-- Final Fantasy X (US Ver.) Nemesis FAQ -- -- by OmegaBlack (frodo.oblivion@hotmail.com) -- LEGAL DISCLAIMER: This guide is for personal use only, copyrighted to me, OmegaBlack (Ezequiel López). 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. If you violate this disclaimer anyway, blah blah copyright violation blah blah legal action blah. --------Be warned! Spoilers may lie ahead!-------- -- Table of contents -- I. Version History II. Introduction III. Preparations a. Monster Arena Overview b. Leveling c. Party d. Abilities e. Weapons X. Celestial Weapons 0. The Mirror I. Tidus II. Wakka III. Lulu IV. Auron V. Yuna VI. Rikku VII. Kimahri f. Armors g. Stats h. Items i. My Status IV. Fight! V. Credits & Thanks -- I. Version History -- v1.2 22/02/2008: Created the idea, Section III & IV, blah, everything on one day :)! -- II. Introduction -- Well, as you should all know, Nemsis is the "hardest" boss around Spira in Final Fantasy X (US Ver.). Comparable to Omega Weapon in VIII or Ruby & Emerald in VII, this boss will blow your brains off. This guide will tell you how to beat it, abilities, weapons, armors, stats and items you'll be using. Technically it's not THAT hard, but it may take a couple of hours. -- III. Preparations -- First of all, Nemesis won't just appear from nowhere, you have to "unlock" it at the monster arena. To do this, you'll have to catch all the monsters 10 times. Yes my friend, all the monsters around Spira will have to be captured 10 times. And not only that, you have to beat all Species Creations, Area Creations and Original bosses too. But think this, you won't stand a chance against Nemesis if you just can't beat the other bosses! How to catch? Read: -a. Monster Arena Overview - Monster arena is located on Calm Lands, to the East side. To be able to completely "open" the arena, just talk to the old man, and buy a weapon with capture ability. Then go capture all the monsters in Calm Lands (you need only one from each species to open the arena, but you will be needing ten of each monster to unlock Nemesis). Go and talk to the old man again and walla! Monster Arena opened. Now you can battle any captured fiend any time you want as long as you always pay the price. When you talk to him, 4 options: Chat (he will tell you which finds you need to catch to create Area or Species creations), Fight monsters (anything to explain xD?), buy weapons (sells only weapons with the capture ability) and buy items. I recomend equiping you most powerful character with a capture weapon, and add it Sensor, so you'll know when you have to hit it to catch it. Now to the hard part - capturing 10 times every monster. Wait untill you have the airship and go capturing from besaid to zanarkand. This is the longest, boring and tiring thing you will have to do. The list shown on the fight monsters option, shows every place that has monsters to capture, like Besaid, Kilika, Mt Gagazet, Sunken Cave, etc. Every time you captured all the monsters (at least one time) from one place, you will unlock a Area Boss. And every time you catch enough monsters from the same SPECIE (for example, 5 times every bomb, or 4 times every flan) you will be unlocking a Specie Boss. Every time you unlock something, the old man will give you great, super-duper, important items. This is very important if you want to level up in no time. So the basic review is, you need capture weapons to catch, and you have to catch 10 times every monster (a warning message will tell you once you've reached the limit - if you try to catch that monster again). -b. Leveling - Ok, you won't stand a chance against Nemesis (aka Omega Gold) if you're low on levels. To boost your Sphere Levels at max, you will need to either cutomize or obtain weapons with these abilities: Overdrive -> AP Triple Overdrive Triple AP or Double AP With that, all the final amount of AP will be tripled, your overdrive won't charge, it will instead transform into AP and be multiplied by 3. That means you will earn around 35.000 AP from each battle if you set Victor as the Overdrive Mode (4000 from Victor Overdrive x 3 from Triple Overdrive x 3 from Triple AP = 4000 x 3 x 3 = 36000 PLUS the amount earned from defeating the foe multiplied by 3). That is, let's say, 2 S.Lvls