-- Final Fantasy X (US) Monster Arena FAQ -- -- by CB! (Christine Bomke, circe@san.rr.com) -- -- Version 1.6, 4/12/02 -- LEGAL DISCLAIMER: This guide is for PERSONAL USE ONLY, copyrighted to me, Christine Bomke. Do not put this FAQ on your site without first emailing me for permission. If permission IS granted, you are not permitted to change a single word of this FAQ when you post it, and must leave it as a .txt file unless I've explicitly told you otherwise that you may change it. Do not steal information from this FAQ for your magazine, or other form of media - printed, online, or otherwise. Do not pass GO, do not collect $200. If you violate this disclaimer anyway, blah blah copyright violation blah blah legal action blah. NOTE TO WEBMASTERS: If permission is granted to post this guide on your site, it is _your_ responsibility to get the most recent version from my site or GameFAQs.com periodically. If you can't be bothered to keep it current, then please don't post it. Avast ye matey, thar be spoilers ahead. -- Table 'o Contents -- I. Version History II. Foreword / Contact Information III. General Strategies / Leveling Up a. Monster Arena Overview b. Suggested Abilities and Equipment c. Leveling Up IV. Normal Monster Price List V. Area Creations a. Besaid Island: Stratavis b. Kilika Forest: Malboro Menace c. Mi'ihen Highroad: Kottos d. Mushroom Rock Road: Coeurlregina e. Djose Highroad / Moonflow: Jormungand f. Thunder Plains: Cactuar King g. Macalania Forest and Snowfield: Espada h. Sanubia Desert: Abyss Worm i. Calm Lands: Chimerageist j. Cavern of the Stolen Fayth: Don Tonberry k. Mt. Gagazet / Gagazet Cavern / Zanarkand Ruins: Catoblepas l. Inside Sin: Abadon m. Omega Ruins: Vorban V. Species Creations a. Wolves: Fenrir b. Lizards: Ornitholestes c. Birds: Pteryx d. Insects: Hornet e. Floating Wizards: Vidatu f. Eyeballs: One-Eye g. Flans: Jumbo Flan h. Elements: Nega Elemental i. Armored Moles: Tanket j. Dragons: Fafnir k. Fungus: Sleep Sprout l. Bombs: Bomb King m. Horned: Juggernaut n. Iron Giants: Ironclad VII. Original Creations a. Earth Eater b. Greater Sphere c. Catastrophe d. Th'uban e. Neslug f. Ultima Buster g. Shinryu h. Nemesis (or "Omega Gold") VIII. Frequently Asked Questions 1. Where can I find [name of monster]? They're so rare! 2. What about Land Worms? 3. Which monsters appear in more than one area, and which area do they count towards when I capture them? 4. What is this "Passado" trick you keep mentioning? 5. What is the purpose of the Mark of Conquest? 6. Is there a difference between the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth and the Sunken Cave? 7. I don't like your strategy, nyah nyah. Why don't you write a different one? 8. What is the Sphere Distiller trick? 9. What do Reppageki, Bushinzan, and Shinryudan mean? 10. Am I missing out on anything if I don't fight Chimerageist on my first visit to the Calm Lands? 11. What about other bosses? Is there a benefit to fighting them immediately after unlocking them? 12. I supposedly completed all of the requirements to unlock Nemesis, and he's still not on the list! Why? 13. I'm playing an NSG (No Sphere Grid) game, can I still make good use of the Monster Arena? 14. Are there any significant Monster Arena changes between the original Japanese release, the US release, and the "International"/PAL release? 15. Were there any original boss designs for the Monster Arena? IX. Thanks, Acknowledgements, Shameless Plugs -- I. Version History -- v1.6 4/12/02: Added six new Frequently Asked Questions, added a section on the prices of fighting regular monsters, and finally wrote part c of Section III. v1.5 3/26/02: Added exact stats for every monster, rewrote every single strategy, added 2 new Frequently Asked Questions, and wrote a new section on suggested battle and equipment abilities. The leveling up portion will be completed in the next revision. v1.4 1/30/02: Added Frequently Asked Questions section, changed "Reraise" to "Auto-Life", and corrected the Iguion omission in the conditions for unlocking Ornitholestes. Thanks to the ten zillion people who emailed me about this. v1.3 1/17/02: Added the number of slots in dropped equipment, and number of abilities in dropped equipment to each optional boss. And despite my proclamation that I would no longer accept strategic submissions, Ultima Gamer emailed me with such a great Neslug strategy, I just couldn't help posting it. Smileys! v1.2 1/5/02: Expanded upon the strategy for Nemesis, added a strategy for Catastrophe which I'd forgotten, and fixed the Chocobo Wings/Feathers problem, thanks to everyone who emailed/IMed me about this. Tweaked little things about some strategies, and added the AP gained for each boss. (I still say the AP doesn't matter, since the monsters in the Omega Ruins give you at least as much per fight with less effort, but some people like to know everything about everything anyway.) v1.1 1/3/02: Updated pretty much every existing boss strategy, thanks to reader submissions, and fixed a few _really_ stupid mistakes. Also noted the insanely low encounter rates for some monsters (coughTonberrySimurghcough), and revised the "General Strategies" section. v0.9 12/29/01: Finished most of the FAQ, and submitted to GameFAQs.com. The only things missing are strategies for a few bosses, and/or more reader- submitted strategies. v0.1 12/25/01: Began guide. Not released to the public. -- II. Foreword / Contact Information -- First, this is not a gameplay FAQ. This is an explanation of how the Monster Arena works, and how to level up like mad by fighting in it. If you need help figuring out the Sphere Grid system, or want a walkthough, look elsewhere. Most of this information came from my own experiences in the game, but some information concerning auto-abilities of dropped equipment, slots of dropped equipment, and drop rates came from the Final Fantasy X Ultimania "Battle" guide. Exact monster stats came from the Final Fantasy X Ultimania "Omega" guide. It also bears mentioning I never would have appreciated the Monster Arena fully while playing the import if not for Muni Shinobu's "Training Facility" FAQ on GameFAQs, so much respect to him, too. If you have a question about the Monster Arena that I haven't covered in this document, you may email me at circe@san.rr.com, or contact me via AOL Instant Messenger as Ceebsie. If your question is already answered in this FAQ, or one of my FAQs, I will delete your email. I hate to be strict like this, but I currently recieve upwards of 20 letters per day about Final Fantasy X, most of which are from people who didn't read a FAQ well enough. I've done my best to make this document as complete and self-explanatory as possible, so please respect that, and don't ask me to regurgitate material from it. Lastly, I won't be updating this FAQ with any more reader-submitted boss strategies. Period. If you think you have a more efficient way of killing a particular boss, pat yourself on the back, but this ain't the venue for it. The latest version of this FAQ, and all the other ones I've written, can always be found at GameFAQs (http://www.gamefaqs.com/) and my site (http://home.san.rr.com/circe/). Please reference them before finding fault with what may be an out-of-date version. -- III. General Strategies / Leveling Up -- - a. Monster Arena Overview - To capture monsters, go to the Monster Arena to the east of the Calm Lands, and buy monster-capturing weapons from the trainer there. If you deal the killing blow to a monster with one of these weapons, the monster is sent to the Monster Arena, and you can then fight it there for a nominal cost. If you lose any battle at the monster arena, it's not a game over, your characters simply have 1 HP afterwards, and you lose the money you paid to fight the monster. Capture enough monsters from an area or a species, and you'll unlock new bosses. The rest of this FAQ deals with these bosses. - b. Suggested Abilities and Equipment - Assume that all of the following bosses are immune to all status ailments unless specified otherwise (Jumbo Flan is succeptable to Slow, and Neslug to Silence, for example), and defend against all elemental attacks, if not absorb them entirely. It's not nescessary for all of your characters to know every single spell, Skill, and Special on the grid, but having at least one person with a full complement of Black and White magics, someone else with status ailment Skills, and teaching as many people as possible Entrust and Copycat, is a good idea. Having Wakka's Attack Reel, and Tidus' Blitz Ace Overdrives are dirty shortcuts to causing lots of damage, and are absolutely worth your time to obtain. Hitting for 99,999 damage with your characters is not essential for the first group of bosses, the Area Creations, but it certainly helps. For the Species and Original Creations, consider it vital. This means that you need several weapons with [Break Damage Limit]. The easiest way to obtain weapons with this auto-ability is to power up your characters' Celestial Weapons (for information on how to do that, see the FAQ I wrote on the subject), although you may customize the auto-ability into a weapon yourself if you have 60 Dark Matter. Self-made weapons don't have the special damage properties of Celestial Weapons, however, and won't do as much damage to armored enemies. A self-made spear for Kimahri will only do about 40,000 damage to Tanket at 255 strength regardless of HP, for example, while his Spirit Lance will do 99,999 damage at 210 strength and full HP. Quick Hit is a nescessity. Let me reiterate, QUICK HIT IS A NESCESSITY. Quick Hit will allow you to get many, many extra attacks on a boss before it's had a chance to move, often allowing you to dispose of it without a scratch on you to show for it. Some bosses automatically counterattack everything, however, which brings us to... [Auto Protect] and [Auto Shell] armor are at least as important as how many hits you can get in between bosses' turns. In previous Final Fantasies, the importance of Protect and Shell fell by the wayside - either they were not as effective in reducing damage, or the enemies in previous games didn't warrant religious use of them - but not so in FFX. Protect and Shell effectively halve all physical and magical damage dealt to your party, which can mean the difference between victory and the Game Over screen when fighting bosses with very high physical or magical offense, such as Fafnir, Nega Elemental, Greater Sphere, or Ultima Buster, especially if these bosses counterattack when you so much as sneeze in their direction. Hastega, or an armor with [Auto Haste], used in conjunction with Quick Hit, is a nescessity. The more frequently you can attack, obviously the sooner the boss will perish. In this author's opinion, however, [Auto Haste] takes a backseat to Protect and Shell, because unlike Hastega, there isn't a multiple- character Protect or Shell spell. Likewise, [Auto Regen], [Auto Phoenix], and/or [Auto Potion] used in conjunction with [Alchemy] are also helpful, but IMHO, the former three that I just named should take precedence. Having over 9,999 HP to defeat any of these bosses isn't nescessary, but you'd best have at least two characters with [Auto Phoenix] and/or keep everyone in Auto-Life status if you don't have more than 9,999 HP. Auto-Life is preferable to [Auto Phoenix], because it doesn't require a living party member to activate, but it wastes a turn. The tradeoff is yours to decide. All told, you need at least two different armors for fighting in the Monster Arena - one to defend against monsters who use a lot of status ailment attacks, and a second one when fighting monsters who hit for big damage. The status armor should consist of [Auto Med], [Berserkproof], [Confuseproof], and [Deathproof]. You could substitute [Curseproof] or [Blindproof] for [Auto Med] if you like, but consider the other three auto-abilities very important. The armor to use against monsters with a high offense should consist of [Break HP Limit], [Auto Protect], [Auto Shell], and either [Auto Haste] or [Auto