================= FINAL FANTASY XII ================= 122333 - LOW LEVEL CHALLENGE GUIDE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Version 1.0 31/07/07 Incomplete but posted early due to many requests from people wanting my Guide. At present I have 2 Espers to complete and 5 Bosses. The whole game from Start to the end of Bahamut is complete as are all Hunts, including Yiazmat. As I complete the others I will update with a new version. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Version 1.1 01/08/08 Bosses Earth Tyrant, Elder Wyrm, Fury & Humbaba Mistant completed and strategies added to Boss Strategies section. Also Esper Chaos, Walker of the Wheel Completed and added to Hidden Espers' Strategies. Balance Mote Farming at Ridorana Cataract added along with link for Video. Other Video links added. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Version 1.2 03/08/07 Ultima, The High Seraph Completed and added to the Hidden Espers' Strategies. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Version 1.3 Omega MK XII defeated and added to the Extra "Boss" Strategies section and, subject to spelling and other errors that might need tidying up, this 122333 Low Level Challenge Guide is now complete. It was hard work but I am well pleased with the end product and all who have helped have been mentioned in the end credits. If you feel you should be included then please remind me and I will add you if I feel you have been omitted in error. ============================================================================== Copyright Giruvegan July 2007 This Guide has been done by me and taken me a great deal of time. I not only wrote it, I actually played it at the same time and wrote everything down as I did it. The copyright to this guide belongs to me and to me alone. You may not reproduce this guide, or any part of it, in print or online or any other written or electronic form without obtaining prior written permission from me unless it is purely for your own personal use, ie printing off a personal copy for use at home. If permission is granted it will be done so on the condition that the guide or any part that is used is to remain unaltered and in its original text format and that I am also given FULL credit for what is used. I would not take kindly to having this guide ripped off and if I were to find out that it has been copied etc without my permission then I will use the full weight of the Copyright Law and I don't care what part of the world you are in. I am not an Ogre and all requests for permission will be looked at on an individual basis and I will make a decision. If I see nothing untoward in the request then permission is likely, though not guaranteed, to be granted. please make any requests to the following email address and mark your subject FF12 or similar. Giruvegan01@aol.com At this moment in time the only sites with permission to reproduce this Guide online are: Supercheats.com *************** IGN.com ******* Should this Guide be seen anywhere else I would appreciate it if you would email me at the above address and give me the URL of where you have seen it posted. I forbid GameFAQs.com and any part of their organisation from publishing this guide or any of my past and future works on ANY of their sites. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents ******** Introduction Walkthrough Hunt Strategies Hidden Esper Strategies Extra "Boss" Strategies Credits Legal ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Introduction ************ For me, this is the greatest challenge of all in FFXII. The idea is to complete the game and collect all possible items without levelling up at all. This is where the name 122333 comes from as these numbers are the minimum starting levels of each character when they join your party. Both Fran & Balthier join at 1 level above Vaan, and Basch, Ashe & Penelo (not counting the sunstone quest with Penelo) join at 2 levels above Vaan. So this is how your team looks: Character Level Vaan 1 Fran 2 Balthier 2 Basch 3 Ashe 3 Penelo 3 All 6 will finally join together aboard The Leviathan at these levels and the aim of the game is to keep them at those levels yet still beat the game. It is possible to do this but it isn't easy and many of the things you may be used to using (like the Zodiac Spear, Tournesol etc) almost become redundant because, as you aren't levelling up, your Strength, Defence stats etc aren't increasing so where in a normal game you would expect to be doing 5000 damage with a Zodiac Spear, in 122333 you'll be lucky to be doing 500. But don't worry, things aren't that bleak. You'll still be able to do 9999 damage sometimes but it takes a bit of thought and planning. I can hear you asking "If you can't level up then how can you get LP to get better equipment if you can't kill anything?" The answer to that question is that there are 4 ways to get LP without EXP and they are: 1. Hunting Marks 2. Defeating Bosses. (Bosses tend to be unavoidable fights that are in the storyline where you need to either access an area or carry on with the storyline whether it be the group of Imperials when you meet Amalia right up to Dr Cid in Pharos. Sidequests like Earth Tyrant are also considered to be Bosses). 3. Defeating Espers. 4. Equipping the Firefly accessory. All the above give LP but no EXP. The best is obviously number 4 but unfortunately the Firefly isn't available at the beginning of the game. It is first found in a chest in the Stilshrine of Miriam so until then you will be doing a lot of Fleeing. After Miriam it can be bought at Phon Coast but I will tell you another way to get it before then without having to run through The Stilshrine again. Once you have Fireflies you are then free to attack and defeat any foe but the downside to it is that, if the foe gives EXP, you can't equip any other accessory. You must have the Firefly equipped. General Gameplay **************** At the beginning of this game you are quite limited in what you can do. You have very little money to buy what you need and you also have hardly any access to LP to license the equipment you can use, let alone buy the damned stuff. So what can you do? Unfortunately, the answer to that is grind away to obtain cash that you will need. There are a few ways to do this and I will go through each one as it is required in the game. All I will say at this point is you will come to HATE Werewolves, King Bomb and treasure chests. This is unavoidable as it is the only way to get what you need but it isn't something that is going to go on throughout the game. It is just early on that you have to do a bit of grinding away. I am going to assume you know quite a lot of things about FF12 and won't be going into details about certain parts of the game as you will have done it before. I mean, there's not much point in me holding your hand and directing you through the quest to get the sunstone in Giza, would it? If I were to do that with everything it would probably take me around 11 years to write this guide. So in a lot of places I will say something like "Now go through this part of the Storyline" and then move onto the next thing to do with the 122333. As I go through the story and we come to a hunt that needs doing I will just say that it's time to do that hunt. All Hunts and how to go about them will be in another section of this guide. Some are very straightforward and need little saying about them but others are more complex and I will go into more detail about those particular ones. Before starting, a quickening tip for you when you have 3 characters with 3 full mist bars. If you are desperate to get a concurrence then start with level 1 quickenings but if you are prepared to risk a low concurrence for something like Luminescence or even Black Hole then start with level 3 Quickenings. You may even get 3 straight away. Let's say you get 2 from the 3 characters. That leaves one character who could do a level 1 and a level 2 and then 1 mist charge could do the same. That is Ark Blast Concurrence. If you get lucky with mist charges then the next level of 3 each is Luminescence and then 4 each is Black Hole. A lot easier to get if you start with high level quickenings. Something else I want to mention very early on is Dark Matter. You are going to need this so I want to tell you how to get it. When you get to the Phon Coast, do NOT open any of the 16 Chests in the Vaddu Strand. If you do then you will not only screw up your Zodiac Spear but also your Dark Matter. Leave those chests alone. Now when you get to Nabudis and into the room where the Zodiac Spear is, this is what you do. Without the Diamond Armlet, open the Zodiac Spear chest. If you're not sure which it is then look at this map. Zodiac Spear Room ***************** =========================================== = = = = = x x x x = = = = x x x x = = = = x x x x = = = = x x x x = = ^ = = | = =============== | ================= = | = = | = = | = Zodiac Spear Chest Once you have the Zodiac Spear, equip the Diamond Armlet and empty the other Chests. You will probably get 14 Dark Matter and 3000 gil as one of the chests has a 90% chance of the gil instead of the Dark Matter. If you open these chests in Phon coast you will only have a 10% chance of getting a Dark Matter with the Diamond Armlet Equipped. There are 2 other chests in Nabudis and with the Diamond Armlet you will get another Dark Matter from each of them. To charge the Dark Matter up you need to use the Knots of Rust on enemies. One third of the total Damage you do with the Knots of Rust will be what the damage will be with a Dark Matter to a maximum of 60,000. See....Knots of Rust AREN'T useless!! So remember this....Get those Dark Matter as it will make the Latter stages a lot easier. So let's begin the game. I don't think I need to explain how to flee etc as you will have done all that previously though ALWAYS turn attack gambits off when fleeing. I would also like to say that I am writing this guide as I play the game myself so everything is fresh in my mind. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- =========== WALKTHROUGH =========== Nalbina Fortress **************** This is the tutorial part with Reks and tells the theme behind FF12. It's straightforward and I'll leave you to get on with it. Garamsythe Waterway ******************* This is easy as all you have to do is use Vaan to kill 3 Dire Rats. It is one of 3 places where you will gain EXP but none will level you up. One tip for this section.....steal from the Rats before you defeat them. Money is tight and 3 Rat Pelts pay for one and a half Potions. Rabanastre ********** Now the game starts proper. After viewing the scenes make your way to Miguelo's and then the Sandsea where you speak to Tomaj, get a licence lesson and also get the Rogue Tomato Hunt. After talking to Tomaj, head towards the East Gate but as you enter the southern Plaza talk to the Bangaa who is with an Imperial. He will ask you to deliver a package to his Companion outside. Forget that....take the package to the shop and sell it for 150 gil. Two more potions, eh? Now head out into the Estersand and do the Rogue Tomato Hunt. While you are there open every chest you come across. Every Potion found is one less you have to pay for and every 70 gil found is 1 Potion paid for. Believe me you are going to need lots of potions. You can also steal a bit if you want to but be careful. When a wolf attacks you can't fight back. Stealing from a sleeping cactus is ok as you might even get a Broadsword. Not that you can use it but you can sell for 200 which is almost 3 Potions. Complete Rogue Tomato and return to Rabanastre and talk to Kytes which triggers the next scenes. After viewing the scenes and listening to Penelo it's time to go see Dalan in Lowtown but first you need to go to Clan Hall and speak to Montblanc and get your 3 Potions for joining. then go collect your bounty from Tomaj in the Sandsea. At the same time look at the notice board and then talk to Gatsly and accept the Thextera Hunt. Now Buy CURE, FIRE & BLIZZARD from the magick shop. If you don't have enough cash, CURE is top priority and you can get the others later on. Now head to Dalan's place. DON'T open the chest outside his door if you want the Zodiac Spear for a perfect game. Well, almost perfect....you won't get order of Ambrosia as one of the Criteria is to get the Party's average level to 50 in order to get Ashe in the Den. This ain't gonna happen. Sorry...no Ambrosia. After talking to Dalan head to Giza. Giza **** Talk to Masyua and then you'll get Penelo join you. You can do the sunstone quest if you want to or leave it for a bit later as there are some things that need doing whilst you have Penelo in the party. The first thing to do which you can do whilst getting the Sunstone if you like, is to kill 10 of those cute little Hares you find on the Giza Plains. This is the second time you'll get EXP but it won't affect your level. Each Happy Bunny gives 3 or 4 EXP and if you check the Status of Vaan you will see that his next level up is in 42 points so 10 hares won't harm but WILL give Vaan and Penelo another 10 LP each. Whilst doing this open as many chests as you can find as all gil and goodies help. An Ether or two would be great. One tip for you. If you're ever in Giza/South Bank there may be a chest on the bridge leading to the Estersand. It can only be opened once and you mustn't do it without the Diamond Armlet equipped. You must also be ready to reset if you don't get gil from the chest. It contains 50,000 gil. One for later. But now it's time to go to The..... Westersand ********** Time to do a bit of grinding work now. It's not too bad and it will take a while but, believe me, what you do now will make it SO much easier later on in The Barheim Passage. I have played this 122333 before but haven't completed it but I know that one of the tough fights is the Mimic Queen. In fact the whole Barheim Passage can be tough without the right gear. So what we are going to do now is well worth it. I would hate for you to get to the Mimic Queen and keep getting a Game Over. If you do it my way there isn't a chance of that happening. We are going Mote hunting in chests in the Westersand but we only want Water Motes or Holy motes as these are the only 2 that hit 1 target. There are other chests around that can be emptied on the way back if the Mote hunt is successful. There are 2 chests of interest, one in Galtea Downs and the other in the Midfault which are the first 2 zones in the Westersand so it's not much running. Rather than try an explain where they are I am going to do 2 crude diagrams. These diagrams do not show the whole zone, just the area we are interested in. Galtea Downs ************ ______ \ / \ Onion Arrows \______/ X \ <-------- Potion \ Max 110 gil W / / / _____ \ / \ \______ W / \ ---> Rabanastre / \________ \ \ \________ WATER MOTE X\<-------- Potion ____ \ Max 120 gil / \ \ W / / / / / / \____/ W / W T /<----- Thextera _____________/ X = Chest T = Thextera W = Wolf Galtea Downs