per battle, and I mean, ANY BATTLE. Or you can just set the overdrive mode to anyone you want, as long as you charge enough. -Monster Gain: To get these weapons, you can kill Ultima Buster on the Monster Arena (capture every fiend 5 times to unlock it) and prey it will drop a weapon and not an armor. Killing One-Eye on the Monster Arena (unlock it capturing 4 times each eyeball monster) will give you weapons with triple AP and one or two more blank spaces, or it will give you armors too :S. -Customize it from the ashes!: You need 10 doors to tomorrow to add Overdrive -> AP (you get x99 by unlocking Catastrophe, in which you need to conquer at least 6 areas by catching every fiend at least one time in each area), 30 winning formulas to add Triple Overdrive (get x99 by unlocking Neslug capturing each monster one time - yes, EVERY MONSTER at least one time) and 50 Wings to discovery to add Triple AP, which IMHO it the hardest item to get. You can get x30 at the races with the chocobo champion in Remiem Temple (East of Calm Lands, check the feather on the floor while mounting the chocobo), or Bribe Marlboro with 540.000 gil to get only x4, and x5 if you're lucky. So, in short terms, it's recommendable to catch at least one time each monster of all the areas, and 4 times each eyeball monster, thus you will get x99 winning formulas, x99 door to tomorrow and have unlocked Eye-Ball, whom you will fight 'till you die to get weapons with Triple AP. You can always use Double AP as a second option but think that you will earn 2/3 than with Triple AP. With these weapons, training at Omega Ruins will give you 4 or 5 S.Lvls per battle. You can try Defeating Don Tonberry (unlock by capturing every fiend at the cavern of stolen Fayth, just next to Calm Lands, below the bridge). Don Tonberry will counter attack (before giving his 4 steps) with a SUPER KARMA, that will mostly sure kill you. The damage is based on: Enemies killed by that character x 100 = Total Damage That means that if you've killed let's say 450 monsters, Karma's counterattack will deal 45.000 damage, and no defense is aplied - meaning you can't evade/ reduce this amount. But you know what? The harder it kills you THE BETTER! No, I'm not insane, just set your overdrive mode to comrade, thus you will gain overdrive gauge every time an ally takes damage, and only attack with one character. You have the weapons I told ya' nah? Every time Karma deals damage, the damage will be transfered to the overdrive gauge, BUT, as you have Overdrive -> AP, the damage will be transfered directly to AP. Keep attacking until Don Tonberry has walked 4 times, 'cause he will stop countering. Of course, you will be reviving the atacking character, won't ya? Auto-Haste would be great, or cast haste. If you can't kill him (48.000 HP) just escape, you will earn AP anyway. That's it for gaining levels, to resume: - Obtain the weapons with Tiple AP, Triple Overdrive and Overdrive -> AP. - Every battle with those weapons will surely level you up at least 1 lvl. - Use the Don Tonberry strategy. - Train at Omega Ruins for 4 or 5 lvls per battle. -c. Party - You have 7 characters, and by default: 2 mages (Yuna & Lulu) and 5 offenses (3 fast -tidus, rikku and Wakka - and 2 slow - Auron & Kimahri). Honestly I used Tidus, Rikku and Lulu for my main assault team. Why? Well, Rikku and Lulu are Hot! No srly, Rikku is the fastest, Lulu had more magic & magic defense when I started training and Tidus, well, it's Tidus! Fast and powerful. You won't be using an Aeon against Nemesis 'cause it would last only 1 turn, or 2 with luck, meaning 99.999 x 2 of dmg = 199.998 dmg done, and you've lost maybe 5 or 6 Quick Hits AND the oportunity to cast Auto-Life. Chose the characters you want, but make sure their have the abilities required AND the stats required. Rikku, Tidus and Wakka may be your best shot, but remember that you will have to beat every boss at the Monster Arena, and there are Bosses....