P17A: Academia AF500

P17A: Academia AF500

BEFORE you go to Academia AF500 you need to return to Academia AF4XX (unless you already did this -- I chose to hold off until it made more sense and I had more Fragments to better power the weapon) and talk to the Hope, handing over the Chaos Crystal -- then head to the Receptionist in the lobby -- who will offer you the choice of two different weapons -- the one for Noel is called Odinblade and you should take that one and equip it now.

Return to the Historica Crux and head to Serendipity now and hit the Casino Chocolina to obtain Serah's weapon, which is on sale there for 750 Gil called Odinbolt - buy and equip it now.

Now visit the Mystic to obtain the Fragment Ability Rolling in CP and then hit the Historica Crux.

Obtaining the Odin Fragment Weapons

What you should be aware of is that we have seen some good weapons on the Chocolina for Serah but not so much for Noel -- and using the Odinblade for Noel is a really good idea at this point -- he has one weapon (Blessed Blade) with slightly better magic but way less physical damage -- so for him Odinblade is the one to go with.  That may not be true for Serah though, depending on what weapons you have been buying.

With Odinbolt Serah gets almost 500 Physical and almost 800 Magical stats -- Wild Chorus will provide more physical but considerably less Magical so you have to decide where the balance is.  I chose to keep her using Odinbolt because while the Physical is lower she relies on Magical attacks more than Physical ones.  YMMV.

With that taken care of it is time to head to the end game mates!

-- On to Academia AF500 --

Right, so...  What comes next is a very very complicated level with a lot of things you will need to do to do everything that you need to do here...  You will be facing some of the most powerful monsters in the game so far (more powerful than you faced before save for perhaps Long Gui) and you will very likely be dying...  So before we head here -- this is the end game, you know that right? -- before we head here I want to remind you that you should be well prepared, you should save often, and you should try to be careful in not making this harder on you than it needs to be.

I apologize in advance for what is coming -- it is complicated and perhaps more than a little frustrating but it is what it is.

When you arrive you trigger a lengthy CS in which you see a very confusing world that appears to be deconstructing itself.   Serah and Noel discuss the situation and then you are shown the Labyrinth of Chaos Page and regain control over the characters.  The Datalog is updated with a page on Unseen Chaos, and you unlock the Achievement "Promise Keeper" (15 G) Turned your back on empty dreams and joined the battle to save mankind.  That is the Achievement for starting Episode Six (the final Episode).

Remember to save often, right?

There is a Treasure Chest on this platform with the Determination Gate Seal in it -- so grab that and then head up the north path (be aware that you CAN fall off here and if (when) you do it resets you to the platform). 

Now head east to the end of the path and grab the Phoenix Down from the Treasure Sphere here, then head back to the Chocolina, activate the Statue in front of her, and then head north, triggering a brief CS in which Serah points out that the blocks are moving in a pattern -- and lucky for us they are!

When the block to the east rotates head over it to the next platform, and wait for the block to the north to line up and run across and east to the next platform and get the Phoenix Blood from the Treasure Sphere here.  Head north up the stairs where you will encounter a Proto-Behemoth and a group of Bamapama with him.  You are in the correct configuration to deal with him -- using SEN to tank and just dishing damage -- concentrating on maintaining your health.  This is one tough bugger so be careful!

Battling the Spawned Proto-Behemoth

At the top of the stairs is a platform with a Cactaur Statue on it -- use it and then backtrack all the way to the place where we went east after the Chocolina platform and continue to the west, turning north and then  continue in those directions until you go up the stairs and find the next Cactaur Statue and use it.

Don't assume that since a block is in the position you need it to be that it will stay there --  if you did not just see it slip into position then according to Faubert's Law it WILL move when you are half-way across!  Now head north and then west, then north again to the end and you will find a Treasure Sphere with a Shaman's Mark in it.

Turn around and head back to the Cactaur Statue (yes you can reach the marker by continuing east but we do not want to do that just now...  Instead head to the east to the platform with the Treasure Sphere in it and grab a Map of Academia AF500 from it.  Now you can see where we have been and where we are going -- and why!

Continue east but when you step onto the block stop and wait for it to rotate and then drop down to the area below where there is a Treasure Sphere with a Brawler's Wristband in it.  You could have tossed Moogle but that would not have cleared the map for this area and we want to do that...

Now step off of the platform to respawn back at the Statue and then make your way to the Marker for our first dual-boss battle! 

-- Pacos Amethyst & Pacos Luvulite Boss Battle --

The first thing that you need to know about this is that they have the ability to raise each other when one or the other is KO'd so what you need to do is focus on one, take it down to around 25% health, then focus on the other and kill it, quickly killing the first one once it is dead.  Do that and this is a relatively short battle!  Fail and, well, not so much. 

You get a message from Yeul about not killing the Goddess and then the battle commences!

When I was little we visited Luna Park in Sydney and there was a bloke there who created glass animals while you watched.  He was wicked clever and skilled -- a real artist -- and he actually made animals that looked a lot like these two out of colored (maybe tinted?) glass that had the same sort of glowy color to it.  My sisters each got a pink pony but I wanted a purple Wombat posed so it was standing on its back legs sort of snarling at you -- it turned out pretty good actually...

This really is not a hard battle and your current Paradigm setup should be fine but later we will be altering it...  Just be sure to take the first one down to under 25% health and then kill the second, so that you can kill the first quickly and voila!  Mischief Managed!  After the battle the voice of Yeul goes away and you are introduced to Chaos Blocks.

You unlock the Achievement "Obsidian Medal" (14 G) Defeated a powerful enemy with perfect execution.  Or rather you unlocked this if you did the battle correctly and five-starred it which I know you did!