Phoenix]. With [Auto Protect] and high defense, [HP +30%] would merely be decorative - anything that can take off more than 15,000 HP in one hit while you're in Protect status with 255 defense would probably kill you in one hit regardless of how many HP you have, but if you'd like to use [HP +30%] anyway, [Auto Shell] is the most expendable of these abilities. That's not to say it's unnescessary altogether, it simply means that more monsters use physical attacks than magical ones. - c. Leveling Up - First, a disclaimer - before engaging any of these bosses in battle, read their writeups below to learn about their statistics and attack patterns. This section is only a suggestion of who to fight first, it is not nearly as in-depth a boss guide as the information in sections IV, V, and VI. Disclaimer over, we now return you to your regularly scheduled FAQ. At very, very low levels, you'll want to have your Aeons do the fighting for you. Having Anima - if not the Magus Sisters as well - will help you tremendously, because not only can these two Aeons break the damage limit without powering up a Celestial Weapon, but their stats begin porportionately higher than any other Aeon you have. If even Anima and the Magus Sisters are being slaughtered in the arena, however, level up Yuna, because the strength of any Aeon is tied to the strength of the summoner. You'll probably want to begin fighting either One-Eye or Pteryx before you take on any other bosses. Both of these Species Creations have very low HP, and despite a dirty trick or two up their sleeves, they're pushovers if you use Aeons to do the fighting for you at low levels. If you're concerned about being ambushed, create a party without Yuna, and equip a member of that party with a weapon bearing [First Strike]. If you're ambushed, swap the character with [First Strike] for Yuna, and immediately have her summon. Anyway, defeating One-Eye yields weapons with [Triple AP], and Pteryx drops Evasion Spheres. (One-Eye also drops Magic Defense Spheres, but this tends to be overshadowed by the awesomeness of the weapons he drops. You'll probably have collected several dozen Magic Defense Spheres by the time you have [Triple AP] weapons for all seven members of your party - don't hesitate to place these on the Grid as you go, as well.) [Triple AP] weapons allow you to accrue ridiculous amounts of AP very rapidly (yours truly likes to exploit this by fighting Cactuars in Sanubia Desert, but the Omega Ruins is good as well in a pinch), and when your Evasion stat gets high enough, a good many of the Creations in the arena won't even be able to make a connecting hit. Speaking of, once you've gained ungodly amounts of AP with your new weapons, and raised your Evasion stat to at least 180, ideally 200+, you can take on Ironclad without fear. Ironclad merely *looks* intimidating - when you have a very high Evasion stat, his Reppageki counter will never hit you, and you'll be laughing all the way to the HP Sphere bank. Bushinzan and Shinryudan can't be evaded, by the way, but hopefully you'll have defeated him before he gets his second and third turns to use these - refer to the Ironclad information below for a strategy to take him down fast. Alternately, if your Wakka has a decent Strength stat, his World Champion weapon, and Attack Reel, you can make short work of Fenrir before you even take on One-Eye, Pteryx, or Ironclad. Twelve hits of Attack Reel at 99,999 damage a pop is 1,199,988 damage, considerably more than Fenrir's laughable 850,000 HP. Causing that much damage at one time will always be an Overkill, therefore, Fenrir will always drop 2 Agility Spheres. When your Agility and HP are respectable - I'd say at least 110 (plus Haste) for the former and over 9,999 for the latter - you can move on to Juggernaut. Now, Juggernaut will automatically forfeit its first turn to charge up for its second turn, which happens to be a Fire elemental breath attack, which means that if you wear armor with [Fireproof] or [Fire Eater], your party actually gets _two_ free turns on Juggernaut! (Nul Blaze works just as well as the aforementioned two armor abilities.) A moderately leveled party should have no trouble defeating Juggernaut before its third turn, but if he's giving you trouble, the tried-and-true method of Passado has never failed. At some point in the preceeding, you can take on Hornet, who drops Accuracy Spheres. Hornet doesn't have super high HP, but he hits with absolute accuracy, his attacks inflict nasty status changes, and his evade rate is pretty high. You should be used to fighting monsters like him, so I'm sure I don't need to tell you to use Attack Reel or Passado. Right? Right. Sorted. Defeating Jumbo Flan, who drops Magic Spheres, is an excercise in patience, not brute strength. Using the strategy I've outlined in Jumbo Flan's writeup below, you should be able to defeat him in five to six minutes. The strategy, in short, is to teach Anima Haste, Lancet, Shell, and Dispel, and have her repeatedly use Pain on Jumbo Flan, healing with Lancet when nescessary, and using Shell if Anima's Magic Defense is below 200. If your Anima is of a high enough level, Pain will do 99,999 damage every time. This is admittedly a time-consuming and boring strategy, but it's much easier than Doublecasting Ultima. Moreover, you need a high Magic stat for your party's Ultima to do much damage, yet you can't _get_ a high Magic stat without defeating Jumbo Flan in the first place! Catch 22! Anima may be an ugly fish-mummy-thing, but she's a _useful_ ugly fish-mummy-thing. Tanket, who drops Defense Spheres, almost qualfies as easy a boss to defeat as those discussed in the preceeding paragraphs, but the fact that he's armored makes doing appreciable damage to him very difficult without a high Strength stat. Consider taking him on towards the end of your stat-raising. Attack Reel him for a quick kill, or defeat him the regular way with Quick Hit - Tanket is fairly slow, and he'll have two turns tops if your Agility is high enough. So you've got great Evasion, Magic Defense, HP, Agility, Accuracy, Strength, Defense, and Magic, isn't that enough? Yes and no. Having a high Luck stat will affect how often you recieve a rare dropped item, how often you can make a rare steal, and the rate at which you make critical hits, much less hit an enemy with high Evasion at all! If you're not a completist, but still want the benefit of a high Luck stat, always making a rare Steal can be accomplished by putting [Master Thief] on an armor, and maxing out your strength and obtaining the Celestial Weapons eliminates the need for making critical hits. So yes, Luck is important, but unless you plan on engaging the Dark Aeons in battle - the only monsters with painfully high Evasion irrespective of your Accuracy stat - having a low Luck stat can be compensated for as outlined above. And with the exasperatingly difficult Greater Sphere and Earth Eater being the only two bosses to drop Luck and Fortune Spheres, respectively, you've got your work cut out for you. -- IV. Normal Monster Price List -- When talking to the trainer, after choosing "Fight Monsters", the screen is arranged like this: _________________________________________________________ | | | Besaid Kilika | | Mi'ihen Highroad Mushroom Rock Road | | Djose Road Thunder Plains | | Macalania Bikanel | | Calm Lands Sunken Cave | | Mt. Gagazet Inside Sin | | Omega Dungeon Area Conquest | | Species Conquest Original | |_________________________________________________________| Here are the monsters in the order they appear on the various area and conquest selections; hopefully if you're missing a monster, this should clue you in to exactly which one it is: Besaid Dingo - 24 gil Condor - 18 gil Water Flan - 27 gil Kilika Dinonix - 40 gil Killer Bee - 34 gil Yellow Element - 49 gil Ragora - 72 gil Mi'ihen Highroad Mi'ihen Fang - 49 gil Ipiria - 69 gil Floating Eye - 66 gil White Element - 72 gil Raldo - 63 gil Vouivre - 90 gil Bomb - 105 gil Dual Horn (page 2) - 157 gil Mushroom Rock Road Raptor - 72 gil Gandarewa - 93 gil Thunder Flan - 75 gil Red Element - 82 gil Lamashtu - 108 gil Funguar - 63 gil Garuda - 210 gil Djose Road Garm - 132 gil Simurgh - 109 gil Bite Bug - 93 gil Snow Flan - 139 gil Bunyip - 145 gil Basilisk - 187 gil Ochu - 780 gil Thunder Plains Melusine - 162 gil Aerouge - 216 gil Buer - 198 gil Gold Element - 160 gil Kusariqqu - 168 gil Larva - 495 gil Iron Giant - 900 gil Qactuar (page 2) - 4000 gil Macalania Snow Wolf - 288 gil Iguion - 207 gil Wasp - 213 gil Evil Eye - 307 gil Ice Flan - 282 gil Blue Element - 270 gil Murussu - 247 gil Mafdet (page 2) - 258 gil Xiphos (page 2) - 330 gil Chimera (page 2) - 1455 gil Bikanel Sand Wolf - 337 gil Alcyone - 360 gil Mushussu - 405 gil Zuu - 1800 gil Sand Worm - 1500 gil Cactuar - 400 gil Calm Lands Skoll - 630 gil Nebiros - 480 gil Flame Flan - 672 gil Shred - 552 gil Anacondaur - 1125 gil Ogre - 1470 gil Coeurl - 1650 gil Chimera Brain (page 2) - 1500 gil Malboro (page 2) - 1650 gil Sunken Cave Yowie - 720 gil Imp - 915 gil Dark Element - 780 gil Nidhogg - 903 gil Thorn - 795 gil Valaha - 1080 gil Epaaj - 1425 gil Ghost (page 2) - 1215 gil Tonberry (page 2) - 3000 gil Mt. Gagazet Bandersnatch - 1320 gil Ahriman - 975 gil Dark Flan - 1620 gil Grenade - 810 gil Grat - 780 gil Grendel - 1095 gil Bashura - 1095 gil Mandragora (page 2) - 1800 gil Behemoth (page 2) - 2025 gil Splasher (page 2) - 300 gil Achelous (page 2) - 630 gil Maelspike (page 2) - 495 gil Inside Sin Exoray - 1260 gil Wraith - 1605 gil Gemini A (armed with sword) - 1666 gil Gemini B (armed with club) - 1666 gil Demonolith - 2205 gil Great Malboro - 2250 gil Barbatos - 2325 gil Adamantoise (page 2) - 3300 gil Behemoth King (page 2) - 2775 gil Omega Dungeon Zaurus - 1425 gil Floating Death - 1897 gil Black Element - 1560 gil Halma - 1545 gil Puroboros - 1455 gil Spirit - 1950 gil Machea - 2175 gil Master Coeurl (page 2) - 3045 gil Master Tonberry (page 2) - 3600 gil Varuna (page 2) - 2670 gil Area Conquest Stratoavis - 6000 gil Malboro Menace - 6000 gil Kottos - 6000 gil Coeurlregina - 6000 gil Jormungand - 6000 gil Cactuar King - 6000 gil Espada - 6000 gil Abyss Worm (page 2) - 6000 gil Chimerageist (page 2) - 6000 gil Don Tonberry (page 2) - 8000 gil Catoblepas (page 2) - 6000 gil Abaddon (page 2) - 6000 gil Vorban (page 2) - 6000 gil Species Conquest Fenrir - 8000 gil Ornitholestes - 8000 gil Pteryx - 8000 gil Hornet - 8000 gil Vidatu - 8000 gil One-Eye - 8000 gil Jumbo Flan - 8000 gil Nega Elemental (page 2) - 8000 gil Tanket (page 2) - 8000 gil Fafnir (page 2) - 8000 gil Sleep Sprout (page 2) - 8000 gil Bomb King (page 2) - 8000 gil Juggernaut (page 2) - 8000 gil Ironclad (page 2) - 8000 gil Original Earth Eater - 15000 gil Greater Sphere - 15000 gil Catastrophe - 15000 gil Th'uban - 15000 gil Neslug - 15000 gil Ultima Buster - 15000 gil Shinryu - 15000 gil Nemesis (page 2) - 25000 gil -- V. Area Creations -- - a. Besaid Island: Stratavis - Name: Stratavis HP: 320000 (Overkill: 10000) AP: 8000 (Overkill: 8000) Steal: Smoke Bomb x3 (common), Stamina Spring x2 (rare) Cost: 6000 gil Drop: Amulet x2 (common) x4 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 73 | 41 | 32 | 82 | 32 | 5 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Str +5%, Str +10%, Str +20% Auto-abilites of dropped armor: HP +10%, HP +20%, HP +30% Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3 Strategy: Easy, easy, easy. Don't be fooled by his Zuu-like appearance, this bird is a pushover. When he flops to the ground, which should happen after only a few hits, you'll know he's low on HP. At low levels, boost Youjimbo's Evade % with Speed Spheres, and have him kill Stratavis. Youji's evasion is so good, Stratavis will miss nearly every time! This tactic is courtesy of dreavien, who swears up and down that it works great on other Area Creation and Species Creation bosses. Barring using Youjimbo, or being leveled enough to kill him with physical attacks, Stratavis has a slight weakness to Slow, and all four 'Break' skills - these will work 10% of the time. Doom