-*cough, Neslug, *cough, Jumbo Flan.... that are inmune to physical atacks, meaning you will need to have a powerful mage there. -d. Abilities - The following abilities are the ones that will make the battle a lot easier and someones will save your live, 'cause there are Sure-Death Atacks! These are: - Auto-Life: This is a MUST - you can't prevent/defend/evade Armageddon which will deal 99.999 damage to every member. Learn this with all your characters. - Auto-Haste: This will save you from eternal death and give you the time to attack, instead of casting auto-life before dying again. Have this ability with all your characters. - Quick Hit: Erase the command Attack from your head, now it's called Quick Hit. It will boost your recovery time, so you will transform a regular attack into 3 or 4 atacks more. Learn this with your attackers, at least 2/3 must have it. - Break Damage Limit: If you want to turn 20 minutes into 5 hours, it's ok you won't be needing this. But good luck dude!! 2/3 of your party should have this. - Auto-Phoenix: Will save most of your time, and give you enough turns to cast Auto-Life and attack. There are others that you may chose to have them or not, but they are not as necessary as the previous ones. These are: - Auto-Protect: Will come in handy only if you have 240 defense or more, because anyway Nemesis' physical attack will kill you. - Auto-Shell: Use it if you have 220 Mag Def or more. Handy when defending from Ultima. - Auto-Potion: This ability is useful if you are using the Celestial weapons because you know that all celestial weapons, except Onion Knight (Lulu), Masamune (Auron) and Nirvana (Yuna) deal damage relative to the user's life - meaning that if you don't have 100% HP, the weapon won't use it's full potential. It doesn't mean you cannot deal 99.999 dmg with 1.000 hp, only that you will LOTS of strength to do that. Use only with X-Potions. -e. Weapons - The weapons you'll be using, are either the Celestial ones, or ones customized with these abilities: Break Damage Limit (x60 Dark Matters) and Half Mp Cost or One Mp cost. It's as simple at that, you won't need counter (although it's not a bad itea if you have max defense) nor triple overdrive (except you have 255 strength with either Wakka or Tidus). Nemesis is inmune to everything so forget about something-strike, doulbe & triple AP are meaningless now. Getting the Celestial weapons can be a boring, harsh, tiring, time-consuming job, 'cause you will need 3 items for EACH weapon, not to mention the Celestial Mirror. Here's a "quick" guide: -X. Celestial Weapons - These weapons, bloody hell damn hard-getting weapons, have all the ability break dmg limit. Ones have Double AP, Counterattack, Magic Counter, One Mp Cost, Initiative and Gillionaire. BUT, to completely adquire these weapons you have to get first the Cloudy Mirror, turn it to Celestial Mirror, and then grab all 7 weapons. But that's not over, those weapons you'll grab will have one ability: No Ap. You will need the proper 2 items (Crests + Sigils) to fully release their potential. The crests are easy to find, they are all in chests, but the sigils, dammit! That's the hard part... -0. The Mirror - To grab the weapons from their chests, you will need to grab first the CLOUDY MIRROR. Go to the Calm Lands, and go to the north-west part. Talk to Svanda and start training a chocobo. Once you can ride one, mount it and go to the south-east part of the Calm Lands where you will see a broken bridge and a feather in the floor. Check them while on te chocobo and you will access a "secret area": Remiem Temple. On the outside of the temple go check the chocobos and race! You have to reach the middle before the other chocobo does. Thus and only thus, you will get the cloudy mirror. Now, to turn it to the Celestial Mirror, go to Lake Macalania (o go North from Thunder Plains). On the entrace of Macalania Woods, there is a woman and a child standing talk to them and they will tell you blahblah, just follow my guide ok? Go east, and then turn to Tidus left when the path splits on 3 directions. Talk to the man and he will go running to check his family, the ones you've prevoiusly talked to. Return and you will see the child missing. Take de "highway" of the left until you se the path split on 2. Turn north and talk to the boy. Done! Cloudy mirror turned to Celestial Mirror. Now you're able to open the chests with the Celestial Weapons inside! Remember: Once, you get the weapon, crest and sigil, return here to activate them. -I. Tidus - Weapon: Caladbolg (Weird name