Carbon Ocelot's Final Fantasy X Walkthrough

Index

Plot
Intro
Submerged Ruins
Besaid
Kilika
Luca
High Road
Mushroom Rock
Djose Temple
Moonflow
Thunder Plains
Macalania Woods
Lake Macalania
Bickanel Island
Bevelle
Calm Lands
Mt. Gagazet
Zanarkand
Highbridge/Temples
Sin

Single Page Version

Disclaimer
This is a walkthrough of Final Fantasy X. As with any walkthrough, this document contains spoilers! It was developed for FFX English Language Version for PS2. Some things may not work on other platforms or alternate language versions. This walkthrough is live now only because a few of my friends want what I have finished already now. The items in the navigation bar on the left are the sections that are complete. I intend to add some tools to help you learn the game system more easily. Eventually this will be the most complete walkthrough of FFX on the net. You may to make requests/corrections.

Walkthrough Notes
As I said above, all walkthroughs contain spoilers. What I've tried to do here is set this site up so that you can get the information you need without having to read the whole document. Please see the points below for things you'll want to know about that DON'T involve spoilers. I recommend reading them before even starting the game. Then play each section first, saving at every possible point. When you finish a section, go back to the walkthrough and see if there is anything you missed. I'll include various hints, tips, tricks and cheats I may have noticed along the way.

Strategy
There are two strategies I can recommend for progressing through the game. Basically it boils down to: How much time do you want to spend leveling up? My personal philsophy for playing Final Fantasy games is that boss battles are to be thoroughly and utterly won. ;) As such, my strategy here may involve more leveling up than you want. But after a certain point (when you unlock the arena) your leveling up has extra side benefits. Until then, I don't really level up much. See the "Calm Lands" section of the walkthrough for more information.

Points to Remember: (IE: Things I wish someone had told me starting out!)

• You have gills. You can breath underwater.
• The shinny blue spheres not only save, but restore HP/MP. You don't need tents/cabins in this game. Merry Christmas!
• Steal mechanics are atypical. There is a 100% change you will succeed the first time you steal from an enemy. Each steal cuts the probability of subsequent success in half. Cumulatively.
• Under your options menu, you can set GF videos to short. You can also set the battle cursor to memory.
• Unlike most rpgs, you don't divide AP up between characters. Each character that participates in a round will earn AP. (NOTE: If a character is not one of the three active participants at the end of a battle, they only earn 1xAP at the end of the battle, even if they have 2xAP or 3xAP weapon/armor equiped.)
• What's true for your enemies is sometimes true for you too. Some status abnormalities can wear off after 3 turns.

Intro
When the game opens, you will see a cut scene. This scene actually takes place later into the game, so if you don't understand what is going on, don't worry. At least try to pay attention to it, though. So... Listen to his story. ;)

Meet Tidus
Your are next transported to a place with cool techno-ish music. You gotta love that FF1 harp, don't ya? You are they guy at the top of the screen. His name is Tidus. For the sake of everyone's sanity, I will not change the names of any character's or Aeons. It just makes it easier. Walk around a bit to get accustom to the controls. Oh, and don't try to go through that door. It's locked. (For now). Walk toward the bottom of the screen and talk to random people. You will learn a little bit about Tidus's background. Head to the bottom of the screen to start the next cut scene. The announcer will explain a little bit about what is going on. Walk up and to the right toward the stadium. When you get inside, the next cut scene will start.

Meet Auron; Meet Sin
Don't worry if you don't get it. When Tidus wakes up, walk down what's left of the street until you will meet Auron. Follow him. You will see a small boy. Pay attention to this kid. He is your 'guide' for the most part. You'll understand more later. Tidus will run to catch up to Auron, you'll see Sin for the first time. You'll have to battle your way through a few enemies first. You'll get a sword. If you kill the enemies behind you, they'll just keep coming. Go for the one's in front of you first. You don't get any experience points or items anyway. For your second battle, though it matters. Use your overdrives! For Auron's first attack, press to the left and select the Bushido. Type in the commands in the order listed. He should kill off all the little buggers. For Tidus's second attack, use spiral cut. Try to press the x button when the sliding marker is in the center of the slide. This guy uses demi, so he won't kill you, but the next group of bad guys will. Keep hitting him until he explodes, then follow Auron behind him.

Meet the Save Point
You should see a shiny globe there. This device does quite a few things. Most importantly, it allows you to save your game. It also will restore all HP/MP. If you accidentally skip this, you can just use potions as your first action during the upcoming battle. While you can't do this now, eventually this kind of sphere will allow you to teleport to Cid's ship. (There has to be a Cid, right?) Now follow Auron and fight more bad guys. Kill anything who's wings start to flicker. When Auron tells you, start beating up the power module. This will probably take at least 2-3 hits for each character. Then starts another cut scene, when Ject calls you, press and hold the circle button to go down. You'll see an image of you as a child. Then you'll go to Zanarkind.

Click the "Submerged Ruins" link on the left.

Submerged Ruins
When you wake up, you'll be in the water. You can now access your menu. It is worth your while to explore this area (the water, not the menu). To the up and right is 200 gil and some writing you cannot read. Up and to the left you will find an Al Bhed compilation sphere. You can use this sphere to learn Al Bhed if you have played the game before (or borrow someone else's memorey card). If you're a crypto wonk, Al Bhed is a simple substitution cypher. For the rest of you, Al Bhed is a simple language which consists of swapped letters. When you see an "E", you just replace it with "T" or whatever.

You can also find a few potions south from that, and if you get back in the water and head to your right you'll find 200 gil and a plaque you can read - if you've played the game before and used the compilation sphere to fill out your Al Bhed dictionary. That's all that's around here. Go straight up from where you woke up and through the arch. You'll see a save sphere. Use it! Walk down the path and veer off to the left. You'll get a Hi-Potion. Go back to the path and head forward. You'll drop down into the water; remember, you have gills in this game - you can breath underwater.

If you look straight ahead, you'll see a light and a treasure chest. Swim toward it. You'll get attacked by some fish. Kill as many as you can...

Fighting Geosgaeno
When there is one left, he'll get eaten by a Geosgaeno. You'll have to fight this now. Hit him a few times; don't bother healing. His attacks do 1/2 HP damage. Eventually you'll run off with your tail between your legs. Go forward down the little hall where you wake up, and you'll find yourself in a room with a Campfire in the center. Watch Tidus complain that he needs a fire. Get used to him complaining; his neediness knows no bounds. :D

See that map in your upper left? At 2:00 there's a door you cannot go through, but there's a hidden chest next to it with an X-Potion inside. At about 5:00 is the doorway you came through (it leads to the dead-end hallway where you just woke up). At about 10:00 is a creepy statue. If you examine it, you'll be treated to a note that says, and I quote: "A creepy statue." Right.

Anyway, at about 7:00 is a save globe next to a doorway. Go through the door and examine the broken desk to obtain Flint. Head back to the campfire room and go through the doorway way at 12:00. Just as you enter this next hallway, search down and left for an Ether. Continue up until you have an opportunity to examine a flower pot on the wall that obviously has head flowers in it. Get them, then continue up. Follow the path on your map until you get to the end of the next area - there's a chest here with Hi-Potion.

Return to the campfire room and save your game, then examine the campfire again. Eventually you'll start a fire with the flint and tender. After a short walk down memory lane, you'll get atacked by a klikk. Wail on him until the doors blow open (don't bother using potions yet), and then you'll get a little help.

Mystery Girl
Using the Mystery girl's stuff, toss a couple grenades at it. If you run out, you can steal one from him. You may need to potion Tidus a time or two, but I didn't. Don't be afraid to use her potions if you need them. When the battle is over, you'll get some cut scenes. They think you're a fiend in human disguise and want to kill you, but mystery girl tells them not to kill you, then apologizes to you, and hits you. LOL.

Workin' for a livin'
When you wake up later, you'll be forced to work to earn your keep. First, though, head to the save globe at the top of the screen. Over on the right is Al Bhed Primer vol. I. Be sure to get it. Congratulations - you are now Al Bhed Hujela. Whee. Get a 3x potion from the guy on the left. If you talk to the guy on the right after you've talked to the girl already, "yeah" will get you the tutorial again. Talk to the girl to learn how to use the sphere grid. Go through the turtorial and PAY ATTENTION! You won't be able to level up if you don't!

When finished, talk to the girl again. She'll tell you what to do. Hop into the water. Press and hold circle and the down arrow to descend to the depths, when you get to the next screen, you'll have to hold circle and up (forward) to go down, but try not to go TOO far down just yet. You'll be fighting Phiranha and they will drop random spheres. Not only is the basically your first chance to level up, it's also the last place you'll be able to get some Ability Spheres, which will be helpful in the next area. It's helpful to get BOTH characters an Overdrive, too.

I like to just swim right to left (so I don't end up too far down) and level up a bit here. You can quickly build up levels and earn spheres by having the girl steal and use grenades. You could also keep the grenades (which you can sell a little later) and have Tidus attack, but grenades will result in Overkill, which means the enemies drop double the spheres - which is way more useful than money this early on in the game. When you start to get low on health, head back to the surface and use the save sphere to heal up (and save while you're at it). You can get another 3 potions from talking to the guy toward the top of the screen, too. (He never runs out as far as I could tell.) I like to level up a bit here. I use the Picture in picture on my TV to watch something entertaining while I level up. By the time I was ready to move on to the next area, my save game registered 2 hours and 14 minutes. I had 15 grenades and 34 potions. I had learned Cheer, Defense+1, Strength+1, Flee, Agility+1, and Accuracy+1. I also had amassed over 20 ability spheres.

If you do opt to level Tidus up a bit (other than maybe the accessible 200 HP, there's not a lot of point to leveling up the girl yet), you can get him pretty buff (well, reasonbly less sucky) relatively early on in the game. While fighting Phirana, be sure to save an Overdrive for both characters before moving on, which you'll do by continuing down into the deep deep. When you're ready to move on, head toward the bottom of the sea and don't use that Overdrive until I'll tell you when to use it. When you get inside the building, save your game. From the bottom area, you can "return to the ship," if you need to.

Fighting Tros
You may want to read through this section before going into the big battle. It's kinda tough to figure out on the fly. Examine the panel to open the door. Follow the girl to the power source. Fight more fish. Examine the power source and wake the monster. When you try to leave, he'll attack. The girl will be able to steal grenades from this guy. Yeah... He would TOTALLY have grenades... Whatever; you probably have a bunch already.

Steal 'em if you need. You've been saving your overdrive, right? Have Rikku use the "mix" skill and combine TWO GRENADES. If you haven't been saving that, you'll need to either do it the hard way, or wait until she's got an overdrive saved up.

If you have to do it the hard way, have Tidus cheer if he can. If you're characters drop below 200 HP, use a potion! When the fish swims around the bend, potion up your guys if you need to, or use the stand by trigger. Steal another grenade and hit him. When you get a chance for another trigger command, use the pincher attack. Have Tidus wail on him, and have the girl use potions to keep him safe. Don't forget to use your overdrives if you get them. You should be able to kill him off without too much trouble. If you die, you at least have a decent place to come back too. Follow the girl out the hole in the wall. When you get out, dive and head dead toward the red arrow.

Congratulations, you have helped raise the air ship. More on THAT later. (Quite a bit later, as it turns out). After a while, the girl will bring you food. When Tidus goes nuts and eventually tells her everything. She tells him about Zanarkand. Save your game (if you really want; you don't need to, though) and talk to her again. In a few minutes, you'll have a chance to save your game. When you wake up, head to your left and get a few antidotes from the chest by the nets. Then get back in the water and swin as far right as you can. Go up and to the left to a little alcove and you'll get the moon crest. (Note: The crests are used to get cool weapons later. FIND THEM ALL!) Now go talk to the guys on the beach.

Welcome to Besaid.

Besaid (she said)

Beach Side
When you wake up, head to your left and get a few antidotes from the chest by the nets. Then get back in the water and swin as far right as you can. Go up and to the left to a little alcove and you'll get the moon crest. (Note: The crests are used to get cool weapons later. FIND THEM ALL!) (Am I being repetitive? There's a reason!) Head back to the beach and talk to the guys. When Wakka leaves, follow him. Save your game and head inland.

Continue to follow him and he'll push you into the water. You'll have a chance to kill some fish. Rather than just swim straight, use the "dive" function you learned about in the previous section. Dive and open the chests for a phoenix down and a Hi-Potion and a few Antidotes. When you get to the end of the river, you'll join the Aurochs. You'll tell Wakka you are playing to win, and he'll help you learn stuff. (Or is that in reverse...)

Besaid Town
When you get to the town, just take whatever is in the chests. No one seems to care. The last tent on the left is the Crusaders's. Be sure to pop in here and grab the Al Bhed Primer II near the entrance. You can save your game in the back corner of this tent. Now head to the temple. Look around and talk to the priest. Try to go up the stairs if you want. When you have looked around, leave, and go find Wakka. (You can't get outside to go level up, even if you want to!) Wakka's tent is second door on the right (from the entrance to the village). Talk to Wakka and take a nap. After another trip down repressed memory lane, you wake up. Go back to the temple and talk to Wakka.

Besaid Cloister of Trials
This section involves picking up spheres from one place and putting them somewhere else. You also touch glyphs. While this may seem monotonous, you'll be doing it a LOT. I'll number all these steps to make this easier on the eyes.

1. You start off in a small room with writing on the far and rightmost walls. Examine the far wall. Examine the right wall (touch glyph).
2. Head down the stairs that appear. At the bottom of the first flight of stairs, examine the sphere shaped recess in the wall. Take the Glyph Sphere.
3. Go down the next flight of stairs. Insert the sphere in the door.
4. Walk through the doors, and remove the sphere from the door.
5. Go around the corner and place the sphere in the recess along the wall.
6. Go into the room that appears and remove the destruct sphere.
7. Continue around the walkway until you see a little statue by the left wall. Place the destruct sphere there.
8. There should be some symbols on the wall opposite it. Touch them.
9. Go into the room and grab the besaid sphere.
10. Go back to the room where you found the destruct sphere and place the besaid sphere there.
11. Now go back and get the destruct sphere from the statue, and place it in the sphere recess in the room where you found the besaid sphere.
12. A wall around the corner should blow up and you'll see a treasure chest inside it. Go get it. You should find the Rod of Wisdom. (A weapon for a future character.)
13. Go back and grab the besaid sphere and place it on the pedistal statue.
14. Push the pedistal straight forward.

Returning to Besaid
After leaving Djose, you can back-track to Besaid. Talk to the girl near her dog in the store. You'll be rewarded as follows: "Obtained something mangled and slobbery." After that, you should see "Valefor has learned Overdrive Energy Blast."

Kilika
When you have beat sin, you will wind up in Kilika. I recommend leveling up here abouts (in a few minutes; you can't do it now). Save your game on the dock and head to what's left of the town. Head left and watch the REALLY cool cut scene. Watch the sending, then more chocobo sleepy-time music. Talk to the kid whose sole goal in life is aspiring to become a piece of athletic equipment. ("I wanna be a blitzball when I grow up!") Leave and head left.

In the first building you come to, you can get 3 potions. A little farther left, you can save a little kid. Now head right, past the inn. On the next screen, go into the first building you come to - that's the pub. On the counter is Al Bhed Primer Vol IV. You should now be rank Al Bhed Pakehhan. Talk to the girl at the counter, then open the chest for an Ether. Leave that building and head right. Just down from that is a store at which you can buy Weapons and Armor. Follow the road around to tht right, and talk to Wakka. Now, head back the other way and take the dock path all the way to shore.

Valifor, I choose YOU!
Save your game. Remember, saving also restores hit/magic points. Now, head straight (and enjoy the "Ico reminescent" music). Level up a little. There's some treasure in this forest, see the paragraph below. You don't have to fight the big guy directly in front of you by the way (well, not right this second). Be sure to have Kimari learn Seed Canon from a Ragora. You can try to kill off Lord Ochu if you want (talk to Luzzu a few times to net yourself 4 Antidotes). He has 4649 hit points. If you opt not to use your Aeon, here's a bit of strategy.

Swap Yuna in when you need to heal your guys, or to cast Esuana when you need to cure status abnormalities. Wakka can hit this guy with Silent Attack, but he's immune to dark attack. Tidus can cheer to raise your strength and defense. He's vulnerable to fire, so have Lulu keep pounding him with it. Kimari can lancet over and over, but I didn't get anything from him. I swapped in a Fireball for Wakka (I found it while running around in the forest here.) If Ochu falls asleep, he'll heel up. When he's asleep, magic attacks don't seem to wake him, but hitting him will. Unless you can do a lot of damage to him, you may have to wake him up - but be careful... He's got an attack that can do 350+ dmg to everyone.

FYI: Valifor is immune to that Earthquake attack that hits everyone for so much damage. I recommend Valifor (the Aeon from Circ De Sole) and his sonic wings attack. Use energy ray when he only has 1000 or so HP left. That should net you an easy over kill. Use Wakka's Elemental Reel and get Fire! Don't let him stay asleep! When you have killed him off (Good for an MP Sphere, or two if you overkill him), retrace your steps and talk to Luzzu for an elixir. Go all the way back to the beginning and save your game. See the blue letters on the ruins on the left of the main road? They say:

t e p s w r s
V C O I U

The Forest
While wandering around, you'll be able to level your characters up a bit. I'll take this opportunity to provide a suggestion. When you're leveling up Kimahri, why not go up first, and lead left? From the Lancet skill, that's HP, Str, MP, 0, Def, 0, 0, 0, Str, Def, HP, Agil. This will take you back down toward the lower left area, where there's a Level 1. Lock that blocks access to an area with the Steal and Use skills. More on this later.

In this little forest there are treasure chests. The one along the first right road has two mana spheres. The second is down the first left, then up the next right. It contains a scout (an ice weapon to help Wakka kill off the ice-vulnerable flyers in this area). To get the third, go back to the beginning of the woods, then take every left you come to. Talk to everyone you meet (you may have to talk more than once) and you'll get a free Hi-Potion and a Remedy. You'll get a luck sphere from the chest at the end of the road. To get to the next area, head north from the save point and take the third right.

You should come to a bridge. Be careful not to go to far here. Run around until you find some enemies, then charge your Valifor. Let other enemies attack him until he gets his overdrive. Use the right arrow to select "Boost" so you can get charged quicker. When ready, head across the bridge and up the stairs to watch a bit of a cut scene. As soon as the race starts, save your game. You wouldn't want to loose your new found levels, would you? ;) Actually, it's because you're about to hit a major battle.

There are three enemies here, Boss: Sinspawn Geneaux, Boss[1]: Geneaux's Tentacle, and Boss[2]: Beneaux's Tentacle. Make sure Kimari, Tidus, and Wakka don't have any magic weapons equiped, then use Tidus, Kimari and Wakka to kill off Geneaux's tenticles, then use Lulu's fire (and Wakka's elemental reel / Fireball) attack. If you can, have Tidus cast haste on Lu. When he breaks out of his shell (around 1K pts dmg), you can use regular weapons against him. When he was down to about 1000 HP left, I brought in Valefore to the fight. Have him do sonic wings to hold the guy at bay while you charge your Energy Ray. When he's down to around 400 HP or so, you should be able to get an OVERKILL out of it!

Frankly, I was able to get a 2000+ Energy Ray. I was unable to lancet anything from these three enemies. After you beat him, head up the stairs. You learn a great deal about what kind of person Lulu is. If I had to some her up in one word, well, it probably wouldn't be repeatable in mixed company. ;) I will say this, though: I would like to see something scratch her. She just seems like a big itch that needs scratching.

Anyway... Enter the temple (after talking to the goers) and save your game. Talk to Wakka, then pray, then watch the cut scene. When the dialogue is over, follow Yuna into the temple. When everyone else leaves, wait for the elevator to come up, then try to get on the elevator. After a bit you'll be at the bottom. Head into the...

Kilika Cloister of Trials
Go through the door and enter the Kilika Cloister of Trials. Congratulations, you're going to do another one of these sphere puzzles!

1. There is a pedistal that is burning. Take the Kilika Sphere and put it in the red circle to the right of the door.
2. Take it out and go through the door. Put it into the recess on the center wall straight ahead; a glyph should appear.
3. Remove the sphere from the pedistal and place it on the left wall.
4. Remove the sphere from the center wall and place it on the pedistal.
5. Go to the center wall and touch the glyph.
6. When the doorway appears, push the pedistal through the doorway and onto the shiny spot on the floor at the top right of that room.
7. Walk to the wall on the right and take the Kilika Sphere.
8. Go back to the room where you found the pedistal and put the Kilika sphere in the recess on the right wall.
9. Go to the left wall and take the glyph sphere.
10. Put the glyph sphere in the recess where you found the Kilika sphere. (The room full of fire should go away... Er, the fire IN the room should go away, that is.) Make mental note that a doorway to a little room just opened up here.
11. Go down where the fire was and walk to the far right wall.
12. Remove the Kilika sphere from the right wall.
13. Go to the door at the top of the screen and place the sphere in the recess to the right of the door.
14. Take the Kilika Sphere back out (yeah, you read that right).
15. Go back to the room where you found the pedistal and put the Kilika sphere in the far left wall.
16. Now go to the little room that opend up where you got rid of the Firewall down below.
17. Take the destruct sphere and put it in the recess at the bottom of the stairway (where the firewall used to be, on the right.)
18. The wall should blow apart and you'll see a chest.
19. Open it for the red armlet. This is Kimari's armor.
20. Now go through the doorway at the top of the screen.

Learn the Jecht Shot
Back on the boat, when you first wake up be sure not to head out on the deck and look at the blitzball first thing. Just behind the three guys to your left is a trunk. Open it for a hi-potion. Go through the door on your right. This is your second chance (of four) to lend money to O'aka. If you lend him over 10k over the course of those four meetings (e.g., 10,001) you'll get a 30% discount on items later on). In the Captain's cabin on the floor you can find the Al Bhed Primer V. Next be sure to save your game. You're going to try something difficult, and you want to be able to do it right, so you may have to restore a few times. Go up the stairs and up the next steps. Evesdrop on Wakka and Lu, then head to the front of the ship. Examine the blitzball.

Follow the instructions to perform the Jecht Shot (The Sublimly Magnificant Jecht Shot Mark III). If the instructions aren't clear, just look where the dialog from Jecht is showing up. If he's saying something at the top of the screen, press up and 'X,' etc. If Wakka and the rest are impressed, you did it right. Keep rebooting until you get it. It's worth it to learn this outright, and if you want to try and PLAY the blitz ball game later in the game, it's VERY crucial to do this right. Talk to Yuna to end this sequence. After a bit of sleep, save your game. Welcome to Luca...

Returning to Kilika
If you missed going into the Captain's cabin for the primer on the way here, you have another shot. After you leave Djose, you should be able to come back to Luca and hop in the Ferry to Kilika again. If not, you'll be able to do so once you're passed the Thunder Plains. On that ferry, the captain's cabin has Al Bhen Primer Vol. V. Or if you totally miss it every time, you can find it in the Sanubia Desert near where you stumble across Khimari.

Luca
So..... You've arrived in Luca, eh? Just look at the crowd folks. All (4) fans have turned out to root for the goers. ;) Now then. When you first arive on the docks, don't try to board the ship; you can't. Instead, talk to the hightly intelligent townsfolk. They'll show you their BLISTERING insights into the nuances of everyday life. (Hey, you came over across the water. Wet, ain't it!) Anyway, go off to the right and save your game, then continue right. We're off to meet the Measter! The wonderful Measter of... odd. Never mind. Meet the Measter. See the guy with spiral chest hair? Isn't that creepy?

That's a little something I like to call "foreshadowning." Oops. Did I spoil something? D'oh! I'm always doing that. Oh well. This IS a walkthrough. I suppose it's not surprise that we'll (ahem) Seymour of him later. Now then... In the interest of full disclosure, I've never really gotten into Blitz ball. I think the problem was not understanding it very well. If you are the kind of person who likes side quests and mini-games, I'd recommend paying close attention to each aspect of the tutorial. If you are the kind of person who hates mini-games, you'll likely want to pay only cursory attention to these blitzball games. It doesn't seem to matter that much game wise.

Actually, I've had a change of heart. I'm going to edit this section and actually add the bits needed to explain how the blitzball system works and what you can do about it. There are certain weapons (for Wakka, shock - I know) that require some level of BB proficiency, so a good walkthrough really should have it.