is fairly easy as the only things you need to worry about are Wolves and Cactoids (harmless if ignored). Wolves are easily outrun and do minimal damage. Enter from Rabanastre, go left hugging the wall all the way round to the Water Mote chest. As soon as you have opened it head directly west across the Galtea Downs and central on the other side is the exit to the Midfault. Midfault ******** ? / MM / W MM / HOLY MOTE U / Potion -----> X W \ REMEDY Max 70 gil X \<---- Potion W ? MMM \ Max 70 gil MMM \______ MMM -------> U __________ Galtea / Downs / ? / / X = Chest W = Wolf U = Urstrix M = Mound ? = FIDELANT !!! This is where it gets a little more difficult. Use Vaan as your leader here. Have Penelo learn Orrachea Armlet and equip her with it. That has just added 25 HP to her total making her and Vaan's HP similar. Now here is the trick to constant success. See the 2 Urstrixes marked? Wait till one heads North and the other heads South and leaves a gap for you to go through. While you're waiting open the chest to your right as it may have a remedy. When the Urstrixes leave a gap then get Penelo to cast cure on herself regardless of her HP and with Vaan head to the right hand side of the mound (as you look at it on screen) and up to where the wolves and the chest are. DON'T use the flee button whilst heading to the chest as it will stop Penelo casting cure. Open the chest as soon as you get near it and don't worry about how many wolves etc are about to get you. A soon as you open the chest SWITCH LEADERS. Because Penelo was busy casting cure on herself whilst you were after the chest, she got left behind. When you switch back to her as leader she is still stood close to the exit. Vaan may get KO'd but who cares? You can revive him at the save Crystal in Rabanastre. Don't waste Phoenix downs. Now just leave the zone taking (hopefully) a Holy Mote with you. Now these are the two most important chests but there are more to take into account. You don't just need motes so I have worked out a little route around the Westersand that is fairly risk free and will enable you to collect, Holy Motes, Water Motes, Hastega Motes, Potions, Remedies and Gil. A couple of hours spent doing this will save you SO much time and possible frustration later on, especially in the Barheim Passage. I am going to do a crude diagram of the 3 areas to show you where the chests are and what each chest contains. The maps won't be the right shape....each will be a square with some identifying marks and some numbers representing chests. The key will be shown afterwards. MIDFAULT GALTEA DOWNS ============================ ========================= = 5 = = 1 = = = = 4 = = 6 ========== MMM ==== = MM 3 MM Rabanastre >> = MM ========== MMM MM ==== = = = MM = = = = 2= = = = = ============================ ======= =============== = = = = = = === ====== = = = MM = = MM 8 = = = = = = 7 = ============ Shimmering Horizons For those who may find this loop difficult to follow I have made a video of it and put it on YouTube. You can find it at the following link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=qsRTMEIPy2s M = Mound 1. Contains Potion, Onion Arrows or Max 110 gil 2. Contains Potion, WATER MOTE or Max 120 Gil 3. Contains Potion, Onion Arrows or Max 150 Gil 4. Contains Potion, PHOENIX DOWN or Max 160 Gil 5. Contains Potion, REMEDY or Max 70 Gil 6. Contains Potion, HOLY MOTE or Max 70 Gil 7. Contains Potion, HASTEGA MOTE or Max 400 Gil 8. Contains REMEDY, Onion Bolts or MAX 600 GIL. This is the "Loop" you should keep making and collecting as much as you can. Everytime you complete the loop go back to the West Gate in Rabanastre and save your game and then soft reset. I know it's a pain but it's the only way to be assured that the Chests in Galtea Downs respawn. Also, the last thing you want is to make an error and get a game over and lose 2 hours work. Keep saving. Do this until you have 2 Holy motes or 1 Holy Mote and a Water Mote. Make sure your game is saved. Now go and do the THEXTERA HUNT (See Hunt No.2). After killing Thextera continue with this Loop. Your target is 10 Holy motes or a total of 20 Water and Holy Motes Combined. You could possibly end up with 10 or 20 Phoenix Downs, 20+ Remedies, 10+ Hastega Motes and even 90 odd potions! FIDELANT !!! A rare game Undead monster. You are a one hit kill with him. If he is there near the Holy Mote chest and Wolves then forget it. Go and do the 2 chests in Shimmering Horizons and then come back. It's 2 zones so the chances are Fidelant won't be there when you return as he is a 20% spawning chance. So how long do you need to be doing this? It will take a couple of hours or more but it will make life a hundred times easier during this difficult early part of the challenge. When I had finished it had taken me over 3 hours but I had a nightmare with the chests not appearing and very few motes to start with. However, this is what I ended up with: 10 Holy Motes 21 Water Motes 23 Remedies 91 Potions (saving me 6370 gil) 15 Hastega Motes. With just over 3 hours work I was set up till at least after Dreadnought Leviathan. The Barheim Passage was very easy and the Mimic Queen was straightforward. I wasn't really short of cash and at one point had 99 potions and 50 Phoenix Downs. Only once did I go visit the Werewolves but only stole 30 Hides and even then I didn't really need them. It was just a cushion for me, a sort of safety net. Now, back to Rabanastre and on to Giza and do the Sunstone bit if you haven't done it. When you get to the camp sell all your Hi-Potions and remedies. You don't need a Hi-Potion yet and remedies are no good because you can't get the necessary remedy lores on the licence board. Cash is a much better prospect at this stage. Before you leave Giza check one thing. You need to have a minimum of 10 Phoenix Downs, at least 50 potions, 5 Antidotes and 5 Eye Drops. Now if you have been doing everything the way I have said then you will either have them all or have enough money available to buy what you are short of. But if you haven't then you are going to have to do something that you aren't going to like. You're gonna have to do this later on and I was trying to avoid having to do it too often because it's the worst grind of all. For those of you that have enough you can skip the next section and go straight to 'Back in Rabanastre.' For the rest of you, welcome to stealing from.... Werewolves ********** Head to Starfall Field in Giza and south of the bridge you will find 2 Werewolves. To the east is an exit to the Crystal Glade where you can save and revive. Now put the Orrachea Armlet back on Vaan as he's gonna need every point possible. With Penelo as the leader head towards the Werewolves and send Vaan in to steal keeping Penelo well back. As soon as he steals he is likely to get KO'd. Just head to the save crystal and revive him. Go back and steal from the other Werewolf. When you have done that go THROUGH the Crystal Glade (2 zones) and then back to the Werewolves, healing and/or saving at the Crystal on the way through. Keep doing this until you have enough money to buy what you need. Generally you will steal a Quality Hide from a Werewolf which will sell for 384 gil. Just work out how many you need and then leave, sell them and head to Rabanastre. The downside to this is that you will send Vaan in to steal and he will fail and still get KO'd. Back to Crystal to revive him and try again. Believe me it gets irritating. Back In Rabanastre ****************** With a Sunstone you can now go see Dalan and he will charge up the Crescent stone but before you enter Lowtown to see Dalan, REMOVE ALL PENELO'S EQUIPMENT! If you don't then she will take it all with her when she leaves the party and you may want to use it yourself or sell it to buy other goodies later. Now go see Dalan and get the Crescent stone. The Garamsythe Waterway *********************** No problems here. There are a possible 12 chests you can empty on the way through but really all you are doing here is running to the stairs that lead to the Palace. Go up the stairs to trigger scenes. Royal Palace of Rabanastre ************************** Examine the Urn to get the map and save if you want to. Open the door and enter the Cellars. I'm going to do a quick map here because I want you to see something. Cellar Map ********** ========================= = | | | | | | = = | | | | | | = = =============== = X = = = = ++ ++ = = ++++ ++++ = = ++++ ++++ = = ++ ++ = = X = = X = = ++ ++ = = ++++ ++++ = = ++++ ++++ = = ++ ++ = = = = = = = = X ++ ++ = = ++++ ++++ = = ++++ ++++ = = ++ ++ = = = = = = = = ++ ++ = = ++++ ++++ = = ++++ ++++ X X<------------ =========++ ++========= Door >>>>> = ========= X = Chest See the chest the arrow is pointing to in the SE corner? That's the chest you DON'T open if you want the Zodiac Spear. When opening the chests, if you get an Elixir then you have opened that chest. Now do the bit with the Seeq to go upstairs, use the Crescent stone and move the guards around and then make your way to the secret passage. Get the Goddess's Magicite, say hello to Balthier & Fran, leg it up the stairs and watch the scenes till you come crashing down. Have fun with Balthier's Gambit lecture and then you're ready for.... The Garamsythe Waterway *********************** After the gambit lecture etc head out of the zone and go left for the urn with the map. Set Gambits to: Any Ally: Phoenix Down Ally: HP<70%: Potion Now flee all the way through The East Waterway Control and the Number 11 Channel until you get to the East Sluice Control stopping to empty chests along the way provided you aren't in severe danger. When reaching the East Sluice Control you'll find a save Crystal. Before you save adjust gambits to: Vaan: Ally: HP<70%: Potion Party Leader's Target: Attack Balthier: Ally: HP<70%: Potion Party Leader's Target: Attack Fran: Party Leader's Target: Fire Party Leader's Target: Attack Manually use Phoenix Downs if necessary. Now save your game and then go down the steps and a scene occurs with some Imperials and Amalia and then you are thrown into battle with the Imperials. Control Fran as the Leader. Fran will use fire on the Imperials but you have to keep her running around them. If her MP runs out she will use attack but with the running around she will gradually build up MP and use Fire again. This is called KITING for those who don't know. I have explained it here because in the future I will just refer to it as kiting without the explanation. Now the target Fran must chose is the Imperial Amalia is attacking. The reason for this is that technically Amalia is not yet in your party and if she delivers the deathblow to any of the Imperials you will not get the LP for it. If she does kill one of them you can always reset as you have just saved at the Crystal. I actually did think it would be better to take her out and I did with 3 water motes. I came unstuck. Even though she may not land a deathblow she STILL gets LP. I got all the way aboard Leviathan to find myself 1 LP short of what I needed with her. So frustrating. After you defeat the Imperials, more scenes and Amalia officially joins the party fully revived. Go back up the steps to the blue Save Crystal and save and then move to the Southern Sluiceway where you will now fight the Flans. Keep the gambits the same. You need to concentrate on one at a time and knock them out as fast as possible. The little ones (B & C I think) have a lower HP so do them first. Have Fran as leader and get her Kiting again. After the Flans are gone, empty the 2 chests, move to West sluice control and then flee from there all the way through the Number 10 channel To the Central Waterway Control and save at the Crystal. Enter the Overflow Cloaca and prepare for Firemane. Use the following gambits: Vaan: Ally: HP<70%: Potion Nearest Visible: Attack Balthier: Ally: HP<70%: Potion Nearest Visible: Attack Fran: Nearest Visible: Blizzard Nearest Visible: Attack Manually use Phoenix Downs if necessary. Amalia should use them on KO'd allies but I have yet to see her do it. Once again control Fran and Kite her. Watch out for fallen allies and revive immediately, especially Amalia. If you keep on top of that then it will just be a matter of time before Firemane falls. You could use some of your Water Motes as he is weak to water but, to be honest, he is well beatable without them so I wouldn't bother wasting any. Now, just a few steps from Lowtown, Half the Imperial army along with the Consul himself arrive to arrest you so instead of sitting in the Sandsea enjoying a cold beer you find yourself in prison in...... Nalbina Dungeon *************** After all the scenes you control Vaan alone in the stockade. There are 4 chests in here and each contain a knot of rust and I advise you to get them all. Very soon you will face the 3 Seeqs unarmed. Here is the formula for a Knot of Rust. Damage = Users HP/Random Number (1 -10) Unarmed, Vaan's HP will be 80 and Balthier's will be 100 and a 35% chance that one of the random numbers for the 4 knots of rust is a 1 which will do max damage and the 80 or 100 damage is most, if not all, of the HP. Teach Vaan white Magick 1 for cure as you have no potions because all your gear was confiscated and then save your game before entering the arena. After the scenes the fight begins and you should use your knots of rust immediately and hopefully do some decent damage. Use them all on Gwitch. I got him down to critical and the little bugger cast cure on himself so you need to take him out first. Then take out Galeedo and finally Daguza. If either Vaan or Balthier's HP drops to less than 40 use cure immediately as the seeqs are capable of multiple hits. After Defeating the Seeqs, more scenes and then you are at the: Confiscatory ************ Another small diagram: =========================== C ============= =========== = = = X = = X X = ====^========= ^ ^ ^ ^ C = Crystal X = Chest Do not open the chest indicated by the arrows or you lose the Zodiac Spear. After the Confiscatory you enter The Black Watch. In a normal game I just tanked the Imperials and opened all the chests. Forget that. You need to get out very fast or you will be overwhelmed by the Imperials, especially the magus who casts nasty spells at you. Forget the chests in there as there is nothing special in them. Using your minimap just leg it through there and out the top for another cutscene....a quite informative one. After all the scenes you will find yourself in: The Barheim Passage ******************* Now if you did all that running around the westersand earlier you are going to have a very easy time in here. However, there may be a bit of scavenging to be done. First of all go down the stairs and go right where there are 3 chests. One is guaranteed to have 777 gil and the other 2 have maximum amounts of 555 and 333 gil so hopefully you will get 1000+ gil out of these. 