ATTENTION: Before you use this guide to get you through Final Fantasy XIII, I
feel I should make a few clarifications. First of all, by the time I finish
writing it, it will be 2014, almost four years after the game was released in
the US. As an old guy, it takes me some time to get around to playing games
and there are usually plenty of guides and videos available by the time I fire
up the game myself. Final Fantasy XIII is no exception: gamefaqs alone
already has 4 full walkthroughs, and at least 40 specialized resources
available, not to mention a multitude of videos, tips, and chat topics
scattered across the internet. That's why I'm writing this guide. Despite the
relative ease of the game, I used more than 10 different sources to find all
the information I needed to do what I wanted, which was get a "complete"
playthrough of the game. My attempt in the pages that follow will be to
combine and organize all of this information into one file, which can be used
to achieve "everything." My definition of everything is as follows:

1) Complete the story line of the game, watching as many video sequences as I
can.
2) Have a final save file with a complete collection of weapons and
accessories.
3) Have a complete enemy database with all information for all enemies.
4) Have at least one of every item and component that I can.
5) Unlock all the achievements.

While there are other challenges available, these are the ones I will be
outlining in this guide. If the first two items are what you are after, other
guides may suit you better. In fact, I'm going to put my recommendations in
the very first section after the table of contents, along with thanking the
authors for helping me through my first playthrough and inspiring me to write
this one myself. If, like me, the Platinum Trophy isn't enough for you, I will
attempt to give step by step instructions to save you time and energy in
getting your complete save file. Either way, I hope you enjoy the game, and I
hope the guide helps you get the most out of it.

SECTION A: GENERAL INFORMATION

A1).................................DISCLAIMERS
A2)................................OTHER GUIDES
A3).........................OTHER PRELIMINARIES

SECTION B: CHAPTERS 1-10

B1)...................................CHAPTER 1
B2)...................................CHAPTER 2
B3)...................................CHAPTER 3
B4)...................................CHAPTER 4
B5)...................................CHAPTER 5
B6)...................................CHAPTER 6
B7)...................................CHAPTER 7
B8)...................................CHAPTER 8
B9)...................................CHAPTER 9
B10).................................CHAPTER 10

SECTION C: CHAPTER 11

C1)..................................SETTING UP
C2)................................MISSIONS 1-4
C3)................................LEVELLING UP
C4)................................MISSIONS 5-9
C5)...................................TREASURES
C6)..............................MISSIONS 10-14
C7)...............................MORE TREASURE
C8)..............................MISSIONS 15-20
C9)..............................TAEJIN'S TOWER
C10)......................................OERBA

SECTION D: CHAPTERS 12-13

D1)..................................CHAPTER 12
D2)..................................CHAPTER 13

SECTION E: EARLY POST-GAME

E1)....................................TROPHIES
E2)..................MISSIONS 27, 29-34, and 53
E3)..............................TITAN'S TRIALS
E4)......................MISSIONS 52, 56-59, 61
E5)....................TURTLE FARMING, PART ONE

SECTION F: LATE POST-GAME

F1)...................KILLING TURTLES, PART TWO
F2)......................TREASURE HUNTER TROPHY
F3)....TREASURE HUNTER TROPHY - THE FAST METHOD
F4)....TREASURE HUNTER TROPHY - THE JOHN METHOD
F5).................................ENEMY INTEL
F6)........................ITEMS AND COMPONENTS
F7).........................MISSIONS 54, 62, 63
F8)................................SHAOLONG GUI
F9)....................................LONG GUI
F10).................................MISSION 64
F11)....................................THE END

SECTION G: MY LITTLE EXPERIMENT

SEcTION H: HOUSEKEEPING

1) If you check out other guides on gamefaqs.com, you will encounter some parts
that look remarkably similar to this guide. The reason for this is that they
are organized so well that I couldn't find a more efficient way of presenting
the data than what was already used. Do not mistake this for plagarism:
everything in this guide is my own work, and is based on my own experience
playing the game. In cases where strategies or methods came directly from
another author, I have done my best to give credit in the appropriate sections.

2) While large, this is a very focused guide designed to get you a complete
playthrough. I will be ignroring basic game mechanics, detailed calculations,
and most importantly, will include spoilers when necessary without apologies.
If you're worried about having the game spoiled for you, play it without this
guide. If you're having trouble with basic mechanics, a little practice will
help, and if you're interested in all the neat details that Square put into
this game, some more detailed guides may suit you better. Again, I'll list
my favorites in the next section.

3) The most unique section of this guide is the "Treasure Hunter Trophy" part.
I've spent a good amount of time working out the fastest and cheapest way to
get this trophy, and included it in the section "TREASURE HUNTER TROPHY - THE
FAST METHOD." It will tell you exactly how much money you need, and exactly
what to do to get everything. If you don't want anything else from this
guide, at least check that part out... I think it's the only guide of its
kind.