Catch the boat and do some damage! If you can, cast haste on Lu first, then have Tidus try to use the crane. Next have Lu hit it with lightning 3 times while Kimahri and Tidus just smack around the boss. After three bolts, the crain should be able to do some decent damage. Whittle the boss down to about 1000 HP, then have Tidus attempt to use the crain. The boss should either be dead now, or easy to beat. Have Lu finish him off with lightning. Now it's time to play, "Let's learn a little bit about Yuna's family!" OK.

I love Lulu's reaction. Remember when she told Wakka he was living in the past? Heh. That was a good one. *eyeroll* Head back to the stadium and save your game. Go to the Auroch's dressing room talk to Wakka. When you are finished, you'll be able to wander around a very confined area. Save the game here.

My First Blitz Ball Game
If you want another reminder about the rules, talk to Datto. The most important thing to remember about Blitzball is this: everything you do gives you experience points. So if you just have Tidus and Letty pass the ball back and forth for 5 minutes, those two characters will get lots of experience points. Go talk to Wakka when you are ready to play. Your first match doesn't give you an opportunity to set any techniques or marks at first, but you'll be able to change things around at half time. You need to make sure your guys level up before then. You did save in the locker room, right?

The cut scene between the locker room and when you actually start to play is about 4 minutes. If you're lucky, your team will get the ball first. If not, I recommend a restart and reload. When you get the ball, immediately press square and throw it to someone that doesn't have an opponent near by. When he catches it, press Triangle and switch to Manual Mode A and set your guys to stick to the Right Side.

Whoever has the ball should swim away from any opponents and try to throw to another player. You just want to pass pass pass until the time runs out. You're attempting to level people up. The player who *really* needs to be leveled up, though, is Tidus. Have him get every other pass. (e.g., Letty to Tidus, Tidus to Botta, Botto to Tidus, Tidus to Letty, repeat.) Just make sure no one who is near an opponent gets the ball. You do NOT want the Goers to level up!!!

At half time, you'll be able to set Techniques and Marks. Hopefully you know how to do this from the tutorials, but at least be sure you set Tidus to that Jecht shot you learned earlier. If you failed on that, leave it on the sphere shot. The Jecht shot can knock away two opponents *AND* add plus 5 to your shot skill, so it's really useful. When the second half starts, it's great if you actually get the ball, but if the Goers get it, hit Triangle and switch to defensive formation Right. You be interuppted by a cut scene after about 2:45, so be SURE to have Tidus score before then.

You really want to score at least one goal. When your guys get the ball, swim along the lower rim of the Sphere Pool and try to pass the ball to Tidus. He should swim toward the goal and shoot using the Jecht shot - but only if he's decently close and is guarded by NO MORE than two opponents. The Jecht shot will knock them away, and the raised shot score should get you the goal. After that, it's all about the pass pass pass action you learned in the first half.

After the cut scene, keep up with the passing, etc. You just have to keep the ball away from the Goers so they can't try and score. I was able to win this tournament. Really. I got a strength sphere.

If you like side quests like this, have fun playing blitz throughout the game. If you don't though, well, if you spend 3 hours leveling up your characters, they will be well enough equiped to beat the game. If you like it, thought (and if you learned the Jecht shot earlier on) feel free to play as much as you like.

Several people have written me to let me know that they have had hours of enjoyment playing the Blitzball mini-game. Apparently, if you are really into sports like games, this is a lot of fun. Perhaps that's why I'm not all that into it. Maybe it will grow on me if I play it more. Feel free to read on, I'm going to go find my controller...

tl;dr: Save before starting the game, then play around and see if you like it. If you do, it might be worth your while to restore until you've actually succeded in winning the game. Later on, you can start your own blitzball team. If you do, it'll be worth it to have played really good in this one. At the very least, you'll have learned how to play well. ;) Anyway, regardless of whether you want to do this later or not, you may have the opportunity to slot the Jecht Shot you learned earlier, if you level up during the first have. Concentrate on a bunch of passing between your guys to level them up - Tidus most, ignore Wakka.


Moving on
After the game is over, you'll have to fight some fish. You may want to make use of dark attacks. After Auron joins up with you again, you'll have to fight. Apparently Yuna has a thing for guys with really big Aeons. I'm not sure what that means. *ahem* Boy, doesn't Auron have a twisted sense of humor. (No, that wasn't a question). Anywho...

After the Auron monologue, follow Auron and the red arrows back to the main arena store and save your game. (Stock up by buying stuff too, if you want). Head down from the shops to enter to town proper. Follow the path right, but head north to the Theater. In the "reception" area (use triangle to see where you are), you can find something on the ground. That's Al Bhed Primer Vol. VII.

Follow the red Auron arrows around the little statue and up the stairs. When Yuna calls to you, go say "Hi" to her. (Gotta love that theme with variations spin on Ellone's theme). When you have control again, save your game and head straight forward along the path to Highroad.

You take the Highroad
Continue along Highroad until you get to the end. You may want to level up a little bit here; the dual horns have those Ability Spheres you're probably looking for about now (assuming you didn't spend a lot of time fighting fish early on), and Kimari can learn Fire Breath from them. There are various people you'll run across here. Talk to them for cool stuff. There are also paths that branch off with chests. You'll want to get the Level 1. Key Sphere here (you are talking to everyone on the road, right?)

Be sure to explore a bit, and when you run across a summoner who challenges you, accept. When you talk to Belgemine, you'll be required to fight with Valefore. Alternate between Shield and Boost just like the tutorial suggests - shield against Meteor Strike and Boost against a standarad attack. He alternates between them, so it's easy to know what comes next. Fight until you get an overdrive, then nail him with that for the win.

You won't earn any AP or items for this battle, but you will earn an Echo Ring from her, which is pretty useful to have on Yuna this early in the game. She'll leave after the battle, but you'll run into her later on. Every time you do, be sure to accept her challenges so you can get some great items. Continue on down the Highroad. When you see the chocobo cart, follow the crusaders to the right and talk them. Gatta and Luzzu are funny. A little further up the road is a young lady named Shelinda. Talk to her, then continue on. Eventually you'll get to the end of the road and you'll sleep at Rin's Al Bhed shop.

Oh here she comes; she's a Chocobo Eater!
When you wake up, talk to people then go outside and talk to Yuna. Pay attention and you'll learn something. When you wake up again, be sure to talk to the kid - he'll give you your second Level 1. Key Sphere. (FWIW, I like to have Khimari use both of these to jump across to Rikku's sphere grid so I can have another character learn the Use, Steal, and Spare Change skills. Having Khimari know these is really helpful later on.) When you try to leave, you'll be stopped by a guy named Rin, the owner. You should get Al Bhed Primer Vol VIII. You'll probably get 2x Mega Potion, too. When the chocobos are attacked, save your game and head outside.

You have one last opportunity to do a little leveling up if you leave via the southern path. You can go all the way back to the save point at the south end of Highroad. If you've been leveling Kimahri up via the upper left, then lower left path, chances are you have the ability to take him through the two Level 1. Locks on the sphere grid that lead to Rikku's "Steal" and "Use" commands. You should also have two Level 1. Key Spheres, right? This suggests a course of action to me. You can get Kimahri the ability to steal before the next battle, but just so you know, it's not too terribly useful. I'll tell you when the steal skill is finally useful, and you can level up then. When you're ready to continue, head around behind the building to the Chocobo Corral.

To defeat the Chocobo Eater, use dark attack to blind him, then use fire based attacks to kill him off. Remember to keep dark attacking him to keep him blind, since he can kill with one blow. BTW: He's immune to sleep. Have Auron hit him with Power Break to mimimize the effects of his punches. When finished, touch the save sphere to restore your HP/MP and go rent a chocobo. (If he knocks you off the cliff, you'll have to follow the path). I recommend getting everyone involved in the fight, then bringing in Valefore to finish him off with an overdrived Energy Ray. My Ifrit's overdrive did 4782 to him, which was good for an overkill. During the course of the battle, Kimahri was able to steal four potions. Whee.

Chocobo tracks; Chocobo tricks
Rent your free chocobo and head north. As your chocobo walks around, look on the ground for feathers. Your chocobo can do tricks there. There should be one after you cross the second bridge (there's an Al Bhed primer IX on the ground, too - if you come to that, you've gone to far.). Press 'X' by a yellow thing on the ground. Your chocobo should be able to earn you a Heat Lance here. When you come to the fork in the road, open the chest to the left for 2x Hi-Potion, then take the right hand trail that goes back the direction you came from (but on a different path). Head down and look for more chocobo feathers.

The first one is opposite a small tower directly below Shelinda and the scholar (Thunder Blade and Scout). The last one is along a small path to the right, a little bit after you see Lucil (fortune sphere). Just beyond that, you may bump into O'aka. At the end of that road is a chest with the Mars Crest in it. When you have beaten the Spherimorph (and gone to Zanarkand, I think), you'll be able to return here for a Jecht's Sphere.

Think about that for a second. This is where you end up if you don't beat the chocobo eater, right? You get knocked off the ledge and end up here. The implication of this is that Braska's party couldn't defeat the chocobo eater. :) Head back to the fork in the road where the save sphere is and go north to move on to mushroom rock.

Mushroom Rock
Save your game, talk to everyone (if you donate money, you get stuff - 100 gets a scout, 1000 gets an ice lance, and 10,000 is a moon ring) and then try to go through the archway. When you cannot, head back. Creepy-face will get you through the gate. After more 'tell-you-what-the-heck-is-going-on' scenes, you'll be ready to fight again. Just south (well, west I guess) of you are two guys guarding the way down. If you talk to them, you'll get stuff. You can't get past them, though. Head for the little red arrows on the map (take the road off to your left). Save your game and head down the path. Step on the circle and press x to go up. Continue along the path. Be sure to talk to everyone along the way and open all the chests. I found 1000 Gil, a Remedy, an a Hi-Potion.

Don't worry that you don't see how to get down to the lower area. We'll get to that later on. When you meet Shelinda, keep talking to her and she'll be able to heal you and restore your magic (that way you don't waste potions). When you go up the next elevator, follow the turn around to the left and go down the elevator there. There is a treasure chest with the Serene Armlet. Head back to the main path but just before you go up the next elevator, look at your map and see the little detour there. Follow that narrow path to reach Al Bhed Primer vol. X (if you've been following along and picked up all 10 so far, Tidus should have achieved the rank of Al Bhed Maynhan - whatever that means.) Go right a little way and save your game.

If you use your level 1 key spheres to get Kimahri the steal and use skills, you can steal a silence grenade from a funguar, a bomb fragment from a Red Element, Soft from a Raptor, an electro marble from a Gandarewa, a smoke bomb (once I stole 5!) from a Garuda, and a Silver Hourglass from a Lamashtu. These are probably not worth enough at this time to spend several hours leveling him up to get to the steal skill. However, for the next section, you'll want both Valifor and Ifrit to have an overdrive on standby. Maybe Yuna as well.

Base Camp
Go down a little and talk to Luzzu. Now head up the elevator, and head right. Follow the red arrow until you come to a save point outside the Command Center. If you need any weapons, armor or items, head just north of that to O'aka's. I spent everything I had to get my hands on two weapons: Avenger (Tidus' weapon w/ Counterattack) and Sentry (Auron's weapon w/ Initiative and Piercing). There is are two chests up inside the command center. One is a Serene Bracer, the other is a Mega-Potion. I set my party as Auron (now that he has a weapon with initiative), Yuna, and Kimahri.

Talk to anyone except Yuna and don't say you are ready. One of the chests is hidden (sort of) behind a pile of spears. You should get a Serene Bracer and a Mega-Potion. I set my party as Auron (his sentry has Initiative), Tidus (Haste and Slow), and Kimahri (Steal and Use). Save your game and then try to leave off the right hand side of the screen. The save portion of that sentence is pretty crucial. If you haven't played this game before, it's kinda likely you'll get worked.

Seeing Double
When the battle begins, you are gonna probably get decimated the first time, unless you have been leveling up your characters this whole time. There are actually four enemies here. Boss: Sinspawn Gui, Boss[1]: Head, Boss[2]: Arm, and Boss[3]: Arm. His head attacks with Venom, and the two arms will shield the body from attacks.

When the battle begins, I swap out Auron for Tidus and use haste on Yuna, then himself. Remeber, everyone needs to participate to get experience. Now that Yuna is hasted, you can swap her out for someone to defend. Have Tidus use haste on himself be sure to use Hi-Potions to keep your guys alive, when you need. You'll want to end with Lulu in your part; she's the real work horse here. Kimahri can steal potions from the left and right arms as well as the main Sinspawn Gui boss. Again, it's probably not worth it to have leveled him up just to steal, and Potions are increadibly cheap - don't waste time in a boss battle to steal them unless you just want to do it for the LOLs. Anyway, when Lulu is in the party, have Tidus cast haste on her, too.

The head is immune to Dark Attack, Sleep Attack, and Silence Attack. If you've got Lulu's Watera skill, use that on the head. I was able to get an overkill off it! When the head starts moving suspiciously, hit it with Wakka's Blitzball, Lulu's magic or Kimari's Lancet skill to prevent the Venom attack. Kill this off first. I used Kimari, Wakka, and Lulu on the head (Swaping in Yuna to heal after a few Lancets). Just don't use Aeons or Yuna's overdrive.

Next, go after the left arm. Use a charcter with a piercing weapon (Auron) and Lulu's magic. The arms are immune to Power Break, so just hit him with piercing attacks (swap in Kimari, too). When the left is down, go after the right. Once those are gone, all that's left is Boss: Sinspawn Gui. I swapped in Tidus, but he's immune to Delay Attack. I did use Cheer and Haste, though, though. Once everyone got in a hit or two, I summoned Valefor (I had an overdrive Grand Summon) and used that to wear him down. He's immune to sonic wings (I'm sure that suprises you, lol), but I got in an Energy Ray that hit him for 3K+ points of damage. By waiting until he was less than 3K HP, I was able to prevent him from killing Valifor.
He's the total suck part. He respawns the arms. If you have Auron, Kimahri, and Lulu in the battle, it's possible that the two piercing attacks can take care of one arm and the Watera attack can kill off the other. In any event, I had Yuna concentrate on using cure only when needed, and use Pray a lot. I was able to get Yuna and Auron up pretty high. As an option, you can wait for an overdrive on Yuna to get a Grand Summon, if you don't have one handy. I felt the need for an Overkill on the main enemy. :D However you decide to fight this, though, be aware - you'll have to fight him again.

After the cut scene, you get another crack at him. He's only got 1000 HP on the head and 6000 HP on the body, this time, so he's easier to defeat. This time, you're using Seymour, Auron and Yuna. Use Seymour's Watera against the arms to kill them off quickly, then head, then the body. Have Yuna keep people alive. Have Auron take on the other arm and then the body. By charging the Aeons in advance, this was a very easy battle. I never even used Ifrit. Once it was down to just the body, I used my saved up Grand Summon to bring Valifor back into the battle. I whittled him down a few thousand, and when he was under 3K, I overkilled him with another Energy Ray. Given the number of overkills I got on this, I was a little dissapointed in how few levels I really went up. Oh well. ;) I managed to get 6 Level 1 Key Spheres out of the deal, and a Dreamy Cait Sith (I've also received an Alert Shield once and a useless Katana another time), though, so that's cool. :D

Beaches, Basilisks and You
When you wake up, walk Tidus around until you see and talk to Gatta. After a while, you will wake up on the beach again. Open the chests (Hi-Potion, ) and talk to Auron. Save your game, then head up and to the right to meet up with your group. Notice O'aka has Softs for sale now? That's a NOT-so-subtle hint. You could get them at the top of the previous section too, btw.

You'll leave this area and head north along the Djose Highroad. Follow the left wall along and you'll find some Phoenix Downs in a chest, then walk along the other side a little way to find Al Bhed Primer vol. XI. If you are having trouble with the basilisks, try using Valefor. They can't hurt him with stone gaze. Just have him boost while they try over and over; it's free overdrive and good for a laugh. :)

Also, Kimari can learn Stone Breath from these guys. Remember, if a character is petrified, that character doesn't earn any AP for that round. Having Valefor overkill both (Overdrive) will net you 4 of those oh-so-hard-to-find Ability Spheres. There's a chest hidden on the left side of the road, in a little alcove. Snag that for a Bright Bangle. When you get to the cross roads, you'll take the north road (the one everyone else walked down). Head to Djose Temple.

Return Visit
Later on, you can return here, then climb the boxes on your left. There's a chest just past them. Your first left (character's right) has an elevator. Take it. Examine the statue twice. Hmm. Guess what you found...

Djose Temple
The temple
When you get to the Djose temple, you can save your game off to the right. Just to the right of the temple enterence you can see Gatta again. You might want to talk to him. There is a chest around here with 4 Ability Spheres, and another with 4000 Gil. When you get inside you will meet Isaaru. He's a fruitcake. At least he seems less annoying than any other summoner you have met as of this point. There are chests in the rooms to the right (Mega phoenix) and left (remedy) of the cloister of trials, and one just outside the door to the room on the left (ether). Head up the stairs.

Djose Cloister of Trials

1. When you enter the cloister of trials, remove the Djose spheres (one at a time, of course) from the walls and place them in the recesses in the doors.
2. Walk past the pedistals and remove the Djose Spheres from the far wall (one at a time, of course).
3. Place them in the two recesses on the right forward wall (just down and to the right of a small glyph).
4. Push the pedistal right until it is directly under the glowing Stalagtite (upside down pillar).
5. Remove the now brightly glowing Djose Sphere.
6. Place it in the sphere recess just to the right of the door beyond the glowing glyphs on the ground. It should open.
7. Move the two spheres that made the stalagtite glow from the wall to the pillar (one on the right side, and one on the left).
8. Push the pillar through the door and down into the electricity.
9. Jump across to the far side, and push that pillar against the wall.
10. Jump back and step on the shinny glyph to the left of the big glyph etched into the ground (where you found the pillar in the first place).
11. The pillar will return to it's orignal location.
12. Take the spheres from the pillar and place them in the recesses at the very beginning of the temple (where you found the two that you used to open the first door).
13. Now remove the brightly glowing Djose sphere and move it to the other side of the door. A wall to your left should start glowing (well, maybe "flickering" is a better word for what it's doing.)
14. Go touch it to open the way to the destruct sphere.
15. Get the destruct sphere.
16. Go stand on the big glowing glyph in the middle of the temple. It's an elevator.
17. At the top, head forward and you will see 3 pedistals. There are actually 5, 2 can only be seen in your periferal vision. Go examine all of them (this should push then up to the wall).
18. Now place the destruct sphere in the pedistal on the next screen down.
19. Open the chest that shows up for a magic sphere.
20. Now head up the stairs through doorway to your left.

Afterwords
Talk to people if you want. When you get bored, try to leave. Name your new aeon and leave. Talk to people if you want. Go into the building to your right. Behind the counter that is behind the woman you will find a chest with a switch hitter in it. When you get bored, go into the temple and talk to Gatta. Just past Gatta are two statues, go in between them and look hard to your right, if you didn't get the chests earlier.

(No there isn't a chest on the other side of the stairs). Go through the door straight ahead and talk to the guy on the left. He thinks he's a FF9 chocobo. :D Now talk to the lady guarding Yuna. (She's on the bed - right back corner of the room). Now you are outside, head forward and you'll be ready to leave. Be sure to talk to the people on the way out of town. Head back to the cross roads. If you have to beat people up, try using your new aeon. Ixion is cool, especially if you need thunder magic (he has thundara). On to the Moonflow.

Moonflow

Optional: Backtrack
After clearing Djose temple, you are now able to back-track past the boxes where the big battle took place - all the way to Besaid, if you'd like. That beings said, there's actually a much better time to do that coming up before too long, so I wouldn't suggest it unti you want to farm Aeon-upgrade items (see a little further down.)

South Bank Road
Head down the South Bank Road (where you are as soon as you leave the Djose Temple crossroads and head left). Talk to everyone. Shelinda can't heal you at this time, but right next to her is a chest hidden in the off to the right. That's pretty much all the Level 1 Key Sphere's you should be able to use (if you got the other 10 earlier). :) Now head on back down the road.

In the unlikely even you have steal capability, steal remidies from the Ochus. Use fire to kill them off. I let my aeon's cast fire, since they are immune to status aliments. Oh, and your enemies are pretty well decimated by Hell Fire (Ifrit's overdrive). I found that Tidus, Lulu and Auron are good to keep together on this road for anything that is not an Ochu. You should run across those Ronso brothers that like to insult Kimarhi.

Ignore them. There's a chest just beyond them with an X-Poion. If you run across an Ochu, have Wakka use his sleep attakc to put it to sleep, then have Tidus cast slow. That should keep him out of the picture while Lulu hits him with Fira. By the way, before the next crossroads, there is a chest off to the right with three more L1 Key Spheres. Be sure to charge Ifrit around here - you want an overdrive for the next task...

Belgemine
You'll run into Belgemine again a bit further down the road. Be sure to take some time to get Ifrit an overdrive before talking to her. It will make the next battle much easier.

Regardless of whether your aeons are dead or alive, be sure to try to fight with Belgemine; she heals all your aeons. You can at least end up with one aeon OK. If you haven't been leveling up, this is almost pointless. Basically, you want to defeat each of her aeons with the next-most-powerful one of yours.

I was able to defeat her with my Ifrit using Hellfire overdrive, boost, then Hellfire overdrive again. You get no AP or items directly from the battle, but you'll get 2x Dragon Scale from her, and more importantly a Summoner's Soul. Watch the tutorial that comes next carefully - the Summoner's Soul lets you modify your aeons and teach them new abilities! For example, you can use the 2x Dragon Scale you just got to teach one of your Aeons Watera.
But anoter very cool thing you can do with this ability is to spend 99x hi-potion to teach one of your Aeons the Cure spell. Hopefully you didn't sell all of them back in Luca, but you can also steal them from the Garam enemies in this area, if you're patient and have that skill.

Moonflow River
Ahead past her on the left is a small road to the left that leads to the left and a Magic Def Sphere. Past that you will see the moonflow. Then you'll get to see the Shoopuf marshmellow... Oh sorry. From the moonflow observation area, head left and you'll see the Shoopuf place. Open all the chests, talk to everyone, and most importantly save/heal. You can find a chest hidden behind Lulu (5k!).

Optional: Level up a bit. While this isn't the best place to level up your characters, if you're close to 99x Hi-Potions you may want to consider back-tracking and stealing them from a Garam, if you have the steal skill. Ifrit and Ixion can heal themselves by casting their prefered element on themselves, but Valefore needs the cure magic. But if you're a long way away from the 99 you need, don't worry about it.
When you are ready, make sure Wakka and Tidus have lightning weapons if you can, a built-up overdrive if you want, then talk to the guy at the dock and tell him you are ready to "ride ze shoopuf."

Boss: Extractor
Halfway through you'll have to fight the Boss: Extractor. Use Haste, Cheer, and Aim on Tidus and Wakka and then wail on the guy. I only got hit twice that way, and I never leveled up my guys. :) One Tidus overdrive (Spiral Cut) was able to hit him for 1k+, for an overkill. That was good for two Mega Phoenix. Anyway, after that mess, you'll be on the far shore and able to save your game.

See that chest behind Kimari? It's not really a chest. Don't bother trying to open it. Heh heh. One screen left you should find the Al Bhed Primer vol. XII up by the spinning thing. One more screen left is an actual chest with an Ether. Go left after that when you are ready to leave.

Meet Rikku. Again
You'll see a body on the ground. Ignore it and cross the bridge. Just kidding. You can't. You may remember this girl. After a long drawn out nothing you'll be back on your way. Head across the river toward Guadolasom. There's a chest just around the first corner (it might be hard to see) with a bunch of antidotes inside. Be sure to open (or steal if you are in a battle) chests. Just before you get to Guadosalam there's a chest with a Mega-Potion. It might not be obvious, but head straight forward into the cave to enter the city. When you get to Guadosalam, Rikku will teach you how to use her Customize skill! This is probably the best skill anyone brings to the party, with the possible exception of Yuna's Aeons.

Guadolasom
There is a chest in the front left corner of the city (Elixir), and one in the back right corner (Mega-Potion). Next to that one is the door to the mansion. Before you go in there, have a look around. There's a building to the far left that has Al Bhed Primer vol. XIII. There's also a chest nearby with 3000 Gil inside. You can find O'aka and various blitzball players wandering around.

When you've explored the whole city, go inside the Mansion and up the stairs to your right. At the center of the walkway is another chest with two Hi-Potions inside. Go talk to everyone, then try to go through the far door. Talk to everyone, then talk to Yuna. You might have to try and leave out the front door in order to trigger the next scene. When asked to follow, head through the doorway. Talk to everyone else, but save Rikku until last. Gotta love that Seymour, eh? He's subtle, like a chainsaw at midnight. As far as I know, you can't get to Seymour's private rooms. When you leave Seymour's place, head straight down to see the group. Now follow Yuna to...