Read the Page for those and know that by changing the color of the block you re-arrange the platforms and paths -- and you will be doing that in a moment.  If you had any trouble with the battle, watch the video.

After you close the page you are awarded 8000 CP and the Amethyst and Luvilite Fragment, so well done mates!  Well done indeed!

Pacos Amethyst & Pacos Luvulite Boss Battle

-- Chaos Blocks --

This is where things get a little complicated...  You have to do most of this in order to progress as well as to obtain some Key Items that you will need later on, so it is worth doing, but as I say it is rather complicated.  I will try to make this as clear as I can here...

(1) Use the Chaos Block here once to turn it blue and then work your way west and south to the next platform, then continue south down the platform stairs and use the path to the east and south and then east to get back to the platform that leads to where the Chocolina is but continue east to the next platform.  From here head north and then east to the platform and north up the stairs to activate the Cactaur Statue here -- the reason you are doing that is so that you can warp back here -- which will be obvious in a moment...

Now backtrack to the Chocolina Platform and change the Chaos Block there so it is Red, then jump off the edge to warp back to the Statue we just set as our warp point.  From here head north up the moving stairs and wait at the top until you can then get onto the next path north and east to the platform above, following it to the north where you will find a Chaos Cube at the bottom of the stairs -- change it to Blue and then head back up the stairs to the top and you can now take the L-shaped path west and then north to the long platform above in the center area.

Head west up the stairs and save before you reach the marker -- where you will find a Cactaur Statue -- activate it to set your warp point here and then continue west to clear that side of the platform from the map...  Then backtrack to the Statue and change the Chaos Block Red, then head north on the T-Shaped path and get off to the east on the platform where there is a Treasure Chest with the Sister's Gate Seal in it. 

With that in hand, get back on the T-shaped path and get off on the west platform, changing the Chaos Cube to Blue and then getting back on the T-shaped path and returning to the east platform, where you now continue east and up the stairs to the next platform where you activate the Cactaur Statue you find there.

Change the Chaos Cube here to Red and then use the north path when it points to the east, run to the end and drop down to the platform below, where you will use Mooglehunt to reveal a Treasure Sphere with an Elixir in it!  Now step off the edge to warp back to the previous platform and when the north path is faced to the west change the Chaos Block back to Blue.

Head north and west and wait for the T-shaped path to connect and ride it across to the west platform where you will toss Moogle to the north platform to get x7 Vitality Boosters from the Treasure Sphere there.  Head back to the T-shaped path and use it to get back to the east platform and then use the moving stairs to head west to the lower platform. 

Use the T-shaped path to the west and ride it to reach the platform to the west and get off, then change the Chaos Cube color to Red, and get back on the T and ride it to the south platform.  Change the Cube there to Blue and jump off to warp back to the Statue.

Head north and west and ride the T-shaped path to the platform, cross it and ride the T-shaped path to the next path (west) and follow the path west and south the the marker where you will find a Cactaur Statue which you should activate -- turn the Cube Red before heading north and west and dropping off the end to the platform below, where there is a Treasure Sphere with a Royal Armlet inside!  Once you have that, warp back to the Statue.

Now wait to go north and east, then onto the T-path and off of it at the north platform, where you will then run up the stairs to the west and, when the L-path is pointed west and north, along it and up the stairs for a battle with a Proto-Behemoth who happens to have its own healer with it and, look mates, I really think this is a battle best avoided...  Though really even a no-star victory is a victory, right?

Either way head east and up REMEMBERING TO JUMP onto the stairs, onto the next stairs, and then to the platform on the top where the marker is, and then you trigger a CS in which Yeul appears to be trying to convince is to give up? 

After the CS take the Final Battle Gate Seal from the Treasure Chest and activate the Cactaur Statue just in case...  Save your game and then open the Paradigm Menu and make the following changes to it:

Delta Attack-X (RAV/COM/SEN)
Conservation (SYN/SEN/SEN)
Cerberus (COM/COM/COM)
Entourage (RAV/MED/SEN)
Attrition (SAB/MED/SEN)
Combat Clinic (MED/MED/SEN)

Actually you can do whatever else you like in place of Entourage and Attrition those are just extra suggestions for you but the rest?  Yeah, you will need those for the coming battle -- seriously -- and about that battle... 

Tactics are straight-forward here -- use Delta Attack-X and Cerberus for damaging, Entourage for light healing and Combat Clinic if you get into trouble.  You will want to use Attrition just to stick him with Deprotect and Deshell to make things easier on yourself...

With a well-leveled party this will be a challenge but doable -- with a moderately leveled party you will have to work a lot harder at it, and with a low level party, well, you have to ask yourself, should you be here at all?

The Chaos Bahamat Boss Battle

-- Chaos Bahamut Boss Battle --

As the battle begins Caius is above you and unleashes Bahamut as Hope appears, and you climb aboard Sazh's shuttle.  Sazh chases him down and you begin the battle -- with the Paradigm above you should have no trouble quickly taking him down -- but watch out for his AOE attacks (Megaflare) and try not to let anyone die, right?

After you defeat Bahamut you face Caius -- but again with the Paradigms you have active you should have very little trouble with him, just keep an eye on health.  After you defeat him you get a lengthy CS with Noel confronting Caius and they talk and fight, then a rift opens and you all get sucked into Valhalla!

-- Grinding Opportunities --

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

Potent Booster
Potent Essence
Potent Orb
Starblossom Seed

You can also acquire the Monster Crystals for:

Bamapama (demon-bird) Organic / Saboteur
Manegarmr (behemoth-type) Organic / Commando
Mimi (demon-bird) Organic / Saboteur
Yooman (droid-like) Mechanical / Commando