1050 gil will buy you 15 Potions or 4 Phoenix downs. Examine the power conduit etc, talk to Burrogh, do tube fuse etc. Now you need to scavenge until you have 50 potions and 20 Phoenix Downs. Try and do this next bit without using potions or phoenix downs. Obviously, if you worked hard in the Westersand and have the goods already or the cash to pay for them then you don't have to scavenge now. After opening the gate go through and steal Iron scraps from the 2 battery Mimics. Flee down the stairs to the next zone to the right at the bottom of the stairs and steal from the 2 mimics there. I prefer to steal manually here and not with gambits so turn gambits off. The last thing I want is 3 characters stealing from the same Mimic whilst the other is kicking my arse. I want to be in and out as fast as possible. Now flee all the way back to where Burrogh is and sell him the goods and buy potions and/or phoenix downs. Save at the crystal and then you MUST RESET or the Mimics in the next room will have nothing to steal. Two zones is too far to go so resetting is the only option. Do this until you have your potions and phoenix downs. The next stage is fairly easy but a rough ride. You may want to buy the gambit Ally HP<50% from Burrogh before you leave. Save at crystal near Burrogh and set gambits to Any Ally: Phoenix Down and Ally: HP<70%: Potion . Flee through the first room ignoring mimics etc and down the stairs and right into the next zone. Again, ignore the mimics, turn right and start fleeing down the Barheim Passage. Take the left track when you come to the fork and at the next fork stay to the right. Don't take the left fork as it's a dead end. Keep fleeing past all the Zombies and Spectres and Steelings until you cross the zone line. On the other side let the gambits do any healing. On your right is the entrance to another area. Go in there, ignoring the Flans that drop down in front of you and run through to the next room. At the doorway immediately turn left and run up the stairs where there will be a turning on your left. Go that way and cross the zone line. Now take note of what I say. Let any healing gambits kick in and then dump Vaan out of your Party. Then manually get Fran & Balthier to immediately and simultaneously launch a Holy Mote each at the Battery Mimic just round the corner. You can't see it but it will register in your list of enemies. This is the last time you kill anything and get EXP. Fran & Balthier can take the EXP but Vaan can't which is why he has to be out of the party. These motes will kill the mimic instantly and the charge will rise. Now the following directions might be a little confusing so, as suggested by Hell Wyrm of Neoseeker's Forums, I have included a map of Op Sector 37 so you can see the route to the Gate Switch after killing the battery mimic. Compare this to your onscreen map so you have a good idea of which direction you are going. Op Sector 37 ************ ========================================= GS = Gate Switch = GS = BM = Battery Mimic = ^ = ----> = Route to Gate Switch = | = = | ============================= = ____|___ = = = ____|___ = ==================== = ____|___ = ==== ==== BM = = ____|___ = ==== ==== = = ^ = ==== ==== <-------------------^ = = | | | = = <-----------------------------V ============== | = = = = | = ========================================= = | = = = = | = = = = | = = = = | = ======= =========================== = | = = = = | = = =========================== = | = = |||| |||| = = | = = ------->||||--------->||||----> = = | = =BM |||| |||| | = = | = = ^ ==================== | = = | = ====== | = | ========== | = = | = === V | = = ^----> = === ------------------> = = | = _____ = === = = | == _____ = ======================== = | == _____ =============================== = | = = |||| |||| = = | = = |||| |||| = | =================================== | From Op Sector 3 Look at the map key in the top right. Go in the main room and DOWN the stairs. In front is a doorway which leads to a passage. Run along the passage, ignoring the mimic and up the stairs at the end of the room. Ignore the Flan....just dive for the switch and flick it. That will open the gate. Return Vaan to the party (all healing helps and it gives more targets on the run out) and get the hell outta there. Back down the stairs through the room, along the passage, up the stairs on the right. Turn to the left at the top of the stairs and then immediately on your right is the exit. Cross the zone line. Let the healing gambits do their work. Turn right out of the doorway and down the stairs. Turn right into next room and go straight through to the outside passage. Go right and flee to the zone line. You will get a cutscene where Basch gets a weapon and then you can save at the crystal. After saving, flee through the next 2 zones and head up the narrow passage to where the Mimic Queen is and save your game at the Crystal again. Now if you did what I said earlier you will now have around 8 Holy Motes and probably 10 water motes. Set your gambits as follows: Vaan: Ally: HP<70%: Potion Party Leader's Target: Water Mote Balthier: Ally: HP<70%: Potion Party Leader's Target: Water Mote Fran: Party Leader's Target: Blizzard Party Leader's Target: Holy Mote Again, manually use phoenix downs. However, you may not need to. As soon as the fight begins get Fran to use Blizzard on the Mimic Queen. This will set the other off using the Water motes. If you run out of Water Motes change the gambit to Holy Motes. They may be enough to defeat her. Keep your eye on your HP's and let the gambits do the work. As per usual, control Fran and Kite her while she spams Blizzard. 20+ motes should take her out. If it doesn't she will have very little HP left and will be easy game. After you defeat her you will end up in the..... Estersand ********* Congratulations! You have won a difficult battle. Short Cutscene and then time to run back to Rabanastre, not forgetting to empty every chest you see along the way. I remind you again...Ethers would be very handy. Rabanastre ********** Now you part company with Basch Fran & Balthier. Head to Miguelo's, talk with Kytes and the go see Old Dalan again. He'll send you off with a sword, you'll collect Basch and go see Balthier and Fran in the Sandsea, your party becomes 4. Now is the time for another Hunt. Check the board in the Sandsea and then set off to do the Flowering Cactoid Hunt (See Hunt 3). Always check boards and always accept any hunt on them, even if you don't plan to do them yet. Now it's time to check your shopping list. Because of a shortage of LP you will be limited as to what you can equip. Basch has virtually no LP available so he is easily sorted. Obviously Light Armour is better for now as it adds HP but in Basch's case you don't have that luxury. The best available to you for Basch is Heavy Armour 2 and Shields 2. For Fran & Balthier they can now acquire Light Armour 3 Licence and you should do that. Now that Basch has joined the party, Vaan officially becomes the weakest of the 4 and will now play a smaller role. Basch is much stronger so you replace Vaan with him for now. Now you need to get the following for them in Bhujerba but some is only available after your encounter with Ba'Gamnan in the Lhusu Mines where you run away. This is what's needed: Fran: Aevis Killer @ 1,500: Horned Hat @ 700: Ringmail @ 700 Balthier: Capella @ 1,400: Horned Hat @ 700: Ringmail @ 700 Basch: Sallet @ 1000: Scale Armour @ 1000: Buckler @ 1000. Total Cost is 8,700 gil. Plus a MINIMUM of 50 potions and 20 Phoenix Downs. The more the better. So work out how much cash you need and whatever you are short then you will have to go and steal from the Werewolves. For every 10,000 gil you need you will have to steal 26 Quality hides from the Werewolves in Giza. However, it's a lot easier with a party of 3 than just 2. Have the party leader send the other 2 in to steal and then run to the save crystal. You may want a bit of extra cash to buy more potions from Tetran in the Brig on board Leviathan. When you are happy with what you have then make your way to the Aerodrome in West Gate and speak to Balthier. It's time to head to..... Bhujerba ******** On arrival in Bhujerba you discover all Airships are grounded and the teleport from the gate crystal doesn't work. Ah well, looks like you'll be staying for a while. Outside the Aerodrome you meet "Lamont." Head off to, and flee through, the Lhusu Mines for your encounter with Ba'Gamnan. Make no mistake. You are WAY outclassed here so don't even think about trying. Flee all the way back, watch the cutscenes, do the notoriety business and prepare for the visit to the Marquis. Before you go to see the Marquis, now is the time to go shopping and get the items you need before you proceed. After shopping go to the Marquis's residence and, cutting a long story short, get yourself arrested and handed to Judge Ghis aboard..... Dreadnought Leviathan ********************* MAKE SURE YOUR BATTLE SPEED IS SET TO SLOWEST!!!! ************************************************* After scenes you find yourself in the Port Launch with Vossler as a guest. Before saving, venture outside and listen to Vosslers warning about the red beams of light. Then go back inside the Port Launch and save your game. The reason for this is that there is likely to be some resetting here and you don't want to keep having to listen to that speech time and time again. Now in the Southwest of the Port Section is a chest. It contains two different items and you want them BOTH. In fact you want 2 of one and one of the other. It contains a Reflectga Mote, a Handaxe or gil. You want 2 Reflectga Motes and 1 Handaxe. Basch already has the Licence for Axes & Hammers 1 and the Handaxe will make his attack stronger. So off you go and see is what's in the chest. If it's gil then just reset but if it's a Handaxe or Reflectga Mote then go back to the Port Launch and save. You must then reset to get rid of the Posse outside the door and to respawn the chest which appears 90% of the time. Keep doing this until you have at least 2 reflectga motes and one Handaxe. Equip Basch with the Handaxe. Now it's time to run the Gauntlet and this isn't easy. Save your game and reset just in case there are Imperials outside the door. You are now heading to the Large Freight Stores where there are 3 chests. One may contain another reflectga mote. Nice if it does...can't have too many of them. Now before you start this run, having saved your game etc, there is one thing you need to do first.... KILL VOSSLER !!! He is a pest. He has the gambit "Nearest Visible Foe" and will attack anything. If he kills an Imperial then you level up and it's restart from save point. Turn all gambits off and kill him. Now use Vaan to lead this party and swap him for Basch. Keep Vaan's gambits off and have Basch, Fran & Balthier's set at Ally HP<50% Potion and Party Leaders Target: Attack. No one is attacking just yet but getting ready. Now head to the Large Freight Stores. You will cross a zone line so any Imperials following will disappear giving you time to heal. Now it starts to get tough. You have to get through the stores to the door at the end and out into the passage. Try chests if you want but there are a LOT of Imperials in there and you really need to get out. This is why I made you get the Reflectga mote from the other chest. Don't be surprised if you get a game over whilst doing this run. It is tough in those stores. On one run I got out with Fran, Balthier and Basch KO'd and Vaan with 12 HP left. However, once you open the door at the end and get in the passage you have plenty of time to heal. Now you are in the Airship Berth Access fully healed. Keep Vaan's gambits off. The reason for this is that when you want him to open a door you want him to do it immediately, not after he's thrown a potion. Now it's time to run another Gauntlet. Set off to the right and flee in an anti clockwise direction. Imperials will appear but you just have to run past them. If Vaan's HP gets very low then release the flee button very briefly, long enough for one of the others to throw a potion over him, then carry on fleeing till you get to the opposite side where, on your left, is the turning and entrance to the Central Brig Access. Get that door open as fast as you can. 2 Judges and 4 Imperials await you. There is a short cutscene about taking out the leaders and the rest will fall and then it's battle time. The INSTANT the battle starts open your menu. Swap Vaan for Basch making sure all gambits are on. Now come out of the menu and into battle. You will find a Judge and 2 Imperials in front of you and the same behind you. Get Balthier to throw a WARP MOTE at the ones in front and Basch throw the other WARP MOTE at the ones behind you and Fran to attack Judge A. The Judges are immune but the Imperials aren't. With luck you will get rid of all 4 Imperials which will make the battle 1000 times easier. If it misses one and it's the Magus then use the reflectga mote because the Magus will cast blind and poison. The mote will reflect it along with any other spells. Now just go to work on the Judges. If anyone is KO'd switch them for Vaan and let him revive them from the field then switch back again at the earliest possible moment. Vaan is too weak for battle here but is fine for reviving. If you do get rid of all 4 Imperials with the Warp Motes then you should REVIVE VOSSLER !! If things go pear-shaped then you'll just have to accept your game over and try again. I got quite a few when trying to find the best strategy. However, if all goes well you can enter the Brig No.1, save, free Ashe and buy from Tetran. Brig No.1 ********* Make sure Ashe is equipped properly with the best you've got. She will arrive with 90 odd LP and this is what you MUST do with it. Straight up through Accessories 4 to the Quickening above it. Leaves her with about 7 LP. It is imperative you do this. Buy whatever you need from Tetran (Potions & Phoenix Downs at the Top of the List and then get ready for the run back which is a lot easier. Come out of the Brig No.1 and through the Central Brig Access door and turn left. Run all the way round, turn into Freight stores and then off towards the Port Launch. You can turn the Alarm off if you like but I never found either the time or the need to. Run out of the stores via the Northwest exit and turn left and you'll run into Penelo and Larsa. After cutscene Vossler leaves and Penelo joins along with around 215 LP. Wonderful. Sorry......ALL is spoken for. I'll tell you what to do with it but for now you are just going to use a little of it. This is what you must do now with some of Penelo's LP. Activate the following: Accessories 2, Accessories 5, Accessories 9, Quickening. Now head into the Port Launch with both Ashe and Penelo in your party. Oh yeah.....I hope you have some ethers. You are unlikely to need them but if you do and you don't have any then a Game Over is odds on. Now enter the Port Launch and prepare to meet........ Judge Ghis ********** This is possibly the easiest battle of all. As soon as it starts use Ashe and Penelo for Quickenings. GET A CONCURRENCE. Each has one bar and you need one Mist Charge making 3. That is enough for Inferno and will highly likely defeat the Judge straight off. But if you mess up or it doesn't KO Ghis then instantly use ethers on Penelo and Ashe and try again. However, you are most likely to beat him straight off. Congratulations! You have made it through Leviathan which, as you can now testify, is very difficult to do. Pat yourself on the back. You now leave the Leviathan and find yourself in Bhujerba. Go and see the Marquis and view scenes ending up with you "Kidnapping" Ashe. You leave aboard the Strahl and end up by the Gate Crystal in the Westersand. Save your game and then prepare to go to King Raithwall's Tomb. Between here and Raithwall's Tomb pick up odd bits like Eyedrops etc, especially several Handkerchiefs as you WILL need them. To get to Raithwall's Tomb you now need to cross the desert, the first part being..... The Ogir Yensa Sandsea ********************** This is a case of running through the Sandsea stopping for just a few chests along the way. Starting in Platform 1 - East Tanks all you have to do is flee to the next area where there will be a cutscene and Vossler will join as a guest. On the opposite side of the open area in Platform 1 - Refinery go up the ramp and find the urn with the map. Then come back down and head for the ramp in the NE of the section. Go up that and head west to the circular bit and on the opposite side of that is the exit to the next area, The Central Junction. Before you go into that area turn to your left and head to the next ring where there is a chest. Open it and hope you find an ether. Then go back the way you came and turn left into the Central Junction. After you cross the zone line turn left and head down what is a dead end. There are 3 chests there and 2 contain ethers. I know this Ether business is probably driving you potty but you will be glad you have done it and got some ethers. 5 or 6 won't be enough, you need 10 or more. Now, no more chests (well, there are, but they are out of the way) so just flee through the Central Junction into Platform 2 - Refinery and head directly west and into the..... Nam Yensa Sandsea ***************** Save your game at the crystal. Now you will see a Moogle talking to a Urutan. Approach and the Urutan runs off. Talk to the Moogle and then off you go to tackle the Urutan Eater. Run straight through the first zone keeping to the left where you'll see some chests. Open them if you like or leave them. It doesn't matter. But as you get near the bridge you may see a chest to the left of it. If it's there then open it and you may get another ether. Cross the bridge and enter Withering Shores where you will see 2 Urutans run off. Follow them to find a bunch of Urutans fighting the Urutan Eater (actually an Emeralditan). Ignore the battle for now and keep well back. Don't get involved now as you need all the Urutans dead so there is just the Urutan Eater left. These are the gambits to set up now: Balthier & Basch: Ally: HP<50%: Potion and Foe: Nearest visible: Attack Fran: Ally: Any: Phoenix Down and Foe: Nearest visible: Attack If Fran gets KO'd then manually revive her. When all the Urutans are gone swap in Ashe & Penelo for Balthier & Basch. Set off a chain of quickenings and get a concurrence. This will probably get rid of 40% of its HP. Instantly swap in Basch & Balthier for Ashe & Penelo and get to work on Urutan Eater. Whichever of your party is targetted, make them the Party leader and keep kiting around. Urutan Eater will follow you not attempting to attack the others while they bash it about. If it changes target then you change leader accordingly and keep kiting. You'll keep chipping away at its HP and eventually you'll wear it down and defeat it. After it's over head back to the Sandsea Moogle, talk to him and then head into Ogir Yensa and up the ramp. A cutscene with the Moogle and Urutan occurs. Now head back to Nam yensa for a cutscene & Justice. Speak to the Moogle afterwards and then get the Eksir berries. Save your game and soft reset which could make the chest next to the bridge respawn and another ether could be yours. Now flee through The Urutan-Yensa Sea (checking chest by bridge), through Withering Shores to Augur Hill. I am going to do another of my crude diagrams here so refer to your screen map for more accurate picture. Augur Hill ********** ========== ============================ Withering ==== 1 = = = = = <------ = = = = = Shores ==== = = = = ==== Ogir = = = ----> = = = ==== Yensa ============ ============= = = = = ======= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 2 = 3 = 4 = = = ======= ========================================= = = = = ==== 5 = = ======================= Numbers are chests. 1. Possible Reflectga mote (you MUST have at least 1, preferably 2, before entering Raithwall's Tomb) 2. Possible ETHER 3. Possible Chopper 4. Possible ETHER/IRON HELM 5. Ignore. Check the chests 1, 2, 3, and 4. Then go into Ogir Yensa to Gate Crystal and save your game. 2 reasons for this: 1. It activates the Gate Crystal for further use 2. Soft reset to respawn chests in Augur Hill !!! More Ethers? :o) Now flee all the way to Raithwalls Tomb and do your best to avoid too much contact with the Bagolies as they will hurt you. As you get to the tomb area you are offered the chance to save. Take it !! Now get ready to face..... Garuda ****** Here are your gambits: Fran & Balthier: Ally: HP<50%: Potion and Foe: Nearest Visible: Attack Ashe & Penelo: Ally: Any: Phoenix Down and Ally: HP<50%: Potion Actually, Penelo's gambits are irrelevant because she wont be staying long enough to use them. Starting team is Fran, Ashe & Penelo. Go forward and meet Garuda and start quickening chain with Ashe & Penelo. You MUST get a Concurrence (3 quickenings needed i.e. 1 mist charge required). If you miss then reset and do it again. As concurrence finishes instant menu and swap Penelo for Balthier. Get Ashe to use the Eksir Berries on Garuda (Item). Now let Fran, Balthier and Vossler with his telekinesis fight Garuda whilst you control Ashe and run around building up her MP and having her heal where necessary. As Garuda's HP falls it may fly off. I'm not sure but this may be to heal. Anyway, the moment that happens use an ether on Penelo (it doesn't matter she's not in the party) and, if Ashe's MP isn't full, use one on her too. Swap Penelo in for either of the other two and do another quickening chain and this will finish Garuda off. After cutscenes Dyce will appear at the foot of the steps. He has things you need but haven't got the money for so now it's time for something not too good. But before that you need to do something with Penelo's LP. This is what you must do. Activate Black Magick 1, Green Magick 1, Time Magick 1, Time Magick 2 and Time Magick 3. This gives you the WARP Licence and Mr. Dyce sells Warp Magick. Buy it!! No money? Oh dear, time to go to Giza and steal from the...... Werewolves ********** Honestly, I promise, this is the last time you'll have to look at a Werewolf. But things aren't as bad as they seem. Stealing from the Werewolves isn't the best of fun but when you have Vossler with you it makes it a lot easier. This is what you do. Approach the Werewolf slowly and eventually Vossler will target it. Now move your leader to the back out of the way and send your other 2 in to steal from the Werewolf. The werewolf will focus on Vossler leaving your 2 thieves to steal from it unmolested. As soon as they have stolen send them into the other werewolf to steal. Both werewolves will probably concentrate on Vossler till they kill him. By that time your 2 thieves should have stolen from both of them and you can then run to the save crystal. Don't worry about Vossler killing a werewolf because it won't happen. They have very high HP compared to what damage Vossler does. He would need a 10 hit combo twice just to knock one down. So how much do you need to steal? I would say around 130 Quality Hides. This will give you enough cash to buy everything you need from Dyce plus 99 Hi-Potions and the rest on Phoenix Downs. It took me around an hour and a half to do all that. When you have done that then it's time to go Back to..... The Tomb of Raithwall ********************* When you get to Raithwall this is how you need your party to be equipped: Balthier: Vega, Soldiers Cap and Heavy Coat. Fran: Handaxe, Leather Shield, Soldiers Cap and Heavy Coat Basch: Iron Hammer, Round Shield, Soldiers Cap and Heavy Coat. Obtain whatever Licences you need for anyone of the above that needs them. All 3 should have the gambits Ally HP<50% Hi-Potion and Foe: Nearest visible: Attack. Should any of these 3 suffer Telega from the 2nd Demon wall then you'll have to bring Vaan in. Get him the licences Light Armour 2, Shield 1,and Light Armours 3 & 4 and equip him accordingly if you lose a character to Telega. The rest of the money should go on Phoenix Downs and Hi-Potions. I actually had enough money to buy 99 of each. Well, not quite true. I had to buy 99 Hi-Potions but I already had quite a few Phoenix Downs. The total cost of the equipment is 15,700 gil. 99 Hi Potions costs 20,790 gil. That's a total of 36,490 gil. If you stole 130 Quality Hides from the Werewolves then they would fetch 49,920 gil leaving you 13,430 gil to spend on Phoenix Downs which would buy 53 which is fine as you probably have quite a few anyway. Now save your game at the Gate Crystal and then use the Waystone to enter the Tomb with Fran, Ashe, Penelo and Vossler in your team. Inside the tomb is another waystone but you can't use it yet until you activate the one at the other end. Walk down past the First Demon Wall. You can't beat it so just flee to the end of the corridor into the next room for the.... 2nd Demon wall ************** Make sure Fran is the Party Leader because as you approach the Demon Wall you don't want it to target Ashe or Penelo. Start a quickening chain with Ashe and Penelo. If you don't get a concurrence then reset and try again. The moment the concurrence is over, INSTANTLY go to menu and swap both Ashe & Penelo for Balthier & Basch. Now use a Reflectga Mote and a Hastega Mote. Then use an ether on both Ashe and Penelo whilst they are out of the team. They need to be ready. It would be handy if you had a 2nd Reflectga mote because when the first one runs out the Demon Wall will start casting sleep. Anyway, just keep bashing away at the wall using the flames to slow it down etc. You will wear its HP down quite quickly. As it gets low your reflect will run out and the Wall will probably cast sleep. If the Wall's HP is 25% or less then swap any 2 of the 3 characters out for Ashe and Penelo and chain quickenings once again. A concurrence will finish off the Wall. Can you see the point of all the ethers I kept making you look for? When you have beaten it, continue down the corridor to the door and go through and down the steps to where the 3 waystones are. There is an urn with a map at the back. Use the middle waystone to get back to the beginning of the Tomb and then the other waystone to go outside and save your game. Believe it or not, you are now making a slight detour so teleport to...... Rabanastre ********** No, I'm not mad. This journey is SOOOOO important. Moogle your way to the Sandsea and accept any hunt on the notice board. Now go to Clan Hall and speak to Montblanc where you will get rewards for some of the things you have done. But most important of all, for defeating the 2nd Demon Wall you will get 600 gil and a WARP MOTE !!! This mote is precious. Also accept any hunt he has for you. Now make your way to either the Sandsea or the Muthru Bazaar, Moogle your way to Southgate and teleport back to the..... Tomb of Raithwall ***************** Save your game and then use the waystone to go in. Then use waystone inside to get back to where the 3 waystones are. Now you have to go through the Northfall Passage and the Southfall Passage and flick the switch in each one. As you flick the switch lots of foes appear. Just hit the waystone and get out of there. Once you have done both you are ready to go to meet...... Belias, The Gigas ***************** Before you go to meet Belias I recommend you use the waystones and go outside and save your game. Then come back to the three waystones. Now use one of the two coloured waystones and teleport. Go through the space you opened up and follow the path to Belias. Don't forget that there are 4 chests round there and you can get to 2 now. One of them has an elixir. Don't forget it. The other two chest can be accessed during or after the battle with Belias and You have a 50/50 chance of getting another elixir. I got a White Fang :o( Gambits remain the same as does the starting Party, Fran, Ashe & Penelo with Fran as leader. But before you go in equip Basch with the Manufacted Nethecite which will halve any fire damage from Belias. This will enable Basch to survive Belias's big attack which may or may not KO the other 2. Start a quickening chain and get a concurrence. Immediately switch Ashe & Penelo for Basch & Balthier, use an ether on Ashe and Penelo and go to work on Belias. When he lines up the biggie makes sure you get rid of the oil. I presume you got Handkerchiefs etc along the way like I told you to? Manually revive any KO's but if 2 get KO'd at once bring Vaan in to help revive and then switch him out again. Don't use Ashe or Penelo unless all 3 are KO'd. Just chip away at Belias's HP and when it gets low swap in Ashe and Penelo, quickenings and concurrence and Belias falls. Assign Belias to Basch on the Licence Board. The reason for using Basch is that he has the least MP so it takes less time to charge his Mist Bar up. Believe me, Belias will be working very hard quite soon and it won't be against King Bomb. Now it's time to get the Dawn Shard but before you do, if you have money left and want to top up Hi-Potions etc then use the waystone to go outside and get Hi-Potions from Dyce. The moment you pick up the Dawn Shard he is no longer there. So stock up and then make your way back and get the Dawn Shard. When you have it, go back outside, make your party Basch, Ashe and Penelo, make attack gambits PARTY LEADER'S TARGET instead of Nearest Visible, save your game and watch the cutscenes. Before you know it you are aboard..... The Light Cruiser Shiva *********************** Fran will throw a wobbly as the Dawn Shard gets to work and will literally go Berserk and for this reason you don't want her in the party as you need to be selective. Now it's time to fight Vossler and 3 Imperials. The moment the battle begins you use the WARP MOTE and hopefully wave bye-bye to the 3 Imperials. If it misses one, no problems. If it misses 2 then reset. I tried this twice and it got rid of all 3 each time. If it leaves an imperial behind then start a chain of quickenings and the concurrence will kill the 3rd Imperial. This is ok provided you have Basch, Ashe and Penelo in the Party. The Imperial gives 338 EXP divided between 3 which is approximately 113 each. Basch, Ashe & Penelo's next level up is 217 so you are fine to kill the Imperial. The moment all Imperials are gone swap Balthier and the Berserked Fran back in for Ashe and Penelo. You wont need another quickening chain. Alone Vossler can be beaten easily. He may KO someone but just revive manually. After you defeat Vossler you leave Shiva and watch lots of scenes before you are to leave for Jahara. But before you go to Jahara you have a few things to do. The first thing is to go to Bhujerba and do the Nidhogg Hunt (See Hunt No.4). After the Nidhogg Hunt you need to finish the Dalmascan Patient Sidequest. You need to have brought Dante's wife the Cactus Flower, 5 Semclam shells, 2 Phials of Nebralim, 3 lots of Valeblossom Dew (do NOT attempt to tease the Worgens) and the Great Serpentskin from the Nidhogg Hunt. For this you will get the Barheim Key and a Golden Amulet which you can put on Ashe. As money is now tight, buying Golden Amulets is out of the question (unless you wanna visit the Werewolves again?) but don't worry about it because even if you could buy them you can't equip them yet due to lack of LP so you may as well just take this one for free. The next most important thing on the list is Thiefs Cuffs. More on that shortly. Dalmascan Patient sidequest over? Now head to...... Nalbina Town ************ Just by the Gate Crystal you will find July the Streetear. Talk to her and then go and hire a chocobo (800 gil?? Sheeeesh!) Ride the chocobo towards the guards and watch them run. The way to the Mosphoran Highwaste is now open. Head to the Babbling Vale by chocobo and save at the Gate crystal. Go see Luccio the Merchant and buy at least 1 set of Thiefs Cuffs, preferably 2. If you are really short of cash then I suggest that after you do the Nidhogg hunt you can do the Sidequest in Bhujerba with the Bottles of Bhujerban Madhu. There is 14,000 gil to be made there. Me? I hate that sidequest and would rather steal 30 odd Quality hides from the Werewolves. Meh, take your pick. Oh dear, it's raining in Giza....no werewolves. Whatever you do, when you've done it, head back to........ Rabanastre ********** Before you go trotting off to Jahara I suggest doing 3 Hunts but before you do get Balthier and Fran the licence for another gambit. The first is the Wraith Hunt (see Hunt 5), then the Croakadile Hunt (See Hunt 6) and finally the do the Rocktoise in Bhujerba (See Hunt 7). When you go to Bhujerba you might want to use the Skyferry as this will give you an opportunity to start the Sisters Sidequest. On the Skyferry to Bhujerba you can buy Hi-Potions and Phoenix Downs if you want to. Also available are Teleport Stones and it might be an idea to get some if you are short plus a handful of Ghysal Greens as you will definitely need some. After you have done these 3 hunts head back to Rabanastre. Whilst in Rabanastre you have a choice, depending on what money you have. If you can afford it I would advise you to buy 2 Main Gauche Daggers. It's not vital, you can even do without them, but if possible get them. If you don't want to pay for them then you can farm them in Giza. As you come out of the west exit of the village by the blue crystal you will come to a bridge. don't cross it but go left and round the corner is a chest which can contain a Main Gauche. If you want to do a bit of save and reset you can get 2 there. The choice is yours but for now you need to head to the Southgate when you are ready. Head out of town and onto Giza in the rains. The foes here are a lot stronger than they are in the dry. If you want to you can go around and chop down the 6 withered trees which open the way to The Tracks of the Beast, the area where Gil Snapper will be found. This has to be done eventually so why not now? Empty chests as there are better things to be found during the Rains than in the dry. Lots of Ethers, Motes, Gambits, Weapons, Armour, Accessories and Knots of Rust are in these chests and higher amounts of gil up to 300. Much better than the dry. When you are done head to the south of Starfall Field to the exit which leads to..... The Ozmone Plain **************** Not a lot to be done here (except empty chest) so head south through the Field of Fallen Wings into The Switchback; head southeast to Haulo Green and then take the West exit to....... Jahara, Land of the Garif ************************* Save at the Gate crystal and then head to the bridge for a scene and you will be allowed to enter. Have a roam around if you like but make sure you talk to High Chief Zayalu who will give you a Java Stick. Next to him, seated on the ground is Geomancer Yugelu. This is the chappie you have to talk to when you get the 10 Espers and he will open the gate to the Henne Mines. Now go and speak to Supinelu who will arrange a meeting with the Top Boss Garif for you. Before you go to see the Great Chief, go find Low-Chief Sugumu on the Elderknoll and accept the Enkelados Hunt. Now go see the Chief and do some scenes and eventually get Larsa in the party. When you leave the village you are offered a free chocobo ride. Accept it but before you do, save at the gate crystal. Now ride the chocobo through Haulo Green to the Switchback and onto The Greensnake. Turn right and loop your way down to the North Section of the Shred. You are now going to do the Enkelados Hunt (See Hunt 8). Having beaten Enkelados you need to go back to Jahara but when you cross the zone line into The Greensnake there will be a million and one Wus waiting for you. It's a gauntlet to run but just loop back up the top and exit on the left into the Switchback, probably using a few phoenix downs and hi-potions on the way. As you head to the exit to Haulo green on your left you may find a chest with an Ether. Head through Haulo Green to Jahara and save. Now teleport to..... The Mosphoran Highwaste *********************** Ashe should now be licensed for thiefs cuffs and the battle with Enkelados will have given you enough LP for her to learn Steal. You now need money but this is the last time you'll do anything like this and it is a vast improvement on the Werewolves and chest farming. You need to head for the Gate Crystal in Salikawood as you are now going to pay the King Bomb a visit. There are 2 ways to get there. The first is to flee all the way through the Mosphoran Highwaste and Salikawood to the crystal. This I do not advise. Here is what you should do. First make sure you have 1 set of thiefs cuffs. Now leave the Babbling Vale via the Northwest exit. Follow the LOW path along the Trail of Sky-flung Stone. At the end of the path on the right is a weathered rock. Hit it and you will have access to the Rays of Ashen Light where there is a chocobo. Feed it Ghysal greens (from the Sky Ferry?) and then you have time to ride all the way to the gate crystal in....... Salikawood ********** You should have enough LP for both Vaan and Penelo to obtain the Daggers 3 licence each. Your team here will be Vaan, Ashe and Penelo. Give Vaan and Penelo the Main Gauche Dagger as it raises Evade +34. Give Vaan the Leather Shield and Penelo the Escutcheon. If you've opened enough chests etc then you must have them. If not, don't worry, just equip them with what ever. Give Ashe whatever you can but make sure you have the thiefs cuffs on her. Turn gambits for Vaan and Penelo OFF and for Ashe have Foe: Nearest Visible: Steal. You are now going stealing from King Bomb. I am going to do you a little diagram which is how things will be when you enter the zone with Penelo as leader. I have left Larsa off the map because he is neither a help nor a hindrance. Just ignore him. Little Bombs x x x KING BOMB X X Penelo X X Ashe Vaan CC CC - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - << Zone Line As King Bomb moves towards you then move Penelo to the corner next to the zone line (marked by the 4 C's) but cut across Ashe as you do it. This will hinder Ashe's progress as she targets King Bomb for a steal but that makes Vaan the front man and HE will be targetted by King Bomb leaving Ashe free to steal. If King Bomb ever targets Penelo just switch leader to Vaan. As soon as Ashe steals get Penelo to cross the line. Vaan may get KO'd but as you cross the line you are right next to the save crystal. However, the Main Gauche may protect Vaan and when you cross the zone line no one will have taken any damage so you can just go straight back in to steal, saving time. If not, just revive and go back. You don't have to go two zones. For some reason King Bomb replenishes his goodies and you can steal again straight away. This is what you can steal: Very Common: Bomb Shell sells for 896 gil Common: Fire Crystal sells for 160 gil Rare: Bomb Fragment sells for 1911 gil I want you to steal 99 Bomb Shells plus whatever Fire Crystals and Bomb Fragments come your way. Count those as extra. When you have done that make your way (or teleport) back (with around 100k) to.... Jahara ****** Have Fran, Balthier and Basch learn Light Armours 5. Now go to the Garif Trader and "Take your time, for the World has much of it for the taking" and buy 3 Red Caps and 3 Brigandines and equip them on your main 3. If you haven't found a Sirius in a chest yet then buy one now for Balthier and stock up on Hi-Potions and Phoenix Downs. Buy some Gold Needles too as you may well need some soon. You will find that Gil-Toss is also available now and you are going to need this later. If you have the money buy it but don't worry if you haven't as it can be bought later on. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ONE POTION. If not, buy one from the Garif bloke. Now head out of the village and save at the gate crystal. Hire a chocobo (only 30 gil here!) and head to where the 2nd lot of chocobos are in Haulo Green. Behind them is a chocobo path and it's a good short cut through Ozmone Plain. Head past the save crystal and into the Golmore Jungle, take the route to your left and make your way to where the Barrier is. Nice and safe aboard the chocobo, eh? :o) Time to do some storyline stuff with Fran and then in Eruyt Village. Leave Eruyt Village and flee through Golmore Jungle back to Ozmone Plain. As you enter the save crystal area (save your game) you will see 2 Imperials. Give them a potion and then use their chocobo to ride the chocobo only path to the south section of the Shred and the entrance of the..... Henne Mines *********** Now comes the run. Go into the Henne Mines/North Entrance and operate the Gate Switch. Now flee to Pithead Junction A and turn right into Phase 1 Shaft. Run through here as fast as you can, as you'll get mobbed by bats, and into the Phase 1 Dig and let the gambits heal you after you cross the zone line. More fleeing through here to Crossover A, through there to Crossover B and through there to Pithead Junction B healing and reviving at all the zone lines. I actually got mobbed so bad when I took a wrong turn in Phase 1 Dig I got a game over on my first run so don't be surprised if it happens to you. Now in this Pithead Junction B you have use the Gate Switch. As soon as you do then get out fast or you'll be mobbed by Jellies. Flee again through Crossover A and into Crossover B. Go anti clockwise round Crossover B and exit into the Staging Shaft where you'll get scenes with Mjrn. After the scenes you will be next to the Gate Crystal. It's now time to set up and get ready for your final Boss battle before you can get the FIREFLY !! Here comes..... TIAMAT ****** These are the gambits: Fran & Balthier: Ally: any: phoenix down, ally: HP<50%: Hi potion, Foe: nearest visible: attack Basch: Foe: nearest visible: attack They don't often change but this time we are going to have Basch attacking only but his will change during the battle. Put the Manufacted Nethicite on Balthier. His HP is high and someone needs to be able to survive Tiamat's Breath attacks as they have the capability to KO team members. Balthier will survive it and be able to revive the others. As usual your opening team is Fran, Ashe and Penelo. Larsa will be there to help with his hi potions but because of his low HP he's gonna bite the dust a lot. Most of the Phoenix downs you use will be on him but he will save you hi potions and you're going to use a lot more hi potions than phoenix downs. Everything set? Save your game and walk forward into the Ore Separation area where you battle with Tiamat begins. Same start as normal, a quickening chain with Ashe and Penelo and it would be nice to do somewhere between 4k and 6k damage. If you miss your concurrence then reset and do it again. Now switch in Basch and Balthier and go to work on Tiamat. Balthier's gun will probably do more consistant damage than Basch and his Iron Hammer but the gun is slower plus some of Basch's critical hits will do good damage. Just keep chipping away at Tiamat's HP and let the gambits (and Larsa) do the healing. As you get Tiamat's HP down towards critical his attacks step up and start to do more damage. Time for a change of tactics. Open the menu and activate Basch's gambit Ally: HP<50%: Hi Potion. Back to the game and SUMMON BELIAS !! Now try and keep Belias between Basch and Tiamat and let Tiamat focus on Belias and not on Basch. Just let Basch heal and occasionally get in a hit or two. All the time keep Basch healing Belias and running around to build his MP back up. After Belias uses Hellfire you are back to the full party again. Guess what? All that running around has given Basch a full Mist Bar again so summon Belias once more and do the same again. Keep summoning Belias for the rest of the battle until his HP is low enough to use a quickening. Use an ether on Ashe and Penelo whilst they are out of the game and then swap them in for the quickening chain and concurrence. If it fails to kill off Tiamat then its HP will be so low that one more summoning of Belias will finish him off. BTW...you don't have to wait until Tiamat's HP is low to use Belias. Feel free to use him at any time during the battle but he will need quite a few Hi potions and Larsa isn't there with you so you have to use your own stock. The very first time I fought Tiamat it took me an hour to beat him. This time took me 27 minutes. I used 57 Hi Potions (plus whatever Larsa used) and 17 Phoenix Downs. It's battles like these that make me glad of the early grinding I did to get money so I can keep a stash of 99 hi potions and phoenix downs all the time. After Tiamat you will do some cutscenes with Mjrn, Fran & Jote and receive Lente's Tear. Buy Haste from Tetran by the Gate crystal as you leave Eruyt Village and then head back to....... Jahara ****** I can hear you asking "Why go back to Jahara?" Well, there is method in my madness. Teleport to Jahara and go to the Garif trader and restock. Also, buy the INFUSE Technick. Now go back to the Gate Crystal and save. Your next destination is Mt Bur Omisace via the Paramina Rift. If you go the normal way then you will have to face Elder Wyrm who is a tougher version of Tiamat with more HP, 2 assistants and lots of Nasty status effects to shove on you. You are going to take a detour through the Golmore Jungle and