Final Fantasy X
HD Platinum
Guide
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Table of Contents
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Feel free to hit Ctrl F to search for specific sections.
1. Introduction (ffxintro)
2. Trophy List (ffxtrlst)
3. Final party Discussion (ffxfpdis)
4. Chocobo Master Trophy. (ffxchm)
5. Celestial Weapons (ffxcwdis)
5a. Celestial Mirror (ffxcwm)
5b. Lulu's Celestial Weapon (ffxcwlulu)
5c. Wakka's Celestial Weapon (ffxcwwakka)
5d. Tidus's Celestial Weapon (ffxcwtidus)
5e. Kimhari's Celestial Weapon (ffxcwkimhari)
5f. Yuna's Celestial Weapon (ffxcwyuna)
5g. Rikku's Celestial Weapon (ffxcwrikku)
5h. Auron's Celestial Weapon (ffxcwauron)
6. Monster Catching (ffxmoncat)
7. Stat Maxing (ffxstatmax)
8. Dark Aeons (ffxdkan)
9. Penance (ffxpnc)
10. Sphere Master and Perfect Sphere Master (ffxphr)
11. Raising Gil (ffxgil)
12. Loose Ends (ffxlooseends)
12a. Eternal Calm (ffxetclm)
12b. Theater Enthusiast (ffxthrenst)
12c. Learning! (ffxlng!)
12d. Messengers from the Past (ffxmftp)
12e. Master Linguist (ffxlngst)
13. Acknowledgements (ffxack)
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Introduction (ffxintro)
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So you've decided to shoot for platinum on Final Fantasy X HD?
Good for you! This game will always have a special place in my
heart. When I heard that there was going to be a re-release
with trophies, I got excited. Before it's release I googled
the trophy list and a few immediately jumped out as what I
knew would be challenging, but fear not; I have all kinds of
tips and tricks that will help you achieve plat in no time.
That being said, even with a focused approach, I still sunk
110 hours into this game to get platinum. Trophy hunting in
this game is for the patient and the wise. If you're up to the
challenge, follow me...
I am aware that I am writing this guide well past the release
of this game and that it is far from relevant at this time.
However, there are loads of people (myself included) that like
to go back and replay games. This is the type of game that
requires you to look things up on the internet. It's just too
big and too detailed for one person to organically find all
the information like bribe amounts without some sort of a
guide. My wife likes to call guides like this one cheating, I
say it is research. While playing and doing my own research I
became increasingly frustrated at the existing information
online. It's scattered and fragmented and overall lacking in
sound advice. I wrote this guide because I felt there was a
need that wasn't being met. I hope you find it useful.
To be clear, this guide begins mostly after you have beaten
the game. The main campaign is not all that challenging and if
you really need help getting past Sin and Yu Yevon, then buzz
the monster catching and stat maxing sections. I will break
this guide into different sections but feel free to achieve
greatness in whatever order you want. If I may make a
suggestion, I would highly recommend spending an afternoon
with a warm cup of cocoa and reading this entire document.
While I will try to present this guide in an organized, linear
fashion, the truth is that you will be doing several of these
things simultaneously. For example, while monster catching you
will be gaining exp and gil. How should you spend that exp and
gil? I will give tips later that might benefit you throughout
your journey on how to properly spends huge amounts of gil.
Early tip: save your money for bribing! You could be efficient
by visiting the Thunderplains only once and acquiring Lulu's
sigil, monster catching, stealing choco feathers, and getting
Kimhari's Spirit Lance all in one fell swoop if you wanted.
The only way to know that is to read the whole thing. So, what
trophies will we be gunning for? Here's a list of all the
trophies:
Feel free at any time to hit ctrl F to search for specific
sections.
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Trophy List (trlst)
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Completion. Obtain all trophies. This is the Platinum we're
all striving for!
Speaking in Tongues. Find one Al Bhed Primer. You'll get this
as part of the story.
The Right Thing. Clear the Besaid Cloister of Trials. You’ll
get this as part of the story.
A Talent for Acquisition. Steal with Rikku 200 times… Kinda
self-explanatory.
All Together. When Rikku joins the party finally, this will
pop.
Heartstrings. Watch the water date scene with Tidus and Yuna
and try not to cry.
Show Off!. Win a Blitz Tourney. See my tips under Wakka's
celestial weapon section.
Striker. Acquire the Jecht Shot. See Wakka's Celestial weapon
section.
Chocobo License. Pass all chocobo training. See Tidus's
celestial weapon section.
Overcoming the Past. Beat Yunalesca.
The Destination of Hatred. Beat Seymor Omnis... crazy rat
bastard...
Lightning Dancer. Dodge lightning 200 times without fail on
the Thunderplains. See Lulu's celestial weapon section.
Feel the Pain. Acquire Anima. See Yuna's celestial weapon
section.
It's All About the Money. Acquire Worthless- er I mean
Yojimbo. See Yuna's celestial weapon section.
Delta Attack. Acquire The Magus Sisters. See Yuna's celestial
weapon section.
Theater Enthusiast. Buy all spheres at the Luca Theater. See
the Loose Ends section.
Chocobo Rider. Beat Chocobo Trainer with a time less than
0.00. See Tidus's celestial weapon section.
Power Striker. Do 9999 damage.
Mega Strike. Do 99999 damage. See stat maxing section.
Under the Table. Spend more than 100,000 in bribes... Yeah,
this won't be hard to do...
Messenger from the Past. Obtain all Jecht Spheres. See Loose
Ends section.
Chocobo Master. Open 5 chests and win the Remiem Temple
chocobo race. See the celestial weapon section.
Sphere Master. Complete the entire sphere grid with one
character. See Sphere Master section.
Perfect Sphere Master. Complete the entire sphere grid with
all seven characters. Ugh… See Sphere Master section.
Blitzball Master. Acquire all slot reels for Wakka. See
Wakka's celestial weapon section.
Learning! Get all of Kimhari's overdrive blue magic abilities.
See Loose Ends section.
Summon Master. Get every aeon. See Yuna's celestial weapon
section.
Weapons Master. Get all of the celestial weapons (they don't
need to be powered up by the crests or sigils). See the
celestial weapons section.
Master Linguist. Obtain all Al Bhed Primers. See Loose Ends
section. *Note only missable trophy*.
Perseverance. Defeat Penance. Aptly named trophy is all I have
to say. See the Penance section.
Overcoming the Nemesis. Beat Nemesis in the monster arena.
The Eternal Calm. Beat Yu Yevon and the game.
A Journey's Catalyst. View the Eternal Calm video.
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Final party Discussion (ffxfpdis)
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Picking your Final Party
First off, let’s talk about which characters you should pick
to be your final party. We will talk more about stat maxing
later but suffice to say for now, it is time consuming. You
could max all seven characters, but that would require a major
time commitment that I wouldn't advise. Plus it's redundant
and unnecessary. What I would advise is maxing at least 3
characters (not Yuna-I'll explain later). A fourth is ideal in
case the proverbial shit hits the fan; you have one ace in the
hole that can stand their own until you get your feet back
under you. So let's discuss the 7 characters. Endgame, all
characters can do all skills and can max all stats so the only
thing differentiating a character is their overdrives. One
could also make an argument that their final weapons also
separate them, but I mostly disagree. Magic is overrated and
not used by endgame and counters are really inconsequential by
the time you reach Penance. So let’s review each character in
detail from least appealing to most:
Kimhari: I feel bad for Kimhari. Every other character has
their own niche except for the Blue Bomber. The only thing
that makes him unique is his Blue Magic or enemy skill magic.
Late game, magic of any kind is no longer used. Enemies have
way too high a mag def and are immune to most elements or
status effects. Most of Kimhari's moves are either element
based or status effect inducing which thereby makes his moves
underpowered or completely nullified. Also, there are no
multi-hitters. I read once that if you can fix the code on
your game (I have no idea how people do this) to allow damage
over 99,999, then Kimhari's Nova does the most damage from one
hit in the game. Still, not worth it. He's a worthless
character and I have no love for him.
Lulu: Early game and almost up to the end, Lulu is one of
your best characters. She has really high evade and her magic
spells are some of your biggest damage outputs early on. Yes
she's slow, but Tidus can help there. Yes she has really low
HP but Auron can help there. Yes her boobs are ridiculous to
behold and her victory pose is over the top. However by late
game, she falls to the wayside. Since magic is her overdrive
forte, in order to get the most out of her overdrive, you
would need to max her magic, which is a feat I wouldn't
recommend. Yes it multi-hits, but at a fraction of its normal
power. Most of her magic is elemental as well, which a lot of
enemies have super high mag def or immunities. Overall, not
impressed. Moving on...
Yuna: No love lost for Yuna, but I have specific plans for her
which needs her to not be in the party. The thing that
differentiates her from the group is obviously her summoning.
However, late game even buffed up aeons that you took some
time bolstering will still likely get owned by the
superbosses. That's ok though because they will serve another
purpose: my meat shields! There will be times where it will be
clear the enemy is about to do some devastating move that will
wipe your party off the map. For example, you can see Dark
Bahamut's overdrive bar is now full and you know his next move
will be mega flare which you can't survive. At the last
instant, bring in Yuna, summon something and let it get it’s
faced wiped off. As far as stat maxing, Yuna should have max
agility (speed) and a ring with auto-haste. That way, she can
get in, summon, and get out as fast as possible so the real
studs can get back to doing their business.
Auron: Remember how I said you should consider having four
completely maxed people? Auron is my fourth. Throughout the
game, he is easily one of the strongest characters. He has
incredible strength and max hp. His speed is a little lacking
but late game that can be fixed. The only nod in his favor is
one of his overdrives, Tornado, can hit twice, which is more
than others can say. Other than that, he's kind of a badass
and I just like having him around. Plus his first strike
ability on his celestial weapon frequently comes in handy. If
you neglected to get Tidus's Sun Crest after Yunalesca right
away, then I'd move Auron up to the third position. Lulu or
Kimhari should be your fourth then.
Tidus: That leaves your main final party including Tidus.
Tidus is never good or bad at anything. One common theme in
all the Final Fantasies is that power is derived from the
manipulation of time. Multi-hitting moves are an example of
this being applied. Of course time manipulation is best seen
with Tidus's best move, haste. By the end, the thing that
helps him stand out is his overdrives. Specifically, Slice and
Dice and Blitz Ace can multi-hit 6 and 8 times respectively.
Plus he's the main character and this "is his story" so he
might as well be around. However, if you missed his Sun Crest
after Yunalesca then you won't be able to power up his
celestial weapon until after you beat Dark Bahamut, which is
the second hardest thing in the game. If you didn't then Tidus
should not be one of your final party people. Again, I would
swap in Auron and have Lulu or Kimhari be the fourth.
Rikku: Unfortunately, Rikku joins very late in the game with
dangerously low max hp so a lot of people dismiss her as an
asset. Do this at your own peril because she is an amazing
tool when used correctly! Remember how I said time
manipulation is power? Well, Rikku in a handful of turns can
place shell, protect, haste, autolife, double ap, zero mp
cost, triple overdrive, etc she can do anything when used
right. Google a mix list and learn to use it. One prime
example is her overdrive Ultra NulAll which Casts NulAll(5x
Cheer, 5x Focus, 5x Aim, 5x Reflex). In other words, in one
turn she can accomplish what would otherwise take 20 turns to
do. This is just scratching the surface too. There are other
guides that highlight how to beat the game using only Rikku.
She's that good and that versatile. You just need to learn to
use her the right way. All the good stuff you'll need for
mixing will be acquired from monster catching and beating
monster arena monsters; both of which we have to do anyways so
you should be good to go. You literally need her against
Penance so learn to love her like I did.
Wakka: Ahhh Wakka... So amazing what you can do. High accuracy
paired with decent strength make him an ideal striker. What
more could you ask for? And the Hair! His Attack Reels can do
12 unfiltered hits in one turn. This is the most damaging move
in the whole game and it’s easy to do! Very few things can
survive 99999x12=1199988 damage. Of the ones that can, only
the dark aeons, Nemesis, and Penance can survive it more than
once. This makes all that Blitzball well worth it. The timing
isn't that hard, so figure it out and you will become dynamite
in a bottle! Overall, no matter how you spin it, Wakka is the
man, ya!
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Celestial Weapons (ffxcwdis)
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Celestial Weapons
I'm going to start with the celestial weapons. Having these
weapons opens the door for most other challenges. Many tasks
can be done simultaneously and you could be doing many of the
celestial weapon side quests alongside monster catching or
other quests. I'll go into more detail later but in general,
having double AP weapons for monster catching is ideal and
some of the celestial weapons have that. I'll begin by
starting the argument for why you should go through the
trouble of doing these crazy quests. First off, since this is
a platinum guide, many trophies are tied into these weapons.
More importantly, the break damage limit is an absolute need.
It can be crafted manually onto a weapon but getting 99 dark
matters is a huge undertaking. Finally, even if you manually
make a weapon with break damage limit, it will always be
weaker than the celestial counterpart. This is because all of
the celestial weapons calculate damage without taking into
account an enemy’s defense, making them far more powerful.