works as well, but you'll be sitting through 200 turns looking at his ugly mug. Conditions: Capture at least one of each monster from Besaid Island. These are: Dingo, Condor, and Water Flan. Prize for unlocking: Stamina Tonic x99 - b. Kilika Forest: Malboro Menace - Name: Malboro Menace HP: 640000 (Overkill: 12000) AP: 8000 (Overkill: 8000) Steal: Remedy x4 (common), Mana Spring x2 (rare) Cost: 6000 gil Drop: Mana Tonic x2 (common) x4 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 60 | 24 | 53 | 63 | 34 | 0 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | 1.5x | N/A | Absorb | N/A | N/A | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Sleepstrike, Silencestrike, Darkstrike, Poisonstrike, Stonestrike, Zombiestrike, Slowstrike Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Sleepproof, Silenceproof, Darkproof, Stoneproof, Poisonproof, Zombieproof, Slowproof Number of slots of droppped equipment: 3-4 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-4 Strategy: This guy is like a souped-up, giant Great Malboro, so equip armor with the [Berserkproof], [Confuseproof], and [Auto Med] abilities, or [Ribbon] if you're playing the PAL or "International" releases. Malboro Menace will _always_ ambush you on the first turn and use Putrid Breath immediately, so if you have a weapon bearing the [First Strike] auto ability, make sure you have it equipped to get an extra hit on him at the beginning of the battle, or swap that character our for Yuna who will summon an Aeon to take Malboro Menace's Putrid Breath attack. (If anyone is curious, Putrid Breath is simply "Bad Breath" plus small damage, but the damage is insignificant compared to having an entire party afflicted by Confusion...) His other methods of assault include two different tentacle attacks - one inflicts Petrify on a single character, and the other inflicts all four 'Breaks' on a single character. Like Stratavis before him, Malboro Menace is vulnerable to Doom, although the Doom counter is set at 200. Conditions: Capture at least one of each monster from Kilika. These are: Killer Bee, Ragora, Dinonix, and Yellow Element. Prize for unlocking: Poison Fang x99 - c. Mi'ihen Highroad: Kottos - Name: Kottos HP: 440000 (Overkill: 15000) AP: 8000 (Overkill: 8000) Steal: Stamina Spring x4 (common), Soul Spring x2 (rare) Cost: 6000 gil Drop: Healing Spring x20 (common) x40 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 88 | 60 | 12 | 1 | 36 | 0 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Counter, Evade & Counter, Magic Counter Auto-abilites of dropped armor: HP +10%, HP +20%, HP +30% Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-3 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3 Strategy: Kottos counterattacks everything - Overdrives, phsyical attacks, magic attacks, even simply Stealing from him will cause him to attack you. If you fight Kottos when you're just beginning to capture monsters, you may get creamed, but he's a piece of cake at higher levels. Have everyone in Protect status, and lots of HP and Phoenix Downs. At 255 Defense and in Protect status, his counterattack will only do about 1500 damage. Conditions: Capture at least one of each monster from Mi'ihen Highroad. These are: Raldo, Floating Eye, Mi'ihen Fang, White Element, Bomb, Dual Horn, Vouivre*, and Ipiria*. *These last two only appear in the "Old" part of Mi'ihen Highroad. The "Old" Highroad is the sunken canyon part that you can get to by doing a U-turn at the screen right before Mushroom Rock Road. Prize for unlocking: Soul Spring x99 - d. Mushroom Rock Road: Coeurlregina - Name: Coeurl Regina HP: 380000 (Overkill: 10000) AP: 8000 (Overkill: 8000) Steal: Farplane Wind x2 (common), Blessed Gem x1 (rare) Cost: 6000 gil Drop: Shining Gem x3 (common) x6 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 1 | 40 | 70 | 40 | 75 | 0 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Deathstrike, Double AP Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Sleepproof, Silenceproof, Darkproof, Stoneproof, Poisonproof, Zombieproof, Slowproof, Deathproof Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-3 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3 Strategy: Another pushover - kind of a spiritual successor to the panther enemies you fought in the Tower of Bab-il in Final Fantasy IV, except without the difficulty. She'll sit there while you attack her repeatedly, and most of the time use a combination Doom/Curse/Confuse attack called "Chaos", but so long as you have [Confuseproof], [Deathproof], and possibly [Curseproof], it can't harm you. Very rarely, Coeurlregina will use Hyper Blaster, which is instant death to one character, and fairly weak Flare, Thundaga, and Drain spells. If for some reason you can't wear down her 380000 HP in a reasonable amount of time, she too is vulnerable to Doom, and the counter is set at 200. Conditions: Capture at least one of each monster from Mushroom Rock Road. These are: Thunder Flan*, Gandarewa*, Raptor, Lamashtu, Red Element*, Funguar*, and Garuda. *These asterisked monsters appear in more areas than just Mushroom Rock Road. Thunder Flan also appears in the "Old" part of Mi'ihen Highroad, and Red Element, Funguar, and Gandarewa appear in the southern part of Djose Highroad. Prize for unlocking: Candle of Life x99 - e. Djose Highroad / Moonflow: Jormungand - Name: Jormungand HP: 520000 (Overkill: 10000) AP: 8000 (Overkill: 8000) Steal: Petrify Grenade x4 (common), Three Stars x1 (rare) Cost: 6000 gil Drop: Supreme Gem x2 (common) x4 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 77 | 33 | 80 | 186 | 53 | 6 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Sleepstrike, Silencestrike, Darkstrike, Poisonstrike, Stonestrike, Zombiestrike, Slowstrike Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Sleepproof, Silenceproof, Darkproof, Stoneproof, Poisonproof, Zombieproof, Slowproof Number of slots of droppped equipment: 3-4 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-4 Strategy: Yet another easy fight. Jormungand likes to petrify you, but you expected that from his palette-swapped Basilisk appearance, right? Right. If he doesn't use a stone gaze-type attack, he'll attack one party member with his claws for piddly damage, or use a sonic tail attack that hits your whole party, which may be halved by Shell. Verily, Jormungand is slow as molasses, so as long as you have [Stoneproof], and abuse Overdrives and Quick Hit, he'll probably only get one hit on you. Should you choose to cripple him further, he's also vulnerable to Slow status, and has 90% resistence to all four 'Breaks'. Conditions: Capture at least one of each monster from Djose Highroad. These are: Bite Bug, Garm, Bunyip, Simurgh*, Snow Flan, Basilisk, and Ochu**. *The Simurgh only appears at the north part of Djose Highroad near Djose Temple and the lone chocobo rider, and very rarely at that. **The Ochu only appears along the Moonflow, which is west of Djose Temple. Prize for unlocking: Petrify Grenade x99 - f. Thunder Plains: Cactuar King - Name: Cactuar King HP: 100000 (Overkill: 10000) AP: 8000 (Overkill: 8000) Steal: Chocobo Wing x2 (common), Designer Wallet x1 (rare) Cost: 6000 gil Drop: Blessed Gem x3 (common) x6 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 255 | 100 | 255 | 255 | 80 | 240 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Null | Null | Null | Null | Null | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Str +5%, Str +10%, Str +20% Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Defense +5%, Defense +10%, Defense +20% Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3 Strategy: Cactuar King is fast with ridiculously high Evade and Magic Defense, so definately include Wakka in this battle - he may be the only one who can reliably hit him. And regardless of whether you're able to make a connecting hit on him or not, the Cactuar King will counterattack with 10,000 Needles. When his turn comes to, Cactuar King will use 10,000 Needles about 40% of the time, 99,999 Needles 50% of the time, and run away (!) 10% of the time. Wakka's Attack Reel Overdrive, or Blitz Ace will finish him off quickly. Between this fight, and the Cactuar minigame in Sanubia Desert, you may wind up hating Cactuars for life. Conditions: Capture at least one of each monster from Thunder Plains. These are: Aerouge, Buer, Melusine, Kusariqqu, Qactuar*, Gold Element, Larva, and Iron Giant**. *You will not encounter Qactuars until you've prayed to at least one of the glowing Qactuar stones. **The Iron Giant only appears north of Rin's travel agency. Prize for unlocking: Chocobo Wing x99 - g. Macalania Forest and Snowfield: Espada - Name: Espada HP: 280000 (Overkill: 15000) AP: 8000 (Overkill: 8000) Steal: Farplane Shadow x4 (common), Farplane Wind x1 (rare) Cost: 6000 gil Drop: Rename Card x1 (common) x2 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 44 | 100 | 31 | 160 | 51 | 12 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Str +5%, Str +10%, Str +20% Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Defense +5%, Defense +10%, Defense +20% Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3 Strategy: Espada has a rather annoying instant-death counterattack, but very low HP. You can circumvent this by zombifying your party members, which makes them immune to instant death, or having the [Deathproof] and/or [Auto Phoenix] abilities in your armor. If your evade is high enough, you don't even need to worry about it. Espada also has no resistance whatsoever to all four 'Breaks', and 50% resistance to Slow. Enjoy this easy fight. Conditions: Capture at least one of each monster from Macalania. These are: Wasp, Murussu, Blue Element, Xiphos, Chimera, Evil Eye*, Snow Wolf*, Mafdet*, and Ice Flan*. The monsters without asterisks appear in Macalania Forest, and the ones with asterisks appear around Lake Macalania and Macalania Snowfield. Also, do not confuse Murussu with Mafdet - they're both armored moles, but one is pink, red, and blue, and has a crystal growing out of its head (Murussu), and the other is grayish-lavender with smoke coming out of pores in its back (Mafdet). Prize for unlocking: Shining Gem x60 - h. Sanubia Desert: Abyss Worm - Name: Abyss Worm HP: 480000 (Overkill: 12000) AP: 8000 (Overkill: 8000) Steal: Shadow Gem x4 (common), Stamina Tablet x1 (rare) Cost: 6000 gil Drop: Stamina Tonic x1 (common) x2 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 60 | 24 | 93 | 63 | 22 | 0 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Str +5%, Str +10%, Str +20% Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Defense +5%, Defense +10%, Defense +20% Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3 Strategy: The Abyss Worm only LOOKS intimidating - but then you hit him, and you realize he's just an overgrown earthworm with serious post-nasal drip problems. Although the Abyss Worm doesn't have any status ailment weaknesses, outside of Doom (count: 200), he's extremely slow, and he doesn't have much physical defense power, so if at least one of your party members can deal 99,999 damage every time, this battle is over before it's even begun. Even if you can't deal 9,999 damage, Hastega, Doublecasting Flare or Ultima, or Lulu's Fury Overdrives will expedite things muchly. Conditions: Capture at least one of each monster from Sanubia Desert. These are: Alcyone, Sand Wolf, Sand Worm*, Mushussu, Zuu, and Cactuar*. *All of the monsters appear in all areas, EXCEPT for the Sand Worm and Cactuar. The Sand Worm only appears in the Ruins and Sandstorm areas, and the Cactuar only appears on the screen closest to home - most frequently in the Sandstorm area. You can find all of these monsters except for the Mulfushu and Alcyone at the Sanubia Sand Dune location, accessable by searching the coordinates X-15 Y-41 while on the airship. I think. Prize for unlocking: Shadow Gem x99 - i. Calm Lands: Chimerageist - Name: Chimerageist HP: 120000 (Overkill: 10000) AP: 8000 (Overkill: 8000) Steal: Mana Spring x2 (common), Stamina Spring x1 (rare) Cost: 6000 gil Drop: Return Sphere x1 (common) x2 