huh?) Race Svanda on the Calm Lands and then without going out, check the northwestern part (where the guard was) and Walla! It's not there anymore, he just went to see the race! Crest: The Sun Crest, located on Zanarkand Ruins, where you fought Yunalesca check the upper left part (yeah the one that put it there, I'm gonna kill him!). Sigil: This is a toughie one. You have to score a 0.0 time on the race with Svanda (the chocobo trainer). Train, and keep trying. To make 0 time you have to finish with a time 'round 35, no birds, and at least 12 ballons (12x3=36 // 35-36= time 0). Hard at the beginning but 20 tries would be enough. -II. Wakka - Weapon: World Champion. Get at least 3rd on a league or tournment at blitzball and go to Luca's Bar. Talk to the attendant and walla! Crest: The Jupiter Crest, on the Auroch's locker room, on one of the lockers. Sigil: Another time-SUPERTIME-consuming quest. You need all Wakka's overdrives (Element + Attack + Status + Aurochs reels) whose you can get winning leagues & tournments (1st prize). Once done, Jupiter Sigil should appear as a price. If it doesn't, win the league again. -III. Lulu - Weapon: Onion Knight. Located on Baaj Temple, once on the water, to the south. Crest: Venus Crest, on the farplane (Guadosalam), once you get the airship. Sigil: Another hard quest. Dodge 200 consecutive lightnings on thunder plains! Really annoying and time-consuming, recomendable to have no encounters ability, time, patience, and a good, cold coke :) Remember, if you touch the save sphere or enter the Agency, the count resets (yes, I'm gonna kill that guy too!). -IV. Auron - Weapon: Masamune. Located on Mushroom Rock Road, on the wall near the Mi-hen statue, but first you will need the Rusty Sword, located before entering the cave of stolen fayth. If you go to Calm Lands, head north where you found the Defender, go down the bridge to the cave but do not enter it, keep going until the end of the way, check the sword! Crest: The Mars Crest. Mi'hen highroad, head east from the point where Seymour had to force the Crusaders to let Yuna pass. Keep going untill the road ends. Sigil: Capture enough fiends to conquer 10 areas on the Monster Arena. -V. Yuna - Weapon: Nirvana (sounds familiar?). Located on the chest the ol'man gives you at the monster arena once you capture every fiend on the Calm Lands. Crest: The Moon Crest. Located on Besaid Island, near the pier. Go to the water and enter to a "secret" place from the water. The chest is there. Sigil: Well, long and complicated. Remember Remiem temple? Well, Belgemine is there, and she will be your opponent. But one thing, you will need all 8 Aeons to get the sigil. Five Aeons you get by normal walkthrough (by default: Valefor, Ifrit, Ixion, Shiva & Bahamut). The next one is Yojimbo, located on the cave of stolen fayth. You'll have to pay him near 200.000 gil. Select the third option so his asking price is 250.000 gil, you offer should be half + 1, 3 times. That means if he askes you for 250.000, offer 125.001. Next is Anima, located on Baaj Temple. You have to get all the chests located in every Cloister of Trials of every temple. There are 6 in total, and surely the one you're missing is the one in Zanarkand Ruins. Just go back and step on every white pannel. Next are the Magus Sisters. You will need 2 items: The Flower Scepter (beat Belgemine 5 times, the normal walkthrough aeons) and the Blossom Crown from the old man in the Monster Arena (conquer Mt. Gagazet area). Use both items on the Remiem Temple and done! Now beat Belgemine with every aeon she has and sent her. -VI. Rikku - Weapon: The Godhand. Located on Mushroom Rock's secret area. Put the password "GODHAND" on the airship Input comand for the area to appear. Crest: Mercury Crest. Located on Sanubria Desert West on a whirlpool to the west. Sigil: Another toughie. Complete the Cactuar sidequest on the desert. You have to catch 10 cactuars all over sanubria and return, every time to the stone at Sanubria Desert West. No encounters is a MUST. Locations: 1- Oasis. 2- S.D. (Sanubria Desert) East. 3- S.D. West - Check the 20% stone. 4&5- S.D. Central - To the ruins on the left. 6- S.D. East - Check the Save Sphere. 7- S.D. Central - Check the western chest. 