With enemies having crazy high stats endgame, this is also an
absolute need. Each weapon is divided into three parts: the
weapon itself, which is useless without the corresponding
crest and sigil. The weapons are easy to round up and the
crests are in chests scattered throughout Spira. The sigils
are the hard part. Suck it up, they aren't impossible to get
and I'll help you through it.
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Celestial Mirror (ffxcwm)
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First things first, we need the mirror. I don't quite
understand why the mirror is needed logistically for the
celestial weapons... but it is. Perhaps the glow from the
stars is so amazing that it must only be viewed as a secondary
source or some bullhockey, I don't know? The mirror requires a
little footwork. After leaving the Thunderplains and entering
the Macalania Woods, there is a fork in the road: The right
takes you toward Bevelle and the Calm Lands, the left take you
up a sparkly path to the treetops. Near that bifurcation,
there are some people standing there. Talk to them a couple
times until they complain that the husband is missing. Well
fear not, he is close. Go down the right path. Pass by the
guys gaurding the entrence to Bevelle and at the next screen,
go up. Talk to the dude there who talks about his missing
family (communication failure much?). Go back to the family
and talk to them a couple times. Leave the screen and come
back and talk to them a few more times until the kid is gone
and now the Parents of the Year lost their stupid kid. Fear
not, he too is close. This time, take the sparkly path up to
the treetops, you'll find the kid up there. After reuniting
the happy, yet dysfunctional family, they give you a rusty
mirror. Why would anyone gift anyone else that? People are
odd. Now, onto the Calm Lands! Find the lady riding a chocobo.
I found her in the northwest corner of the Calm Lands.
Complete enough training that she says you can now ride
chocobos. Take that beautiful bird back to the entrance of the
Calm Lands but don't go to Macalania Woods instead go to the
right where you will see a choco feather. Whilst riding the
bird, examine the feather which will cause the bird to jump to
the ledge below. This will lead you to the Remiem temple.
Inside, Yuna will have some things to do but we are interested
in the chocobo race outside. Go to the left of the temple and
examine the sphere that explains the rules (grab the Al Bhed
Primer while you're at it) then go to the chocobo on the right
to start the race. For the first time you run this race, don't
get too excited about the treasure chests, just win the race.
As long as you aren't too greedy, winning is the easy part.
Basically there are a bunch of winding paths which eventually
converge and end in the middle at the bottom. Winning changes
the Rusty Mirror into the Celestial Mirror. Now you can open
chests which contain celestial objects. Since you're here,
this is a fine time to get the Chocobo Master trophy.
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Chocobo Master Trophy (ffxchm)
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The above race can be repeated as many times as you want. The
more chests you get AND win the race, you get prizes. These
prizes can only be unlocked once. None of them are
particularly game changing so don't lose sleep over getting
them all. If you happen to clip any of the poles, then you
simply win a potion. To unlock the trophy, you need to open 5
chests AND win the race. This is actually pretty challenging
to do if you are trying to avoid the poles. To be clear
though, the trophy doesn't say anything about the poles. So
cutting corners and plowing through the poles, and getting 5
chests isn’t that hard. Getting 5 chests, hitting no poles,
and winning the race is. So on one run, plow through the poles
just to get the trophy. After that, if you feel so motivated,
then you can try to get the chests and its contents without
hitting poles. What makes this hard is that if you don't keep
the bird in the middle of the path, then it 'rubs' the wall
and slows down. This is further impeded by the ridiculous
camera angles and wonky controls of the bird. As for the path
you should take, go to YouTube and Google Remiem chocobo race.
I could try to explain it in words, but a video is much better
in this case. There’s lots of good stuff out there so just
pull up your laptop, watch it once or twice and then do your
best to copy that.
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Lulu's Celestial Weapon (ffxcwlulu)
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The weapon: The Onion Knight
After you can control the airship, input the coordinates; X11-
16: Y57-63. This will take you to the Baaj Temple. Soon you’ll
have to fight a battle with Geosagno, the cage fish thing from
the beginning of the game. Tidus, Wakka, and Rikku have to
take this one since it’s an aquatic fight. He's not that hard
but have some stone ward/proof ready and let Wakka's attack
reels do the talking. Save before you fight because this is a
great opportunity to get a no encounter weapon as a random
prize. That's right I said weapon! This is the only chance to
have a weapon with no encounters on it. If you don't get a
weapon with it, soft reset (press L1,L2,R1,R2, start, and
select all at once) and try again. If you missed your chance
at it, monster catch 5 dragons from each area that has one and
the monster arena will give you a boatload of purifying salts
to make some; but on an armor. Some of the following quests
are sped up with no encounters and some absolutely need it.
While you can swim around prior to the fight, the chest
containing the Onion Knight can only be found after you win
the fight. Dive to the bottom, on the circular map swim toward
the 8 o clock position roughly to the right by some rocks and
mash the x button. As far as I can tell, there is no visible
treasure chest which leaves me to wonder how anyone without a
guide would ever find it. Square...
Mars Crest
Simply go back to the Farplane outside of Guadosalam and find
the chest on the left. You can also enjoy some optional
cutscenes while you are here.
Mars Sigil and Lightning Dancer Trophy
Ahh the dreaded Lightning Dodge quest. Go to the Thunderplains
and dodge 200 consecutive lighting strikes without fail. Then
return to the Al Bhed Travel Agency in the Thunderplains and
open the chest outside (you need the celestial mirror). I
remember doing this on the PS2 and hating it then. I was able
to do it for completion’s sake but I mostly avoided it since I
never used Lulu. When I heard ffxhd was coming, I googled the
trophy list in hopes that I wouldn't have to do this but alas,
there is a specific trophy for it. Blast! I read somewhere
that with the invention of HD and wireless controllers, the
delay from seeing the bolt of lightning and you being able to
respond is actually smaller than the ps2 days which make this
even harder than before! Just doing the best I could and
shooting from the hip, the best I could get was 35 dodges in a
row. Fear not, I have a tried and tested, surefire method to
get us through this.
Go to the southern part of the Thunderplains, there is an
alcove to the right with a treasure chest in it. Across and a
little below that on the left side of the screen there is a
lightning rod that you can stand under and no lightning will
hit you. Just above that lightning rod and a little to the
right is a black crater. What you're going to do is run from
the rod to the crater. The instant you get to the crater,
lightning will strike. Dodge, then return to the rod and then
return to the crater and dodge again. You must go back to the
rod to reset everything. What's nice about this is you dictate
when the strikes happen since you know exactly when it’s
coming. You can learn and anticipate when they happen and
develop a bit of a rhythm. Again there are several videos of
this on YouTube to see it done if you would like. Sounds easy,
right? This is still tricky but here are a few tips to help
you succeed:
1. Equip No Encounters. Absolutely must have this on. If you
didn't already, read the above Onion Knight section to see how
to get that ability. The random battles would ruin your
timing. You have to have this on.
2. I've heard that some people like to dim the lights in the
room so the lightning flashes are easier to pick up and
respond to.
3. Turn the music way down or off. You might find yourself
following the rhythm of the Thunderplains music instead of the
rhythm of the lightning dodging. Trust your eyes, not your
ears.
4. Make sure you have at least 20 minutes minimum to try this.
It should take around that if you go without a break. However,
5. Take breaks. Maybe every 50 dodges or so, take a breather
and stand up and walk around the room or go get a snack or
something. After successfully dodging, when standing under the
safety of the rod, hit pause. This way you can relax a little.
After you establish the rhythm needed to succeed, the hardest
part of this challenge is controlling yourself. You get
anxious. Your heart starts to race. You start sweating.
Especially the higher your count gets, the more you start to
freak out. Find your inner Zen Buddhist. Get into a zone and
stay there but if you need to, please take a break. I'd rather
take a 5 minute respite, then have to start all over.
6. Count out loud. Yes you'll sound and look like a dork but
it’s easy to lose count. The repetitive nature of the
challenge wears on you after a while. It’s easy to trip
yourself up. Wouldn't you hate to think you were done and you
zone out go to the chest at the Al Bhed travel agency when in
truth your count was 199. Guess what, tough shit, now you have
to start over. I count out loud and I go to like 215 just in
case.
Using these techniques you still aren't guaranteed success. It
takes supreme concentration and reflexes. It can be done, hang
in there. I tried for a while and got 107. Later I got 124.
If I looked at the challenge instead as get to 100, take a
break, then get to 100, then it all seemed much more
manageable. One of the reasons I highlighted this one first
was that this challenge really pisses some people off. Instead
of getting all steamed up about it, my recommendation is boot
up your system, go to the Thunderplains, try to get this once
or twice and if you aren't feeling it, move on. Go monster
catch or get another celestial weapon, blitzball, something
else. The next day when you have time to play, start at the
Thunderplains and try again for a while. One of these days, I
promise you'll get it. Return to Macalania to complete the
ritual to assemble that which you will never use if you feel
like it.
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Tidus's Celestial Weapon (ffxcwtidus)
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The weapon: Cadalbolg
Go to the Calm Lands and find the Chocobo Trainer, the woman
in green riding a giant yellow bird. I found her near the
northwest corner of the Calm Lands if you haven't already. If
you have, she tends to be near where you enter the Calm Lands
from. For instance from the store in the middle, just go down
a little and she should be there if you've already trained a
choco to riding. Now you will complete your training. Yoda's
got nothing on this bitch... Wobbly Chocobo is you just
trying to make the damn bird go straight. Dodger Chocobo has
the chocobo going in the direction that you tell it to; (more
or less) however you must now dodge blitzballs that come
flying out of nowhere which are aimed towards you. Getting hit
by the blitzball will result in a penalty of 3 seconds. Beat
the time to unlock the next exercise. Try running at angles,
not straight. Hyper Dodger Chocobo is like the last one but
now blitzballs and white birds from Hell are trying to get
you. Finally, Catcher Chocobo... Most people can get this far.
This is the meat and potatoes, this is the hard part, and this
is what made my friend literally throw his controller at his
TV, busting it. All you need to do to get the weapon is beat
the trainer's time. If you get hit by a bird, time is added,
and if you get a balloon, time is subtracted. Feasibly you can
cross the finish line first but after calculating the
balloon/bird bonuses/penalties, you could still lose. Beating
her time isn't all that hard. After you win, ride your bird to
the top and almost the NW corner of the Calm Lands where there
will be a little path leading down. There's a guy guarding a
hole in the wall for reasons no one understands. The only way
to make him move is to win the race. After winning, head down
there and examine the funny patch on the wall (must have the
celestial mirror). For more tips on beating the trainer see
the Sun Sigil section.
Sun Crest
I hope I'm not too late! I hope for some reason someone warned
you to read this guide before you fought Yunalesca. After
defeating her, the instant you can move Tidus again, you have
one shot at this. Don't go down and out of her chamber,
instead go up to the top of the screen where there is another
staircase which will take you to another area that looks
almost the same, except there will be a treasure chest there
with the crest. This chest is at the top of the second screen.
If you don't do that right away, then Dark Bahamut takes up
residence here and the only way to get the crest is to beat
him. However, in my opinion, Dark Bahamut is the second
hardest thing in the entire game which means you would only
have Cadalbolg (arguably the best CW) for Penance and whatever
dark aeons you may have left. They didn't think that one
through when making Final Mix in my opinion. I mean come on,
he's the main character! If you neglected to get the Sun Crest
then you should probably not have Tidus be one of your final
party. I'd move him to the fifth position and move Auron up to
third.
Sun Sigil and Chocobo Rider Trophy
For much the same reason as Lulu, I put this one second
because this one drives people crazy! Earlier we talked about
the Chocobo Catcher race. Well that was all good and dandy
because now it gets really hard. You have to get less than
0.00.00 for a time. That means you need to collect loads of
balloons- at least 12, hopefully more like 13 or 14. And you
can hope for no birds, maybe one hit tops. I can hear you now,
"That's impossible!" No, it's just really hard. It can be
done; I've done this at least 4 times. It just takes patience,
perseverance, and a few strategies:
1. Keep calm. You're going to fail over and over and over and
over again. Try not to freak out when you get hit by bird
after bird after bird. Or when you are mashing the left
direction and for some reason, the stupid bird is going right.
My recommendation is the same as Lulu's in that try it in
small bursts. Boot up your game, try for 15 minutes or so and
if you aren't getting into it, go try something else. Come
back later and try again when you're level-headed.
2. When the race starts, don't aim for the first balloon, aim
for the second. Whoever gets in front will get a bunch of
balloons. She might get the first but you will get the next 3
or 4. Ideally, the balloons might all favor the right side in
which case, maybe you can get all of them on the upper ledge,
but that doesn't happen much. Instead, just shoot for the
second balloon and the rest that follow.
3. Use the direction pad, not the joystick. Often taps of
direction are better than cranking one direction or another.
4. Don't freak out.
5. Look at the bird's feet to see what direction angle you are
actually heading. Between the funky camera work and awful
controls, it's hard to steer the choco into a balloon
sometimes. See which way the bird's feet are pointing and tap
the direction accordingly. Practice, practice, practice makes
perfect when it comes to controlling the buzzard.