The Feywood to get to the Paramina rift. Now getting gang-banged by Hellhounds in Golmore and by Deadly Nightshades in The Feywood is not fun nor is it any good for your HP. So I have a little trick. Hire a chcocobo from Jahara. Take the short cut to where the blue crystal is on the other side of Ozmone Plain and into the Golmore Jungle and turn right. Head south through The Paths of Chained Light to the Southwest corner of the Needlebrake. Keeping to the right head through the Needlebrake till you come to a turning to the right which will take you into the Rustling Chapel. Head south to the Feywood. As you enter the Feywood hug the left wall and very quickly, just past the Golem, you come to the exit to the Paramina Rift. If you use the sprint on the chocobo 3 times on the long bits of pathway here and there you will have enough time to get from Jahara to the Paramina Rift without having to get off the chocobo and flee through all the nasties. For those struggling to follow the route I have a video on YouTube showing you how to get there using the Chocobo and you can find it at the following link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=OyXGAnmVzt4 I tell you....that is the best 30 gil you will spend in this game to ride that chocobo. Now dismount and enter.... Mt Bur-Omisace ************** Save at the Gate Crystal and go to the merchant and buy 3 Headbands and 3 Jujitsu Gi's and have Fran, Balthier and Basch obtain Light Armours 6. Unfortunately you might be 10 LP short for Basch. If so, don't worry, just leave him with the Red Cap and Brigadine. It won't be a problem. Head up to the Temple and do all the Storyline Scenes stuff with the Gran Kiltias etc and then head back to the Gate Crystal. Hire a chocobo and head south through the Paramina Rift to...... The Stilshrine of Miriam ************************ A few things to do first and then it's Firefly time. Save at Gate Crystal and enter the Stilshrine. Equip Fran with the Dawn Shard and activate the Pedestal of the Dawn and you'll be whisked off to the Ward of Velitation. Behind you to the left is a chest and you'll get an Elixir or a Megalixir. If you really want the Megalixir (I did) and you miss it (I did) then reset and do it again. I got mine on the 3rd attempt. Btw, the trap by the chest is a rejuvenation or manafont trap so set it off to heal any damage done by the damned bats along the way. Now run through the Ward of Velitation, dodging the Dragon Aevises and the 2 Miriam Facers into the Walk of Torn Illusion. Head all the way round it to the 2nd Pedestal of the Dawn and activate it. New hidden paths in the Ward of Velitation now open up. Now go back to the Ward of Velitation (Dodging all the Miriam Guardians you have woken up on your run). Now take note. Because you haven't gone 2 zones the Dragon Aevis trio and the 2 Facers will be waiting for you as you re-enter so immediately turn left or right (doesn't matter which) and run like hell up the new pathway and into the Walk of Revelation. Go round the corner but ignore the save crystal because it isn't one. It's a Crystalbug. Go down the steps into the Ward of the Sword King, run straight ahead past the Blood Gigases and turn left. Run down there past all the baddies and touch the Sword of Judgement. A door will open at the opposite end revealing a waystone. Run to it and use it and you will be back the first entrance hall, the Ward of Measure. Make your way outside and save at the gate crystal and get ready to run the gauntlet to obtain your first.... Firefly ******* This is a percentage run and you may need to do it a few times before you get your Firefly. The first time I played 122333 it took 11 attempts for me to get the Firefly and was promptly killed on the way out about 10 seconds from safety. I was FURIOUS. It then took another 9 attempts for it to reappear and I got out a different way which I will explain. But this time round, whilst playing the game for this guide, I got it first time. Funny game, eh? So are you ready? Here goes. Enter the Stilshrine and turn right. Go down the steps and open the door. Run forward and take the turn to the right into the Walk of Prescience. Turn to the right and then head up the long corridor and round the corner, past the 2 Balloons, 2 Facers and 2 undead that come out of the ground near the statue and head down the stairs into the Walk of Reason. You will have taken damage along the way so heal at the zone line. From now on lots of undead will be popping out of the ground as you flee along. Continue forward and round the corner and open the door. In front of you is a room with a door. If you haven't got Libra activated then there is a trap dead centre of the room. Head to the door and open it, go through and turn left. Follow the path and loop round and run up the stairs. Take the turn to the left and then turn right and head up more stairs. By the time you get to the top all the undead will have stopped chasing you so heal up now. You are now going to head to the left and it's a dead end and at the end of it are possibly 3 chests. The firefly, if it's there, is in the MIDDLE chest. Unfortunately, between you and the chest are 2 Facers and 2 Balloons and they can cause MAJOR problems. But I have a solution. Switch in Penelo. Creep up the the Facers and Balloons and use Warp. You can use it twice and it would be cool to get rid of at least 2 of the four. If you miss you can always run back down the path until the balloons stop chasing you. Then have Penelo run around and build up MP and try again. Once you have got rid of 2 then head for the chest. If the chest isn't there or it hasn't got the firefly in it then reset and do the run again. Keep doing this until the Firefly is there. When you get the Firefly I don't want you to make the same mistake I did. I went back the way I came and I think this is an error because all the undead that came out of the ground are still around. This gives you less time to get past them as they are already out of the ground waiting for you and you will take more damage. By the time you get to the next zone you could have HP problems. 2 zombies will be waiting for you along with 2 Facers and 2 Balloons. This is how I got a game over. I was overwhelmed before I could heal properly. Once your main party is gone the other 3 are too weak to cope. So you are going to go back another, safer way. Head away from where you got the Firefly but don't turn to go down the stairs. Carry straight on to the end of the passage and you will see a Facer in the Top right corner. Pass it close by the left corner and it will ignore you. In front of you is a Statue and a few Balloons. DON'T turn to the left. Run past the statue and the Balloons and then go round the corner and up the long passage. As you get the chance briefly let go of the flee button and let the gambits heal any damage. Run all the way to the top of the passage, past another couple of Balloons and go round the corner. On your right is an exit to the other side of Cold Distance. Follow this route, pass a Miriam Guardian but do NOT turn right as you don't want to be facing Vinuskar just yet. Just head straight on to the door and open it. You are now in the Main Entrance Hall, The Ward of Measure. Up the stairs, out the door and save at the gate crystal. You now have a Firefly and a passage home. Btw, although the route out is easier than the route in you can't go that way on the route in because the door only opens from the other side. Anyway, it is now time to get thousands of LP each and make lots of money so head back to....... Rabanastre ********** Ok, before you get started this is what you need. Make sure you have 6 Golden Amulets. Even though someone now has to equip a Firefly you may find boss battles, hunts etc which don't need accessories and double LP for all is always handy. If you don't have them you can get them from Luccio in Mosphoran Highwaste. If you don't have enough money go see King Bomb. You will also need 99 Phoenix Downs. It's time to chain..... Dustia ****** Chaining Dustia is not difficult and I will explain the easiest way IMO to do it but before I do, this is what you are trying to achieve by doing this. You will need for each player: 1. The most important of all and the first to obtain is Accessories 8 which is the Golden Amulet. Dustia gives 3 LP a kill and that's 6 with a Golden Amulet so the sooner they are equipped on everyone the faster the LP goes up and the less you have to chain Dustia. 2. Then Accessories 12 for the Firelfy 3. Go down the Technicks and for now get Infuse and Gil-Toss 4. All the Augment section including gambits 5. Every gun Licence and Light Armour Licence. 6. You now need to make your way to Accessories 20 which is the Nihopalaoa and it will be acquired very soon. Next to the gun, this Accessory is going to be your best friend. 7. Make sure everyone has the Licence for Warp (Time Magick 3) 8. Quickenings. Make sure at least 3 character have their full quickenings. You will need them soon. Now this is a lot of LP you need and Dustia is going to have to be chained a fair bit but for every 99 chain that is almost 600 LP for 5 characters with the Golden Amulet and nearly 300 for the one with the firefly. Each character can take a turn with the firefly and chaining. You'll have to do 99 with each player at least once. I can average 2 per minute which makes allowances for having to reduce your HP when you get an HP bonus with a drop. Dustia only appears when you have less that 10% of your maximum HP. The bonus to all this is that you'll make around 50k for every 99 chain. I recommend chaining Dustia 1000 times. That's 5-6000 LP each. Takes a while but well worth it. When you are ready, make your way solo to the Galtea Downs in the Westersand with the character who has the firefly. If a wolf gets in the way just kill it. Stand by the north exit to the Corridor of Sand. You now need to get your HP to less than 10%. If you already have the Infuse Technick then it's easy. Just use infuse on yourself and your MP disappears and your HP becomes 10 times what your MP was. Now you have no MP. Run around till you get 1 MP and then use Infuse again. Now you will have 10 HP which is well low enough. However, it doesn't matter if your HP is only 1 because Dustia doesn't land a hit. You'll need to use this Technick quite often as your chain builds as loot drops sometimes add HP which can take you over 10%. If you don't have Infuse then either hit yourself until your HP drops very low or get a party member to do it. Turn all gambits of first or you'll start healing yourself. When your HP is less than 10% then use the gambit Foe: Nearest Visible: Phoenix Down. Time to chain Dustia. Dustia is a teleport undead monster. The idea is to kill him and leave the screen before he disappears, grabbing the loot if you can. If you are successful he will reappear as soon as you cross the line back into his area again. This is IMO the best way to do this. Enter the Corridor of Sand from the Galtea Downs and you are on a narrow path which is good because it means Dustia will appear close by. As you enter move to the left near the zone line. As Dustia appears move right in front of him face to face. Your gambit will then use a phoenix down which is an instant kill. As soon as it lands press the 'X' button and freeze the screen. Any loot coming out will fall to the floor even though the game is frozen. If you are face to face with Dustia it will land at your feet. Keeping the stick pressed forward (you wont go anywhere cos Dustia is in the way) unfreeze the screen. You will pick the loot up straight away. Immediately pull back on the stick and you will leave the screen in plenty of time with the loot. Just keep doing this. For those struggling to follow my explanation I have another video on YouTube for you showing how to chain Dustia. This is the link for that video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=A1tbhotsBK4 The loot will be a Book of Orgain selling at over 500 or a Flame Staff selling at 1200. As you go up the chain levels you will get multiple drops. If you leave the screen too late then Dustia won't respawn until you have left the Westersand and returned. 2 zones doesn't work. If you go to Rabanastre you will break your chain which is ok if its early on. But what if your chain is in the 60's or 70's? Then you have to either run south to Giza and back or west, past the merchant, into Ogir Yensa and back to save your chain. If you go via Ogir Yensa you can sell what goods you have to the merchant, Lohen, and stock up on more phoenix downs. Touching the gate crystal will break your chain. If you do this chain of 99 for each person using the firefly once then you will have over 3000 LP for each character and around 300,000 gil or more. Use your LP to acquire the Licences quoted above and when you are ready go back to Rabanastre and teleport to...... The Mosphoran Highwaste *********************** Stock up on Hi-Potions with Luccio and then head south to the Estersand/Broken Sands. In the North area as you enter there are a total of 4 Slaven Wilders. Use Balthier as leader with the Firefly and use Fran and Basch with him. Use healing and Party leaders Target gambits. Attack a Slaven which will target the leader for virtually the whole battle except for when it uses spinkick when it will target all. As its HP gets low take Fran and Basch out and finish the Slaven off with Balthier alone. If the Slaven ever changes target then switch the 2 untargetted ones out but makes sure the character left in is equipped with the firefly. Now kill the Slaven. If you are lucky it will drop a firefly. You want 2. It took me 20 kills to get 2 fireflies. If you are having trouble with critical hits causing too much damage and levelling you up then there is another way. Just use Basch, hit the slaven a few times and then summon Belias who will finish it off with you. You will then probably have enough time to attack and kill another Slaven before Belias's time runs out. DON'T let Belias use Hellfire if the Dive Talons are very close. It wont kill the Dive Talon but it will really annoy it and their dive-bombing can cause some big damage to you as you try and make your escape. When all Slavens in the area are dead then just head north through the Mosphoran Highwaste and there is another zone fairly close. Head back for more Slavens. Once you have got 2 fireflies from the Slavens then head for.... Mt Bur-Omisace. *************** Buy 3 Betelgeuses and then head for the Stilshrine of Miriam. You can go one of 3 ways. Teleport, ride a chocobo or, equipped with 3 fireflies, fight your way across the Paramina Rift. Whichever way you go, when you get there, save at the Gate Crystal. Time to get the Sword of Kings so enter the.... Stilshrine of Miriam ******************** The idea here now is to follow the same route virtually as you took to get to the Firefly so enter the Stilshrine and turn right, go down the stairs and open the door. A Miriam Guardian is there but just ignore it and turn right into the Walk of Prescience. Go right and along the corridor. You will see 2 Balloons. Warp them. It may take more than 1 go but it'll be a damned sight faster than guns as the guns will do little damage to them. At the end of the corridor are 2 Facers. These can be warped or shot. Two zombies will come out of the ground by the statue. Again, warp them or shoot them. If there is any shooting done then make sure you have the Fireflies equipped. Now rotate the statue until it faces the east. Press Select and check your map to make sure it's pointing in the right direction. Now go down the stairs along the corridor, round the corner and through the 2 doors either warping or shooting the undead along the way. Turn right outside the 2nd door, left up the stairs and then right. Turn the corner to the left (Facer on Opposite Side) and you will see the 2nd statue. Again, warp the 3 Balloons out of there. Now turn the statue to face north and use your map to check. Now go around the corner, all the way up the corridor past 3 or 4 Balloons and left at the end. To your right is an exit into the other side of Cold Distance. In front of you a Miriam Guardian will stand up. It cannot be warped. 