The Farplane
From Seymour's house, follow the leftmost wall all the way until you reach the Farplane. Talk to the Guado there and then head through. Just inside the doorway, there's a hidden chest off to your left wth 8x Lightning Marble. Continue on. You gotta love Tidus's way with words. "Do dead people live there?" Right. Anyway, head to the top of the stairs. Talk to Lulu and Wakka. Then talk to Yuna. Now head back to Seymour's place and meet up with the group. When you are ready to leave the town, head down to the lowest level and try to walk out the left exit of the caves. Now go talk to everyone else, then go back to the lowest level and head out onto the thunder plains.

Thunder Plains
When you leave Guadolasam, you'll be wandering out onto the thunder plains. If you time it right, you can jump out of the way of lightning bolts. This is considered a "mini-game" so you may want to practice it for a bit. Depending on how many bolts you can jump from, you can get cool prizes later. There is another side quest you can complete here, but I recommend waiting a little before attempting it (see the "misc side quests" section). For now, just head straight out onto the plains. There's a save point just in front of you. Use than, then look for the chest north and west from here.

Tips

• To keep fiends from casting lightning and powering up, you can cast 'null-shock' on them.
• You can also use it on you to keep from getting smooshed by lightning attacks.
• Keep Lu in the battles until she learns watera, if she doesn't have it already. It's usefull here.
• Kill some Quacktars if you can. Lots 'o AP! - but be SURE to steal a Chocobo feather from one (10 of these let you teach your Aeon Haste).
• Call Ixion on the quacktaurs (if you can do thor's hammer). Then again, Ifrit's meteor strike will kill them off too (albeit one at a time...)
• If you have to fight Iron Giants, remember, they are not totally immune to lightning, but they are close. Use Dark Buster and Watera.

Macalania Woods

Four paths
After the cut scene, go talk to Auron, then continue on a bit until you see a save point. After using it, take a look around. There are four paths here, though only three are visible until you have been to the Calm Lands. The lowest goes to the thunder plains. The right path goes to Bevelle. The upper path goes to Lake Macalania (and Macalania Temple). The fourth path is a hidden path of crystal or light of some kind. It's the one that's only visible when you have been to the Calm Lands. More on that later.

Toward Macalania Temple
Since the lower path takes you back to the thunder plains, and the right bottom path is guarded, you have to take the upper pathway. Follow the path for a time. If you meet a Chimera, don't forget to have Kimari Lancet it. His stone breath will kill them all off easily too. You should find 2 chests along the way with 2000 gil & 3x Phoenix Downs. Keep walking along the path and you should find Barthello. After a brief discussion, he'll be on his way. Continue on and you'll meet mister butterfly.

Optional Side Quest: Butterfly Hunt
This starts the Macalania Woods Butterfly Hunt. Basically you just talk to the multi-colored butterfly, and then try to catch all the blue butterflies before the time runs out. If you touch a red butterfly, though, then you have to fight a battle. If you start out at the butterfly by the girl in long flowing robes, the colors going down are: blue, red, blue, red, blue, red, red, red, red, blue, blue, red, red, red, blue. When you get 7, it will flash the screen, and a chest will materialize somewhere along the path on this screen

If you can't get all 7 butterflies, you've then lost your goal and have to start all over again. You'll get some interesting stuff from completing this quest. When you beat it, or if you just decide to come back later, head further down the path. You'l eventually come to a save sphere. If you save, you can turn around and start another butterfly quest back where you came from (on a different screen). If you opt for that one, the colors are: Blue, Red, Red, Blue, Blue, Red, Red, Blue, Red, Blue, Red, Red, Red, Blue, Blue. This one is good for an ether.

Also, there's a chest with a Remedy hidden behind a tree on the North area.

Boss: Spherimorph
You'll eventually come to a save sphere. Save your game. (Are you noticing a pattern, yet?) You should see O'aka standing in the distance. You can buy stuff from him, if you want, but what you probably need to do is sell off some of your excess gear. Also, if you don't buy the first time around, but tell him the prices are too high, it looks like he drops them slightly. I had Tidus buy the Sonic Steel, since it has First Strike capability, which is *very* handy. Equip yourself for battle (no magic weapons) and head forward utill Auron stops you. Follow him through the hole. Make sure you use all your guys on this guy. (Even if they just guard for one round).

Only one element at a time works on Spherimorph. Haste Lulu. Hit him to see what elemental he is, then attack with the opposite elemental. He's immune to Delay, Sleep, Slow, Silence, Dark, but Power Break and Mental Break work (and are very useful!). You can steal an ether or two (or three). Have Lulu use her Focus skill to raise the damage done by her magic. Keep track of the amount of damage you've done.
(If he casts thunder on you, cast watera on him!) Have Yuna keep Lulu from dying, and use Tidus to find out what elemental the guy currently is. When you've done about 12,000 pts of damage, bring in Ifrit if you need a fire attack, Ixion if you need a thunder attack, etc. This should allow you to defeat him with an Overkill. When you beat him, you'll get a jecht sphere, and lots of AP, a Lv. 2 Key Sphere (two if overkilled), etc.

Auron should learn Overdrive Shooting Star. Head back out and save your game again (unless a: you really want to fight that thing again, or b: you did't get an overkill, and want to try again for that extra Lv 2. Key Sphere.) You should now be able to take the road leading right from the save sphere - this should lead you to the sunny path. Take that back to the beginning of Macalania Woods for another Jecht's Sphere. So... Auron was supposed to marry some priest's daughter...?

A quick note about the Lv. 2 Key Spheres. With these, you should have the following options: Auron can go for Tidus' skills (and Kimahri's), Rikku can go after Lulu's Skills, Yuna can go after Rikku's Skills, Kimahri can go after Yuna's Skills, Tidus can go after Yuna's Skills, Lulu can go after Wakka's. As for me, I like having two stealers and two hearlers. I wait until Tidus has Quick Hit, then back him over to Yuna's stuff (unless I have Lv 3. Key Sphere by then, which allows him to jump to her track straight from there. For now, though, the two key spheres let Yuna pop over to Rikku's grid and get Use and Steal (very useful!) and Auron can jump onto Tidus' grid and head down through Kimahri toward Rikku's also. YMMV.

Before you take the upper left hand passage to Lake Macalania, search this whole area - you can find the Al Bhed Primer vol. XV opposite those butterflies, kinda hidden behind a stump - just at the entrace to the light bridge area.

Lake Macalania

Note: Go into this section with a set of fully charged aeons. Even with all your guys in full overdrive mode, the aeons are the only way (short of lots of leveling up) to beat the final guy in this section. Go back to the forest if you don't have overdrives for all your aeons! You should find Al Bhed Primer vol. XVI just to the left of O'aka. If you've picked up all 16 so far, you're now an Al Bhed Hydeja. Pop in to Rin's Travel Agency and Save your game. Leave RTA and go talk to Clasko (on your right, by the Chocobo). Encourage him to leave the knights and you'll be able to get a special sphere later on (you trigger that by taking the ferry from Besaid to Kilika.) You can't get the chest just yet - you'll have to come back for it.

Equip Wakka with something that doesn't have magic (unless you have a lightning ball; use that!) Continue on (follow the red arrows). When Yuna gets captured, head down the trail. To be able to use magic and aeons, take out the little floating Negator. You better have Wakka in the battle! Once it's gone, haste Lulu and have her cast Thundara for major damage. Watch out for the Mana Beam; it hurts. You can steal one or more Lunar Curtain from him. Be sure to swap everyone in so you can get the massive AP for them, too.

When your opponent is down under 9999 HP (well, let's say 8k just in case), call Ixion for a finishing overdrive! Thor's Hammer is good for 9999 damage (and an overkill nets you 2 elixirs)! An interesting note here: don't kill off the Negator if the Mana Beam is imminent; negator seals that magic as well! If negator is down when the mana beam is about to hit you, be sure to have Yuna swap in an aeon (or you may lose the whole party.) Again, it's good to swap everyone in so that they all get AP in this battle. After the whole series of cut scenes, you'll be in front of the temple.

To the right of the entrance is a chest with a Mega Potion. If you want, you can actually head south and get some extra stuff here. If you opt to do so, please note that you DO NOT HAVE A HEALER. I really hope you've been having Rikku steal hi-potions (or you've been stocking up at stores). South (along the tiny, winding path, is a Lv. 1 Key Sphere. Just south of that is a save sphere. South again gets you to Rin's Travel agency. You can open the chest that was blocked by a chocobo for for 4000 Gil.

Macalania Temple
Head inside and blitz talk (square; scout) to the guy at the bottom of the stairs. Want a level 7 blitzer? :D Regular talk for 400 Gil. Head down the long path to the temple and head inside. If you talk to Tromell you'll receive a Shell Targe. Immidiately inside the temple and to the right is a save sphere. You'll wanna use it later. There are two chests in the hall (2x X-Potion and 5,000 Gil). When you have opened them, head through the door to the antechamber on the left.

Open the trunk (3x Phoenix Down) and talk to everyone for an Ether and an Elixir, as well as insights into Seymour's life. Now go through the door on the right. After a cut sceen, grab the chest in the back for 2x Remedy, talk to the people here for 2x Hi-Potion. Did you see the cat? Did you step on it? Head out, save the game and go to the cloister of trials.

Fighting Seymour
Some prep here. The first two members of your party will be pulled into the battle. I chose Tidus and Kimahri. If Yuna talks to Seymour, her Magic Defense increases.

Head forward through the hallway and down the stairs. After a brief conversation, you'll be able to fight. Seymour casts shell on himself, so don't use magic attacks on him. The other two guardians cast protect, so they are mostly immune to physical attacks. Sub in Wakka and have him talk to Seymour, along with Yuna and Tidus. You can steal a turbo ether (actually, I got an elixir once!) from Seymour, while his two cronies have Hi-Potions. I used my characters' Overdrives to kill off the cronies. (Kihmari's Fire Breath plus Rikku's 2xGrenade over drives killed off the two goons.) Have Tidus use slowga on them and haste (or hastega, if you have it) on your team. Casting Bio on the protectors will keep them busy with Remedies. Alternately, if you have Ifrit fully charged, have him cast HellFire.

That should take care of the two dorks. Be sure to have Auron use Magic Break on Seymour. You can try for a Delay Buster, but he's immune. When you've whittled him down, Seymour should call Anima. His pain attack will kill off one character. Pray it isn't Yuna! Tidus tells Yuna to call the new aeon. Anima is immune to Heavenly Strike (delay), so don't bother. Shiva, however, is immune to Pain's status effects too, so it's not that bad a problem for HER to get hit. If Shiva is low on health, have her cast black magic Blizzara on herself for a full cure. When Anime Boosts, have Shiva boost, too, unless she is low on HP. You're hoping to get an Overdrive (Diamond Dust).

When it comes, cast it for 9999 damage. He's subsequent multiple attacks may kill her off, but if you cast blizzara before hand, you can probably withstand it. If so, just repeat that process for both Anima and the subsequent fight with Seymour (I was really lucky; when shiva killed Anima, Seymour's first attack against her was blizzaga, which healed her all the way up!) If shiva gets killed off, hopefully you've got a few more Aeons up your sleave. If you have a few overdrive ready Aeons, this shouldn't be too tough. Have Rikku steal some Silence Grenades from Anima, if you can, before calling a new Aeon (maybe Ifrit?) Long story short, don't let Anima cast pain on your guys unless there is an aeon there first! Again, hopefully you get another shot. If Anima uses oblivion (his overdrive), everyone dies. Make sure there is an aeon there to take the hit!

You should be able to take out Anima with your aeon. When Seymour starts whipping your guys, steal more turbo ethers. Remember to watch Seymour's pattern and use Yuna's null magic to stop it. Ice, Thunder, Water, Fire. Of course, you can call in the appropriate aeon to take the hit, too. If he's going to cast ice then water, call in ixion and boost him. Ice won't kill him, and then thunder will actually heal him. :D That should do it. After you are called traitors, name your aeon and head for the outside world. I was able to get an Overkill on both Anima AND Seymour - good for 5x ability spheres and 2xBlack Magic spheres. I think I didn't overkill one of the goons, actually. When it's over, save your game and head left out that door.

Macalania Cloister of Trials When the ice floor breaks, head down the tunnel to your left. You must rebuild the bridge.

1. At the bottom of the stairs is a pillar with a glyph sphere. Remove it and place it in the pedistal just down from there. Push it to the right.
2. When the pillar stops, get behind it and push it toward the stalagmites on the far wall. It should head down a ramp.
3. Grab the Macalania Sphere from the front of the room (far right) and follow the pedistal down the ramp.
4. Place the Macalania Sphere in the recess on the pillar (not on the wall) at the bottom of the ramp. Notice the two recesses on the far wall.
5. Remove the glyph sphere from the pedistal and place it in the left-most recess. A pillar should rise up from that level to the next one.
6. Go back up the ramp, grab the Macalania Sphere that is on that pillar, and take it back down the ramp.
7. Put it on the pedistal where you had the glyph sphere.
8. Shove the pedistal to the right, locking into the main collumn.
9. Head back up the ramp and grab the Macalania Sphere at the top of the ramp (the ramp will go away).
10. Place it in the recess of the middle collumn. You should hear a sound and see a floor emblem show up at the top of the main ramp.
11. Head up there and step on it. The movable pillar should now be right next to you.
12. Push it down the ramp - it's Macalania sphere will become a destruction sphere, and the pathway leading to the exit will lose one panel - this is fine.
13. Follow it down, and step on the reset glyph on the floor close to where the pillar first started out. The pillar should reappear and have a glowing pink destruction sphere.
14. Grab the Macalania Sphere from the center collumn and place it in the ramp recess (so that you can go down the ramp).
15. Grab the destruction sphere and head down the ramp.
16. Place it in the final recess to reveal the chest; grab the Luck Sphere.
17. Take your prize. Get the Destruction Sphere and head back up the ramp.
18. Unfortunately, if you just grab the Macalania sphere from the ramp top and place it back in the center collumn, and you can't quite get out. Instead, replace the destruct sphere on the pedastal, and place the Macalania sphere from the ramp into the recess on the far right wall - this will respawn the ice that stops the column in the first step above.
19. Before we shove the pedastal down the ramp, though, we need to convert that destruction sphere into a Macalania sphere. Go up the ramp and step on the emblam at the top of the ramp. The pedistal and pink destruction sphere should appear next to you. Push it down the ramp.
20. Head down and step on the emblem near where you first found the pedistal. You can now push the pedistal to the right and it will be stopped by the ice.
21. Take the Macalania sphere from the far right wall and place it in the ramp recess. Shove the pillar down the ramp, then to the right so it completes the column.
22. Finally, head back up the ramp and take the ramp recess Macalania sphere and place it back in the center column.

Neverending Battles
Head up around the ramp, and hope your guys can beat these jokers. In theory, you can get into an infinite number of battles here. It's marginally good for leveling-up, but not much else. Well, I guess you can have Rikku try to steal some Musk from the Evil Eye enemies. It's pretty useful for customizing your shields to add confuseproof block to them. If you have a controler with "turbo" on it, you can just put something heavy on the "x" and let Tidus, Rikku, and Wakka kill off bad guys. It seemed like a fairly easy way to make a few levels. I wouldn't let it go TOO long, though, just because you're probably mostly filled up on spheres anyway.

I wouldn't suggest standing and fighting unless your guys can do over 1000 points of damage, though. And watch your aeons. You can lose 'em pretty quickly when the guys team up on you. As soon as you leave the temple look to your right. Open the chest and take the mega-potion (if you didn't get it before). If you're used all your overdrives on your Aeons, take this opportunity to recharge them. Head away from the temple and take the right hand road. Open the chest right after the little bridge (if you missed it earlier), then head over the bridge and go down a little to the next save sphere. Save your game; you may want to reset if things get out of hand here.

If you want to make this go really fast, get overdrives for at least two Aeons. I chose Ixion and Ifrit. Trust me - it's easier this way. Head down and watch out.

Boss Battle
Have two Overdriven Aeons? Have Tidus cast haste on Yuna, and have her summon Ixion. Overdrive to kill the two dudes. Dismiss him. Swap all characters in so everyone levels up. Steal if you can. For Yuna's next move, dispel the Shell/Protect, then summon Ifrit on her next attack and kill him off. That's the easy way. Don't have fully charged Aeons? There's always the hard way...

This battle can be pretty tough, but with proper planning it's simplicity itself. I recommend starting out with Wakka, Tidus, and Rikku. Have Tidus start out with a Hastega (they're immune to slow, so avoid that). Next, have wakka use sleep buster on the two side guys. If it kills them, great! If not, they'll at least go to sleeep so they don't auto-potion. Have Rikku steal one or more X-Potions from the Wendigo, then swap in Yuna to cast both Esuana (only if he's berserk) and Dispel (take out the Shell and Protect).

Have Tidus use delay attacks and have Wakka use dark attacks. This should keep him from really being able to attack you much. Swap in your guys so every participates. If you have trouble with him, put him to sleep and then cast fira a few times. When he's down below 4k HP, call in an aeon (this is ice country, so I call Ifrit). If you build up an overdrive, use it - have the aeon cast special->reflect, then special->cheer, then boost until you get an overdrive, then use it.

When you wake up, talk to everyone (save Yuna for last) and then after the cut scene, open the chest behind Kimari (Lvl 2. Key Sphere). There's a semi-hidden treasure behind Rikku (well, by the time you can get to it, it's to the left of Auron). It's an Avenger (Tidus gets a counterattack skill). Talk to everyone again (Auron last). After some cut scenes, you'll end up at the desert oasis on Bickanel. Somewhat dazed, and somewhat confused.

Bickanel

Find your friends
You can open a chest just to your left as soon as you wake up (remedy x4). You can use that save sphere, too. Your party is scattered. Follow the red arows to find your party members. The first three are strait ahead. There's an Al Bhed First Aid Kit in the chest where you found Wakka (Al Bhed Potion x8). There's also a tutorial there to explain how to fight Zu and Cactuar. Take the first right to find Kimahri, but look behind that largish ruin there to obtain the Al Bhed Primer vol. V (unless you got it earlier). Head back to the fork in the road and now go strait. When you find Rikku, you'll also find two chests (2x Ether and 8x Al Bhed Potion) and a save sphere.

There are some interesting enemies to fight around here, and some effective ways to finish them off. Some are fairly straghtforward, others are a little more tricky. If you run into one of the enemies below, try the strategy provided. Remember, any character who participates in battle gets XP - even if all s/he does is sit there quietly (i.e., you press triangle to skip their turn.)

Sand Worm: Use haste on your guys. It's immue to slow, however. Hit him with Poison (bio) and a mental break. Use Demi for a quick 9999 pts of damage. Delay works on him, as does sleep, too (I use sleep buster right before his turn to keep him from ever using a regular attack). Just FYI: He'll use an attack called Swallow to eat one of your guys - sometimes when it's not even his turn. If this happens, try to not kill him off until you get your guy back out (otherwise they won't get experience from the battle). You can also use dark on him to keep from getting hit by his normal attack. Kill off with Blizzara/blizzaga for overkill. You can steal Stamina Springs and Shadow Gems from him. Try to kill him off quickly, or at least don't take too long. He has an attack called Earthquake that can do some pretty serious damage.

Zu: Poison him (Bio), armor break, darkness. He has an attack that affects all your guys, so if you see him readying an attack be sure to swap out or heal any characters with low HP.

Cactaur: For this guy, I like to use waka's Sleep Buster. He's actually immune to sleep, but when it hits, it can be for 800+ dmg, which should kill him off. Most of the rest of your guys aren't fast enough to connect yet. Even your best magics likely can't do much against him. Waterga and Blizzaga only do about 70 to 80 pts for my guys at this time. If you get a preemptive strike, consider haste, luck, and aim on your party. Steal one or more chocobo feathers - these are how you give Aeons/Equipment the Haste ability.

Sandragora: Steal musk and/or Remedy from him! Haste your guys, and hope you have armor to protect against confusion. Armor break, sleep buster. Fira/Firaga for overkill. You will be albe to see this guy before you attack him.

When you obtain Rikku here you'll be in Sanubia Desert - East. Go to the menu and look in the lower left to see where you are. Follow Rikku around the tent and toward home. Follow Rikku around for a while, but don't be afraid to explore. There is a chest along the left path with 4x Hi Potions. Once you pick it up, head back the other way and north to the next screen. If you run across enemies with chests, be sure to steal from the chests before killing off all the enemies! I found Ethers and X-Potions this way.

When you get to Sanubia Desert - Central; be sure to look around here. Find the chests:

• From the entrance, follow the left wall to a chest in at the far left corner: 2x Mega-Potion.
• From there, head right and slightly down to where long piece of rubble hiding a chest with 2x X-Potion.
• Continue right, and go slightly up (to the very middle of the plain) is a chest with 4x Hi-Potion.
• Up and left from there is a save point - use it if you need to.
• There's an Al Bhed first aid kit behind the save point: 8x Al Bhed Potion.

• Follow the left wall of this area to get a chest with an elixir. Left of that is the 2nd half of the words you saw written on the ruins of Kilika.
• To the right is a U-Shaped structure with two chests inside: Lv. 2 Key Sphere and 10,000 Gil.
• Straight up from that is another structure with Al Bhed Primer vol XVII inside.

• Off to the right is a stone with a picture of a cactaur on it; you can safely ignore that for now. It will become useful at a later date.
• Follow the left wall again and you should see a little jumble of debris that forms an alcove. If you have 99x Hi-Potion alread, consider using them to give one of your aeons the Cure ability, or just healing your guys up all the way before opening the chest in this place; it contains 8x Hi-Potion.
• Continue to follow the left wall and you'll find another chest that's mostly hidden behind some debris. This one has 3x Mega-Potion.
• Continue following the left wall and you'll eventually come to another chest. This one has 2x X-Potion.
• Right and slightly down you'll find a couple of Sandragora enemies. One guards a Megalixir in a chest. The other, 2x Teleport Sphere.

Defending Al Bhed
Welcome to Home. Learn something interesting about Rikku there? She's Cid's daughter. Wait a sec... Wasn't some guy named Cid Yuna's uncle? Hmm... Does that make Yuna and Rikku Cousins?!? Before you head into the dome, remember to pick up the Al Bhed Primer vol. XIX here, on the left (you are now Al Bhed Unydun), save, and uh, go back outside and level up, if you want. LOL. The bombs that show up as soon as you enter the dome are extremely sensitive to blizard magic. :) You'll also run into random encouters with two Dual Horn enemies. I usually kill off the Guado first, then the Dual Horns. If you have trouble with them, consider using Dark Attack. You can steal a mega potion, BTW. The flying enemies here cause Confuse sometimes. Make sure not to leave Lulu confused for a full round, or she may attack you with magic. You can lancet Self Destruct from them, too, if you haven't already done so. "Talk" to the recently deceased for a few Hi-Potions, then save. Follow Rikku and the others through the first door. On the next screen, head through the door ahead.

Follow everyone else down the stairs, then turn around and go back up the stairs (get the chest with 4x Al Bhed Potion at the bottom of the stairs) and through the door on the left. Fight the guys inside and open the chests (See the * below if you don't know enough Al Bhed.) You can also obtain the Al Bhed Primer vol. XX here. Head back down the stairs and to the left to find a save sphere you can use, but DON'T go through the doorway there (you won't be able to come back). The center path (right from the save sphere) has a chest in it with 6x Al Bhed Potion. Take the path to the right. At the end of the hallway is Al Bhed Primer vol. XXI. Through the doorway here, you'll get a Skill and Special sphere, (if you don't know Al Bhed, see the ** note below) as well as an Al Bhed compilation sphere.

When you're ready to advance the plot, head through the doorway to the left of the save sphere. Beat the Chemera and head to the lowest level. There are two chests here (Lv.2 Key Sphere in the upper right corner of the room and a Lv. 4 Key Sphere in the lower left - kinda hidden behind the stairs you just came down.) When you've got them, go down one through the door on the right. In the far left corner of this room, there is one chest with 10,000 Gil. After a lot of cut scenes (you should probably watch them; these are kind of important.) Head through the last door (lower right corner), down the walkway and up the stairs, onto the airship.