4) MAJOR UPDATE! Or, John's Little Experiment and Why The Guide is Now Wrong.
Unfortunately, I didn't realize this until all 168 pages were written and
formatted, so I'm just going to tell you right now: the guide is designed to
keep you at as low a level as possible for as long as possible, because you
will eventually have to fight some battles where your battle time matters. The
lower your levels, the more time the game will give you to fight each battle.
I have since conducted a little experiment in laziness, and was able to beat 56
of the 64 such battles while basically drinking a beer and mashing the "X"
button. So, don't worry so much about saving your experience: just use it.
Don't stress so much if you're having trouble getting good ratings on the
Cie'th Stone Missions either, as they'll be much easier later on in the game.
If you'd like to read more, go to the section at the very end of the guide,
called "My Little Experiment."

This a long, rambling, very detailed, very focused guide. If you follow all
the way through, you'll spend way more time than you need to if you only want
to complete the game or get all of the trophies. As such, I've put a few
recommendations below for guides that are more specific and take less time to
follow, so I urge you to use them if you're not as ambitious in this game as
I am.

1) If you want a good story line walkthrough with a great bestiary, look no
further than Split Infinity and IceQueenZer0's guide. It's everything you
would expect from a Final Fantasy walkthrough, because, well, Split is a
legend in these parts. He actually defined what a Final Fantasy guide should
look like, and I think he's been writing for almost 20 years now. Thanks,
Split, for all your hard work over the years: I never start a Final Fantasy
game without finding your guide first. The address is below.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps3/928790-final-fantasy-xiii/faqs/58716

2) If you want some great strategies for the 64 Cie'th Stone Missions,
Auron402 is your new best friend. In an epic display of effort and thought, he
has detailed every single mission, in order, and included strategies that the
average gamer can use, in a writing style that's easy to follow. He focuses
on getting the Missions complete as early as possible, and a good portion
of what's in my guide began as strategies from him. Thanks again for writing
this monster!
http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps3/928790-final-fantasy-xiii/faqs/60472

3) In the "In Depth Faqs" and "Maps and Charts" sections of FFXIII on
gamefaqs, you'll find all kinds of specific information related to anything
and everything in this game. Of particular note are the Treasure Hunter
Trophy checklist by jekoln, the Gran Pulse Treasure Guide by AZorro007 (where
I learned about the wooly sheep, "sol weapons," and chocobo treasure), and the
Postgame Guide by Arthellinus (great for leveling weapons quickly).

1) TROPHIES: Before you get the Platinum Trophy in this game, you'll need to
achieve 35 other trophies. I won't be talking a whole lot about them, and
here's why: the first 13 correspond to each Chapter in the story line, so if
you beat the game you'll get those along the way. 8 trophies are related to
various Cie'th Stone Missions: 5-star all 64, and you'll get these 8 trophies
as you go. That's 21. 7 trophies are related to developing your characters
in the crystarium: complete the whole mess for everyone and these will be
yours, making a total of 28. That leaves only 7 trophies that will require
special mention, and even some of these are pretty easy. I will mention all
7 of these at one point, so if you want a quick reference just search for the
specific name of the trophy using Ctrl + F.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

2) ENEMY DATABASE: In Final Fantasy XIII, you get to collect data about
every enemy you fight, and it's important to decide as soon as you start
playing whether you care about collecting it all or not. You see, you have
to pay quite a bit of attention to each battle throughout the game if you want
all the data, because once you finish a Chapter you won't be able to go back
and fight these same guys again. There's no real prize for having a complete
bestiary (other than the Loremaster trophy which you'll get without even
trying), so decide quickly if you want to be a data collector or not. If not,
skip the next section. If so, here's some information to keep in mind.

There are 239 different enemies to fight in Final Fantasy XIII. 238 of them
will show up in the "Datalog" section of your menu, under enemy intel (for some
reason Geiseric's Fist doesn't show up there even if you get its data). Once
you fight an enemy, there will be an entry in this tab, but it may not be
complete. This brings up a few questions, which I'll answer right now. How
do I get "complete information" about an enemy? There are a few ways to do
this. First, you can use a Librascope. Use this when you're fighting a
battle, and all the information about every enemy in that battle will show up
instantly. This is the easiest way, but I strongly suggest that you don't use
one unless I tell you to in the guide. They are very rare, and you'll need
most of the ones you pick up to toss at bosses that you only get to fight once.
After Chapter 10, however, you can buy them at Eden Pharmaceuticals for 10,000
gil, so feel free to start using them on enemies you only want to fight once
(like flowering cactuars and ochus). Second, you can use the technique "Libra"
pretty soon in the game, no matter which character you're using. This will
give you some of the intel each time you cast it on an enemy, but it will
often take multiple casts to get it all. In addition, using Libra consumes TP,
which can be a real pain to get back if you're using it up in every battle. If
you need intel on a specific enemy, though, and probably won't need to cast
Libra in the near future, this is your best bet. Third, you learn a little
about an enemy every time you defeat it. So, the easiest way to get complete
intel is to finish a battle, walk away, then turn around and fight the same
battle again until you get all the information. It can be tedious, but you'll
find that by the time you get through an area once, you probably have all the
info you need on most of the enemies just by fighting them. Then, double check
to make sure you have the other ones. My first time through, I missed the
"Battle Drone" at the very beginning of the game, and never got to fight it
again. I had complete information on, you guessed it, 237 enemies. Argh!