6-8 shots to kill it or just run past it and turn right into the Ward of Steel. Go down the stairs where there is a door. On the other side is..... Vinuskar ******** Set 50% Potion, phoenix down, and nearest visible foe gambits, and enter. This is what happened to me. I sent 2 in to steal from Vinuskar, Balthier made 1 shot with his Betelgeuse, I made a 12 hit quickening chain, got a Torrent concurrence and Vinuskar was gone. I was so surprised that I forgot to remove the thiefs cuffs I had on for the steal, went back outside, shot a Redmaw and promptly levelled up and had to reload. I repeated everything, got back to Vinuskar, beat him up a little and then did a quickening. Again he was gone. This Boss is VERY easy. When you have defeated him then go through the door, get the map from the urn and then turn the statue to face west. If you have done all 3 statues correctly you will now get a message on screen saying the Colossus has undergone a change. Head back the way you came, up the stairs and you will see the Sword lifted. Head through the door to your right and make your way around to the waystone. Teleport to the Ward of the Sword King. Turn left past the Blood Gigases and into the walk of revelation. Now you can fight the Crystalbug. Once defeated, save your game at the new crystal. Now head back into the Ward of the Sword King and go to the left. Fight the Blood Gigases if you want to and Darkmare can be Warped. Go under the Sword and up to the Door. Beyond it lies.... Mateus, The Corrupt ******************* This is where you will be glad you chained those Slaven Wilders and got the extra Fireflies. Mateus will fight with Ice Azers alongside and if all 3 of your characters didn't have Fireflies you would have a tough time as you couldn't kill the Ice Azers as they give EXP. And guess what? You can't Warp them either as they are immune to it. So with the usual gambits of 50% for Hi-potion, Phoenix Downs and Nearest foe attack, open the door. Start off with a quickening chain and, with a decent concurrence, you'll remove the Ice Azers straight away. If you miss then just get down to battle and let the gambits heal you whilst you take damage and rebuild your MP. When your MP gets back then start another set of quickenings and with a concurrence you will probably kill them all. If Mateus is still standing its HP will be so low that you will finish the job very quickly. Not a difficult Esper to obtain if you have the 3 Fireflies. Now go though the door into the Vault of Champions, watch some scenes and receive the Sword of kings. Now make your way out of The Stilshrine but be careful if you killed Darkmare on the way in. If you did then there is a good chance you'll meet Negalmuur on the way out. Teleport back to the Ward of measure, go outside, save your game and head back to....... Mt Bur-Omisace ************** Restock with the Merchant and then head to the temple. Some scenes and then its battle time. Along with 3 other Judges you will now face..... Judge Bergan ************ There are several ways to do this but these are the best 2. Draw all the Judges together and then start a quickening chain. I did this and got an Ark Blast Concurrence. It killed them all in one hit. That was boring so I reset and this time just performed a quickening chain on the three Judges. They are behind you whilst Bergan is in front. The concurrence killed the Judges. Then I just fought Bergan until he became critical and then finished him off with quickenings that failed to produce a concurrence. Not difficult at all. More scenes then head outside, get the Stone of the Condemner from the Acolyte and then head back down the mountain, restock with the merchant and save at the Gate Crystal. Now you have defeated Judge Bergan, Remedies are available at Mt Bur-Omisace so I advise buying quite a few. I presume that you have been checking Noticeboards regularly. I hope so because now you are going to do another Hunt. Next to the Merchant is Hymms and he will offer you the Mark, Feral Retriever. Accept and go on this hunt now as it is very close (see Hunt 9). One more Hunt now and you can get a Nihopalaoa and you are going to do it now. As the petitioner is in Amal's Weaponry, teleport back to..... Rabanastre ********** On arrival do the Wyvern Lords Hunt (see Hunt 10). Right. Ten hunts completed and time to meet a new friend called Nihopalaoa. First go to the Sandsea and check for new Hunts. Make this a habit every time you pass a noticeboard. Now go to clan Hall and see Montblanc for a few more goodies and cash and then head to the Muthru Bazaar and the Clan Provisioner. Reverse Magick is now available if you want to get that and also Nihopalaoa. Buy 3. If you haven't got the money then go see King Bomb and steal from him till you do have enough. Equip the Nihopalaoa on your 3 reserves. If you don't have enough LP then go chain Dustia till you do. Stock up on Hi potions, phoenix downs and remedies and then go to Panamis protectives and buy 3 Goggle masks and 3 Metal jerkins. Always kit your reserve team out in what the main team discard. I would also suggest that you have 3 Main Gauche equipped on your reserve team with a decent shield. Diamond shields are available in Rabanastre. Your reserve team won't be doing much attacking but they will be inflicting bad statuses on the enemy so a high evade stat is good. If you need to warp a lot of foes to get through to the Big Bad Foe (Antlion for example) then use the reserve party to do it as they will dodge a lot of attacks due to the high evade stat they have and all their gambits will be healing only. Use your own initiative now for things like Monograph buying and also I'm not going to tell you what Magicks etc to buy as I think you can decide for yourself as only you know how much gil you have, though Protect, Shell & Haste are a must. Needless to say, a lot of the status magics like Blind and Silence etc are almost redundant because of the Nihopalaoa + Remedy. Also, if want to silence King Bomb for example, why use a magick that can miss when I have Niho + Echo Herb for a guaranteed instant hit? Ok, all done? Time to do another Hunt so head to......... Giza **** Now you have completed the story up to Judge Bergan the rains have finished in Giza and from now on you'll have 2 hours of Dry and one hour of Rains. The weather changes when the minutes on your game clock show 00. Head to Giza Village as it's Cluckatrice time (see Hunt 11). See how good the Nihopalaoa is? What an easy hunt. Anyway, whilst your in Giza you may as well give the Ring of the Toad to Elder Brunoa and the Erremona Leaf to Lesina who will give you 2 remedies for it. This is actually a good time to catch up on some hunts and I am going to suggest the ones you should do. You may not feel like doing them all now but they have to be done at some time. Anyway, at least do this first one as it will demonstrate the Nihopalaoa even better. The hunts to do now are: Ring Wyrm (see Hunt 12) Marilith (see Hunt 13) Ixtab (see Hunt 14) Mindflayer (see Hunt 15) NB. Petitioners for 14 & 15 are both in Jahara and the Marks are both in the Henne Mines. Accept both hunts together and do them both at the same time and make sure you have 99 hi-potions and lots of Chronos tears or Remedies. You can get Chronos Tears from Miguelo's in Rabanastre. When you have finished in Jahara go back to Rabanastre to the Aerodrome and take the Skyferry to Nalbina and whilst on board buy Syphon. From Nalbina make your way to Salikawood via the Mosphoran Highwaste. In Salikawood make your way east to where the gate to Phon Coast is and talk to the Boss Moogle. Then go round up the lazy Moogles having a break and the gate to Phon Coast will be opened. If you are short of money when you get to Salikawood go steal from the King Bomb because you are about to spend around 70k-100k in Phon Coast depending on what your Hi Potion, Remedy and Chronos Tear stock is like. When you are ready, go through the Gate and into..... Phon Coast ********** DO NOT OPEN THE 16 CHESTS ON THE VADDU STRAND IN PHON COAST IF YOU WANT THE ZODIAC SPEAR IN NABUDIS. Having saved at the save Crystal, make your way from there to the Hunter's Camp where the Gate Crystal is and save. Now go to the Female Merchant and stock up on hi potions (always min 50....99 better), remedies, phoenix downs and 99 Chronos tears. Buy 3 Alderbarans, 3 Officer's Hats and 3 Barrel Coats and equip them on your attack team. Now I am going to show you how to make real money (though I have an even better way later on). You are now going to make in region of 150,000 to 250,000 gil for about an hour's work. This you are going to need. I want you to have everything from Phon Coast Merchant that I said plus 200,000 gil cash minimum. Save your game and use the gate crystal to go to Mt Bur-Omisace. These are your teams: Main Team ========= Balthier, Fran & Basch equipped with: Alderbarans + Onion Shot Officer's Hat Barrel Coat Firefly Gambits for all 3: Ally: Any: Phoenix Down Ally: HP<50% Hi Potion Self: Haste Foe: Nearest Visible: Attack Reserve Team ============ Vaan, Ashe & Penelo equipped with: Main Gauche Diamond Shield (or better if you have it) Goggle Mask Metal Jerkin Nihopalaoa Gambits: NONE Head across Paramina Rift to the exit to the Feywood in the Icebound Flow with your main team and shoot whatever you want to (except Entites of course). When you reach the Feywood switch to your reserve team. In the Feywood/Walk of Flitting Rifts, hug the left wall all the way round to the Walk of Stolen Truths. Any foe you meet gets a Remedy. It will stop them all in their tracks and leave you free to travel. If one should attack whilst you are using the remedy your high evade stat should help. Now head south through the walk of Stolen Truths to the Save Crystal in Antiquity's End. Again, any Cerberus, Tartarus, Golem etc gets a remedy. Don't hang around because if any turn to stone while you are in the area you will get the EXP and level up. Keep on the move. When you arrive at the blue crystal buff your main team (haste actually), switch back to reserve team and save your game. Now go west into the Walk of Dancing Shadow and this is where you will find the Mirrorknights. In fact, almost immediately you will come across 3 of them. Using your 3 characters hit all 3 Mirrorknights with a Chronos Tear and then switch in your main team as they stop. Your main team can now blast away safely. As soon as all 3 mirrorknights are dead then swap back to the reserve team, move on and keep repeating this tactic and get the loot. In this area you should be able to chain 15 to 20 Mirrorknights fairly quickly. Then leave and go back through the save crystal area (don't touch crystal or you break your chain) to the Walk of Stolen Truths. That is 2 zones. Now go back and chain more mirrorknights. Keep doing this until you have either 99 Windslicer Pinions or you run out of Chronos Tears. Any damage to your reserve team should be healed by your main team using hi potions on your reserves when they are out of the game. Now return to the save crystal and save your game. Then go through the Feywood again back to the Paramina Rift using a remedy on anything you see. You really don't want to be fighting in this area. Move on to Mt Bur-Omisace and then teleport back to Phon Coast. You have to go back there to replace the Chronos Tears. Sell your Windslicer Pinions (1148 gil each), Wind crystals (160 gil each), Mirror Scales (1952 gil each) and the Suits of Mirror Mail the Mirrorknights may have dropped (4050 gil each). A Very poor run, after replacing Chronos Tears, Hi-Potions and remedies will make you at least 150,000 gil. A good run with lots of Mirror Scales and Suits of Mirror mail can make you 250,000+ gil. If you need to go back and do it again then fine. The more gil the better because in the not too distant future you are going to be getting rid of it quickly. One piece of advice though. You need to keep some Mirror Mail Armour and I suggest keeping 6. There is a Mark later on where you will need 5. You are now going to do the Antlion Hunt. Normally I put the hunts in a different section but this one is tough and I want to explain it here in the main guide. I am going to take you step by step through the hunt as I do it myself. If you have any trouble with this hunt then you can by all means leave it till later when you have better Armour and better magick buffs like Protectga etc. The reason I want to do it now is because in the cave where Antlion is you will find a chest and this chest only contains items. One is a knot of rust and the other is the FOMALHAUT, the best gun in the game and the sooner you get 3 of these the easier it gets. If you haven't yet accepted this Hunt from Montblanc then you'll have to go to Clan Hall first and then off you go to..... Bhujerba.....The Antlion Hunt ***************************** Make your way to Cloudborne Row and the Staras Residence and accept the hunt from Niray. You will also receive the Site 3 Key. Now head to the Lhusu Mines and save at the Crystal. Using your reserve team equipped with Main Gauche, Diamond Shield, Goggle Mask, Metal Jerkin and Nihopalaoa and NO GAMBITS run all the way through the mines to Site 2 where you fought Rocktoise and met Ba'Gamnan. If any undead appear or follow you in there just warp them away. Now go up to the gate and use the site 3 key. Behind the gate are 3 Headless or Dullahan (20% in place of Headless) foes. Niho + Remedy on all 3 and they won't bother you. If you take any damage heal with curaga. Move into Site3 and at the Junction ahead turn left. If there are any foes in your way use a remedy. Loop all the way round and you'll find your self back in Site 2 but in a different place. Go down the stairs and turn right into the Shunia Twinspan using remedy on anything in your way. Down the