Airship!
More cut scenes, and you can wander around the ship. If you leave the bridge and take the first left you come to (from Tidus' point of view, that is) you can find another one of those Al Bhed compilation spheres. If you've collected all the Al Bhed primers in a previous game, pop in the memory card and scan it. The next time you talk to Rin, Tidus will converse in fluent Al Bhed. You'll also get 99x Underdog's Secret. Using 30 of these on a weapon will give it the "Double Overdrive" skill. Sell off any/all extra weapons you've managed to pick up. (If you want, you can sign up rin to play for your blitzball team. I don't know if he's any good.) Another screen up from that is a mother and child al bhed. If you look at the mini-map, you'll see the ability to head left here. Go there and try to talk to Donna a few times. When she asks if she should quit, say, "Sure, sounds good to me!" You'll be treated to a few extra sceens later on.

After wandering around for a while, you can return to the bridge. Now talk to Cid, then brother (he's at the far end of the bridge). Talk to Cid, then Rikku until she repeats herself, then Lulu. You may want to choose to heed her advice to have either Tidus or Rikku learn some magic. It's not the end of the world if you don't, though. In any event, both Tidus and Rikku are going to quickly run up against a Lv. 3 Lock. At this poing in the game, you won't have any Lv. 3 Spheres, You can, however, use a Teleport Sphere to teleport to the Thundaga (not Thundara!) sphere that Lulu just filled in. That lets 'em learn Thundaga, Firaga, Blizzaga, Waterga, and HP + 200. Not bad jump, if I do say so myself. Here's the thing, though. Tidus uses his MP for quick hit, and Rikku uses her MP for mug. So it's up to you, but if you do *do* opt to send one of the them, be sure to have learned Quick Hit (Tidus) and Bribe (Rikku). To be perfectly honest, I just let them stop at the Lv. 3 Lock and accrue Sphere Levels. When you get to Mt Gagazet, you should be able to get lots of Lv 3. Key Spheres, and the upcoming battles Lulu is talking about can just as easily beat with Grenades. If you *have* to magic up one of them, I guess I'd recommend Rikku. Talk to everyone, then try to leave the bridge; you'll be attacked. See the Bevelle Section.

* If you don't know Al Bhed, here's the contents, from left to right, top to bottom: Bomb, Elixir, Hi-Potion, Mega-Potion, Soft, Chimera, Potion, Remedy, Evil Eye. I recommend the elixir ;) The other chest says "sorry," which is on the lower center; next is "Wait" on the middle right, "Pardon" in the middle. Friend sphere!

** If you don't know Al Bhed, here's the answer. The box on the far right asks "Are you Al Bhed." The answer is "Yes," third from the bottom. Next it asks "Name the son of the Al Bhed leader." That's Rikku's brother: "Brother," at the bottom. Next, it asks "On what Island do the Al Bhed live?" That's Bikanel Island, 2nd down. Finally, it asks, "What is Al Bhed in Al Bhed." The first one is correct. You should get the Skill Sphere here. For the chest on the left, do a little math. 1st is 4 plus 1. 2nd is 7 minus 1. 2rd is 3 ties 1. 4th is 2 plus 1. You should get a special sphere here.

Bickanel: Returning Later
You'll want to come back to Bickanel Island later on in the game. See the Gatekeepers Side Quest Section for more information about the fun kinds of things you can do here!

Bevelle

Conquering the Wyrm
When fiends attack the ship, head toward the hull of the ship (head to the bottom of the screen as many times as you can, then head up the stairs and toward the top of the screen). When you are told to fight the wyrm, save at the save point there and head to the top of the screen. Talk to the guys on the deck there for some potions. Rin's wares are totally worthless here, so don't bother purchasing anything just yet. Well, maybe not TOTALLY useless. If you have 4500 Gil to blow, you might consider buying up to 99 antidotes and customizing your shields to add poison wards. Unfortunately, you cannot poison proof. You may also want to make sure you have 15-20 Antidotes and 15-20 Softs on hand. Actually, the softs are probably a bad idea. Have Rikku "use" the Al Bhed potions to cure poison. It will cure everyone's poison and also give 1000 HP back to everyone. You *can* hit him with a Dark Attack, so you may want to consider that.

I like to start this battle with Tidus, Rikku, and Auron. Tidus has a "First Strike" weapon, which allows me to cast Hastega right out of the gate. ;) I also like to use Luck and Cheer. Quickhit by a hasted Tidus can do SERIOUS damage to this guy. Rikku can steal a water gem (or two, or ten, or whatever). Keep sensor handy - you'll want to try and overkill him on this one! It'll net you TWO Blk Magic Sphere items rather than one. I used spiral cut to get the overkill. First things first, though: elemental magic doesn't do much to this guy, and he's immune to demi and poison. Feel free to haste your guys, but do NOT use eitehr slow or delay on him - he'll haste himself, and that basically makes it impossible to dodge his poison attack.

He'll haste himself eventually anyway, but hopefully he'll be close to dead by them. I recommend using Rikku, Tidus, and Wakka to start, then swap out Rikku with Auron/Kimahri when you need to focus more on attack than moving (read: he hastes himself so stealing and moving are more or less moot.) You can steal water gems. If he hits you with petrification, have someone throw a soft. You can hit him with power break, but not armor break or magic break. He's vulnerable to dark, but not threaten. When the beast does some serious roaring, Use the Action menut to tell Cid to move the ship back! I know I sound like a broken record, but be sure everyone participates.

Bevelle
Hey Tidus has grind boots! Can I play Tidus and Clank Futures soon? Oh... Sorry, I got side tracked there for a second. Let's move right along, shall we? When you first get to Bevelle, you will be foreced to fight your way through people. Have Rikku (and anyone else who can) steal hi-potions and/or Purifying Salt from the Warrior Monks and and Ether/Remedy from the YKT-63 and YAT-99 enemies. Use hi-potions in between battles. If you need to heal during battle, Rikku and all her Al Bhed potions are your friend! Beat some people up, and watch the cut scenes.

Alternatively, you can just give Tidus a "First Strike" weapon and have Tidus, Auron, and Wakka walk through this section. Be carefull with the TKT-63 enemies! You don't want that to be the last enemy standing. If it is, it will eject one of your guys from battle! If you run across the YAT-99 enemy, be sure to take out anyone in front of it FIRST, so that you can attack it more easily. How much is that worth.

Bevelle: Temple of the Fayth
NOTE: You cannot come back to this temple. Be sure to explore everything here before leaving. When you first get here, step on the stairs to wind down to the lower floor. When Riku opens a door, head through it and down a set of stairs, and your guys will start talking. Be sure to grab the Al Bhed Primer vol. XXII on the ground there (Al Bhed Medanyde!) before you follow them! There's a save point just before the Trials of the Temple of the Fayth; USE IT!

Head forward into the cloister of trails, and you'll find the now familiar pedistal with a sphere on it. Before pushing it forward, look straight ahead. There are two chest here. You'll want them both (duh). That's the very end of this trial, though. Push the pedistal forward, and the elevater will go down. The trick to this is: time the flashing arrow to be pointing in the direction you want to hop off, and press the direction you want to go, and tap "X" when you are on the green glyph. For ones that are moving fast, mash a lot and pray (a "turbo" controller can really help out here). The first thing you'll do is press "X" to confirm the "direction" (meaning you want to start.)

1. Level 1: There are three arrows here; all are along a straight path. You'll be on a moving platform heading down the path.
   • Take the 2nd set of arrows first (you want to go left).
   • Grab the Bevelle Sphere here and put it on the pedistal.
   • Shove the pedistal back toward the path to continue. You'll turn left automatically.
   • Button mash at the end of the path, and you should turn around.
   • Take another left when you get to the first path (it's straight across from where you just got the Bevelle Sphere).
   • Remove a Bevelle Sphere from the pedistal here and place it in the recess; you should see a pathway light up. If not, take the sphere back, and try again.
   • Shove the pedistal onto the path again, but this time let yourself fall of the edge by not mashing X. You'll start out back at the top.
   • Take the first right you come to (button mash).
2. Level 2: The platform will pause and you'll see "Confirm Direction" instructions. Wait for the arrow to point straight ahead, and press X. You will continue on to Level 3.
3. Level 3: You'll decend down another path and around a corner.
   • When the platform stops, go around the pedistal and grab the Bevelle Sphere.
   • Place it on the pedistal.
   • Shove the pedistal back onto the path; you'll head back up to Level 2.
4. Level 2: You'll go back around the corner and up to Level 2, where you made a direction choice earlier.
   • This time, wait for the arrow to point right, then press X.
   • Take the very last path you come to (there are three). [NOTE: If you are going too fast and cannot manage to jump off, you'll "fall off" the edge and end up back at the "Confirm Direction" platform. This time you are facing down the path, so choose the path straight ahead. If you continue to be moving to fast, you can slow yourself down by taking the first path, then immediately pushing the pedistal back on the path.]
   • When you manage to take the path at the end of this path, remove one of the Bevelle Spheres from the Pedistal and place it on the Sphere Shaped Recess to your left. A path should open up. Ignore it for now; push the pedital back onto the path where you came from. You'll "fall off" the edge, and appear back at the "confirm direction" platform for this level.
   • This time, choose the straight path, then take the 2nd path you come to (it will be to the right). As before, if you are going to fast, you can use the FIRST path to slow yourself down.
   • At the end of this path is a Glyph Sphere. Remove it from the Wall and place it on the pedistal.
   • Shove the pedistal back onto the path you came from.
   • Your platform will return to the main path and head right. You want to quickly start mashing X so you can stop at the final path again.
   • Remember this path (that I told you to ignore earlier)? Remove the GLYPH sphere (don't accidentally take the Bevelle Sphere!) from the pedistal and place it in the recess at the end of this path.
   • A path should open up and provide you access to the destruction sphere. Get it, and place it on the pedistal.
   • Shove the pedistal back onto the moving path. Once again, you'll fall of the edge, choose the straigh path, and once again take the SECOND path (where you found the glyph sphere). Don't forget you can use the first path to slow down, if you need.
   • See the recess where you found the Glyph sphere earlier? Remove the Destruction Sphere (the pinkish one) from the pedistal and place it in that recess. You should see a short cut scene that doesn't really make any sense; don't worry about it.
   • Shove the pedistal back onto the path, and take the last right.
   • Grab the bevelle sphere here and place it on the pedistal.
   • Shove the pedistal, fall off the edge, choose to go forward, and this time take that FIRST right.
   • When the pedistal stops, shove it toward the bottom of the screen (so it continues along the same direction it was traveling).
   • You should now follow a weird 45 degree angled path up a steep slope to the bottom of a stair way. Walk up the stairs.

Via Purifico
Once you are finished watching the cut scenes, you'll end up as Yuna, wandering around. Test out your new Bahamut Aeon here - his impulse should be able to make short work of the enemies here. Be sure to use this opportunity to get ALL your Aeons to an overdrive.

1. There is a save point (I'll call it save point one) here and three paths here - right, straight, and left. Go right, then take the first left you come to (the right path is a dead end just off screen).
2. You should meet up with Kimarhi in a room containing a chest with a Mega-Potion.
3. Exit via the top of the screen and continue along that path and you'll run into Auron.
4. This room has a save point (Save Point Two) and exits going every direction. Take the left exit.
5. You should wind around to a "T" junction; head left (which is down on the map). The other exit is a dead end anyway (it will have a glyph in a few steps; remember this!)
6. You'll soon come to another "T" junction. The right branch is a dead end, so continue down the path.
7. Further down you'll find a room with three exits. The right exit leads to Lulu and a Chest containing a White Magic Sphere.
8. Since this is a dead end, backtrack a few steps, and take the path leading down.
9. Bypass the next "T" junction and continue on to the room with a chest containing an Elixir. Grab the elixir and examine the broken glyph (to enable something later).
10. Now go back to that "T" junction you just bypassed above and take the other branch (it's right on the map).
11. You should now be back in the room with Save Point One, and you should have Kimahri, Auron, and Lulu; save your game.
12. From Save Point One, head up past the next area, and take the immediate right. Open the chest here for a Black Magic Sphere.
13. Step on the now glowing glyph here. This should cause something to go zipping over to the far upper right corner (remember where I said to remember this spot?)
14. Leave this room, then head up to Save Point Two (the grate that was blocking your path should now be gone) and save your game, if you need. Look around and see if this glyph is shining. If so, step on it when the arrow is pointing west. As the game instructions indicate, you can teleport with these platforms. You'll go the direction the arrow is facing - assuming there's a platform over there you can land on. If this platform's glyph isn't glowing, wander around until you find the one that is. When you use these, the last glyph you step on is the one that will be lit up. Use them to get to the platform in the upper left corner of the map.
15. When THAT one is glowing and pointing west, step on it to get to the hidden area. You should get a Skill Sphere in one chest and a Lucid Ring in another chest. A third, hidden chest contains 10,000 Gil. Examine all parts of the gate blocking the path east to find this one.
16. Use the teleports to go back to Save Point Two (two jumps east from the treasure room), then save. Before heading north, I really recommend you do a little Aeon modding. If you spent the time to steal from cactaur-style enemies (on the Thunder Plains and Bickanel Island), you should have enough stolen chocobo feathers to teach haste. Teach that and cheer, aim, focus, and reflex. When ready (You have a complete set of fully charged Aeons, right?!?), head north one screen.

Waterworld
You are now Tidus. Remember that conversation with Lulu about having Rikku or Tidus learning some magic? It was for this area. If you did that, just use thundaga on these guys. Since I don't typically go that route, I'll also tell you how to get past all these enemies without using magic. Save and then head right if you want to buy stuff. That treasure chest is a store. Go straight, then head left at the fork. Have Rikku use grenades on these jokers, and have tidus use delay attacks on Octopuses. Blind the Octo if you need to, but do be aware that the Dragon Scales you can steal from them allow you to put Waterproof on your weapons (and let you teach waterga to an Aeon).

When fighting the really big enemy here, you have basically three strategies.

Strategy number one: For low-level parties without X-Potions (see below) open the locks on the gate. If you do that twice he can't strike back; he'll do far away attacks and you can have Rikku use Al Bhed potions to keep your guys healthy.

Strategy number two: For advanced parties that have been leveling up a bit, just have Titus cast Hastega on the party, then have Wakka use the Dark Buster skill. If Tidus can get another attack in before the enemy, have him just use Delay Buster over and over. Rikku can mug while Wakka attacks. As long as Wakka gets in the last shot, you should be able to overkill him before he gets a single turn.

Strategy number three (aka working smarter - not harder): It turns out that this is probably the easiest boss battle ever. This guy is ZOMBIED. Do you have a couple of X-Potions handy? Think they might be useful at a time like this...? :D Just hit him with two and it's over with an overkill.

You'll get 1 or 2 (for an overkill) Blk Magic Spheres for this battle. When done, continue on. There's a chest at the bottom of the next area up. Grab it for a rematch. Around the corner is another chest with an Avenger. Continue swimming around a few more corners. If you have trouble leaving, you may have to swim toward the bottom. After a LOT of cut scenes, we'll have control of the characters again.

Highbridge
So now it's time to head back down the highbridge to help Kimahri, but...

First off, save your game so you don't have to go through all that again. This is the first time you can farm Mega-Potions. If you have 60 of these, you can teach an Aeon Curaga. Remember, only Valefor and Bahamut need that just now. The others can cast their respective magics on themselves to cure.

Even if you don't want to farm them, I recommend a fully loaded set of aeons here. You can fight random encounters on Highbridge near the save point until you have them all. Just call and 'boost', then dismiss them. When you get to the end of the bridge, you can once again save your game. Be aware you will be fighting two enemies here - Boss:Seymour Natus (36,000 HP) and Boss[1]:Mortibody (4000 HP).

Steal some tetra elemental. From Seymour, that is. When the battle first started for me, I had Tidus Haste Yuna. Then I called three aeons (Valifore, then Ifrit, then Bahamut) and had them use their overdrives. Since these do 9999 each on the lower ones, and between 11k and 30k using Bahamut, it finished him off fairly quickly. Oh, and I got 4x L. 2 Key Spheres (overkill, you know?)

Finding Yuna
After more cut scenes, you have control again. Talk to people there, and then head down one screen. Hmm. Where can Yuna be? Let's see. Can I go right? Nope. How about left. Hmm, some weirdos chase me off the screen, so let's try to go down, shall we? Well there's Kimahir! Let's talk to him. Whee! Isn't Kimahri a load of fun to talk to?!? OK! Head left to talk to Yuna. She's in the water. I wonder why? Oh yeah, for the fan service, er, I mean cut sceen. You can tell the cut scene from the rest easily - it's the one where the lighting changes about the same time she starts crying.

Anyway, after Tidus's best effort at romance, we'll be able to do something usefull again. Oh stop kissing her, dork. You look goofy! Ok. When the kissing is over, she tells him that he's not enough (Even if you were with me, I could never forget). Talk about an inferiority complex. Geez. It's no wonder this kid is so screwed up. Now we're done and it's time for the comercial break. Heh heh. Just kidding. Now, why is Kimahri watching?!? Perv.

Regroup
So anyhow, now they walk hand in hand back to camp. Now, what just happened between Rikku and Tidus...? Oh, right. She won't quit. Why is she telling them what their names are? Thankfully, Auron cuts her off before another mushyness scene starts. Sorry. I guess that whole scene was just a little unbelievalbe for me... Anyway when everyone wakes up, there is a chest in that clearing. Barely visible to the left. Go back to that screen and get it (oh hey look: another lucid ring!), then exit that screen and head right. Welcome to the calm lands. If you want your characters to be all that they can be in this game, you'll be comming back here many times.

Calm Lands

Head left and follow the cliffs west, around and down onto the plains. If you want, you can buy stuff from Rin when he shows up. He'll be in a boat on skis. At the far east - at the bottom of the cliff that was north of you when you first entered the calm lands - you'll find two chests. One has 10,000 Gil, and the other has 5,000 Gil. To get there, you'll need to head to the far west of the map (where Rin is), then backtrack east a bit. Head north from Rin's an you'll see a hut. Head there. You'll learn something. BTW: There is a save point here, as well as a store. Just north of the hut, slightly hidden by it, is a chest with a Lv. 2 Key Sphere.

About mid way north and south, at the far east (look for a green square on your map) edge of the map you'll find the Arena. Talk to this guy and say "All right, I'll do it!" Buy a capture weapon for Tidus, Wakka, and Auron - be sure to equip them. You can use my ffx fiend tracker to ensure you've captured at least one of all the fiends. Report back to the Arena when you've got one of each. Now, as you travel around the world, you'll be able to capture fiends. You may run into a problem while gathering fiends - the blocks on the Sphere Grid requiring Level 3 Key Spheres. Trust me - you can get plenty of these as soon as you clear Mt Gagazet. More on capturing fiends (and leveling up) in a bit...

But for now, return to the little hut in the middle of the Calm Lands. If you've got a full set of Strength, Magic, Ability, and Speed Spheres, you may want to head straight for Belgemine (read the rest of this area for more info). To the far west (use your little map; go to the upper left), you can find Al Bhed Primer vol. XXIII.

Chocobos and Caladbolg
Just North from that you can begin training Chocobos, but be sure you have the Celestial Mirror (see misc side quests section) before you start this! Talk to the guy, listen to his explanation of the controls, and make sure your chocobo goes between him and the chocobo there. You'll get an elixir, and you'll be able to both use this one whenever you want, AND keep training.

The thing here is that you can earn a powerful thing once, and then a less powerful thing every time you beat your time. But there are also several challanges you can take on. After you succeed at the first, quit and try the next training challange (i.e., mini game.) Here are the various minigames:

1. Wobbly chocobo - this is the one you just did. Keep pressing left/right to keep the chocobo on track.
2. Dodger chocobo - Similar, but this time the chocobo goes straight. You just have to dodge blitz balls.
3. Hyper dodger chocobo - The same as above, but now there are extra birds to also dodge
4. Catcher chocobo - The one you actually want to beat if you want Tidus' ultimate weapon.

Other things to do before continuing on
If you want, you can finally play blitzball here again. I'm all for continuing on the game. The ground around this area is littered with scars. Head right until you are around them, and then you'll head up to the farthest upper-right corner to continue. Before you do that, though, head directly right and stop off at the Arena.

You have visited the Arena, right? The Arena is a training area that Lord Mi'ihen setup for the Crusaders. Be sure to sign up for helping him out. This is where you will go when you want to level up your character's past what the standard sphere grid alone can do for you. Be sure to buy Capture Weapons for at least Auron, Wakka and Tidus. This is where I do my first real "level-up" sequence. See the Misc Side Quests Section under the heading "After Ariving in the Calm Lands," but be sure to visit Belgemine before starting that one - you'll need some place to put all those spheres you'll earn.

To the south and west of the save point in the middle of the calm lands you should find Belgemine. You can fight her again. This time she calls Shiva. Just use Bahamut: Haste, Focus, Reflex, Aim, Cheer. Ater that, attack over and over. When you've got an overdrive worked up, go ahead and use it; this should kill off Shiva. You'll get 30 Power Sphere from this battle, but more importantly you'll get the Aeon's Soul. You may now modify your Aeon's Attributes. Watch the tutorial to see how you can spend some of those 99x Strength Spheres and level up Bahamut's Strength! She also tells you to seek her out in the hidden temple of Remien if you need more training. If you go about the business of capturing fiends, you'll earn a LOT of spheres. Having your Aeon's Soul at this point allows you to give them all to Bahamut - arguably the best Aeon to do this with.

Way back at the start of this walkthrough I mentioned two strategies for working your way through the game. Here is where you can pick one of two strategies. I'll mention my favorite strategy first, and my back-up plan second.

Level-up and Arena Strategy #1:
If your guys are powerful enough already to survive the sunken cave, do the "Youjimbo and the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth" section below. While you're doing it, be sure you are capturing fiends. If you can't, then get 10 of each fiend in the Calm Lands first, then go on to the Stolen Fayth. When you've got 10 of each fiend in those sections, you should be powerful enough to get all the Lv 3 Key Spheres you need at the start of the Mt Gagazet level. This strategy basically boils down to: The best place to level up is the Omega Dungeon. Don't bother leveling up too much until you get there. When you get the airship and can look around for stuff, see the "After Zanarkand" section of the Misc Quests link on the left. Hit highbridge to open up the temples, then hit the Omega Dungeon. When you *do* get to the Omega Dungeon, you'll find that you level up so fast you don't have enough spheres to use. Just bounce your guys back and forth between the Omega Dungeon and other areas - filling up the Arena as you go along. You won't level up much in places like Besaid or Kilika, but you'll get the spheres you need when you *do* level up in the Omega Dungeon. While visiting the various areas, hit their temples and unlock the special Baaj Temple to get the Magus Sisters. (More info on all these items is available in the Misc Quests section of the walkthrough. This strategy is probably the most efficient, but it might be better for players who really feel like they understand the system completely.

Level-up and Arena Strategy #2:
This strategy is more of a grind strategy and a little less elegant than the other one. Go straight through the game until you hit the Calm Lands without bothering to level up your characters too much. Get 1 of each monster in the calm lands to open the arena (if you can, beat the chocobo guy in races to get access to Tidus's ultimate weapon.) From there, head back to the Thunder Plains, Macalania Woods, and Lake Macalania and fill out the arena with 10 of each monsters from those areas. You should now be powerfull enough to continue on. From there, go to the Sunken Cave, and then Zanarkand (via Mt Gagazet). From there hit Highbridge. From there, go visit Baaj temple and then get the Magus Sisters aeon. After that, go all the way back to Besaid, and through the game again. This gives you a chance to hit all the temples, collect 10 animals from the remaining uncaptured areas, complete the bird counting quest if you missed it before, pick up the ultimate weapons and see all the Jecht spheres in one shot. As you are filling out these areas, go through the Misc Quests section to make sure you're not missing stuff. I recommend starting with the 10 Little Cacutaurs quest first, as it gives you a chance to fill out the arena with all the animals on Bikinel. Then hit the omega ruins, and finally go after all the enemies in the arena (if you dare). You'll have to unlock Sin to get access to some of the enemies, but you can leave again later if you want (as long as you don't enter the big cylinder thing). Once you get bored, go attack sin and beat the game.

Continuing on
Now head up to the upper right corner of the Calm Lands. Bring a set of fully charged Aeons, if you can, and swap out your capture weapons for better ones. When you get to the corner, head through the crevass and across the bridge. You'll meet the Guado. Here comes a nasty beast. The Defender X has 64,000 HP and is tough against physical attacks. Don't bother with a power break, or delay as he's immune to them. Armor break works, as well as dark buster, though you'd best be ready for the blast punch counter if you use physical attacks. Hastaga and darkbuster before he gets any shots off. I had moderate success with Quick Hit. Don't forget to steal some Lunar Curtains from him. If he uses mighty guard (shell/protect), be sure to use dispel; don't forget to armor break again.

