FINAL FANTASY XII FAQ/WALKTHROUGH by Edward Chang (chang dot 459 at osu dot edu) v1.7 (5-5-06) Revision History v1.7 (5-5-06) Minor corrections throughout. As most of the important stuff is covered, further updates of this guide will be on hold until the release of the official guidebook, which should round out the guide with correct information. v1.6 (4-18-06) Some more writeup completed. v1.5 (4-11-06) Completed writeup for most of the Mob Hunts. v1.4 (4-9-06) Fixed typos, some details added to the FAQs. v1.3 (4-2-06) Path to Altima complete. Revisions and corrections throughout. v1.2 (3-30-06) Completed Summons part of sidequests, added Frequently Asked Questions section, revised and corrected typos throughout. v1.1 (3-28-06) Added a complete list of mob hunts, more details to follow. Started sidequests, beginning with how to get some of the optional summons. v1.00 (3-26-06) Main walkthrough complete! Sidequests and mob hunts will begin starting with the next revision. v0.70 (3-25-06) Walkthrough continued. v0.65 (3-24-06) Added equipment list, starting with the accessories since those have the most non-obvious effects. Some walkthrough added. v0.60 (3-22-06) Walkthrough continued, some revisions to the gameplay section. v0.55 (3-20-06) Walkthrough started. v0.5 (3-18-06) First version. Game basics and magic/skills list completed. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Gameplay Basics Controls Menu License Gambit Travel/Battle Shops Clan Mob Hunts 3. Walkthrough 4. Sidequests 5. Mob Hunts 6. Magic/Skills List 7. Equipment List 8. Frequently Asked Questions 9. Credits ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. INTRODUCTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This is walkthrough/FAQ for the PS2 RPG, Final Fantasy XII. This is of course the latest entry in Squaresoft's long-running franchise. FFXII ditches the turn-based combat from the FFs previous to XI and adopts much of XI's game system, despite not being an MMORPG. The seamlessness between movement and battle, mob hunts, and so on all give FFXII a very MMORPG-ish feel. Nevertheless, it is a console RPG in the fullest sense, with a plot packed with political intrigue. Unfortunately I do not have the time (being in med school) to do a full translation of the plot/story as I have done in some of my previous FAQs; therefore this FAQ will be plot spoiler-free. It WILL go into full detail on the game system and how to progress in the story; my goal is to make it so that even somebody who understands minimal Japanese will be able to play through the game (even if they don't understand the plot). This FAQ makes use of SJIS encoding in order to display Japanese characters. I included this feature so that if you do not know Japanese, you can easily match up the characters on your TV screen to the characters in this guide. You will need to have support for viewing Japanese characters on your computer, however. Newer versions of Windows should have it built in, though you may have to install some new files from your Windows Install CD; otherwise, you'll either need to get a program like NJStar Communicator, or you'll need to get Japanese character support for Internet Explorer and open this file in IE instead of Notepad/Wordpad. The only website authorized to post this FAQ is www.gamefaqs.com. If you see this document elsewhere, not only are they posting without my permission, but they likely do not have the most current version of this FAQ. Emails to me asking questions already answered in the FAQ, even if the answers are not in the version you are reading, will be deleted without response. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2. GAMEPLAY BASICS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTROLS T means Triangle; S means Square Town Fields Left Stick - Movement Right Stick - Move Camera O - Accept, Talk, Read Sign X - Cancel T - Menu, Conversation Log (while talking), Page Up/Down (with directional pad) S - Talk, Read Sign L1/R1 - Page Left/Right L2/R2 - Zoom In/Out R3 - Reset Camera Start - Pause Select - Open Map Battle Fields Left Stick - Movement Right Stick - Move Camera Left/Right - Select Free Target Up/Down - Select Leader Character O - Battle Menu, Accept, Read Sign X - Cancel T - Menu S - Battle Menu L1/R1 - Change Target Group (i.e. switch between enemies and party members) L2 - Lock-on to target R2 - Escape Mode R3 - Reset Camera Start - Pause Select - Open Map MENUS Pressing T brings up the main menu. You'll see your party members along with any guests currently in your party; a display also shows your Gil in the lower left and your current points and playtime in the lower right. The choices in the menu are as follows. You will not have access to all of these right away. バトルメンバー - Battle Member ステータス - Status 装備 - Equip ライセンス - License ガンビット - Gambit ワールドマップ - World Map 所持品リスト - Inventory クランレポート - Clan Report コンフィグ - Config By choosing Battle Member you can choose which three members of your party to have active. Simply highlight the characters you want to switch in and out and press O. The characters switched to the left are active, while those to the right are reserve. At various points in the game you might also have guest party members; these do not count against your total of 3, and you can't remove them anyway. You may choose your party members at any time, even while fighting (except that a currently targeted party member cannot be taken out), so for instance you can immediately replace a dead party member with somebody in the reserve if you so wish. Status gives you a rundown of your character's stats. The main display at the top shows that character's current and max HP and MP, current LP (license points), experience, and how much experience needed to get to the next level. The big area below this shows what status effects, if any, are currently active on that character. Off to the right is a list of your character's attributes, namely Attack (攻撃), Defense (防御), Magic Defense (魔法防御), Evade (回避),　Magic Evade (魔法回避), Strength (ちから), Magic Power (魔力), Vitality (活力), and Speed (スピード). Most of these are self-explanatory; of note is that Strength, Magic Power, Vitality, and Speed are innate attributes that go up with levels or certain spots on the License Board. Also, some weapons draw their attack power based on Magic Power, Vitality, or Speed instead of Strength. Equip allows you to change your characters equipment. The four choices under this heading are Equip (装備), Remove (はずす), Remove All (すべてはずす), and Strongest (最強装備). You can use L1 and R1 to switch between characters. Upon selecting equip, you can choose which slot (weapon, offhand, head, body, and accessory) to change. You'll then be given a list of the equipment you have. Equipment that that character has the proper license to equip is shown in white. You can also see, via the colored dots, who currently has what equipped. Gray circles in this chart means that character can equip that item. While highlighting any item, you'll see how it would affect your stats off to the left. Blue numbers indicate increases, while red numbers indicate decreases. While weapons are being selected, you may also use L1/R1 to switch between single-handed, double-handed, and ranged weapons. License will show you each character's license boards. The License Board is the fundamental ability system in FFXII. See below for more details on the license system. For now, highlighting a square and pressing O will allow you to see precisely what equipment/spells/techniques are governed by that license. If you have those things already, the name will be in white; otherwise it will be grey. To learn a license, press O again while the description is up. Then choose the first option (yes) to spend the points and learn the license. Gambit allows you to set each character's battle tactics. These are a set of conditions that allows you to adjust, in minute detail, how the AI acts. With the cursor and O buttons you can choose trigger conditions, actions, and change the priority of each Gambit condition. Again, see below for more detail. World Map brings up the world map. Picking a location on the map brings up a list of subareas, from which you can see more detailed area maps of each region. You can easily see how all of the zones are connected here. Inventory shows you a list of your current posessions, categorized from top to bottom as Key Items, Treasure, Magic/Skills, Item, Weapon, Ammunition, Armor, and Accessory. With Magic/Skills and the equipment, you can see a character chart telling you which of your characters are currently capable of using that skill, or which of your characters has which items equipped. Clan Report functions as a sort of monster information center. You can see your current Clan Rank and number of points at the bottom. Defeating monsters increases your points, and as you accumulate points your rank goes up. The four choices on this list are Mob List (モブリスト), Hunt Catalog (ハントカタログ), Pirate's Hideaway (空賊の隠れ家), and Adventure Hints (冒険のヒント). Mob List shows your current Mob Hunts (bounties); press O to bring up detailed information on each monster. Pressing S on a uncompleted monster brings up a map that shows you where the bounty client is. Hunt Catalog shows you a list of all the monsters you've encountered so far. Initially you only get a page of info on each monster, but as you kill more and more of the same monster (indicated by the Next column) you'll get an expanded info page. The monsters are categorized by type. The Pirate's Hideaway just shows you little SD characters that represent various achievements in the game. For instance, Stealing successfully 50 times causes a small SD Van to show up here. Finally, Adventure Hints is a comprehensive help guide to the game. Finally, Config allows you to adjust the game settings. The first option allows you to choose between Wait (time doesn't pass while the menu is open) and Active (time passes anyway if the menu is open) modes. The second option adjusts the speed of battle. The third option is whether to show the target lines (on and off), and the fourth is whether to remember the cursor position everytime you open the menu (remember and forget). Under the System category, your options are Controller Vibration, Screen Vibration, Subtitles, and Flicker Fliter (AKA anti-aliasing), all of which are on/off choices. There is also a Sound option (Prologic II, Stereo, and Monaural), and the last option in this category allows you to adjust the screen's position. The last option here is to return everything to default settings. LICENSE Virtually everything in the game, including the items you can equip, are governed by licenses. Generally speaking, you spend the license points that you earn by defeating monsters in order to unlock more abilities on the license board. For instance, Fran starts out with Bow 1, which gives her the ability to equip Short Bows and Silver Bows. Basch doesn't, so initially he cannot. However, if he spends 20 LP to learn it, he'll be able to do so. Likewise, armor and accessories cannot be equipped until the appropriate license is learned; each category also has specific levels. For instance, a character can equip Bronze Armor if he knows Heavy Armor 1, but he cannot equip Iron Armor until he learns Heavy Armor 2. Learning new licenses opens up even further potential licenses to learn; generally you must know an adjacent license before you can learn a new one. Just learning a license isn't enough either; you must also purchase the skill or item in question. Characters who know White Magic 1 can cast Cure, but if you have never bought Cure from the magic store then it is a moot point. Magic and skills need to be bought only once for any character with the proper license to use it; equipment, of course, cannot be used by more than one character at the same time. Everybody can learn almost anything on the board, so even though Basch starts out as a heavy knight type if you focused on the white magic and staff paths and so on, you could make him a dinky white mage. You can make everybody all-around types who can do anything, or you can concentrate different characters on different paths. You're only limited by how many license points you need to spend. There are two big areas to the license board. The upper area has all the magic, accessories, and skills (both active and passive), while the lower board has all the weapons and armor. The paths are MOSTLY continuous, although there are several conspicuous and often-times annoying gaps. For instance, heading straight left and up from White Magic 1 allows you to get up to White Magic 7; however, to get to White Magic 8 you must first learn Green Magic 6 directly above White Magic 7. Likewise, Katana 3 is inexplicably separated from Katana 2 by at least three gaps, requiring you to learn some Spears or Axes before you can learn Katana 3. A full description of the License Board is beyond the scope of this FAQ, but here are some helpful categories to keep in mind: 白魔法 - White Magic 黒魔法 - Black Magic 緑魔法 - Green Magic 時空魔法 - Time Magic 裏魔法 - Dark Magic アクセサリ - Accessory ガンビットプラス - Gambit Plus (adds another Gambit Slot) 軽装備 - Light Armor 魔装備 - Magic Armor 重装備 - Heavy Armor 盾装備 - Shields 剣装備 - Sword 槍装備 - Spears ブレイカー装備 - Breaker (Axes) 弓装備 - Bows 騎士剣装備 - Knight Swords 刀装備 - Katana メイス装備 - Mace ロッド装備 - Rod 杖装備 - Staff 計算尺装備 - Slide Rule ダガー装備 - Dagger 銃装備 - Gun 棒装備 - Bo Staff ハンディB装備 - Handy Bomb ボウガン装備 - Bowgun 忍刀装備 - Ninja Sword There are two special kinds of spots on the on the License Board to note, Summons (召喚獣) and Mist Knacks (ミストナック). Summons represent various summon monsters that you can call to aid you in battle; after fulfilling a condition such as defeating them in battle, they appear on the board for the first time. Mist Knacks are on the board from the beginning as glowing red spheres; they are your character's 3 unique moves. Anybody can use a Mist Knack space to learn their moves; for instance, Van can use a space to learn his first Mist Knack, Red Spiral, whereas Basch could use the same space to learn his first Mist Knack, Yami to Ankoku no Shougeki. The important thing to note about both Summons and Mist Knacks is that once one character learns it, that space disappears from all other character's license boards. In the case of Summons, this means that only one character can ever learn a particular summon. In the case of Mist Knacks, there are 18 Mist Knack spaces on the board, so eventually everyone will be able to learn all of their Mist Knacks; however, you cannot use the Mist Knack spaces closest to the start point on the board for everybody, so choose which characters you want to learn their Mist Knacks earlier. GAMBIT Gambit refers to the special set of triggers and conditions that govern a character's AI. You can choose from a whole mess of trigger conditions and possible actions here. For instance, you could tell the AI to cast Cure on any ally whose HP drops below 50%, or you could tell the AI to cast Firaga on enemies weak against fire. Once you've learned the appropriate licenses you can access the actions from the Gambit list. However, to access each of the trigger conditions you must find them as treasure or buy them from Gambit shops before they can be used. It does seem silly that your character needs to pay money before they can learn to do things like recognize when an ally is below 50% HP, but that's just how the game works. Gambit Stores are marked as yellow and orange diamonds on maps. Each character starts with 2 Gambit slots. However, they can gain more from spots on the License Board. There are 10 such slots on the board, meaning that eventually your