Twinspan you will come across three pairs of Headless/Dullahan and you should just use remedy on all 6 and run past them and into Transitway 1. Go down the right passage using remedies on the Vampyrs but don't hang around as they get petrified and if you are in the area when they stone you will get EXP and level up. Keep to the right and as you reach the main passageway turn right into Transitway 2 where you will find Kait and a Gate Crystal. Talk to Kait and then prepare for what lies ahead. There will now be some equipment swapping and setting of gambits. Remove the guns from your main attack team and the Main Gauche and Diamond shields from your reserve team. Now give the Main Gauche and Diamond shield to your attack party. and set the following gambits for them. Balthier: Ally: Any: Phoenix Down, Foe: Nearest Visible: Gil-Toss Fran: Ally: Any: Phoenix Down, Ally: HP<70%: Hi-Potion, Foe: Nearest Visible: Gil-Toss Basch: Ally: Any: Phoenix Down, Ally: HP<70%: Hi-Potion, Foe: Nearest Visible: Gil-Toss, Self: Libra. Now buff yourself with Bubble and Haste and then switch to your reserve team and just give them the gambit Ally:HP<50%:Curaga. Equip them with the best weapon and shield available for their evade stat. They will NOT be fighting. Now save at the Gate Crystal. If you want to teleport to Phon Coast and stock up on Hi potions etc, do so now and then teleport back to the Lhusu Mines. Head west into the Tasche span which is empty of all foes (till later). Go down the Tasche Span and into site 9 and at the junction you should go left. There is likely to be a Vampyr there so remedy it. Head along the passage to the stairs and you will see another Vampyr. Remedy. There is also one on the stairs so remedy that one too. Now head up the stairs and go to the right into the cave area. Straight ahead is a Killer Mantis and for some reason just this one is immune to a few of the statuses that the others aren't and it is VERY difficult to warp. Switch in your attack team and watch. As soon as it is dead then switch them out again. Don't want to waste the Bubble and Haste time, eh? Expensive way to kill a Mantis but very effective. Now with your reserve team, keeping to the left, carry on and remedy every Killer mantis and then Warp it. If it looks like you are not going to warp it then bring the attack team in and let them deal with it before it turns to stone. Stoned foes respawn and you don't want that. Keep going and eventually at the end you will find the section with Antlion in. He will have lots of little mantises with him. Now follows a suicide mission. Just go in there and hit every mantis with remedy and then warp as many as you can before you all die. MAKE SURE YOU HIT ANTLION WITH A REMEDY FIRST !!!!! This will inflict him with disease and although its HP goes down it still registers as 100%. If Antlion goes HP critical he will use enrage and he goes crazy. With disease inflicted he will always think he is at 100% and therefore wont use Enrage. Also he wont use Ignore Evade when his HP drops below 50% so your evade stat should be good for a lot of protection. Speaking of which, protect is pointless here so forget it. Just spam the gil-toss and heal & revive as necessary. When your reserve team are all gone then switch in the attack team and do a Quickening chain. The better the chain and concurrence, the less gil you will use in gil-toss. Be prepared to lose 100,000 gil here. After the quickening your team will just spam gil-toss. If Antlion didn't cannibalise before your attack then 100,000 gil will see him off. Maybe less.....depends on how good your concurrence was. After he is defeated you will get a scene with the 2 kids. When you have control again revive your reserve team and switch them in. Head back to the cave using remedy on any mantises in the way. At the back of the cave there should be a chest. If it's there you are 50/50 to get a Fomalhaut. There or not, switch your attack team back in and flee back to the Gate Crystal. The reason for the attack team on the way back is that you have petrified some foes on the way in and you don't want them to turn to stone on the way out and give you EXP and ruin your Hunt. When you get to the Gate Crystal in Transitway 2 GO THROUGH THE ZONE to Transitway 1 and then back into the Gate Crystal zone. That made 3 zones, enough to respawn the chest. Rebuff your attack team, switch to reserve team and save. Now you need to go back two, or maybe even 3 times, because you want 3 Fomalhauts. Give the Main Gauche and Diamond Shields back to the reserve team and give the main team guns. Switch OFF their attack gambits leaving only the healing ones. Now using the reserve team go back. Follow what I say carefully because this is not an easy run. Obviously save first when you are ready and then make your way down the Tasche Span. As you enter site 9 remedy the Vampyr at the junction if it's close. Left into the passage, remedy the Vampyr there and the one on the stairs. Now as you get to the top of the stairs, for some reason, the difficult Mantis is now the second one in, not the first. So remedy the first and then switch out your reserves for just 2 of your attack party. The next Mantis along is the tough one. Manually use gil toss with your 2 attack team characters and that will kill the mantis. Reserve team back in and continue on to the cave putting a remedy on every mantis you see, about 6 more in all. Enter the cave and check the chest. If the chest isn't there or you get a Knot of Rust just reset and do it again. If you get a Fomalhaut then attack team in and then flee back PAST the Gate Crystal zone (making 3 zones for respawning) and then back into it and save. Keep doing this until you get 3 Fomalhauts. When you have them, teleport to Bhujerba, collect your bounty and then teleport back to Phon Coast. If you are short of money then you can go back to the Mirrorknights but this time, with 3 Fomalhauts equipped, you don't need to stop them. Just creep up on them 1 at a time and 3 blasts will kill them. Get your loot you need and go back to Phon coast. From there you go to Tchita Uplands and Sochen Cave where you will need around 100,000 gil for gil toss again. So now travel across Phon Coast to the....... Tchita Uplands ************** Nothing too exciting here but head across to the east side of Realm of the Elder Dream and enter the Skytrail. In the northeast corner is the exit to The Chosen path which is where you'll find the Gate Crystal. Speak to the young lad next to the Bangaa lying on the ground and you'll find out about a "Dire Threat" in the Sochen Cave Palace. You are now sent on an unofficial hunt and are given The Soul Ward Key. But before you go you have now completed 16 hunts which gives you the rank of Riskbreaker. Bubble Belts are now available at the Clan Stall in Muthru Bazaar but will NOT be available when you attain the Rank, Paragon of Justice so get them NOW! I suggest you go and buy 2 (you have just got 1 from the Antlion Hunt) and then come back to Tchita Uplands. Save at the gate crystal then head east across the Highlands and then north into the Fields of Eternity. In the north section you will find the entrance to..... The Sochen Cave Palace ********************** Make your way through Doubt Abandoned and at the North end is The Soul Ward Gate which will open with the Soul Ward Key the young lad gave you. Inside The Hall of Lambent Darkness the Mandragoras await you. They aren't that difficult. Make sure your attack gambits are set to Party leader's Target and tackle them on at a time. They will inflict lots of status effects so gambits of Ally: Any: Remedy are required. During the battle they will run off now and then and if you can get them all together that would be an ideal time to unleash a chain of quickenings and with a decent concurrence would wipe them out. Failing that just pick them off one at a time. You could now return and get your reward but I would continue on. There is a save crystal up ahead and it's not too difficult to access. You'll see when you get there. So take either the east or west exit into the Acolyte's Burden and head to the north of the area where the "Save Crystal" is. The save crystal is in fact a Crystalbug but this one is no trouble at all. Just 2 blasts from each member of the party will dispose of it and then it will become a save crystal and you can save your game. Now go east through the exit into the Mirror of the Soul. Before getting to the next Boss there are some puzzles for you to complete and I will leave you to get on with it if you want to or you can leave them and follow the guide and come back later, the choice is yours. Whatever you decide, make your way from the Mirror of the Soul, through the Falls of Time and Destiny's March and up to the Hall of Shadowlight. If you try an pick your enemies off one at a time it will be quite easy. Try to avoid getting surrounded by a lot at once as it will make things a lot harder for you. Now ahead of you lies the Boss, Ahriman. Have the usual healing and reviving gambits but set your attack gambits to Foe: Nearest Visible: Gil-Toss. Buff up haste and bubble. Gil-Toss is based on your HP and the higher the HP you have the more you hit for. Gil-Toss is an Area of Effect attack and can hit more than one foe at a time which is handy when Ahriman decides to start his dividing trick. However, the damage is divided. Let's say your gil-toss is 9999 but you hit 3 foes. They all get hit for 3333, ok? So head in there. Try and keep an eye on him wherever he goes. If you do run out of money then change your gambits to attack immediately and be on the lookout for an opportunity to finish him off with a quickening chain. When he is gone, empty the 3 chests and with some luck you will get 2 Elixirs from them and then exit to the east. Follow the route through Temptation Eluded and then exit north into the Chamber of the Chosen. Make your way round to the top and use the lift. As you leave the lift there is a Gate Crystal to you right. Save your game and then teleport back to the Tchita Uplands to where the young lad is standing with his Father and get your reward. Now teleport back to the Sochen Cave, go through the Stone Door and into....... Old Archades ************ As you enter Old Archades there is The Stranded Merchant on your right where you can restock if you wish. One of the Accessories he sells is the Pheasant Netsuke which increases the amount of power in items by 50%. As you are using items a lot it is a great accessory to have, especially when fighting espers, Bosses and Marks as you don't need to equip the Firefly for them as they give no EXP. If you have the money then buy 3. Now you need to access Archades but without credentials the Imperials won't let you in. You need to speak to one of 3 people, The Lucky Man, The Shady Seeq or the Ex-Broker. When you have done that try and enter Archades. You will be turned away and then a scene with Jules begins. Do as he says and then go back to see him. Trouble will start and the Imperials will leave their post and you will be able to enter the..... Imperial City of Archades ************************* Have a look around the place and visit Charlotte's Magickery and see July the Streetear to get your reward of a Salamand halcyon for helping her at the Mosphoran Highwaste. Now go to Vints Armaments and buy 3 Chakra Bands and Power Vests. Also available in Archades are X-Potions which will restore 3600 HP with all augments and the Pheasant Netsuke accessory. Remember, if you are poor, go visit the Mirrorknights for 200k. To continue in Archades don't forget you need 2500 gil to bribe Jules. But first you have to collect those 9 Chops to ride the Cab. Whoever thought of this sidequest deserves to be shot. The Cab driver says 9 Chops or 1 million gil. Hell, I would pay the million gil just to avoid doing that stupid chop collecting but you can't, so get it done. After that ride the Cab to meet Balthier in Tsenoble and don't forget to activate the Gate Crystal. Catch up with Balthier and then meet Jules who has "arranged" for you to take a Cab to Draklor. Balthier is not amused with Jules. I wasn't amused by Balthier's real name.....did you get it? Ffamran. Ffamran Mid Bunansa is his full name. Balthier is just an alias. Anyway, I digress....take the Cab....destination.... Draklor Laboratory ****************** Go west from your position and then right up the corridor past the soldiers. Turn right at the end and immediately left, past more soldiers and carry on to the end and turn right where you will find a lift. Choose 67F. Head left from the lift and left again all the way up to the room C.D.B. which, if you didn't know, is Dr Cid's initials. Cidolfus Demen Bunansa. Cutscene and then you acquire a Lab Access Card and a map of Draklor which is a good thing because as you step outside your minimap has gone to pot. First door right is save crystal. Next door has bulk head controls. Go in and open the blue bulkhead doors. Now leave and head back to the lift, killing imperials along the way and select 68F. Arrive at floor 68 with Blue doors open to your left. Down corridor, turn left and then left into control room and open Red doors. Exit room and go left, down corridor and then turn left again. Along corridor to end and turn left. Enter control room 1st door on left and open Blue doors. Exit room, left all the way to end of corridor (ignore exit on left) and turn to right. Halfway along corridor turn left and immediate right and then left at end of corridor. Head all the way down long corridor and turn left at the end. Enter control room on left and open Red doors. Exit room and go to your left. Turn left at end of corridor, go past room and a false door and then turn right. Straight ahead on your right you will find the lift. Take lift to 70F. There you will be "greeted" by Reddas. Now buff up with Haste, Protect and Bubble and save your game. Head up the stairs to meet..... Doctor Cid ********** Some scenes to start with and then off to battle. Dr Cid will be accompanied by 4 Rooks and you can't inflict any damage on him whilst the Rooks are there with the exception of a concurrence. Dr Cid has almost 73,000 HP and at Level 40 you would get a Concurrence of 10,120 if you hit a Black Hole. You can do that kind of damage in 1 round of Fomalhauts. The best thing to do is to get rid of the Rooks first. Just blast away at them until all are gone, using Party Leaders Target in attack gambits and taking the Rooks out one at a time. Use normal healing gambits and ride the storm until they are all gone. Now dispel Dr Cid and unleash a quickening chain now. You don't have to beat him, just get his HP to 25% for victory. Well....half a victory as Venat steps in to save Cid from Reddas's blade. More scenes and then Cid will leave, tempting you to The Ancient City of Giruvegan. After that you will find yourself at Reddas's place in........ Balfonheim Port *************** First go through some scenes and then find out your next destination is The Feywoo