When he casts Slowga, if your guys are getting worked, just bust out the Aeons. If they are ready, use their overdrives! Well, some of thi them. I had Bahamut use Evade and cheer, and he still KO'd him in one shot. You WANT those 9999 hits. Note that mighty guard renders him immune to overdrives that are tied to elementals. Specifially Ifrit, Ixion, and Shiva, though she may be able to dodge him. If he casts Might Guard while your Aeons are in the battle, DISMISS THEM. No sense getting 'em killed.

I don't know what your aeons look like, but I finished the battle with Bahamut's 33,179 HP overkill for 2x Lv. 2 Key Sphere. Take the right branch to go 'down into the valley' and make use of the save point on your left.

Yojimbo and the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth
You can get Yojimbo in here, if you are good enough. Some of the enemies here are *really* tough. Your Aeons will be quite useful. When I've defeated a "Ghost" enemy in the past, I've received the "off season" armor for Wakka. Equipping this prevents any random encounters. That's going to be pretty handy when you want to cross the calm lands later. If you're participating in the Arena side quests, it will be very useful indeed. You'll also run across a Nidhogg with two Dark Elementals. Delay Buster one of the elementals, then Armor Break + Attack the other. You don't want two of those guys draining all your MP.

Another enemy you'll run into is a Magic Urn. It has 999,999 HP. You're not going to defeat it. You attack it in one of it's various eyes - 5 in all, forming an X pattern. When the battle starts, the game randomly choses an Eye. If you attack the correct one, he rewards you with a treat. If you hit the wrong one, he blows up and does *serious* damage to low-level parties. If you're low level, I recommend just fleeing. If you can take it, the most likely eye he'll choose is the center one. If you're lucky, you'll get a Phoenix Down, Stamina Tablet, or even an Elixir. Next, attack the upper right eye. Next, attack the upper left. It's pretty unlikely you'll get this far, but if you do, you'll keep getting cool items.

When I fought the Thorn enemies, I used bahamut to knock down most of their HP, then captured them. If Bahamut kills them in one shot, then use a different Aeon. If you use Ifrit, their Fira attacks will heal rather than harm him. ;) You can steal an Ether from 'em, too - if you've got the right armor to fend off the resulting counter attack. Just use valifor's sonic wings attack on any Malboros you come to. For Ghosts, have Tidus use delay attack to stall, and then quick hit to polish them off before they can doom your guys.

The hardest enemy you'll come across, though, is likely to be the Tonberry. This guy will counter attack with Karma, which will likely kill off your guy. Use either Triple Foul or Sleep Buster to put him to sleep, then have people steal from him and/or use magic attacks. Flare is awesome here, but by the time Lulu gets it, she'll almost certainly kill him off in one blow. You want to avoid that! He shows up very rarely, and it's really tough to capture 10 of him.

Here are instructions for making it through the caves and getting everthing of value:

• In the cave, follow the road around to the right until you come to a cross roads.
• Head right and open the chest for a megalixir.
• Go back and head up into the next cavern where there will be a small discussion.
• Continue on to the next fork.
• Go right and open the chest in the green room for a level 2 sphere, and then head back to the fork.
• This time head left.
• At the next fork, head straight and open the chest for a fortune sphere.
• Head back to the fork and this time head left (there's nothing to the right).
• At the next fork, open the chest strait ahead for 2x Mega-Potion, grab Al Bhed Primer vol. XXV on the left fork there, then head right and save your game.

Maximizing Yojimbo's Usefulness
The thing about Yojimbo is that he has an attack called Zanmato that will insta-kill anything. Yes. Anything. But he doesn't use it frequently. However, you can raise your compatibility with him and make it more likely. You'll start out with a compatibility of 128 out of 255. This probably makes a lot of sense to you if you understand binary. How you treat him and what he does for you will change that compatibility. You want to get it up to 255 to make the best move more likely. Let's start with a list of what affects the compatibility.

• +4 Yojimbo uses Zanmoto
• +3 Yojimbo uses Wakizashi and hits multiple enemies
• +1 Yojimbo uses Wakizashi and hits one enemy
• 0 Yojimbo uses Kozuka
• -1 Yojimbo uses Daigoro
• -3 You dismiss Yojimbo right after summoning him
• -10 Yojimbo is KO'd in battle
• -20 You pay Yojimbo nothing

Moving on...
After agreeing on a price, you'll be back in the antechamber. I couldn't get the dial to point back into the Chamber of the Fayth after this, so I just teleport back to the entrance. Head outside and save to ensure you can keep you new friend! Before moving on, head right and grab the "Rusty Sword" down the little path there (if you haven't already). Now either head to Gagazett, or go fight Belgemine (See misc side quests).

Mount Gagazet

Ronso vs. Ronso
When you first reach the mountain, you will be accosted by the Ronso. Eventually you will leave with their blessing. You almost certainly need to sell (or buy - but these are pretty lame) weapons, or get some items, there's a shop in the lower right corner of this screen. I was able able to sell off all the weapons/armor I didn't need and earn back about 10% of what I spent on Yojimbo. Going into this next area requires some strategy, so be sure you read the next little bit carefully. If you do this wrong, you'll get some weak crap stuff. But if you do this *right*, you'll get enough Lv. 3 Key Spheres to keep your guys awesome.

A little prep work here can go a long way. You'll be fighting a one-on-one battle here, so not being ready can be pretty costly. Set Kimahri's overdrive mode to Stoic. I like to reorder my items to make this easier. I put the following near the top (if you don't have enough, I'll list alternates, too):

• X-Potion/Hi-Potion
• Ether (or Turbo Ether - but try not to waste those!)
• Elixir (or Megalixir - but try not to waste those!)
• Remedy (or individual status curative items)

If you took Khimari down the Rikku route and have the Use skill, consider putting these near the top, too:

• Chocobo Feather - Puts you in Haste
• Stamina Tablet - Doubles your HP
• Lunar Curtain/Light Curtain - Puts you in Shell/Protect

Once you have things organized, talk to everyone, then ***SAVE***, and then head up the mountain. When Kimahri gets in a fight, lancet every last skill out of these guys! They have LOTS of cool abilities - especially if you've missed a few on the way here. Use Item -> X-Potion (or Hi-Potion) when you get low on heath. If the two are next to each other, that's the perfect time to heal or buff/de-buff. If you have the Use skill you can use a Stamina Tablet to double your HP, a Chocobo Feather to get Haste, Light/Lunar curtains to get Protect/Shell. You can also use magic or Ronso Rage on them if they are next to each other. Eventually one will use Bulldozer and then they'll be on either side of you. Since they can't defend each other, that's when you should attack.

Before killing them off, be sure to steal some of those Level 3 Key Sphere's you've been waiting for. Each time you steal you cut the probability of the next steal in half. Each steal also has a chance of getting two of them instead of just one. Since it gets harder and harder each time, I usually only try to get 4 successful steals before abandoning. At that rate, you should be able to steal between 8 and 16, depending on how many you steal at a time. Once you've stolen as many as you want, be sure to Lancet them both until you stop learning new skills. After that, go on the offensive.

Concentrate on Yenke first. When you get his HP low enough, he'll use White Wind. After he does, Lancet it from him! Get him close to KO, then use Ronso Rage Fire Breath for an overkill - but be sure you've stolen all the Level 3 Key Spheres you want from him first!

After taking out Yenke, go after Biran. When you get his HP low enough, he'll use Mighy Guard. Be sure to lancet that from him after he's used it! By taking out Yenki first, you should be able to prevent Mighty Guard from being applied to both of them. The only way I could reliably Overkill Biran was to use Spare Change and throw 25,000 Gil at him.

Unless you've been leveling up quite a bit, physical overkills are pretty tough on these guys. Also, don't bother infecting them with status ailments - they're immune (i.e., don't wast your Ronso Rage on things like Bad Breath, etc).

You'll get either a Friend or a Return sphere from these guys (or two if you overkill them). Even without a lot of leveling up, I was able to get an overkill on both Yenke and Biran using the strategy above. In terms of equipment won from the battle, once I got a Sorcery Targe and a Baroque Sword from this battle. Another time I got two identical Sorcery Armlets. It seems like you should always get, you know, *Kimahri* weapons and armor from this battle, but whatever. :D You know, I wanna see this statue of Yuna. With her big ol' horn... Heh heh. After all this is over, you might consider saving. Just in case.

Fun Fact: If you stay in long enough - and if you haven't already learned it - Kimahri will learn overdrive mode "loner", which strikes me as funny.

Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland
You'll want to use this area to charge your aeons, but don't worry about that until you've captured 10 of whatever enemy you're facing. For example, once you have 10 Grenades captured, you can bring in your Aeons to charge and kill these guys off. It's a good way to save your magic for when you really need it!

Hastaga is you friend here... Don't bother leveling up here - there's another area after this where it makes more sense, and you can capture all these enemies there, too. Just save and continue. You've equiped your catching weapons again, right? At the scenery change, there is a chest on the ledge to your right with 20,000 Gil. It's hard to see and tricky to get to. After the song, head strait and off to the left for a chest with 2 mega-potions (hidden beind the ledge). Up ahead on the right is a monument to a summoner.

Go examine it. Continue around the mountain. At the first hard left turn, you can head up the little path to the left for a Braska's Sphere. Head along the left path. Round the next bend, you will find another mound. Just up ahead you can take a path up and left for a Defending Bracer. Eventually, you will pass O'aka's - be sure to talk to Wantz! Head left and down around the corner for two chests contianing an HP sphere and a level 4 key sphere.

A little further, you'll pass more mounds. Be examining these to learn stuff - isn't Lulu a wonderfully optomistic person? Keep going, and you'll and a get to a save sphere. SAVE! A little farther, you'll meet our good buddy.

Semour Flux
The shell Mortiorchis has 4000 HP, and Seymour has 70,000 HP, boys and girls. Steal some elixirs (from Seymour; Mortiorchis has nothing). Very early on, have Lulu cast "Bio" on him; he'll lose 1400 HP every turn that way. If you have Yuna talk to Seymour it will increase her magic defense. If you have Kimahri talk to him, it will increase his strength. Does Tidus have quick hit? It's kinda useful here. It doesn't look like anything really works on him except silence and poison; he's immune to all other status abnormalities. He'll hit you with "Lance of Atrophy" (causes zombie) then use full-life on that character (despite being silenced...)

The way this works took me a little while. Basically, you can "kill off" Mortiorchis, and he'll absorb 4000 HP from Seymour. I kept bringing in some maxed out Aeons to do farily massive ammounts of damage to him. Do note that after you call an Aeon, Seymour will banish it. Also, after a certain amount of damage, Mortiorchis starts attacking all on it's own. That really sucks. When I had him mostly killed off, I brought in Bahamut with a Megaflare overdrive and wiped the floor with him. 45,789 damage! Talk about overkill, lol. Overkill on this nets you 2x Lv. 4 Key Sphere. Continue on to learn a little more, but be sure to open the chests hidden among these columns - you really do want that Saturn Crest (it's part of Kimahri's Ultimate Weapon). Save, then keep going.

Dream Sequence
When tidus wakes up, head into his house. Listen, then go outside and head 'upstairs.' I couldn't find anything in his house to get. You'll learn all sorts of interesting things. If you don't understand what's going on, reload and watch this little bit again. There's HOPE in there - somewhere - if you can find it. Nothing he says is nonsense - everything means something. If you don't understand it the first time, you might want to watch it again.

Caves
This is a pretty good place to level up. Be sure to steal remedies from the mandragora and ethers from the behemoths! Oh, and you can kill the bashuras easier if you slowga them, and hastaga tidus, Auron and Wakka. When/if you encounter a Dark Flan, just remember your armor break, OK? For fighting the Splasher enemies, don't forget to have Rikku use the Use skill and Al Bhed potions (you can steal them from some of the mech enemies around here).

1. When you are back to normal, head forward into the cave and save your game.
2. Then head LEFT, jump into the water, swim strait (don't take the right) and hit the sphere with Wakka's Ball. Notice the things that look like targets? Throw when the second one is lined up exactly, and the ball will pass through the shell and hit the center. Open the chest here for a Lv. 1 Key Sphere.
3. Come back to the save sphere, save, and go up the stairs.
4. At the top, turn left and go up the ramp and swim to the other side.
5. There is another puzzle here. I'm thinking it's not random, but may depends on your guys.
6. Anway, I had Tidus go left, Rikku go right and Wakka go down.
7. When you see the bright white light, dive and open the chest (fortune sphere), then head back to the save point.
8. Now go left, and around the bend should be a little room to your right. Inside is a chest containing a 'Pep Talk,' which has sos-null-stuff.
9. Head back to the save sphere, then up the stairs and to the right.
10. Have you noticed that the save sphere is at the center of everything you do in this cave? Do you really think that's a coincidence?!? :D
11. Swim around the corner and get the recovery ring and the return sphere in the chests.
12. Go back to the save sphere, then up the stairs and to the left.
13. This time, veer hard left and go up the stairs (right before the water).
14. At the top of the stairs and around the corner is a save point. Since you are going to fight a nasty battle in a sec, I recommend you use it. :)

[OPTIONAL: Did you capture at least one of every fiend here? If so, you may want to look into going and getting the Flower Sceptre now. See the Remiem Temple portion of the Misc Side Quests section. Do note that I was unable to actually get the Sisters Aeon at this time, since you can't get Anima until later in the game so the shield on the door will still in place if you head to the temple.]

When you are ready, head out of the cave and fight Sanctuary Keeper immiediately. He's got 40,000 HP. I was able to steal multiple turbo ethers from this guy. He'll counter attack with either a regular attack or "Tail Sweep", which will affect all your characters. His Photon Wings attack will curse your Characters (and Aeons), preventing them from using their Overdrive. This really sucks when you want to bring in Bahamut and have him over kill this guy... Anyway, one time I did an armor and magic break, then had Bahamut use Megaflare. It did 49,000 points of damage. That was pretty easy.

You HAVE been using your excess spheres to level him up, right...? I really don't recommend fighting fair. This guy's mean. If you haven't been leveling Bahamut up, you can use the overdrive on all your aeons again, and armor break and dispell (when he casts protect/regen). Did I mention his photon wings attack will curse you, thus rendering your characters/aeons unable to charge their overdrive? Even if you DON'T have a really cool set of Aeons, a few megaflairs from bahamut (after all other aeons get their turn) should be enough to deal with him.

Overkill nets you two Return Spheres here. Go back and save if you want to avoid having to do this again. Near (but not right next to) the save point you will find a warp platform, which you can use to return to the base of Mt Gagazet. Then head left and watch the cut scene. When yuna drops something, pick it up and watch it if you want. (I mean if you pick it up you WILL watch it). If you have seen it before, just bypass it. Don't bother looking in the little alcove, there isn't a chest there. Head through beautiful downtown Zanarakand. Home to dust and destruction. Welcome home, Tidus.

Deja Vu
Head forward to where everyone else is. Remember this scene? After watching it again, save and head out. There is a chest around the first bend.

Zanarkand
Intro Head forward to where everyone else is. Remember this scene? After watching it again, save and head out. Re-equip your capture weapons, if you are doing that. There is a chest around the first bend with a fortune sphere in it. After a while, there's a cut scene ('looks like the farplain'). Around the next bend is another chest, this one with a spiritual targe. Head down the road until you get transported magically to the stadium at Zanarkand, aka 'Dome.'

Dome
You cannot capture fiends here, so go ahead and switch to different weapons. Head forward, then down the path. For fun, throw pheonix downs on the zombies. :) If you run across any Defender Z enemies, they give you Level 2 Key Spheres normally, but will occasionally give you Level 3 Key Spheres (uncommon drop). To make sure you make the most of this, be sure to Armor Break them and have your best guardian Overkill them. You'll go through a litte tunnel looking thing. At one point, you can actually walk up onto the top of the ramp for a chest with 10,000 Gil. Up the ramp is a save point.

A litle further on is a chest to your right. Open it for a friend sphere. From there, head forward and turn left. When you see Auron, Jecht and Braska look hard left for a ramp heading down, you can go there for a level 3 key-sphere. Forward from that (through the portal) you will find a chest with a luck sphere. Up the stairs is a save sphere, then throught the door is the trials.

Cloister of Trials

1. See attached diagram (Just FYI: You can use right-click and "open in new window" or "open in new tab" to keep from leaving this walkthrough). There are a bunch of dots here. To begin, step on the green dot directly in front of you. Then just step on the ones that correspond to the OBJECTS shown - not the LOCATION. See the attached graphic, and step on the circled dots in the upper left drawing on that image.
2. When the pedistals are revealed head through the door at the top of the screen.
3. In the next room, approach the screen at the top, and remove the left hand sphere. It should be a "Kilika Sphere." Now put it back.
4. Return to the previous room, and push in the lower left pedistal (action button, not just running against it). Refer to the Diagram labeled "A" on the aforementioned attachment. You'll want to go back to the room where you found the Kikika Sphere and step on the appropriate dots. (NOTE: I screwed up on one of those - there's one circle I crossed out after words.) The elevator in the middle of the room should have the lower left symbol lit up now.
5. Go back to the entry room and push in the left top pedistal.
6. Return to the other room and step on the dots in diagram 'Dome C'. The lower right should light up.
7. Repeat for top right pedistal (Dome F). Center bottom lights up.
8. ... and bottom right pedistal (Dome D). Upper right lights up.
9. Go to the display in the room with the spheres, and remove the kilika sphere (on the left).
10. Place it in the middle left pedistal in the other room. The upper left should light up.
11. Go back and get the Besaid Sphere (on the right) and place it in the pedistal in the right middle. All lights should turn on, and the elevator should show up.
12. Everything starts glowing and a save sphere shows up. USE IT! (Unless you think you would LIKE to do that again?!?
13. When you return to the room where you found the spheres, you'll be jumping directly into a fight; if you have armor to prevent Berserk, be sure to enable it. You're welcome. ;)

Boss: Spectral Keeper
Now you fight the Spectral Keeper. If you hit him, he'll attack everything in front of him (that's direct, front left and front right.) Stay out of sight, if you can. Use hastaga to have enough turns. Hit him with Mental Break early on. Tripple Foul will net a Silence status change. You can steal Ethers from him - I recommend stealing when an attack would damage a party member. Use the Overdrives of the Aeons, if you can. Use remedies to keep your guys from being berserk. He's immune to most things, but especially Power Break, Armor Break, Slow, and Delay (the things I usually like to do).

Since the Spectral Keeper drops Level 4 Key Spheres, I recommend on Overkill if at all possible. I like to use overdrives for the first 4 aeons, then bring in bahamut for a Megaflare to smack him down. Watch out for the glyph mines, though, as they can kill your aeons with a single shot. When he drops them, dismiss and live to fight another day. After killing him, you'll head down the elevator.

There's a save point here, ignore it for now. Follow Yuna through the opening, then through the glowing blue door. After a long discussion, you'll have control again. Now go save your game. Really. These are LONG discussions, and you don't want to have to listen to all that again. Recharge your aeons too. Trust me. BTW: This can easily be a 30 min battle if you characters are not that strong, so don't start unless you have time (or don't mind pausing...)

When you are ready, follow Yunalesca into the temple. To the best of my knowledge, there are no chests in any of these areas (except the one that Yunalesca's "clothing" fails to hide). This time I just went after her with the aeons (not fully charged). I died. Go back and recharge your aeons. It's not worth it otherwise. She goes through 3 forms and the last one is the nastiest. Save your aeons for that one. If you get zombied, you are occasionally immune to all status bonuses. Oh, and she'll cast "regen" to make your guys die faster, because you get hurt when you try to heal yourself! You can use Holy Water to cure zombie, then hastaga again, but my strategy is to use Dispel to get rid of Regen instead. Note that your haste will go away, too.

By the time I got here, I had the following skills: Hastaga, Holy, and Quick Hit. These were very useful to have! Use haste and remedies to get past the first two stages. I used Tidus, Wakka and Auron. Be sure at this point that you have AT LEAST ONE ZOMBIE AT ALL TIMES! Zombies are immune to death attacks, and she can kill all your party at once with a megadeath attack. My strategy is basically: Keep everyone hasted and don't bother clearing out the Zombie status. Wakka was able to hit for 9999 and Tidus could caste hastaga to keep everyone hasted. Yuna was also on board and able to call fully charged, but I only attacked during the first two stages. On the third stage, I called in Yuna and had her start calling Aeons. Yunalesca will cast Mind Blast (confuse and curse), Absorb (steal HP) and Osmose (steal MP). This renders your aeons unable to charge their overdrive as well as no magic to restore HP. If they actually manage to survive through her attacks, just dismiss them.

Between Holy and throwing away my aeons, I was able to whittle her down. When she had less than 10K HP, I called in Bahamut. Megaflare hit her for 57,118. Needless to say, this was an Overkill. XD I LOVE Bahamut! I'm not sure why, but even with the Overkill, I only got Level 3 Key Spheres from this battle. Whatever. Head back out and save at the save point. You really don't want to have to do that again, do you? But before you leave via that elevator, go back to where you fought Yunalesca and head down the stairs at the back of the area. You should appear atop one of the other stairways. Toward the far end of the screen, you should now see a chest. Open that for the Sun Crest.

Go up the stairway you just went down, and then take the stairs at the bottom to get back to the save point. Take the elevator back up and leave the dome. Almost immediately you'll appear outside, but it's not obvious you are there. Walk toward the camera for your first real look at sin. Anyone have any idea just what the heck that's supposed to be, anyway? Eventually you will be back on the ship. Talk to everyone. Yuna is up right before the deck. Go talk to her for a plan. Head back to Cid and explain it to him. You are now free to engage in almost every side quest!

Don't forget to come BACK to the Zanarkand Ruins as soon as you have control of the airship; you want the destruct sphere. When you return, enable all the WHITE SQUARE pieces (see the astrisked part of the first room on the attached sheet, as well as the lower right corner of that sheet. When you've touched them all, the monitor in the first room will open up and show you a pedistal. Grab the Destruct Sphere and place it in the RIGHT sphere recess on the elevator screen. You should now get a chest containing the Magistral Rod. Now you can return to the Airship and engage in any other side quests you want.

By the way... If your guys are really low level and you want to level 'em up a bit, there's a trick you can do at Macalania temple - if you have a controler with a turbo button. Since the enemies will keep coming, you can have your guys just wait at the entrace to the temple. By this point they should be powerful enough that you can just let them sit there. (I spent about 10 - 15 hours and Tidus, Wakka and Auron went up 99 levels. 10 more and they do another 60 levels. You actually can't do much past that.) This is the easiest way to earn spheres, also. If you have the patience, you can check in every hour or so and use the extra spheres to level up your aeons (you have the Aeon's Soul already, right?) After you do the Highbridge/Sin deal, you will NOT be able to enter Macalania Temple, so this is not going to be around much longer; if you want to try it out, you'd better do it here.

When you are ready to advance the plot, head to Highbridge. While you COULD go capture fiends at this point, you'll want to go to Highbridge first as it will open your ability to revisit the temples while you're catching fiends.


Highbridge
Go straight. Watch the cut scene. And another. And another. By the way, if you've played Xenosaga, listen really closely when Shelinda says, "You can count on me!" I nearly feel off the couch laughing, imagining MOMO and Ziggy fighting. I couldn't help myself, so I looked it up. Guess what? :D Sherry Lynn. What are the odds of the same line in two different games? I suspect a funny story is lurking under the hood here. Eventually, you'll be back on the air ship. When you get there. Talk to Auron, then go onto the bridge and talk to Wakka (and the others, if you want to laugh).

Temples Revisited
You may now enter each of the temples that you couldn't get into before (except for Bevelle... Don't bother trying! You CAN'T get in.) I recommend walking the majority of the way. You can capture the animals for the arena that you didn't get before, and you can do some of the other interesting side quests.

Besaid
Go back to besaid temple and enter the cloister of trials. The aeons will teach you something and give you an evasion sphere. New chests also appear, with 2 potions, an elixir, a white magic sphere and a hi-potion. When you leave the temple, circle around it to the right and you'll get a Jecht's Sphere. Go talk to the bikini chick (with the dog, not the store owner) in the room with the store. You'll get something the dog dragged in. Now head to Kilika Temple.

OPTIONAL: JECHT SPHERE ON A BOAT: If you take the boat from Besaid to Kilika you can view a jecht sphere just to the right of the captain on the bridge. Also, if you haven't done it before, talking to Klasko will net you a Friend Sphere.