character could be working under 12 different potential trigger conditions and actions. You must also set the priority of each trigger. The higher up on the list something is, the higher priority it is, so be careful. For instance, if you have "Fight Leader's Target" as #1 and "Cast Cure on Ally with HP<50%" as #2, as long as the leader is fighting somebody that character will never cast cure, even if an ally is about to die. However, if these two conditions are switched, then the character will fight the leader's target as long as nobody is below 50% HP. In general a basic command like Fight should be placed as far down on the list as possible, with more specialized triggers being placed higher up. If you don't want your characters to operate under Gambit, you can turn it off simply by selecting Gambit (ガンビット) from the battle menu for that character. A character will simply stand around and do nothing if Gambit is off, though, unless you tell them otherwise. You can also override a Gambit at any time by simply selecting an alternate action for that character from the battle menu. TRAVEL/BATTLE Travelling and battling are done in the same way in FFXII. You simply need to move around with the left stick. The camera can be moved with the right stick. For treasures, doors, signs, people you can talk to, etc., as you get near an exclamation mark will appear over your head. Get closer and you'll be able to use O to open the treasure/door, read the sign, talk, etc. A minimap in the upper right corner tells you where you are. Red dots are enemies, while green dots are people you can talk to (not all people walking about cities can be talked to). There are other ways of moving around. You can rent Chocobos from various vendors. On a Chocobo you move much faster and enemies won't attack you; however, the amount of time you can ride is limited, and once it is up, your chocobo runs away. You can dismount with X, but again, your Chocobo will run away. While on the Chocobo you can press O to run even faster. There are also airships that connect various cities; you cannot control them yourself, but they will take you from place to place very quickly. Blue crystals on the area maps are save points. Checking one refills your HP and MP, and you'll be asked if you would like to save. Orange crystals work the same as blue crystals, plus if you use an item called a teleport stone (テレポストーン) you can instantly teleport to any other orange crystal that you've been around already. Fighting is done on the same map as travelling is, with no transitions. As enemies approach your AI characters will act according to their gambits, while you control your leader character. Pressing O or S will bring up the battle menu. You can press left or right to change which character to assign the command to. The general options under the menu are Fight (たたかう), Magic/Skills (まほう・わざ), Mist Cart (ミストカート), Gambit (ガンビット), and Item (アイテム). Fight is the most basic command and makes you attack a selected target. Magic/ Skills gives you a whole mess of submenus. You can choose from various types of magic - white (白), black (黒), green (緑), time (時空), and dark (裏), and skills (わざ). Magic takes MP, while skills do not. MP refills over time, as long as you are moving (you won't get any for just standing still). Mist Cart appears only if that character has a Summon or Mist Knack learned. Summons and Mist Knacks require a 'stock' of MP called a Mist Cartridge. Mist Cartridges are earned at a certain amount of MP. For instance, if your character has a max MP of 50, then they will get a Mist Cartridge (represented as a glowing orange bar) at 50 MP. As your characters learn more Mist Knacks/Summons, they can carry more Mist Cartridges, up to 3. So if your character has two Mist Cartridges learned, they can actually have an MP of 100 out of 50; at 100, they would have two Mist Cartridges. The number of Mist Cartridges required to use a particular Summon or Mist Knack varies. Another thing that can be done with Mist Knacks is links (renkei, 連携). While a Mist Knack is active, you can use another Mist Knack to combo for greater damage. All you have to do to do so is to press the button next to the character's name (for instance, if you use Van's Mist Knack and you have Balflear and Fran in your party, X might appear next to Balflear's name and T next to Fran's name). Pressing R2 will shuffle which button is assigned to what. The reason for shuffling is that sometimes you'll get a button that is assigned to "Cartridge" (カートリッジ). If you select Cartridge, each character temporarily gains back their Mist Cartridges, meaning they can do their Mist Knacks again. In other words, you can chain Mist Knacks as long as you can keep getting Cartridges to come up. However, the longer you go the time allowed to input the next command goes down, so it becomes harder and harder to combo. Gambit allows you to turn each character's Gambit AI on or off. Characters with Gambit at off will not do anything until you assign them a command. Finally, Item allows you to use an item from your inventory. One other thing to keep in mind is that if you continue to kill enemies of the same type, you'll get Chains. The longer your chains get, the better the drops become, and they often have special effects once you pick them up, such as healing your party for a small amount, or automatically casting Protect. Of course, killing a monster of a different type immediately ends the chain. SHOPS Here you exchange your hard-earned Gil in order to obtain new things, whether they be items, weapons, armor, magic, skills, or gambits. You can see the shops on the map, with the icons conveniently telling you what kind of shop it is (green pot - item, sword - weapon, shield - armor, staff - magic, scroll - skills, diamond - gambit). Talk to the proprietor and you'll be given options to buy (買う) and sell (売る). Press left and right to scroll through the various categories of items. Sell enough treasure items and the third option, trade items (交易品) may become active. In this category merchandise sometimes pops up based on the treasure items you've sold; you'll be given a general description of what it is you're buying, but you won't know exactly what it is until you do buy it. Nevertheless some of the best equipment in the game can only be gotten through trade items, so sell off as much treasure as you can. Magic, Skills, and Gambits need only be bought once; once they are, anybody with the appropriate license can use them. You cannot sell Magic/Skills/Gambits. CLAN In Rabanastre, soon after the beginning of the game, you'll be told to come to this location in the north district. Upon showing the Moogle (Montblanc) inside your Clan Report, you'll be inducted into Clan Centrio. The clan is marked on the map as a person icon. Talk to Montblanc as you rise in rank and he'll give you various rewards. You can also take special Mob Hunts (see below) from him. Free items are always a plus, so come back here often. To rise in rank, all you have to do is kill lots of things (for more points) as well as complete various Mob Hunts. Higher ranks often have a certain number of points plus a certain number of completed mob hunts as prerequisites. There is also a clan shop in the bazaar south of the clan. As you rise in ranks, the shop offers more and more merchandise, including stuff you can't get in the regular shops. MOB HUNTS By reading posterboards in bars, or accepting them from Montblanc, you can begin Mob Hunts, which are basically bounty hunts. Upon taking the request, you must first track down the client and tell him you're interested. When you first accept a request you'll automatically be shown on the map where the client is. If you forget, you can select Clan Report (クランレポート) from the main menu, select the bounty, and then press S to show the map again. Find the client and confirm the request; the client will then tell you the general area that the monster can be found. Track down the monster; they appear as larger-than-normal circles on the minimap, so you can easily tell if you're getting close. Upon defeating the monster, you'll get a message saying that your job is complete (討伐完了). Note that some monsters do run away; if you didn't get this message, you didn't succeed in killing them. Upon succeeding, return to the client to get your reward. Note that some of the monsters come with their own mobs of underlings, so be prepared to fight an entire crowd. Succeeding at a mob hunt can open up the way to a higher clan rank, and also opens up new mob hunts, so you should try and do as many as possible. However, many mob hunts are extremely difficult when they first appear; feel free to come back later when you are more powered up if you're having trouble. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3. WALKTHROUGH ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The vast majority of the treasures in FFXII are random, so it doesn't make sense for me to list them in the walkthrough. With that said, you should check all the obvious dead ends and so on the map, since it will often lead to treasure for you. You can even find things like Gambits occasionally, so collect as much as you can. Upon selecting New Game from the title menu, you'll be given a quick version of the Config screen. Here you can change everything under the System heading (Controller Vibration, Screen Vibration, Subtitles, Flicker Filter, Sound, Screen Position). When you're done, simply choose the top option (ゲームを開始) to start the game. After the opening movie, you'll be given some quick history and narration. Incidentally, you can skip most movies and cutscenes simply by pausing with Start, and then pressing O to skip. This can be extremely helpful if you have to replay a section, or if you're on your second time through the game. NALBINA FORTRESS You'll begin with a quick tutorial, with Basch telling you about the basic controls in the game. You're playing a soldier named Rex. Basch will tell you to look around with the right stick. Go ahead and pan the camera around. Next he'll tell you that the left stick is used for movement. Tipping it slightly will make you walk, while full tilt causes you to run. Run up to Basch. Now he'll tell you about the little smiley face above his head. People with these icons can be spoken to. Get up closer to Basch until his name and a O icon appear over his head, then choose O to begin the conversation. While talking, you can use the T button and scroll up and down to see previous snippets of a conversation, in case you scroll through something too quickly. Basch will now tell you to go and talk to the other soldier in the distance. Go and do so. Now you'll have to open the door and head inside the fortress. Again, to open the door walk up to it and wait for the icon prompt to pop up, then hit O. Inside you'll have your first battle. You'll have several friends join you, so don't worry about it. Dispatch the troops and press onwards. One of the flying battleships, a Remora, will now come and harry you. Your group will attack. It has a "Remora Bomb" attack that can hit several people at once, but it's nothing to worry about. Once you have it down to half health or so, Basch will finish it off automatically with his Mist Knack. Keep going and you'll be inside the fortress. You can press Select at any time to check the map. You'll need to head up the stairs. Remember to check the corners and such for some treasures. Soon you'll encounter a save point, which take the form of a giant blue crystal. After awhile, you'll get a small event where the rest of the party goes on ahead, leaving Rex alone to fight some soldiers by himself. They're really nothing to worry about. Once you reach the top floor, there will be an event, and the prologue ends. ROYAL CITY OF RABANASTRE 王都ラバナスタ As the game proper begins, you'll be controlling Vaan, killing rats in a cellar. Isn't that typical of an RPG? Once you do so, after talking with Penelo a bit, you'll get the World Map option added to your menu. Head towards Miguero's item shop (marked by a green pouch on the city map) for another event. You'll be told to go find your younger brother at the bar. It's a ways north from the item shop, so go on over there. Inside you'll encounter Tomaji, who will give you a beginner's guide on how the License system works; you'll also get a Clan Report to keep track of your progress. For more details on how Licenses work, see the gameplay section above. In any case you'll get an Orakea Bracelet free from Tomaji, which raises your max HP by 25. Tomaji will also give you a message, as well as induct you into the Mob Hunt system. You'll be asked to go out to the Eastern desert and hunt the Stray Tomato monster. Before you go out East, there's a couple more things you can do in town. Most of the shops are open for business. Also, if you go up to the west side of the northern district and talk to the Banga guarding the door marked as "???", you'll show him your Clan Report and he'll let you inside. Talk to the Moogle, Montblanc, on the second floor of the building and you'll be inducted into the Clan, Clan Centrio. Now you can come back and get rewards for your clan ranks as well as utilize the clan shop, which is in the area just south of the clan HQ. Speak to Montblanc a second time to get three Potions for free. Your map will tell you where to go. In the area with three gates to the west, south, and east, only the east gate will be open at this time. In this area speaking to one of the Banga merchants will get you a request to deliver a package (たのまれた届け物). Speak to the guard in front of the east gate and you'll eventually be let outside. Here you'll find a save point as well as the merchant you are supposed to deliver the package to. When you're ready, head out into the desert itself. DALMASCA ESTERSAND 東ダルマスカ砂漠 The enemies here aren't threatening at all. You can use Vaan's Steal command (盗む) to get items from the monsters, which you can use or sell for money. Soon, you should find your target, the Stray Tomato. MOB: Stray Tomato 134 HP Weak Against Water This guy isn't too tough. Once you take down some of his health, he'll hop down the cliff in an attempt to run away. Circle around down and intercept him. He can use fire magic that takes off 20-30 HP, so be careful and watch your health. With that Mob Hunt done, it's time to head back to town. Vaan will automatically spot a rare blossoming Galbana Flower and take it before you go. Now is a good time to get more license points if you should want. However, watch out for the Wildsaurus (ワイルドザウルス) monster lurking around here. He is way too high level for you and can do thousands of damage per hit, which of course will kill you. So keep your distance from him. He won't aggro unless you really get in his way. ROYAL CITY OF RABANASTRE 王都ラバナスタ At the door you'll have another short event with your brother. After some hoopla with the gate guards you'll finally be let back into town. From here on you can leave town freely, as well as go to the Downtown district. The stairs to Downtown are marked as green staircases on your map; there are several of them. But before you do, talk to Tomaji back at the bar and report your success in ridding the world of a fierce tomato. You'll get 300 Gil, 2 Potions, and a Teleport Stone. Your goal now is to talk to old man Daran, who lives in the southern part of Downtown. But before you do, you might as well put your hard-earned License Points to good use. I recommend learning the licenses for Libra and Cure. Keep in mind that after learning those licenses, you also have to buy them, from the skills shop and magic shop respectively, to