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 66 | 10 | 68 | 10 | 29 | 0 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Null | Null | Null | Null | N/A | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Firestrike, Waterstrike, Icestrike Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Fire Eater, Water Eater, Ice Eater Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-3 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3 Strategy: Chimerageist will most likely be the easiest of any of these bosses, because he'll also be the first one you fight - the Monster Trainer won't let you fight any of the other bosses until you've captured all the monsters from the Calm Lands, remember? Aqua Breath, which Kimahri may learn from it, is the most damaging of his attacks, and it hits your entire party, but so long as you have [Waterproof] or [Water Eater] armor, it's nothing to worry about. His other attacks include a fireball called Megido Flame (again, correct me if this isn't the English name, I'm going by the import), and the usual complement of Chimera spells. Chimerageist has 50% resistance to all four 'Breaks', and no resistance to Doom. Conditions: Capture at least one of each monster from the Calm Lands. These are: Nebiros, Skoll, Flame Flan, Anacondaur, Shred, Coeurl*, Ogre, Malboro*, and Chimera Brain. *The Coeurl and Malboro also appear in the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth, but if you capture them there, they count towards your Calm Lands total. If you're having trouble running into a particular monster, the trainer even tells you that the rarest monsters tend to spawn in the northwest corner of the Calm Lands. Prize for unlocking: Farplane Wind x60 - j. Cavern of the Stolen Fayth: Don Tonberry - Name: Don Tonberry HP: 480000 (Overkill: 10000) AP: 8000 (Overkill: 8000) Steal: Candle of Life x2 (common), Designer Wallet x1 (rare) Cost: 8000 gil Drop: Farplane Wind x3 (common) x6 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 95 | 100 | 75 | 100 | 37 | 0 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Sleepstrike, Silencestrike, Darkstrike, Poisonstrike, Stonestrike, Zombiestrike, Slowstrike, Deathstrike Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Sleepproof, Silenceproof, Darkproof, Stoneproof, Poisonproof, Zombieproof, Slowproof, Deathproof Number of slots of droppped equipment: 3-4 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 2-4 Strategy: If you attack Don Tonberry when he's at the far side of the screen, he'll automatically counterattack with an insanely powerful version of Karma, (ten times the power of a standard Karma, to be exact) which will usually kill you, even at high levels. Whereas if you defend for four turns while he walks towards you, and only attack him when you're staring him in the face, he won't counterattack. [Auto Phoenix] or Auto-Life are nescessary if you don't heed the Karma warning, and attack him before you can see the whites of his eyes. For a laugh, try summoning an Aeon to see his Voodoo attack... Conditions: Capture at least one of each monster from the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth. These are: Epaaj, Imp*, Yowie, Thorn, Dark Element, Nidhogg*, Valaha, Ghost, and Tonberry. *The Imp and Nidhogg also appear in Mt. Gagazet, but if you capture them there, they count towards your Cavern of the Stolen Fayth total. The encounter rate for certain monsters in the cave is ridiculously low, so if you can't find a certain monster right away, like a Tonberry, don't despair, you're not the only one. I personally spent four hours searching for Tonberries in the cave, and only found five in that time. Arcaneja and others on the GameFAQs FFX board have reported that the Tonberry rate was highest in the "green" room to the right of the first 4-way intersection, so maybe I was just looking in the wrong place. Regardless, whomever programmed the encounter rates in this area should be strung up by their toenails and Everyone's Grudged repeatedly. Grrr! Prize for unlocking: Silver Hourglass x40. - k. Mt. Gagazet / Gagazet Cavern / Zanarkand Ruins: Catoblepas - Name: Catoblepas HP: 550000 (Overkill: 10000) AP: 8000 (Overkill: 8000) Steal: Healing Spring x3 (common), Stamina Tonic x1 (rare) Cost: 6000 gil Drop: Three Stars x1 (common) x2 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 76 | 33 | 58 | 27 | 47 | 0 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Sleepstrike, Silencestrike, Darkstrike, Poisonstrike, Stonestrike, Zombiestrike, Slowstrike, Deathstrike Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Sleepproof, Silenceproof, Darkproof, Stoneproof, Poisonproof, Zombieproof, Slowproof, Deathproof Number of slots of droppped equipment: 3-4 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 2-4 Strategy: Treat Catoblepas as you would a mega Behemoth, because that's what he is, and bear in mind that when you defeat him, he'll cast Ultima as a last gasp. Cast Shell on your party before you slay him, if you don't have very high magic defense, or cripple him by using any and all four 'Breaks', of which he has 50% resistance to. Conditions: Capture at least one of each monster from Mt. Gagazet. These are: Bandersnatch, Grat, Grenade, Bashura, Ahriman, Grendel, Dark Flan, Mandragora, Behemoth, Splasher, Achelous, and Maelspike. Bear in mind that this area encompasses the snowy exterior of Mt. Gagazet, the Cavern interior, the flooded part of the cavern, and the ruins of the Zanarkand Freeway. Also, capturing at least two of the Splasher, Achelous, and Maelspike will unlock Shinryu in addition to Catoblepas - see Shinryu's entry in the Original Creations section for more detail. Prize for unlocking: Blossom Crown for unlocking Catoblepas, and 30 Mega Elixirs for unlocking Shinryu. - l. Inside Sin: Abadon - Name: Abadon HP: 380000 (Overkill: 10000) AP: 10000 (Overkill: 10000) Steal: Purifying Salt x3 (common), Shining Gem x1 (rare) Cost: 6000 gil Drop: Mana Tablet x1 (common) x2 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 40 | 180 | 95 | 160 | 120 | 0 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Magic +5%, Magic +10%, Magic +20% Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Magic Defense +5%, Magic Defense +10%, Magic Defense +20% Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3 Strategy: Cast Hastega. Attack with Quick Hit. Rinse, lather, repeat. Don't bother with magic, because he has constant Nul-All, Reflect, and other protective statuses in place. His attacks include Pharoah's Curse, which you may have been afflicted by when fighting Demonoliths, all of the -aga spells, Flare, and Demi rarely. Abadon tends to use Pharoah's Curse more than anything, though, so either have [Blindproof], [Poisonproof], [Curseproof], and/or [Auto Med] in your armor. Conditions: Capture at least one of each monster from Inside Sin. These are: Exoray, Gemini (both kinds, each count as a seperate monster)*, Adamantoise*, Behemoth King, Wraith*, Great Malboro*, Barbatos, and Demonolith*. *The asterisked monsters also appear in the Omega Ruins, but if you capture them there, they count towards your Inside Sin total. Barbatos only appears in the second "deserted city"-type area - dunno what this is called in the US release, but it was something like "Dreams of the Dead" in Japanese. Prize for unlocking: Lunar Curtain x99 - m. Omega Ruins: Vorban - Name: Vorban HP: 630000 (Overkill: 10000) AP: 8000 (Overkill: 8000) Steal: Healing Spring x2 (common), Stamina Tablet x1 (rare) Cost: 6000 gil Drop: Friend Sphere x1 (common) x2 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 95 | 100 | 75 | 100 | 33 | 0 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Str +5%, Str +10%, Str +20% Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Defense +5%, Defense +10%, Defense +20% Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3 Strategy: Don't bother with Armor Break, because Vorban is immume, and use Auron's third Overdrive, Banishing Blade, instead - this will ALWAYS put Vorban into Power Break, Magic Break, Armor Break, and Mental Break status, and make your fight a lot easier. It'll still be a long one unless your characters can hit for 99,999 damage, however. Otherwise, Vorban has all of the same attacks that a Barbatos does, and whether he'll counterattack when you hit him seems to be totally random. His only status ailment weakness is Doom (count: 200). Conditions: Capture at least one of each monster from the Omega Ruins. These are: Varuna, Floating Death, Black Element, Zaurus, Spirit, Halma, Machea, Master Coeurl, Master Tonberry, and Puroburos. Prize for unlocking: Designer Wallet x60 -- VI. Species Creations -- - a. Wolves: Fenrir - Name: Fenrir HP: 850000 (Overkill: 99999) AP: 10000 (Overkill: 10000) Steal: Chocobo Feather x2 (common), Chocobo Wing x1 (rare) Cost: 8000 gil Drop: Agility Sphere x1 (common) x2 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 73 | 40 | 12 | 165 | 200 | 60 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Halve | Halve | Halve | Halve | Halve | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Sleepstrike, Silencestrike, Darkstrike, Poisonstrike, Stonestrike, Zombiestrike, Slowstrike, Deathstrike Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Sleepproof, Silenceproof, Darkproof, Stoneproof, Poisonproof, Zombieproof, Slowproof, Deathproof, Confuseproof Number of slots of droppped equipment: 3-4 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 2-4 Strategy: Fenrir is fast, agile, and has two very powerful attacks, one of which is instant death even to Aeons, and the other does 15,000+ damage on top of confusion to a single character. And did I mention, he's FAST? Even if you cast Hastega, you may not be able to keep up with Fenrir. If there was ever a battle to abuse Mindy's Passado, this is it. He has 99% resistance to Armor Break and Mental Break, but in my opinion, the 1% chance of making a connecting hit outweighs the benefit of inflicting either of these on him. Alternately, if you're playing the "International" or PAL releases, one multi-hit Overdrive from Anima will send him back to the kennel quickly. Conditions: Capture at least 3 of each monster from the wolf species. These are: Dingo (Besaid Island), Mi'ihen Fang (Mi'ihen Highroad), Garm (Moonflow), Snow Wolf (Macalania Snowfield), Sand Wolf (Sanubia Desert), Skoll (Calm Lands), and Bandersnatch (Mt. Gagazet). Prize for unlocking: Chocobo Feather x99 - b. Lizards: Ornitholestes - Name: Ornitholestes HP: 800000 (Overkill: 99999) AP: 10000 (Overkill: 10000) Steal: Rename Card x1 (common), Chocobo Wing x1 (rare) Cost: 8000 gil Drop: Gambler's Spirit x2 (common) x4 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 83 | 55 | 30 | 170 | 130 | 80 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Absorb | N/A | Null | N/A | N/A | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Double Overdrive Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Defense +5%, Defense +10%, Defense +20% Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-3 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3 Strategy: Ornitholestes has a high evade rate, but low speed and physical attack power compared to most of the other Species Creations. So consider this an easy fight. However, if you fight him on lower levels, you may run into one of two attacks: a) a damage plus poison attack that never misses unless you have [Poisonproof] armor, or b) an HP-draining attack. Don't worry too much about the latter attack, instead worry about curing the poison before it has a chance to really damage you. As a last resort, use Doom (count: 200). Conditions: Capture at least 3 of each monster from the lizard species. These are: Dinonix (Kilika Forest), Ipiria (Mi'ihen Highroad), Raptor (Mushroom Rock Road), Melusine (Thunder Plains), Iguion (Macalania) Yowie (Cavern of the Stolen Fayth), and Zaurus (Omega Ruins). Prize for unlocking: Stamina Spring x99 - c. Birds: Pteryx - Name: Pteryx HP: 100000 (Overkill: 99999) AP: 10000 (Overkill: 10000) Steal: Smoke Bomb x4 (common), Candle of Life x1 (rare) Cost: 