6. Don't be afraid to use the Trainer as a blocker. Oh yeah
and don’t freak out when you keep failing.
7. After getting down on the flats, you'll learn over time
when the camera is about to flip. Try to anticipate that into
your travels. Also you'll learn where the boundaries are. Try
not to press up on them because the birds will hunt you down.
I would rather miss a balloon and not get hit by a bird. A
bird is -3 seconds and then another -1.5 seconds because your
bird is recoiling. There are plenty of balloons out there,
just get the next one. Or put another way,
8. Priority one, don't get hit by birds. Priority two, get
balloons.
9. Near the end of the race, favor the left side under that
brown ledge. Sometimes, you can sneak in there and shave a
little time and avoid the birds.
10. Don't freak out.
Mostly lots and lots of practice is needed. Eventually, you'll
kind of get the hang of it and start getting times in the
teens, then under 10 seconds. One time I got 00.01.00. I was
pissed. I've read reports of people getting exactly 0.00.00
and not getting the sigil. You'll know because she will
exclaim something about how awesome you are and automatically
give it to you when you earn it. You will do the same basic
thing over and over and over again but one time, it will work.
The ball will just bounce your way and for some reason, Mars
aligns with Jupiter or something, and you'll get it. I didn't
change anything drastic, it just finally worked. While dumb
luck is certainly involved, there is no substitute for lots of
practice. Hang in there, this can be done!
**************************************************************
**
Wakka's Celestial Weapon (ffxcwwakka)
**************************************************************
**
The Weapon: World Champion
Getting the orb is easy: play lots of blitzball. After you win
like 5 games, go to the bar in Luca where Kimhari got punched
and talk to the bartender. Even though Wakka probably never
played in any of those games, he will give you the ball cause
you have bitchin’ hair or something? Check back after your
first tournament.
Jupiter Crest
The Crest is found in the Besaid Auroch's locker room in one
of the lockers in Luca.
Jupiter Sigil
Win the sigil playing Blitzball. Lots and lots of Blitzball.
Using the strategy I'm about to lay out will take you around
10 hours if you do it right. Otherwise do it the hard way and
you could easily sink 50 plus hours into this. Some people
really like blitz and they have these amazing characters at
high levels. Well good for them, you and I officially don't
care anymore because in order to do this the easy way, you
need to wipe the slate clean and clear all the stats of all
the players and return all the players contracts and stats to
the default like at the start when blitz was first an option.
I think we can both live with that, right?
Why do blitzball? Other than that there are some trophies tied
to it? Because Wakka's attack reels and celestial weapon are
THAT good. It's a deal breaker. You NEED to have this! It can
be a grind sometimes, but once you get the hang of it, it can
actually start being a little fun. Using the following
strategy will get you what you need as fast as possible so you
can move on to bigger and better things.
First off, if you failed to get the Jecht shot from the story,
go back to Kilika and simply catch the ferry and select Luca
as your destination and you’ll be able to try to acquire the
Jecht Shot again, simple as that. Examine the blitzball on
the deck and press the d pad toward the text and hit x. Repeat
a bunch. That accomplished, onto the game.
Step 1: find a save sphere, start blitz and select reset
stats.
Step 2: recruit the team:
1. Tidus will be the first shooter.
2. Find Wedge in Luca standing guard by the blitzball stadium
in green. (Press square to recruit for 10 games). He's your
second shooter.
3. Find Zalitz by the Luca Theater. He's a defender.
4. Find Jumaal near the Luca bar in the town square. Goalie.
5. Find Brother in your airship. Center.
6. Finally, find Ropp in the Mihen High road travel agency.
Defender.
7. Oh and I like to recruit Wakka from the airship. He never
plays but he is my unofficial waterboy.
At some point, it will tell you you've reached your limit of
how many people you can have on a team. Drop all your original
Auroch members except Tidus.
There are two types of games you can play: league and
tournament. Among the first place prizes you can win are the
Reels and Wakka's sigil. That's what we are shooting for. You
can also win random items like elixers, abilities for blitz
players and rename cards. The problem is that the prize is way
too random. If you left it up to chance you would play
tournament after tournament for prizes you don’t care about.
Doing it my way, you will be able to “control” the tournaments
so that the prizes are only things that you want to win. In
the beginning, you can only choose league so play 2 league
games and try to level your characters up as much as possible
(more on that later). After the end of the 2nd game, exit the
blitz menu entirely immediately. Save your game. Reopen blitz
and now both Tournament and League should be an option. Look
at the prizes for the tournament. If it's a Reel or sigil,
play for it. If not, soft reset the game (press L1, L2, R1,
R2, start and select all at once). Reload the game and open
the blitz menu and the tourney prize should be different. Keep
reloading until the prize is something you want. The sigil
doesn't unlock until you have all 4 reels so that means you'll
have to play 4 complete tournaments eventually.
Step 3: strategy for playing:
First off, recognize that this is a role playing game within a
role playing game; this is not a sports game. It's stat
driven, turn-based, and a little off sometimes. That being
said, this basic strategy works most of the time. The instant
one of the Aurochs gets the ball, press triangle and switch
the game mode from auto to manual A. One way or another, get
the ball to your center, Brother. Move him to the middle of
the screen. Pass to Ropp in the lower right of the screen.
Have Ropp approach the lower left side of the screen. Your
goal is to get the bottom defender that is guarding Tidus to
pull away from Tidus to engage Ropp. There is a fine point
where the defender pulls away from Tidus but isn’t close
enough to attack Ropp. Try to find that sweet spot and pass
the ball to Tidus in the lower left and try to get as close as
you can to the goal and shoot. Tidus can equip Jecht Shot once
he's a level 2. When you have Jecht shot equipped, he punches
the ball into 1 person and kicks it into a second. That means
2 defenders are completely nullified. So your goal is to try
to get Tidus close to the goal with maybe 3 defenders or less.
If there are three defenders attacking Tidus, break one
defender (allow one to attack you) and then Jecht shot through
the second and third. Against most goalies, this should score.
Continue this strategy until you have a 2 point lead. If they
score, go back to this until you're up by 2 again. Yes, you
could score over and over again but you should also be
leveling up your defenders as well for a more well-rounded
team.
Another strategy is to use Brother's awesome speed. After
Brother levels up a bit, he is heads and shoulders faster than
everyone else. Once Brother has the ball, buzz near the
opponent's goal and 'collect' most of the defenders as they
feebly try to chase you. Pull away a bit and pass to Tidus or
Wedge who should be hanging out near the goal without
defenders.
Now for some thoughts on leveling up:
Leveling up:
Tidus will level plenty scoring.
Wedge. Between attacking and occasionally scoring, he should
level just fine. He can learn to be a powerful a scorer; even
overpowering Tidus. Let him shoot a couple times here and
there so he can level up.
Brother. He'll be involved in almost every series, probably
passing a lot. He can also learn to be a darn good scorer.
Basically, Brother rocks and he's the fastest player in the
game. I call him The Rocket. He'll likely be the highest level
on the team. You won't need to focus on leveling him.
Jamaal. Don't sweat trying to level him up, he'll be fine.
Stick him in the goal and forget about him.
Ropp and Zalitz. These guys need a little work. Once you're
winning by two, get the ball away from the other team and get
these two as close as possible to each other and just pass it
back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. You level by
DOING things. If you have a passing tech, use it to pass every
time. Using techs uses hp and you almost always have way more
than you need, so don't be stingy. If Ropp passes to Zalitz,
he gains 2 exp and if he uses a venom pass (despite the fact
the two are right next to one another) he gains like 7 exp or
something like that so you level much faster by using techs.
Techs.
You can learn techniques that make your players more awesome.
There's a ton to be said here but I'll simplify. Before the
half, you designate what techs you want to try to learn from
your opponent. If they do that move, in the upper left corner,
the technique will blink. Hit x to try to copy it. You can
only use 1 tech at first but at higher levels you can learn up
to 5. You'll be lucky if you get to 3 by the end of the
tournament. Learn whatever you can but prioritize the
following:
Tidus- 1.Jecht Shot 2. Any attack (preferably wither) 3. Any
pass (preferably wither).
Wedge- 1. Any shooting tech (preferably wither or Nap shot but
Sphere Shot isn't bad either). 2.Any attack (preferably
wither). 3 Any pass (preferably wither).
Brother- 1. Any pass (preferably wither). 2 Any attack
(preferably wither) 3. Any shooting tech (preferably wither).
Ropp and Zalitz- 1.Any attack (preferably wither). 2. Any pass
(preferably wither). 3. Anything really.
Jumaal. Super goalie and grip gloves.
A note on luck (otherwise called the random number generator).
Any stat is worth 50-150% at any time. Meaning an attack of 8
might actually register anywhere from a 4 to a 12. Keep that
in mind when choosing your actions.
One other thing to note: Don't mess with the Al Bhed Psyches.
Their goalie has such a high block stat that it’s unfair.
Bring your A game at all times vs. them. You may need to
wither or nap their goalie before you can score against him.
At low levels, you might only get one Jecht shot per half, so
use it wisely. If you ever get a lead, you might want to get
the ball away from all defenders and just have the player sit
behind Jumaal. The other team will spin worthlessly in circles
and the clock will tick along. Once your characters are good
enough to whoop pretty much anyone, you can use the "get a
lead and sit behind Jumaal" trick to speed this whole process
up.
Step 4.
After winning the prize, reset the stats again and repeat all
the above. Don't get emotionally attached to these characters
since you'll be wiping them clean over and over again.
Enjoy World Champion and Attack Reels!
**************************************************************
**
Kimhari's Celestial Weapon (ffxcwkimhari)
**************************************************************
**
The weapon: Spirit Lance
In the Thunderplains, there are gravestone-looking glyphs with
cactaurs on them. There are three of them in the two areas of
the plains that are glowing. Go up to them and 'pray' to them
with the square button. You might notice a cactaur ghost
chasing you around. This is supposed to help you find the
glowing ones. Two things while looking for them: No encounters
would speed this up if you're not looking to monster catch.
Also in the upper part of the plains, there is a soldier
hanging out under a lightning rod. Don't go anywhere near him
or it will trigger the Dark Ixion battle which I'm guessing
you don't want yet.
After you've found all three, go back to the lower part of the
plains. Nearer the beginning, on the right there is a broken
lightning rod. Press square on that rod and 'pray' to it too
and the chest with the lance will appear. Again why anyone
would ever think to do this without a guide...
Saturn Crest
On Mt Gagazet nearer the top where you fought Seymor by some
pillars.
Saturn Sigil
Complete both Butterfly Chase games in Macalania Woods. This
is the last of the "harder" quests in my opinion. You'll have
to do both of the butterfly games to get the sigil. While this
mini-game can be played earlier in the game, the prizes are
nothing important until you have access to the airship. After
you have the airship, the sigil can be attained. Start by
touching the colorful butterfly near the bird-harp-guy in the
winding tree tops which will cause the game to start. The
objective is to simply touch the blue ones and avoid the red
ones. You need a perfect run, if you touch a red one, there
won’t be enough time to get all 7 butterflies. This is a trial
and error exercise. Think in terms of extremes and by that I
mean never run down the middle of the path. Either run at the
far top or the far bottom, the far left or the far right. Make
note of when you need to be on which side. Even if you touch a
red one, keep practicing for the next run. After getting the
seventh blue butterfly, don't leave the screen or you'll have
to do it again! A fancy noise will tell you that you got 'em
all. Backtrack until you find the chest. Open it and move on
to the next one. The second butterfly game (the one on the
right) tricks you. To start, move up first, get the one blue
butterfly, then turn around and head down and get the rest.
Again, don't forget to backtrack to get your prize after you
get all seven. I've seen people draw maps showing you where to
go and there's always YouTube but good old fashion practice
ought to do it. I think this whole thing took me only like 30
minutes. This is also a good time to work on monster catching
since when you touch a red butterfly it triggers a fight.
Finally, if you don’t feel like doing this, then don’t. Other
than collecting the Spirit Lance itself, there is no trophy
linked with the butterfly games. Complete only if you’re going
to use Kimhari in your final party of if you are a
perfectionist like me.
**************************************************************
**
Yuna's Celestial Weapon (ffxcwyuna)
**************************************************************
**
The Weapon: Nirvana
Catch one of every monster in the Calm Lands and the monster
arena curator will gift it to you. Missing one? Try the Ogre
and Malboro in the NW corner.
Moon Crest
This is located on the beach at Besaid Island. To reach it,
swim out towards the sea and go right (from the perspective of
facing the island) and round a large rock face to get onto
another beach with the chest that contains the Moon Crest.