actually use them. Vaan will ask Daran how he can sneak into the palace. You'll be told that there is a way in, but you'll need the power of a sunstone (太陽石) to do so. To find one, you'll have to go out to the Giza Plains to the south. When you're finished up in town, head out and south now. GIZA PLAINS ギーザ草原 A short ways south of the southern gate, you'll find a camp set up with some people inside. You'll need to talk to the leader, Mashua (マシュア). Seems that one of the kids who normally goes out to collect the sunstones hasn't returned yet. Your turn to go and find him. Penelo shows up and she'll go with you. Talk to Camina (カミナ) for info on how to find the kid. Upon leaving the camp Penelo will give you 3 Potions and 2 Phoenix Downs. Handy! You'll also be able to choose Gambit now (though you won't be able to customize the Gambit system triggers yet), as well as choose a party leader (press up or down on the directional pad). Your goal is a small area to the south You can choose either east or west to loop around and get there. Once you do, you'll find Jin. He'll tell you he's alright, and that he just needs to rest a little. In the meantime he'll ask you to complete making the Sunstone. He explains that the giant crystals in the area that radiate light are used to charge the Sunstones. He'll then give you a Shadowstone (陰石). If you look at your map, you'll see the locations of the glowing crystals now marked on your map. You need to go to each of them and examine them to charge your stone. The amount you get charged is random; if you're lucky you could get it charged in as little as two crystals. Either way, charge it to 100%. You'll be taken back to Jin. Afterwards back at the camp, Mashua will thank you and give you one of the Sunstones as a reward (it's what Vaan wanted in the first place), as well as 50 Gil, 2 Potions, and 2 Teleport Stones. With all that done, head back to town. ROYAL CITY OF RABANASTRE 王都ラバナスタ Penelo will depart from your party now. Boo. Go back to Daran's and hand over the Sunstone. Daran will tell you about a hidden passage into the palace and give you an item necessary to find the treasure you seek, the Crescent Stone (クレセントストーン). To get to the hidden passage, you'll need to go to the storage room #5 on the north end of the Downtown area. This small room has two doors. The one to the east simply leads to the area where Vaan was killing rats earlier. The one to the west will go into the Garamscythe Waterway, which is the way into the palace. Once you enter, you will not be able to return to town until you finish the next portion of the game, so be prepared before going in. If you don't have Cure and Libra yet, now is the time to buy them. GARAMSYTHE WATERWAY ガラムサイズ水路 Use your map frequently. There's generally only one way to go, so it's not too confusing. If you Steal from the bat-like enemies here, you'll occasionally get a Teleport Stone. Not only are these useful, but they also sell for 100 Gil apiece, which is a big deal at this point in the game. It's a long way to the palace, but as long as you have Cure you should be fine. Just don't let too many rats gang up on you at once. Once you reach the end, you'll emerge in the Palace cellar. THE ROYAL PALACE OF RABANASTRE ラバナスタ王宮 Speak to the servants mulling around, then try and go upstairs. A guard will block your way. Talk to the nearby servant, and he'll introduce you to a minigame of sorts. Press S to call the guard over, then slip around him without getting too close and go up the stairs. Yeah, it's the worst minigame ever conceived. On this floor, you'll need to pull the guards out of the way. You're looking for a lion seal on the ground. You'll find it near the top. Again, press S to move the guards from one side of the hallway to the other, and don't get too close, or you'll be booted back to the beginning. The guards on the east side cannot be pulled away from the stairs, but they also won't bother you either unless you run into them. Once you find the Lion Seal, examine it. You'll see a small scene where a strange light begins glowing in the wall. Go over to the northwest and examine the wall that you just saw. A secret passage will then open. Continue down the corridor here. The door is locked, but behind you there is a switch on the wall. Inside the treasure room you'll get your first introduction to Balflear and Fran. Vaan will take a random treasure, the Goddess Magic Stone (女神の魔石), and run. When you're back in control, run up the stairs for a short while to see another scene. After the chaos subsides, you'll end up back in the Garamsythe Waterway with a full party of Vaan, Balflear, and Fran. GARAMSCYTHE WATERWAY ガラムサイズ水路 At this point you can now customize Gambits. Chances are you won't have too many triggers to work with, though. Fran and Balflear both start out with ranged weapons, so they'll generally hang in the back while you do your thing. Fran also comes with Cure as well as Fire, which will be quite helpful in a bit. Just outside the first area, head east and you'll find a treasure pot. It has a map to the area inside, so pick it up and use the map often. Head generally southwards. After awhile, you'll see another event with somebody under attack. She'll introduce herself as Amalia, and you'll get her as a Guest character. Guests do not take orders and you can't change their equipment. Still, Amalia's set up quite well and you'll have an easier time in the upcoming fights. With that said your first fight will immediately be against some knights. These won't be too hard, just gang up on one at a time to take them down. A little bit further on, you'll get an actual boss battle, against a nostalgic FF monster, the Puddings. BOSS: Pudding x4 280 HP Weak Against Fire There is one bigger Pudding (プリンA in the enemy list) and three smaller ones. The smaller ones have less health, and also cast Cure on the large one, so take out the smaller ones first. Fran's Fire is extremely effective against the Puddings. You're not done yet. Once you reach the end, past another save point is the real boss of this area. BOSS: Bushfire 3571 HP Weak Against Water Here's where things can get rough. This boss uses an attack, also called Bushfire, which does fire damage plus poison effect. Hopefully you'll have several antidotes (毒消し) handy; if not, keep those Cure spells coming. Don't let Fran cast Fire, either; it won't do much. Whittle it down while you can and don't be too afraid to use healing items. You should have plenty of Potions by now. After defeating the boss, you'll get another series of events. One thing leads to another, and your characters get thrown into jail. THE NALBINA DUNGEONS ナルビナ要塞地下牢 After some more scenes of your new home, go north for even more scenes and you'll get into a fight with three wardens. This battle isn't much fun at all. All of your equipment is gone, so you're down to punching people. Hopefully Vaan has Cure, or else you'll be in real trouble. After the battle, you'll get some scenes with a menacing Judge as well as a Banga who's out for Balflear's head for some reason. You'll get your equipment back. You'll also automatically get a map of the area. Proceeding onwards, you'll find Basch, who's supposed to be dead. The years certainly haven't treated him well. It turns out that Rex, who you played in the beginning, is Vaan's older brother; Vaan blames Basch for Rex's death. Basch will join your party only as a guest at this point; now it's on to the underground way out. THE BARHEIM PASSAGE バルハイム地下道 Here's your first dungeon that's a little tricky. In the first area, examine the switch in the central platform. It's not working. Downstairs you'll find a shopkeeper. He'll note that the power in the dungeon is low, and therefore the doors won't open. He'll give you a Fuse. Take it to the machine upstairs and start up the machine. This will charge up the energy to 100%. Opening the doors require 30% of the charge. Here's the catch in the dungeon. There are enemies called Battery Mimics (バッテリミミック) which chew on the power cables here, slowly diminishing the energy supply. If you defeat a Battery Mimic, the energy will recharge somewhat. Thus, it's often better to charge straight for the Battery Mimic and ignore other enemies until the Battery Mimic is dead. These guys use an electrical area attack and can also use the energy to heal themselves for about 200 a pop, so be careful. If the battery ever reaches zero, some very hard monsters will pop out, so avoid this if at all possible. Once you obtain the map of the area (in a path that dead ends north in the first large area you come to), you can see the location of the exposed cables, so you should be able to tell where the Battery Mimics are going to go. In any case, press onwards. Basch is extremely weak at this point, and will probably die. In many cases it's easier to just leave him dead, rather than waste items on him. He'll come back soon enough. In the next area there are two different exposed wire locations, so keep an eye on your power. Also, Puddings will drop from the ceiling at points, so be careful of ambushes and use Fire on them (they're highly resistant to most weapons). Go northwest from here. The Gear marking on the map is the location of a switch to open the door in your path. Again, opening the door will consume 30% of the power gauge, so make sure you have plenty to spare. This will also cause some Bombs to spawn in the path back. Bombs start out neutral, but if you use magic near them they become hostile, so careful. Keep onwards and you'll get a scene where Basch salvages some equipment from a dead soldier. If he was dead, he'll magically come back to life. He's also now MUCH better as a character. He'll probably do more damage than the rest of your party. The rest of the dungeon should be a snap. Keep heading south. Again, the last area has a boss fight in your way. BOSS: Mimic Queen ??? HP The Mimic Queen spawns a bunch of Tiny Mimics which will try and eat away at the power supply around the room. Take out the Tiny Mimics first; they have very little health, and the lower the power gets the more powerful the Mimic Queen gets, so they should be your first priority. She'll periodically spawn more as the battle progresses, so be on watch. As you whittle down the Mimic Queen, she may use an attack called Thunder Burst which does lightning damage and poisons, so again have those antidotes or Poisona handy. Once the Mimic Queen is dead you'll finally arrive aboveground again, somewhere in the desert east of Rabanastre. DALMASCA ESTERSAND 東ダルマスカ砂漠 Nothing too tricky here. Just get back to Rabanastre by heading southwest. If you want to speed things up, remember to hold down R2 while moving to trigger Escape mode. During Escape mode your party members will not attack enemies. If you go north instead, after a little bit you'll find a small camp with an item shop and a teleport-active save crystal. You don't have to come here if you don't want to take the detour, though. You'll also pass through another small camp on your way back to the city. ROYAL CITY OF RABANASTRE 王都ラバナスタ Upon entering Basch, Balflear, and Fran will all leave your party. Don't worry, you'll be getting all of them back soon enough. Go to Miguero's item shop for an event. Penelo's gone missing, hmm... Go and visit old man Daran again. Vaan will ask him about Penelo. In the meantime Daran will ask him to deliver a sword to somebody. Head to the indicated location on the map and talk to the man there (Balzac バルザック) to be let into a secret meeting of sorts. After another event where Basch shows that rumors of his demise were mistaken, Basch joins your party again. There's also news about Penelo - she's been kidnapped. Time for a rescue. You'll now want to find Balflear and Fran. They're hanging out in the bar. Talk to them and they'll join your party. Balflear will say that when you're ready to go to your next destination, the sky city Bhujerba, to go to the airship terminal near the west gate. At this point the Mogsee system in town will become activated. You can use the Mogsee stations situated around town to teleport around. Now is also a good time to restock, learn new abilities, and so on. Catch up on Mob Hunts and so on if you'd like. When you're ready, go to the airship terminal and speak to Balflear in the back. Choose the first option twice to confirmt hat you're ready to go. Once you leave for Bhujerba, you won't be able to come back to Rabanastre for awhile. THE SKYCITY OF BHUJERBA 空中都市ビュエルバ When you first arrive, most of the doors are sealed, herding you to where you want to go. Proceed for an event. A boy naming himself Ramon will ask to come along with you to the mines; he'll join as a Guest. Keep on following the only path you can and you'll arrive at the Luce Mines. THE LHUSU MINES ルース魔石鉱 This is quite a large area. Libra is even more important here, as not only does Libra tell you enemy information, it also reveals traps on the map. If you see a red pillar of light, do NOT get near - it's a trap that will damage your party. You'll want to find the Second Mining Area (第2鉱区採掘場) here. You can always check the map to see which area you are currently in. After an event, Ramon will leave your party, and you'll be attacked by the Bangas after Balflear's head. BOSS: Baggamonan, Fuuji, Gijuu, and Rino As you can tell if you have Libra on, you aren't meant to win. While theoretically possible, it doesn't change the story anyway. What you're supposed to do is run to the entrance (remember, hold down R2 for Escape mode so that your party members don't try to fight.) After you shake of the pursuers, reenter the city. You'll see another event where it turns out that "Ramon" is actually Larsa, Vayne's little brother. Seems that he's found Penelo as well. THE SKYCITY OF BHUJERBA 空中都市ビュエルバ Your party tries to get in touch with the resistance movement. They decide that the best way to do so is to use Basch's name to try and catch the resistance's attention. Thought the palace call-the-guards-over minigame was lame? Get ready for an even lamer one. Your goal here is to spread rumors about Basch's reappearance. A 'rumor meter' will appear on screen, and your goal is to get it to 100. What you need to do is get nearby townfolk and press S to fill the meter up. The meter slowly degrades over time. Also, if you spread a rumor near a guard, the meter actually goes down instead. The key point here is that the Bhujerba Guides (ビュエルバガイド) spread news quickly, so just by spreading a rumor near one of them you can easily get 30%-40% of your gauge filled. So just find them (usually standing in the doors to shops and so on) and mash away. After some more events, it's time to meet your contact, Marquis Ondore. Go to the guards marked on the map and talk to them to be taken to him. In the end, Ondore will pretend to arrest you and you'll be taken aboard the Battleship Leviathan. DREADNOUGHT LEVIATHAN 戦艦リヴァイアサン One of Ondore's contacts, Wossler, will join you here as a Guest. He's got a big greatsword and will be quite helpful here. A nearby ornate pot has a map of the ship. There are several laser sensors around the ship. If you touch one, an alarm goes off, and basically all of the enemies in the area will converge on your location. Although you can still handle them all (especially with Wossler by your side), it can get hairy pretty quickly. You basically have two choices to get to your destination marked on the map. If you approach from the north, you'll have to press switches in two of the areas (Middle Deck Eastern Block 中層東ブロック and Subcontrol Room サブコントロールルーム) to open some doors. If you approach from the south, there aren't any locked