8- S.D. West - On the whirlpool. Exit West and reenter. 9- Airship!!!!!! Go to the Oasis and you will see the cactuar get into the airship, then go to the outside deck. 10- Behind you! Once done, enter where the sandstorm was and in a chest wallah! Mercury Sigil. -VII. Kimahri - Weapon: Tha Spirit Lance. Thunder Plains, press the square button next to a shinning qactuar stone to prey. Do ir a coouple of times more (with different shinning stones) and the follow the ghost in the south part of thunder plains to the east. Check that.. thing... over there. And in a lightning PUF! Treasure chest :)! Crest: The Saturn Crest. Located on Mt. Gagazet, just before the place where Tidus passed out, after beating Seymour remember? Between the pilars! Sigil: Hard-again. Master the butterflies miniquest on Macalania Woods. Remember lean the route first, because if you touch a red butterfly you can't catch all the blue ones. Once you've got the 3 proper items for the weapons, head back to Macalania Woods, to where you got the Celestial Mirror, and thus power up maximum you weapons! Really... it's easier to get the celestial weapons than getting enough dark matters to customize your weapons. I know, unlocking Ultima Buster at the Monster Arena Will give you x99 Dark Matters, but you can only customize Break DMG Limit ONE time per x60. You will need x81 more. One mp cost by the other hand is really easy. It costs x20 Three Stars, and you get x60 by unlocking Earth Eater (conquer 2 areas). That should do about the weapons. --f. Armors -- I will tell you once, and only ONCE. You don't need Break hp limit, ok? Remember, YOU DON'T NEED BREAK HP LIMIT. Once more, YOU DON'T NEED IT! You armor should have Auto-Phoenix & Auto-Haste. Those are a MUST, the remaining are optional. I will tell you now how to get those. First of all... remember when you were travelling to Luca? The boat? O'aka? Sound familiar? Please, tell me you've given some gil to him. If so, at the entrance of Macalania Woods WANTZ will be there, ready to sell you some fine equipment. Wantz has all weapons and all armors emtpy with 4 blank slots at 100.000 each. A mimic on Omega Ruins drop 50.000 gil - 100.000 with Gillionaire. You will be needin' a couple of those (or maybe not). Customizing time! - Auto-Phoenix: Costs 20 Mega-Phoenix. You get x99 unlocking Pterix at the monster arena (catch 4 times each bird monster). - Auto-Haste: Costs 80 Chocobos Wings. You get x99 unlocking Cactuar King at the monster arena (conquer Thunder Plains arena). I know, I know, x99 aren't enough. You will be needin' *opens the calculator*... x141 more. Easy go, bribe Machea for x60 each 400.000 gil. Remember: Mimic - Omega Ruins - Guillionaire!! These ones are optional: - Auto-Protect: Costs 80 Light Curtains. You get x99 unlocking Juggernault (catch each horned beast 5 times). Beat Fafnir with Overkill for x40 too ! :) - Auto-Potion: Costs 5 healing. You get x99 unlocking Sleep Sprout (catch each plant-fungus monster 5 times). - Break Hp Limit: Costs 30 wings to discovery. You get x30 winning the chocobo race with no poles and 3 or 4 chests (?) Bribe Marlboro for x4 each 540.000 gil. --g. Stats -- Honestly you don't need 255 in every stat. Also stat maxing is absolutely pointless. The only stats you will surely need are Strength (190 or more) and Agility (175 or more). Defense, Magic and Magic Defense are meaningless 'cause every time Nemesis attacked me, he killed me. That's why I told ya auto-protect and auto-shell were meaningless, except that you have 255, thus yes, you can survive his Ultima atack and his physical attack. What you will really need are the abilities, like Quick Hit and Auto-Life. You will only attack him with physicals so magic power is futile. Master the sphere grid with all your 3 characters by the leveling technics you read before. You can always beat the Species Bosses to earn a couple of Specialized Spheres to boost your strength/agility/defense/mag defense/evasion/accuracy/luck. But remember, EVERY TIME HE ATTACKED ME, HE KILLED ME. I didn't use offensive magic, not once. I didn't evade his attacks either. You will always hit him, making accuracy futile too. --h. Items -- The items that will come in handy are: - X-Potion: Only 10 should do. Bribe Valaha for x40 each 200.000 gil. Have more if you have auto-potion. - TUrbo Ethers: Only in case you don't have One mp Cost. 10 shoul be fine. Get x60 unlocking Bomb King (catch 5 times each bomb monster) - Mega-Phoenix: Only in urgent cases. 