Kilikia Temple
At kilika temple, enter the cloister of trials and listen to the aeon. You'll get a luck sphere. Open the chests for an accuracy sphere, a defense sphere and an agility sphere. I can't find a jecht sphere, so if anyone else can, let me know, OK? Head to Luca

Pass through Luca
On the ship to luca, talk to the guy on top of the ship. He'll have you count the number of Gulls you can see from the ship. I counted 11. He agreed. You can get an Ace Wizard this way (It's Wakka's weapon; it gives Wakka Magic +38%. Why do you want Wakka to have more magic?!?) Anyway, when you get to Luca, there's a chest on your immediate left with a few phoenix downs. Head to the stadium and go toward the Auroch's locker room. There should be a Jecht's Sphere right outside. From the main stadium, head left if you missed the two chest on dock 1 (where the airship is). One has a Tidal Sphere; the other 600 Gil, so if you didn't get them before, you probably don't need them now.

Djose Temple
From Luca, head to Djose Temple. Go through the trials and head to the top level. Push in all the pedistals and go up the stairs and through the doorway. Learn stuff and get a Luck Sphere. Then open the chests and get a Magic Defense Sphere and an Agility Sphere. Exit the temple and continue on the road to the south wharf of the Moonflow. On the second screen over, towards the background is a Jecht's Sphere. Across the river (ride ze shoopuf) and down the road you can enter guadosalam again. Head to the far plain for the Venus Crest. There is also an Al Bhed primer S->M in one of the rooms. The one with two blitzball players.

Macalania Temple
From Guadosalam, head to Macalania Temple, as you can now get back in. Head deep into the bowels of the temple. Learn some stuff and get a magic sphere. Open the chests and get an Accuracy Sphere and a Magic Def Sphere. It's kinda annoying, but you have to complete the puzzle to get OUT of this temple. Sigh. Anyway, when you get out of the cloister, you can head to the Calm Lands again.

Calm Lands
From the calm lands, head to the far north east corner and go toward zanarkand. Stop off at the arena (if you have captured from lots of places) and get the Mars Sigil. When you get to the upper corner, head down the crevass to the right and go toward the gorge bottom. Follow the wall around to your right (the character's left) and go along the little path. Toward the end is a sword in the left wall. Examine it to obtain the 'rusty sword.' Go back and head into the cave to go where you found Yojimbo. In the chaimber of the faith you will learn some sutff and receive a strength sphere. You cannot open any chests here (in fact, you can't get back into the chaimber. Ever.) Head back out, get on the air ship and head to Djose Highroad. Go down and left and find the spot where you saw the offering to lord Mi'Ijan. Use the rusty sword on the statue, and a glyph will appear. Examine it and use the Celestial Mirror. You will receive Masamune. (Auron's ultimate weapon).

Sin
Getting in
When you have beat all the side quests you want to (or can) it's time to head to sin. Get on the air ship and go to it. Let's take out Yu Yevon. Watch some cut scenes. You should have an opportunity to talk with Rin here. If you've managed to pick up all the Al Bhed Primers, you'll get to watch Tidus speak Al Bhed. You'll also get Underdog's Secret x99 (will let you add Double Overdrive to a weapon). Head to the Deck, of course. After a great deal of cut scenes...

It's time to fight. If your guys are powerfull enough, just cut a hole. I didn't have any trouble cuting this hole, and I don't guess anyone else will either. I think it was just a single smack (Holy) from Yuna. You should get an HP sphere from this - two if you overkill him. I also got a Venom Spike weapon. On the other side, I had Yuna double cast Ultima for the win. Bwahahahahahaha (it's a white mage; casting black magic against the main boss; I found it funny). Watch Cid do some serious damage. Rip off the other wing (you should get a Lv. 3 Key Sphere (2x with overkill) from this).

Now it's time to fight some sin spawn. I can't give you much in the way of advice here, as I walked right through this section. Steal some Lunar Curtains and Stamina Spring here, though. You should get a REturn Sphere and a MP Sphere from this (2x each with overkill). Rah rah rah. Blah Blah Blah. Head to the outer hull and go talk to Yuna. After a bunch more cut scenes, head to the outer hull again. Another fight. Have your non-Yuna characters use powerful black magic, then bring in Bahamut (or just have Bahamut hit twice at 99,999 each; that works too)... Impluses for the win. Bahamut (if Bahamut has wings, why is this guy out of range...?) and I'm in. Lv 3. Key Sphere for this one. When you have control again, save your game and head into sin.

The Maze


• You'll pass the spinning cylandar things, and then you'll take a sharp right turn.
• When you come to a glyph on the floor that's your first fork. Head left.
• At the next glyph, you'll bear right. (The camera angle will shift; THEN bear right).
• At the next glyph, keep on going straight. (When the camera angle shifts, "straight" will be up and right).
• At the waterfall, you'll head left.
• At the next glyph, you'll turn left (since the camera angle changes, you'll actually be going toward the bottom right of the screen).
• At the next glyph, turn right (left lower direction on the screen.) Open the chest for a Phantom Ring.
• Turn around and head back past the glyph and continue on (the camera angle shifts; you're heading right on screen) to the next chest.
• Get the special sphere.
• Go down the waterfall.
• Head down from the glyph at the bottom of the falls.
• At the next glyph, you'll turn left (from Tidus's point of view; that means go toward the right side of the screen).
• You'll wrap back around to a glyph you have come to before.
• Head right (that's up and right on the screen).
• Follow the path around to the right, past the waterfall to the next glyph.
• Turn right (toward the top of the screen).
• At the next glyph, follow the path off to the right.
• At the next glyph, take a right (that's left on your screen); open the chest there for a Lv. 3 Key Sphere.
• Go back to the most recent glyph, and this time turn right (that's the bottom of your screen).
• Keep to the lower left of the screen to get to a chest (Wizard Lance).
• Head toward the lower right of your screen (past the next glyph).
• Follow that path to the save point (at the bottom of a stairway).
Fighting Seymour
Save and head up the stairs to fight Seymour. Cool music here, I must admit. His attacks are random, but they are made more powerful by the Mortiphasms surrounding him. Depending on which color circles are facing him, he can cast up to four elemental magics in a row. He may also dispel any postitive status enhancments you've got (hastaga, for example). He also casts ultima. He doesn't seem to do any kind of curing of himself. That seems odd to me, but whatever. Be sure to swap everyone in who need AP; you get a good ammount from this battle. You'll get 2x Lv. 3 Key Sphere (4x with overkill). I had everyone else wear him down, and then I had yuna smack him with her rod. It was most entertaining. You can steal Supreme Gems and Shining Gems from him. :) Go back and save, if you want, then continue on.

Fiends and Doors

• When you enter the next part of sin, touch the glyph on the wall to your right (and maybe a few feet in front of you).
• It says, "Ten fiends still seek eternal repose."
• This time you can't use aeon's to kill off these fiends. (Well, you can, but they don't count toward this number). And don't forget that you can use the save sphere to keep your guys healthy.
• Just head back the way you came. These limits allow you to do so. Just kill 10 enemies right out in front of it. "The fiends, now freed, release the seal of Yevon!"
• Go in and open the next seal (by killing 10 more fiends). Now you get to the NEXT door.
• 15 fiends this time. YEAH! How fun!
Once you get those out of the way, you can fianlly get... Are you ready??? A lousy level 4 key sphere. Wee. Anyway, let's leave this entry way and continue on.

Continuing in Sin

• Head down the path until you see a bridge looking shiny piece of floor.
• Stop ON it, an it becomes an elevator.
• Open the chest at the top for a 4-on-1.
• When you get back on the elevator, pay attention to the blue shiny section of floor just beyond you.
• When you get to the bottom, go and use it. You'll push over the collumn and get access to ANOTHER chest.
• You get: The defending bracer!
• Moving right along we'll come to a room with two glowing floor pieces and a glyph on a wall.
• Head to into the little pit. There's a chest with 20,000 gil in it, and a glowing floor piece.
• Step on the floor piece, but don't fall off! Just kidding. You can't fall off. There's an HP sphere in the chest at the top here.
• A little farther on is a Defense Sphere, too.
• Now get on the little blue square next to the last chest. That's both the squares in the room.
• Go to the upper left corder of the room and there's a glyph on the wall.
• Touch it to get access to a little room with a chest in it. Get the Megalixir.
• Continue on and you'll find a room where collumns pop up out of the floor.
• Since you can't continue on, let's head left (toward the top of the screen).
• Once the little draw bridge drops you down, you can't get back up. Well, that's not really true. You just have to leave the pit here and then come back to it.
• A little farther on, then screen will change, and you'll hit a save sphere.
• You can turn left (top of the screen) or continue on. Since left will end the game, let's go on for now.
• On the next screen, keep jumping down to obtain the "Laevatein" from the chest at the bottom. You'll have to go back the way you came.
• When you get to the save sphere, save.
The Point of NO RETURN
STOP! You can't go back from here. Once you start this section, you are on the way to destruction... No wait, wrong game. Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destin... No wait, that's a movie. Once you go down this path, you CANNOT go back. (Yeah, that's what I meant to say...) If you are the kind of person who likes side quests, FINISH ALL SIDE QUESTS before going this way. OK, now that we have that setteled... From the save sphere, head straight ahead until something falls on you. Well, not on you, but pretty darn close. Notice Tidus is just totally blown away by this. >.> What?

Anyway, once that's happend, head inside it by touching the purple thing. Once you go up and touch this, you cannot save your game again, and you cannot go anywhere else. You are stuck playing until you die or finish the game. It's another hour probably, so have plenty of time before you start! Curious if you are strong enough? If you have captured 10 of every animal in the arena, and have beat the omega Dungeon (without using encounter = no) you should be strong enough to take this part on.

Gems Galore
When you touch the big cylendar thing, you'll be telepored inside it. From here, run around looking for 10 gems. In the mean time, try not to hit the ice collumns that pop up. For this game, one showed up right in front of me. Then I just walked left and down until I saw the next one. They seem to go in a counter clock wise circle around the cylander that I was teleported into. If you don't get them quick enough, they disappear. When you have 10, you will be teleported to the final confrontation with Jecht.

When the cut scene stops, you'll have the ability to move. Make sure you are all healed up and ready to fight. Eqiup your baddest weapons and armor - don't forget to use all your ability points, if you have any left. Haste your guys at the beginning, then go for it. Steal a megalixir, some turbo ether, etc. I used holy on the Left and Right Yu Pagoda and made them stop. This will keep them from powering him up.

When he gets to zero hit points, (it was a single 99,999 mug from Tidus; I found that gratifying) he'll pull a sword out of his chest and then suprise!!! He's got all his hit points again. Beat him again (3x 99,999 hits for the overkill)... And after a few cut scenes you have to summon your aeons. Defeat your difficult ones first, using other aeons, if you must. Don't worry about dying, as you have perm-auto-life. If you have break max damage barier, you'll find this rather easy. If you have a weapon with Sensor enabled, by the way, you can read each Aeon's personal good bye message.

Since I had a bunch of weapons that can have Break Damage Limit, I just kicked butt. Yuna will cry between each battle, but you know she secretly likes hurting her aeons. :) But I digress. Frequently. Anyhow, you like that auto life function? Cool, huh? Given the level my guys were at, I overkilled all the Aeons before any of them got any hits. Then again, I'd finished my Arena section too, so I guess it's to be expected. Once you beat all your aeons, you'll get to fight Yu. He's tough. If you have break max damage barrier, you'll be fine. Otherwise, this can suck. I got him wiht a single 99,999 overkill. :D I used Auron, for maximum irony. Here's a few tips:
1. You can cast shell on him to reduce the ammount of health he get's from his curaga.
2. If you double cast flare or ultima, you can do 9999x2 on him, an he'll only cure for 1/4 of that.
Epilogue
Once you defeat him, you'll see the impact this has on everyone around the world. Oh never mind, just watch the cutscenes. If you don't know what something means, just think for a while. You'll figure it out eventually. Oh alright. One more thing. Watch the credits. All of them. ;) When you see the words "The End," Stop. That is enough. ;) (Unless you'd like to listen to the music again.)

Congratulations. Now it's time to play FFX-2. ;)

PS: That end sequence took me exactly 1 hour - with no max damage break

Side Quests
At certain points in the game you can return to places you have already been. Until you get to Macalania Temple (and have your run in with Seymour), you can go back and forth all the way from Besaid to Lake Macalania. Once you get to the calm lands, however, you cannot go back any further than the thunder plains, as Tidus refuses to enter Guadosalam. I will list the things you can do a certain times.

Prior to Macalania Temple
Feel free to roam around the country side, killing enemies and leveling up. There really isn't any reason other than leveling up that you would want to at this point in the game, however. Additionally, there are some great places to level up coming up soon, and you can probably make better use of your time then.

After ariving in the Calm Lands
As the game gets significantly harder from this point on, you may wish to use this oppertunity to fill out part of the Arena, as it can add to your AP and make your guys stronger. You can use my ffx fiend tracker to ensure you've captured all the fiends. If you head back down the path toward Bevelle, only taking the left fork this time, you can find a 'Jecht Sphere' that explains how Jecht met Auron and Braska (if you haven't already acquired it). Complete the next few areas.

Lost Boy Quest
OK. It's not really a quest, per se. But it's useful. Talk to the kid and the lady at the entrace to Macalania Woods (I recommend doing this after you have completed the first part of the Calm Lands quest). They are looking for their missing husband/father. Head back down the Bevelle path and past the guard. Take the next left and the guy is waiting there.

Tell him "they're waiting for you over there" and then follow him back to where his family is waiting. Talk to them both (over where you first met the lady) and they'll tell you the kid went wandering off into the woods. Go into the woods, taking the crystal light path. ('Cause I believe in me!) Take the first branch (left) you come to and you'll meet the kid. Remember this place. It's where you use the crests to level up your ultimate weapons!

Gathering Fiends
Go all the way back (as far as you can) and collect specimines from as many lands as you can. You'll probably build up more spheres (strength, speed, mana, ability) than you can use, so don't be afraid to use some of them to increase your Aeons' abilities (you have been to Remiem Temple, right?) While going through the Thunder Plains, be sure not to miss the Jecht Sphere along the rightmost wall of the southern screen (Auron can learn a new Overdrive: Banishing Blade) and check out the Thunder Plains Quactars section below.

You will not be able to get to Guadolasalm yet. I usually hit Thunder Plains, then Macalania Woods, then Lake Macalania, adding to the list of animals in the zoo. When you get to Lake Macalania, you'll be able to open the chest next to Rin's Agency. (The one previously guarded by the Chocobo rider).

While you are there, head down to the temple if you want to level up. You can stand in the same place and have enemies continue to attack you. If you have a controller with a 'turbo' button (and you guys are at a decent level) you should be able to level up here by simply watching your guys every so often to make sure they aren't totally dead. The bottom line on this is, if Tidus has first strike and can kill off the guado guard in one shot, you can probably fight at least 5 to 10 battles before having to heal up your guys. Either use your potions, or just have Yuna heal them up.

It's also a good way to capture enemies. If you have first-strike, initiative and really powerfull guys (and don't care about the time listed in the save game menu under 'hours-wasted-playing-this-game' :) you can let the game run all night here and fill up your spheres. This is usefull if you want to level up your aeons later! If you are uncertain how man of each enemy you need to capture still, head back to the calm lands and you can check your progress in the arena.

Thunder Plains Quactars
Remember, if you 'pray' (press the square button) to 3 active Quactar Stones around here (the first one kinda roams, after that, you have to go looking for the active one), you can see the ghost guy. When I played, I prayed to one in the upper right of the Northern area, then one in the Southern right area, then one in the Southern left area (by the save sphere). Follow the ghostly Qactuar guy to a leaning tower toward the bottom right corner of the thunder plains (it's not totally obvious when you get there, just FYI) and 'pray' to it.

A box will appear that you can't open. Well, unless you happen to have the Celestial Mirror already. If you've been following along, you probably did the Remiem Temple quest first, so you should have it by now. Use the Celestial Mirror for the Spirit Lance. Take this to the place where you charged the Celestial Mirror, and have Kimahri present it after you find the proper crests (see cloudy/celestial mirror section below). I usually use a grenade to weaken the Quactaurs, and then kill them off with wakka or tidus' special attack.

Remiem Temple
If you missed the interaction with Belgimine on the Calm Lands plains, you can find her again. You really want to - because you NEED the Aeon's Soul.

Ride the chocobo to the place where you first entered the calm lands, and head right. There should be a chocobo feather on the ground. Go there and examine it to jump down. You'll be in a little gully. Head toward the big crevas in the rock. Go over the bridge, SAVE YOUR GAME, examine the sphere to learn about the races here, pick up Al Bhed Primer vol. XXIV, and teach your aeons a few tricks. If they don't already know Aim, Cheer, Focus, and Reflect, TEACH THEM NOW. Save again, then head through the doorway.

Talk to Belgemine and accept her challange. You'll have to go after Valefore first. he's got 20,000 HP or so. I called Ifrit and had him use black magic Fire on himself to heal up when valefore attacked him. Shield against overdrives. Use overdrives when you get 'em. When (if) Ifrit is killed off, use Ixion and follow the same general pattern. You should get the Aeon's Soul (and 4x Lightning Gem; teach an Aeon Thundaga!) for this battle. This handy-dandy little item lets you modify your Aeon's Atrributes. Note the mini-tutorial that pops up.

You can go and save your game at this time. I kinda recommend it. ;) Now go back and go after each of her other Aeons. Ifrit has 28k or so, and I chose Ixion. For this battle, I had him use Cheer and Reflex, hit, then shield when Ifrit was readying an overdrive. When he got wounded, I'd use Thundara on himself to heal himself back up. When an overdrive came, and I was healed enough, I'd use the overdrive. When Ixion was killed off, I called Valifore and used blizzara to finish him off. I got 30x X-Potion! This allows any Aeon to learn Cura.

Save again, and then go after Ixion. It looks like he's got 30K HP, so you basically need 3 9999 overdrives and one other hit. :D I use Ifrit (heal with Fire). When you first get an Aeon called in, use Reflex to up your evade and cheer to up your Strength and Defense - this will help! When Ixion evades and defends, use Focus to raise your healing (black magic in this case) power, and use the black magics to heal your guy back up. Aim can help you hit even when he's evading. I was albe to kill him off with only Ifrit (nearly dead at the end, to be sure). You'll get 10x Chocobo Feather for this battle. This allows any Aeon to learn Haste.

Now you get to fight Shiva. She only has 20k HP, but you'll likely find it tough to land hits. I brought in Ifrit (of course). Same format as the previous battle. Reflex then Cheer. Wait for an overdrive, and use that. Heal while waiting. Shild when Shiva gets an overdrive. Meteor Strike when it won't give her two consecutive turns. When I got the second overdrive, she was toast. Winning this battle will net you 60x Mega-Potions!!! This should allow any aeon to learn Curaga.

Bahamut. Ouch. You saved, right? I did the same kinda thing. Ifrit - Reflex, Cheer, Focus. Bahamut will countdown AND counter attack. When his countdown reaches 1, be sure to shield against the Mega flare overdrive. I only used Ifrit's overdrive when Bahamut had a countdown at 4 or 5. I wanted to be able to cast fire (heal) at least once before shielding against an overdrive. In this way, I was able to kill off Bahamut with just one Aeon. And I had only just arrived in the Calm Lands. I haven't even done the Arena side quests yet. You should receive a Flower Scepter for this battle.

When you've left the Calm Lands, you'll have the opportunity to pick up Yojimbo from the Temple of the Stolen Fayth. He's got less than 30,000 HP. I brought in a full (overdrive enabled) Shiva. Just use the overdrive to hit him for 9999. Then use black magic Blizzara to heal her up while she gets attacked. When the overdive gague is charged, use it again. 3rd time is a charm. You should get 8x Shadow Gem for this battle.

When you have been to Mt Gagazet (or, more precisely when you have FINISHED Mt Gagazet), be sure to gather one of every fiend, and then talk to the guy in the Arena. You should get the Blossom Crown. Use both the Crown and the Flower Scepter on the door at the far east edge of this room (behind Belgemine). Note that I was unable to do this DURING the Mt Gagazet quest. When you use both the Blossom Crown and the Flower Scepter on the door, you'll obtain the Magus Sisters - a set of three Aeons who work as a team when summoned. Name them, then when you leave this room head immediately back inside to receive a Defense Sphere.

The next set of Aeons are not available until much later in the game. Come back when you have Yojimbo, Anima, and Sisters, who you get when you use the flower scepter and the Blossom Crown (which you'll get if you add all Mt Gagazet monsters to the arena) on the doorway behind her.

To battle Anima, I used Bahamut. By the time I got here I was able to cast Haste, then Cheer, then kill Anima in two hits - all before he landed a single shot. You'll get 60x Stamina Spring for this battle, so if you're coming from the Arena and already have 99, use them to teach your Aeons power break and maybe add Strenght +5% to a weapon so you've got enough room.

For the Magus Sisters, I opted not to play fair at all. I brought in Bahamut with a full overdrive and used Megaflare. One shot and all three overkilled with 99,999 damage. You'll get 40x Shining Gem for this battle. After a short cut sceen, send her to receive the Moon Sigil. If you have the Moon Crest and Yuna's ultimate weapon, take the Moon Sigil to the place where you charged the cloudy mirror to power it up fully.

Don't forget to ride the chocobo on the right-hand pathway here! For the first race, go to the end of the line, and hit the chest. When you pop down, go right, and take the pathway down (avoid the pins!) You should be able to wind your way down right after that and win. You'll get the Cloudy Mirror. If you hold this up to the light where you found the little boy earlier (see lost boy above), this will become the celestial mirror. Repeat this course, and try other pathways and box numbers to get extra prizes. I was able to get a potion, a Megalixir (two boxes, no poles), and 30x Wings to Discovery (three boxes, no poles).

Chocobos!
When you get back to the calm lands, head to the north west corner (upper left) and talk to the lone guy on a chocobo. Ask him to ride a chocobo, then ask him to let you train one. Tell him you are serious, and then the training will begin. Press left and right to change the direction. You have to pass between him and his chocobo. Just try and keep the chocobo toward the center of the line of balloons. If you can't do it on the first try, you most likely can do it on the second. You'll get a prize and the ability to ride chocobos on the plains of the calm lands. Once you win ALL the trials (including beating her in a race), you can get down the ramp in the north west corner of the Calm Lands and get Tidus' weapon: Caladbolg.


After Zanarkand
After beating Zanarkand, be sure to go back inside the temple there! There's a new puzzle to get the destruct sphere! Step on all the white squares (See figures). Then go to the main room and get the destruct sphere. Take it to the elevator room and place it in the right recess. Open the chest that shows up and take the magistral rod.

Password: GODHAND. When you have control of the airship, you can enter in passwords that you find hidden around the world. In Al Bhed. On the ground around the calm lands. It's 'GODHAND'. Enter this to gain access to Mushroom Rock. At the end of a maze looking bunch of rocks, you'll find a chest. Use the Celestial Mirror to obtain Godhand - Rikku's ultimate weapon. If you don't yet have the Celestial Mirror, you won't be able to open it.

Password: VICTORIOUS. Near Kilika woods, there is enough information to figure out that the password there is 'VICTORIOUS.' Enter this for Besaid Ruins 1. Remember where Kimahri jumped of the ruins and faught you? That was here. Head counter clockwise around the large spire to your right. You get 'Victorious' from the chest here. (Lightning, fire and ice proof for Rikku.)

Password: MURASAME. The third password is found in the sand dunes on Bikinel. 'MURASAME' will get you Besaid Ruins 2. Head all the way to the right (north on the mini-map) for the Murasame, a weapon for Auron which has Piercing, One-MP cost, and two open slots for further customization.

Searchable Coordinants
You can also search on the airship for locations. Talk to cid and select 'search' from the menu. Here are the coords you can get:


Baaj Temple		X16,Y57 (See appropriate walkthrough section.)
Battle Site		X42,Y57 (Strait forward)
Besaid Falls		X31,Y73 (Under waterfall bridge in Besaid.)
Mi'ihen Ruins		X34,Y58 (Tough to see. Go left from save point.)
Omega Ruins		X74,Y36 (See appropriate walkthrough section.)
Sanubia Sands		X15,Y41 (Obvious.)