doors to handle, but there are a mess of laser sensors. I suggest the north, it's just easier. There are still lasers here, just not quite as many. Reach the lower deck and you'll be forced into an event battle. You'll be facing several knights, a mage, and two Judges. I'd take out the mage (帝国軍魔導士) first. Then work on the knights, then the Judges. It shouldn't be too bad - just keep on top of healing. After the battle you'll get a First Cell Block Key (第1営倉の鍵). Use the Cell Block Key to open the nearby door and head in. Here you'll find a welcome save point and a System Key (システム制御キー). There's also a merchant in another cell, as well as Ashe. Ashe joins your party for real this time. She comes with an accessory that has a permanent Libra effect on her. No big deal, but quite convenient, if you ask me. At the merchant you might want to invest in some Green Magic, particularly Shell. In any case after busting her out, the alarms will begin to go off regardless of whether you touched any beams or not. This will cause enemies to mob you constantly. You need to make your way to the Gear icons on the map. Here you'll be able to use the System Key to temporarily shut down the alarm system for 60 seconds at a time (pick the first option, then the second option in the next menu, then the first option to confirm.) Use that time to rush for the next room and look for the next gear icon. Once you've arrived at the western area, Wossler leaves your party. However, you'll be reunited with Penelo, who will join. You'll receive the 'Artificial Hamaseki' key item from Larsa as well. You now have all 6 of your party members, hurray. It's too soon to celebrate, though. You'll be stopped from leaving by Judge Geese. BOSS: Judge Geese, Empire Swordsman x3 ??? HP Strangely, Libra doesn't work on Judge Geese, so you'll have to estimate how much HP he has left. Take out the Swordsmen first. The biggest thing to watch out for is Judge Geese's use of Aero. Aero can hit several party members at once for several hundred damage, so it is definitely your biggest threat here. If you've taught somebody Shell already, it'd be a great time to use it. Otherwise, just keep the Cures coming. Once Judge Geese gets low on health, he'll use a Mist Knack on you, that cheater. Make sure your health is near full and keep on beating on him until he succumbs. Judge Geese manages to get away, and you'll arrive safe and mostly sound back in Bhujerba. Restock in Bhujerba, then go to the guards that brought you to Marquis Ondore before. After some more events, including one where Balflear shows off his ship's communication system's ability to imitate other people's voices, Ashe will decide she can't just sit around and wait, and will ask Balflear and co. to 'kidnap' her. She can't do much without proof of her royal heritage, though. And unfortunately, Judge Geese has the proof that Vaan stole from the Palace. Ashe knows where another one is, however, so it's off to the Tomb of Raithwall, to the far west across the desert. Balflear and Fran will land and cloak their ship, since the skies over the western part of the desert aren't navigable, and you'll have to continue on foot. Use the shop and save crystal here to prepare before you head off. If you need to, you can teleport back to town as well. Proceed westwards to enter the Sandsea Ogir-Yensa. THE OGIR-YENSA SANDSEA 大砂海オグル・エンサ Proceed westward along the platforms to the second zone. Here you'll get a short conversation event and Wossler rejoins your party as a Guest. The enemies here are a little stronger than what you're probably used to, so keep an eye on your MP. Wossler does help a lot, at least. The little red plant-like enemies here have a very valuable steal (~350 gil) so if you need money farm them. Keep going westward across another two zones and you'll arrive at the next part of the Sandsea. If you go southwest instead, you'll eventually arrive at a small zone with a teleport-active save point. THE NAM-YENSA SANDSEA 大砂海ナム・エンサ You'll see a save point straight away. Use it! Unfortunately this one is not teleport-active, so if you want to return to town you'll have to backtrack across Ogir Yensa or use the teleport point in the south of that area. Speak to the Moogle loitering around here and you'll learn that a large turtle-like monster is hunting the Urtans (the little critters that kept attacking you along the way) in the next area. Proceed past a few more zones and you'll come across the monster itself, the Urtan Eater (ウルタンイーター). He's quite tough, but you'll actually be helped by several Urtans, and the Eater will go after the Urtans first. Try and take him out before he kills all of the Urtans. If you can't, you can always rezone and come back; he'll still have his HP depleted. Upon killing him return to the Moogle. He'll mention that the Urtan who sought out his help went into the Ogir Yensa to get a reward for you. Go back out that way (to the East). After a short bit of travelling you should see a scene where the Urtan and the Moogle talk. If not, rezone into where the Moogle was, then head out east again. Once you see the scene, return to where the Moogle was to see another cutscene. Seems like not all the Urtans are grateful for your help... With that done, examine the flower on the ground to get an important item, the Ixiro Fruit (イクシロの実). With this in your possession, the way to the Tomb of Raithwall is now clear. Proceed west across the desert, bending southwest as you need to. Be careful; some fish-like enemies (the Yensas) pop out of the ground here, surprising you. They aren't too hard if you're not mobbed, though. You should also find an ornate pot that contains a map to the entire region. With this in your possession it's a matter of heading straight westward. In the area right before the Tombs, the Road Where Warmth Disappears (ぬくもりの消える路), you'll find a shopkeeper on a chocobo. Restock if you need to. As you progress to the next screen, you'll be given a free heal and asked if you want to save, even though there's no save point here. You should do so. THE TOMB OF RAITHWALL レースウォール王墓 As soon as you step in, you'll be attacked by a flying monster. Boss time. BOSS: Garuda ??? HP This boss is again, immune to Libra. Quite annoying. The main problem here is that he's extremely powerful. You have a trick up your sleeve, however. If you use the Ixiro Fruit (イクシロの実) that you picked up earlier on him, he becomes vastly weaker and much easier to handle. He is flying, which means that normal melee attacks will not reach him. Therefore you should bring people with bows/guns/magic attacks in order to damage him. Once you use the Ixiro Fruit, he's quite easy, so you shouldn't have any problems with him. After defeating him the strange device on top of the stairs begins to glow. There is a teleport-active save point here. Also, the vendor who you just saw has now come inside. His merchandise has mysteriously expanded; he's got tons of stuff he didn't have earlier, so feel free to check him out. Or, use a Teleport Stone to return to town. When you're ready to go, examine the glowy object and pick the first option to be teleported inside. Here proceed down the stairway and start down the hall. You'll get a quick event and a nasty surprise that should be nostalgic for those of you who remember playing FF4 - a Demon Wall is trying to crush you! BOSS: Demon Wall ??? HP This guy is tough. You actually probably won't be able to beat him when you get here. He's got far too much HP and defense, and though he doesn't do much damage, if he pushes you to the end of the hallway, he'll crush you and insta-kill your party. Just run to the end of the hallway and take the door through. With that done, go down the stairs for another surprise. This time a Demon Wall is coming TOWARDS you! He's in your way, so you're going to have to kill it. BOSS: Demon's Wall (#2) ??? HP This guy doesn't have quite the high HP/Defense of the first one. Plus, there is a very handy trick to use here. Along the side of the corridor are a number of torches. If you examine them and choose to operate the switch (second option), you can extinguish the flame, which wall cause the Wall to stop moving momentarily. Hammer on it as hard as possible while it's standing still. When it starts moving again, find another torch and repeat. Be careful though; if instead of the flame disappearing, it turns blue, the Demon Wall actually SPEEDS UP, so find another switch quickly. The boss can be quite annoying as he frequently casts Sleep; he can also inflict darkness and death sentence conditions on you. Having people with Remedy Knowledge on their License Board (increases the number of conditions cured by rememdy) can be useful. At some point the Wall will also probably cast Dateleport on one of your characters, which warps them to another dimension. This is effectively an instant kill, plus it cannot be cured by normal means such as a Phoenix Down. If this happens, swap in another party member right away. As long as you keep using the switches to stop the Wall's progress, you should be able to take this one out. Once it's dead, head onwards. You'll see three teleport switches very quickly. The ones to the north and south aren't functional yet; the one in the middle takes you back to the beginning (so you don't have to face that first hostile Demon's Wall again) so use it to get back to the save point and heal if needed. There is also a treasure pot here, which contains the map of the dungeon. With the map of the dungeon you should see your goal, off to the left, and two large rooms to the north and south. You need to activate the altars in the center of the north and south areas to proceed. It doesn't matter which order you do it in. At the center of each area, you'll find a colored switch in the wall, which you need to activate, plus a teleport device. Upon pressing the switch, a few monsters will appear. Defeat them. The teleport device takes you back to the central area with the three devices. Once you've gotten both of them, the wall will have lowered enough for you to pass, which brings you to a secret passage. These lead to the seemingly inaccessible room on the left side of your map. Enter and you'll get a scene where Fran and Penelo note the existence of the Mist. The Mist, which powers magic, is so thick here that it is actually visible. What this translates to for you in game terms is that you'll notice your MP refilling at a much faster rate than usual, which is helpful. Head down the stairs and you'll see a big monster blocking your way. It's time for another fight... BOSS: Velias ??? HP Well, he's big and fiery, so obviously avoid using fire magic on him. As he gets down in health he'll start using his special skill, Firaja. This does damage to everyone, plus gives them "Oil" status, which makes fire spells hurt more. Get rid of Oil status with Oil Remover (あぶらとり紙) or you're in for a world of hurt the next time he uses it. You can try and use some Mist Knack chains to take him out quickly, as he'll buff himself as he gets low on health. Other than Firaja, he's not that dangerous. After the fight, you'll gain the ability to summon Velias, as long as you learn his spot on the License Board. Summons work similar to Mist Knacks, in that if one person learns a Summon that square disappears from all other characters' License Boards. So choose who you want to learn Velias wisely. With that done proceed onwards to get what Ashe was looking for, the Fragment of Dawn (暁の断片). Now use the teleporters (the one here is one-way only, to the beginning) and leave. As soon as you step outside, Empire ships are waiting for you. D'oh. You'll be taken into custody yet again by your old friend, Judge Geese. LIGHT CRUISER CLASS AIRSHIP SHIVA 帝国軍軽巡洋艦シヴァ After some events you'll be forced to turn over your hard-earned Fragment of Dawn to Judge Geese. D'oh. Don't worry. He'll learn soon enough that messing with these stones is risky business. After the event, you'll attempt to escape, but that traitor Wossler, acting on a misguided principle of loyalty, will try to stop you. BOSS: Wossler, Empire Knights x3 ??? HP Of course, take out the lesser knights first. During this battle, Fran will go a little crazy and basically be in permanent Berserk status. Take her out if she becomes a liability. Once the Knights are gone, you can focus on Wossler with relatively few problems. He's not too tough at all. Once he gets low, he may cast Reflect on himself, so keep that in mind if you've been trying to fry him with spells. He goes down easily enough under melee attacks, though. After Wossler's defeat, there'll be a few more events. You'll regain the Fragment of Dawn (hurray) and Judge Geese will get what's coming to him. Long cutscene time. There's lots of political goings-on; in the end, Ashe will hold off on revealing that she's still alive, and it's back to Rabanastre you go. Here Ashe decides that the next step will be to investigate how the Fragment of Dawn works. It is said that the Garif race, who live to the south, may have some idea on how to go. Restock in town and when you're done, head out south. GIZA PLAINS ギーザ平原 The first thing you'll notice is that it's now raining. The Giza Plains now will be quite different from the one you knew earlier; several paths are gone, new paths have opened, the encampment in the middle is now mostly deserted, etc. The most important issue here is that the monsters are now stronger as well. You'll want to make your way to the southwest area, the Starfall Plain (星ふり原), which has a path leading south to the next area. One thing to watch out for in this entire region is that there are lightning elements (just look like balls of electricity) scattered around. They are extremely strong, but they aren't aggressive. If you do draw aggro on one, either by attacking it directly or casting spells nearby, you need to run, as a single Thundara from them can easily wipe you out. Make your way down to reach the next area, the Ozmone Plains. OZMONE PLAIN オズモーネ平原 The most annoying thing about this area are the Zus, which are flying enemies and therefore cannot be hit by melee attacks. Bows and guns are helpful here, since otherwise you'll have to use magic. Go down south two zones to reach the Hauro Greenlands (ハウロ緑地). You'll see a Garif fighting enemies here. Help him out if you wish. This zone has a path leading south which will lead you to your destination, the homeland of the Garifs. JAHARA, LAND OF THE GARIF ガリフの地ジャハラ There's a teleport-active save point here. Hurray! Speak to the guards blocking the bridge. They're reluctant to let you in, but the Garif you saw earlier attests to your battle prowess and vouches for you. Go on in to the first part of the village. Speak to the various elders (長老) here. They'll know nothing, and eventually they'll tell you to try and speak to the Great Elder (最長老). While you're here, you can buy some new stuff if you want. Try to head west again and the Garif from before, who introduces himself as Warrior Chief Spinel (戦士長スピネル), again vouches for you. Go inside and speak to the Great Elder to kick off a series of events. After that is all done, your old pal Larsa with his infinite supply of Hi Potions rejoins you as a guest. Awesome. On your way out, Warrior Chief Spinel will also give you either a Killer Bow or a Bowgun, plus the appropriate ammunition. Free stuff is always nice. Since the Garifs know nothing, Larsa would like you to try and stop impending hostilities between his country and another country to the east. He thinks Ashe's political clout will help. So it's off you go to the east, with your eventual destination the holy city of Bur-Omisace. In