5 Should be fine. - Megalixirs/Elixirs: I didn't use them, but I don't know why xD! - Electro Marble: Get x99 now! Nah just kidding ^^! That's it folks! Now onto my personal stats before defeating Nemesis! --i. My Stats -- Party: Tidus, Rikku & Lulu Weapons: Caladbolg, Godhand & Onion Knight (Celestials) Armors: Phoenix Armors x3 (Auto-Phoenix + Auto-Haste + Auto-Protect) Tidus: Hp: 9999 Mp: 999 Strength: 204 Agility: 164 Defense: 221 Luck: 22 Magic: 118 Evasion: 114 Magic Defense: 185 Accuracy: 75 Lulu: Hp: 9999 Mp: 999 Strength: 166 Agility: 161 Defense: 249 Luck: 17 Magic: 166 Evasion: 186 Magic Defense: 230 Accuracy: 63 Rikku: Hp: 9999 Mp: 999 Strength: 193 Agility: 197 Defense: 255 Luck: 30 Magic: 154 Evasion: 129 Magic Defense: 210 Accuracy: 75 I had mastered almost completely the sphere grid only with Rikku! As you can see, defeating Nemesis isn't a insane stat maxing job, only with good agility (+ auto-haste) and strong strength you're ready! -IV. FIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -- Well, this is the time! First of all you have to know Nemesis attacks: - Physical attack (will deal around 7.000 with 255 defense and protect). (will deal around 15.000 with 210 defense and protect). - Ethereal Cannon (will deal around 30.000 with 220 mag defense) (you can prevent death with 255 mag defense, shell and a couple of focus) - Ultima (will deal around 9.000 with 225 mag def) - Ultra Spark (will deal around 30.000 with 255 mag defense) (also will inflict curse, poison & power break) - Armaggedon (will wipe out you party, it's so powerful that will kill your brother and break your legs) Normally, after a Ultra Spark or Armageddon, it attacks 2 times physically, enough time for you to regain your head and re-cast auto-life and attack. ALWAYS: -Hit him with Quick Hit. -Keep 2 Characters with auto-life. -Don't use Overdrives, unless you have 255 STR with Tidus and auto-life with 2 characters. Why? Because wasting a turn and selecting Blitz Ace will slow your recovery time a LOT, so Tidus will act again after 2 attacks of Nemesis. And if you don't reach 250 STR, Tidus overdrive will deal less dmg than 4 or 5 Quick Hits. Same aplies for Wakka & Attack Reels. -Heal party only to deal more damage (only with Celestial Weapons). And heal with x-potions, as using items spends less recovery time than curaga. -Make sure you have enough mp to cast at least 2 auto-lifes with every character. -If Nemesis has used Armaggedon or Ultra Spark and wiped out your party (of course 2 of 'em will revive nah?). Check your turns, if you have only one turn until the next turn of Nemesis, use Auto-life, do not heal or revive 'cause its possible (not probable) that it will do Ultra Spark or Ultima again. -Always check and measure your timing with your turns, you can't risk anything, you have to be prepared all the time for any attack! -Nemesis has 10.000.000 hp so you will be dealing around 100 attacks of 99.999 damage, more if you don't have enough strengh. -Think that you will have to attack him 20 times per 5 or 6 turns. Relax, don't be afraid, drink a cold coke and start fightin' this hell ov'a BOSS! I tried 13 times, the first one died, all the other ones I've won. It's not hard, it's only a pattern and a little luck others may say. When I defeated it, the clock stood up on 99:42 hs. But I think it could have been A LOT less. Only if I knew where tonberry would appear sooner :@. Anyway.... CONGRATULATIONs! You have just beaten the Hardest enemy of Final Fantasy X Us. Version! Now you have to beat Penance on the European Version ^^! --V. Credits & Thanks -- First of all I would like to thank you for reading and making my guide worth doing! Thanks www.neoseeker.com and all it's guiders/guides that have always helped me on six million differen games! And finally Squaresoft - Now Square-Enix for making such great games! This is my first guide, and I do not speak english fluidly, I'm Argentinian, so any corrections or error you may detect are free to come! (frodo.oblivion@hotmail.com)