8000 gil Drop: Evasion Sphere x1 (common) x2 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 90 | 100 | 5 | 100 | 60 | 60 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Str +5%, Str +10%, Str +20% Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Defense +5%, Defense +10%, Defense +20% Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3 Strategy: High evade rate, medium speed, extremely low HP, constantly in Regen status, vulnerable to Doom (count: 200) and all four 'Breaks'. The one attack that's even worth mentioning is Pteryx's beak attack, which curses you. Yawn. Next? Conditions: Capture at least 4 of each monster from the bird species. These are: Condor (Besaid Island), Simurgh (Djose Highroad), and Alcyone (Sanubia Desert). Prize for unlocking: Mega Phoenix x99 - d. Insects: Hornet - Name: Hornet HP: 620000 (Overkill: 50000) AP: 10000 (Overkill: 10000) Steal: Poison Fang x4 (common), Cleaning Salts x2 (rare) Cost: 8000 gil Drop: Accuracy Sphere x1 (common) x2 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 63 | 70 | 88 | 95 | 102 | 17 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Str +5%, Str +10%, Str +20% Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Defense +5%, Defense +10%, Defense +20% Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3 Strategy: Wouldn't you know it, another monster with a high evade rate! Heavens to Betsy! He hits pretty hard for an overgrown insect, including a poison stinger, and instant death stinger attacks, and never misses (there's a reason the Hornet drops Accuracy Spheres) but all of his attacks target a single character. His standard physical attack inflicts Sleep, Silence, Blind, and Death on a single character. Conditions: Capture at least 4 of each monster from the insect species. These are: Killer Bee (Kilika Forest), Bite Bug (Moonflow), Wasp (Macalania Forest), and Nebiros (Calm Lands). Prize for unlocking: Mana Tonic x60 - e. Floating Wizards: Vidatu - Name: Vidatu HP: 95000 (Overkill: 10000) AP: 10000 (Overkill: 10000) Steal: Lightning Gem x4 (common), Mana Tonic x1 (rare) Cost: 8000 gil Drop: MP Sphere x1 (common) x2 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 12 | 230 | 77 | 230 | 33 | 80 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Double AP Auto-abilites of dropped armor: MP 10%, MP +20%, MP +30% Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-3 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3 Strategy: Don't bother using elemental spells on Vidatu, because his constant Nul-All and Regen status will nullify all of them. I believe he's also in Shell status, so non-elemental spells aren't very powerful either. Take him down in a single hit if you can hit for 99,999 damage. Conditions: Capture at least 4 of each monster from the floating wizard species. These are: Gandarewa (Mushroom Rock Road), Aerouge (Thunder Plains), and Imp (Mt. Gagazet or Cavern of the Stolen Fayth). Prize for unlocking: Mana Spring x99 - f. Eyeballs: One-Eye - Name: One-Eye HP: 150000 (Overkill: 15000) AP: 10000 (Overkill: 1000) Steal: Lunar Curtain x3 (common), Blessed Gem x1 (rare) Cost: 8000 gil Drop: Magic Defense Sphere x1 (common) x2 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 55 | 58 | 77 | 183 | 38 | 10 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Null | Null | Null | Null | Null | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Triple AP Auto-abilites of dropped armor: MP +10%, MP +20%, MP +30% Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-3 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3 Stategy: If One-Eye has the first move, he'll use an attack called Shock Wave, which is every status abnormality in the book, on top of 9,999+ damage to every character. HOWEVER, One-Eye is vulnerable to Delay Attack and Delay Buster - the implications of this should be obvious. When fighting One-Eye, make sure at least one person in your active part is equipped with a weapon bearing [First Strike], and if he gets the jump on you, simply Delay his turn. The only other attack his his worth mentioning is the standard staring contest he has with one character, that inflicts Curse status. Conditions: Capture at least 4 of each monster from the eyeball species. These are: Floating Eye (Mi'ihen Highroad), Buer (Thunder Plains), Evil Eye (Macalania Snowfield), Ahriman (Mt. Gagazet or Inside Sin), and Floating Death (Omega Ruins). Prize for unlocking: Stamina Tablet x60 - g. Flans: Jumbo Flan - Name: Jumbo Flan HP: 1300000 (Overkill: 99999) AP: 10000 (Overkill: 10000) Steal: Lunar Curtain x4 (common), Mana Tablet x1 (rare) Cost: 8000 gil Drop: Magic Sphere x1 (common) x2 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 3 | 255* | 98 | 80 | 60 | 0 | *Despite Jumbo Flan having a finite Defense statistic, physical attacks will do no damage. |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Absorb | Absorb | Absorb | Absorb | Absorb | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Magic Booster Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Fire Eater, Water Eater, Ice Eater Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3 Strategy: Jumbo Flan is HARD... well technically he's jellylike, and probably soft and squishy to the touch, but he's hard to defeat. Would you want to touch him, anyway? I wouldn't. Jumbo Flan absorbs all kinds of elemental spells, and has high Magic Defense to boot, so non-elemental spells don't do much damage. Don't even think about using physical attacks - no matter how high your strength is, all weapon-based techniques do 0 damage. Jae kindly informed me via email to try to use Ultima in conjunction with Doublecast and Copycat, and having road tested this, can confirm he's correct. To make this battle even easier, Slow Jumbo Flan by casting Reflect on one of your party members, then Slow on that same member. (Jumbo Flan is constantly in Reflect status, and casting slow on him directly will bounce it back to you - that's why you want to Reflect your Slow spell off a party member.) Besides Slow, Jumbo Flan is also vulnerable to Blind and Doom (count: 200), although seeing as he never uses a physical attack, and magic circumvents Blind status, I don't know why you'd want to use the former on him. Alternately, make sure Anima knows Haste, Ultima, Lancet, and _maybe_ Shell and Dispel. Summon her, Haste and Shell her, and have her use "Pain" repeatedly, which is not weapon-based and will therefore do 99,999 damage if Yuna is moderately built up. If Jumbo Flan whittles Anima's HP down, use Lancet to heal her. When Jumbo Flan is close to dying, he'll cast Regen on himself, which you can Dispel if you like, or keep Paining him, and he'll probably die in two rounds at most. Credits to Crimson Shadow and Billy Auyang for submitting this. Conditions: Capture at least 3 of each monster from the flan species. These are: Water Flan (Besaid Island), Thunder Flan (Mi'ihen Highroad), Snow Flan (Moonflow), Ice Flan (Macalania Lake or Snowfield), Flame Flan (Calm Lands), and Dark Flan (Gagazet Cavern or Zanarkand Ruins). Prize for unlocking: Twin Stars x60 - h. Elements: Nega Elemental - Name: Nega Elemental HP: 1300000 (Overkill: 15000) AP: 10000 (Overkill: 10000) Steal: Star Curtain x4 (common), Twin Stars x1 (rare) Cost: 8000 gil Drop: Twin Stars x2 (common) x2 (Overkill) Dark Matter x2 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 0 | 140 | 80 | 62 | 44 | 0 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Absorb | Absorb | Absorb | Absorb | Absorb | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Firestrike, Thunderstrike, Waterstrike, Icestrike Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Fire Eater, Lightning Eater, Water Eater, Ice Eater Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 2-4 Strategy: Nega Elemental counterattacks all physical attacks with Ultima, even Overdrives, so don't use those unless your Magic Defense is 255. You cannot get around this by casting Reflect on your party, either, because Ultima penetrates Reflect. Instead, use the same strategy you used to kill the Jumbo Flan above - Doublecast Ultima, and Copycat like it's going out of style, or summon Anima and have her use Pain, because Pain is not a physical attack. Nega Elemental's regular attacks are insignificant compared to its Ultima counter, and all they consist of is a weak Drain, and Reflect when its HP is getting low. Conditions: Capture at least 3 of each monster from the elemental species. These are: Yellow Element (Kilika Forest), White Element (Mi'ihen Highroad), Red Element (Mushroom Rock Road), Gold Element (Thunder Plains), Blue Element (Macalania Forest), Dark Element (Cavern of the Stolen Fayth), and Black Element (Omega Ruins). Prise for unlocking: Star Curtain x99 - i. Armored Moles: Tanket - Name: Tanket HP: 900000 (Overkill: 10000) AP: 10000 (Overkill: 10000) Steal: Light Curtain x4 (common), Lunar Curtain x4 (rare) Cost: 8000 gil Drop: Defense Sphere x1 (common) x2 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 103 | 100 | 3 | 250 | 41 | 0 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Str +5%, Str +10%, Str +20% Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Defense +5%, Defense +10%, Defense +20% Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3 Strategy: Despite being the ultimate armored mole, Tanket's defense doesn't seem to be much higher than any of the rest of these bosses. To level the playing field and reduce his defense to zero, use Auron's Banishing Blade Overdrive. Tanket has very high magic resistance, and only the standard bodyblow attack, which also Berserks the target. You do NOT want your bearers of [Auto Phoenix] to become Berserked, because this will prevent them from using a Phoenix Down on a fallen party member! Also, when only one party member is left alive, Tanket will repeatedly bodyblow them until they die, without giving you a chance to attack or counterattack. If you can kill him without any of the above transpiring, it's such a cheap and easy way to get Defense Spheres, I almost feel sorry for the little guy. Conditions: Capture at least 3 of each monster from the armored mole species. These are: Raldo (Mi'ihen Highroad), Bunyip (Djose Highroad or Moonflow), Murussu (Macalania Forest), Mafdet (Macalania Snowfield), Shred (Calm Lands), and Halma (Omega Ruins). Prize for unlocking: Gold Hourglass x99. - j. Dragons: Fafnir - Name: Fafnir HP: 1100000 (Overkill: 13000) AP: 10000 (Overkill: 10000) Steal: Gold Hourglass x2 (common), Stamina Spring x2 (rare) Cost: 8000 gil Drop: Light Curtain x20 (common) x40 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 76 | 30 | 109 | 130 | 38 | 0 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Absorb | Absorb | N/A | Absorb | N/A | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Firestrike, Thunderstrike, Waterstrike, Icestrike Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Fire Eater, Water Eater, Ice Eater Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-4 Strategy: Fafnir is like any other dragon you've fought - it has a physical attack, mauling one character, and an elemental breath attack. Generally on its first and second turns, it'll use a physical attack against a single character, but on subsequent attacks, will use a "Three Stage Attack" move. The first "stage" is a physical attack, the second is a random elemental breath that can be blocked with any of the Nul-spells or appropriate [Element Eater] armor abilities, and the the third is another physical attack. Lastly, Fafnir has 95% resistance to all four 'Breaks', and 0% resistance to Doom (count: 200). Conditions: Capture at least 4 of each monster from the dragon species. These are: Vouivre (Mi'ihen Highroad), Lamashtu (Mushroom Rock Road), Kusariqqu (Thunder Plains), Mushussu (Sanubia Desert), and Nidhogg (Cavern of the Stolen Fayth or Mt. Gagazet). Prize for unlocking: Purifying Salt x99 - k. Fungus: Sleep Sprout - Name: Sleep Sprout HP: 98000 (Overkill: 10000) AP: 10000 (Overkill: 10000) Steal: Poison Fang x4 (common), Farplane Wind x1 (rare) Cost: 8000 gil Drop: Teleport Sphere x1 (common) x2 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 3 | 167 | 112 | 203 | 26 | 0 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | 1.5x | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Sleepstrike, Silencestrike, Darkstrike, Poisonstrike, Stonestrike, Zombiestrike, Slowstrike Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Sleepproof, Silenceproof, Darkproof, Stoneproof, Poisonproof, Zombieproof, Slowproof Number of slots of droppped equipment: 3-4 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-4 Strategy: The first rule of Sprout Club is, YOU DO NOT ATTACK SLEEP SPROUT. The second rule of Sprout Club is, YOU DO NOT ATTACK SLEEP SPROUT. When in doubt, refer to rule 1. If you attack Sleep Sprout, it will automatically counter with a spore attack that's quite similar to the Malboro's bad Breath. ("Goodnight", indeed.) These rules don't apply if you can hit for 99,999 damage every time, in which case, attack away! Tip: use Aeons to do the dirty work for you at low levels, because they're immune to Goodnight's deleterious status effects. Sleep Sprout has no resistance to Power Break or Doom (count: 200), but the fact that it never uses physical attacks makes Power Breaking it pointless. Apart from Goodnight, Sleep Sprout uses Firaga, Thundaga, Waterga, Blizzaga, Flare, and Ultima, but you'll probably kill it so quickly, that it won't have the opportunity to use these spells. Conditions: Capture at least 5 of each monster from the fungus species. These are: Funguar (Mushroom Rock Road or southern Djose Highroad), Thorn (Cavern of the Stolen Fayth), and Exoray (Inside Sin). Prize for unlocking: Healing Spring x99 - l. Bombs: Bomb King - Name: Bomb King HP: 480000 (Overkill: 10000) AP: 10000 (Overkill: 10000) Steal: Fire Gem x4 (common), Shining Gem x1 (rare) Cost: 8000 gil Drop: Door to Tomorrow x1 (common) x2 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 73 | 200 | 71 | 200 | 46 | 0 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Absorb | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Str +5%, Str +10%, Str +20% Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Defense +5%, Defense +10%, Defense +20% Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3 Strategy: Bomb King is a strange one. Unlike his bomb brethren, normal attacks don't automatically make him swell... sometimes. Christian Washington postulated that when you deal a certain amount of damage to Bomb King, regardless of whether it was a physical or magical attack, he will swell. When Bomb King swells a fourth time, every attack you do will make him counter with Ultima. Bomb King's other attacks include Fire, Fira, and Firaga. An easy way to defeat Bomb King is to make sure all of your characters are equipped with weapons that have [Magic Counter], and possibly armor with [Fire Eater] for the sake of keeping everyone at full health, then Haste the Bomb King, Shell your party members to offset some of Bomb King's magic damage, and have them defend. Whenever Bomb King attacks, your characters will automagically counterattack. However, these counterattacks by your party do not make Bomb King swell. Again, credit to Christian Washington for this strategy. Conditions: Capture at least 5 of each monster from the bomb species. These are: Bomb (Mi'ihen Highroad), Grenade (Mt. Gagazet), and Puroburos (Omega Ruins). Prize for unlocking: Turbo Ether x60 - m. Horned: Juggernaut - Name: Juggernaut HP: 1200000 (Overkill: 15000) AP: 8000 (Overkill: 8000) Steal: Lunar Curtain x4 (common), Shining Gem x1 (rare) Cost: 8000 gil Drop: Strength Sphere x1 (common) x2 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 98 | 140 | 70 | 62 | 42 | 0 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Absorb | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Str +5%, Str +10%, Str +20% Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Defense +5%, Defense +10%, Defense +20% Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3 Strategy: The Juggernaut isn't hard, it's just hard to wear down. Immediately cast Hastega upon entering the battle, and use Quick Hit until the Juggernaut's second turn comes up. You actually get a free turn - the first move the Juggernaut will make is to charge up for a multiple-character fire breath attack, which is the second move. If you're swift about it, you can probably kill the Juggernaut before it has a change to unleash this move, but if you're not, swap one of your characters for Yuna, and have her summon an Aeon to take the brunt of the Juggernaut's fire breath attack. Alternately, armor with [Fire Eater] will absorb its breath, and NulBlaze will nullify the breath altogether. During subsequent turns, the Juggernaut may charge up for another fire attack, thus forfeiting its turn, or (more likely) it will rush up to one or more characters and maul them, like Fafnir above likes to do. Juggernaut has 95% resistance to all four 'Breaks', and 0% resistance to Doom (count: 200). Conditions: Capture at least 5 of each monster from the horned species. These are: Dual Horn (Mi'ihen Highroad), Valaha (Cavern of the Stolen Fayth), and Grendel (Gagazet Cavern or Zanarkand Ruins). Prize for unlocking: Light Curtain x99 - n. Iron Giants: Ironclad - Name: Ironclad HP: 2000000 (Overkill: 99999) AP: 10000 (Overkill: 10000) Steal: Light Curtain x4 (common), Stamina Tablet x1 (rare) Cost: 8000 gil Drop: HP Sphere x1 (common) x2 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 100 | 220 | 0 | 180 | 65 | 0 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Null | Null | Null | Null | N/A | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Str +5%, Str +10%, Str +20% Auto-abilites of dropped armor: HP +10%, HP +20%, HP +30% Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3 Strategy: Like Vorban, Ironclad is armored, and Armor Break only works 5% of the time, so use Auron's Banishing Blade Overdrive instead to crack his armor. Whenever you attack Ironclad, he'll automatically counterattack with Reppageki, but if your evade rate is high enough, he'll never hit you! It's a very good idea to kill Pteryx lots before taking Ironclad on - or any of these bosses, really. Ironclad's pattern of attack, eschewing couterattacks, is thus: Reppageki (medium damage attack against a single character), then Bushinzan (large damage to all characters plus reduces MP to 0), then Shinryudan (large damage to a single character). After he preforms all three, he starts over with Reppageki again. Conditions: Capture 10 of each from the iron giant species. These are: Iron Giant (north part of Thunder Plains), Gemini A (Inside Sin or Omega Ruins, armed with a sword), and Gemini B (Inside Sin or Omega Ruins, armed with a club). Each Gemini counts as a seperate monster! Prize for unlocking: Mana Tablet x60 -- VII. Original Creations -- - a. Earth Eater - Name: Earth Eater HP: 1300000 (Overkill: 99999) AP: 50000 (Overkill: 50000) Steal: Gambler's Spirit x1 (common), Level 1 Key Sphere x1 (rare) Cost: 15000 gil Drop: Fortune Sphere x1 (common) x2 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 117 | 200 | 186 | 210 | 47 | 0 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Triple Overdrive Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Auto Potion Number of slots of droppped equipment: 3-4 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1 Strategy: When standing upright, the Earth Eater will attack (AND counterattack) with Megaton Punch, which inflicts Death on one character if the damage doesn't kill them outright. [Deathproof] armor and Protect status will help tremendously. If you do enough damage to the Earth Eater cumulatively or all at once, you'll knock it on its back - I believe something in the neighborhood of 100,000 damage is required to knock the Earth Eater down. When it is on its back, it cannot attack you, or do anything except roll back and forth looking pitiful... unless you attack it, which will net you an automatic Flare counterattack directed at a random character. Luckily this Flare does not break the damage limit, in other words, 9999 damage is the most that it can do, but this is still quite punishing at low levels. Cast Shell on your party while the Earth Eater is trying to pick itself up to halve the Flare damage. Conditions: Capture the nescessary number of monsters to conquer 2 areas. Prize for unlocking: Three Stars x60 - b. Greater Sphere - Name: Greater Sphere HP: 1500000 (Overkill: 99999) AP: 50000 (Overkill: 50000) Steal: Gambler's Spirit x1 (common), Return Sphere x1 (rare) Cost: 15000 gil Drop: Luck Sphere x1 (common) x2 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 87 | 130 | 102 | 120 | 55 | 0 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Varies | Varies | Varies | Varies | Varies | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: One MP Cost Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Auto Phoenix Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1 Strategy: If there was ever a poster child for [Auto-Protect] armor, it would be Greater Sphere. Even at very high levels, Greater Sphere still gave me lots of trouble, because it constantly randomly counterattacks with Aqua Press or Ultima, and the former does ridiculously high damage even at 255 defense - Protect makes it barely survivable. Besides that, obsessively keeping your party in Auto-Life status will save your rear. Luckily, Greater Sphere doesn't have much HP, so a few 12-hit Attack Reels at 99,999 per hit should dispose of it, or if you have the patience to wait 255 turns, it's vulnerable to Doom. Conditions: Capture the nescessary number of monsters to conquer 2 species. Prize for unlocking: Supreme Gem x60 - c. Catastrophe - Name: Catastrophe HP: 2200000 (Overkill: 99999) AP: 50000 (Overkill: 50000) Steal: Gambler's Spirit x1 (common), Level 2 Key Sphere x1 (rare) Cost: 15000 gil Drop: Designer Wallet x1 (common) x2 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 120 | 80 | 77 | 80 | 34 | 0 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Sleepstrike, Silencestrike, Darkstrike, Poisonstrike, Stonestrike, Zombiestrike, Slowstrike Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Sleepproof, Silenceproof, Darkproof, Stoneproof, Poisonproof, Zombieproof, Slowproof Number of slots of droppped equipment: 3-4 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-4 Strategy: Catastrophe begins the battle in its shell, and won't come out until you've inflicted about 500,000 damage upon it. While in its shell, its defense is slightly higher, and it will attack all of your characters with a combination Poison/Confusion/Curse attack if given the chance. Hastega at the beginning of the fight, and proceed to attack Catastrophe until it comes out of its shell. Once you've coerced Catastrophe out of its shell, its pattern of attack goes: Toxic Spray -> Demi -> Hundred Thorns. Toxic Spray does minimal damage to a single character, and puts them in in Power Break, Magic Break, Armor Break, and Mental Break status. Demi is a standard Demi - it reduces your party's HP by 1/4. Lastly, Hundred Thorns hits all of your party members for large damage, which at low defense does upwards of 30,000 damage - half that with protect - and clues you into why this boss is called "Catastrophe". This is the easiest battle of the Original Creations, easier than most of the Species Creations too, and only the fact that Catastrophe has 2.2 million HP would prevent you from winning this battle before you can hit for 99,999 damage. Conditions: Capture the nescessary number of monsters to conquer 6 areas. Prize for unlocking: Door to Tomorrow x99 - d. Th'uban - Name: Th'uban HP: 3000000 (Overkill: 99999) AP: 50000 (Overkill: 50000) Steal: Gambler's Spirit x1 (common), Teleport Sphere x1 (rare) Cost: 15000 gil Drop: Underdog's Secret x1 (common) x2 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 102 | 80 | 212 | 80 | 53 | 0 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Triple AP, Triple Overdrive Auto-abilites of dropped armor: HP +10%, HP +20%, HP +30% Number of slots of droppped equipment: 3-4 