Moon Sigil
This requires you to obtain and defeat every aeon at Remiem
Temple. All eight aeons (5 given to you through the story and
the 3 optional ones) need to be acquired. Obtain defeat all
aeons in the Remiem Temple with Beligimine. After sending
Belgimine, you obtain the sigil. First, let's find them all:
Yojimbo (otherwise known as Worthless)and the It’s All About
the Money Trophy
Yojimbo is all about the Benjamins, baby. North of the monster
arena, there is a bridge and under the bridge a path which
leads the cavern of the stolen faith (Sometimes called the
Sunken Cave). At the back of the cave, a pompous faith awaits
you to pay for his services. If you want to obtain him for the
least amount of money, do the following:
He offers 250,000, you counter 125,001
He offers 225,000, you counter 112,502
He offers 202,500, you counter 141,752
If you triple his asking price you get 2 teleport spheres but
frankly by the time you've amassed that much capital, it is
better spent in other ways. Congrats you have Yojimbo... never
use him again if you can help it... except as a meat shield. I
know there are a lot of people that swear by Zanmato; but it’s
cheating! Money doesn't buy happiness in real life and it
doesn't buy happiness in Spira either. I don't want to hear
one word about Zanmato. I'm proud to say I don't need it and
never will. The fact that you have to fight Dark Yojimbo 5
times in order to beat him in my opinion was the producers
trying to get people to not rely on Zanmato and play the game
the way it was meant to be played.
Anima and Feel the Pain Trophy
Anima requires you to have used the Destruction Spheres and
found the treasure chests in all of the temple cloister of
trials, including Zanarkand. If you need help with finding the
treasure chests in each of the temples, YouTube will help you
out. Remember, you have to revisit Zanarkand as well to get
the treasure there too. Then return to the Baaj temple. To
find it enter X14, Y57 in the airship coordinates. If you have
used all the Destruction Spheres and obtained all the temple
treasures, the seals will be released and Anima will be yours.
This is a great aeon and it will likely be the way you achieve
99999 damage for the first time with its overdrive. The only
temple that will be unavailable to you after gaining access to
the airship will be Besaid since Dark Valefore blocks your
path. Hopefully you got that one already. If not, think long
term and come back to this after you have characters capable
of beating Dark Valefore. After watching the exchange with the
fayth it makes you think about Seymor a little differently,
huh?
Magus Sisters and the Delta Attack Trophy
Monster catch all the creatures of Mount Gagazet and you will
be given the Blossom Crown. Now go back to Remiem Temple in
the Calm Lands and fight Belgimine and defeat all of her aeons
up to and including Anima. If you're really having issues,
prep Anima or Bahamut with the haste spell (steal chocobo
feathers from cactaurs in the Thunderplains or Bikanel) and
have their overdrives and Yuna's overdrive ready to go. After
defeating the last aeon, she will give you the Flower Scepter.
Take the Flower Scepter and the Blossom Crown to the back of
Remiem Temple to undo the barriers. Enter the chamber of the
Fayth for the Magus Sisters. Fight Belgimine one last time and
defeat the Magus Sisters. Finally, send Belgimine for the Moon
Sigil.
**************************************************************
**
Rikku's Celestial Weapon (ffxcwrikku)
**************************************************************
**
The Weapon: Godhand
Obtaining the Godhand is as easy as inputting the password
GODHAND into the password in the airship map. It takes you to
the lower region of the Mushroom Rock Road that was previously
unreachable. Bring the Mirror.
Mercury Crest
The Mercury Crest is found near the end of the Bikanel desert
in the last area before Home in one of the sandpits on the
left. Note: don't talk to the Al Bhed near where the entrance
to home used to be or you will trigger the Dark Ifrit fight.
Mercury Sigil
Engage the proud Cactaurs of Bikanel Desert in a game of Red
Light/Green Light meets Hide and Seek. There is nothing
particularly challenging about this quest, but all the walking
around does take a while. The quest starts by talking to the
Cactaur stone near the whirlwind at the end of the Bikanel
Desert. It gives cryptic clues where to find each Cactaur.
Once you find them, a game starts where you can approach them
only when their back is turned. You get three tries to try and
tag them. The more successful you are with this game, the
better the prize at the end. Don't sweat it too much, none of
the prizes are worth losing sleep over. Win or lose, take the
sphere they give you back to large cactaur stone by the
whirlwinds and place it and get your next clue. Rinse, wash,
repeat.
1.Tomay – Oasis, to the right of the save sphere.
2.Rovivea – Sanubia-East, running around a treasure chest in
the northwestern alcove.
3.Chava – Sanubia-West, read the signpost that advertises a
"20% off sale". The cactaur will then appear.
4.Alek – Sanubia-Central, running back and forth in the
northwestern ruins. Leaving Sanubia West via the exit opposite
the Cactaur Village takes you straight to that particular
area.
5.Aloja – See 4.
6.Vachella – Sanubia-East, touch the save sphere in the tent.
The cactaur will then appear.
7.Robeya – Sanubia-Central, inside a treasure chest in the
southwest corner.
8.Isrra – Sanubia-West, in a shifting sand pit. To make the
cactaur appear, the player must leave the area after
delivering the sphere from Robeya and return.
9.Elio – Oasis, the cactaur will use the save sphere to
teleport onboard the airship. The player must board the
airship and go to the top deck and outside to find him.
10.Flaile – Sanubia-West, appears behind the player once the
spheres from the first nine are all taken back to the stone.
Nothing much to getting this one once you know where they all
are. You can either look at this as an opportunity to do a lot
of monster catching, or put no encounters on and just get it
over with. Once the whirlwind subsides, go down into the
Cactus area and grab the chests down there. Note, this area
has the highest encounter rate for cactaurs so if you want to
steal a bunch of choco feathers to teach your aeons haste,
this would be the place to do it.
**************************************************************
**
Auron's Celestial Weapon (ffxcwauron)
**************************************************************
**
The weapon: Masamune
This one requires a little footwork. First go down toward the
Sunken Cave where you found Yojimbo but instead of going right
into the cave, go down and left along a cliff-side path. At
its end, examine the Rusty Sword and steal it, you clepto. Now
move to the end of the Mihen Highroad (take a choco to speed
things up). After you enter the near the area of Mushroom Rock
Road where "Operation Mihen" went down, don't go left, instead
continue along the path. There will be a woman and a girl on
the road and you need to go around them as far as possible. If
you get too close to them the Dark Magus Sister fight will
happen. If you give them a wide birth, then the fight can be
avoided for now. Take the second left which leads to an
elevator that takes you to an alcove with a statue that seems
to be missing its weapon. Place the Rusty Sword which
activates the panel on the wall which gives you the Masamune.
As always, bring the celestial mirror.
Mars Crest
Go all the way to the very end of the lower Mihen High Road to
find a Jecht Sphere and the Mars Crest.
Mars Sigil
Nothing fancy here. Just create a total 10 Species Creations
or Area Creations at the Monster Arena. To get species, you
need to monster catch 5 of each type of a monster (eg each
'hornet looking bug from all of Spira). Area Creations require
at least 5 in each area. Truth to be told, you will likely
need to almost finish all of the monster catching before this
unlocks. But since I need you to complete the monster catching
anyways, this is two birds/one stone. Once you've completed
the requirement, the monster arena curator will give this to
you as long as you have the Celestial Mirror. This is as good
a time as any, let’s talk more about Monster Catching since
we've completed the section on Celestial Weapons.
**************************************************************
**
Monster Catching (ffxmoncat)
**************************************************************
**
There is nothing overtly challenging about monster catching.
It is a time consuming venture that is for sure; however, the
rewards are well worth the effort. Many of the rewards you
will use to make either weapons or armor. Others will be
useful to Rikku for mixing. Finally, monster catching provides
a good opportunity to level up. I divide character growth into
three categories: earlygame, midgame, and endgame. Earlygame
is the entire main story campaign. Midgame is that point where
you realize that defeating Yu Yevon isn't a big enough
challenge and you are ready to become truly awesome. Endgame
is where you are achieving max stats and equipment. The middle
step is a little fuzzy. A certain amount of grinding is
required to be able to take that next step. Monster catching
is the perfect way to take that next step.
My recommendation for which characters to use for monster
catching include Tidus, Wakka, and Auron. The reason for this
is these three are the naturally strongest strikers at the end
of the story campaign. If you haven’t yet, go to the monster
arena in the Calm Lands and purchase capture weapons for at
least your three front line characters. I would also buy
Rikku's capture weapon too. I also chose these guys because
they have easy to find weapons with double AP as well. This
way you can swap back and forth between your double AP weapons
and your monster catching weapons for maximum efficiency.
Tidus has a sword, Ascalon, that can be found by inputting
X15, Y42 into the airship coordinates and going to a new
Sanubia Sands area. Wakka has his World Champion celestial
weapon which would mean completing the Blitzball requirements
for him (see his celestial weapon section). Auron doesn't have
an easy to find double AP weapon so I spent the megalixers to
craft double AP onto his monster catch sword, Beastmaster.
Heavy price but I never really used megalixers much anyways.
Why am I talking about double AP weapons in the monster
catching section? Well, when you start the process of monster
catching, you will spend 20% of your time collecting 80% of
your monsters and then the rest will be spent fighting wave
after wave of monsters you don't need to catch anymore. These
extra battles are a grand opportunity to whip out those double
AP weapons and reap the EXP (remember you can always switch
weapons mid-battle). Also after the bulk of monsters are
captured, it wouldn't be a terrible idea to have Rikku with
her Godhand in the final party at the time of victory. This
will let Gillionaire help you make extra money. Little by
little, bit by bit, it all adds up and Lord knows you'll need
the cash.
I'll try and give you a few tips for each section on where I
found the tough to find ones. My tips are my own anecdotal
observations. What works for me may not always work for you.
Different regions of an area sometimes have different
encounter rates for specific monsters. So if you can't find
one, try running around to a different region in that area and
take note of where you are finding them. By the time you get
the last monster caught in the Omega Dungeon, you will be
ready to start stat maxing. I would also advise you to quick
buzz down to the stat maxing section for tips on how to spend
the exp you're gaining along the way. Also, don’t spend any of
money you’ll make from all these battles until I tell you to.
You can either print this section of the guide or go get a
notebook and copy down each monster and leave some room by
each name. Grab a pen and as you catch each monster, make a
hash mark by their name. Keep going till you collect 10 of
every single monster. It can be a grind sometimes, but that’s
Final Fantasy for you. Grab an iphone or a laptop or something
and play some music to help pass the time if it helps. At any
time you can go to the monster arena and talk to the curator
to see how many of each monster you've caught and make sure
your notebook matches the game's numbers.
Besaid
Dingo
Water Flan
Condor
Nothing difficult here. The Condors are more likely to be
found near the beach. Don't go into town cause at the gate to
Besaid, the Dark Valefore fight will start and you aren’t
ready for that yet.
Kilika
Dinonix
Killer Bee
Yellow Element
Ragora
The hard one to find is Ragora. I seemed to have luck finding
this one down the center path where you fought Lord Ochu for
the first time.
Mi'ihen Highroad
Mi'ihen Fang
Ipiria
Floating Eye
White Element
Raldo
Vouivre
Bomb
Dual Horn
White elements, Mi'ihen Fangs and Raldos are only found on the
first few screens prior to the Al Bhed trading post. Vouivre
and Ipiria are the hard ones to find. I had more luck on the
lower Old Road first few screens on the cobblestones prior to
where it opens up by the free roaming chocobos.
Mushroom Rock Road
Raptor
Gandarewa
Thunder Flan
Red Element
Lamashtu
Funguar
Garuda
The only one that was a challenge here was Garuda. Go the full
distance down the Mushroom Rock Road all the way to the
elevator where Operation Mihen took place. The elevator is
broke but every other fight will be a Garuda. Plus, there's a
Jecht Sphere up there. To mix it up, you can also try fighting
down below by going to the location where Rikku's Godhand was.
One note, after exiting the Mihen High Road, the first screen
on the Mushroom Rock Road where the road forks to go up to
where Operation Mihen was, there is a woman and a girl
standing there. Go way, way around them otherwise the Dark
Magus Sisters fight will start.
Djose Road
Garm
Simurgh
Bite Bug
Snow Flan
Bunyip
Basilisk
Ochu
Ochu can only be found only after the Ixion temple on the
Moonflow paths. Simurgh can be hard to find. On the path prior
to the Ixion temple, there are splotches of sun on the rocky
path and Simurgh will only be found in the sun in my
experience. I had more luck in the middle of the path down a
ways from the temple.
Thunder Plains
Melusine
Aerouge
Buer
Gold Element
Kusariqqu
Larva
Iron Giant
Qactuar
The only hold out is Iron Giant which is only found on the
northern side of the Al Bhed trade post. Avoid the soldier
north of the trading post entirely or the Dark Ixion fight
will start. I stayed below him and just circled the lightning
rod till I collected 10.
Macalania
Snow Wolf
Iguion
Wasp
Evil Eye
Ice Flan
Blue Element
Murussu
Mafdet
Xiphos
Chimera
There is a nice trick in Macalania to speed this up by using
the Butterfly game to your advantage. First off, I would go
for Kimhari's sigil if you haven't already and monster catch
along the way as you learn the path to get through the two
butterfly games. If that's already done, purposefully catch
RED butterflies! You will fight monsters faster than just
running around waiting for random encounters. Snow Wolf, Evil
Eye, Ice Flan and Mafdet can only be found along the winter
blizzard area approaching the Shiva temple. Don't get too
close to the temple or you'll fight Dark Shiva.