the exit area to Jahara, you can buy a map of the Ozmone Plains. Also, you can (for one-time only, thanks to Spinel's help) rent a chocobo for free. Chocobos can be quite helpful since you won't be attacked, plus you can travel faster than you normally would. Head across the Ozmone Plains, Chocobo or not, in a northeasterly fashion. As you get to the last area here, you'll see a short conversation between Ashe and Basch, and then some scenes back in the Archadian Empire. Seems a couple of factions are vying for power. With that done you'll be presented with a save crystal. The traveler here mentions that there are strange seals blocking the paths in the Golmore Jungle up ahead. Of course, that is where you must go, so onwards. THE GOLMORE JUNGLE ゴルモア大森林 Dark in here... the Couars can petrify you, so be sure to have Stona or Gold Needle items handy. Deeper in you'll also find the notorious Molbols, which can cause a host of status effects on you. Proceed along the path eastward. Blocking the way to the next zone, you'll see a bluish seal. You'll get an event here with Fran, and a path will open up. Follow the newly opened path to get to the secret village of the Viera, Eruyt Village. ERUYT VILLAGE エルトの里 There's a teleport-capable save point here, as well as a shop. Check out the new wares. There isn't that much, but you should definitely invest in some of the new magic, such as Esuna and Curada. Fran will tell you to go find a Viera girl named Myulin. You're not very welcome here. Go into the deepest part of the village to get another event with the leader of the village, Yote. Myulin is missing; after some arguments, Yote tells you that Myulin went westwards, into a Hume mine. Go back out now. Larsa mentioned that Yote probably means the Henne Mines. Return to the screen just before the Golmore Jungle. On the screen with the save point, you'll now find a wounded Empire soldier. He begs you for a potion; give one to him. In exchange, he'll lend you a chocobo, which you'll need to get to the Henne Mines. From the save point, go one screen westwards, then immediately go through the brush to the south. On the chocobo, you should be able to go through the secret path to the next zone. Incidentally, there are many paths like this which can only be traversed by chocobo; look around the ground for chocobo tracks as a sign of these paths. On the next zone head south a little further to find the main entrance to the Henne Mines. You need to dismount your chocobo in order to enter. After a short event at the entrance, you're free to go inside. THE HENNE MINES ヘネ魔石鉱 A little ways in you'll find some closed gates and a switch. The switches here toggle between having the blue-lit doors open and the red-lit doors open; you can't have both open at the same time. Also, when you flip the switches it spawns a whole mess of Jelly enemies, so don't flip them needlessly. To begin, flip the first switch in the North Gate (北通用口) area, then head south through the blue doors. In the small crosswalk section, the only way you can go is west, so keep following that. Head around to reach Tunnel #1 (第1期坑道) and continue until you reach Mine #1 (第1期採掘現場). From here proceed to reach Train Connecting Line A (区間連結ラインA), then go north to Train Connecting Line B (区間連結ラインB). Loop east and to the south to reach another small cross-shaped area. Hit the switch here to open the red doors, then go through the west door to get back to Train Connecting Line A. Make another loop north to Train Connecting Line B and this time you should be able to take the northwest door here to the next area, which has a handy teleport-active save point. This should tip you off that a boss fight is coming, so heal up and get ready. After an event where you find Myulin, sort of, a boss attacks. BOSS: Tiamat ??? HP This isn't terribly hard, especially with Larsa and his infinite potions helping you out. The only danger is if Larsa dies or otherwise gets taken out with Petrify and such. If you have the Dark Magic Decoy by now, by all means use it to draw attention away from Larsa. (You'd also want to buff whoever has Decoy on them with Protect/Regen/etc., of course, so that they survive.) As long as Larsa is safe and at least one other party member can back him up on the healing, you should have no problem whittling this boss's HP down. After the boss fight, the party recovers Myulin. You'll automatically be taken back to Eruyt Village. After some more talking, you'll get the key item Tear of Lente; this will allow you to go through those seals you saw earlier. THE GOLMORE JUNGLE ゴルモア大森林 With the Tear of Lente in your possession it's time to continue on towards Bur-Omisace. Go through the seal just south of the entrance to Eruyt and proceed eastwards. Soon you'll come across another small area with a teleport-active save point. What's this, another boss? You guessed it. BOSS: Elder Dragon, Treant x2 ??? HP Unlike the Tiamat, this is an extremely tough battle. Take out the Treants first; they have rather high HP, but it's easier to clean them up first rather than have them bother you for the entire fight. The main problem with the Elder Dragon is the host of status effects he can cause on you, including his favorite Confuse. His HP is extremely high, so you won't be able to take him out with 2 Mist Knack chains like you might have cheesed some of the other bosses with. The worst part is his special attack "Shiole Spore" which causes a host of conditions (Confuse, Slow, Silence, Darkness, Oil, and Slip) to a large area. He'll use it much more often than you'd like. Esuna is a must for this battle. Esuna won't take care of the Oil, either, or the Slow. The Oil is worse because he'll often follow up with a Fireball attack, which will easily do 1500-2000 damage against an Oil'ed character. Spread out as much as possible. Have at least two characters who can use Esuna, and make sure you have plenty of Phoenix Downs and Oil Removers (あぶらとり紙). If he's simply too tough for you, use the forest as a good place to level up and come back again later. With the Elder Dragon dispatched, go east for a few more zones and you'll arrive at the Paramina Rift. THE PARAMINA RIFT パラミナ大峡谷 There's a save point first thing here. The people here will tell you that to get to Bur-Omisace you should head northeast. So just follow the north wall eastwards in each zone and you'll arrive at your destination sooner than you'd expect. MT. BUR-OMISACE 神都ブルオミシェイス First things first, there's two vendors in this area with a ton of new merchandise for you, as well as a teleport active save point. There are two very useful accessories sold here, the Gold Amulet (which doubles gained LP) and Thief Cuffs (which improves the items that you can steal), so invest in some if you have the money - they're expensive. Larsa is about to leave your party, as helpful as he was, so if there's stuff you want to do while you still have him, like catch up on some Mob Hunts, feel free to teleport elsewhere and wrap things up before proceeding. When you're ready to move on, continue on up to the grand chapel up on the mountain face. Time for another series of events. You'll be introduced to the Grand Priest Anastasis, as well as the pimp - I mean nobleman - Al-cid. Al-cid notifies you of some political goings-on. The emperor of Archadia has been assassinated; Vayne has assumed control. Seem like Ashe and Larsa's plans for peace are foiled yet again. Anastasis tells Ashe that if she is so determined, she should seek out the other legacy left behind by Racewall, the Sword of the Conqueror King. To do so, you'll need to go to the Stilshrine of Miriam, down to the south. From the city, go south two zones, then take the southwest exit to reach a small corridor with a save point. From here, proceed down another two zones to reach the Stilshrine. THE STILSHRINE OF MIRIAM ミリアム遺跡 After using the teleport-active save point here, head inside to the Shrine proper. The first thing you need to is equip a character with the Fragment of Dawn (暁の断片) and have them examine the altar up here, marked on your map with some gears. This will teleport you to a different part of the shrine. Since the Fragment of Dawn reduces your MP to 0, equip it on somebody you don't plan to have active in your party. In the next area, again use the character with the Fragment equipped to examine the next altar. Be careful, there are many strong dragons here, and the faces in the walls also animate and attack. Don't be reluctant to use R2 and run away if things look bad. Once the altar is activated, a new set of stairs forms in the previous room. Take it down to a new corridor. Here you'll see something odd - a green save point. Except it's not a save point at all. Examine it and it'll attack. Defeat it and it'll leave a real save point behind in its wake. Odd indeed. In any case, heal up and proceed westwards. In this new area, go south first and examine the end of the giant sword stuck into the ground. This will open a door on the north end of the hall. Inside is a teleporter that will take you back to the first hall you arrived in. There is now a door open on the west side of this entrance hall. In this next area your main goal is to find three statues and rotate them to face the center of the shrine. The first area you'll come across has a statue to the west. Examine it and choose the second option to manipulate it, after which you can choose to rotate it clockwise (first option) or counterclockwise (second option). Either way, have the statue face towards the east. Now proceed south. In this next long looping corridor with many zombie fights you'll have to go from a northwest-to-southeast fashion in order to reach the second statue. Have it point north, then go out the north exit in this area to reach the next corridor. Go out the east door and down the stairs. Before you open the next door, be prepared for a boss fight. BOSS: Venuskara ??? HP This guy isn't hard at all. The only tricky part is that he lays down a magnetic field. Any party members who are equipped with anything from the heavy armor class will be slowed an incredible amount. Thus, just make sure that the characters you use are equipped with light or mage armor. With that done, you should be able to take him out in no time. Beyond this boss's room is the third and final statue. Have it face westwards. This will cause the giant sword you examined earlier to rise from the ground. Go back to the main entrance hall just by going north, then use the teleporter on the south side. Head straight south and you should now be able to go through a new path. Before you go through the door here again, another boss awaits, this one much harder. (But not that hard.) BOSS: Mattheus ??? HP The first thing you need to do is take care of the five ice minions Mattheus has. If you don't, they'll constantly spam Sleep spells on you, which gets very annoying very quickly. If you can, the easiest thing to do is start a Mist Knack chain on Mattheus. Although the Mist Knacks themselves only hit one target, the final magic burst that occurs if you chain together at least 3 Mist Knacks will hit all enemies in the area. If it doesn't kill the ice minions, at the very least it will make them much easier to kill. With those out of the way, just focus on Mattheus. He (yeah, Mattheus is a male, he just has an ice goddess as a living shield, according to the Hunt Catalog) isn't too tough by himself. His only big move is Blizzaja, which causes ice damage and slip status to a large area, but as long as you have the Curas coming he's nothing to worry about. Defeat Mattheus and you'll be able to summon him now, as soon as you learn him on the License Board (just above Dagger 3). Continue on to the back and, after some more events, you'll receive the Sword of the Conqueror King. Exit the shrine for some bad news. Empire ships are in the area, and Fran notices a column of smoke coming from Bur-Omisace. Either walk or teleport back there. MT. BUR-OMISACE 神都ブルオミシェイス Head to the back to see the aftermath of the Empire's attack. You'll be attacked by another Judge, Judge Berga. BOSS: Judge Berga, Judge x3 Three unnamed Judges attempt to attack you from behind; take them out to show them the error their ways. They aren't tough at all. If you can zap them all at once with black magic, so much the better. With Berga left, you should be alright. His attacks are powerful, so try casting Decoy on one of your characters, plus Protect and Regen so that he gets distracted away from your healer(s). Another series of events ensues. Your party decides to take the fight to the enemy. It's of course impossible to enter the Empire from air or sea, so you'll have to travel by land, making your way through Nalbina Fortress. Speak to the priest just outside the main chapel to receive the Convict's Magic Stone (断罪の魔石). You can use this later to challenge another summon back in the Stilshrine of Miriam, but chances are you'll want to hold off until you're higher level to attempt it. Make your way back to Rabanstre however you choose, then go out the east door. In the "Sand Crest Labyrinth" (砂紋の迷宮) zone, go out the northeast exit to get to Nalbina Fortress. NALBINA FORTRESS ナルビナ城塞 There are many good (but expensive) things for sale here, so check them out. Otherwise there isn't anything to do here, so when you're all done go northwest to the Mosphoran Highwaste. THE MOSPHORAN HIGHWASTE モスフォーラ山地 Keep going northwest here and you'll reach an encampment with a teleport- active save point. There's also an item shop here. Continue northwest for several more zones and you'll reach the Salikawood. THE SALIKAWOOD サリカ樹林 A couple of zones north you'll see a save point. From here, go north and then east a few more zones and talk to the Moogle boss here. The door is broken, and he and his assistants were sent to fix it, but they seem to be goofing off in the forest rather than helping out. You'll need to find the nine of them and tell them to quit slacking off. Luckily even though there's nine of them they're clustered in groups, and their location is marked on the map for you. Just go around the forest to the four exclamation marks to talk to each one. Along the way you'll probably run into another save point, this one teleport-active, next to a zone transition leading northwest. That way leads to a boss (the Bomb King) and eventually leads to Nabudis, which is not related at all to your goal; ignore it for now (we'll get to it in the Sidequests). Once you've found the fourth and final group of moogles, they'll ask you if you want to be taken back to the moogle boss, the first option being yes. Either way make your way back, and the door will be fixed. Talk to the boss again for a reward (Quismoit Sandals), then proceed out the next zone to make it to the Phon Coast. THE PHON COAST フォーン海岸 Not much to do here either. Those of you who played the demo will probably recognize this area. Go southeast for several zones and you'll come across another encampment, as well as a cutscene with Balflear and Ashe. Again, there isn't much to do in this entire area except travel. Restock at the item shop in the hunter's camp if you need to, then go north several zones. Just past a save point is the next area, the Tchita Uplands. THE TCHITA UPLANDS ツィッタ大草原 There's actually a little more to this area than just travelling. Head eastwards and you'll come across a small area with a save crystal and a rather odd individual. He'll give you an unofficial mob hunt (it doesn't appear in your Clan Report) as well as what you really need him for, the Soulseal Key (封魂のカギ). With this in your possession, now travel north. Soon you'll get to a creepy looking