P10B: Academia AF400

P10B:  Academia AF400

Having done all that there is to do at the Casino in the Void, it is time to get back on the adventuring trail, and head for Academica AF400 -- when you arrive you get a lengthy CS in which you obtain a bit deeper notion of Noel and how he feels about Yeul and his situation.  As the CS ends things go sort of pear-shaped as a hidden Fal'Cie transforms some of the locals into enemies and you have a battle to wage...  This really should not be much of a challenge for you since by now you have capped a few jobs.

When the battle is over,  head to the east to fight another group and rescue some locals -- once you clear away another few groups move to the ramp controls and use them to change both the ramp color and direction from Red/Down to Blue/Up.  With that done, head up the ramp to the top and follow the path north, battling as needed until you reach a turn where you trigger a CS in which the city is put on High Alert.  Once the CS ends access the terminal that was pointed out to you.

Accessing the terminal reveals the Academia Defense System Datalog Page, and gives you a Map of Academia Key Item. 

Talk to the NPC ahead (Miss Horizon) who tells you that the Paradox is corrupting the local database -- and she asks you to provide 100% completed area maps from other areas (now you know why clearing the maps is a good thing) giving you the mission Fragment: Academic Rank: Paradox Professor.

Obtaining the Map - and the Map Quest

You should be able to turn in the map for Sunleth Waterscape now, since we completed exploring it -- so talk to her and she will award you with the Fragment: Travel Guide Sunleth Waterscape for your efforts!  Well done!  Now check the Datalog for the page on the Proto Fa;'Cie Adam, and the page on Locales for info about Academia.  With those two tasks managed,  continue forward and speak with the Chocolina for some background and to buy/sell as you need.

The Chocolina has two weapons on her -- one for Serah called Raging Arc, and one for Noel called Blazing Spirit -- that are better than the ones we currently have equiped -- so you may want to buy those.  Each is 4,500 Gil.  Open the nearby Treasure Chest to obtain the Farewells Gate Seal and then follow the path to the east, taking out the various enemy you encounter, which in addition to the ghouls are some Koboldroids who are holding down a barricade.  After you defeat them the barricade is dropped and you can continue along the path.

Head south and then east from here and battle the Fencer at the next barricade, then grab the Mark of the l'Cie form the Treasure Sphere before turning left and heading up the stairs -- at the top you trigger a CS in which you encounter more enemy and a forced battle with Taxim and some Ghouls -- then Caius shows up in the CS.  He declares more of the same argument then thrusts you into a Ghoul battle.

Use the terminal to reverse the ramp and then head down and down again to explore the street area and trigger a CS in which you encounter Caius again -- followed by a series of demon battles as you pursue Caius through the area.  Follow him down the ramp for a CS in which a bridge collapses, and then work your way to the far side of the bridge and use the console in the corner to reverse the ramp and go up.  Note that this can be a really annoying task to complete because of the rapid waves of demons who can easily prevent you from using the console if you are not quick about it.

Head up the ramp and through the alley to spot Caius again -- have a battle and continue along the path -- the fact that these battles are frequent and pay off poorly in CP and Gil make them more of an annoyance than anything else but you will get through it...

When you reach the other side of the path to the right is a Fencer to battle and a ramp leading up -- to the left is the console that controls the red ramp that is back along the path (you will see which when you use it).  So, use the console, then backtrack to the ramp it reversed and run down it and around in a u-turn to grab 2000 Gil from a Treasure Sphere.  Backtrack to the main path -- to the left is the Gate, to the right is an area with some freaked out locals and dark map area to reveal.

-- Grinding Opportunities --

If you want to grind a little in this area  you can acquire the following loot items:

Begrimed Claw (Component)
Potent Chip (Material)
Potent Engine (Material)
Potent Orb (Material)
Tear of Remorse (Component)

You can also acquire the Monster Crystals for:

Koboldroid Yan (droid-like) Mechanical / Ravager

The battles you are getting down here actually offer decent CP and are fast enough that you can easily earn enough to cap another job in a very short period of time...  But do not fixate upon this since we will shortly be doing some major grinding to level our Racing Choco after we obtain it and that will very likely be sufficient to take you to cap.  I am just saying. 

Before we can use the Gate we have to get the appropriate Artifact to open it -- so we want to head along the right path and use the console to reverse the ramp here, then go up and grab the Phoenix Down from the Treasure Sphere before going up the nearby blue ramp and heading left to the marker to trigger a CS.

We have a forced battle with a Cocytus and a Netapsi, and then another battle to rescue Yeul from more Cocytus -- after which she is attacked by the boss monster Zenobia!

The Zenobia Battle and the Tower Fragment

-- Zenobia Battle --

First thing you need to understand is that you cannot directly attack Zenobia while the outrider tentacles are present -- those little independent ones called Vaballathus -- because until you take them out Zenobia's large tentacles will block all of your attacks. 

The easiest approach to use here is to use the attacks Agression-X (RAV/COM/COM) to damage and as needed Diversity (RAV/COM/MED) to heal...  I will really be surprised if you need to heal though...

After you take out the outriders you can attack Zenobia -- and once you Stagger him and beat him down he will re-spawn another set of outriders for you to defeat.  Once you do that you attack him again and he appears to be killed -- but no, when Noel tries to run past him triggering the Cinematic Sequence for this zone.  Bearing in mind that this is the 4th of the 5 that you need to nail perfectly, make a serious effort to perfectly pull off the Cinematic here, OK?

The Cinematic Sequence is:

Left Stick UP
Left Stick LEFT 'B'
Left Stick RIGHT 'B'
Left Stick RIGHT
Rapid-Tap 'A'

After the Cinematic ends Zenobia is well and truly dead, and you get the CS that wraps things up in which Yeul gives you the Tower Artifact as a dying gesture -- though remember that there are many versions of her in the world, so we will likely be seeing her again -- and you get the Fragment: Zenobia Fragment and 6000 CP for defeating Zenobia.  Well done!

With the Tower Artifact now in hand we want to return to the the Gate we found earlier -- which is NOT the actual Gate that we want mind you -- and use a Wild Artifact upon it to open it, which gives access to Yaschas Massif AF100.  We do not actually need to go here just now, so check the map and then backtrack to the marked Gate from here -- grab the 1050 Gil from the Treasure Sphere near the gate and then use the Artifact on it to open it and enter the Historia Crux!