===================================================================== Tidus-Only (No Customise) Challenge FAQ By Blitz_Ace470 and BBK_Kid E-mail: pauloreis04@hotmail.com fick_korn@hotmail.com Version 2.12 ===================================================================== ===================================================================== 1.0 COPYRIGHT ===================================================================== Copyright 2005 Blitz_Ace470. If you wish to host this guide in your website, please contact me for permission before doing so. Permission will most likely be granted, but, if you change a single character or claim this as your own, I will ask you to remove it from your website. ===================================================================== These are the sites allowed to host this FAQ: www.gamefaqs.com www.gamespot.com www.neoseeker.com If you see any other site with this FAQ there, please contact me. The latest version of this FAQ can always be found on GameFAQs. ===================================================================== 2.0 Version History ===================================================================== Version 1.0: - Finally finished the Monster Arena and Dark Aeons sections. It's not nearly perfect yet, as I'm planning to add a Walkthrough section. If you see any mistakes in here and/or want to add something to the strategies, please e-mail me. Thanks :) Version 1.1: - Added info on how to get the Caladbolg in the "Getting What You Need" section. - Added a strategy for Th'uban without Ribbon, since NA players don't have access to it. Version 1.11: - Corrected some things in the Dark Yojimbo fight. For some reason, the info that was there said that Kozuka dispels positive statuses. That is just plain wrong. Now it is correct. Version 1.12: - Included a list of the sites that can host this FAQ. Version 2.12: - Finished the Walkthrough section. Finally, the FAQ is complete. It still has room for improvement, so any suggestions are greatly appreciated. - Removed the “Getting What You Need” section; all that was previously there will be explained in the Walkthrough itself. - Decided to add strategies for both the regular Tidus-Only challenge, and also the Tidus-Only No Customise Challenge. - Changed the strategy for Nemesis, as I found a better one. - Added a NA version Nemesis strategy, courtesy of ragnarokesper. - Changed the strategy for Dark Anima, as I found a better one. Version 2.13 - Made some very minor changes. ==================================================================== ===================================================================== 3.0 Introduction ===================================================================== Welcome to one of the many challenges available for Final Fantasy X. This guide presents strategies to beat the game, conquer the Monster Arena and defeat the Dark Aeons with just one character: Tidus. You should only try this challenge if you have completed the game at least once. It will be too difficult if you haven't done so yet. I wish you good luck if you are going to try this out. If you haven’t finished the game yet, don’t read any further, because this guide will contain Spoilers without warning! Don’t tell me I didn’t warn you. ===================================================================== ===================================================================== 4.0 Table of Contents ===================================================================== Copyright........................................................ 1.0 Version History.................................................. 2.0 Introduction..................................................... 3.0 Table of Contents................................................ 4.0 Rules............................................................ 5.0 Overdrives and Overdrive Modes................................... 6.0 General Tips..................................................... 7.0 Walkthrough...................................................... 8.0 Monster Arena.................................................... 9.0 Capturing...................................................... 9.1 Maxing Stats................................................... 9.2 Obtaining the Mark of Conquest................................. 9.3 Dark Aeons....................................................... 10.0 Credits.......................................................... 11.0 ===================================================================== ===================================================================== 5.0 RULES ===================================================================== - You may only use Tidus. - You may not activate any node on the Sphere Grid with the other characters. - To keep the difficulty level, try not to leave Tidus’ portion of the Sphere Grid until you beat BFA. You only need to leave Tidus’ portion of the Grid for the Sidequests. - In random battles, the other characters must try to Escape every turn they get. During most boss battles, this is not possible. Let them switch their weapons, so that they take normal damage from physical attacks. - You may not get the prizes for dodging bolts on the Thunder Plains. - You are not allowed to revive fallen party members. - You may buy weapons for other characters if you like. - You may keep a party member in your party for their stats or equipment, such as someone with an Initiative weapon. - Customise is not allowed. - Escaping is not allowed. (Optional, I added it to make the challenge more fun. Other characters may Escape, Tidus cannot.) - [No Encounters] is not allowed. (Also optional, I added it just because I added No Escape.) ===================================================================== ===================================================================== 6.0 Overdrives and Overdrive Modes ===================================================================== Overdrives: Tidus has four Overdrives, and all of them are pretty useful. - Spiral Cut: One slash for high damage against one enemy. You have it from the beginning of the game. - Slice & Dice: Six slashes for semi-low damage against random targets. Learned by using Spiral Cut 10 times (successful or not). - Energy Rain: One hit for high damage to all enemies. Learned by using any Overdrive 20 more times (successful or not). - Blitz Ace: Eight hits for low damage, then one final hit for high damage against one target. Learned after using any Overdrive 50 more times (successful or not). During the storyline, the ones you will use the most are Spiral Cut, Energy Rain (for training) and Blitz Ace (for bosses). Against the Dark Aeons, you will always use Slice & Dice. Overdrive Modes: There are lots of Overdrive Modes, but the only one that you will use during the storyline is Loner. Even for the sidequests, you will almost always use that one (except against Dark Shiva). Loner is simply awesome in Single Character Challenges. It takes 7 turns for it to charge your Overdrive completely. However, you can use Double or Triple Overdrive to reduce the amount of turns you’ll need. They reduce it to 4 and 3 turns, respectively. Tidus will learn Loner pretty fast. I strongly advise you to get it against Sinspawn Ammes, so you already have it for the rest of the game. You can get it later, however. This mode is also the best one to use against bosses. Sometimes, you need to use a lot of Overdrives just in one battle. If you have, say, Warrior equipped, and you can’t do a lot of damage, you will take a long time to get Overdrive again. With Loner, simply wait seven turns, and you can use your Overdrive again! (A perfect example of this is the Sinspawn Gui battle.) ===================================================================== ===================================================================== 7.0 General Tips ===================================================================== - Haste is your best friend in this challenge. Without this, the challenge would be MUCH harder. - Cheer. It raises Strength by one, and reduces physical damage by 1/15. The max amount of times it can be used is five. After five Cheers, you will have 5 more points of Strength, and physical damage done to you is reduced by 1/3. Using Cheer five times is recommended against most bosses. - Slow(ga). The name says it all. It slows down the enemy(ies), allowing you to have more turns before they attack again. If you Haste yourself and Slow the enemy, you will mostly have 4 or more turns before they attack again (depending on the enemy’s Agility stat). - Provoke. This may seem a crappy ability at first, but it can be lifesaving. For example: Tidus with the fully powered up Caladbolg uses Provoke against a Barbatos. You can’t lose except if you kill yourself, since all the Barbatos will do is his regular attack, which is evaded by Evade & Counter. - First Strike. This will allow you to have the first turn in battle, even if Ambushed. Recommended against every boss after getting it. - Always level up near a Save Sphere. This will prevent you from wasting some time training, only to be Ambushed and killed by enemies before you can even do anything. Of course, this isn’t that important in No Escape, since you have to fight all of the battles. - Always buy 99 Potions. These will be useful to heal you in-between battles. Especially useful if you’re doing No Escape. - Elemental-strike weapons. They help you killing some fiends much faster. ===================================================================== That about sums it up. Now, on to the main section of this guide! ===================================================================== 8.0 WALKTHROUGH ===================================================================== ========== Zanarkand ========== Watch the opening FMV, and you will realize how good this game is ^_^ Anyway, find Auron, and make your way to the first boss of the game, slicing Sinscales in half as you go. Have Auron change weapons to make sure he takes normal damage from the Sinscales’ attacks. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Sinspawn Ammes HP: 2400 This is pretty easy, as always. You have to use Auron’s Dragon Fang. This will kill all five Sinscales, even if you don’t do it correctly. Kill Auron with Tidus and switch weapons until you learn Loner Overdrive mode. Once you have it, attack the boss until it dies. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Save your game on the Save Sphere, and continue. Kill Sinscales until the Tanker becomes a target, then, destroy the Tanker. Meet Tidus’ younger self, and you’ll wake up alone, in a new world. ===== Baaj ===== Switch your Overdrive mode to Loner. Swim around, pick the 2 Potions and the 200 Gil, and compile the Al Bhed Primers in the Compilation Sphere. Make your way to the Save Sphere, save your game, and walk into the water, not forgetting to pick the Hi-Potion. Kill two Sahagins, and Geosgaeno will appear. Attack three times and the battle is over. Once you’re inside the Ruins, pick up the Withered Bouquet, the Flint, the Ether and the Hi-Potion. Save your game, light the fire, and the next boss fight will begin! --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Klikk HP: 1500 Overkill: 400 AP: 5/7 Another easy fight. Attack until Rikku joins your party. Have her Defend or attack herself, because she can’t switch weapons. Keep attacking with Tidus. Heal if your HP drops below 100. Use your Overdrive if you want, but it’s not needed. --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Al Bhed will carry you to their ship. ============= Al Bhed Ship ============= Talk to Rikku to learn how to use the Sphere Grid. Nothing you didn’t know already. Talk to the guy near the Save Sphere to get 3 Potions. Save your game, and go underwater. Fill your Overdrive if it isn’t full already. Kill the Piranhas, and fight the next boss. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Tros HP: 2200 Overkill: 600 AP: 8/12 Same as you have been doing until now: attack until your HP drops below 100, then use a Potion. This time, it requires a bit more strategy. When you deal 350 damage to Tros, it’ll hide behind a pillar. Now, you can use Stand By, but don’t do it. Instead, use Defend. This will reduce Nautilus Charge’s damage to 80. Heal if needed. Once you deal 350 more damage to Tros, it’ll hide again. Pincer Attack is now available, but you can’t use it, or you’d be cheating. Defend again. Keep attacking and healing and you will beat this boss easily. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Swim back to the ship, talk with Rikku. Sin will come and carry you to... ======= Besaid ======= Talk to the Aurochs to get some Gil and items. Follow Wakka to the village, go into the temple, go talk to Wakka, sleep, then go into the Temple again. Do the Cloister of Trials, doesn’t matter if you get the Destruction Sphere or not. Once you’re leaving the village, let Tidus attack the Dingo, Wakka attacks the Condor, and Lulu casts Thunder on the Water Flan. Against the first Garuda, let Valefor use Sonic Wings until the Garuda dies. Against the second Garuda, you have to use Dark Attack. After that, just attack until the Garuda dies. After these, there is another easy boss fight. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Kimahri HP: 750 Overkill: 300 AP: 3/4 Attack three times, then use Spiral Cut. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Fill your Overdrive using Loner, save your game, and enter the boat. ========== S.S. Liki ========== Go near Yuna, talk to Wakka, get 20 Potions if you don’t have that many yet by kicking the luggage, save your game, then go talk to Yuna again. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Sin HP: 2000 Overkill: 1000 AP: 10/15 Have Tidus switch his weapon, so that he gains AP from this fight, then you have two choices: You kill Sin with your characters, or you use Valefor. Tidus can’t hit Sin, so switch him out to avoid him taking any damage. I chose to do this with my characters, since I never liked aeons too much. Kill TWO Sinscales, not all three. When there is only one Sinscale left, have Lulu cast Fire, Wakka attack and Kimahri use Lancet to quickly defeat Sin. If someone has low HP, switch Yuna in to heal him/her. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Tidus falls into the water and Wakka goes down to save him. Another boss appears. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Sinspawn Echuilles HP: 2000 Overkill: 400 AP: 12/18 Ignore the Sinscales and focus your main attacks on the big guy instead. Use Cheer 5 times to ensure you’ll get Overkill at the end of the fight. Attack until your HP goes below 150, then use a Potion. After all, you got 20 of them for a reason... Once you think it has less than 400 HP, finish it with Spiral Cut. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ======= Kilika ======= Save your game. Watch the sending. Buy a Sensor weapon. Head for the Woods after you wake up. Use Lancet with Kimahri on the first Ragora you encounter (you’re forced to), and then kill it with Tidus’ attacks. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Enemies Found: Dinonix: Kill it with one hit. Killer Bee: Kill it with one hit, or use Spiral Cut as Tidus will miss sometimes. Yellow Element: I suggest you just Escape from this battle or you will waste some Potions. If you don’t want to Escape, just attack it and heal with Potions when needed. When you get Haste, however, it gets easier. Ragora: You should wait until you have Haste, but it’s possible without. The best way is to use Spiral Cut, followed by two normal attacks. --------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: Don’t use your Antidotes/Remedies while training. You will need them for the next bosses. Train until your Strength is at 18, talk to Luzzu to get 4 Antidotes; these will prove to be very useful. Fight Lord Ochu. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Lord Ochu HP: 4696 Overkill: 800 AP: 40/60 Begin by casting Haste on yourself, then use Cheer 5 times, using Antidotes as needed. After that is out of the way, start attacking. You should be doing 400+ damage with a normal attack. Switch to your Sensor weapon to see how many HP he has left. If it’s more than 900, keep attacking. If he’s at less than 900, use Spiral Cut to Overkill Lord Ochu. Make sure you have at least one (or two, to make the boss easier) Poison-curing item in your inventory after this fight. (You need either an Antidote or a Remedy for the next boss.) --------------------------------------------------------------------- You will get either 2 MP Spheres (common) or 2 HP Spheres (rare). Either one is fine, though the HP Spheres would be better. If you want, you can reset and keep trying until you get the HP Spheres. I got the MP Spheres, unfortunately. Talk to Luzzu and to a Crusader to get an Elixir and the Nulblaze Shield, respectively. Head to the Temple steps. Save your game. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Sinspawn Genaux HP: 3000 Overkill: 900 AP: 48/72 Cast Haste, use Cheer one time, then attack each tentacle twice to kill them. After this, use Cheer four more times, to make sure you’ll get Overkill at the end. Make sure to use Potions as needed. (You should still have lots of them left from the 20 you got on the S.S. Liki.) Attack Genaux’s shell until it comes out. Now, it has an attack pattern. Here it is: Venom --> Water --> Staccato This makes the boss predictable. Use an Antidote after Venom and keep attacking until your HP is less than 150. The best time to heal is, almost always, after Staccato. Keep attacking until Genaux has less than 900 HP, then use Spiral Cut for the Overkill! --------------------------------------------------------------------- Proceed to the Temple, save your game, and do everything you need to do to get on with the storyline. When you’re doing the Cloister of Trials, it would be helpful to get the Red Armlet, as it sells for a nice 3000-something Gil. Make sure you have at least 3050 Gil before boarding the S.S. Winno. When you’re on the S.S Winno, make sure you get the Jecht Shot; this will be a huge help to get the Strength Sphere during the Blitzball tournament. ===== Luca ===== In Luca, at last! Go to the locker room, and Yuna will come to you. Meet Kimahri’s “friends” and something happened: Yuna was kidnapped! Go to the docks, where you will find O’aka. BUY THE STUNNING STEEL! It is very important against some bosses. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Enemies Found: Worker: Cast Haste on yourself, slow them with the Stunning Steel, then attack them to death. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Get at least 20 Hi-Potions before proceeding. These might save your life later in the challenge. Enter the Al Bheds’ Ship, and be ready to fight another boss. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Oblitzerator HP: 6000 Overkill: 600 AP: 36/54 Start the fight like you always do: Haste and 5x Cheer. Slow Oblitzerator with the Stunning Steel. Keep attacking. If Oblitzerator counters with Blind Ball, use the opportunity to heal with a Hi-Potion or switch weapons. Blind Ball’s Darkness has effect for only one turn, so using a Hi-Potion is a good idea. Make sure you have your Stunning Steel equipped, and when Oblitzerator is at 900-1000 HP, use Spiral Cut for Overkill (as always). --------------------------------------------------------------------- After finding out about Yuna’s lineage, you will have to go play some Blitzball. Save before the game. Make sure you beat the Goers to get a Strength Sphere, it will prove to be very useful later on. After the game, though... --------------------------------------------------------------------- Forced Fight: Sahagin Chiefs HP: 200 Cast Haste on yourself, then attack the Sahagins that are about to get a turn; this way, you’ll take as little damage as possible. Use a Potion if your HP falls below 150. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Storyline, blah blah blah... Search the docks for a HP and Magic Sphere. Buy 99 Potions. They are especially useful if you’re doing No Escape. After some more talking and some laughing, you’ll be on the next area. ================= Mi’ihen Highroad ================= Forced fight, have Auron kill the Raldo. Save your game, and you will need to do some levelling here. Get the Ice Brand on this screen. It’s behind some ruins. It will be useful against the Bombs here. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Enemy Party Encounters: Mi'ihen Fang: Attack him once to kill them. Dual Horn: Cast Haste on yourself, then Slow him with the Stunning Steel. Watch out, it hits hard with Gore. It would be wise to Defend before his turns. Raldo: Attack him two or three times to kill him. Defend before its turns; it hits hard. Floating Eye: Attack him once or use Spiral Cut. White Element: If you have a Firestrike weapon, equip it. If not, don’t worry. Cast Haste and attack him until you have low HP. Heal with Potions. Bomb: With the Nulblaze Shield and critical HP, you can’t die. Hope that you can kill him in three hits; the Ice Brand is recommended here. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Once you are strong enough, proceed to the Travel Agency. Some more story (so boring after you have beaten the game more than three times)... Level up until you can place the Strength Sphere on the Sphere Grid. (Most likely just after the Evasion +3 node.) This will raise your Strength to 23, enough to kill Chocobo Eater easily. You should have 920 HP by now. Hopefully you have a Firestrike weapon from the levelling up you’ve been doing, but if you don’t, it’s okay. I will type this strategy assuming you don’t have it. However, if you’re playing No Escape, it might be a good idea to get it. I will base some strategies for random encounters with it. Equip your Stunning Steel and go save the chocobos! --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Chocobo Eater HP: 10,000 Overkill: 800 AP: 90/135 Begin by casting Haste, as always. Now, try to Slow the Chocobo Eater with your Stunning Steel. When you manage to do it, use Cheer five times. Hope that the Chocobo Eater doesn’t point at Tidus and say “You’re next!” on his first turn, or you’ll have to Defend. (On my game, his first attack was a regular attack on Tidus.) Once you’ve used Cheer five times, use Spiral Cut to make him fall. Fill your Overdrive by switching weapons (kill your allies if you must). When your Overdrive is full, attack him normally. This will push him back. Use Spiral Cut again, fill your Overdrive again, and attack him again. Keep repeating this until he dies, or until you push him off the cliff. --------------------------------------------------------------------- After defeating Chocobo Eater, you will get a free Chocobo ride. Go to Mi’ihen Oldroad and get the Fortune Sphere. Proceed to the next area, with the help of a certain blue-haired Maester. =================== Mushroom Rock Road =================== Go to the Command Center, fleeing from battles if you don’t want to waste Potions. In case you still want to fight the battles, try to waste as little MP as possible. Heal with Potions after the battles. Equip the Stunning Steel and the Nulblaze Shield. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Enemies Found: Raptor: Hit it once. Red Element: Cast Haste and attack it with the Ice Brand. With low HP and the Nulblaze Shield you can’t die. Gandarewa: Attack it or use Spiral Cut to kill it. Garuda: Cast Haste first, then Slow the Garuda with the Stunning Steel. After that, just attack. Also, it is wise to Defend before Garuda’s turns. Lamashtu: Attack him three times or use one Spiral Cut to kill it. Funguar: Pretty easy. Take the Funguar out with a single hit from a Firestrike weapon. Don’t worry, your Nulblaze Shield prevents you from dying. --------------------------------------------------------------------- When you’re on the Command Center, buy the Avenger. Make sure you have 1420 HP, or the next boss will be somewhat hard. Equip the Avenger, buy about 30 Antidotes to play safe, make sure you have full Overdrive, then tell the guy you’re ready. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Sinspawn Gui HP: 12,000 Overkill: 800 AP: 400/600 Begin by casting Haste. Then, use Cheer 5 times. It is important that the first attacks don’t hit Tidus, so that you have time to use Cheer. When you’re done with that, use Spiral Cut, but make sure you Defend before Gui’s punches (he mostly alternates between Punch and Demi when he has high HP). Before Venom, use a Hi-Potion. After Venom, use an Antidote, cast Haste and use another Hi-Potion to get you to full HP. Switch weapons, remembering to Defend before Gui’s turns, and use Spiral Cut to attack. (With 5 Cheers, Spiral Cut should be doing around 2300 damage.) I mostly use one Spiral Cut between Venoms. That way, I’m sure I’ll survive. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Use Seymour’s magic to kill Sinspawn Gui in the second fight. One spell takes out the head, and four or five more kill the body. =============== Djose Highroad =============== After the cutscenes, you’re on the Highroad. Talk to everyone along the way to get various items, including Yuna’s Soft Ring (Stoneproof). Always have her in the party. It will be easier to survive against Basilisks this way. Equip the Stunning Steel and the Nulblaze Shield. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Enemies Found: Bite Bug: Attack it once or use Spiral Cut. Basilisk: Cast Haste on yourself. Kill your allies or have them Escape: this way you won’t see Stone Gaze anymore. Slow the Basilisk with the Stunning Steel and attack him to death. Garm: Hit him once. Bunyip: Cast Haste. Hit him two or three times to kill it. Defending before its turns is advised. Simurgh: Kill it with a single hit. Unlike most other birds, the Simurgh has 0 Evasion, so you’ll always hit it. (Credits to ragnarokesper for this info.) Snow Flan: Cast Haste on yourself and Slow the Flan. Switch to your Firetstrike weapon if you have one and attack it to death. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Proceed to the Temple. Restock on Potions and save your game. Do the Cloisters, but don’t bother with the Destruction Sphere treasure. It is a useless Magic Sphere. When you’re done with this place, proceed to the... ========= Moonflow ========= Not much to do here... Make sure you get the X-Potion and the Magic Defence Sphere. They might save you later. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Enemies Found (only new ones will be mentioned): Ochu: Cast Haste on yourself, switch to your Firestrike weapon, then start attacking. Before his turn, Defend. If his attack Poisons you, use an Antidote. Keep attacking until he dies. --------------------------------------------------------------------- When you reach the South Wharf, restock on Potions and buy any weapons you might want (though nothing you can buy here is really required to get through the game). After that, equip the Stunning Steel, save your game, and board the shoopuf. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Extractor HP: 4000 Overkill: 600 AP: 660/990 Cast Haste on yourself, hit Extractor a few times (Slow him with the Stunning Steel if you want), switch to a Lightningstrike weapon if you have one, and attack until the boss dies. Overkill with Slice & Dice or Spiral Cut. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Make your way to Guadosalam. On your way, you’ll meet Rikku. Don’t forget to pick up the treasure chests on your way. =========== Guadosalam =========== NOTE: FROM NOW ON, EVERY BOSS WILL HAVE A CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY! CREDITS FOR THOSE GO TO BBK_KID!!!! Now that Rikku has joined the party, you can Customise. Big deal. Too bad we’re playing NC. ^_^ Go into Seymour’s mansion, watch the cutscenes. After that, go to the Farplane and talk to everyone there. When you talk to Wakka, the Brotherhood will gain some new abilities (Strength +10%, Waterstrike and Sensor). When you’re done with the story, move on to the... =============== Thunder Plains =============== Make a run for the Travel Agency, escaping battles as you go. If you’re playing No Escape, well, it will take you some skill (and probably more than one attempt) to do it. Heal with Potions in-between battles, and, if you need to, use Hi-Potions inside battles. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Enemies found: Aerouge: Hit it once to kill it. Lightningproof makes you invincible. Buer: Hit it once to kill it. Haste is a big help here, as you have to kill him before he Confuses you. (Once you are Confused, you will probably die, though that doesn’t always happen.) Always kill this one first! Gold Element: Haste, and attack until it dies. Again, the Yellow Shield makes you invincible. Kusariqqu: Hit it twice to kill it. He hits hard, so it would probably be a good idea to Defend before its turns. Larvae: Yellow Shield. ‘Nuff said. Melusine: Hit it once to kill it. Iron Giant: Cast Haste, then attack him with Spiral Cuts, and regular attacks while the other characters are alive. He always attacks the person with the lowest HP, so you can be sure he’ll kill the other characters first. Once the other two characters die (or Escape), Defend before its turns. Qactuar: You won’t hit them too often, so you can only kill him with Overdrives. One Spiral Cut or Slice & Dice will kill it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Once you leave the Thunder Plains, you’ll get into what is possibly the hardest part of the game (in my opinion, of course)... =========== Macalania =========== Ugh, I hate this place. The monsters here are pretty tough, so watch out. Keep your Lightningstrike weapon equipped at all times. Also, equip any Water Ward/SOS Nultide armour you may have. (I didn’t have any, so don’t worry if you don’t have one either.) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Enemies found: Blue Element: Cast Haste, and attack it with your Lightningstrike weapon. I think you can also Slow it. After Watera, it might be wise to use a Hi-Potion. Murussu: Two or three hits with Lightningstrike will do it. Defend before its turns. Iguion: Hit it once to kill it. Wasp: Hit it once to kill it. It might be wise to use Spiral Cut if the Wasp is accompanied by two Blue Elements, because Poison plus two Wateras means death... or close to it, anyway. Xiphos: Cast Haste and attack it to death. Chimera: Cast Haste, Slow the Chimera and attack it. Meggido Flame is its most dangerous attack. You can nullify Thundara with the Yellow Shield. After some hits, the Chimera will die. --------------------------------------------------------------------- When you find O’aka, buy the Sonic Steel. I repeat: BUY THE SONIC STEEL!!! It is crucial against some bosses later on. In fact, you’ll want to start every battle with that weapon equipped until the end of the game. I will not mention it later, but you should always assume you’re supposed to equip the Sonic Steel unless I say otherwise. Equip the Yellow Shield, save your game, then fight the next boss. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Spherimorph HP: 12,000 Overkill: 2000 AP: 3240/4860 An easy fight. Attack once to see what his weakness is. If he counters with Thunder, you’re set. If not, you have to attack again with an element he’s weak to. You should have weapons of every element by now. Only then will his weakness change (thanks to yojizu for reminding me of this). Once he counters with Thunder, you should just keep using Blitz Ace until Spherimorph dies. Your Yellow Shield will ensure you’ll survive. For his attacks, you can simply use a Potion (for his regular attack), or a Hi-Potion (for Press). --------------------------------------------------------------------- After the fight, equip the Sonic Steel again and leave the woods. Go into the Travel Agency and restock on Potions and Hi-Potions (buy 25 or so). Save your game and go outside to fight the next boss. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Crawler HP: 16,000 Overkill: 4000 AP: 4400/6600 You have no access to Haste in this battle, due to the Negator. When the fight starts, switch your weapon to the Stunning Steel. Now, try to Slow him. When he is, switch to a Lightningstrike weapon, and use Cheer 5 times, remembering to Defend before his turns to reduce Gatling Gun’s damage. Once you’ve Cheered 5 times, start attacking him, healing as needed, and Defending. You should also use Spiral Cut for some extra damage. When his HP is low, try to Overkill him with Blitz Ace. (I wasn’t strong enough to get an Overkill here...) CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Weapon - Hopefully Lightningstrike, or at least Piercing (Hopefully you can put both together). NO Brotherhood, as Crawler halves damage from all Elements but Thunder. Also, the Stunning Steel and Sonic Steel. Armors - the best HP or Defence bonus you have. Okay. Let’s kick some machina! Wait, why isn’t there an Overkill for Negator? Well, Silly Billy, the Negator can’t be reached by Tidus! Anyway. You start out first, because of the Sonic Steel. Switch your weapon to the Stunning Steel and attack Crawler until it is Slowed. (Why no Haste? Negator disables all magic, that’s why.) Then cast Cheer x5, switch to your Lightingstrike (or Piercing) weapon, and unload with physical attacks. All Crawler will do is attack with Gattling Gun, which does 8 hits on the party, each hit doing about 50 damage. (If everyone is dead, it will do a total of 350-400 damage to Tidus -- No biggie) If you need to heal, toss a Hi-Potion. When his HP gets low, Use Blitz Ace - This might Overkill him. I don’t remember. I’ll have it in next update, hopefully. Hopefully you’ll get Alchemy for Tidus, though it’s not needed. Cheer (not the skill) if you did. --------------------------------------------------------------------- You will ride the snowmobile with either Lulu or Rikku. I got Rikku :) Once you enter the temple, get the treasures, buy items if you need to, and go watch Jyscal’s Sphere. Now there are battles outside the Temple. If your Strength is not 30 yet, I’d advise you to make it so. (If you’re not playing No Escape, and don’t want to bother to level up, I suggest you proceed to the boss right away, but it will be harder.) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Enemies found: Evil Eye: Hit it once to kill it. I advise you to use Spiral Cut. Ice Flan: Cast Haste on yourself, then Slow on the Flan. Switch to your Firestrike weapon and attack the Flan to death. Snow Wolf: Hit it once to kill it. Mafdet: Some hits with Lightningstrike will do it. Haste and Defend are advised. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Fill your Overdrive and equip some weapon as long as it isn’t the Sonic Steel. I prefer the Brotherhood. Also make sure you have 30 Strength. (If you have 30 Strength, you should also have Slowga, which will make the fight easier.) Also, equip the Yellow Shield. I hate the next battle... It may take you some attempts, depending on your luck and skill. I managed to do it on my first attempt. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Seymour, part one HP: 3000 Cast Haste, then Slowga. After that, use Talk, then use Cheer 5 times. Hope that the Guado Guardians don’t use Shremedy on Tidus, or you’re good as dead. Two hits will kill one Guado Guardian. Just do the same for the other. Once they’re dead, keep healing until Seymour uses Blizzara again. Attack him once and he will summon Anima. Boss: Anima HP: 18,000 Overkill: 1400 AP: 2500/3750 Attack once, then use Blitz Ace. If you want, you can use Blitz Ace right away, but better be safe and use an attack first to make sure Blitz Ace will kill her. Boss: Seymour, part two HP: 6000 Overkill: 1400 AP: 2000/3000 Seymour will use Multi-Thundara. Laugh at him as he deals 0 damage to you. Attack him twice to kill him. CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Weapons- Anything but the Sonic Steel. Brotherhood is probably your best bet. (Unless you played Blitzball and won 5 Supreme Gems, and customized Strength+20%, but that’s just stupid.50 Blitz games for 5% more damage?) Armors- Lightningproof and any other anti-element armor. The Nulblaze Shield might save your life if Seymour gets you to low HP, and his next attack is Fira. Equipping Kimahri with the Red Armlet from Kilika (If you got it and haven’t sold it) is a good idea. (He’ll survive one spell, so it will take Seymour longer to kill off the other party members and focus on Tidus.) Boss: Seymour, part one At the start of the Battle, Seymour will cast Shell on himself, and the Guardians will cast Protect. Then it’s Tidus’s turn. Cast Haste, Slowga, and Talk to Seymour. Use your next turns to cast Cheer x5. After that, attack one Guado. He’ll heal himself for 1000, but it won’t be enough to save him from another attack. Do the same on the other Guardian. Now only Seymour is left, casting Blizzara, Thundara, Watera, and Fira in that order. Thundara does 0 damage due to Lightningproof. Fira also can be avoided if Tidus is at low HP and has the Nulblaze Shield equipped. Once the guardians are dead, wait for Seymour to use Blizzara (If you have any other Element-Proof, you can wait for him to use the spell before that one), and attack him to force him under 3000 HP, and he’ll Summon Anima. Boss: Anima Anima will go into Boost, which means she takes 1.5 times more damage. Her next turn is Pain, which is instant death, and if it hits Tidus, it’s Game Over. So, how do we kill her before Pain? Simple. Attack once to bring her HP low enough for Blitz Ace to kill her. Boss: Seymour, part two Oh God, he’s back, and easier than ever! NOOOOOOOO! He’ll cast Multi-Thundara, which is 0 damage to Tidus! (It will kill Yuna or Kimarhi, too, if you wanted to know) …………Pitiful. Attack him twice. Overkill. You don’t even need to slow him again. --------------------------------------------------------------------- After the boss, save your game. You don’t want to do that again. Now, another of those ‘fun’ parts: the Cloister of Trials. Once you finish it, leave the Temple, and the Guado will chase you. You will have to fight at least two battles. If you’re not playing No Escape, well, you know how to use Flee. If you’re playing NE, you’ll have to fight them. Use Spiral Cut to kill the Guardian and attack the little fiends to death. (If you’re strong, you can kill them all with Energy Rain.) Go back to the place where you fought Crawler. Save. Another boss awaits you. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Wendigo HP: 18,000 Overkill: 1432 AP: 2000/3000 Cast Haste on yourself, then use Energy Rain to eliminate the Guados before they can cast Berserk on Wendigo. Hope that Wendigo’s first hit doesn’t target Tidus, as it will most likely kill you. On your next turns, cast Cheer 5 times. After that, switch to some Sensor weapon. Use Spiral Cut to attack, and finish him off with Blitz Ace. Don’t forget to Defend before his turns, as his attacks are very deadly if you don’t. CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Weapons- You best Attacking Weapon (Can you say Brotherhood?) and the Sonic Steel. Armor- The best HP or Defence Boost you have. Whoa. This thing’s gone Primal! Okay… that was stupid. Forgive me. Anyway, you have the first turn with the Sonic Steel, as always. Cast Haste, and then use Energy Rain to take out the Guardians. Now Wendigo will get a turn. Pray Tidus isn’t hit, as he can kill Tidus in a hit. After this, Cheer five times, switch to the Brotherhood and Defend before Wendigo’s turn. Heal with Hi-Potions as necessary. After 5 Cheers, Attack until you have a full Overdrive, and then use Spiral Cut. Overkill with Blitz Ace. Wow. That was easy. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Storyline, do all the necessary stuff until Sin takes you to... =============== Bikanel Island =============== Pick up the Remedies in the water, take a few steps and you’ll have a forced fight. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Forced Fight: Zu HP: 12,000 Overkill: 12,000 AP: 1200/1800 Cast Haste on yourself, cast Slow on the Zu. Switch your weapon to the Avenger, then attack away, remembering to Defend before Zu’s turns. You can also Flee if you want. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Enemies Found: Zu: Cast Haste on yourself, and switch to the Avenger. Defend before the Zu’s turns and attack at all other opportunities. Sand Worm: Cast Haste on yourself and switch your weapon to the Brotherhood. Every turn you get, use it to attack. If you get on low HP, use a Hi-Potion. Cactuar: Use Spiral Cut for Overkill. ALWAYS kill these! If you Overkill them, you get 12,000 (!!) AP, enough to get you 2 Sphere Levels. Sand Wolf: Attack it once. Alcyone: Attack it once or use an Overdrive to kill it. Mushussu: Attack it some times or use an Overdrive. Haste and Defend are advised. Mech Guard: One hit with Lightningstrike does it. Mech Gunner: Two hits with Lightningstrike will kill this one. If you get SOS Reflect, do a little victory dance. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Take a few more steps and you’ll find Wakka. Proceed to the next screen, where, on the right, you will find Kimahri. Move on to the next screen where you will find Rikku. Save and proceed. Make your way to Home. But before that, go into both Sandragora pits for some nice items. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Forced Fight: Sandragora HP: 12,750 Overkill: 1432 AP: 540/1080 This one got me thinking... Then I realised a foolproof way to beat it. Equip a Lightningstrike weapon, and your Lightningproof shield. Now, Confusion does nothing to you, except making you waste a turn. Start by casting Haste. Now, use Spiral Cut. Continuously change weapons and use Spiral Cut when it’s available. It should take 3 or 4 Spiral Cuts to kill the Sandragora. --------------------------------------------------------------------- After fighting all three Sandragoras (one for the three Megalixirs, another for two Teleport Spheres, and the mandatory one), you can enter Home. ===== Home ===== Save your game, and make your way to the next fight. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Forced Fight: 3x Bomb + Guado Guardian HP: 2200 : 2600 Overkill: 1432 : 1432 AP: 620/1240 : 540/1080 Cast Haste, then kill the Guado with Spiral Cut or two normal attacks. Equip the Nulblaze Shield, and you’ve just won the battle. Cast Cheer once or twice, equip your Ice Brand, and attack each of the Bombs once to kill them. You may want to fill your Overdrive in this battle. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Follow the party and you’ll get into another forced fight. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Forced Fight: 2x Dual Horn + Guado Guardian HP: 3795 : 2600 Overkill: 1432 : 1432 AP: 820/1230 : 540/1080 This one is harder. Double Gore = almost death! Your best bet is using Energy Rain right away to kill them all. (If the Dual horns don’t die, one hit on each will definitely kill them.) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Go to the Save Sphere and heal your HP. Save if you want. Enter the door on the left of the screen and you’ll get into another fight. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Forced Fight: 2x Chimera + Guado Guardian HP: 9000 : 2600 Overkill: 1432 : 1432 AP: 2000/3000 : 540/1080 Cast Haste, use Spiral Cut on the Guado Guardian. The Chimeras will probably attack you, but they most likely won’t kill you. Provoke them both, equip your Yellow Shield (with Lightningproof) and you can’t die. Cheer 5 times and attack them some times to Overkill them. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Go down the stairs and you’ll find a Level 4 Key Sphere and a Level 2 Key Sphere. Enter the door on the right of the screen. Some storyline, and soon you’ll be in your Airship. After doing all the necessary stuff, buy 99 Potions and as many Hi-Potions as you want from Rin, and get the 99 Underdog’s Secrets. Sell them all (if you’re playing NC; if you’re not, sell only about 30). Go on Deck and fight Evrae. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Evrae HP: 32,000 Overkill: 2000 AP: 5400/8100 I was expecting this guy to be pretty hard, but I beat him on my first try. Start by casting Haste. After that, Pull Back. After you’re far away, use Cheer 5 times, as always. Switch to your Sensor weapon. Move In, and use Blitz Ace. Pull Back and fill your Overdrive (if Cid uses his missiles, even better). Move back in, and use Blitz Ace again. If Cid has used Guided Missiles twice, this will trigger Haste. Switch to the Avenger now. Counter him until he has low HP; finish him off with Blitz Ace. (NOTE: BBK_Kid and I thought it would be best to use this strategy for both regular TO and TONC.) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Right after the fight, you’ll have some more battles to fight. If you lose, you have to fight Evrae again, so make sure you don’t lose. Re-equip the Sonic Steel. Always heal your HP with Potions between fights. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Forced Fight #1: 2x Riffle Monk + Flamethrower Monk HP: 1400 : 1400 Overkill: 2100 : 2100 AP: 420/840 : 420/840 Kill two of them with a single hit, then use the other to fill your Overdrive. Finish him off after that. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Forced Fight #2: 2x Flamethrower Monk + YKT-63 HP: 1400 : 4200 Overkill: 2100 : 2108 AP Flamethrower Monk: 420/840 AP YKT-63: 1870/2805 Use Spiral Cut to kill the YKT. Attack one of the monks to kill him. Fill your Overdrive. Kill the monk. You may want to cast Haste to make this faster, but it’s not needed. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Forced Fight #3: 2x Flamethrower Monks + Riffle Monk HP: 1400 : 1400 Overkill: 2100 : 2100 AP: 420/840 : 420/840 Attack each of them once. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Forced Fight #4: 2x Flamethrower Monk + YKT-63 HP: 1400 : 4200 Overkill: 2100 : 2108 AP: 420/840 : 1870/2805 Same as the previous fight against this party. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Forced Fight#5: 2x Riffle Monk + YAT-99 HP: 1400 : 2700 Overkill: 2100 : 2108 AP: 420/840 : 1870/2805 Cast Haste, attack each of the monks once, switch to the Brotherhood (it has Waterstrike, and the YAT is weak to water). Attack the YAT to kill it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Go down the stairs and save before going to another Cloister of Trials. After you do it, you’ll get arrested, and your party will be split in two. ============= Via Purifico ============= This can be one of the hardest parts of the challenge, but, if you’re lucky, you won’t have any battle until you get Auron on your party and can save again. Make your way to the second teleporter and go up. You’ll find Auron here. Save. Go to the path leading to Isaaru. You’ll have some forced fights on the way. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Forced Fight: Maze Larva HP: 2222 Summon Bahamut, attack once, use Thundaga. You win. If you fight another one of these, do the same. --------------------------------------------------------------------- You will soon find Isaaru, who will want to fight you. How foolish of him. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Grothia HP: 8000 Summon Shiva. Use Nulblaze. Hellfire will do no damage and will fill your Overdrive. If you use Diamond Dust now, you will probably kill Grothia. If not, attack once to definitely kill him. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Pterya HP: 12,000 Summon Bahamut. Use Firaga until you run out of MP, then attack normally. Shield before Energy Ray, it will deal pitiful damage this way. Keep attacking and you’ll win. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Spathi HP: 20,000 Summon Ixion. Attack until Spathi is about to use Mega Flare. Use Shield, so that it deals around 400 damage. Keep attacking until you’re about to be hit by Mega Flare again. Shield again. Heal with Thundara if needed and keep attacking. You will probably kill him before the third Mega Flare. Not a big deal if you get hit by a third Mega Flare, as long as you Shield and remember to heal. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ========================== Via Purifico – Underwater ========================== Save. Move on to the next Save Sphere; save again if you want. Move on and you’ll fight everyone’s favourite undead enemy. If you have any random encounters in the way, cast Haste on yourself, switch to Lightningstrike and attack away. I’m not even going to bother making a section for them, since you’ll probably only have one encounter (at most), anyway. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Evrae Altana HP: 16,384 Overkill: 2000 AP: 5800/8700 Haha, this guy makes me laugh. Throw two Phoenix Downs at it. <> (This one doesn’t even deserve a Customization-Allowed Strategy.) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Move on, picking the Avenger and the Rematch up while you’re going. They sell for some good money, if I remember correctly. =========== Highbridge =========== --------------------------------------------------------------------- Enemies found: YAT-99: You have to kill the other enemies before being able to target this one. One or two hits with Waterstrike will finish it off. YKT-63: Two hits with Waterstrike will finish it off. Be sure to always kill them first, as they use Thrust Kick when they are the last remaining fiend in the battle. Warrior Monk: One hit and he’s dead. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Your party is together again. Not like it matters, since the only character you need is Tidus. Anyway, some cutscenes later, you’ll have to cross the Highbridge to be able to fight the next boss. Save before fighting Natus. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Seymour Natus HP: 36,000 Overkill: 3500 AP: 6300/9450 Cast Haste, use Talk, then use Cheer five times. Once you’ve done that, get Seymour to as close to 24,000 HP as possible, remembering to heal any damage you take. Each Multi-spell does around 2200 damage total, plus about 350 from Morti’s spell. Once you get Seymour to ~24,000 HP, wait until after he has used Multi-Thundara. Make sure you have 2600 HP or more by now. Use Blitz Ace or Energy Rain to make Natus skip his Break phase. Now, he will use Flare (about 2400 damage), and Morti will use Cura on Seymour (about 1200 healing). After you’re hit by Flare, use three Hi-Potions (or a Mega Potion and a Hi-Potion) to heal. Wait until you have full Overdrive, and Overkill with Blitz Ace. CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Weapon- Sonic Steel, and Brotherhood. (If you haven’t guessed, before every forced fight, you should equip the Sonic Steel; the only exception is the first Seymour.) Armor- Lightning or any other Element-proof. Why won’t this guy die? Okay, let’s try this again, shall we? Seymour has three Phases depending on his HP- 36,000-24,000 HP - In this Phase, he casts Multi-Spells in the same order as the last time you fought him. Each Spell does about 1100 damage. Mortibody Casts 1st level elemental spells on the entire party for about ~250-300 damage. 23,999 HP-12,000 HP- Seymour Casts Break, which Petrifies a character. Morti then uses Shattering Claw to Shatter the Character. 11,999 HP- 0 HP- Seymour Casts Flare for about 2600 damage. And Morti cast Cura on Seymour, healing him for about 1200. So, how do we defeat him? Simple. Start off by casting Haste, Talking to Seymour, and cast Cheer x5. Seymour will attack the party with Multi- Spells. Hope for them to hit Yuna and Kimarhi first. If a spell hits Tidus, toss a Hi-Potion, and keep Cheering. After you’re done Cheering, Attack Seymour until one hit will force him under 24,000 HP. Then use Blitz Ace, and he’ll skip the Break Phase, which is the most dangerous one. Now Seymour will cast Flare for about 2500 Damage. No matter what, heal fully after this -- You can only survive one Flare. In the meantime, attack Seymour until you can Overkill him with Blitz Ace. Almost as easy as last time. --------------------------------------------------------------------- After this fight, you will be in Macalania again. Save, and go to where Yuna is. Proceed with the storyline and soon you’ll end up in the Calm Lands. =========== Calm Lands =========== Make your way to the Travel Agency at the center of the Calm Lands. On your way, you’ll find a shop. Buy the Buckler there. It has Magic Counter and will be important against Flux. Save when you get to the Travel Agency. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Enemies found: Malboro: Cast Haste on yourself, switch to the Avenger and attack until you’ve attacked him six times. If he is still not dead, let counters kill him, as a seventh hit would trigger Bad Breath, which almost always leads to a Game Over. If for some reason you use a Firestrike weapon, know that any Fire-elemental attack will add two “points” to Malboro’s counter, so you can only attack three times before triggering Bad Breath. Coeurl: The most dangerous enemy in this area (and probably in the whole game... not counting bosses, of course). You have to kill it before it uses Blaster on you. Cast Haste and throw everything you’ve got at it. Spiral Cut is very useful here. Mech Scouter: One or two attacks with Lightningstrike will do it. Chimera Brain: Cast Provoke on it and switch to your Lightningproof shield. You can’t lose. Nebiros: Use Spiral Cut, as he is hard to hit. Skoll: Attack him once to kill it. Anacondaur: First thing you have to do after casting Haste is killing off your other two characters (or have them escape). Now you can’t get hit by Stone Gaze. I haven’t tested Slowga, but I’m pretty sure it works, so use it as well. (If it doesn’t work, please correct me.) Then, just attack them to death. Flame Flan: Equip your Nulblaze Shield. You win. Shred: Cast Haste on yourself and Slow on the opponent. Defend before its turns and kill it with regular attacks. Use Counter-Attack if you want, it makes things easier. Ogre: Cast Haste on yourself and switch to your Firestrike weapon. Attack him two or three times to kill it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Go to the North-western part of the Calm Lands. You’ll find the Chocobo trainer there. Tell her you want to train a chocobo, and succeed in her first challenge (which is not a challenge at all ^_^). Now you’ll be able to ride chocobos. Take one to Remiem Temple, and do the Chocobo Race there. Win it, and you’ll get the Cloudy Mirror. Go to Macalania and upgrade it to the Celestial Mirror. (Check the Ultimate Weapons FAQ on this site if you don’t know how to do this.) Go back to the Calm Lands and tell the Chocobo Trainer you want to train a chocobo. Do all challenges she asks you to, and beat her in a race. This allows you to get the Caladbolg. (Again, if you don’t know how to do this, check another FAQ.) While you’re here, you might as well get the Sun Sigil. If you don’t get it now, you’ll have to come back later to get it. Remember that your time must be LOWER than 0:0.0. Getting exactly 0:0.0 WILL NOT get you the Sigil. Some tips (credits to GangstaL for this): - dodging should always have top priority, don't go for risky balloons; - use the analog stick to steer, it allows you to make sharper turns; - get a hang of the first stretch, it's vital for the outcome of the race (learn which balloons are in your reach); - using the trainer as a shield has never worked for me, she'll get all your balloons; - remember that the birds alternate their target between you and the trainer; - dodge as late as possible, you'll go out of your way less and get a faster time; - try anticipating the camera's movements, you often miss balloons because you're trying to correct your course while this isn't necessary; - if you get hit a lot at the very last stretch, try taking the small path to the left which lies slightly lower than the rest of the plains, the birds won't come there. After you have the Caladbolg (and the Sun Sigil if you chose to get it now), move on and exit the Calm Lands. Save and prepare to fight a very hard boss. () --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Defender X HP: 64,000 Overkill: 4060 AP: 6600/9900 Use Provoke on him. Use Spiral Cut, then switch weapons until you have Overdrive again. Use Spiral Cut over and over again. Use Cheer 5 times if you want. CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Weapon - Evade & Counter and Piercing -- Just in Case. (If you don’t have a weapon with 2 free slots, have a Weapon with Evade & Counter.) Armor - Doesn’t Matter Cast Haste, and Provoke Defender X. Now all he’ll do is Blast Punch, which halves your current HP. So, cast Cheer x5, and attack with Spiral Cut. If Provoke wears off, use it again (I’ve seen a provoked Defender X stop using Blast Punch once.) Overkill with Blitz Ace. (I’m sure the other Overdrives will Overkill him, but Blitz Ace makes it look so much cooler.) --------------------------------------------------------------------- After beating Defender X, you’ll have two choices: go straight to Gagazet, or take a sidetrip to the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth (AKA Sunken Cave). I’ll make a section for the Sunken Cave just in case you wanted to go there. Mind you, it is not needed to finish the challenge. ============ Sunken Cave ============ --------------------------------------------------------------------- Enemies Found: Tonberry: Cast Haste, switch to the Avenger and Cheer until he walks forward four times. Now he doesn’t counter with Karma anymore. Attack and Defend before its turn. Ghost: This one could be annoying if you didn’t have the Caladbolg. Cast Haste, switch to the Caladbolg, and attack until it dies. Yowie: Attack it once. Magic Urn: If you are not playing No Escape, use Flee. If you are, heal yourself to ~2300 HP and attack until you hit the wrong eye. Defender: Cast Haste, switch to the Avenger, and use Spiral Cut. Defend before its turns and switch weapons at all other times. Keep using Spiral Cut until it dies. Thorn: Equip the Nulblaze Shield. You are now Thorn-proof. Valaha: Haste yourself and Slow the enemy. Switch to the Avenger. Attack and Defend before Valaha’s turns, and it will soon die. Epaaj: Same as with Valaha. Nidhogg: Use Spiral Cut. Dark Element: Haste yourself. Switch to the Caladbolg and attack until they die. Imp: With Lightningproof, they can’t touch you. Mech Gunner: Haste yourself and switch to the Avenger. Attack and Defend before the enemy’s turns. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Walk around and get every item you can find. You can find a Luck Sphere and a Fortune Sphere in here as well. (Convenient, eh?) You can also find a Megalixir and probably some other stuff as well. When you reach the end of the cave, save. Another boss awaits you. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Yojimbo HP: 33,000 Overkill: 4060 AP: N/A Cast Haste, switch to the Avenger and Cheer 5 times. From then on, always attack him and use Spiral Cut when you can. I don’t really remember this fight, so, if that strategy doesn’t work, try using the Spiral Cut --> Switch Weapon --> Repeat strategy. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Leave the cave through the teleporter and head up to Gagazet. ============== Mount Gagazet ============== Some cutscenes... boring. Save. Before heading up the mountain, you will have to fight a boss with only Kimahri. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Biran and Yenke HP Biran: 1152 HP Yenke: 864 Sad excuse for a boss... For an easy win against these two guys, use Lancet continuously. This will damage the boss and heal Kimahri, and you won’t need a single Potion. Take Biran out first. When Biran dies, Yenke will cast Haste on himself, and will never use White Wind, so you don’t need to worry. Keep Lanceting until Yenke dies as well. --------------------------------------------------------------------- After some more cutscenes, it will be time to climb the mountain. The enemies here aren’t so dangerous. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Enemies Found: Mech Leader: One hit with Lightningstrike should be enough. If it isn’t, one more definitely will be. Mech Defender: Cast Haste, switch to the Avenger and attack. Defend before its turns. Grat: One hit with Firestrike should be enough. Bashura: Cast Haste, switch to Firestrike and Defend before its turns. Attack when you have the chance. If it puts its dukes up, just Cheer or Defend until he puts them back down. Once he does, attack him a couple more times to kill him. Grenade: If you have the Nulblaze Shield and low HP, they can’t touch you. Icestrike is a good way to kill them. Bandersnatch: Attack once. --------------------------------------------------------------------- At some point, you will find Wantz. Buy a lot of Holy Waters, Potions and Hi-Potions from him (99 of each, if you sold the Underdog Secrets). He doesn’t have any equipment worth buying, so don’t bother with it. Climb some more. Save. You will now fight one of the hardest bosses of the challenge. Equip the Buckler (with Magic Counter). --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Seymour Flux HP: 70,000 Overkill: 3500 AP: 10,000/15,000 In my opinion, this is the hardest boss in the whole challenge (except for some optional bosses, like Dark Anima and Dark Yojimbo). Cast Haste on yourself, then use Cheer twice. If Seymour uses Lance of Atrophy on Tidus, reset. If not, use Cheer three more times. You will always have plenty of time to heal Zombie before Full-Life. When Seymour casts Dispel, you can use Haste, then Defend. If you don’t have time to Defend after casting Haste (check the CTB bar to see this), don’t cast Haste and just Defend. Don’t worry too much about not having time to do that, though, as it’s unlikely to happen. Anyway, get Seymour to as close to 35,000 HP as possible (equip the Caladbolg while at low HP to do this). Also make sure you have more than 3000 HP by now. When he has about 35,000 HP, use Energy Rain to take off about 11,000 HP from Seymour (make sure you don’t have the Caladbolg equipped now). He will now cast Reflect and Flare. You will still be alive, and counter because of your Magic Counter Shield. Now, if you have Quick Hit, you can easily kill him before Total Annihilation. If you don’t have Quick Hit yet (like me), you will have to attack non-stop, and hope to get an Overdrive just before Morti’s second turn (in which he’ll use Total Annihilation). By now, Seymour must have 11,000 HP or lower. Use Blitz Ace to hopefully finish him off. CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Weapon - Sonic Steel. You may not have time to switch to another weapon. Armor - Buy two armors from Wantz. They have HP and Defence +10% on them. Customize them both with Zombie Ward (30 Holy Waters each) and Customize one with Magic Defence +10% (the White Magic Sphere in the Via Purifico). Leave the other one empty (unless you’ve captured all the fiends in the Calm Lands and claimed the prize, then Customize it with Deathproof -- This will be your Yunalesca armor.) Third time’s the charm, as this is the only Seymour fight with a chance of you losing. With the Sonic Steel, you get the first turn, of course. Cast Haste, and Cheer 5 times. Seymour will attack with Lance of Atrophy, and Mortiorchis will cast Full Life, instantly killing the character. After 2 Full Lifes, Seymour will cast Dispel -- Haste After this -- and Morti will use Cross Cleave for about 2000 Damage -- Heal after this. After five Cheers, start attacking (or Quick Hitting, hopefully you have it by now. I suggest training until you have it, but it’s your game.) like crazy, stopping only to heal, or to re-cast Haste. When Seymour’s HP drops below 52,000, he’ll cast Protect on himself -- too bad, you can’t do anything about it. Keep attacking. After Seymour’s HP falls below half, Seymour will cast Reflect on himself, and bounce Flare back to you. Heal after this. Also, after Seymour’s HP goes under half, Morti goes into Auto-Attack Mode. On the second turn after that, be prepared for Total Annihilation, which does about 3800-4000 damage. You almost always need M.Def +10% for this. Even then, you may not survive it. Start attacking (or Quick Hitting) like mad and try to get his HP low enough for Blitz Ace to kill him before TA. If not, hope like Hell that M.Def +10% makes it so you survive Total Annihilation. --------------------------------------------------------------------- After the fight, move on. Save. (You REALLY don’t want to do that again, do you?) Watch the really long cutscene with the fayth and go into the cave. =================== Mount Gagazet Cave =================== --------------------------------------------------------------------- New Enemies Found: Behemoth: Cast Haste and switch your weapon to the Avenger. Kill him with (counter)attacks and always Defend before its turn, otherwise Heave is a guaranteed Game Over. Dark Flan: If you didn’t get a Zombietouch weapon from a Behemoth or an SOS Reflect shield from the machina outside the cave, this can be tough. The Caladbolg will be a good weapon to use. Cast Haste, and always heal after Flare. If you do have Zombietouch, use it and throw a Phoenix Down to end the battle. Mandragora: Cast Haste and switch to your Firestrike weapon. Attack about five or six times and the Mandragora should die. It would be wise to Defend before its turns. Ahriman: I recommend using Spiral Cut, as most of the time you won’t hit the Ahriman. Grendel: Cast Haste and switch to the Avenger. Always Defend before its turns and attack on any other turns you have. Spiral Cut is useful here. The following fiends can only be found underwater: Splasher: Hit it once to kill it. Achelous: Two or three hits should kill it. Haste is advised. Malespike: Cast Haste and switch to the Avenger. Always Defend before its turns and attack on any other turns you have. Beware its Maelstorm; it will deal around 1800 damage to you. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Do both underwater trials, and proceed. Save at the Save Sphere before exiting the cave. Equip any Confuse or Sleep Ward armour you may have. Face yet another hard boss. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Sanctuary Keeper HP: 40,000 Overkill: 6400 AP: 11,000/16,500 Cast Haste, then Cheer twice. SK will use Photon Wings. Hope that you’re not asleep or confused. Use Cheer three more times, then switch your weapon to the Caladbolg. From then on, always heal SK’s damage, to make the Caladbolg deal its full 4500 damage. Keep attacking and healing. When SK uses his Tail Sweep, recast Haste, as it is Dispelled. Tail Sweep followed by Mana Breath is a certain Game Over. Heal, and go back to attacking. If SK uses Regen, the battle will be much harder, maybe even impossible, so just hope he doesn’t. CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Weapons- The Sonic Steel and the Caladbolg. Armor- Sleep or Confuse Ward, if you have it. If you didn’t learn Quick Hit for Seymour Flux, I HIGHLY suggest you learn it for this guy. His first turn is Photon Wings, which does about 1000 damage, and has (I’m guessing, don’t yell at me) about a 50% chance of inflicting Sleep, Silence, Darkness, Curse, and the dreaded Confusion. Sleep and Confuse are really the only dangerous statuses from this. The others can be cured. Start out with the Sonic Steel. Cast Haste and start Cheering five times. When he uses Photon Wings, hope for as little statuses as possible. I suggest resetting if you get Confuse -- don’t worry about Sleep. He’ll wake you up. On your first turn after Photon Wings, heal with a Hi-Potion and a Remedy, a Holy Water and keep Cheering. Once you’ve done the Cheering 5 times, start attacking (or Quick Hitting) like a crazy person. If he counters with Tail Sweep, it’ll Dispel Haste and Delay your turn. Remember to recast Haste after this. He’ll also attack with Mana Breath, which does about 3000 Damage. Heal after this, of course. He also heals himself with Curaga (9999) and Regen. There’s nothing you can do about it. Just hope for you to kill him before he gets those turns. Blitz Ace should kill him when he has about 15,000 HP left. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Pick up the sphere Yuna drops it and watch it. When it’s over, move on to the last chapter of your pilgrimage. ================ Zanarkand Ruins ================ --------------------------------------------------------------------- New Enemies Found: YAT-97: Cast Haste to start. Switch to the Brotherhood and attack once or twice to kill it. Fallen Monk (rifle/flamethrower): Phoenix Down is a guaranteed kill, as is one hit. YKT-97: Cast Haste, switch to the Brotherhood and attack a couple of times to kill it. Defender Z: Cast Haste and Provoke it. Now, as with Defender X, it will only use Blast Punch. Attack with Spiral Cut only, as your attacks deal low damage. --------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: Before fighting Spectral Keeper, you will need to have a Berserk Ward armor. You can get it from Mandragora, Malboro or Shred. Your call as to which fiend you think is easier to get it from. Personally, I got it from a Mandragora I found on my No Escape trip. Go through the Dome until you reach the Cloister of Trials. Do it, then save. Equip your Berserk Ward armor and fight the next boss. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Spectral Keeper HP: 52,000 Overkill: 8000 AP: 12,000/18,000 Cast Haste, and Cheer until you only have one turn left, then Defend. His Berserk Tail won’t put you in Berserk; Berserk Ward completely prevents that. Switch your weapon to the Avenger, then use Cheer until you have used it 5 times, remembering to Defend before SK’s turn. From then on, just Defend/heal until SK dies from your counters. If you want to do it a bit quicker, every time you have three turns before SK moves again, use the Trigger Command Move and move to his back, use Spiral Cut (SK’s counter will miss because there’s no one in front of him), then Defend. You will then counter his attacks again, then Defend or switch weapons until you have Overdrive again, and repeat. If Spectral uses Glyph Mines on the square you’re standing on, get out of there as fast as you can. CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Weapon - Brotherhood. (Why no Sonic Steel? You always get a hidden Pre-emptive Strike against this guy. First Strike has no use.) Armor - Berserk Ward. Start out by casting Haste. Then Cast Cheer x5. He’ll attack with Berserk Tail for about 1000 damage, and thanks to Berserk Ward, you’re still sane. Heal when your HP is low, of course. When you’ve Cheered 5 times, Move behind Spectral Keeper and Quick Hit him. (There is NO excuse not to have it by now.) He’ll counter, but he won’t hit Tidus, as you moved behind him. Quick Hit until he uses Berserk Tail on Tidus, in which case you heal and move behind him again, or if he uses a Glyph Mine on the spot Tidus is standing, in which you move away right away. Continue with the moving, and the healing, and the Quick Hitting, and his HP will quickly drop. Overkill him with Blitz Ace. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Save. Watch all the cutscenes with Yunalesca (you might as well go do something else in the meantime), and save again. Fight Yunalesca. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Yunalesca, first form HP: 24,000 Start off by killing your party members with a regular attack. (I recommend using Rikku, Wakka or Kimahri as your party members, because they have low Evasion.) Once they’re dead, use Cheer 5 times, healing with a Mega/X-Potion or (Mega)Elixir after Absorb, which takes half of your HP. Equip the Yellow Shield now if you didn’t have it equipped already. Switch your weapon to the Avenger and just Defend/heal until this form is dead. Boss: Yunalesca, second form HP: 48,000 This form uses Hellbiter most of the time. Switch your weapon to the Brotherhood (you need to know when it’s close to dying). You will probably notice that this battle will go under a certain pattern (Y stands for Yunalesca, while T stands for Tidus): Y – Hellbiter T – Holy Water Y – Hellbiter T – Holy Water T – Attack (or Quick Hit if you have it; I didn’t)/Hi-Potion (if your HP is low) And that pattern will just repeat itself. There is no chance you’ll die here Before killing this form, however, make sure you’re in Zombie. Boss: Yunalesca, third form HP: 60,000 Overkill: 10,000 AP: 14,000/21,000 She will open with Mega Death. You are Immune to it because of Zombie. Immediately heal Zombie and switch your weapon to the Lightning Steel. You will notice that this form will also go under a certain pattern: Y - Mega Death T - Holy Water Y – Hellbiter T - Holy Water Y - Hellbiter T - Holy Water T - Attack/Spiral Cut (when at high HP)/Hi-Potion (when at low HP) Y - Mind Blast T - Attack on self Y – Hellbiter T - Attack Repeat Of course, there will be some exceptions to this. Yunalesca may cast Curaga or Regen on you instead. If this happens on the turn before Mega Death, you’re screwed unless you can get yourself in Zombie via a Zombietouch weapon. If it happens on any other turn, cast Haste immediately and don’t attack Yunalesca, or she will dispel it. Haste will make Regen go off faster. If she casts Curaga on you on any turn that is not the one before Mega Death, you must thank her; she just healed you to full HP. Mind Blast is not a big problem with Lightningstrike and Lightningproof, but it is the strongest attack Yunalesca has (for about 600 damage). Assuming she doesn’t use Curaga or Regen just before Mega Death, you’re almost guaranteed to win. CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Weapons - The Sonic Steel, and the Brotherhood. Armor - Sometime before this fight, you need to capture every fiend in the Calm Lands. (Best time is when hunting for Berserk Ward, but if you already had it before the fight with Spectral Keeper, then go back to the Calm Lands via the teleport pads and capture every monster there.) Use the prize 60 Farplane Winds to customize Deathproof on your second Zombie Ward armor. Any Confuse Ward armor will be a great help, but it is far from needed. Make sure you have about 30 Holy Waters and 10 Eye Drops. As always, have plenty of healing items. Before you go to fight her, make sure you don’t have Yuna and Lulu in your party; they’ll dodge your attacks almost all the time. Equip your Anti-Zombie/Death armor and the Sonic Steel. Go fight the Lady. Boss: Yunalesca, first form You start off first, as always. Cast Cheer x5. Don’t bother with Haste, as her slap dispels it. While you’re Cheering, you’ll need to heal. If you have any Potions left, use them to heal slap, so you have to heal less after absorb (it doesn’t really matter). After Absorb, toss an Elixir or X-Potion. (If not, just use two or three Hi-Potions.) After you’ve Cheered 5 times, Quick Hit your two party members. Then change your weapon to the Brotherhood. After this, Quick Hit Yunalesca once (It should do about 4500-5500). She’ll counter with Blind. Use an Eye Drops to heal the Darkness, and just continue with this strategy, healing as necessary. If Absorb is healing her too much (it shouldn’t) use Spiral Cut or Blitz Ace (if you’re REALLY desperate). Finish the form off with Quick Hits. Note - If you run out of MP for Quick Hit, don’t hesitate to use an Ether. It’s the best ability (besides Use) so you can use it a lot. Boss: Yunalesca, second form She’ll open up with Hellbiter, which will Zombify you about half of the time with Zombie Ward. THIS IS BAD. On your next turn, use a Holy Water and Quick Hit if you get the chance. On her turns, she’ll heal you with Cura and Regen (they’re supposed to hurt you, but we healed zombie). Use these turns to Quick Hit like mad. Still don’t bother with Haste -- she now counters everything with Slap, which Dispels Haste. When she uses Hellbiter again, use another Holy Water. Keep this going (you won’t need to heal... she’ll do it for you XD) and this form will be a goner quicker than the last. NOTE - MAKE SURE YOU HAVE YOUR DEATHPROOF ARMOR EQUIPPED BEFORE FINISHING THIS FORM OFF Boss: Yunalesca, third form She opens up with Mega Death this time, which you’re immune to. Her attack pattern in this form is Mega Death Hellbiter/Curaga/Regen (One of the 3) Hellbiter/Curaga/Regen (One of the 3) Mind Blast Hellbiter/Curaga/Regen (One of the 3) Repeat. So keep on going with your strategy of Quick Hitting. (She still counters with Slap, don’t Haste yourself.) If she uses Hellbiter on you, immediately toss a Holy Water, just like before. After the third attack, switch to your Confuse Ward armor (If you have it.) Mind Blast has a 50% chance of inflicting Confusion, so Ward armor will work. After Mind Blast, switch to your Deathproof armor. Then repeat the above strategy until her HP falls below 10,000. Then use Blitz Ace. With 5 Cheers, you get overkill. YAY! --------------------------------------------------------------------- After you defeat Yunalesca, MAKE SURE YOU GET THE SUN CREST! I repeat, MAKE SURE YOU GET THE SUN CREST! If you don’t, and you have the PAL/International version of the game, you’re screwed -- Dark Bahamut will be waiting for you the next time you come here to get the Sun Crest. Save and leave this place. Finally, you’ll have your own Airship. ======== Airship ======== Well, now that you have the Airship, you can go anywhere. So, where to? First, go to the Highbridge and watch the long cutscenes there. After you leave, power up the Caladbolg with both the Crest and the Sigil. (Check the Calm Lands section if you haven’t got the Sigil yet.) Then, if you don’t have a Zombietouch/strike weapon, go to Gagazet and buy it from a Ronso there. After you’ve done all that, fight Sin’s fins. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Sin’s Left/Right Fin HP: 65,000 Overkill: 10,000 AP: 16,000/24,000 Cast Haste, use Cheer 5 times, switch your weapon to the Caladbolg, then Move In. Now, attack only with Spiral Cut until the Fin has low HP (while switching weapons to get Overdrive, switch to the Brotherhood and see). When it is low on HP, switch back to the Sonic Steel, and finish the Fin off. (This applies for both Fins.) CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Weapon - The only weapon I can recommend is the fully powered Caladbolg. And the Sonic Steel, of course Armor - The Genji Shield (Auto Haste/Protect, BHPL, and Poisonproof/ Empty Slot for Int. or PAL). Capture one of every fiend in the Thunder Plains for Auto-Haste; 5 of every dual horn fiend for Auto-Protect, win the Chocobo Race at Remiem with three chests opened and no poles touched for BHPL; capture at least one of every fiend in Kilika for Poisonproof Start out by casting Cheer x5. Switch to the Caladbolg, and move in. Then Quick Hit until Blitz Ace can kill the Fin, healing as necessary. Do the same for the Right Fin. No problem at all. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Sinspawn Genais + Core HP: 20,000 : 36,000 Overkill: 2000 : 3000 AP: 1800/2700 : 18,000/27,000 Cast Haste, switch to the Caladbolg, then Quick Hit Genais a couple of times to force him into his shell. Kill him with a few more attacks and possibly Spiral Cut. For the Core, use only Spiral Cut to attack; it’s faster this way. CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Weapon - Fully powered up Caladbolg Armor - The Genji Shield (Auto Haste/Protect, BHPL, and Poisonproof/ Empty Slot for Int. or PAL) In the beginning of the fight, Genais comes out of his shell. Just Quick Hit it until it dies. If you’re Poisoned, don’t forget to heal. (This doesn’t matter if you have Poisonproof.) Then you move up to the main Core. It attacks with Gravija and 1st level elemental spells. Deal with this one the same way as the fins. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Before going to fight Sin, capture at least one of every fiend in the Calm Lands, and two of every underwater fiend in Gagazet. Make sure you have an Onyx and Red Shield (Magic Defence +10% and Fire Ward; gotten from Chimera Brain and Flame Flan (among others), respectively). Claim your prizes (60 Farplane Winds and 30 Megalixirs), equip the Sonic Steel and the Onyx Shield, then fight Chimerageist. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Chimerageist HP: 120,000 Overkill: 10,000 Cast Haste to start. Then, use Cheer until Chimerageist’s first turn. If Chimerageist uses Meggido Flame or his regular attack on Tidus, reset and try again. If not, throw a Megalixir and continue casting Cheer. After 5 Cheers, switch to the Caladbolg. Chimerageist follows a set attack pattern, which is (it can start with any attack, so I’ll just put Meggido Flame as a start): Meggido Flame Thundara OR Blizzara Regular Attack Aqua Breath So, you need to have Fire Ward to survive Meggido Flame, and Magic Defence +10% to survive Thundara/Blizzara. Aqua Breath only deals around 3000 damage, so no biggie. Before his regular attack, Defend to make sure you survive. Every time you’re damaged, use a Megalixir. Attack only with Spiral Cut and switch weapons to get Overdrive fast. After 6-7 Spiral Cuts, you will defeat Chimerageist. If you get a Fire Eater armor, you’re good to go. If not, reset and try again (you’ve wasted some precious Megalixirs). --------------------------------------------------------------------- Go back into your Airship and fight Sin. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Overdrive Sin HP: 140,000 Overkill: 10,000 AP: 20,000/30,000 Cast Haste, switch to the Caladbolg, then Cheer until Sin is within range. Now use Spiral Cut to attack, and switch weapons to get Overdrive faster. Don’t bother using Cheer anymore, even if you didn’t use it 5 times, you can’t waste time now. After every seventh attack of yours, he will counter. Hope this doesn’t Petrify or Confuse you, and keep using Spiral Cut and switching weapons. You will be able to kill him before Giga Gravition fairly easily. CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Weapon - The Sonic Steel and a Piercing weapon. Armor - Rescue Shield (HP+30%, Auto-Med, Stoneproof, Auto Potion) Capture one of every fiend in Besaid for HP +30%; capture one of every fiend in Djose for Stoneproof; capture four of every eyeball for Auto-Potion, and buy 20 Remedies from Rin for Auto-Med. Sin pulls the Airship in twice (Or once? Anyway, it‘s a total of three). Then you start out. Cast Haste right away, and Cheer 5 times. Then switch to the Piercing weapon. You may or may not be in range. If you are, use Blitz Ace. Sin doesn’t do anything on his turns, but he will counter every 7th attack that gets to him with his “Flash” attack that does about 500 damage and can inflict Petrify, Confusion, and Zombie. Because of Stoneproof and Auto-Med, it can only inflict Confusion some of the time. Hope for this not to happen. So basically, Quick Hit until you have full Overdrive and then Blitz Ace. Keep with this until he gets to about 15000 HP. Then just change weapons (Use the Caladbolg for a faster charge) and use Blitz Ace. The chance of Overkill is... I’d say 98%. That wasn’t hard at all, was it? --------------------------------------------------------------------- =========== Inside Sin =========== Always keep the Elemental Shield equipped. They will prove to be useful against the random encounters. (If your challenge does not involve the No Escape and the No [No Encounters] rules, you may choose not to equip the Elemental Shield, but DO keep the Sonic Steel.) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Enemies Found (Sea of Sorrow): Gemini: Cast Haste, switch your weapon to the Caladbolg, then Provoke the Gemini. He can’t hurt you, so just attack until he dies. Behemoth King: Cast Haste, switch your weapon to the Caladbolg and use Provoke. He can’t hurt you, just make sure you kill him with a counterattack. Exoray: Switch to your Firestrike weapon, and attack it once or twice to kill it. With Fire Eater, they will heal you for about 1000 HP every turn. Adamantoise: Cast Haste, switch your weapon to a Piercing weapon (if you have it; if not, use the Caladbolg), then use Provoke. The Adamantoise will now heal you every turn it gets. Attack until it dies. Ahriman: One hit and they’re dead. They never appear alone, so Energy Rain is a good way to kill them. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Go through the Sea of Sorrow. Pick up a Megalixir if you want, but, in my opinion, it’s not worth the time it takes to get. Maybe it’s just because I’m way too lazy... Equip the Elemental Shield (with Fire Eater), save, and go fight the next boss. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Seymour Omnis HP: 80,000 Overkill: 15,000 AP: 24,000/36,000 With the Fire Eater armour you got from Chimerageist, you can’t die for the time being. Cast Haste, then Cheer x5. DO NOT switch to the Caladbolg before using Cheer 5 times; countering now might be dangerous (it might trigger Dispel/Ultima). After you’ve used Cheer 5 times, switch to the Caladbolg. Defend until Seymour uses his Multi-Firaga twice. This will cause you to counter eight times. Now, start Quick Hitting like mad and you’ll be able to kill him before Ultima. CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Weapon - The Sonic Steel and fully powered up Caladbolg. Armor - Fireproof/Fire Eater (Fireproof can be gotten from Spectral Keeper, Puroboros or Flame Flan; Fire Eater can be gotten from Puroboros or Chimerageist) Okay. No matter how cool this guy is, he really just needs to die. You start out with the Sonic Steel. Cast Haste, and switch to the Caladbolg. Now, cast Cheer 5 times. On his turns, Seymour will cast 4 Firaga’s in a row. One on each member of the party, and one more on Tidus (as the other party members are KO’ed). Tidus will counter both. When you’ve cheered 5 times, defend for the rest of the battle. Don’t bother with Overdrive, as Overkill is impossible. With Cheer x5, a critical hit from the Caladbolg does about 12,000 Damage. Wow... thought that would be a little harder, huh? --------------------------------------------------------------------- After beating the boss, you’ll be in a new area. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Enemies Found: (City of Dying Dreams): Great Malboro: Cast Haste, switch to your Firestrike weapon, use Provoke then just attack. GM will not use Bad Breath after you Provoke it. Nice. Seven attacks and the Great Malboro is down. Barbatos: Cast Haste, switch your weapon to the Caladbolg, then use Provoke. Attack until it dies. Wraith: Cast Haste, switch your weapon to the Caladbolg, then attack until it dies. You must do this before his second turn, otherwise you will need to be lucky that he doesn’t use Death on Tidus. Demonolith: Cast Haste, switch to the Caladbolg and kill it with two or three Spiral Cuts. NOTE: Do not forget to capture the first Demonolith you fight. You will need Stoneproof against BFA, and if you didn’t get it from Sin’s Fin, you will need to get it from Demonolith. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Pick up the HP and Defence Sphere in here, and place them on the Grid. Make your way to the last Save Sphere and save your game. Enter the Tower of the Dead, and collect 10 orbs. This will lead you to the final boss. Equip the Sonic Steel and your Soft Shield (with Stoneproof) if you hadn’t already, take a few steps forward and watch the cutscenes. After some minutes, you’ll fight the real final boss. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Braska’s Final Aeon, first form HP: 60,000 Cast Haste to start, then use Cheer until BFA’s first turn. If he attacks Tidus, you will be delayed and will only have one turn; use it to heal. If not, just keep using Cheer. After you’ve used Cheer 5 times, cast Slowga to Slow the Pagodas. Keep using it until both of them are, remembering to always heal. (The Pagodas have 75% resistance to Slow, so it might be hard to inflict it.) Once that’s done, switch to the Caladbolg and Quick Hit away. After Triumphant Grasp, use a Holy Water and a Mega Potion/Megalixir. Keep Quick Hitting. Make sure you have over 2100 HP before killing this form. Boss: Braska’s Final Aeon, second form HP: 120,000 Now it gets a bit harder. However, the strategy is the same, except his attacks deal more damage. Both the “Sword Swipe” and his “Hand Slap” attacks deal 2000 damage, but they Delay you, so you will only have one turn after that. You can survive two of those before needing to heal with a Megalixir. Keep Quick Hitting. Before Triumphant Grasp, use Talk. It will save you a Megalixir, and give you more time to attack. Once Jecht goes below 60,000 HP, he will stop using his “Hand Slap” attack, and his Overdrive is now Ultimate Jecht Shot. This is a bit weaker than Triumphant Grasp; you’ll have no trouble surviving. Keep attacking and healing, and you will have no trouble winning. CUSUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Weapons - The Sonic Steel and the fully powered Caladbolg Armor - Rescue Shield (HP+30%, Auto-Med, Stoneproof, Auto Potion) Before the fight, sell all your Potions and Hi-Potions, and fight Belegemine’s Valefor and Ifrit for 30 X-Potions. (Use Shiva for Ifrit and Bahamut for Valefor) Also, get about 15 Holy Waters, just in case. Boss: Braska’s Final Aeon, first form You start out first (as always). Cast Haste, and then Slowga to Slow down the Yu Pagodas (If it doesn’t work, cast Slowga again. If it only works on one, cast Slow on the other until it works) Then switch your weapon to the Caladbolg, and use 5 Cheers. Don’t worry about his attacks. Petrify from Jecht Beam is negated by Stoneproof, and Auto-Potion keeps you at full HP otherwise. Make sure that your HP is at least 2800 before his Overdrive. Don’t worry about the Zombie it causes, or the damage. You’ll heal Zombie with Auto-Med, and then heal your HP to full with Auto-Potion. Quick Hit BFA until one hit will force him into his next form. Then wait until he uses his Overdrive, and Quick Hit him to bring him into Form 2. Boss: Braska’s Final Aeon, second form The next turn BFA gets, he’ll use Sword Swipe, which deals about ~1800 on Tidus. He still uses his physical attack and Jecht Beam. And Triumphant Grasp’s Damage is increased to 2000 a hit, so be sure to have at least 4500 HP before he uses his Overdrive. Auto Potion will heal your HP to full. After his HP drops below 60,000, he loses his physical attack, uses Sword Swipe much more often, and gains a new Overdrive -- Ultimate Jecht Shot, which does about 4000 damage. Now is the time to use the Trigger Command “Talk” which empties BFA’s Overdrive, and forfeits his next turn. Note - This is only effective twice. Keep that in mind. To win, Quick Hit him until he dies, talking as necessary. --------------------------------------------------------------------- You have now finished the challenge, congratulations! Only a few more pathetic bosses to take care of. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Possessed Valefor/Ifrit/Ixion/Shiva/Bahamut HP: Same as your own Aeons Attack each of them once. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Yu Yevon HP: 99,999 Cast Haste to start. Use the Zombietouch weapon you bought from the Ronsos to put Yu Yevon in Zombie. Once you succeed, use a Phoenix Down. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ===================================================================== 9.0 MONSTER ARENA ===================================================================== ===================================================================== 9.1 Maxing Stats ===================================================================== You should have covered all of the Sphere Grid before stat-maxing. It will make it much easier. Best way to do this is to get the Ascalon and kill some fiend that gives good AP with it. The Monster Arena is a good place to do this, as you can choose which fiend to fight. (Varuna is a good choice, as is Master Tonberry.) Start by maxing your Strength. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Juggernaut HP: 1,200,000 Overkill: 15,000 AP: 10,000 Cast Haste on yourself, then Nulblaze. Now, just Quick Hit until just before Juggernaut's third turn. If he's still alive, cast Auto-Life or use Blitz Ace to hopefully kill him. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Once you have 255 Strength, it's time to max Magic Defence. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: One-Eye HP: 150,000 Overkill: 15,000 AP: 10,000 Attack twice to kill it. Keep someone who has an Initiative weapon in the party to avoid being Ambushed. Shockwave can be nasty if you don't have Ribbon equipped. --------------------------------------------------------------------- With max Magic Defence, go for Agility now. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Fenrir HP: 850,000 Overkill: 99,999 AP: 10,000 Use Blitz Ace to kill it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Max Agility as well. Next: Defence! --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Tanket HP: 900,000 Overkill: 10,000 AP: 10,000 Cast Haste on yourself, then Quick Hit until your last turn before Tanket's. Use Blitz Ace to kill it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Now, Luck. Most people say it's very boring; I personally don't think so. Get a Haste Shield from a Bashura and equip it. It's time to fight Earth Eater. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Earth Eater HP: 1,300,000 Overkill: 99,999 AP: 50,000 When the fight starts, use Slice & Dice. This will knock Earth Eater down. Don't attack him and wait for him to stand back up. When he does, you should already have another Overdrive, so use Slice & Dice again. Repeat this until he dies. This will be enough to kill him without ever seeing the ever-irritating Flare counter. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Got a Shaman Shield? No? Try again, while also raising your Fortune Spheres bank. Got it? Good. Fight Greater Sphere now. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Greater Sphere HP: 1,500,000 Overkill: 99,999 AP: 50,000 Sell all your Potions and Hi-Potions and Bribe Valaha for X-Potions. When the fight starts, cast Haste and Protect on yourself. Then, use Slice & Dice. Greater Sphere will counter with Hydraulic Press. Change weapons until you have Overdrive again, and use Slice & Dice again. Charge your Overdrive yet again, and use Slice & Dice to waste Greater Sphere. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Get your Luck up to 230, you don't need any more. Next: Magic. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Optional Boss: Jumbo Flan HP: 1,300,000 Overkill: 99,999 AP: 10,000 Begin by casting Haste on yourself. Then, use a Twin Stars, Lunar and Star Curtain, and a Silver or Gold Hourglass on Jumbo Flan. You can do this all before he gets to attack you. Now, use Spiral Cut. On every turn you get without a full Overdrive, Doublecast Flare on yourself, so it bounces back to Jumbo Flan (he has Auto-Reflect). After three turns, you have a full Overdrive again. Use Spiral Cut again. Repeat this and it'll eventually die. The reason for using Spiral Cut instead of Slice & Dice or Blitz Ace is that Spiral Cut has a shorter recovery time and deals about the same damage. --------------------------------------------------------------------- You thought this was boring? Then you'll hate the next one if you don't have Frag Grenades... --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Ironclad HP: 2,000,000 Overkill: 99,999 AP: 10,000 This guy is a pain to beat if you don't have Frag Grenades. He counters every attack with Reppageki, which will always miss if you have max Luck (230). Cast Haste on yourself and throw a Frag Grenade on him. After that, use Blitz Ace twice and two more attacks will kill him. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Raise your HP to 30,000. ===================================================================== 9.3 Obtaining the Mark of Conquest ===================================================================== Now, the true Monster Arena strategies. I will give strategies to beat every monster in the Monster Arena with just Tidus. It will be divided in three parts: Area Conquest, Species Conquest and Original. All of the strategies will assume that you have max stats. What I consider max stats for the Monster Arena is (my stats are in brackets): HP: 30,000 [30,520] MP: 999 [999] Strength: 255 [255] Defence: 255 [255] Magic: 255 [255] Mag. Def.: 255 [255] Agility: 255 [255] Luck: 230 [231] Evasion: 0 [134] Accuracy: 0 [78] With these stats, you'll be able to beat every boss in the Monster Arena except Nemesis (and even Nemesis in regular Tidus-Only). The stats you'll need for him are stated below. ===================================================================== Area Conquest ===================================================================== These bosses are easy. Most of them can be taken care of by just attacking... For that reason, I won't go too much in-depth about them. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Stratoavis HP: 320,000 Overkill: 10,000 AP: 8000 Attack him four times. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Get yourself to 1 HP, equip the Sonic Steel, then fight Malboro Menace. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Malboro Menace HP: 640,000 Overkill: 12,000 AP: 8000 He will Ambush you. Cast Auto-Life on yourself. Putrid Breath will kill you and you will be revived. Switch your weapon to the Caladbolg and use Blitz Ace. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Kottos HP: 440,000 Overkill: 15,000 AP: 8000 Attack him five times. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Coeurlregina HP: 380,000 Overkill: 10,000 AP: 8000 Attack it four times. You have to kill it before its first turn, cause it can kill you in one hit with Hyper Blaster. Use Slice & Dice or Blitz Ace to be sure to kill it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Jormungand HP: 520,000 Overkill: 10,000 AP: 8000 Attack it six times. With Ribbon or Stoneproof, he can barely hurt you. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Cactuar King HP: 100,000 Overkill: 10,000 AP: 8000 Use Slice & Dice or Blitz Ace. If you attack it normally, it'll counter. If this hits Tidus and you don't have Break HP Limit equipped, you're dead. If you have it, and you have more than 10,000 HP, you can attack it twice to kill it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Espada HP: 280,000 Overkill: 15,000 AP: 8000 Use Slice & Dice or Blitz Ace. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Abyss Worm HP: 480,000 Overkill: 12,000 AP: 8000 Use Slice & Dice or Blitz Ace. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Chimerageist HP: 120,000 Overkill: 10,000 AP: 8000 Attack twice to kill it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Don Tonberry HP: 480,000 Overkill: 10,000 AP: 8000 Wait for him to walk forward four times, then attack him five times to kill him. He won't counter with Karma if he is near you. If you don't want to wait for him to go near you, cast Auto-Life before you attack. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Catoblepas HP: 550,000 Overkill: 10,000 AP: 8000 Attack it six times to kill it. When it dies, it counters with Ultima. Don't worry; it won't kill you. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Abaddon HP: 380,000 Overkill: 10,000 AP: 8000 Attack it four times to kill it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Vorban HP: 630,000 Overkill: 10,000 AP: 8000 Attack seven times. It randomly counters with Mortar, but it's not too strong. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ===================================================================== Species Conquest ===================================================================== These bosses, although still easy, require a bit more strategies and some of them require Overdrives. Still, they should not give you much trouble. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Fenrir HP: 850,000 Overkill: 99,999 AP: 10,000 Use Blitz Ace to kill it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Ornitholestes HP: 800,000 Overkill: 99,999 AP: 10,000 Cast Haste, then attack nine times. Should you be Poisoned, don't forget to heal yourself. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Pteryx HP: 100,000 Overkill: 99,999 AP: 10,000 Hit him twice. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Hornet HP: 620,000 Overkill: 50,000 AP: 10,000 Use Blitz Ace. It's dangerous to cast Haste and just Quick Hit it until it dies, because its regular attack causes Death unless you have Deathproof equipped. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Vidatu HP: 95,000 Overkill: 10,000 AP: 10,000 Poor thing... Attack once to kill it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: One-Eye HP: 150,000 Overkill: 15,000 AP: 10,000 Attack twice to kill it. Keep someone who has an Initiative weapon in the party to avoid being Ambushed. Shockwave can be nasty if you don't have Ribbon equipped. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Jumbo Flan HP: 1,300,000 Overkill: 99,999 AP: 10,000 Begin by casting Haste on yourself. Then, use a Twin Stars, Lunar and Star Curtain, and a Silver or Gold Hourglass on Jumbo Flan. You can do this all before he gets to attack you. Now, use Doublecasted Flares. You can also use Ultima, but it takes way too long to be used against this boss. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Nega Elemental HP: 1,300,000 Overkill: 15,000 AP: 10,000 Nega Elemental counters all Overdrives and physical attacks with Ultima, which takes a long time, thus making the fight boring. You have two choices: - Use Doublecasted Flares. If you do this, also use a Star Curtain, Chocobo Feather and Twin Stars on yourself. - Use Blitz Ace twice. This will trigger Ultima once, but it is faster than just Doublecasting. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Tanket HP: 900,000 Overkill: 10,000 AP: 10,000 Cast Haste on yourself, then Quick Hit until your last turn before Tanket's. Use Blitz Ace to kill it. (Note: If you have Ribbon, you might as well just Quick Hit, since Rush Attack won’t inflict Berserk.) --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Fafnir HP: 1,100,000 Overkill: 13,000 AP: 10,000 Cast Haste on yourself, then just Quick Hit it to death. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Sleep Sprout HP: 98,000 Overkill: 10,000 AP: 10,000 Attack once. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Bomb King HP: 480,000 Overkill: 10,000 AP: 10,000 Cast Haste on yourself. Quick Hit until it dies. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Juggernaut HP: 1,200,000 Overkill: 15,000 AP: 10,000 Cast Haste on yourself, then just Quick Hit. It will always forfeit its first turn to Charge for Salvo, which deals a pitiful 500 damage. You can kill it before its third turn. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Ironclad HP: 2,000,000 Overkill: 99,999 AP: 10,000 This guy is a pain to beat if you don't have Frag Grenades. He counters every attack with Reppageki, which will always miss if you have max Luck. Cast Haste on yourself and throw a Frag Grenade on him. After that, use Blitz Ace twice and two more attacks will kill him. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ===================================================================== Original ===================================================================== These are the bosses that can actually give you problems. Some of them are still easy, though. For these bosses, you need three separate armours: a Haste Shield with SOS Haste, a Shaman Shield with Auto-Potion, and a Sanctuary with Ribbon and Break HP Limit. Although you only need Break HP Limit against Nemesis, you need it together with Ribbon on an armour in order to be able to beat Dark Sandy, Dark Cindy, Dark Anima and Dark Yojimbo. The Haste Shield can be gotten from Ogre or Bashura. I suggest Bashura; the Shaman Shield can be gotten from Sand Worm or Earth Eater. I suggest Earth Eater, it'll take a long time before you get it if you fight Sand Worm. Finally, the Sanctuary can be gotten from every Dark Aeon, but I'd suggest Dark Ixion or Dark Valefor, because they're the easiest of them all. NOTE: If you have the NA version of the game, you can't have Ribbon. Get a Break HP Limit armour from Omega Weapon. That said, time to pick some fights! Equip the Haste Shield and get yourself to critical HP before starting the fight. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Earth Eater HP: 1,300,000 Overkill: 99,999 AP: 50,000 When the fight starts, use Slice & Dice. This will knock Earth Eater down. Don't attack him and wait for him to stand back up. When he does, you should already have another Overdrive, so use Slice & Dice again. Repeat this until you've used four Slice & Dices. This will be enough to kill him without ever seeing the ever-irritating Flare counter. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Equip the Shaman Shield before starting the fight. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Greater Sphere HP: 1,500,000 Overkill: 99,999 AP: 50,000 Sell all your Potions and Hi-Potions and Bribe Valaha for X-Potions. When the fight starts, cast Haste and Protect on yourself. Then, use Blitz Ace. Greater Sphere will counter with Hydraulic Press. Change weapons until you have Overdrive again, and use Blitz Ace again. Charge your Overdrive yet again (to use in the next battle), and use one Quick Hit to waste Greater Sphere. This is the fastest way to beat it in the Tidus-Only No Customise challenge, since this way, you'll never see Ultima. You might even kill Greater Sphere with the second Blitz Ace if Greater Sphere uses its regular attack on its first turn. (Credit goes to GangtsaL for thinking of using Blitz Ace instead of Slice & Dice.) CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Armour: Auto-Protect, Auto-Haste, Auto-Potion, anything you want Sell all your Potions and Hi-Potions and Bribe Valaha for X-Potions. When the fight starts, use Blitz Ace. Greater Sphere will counter with Hydraulic Press. Change weapons until you have Overdrive again, then use Blitz Ace again. Charge your Overdrive again, and Quick Hit once to kill Greater Sphere. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Equip the Sanctuary. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Catastrophe HP: 2,200,000 Overkill: 99,999 AP: 50,000 Cast Haste on yourself, then Quick Hit Catastrophe FOUR times. Let it have its turn, it won’t do anything. Quick Hit one more time, then use Blitz Ace. Fill your Overdrive by switching weapons, then use Blitz Ace again. Dead Catastrophe. Poor thing didn’t even get a hit in. CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Armour: Break HP Limit, Ribbon, Auto-Haste, Auto-Protect Quick Hit Catastrophe FOUR times. Let it have its turn, it won’t do anything. Quick Hit one more time, then use Blitz Ace. Fill your Overdrive by switching weapons, then use Blitz Ace again. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Equip the Haste Shield, get yourself to 4000 HP, fill your Overdrive, then fight Th'uban. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Th'uban HP: 3,000,000 Overkill: 99,999 AP: 50,000 This boss has a set attack pattern. This is the order in which he uses his attacks: Regular Attack-->Rainbow-->Protect/Shell/Regen-->Convergence. He also has a counterattack, Condemn, to everything you do on him. This counter also dispels any positive status you may have So, how do we kill him? First turn: Blitz Ace. Your party members die due to Th'uban's counter. You have some more turns before him, so change weapons, then Blitz Ace again. He will attack you, and you will counter. Fill your Overdrive again, and use it. Fill it again, and use it for the fourth and last time to kill this boss. CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Armour: Ribbon, Auto-Haste, Auto-Protect, Auto-Shell First turn: Blitz Ace. Your party members die due to Th'uban's counter. You have some more turns before him, so change weapons, then Blitz Ace again. He will attack you, and you will counter. Fill your Overdrive again, and use it. Fill it again, and use it for the fourth and last time to kill this boss. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Neslug HP: 4,000,000 Overkill: 99,999 AP: 50,000 Cast Haste on yourself and use Blitz Ace. If Neslug uses Slime on you, Dispel the Breaks and re-cast Haste. Use Blitz Ace one more time. Quick Hit him twice, no more than that. After dealing 2,000,001 damage to Neslug, it will go into its shell, and will gain Auto-Regen, which heals for about 90,000 each turn. Make sure you are in Haste, and are not under any Break status before you force him into his shell. Fill your Overdrive and use Slice & Dice. Neslug will go into his shell. Fill your Overdrive again, and use Blitz Ace this time. This should be enough to destroy Neslug's shell. Now, just Quick Hit and Dispel the Breaks until you win. CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Armour: Break HP Limit, Ribbon, Auto-Haste, Auto-Protect Use Blitz Ace. If Neslug uses Slime on you, Dispel the Breaks. Use Blitz Ace one more time. Quick Hit him twice, no more than that. After dealing 2,000,001 damage to Neslug, it will go into its shell, and will gain Auto-Regen, which heals for about 90,000 each turn. Make sure you are not under any Break status before you force him into his shell. Fill your Overdrive and use Slice & Dice. Neslug will go into his shell. Fill your Overdrive again, and use Blitz Ace this time. This should be enough to destroy Neslug's shell. Now, just Quick Hit and Dispel the Breaks until you win. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Ultima Buster HP: 5,000,000 Overkill: 99,999 AP: 50,000 Cast Haste on yourself, then Doublecast Ultima to kill the arms and the head. Now, just Quick Hit the body until the arms regenerate. Doublecast Ultima again to kill them. Continue Quick Hitting and Ultima Buster will die. CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Armour: Ribbon, Auto-Haste, Auto-Protect, Auto-Shell Doublecast Ultima to kill the arms and the head. Now, just Quick Hit the body until the arms regenerate. Doublecast Ultima again to kill them. Continue Quick Hitting and Ultima Buster will die. --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Shinryu HP: 2,000,000 Overkill: 99,999 AP: 50,000 Cast Haste on yourself, then kill your party members off with Doublecast Fire. This way, Shinryu cannot use Eraser anymore. Use Blitz Ace twice and three Quick Hits to kill it. CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Armour: Break HP Limit, Ribbon, Auto-Haste, Auto-Protect Kill off your party members with Doublecast Fire, to prevent Eraser. Use Blitz Ace twice and two Quick Hits to kill it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Now, the ultimate Monster Arena boss: Nemesis! You will need some extra preparations just for this guy. Raise your HP to 65,000 (erase Accuracy and Evasion nodes if you need to). I know, it's a lot, but this guy is really hard. I only advise you to fight this guy after beating the Dark Magus Sisters and Dark Anima, because their Mega Gravition can be very strong with your HP this high. (If you’re playing a regular Tidus-Only challenge, don’t bother raising your HP, Nemesis is easy even with 30,520 HP.) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Nemesis HP: 10,000,000 Overkill: 99,999 AP: 50,000 This is the hardest boss in the Monster Arena, and is even harder than most Dark Aeons. But, to get the Mark of Conquest, you must defeat Nemesis! There are two ways to kill Nemesis: the cheap, easy way, and the hard way. The cheap way is to equip the Haste Shield and an Astral Sword (One MP Cost; get it from Greater Sphere), throw a Candle Of Life and cast Auto-Life. After being revived, cast Auto-Life again. You have to wait 255 turns. But, if you are like me, you'll want a challenge, a true challenge, and you'll want to do it the hard way. First, a little information about his attacks: Regular Attack - About 15,000 damage. Ethereal Cannon - About 20,000 damage. Ultra Spark - About 32,000 damage. Inflicts Slow, Curse, Poison and Power Break. Armageddon - 99,999 damage. Ultima - Used as a counterattack to Overdrives and Steal. About 5,000 damage. So, here is what you will need to do: Equip the Sanctuary and the Sonic Steel. Start of the battle: Use a Chocobo Feather, a Light Curtain, switch your weapon to the Caladbolg, and use a Lunar Curtain. Nemesis will attack. Cast Auto-Life and Doublecast Drain to heal. Now, use Slice & Dice to damage Nemesis. It will deal 99,999 damage per hit (at least in PAL version). Switch your weapons/heal with Quick Pockets X-Potion or (Mega)Elixir, and use Slice & Dice whenever you get the chance. The problem is when he uses Armageddon. This will kill you for sure, but you have Auto-Life. Auto-Life will revive you with 25% of your Max HP, 16,255 assuming you have 65,020 HP as I recommended. This is where the No Customise rule screws you up. You won't have the positive statuses anymore; you'll have to recast them. Now things can get messy. If the last non-physical attack was Ethereal Cannon, cast Auto-Life right after you’re revived. There’s a high chance you’ll get killed by Ultra Spark. This can also be prevented by Doublecasting Drain, though I never tried it. If the last non-physical attack was Ultra Spark, throw a Lunar Curtain after you’re revived. After that, Nemesis will attack you. He won’t kill you. Throw a Chocobo Feather and Doublecast Drain. He will attack you again. Hope he doesn’t use Ultra Spark now. Throw a Light Curtain, heal with Quick Pockets Elixir (you might need MP) and cast Auto-Life. From there on, just keep Slice & Dice’ing the crap out of Nemesis, and repeating the above after Armageddon. I did it on my first try, before the fourth Armageddon. After around 25-30 minutes of fighting, Nemesis will die and you will finally reach your goal: the Mark of Conquest is yours! CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Weapon: Sonic Steel Additional Weapon: Excalibur, a weapon with Break Damage Limit, Magic Booster, One MP Cost Magic +20%. To get Break Damage Limit without going through the pain of getting 60x Dark Matter, get it from a Dark Aeon (most likely Valefor). Simply Customise the rest of the abilities on it. Otherwise, simply use the Doom method to kill Nemesis and hope he drops a weapon with Break Damage Limit and 3 empty slots (the chance is higher than with any Dark Aeon). Armour: Break HP Limit, Ribbon (use Poisonproof instead if you have the NA version), Auto-Haste, Auto-Protect. I had 30,520 HP instead of 65,000 recommended on the No Customise strategy. Having more HP won’t hurt, though. Start of the battle: Use a Lunar Curtain and switch your weapon to the Excalibur. Use a Stamina Tablet. Heal with Quick Pockets X-Potion. Whenever you get below 30,000 HP, Doublecast Drain. Otherwise, Doublecast Flare (you can use Ultima as well, but Flare’s animation is shorter). The problem is when he uses Armageddon. This will kill you for sure, but you have Auto-Life. Auto-Life will revive you with 45% of your Max HP, 13,734 assuming you have 30,520 HP as I had. After you're revived, do this, in order: - Use a Lunar Curtain. Nemesis will attack you, but won't kill you. Use Auto-Life instead if his last non-physical attack was Ethereal Cannon. - Use a Stamina Tablet, heal with Quick Pockets X-Potion until you have 35,000 HP. - Doublecast Drain after Nemesis attacks you. After this, repeat what you were doing in the beginning of the fight: Healing with Doublecast Drain after Nemesis' attacks, and attacking with Doublecast Flare when you have more than 35,000 HP. When he uses Armageddon again, repeat the above and keep fighting. NOTE: If you’re playing the NA version of the game and are attempting a Tidus-Only No Customise challenge, here’s how to defeat Nemesis with only Break HP Limit. Full credits go to ragnarokesper for this. (I just copied his post from the SCC Topic.) “You have to die to Ultra Spark (after Armageddon), and survive with Auto-Life. You'll need enough HP (~15k) to survive one physical attack, and you should be back up to speed. Use a chocobo feather, Lunar Curtain, and then doublecast drain (and Light curtain) to get back up to get ready to Quick Hit. Otherwise, you first Haste, then heal the poison and then doublecast Drain. You may need to heal poison first, due to HP constraints. I had about 65k HP. Nemesis' Attack Pattern: Ethereal Cannon Ultra Spark Attack Each turn, he has a 1/3 chance of using Attack instead of the attack listed above, and the attack pattern doesn't move on to the next list.” --------------------------------------------------------------------- You now have conquered the Monster Arena. But you have still some strong enemies to take care of! Yes, that's right; the Dark Aeons can all be beaten with only Tidus. ===================================================================== 10.0 DARK AEONS ===================================================================== In this section, you'll find out how to beat all of the Dark Aeons using only Tidus. Most people say that the Dark Aeons are hard in a normal game, and you'll be beating them all with only Tidus! Most of them are not very hard, but Dark Anima and Dark Yojimbo are extremely hard, since they're based on luck. Before even trying to fight them, you must have max stats! What I mean by max stats is (my stats are in brackets): HP: 30,000 [30,520] MP: 999 [999] Strength: 255 [255] Defence: 255 [255] Magic: Not needed [154] Mag. Def.: 255 [255] Agility: 255 [255] Luck: 230 [231] Evasion: Not needed [134] Accuracy: Not needed [78] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Dark Valefor HP: 800,000 Overkill: 99,999 AP: 10,000/15,000 ATTACKS: Energy Ray: About 1,000 damage. Regular attack: About 3,700 damage. Sonic Wings: About 1,200 damage. Inflicts Delay. OVERDRIVE: Energy Blast: About 50,000 damage. An easy one to get started. Use a Chocobo Feather, switch to the Caladbolg then hack away at him with Quick Hit and use Blitz Ace / Slice & Dice to kill him before Energy Blast. Auto-Life if you want to play safe. NOTE: If you sold the Sonic Steel for some reason, fight Dark Valefor over and over until she drops a First Strike weapon. CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Armour: Auto-Haste, Auto-Protect, Auto-Shell (later to be Customised with Ribbon) Quick Hit until it’s just about to be Valefor’s turn, then Blitz Ace. If she still isn’t dead, just Quick Hit some more. NOTE: If you’re playing a regular Tidus-Only challenge, it is wise to kill Valefor until she drops a Break Damage Limit + 3 empty slots weapon for Tidus. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Equip a Mag. Def. +20% armour that you win from Abaddon and the Sonic Steel, then go fight Dark Ifrit. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Dark Ifrit HP: 1,400,000 Overkill: 99,999 AP: 20,000/30,000 ATTACKS: Meteor Strike: 22,000 damage. Inflicts Delay. Counter: About 9,000 damage. OVERDRIVE: Hellfire: About 33,000 damage. It gets tough already... Use a Chocobo Feather, Light and Lunar Curtain, then switch your weapon to the Caladbolg; Quick Hit once and use Quick Pockets X-Potion to heal. With max Defence, you can attack twice without needing to heal. After that, Quick Pockets a X-Potion and you're back in shape. However, you can only survive one Meteor Strike, then you'll need to heal. Quick Hit twice, heal, repeat. If Ifrit targets your other party members, good. If not, reset. When you succeed in getting Ifrit to attack the other characters first (happened three times out of four fights), you're good to go. When Ifrit starts Meteor Striking you, you'll only have one turn, use / Quick Pockets an X-Potion. You'll counter every Meteor Strike, due to Magic Counter. When Ifrit's Overdrive is full, use Slice & Dice to win. CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Armour: Same as in the above strategy. For reasons that I will explain now, I’d use the No Customise strategy even in regular Tidus-Only. If you wish to Customise Auto-Shell, you’ll have to get more Lunar Curtains later, in order to Customise the armour you’ll use against Dark Anima. No point in wasting time if you can do just as well without it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Equip a Shaman Shield and the Sonic Steel. You can win the Shaman Shield from Earth Eater or Sand Worm. You'll definitely have one when you finish maxing your stats. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Dark Ixion, first fight HP: 1,200,000 Overkill: 99,999 AP: 20,000/30,000 ATTACKS: Thundaja: About 4,500 damage. Inflicts Delays. Counter : About 4,800 damage. Inflicts Sleep, Armor Break and Mental Break. OVERDRIVE: (first fight): Aerospark: About 8,000 damage. Dispels positive statuses. Use a Chocobo Feather, Lunar Curtain and switch your weapon to the Caladbolg. You can beat him with just counterattacks. Don't EVER target him directly. Fight him until he drops a BHPL + Ribbon armour--the Sanctuary. CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Armour: Auto-Potion Use a Chocobo Feather and Lunar Curtain, switch your weapon to the Caladbolg, and counter Ixion to death. Again, wait until he drops a BHPL + Ribbon + two empty slots armour. (You won’t have the items for two Ribbon armours. If you have the patience, you could fight Vidatu or Sleep Sprout at the Monster Arena and wait until you get another 99 Dark Matter.) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Equip the Sanctuary or any other Break HP Limit you may have, and, of course, the Sonic Steel, then fight Dark Ixion again. This time, it's a bit harder. What could be easier than the first fight? --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Dark Ixion, second fight HP: 1,200,000 Overkill: 99,999 AP: 20,000/30,000 ATTACKS: Regular Attack: About 4,800 damage. Inflicts Confusion, Armor Break and Mental Break. NOTE: This regular attack can be nullified by [Evade & Counter]. Aerospark: About 8,000 damage. Dispels positive statuses. OVERDRIVE: Thor’s Hammer: About 18,000 damage. Inflicts Full Break. Use a Chocobo Feather, a Light Curtain, switch your weapon to the Caladbolg and Quick Hit. After Aerospark, use another Chocobo Feather, Light Curtain and heal with Quick Pockets X-Potion. After Thor's Hammer, you should be close to killing him. Heal your HP if you want, but I don't think you need to heal. CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Armour: Break HP Limit, Auto-Haste, Auto-Protect, Ribbon (Optional) Switch your weapon to the Caladbolg and Quick Hit. After Aerospark, heal with Quick Pockets X-Potion. After Thor's Hammer, you should be close to killing him. Heal your HP if you want, but I don't think you need to heal. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Equip Deathproof armor on two characters other than Tidus. Give Tidus Comrade Overdrive mode. Equip the Sonic Steel on Tidus. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Dark Shiva HP: 1,100,000 Overkill: 99,999 AP: 20,000/30,000 ATTACKS: Regular Attack: About 6,000 damage. Dispels positive statuses. Heavenly Strike: About 10,000 damage. Causes Death, Berserk and Confuse status ailments. OVERDRIVE: Diamond Dust: About 88,000 damage. Use a Chocobo Feather, switch your weapon to the Caladbolg, then use Slice & Dice. If Shiva targets someone other than Tidus, use Slice & Dice again. If she targets Tidus, reset. Now, she must target the other character. If she does, one more Slice & Dice will kill her. If she hits Tidus, bad luck; try again. CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Armour: Auto-Haste, Auto-Protect, Break HP Limit (Optional), Ribbon (Optional) Switch your weapon to the Caladbolg, then use Slice & Dice. If Shiva uses Heavenly Strike on Tidus, reset. Otherwise, use Slice & Dice again. Now, she must not use Heavenly Strike on Tidus again. One last Slice & Dice will do it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Equip the Sanctuary and the Sonic Steel, Bribe Valaha for about 60 X-Potions, and be ready to fight Dark Bahamut! --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Dark Bahamut HP: 4,000,000 Overkill: 99,999 AP: 30,000/40,000 ATTACKS: Regular Attack: About 8,000 damage. Impulse: About 7,000 damage. Inflicts Full Break, Petrify and Slow. Used as a counter when targeted for the fifth time. OVERDRIVE: Mega Flare: 42,000 damage. Dispels every positive status except Auto-Life. How would you beat this guy if Impulse inflicts Full Break, which Ribbon doesn't protect against? Well, it's actually easier than you may think. If you only use counters to hurt him, you'll never see Impulse. Cool, huh? So, use a Chocobo Feather, Light Curtain, switch your weapon to the Caladbolg and use a Stamina Tablet. On your next turns, use Quick Pockets X-Potion to heal you to full HP. This must be at least 50,000. After this, use Cheer 5 times, healing as needed. Then, Quick Hit 4 times (NOT MORE). Now, only Defend and heal when needed. Before Mega Flare, make sure you are at full HP in order to be able to survive it. After Mega Flare, you will only have one turn. Use a Chocobo Feather. Bahamut will attack, but will not kill you. Use a Light Curtain, and heal yourself to full HP. Start Defending again. This cycle repeats itself. You will need to survive 3 or 4 Mega Flares before you kill Dark Bahamut. NOTE: FOR A BETTER CHANCE AGAINST DARK ANIMA, FIGHT BAHAMUT UNTIL YOU GET A RIBBON + AUTO-PROTECT ARMOR!!!!! CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Armour: Break HP Limit, Auto-Haste, Auto-Protect, Ribbon (Optional) Switch your weapon to the Caladbolg and use a Stamina Tablet. On your next turns, use Quick Pockets X-Potion to heal you to full HP. This must be at least 50,000. After this, use Cheer 5 times, healing as needed. Then, Quick Hit 4 times (NOT MORE). Now, only Defend and heal when needed. Before Mega Flare, make sure you are at full HP in order to be able to survive it. After Mega Flare, everything repeats. Just keep healing and Defending, and you’ll win. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Don't forget to equip the Sanctuary and the Sonic Steel again, cause you will need them bad now! Escape from the Magus Sisters, and you'll be able to fight them one by one. All of them together would be impossible, as they start with full Overdrive and Delta Attack dispels Auto-Life. Get 99 X-Potions, you will probably use more than 70 against the Dark Magus Sisters. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Dark Sandy HP: 2,500,000 Overkill: 99,999 AP: 10,000/12,000 ATTACKS: Regular Attack: About 12,000 damage. Inflicts Petrification. Razzia: About 97,000 damage. OVERDRIVE: Mega Gravition: Takes off 43.75% of your max HP. Inflicts Sleep, Doom, Silence, Darkness and Slow. This battle relies a bit on luck, unless you have 50,000 or more HP, which I wouldn't recommend at all. Use a Chocobo Feather, use a Light Curtain, use a Stamina Tablet and switch your weapon to the Caladbolg. If Sandy uses Razzia on Tidus, Game Over. If not, heal yourself to full HP, then use a Lunar Curtain if you still have time. If you don't have time, Defend. Defending is very important, as it allows you to survive Razzia. Next turns you get, heal yourself if needed, or use Cheer 5 times, it reduces the damage from Razzia. But make sure to Defend before Sandy's turn. After every Razzia, you may have to use either 4 or 5 X-Potions. If it's 4, you can still Quick Hit once, then Defend. If it's 5, you won't have time to Quick Hit. When you have time, throw a Twin Stars to make sure you won't run out of MP for Quick Hit and Quick Pockets. As crazy as it may sound, Mega Gravititon is actually the best attack she can do to you. It does half damage due to Shell, and you don't have to Defend before it. It's obviously the best time to attack. You can usually get three hits in before it, and two after it. Make sure to always keep your HP above 48,000 and also make sure that you are Defending before every non-Mega Gravition turn Sandy gets. CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Armour: Ribbon, Break HP Limit, Auto-Haste, Auto-Protect Use a Stamina Tablet, Quick Pockets three (only two if you don’t have enough time) X-Potions and defend. If Sandy uses Razzia on Tidus, Quick Pockets 5 X-Potions. If not, heal yourself to full HP anyway, then use a Lunar Curtain if you still have time. If you don't have time, Defend. Defending is very important, as it allows you to survive Razzia. Next turns you get, heal yourself if needed, or use Cheer 5 times, it reduces the damage from Razzia. But make sure to Defend before Sandy's turn. After every Razzia, you may have to use either 4 or 5 X-Potions. If it's 4, you can still Quick Hit once, then Defend. If it's 5, you won't have time to Quick Hit. When you have time, throw a Twin Stars to make sure you won't run out of MP for Quick Hit and Quick Pockets. As crazy as it may sound, Mega Gravititon is actually the best attack she can do to you. It does half damage due to Shell, and you don't have to Defend before it. It's obviously the best time to attack. You can usually get three hits in before it, and two after it. Make sure to always keep your HP above 48,000 and also make sure that you are Defending before every non-Mega Gravition turn Sandy gets. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Same armor as above. Sonic Steel as always. Go face Dark Mindy. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Dark Mindy HP: 2,000,000 Overkill: 99,999 AP: 10,000/12,000 ATTACKS: Calamity: Inflicts Full Break, Curse, Silence, Darkness and Poison Passado: Inflicts Death status. OVERDRIVE: Mega Gravition: Takes off 43.75% of your max HP. Inflicts Sleep, Doom, Silence, Darkness and Slow. Who'd say Mindy would be harder than Sandy? This fight is a bit harder, but it's not very hard. Use a Chocobo Feather, cast Auto-Life on yourself, switch your weapon to the Caladbolg and Quick Hit. Now, everything depends on what Mindy does. - Passado on someone else: keep Quick Hitting. - Calamity on someone else: keep Quick Hitting. - Passado on Tidus: recast Auto-Life. - Calamity on Tidus: keep Quick Hitting. - Mindy gets full Overdrive after Passado on Tidus: don't recast Auto-Life, use a Lunar Curtain. - Mindy gets full Overdrive after Calamity on Tidus: Use a Lunar Curtain and keep Quick Hitting. - Mindy uses Mega Gravition: Quick Pockets an Elixir; you need your MP back for Auto-Life; recast Auto-Life. As you see, the best attack she can do is Calamity. This only puts you in Curse, but you don't need Overdrives, anyway. If you can use a Chocobo Feather, and still have one turn to spare, do it--having Haste is always a good thing. CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Cast Auto-Life on yourself, switch your weapon to the Caladbolg and Quick Hit. Now, everything depends on what Mindy does. - Passado on someone else: keep Quick Hitting. - Calamity on someone else: keep Quick Hitting. - Passado on Tidus: recast Auto-Life. - Calamity on Tidus: keep Quick Hitting. - Mindy gets full Overdrive after Passado on Tidus: don't recast Auto-Life, use a Lunar Curtain. - Mindy gets full Overdrive after Calamity on Tidus: Use a Lunar Curtain and keep Quick Hitting. - Mindy uses Mega Gravition: Quick Pockets an Elixir; you need your MP back for Auto-Life; recast Auto-Life. As you see, the best attack she can do is Calamity. This only puts you in Curse, but you don't need Overdrives, anyway. --------------------------------------------------------------------- If you get a Ribbon + Auto-Haste or Break HP Limit + Auto-Haste armour, I envy you. Same armour again. Sonic Steel as always. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Dark Cindy HP: 3,000,000 Overkill: 99,999 AP: 10,000/12,000 ATTACKS: Regular Attack: About 10,000 damage. Dispels positive statuses. Camisade: About 65,000 damage. Reduces MP to zero. OVERDRIVE: Mega Gravition: Takes off 43.75% of your max HP. Inflicts Sleep, Doom, Silence, Darkness and Slow. You should do this almost the same way you did Sandy. Use a Chocobo Feather, use a Light Curtain, use a Stamina Tablet, switch weapon to the Caladbolg. If Cindy hits Tidus now, you're done for. If not, great, keep going. Heal your HP completely and use a Twin Stars on yourself. Make sure to Defend before Cindy's turn. All of Cindy's attacks except Mega Gravition are actually pretty dangerous. After her normal attack, use another Chocobo Feather, Light Curtain and Defend. After Camisade, Quick Pockets 4 X-Potions, then Quick Hit if you can still Defend afterwards. If not, just Defend. Most of your damage will come from Evade & Counter. When Cindy has her Overdrive full, AND ONLY WHEN SHE HAS HER OVERDRIVE FULL, use a Lunar Curtain on yourself and keep Quick Hitting. The reason for using a Lunar Curtain only when she has her Overdrive full is that Cindy's normal attack dispels positive statuses, and you would lose turns that could otherwise be used for Quick Hit, only for Shell to get dispelled again. Heal your HP after Mega Gravition, and continue doing what you were doing before. 31 hits later, Dark Cindy will finally die. She is the hardest of the three sisters, in my opinion. CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: You should do this almost the same way you did Sandy. Switch weapon to the Caladbolg, use a Stamina Tablet and start Quick Pocketing X-Potions. Defend before Cindy’s turn. Heal your HP completely and use a Twin Stars on yourself. Make sure to Defend before Cindy's turn. All of Cindy's attacks except Mega Gravition are actually pretty dangerous. After her normal attack, Quick Pockets an X-Potion, Quick Hit until you have only one turn left, then Defend. After Camisade, Quick Pockets 4 X-Potions, then Quick Hit if you can still Defend afterwards. If not, just Defend. Most of your damage will come from Evade & Counter. When Cindy has her Overdrive full, AND ONLY WHEN SHE HAS HER OVERDRIVE FULL, use a Lunar Curtain on yourself and keep Quick Hitting. The reason for using a Lunar Curtain only when she has her Overdrive full is that Cindy's normal attack dispels positive statuses and you would lose turns that could otherwise be used for Quick Hit, only for Shell to get dispelled again. Heal your HP after Mega Gravition, and continue doing what you were doing before. 31 hits later, Dark Cindy will finally die. She is the hardest of the three sisters, in my opinion. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Be ready for the six most luck-reliant battles you will ever have. Equip the Sanctuary and the Sonic Steel as usual, enter the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth, and you guessed it, it's Dark Yojimbo slaughtering time! Don't forget to restock on X-Potions. You will need less than 50, but more is always recommended, so I'll say to get 50. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Dark Yojimbo, first fight HP: 1,600,000 Overkill: 99,999 AP: 8,000/10,000 ATTACKS: Wakizashi: About 23,000 damage. Kozuka: About 13,000 damage. Inflicts Full Break. Daigoro: About 7,000 damage. Inflicts Petrify and Poison. OVERDRIVE: Zanmato: 99,999 damage. Dispels Auto-Life. In other words, Game Over. Start of the fight: Ambush! Nuffin' you can do about it. You have one turn, use a Chocobo Feather. If Dark Yojimbo uses Kozuka on Tidus on his first turn, you will most likely die, but it's still possible to win. If he doesn't use Kozuka on Tidus, use a Light Curtain, heal yourself to full HP and use Slice & Dice. Fill your Overdrive again with Loner mode, use Slice & Dice again. The best way to fill your Overdrive is with Quick Pockets or by changing weapons. In short: - Yojimbo uses Daigoro: Quick Pockets a X-Potion, switch weapons until you have full Overdrive, use Slice & Dice. - Yojimbo uses Kozuka: Quick Pockets a X-Potion, use Dispel on yourself. - Yojimbo uses Wakizashi: Quick Pockets two X-Potions, switch weapons if you still haven't got a full Overdrive, use Slice & Dice. This sounds pretty simple, but is it? Definitely not. If Yojimbo uses Kozuka 3 or more times on you, or he uses Kozuka twice in a row, you'll die before Zanmato, or Zanmato will kill you, since you won't have enough time to kill Yojimbo before he reaches Overdrive. It takes 5 Slice & Dices and 3 Quick Hits to kill Dark Yojimbo. Make sure that you leave the Quick Hits to use after the Slice & Dices, so that you have full Overdrive for the next battle. Count your attacks so that you don't get 'lost' and start using Quick Hits after the fourth Slice & Dice, or use six Slice & Dices to kill him, cause you won't have full Overdrive for the next battle. CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Have an armour with Break HP Limit, Ribbon, Auto-Haste and Auto-Protect equipped. As usual, start with the Sonic Steel. Start of the fight: Ambush! This is impossible to prevent. The fight is basically the same as in No Customise, but this time Kozuka isn’t that bad; it only makes you waste a turn. Your actions depend on what Yojimbo does: - Yojimbo uses Daigoro: Quick Pockets a X-Potion, switch weapons until you have full Overdrive, use Slice & Dice. - Yojimbo uses Kozuka: Quick Pockets a X-Potion, use Dispel on yourself. - Yojimbo uses Wakizashi: Quick Pockets two X-Potions, switch weapons if you still haven't got a full Overdrive, use Slice & Dice. Make sure you hit him with 5 Slice & Dices and only after that, hit him three times (if he hasn’t used Kozuka yet). Try to fill your Overdrive before killing him; it makes the next battles easier. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Go to the Save Sphere and heal. Don't forget to re-equip the Sonic Steel. Keep the Sanctuary. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Dark Yojimbo, second fight HP: 1,600,000 Overkill: 99,999 AP: 8,000/10,000 ATTACKS: Wakizashi: About 23,000 damage. Kozuka: About 13,000 damage. Inflicts Full Break. Daigoro: About 7,000 damage. Inflicts Petrify and Poison. OVERDRIVE: Zanmato: 99,999 damage. Dispels Auto-Life. In other words, Game Over. The only differences between this fight and the first one are that you are not Ambushed in the beginning and Yojimbo's Overdrive bar fills faster. Use a Chocobo Feather, a Light Curtain, change your weapon to the Caladbolg and use Slice & Dice. After this, the rest is the same. The number of Kozukas you may get hit by is still the same. Make sure to have full Overdrive after this battle. CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: The only differences between this fight and the first one are that you are not Ambushed in the beginning and Yojimbo's Overdrive bar fills faster. Switch your weapon to the Caldbold, use Slice & Dice. From here on, the battle is essentially the same as the first one. Fill your Overdrive before finishing Yojimbo off (remember, it’s 5 Slice & Dices and 3 Quick Hits/counterattacks). --------------------------------------------------------------------- Go to the Save Sphere again and heal. Don't bother changing your armour, but make sure to equip the Sonic Steel, as always. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Dark Yojimbo, third fight HP: 1,600,000 Overkill: 99,999 AP: 8,000/10,000 ATTACKS: Wakizashi: About 23,000 damage. Kozuka: About 13,000 damage. Inflicts Full Break. Daigoro: About 7,000 damage. Inflicts Petrify and Poison. OVERDRIVE: Zanmato: 99,999 damage. Dispels Auto-Life. In other words, Game Over. Exactly the same as the second one, except now you can only be hit by one Kozuka. Any more than that and you're most likely dead. Make sure to have full Overdrive after this battle. CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Exactly the same as the second fight. Try to have Overdrive already full for the fourth fight. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Go back to the Save Sphere and heal once more. You know what you have to do now. That's right, equip the Sonic Steel. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Dark Yojimbo, fourth fight HP: 1,600,000 Overkill: 99,999 AP: 8,000/10,000 ATTACKS: Wakizashi: About 23,000 damage. Kozuka: About 13,000 damage. Inflicts Full Break. Daigoro: About 7,000 damage. Inflicts Petrify and Poison. OVERDRIVE: Zanmato: 99,999 damage. Dispels Auto-Life. In other words, Game Over. Exactly the same as the second and third fights, except now you simply CAN'T be hit by Kozuka, except if you've already used 5 Slice & Dices, or you won't have time to kill him before Zanmato. Make sure that you have full Overdrive after this battle. You will need it more than ever for the next fight. CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Exactly the same as the previous two fights, but you have to hope to be hit by Kozuka as less frequently as possible. Yojimbo’s Overdrive will fill VERY fast now. MAKE SURE to have Overdrive ready for the next fight, it’s near impossible without it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Go back to the Save Sphere and heal again. Equip the Sonic Steel again, and be ready to the final round against Dark Yojimbo. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Dark Yojimbo, fifth fight HP: 1,600,000 Overkill: 99,999 AP: 8,000/10,000 ATTACKS: Wakizashi: About 23,000 damage. Kozuka: About 13,000 damage. Inflicts Full Break. Daigoro: About 7,000 damage. Inflicts Petrify and Poison. OVERDRIVE: Zanmato: 99,999 damage. Dispels Auto-Life. In other words, Game Over. Exactly the same as the fourth fight, you may not be hit by Kozuka, never, except if you've already used 4 Slice & Dices, in which case you could use two more Quick Hits and the last Slice & Dice. CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Exactly the same as the fourth fight. Now, just unload every single Overdrive you get at him. Five Slice & Dices and three (Quick) Hits. Remember that him using Kozuka after you use S&D four times is a GOOD thing, because you’ll counter it. If you get lucky enough for that to happen to you, Quick Hit twice, then one last S&D will kill him. I got lucky (had to happen at least once in my life :P) and beat him on my first try. I also beat him on the turn right before Zanmato, so you can say it was a close call. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Congratulations, if you managed to beat him... It is really hard! Equip your Auto-Protect + Ribbon armor and the Sonic Steel again, and, well... Good luck! --------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Dark Anima HP: 8,000,000 Overkill: 99,999 AP: 30,000/40,000 ATTACKS: Regular Attack: About 3,500 damage. Inflicts Petrification, Poison and Curse. Mega Gravition: Takes off 43.75% of your max HP. Inflicts Sleep, Doom, Silence, Darkness and Slow. Pain: Instant Death; ignores Deathproof, Death Ward and Zombie status. OVERDRIVE: Oblivion: About 88,000 damage. Reduces MP to zero. Consider yourself lucky if this takes you less than 15 attempts. This is the hardest fight in this challenge. Well, it's only hard because it relies on luck (real life, not the stat). The strategy is very simple, but getting it to work is very hard. Basically, what you want is this, in order of importance: - Always cast Auto-Life before Dark Anima's turns. - Not be hit by Pain right after Oblivion. - Anima uses her normal attack as much as possible. If the first two happen, you will win. Simple, isn't it? NO! You have to be very lucky in order for that to happen. So, start of the battle: Chocobo Feather, Auto-Life, switch weapon to the Caladbolg, Quick Hit. If Dark Anima's first turn is Pain on Tidus, you should reset. Keep Quick Hitting at all times unless you need to heal, but only heal if you are in Haste. Don't forget to always cast Auto-Life after you are revived. Quick Hit away until she uses Oblivion. Now, use an Elixir or Megalixir and hope that Anima doesn't use Pain. If she does, restart. If she uses her normal attack or Mega Gravition, use a Chocobo Feather, then Auto-Life. Once more, Quick Hit away until the next Oblivion, not forgetting to heal and cast Auto-Life when needed. Another Oblivion comes. Hope that she doesn't use Pain. If she does, restart. Repeat this and after 81 hits (or 79 hits and one Slice & Dice), Dark Anima will die. I have not beaten her yet, the closest I came was around 65 (not sure of the actual number) hits, but I'm sure this strategy is the way to go. If you beat her, make sure to tell me. CUSTOMIZATION-ALLOWED STRATEGY: Your armour should consist of: Ribbon, Auto-Haste, Auto-Protect and Auto-Shell. Your weapon should be the Sonic Steel, as always. The strategy is very simple, but getting it to work is very hard. Basically, what you want is this, in order of importance: - Always cast Auto-Life after you are revived. - Not be hit by Pain right after Oblivion. If these two happen, you will win. You have to be very lucky in order for that to happen. So, start of the battle: Auto-Life, switch weapon to the Caladbolg, Slice & Dice. If Dark Anima's first turn is Pain on Tidus, you should reset. Quick Hit at all times unless you need to heal, but only heal when you really need to (once you have less than 2200 HP). Don't forget to always cast Auto-Life after you are revived. Quick Hit away until she uses Oblivion. Now, use an Elixir or Megalixir and hope that Anima doesn't use Pain. If she does, restart. Quick Pockets an X-Potion, then Auto-Life. Quick Hit, Auto-Life, you know what to do. The cycle repeats itself. After Oblivion, Pain is a guaranteed Game Over. Just hope you get lucky. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ===================================================================== 9.0 Credits ===================================================================== Squaresoft - For creating my favourite game ever, Final Fantasy X. GameFAQs - For posting this guide. GangstaL – Big thanks goes to him. He was the one who gave me the idea to do this challenge. He also helped me out with some Dark Aeons. I would never think of the Dark Ixion, first fight strategy, for example. I probably would get it by accident, but I'd never think of it. Split Infinity - For his great FAQ; I took almost all the info about the Dark Aeons and Nemesis from his FAQ. Also, his knowledge on some bosses proved to be very useful. Thanks a lot :) BBK_Kid – For providing strategies with Customization-allowed for almost every single boss after Guadosalam. evilwakka / zzanmato / Steaver - For some ideas and support. yojizu – For helping me spot some mistakes in this guide, also for some info. ragnarokesper: For his NA Nemesis strategy. Me - For typing this FAQ, of course. ===================================================================== Congratulations if you beat the Dark Aeons and Nemesis. This is a really hard challenge, and takes a lot of patience. This is the end of the guide. Thanks for reading!