cave, which is where you want to go. Proceed in north for a ways and you'll come across a locked door. Here's where you need to use the key. Open it and you'll find the odd monsters that the odd invididual from before wanted you to kill. BOSS: Mandora Prince, King Araune, Onion Queen, Pumpkin Star, Tomato Captain ??? HP These guys are more annoying than threatening. They don't do much other than inflict status effects on you (Esuna as needed) and run around at random. Don't chase them too much, just try staying in one area and attacking each one as they come near. With that odd series of bosses defeated, you can return to the odd man from before and he'll reward with a 1000 Gil and some remedies. Or you can just ignore him... continue on into the palace proper. THE SOCHEN CAVE PALACE ソーヘン地下宮殿 In the area north of the room where you fought the Mandoras, there's a save point. This one is also a fake one; defeat it and a real save point will show up. Use it and proceed east. Go in a generally northwards direction from here, and eventually you'll come across a diamond shaped area with a door leading north. The door north leads to the real boss of this area, with no save point nearby, so be fully prepared before you go on in. BOSS: Ahriman ??? HP He's got a number of annoying attacks, the most dangerous of which are Confuse and Death Sentence statuses. Have the appropriate curative items handy, or equip accessories that prevent them. As he gets lower in health, he'll begin to create fake copies of himself. These fake copies don't have that much HP (around 2500, perhaps) so focus on the copies one at a time, then return your attention to the real Ahriman. Or, you can use a Mist Knack chain at the end to blast all of them at once. Once he's gone, continue north. This next area is home to a bunch of traps, including one right in front of the door. Cast Levitaga immediately, or at the very least have Libra on, so you can see the traps - the last thing you need is to die to some traps and have to fight the Ahriman over again. You'll eventually reach an elevator area. Take it up to find a teleport-active save point, then take the exit to your destination, Old Archades. OLD ARCHADES アルケイディス旧市街 Welcome to the slums! Go westwards and talk to the gate guard blocking the way to the rest of the city. Seems like he won't let you in. An old acquaintance of Balflear's, Jule, pops up and offers you his help - in exchange for some cold hard cash. Give him 1500 Gil, and he'll tell you to go around and talk to people. How helpful. Talk to a man in the northeast area of that district - you'll know you have the right one because some of the text he says will be colored in gold. Return to Jule and Jule will tell you to go talk to another man, Pizle (守銭のピズレ). He's nearby the first guy you had to talk to. Talk to him, and return to Jule, who's moved slightly from his initial position. With the guards thus distracted, you'll now be a ble to go on into the city proper. THE IMPERIAL CITY OF ARCHADES 帝都アルケイディス Upon arriving, Balflear will leave your party temporarily. There's a bunch of shops around, so check them out. In the southwest district, there's a taxi that'll take you to where you're supposed to go. However, you're not qualified enough to ride the taxi. As it turns out the citizens of Archades have these things called Leaves which is a measure of their status. Without at least nine leaves, you won't be able to get in. Jule shows up again and swindles you out of another 2500 Gil - and once again, the only thing he says is to talk to people. Gee, thanks a lot, Jule. Now get ready for the most annoying minigame in the game. You thought spreading rumors was stupid? Welcome to White Leaf collecting. The basic premise is simple. You need to talk to some people, who have juicy info for you, and then relay that info to other people who'll reward you by giving you a White Leaf. The problem is that Vaan must be an idiot or something, because he can only remember one piece of info at a time. So there's going to be a lot of running around to do. I recommend using the northwest district, Moleberry (モールベリ区) as there are exactly 9 pairs of info givers/receivers here, so you can get all the Leafs that you need without having to change zones. The pairs of people you need to talk to are as follows. Keep in mind that until you talk to a person at least once, they'll just have the generic label of "Archades Citizen". Mage Girl (魔道士の女) -> Academy Gentleman (アカデミーの紳士) Feather-Seeking Girl (フェザーを目指す女) -> Feather-Seeking Guy (フェザーを目指す男) Accessory Woman (アクセサリの婦人) -> Giza Man (ギーザの男) Bored Woman (ホロッときた婦人) -> Family Daughter (家族思いの娘) Necklace Man (ネックレスの男) -> Necklace Woman (ネックレスの女) Travel-loving Woman (旅好きな婦人) -> Traveler Gentleman (旅の生活の紳士) Judge-seeking Man (ジャッジになりたい男) -> Judge's Wife (ジャッジの夫人) Home Instructor Woman (家庭教師の婦人) -> Home Instructor Gentleman (家庭教師の紳士) Look-alike Man (そっくりの男) -> Look-alike Man (そっくりの男) Now you should have nine White Leaves in your posession. Take the taxi and head on out to the next area. There's a teleport-active save point here. Go north for a short event. Foiled again! Return down south for yet another event, where you learn the extent of Jule's asshole-ness (Balflear had given him enough Leaves for you, but he decided to make you run-around and get some yourself). In any case, your next destination is the Droklor Laboratory. You can go there by talking to the taxi attendant and telling him you want to go to "that place" (例の場所). Be warned that once you go in, you can't leave until you clear the entire dungeon, so be sure you are fully stocked and equipped. THE DROKLOR LABORATORY ドラクロア研究所 Thankfully, you'll start at the 66th floor. Would've sucked to have started from the bottom... A little ways in you'll see some collapsed soldiers. Looks like somebody else got here first. Go north and take the elevator here to the 67th floor. You have to operate the console to the left and select the floor with up/down to do so. On this next floor go up to the northeast area. There's a save point here, and in the lab you'll get a map of the area and a lab card key. Unfortunately this is one of those areas where your minimap goes on the fritz and it's hard to tell where you are, but you can always press Select to see where you are on the big map. In any case, go to 67E Area 03 (E means it's on the east side) and operate the panel inside to open the blue doors. Like the Henne Mines before, you can only open either the blue or the red doors at once, but not both. With the doors open, go back to the elevator and now take it up to the 68th floor. Proceed to 68E Area 03 and now open the red doors. Loop around north to get to 68W Area 04 and now open the blue doors. From here, go to 68W Area 11 and again reopen the red doors. Now you should be able to head to the south central area which has the next elevator. Take it up to the 70th floor. There's a save point here, and you know what that means. Go on in to find the head of the Laboratory, and also Balflear's father, Dr. Cid. BOSS: Dr. Cid, Rook x4 ??? HP Weird to see Cid as a bad guy, isn't it? In any case, he cheats. His guns, like all guns, ignore defense, and what's worse, until you destroy the four Rooks circulating around him, you can't hurt him at all. The Rooks all have Reflect on them, so don't try and nuke them. Take them out one by one while keeping an eye on your HP - those guns and lasers hurt. The Rooks also try and drain your MP, so be careful that you don't run out. Once all the Rooks are gone (they have about 10000 HP) it's time to take out the good Doctor. He's still kind of tough, and he might use his big move, the S27 Magic Cannon, which can do about 1000 damage, so keep your HP high. Once you've defeated Dr. Cid he runs off, telling Ashe she should go to Giruvegan if she really wants power. The 'somebody else' who was here first introduces himself as Reddas, another air pirate, hailing from Balfonheim. For the moment at least, your goals are the same, so it's off to Balfonheim you go. THE PORT OF BALFONHEIM 港町バーフォンハイム New town means new shops. Check out the new wares, then go northeast to find a teleport-active save point. If you go northwest from here, you'll pass through the Cerobi Steppe and eventually end up at the Tchita Uplands. However, there's a much faster way to get to Giruvegan. Teleport to the Stilshrine of Miriam and exit to the Paramina Rift by going north. Now continue north, go east past the small area with the save point, then immediately go north and west again. In the new zone go southwest, and you'll reach the Feywood. THE FEYWOOD 幻妖の森 Once again your minimap is on the fritz here. Hug the east wall and go down southwards. You should encounter a treasure pot with a map here as you go. Continue southeast and south past another zone to reach a small area with a save point. Save then attempt to go south. A thick collection of Mist blocks your path; you should get an event where it opens up. If you don't, change zones a few times and come back to try again. In this area is a boss. BOSS: Rafflesia ??? HP This boss cheats, and by cheats I mean "lays down a field that drains your MP". Since you're going to run out of MP very quickly anyway, you should probably just start off the battle with a Mist Knack chain to inflict as much damage as possible. This boss also loves status effects. Remedies (万能薬) are pretty much required for this battle. As he gets low in health, he summons in some Molbols as well, though they aren't really anything to worry about him compared to him. You can ignore them if you want. Keep pounding away at him and keep a close eye on your item stock. With him gone, it's time for the second part of the Feywood. Go south. In this next area, go down to the southeast corner for another treasure pot. This contains a 'candle' that adds the hidden areas of the Feywood to your map. Continue south and you'll reach a large blizzard area where it's hard to see. If you check your map, you'll see several star-shaped monuments around the map. Go to the closest one, in the northeast. What you need to do in each of these monuments is stand in the middle and rotate the camera with the right stick. You should see that one of the doorways has an illusion of something other than a blizzard, like forests or a mountain. When you see this, go straight in that direction. This should lead you to the next star-shaped monument, and you should repeat until you get to the next zone. The next zone works pretty much in the same way, although in this one you need to start with the monument in the middle and not the one in the northeast. Once you reach the last area, a giant door blocks your path. Unfortunately, human strength cannot open it. Summon Velias (魔神ベリアス) with whoever has him learned, then try opening the door. It should open now, leaving the way to Giruvegan clear. THE ANCIENT CITY OF GIRUVEGAN Use the save point here; feel free to teleport back to town and restock if you need to. When you're ready use the teleporter on the west side. You'll immediately come across a boss. BOSS: Didolos ??? HP This guy isn't too tough at first, but as the battle goes on he does more and more powerful stuff. He's got extremely high defense, so make sure your equipment is top notch, and keep the heals coming. The worst thing he does is that when he gets below about 25% health, he'll start using an attack that does upwards of 1500 damage to all party members. Of course, you want to stop him from doing so. Probably the best thing to do is whittle him down to about 25% with normal attacks, and then unleash a chain of Mist Knacks on him in hopes of killing him before he gets to use his move. If that doesn't kill him, you can even switch in some of your reserves and use their Mist Knacks as well. One other thing to try is that Confuse status can work on him, so if you keep him Confused as much as possible he becomes easier to handle. With him gone, use the teleporter that appears to be warped elsewhere. Go down south and you'll find a switch. You need to release the seals to the gates so that you can move on. This entire area zigzags; once you've released the Gate Kutes seal (ゲート・クテス制御装置) go to the southwest tip of this area. You should see two Mithril Golems here. Defeat them, then step onto the area between them. Though it's not on the map, a hidden path should suddenly appear. In this next area you'll have to do the same sort of thing, although there are no less than three locks in the area to deal with. You'll have to backtrack a few times, but it shouldn't be too hard finding them all; use your map if you get lost, the switches are conveniently marked. Go to the north side and westwards once you've gotten them all, and again defeat the Mithril Golems and step on the hidden path westwards. There's a small area with a save point here, so heal up. Then check the door to move to the next section. This area is symmetrical as you'll soon see on the map; what you'll want to do is go between the two halves and head northeast; there's another long hidden path that will take you up to the next teleporter. Before you can take it though, there's another boss to deal with. BOSS: Tyrant ??? HP The unusual bit about this fight is that all of your Skills are sealed, meaning you can't use them. You can still use Magic and Items, though, so you shouldn't have too many problems. His biggest attack is "Piercing Graviga" (貫通グラビガ), which does half max HP damage to your characters. Unlike normal Graviga, this ignores the effects of Reflect status, so that won't help you. Keep your HP high to counter this powerful spell. Like the Didalos before, you can also try confusing this boss. With that done take the teleporter to be warped to the next area. This area is very bad as things go; there is no minimap, and the main map is mostly unhelpful. The only thing that helps is it tells you the name of the area you are currently in in the upper left, so pay attention. You'll start out in Ah Grand Shift (ア・グランド・シフト). To one side of the circular area you'll see a sealed gate (Gate Scorpio). You can't open it on this visit; that's for the sidequests. Take the opposite end and proceed on the only path past two more circular platforms. You'll arrive at a third platform with a Teleporter VII (転送装置VII) on it. Take it to be warped away. This next area has three possible paths. Take the middle one for some treasure, then return. Now take the one on the left; this leads to a switch that will open Gate Cancer for you. Gate Cancer is on the right of your starting point. Take it and you'll find Teleporter V. You'll arrive at another area with another Gate, Gate Pisces. You don't actually need to deal with it. Take the path furthest from Gate Pisces. Two platforms away, you'll find a switch that opens Gate Aries. Take Return to the platform with Gate Pisces and now take the path to the Gate's left. Continue on and you'll find another platform with the switch to Pisces (which you can ignore) and Gate Aries. Just past Gate Aries is Teleporter III. Take it and you'll arrive at Crystal Core. There's a save point on the next platform, and a teleporter which will take you back to the ancient city itself. There's only one way to go now, and a boss awaits at the end. BOSS: Shumihaza ??? HP This gal uses some powerful magic, but the thing to watch out for more is her Silega. Either have plenty of healing items (やまびこ草) or make sure your healer has protection against silence. She also absorbs pretty much every element, so don't use magic yourself against her. As long as you can protect yourself from Silence, she isn't too hard. Defeat her and you'll gain her License for summoning. Hurray. Take