11B: A Man's Hope is His Castle Part I

11B: A Man's Hope is His Castle Part I

Stone Mission 01

We encounter a L'Cie that has failed its Focus and we learn a little more about what happens to you when you fail your Focus - Snow shows a side that we have not seen much of lately, telling us that we should help the Cie'th - and we are now introduced to something that will become a major part of the game from here on out - Stone Missions. 

It is understandable if you were thinking that as there are only 13 chapters to the game, and you are on chapter 11, the game is mostly over, but if that is what you were thinking I have some startling news for you...  You are only about half-finished with the game at this point!  The first 10 chapters are about half the game, the last 3 the other half!  But that is okay!  It means we still have a lot more fun and challenge ahead of us, right?

Note: The guide for each Stone Mission is listed in Appendix A: Stone Missions under its mission number.   If you are following this walkthrough, whenever there is a Stone Mission to do, I will refer to it by number and name within the body of each section, presuming that you will jump to the specific mission in Appendix A, where the walkthrough continues logically from each subsection.  Obviously if you take them out of order the flow of the walkthrough will not be as seamless as it will be if you do them in the order that is laid out in the walkthrough...

Stone Missions for this Subsection:

• Stone Mission 01: Pond Scum
• Stone Mission 02: Goodwill Hunting
• Stone Mission 03: Massif Contamination
• Stone Mission 04: A Hero's Charge
• Stone Mission 05: Joyless Reunion

After you complete Stone Mission 05 and unlock the Kelger's Cup Trophy/Achievement, head North to the save point at the split that we originally entered at and save.  Now continue North and fight the Svarog (again), and fight your way through the Alraune and Hybrid Flora, Triffids, and Munchkin.  Right where you defeat the Munchin take the jump point to the left so that you are taking the branching route there, and follow that.

You will immediately fight another group of Munchkin, then a long run to fight a pair of Hybrid Flora, then hit a save point and another Hybrid Flora and some Alraune after that.   Bear to the right around the circle and take out the Munchkin and the Leyak, and then grab the Mythril Bangle from the Treasure Sphere here.

Fight your way along and you will face your first Munchkin Maestro, and then just as you reach the next save point you will trigger a CS in which Fang tells you about what it was like when she was young...  Yeah...  Van adds a bit to it and the CS ends - and look!  We are standing right in front of the next stone!  That worked out great!

• Stone Mission 06: No Place Like Home

After you kill the correct Maestro and get the Mission Complete Flag backtrack to the stone that we flagged mission 06 from and then drop down and fight the Nelapsi, then grab the Rhodochrosite from the Treasure Sphere, then head up the stairs to put the beatdown on a pair of Taxim and a Nelapsi.  Fight another pair of Taxim and Nelpasi and then hit the nearby Treasure Sphere, before you have an epic battle with four Taxim!

Okay, maybe it was not an epic battle, but still... 

After the battle hit the Treasure Sphere in the corner for the Whistlwind Scarf, and then head back to the center of the area on the right between the columns to the stone there and flag Mission 07!

• Stone Mission 07: Bituitus, the Pillager

Once you finish Mission 07 backtrack to the nearby save point and save, and then use the stone from Mission 06 to teleport to the Tsubaddran Highlands - wasn't that convenient?

Now go through the canyon that we originally entered this area through - as we are backtracking towards the final Mission in the canyons, and that requires us to head back!  When you reach the end of this section you will hit a jump point and then zone, and arrive back in the Fingers of Stone.

If you look a the map, way ahead almost to where we zone out of this section there is a shallow off-shoot with a save point marker in it - that is where we are headed!  Just where the split is for the alcove you will see the next stone - marked on your map as a yellow dot - for Mission 08.

• Stone Mission 08: The Eleventh Hour

Now that you have completed the final Mission for the canyon area we can head back to the main part of the zone - but before we do that, run along the bank of the stream here to empty the Treasure Sphere of its Rune Bracelet first.

Now head back in the direction of the stone from the last mission, and bear left as you approach it, follow the path and zone out!