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3 Strategy: Fighting Th'uban is lots of fun, if your idea of fun is DYING QUICKLY AND REPEATEDLY. Th'uban annoyingly counterattacks every physical and magical attack with a tail swipe that instantly removes any protective statuses from your whole party, like Regen, Haste, Protect, etc, unless that character has [Auto Regen], [Auto Haste], [Auto Protect], etc, in their armor. He also has a Pulsar Shockwave-esque attack that does 99,999 damage to one character, regardless of defense, and a vicious wing attack called Rainbow, which hits all characters multiple times, on top of cursing them. (Speaking of cursing, that's what I do every time Th'uban kills me. #$@&@*!!!) To defeat Th'uban the legitimate way, you'll probably want to employ Blitz Ace, Attack Reel, Passado, and a little bit of luck. If you don't mind cheating, however, and have lots of patience, there's a dirty trick you can use... Th'uban is vulnerable to Death Sentence. You can sentence him by using Kimahri's "Doom" Ronso Rage, or a Candle of Life item. To ensure that you'll win the battle, keep everyone in Auto-Life status, and defend for all of the 255 turns that it will take for Death Sentence to automatically kill him. Do NOT attack him while you're Auto-Lifed, otherwise his tail swipe counterattack will remove the Auto-Life, along with any other positive statuses. Conditions: Capture the nescessary number of monsters to conquer 6 species. Prize for unlocking: Gambler's Spirit x99 - e. Neslug - Name: Neslug HP: 4000000 (Overkill: 12000) AP: 50000 (Overkill: 50000) Steal: Gambler's Spirit x1 (common), Friend Sphere x1 (rare) Cost: 15000 gil Drop: Pendulum x1 (common) x2 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 130 | 80 | 130 | 80 | 43 | 0 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Piercing (Kimahri, Auron), Triple AP Auto-abilites of dropped armor: HP +10%, HP +20%, HP +30% Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-3 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3 Strategy: Besides having fallen out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down, the Neslug likes to retreat into its shell and regenerate large amounts of HP per turn with Curaga and Regen when you've depleted some of its life. While in its shell, it becomes impervious to all weapon-based attacks. (In other words, Mindy's Passado doesn't work. Boo hoo!) So what do you do? First, make sure at least one person knows Ultima and Doublecast, everyone knows Copycat, and you've got a good supply of Turbo Ethers. Cast Hastega at the beginning of the battle, and Quick Hit, Attack Reel, or Blitz Ace the Neslug until it retreats into its shell. If you're quick enough, the Neslug won't even get a change to attack you before it goes into its shell. The Neslug will not come out of its shell until it is completely healed, so don't wait for it to come out, and thereby negate all of your hard work. Instead, Doublecast Ultima, and Copycat until its shell shatters, stopping only to replenish the MP of a party member who's low. Alternately, despite Blitz Ace being weapon-based, it still does damage. You could go into battle with everyone's Overdrive bars full, and Entrust them to Tidus so that he can Blitz Ace over and over. When the shell shatters (and this is a pretty cool animation, IMHO), you'll know the Neslug only has about one million HP left. Obviously it cannot retreat into its shell anymore, so eleven hits at 99,999 damage later, you've won! Congrats. On the other hand, Ultima Gamer (ultimagamer@hotmail.com) submitted the following, which I am paraphrasing: go into battle with Wakka and any other two characters. Wakka and the other two characters must have a strength of 255, or near to it, and everyone must have full Overdrive gauges. Wakka must know Attack Reel, and you must be skilled at lining up the "2 Hit" slots. The other two characters must know Entrust, and someone must know Hastega. Cast Hastega at the start of the battle, and use Wakka's Attack Reel. If you successfully lined up three slots of "2 Hit", Attack Reel will hit Neslug 12 times. Then use Quick Hit 8 times, for a total of 20 hits. Now, these numbers are very precise for a reason - Neslug automatically goes into its shell when you've dealt 2,000,000 damage to it. 20 hits at 99,999 equals 1,999,980 damage, which is just barely enough for the Neslug to stay out in the open. Immediately Entrust one of your character's Overdrive gauges to Wakka, and have him use Attack Reel once more. This should break the shell before Neslug has even had a chance to retreat into it! Finally, use Quick Hit until Neslug dies. This is an awesome strategy, and takes a fraction of the time my strategy above does, so please send Ultima Gamer your praises for it. One warning, however, that applies to both strategies - kill the unshelled Neslug as quickly as possible, because once its shell is broken, it will only attack you with an ultra powerful Slime attack that does large damage to your entire party, plus puts everyone in Poison, Curse, Armor Break, Mental Break, and Delay attack status. ...Unless you Silence it, in which case it will only use Megaton on a single character when its turn comes up. Megaton does a good bit of damage and inflicts Confusion status, but it isn't nearly as bad as Slime's multiple status ailments. Neslug has no resistance whatsoever to Silence status, by the way, so it's not difficult at all to shut its gaping trough of a mouth. Silencing Neslug won't prevent it from using Regen while in its shell, but it will prevent it from using Regen AND Curaga. Conditions: Conquer all areas. This means you need to pretty much capture one of each monster. Prize for unlocking: Winning Formula x99 - f. Ultima Buster - Name: Ultima Buster HP: 5000000 (Overkill: 99999) AP: 50000 (Overkill: 50000) Steal: Gambler's Spirit x1 (common), Level 3 Key Sphere x1 (rare) Cost: 15000 gil Drop: Winning Formula x1 (common) x2 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) Ultima Buster |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 168 | 60 | 178 | 71 | 72 | 0 | Ultima Buster's Head and Arms |----------|----------| | Defense | M. Def. | |----------|----------| | 1 | 1 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Triple AP, Overdrive -> AP, Triple Overdrive Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Break MP Limit Number of slots of droppped equipment: 3-4 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3 Strategy: This isn't nescessarily a hard battle, just a long-ish one. First, cast Hastega, and if you can spare the turn, Auto-Life at least one party member. Then destroy its arms and head with Quick Hit, and continue to use Quick Hit until Ultima Buster's turn comes up - if your Magic Defense statistic isn't at least equal to Ultima Buster's Magic Power statistic, immediately have Yuna summon an Aeon to take the brunt of Ultima Buster's attack, which 4 out of 5 times, will be an extremely powerful Ultima spell. The other time, it will bodyslam a single character for 10,000+ damage, but because this is so unpredictable, use Aeons as damage absorbers just in case. Ultima and the bodyslam attack may be halved by Shell and Protect, respectively. The reason for killing the arms is self-evident - they shield Ultima Buster from your attacks - but the idea behind killing the head as well, is because every third turn, it will preform an attack that causes more damage than Ultima Buster's Ultima spell, and inflicts Slow, Poison, Confusion, Zombie, Power Break, Magic Break, Armor Break, and Mental Break. Very nasty. Conditions: Capture at least 5 of each monster. Prize for unlocking: Dark Matter x99 (!!) - g. Shinryu - Name: Shinryu HP: 2000000 (Overkill: 99999) AP: 50000 (Overkill: 50000) Steal: Gambler's Spirit x1 (common), Three Stars x1 (rare) Cost: 15000 gil Drop: Wings to Discovery x1 (common) x2 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 92 | 60 | 86 | 98 | 70 | 0 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Double AP Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Auto Med Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1 Strategy: Because this battle takes place underwater, you can only use Tidus, Wakka, and Rikku. Shinryu will counterattack with his claw whenever he is attacked, which does about 8000+ damage to one character with 120 defense, but so long as one of your other party members has [Auto Phoenix] in their armor, this doesn't matter. Some people recommend killing off Tidus and Rikku, and letting Wakka take care of Shinryu with his Attack Reel Overdrive, because Shinryu won't use Eraser - his infamous petrification and shattering attack - if only one of your party members is alive. Barring that strategy, if your speed is high enough, just cast Hastega, and Quick Hit, Attack Reel, or Blitz Ace him to death. Shinryu's other offenses pale in comparison to Eraser, but they include Shining, which hits all of your party members multiple times for small damage, and a simple claw attack to one character, the same as his claw counterattack. There isn't any pattern to his attacks, and ideally your stats are high enough that you'll be able to kill him within one turn. Conditions: Capture at least 2 Splashers, 2 Achelous, and 2 Maelspikes from the flooded portion of Gagazet Cavern. Prize for unlocking: Mega Elixir x30 - h. Nemesis (or "Omega Gold") - Name: Nemesis (aka Omega Gold, aka Subete Wo Koeshimono) HP: 10000000 (Overkill: 99999) AP: 50000 (Overkill: 50000) Steal: Level 4 Key Sphere x1 (common), Warp Sphere x1 (rare) Cost: 25000 gil Drop: Warp Sphere x1 (common) x2 (Overkill) Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill) |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % | |----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | 255 | 150 | 255 | 150 | 200 | 0 | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Fire | Thunder | Water | Ice | Holy | |-----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------| | Absorb | Absorb | Absorb | Absorb | Absorb | Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Break Damage Limit Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Break HP Limit Number of slots of droppped equipment: 3-4 Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1 Strategy: First of all, you don't need high HP or even Auto-Life to defeat Nemesis, all you'll need is to be able to hit for 99,999 damage, and an agility stat of at least 170 to pull this off in a reasonable amount of time - 220+ is ideal. If you don't, stop reading this strategy right now and go slaughter Fenrir until you do. ...Done? Good. Nemesis counters Overdrives, but nothing else. Using whomever you like, cast Hastega at the beginning of the battle. Use Quick Hit until Nemesis' turn comes up, and swap someone out for Yuna, who will immediately summon an Aeon to act as a sacrificial lamb. (If you're already using Yuna as one of your three characters, even better.) One hit from Nemesis will probably kill your Aeon, but this is okay, because doing so will bring the turn to move back to you, even if Nemesis had two or more turns in a row after your Aeon! At 220+ agility, you should be getting 18-20 Quick Hits between each of Nemesis' turns. Seven dead Aeons later, Nemesis will turn into pyreflies and that sweet "Overkill" will appear on your television. Congratulations, you've just beaten the "hardest" boss in Final Fantasy X. The moral of the story is, HP size doesn't matter, it's the motion of the Quick Hit ocean. I'm not claiming this is the end-all be-all strategy for defeating Nemesis, but it IS the only way that's worked consistently for me. Best of luck to you! Conditions: Capture 10 of each monster, and beat all of the bosses at the Monster Arena. Prize for unlocking: Master Sphere x10 -- VIII. Frequently Asked Questions -- 1. Where can I find [name of monster]? They're so rare! I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the encounter rates for some monsters are just brutal. Here are the locations for some of the rarer ones: Simurgh - appears on the sunny patches of Djose Highroad. Because the biggest sunny patch is closest to Djose Temple, you'll have the best luck there. Qactuar - appears in Thunder Plains only after you have prayed to at least one glowing Qactuar stone. Examine the stones first with the [X] button, then use [circle] to pray. Again, the stones must be glowing in order for you to pray. Tonberry - appears in the lower right corner of the "green" room in the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth, and at the very end of the cave right before Youjimbo's chamber, where all the pyreflies are swirling around. Mind the Chef's Knife, mate! Garuda - appears in Lower and Upper Mushroom Rock Road. (I'm not 100% sure of the US names here, but "Lower" means the area with the zigzag path that winds into the distance, and "Upper" is the screen with the elevator that takes you to the Crusaders' HQ.) Barbatos - appears more frequently the deeper into the Tower of the Dead that you go. The area with the three seals near the beginning is a Barbatos hotspot, as is the area where the blocks shoot up from the floor. (Don't confuse the latter with Sin's Nucleus, and the icicles that shoot up from the floor!) Machea - appears more frequently near the Save Point in the Omega Ruins, and in the "loop" to the right of the entrance. Master Coeurl - see Machea. Black Element - see Machea. Master Tonberry - appears most frequently in the Omega Ruins B1, but rarely on the main level. Varuna - see Master Tonberry. Any rare monster from the Calm Lands - appears more frequently in the north- west corner. The trainer even tells you that the "rarest fiends spawn in the northwest". Shred is extremely common near the entrance to the Monster Arena. 