Bikanel
Sand Wolf
Alcyone
Mushussu
Zu
Sand Worm
Cactaur
Doing the Cactaur game for Rikku's sigil is a great way to
accomplish filling the list up here. Zu and Sand Worm are best
found to the left of the large desert area in the ruins.
Cactaur is best found in the Cactaur village after the
whirlwind is stopped and you have the sigil. You might notice
some Al Bhed near the top of the last screen where the
entrance to Home used to be. Stay away from them or the Dark
Ifrit fight will start.
Calm lands
Skoll
Nebiros
Flame Flan
Shred
Anacondaur
Ogre
Coeurl
Chimera Brain
Malboro
The hard ones to find are Malboro, Chimera Brain, and
especially Ogre. I found them more commonly in the NW corner
of the plains; not the far corner though. If Malboro is the
only thing you have left, move on to the Sunken Cave because
he's there too.
Sunken Cave
Yowie
Imp
Dark Element
Nidhogg
Thorn
Valaha
Epaaj
Ghost
Tonberry
That I am aware, there are no little tricks for this place.
The encounter rate of Tonberry is very low. I have read
anecdotal accounts that the path to the right where the room
has a green tint to it yields more Tonberrys. I found some
there too so I don't know if there's some truth to that or
not? I seemed to find more Dark Elements near the front of the
cave. Epaaj will always be found in the area outside of the
cave. Be patient... you'll be here for a while... If you go
all the way to the end and encounter Dark Yojimbo, just hop on
the teleport pad to bypass the fight for now.
Mt. Gagazet
Bandersnatch
Ahriman
Dark Flan
Grenade
Grat
Grendel
Bashura
Mandragora
Behemoth
Splasher
Achelous
Maelspike
Gagazet is a big area! Bashura, Grenade, and Grat are found in
the early going while climbing the snowy cliffs. Splasher,
Achelous, and Maelspike can only be found in the water in the
cave. Behemoth, Mandragora, Dark Flan, and Ahriman are found
in the cave but I would actually hunt for them in the
Zanarkand ruins. After you get the airship, when you come
back here, there's an opportunity to redo the Gagazet ball
challenge with Wakka. Don't do that yet unless you want to
unleash Dark Anima. Dark Bahamut is found where Yunalesca was
if you ever go that far, which you shouldn’t since there’s no
capturable fiends that far.
Inside Sin
Exoray
Wraith
Gemini
Gemini
Demonolith
Great Malboro
Barbatos
Adamantoise
Behemoth King
Now that double AP and Gillionaire will really start paying
dividends. Yes you need 10 of both Geminis, but they always
come in pairs. The only tough one to find is Barbatos. You'll
have the rest of the list completed well before Barbatos. Stay
close to the last save point before you reach the point of no
return to try to find Barbatos. A little note on Behemoth
King: After capturing 10, upon killing my 11th, I found a rude
surprise of his final attack of a meteor which almost killed
my entire party. Switch one of the boys to their celestial
weapon (preferably Wakka since that has double AP and the
others can keep their double AP weapons on too). Have Wakka
Taunt Behemoth King which will lead to either a counter attack
kill or an evade-and-counter kill. Basic Final Fantasy tenet:
you can't counter a counter. That means if you kill it with a
counter attack, he can't do his final attack. Ideally teach
Wakka Taunt with an Ability or Skill Sphere. Great Malboros
are scary. Having at least one party member have
confuse/berserk/stoneproof isn’t a bad idea. Auron's celestial
weapon with first strike helps make sure that Auron can do
delay buster before he gags you with his halitosis. For that
poisonous plant just delay buster him to next week and he’ll
never get another turn. The triple Ahriman fight is a great
chance to steal multiple musks for confuseproof.
Omega Dungeon
Zaurus
Floating Death
Black Element
Halma
Puroboros
Spirit
Machea
Master Coeurl
Master Tonberry
Varuna
Be careful here if you aren’t a super high level yet. I would
advise having at least one character have confuseproof,
poisonproof and beserkproof and at least one but preferably
more having stoneproof. I died a couple times here when I
wasn't being careful. Permanently keeping Auron in your front
party and having his first strike weapon will guarantee that
you get at least one turn vs Great Malboro since he always
first strikes and uses Bad Breath. Again, have Auron delay
buster him. Always steal from the chest that comes with Zaurus
and if a Mimic pops up, make sure Rikku (and her beautiful
Godhand) is in the party that defeats it for big money. I had
a hard time finding Macheas. I found them near the beginning
of the dungeon and to the path to its immediate right. Master
Tonberry and Varuna are somewhat rare but I found them more
near the end where Omega was. Also in final mix, they upped
Omega's stats so he's a lot harder than I remembered him
being. Also don't forget to Lancet him for Kimhari's Nova for
the Learning! trophy. This is also a great place to stock up
on level 1,2, and 3 key spheres.
**************************************************************
**
Stat Maxing (ffxstatmax)
**************************************************************
**
During monster catching, all the EXP you're gaining in the
early going is best spent having Tidus Wakka and Auron do
Tidus, Wakka and Auron's paths. This will put the focus on
speed and strength which is what you need for midgame
progress. Tidus's path ends and puts him in Yuna's territory.
You don't want to be here. Instead, use a warp, teleport, or
even a friend sphere to get to the end of Auron's path and
work backwards to the beginning of his path. Auron naturally
runs into Tidus's path so work to the end of of Tidus’s path
and warp to Wakka’s path. Wakka naturally goes into Auron's.
If you finish the second person's path, move on to the third.
Eventually when you can do at least 15,000 damage or so with
celestial weapons, you're probably ready to start fighting
monster arena creations and start farming specific rewards to
start really building your characters. I'd probably recommend
having at least two characters with auto-phoenix armor cause
in the early going, you'll likely die a lot. But that's fine;
the phoenix will take care of you (as long as you keep your
larder full of phoenix downs). Craft some armor with mega-
phoenixes.
In the beginning of the game, you chose either the standard or
the expert grid. The expert has less restrictions and overall,
less nodes to fill. The standard grid is way bigger (68 more
nodes). As big as it is, you can't max every single stat,
there simply isn't enough room to do it so concessions will
need to be made. So I will begin this section by reviewing all
the stats and telling you which ones to max and which to not
worry about.
While monster catching I recommended that you have Tidus,
Auron and Wakka do each other's sphere grid paths. Now that
you can beat monster arena monsters and are ready to really go
hog wild with stat maxing, we are going to switch strategies.
It is important that you get all 4 characters in the same
place. My advice is the lower left corner of the sphere grid
where there is that triangle. Where is less than important
than why? You need to control where they are all going to
minimize how many spheres are needed to level everyone up in
as little hopping around the grid as possible. I find the
triangle corner in the outer, lower left and moving in a
counter clockwise motion around the perimeter to be ideal. We
are going to be using clear spheres to wipe out nodes and
replace them with +4 this or that spheres. This is an ideal
place because it will rip through Yuna, Rikku, and Lulu's
areas which I can certainly do without. So use Teleport, warp
or friend spheres to gather the crew in one place. When moving
along the grid, complete each large circle area entirely
before moving on to the next circle. Work with one type of
stat sphere at a time. Meaning keep creating only +4 strength
spheres until all four characters have max strength. Then move
on to the next type. Use the clear spheres that you unlocked
from the monster arena after you collected 10 of every monster
to clear everything that isn't a +3 or a +4. Clearing
everything isn't necessary but it will speed this process up.
If you choose not to use clear spheres, you will have to run
around the whole bloody thing to max your stats. I started in
the lower left corner and cleared everything that wasn't +4
and maxed all the stats by the time I worked my way around the
perimeter of the grid. Take your time when moving along the
grid and be systematic. Move in small chunks and finish a
large circle completely before you move onto the next large
circle area. Again, keep everybody together and take turns
covering the same ground with each character.
The numbers represent in what order I would focus on each
stat. Since we will be doing one stat at a time, you will find
yourself in need of a lot of one type of strength, magic, or
speed spheres to fill them for all 4 characters. Easy fix:
Fight Kottos and use the corresponding Distill ability. IE
when farming strength, you will need a bunch of power spheres
to fill those strength sphere nodes. To do that, you would hit
Kottos once with distill strength and then kill Kottos by any
means and his drop will change from 20 Healing Springs (40 for
overkill) to 20/40 of whatever type of distill you hit him
with. In the beginning Kottos will kill you every time he
touches you and every time you touch him. Annoying for sure
but he is slow and Auto-Phoneix will help. With max strength,
he still takes 5 hits to take down.
1. Strength. I know, I know, I've been harping that speed is
power but frankly, power makes the biggest noticeable splash
initially. Max strength, you need 255. End of discussion. Take
a look at Rikku, Wakka, Auron and Tidus and see who has the
lowest strength. Take that number (let’s say for example 75)
and subtract it from 255. 255-75=175. Now divide that number
by 4. 175/4=43.75 Which means I need (rounding up) 44 Strength
Spheres. Whatever the number, I'd add maybe 5 more since you
will likely clear some +1 or +2 or +3 Strength spheres while
replacing them with +4 Strength Spheres. Where do you get
these you might ask? From Juggernaut at the Monster Arena,
your new home! This is a good place to start because you can
actually hit this guy without huge accuracy stats. Many of the
monster arena creatures have high evasion stats but not
Juggernaut. I find it interesting that you get strength from
this guy considering his main weapon is a triple fireball move
(magic, not strength). The wind can easily be taken out of its
sails with a move that Yuna knew from the get go: Nulblaze.
Juggernaut will charge one turn and fireball the next so you
have plenty of time to get a nulblaze down. Ideally, have one
of your guys learn Nulblaze with say a White Magic Sphere.
Worst case scenario, bring in Yuna last second to cast it and
then get her out of there. Pay the money and start the fight.
First turn drop a hasteaga and auto life at least one person
until you're sure you can beat this guy. Armor Break doesn't
work all but 5% of the time, so don't bother. Spam Quick Hit
again and again with all 3 characters. You can always just
touch the save sphere behind the trainer to refill your mp
after the fight. Juggernaut has 1,200,000 HP so at first, it
will take a little time to kill it; however, the more strength
you gather, the faster this fight becomes. It's fun to all the
sudden go from doing 15,000 to 99,999 damage. If you work
hard, you can get there in less than an hour!
2. Agility. In other words, speed! You need to max this one to
255 as well. All 4 characters and Yuna as well should max
this. You will be farming Fenrir for this one. You will
quickly find that you probably can’t even hit this wolf. Don't
worry, overdrives can't miss. It's time for Wakka to start
kicking some lupine ass. Now that you can do 99,999 damage,
one attack reels will end him since it only has 850,000 HP.
Before the fight begins, either go out into the Calm Lands
proper and change your overdrive setting to slayer and kill
things with your celestial weapons (triple overdrive). Three
kills will fill your gauge and do it for all three characters.
Or you can stay in front of the monster arena and just pay to
fight Dingos from Besaid to fill your drive gauge, your
choice. Start the fight, let Wakka kill it with an Attack
Reels. Start it again and have another character use entrust
to give his overdrive to Wakka, kill it. Repeat again with the
third. Then recharge everybody's overdrive gauge. Again, look
who has the lowest agility and figure out how many Agility
Spheres you will need to farm. Another (and probably faster)
option is to use Wakka's solo overdrive method. See the Earth
Eater section under Luck to see how this works.
3. Accuracy. Tired of not being able to hit things? Look no
further than Hornet. We will be maxing this one to 255 as
well. Again, like Fenrir, use Wakka's Attack Reels to do the
killing. However, once you get closer to 255 accuracy, you
won't need to use Wakka exclusively. As your stat increases,
try attacking it with Quick Hit if you can. It has 620,000 HP,
so 7 hits will do it. Don't get too cavalier as Hornet has
some debilitating negative status attacks plus it frequently
also hits with Deathstrike so if you can't kill it quickly,
then just stick with Wakka's overdrives. Again the Wakka solo
overdrive method works wonders here.
4. Defense. Max it at 255. Tanket will yield these. It is slow
and it hits hard. Whoever it hits will likely die but you can
try Auron's Sentinel move right before its turn. Or you can
just let your auto-phoenix armor do its thing. For both
defense and magic defense, by endgame if something touches
you, it’s probably going to kill you since we are going the
non-break hp limit approach. However, I need both to be maxed
to fight Penance since I need you to be able to survive his
hits. With max strength, agility and accuracy, this won’t be
hard. Stick with Quick Hits for a sure victory.
5. Magic Defense. Max it at 255. One-Eye! I have a lot to say
about One-Eye but this isn't the place for it. Suffice to say,
you will be killing this guy a lot! His HP is only 150,000 so
a two hit kill is in order. Have Auron's first strike ability
and have at least one character with confuseproof just in case
he ambushes you.