You don't have to be very precise on these, by the way. I don't know if there are any more, but these are the ones I found. It took about 3 hours of going over every pixel I could. If anyone knows of and I missed, please let me know! Here's what the chest in each location contains:

• Besaid Falls = Dragoon Lance - Gives Kimarhi Magic Counter, Evade & Counter, and two open slots
• Mi'ihen Ruins = Sonar - Gives Rikku First Strike
• Battle Site = Phantom Bangle - Gives Lulu Ice/Fire/Water Eater
• Sanubia Sands = Ascalon - Gives Tidus DOUBLE AP!

Cloudy/Celestial Mirrors
Once you have the cloudy mirror (see the Remiem Temple section above), you should be able to open all those chest from here on that used to say "You can't open it." But you have to charge it, first, otherwise it will just say "Not enough energy..." To restore it, head to Macalania woods. Complete the 'find lost boy' deal above, and head to the glowing egg thing. Examine it and say, 'use cloudy mirror.' You now have the Celestial Mirror. Go find each of the chests you couldn't get into before, but also talk to the people listed below the table. The weapons suck at first, but they get better later. Here's what the chests have:


Location	Weapon	Character	Upgrade Items
Thunder Plains	Spirit Lance	Kimahri	Saturn Crest/Sigil
Mushroom Rock	Godhand	Rikku	Mercury Crest/Sigil
Calm Lands	Nirvana	Yuna	Moon Crest/Sigil
Calm Lands	Caladbolg	Tidus	Sun Crest/Sigil
Baaj Temple	Onion Knight	Lulu	Venus Crest/Sigil
Mushroom Rock	Masamune	Auron	Mars Crest/Sigil
Luca	Blitz Ball	Wakka	Jupiter Crest/Sigil


Caladbolg:

• Break Damage Limit
• Triple Overdrive
• Evade and Counter
• Magic Counter
You get this by challenging the dude on the Calm Lands to various races. In my opinion, this is a complete waste of time. The weapon flat out isn't worth the 10 hours it will take you to master it. Just go level up in either the Omega Ruins or Sin, and then work your way through the arena. You get the Sun Crest when you fight Yunalesca, and you get the Sun Sigil if you can beat the Chasing Chocobo thing with less than 0 seconds left. Yeah - you read that right. In other words, you need to hit enough balloons to reduce your time down below zero.

Godhand:
• Break Damage Limit
• Triple Overdrive
• Double AP
• Gillionaire
To get the Mercury Crest and Mercury Sigil, be sure to complete the Gatekeeper's side quest on Bikinel. Given the Double AP , you probably want to power this weapon up and equip it *before* you do a lot of leveling up.

Blitz Ball: Did I mention I hate blitz ball? If you don't play it, you can't get this weapon. I don't really care. :D You can get the Jupiter Crest in a closet in Luca - in the Auroch's locker room. There's a Jecht's Sphere outside the door, btw.

Masamune:
• Break Damage Limit
• Triple Overdrive
• First Strike
• Counterattack
Once you have the Rusty Sword from the entrance to The Cavern of the Stolen Fayth, take the airship (yeah, you have to wait that long) to the Mi'hen High Road. Head to mushroom rock. Remember how you took the first left to get to the HQ? This time, go straigh under the arch, and take the 2nd left. At the end of that area is an elevator to a statue where you can use the Rusty Sword. You should now see a glyph. Walk over and use the Celestial Mirror on it for the Masamune. Back down the elevator and continue along the path; you'll find a chest and a bar you can climb on to get to the next area. If you have the Mars Crest and the Mars Sigil, be sure to go power this guy up!

The Mars Crest is found at the bottom of the cliff where you fought the Chocobo Eater. You'll have to go all the way to the staging area (where the fiends were in the cages) and then come back down the other path. It's probably best to do this while you are performing the Chocobo tracks side quest in that area. You can get the Mars Sigil from the Arena owner after you've captured a bunch of fiends from different areas.

Nirvana:
• Break Damage Limit
• Triple Overdrive
• Double AP
• One MP Cost
You probably already got the Moon Crest back in Besaid (remember the area you had to swim right in order to see?) See the "Baaj Temple, Anima, and the Magus Sisters" section below to see how to get the moon Sigil. The Nirvana weapon is in the chest by the Arena - use the Cloudy Mirror to open it.

Baaj Temple, Anima, and the Magus Sisters
After visiting all temples again (post highbridge), have Cid take you to Baaj Temple. When you get to the Baaj Temple, you'll go strait and dive in like last time. Dive and head toward the green dot. Poison this guy, if you can. Lightning elemental reels works well too. He's not too tough, to be honest. There is a ultimate weapon here. Towards the bottom of the map, the screen will switch. Head into that alcove and turn right. Once you get the onion knight, head toward the green dot and then forward through the hallway.

Around the left is a stairway. Go up it and through the doors. The chest to your immediate right has a megalixir, and the one on the left has 4 mega phoenix. If you have opened the chests that require you to use the destruct sphere in each temple's cloister of trials then you can get in here. Examine each statue and a glyph will show up by each one. Whey you have all six glyphs, the front glyph explodes, and you'll be able to go inside and walk to the middle of the room.

This is kinda creepy, but whatever. You get a cool aeon out of this. When you have anima (and yojimbo) head to the temple in the calm lands! When you have completed capturing all the beasts from Mt Gagazette, go back to the guy in the calm lands to receive the Blossom Crown. You may now aquire the Magus Sisters aeon, if you have Yojimbo and Anima. Get a chocobo and head to the hidden temple in the calm lands. Defeat Belgamine using all aeons except anima and then examine the door at the far end of the room. Use the blossom crown and the flower scepter to open the door.

When Yuna prays, you will have to name 3 aeons, then you'll go back outside. Immediately go back in. You should get a Defense Sphere. Regarding these three Aeons, you can only use them together. Now talk to belgemine and fight with anima and then with magus sisters. Depending on how much you've been leveling up, this may be brain dead easy. After a lot of leveling up, this was overkill by Bahamut with one hit to anima and one impulse to the Magus Sisters. (With only minimal leveling up, I beat anima with 3 hits from bahamut, and the sisters with one megaflare) When you beat anima, you'll get 60 stamina springs. When you defeat magus sisters, you'll get 40 shining gems. Perform her sending to receive the moon sigil. Be sure to use this to level up Yuna's Ultimate Weapon, Nirvana.


Cactuars (Gatekeepers) Sidequest
The cactuar's quest is a great way to round up all the enemies and chests on Bikinel. To start it, head to Bikinel and go to the place where home was. From there, you should see a valley on your right that you cannot enter. Go just south of it and you'll see a stone with a cactuar painted on it. Go examine it and read the song of the Gatekeeper.

10 little gatekeepers play in the sand.
Tomay's gone. Gone to fetch the water.
Be back soon.

You'll get some instructions. Basically the story is this. There are some spheres that control the sand and create the sandstorm that keeps you out of the valley. You have to find the 10 cactaurs (not any 10, THE 10) and get their spheres. Each time you do, bring it back here and you'll get directions to the next cactaur. If you fail to get the sphere, you'll get a Sphere del Perdedor (Loser Sphere). The more 'personal' spheres you get, the better an award you will receive at the village.

A few things to be aware of here:
• You can use the save spheres to teleport back to the airship if you need to sell off lots of weapons.
• Doing this quest will basically guarentee you capture 10 of all fiends in this area.
• Once you have captured 10 of every enemies, change our your weapons!
• Once you have captured 10 sand worms, consider switchig to bribery instead if you have lots of money to spare. Bribing them will net you the Winning Formula item, 30 of which can allow you to add Triple Overdrive to any weapon. Do you have a character that has a hard time building up overdrive? *cough* Yuna *cough* Just spend 900,000 Gil twice and you should get all 30.
• Each time you find a gatekeeper you will play a game of red light/green light. You'll have 3 tries to sneak up on the guy. To do this, RUN FAST. Ignore the chests if you have to, and save between gatekeepers. The cactuars squeek before turning around. Kinda of a "squeaky, squeak-squeak." Then they will squeak again to tell you they are turning around. You can be aproaching during the first two squeaks, but after that you'll get caught. When you finally catch up to them, you'll be able to attack him. You can capture cactuars this way, too.

Here's where you find them:


Tomay
Go to the watering hole where you first arrived in Bikinel.
- Duties: Fetching water. Takes his time and, as a result, is often left behind.
- A little dim.
When running to catch up to Tomay, you'll actually be holding the down and right arrows. Play with it a little. Bring that back to the stone (alter thing) and examine it. "Writing appears when the sphere is set into the stone!"

9 little gatekeepers play in the sand.
Rovivea's gone walkabout.
Be back soon.

Rovivea

From the save sphere in the center of the area, head down one screen to Sanubia Desert East, and follow the west wall of the screen. This guy is running around the treasure chest with 4 Hi-Potions. Press X when he's in front of you to start the battle. When the battle is over, be sure to grab the 4 Hi-Potions out of the chest, if you haven't already got them.
- Has no patience for certain dim-witted friends.
- Not a progressive thinker.

When running to catch up to Rovivea, you may actually need to hold down both the down and left arrows. Play with it a little. Take Rovivea's sphere back to the cactaur altar.

8 little gatekeepers play in the sand.
Little Chava likes big numbers.
Be back soon.

Chava
The big numbers is in reference to the 20% off sign. Go read the signs to your left. Especially the one that says, 'Strong Fiend in Vacinity.' It also says 20% 0ff.
- Recently learned to count to 50
- A little needy.
- Attention deficit.
You'll probably need to hold straight down while approaching him. While you're here, open the chest in the area to the upper left, and fight the sandragora and get its chest too. If you fought them earlier, just open the chest. You get 3 Megalixers, 2 teleport spheres, 2 x-potions, 3 mega-potions, the mercury crest (part of Rikku's Ultimate Weapon) and 8 hi-potions.

7 little gatekeepers play in the sand.
Alek and Aloja play tag in the ruins of men.
Be back soon.

Alek and Aloja
These brothers can be found in the ruins on the next screen to the left. Look around.
- Two brothers, rarely separated.
- They move as one, their closeness a paragon of brotherhood.
Be sure to get the treasure chests in the u shaped ruin, and the one at the far left corner of the map. 10,000 gil, a level 2 key sphere and an elixir. You'll probably need to hold down and slightly left on this one, at least at the start.

5 little gatekeepers play in the sand.
Vachella seeks the shining blue.
Be back soon.

Vachella
Go save at the save point in the center of the center of Bikinel (3 screens down).
- Loves new things.
- Hard on others, easy on self.
- Stingy
This one goes really fast. Pay close attention to the squeaking timing to be sure you're not approaching when he turns around. You have 14 seconds on this one. I fail on this one frequently.


4 little gatekeepers play in the sand.
O, Robeya's stuck inside.
Be back soon.

Robeya
Head south 1 screen, past the save point (pick up the 8 Al Bhed potions in the chest there) and go to the far west corner of that screen. Open the chest.
- A real needle brain.
- Likes cramped spaces.
- Check out his great collection!
The first chest has 2 shadow gems. The second chest has 1 shining gem. The last one has a blessed gem. If you don't want those items, just head straight to him. Since you can steal or mug those items from other enemies in this area, I don't think it's worth it to grab them here. If you really want them, though, use the fact that you get three tries to your advantage here. I'd grab the first two chests on the first pass, and the last chest on the next one. I usually have time to catch him still on that pass, or I can get him on the last pass.

3 little gatekeepers play in the sand.
A fiery inscription -- The lord of the hole is gone. Isrra thinks.
Be back soon.

Isrra
It's not very obvious, but you probably know where to go now. Remember the sanddragora you faught earlier? Leave the screen you are currently on, then come back and visit it.
- The philosopher about town. Today he digs holes. Again.
- A cautious sort.
This guy is pretty tough. You have to run all the way until the very last second. His pauses are brutal. I usually fail on this one, too. Once you beat him you can fight the sandragoras again. And get their chests, too. You can steal muskx10 from these guys as well as remedies, you know. You cannot capture them. Watch out for the seed burst, though. It's confusing. :) The chests give you 3 Megalixir and 2 teleport spheres.

2 little gatekeepers play in the sand.
Much-curious Elio has left on a journey.
Be back soon.

Elio
Head back to the very beginning of this area. You'll see him teleport to your ship. Notice the overhead shot of the ship that lingers on the deck view? (hint hint). Beam up, go out on the bridge and walk left.
- To see what lies beyond the sands, he travels far to distant lands.
- Hyper-reactive and a bad poet.
He turns around almost immediately when the game starts, so pay close attention. Once you catch him, he falls to his death. I guess. I haven't been able to find him ever again. At any rate, you get his sphere so take it back to the alter.

1 little gatekeeper plays in the sand.
Flaile is always behind.
Be back soon.

Flaile
Don't bother looking for him, he really will be back soon! Look behind you!
- The guy you never invite, but he always shows up anyway.
- Cheeky.
He doesn't squeek the first time, so you better be careful! (Edit: I don't think this is a bug; it just sucks.) Read the poems there. It's the same pieces as before, but it adds 'gone for good' and Nobody's here. The sand is gone. Head into the valley to claim your prize! I got the Mercury Sigil (not to be confused with the Mercury Crest, but also a part of Rikku's Ultimate Weapon) in the first chest. One time around I failed three times and got a Megalixir in the second chest. Another time through I got a friend sphere in the second.

NOTE: If you are fast enough, and you've got weapons that give you 2 or 3 times the experiance, you can level up REALLY fast here. This isn't where I do my leveling up, however - you don't run into Cactaur's as often as you run into other enemies. Leave your leveling up to the Omega Ruins. Use quick hit, if you can, and you'll rake in the EXP. When you are finished, equip something with "no encounters" and walk back to a save point.

Omega Ruins

Warning
If you think your characters are up to it, feel free to try taking on the Omega Ruins. Be warned, however. This is NOT an easy area. It's not the hardest part of the game, but it's not that easy, either. You don't get any save points, so your guys better be good! I recommend that your characters have the ability to enable "No Encounters" (or purifying salt availible to customize it for one of your characters). I think I got my No Encounters weapons from fighting ghosts in the Temple of the Stolen Fayth. It's also handy to have either a First Strike (Auron's Ultimate Weapon - the Masamune - has this when it's leveled up) or customize armor to have Deathproof, Confuseproof, Stoneproof, and Berserkproof. Either of these give you a chance if you run across a Great Malboro, whose opening attack will otherwise inflict too much pain. If you have one of these, and you *don't* keep Yuna as one of your main three, you can swap her in either before or after the Bad Breath attack and call Aeons to deal with this powerful enemy. Anyway, before beginning this area, you might want to run around close to the save point for a while, while you get to know your enemies here.

You can SERIOUSLY level up your guys here with a minimal amount of effort - especially if you are "capturing" up to 10 of each type of enemy for the Arena. You may want to go into this level with 99 power spheres, though, they are kinda hard to come by here. FYI: I like to "mug" those chests you encounter in battle - you'll be able to get the goodies inside while destroying the chest if there's a monster. Since you don't get anything good from fighting them, there's not much point.

As I mentioned in the Calm Lands section of the walkthrough, I like to bounce between the Omega Ruins and each of the other areas. You'll get lots of spheres in the other areas and you'll gain lots of levels here. When you run out of Strength Spheres, spend some Mana spheres leveling up an Aeon and then head to besaid and fill out the arena enemies for that area. You should end up with 99 of each sphere, so come back to the Ruins and repeat the process for the other areas. You'll be amazed how fast your characters get to insane levels.

I like to keep track of how many of each type of enemy I've killed off. Once I've killed off 10 of each type, I like to call in Yuna and have Bahamut's Overdrive overkill them. If you opt to do this, be sure to swap in your non-active characters before you call in Bahamut for the overkill - that way everyone can level up together. For my first pass through this area, I hadn't been to Highbridge, so I could alternate between leveling up here, and then going to the the temple at Lake Macalania and having the guys just sit there and level up (they can take anything thrown at them fairly easily). It was an OK strategy, but it took WAY to long. Be sure to steal a bunch of "Musk" from the evil eye enemies (Floating Death) here. You can use those to add the useful "Confuseproof" skill your characters' armor. The Hypello Potions you steal from the Halma enemies can give you Berserkproof, Farplane Winds can give you Deathproof, and Petrify Grenades can give you Stoneproof. As mentioned above, this combination makes it possible to survive the initial Bad Breath attack from the Great Malboro. If one character has all these, s/he can use a Remedy on the character whose turn is next, and so on. Swap in everyone then kill 'em off.

If you are having trouble even doing ANYTHING here, just swap in all your guys so every can have a turn, have those who can steal try to steal something and those who can't just defend, then call in Bahamut and kill the enemy off. This way everyone levels up with a minimum amount of pain. For enemies that counter attack, I'd recommend against even stealing until your guys can take the resulting abuse. Eventually you'll get to the point where you're not shaking in terror everytime your guys have a random encounter. At that point, it's time to consider actually moving on throughout the Ruins...

Strategy: Demonolith. These enemies will counter with the really nasty Pharo's Curse. However, they can't do that if they're silenced. I like to have Wakka use Silence Buster, then have Auron use Armor Break. Have Tidus cast Hastaga and (after they're both silenced) slowga. That makes fighting these guys much easier.

This section of the game is very dark, so it's hard to see, but your map makes it easier. Please note that the order of stuff in the chests is random, so you may not have stuff in your chests in the order I specify them in. Here are instructions for wandering through the maze in an efficient manner:

1. Head forward and take the first right.
2. At the end of the hall are two chests. The right one had a level 4 key sphere, the left one had a defending bracer once, and a monster another. I accidentally killed the monster while he was still in 'chest mode' so I don't know if there are any goodies in there. I suspect not.
3. Go back the way you came and head across the hallway and down the corridor there.
4. At the end of that corridor you should see a room with 3 chests. Open the middle (turnover), then left (Lv. 3 Key Sphere x2), then right (monster + Chest).
5. Leave the room and continue down the corridor across the little bridge until you hit the fork.
6. Go left.
7. Follow the corridor around until you get to the chests.
8. My order was middle (defending armlet), right (monster + chest), left disappeared!
9. Go back and take the right fork. Almost immedietly you'll come to a screen where you can see a small ledge leading off to the left.
10. You can't take that ledge until you have activated the support collumns. So let's do that, shall we?
11. Continue right (past the glyph) until you come to a room with 4 chests in the middle. You should see Al Bhed Primer vol. XXVI in the back, by the torch. Open the lower left corner chest first (Friend Sphere x2). Then lower right corner (Lv. 4 Key Sphere). Next open the upper right (Phantom Ring), and finally the upper left (or leave it alone. It's a stinking monster anyway.) There are two exits leading from this room. They form a "U" shape and meet each other - but the left passage also has a branch off to the left.
12. After you have opened the chests mentioned above, take the left passage from that room, and the left branch off that passage. You'll see a glyph at the far end of the passage (on the wall. If you see one on the floor, they you have found the elevator - and you need to go back and locate the branch I'm refering to.) Touch the gylph.
13. Remember that glyph at the fork in the road back on number 11? Go and touch it. The collumns should now be in place ot allow you to access that chest over there. It may appear there is any empty slot, but just go over to it and it should fill in. The chest (for me anyway) has a teleport sphere.
14. If you don't trust that your guys are UNBELIEVABLY buff, go and save now.
15. Head back to the room where the 4 chests were, and then take the right path.
16. When you see a glyph thingy on the floor, that's the elevator. Go step on it.
17. When you jump off the elevator, swap any non-encounter and capture equipment you might be using. Head down the corridor and when you get close to the middle, you'll get attacked by the Ultima Weapon.

Ultima Weapon
Steal as many doors to tomorrow as you can (for me, it was 70), then finish him off. Bahamut overkilled him in with a single megaflare. Then again, My guys at this point have been leveling up quite a bit here in the Omega Ruins. It looks like defeating him nets you 3x Lv. 3 Key Sphere. An overkill nets you 6. You'll also receive an interesting piece of armor. When I've fought these battles, I've received either a Dragon Lord (Auron) or a Mythical Bangle (Lulu). These have two empty slots plus "Break MP Limit." I usually reset until I get this for Lulu. ;)

• Step on the pallet to continue.
• When you appear, you can head either right or left. FYI: If you get to a platform that does NOT have an enemy on it, it means you've been there before. You're welcome. I went left.
• At the first platform, I fought a tonberry.
• After that I fought an adamantose on the next platform. There's a chest after that. Get a friend sphere.
• Now go back and head right. Each time you get to a new platform, you fight a different beast. I fought an adamantose, then gemini, then a great malboro, then a varuna, a master tonberry, then some demonoliths, a master tonberry. After that, I was able to fight the main enemy.

Omega Weapon
I stole 90 gambler's spirit, then wailed on him. My guys were so powerfull he got in ONE hit only. :) If you have Bahamut overkill him, you get a LOT of level 4 key spheres. Pay close attention to that final cut scene. You gotta love Auron's irony here. :D You may also see a chest behind him. That's got a Magic Sphere in it. You get teleported back to the beginning of the level, but you can equip a "no encounters" weapon and come back for it.

 

Arena

Arena Intro
When you first get to the calm lands, head to the Arena structure, located to the very far east of the little hut in the middle. Talk to the man there to begin your fiends capturing days. He'll tell you he needs you to capture at least one of every fiend in the calm lands. Buy some weapons that have the "capture" attribute (well, for Tidus, Wakka, Auron, and Kimari anyway), and go kill 'em off. See the "Calm Land" section below to see what fiends you'll need to acquire. When you kill off all the fiends in the Calm Lands, you'll see a chest appear. If you've charged the cloudy mirror (see misc side quests section), you'll be able to open this for Yuna's ultimate weapon: Nirvana.

Once you have captured the fiends in the Calm Lands, he'll open for business. Now you can capture up to 10 fiends from every habitat in the game (there are 12 habitats). I've listed the habitats below, in the order they appeared to you in the game. When you first arrive in the Calm Lands, you will not be able to access many of the ares; don't worry - we'll get there soon. I recommend going all the way back to the Thunder Plains as soon as the arena is opened to you, and getting 10 of every monster in each of the habitats you have access to.

You can use my ffx fiend tracker to ensure you've captured all the fiends.

As you capture 1 of each enemy, then 10 of each enemy, the guy at the arena will give you cool prizes and create new - really hard - enemies for you to beat. Don't worry if you cannot beat them as they appear; this is where the hardest enemies in the game can be found. Just keep going through the game until you get to Sin - that's when you should start trying to beat these guys. As you defeat them, you'll recieve spheres that let you level your characters up to rediculous levels. For example, when I went to fight the final boss, all three of my front-line characters had all their attributes at 255, except for "Luck." It was maybe a couple of hits and he was gone.

Besaid
You'll be able to come here as soon as you get the airship. Just head there, and wander toward Waterfall Way. All (three) enemies can be found here. When he's made a nasty beast, you'll get 99 Stamina Tonic. You can also now fight Stratoavis. He'll also have created a new monster.

Available Enemies: Dingo, Water Flan, Condor.

Kilika
All enemies are found in the forest area - the only area you see, really. For Nasty Beast, you get Poison Fang x99. It's a Malboro Menace.

Available Enemies: Yellow Element, Killer Bee, Dinonix, Ragora.

Mushroom Rock
You should have 10 races and areas when you are done with this section. You should get the Mars Sigil here. Also, from getting everything from Mushroom Rock Road, you'll get Candle of Life x99. He'll create Coeurlregina (Steal Farplane Wind). He'll also be able to create a new Imp monster at this time. If you are having trouble finding enemies, check out the Misc Quests section; there's a hidden area around here.

Available Enemies: Red Element, Fungar, Raptor, Lamashtu, Gandarewa, Garuda.

Sanubia Desert - Bickanel
When you capture 10 of all enemies here, the Arena guy will give you Shadow Gem x99 and you can fight the Abyss Worm.

Available Enemies: Mushussu, Sand Wolf, Alcyone, Zu, Sand Worm, Cactuar.

Mi'ihin Highroad
Don't forget a few things about this area. The are many areas here: South End, South Road, Central Road, New Road, and Oldroad. Some enemies are only found on a few screens. When you capture them all, Kottos will be unlocked in the arena, and you'll get Soul Spring x99.

Available Enemies: Floating Eye, Bomb, Vouivre, thunder Flan, Mi'ihen Fang, Dual Horn, White Element, Ipiria, and Raldo.

Djose Highroad
When you've collected all these enemies, he'll create Jormungand and give you Petrify Grenade x99.

Available Enemies: Lamashtu, Raptor, Fungar, Gandarewa, Garm, Bunyip, Bite Bug, Basilisk, Snow Flan, Simurgh.

Moonflow
Don't forget there are TWO sides to this - North Bank Road and South Bank Road.

Available Enemies: Gandarewa, Fungar, Garm, Bunyip, Bite Bug, Snow Flan, Ochu.