2. What about Land Worms? Land Worms only appear in the very last part of the very last dungeon, past where you may backtrack from. So obviously, you can't capture them. Thank you, drive though! 3. Which monsters appear in more than one area, and which area do they count towards when I capture them? I specified when monsters appear in more than one area earlier in this FAQ, but for the sake of reiteration, here we go again. Thunder Flan appears in both the "Old" part of Mi'ihen Highroad, and southern Mushroom Rock Road, and counts towards Mushroom Rock. Red Element, Funguar, and Gandarewa appear in both Mushroom Rock Road and Djose Highroad, and all count towards Mushroom Rock. The Coeurl and Malboro appear in the Calm Lands and Cavern of the Stolen Fayth, and both count towards the Calm Lands. The Imp and Nidhogg appear in the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth and Mt. Gagazet, and both count towards the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth. Lastly, the Geminis (both colors), Adamantoise, Wraith, Great Malboro, and Demonolith appear in Sin and the Omega Ruins, and all count towards Sin. 4. What is this "Passado" trick you keep mentioning? "Passado" is Mindy's unique attack, like Meteor Strike is Ifrit's unique attack, or Pain is Anima's unique attack. It consists of 15 (?) bee stingers fired at an enemy for up to 99,999 damage apiece, which if Yuna is leveled up enough, is sufficient to defeat almost all of the Area and Species Creation bosses in one shot. The problem is that the Magus Sisters are so unpredictable, when you tell Mindy to attack, she may do a standard attack, Passado, or cast a black magic spell. I suppose that's the tradeoff for such a cheap attack, no? If Passado is only doing mediocre damage for you, level Yuna up. The strength of any Aeon is tied to the strength of the summoner. 5. What is the purpose of the Mark of Conquest? The "Mark of Conquest" does nothing other than take up space in your Key Items inventory, and is proof that you defeated Nemesis. If you played Final Fantasy VIII, you may remember recieving a similar item for defeating the Omega Weapon, the "Proof of Omega". The description for this item goes "For those who have surpassed mortal bounds"; this is an obvious allusion to Nemesis' name in the Japanese import, Subete Wo Koeshimono, which translates to "He who has surpassed all". Makes sense, seeing as you have to "surpass" all of the Monster Arena bosses to obtain the item. 6. Is there a difference between the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth and the Sunken Cave? No, they're two names for the exact same location. "Cavern of the Stolen Fayth" is kind of a long name, and wouldn't fit into the tiny text box. Hence, Sunken Cave. 7. I don't like your strategy, nyah nyah. Why don't you write a different one? Gee, I forgot that writing a _free_ guide required me to bend to your every whim. If the strategies I've given don't work for you, you're not of a high enough level - and how are your lousy stats a mistake on my part? Most of these bosses do not require that you have 255 on every stat - all of the Area and Species Creations, and a few of the Original Creations can be defeated with stats between 100 - 200. Only the harder Original Creations require stats above 200. Short of coming to your house and playing the game for you, I don't know how I could possibly be more specific. 8. What is the Sphere Distiller trick? At some point in the game, especially if you use one of the ubiquitous "AP Tricks", you'll probably run out one or more of the common Sphere types. To get 20-40 in one fight, simply use a Sphere Distiller on Kottos or Fafnir, who will then drop 20 after the fight for a standard kill, and 40 for an Overkill. If they only drop two of that type of Sphere, consider it bad luck - they would have dropped two Dark Matter otherwise. 9. What do Reppageki, Bushinzan, and Shinryudan mean? I've never studied Japanese formally, and thus don't claim to be fluent, but here are my best attempts at translation: - Reppageki: Violent Tearing Attack (retsu ha geki) - Bushinzan: Weapon God Slicing (bu shin zan) - Shinryudan: Divine Dragon Judgement (shin ryuu dan) Any dissimilarities between the spoken reading of the kanji, and the English translation were probably just shortenings of the long kanji compounds due to a limited number of spaces in the battle window. What might only take three spaces in Japanese can take up to 10 in English, as demonstrated in the example above. 10. Am I missing out on anything if I don't fight Chimerageist on my first visit to the Calm Lands? No, you're not missing anything if you wait until later to fight Chimerageist (except maybe a quick death for your party :), so yes, feel free to wait. You can also level up around the Yevon Dome before fighting Yunalesca and backtrack to the Calm Lands if need be - the Defender Z's in the Dome drop Level 2 and Level 3 Key Spheres, allowing you to unlock previously inaccessable parts of the Grid, and the groups of 3 robots give out ridiculously high AP. If you're concerned about the time it would take to backtrack, you can win [No Encounters] armor from Ghosts in the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth, or steal Purifying Salts from zombie Yevon monks in the Dome to make your own [No Encounters] armor, ergo cutting your walking time to a fraction or what it would otherwise be. 11. What about other bosses? Is there a benefit to fighting them immediately after unlocking them? The only benefit to fighting bosses immediately as they're unlocked is that you may do so for free. They're not easier, nor do they drop better items. 12. I supposedly completed all of the requirements to unlock Nemesis, and he's still not on the list! Why? There are several possibilities: one, you didn't really defeat all of the Area, Species, and Original Creations. Two, you don't really have 10 of every capturable monster - compare your list with the monsters I listed in every area, and remember that some areas have two pages' worth of monsters. Or finally, barring both of those possibilities, there seems to be a bug where if you unlock Nemesis after defeating one or several Creations and not saving or leaving the arena after doing so, the trainer won't acknowledge that you have until you do just that. So if you're positive that you've captured 10 of each monster, and defeated every creation at least once, and there's no Nemesis on your list, keep leaving the arena, returning, and chatting with the trainer until he says "I've created a monster!" 13. I'm playing an NSG (No Sphere Grid) game, can I still make good use of the Monster Arena? Certainly, I don't see why not. Capturing monsters doesn't require much strength, and the rewards for doing so will allow you to build lots of great equipment, as well as give you reagents for Rikku's Overdrive. If you choose to fight in the arena for the dropped equipment that the Creations yield, you'll definitely need to use powered up Aeons to participate in the melee for you. Best of luck with your NSG game! 14. Are there any significant Monster Arena changes between the original Japanese release, the US release, and the "International"/PAL release? Gameplay mechanics-wise, the Monster Arena functions exactly the same in all four commercially released versions of Final Fantasy X. The most aesthetically noticeable (and welcome!) change is that there wasn't a save point behind the trainer where there's now one in the US, "International", and PAL releases - and it was a pain to have to backtrack all the way to the Calm Lands trading post between boss fights to save and heal in the Japanese import, let me tell you. ;) The observant player will also note that Behemoth King counterattacks with Meteo when you capture him in the original Japanese and US releases, but does not counterattack when captured in the "International" or PAL releases. There were also name changes; eschewing the minor ones that could be attributed to different romanizations of the kana, they are: - Marlboro Worst became Malboro Menace - Tô Oni (translation: Fighting Demon) became Kottos - Wizerusha became Vidatu - Jumbo Purin* became Jumbo Flan (*all Flans in the Japanese release were called "Purin") - Elemental Nega became Nega Elemental - Nemuridake* became Sleep Sprout (*"Nemuri" means sleep, and "Dake" means only or just - relating to 'Goodnight' attack that will make your party only sleep with the fishes if not prepared with the proper status armor) - Huge Sphere became Greater Sphere - Brachioredos became Th'uban - Subete Wo Koeshimono became Nemesis 15. Were there any original boss designs for the Monster Arena? Neslug has the only original boss design, the rest of the Area, Species, and Original Creations are just palette-swapped versions of other bosses. -- IX. Thanks, Acknowledgements, Shameless Plugs -- Thanks to Jae for submitting good, detailed battle strategies for Jumbo Flan and Th'uban, and thanks to Crimson Shadow, Arcaneja, dreavian, Christian Washington, HuskerCubs, and Billy Auyang for submitting strategies for Chimerageist, Fafnir, Jumbo Flan, Bomb King, and Catastrophe. Thanks to Ultima Gamer for submitting the holy grail of Neslug strategies. Kudos, guys, I would have either given up on trying to beat these bosses, or written less informative strategies without you. :) Thanks to Nathan 'Nategisetsu' Mallory and Mocks for drilling the importance of the Luck stat into my head, and helping with a couple of Japanese translations. Mad ups, yo! Thanks to BT, vintage NIN, dj? Acucrack, Curve, the Moving Shadow catalogue, and Massive Attack for music to FAQ by, without which I'd have gone insane in writing this. (Want to thank me? Buy a record.) Much respect to Alexander O. Smith for his fantastic localizations of Vagrant Story, Parasite Eve 2, Final Fantasy X, et al, worthy of fine literature. Thanks to Muni Shinobu (muni_shinobu@yahoo.com) for his excellent FFX walkthrough and numerous other guides on the game. Without him, we would not know wairo from Shinola. Extra special thanks to Square (http://www.playonline.com/) for creating FFX and many other quality titles, and GameFAQs (http://www.gamefaqs.com/) for hosting FAQs on every game imaginable, and respecting FAQ author's rights. If your name should be here and it isn't, blame the memory and not the heart.