's gambits. When you see the boss, fully heal, refresh decoy on the damage dealer, then refresh faith on the leader. Cast reverse on the leader and dart ahead. Let your damage dealer get ahead so that the damage dealer is the target. Cast reverse on the damage dealer. Cast decoy next. Have the other character cast faith on the one that casts with the gambits disabled who should stay in the back. After decoy is cast, wait about 3 to 4 seconds (you'll learn the timing), and cast reverse again. If you master the timing, reverse will only be down for about 1 second. Whatever you do, do not let esuna gambits carry through. The basic pattern is very simple: reverse, decoy, wait 2 to 4 seconds, reverse, wait 4 to 6 seconds, reverse, decoy, wait 2 to 4 seconds, and so on. If the main caster's MP is getting low, have the non-damage-dealer toss a hi-ether over. For best results, raise magick power to 99 for the one that stays in the back. Do not let this character who casts reverse and decoy attack. You'll lose the benefit of serenity. Master this and Omega Mark XII is very easy, even with 10 times the HP. Q. Do you have any suggestions for how to defeat Hell Wyrm? A. You can use a similar approach to Yiazmat though the heavy use of invert will actually come in handy. For the most part, equip a ribbon on both support characters and decoy them while you let your damage dealer rip away. White masks and the excalibur/holy lance will work for healing and attacking alike. When Hell Wyrm starts using invert, make heavy use of flare while your damage dealer rips away. Time flare so that it goes off immediately after invert works, having your heaviest damage dealer strike first with flare so he can do the major damage. When the second character's flare is almost over, have your other character cast curaga on the one with the lowest HP. Although he or she will have to wait a bit, curaga will go off before Hell Wyrm's firaga, thundaga, or blizzaga will do the damage. You just need to time it right for the most part. With 2 back to back casts of flare and your berserker doing crazy high combos so frequently, Hell Wyrm will take almost a half a million damage (if not more) from flare delaying it so much! Q. I have something to ask, found a spelling error, or know of something you don't that could improve your guide. How do I contact you? A. See the "legal" section directly below for my E-mail. _ _____ ____ ___ _ | | | ___| / ___| / _ \ | | | | | |__ | | _ | |_| | | | | | | __| | | | | | _ | | | | |___ | |___ | |_| | | | | | | |___ |_____| |_____| \___/ |_| |_| |_____| ######################################## ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 33 Copyright, credits, and other legal stuff **330000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ######################################## Legal stuff - it can be boring, but it's very important. .====================================. # 33.1 How to contact me **330100** # `====================================` If you have questions, comments, suggestions, or found an error, E-mail me at "ulillillia (symbol with a small a inside) hotmail spec com". The E-mail is "encrypted" to help prevent spambots from picking it up and delivering dozens of spam messages. I check my E-mail at least twice a day, often 3 times a day (even more when working on my own game), so you can often expect a response within 16 to 20 hours for the most part, provided there's something to comment on. The exception is if I'm unable to get online for some reason, though this is rare. In order of most common to the least common, this is due to: I'm on vacation without access to a computer, my ISP is down for extended time (e.g. having major technical issues), or I get extremely involved a game and forget about my daily check (this is the rarest of all cases). The latter 2 cases can be combined. .============================. # 33.2 Copyright **330200** # `============================` This document is copyright (C) 2013 by ulillillia. It may not be placed on any Web site outside GameFAQs, neoseeker, and my own at www.ulillillia.us. This guide may be printed, but only for home, non-commerial-use. Commercial use is commercially printed strategy guides, magazines, printing it and selling it for profits, and the related. .==========================. # 33.3 Credits **330300** # `==========================` Credits go to several sources: * This document and the method (all routines) were made by ulillillia. * Enemy details such as HP and exp amounts, the ingredients list for the "traveler's garb" bazaar item, details on the equipment, and determining the license paths were referenced using the Brady Games strategy guide. * Someone in a comment on of my YouTube videos told of the possibility of getting the "traveler's garb" bazaar package before Nalbina Dungeons. * Someone via E-mail for mentioning of the arrows alight bazaar package to seriously speed up the 40-hour methods. * Someone via E-mail and/or YouTube for mentioning how to get the hermes sandals. * Valen for providing details on greeden. * Maltzsan for the game mechanics guide providing me with the info to fully optimize my routine and also how HP and MP growth work beyond what I've studied on my own. * Jaysherman1 and Zaglamir on Platform Masters's forums for explaining to me how to calculate some complex statistics. * This unique and interesting game was created by Square Enix. .==================================. # 33.4 Version history **330400** # `==================================` Version 1 - Initial release Version 1 is the initial release, detailing the most essential parts of the process for both methods while also detailing how to get otherwise the best equipment. Version 1.1 - Numerous corrections, routine enhancements, a new more artistic layout Version 1.1 is based off of version 1. Several new elements and enhancements were made. Of these, the most notable, are the more artistic headers (especially the ladder-climbing concept for the various stages, and the more frequent use of charts, of which detail the most efficient path to obtain the license for a particular item or spell. Several factual errors and improved grammatical correctness (excessive use of the word "you") were also made. Contact information was readded (I used a template, clearing the FAQ out, not realizing I removed that - I moved it to the "legal stuff" section, of which generally doesn't change). Version 2 - Complete format change, completely rewritten from scratch, 25-hour method added, and numerous improvements and enhancements Version 2 is complete rewrite of version 1.1. The entire guide was completely rewritten from scratch. Due to organizational issues, the entire format of the guide has changed to using a routine-based system, detailing the routines individually independent of the method used, and explaining what's different, if anything, with each of the 5 methods. Dustia is covered in depth and creates 2 new methods. An all-new 25-hour method is now available that shows you speed like never seen before. A new section covering the near-perfecting of the HP and MP of every character has been added. Lastly, numerous corrections, enhancements, and updates to the routines have been added such as getting the fiery arrows and hermes sandals. Lastly, a complete, narrated video walkthrough of the entire process is available.