P07B: Sunleth Waterscape in AF300

P07B:  Sunleth Waterscape in AF300

Now that the side-trip home is completed and we have all of the Fragments from there, we return to the Ruins and head back into the Ruins area on a Chocobo to the entrance to the southwestern tunnels -- where we want to locate the Gate that we saw there earlier -- and use it and the Reunion Artifact to take us to the Sunleth Waterscape in AF300!

Arrival in Sunleth unleashes a painful vision for Serah

We get an introspective CS with Serah and then we unlock the new destination -- and find ourselves in the Historica Crux and the ability to select the new destination -- and we do!  Now if you are low-level this might be a bit of a challenge -- but if you have been following the guide and doing the grinds then you should be in the 50's in both of your jobs on both Serah and Noel, which means you are not going to have too much trouble here...

After we enter the new area we get a foreboding CS and then unlock the Achievement "Past Gazer" (15 G) Visited the place where the saviors of the past dream in crystal.

You play as Noel now and follow Serah along the path to where she encounters the missing Snow!  And then a massive Tomato attacks us!  Seriously!  OK it is not really a giant Tomato, it is a really a boss mob whose name is Royal Ripeness and who is made up of one big Flan that is being made by the joining of thousands of regular Flan,  and as Serah points out, it must be a paradox effect.  That being the case we still have to battle it!

-- The Giant Flan Battle --

The strategy for dealing with this thing is actually pretty straight-forward really - in fact I beat it with 5-Stars using only two Paradigm:

Aggression-X COM/RAV/COM
Diversity COM/RAV/MED

Using these two alone what I did was started with Diversity to Stagger the Giant Flan, and as soon as it was Staggered I switched to Aggression-X to deal damage.  This quickly took me to a brief Cinematic Sequence, then back to Diversity to Stagger it again, and then Aggression-X to deal the hurt that triggered a longer Cinematic that as long as you pull-off perfectly quickly leads to the temporary defeat of the Giant Flan and a 5-Star rating.

If you run into trouble with taking damage after you have it Staggered you are better off using Potions to heal rather than switching out Paradigms when you are in damage mode (Aggression-X) since you want to maintain that flow of damage-dealing and the change to Diversity will interrupt that.

The first battle with Royal Ripeness

The thing is it is not dead -- it is just blown apart -- and all the regular Flan that were the Giant Flan begin to form back up and it grows, at which point Snow wants to attack it again but Noel convinces Serah to retreat with him and where goes Serah so goes Snow.  Thus we find ourselves viewing a testosterone-fueled debate between Noel and Snow in which they eventually have a meeting of the minds and agree to a plan of cooperation -- but it has to start with finding an Artifact, because it seems that we have to do some traveling to find a way to deal with the Giant Flan, or at least that is the consensus of the assembled team.

-- Cinematic Sequence Button Presses --

Note that the boss battle Cinematic Sequences are usually broken up into several parts, the idea being that the Cinematics are more than simply an excuse to have you pushing buttons, but that your actions actually have a strategic impact upon the outcome of the battle -- in this case a mixture of offensive and defensive actions.

Cinematic Part One
(1) Push 'X'

Cinematic Part Two
(1) Push the Left Joystick 'Up'
(2) Push 'X'
(3) Rapidly Tap 'X' to fill the Attack Meter
(4) Rapidly Tap 'B; to fill the Attack Meter
(5) Push the Left Joystick to the 'Right'

For getting the Perfect rating in the Cinematic Sequences you are awarded with a Crystal Heart Adornment, just so you know...  That and getting this with a 5-Star and Perfect rating actually applies to some Achievements that you may unlock later...

-- Post Battle Action --

The first thing you should do is speak with Snow to obtain a Map of this new area, and then head south and open the Treasure Sphere to snag 625 Gil -- and then head south some more and swing over a gap with a vine thanks to Moogle discovering it.  Continue along in a Southwestern trail when you reach a split and you will encounter a large Tortoise that you can ride!

As it moves along you are prompted to use a new ability that you now learn -- Moogle Tossing -- in which you can use LB to grab the Moogle, and once you have your aim down, RB to fire him at the target, which in this case is Treasure Spheres!  Well what the heck, why not?!

Taking the Tutorial has you fire the Moogle at a Sphere that yields Mana Chips x8, a Sphere with a Librascope, and one with a Silver Bangle.  After the Tutorial ends as you begin to move look off to the left at a distant Sphere that, when you hit it with the Moggle turns out to have a Wild Artifact in it! 

Moogle Tossing for Fun and Profit

When the Tortoise stops and you jump off of its back there is a Chocolina Shop here if you need it, and nearby off the edge is a Treasure Sphere with Vitality Chips x7 that you can toss the Moogle to get.  Moogle spots something with Moogle Hunter and indicates the direction you need to travel in -- which is over a gap you will need to climb the fallen tree trunk and then swing across using the vines.  On the other side is a Treasure Sphere with a Zephyr Ring in it!

There is the Gate ahead of you here but it does not work because we do not have the right Artifact -- we need to hunt some down and then best way for us to do that is to head back to the Historica Crux and then back to the Bresha Ruins (remember we have cleared all of the Artifacts from New Bodhum already).  So use the Pause Menu to access the quick route back to the Histrorica Crux and then select Bresha Ruins from the map.