6. Evasion. There is some discussion here. I maxed it but
endgame, I won't lie, most dark aeons still hit me and I
dodged very little. I maxed it at 255 and would advise you to
do the same but don't feel like you have to. Pteryx will give
you these. This would be another fight that without max
accuracy would be challenging. But with max strength, accuracy
and agility, this shouldn't be a problem. If it ambushes you
it has a hit all three move that causes curse but that's not a
deal breaker. At 100,000 HP, a 2 hit kill makes maxing this
stat go quickly.
That leaves HP, MP, magic, and Luck. We can't max everything,
that's not possible. Even if you clear every available sphere
and replace them all with +4s. So let’s discuss what gets the
ax:
7. HP. Running around the sphere grid will naturally and
quickly get you 9999 health. Don't go out of your way to farm
HP Spheres from Ironclad, it’s not necessary. Ironclad is kind
of a bitch. Once all 4 characters have 9999, use clear spheres
on the rest you encounter.
8. MP. Same idea as HP. Get to 999 and stop. Don't bother
farming Vidatu for more. As soon as all 4 characters have 999,
then clear the rest of the MP sphers you encounter. One could
even make an argument that you don't even need 999 and they
wouldn't be wrong. Rikku does have a mix that bestows the
whole party with no mp casting, but I'd probably just get 999
to keep your options open.
9. Magic. Don't need it. Don't use it. Don't care. Defeating
Jumbo flan for magic +4s is hard enough since he's immune to
physical attacks, so don't bother. Any magic spheres, even +4s
you encounter, clear them. Seriously.
10. Luck. That leaves Luck. Luck requires some discussion.
Since we aren't maxing magic, HP, or MP that leaves a lot of
room for luck. I'd love to max it but maxing this stat
requires a major time commitment. Make no mistake; you'll be
at this awhile. First off, luck is unique in that you need
Luck Spheres to create the node and then you need Fortune
Spheres to fill them. This is the only stat that has its own
special sphere that way. When I beat this game before final
mix, I never touched luck but that won't fly now. To defeat
the dark aeons and Penance, you're going to need lots of it.
The reason being that when the game calculates if you are
going to hit something, it calculates: Accuracy + luck +
random number generator vs. the target's evasion +luck +
random number generator. So if your figure is higher than the
target's, the attack connects. If not, you miss. The dark
aeons have huge luck stats. That means that even if you have
max 255 accuracy, you will still be missing with all of your
attacks. I would advise getting around 130 luck for each
character. This will pretty much allow you to hit anything
when paired with max accuracy. It will also increase your odds
of evading attacks greatly for everything except the most
elite enemies. Hang in there because it took more time to do
step 10, then all of step 1-9 combined.
Luck Spheres are obtained from Greater Spheres and Fortune
Spheres are obtained from Earth Eater. First things first, we
need Luck spheres from Greater Sphere. The fastest way of
beating it is probably to do Wakka's Attack Reels and then
have your teammates Entrust their overdrives to Wakka for more
Attack Reels. In between fights, kill One-Eye to rebuild the
overdrive gauges (just trust me) for at least Wakka. Greater
Sphere has a target all move that if your overdrive gauge is
set to comrade, everybody's gauge fills up pretty quick. This
allows for more Attack Reels. Again, look at who has the
lowest luck and figure you're getting 4 a pop to figure out
how many you need. This doesn't take too long but figure for
every one Luck Sphere created, you need 4 Fortune Spheres for
each character to fill it. This brings me to Earth Eater.
You and Earth Eater are going to be spending lots of time
together. First a little homework. Take Wakka and start a
fight with a Dingo found in the monster arena- Besaid section.
Cast haste on Wakka and slow on the Dingo. Make the other two
characters escape the fight so that Wakka is alone. Now guard
by pressing triangle over and over and over and over. Keep
this up for probably two minutes until the overdrive mode
Loner is unlocked. Loner charges when Wakka does something
alone. Next Wakka needs armor with deathproof from 60 farplane
winds. You obtain 60 farplane winds for finishing monster
catching in the Calm Lands. Start the fight with Earth Eater
and have Tidus and Auron escape as soon as possible. Have
Wakka attack once. This will be counterattacked with a punch
with deathstrike-but you're covered. Attack a second time and
this time he'll flip back onto his back. Now you'll spend the
rest of the fight staring at his ass. Any attacks now will be
countered with flare (but you have max magdef so you're going
to be fine). If you don't have your overdrive filled, guard
once or twice to fill it. Once full, then do Attack Reels.
Then guard until your overdrive is full again and then Attack
Reel once more. Two perfect Attack Reels will do it. There are
other ways to kill him but this is the fastest. Maybe have a
laptop nearby to play some tunes or something so you can stay
sane with as much as you're going to be doing this. P.S. Earth
Eater also drops armor with auto-phoenix. Save one for each
character as this always comes in hand.
Finally, after all of this, you will likely still have entire
chunks of the Sphere Grid that you haven't filled out. That's
ok for now. Don't feel like you need to finish the Sphere Grid
and achieve the Sphere Master and Perfect Sphere Master
Trophies. This is not the time for that. Max your stats, get
all the abilities you need at least for you main 4 characters
and the rest we will deal with later. Move on to the dark
aeons and Penance and then come back later to finish the grid.
**************************************************************
**
Dark Aeons (FFXDKAN)
**************************************************************
**
Preparation for the dark aeons, other than the ridiculous
amount of stat building we finally finished is actually fairly
minimal. Bare minimum, you will need stoneproof on your armor
for all characters. Several of them have stonetouch that also
shatters. Auto-haste would be great but it isn't completely
necessary. For all the battles, begin with hasteaga if you
don't have auto-hastes. I would also open up with at least one
auto-life. You know all those things you've been holding back
like megalixers and all the ingredients for Rikku's mixing?
It's time to whip that shit out. Use quick hit every single
time. Wakka's Attack Reels are certainly called for and then
Tidus can Entrust his drive to Wakka for more Attack Reels.
Rikku can either mix something awesome or entrust as well.
With any of the aeons, if their overdrive gauge becomes full,
last turn before theirs, bring in Yuna (with an auto-haste
ring), have her summon something so it can die for you. Then
after the aeon is done devastating your aeon’s face, get Yuna
out of there and bring back the crew and the quick hits.
Dark Valefore
You will find Dark Valefore at the city gates of Besaid.
Nothing too special here, just follow the above basic tips.
Maybe now you can get the last Jecht Sphere, find that Al Bhed
Primer, and redo the chamber of fayth for a few chests in
there that you probably don't care about anymore. If you
didn’t before, the dog at besaid has a second overdrive for
Valefore in its mouth… um?
Dark Ifrit
You will find Dark Ifrit at the entrance to where Home was in
Bikanel Desert. Basic tips here again.
Dark Ixion
You will find the thunder horse on the northern part of the
Thunderplains. Approach the soldier for the first fight then
go down to the lower area to fight him again. More of the
same. Stoneproof is a must.
Dark Shiva
Find her at Macalania temple where you first found her lighter
counterpart. Again basic tips apply here. Enjoy kicking more
Guado ass on the way out.
Dark Yojimbo
Find him at the back of the Sunken Cave. You will have to
fight him five times in order to truly defeat him. I truly
believe that they made you fight him five times in order to
scare people away from solely relying on Zanmato to win these
premium fights. The odds of getting Zanmato 5 times in a row
aren't good so that means you have to do it the hard way.
Unless you are ridiculously loaded with gil, but what fun is
that? His evade is quite high so Rikku's mix that casts aim 5
times would be good if you keep missing. Stoneproof is a must.
Search every nook and cranny of the cave until you beat him
five times. It’s not needed but Yojimbo drops armor with
Ribbon on it. If you want to farm him for these, beat him four
times then go to the back of the cave and teleport to the
front of the cave and leave. Repeat till you get what you
want. However, if you beat him five times in one run then he
will be gone forever. Again, this isn’t necessary, especially
since all we have left is a few aeons and Penance and Penance
will have his own unique armor setup.
Dark Anima
To unlock him, you have to replay the Gagazet minigames in
the caves atop Gagazet like where you had Wakka peg that
glowing ball by timing the shot. Once unlocked, he's near the
Gagazet entrance. He has huge amounts of HP so he will be
getting his overdrive a couple times during the fight. Let
Yuna's aeons take the blow because you can't survive it.
Stoneproof is a must. Make sure to have autolife on at least
one character at all times and armors with auto-phoenix.
Attack Reels as much as possible but prioritize autolife.
Dark Magus Sisters
You'll find the bug ladies at the Mihen High Road/ Mushroom
Rock Road junction where a woman and a girl are standing
there. The instant you see them, you have the chance to run
away from them. Run up the path and work your way all the way
up to where the elevator is at the end of the Mushroom Rock
Road. If you are successful in running away, that will
separate the three sisters so that you can fight them one on
one instead of all three at once. This makes the fight
immeasurably easier. Not to mention the fact that if you
choose to fight all three at once they immediately ambush with
their overdrive move Delta Attack which will, without a doubt,
wipe your face off the face of Spira. The only thing really to
highlight is that all three, and especially Dark Mindy, have
really high Evades. Mindy has the highest Evade in the game!
You may need to rely on Wakka's Attack Reels and Entrust. With
a HP of 2,000,000, two Attack Reels will do it.
Dark Bahamut
That leaves Bahamut. Dun dun dunnnnnn. He is found in the
chamber where you found Yunalesca in Zanarkand. Auto-Phoenix
and stoneproof armor are a must. If you are struggling to beat
him, then consider the investment on auto-haste armor. You're
going to be dying a lot. Bahamut will counter every move and
will likely kill you. On top of that, every fifth time you hit
it, it’s counterattack changes from a regular attack to
Impulse, which will kill your whole party. My recommendation
is to have auto-life on everybody at all times. Wakka's Attack
Reels is the way to go but you need to be careful about
Impulse and of his overdrive, Megaflare. You need to time when
you drop the Attack Reels. After an impulse or a megaflare,
you will need several turns to replace the auto-life and haste
buffs. You need to be mindful at all times how many times
you've hit him cause if you're careless, there won't be enough
time between impulse and megaflare to replace autolife on
everybody. Count out loud your hits or keep track on a piece
of paper. Make your hits count. All the autolife casting costs
a ton of mp, so be liberal with your items like megalixers.
Hopefully you haven't been waiting for the Sun Crest this
whole time, but if you are, take the north staircase before
you leave the area. Congrats, in some ways, Bahamut is harder
than…
**************************************************************
**
Penance (ffxpnc)
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**
Defeating all of the dark aeons unlocks Penance. What I like
about this fight is that even with max stats and the best
armor available, without the right strategy, this guy will
destroy you. Onto the prep:
All along, we chose to not break hp limit, so before you start
the fight, there is a very particular set of armor for each
character that we need to make. It will have auto-haste,
defense +20%, auto-protect, and auto-potion. Doing everything
that I'm about to say costs a lot of gil and if you need tips
for making gil, see the section on gil making. First, visit
Oaka's brother, Wantz at the entrance to Macalania Woods and
buy four 4-slot armors. Some of what you will need, you will
already have from rewards for monster catching.
Auto-Haste: 80 chocobo wings. There's really no easy way to
make this other than spending lots of freaking money. Bribe
Machea (fight one from the monster arena) for around 360,000
gil. You can try lower amounts but probably won't get as good
of returns. You will have to repeat this several times to
raise enough to get 80 for each character. It's a lot of
money, I know but what else are you saving the gil for? Again,
see raising gil for tips on raising capital.
Def +20%: 4 Blessed Gems. You get 6 for overkilling Cactaur
Kings. This isn't too bad.
Auto-Protect: 70 Light Curtains. Fafnir's common drop is 20-40
Light Curtains. Considering you also got 99 from monster
catching, you're already over a fourth done.
Auto-Potion: 4 stamina tablets. Considering you get 60 of
these from monster catching, you're good to go. But using this
ability right is the key. Sell all potions and high potion so
you only have x-potions left. You will literally need over 75
X-potions of these for Penance, so...
X-potions. 60 potions can be bribed from Valaha for 174,000
gil. Find him in the Sunken Cave list of the Monster Arena.
Strategy:
This is it. This is why you maxed your stats. This is why you
built that awesome armor. This is why you've spent countless
hours slaving away at this game. This is probably why you
bought a game you likely already own! It's time to pull out
all the stops and really see what your characters can do!
Rikku and Wakka must be in your party and honestly between
Auron and Tidus it really doesn't matter who the third is. All
3 characters should have the following abilities: Quick Hit,
Auto-Life, Hasteaga, Entrust, Dispel, Use, and maybe
Quickpockets. Enter with full overdrives set to Comrade and
you are ready to go. Before you go hog wild, priority number
one at all times is this: Kill the arms first! No matter what
else is going on, the arms must die. If you are diligent about
this, the arms will never get a turn. The arm's death is
imperative since they are capable of a number of awful
negative status effects and your current armor choice leaves
you exceptionally vulnerable to attacks like stonetouch and
shatter for example. Each arm has a HP of 500,000 so you will
need 6 quick hits to be taken down. If time allows, you can
quick hit both arms 5 times and throw a grenade with Use to
shave a little time by killing both arms with one blast, but
don't get too cute with that. The reason I said to hold your
horses is I want you to not be too damaging in the beginning.
