Endgame - The Final Day

The treasure cube in the Ark contains 5 Silver Mailstones. Mog also replaces Hope as your new shop person. Take the warp back down to Luxerion where you'll have to go through some rather lengthy story sequences, after which you must head to the cathedral. Use the Forge and Sorcery Shop if you like. The doomsday clock is also gone by the way so Chronostasis is no longer needed.

At the Temple of Light, follow the hallways to the first intersection and turn north for a Warrior's Plume. Push south next then southwest at the next fork to claim the Holy Revelations item. Moving on to the third split, head south once more for a Samurai's Comb. Go a little further down the path from here and you'll see Fang fighting a Chimera. Help her defeat it so she joins you then head through the door for more battles and events. The fights only involve common monsters.

Once all the scenes are done, Lightning finds herself in God's Sanctum where five different doors will be opened. Four of which are trial doors and one leads to Bhunivelze himself. Mog then arrives to sell you supplies and synthesize abilities so use his services if need be before you proceed.

- Altar of Atonement: Enemies are Naelas, Wendigos, and Earth Eater. Treasure is Surge Lv.1.

- Altar of Judgement: Enemies are two Archangeli and a Zomok. Treasure is Chill Lv.1.

- Altar of Birth: The enemies are a two Set and a Cyclops. Treasure is Tornado Lv.1.

- Altar of Salvation: Just a lone Chimera in here. Treasure is Flare Lv.1.

Completing all four trials activates the altar (be sure to check it) at the center of the room. This fixes the Crimson Blitz (the sword that Lightning broke way back during the game's opening scene) and transforms it into the Ultima Weapon, which will in turn earn you the Crimson Rebirth trophy. Once you're certain that you've got everything, examine the remaining door to initiate the final battle.

Bhunivelze has 4 forms each with more health than the last (1st: 600,000 2nd: 700,000 3rd: 900,000 4th: 1,000,000+). Out of the four forms, only the last one will pose a bit of a problem since the barrier can be tough to remove. Anyway, for the first 3 forms, stick Deshell and Deprotect then just attack. He won'y last all that long if you have a high ATB, Attack Lv.4 and Ultima Weapon. Use Mediguard to defend against whatever he throws at you to save your EP and items for much later.

For Bhunivelze's final form, you can stagger him with a long barrage of fast multi-hit spells (Thundara, Aerora, Quick Fire, etc), since the stagger wave window is small. This is necessary in order to remove that barrier and do real damage. Once you knock him out, trigger Overclock (if you want) to prolong stagger, hit him with all your best attacks. Also, if you have Ultima (from the Ultimatus garb), it can penetrate the barrier, and deal normal damage which grows much stronger the lower Lightning's HP gets. Again, use Mediguard to offset damage from Bhunivelze's attacks. Finally, Heartless Angel, like all its other iterations will reduce your HP to 1, but is easily blocked.

Congratulations for beating the game. Now sit through the ending and credits for the A Legend from Times Past trophy, which pops at very end of everything. You can then use the save file you created to start New Game+, where all your stats, equipment (sans Ultima Weapon), consumable items, and battle records will be carried over. You'll also get the "Limit Breaker" item from a treasure cube in the Ark which allows your attacks to exceed 99,999 damage. Activate it in Settings to use it.