the final teleporter now to the last area. You'll see some more story events with Ashe and receive the Sword of the Contract (契約の剣). With all that done, you can take the teleporter here which is a one-way warp to the beginning. Return however you wish to Balfonheim and report to Reddas. With the Sword of the Contract in hand, it's time to head to the Pharos of Ridorana, where Ashe must make the decision on whether to destroy the source of the antimagic stones or use its power for revenge against the Empire. Reddas joins you as a guest for this next dungeon, and you'll be able to take Balflear's ship to Ridorana now. Go to the airport terminal and speak to the Personal Ship Attendant (個人用受付) in order to access your ship. You can actually go anywhere whose name is in white. The next dungeon is long, so you may want to take the time to stock up, do mob hunts, etc. When you're ready, go to the Ridorana Cataract (リドルアナ大瀑布). THE RIDORANA CATARACT リドルアナ大瀑布 There's a save point in the first area here. Go eastwards. There's nothing too tricky about this area. Go north to the next zone, then follow the north wall eastwards to reach another path. This path has a save point, but it also has a mess of traps near it so be careful. From here it's just another zone transition eastwards to get to the lighthouse itself. THE PHAROS OF RIDORANA リドルアナ大灯台 The first thing you'll encounter as you step inside is a boss. Lovely reception, eh? BOSS: Hydro ??? HP This boss loves using poison and virus (makes it so you can't be healed) statuses. Have Esuna handy. One thing to note about this boss is that he's undead. This means you can cast healing spells and such on him to damage him. To target him with a healing spell or item, just press R1 when the target selection window is up (R1 changes the 'group' of targets, between party members, reserves, and enemies). Sadly you can't Elixir him to insta-death him, like you could with certain bosses in previous FFs... as long as you have poison and virus statuses under control, he's not too much to worry about. Continue east for a short event at the the door, then go inside the Pharos itself. The Pharos is split into three sections, which the game dubs 'Ascents'. FIRST ASCENT - HORIZON OF FIRST LIGHT The teleporter in the front here doesn't work yet. There's a teleport- active save point here as well. The middle circular area has three altars (黒封の祭壇) that you'll need to manipulate. To activate them, you'll need Black Jewels (黒の珠). As you defeat enemies around here, sometimes they may leave a little blue sparkling light behind. Examine those to receive the Jewels. The circular area is broken up by debris, so you'll need to enter the circular area from three different ways (main hall, from northeast, and from southeast) in order to activate all three. Once you do so, the sealed door to the east will open. Save before you go in and then step inside to be warped to somewhere unknown. After walking for a little bit, you'll be attacked by the next boss. BOSS: Pandemonium ??? HP Pandemonium uses petrify and blind statuses, so have the appropriate counters. The trickiest thing about this boss is that at about half health, he'll use "Absolute Defense" and "Absolute Magic Barrier", which will cause any and all damage sources to be nullified. The only thing you can do is wait for the effect to wear off. Use the time to focus on healing and defense buffs. Once it wears off, use your newly buffed team to finish the job. With him gone, the teleporter back in the main entrance hall is now active. Return, heal and save, and then take the teleporter up. This next area is home to a large number of gaps that you'll need to make bridges for. In order to make the bridges, you need to defeat enemies called Kojas (コジャ), which are the Face-type enemies with a green flame on top. Defeating one causes a bridge segment to be laid down. In this first area, just defeat two Kojas and a bridge will form to the east. Continue around the path and defeat four more to make another bridge to the north. Cross it and go to the next zone. Now you'll need to defeat six Kojas to make the next bridge. Still pretty simple. Things begin to get tricker in the next area. The game tries to fool you by adding enemies called Didras (デイダラ), which look exactly like Kojas except they have a red flame on top. If you mistakenly defeat a Didra, a bridge segment actually disappears. Thus you need to stop your party members, especially Reddas, from attacking them. Use R2 to enter escape mode and pull your allies away if you need to. In any case defeat six Kojas to make the first bridge. In the next area loop around the square corridor in the southeast until you've killed ten Kojas. This makes another bridge north. The next area is quite long, looping all the way from east to north to west, but you only need to kill four Kojas here. Take the newly-made bridge again to reach the next set of stairs. There's a save point here, which should be a warning sign to you. Use it, then go down south to the next set of stairs. At the next room, another weird warp and a boss await. BOSS: Sharit ??? HP Sharit is weak against Fire, as well as Oil, so you can nuke him to the best of your ability. He's also susceptible to Slow status, which helps a lot. His attacks do hurt a lot, but thanks to the Oil+Fire combination you should be able to destroy him pretty quickly. With him out of the way there's just one teleporter left to get to the next Ascent. SECOND ASCENT - REACH OF DIAMOND LOW This area starts off quite mean. There's four locked doors here, and four altars. To open a door you have to activate an altar, but when you do, one of your abilities will be sealed. Fight sealed - 戦封の祭壇 Magic sealed - 魔封の祭壇 Item sealed - 具封の祭壇 Map sealed - 知封の祭壇 Probably the easiest thing to do is seal items, as long as you have the necessary magic to compensate. Either way choose carefully, as you'll have to fight the next boss with the seal in place. In any case this will open a door, so continue upstairs. On the 61st floor, go to either the northeast or southwest corner for some more stairs. The 62nd floor is the opposite; the stairs up are in the northwest and southeast. On the 63rd floor, you'll need to go northeast and then west from there (the door northwest from the center area is locked). The 64th floor is simple; there's a save point here, and then the stairs up are to the south. You know the drill by now - weird teleport, boss time. BOSS: Fenrir ??? HP This guy is pretty much all physical attacks. Have somebody with a high defense and evade out in front, and cast Protect on them. Then just attack away. Regen helps a little but the main thing is to use Curada if your tank gets even close to dying. With the boss gone, you'll reach another wide open circular area. Find the altar that you chose before and activate it; this will unseal your command as well as call an elevator for you. The elevator's on the west side of the central circular area; take it up. Here you'll find another save point and a teleporter, which will take you to the third and final ascent. THIRD ASCENT - METE OF DESTINY There are a number of crests here that will teleport you around. The trick here is that if you pick the wrong crest twice, you'll be teleported back to the beginning, in a locked room, with tons of enemies. You won't be able to leave until you defeat them all. On the other hand the treasure pot with the map for this ascent is in this room, so completists may want to screw up on purpose. In any case on the 80th floor pick the Black Crest (黒の紋章). Continue from here and in the seeming dead end you can break one of the walls by examining it. Find the Green Crest (緑の紋章) to continue. After teleporting, again break the walls to find the Red Crest (赤の紋章). Once you're on the 84th floor, you'll need to pick the one that corresonds to whatever you chose to seal back in the Second Ascent. In the case of Items, pick the yellow one on the right. (I don't know what you need to pick if you sealed something else yet, sorry.) Afterwards all you have to do is continue breaking walls around the north side until you find the teleporter. The rest is straightforward. Take the elevator to the 90th floor. Another boss awaits you here. BOSS: Hashmarim ??? HP Hashmarim likes using some dangerous earth attacks, such as Quaja (damage and slow status to all) and Rock You. The key point here is that using Levitaga can make you avoid all of those attacks. And you thought Levitaga was only good for traps. With those attacks of his rendered worthless, he isn't too tough at all. Once he gets close to dying, like Pandemonium he'll use an absolute defense skill that nullifies all damage. Wait until it runs out, then finish him off. With Hashmarim gone, you can now learn the license to summon him. Hurray. Continue on and you'll find your last save point here. There's a couple of boss fights coming up, so be sure that you are in top condition before moving on. Teleport up to the top floor. After a number of events, your old friend Gabras shows up. BOSS: Gabras ??? HP He's actually pretty easy. He can only attack one person at a time, so use your tank tactics. Since this is the first in a series of boss battles, the thing you'll want to keep in mind is to try and conserve your MP as much as possible here. After some point he'll use Absolute Magic Barrier, so magic won't affect him at all; however, you can and should use physical attacks to finish him off. After a little more conversation, Dr. Cid arrives. BOSS: Dr. Cid ??? HP He's pretty wimpy now compared to how he was before, so again, conserve your MP. He does have a special attack that hits everybody for a little less than 1000 damage, so keep your party healed. The real battle begins when you get him down to about half health. You thought you were the only ones with Summons? BOSS: Dr. Cid and Famfrit ??? HP Now this is much harder. First of all, Cid will once again cheat and make himself invincible to any and all damage. You'll have to defeat Famfrit first. Of course, Cid will be attacking you all the while. He also buffs Famfrit with Protect, Shell, and Haste. You can Dispel it, but Cid will recast it. This may be good, though, since it stops Cid from doing other things, such as shooting you. On Famfrit's side, the danger lies in his move that hits everybody as well as Silences them. Make sure you have the appropriate countermeasures for that. He's not terribly tough otherwise; just make sure Dr. Cid and Famfrit don't gang up on one of your party members. Once Famfrit goes down, Cid will no longer be invincible. However, he does suddenly do a lot more damage with his attacks. Still, once Famfrit is gone Cid is much easier to handle, so pummel him for all the grief he's caused you so far. You'll get another series of events now. Cid's master plan was actually to release huge amounts of Mist to power the Empire's other secret weapon, the Sky Fortress Bahamut. Reddas manages to stop it, but at a cost. The Bahamut is still in operation, though not nearly as powerful as it would've been, and your last goal is clear - you must charge the Bahamut itself and stop Vayne. You'll end up in Balfonheim once again. You can now fly to the Bahamut, which is next to Rabanastre on the map, with your airship at any time. However, once you enter, you will not be able to leave. There's also no save points inside (don't worry, it's actually quite short compared to the couple of hellaciously long dungeons you just finished.) Therefore you should finish up all the loose ends that you want now. Mob Hunts, Side Quests, shopping, etc. - it's your last chance. When you're all good and ready, choose to fly to the Bahamut. SKY FORTRESS BAHAMUT 空中要塞バハムート A couple of nice movies shows you the state of the war. Marquis Ondore is attempting to hold his own with the resistance army, but the Bahamut proves to be too much. Ashe and company arrive, and Ashe manages (along with Vaan pretending to be Larsa...) to convince Ondore to let them sneak aboard the Bahamut and finish things once and for all. After all the movies, go north and around the corner, up the stairs to the southwest. You'll get some more events. Proceed straight southwest to the central circular area, then enter the small room, which is actually an elevator, here. Activate the panel to go up. When you do, you're greeted by Gabras, who survived the events at the Pharos after all. Time for another fight. BOSS: Gabras ??? HP He's upgraded his attacks since the last time you saw him, with the ability to do more damage to more people at once now. Nevertheless, he is vulnerable to a host of status effects, including Slow and Blind, so make full use of it. He does cheat a little in that once he gets to about half health, he'll taunt Basch (even if he's not in your party...) and heal himself to full HP once again. He doesn't get anything new or tricky, though, so continue fighting as before. After you've defeated Gabras, examine the panel again to continue upwards. Now it's time to confront Vayne face-to-face. Larsa joins you as a guest for this battle, hurray. BOSS: Vayne ??? HP He's pretty weak. Conserve your MP. His most powerful attack only does about 1000 damage each, so fight conservatively and don't overuse your MP or items. Surely you didn't think that was it? Vayne uses the power of the artificial stones made by Cid and becomes Vayne Nous. BOSS: Vayne Nous, Sefira x5 Gabras joins you as an ally in this fight. The Sefira around him can be annoying, but they aren't that bad so you can focus on Vayne if you so wish. Slow works on Vayne, so by all means cast it; the "Defense Break" and "Magic Defense Break" skills also work on him. Use them to speed things up. This still isn't the final battle, so don't use up everything you have. His specials now can do about 2000 HP damage, so stay above that. From time to time he may use the absolute barriers you've already seen from some of the other bosses; again, the only thing you can do in such a case is wait until it expires. Some more events. Gabras deals a big blow to Vayne, so what does he do? Runs away. Once your party catches up to him, his transformation is even more severe - not good news for the airships in the area. Time to finish things once and for all. BOSS: Immortal One ??? HP You won't be able to see how much HP he has left, even in bar form, which is kind of annoying. Still, at about 75%, 50%, and 25% health he'll temporarily become invincible to physical attacks, magic attacks, and then both, so you can use this to estimate about how much more fighting you have left. His magic ignores Reflect, so don't bother. He starts out with Haste, so Dispel that. You CAN use Defense Break and Magic Defense Break, which helps a little. His best attacks will probably do around 2000 damage, so keep yourself healed above this amount. Other than all of this, just fire away to the best of your ability. There is nothing after this, so use up all your elixirs and so on; Mist Knack him to death and use elixirs to do lots of damage. With Vayne gone, enjoy the ending. You've deserved it. So ends Final Fantasy XII. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4. SIDE QUESTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ FFXII, like most games in the series, has a ton of sidequests to do. Foremost is the fact that there are 13 summons in the game, but you only get 5 by following the main plot. The rest are completely optional and are thus described here. This section will also expand on the other sidequests present in the game. SUMMON - ADRAMELK (Recommended Level: mid-30s) Adramelk can be found in the Zertinan Caverns (ゼルテニアン洞窟), a completely optional zone that you never have to enter in the normal course of the game. The Zertinan Caves have entrances in the Ozmone Plains, Dalmasca Westersand, Ogir-Yensa Sandsea, and Nam-Yensa Sandsea areas. Once inside, all you have to do is make your way to the Asroza Sandflow (アスローザ大流砂) inside; this zone is easily accessible if you enter from the Dalmasca Westersand. Go to the center and Adramelk will suddenly appear, prompting a fight. BOSS: Adramelk ??? HP Adramelk is weak to ice. He has Protect on himself, but this can be Dispelled; he can also be Blinded. He uses powerful lightning magics, so if you have defenses against lightning your job can be easier. As he is a flying enemy, melee attacks will not reach him. You'll need either projectile weapons, or ranged-damage skills and magic, to hurt him. At times he'll use the Absolute Barriers that other bosses use, meaning you can't damage him until it wears off. What is especially annoying about this fight is that Corpse enemies are continually rising from the ground and attacking you at the same time. If you can get them all with a Blizzaga, for instance, that helps things out a lot. His big attack, Thundaja, causes lightning damage to all as well as Stop status. Be sure to have protection against Stop, or a good supply of Chronos Tears (クロノスの涙). SUMMON - ZARUERA (Recommended Level: mid-30s) Zaruera is lurking in an area of the Barheim Passage. However, the passage is locked from your previous visit. To get the key to go in, you must first do another subevent. To start things off, finish the Mob Hunt for the Flower Cactrot. After reporting to the client, Dantoro, he'll ask you to take the flower to his wife, who is up north a few zones in the Nebra River Camp. Go there and speak to her (ダントロの妻). Then talk to the young boy Chiguri (チグリ) sitting next to the river. Return to Dantoro and talk to him again. Now go back to the camp and talk to Dantoro's Wife and Chiguri near the riverbank. You'll be given the option to go to the north side of the camp on the boat. Do so and see the event with Chiguri's father, Luxera (ルクセラ). Return to the south side and speak with Dantoro's Wife again, then pick up the flower from behind her house. Go back to the north part of the camp. You'll get 1000 Gil and a Napalm Shot as a reward from the Cactrots. Return to the south area and speak to Dantoro's Wife again. She needs a particular kind of shell. You can find it just next to the river bank a short way from the house; it'll be a little sparkling object. Give it to Dantoro's Wife, and she'll tell you that she needs Nebralin now. Go to Dantoro's camp and talk to him; he'll tell you to look through his pile of luggage. Do so to get the Nebralin, then give it back to Dantoro's Wife. One more thing now. You need to get some valley flower dew (谷間の花のしずく). Go to the north side of the camp and exit out the northwest side. In the middle of the Split Earth zone (断裂の砂地) which is two zones north, you should see some pinkish/purplish flowers. Examine these for the dew. Now return to Dantoro's Wife and give her the dew. Exit and reenter the camp and Dantoro's Wife will proclaim the mystery traveller cured. Speak to him behind the house and he'll give you the Barheim Key. With all that done you can finally meet Zaruera. Enter Barheim Passage from the Sandstorm Stopping Land (砂風止む地) zone (NOT the zone you exited from when you first were there), using the key to get in. There's a new area to the west that you couldn't access before. Along the way you'll have to topple some mining carts to make a new path. At the end of this new area is Zaruera. BOSS: Zaruera ??? HP Zaruera nullifies all elements and comes fully buffed with Haste, Reflect, Protect, and Shell. You'll want to Dispel his buffs; then you can cast Slow and Blind on him, and you can also use Defense Break and Magic Defense Break to your advantage. As with Adramelk and Queklain, enemies (more zombies) will also be attacking you at the same time. As he gets low in health he'll begin using some instant-death attacks, so make sure you have Phoenix Downs handy. He also casts interesting spells like Lvl 4 Break, Lvl 3 Don't Act, Prime Level Death (which does what it sound like, instantly kills any character whose level is a prime number), so keep an eye on what levels your characters are. The hardest part about this battle is the 5 minute timer. If you don't defeat him in 5 minutes, you get kicked out of the room and you'll have to start the fight all over again. If your damage output just isn't fast enough, you'll have to come back after gaining more levels, and try and get the biggest Mist Knack chain that you possibly can going. SUMMON - QUEKLAIN (Recommended Level: mid-40s) Queklain is found in the Garamsythe Waterway, but it takes a little bit of runaround to actually get to him. First, you must finish the Mob Hunt for White Mousse; you'll get the Water Gate Key at the end of it. Using this, now go to the Central Control Area (中央制御区画) and close the gates to the 11th and 4th areas, using the little pedestals on the ground. Go into the 4th accessory district (第4処理区補助水路) and find a control for the 1st area gate here; activate it. Return to the central control area and reopen the 11th and 4th gates, and now close the 10th and 3rd gates. This time go to the 3rd accessory district (第3処理区補助水路). and again close the switch to the 1st area here. Return again and now open the 10th gate and close the 4th. You should now be able to go to the south part of the First Control Area (第1処理区), where you'll find Queklain. BOSS: Queklain ??? HP Queklain comes fully buffed and uses a variety of status effects, including poison, Don't Move, Don't Act, Anti (switches out your HP and MP) and Slow. Like with Adramelk, enemies will be appearing all the time, so try and get them as a group. The biggest problem with this fight is that he lays down a field which causes your HP to constantly drained. This on top of poison status can kill you very quickly, so counter it by casting Curaga frequently. You can Dispel his buffs, and you can also lower his defense with the Magic Break and Magic Defense Break skills. He doesn't have that much HP or Defense in the first place, so as long as you can deal with his status effects and the constant health drain, he's not that big of a challenge. SUMMON - EXDEATH (Recommended Level: mid-40s) Exdeath is lurking around the Mosphoran Highwaste, but again there's some stuff you have to do first in order to get to him. In the camp area in the Mosphoran Highwaste, find the South Wind Shrine (南々風の祠) and activate it to cause the little platforms to rise into the air. Go northeast to the Ashen Roof (灰色のひさし) and you'll find a Chocobo wandering around. Feed him a Gysahl Green (ギザールの野菜) and then go south to the Road To The Sky (天空へ続く路) zone. On the western part of it, after crossing the platform you previously raised, you should find a Chocobo-only path. Go through a couple of zones and you'll be back in the camp, only in an area on the western side that you couldn't access before. Activate the West Wind Shrine (西々風の祠). Go north from here and you'll find that you can shove the rock out of the way to connect this little area to the rest of the camp. Activate the Northwest Wind Shrine as well now (西北風の祠). Now with all that done, you can go to the Ridge to the Sky zone (空の果てを知る尾根) and climb all the way up to the plateau in the middle, where Exdeath appears. BOSS: Exdeath ??? HP Exdeath comes with Reflect, Protect, and Shell on. A key point in this fight is that Items will be sealed. Definitely have more than one character (preferably all three) who can use white magic, including raising spells. He likes using Flare and Collapse on you, and at half health he nullifies physical attacks for awhile. Even if you Dispel his Reflect he continues to cast it upon himself; if you really want to use magic, you should equip an Opal Ring (オパールの指輪), which ignores Reflect. As with the others, Defense Break and Magic Defense Break work well. SUMMON - ZEROMUS (Recommended Level: mid-40s) After you clear the Stilshrine of Miriam and you see the events at Bur- Omisace, speak to the Church Elder (キルティア教長老) wandering outside the temple to receive the Convict's Magic Stone (断罪の魔石). With this in hand, you can use the teleporter in the first room of the Stilshrine of Miriam to go somewhere completely different. Just follow the new area and you'll eventually reach Zeromus. BOSS: Zeromus ??? HP He begins buffed with Reflect, Protect, Shell, Haste, and Regen. One big problem in this battle is that magic is sealed, meaning anything you want to do special has to be done with items or skills. Since you can't use magic, you might as well burn all of your MP on Mist Knacks. Have plenty of healing items available - you'll definitely need them. SUMMON - CHAOS (Recommended Level: mid-50s) The road to fighting Chaos is long and hard, with several parts. Chaos is located in the Necrohol of Nabudis, a totally optional area that you never need to visit in the course of the game. The Necrohol of Nabudis is located past the Nabreus Deadlands, which are accessible from the Salikawood. In the the middle of the Salikawood you should see a teleport-active save point next to an area transition leading northwest. Through this area, after defeating a Bomb King boss, you should be able to reach the Nabreus Deadlands. To start, visit the "Voiceless Road" (声を失った路) area of the Deadlands and talk to Macleo (マクレイオ). He'll mention that he sent two of his disciples who possess two different medals out into the world. One is in Archades and one is in Rabanastre. The one in Archades is straightforward. Go to the magic shop and speak with the Disciple Rockenmu (ロッケンムウ) there. Then go to Old Archades and in the northeast area of the first zone speak with one of the citizens to receive Silver Medal (月銀のメダル). Return to Rockenmu and show him the Medal; now you're done here. Your task in Archades is much more complicated. Speak to Rockenmo (ロッケンモウ) in Old Man Daran's house and you'll learn that his medal has been split into four fragments. The four fragments are obtainable as follows: -one is a reward for clearing the Ultros Mob Hunt. -after receiving the Water Gate Key from the White Mousse Mob Hunt (you also needed it to reach Queklain), go to the central control area. Start with all gates open, and then do the following in order: Close the 11th gate, close the 4th gate, open the 11th gate, close the 3rd gate, open the 4th gate. When you do so a little sparkling item will appear in the same room on the south side; examine it to receive the fragment. -go to the north part of Downtown and speak with Vaan's little brother, Kaitz (カイツ). Now go up to the main square between the gates above ground and speak to the woman who has lost her memory (思い出せない女性). Go over to the Bazaar and ask about the woman's necklace until one of them mentions an Empire soldier who bought the neclace. Go to the magic shop and talk to the soldier (酒場の帝国兵). Now go to the south part of Downtown and talk to Firo (フィロ). Return to the magic shop and speak again to the soldier to receive the fragment. -Rockenmo has the fourth fragment and will put the Medal back together once you bring him the other three fragments. Return to the Nabreus Deadlands and speak with Macleo again. Now with the three medals in place, you need to prove your strength. In the Slumbering Plains (まどろみへ誘う平原) there is a hidden path in the northwest that will allow you to eventually reach a shrine area. Numerous enemy ambushes will occur on your way to the shrine. After completing this, you will receive the three medals. Now you can head to the Necrohol of Nabudis, which is deeper into the Nabreus Deadlands. In the White Promise Corridor (白き約束の回廊) you can use one of the medals to open the door to the boss, Fury. BOSS: Fury ??? HP Looks... rather unexpected, doesn't he? He's not that bad; you can cast Slow and Silence on him, and use Defense Break and Magic Defense Break. One thing to watch out for is that he can cause Berserk status on you, so make sure your healer doesn't go berserk. Similarly in the Beautiful Preparation (美しき調べ) zone you'll use another medal to open a door to another fight, the Phunbaba Boss. BOSS: Phunbaba Boss ??? HP He comes with Haste and Brave statuses on, so Dispel is as soon as possible. Again, Slow and Silence, as well as the Breaks, work well. Cast Protect on yourself to help things along. With both bosses defeated your third medal awakens and can now be used to open the final door, which houses Chaos. BOSS: Chaos ??? HP Chaos comes with four Chaos Juda around him of the appropriate elements (earth, wind, fire, water). Take out each of the Judas by using spells of the opposite element. The worst part of this fight is that you can't use your basic "Fight" command! You'll have to rely on skills and spells. You'll want to use the "Far Attack" (遠隔攻撃) skill here, which normally allows you to attack flying enemies with melee weapons, but also serves here as a way to attack without actually using the "Fight" command. This skill can be obtained from the hidden shop in Nabudis; in the north part of the Radiant Passage (光満ちる回廊) area there is a pillar that you can examine that works as a shop. As with the others, use Dispel and buff yourself with Protect and Haste. SUMMON - ALTIMA (Recommended Level: high 60s) Altima is located in your favorite dungeon, Crystal Grande. Yes, this is the area in the last part of Giruvegan in which you had basically no map or minimap to help you out. What's even worse, Altima is located in a separate part of Crystal Grande which has much harder enemies and much more confusing bridge/gate schemes. Again, since there is no map/compass, you'll have to rely on hitting Select every time you enter a new area and checking for the name of the current area at the top left of the screen. The following chart details exactly how to get to Altima from the first part of Crystal Grande. One other challenge the game throws at you is that once you hit some of the latter switches, you only have a certain amount of time before the gates close again. Each line tells you what room to go to. If there is a switch or a door, it will be noted in the list. This is only the most direct path to reach Altima. If you're feeling brave, you can do some exploration to find some treasure chests, often containing some very nice treasure. A full description of how to go to each treasure is not amenable to text. If can understand some Japanese, I suggest checking out the the maps from FF12 Kyokugen Kouryaku (http://ff12.jp/ff12_map_75.html). -You start out in Ah Grand Shift (ア・グランド・シフト) -Set Scorpio (セット・スコーピオ) -Ah Grand Shift and open Gate Scorpio to go to Ah Shift Debon (ア・シフト・デボン) -Teleport to Da Shift Cabonif (ダ・シフト・カボニフ) -Ah Shift Cambul Ra (ア・シフト・カンブル・ラ) -Either Debon Zairem Ino (デボン・ザイレム・イノ) or Debon Zairem Weno (デボン・ザイレム・ウェノ) -Set Saggitarius (セット・サジタリウス) and hit the switch -Return to Ah Shift Cambul Ra and open Saggitarius 2nd to go to Ah Shift Shirul We (ア・シフト・シルル・ウェ) -Teleport to Da Shift Debon We (ダ・シフト・デボン・ウェ) -Go to Set Leo (セット・レオ) and hit the switch. -Backtrack through Da Shift Debon We to Shirul Flowen Nowe (シルル・フロウェン・ノウェ) -Shirul Zairem Weno (シルル・ザイレム・ウェノ) -Shirul Zairem We (シルル・ザイレム・ウェ) -Shirul Bis We (シルル・ビス・ウェ) -Open Gate Leo 2nd to proceed to Shirul Bis Sa (シルル・ビス・サ) -Either Shirul Zairem Sai (シルル・ザイレム・サイ) or Shirul Zairem Sawe (シルル・ザイレム・サウェ) -Ah Shift Orudobe (ア・シフト・オルドビ) -Teleport to Da Shift Shirul (ダ・シフト・シルル) -Take the middle of the three paths to Set Libra (セット・リブラ) -Activate the switch and take the left side path to Orudobe Zairem Esa (オルドビ・ザイレム・エサ) -Open Gate Libra 2nd and go to Orudobe Zairem I (