Rikku needs to place a set of buffs before phase two starts.
The arms will come back and you need to take them out as soon
as you can but when Rikku's overdrive gauge is full there are
a few buffs she needs to put on. In phase one he does a move
that targets all 3 characters. Before he does that, use Ultra
Nulall Overdrive by mixing the first ingredient of either a
chocobo wing or a chocobo feather with either a healing water
or a tetra element. This will place Nulall (5x cheer, 5x
focus, 5x aim, and 5x reflex). This will help you survive
Penance's arsenal. From now on, no one must die or these buffs
will have to be redone and you likely won't have time for
that. If your overdrives are set to Comrade, Rikku's Overdrive
will fill quickly but I would hurry things up by having her do
the Eccentric overdrive (Megalixer mixed with either a
defense, strength, magic def, or magic sphere) to further
speed up overdrive charging. Next I would have her do Freedom
X overdrive to have zero mp usage for all characters. Mix a
twin stars with a x potion. This will be imperative later when
Penance starts draining all your mp, you can quick hit him
(her? it?) even with zero mp. If you have all these buffs on,
you can proceed to allow Wakka to Attack Reels and then
Entrust further overdrives to Wakka to do more Attack Reels.
Once phase two starts (it will be clear when this happens
cause the board thing falls off of him), your strategy
changes. First, cast dispel on Penance. Continue destroying
the arms as priority one. Now Penance only attacks one person
at a time. Whoever he targets, you need to cast dispel on that
character as soon as you can. This will take fullbreak off of
them. If you don't do that, the next time that character gets
hit, he would die and then all the buffs would be gone and at
that point you've likely lost the fight. If you do cast dispel
on the character that Penance hit, then he can survive the
next time he's targeted. Rinse and repeat for the next 20
minutes. Kill the arms, cast dispel on whoever Penance just
hit and throw in Attack Reels when you can to speed things up.
Eventually, this uberboss will drop. Congrats! You should feel
good about yourself! I remember I was holding my newborn baby
daughter and she had just fallen asleep when I beat Penance
and I wanted to whoop out loud my excitement but had to hold
it back. It was over a half hour fight and I had to pee!
Anyhow, feel good about this since likely beating this boss
took over 90 hours of prepwork. I personally feel this was the
most rewarding optional boss I've ever defeated. It even
trumps FF12's Yiazmat and ff7's Ruby Weapon.
**************************************************************
**
Sphere Master and Perfect Sphere Master (ffxsphr)
**************************************************************
**
Whoever decided this needed to be a trophy is a sick bastard.
It should be pointed out that I will firmly recommend that
these trophies be sought out only after you have defeated
Penance! The reason being is that I am going to have you
actually wipe out all of the luck spheres you so diligently
filled. Why? Because if you didn't, then Yuna, Kimhari, and
Lulu would also need all those fortune spheres too. If you
want to go back to grinding the Earth Eater, you go right
ahead, but not me. Your four main studs are probably not even
close to filling the whole grid. The whole grid means no blank
nodes and no key spheres. Everything, and I mean everything,
needs filling. This is certainly doable but once again, some
prep work is needed to make this palatable. To start off,
everybody, all 7 characters, need special Don Tonberry weapons
that I call Ragnarok Weapons. A Ragnarok weapon is a weapon
that contains, triple AP, triple overdrive, and AP to
Overdrive abilities. It is abundantly clear that the game
makers wanted this trick to be used since when you create
these weapons, they all have special names. Once one of these
is used properly, you can literally gain 99 levels in less
than 5 minutes-no joke! Sound Appealing? Let's do this:
Step 1. One-Eye farming. Remember when I said you should kill
One-Eye? This is why. Killing One-Eye is good for a number of
reasons. First and foremost, it can drop weapons with triple
AP on it. What you are looking for is a weapon with triple AP
and two blank slots. It will drop weapons with only one blank
slot but these aren't good enough. Keep killing One-Eye until
you have weapons with one triple AP and 2 blank slots weapon
for each character. This will take some time but it isn't time
wasted. Killing him is also a great way to raise gil. You only
need one for each character so extras or ones with only one
blank slot on it can be sold for huge amounts of gil! Also you
will be getting mag def spheres. We will need to fill those
empty nodes on the grid with something, anything! By the end
you will likely have 99 of these so you'll be killing a couple
birds with one stone here.
Step 2. Customize the triple AP weapon to add the AP to
Overdrive ability. 10 Door to Tomorrows will do it. You earned
99 of them from Monster Catching so that is more than enough
to make 7 weapons, one for each character. Moving on.
Step 3. Triple Overdrive. 30 Winning Formulas will make this.
Only way to reasonably find these is to bribe Sand Worms for a
whopping 960,000 and you can get up to 15, but more likely,
you'll only get like 11 or 12. I can see you doing the math in
your head. Best case scenario 960,000X2=1,920,000 per
character X 7 characters= 13,440,000. That's a lot of cheddar.
See the raising gil section. You can fight Ultima Buster for
its common drop for one if you only need a couple. Before you
disregard this, it's well worth it, so put the work in.
Remember the time spent raising the money to do this will be a
fraction of the time required to grind levels to accomplish
the same thing. In the end, you will be saving yourself loads
of time if you put the work in up front.
Step 4. Get all 7 characters on the same node with Friend,
Warp, or Teleport Spheres. Have every character put on their
Auto-Phoenix armor if you have it and make sure you have
plenty of phoenix downs. Equip the Ragnorok weapons.
Step 5. Fighting Don Tonberry. The way that battle works is
after attacking him, he counter attacks with a move that deals
more damage if that character has killed lots of enemies. For
example, my boys Tidus, Auron and Wakka easily get hit for
99,999 damage since they have killed bunches of monsters,
whereas Yuna and Riku only get hit for a small amount since
they hardly ever killed anything. The participants in the Don
Tonberry fight will be divided into two categories: strikers
and receivers. There will be one striker per fight and that
person will be the only one hitting Donny Boy. The strikers
should be people who have killed bunches of monsters like
Auron, Tidus and Wakka since we want lots of damage here. The
striker should have his overdrive mode set to stoic. The two
receivers should have their overdrive modes set to comrade.
The striker hits Don and promptly is killed by Everyone's
Grudge. Either auto-phoenix does its thing or manually phoenix
down the striker back up. Other than reviving the striker, the
receiver's only role is to just guard and stay out of the
fray. Rinse and repeat about 7 or 8 times. After that, simply
select Flee and run away from the battle. You don't have to
win the fight to reap the exp. If at any point Don doesn't
counter after a hit, it's time to flee cause he's about to
start knifing people like a Milwaukee mugging. If you arrange
it properly, you can have all members with 99 levels in no
time. You will need to fight Don Tonberry a couple times to
get all 7 characters 99 levels. Try groupings like Tidus Yuna
Rikku, Auron Kimhari Lulu, and then Wakka and anybody who
might need a little more.
Step 6. So now that everyone has a boatload of levels, make
sure everyone is on the same node somewhere on the outer
perimeter of the sphere grid. Systematically start filling it
up. Each area of the sphere grid is somewhat circular. Do all
the large circles on the outer perimeter first and then start
to work your way to the center. If you encounter an empty
node, fill it with anything regardless of what your stats are.
You likely have 255 mag def already and you also probably have
99 mag def spheres from farming One-Eye. Perfect! Use your mag
def spheres and fill it with a mana sphere. If you encounter a
Luck Sphere, clear it, replace it with something else, and
then fill that. If you encounter a lv whatever key sphere, you
need to use the corresponding sphere and then fill the now
empty node with something else and then fill that as well.
A quick note on lv key spheres. If you spent any quality time
monster catching in the Omega Dungeon, you will likely have
more lv 1, 2, and 3 spheres than you need. Lv 4 spheres are a
little rarer. Outside of a few key battles and scattered
chests, there are only two repeatable ways to find more. The
first is to bribe Brain Chimera from the Calm Lands and get 2
for 196,000 gil. That's a lot of gouda so I have a better
idea: steal them from Nemesis. To unlock Nemesis, beat
everything in the monster arena once and have captured 10 of
every monster in monster catching. The fight will still cost
25,000 but you can get as many as 4 per fight, which is a much
better investment. Have your three studs learn steal and start
the battle with Nemesis, cast hasteaga, steal a bunch, and
then flee. You don't need to win the fight to keep the rewards
you stole.
Have the character all stay together and do one large circle
area at a time. The important part is to be systematic about
it. Take your time and fill in everything. The repetitive
nature of this task is such that you can lose focus on who
filled what so be mindful of what you're doing and every now
and again, double check your work to make sure you didn't
forget something. If you get to the end and the trophy isn't
popping, try using a Master Sphere to locate the one you
overlooked. Master Spheres are only earned from unlocking
Nemesis and fights with dark aeons and Penance so you probably
only have like 15 or 20 of them.
You will need Power, Mana, Speed and Ability Spheres and lots
of them. Enter poor Kottos again. Hit him with the
corresponding distil techniques and get 40 a battle. Generally
things will go like the following: Fight Don Tonberry 3 times
to load everybody up on levels. Fight Kottos several times to
restock the larders and then spend the next chunk of time
filling the grid. Rinse and repeat for the next 7 hours until
all 7 characters are done. It is mind-numbing, repetitive
work, especially since you really aren't advancing your
characters stats at all by doing this for some of your
characters. Lulu and Kimhari will finally get some love. You
are simply doing this just for the trophy. You're this close,
so hang in there! For a lot of people, these were the last
trophies left for the platinum, so good work!
**************************************************************
**
Raising Gil (ffxgil)
**************************************************************
**
Throughout the whole game, there are very few things that you
NEED to spend money on. Occasionally a weapon or armor might
sound appealing but to be honest for this game, the weapon
does not make the man. Save your money. You can very easily
never change your weapon from start to finish and beat this
game. Between bribing for Ragnarok weapons, auto-haste armors,
lv 4 key spheres and purchasing Yojimbo, you need the money.
So what's the best way to gather major moolah quickly? There
are a couple answers:
1. In my opinion, the best way to raise funds is to farm One-
Eye. Killing him yields weapons with triple AP weapons which
you need anyway. But you only need one of those weapons per
character, so all the extra ones sell for 6 figures. Pros:
It's fast and simple with maxed characters, it's a two hit
battle. You're gathering the triple AP weapons and stocking
mag def spheres. Rarely, you are also bagging some dark
matters which eventually could lead you to Ribbon armor.
Between the start and end, a round of One-Eye takes less than
30 seconds. Cons: It requires characters that can beat One-
Eye. He's only got 150,000 HP so two hits with max strength
will do it. I'd put Auron and his first strike weapon in your
group and make sure he has confuseproof on just in case of the
ambush. Also it is an investment since the fight costs 8000.
One-Eye also drops armor that doesn’t sell for much but on the
whole, the investment pays off in the long run easily. A half
an hour destroying One-Eye will yield some serious returns.
2. Farming mimics in the Omega Dungeon comes in as the next
best idea. With a Gillionaire weapon on (think Rikku's
Godhand), it's 100,000 a pop. Pros: Spending time in the Omega
Dungeon yields big exp especially if you're fresh from beating
the game and starting your journey toward having max
characters. Fights here also yield lv1,2, and 3 key spheres.
Defeating Mimics isn’t that hard at all. Cons: You need to
have a character with Gillionaire, likely Rikku in the active
party that wins the fight. If you're just starting off, Rikku
might still be a bit of a liability since she's pretty weak
until she really gets going. The Omega Dungeon is filled with
enemies that can perform all kinds of debilitating status
effects like confuse, poison and berserk that can kill a party
if you aren't prepared properly. However the biggest con is
that finding Mimics can be streaky. You can have 3 in a row
and then not see any for like 10 minutes. If you don't have
max strength, this is probably the way to go until you're
strong enough to farm One-Eye
3. Smart customizing. Go to Kilika and find the old woman on
the docks who sells armor and buy a boatload (save some money
for paying for monster arena fights). Then kill Kottos (poor
Kottos, we kill him so much...)for 40 mana springs. Customize
one of your armors you bought with 15 mana springs and then
sell it. The net profits add up quickly. Rinse, wash, repeat.
Pros: Kottos isn't that hard. Even with lower level
characters, a few auto-phoenix armors make him beatable. Max
characters can take him down in 5 hits. You have all kinds of
items, equipment, armors that are just sitting in your
inventory that you aren't using, so you can just put that
useless stuff to work for you. Cons: Running back and forth
from Kilika to the Calm Lands and going through all the
customization is a little cumbersome. Also, you're limited by
your inventory after a while.
Another example of this is the reward for monster catching at
Besaid yields 99 stamina tonics. One stamina tonic adds
hp+30%. So again buy from Kilika some armor and add stamina
tonics and sell. Really this can be done with anything in your
inventory. First make sure it can't make something you would
use someday for weapon/armor customization. Then make sure
it's nothing you would use in a Rikku mix. Finally, make sure
it's nothing an aeon might want for abilities (although I
almost never use aeons for anything except meat shields). If
it's nothing you want, customize onto any armor/weapon you
picked up along the way and sell for profits. Selling the
armor from the Kilika woman is often hailed as the way to go.