Thunder Plains
You can find most of the beasts in most areas around here. When you have all the enemies from here, you'll get 99x Chocobo Wing and he'll have the Cactuar King enemy available.

Available Enemies: Melusine, Aerouge, Buer, Gold Element, Kusariqqu, Larva, Iron Giant, Qactaur.

Macalania
Macalania is made up of two large areas, and many small areas. Be sure to look through BOTH Macalania Woods AND the Macalania Temple area. From finding all monsters here, he'll give you 60x Shining Gem and can fight Espada.

Available Enemies: Snow Wolf, Iguion, Wasp, Evil Eye, Ice Flan, Blue Element, Murussu, Mafdet, Xiphos, Chimera

Calm Lands
You'll have to search pretty much the four corners to get one of each of these. You want to find the following near the entrance: Skoll, Nebrios, Shred, Flame Flan. You can find an Anacondaur, ogre, or a Malboro (Use Valefore to weaken it; sonic wings are your friend!) in the north west area. The Ogre can also be found just north and slightly west from the hut/store in the middle. A Coeurl can be found in the northern area. Find a Chimera Brain in the southern area (by the chests in the shadow area).

For bringing in one of every beast, he'll create "one nasty beast" and give you Farplane Wind x60. Save your game, and fight Chimerageist.

Available Enemies: Skill, Nebiros, Flame Flan, Shred, Anacondaur, Ogre, Coeurl, Chimera Brain, Malboro.

Temple of the Stolen Fayth
I didn't notice anything obvious about where these guys were located. Note, however, that Ghosts are vulnerable to Delay attacks and Fire. Just make your way in between the save points until you have everything you need. You may have trouble finding one or more of them, though. I took a while before I stumbled across a Tonberry (triple foul works well on him), for example. If you run across a Magic Pot, just run; that's my advice.

Anyway, once you do manage to get at least one of all of them, he should make an Don Tonberry, and you'll get Silver Hourglass x40.

Available Enemies: Deffender (cannot be captured), Coeurl, Malboro, Nidhogg, Dark Element, Epaaj, Thorn, Ghost, Yowie, Valaha, Imp, Tonberry (Green Room, 2nd chamber).

Mount Gagazette
You can fight all the same creatures inside the mountian as you can fight outside - and then some. Well, except for Grenades. Once you have captured a bunch of grenades, you can wait until you've finished this area. Which is to say, don't bother trying to capture everything OUTSIDE before going inside. When you get some of each, he'll make you a Catoblepas and give you the Blossom Crown.

Available Enemies: Nidhogg, Imp, Grat, Grenade, Bandersnatch, Bashura, Behemoth, Mandoragora, Dark Flan, Grendel, Ahriman, Maelspike (underwater), Achelous (underwater), Splasher (underwater).

Omega Ruins
Bring one of each of these, and you'll get Designer Wallet x60 and a Vorban.
Available Enemies:
Defender Z: (Use Armor Break! Weaken them, then use Bahamut's Impulse for Overkill.)
Treasure: (Use Mug to get something but not let out a monster).
Zaurus: (easy)
Machea: (Will poison you with each attack.)
Floating Death: (Be sure to steal Musk from this guy; you can make confuse proof)
Halma: (Use Armor Break!)
Demonolith: (Use Armor Break; Counters with "Pharo's Curse" for Curese, Poison, Darkness, Silence)
Spirit: (Sometimes counters with confuse/poison mist)
Puroboros: (Better do a LOT of damage so they don't explode; armor break and 2x tripple foul)
Black Element: (Armor break. When you've got a complete set, be sure to use armor break before calling Bahamut for Impulse Overkill.)
Master Coeurl: (Easy)
Great Malboro: (Seriously, "bad breath" sucks. Bring in Valefor and use Sonic Wings.)
Varuna: (Beware Death)
Adamantoise: (Use Armor Break!)
Master Tonberry:(Bahamut is your friend if doing an overkill. Otherwise, he'll use "Voodoo" to kill off your Aeons.)
Wraith: (Your aeons are immune to doom and death; have them weaken this guy.)


Sin

Finish off the enemies here to get access to all but one monster in the arena (you have to beat everything in the arena to get access to the last one).

Available Enemies:
Ahriman: 10v (Sea of Sorrow, City of Dying Dreams)
Adamantoise: 10v (Sea of Sorrow, City of Dying Dreams)
Gemini: 10v (Sea of Sorrow, City of Dying Dreams)
Exoray: 10v (Sea of Sorrow, City of Dying Dreams)
Demonolith: 10v (City of Dying Dreams)
Great Malboro: 10v (City of Dying Dreams)
Wraith: 10v (City of Dying Dreams)
Bahemoth King: 10v (Sea of Sorrow, City of Dying Dreams) (Steal Twin Stars!)
Barbatos: 10v (City of Dying Dreams)


Arena - Area Conquest, Species Conquest, and Originals
As you bring the guy fiends from the various lands, you'll begin to unlock fiends that only exist here. This is really where the heart of leveling up takes place. :D See the section below for the different categories of special fiends, as well as strategies specific to the fiend. Just FYI: When you are killed in battle (notice I didn't say if) he'll clean your guys up - no need to reset the game. ;) You'll lose your overdrives though, if you've used them. That goes for Aeons, too.

Area Conquest
When you have conquered all the enemies of a certain AREA, you will allow him to create a new enemy.

Enemy	Unlock for	Steal	Win
Stratoavis	Stamina Tonic x99	Smoke Bomb	Amulet x2
Malboro Menace	Poison Fang x99	Remedy	Mana Tonic x2
Kottos	Soul Spring x99	Soul Spring	Healing Spring x20
Coeurlregina	Candle of Life x99	Blessed Gem, Farplane Wind	Shining Gem x3
Jormungand	Petrify Grenade x99	Petrify Grenade, Three Stars	Supreme Gem x2
Cactaur King	???	Chocobo Wing	Blessed Gem x3
Espada	Shining Gem x60	Farplane Wind, Farplane Shadow	Rename Card
Abyss Worm	Shadow Gem x99	Shadow Gem	Stamina Tonic
Chimerageist	Farplane Wind x60	Mana Spring	Return Sphere
Don Tonberry	Silver Hourglass x40	Candle of Life	Farplane Wind x3
Catoblepas	Blossom Crown	Healing Spring	Three Stars
Abaddon	Lunar Curtain x99	Purifying Salt	Mana Tablet
Vorban	Designer Wallet x60	Healing Spring	Friend Sphere

Species Conquest
When you collect one of each TYPE of enemy, you'll enable him to start creating Species Conquest enemies. You'll get neat prizes for these, too. :D

Enemy	Unlock for	Steal	Win
Fenrir	Chocobo Feather x99	Chocobo Feather	Agility Sphere
Ornitholestes	Stamina Spring x99	Rename Card	Gambler's Spirit
Pteryx	Mega Phoenix x99	Smoke Bomb	Evasion Sphere
Hornet	Mana Tonic x60	Poison Fang	Accuracy Sphere
Vidatu	Mana Spring x99	Lightning Gem, Mana Tonic	MP Sphere
One-Eye	Stamina Tablet x60	Blessed Gem, Lunar Curtain	Magic Def Sphere
Jumbo Flan	Twin Stars x60	Mana Tablet, Lunar Curtain	Magic Sphere
Nega Elemental	Star Curtain x99	Star Curtain	Twin Stars x2
Tanket	Gold Hourglass x99	Light Curtain, Lunar Curtain	Defense Sphere
Fafnir	Purifying Salt x99	Stamina Spring, Gold Hourglass	Light Curtain x20
Sleep Sprout	Healing Spring	Poison Fang, Farplane Wind	Teleport Sphere
Bomb King	Turbo Ether x60	Fire Gem	Door to Tomorrow
Juggernaut	Light Curtain x99	Shinning Gem, Lunar Curtain	Strength Sphere
Ironclad	Mana Tablet x60	Light Curtain	HP Sphere

Originals
Every so often, he'll come up with something original. To celebrate, he gives you something.

Greater Sphere: Supreme Gem x60 Steal: Gambler's Spirit


Enemy	Unlock For	Steal	Win
Earth Eater	60x Three Stars	Gambler's Spirit	Fortune Sphere
Greater Sphere	Supreme Gem x60	Gambler's Spirit	Luck Sphere
Catastrophe	Door to Tomorrow x99	Gambler's Spirit	Designer Wallet
Th'uban	Gambler's Spirit x99	Gambler's Spirit	Underdog's Secret
Neslug	Winning Formula x99	Gambler's Spirit	Pendulum
Ultima Buster	Dark Matter x99	Gambler's Spirit
Shinryu	Megalixir x30	Gambler's Spirit
Nemesis	Master Sphere x10	Gambler's Spirit	Lv 4. Key Sphere!!!

Strategies for Fighting Arena Enemies


Area Conquest


Stratoavis: This was not a partcuarly difficult enemy, if your guys are sufficiently buff. I like to use Mug to steal a bunch of stuff, then use Quick Hit to wear him down until he lands. Then I call in Bahamut and overkill him (alternately call in Bahamut from the beginning and take him out with 4x 99,999 hits). You can steal Smoke Bombs from him. Defeating him nets you 2x Amulet (4x with overkill).

Malboro Menace: Set all your characters to be able to withstand Confuse and Berserk. Call in Bahamut as soon as you can. Haste and Protect him. It took 7 99,999 hits to overkill him. Killing him nets 2x Mana Tonic (4x with overkill).

Kottos: Call in Bahamut and Haste/Protect him. 5x 99,999 hits take him out. You can steal Stamina Springs from him, but he DOES counter attack if you do. Winning nets you 20x Healing Spring (40x w/ Overkill). Use 60 of these to teach your Aeons Regen, or 80 to equip auto-regen to a shield!

Coeurlregina:Steal Farplane Wind and/or blessed gem from this guy, then call in Bahamut. 4x 99,999 and he's toast. Haste (don't bother with protect), then attack. Winning nets you 3x Shining Gem (6x with overkill). Use 60 Shining Gem if you want to teach your aeons to cast Flare, or use 15 to add "Magic Counter" to a weapon, allowing your guys to counter attack when hit with magic.

Jormungand:Steal Petrify Grenades, if you want, then call in the big guns (bahamut). Haste/Protect, then smack him down. 6x 99,999 and he's gone. Winning nets you 2x Supreme Gem or 4x with Overkill. Supreme Gems teach your aeons Ultima, add Magic +20% to weapons. If you DON'T have a major leveled up Bahamut, this guy is pretty tough. He's got a couple of really nasty attacks. His Cold Stare will turn your guy to stone, then blow him totally away, and you'll be left one man down for the duration of the fight. If your Bahamut is good enough (over 9000 HPish), bring him in for this one. Haste, protect, reflex, and then just boost until overdrives (use curaga when needed, of course). Cold stare doesn't work on Aeons, but it DOES do damage.

Cactaur King: Steal Chocobo Wings if you want. If you call in an Aeon, don't bother with Haste/Protect - he's got a 99,999 needle attack that will wipe them out in one shot. It will take one 99,999 hit, and then one more valid attack. Killing him nets you 3x Blessed Gem (overkill 6x).

Espada: Steal Farplane Shadow, but beware the "Hades Claw" counter attack. Call in Bahamut, haste/protect, then go after him. 3x 99,999 and he's gone. Winning nets you a Rename Card, overkill 2x. You can use your Rename Card to rename an Aeon. Isn't that great? :D

Abyss Worm: For this enemy, be mindful of his "Swallow" attack (like the Sand Worm, you lose your guy until he "Regurgetates" him back up; unlike the Sand Worm, it basically kills your guy!). I did a quick haste on my guys and had them mug/quick hit. I eventually brough in Bahamut and had him use the Haste, Protect, Reflex trick. Overall, that made this not a very long or tough fight. If you've got a powerful Bahamut, this is a relatively easy fight. Steal Shadow Gems, if you want, then call in Bahamut. Haste/Protect, then wail on him. 5x 99,999 is overkill. Winning nets you a stamina tonic, overkill x2.
Chimerageist: This guy is immune to pretty much everything. You can use magic break and power break, but he's still... Ouch. Your best bet is to wait until you have a high level bahamut. You can steal Mana Springs. I call in Bahamut and kill him in 2x 99,999 hits. You'll get a return sphere for beating him, 2x with overkill.

Don Tonberry: Yikes! Steal Candle Life if you can take the Karma counter. I call in Valifor and do a Sonic Wings attack or two before he gets booted out with Voodoo. Repeat with Ifrit, Ixion, Shiva, then Bahamut. Winning nets you 3x Farplane Wind, 6x with overkill. Use Farplane Wind to add Deathstrike to a weapon or Deathproof to a shield.

Catoblepas: Steal Healing Springs, if you want, then summon Bahamut. Haste/Protect, then attack. 6x attack for Overkill. Beware his Ultima Finishing Move. After he's dead, he'll cast it. For this reason, I like to have an Aeon do the finishing blow. Winning nets you a Three Stars, 2x for Overkill.

Abaddon: Steal some purifying salt, then take him down. 5 or 6 99,999 hits and he's gone. Win a Mana Tablet (2x w/ overkill).

Vorban: Steal Healing Springs, if you want. Call Bahamut, use Haste/Protect. 7 99,999 for overkill. Winning nets you a Friend Sphere, 2x for Overkill.


Species Conquest


Fenrir: Steal Chocobo Feathers if you need, then call in the Aeons. Don't bother with Haste, etc, Fangs of Hell will kill them off. Go after him with one aeon after another, and have your other characters try to land a hit using "quick hit." I even had to use Yojimbo on this guy. 129 Gil each time. He seemed to be able to dodge the Fangs of Hell attack, and all his other attacks did 9,999 to the Fenrir. I wish he had the break damage limit by default. It wasn't a cheap battle, but it WAS interesting how he could dodge. The Fangs of Chaos attack seems to do a percentage of damage, because once you are down to 1 HP, it does ZERO. Winning nets you an Agility Sphere. I assume overkill is x2, but I didn't get one. :D

Ornitholestes: Without a REALLY powerful Aeon, this guy is tough! Even WITH a powerful Bahamut, this guy is hard. I was able to beat this guy before a lot of leveling up, but only by the skin of my teeth. This guy's Poison Touch attack will nearly kill any Aeon (and any character). If you are lucky, he'll use Drain Touch, which isn't nearly as powerful. I used Bahamut plus Haste, Protect, Reflex. He dodged all my attacks. Because regular hits don't seem to work on him, I had to resort to Mega-Flare and impulse, but only when he got no more than two turns after words. Osmose is your friend here. Be sure you keep careful track of how many turns you have left, and how many turns HE has left in any given round. It took a fairly long time. With a powerful Bahamut, the battle was basically curaga, impulse - repeat. It took 9x 99,999 attacks to kill him. Winning nets you 2x Gambler's Spirit, 4x for Overkill.

Pteryx: This enemy can ambush you with Beak of Woe, which causes curse. If you need your overdrives to beat him, you'd better have some Holy Water items handy. Steal smoke bombs or Candle of Life, if you want. I call in Bahamut and do 2x 99,999 for an overkill. Winning nets you 2x Evasion Sphere - 2x for Overkill. FYI: I like to go after this guy to earn a whole mess of evasion spheres, then I have my guys all teleport to the top left corner, and start placing the evasion spheres in the blank areas, until my guys all have their evasion at 255.

Hornet: Mug some Poison Fangs and/or purifying salt, then call in your Aeons. 6x 99,999 and he's gone. Killing him nets you an Accuracy Sphere, x2 for Overkill.

Vidatu: Steal Lightning Gems, then call in Bahamut and Haste up. This guy has pretty good armor, so I recommend using "cheer" on him, too. After that, it was only 4 hits for me to kill him off. You should score an MP sphere when you beat him (2x if you overkill him). Chances are pretty good, by the time you get here, that your guys already have 999 MP. Unless you have the Break MP Limit skill on a piece of armor, you probably won't need many of these.

One-Eye: Steal some Lunar Curtain, if you need, then call in the Aeons. It only took a couple of 99,999 hits to kill him off. You should get a Magic Def Sphere (2x with overkill).

Jumbo Flan: This guy is REALLY tough. When you've got Anima, teach him haste and curaga, then bring him in for this fight. Haste him, and have him use Pain. Heal with Curaga when required. It took me 14 hits to kill him off. If he casts reflect on your guy, be SURE to dispel it! You don't want him casting regen back on himself!!! You should get a magic sphere (2x with overkill).

Nega Elemental: If you hit this guy, he'll retaliate with Ultima. Be able to withstand it! I recommend Bahamut with Haste. On my Bahamut, his Ultima retaliation only did about 1150 dmg, and he spent his whole time using Osmose/Drain. Using Regen, I was able to stay alive long enough to take him out. You should get 2x Twin Stars (4x for overkill). You can use these to add "Half MP Cost" to armor.

Tanket: This enemy has a pretty hefty attack. Steal Lunar Curtains, if you want. Be sure to haste/protect wether you use characters or aeons. I called in Bahamut and did a lot of smacking. He eventually used his "rush attack" skill, which continues to smack until such a time as one or more of your character or aeons are dead. Three enemies with Break Damage add-ons to the weapons is a BIG plus here, as your best bet is to kill him BEFORE he gets an attack. :D Hit him with 10 99,999 attacks to kill him off. You'l get a Defense Sphere for beating him (2x with overkill).

Fafnir: This guy has a Tripple Attack that really sucks. He can jump in and attack in the middle of your turns, it appears (or it could have been a glitch; only seems to happen on the Aeons). It could also be that tripple attack is using two of your turns. Don't use shell to try and ward off his tripple attack, it just makes your curaga less useful. If you can't beat him with one good aeon, you're not going to like this battle before you have the ultimate weapons. ;) Just FYI: He's immune to delay. YOu can mug/steal a Gold Hourglass from him. If you've got the ultimate weapons, Hastaga and Quick Hit. 12 x 99,999 for the kill. You'll get 20x Light Curtain (40x with overkill!) Teach all your Aeons Protect, OK? :D

Sleep Sprout: As the name implies, this guy uses a sleep attack. He's got less than 99,999 HP, though, so one hit of that power will take him out. Steal Poison Fang, if you want, then take him down. Win: Teleport Sphere (2x w/ overkill)

Bomb King: Steal fire gems, then call in Bahamut. Haste and Cheer, then wail on him. It took 8 hits for me (I couldn't do 99,999 dmg consistantly, btw). Of interest: if you cast reflect on your guy, his Fire, Fira, Firaga spells just heal him; they don't do dmg to you. You should get a Door to Tomorrow (2x with overkill). Add 10 of these to a weapon, and it will give you more AP instead of charging the overdrive gauge.

Juggernaut: Steal Lunar Curtain, then summon, haste, and protect Bahamut. Do about 12-13 99,999 dmg attacks to kill him off. You should get a Strength Sphere (2x if overkill).

Ironclad: User Armor Break to stand half a chance. If you have "evade and counter" add-ons to weapons, use that, too. Call in Anima and have him use pain. If Yuna's evade is at 255, it's likely Ironclad's Reppageki cannot touch him. You should get an HP Sphere if you win (2x with overkill).


Original


Earth Eater: Steal a gambler's spirit, but don't mug. :D This guy counter attacks with a REALLY nasty "megaton punch" that can seriously ruin your day. His standard attack is pretty nasty, too. Call in Bahamut and hit him to knock him over. The haste/protect/focus, and go after him. He'll counter with Flare now. Use your healing magics to stay alive. It took about 20 or so 50,000+ dmg hits to take him out. Be sure to swap everyone in for this battle, though - it's worth 40k AP, and that's WITHOUT an overkill!!! You should get a Fortune Sphere for killing him (2x for overkill).

Greater Sphere: This guy counter's with Ultima, so pay attention. He's also got a "hydraulic press" attack that kills your guys off straight up. Call in Bahamut, PROTECT, Reflex, and Haste. His last turn before the Greater Sphere gets a turn should be to shield. The Hydraulic Press should now do significantly less damage. Upon killing him off, you should get 50k AP and a Luck Sphere (2x for Overkill!)

Catastrophe: If you have enough characters with Break Damage Limit add-ons, this is not a tough battle. Just Hastaga and Quick Hit over and over. After 5 99,999 hits, he'll open up. 18 more to kill him. By the time you've got everyone buffed up using the agility spheres you've won from a previous battle, you should be able to take him out before he gets a shot off. You'll earn a Designer Wallet (2x for overkill).

Th'uban: This guy has a nasty retaliation ability. Call in an Aeon and haste/protect. If you strike him, he'll retaliate with Condemn, which negates any bonuses you have. You'll have to haste/protect again. His rainbow attack is nasty - but his Convergence is even worse. Your Aeon is totally gone at that point. Again, three guys with Break Damage Limit is happy making here. He retaliates to everything, so be sure to HASTE then PROTECT, then attack someone other than him. In other words, cast reflect on one of your own guys, then doublecast flare at THAT person. Copycat it until such a time as he's about to get an attack, then bring in an Aeon where he's going to cast Convergence. His attacks follow a predictable pattern: Attack, Rainbow, [one of: Regen, Shell, Protect, nothing], Convergence. He's got around 3 million HP, though, so if you're only doing 15k dmg, bear in mind it will take 100 double casts to kill him off. Don't forget your guy is reflected and accidentally cast curaga at him, btw. ;) Also, don't try ultima - it hits ALL your guys and can't be reflected. >.< You *can* cast dispel on him without getting counter attacked. And don't forget about the Focus special ability. Winning will net you an Underdog's Secret (2x for Overkill).

Neslug: I hope your magic attributes are insanely high for three characters, and that they also have high strength attributes and the Break Damage Limit skill. Use Silence Buster so he won't heal himself back up in a bit. Hit him with 21 99,999 hits, and he'll collapse inside his shell and become immune to Attack. He's immune to demi, so have yuna use her ultimate weapon's One MP Cost skill to double cast flare at one of your guys (reflected, of course!) Don't forget to use the Focus Special Ability so you can him. Have your other two characters copycat it. Do NOT call in any Aeons here. When he's about to have his own turn, use a silence buster on him. Keep this up until his shell is broken. When you DO see his shell break, be sure to go after him with physical attacks again. 10 or 11 more hits should kill him off. You'll get a Pendulum for this battle (2x with overkil). 30 of these allows you to add "Master Thief" to any shield, then you can steal the seriously good stuff all the time. Of course, that means at least 15 battles against this guy, so choose whether this is worth it for you or not.

Ultima Buster: Go after it's arms first, then it's head. If the head is out of range for your character, wait until you call in an Aeon, and have it go after the head (can you say Valifore? I knew you could!) After THAT, go after the actual body. When he is ready to attack, call in an Aeon to take the hit for you. You should get a Winning Formula (2x with overkill). After the battle is over, he should sell Clear Spheres that allow you to clear out used entries on the sphere grid; this is how you can REALLY max out your guys. Be aware that if you clear out a Strength Node (for example), anyone who had that node activate with lose those points AND have to reactivate the node.

Shinryu: This is a water battle, so you KNOW it's just Wakka, Rikku, and Tidus. I wait to do this until I have AT LEAST two Break Damage Limit weapons and those characters can do 99,999 DMG. You can steal a Three Stars from him. Quick Hit him for 99,999, but he'l retaliate. Be sure to have the guy who DOESN'T have a Break Damage Limit weapon ready to heal your guys when they need it. Hastaga and Protect your guys, then go after him. He's got an attack called Shining that does massive damage to ALL your guys. Watch out for it - and stay healed up before his turn! You should get a Wings to Discovery (2x with overkill).

Nemesis: This enemy doesn't just show up when you've captured everything. You have to beat everything in the arena. After that, talk to him to unlock him. Do NOT forget to steal some of those Oh-So-Hard-To-Get Lv. 4 Key Spheres from him! Hastaga and start your standard everybody-quick-hit-him attack. When it's his turn to attack, call in an Aeon to take the hit. Have the Aeon haste for it's turn. It'll still get killed, but you should have more turns available to you when you come back. :D If it *doesn't* get killed on the first shot, you get an extra hit! When (not if, lol) you run out of Aeons, Just keep at him. You should be able to beat him if your guys have gone all the way through the grid at least once. I used Yuna, Rikku, and Tidus. Winning earns you a Warp Sphere (2x with overkill). When you've beaten this guy, you'll have defeated all the enemies in the game (except Yu Yevan). You should get the Mark of Conquest to commemorate the event. When I got here, I had used 117 hours and 35 minutes. Of course, I was wasting a lot of time writing this walkthrough. :D