Her prices are low for armor with four slots, so the profit
margin is bigger for her stuff compared to other vendors.
**************************************************************
**
Loose Ends (ffxlooseends)
**************************************************************
**
While this section is at the end of this list, I'm sure you've
been doing some of these things all along. Think of this
section as a reference for whatever is left.
**************************************************************
**
The Eternal Calm (ffxetclm)
**************************************************************
**
If you haven't yet, go beat the game. Take on Jecht and Yu
Yevon (who oddly looks like a tick). Cry as you kill all
Yuna's aeons. Assuming you have some celestial weapons, this
should be a cinch. The aeon’s strength will be based on how
strong they are before the fight. I had finished Yuna's sphere
grid (which meant she had max stats but zero luck) and saved
this for last and I had a hard time hitting my aeons but that
was nothing that overdrives couldn't handle. For those of you
at low levels, Yu Yevon can be challenging since he can cure
himself up to 9999. This means you need moves that can clear
that. Save your overdrives for him and use the multihitters
(Wakka, Tidus, Riku) and also use Yuna's Holy. If you can't
hack it, just consult my stat maxing section and come back
later. You don't need God-like stats to be able to beat him
but the celestial weapons are a big help with their break
damage limit.
**************************************************************
**
Theater Enthusiast (ffxthrenst)
**************************************************************
**
First off, you need to beat the game and reload after saving
since you need the end cutscenes. That said, you also need
426,000 gil. Consult the gil raising section if needed. Head
to the Luca theater and get your Pokemon on and buy them all!
You need to buy both the movie and music spheres.
**************************************************************
**
Learning! (ffxlng!)
**************************************************************
**
We need to find all of Kimhari's overdrive abilities for this
one. Use Lancet on enemies to learn these. The only real
difficult one to find is Nova. You will see Biran and Yenke
listed several times. You only have one fight with these guys,
so stock up. They will only do certain moves only if they are
alone so you can't get both Mighty Guard and White Wind from
this one fight. Frankly it's a horse a piece since both moves
can be learned from Gagazet monsters anyway shortly
thereafter.
Jump- Have from the start.
Seed Cannon- You will automatically get this as a part of a
tutorial in Kilika.
Self-Destruct- Bomb (Mihen Highroad), Biran Ronso (Gagazet
boss fight), Grenade (Gagazet), Puroborus (Omega Dungeon).
Fire Breath- Dual Horn (Mihen Highroad), Valaha (Sunken Cave),
Yenke Ronso (Gagazet boss fight), Grendel (Gagazet).
Stonebreath- Basilisk (Djose), Anacondaur (Calm Lands), Yenke
Ronso (Gagazet boss fight).
Aqua Breath- Chimera (Macalania woods), Chimera Brain (Calm
Lands), Yenke Ronso (Gagazet boss fight).
Thrust Kick- YK7-63 (Bevelle), YK7-11 (Zanarkand), Biran Ronso
(Gagazet Boss fight).
Bad Breath- Malboro (Calm Lands), Great Malboro (Omega
Dungeon).
Doom- Ghost (Sunken Cave), Biran Ronso (Gagazet boss fight),
Wraith (Omega Dungeon).
White Wind- Yenke Ronso (Gagazet boss fight only if Biran is
already defeated), Dark Flan (Gagazet).
Mighty Guard- Biran Ronso (Gagazet boss fight only if Yenke is
already defeated), Behemoth (Gagazet), Behemoth King (Sin).
Nova- Omega Weapon (Omega Dungeon boss fight), Nemesis
(Monster Arena).
**************************************************************
**
Messenger from the Past (ffxmftp)
**************************************************************
**
Enjoy some messages from Braska, young Auron and Jecht from
the days of yore. This quest is tied to Auron's overdrives.
His last, Tornado, is only unlocked when you have them all.
Unfortunately, the one in Besaid is only accessible if you
have the stones to beat Dark Valefore. The spheres appear
after your altercation with the Spherimorph in Macalania
Woods. Apparently it is possible to walk your ass all the way
back to Besaid at that point and get it before Dark Valefore
takes up residence there later in the game but, that's totally
not worth it. For help beating Dark Valefore see the stat
maxing section and the dark aeon section. Suffice to say that
without elite characters, Dark Valefore will easily wipe the
floor with your pancreas. While I have done my best to
describe their locations in words, feel free to Google other
online resources for screenshots. A picture is worth 1000
words.
Jecht Sphere 1: Obtained automatically after defeating
Spherimorph.
Jecht Sphere 2: To the right of the temple on Besaid Island.
The only way to get to it is through Dark Valefore. See above.
Jecht Sphere 3: S.S. Liki, in the control room (find it docked
in Besaid Island).
Jecht Sphere 4: Luca Stadium, Basement A (the locker rooms on
the left).
Jecht Sphere 5: Mi'ihen Highroad, Old Road, all the way at the
south end.
Auron's Sphere: Mushroom Rock Road, near the final lift
elevator.
Jecht Sphere 6: Southern shore of Moonflow, at the riding
platform.
Jecht Sphere 7: South Thunder Plains, at base of the second-
most northern tower.
Jecht Sphere 8: South Macalania Wood, near the first save
sphere after entering from Thunder Plains (or, head west then
south after leaving Bevelle to find it).
Braska's Sphere: Mount Gagazet, around a steep cliff near the
beginning on the snowy paths leading up to the cave.
**************************************************************
**
Master Linguist (ffxlngst)
**************************************************************
**
According to Rin, learning the Al Bhed language could, "be...
fun?!" You can find the primers scattered throughout Spira
from the start of the game and if you feel like starting a new
game, you can compile from other save files so that you can
translate the Al Bhed from the start of the game. Some of the
early dialogue from Rikku's crew when they first meet Tidus is
somewhat humorous. Some are easy to find and others like the
one in the Omega dungeon I don't think you'd ever find unless
you knew where to look. This is the only 'missable' trophy in
the whole game. There are a few primers in the Al Bhed Home
and one in the Bevelle temple that if you didn't get them
while you were there, you will never be able to get them. This
might mean a second play through for some of you just to get
this trophy (and by extension, the platinum). A speed
playthrough, especially if you know what you're doing can
probably be done in 15 hours or less. You just need to get
through the Home section and up to the Bevelle cloister of
trials, save, go back to your main file and then compile your
data at an Al Bhed travel agency. Not what you wanted to hear
is it? What makes me angry is that Square was smart enough to
spread these throughout the whole game, even places that you
won't be able to visit again. If you missed those, many are
later relocated to the Bikanel Desert. For example, the one on
Rikku's boat can be found again later if missed. So to me that
means that Square was looking in to solutions to primers
hidden in places that are not viable post game and included a
bunch-but not those 4. Why relocate some but not all? And then
to add fuel to the fire, this is an HD "remaster" which means
they had one last chance to reenter the code and fix this and
they still didn't! I've done my best to describe where they
are in words but a picture is worth a 1000 words. Feel free to
Google other resources online to see screenshots of all of
these, especially the missable ones.
Volume I- This is found on the Al Bhed salvage ship where
Rikku takes Tidus to in the beginning of the game. As soon as
you can walk around on the deck, check the upper right corner
near the door. If missed, it will relocate to the Bikanel
Desert Oasis in the NE corner.
Volume II- This is found in Besaid village in the Crusaders
Lodge on the floor next to the reception desk. If you didn't
get this early on, Dark Valefore will bar your entrance into
Besaid and you will need to be able to kill Dark Valefore
before you can reenter. This is no small task. See the stat
maxing section and the dark aeon section and bring only top
tier characters.
Volume III- This is found in the engine room on the S.S. Liki,
the boat that travels from Besaid to Kilika. It's found by the
giant chocobo wheel at the bottom of the screen.
Volume IV- This is found in the tavern in Kilika on the
counter next to the guy sitting on the ground. You can only
find it after Yuna performs her Sending there.
Volume V- This is found on the floor of the bridge of the ship
that travels from Kilika to Luca, the S.S. Winno. It’s by the
driver.
Volume VI- This is found in Luca in the left side hallway by
the locker rooms (not the Besaid Aurochs side). Look
carefully, it might be hiding by one of the NPC's feet.
Volume VII- This is found at the bottom of the stairs near the
Luca Theater where you go to buy music and movie spheres.
Volume VIII- This is automatically given to you by Rin at the
Mihen Travel Agency shortly before the Chocobo Eater battle.
You can't miss it.
Volume IX- This is found on the MiHen Highroad, North Newroad
section shortly after where the road makes a big loop around a
small island formation. On your first trip there it is near
where Maechen and Shelinda were.
Volume X- This is hidden near the end of the final rock
platform that would lead you to the final elevator in Mushroom
Rock Road where Operation Mihen takes place. There's a path
that hooks around on the left. At the end of that path, mash X
as it’s hard to actually see.
Volume XI- This is on the Djose Highroad prior to Ixion's
Temple. About half way down the path, it is close to the
screen hidden behind a pillar. The camera will shift as you
walk along and then you will be able to see it.
Volume XII- This is found at the Moonflow North side Shoopuff
station. Climb the ramp and it’s tucked up by the machina to
the left. Easy, Yeshh!?
Volume XIII- This is found in Guadosalam where there is a
house to the left of the town. Inside that house, it is behind
and a little to the left of the pillar in the middle of the
house.
Volume XIV- This is found when you are in the Thunderplain's
travel agency, talk to Rikku to make Rin show up. Then talk to
Rin and when he asks how your study of the language is going,
respond, "It's going well" and he'll give you another. If you
missed this one, then it relocates to the Bikanel Oasis.
Volume XV- This is found in the Macalania Woods where Auron
cleared the woods which led to the Jecht Sphere quest. There
is a path to the lower right where you can find this primer.
This one is also hard to see so mash X till you find it.
Volume XVI- This one is just outside the Lake Macalania travel
agency to the right.
Volume XVII- This one is found in the Central Sanubia Desert,
which is the largest area in Bikanel that has a save sphere in
it. From the save sphere, go to the left down into the ruins.
While in the lower ruins area, the ruins that are to the right
of the exit have a primer in them.
Volume XVIII- This is also in the Central Sanubia Desert in
Bikanel. From the save point, go straight up and just before
and a little to the left of a sign, there's the other primer.
***The next four you will only get one chance to obtain.
Either get them now or be forced to restart the game on
another save file to obtain these***
Volume XIX- The first missable primer! As soon as you approach
the Al Bhed Home, before going inside, check the rubble to the
left by the fire.
Volume XX- Another missable primer! After entering the Al Bhed
Home, you'll come to a narrow hallway and the camera will
shift to an odd angle. Move forward until it fixes itself, now
go back the way you came and check the door to the left.
Inside the door you'll find two treasure chests and an ambush.
Clear the enemies then check the bed on the right for the
Primer.
Volume XXI- Another missable primer! After getting the last
primer, you'll come to 3-way split in the hall. The left has a
save sphere, the middle is not what you want. The right path
will take you to the primer in the back corner.
Volume XXII- Another missable primer! After Yuna's umm...
wedding, you'll find yourself outside the Bevelle cloister of
trials (How/when did she change clothes?). At the bottom of
the stairs there is a short path before the save sphere
outside the cloister. On the short path near the stairs, it is
on the ground.
Volume XXIII- This one is the far NW corner of the Calm Lands
out on the point.
Volume XXIV- Train up a chocobo so you can ride one and run up
to Remiem temple. If you need more info on how to do this, see
the Chocobo License section. Outside of Remiem temple on the
left side, you can find the primer just beyond the sphere.
Volume XXV- Within the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth, there is a
save point. To the left of that save point at the dead end,
you will find this one. If you go to the end and trigger Dark
Yojimbo, you can always hop on the teleport pad and zip back
to the entrance if you aren't ready to fight him.
Volume XXVI- Deep in the Omega Dungeon, there is a large
circular area with 4 chests facing each other. Above the
circle in the top of the room, there are two torches. Look for
the primer on the floor by the torch on the left. If you are
low levels, be very careful in the Omega Dungeon. Have at
least one character have confuse, berserk, poison, and
stoneproof.
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Acknowledgements (ffxack)
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**
First and foremost, I would like to thank Square for making
such a great game. Then I'd thank Square-Enix for rereleasing
it in beautiful HD with trophies. This guide was mostly worked
on when my second daughter, Gemma was first born. Many
sleepless nights I was up holding the baby so my wife could
get some sleep; meanwhile I was working on this game guide so
that I wouldn't fall asleep while holding the baby. What
started as a simple exercise in self preservation to keep me
awake and sane during those sleepless nights turned into all
of this. I was holding her also when the platinum dropped. At
several points I commented that you should Google something or
go to Youtube. Those sites were referenced without permission
and those terms were used more as a generality. Finally, I'd
like to thank you for reading this, my labor of love.