Why do I need to know all this stuff about the enemies? Well, the biggest
reason is that you only get to control 1 of your 3 characters in this game.
The other two are controlled by the AI. The more information you know about
a foe, the smarter the AI looks when picking its commands. In other words, if
you fight an enemy that's immune to fire, but have no intel, there's a good
chance that one of your characters will stand there and stupidly cast fire
spells over and over for no damage. The second reason is more cosmetic: it
is kind of cool to look in your enemy intel folder and see a complete
database. At least it is for me...

When you fight a boss battle, I'm pretty sure you'll automatically get all of
the data after you beat it. It's hard to tell, because you almost always
want to use Libra or a Librascope on these guys anyway, just to keep them
from kicking your ass unneccessarily. If you care about your database,
though, I'd get in the habit of checking your intel after every boss
battle, before you save and move on.
One final point: you will NOT be able to access Chapter 1-10, or most of
the enemies in Chapter 13 once you beat the game. As you read the walkthrough
for these chapters, keep an eye out for the (Last Chance!) tag as each battle
is listed: it will be the last time you will see this particular enemy, so
make sure you have its data before moving on.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

3) PARADIGMS: One feature of FFXIII that may be a bit weird at first is the
use of paradigms. These paradigms are appropriately named, as they become the
"ways of thought" in battle. First off, these won't be available until Chapter
3, so don't try to find them until then. Each character will have from 1 to 6
"roles" that they can play. By using the first option in your menu, you can
set a list of paradigms, where each person plays a certain role in battle.
Once these are set, and you go into battle, you can use the L1 button to shift
paradigms within your previous setup. Sound confusing? I'll make it as
simple as I can.

For the most part, we'll create a default setup. This will work throughout
most of the game, but I'll tell you when a change is necessary. No matter who
is in your party, make your first paradigm "Relentless Assault" if you can.
Take your party leader or the one with the highest strength and make them a
Commando, then make the other two Ravagers. This gets your stagger gauge up
as quickly as possible. Next, go for "Aggression" if you can, by changing one
other character to Commando. This does the most damage. Third, keep a
Commando in the party, and put as many Medics as you can in the rest of your
party. The third role doesn't matter much, but at the beginning I go with
Snow as a Sentinel. This will protect you while your Medic heals you.

When you get to the battle screen, the tactics are pretty simple. Use
paradigm 1 until your enemy staggers, then switch to #2 to kill him. If you
need to heal, jump on over to #3. I actually sucked at Paradigms until I
fought about 1000 turtles at the end, so don't feel bad if it takes a while to
get the hang of it.

One other note about switching Paradigms: If you execute all of your attacks,
then immediately switch paradigms, your ATB gauge will be immediately full!
This only happens about every other time, but when it does, you basically get
two full turns in a row. In fact, there are a few tougher battles later where
we will use duplicate paradigms to take advantage of this.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

4) BATTLE RATING SYSTEM: Before you begin, it's important to note that the
5-star battle rating system is almost completely irrelevant until Chapter 11.
Basically, you have a target time for every battle, based on your characters'
stats and the difficulty of the enemies you're fighting. You are given a
rating based on how your actual battle time stacks up against the calculated
target time. Go less than 70%, you get 5 stars. Sadly, the ONLY battles you
need to 5-star for any trophy are the 64 Cie'th stone Missions and the Final
Boss. The ratings in all the other battles don't matter one bit. Yes

Chapters 1 through 10 of Final Fantasy XIII are easy. Period. The paths are
very linear, there is no need to upgrade weapons, and you'll have only 10 or
so hard battles in the whole run. Even those are easy, since the enemy attack
patterns are mostly the same and there is NO penalty for failing a battle.
You can retry right where you left off, and you get back all of the stuff you
"spent" while in battle. So, if you try a battle and fail, you can just keep
adjusting your strategy until you win. As such, these walkthroughs are going
to be very short. As needed, I'll tell you what to do in your crystarium
(you'll figure that out soon enough), give you a warning when it's your last
chance to get intel on each enemy, and then basically an outline of the
battles and treasures as you go through the chapter. If any enemies require
special setups or tactics, I'll take a break and give you basic suggestions.
Otherwise, just get through the first 10 chapters and enjoy the story!

Battle 1: Mansavin Warmech (BOSS)
Battle 2: PSICOM Warden x2
Battle 3: PSICOM Warden x2
Battle 4: PSICOM Warden x2, PSICOM Enforcer
TREASURE 1: Potion
Battle 5: PSICOM Warden, Pantheron x2
Treasure 2: Potion x2 (Side Area)
Battle 6: PSICOM Enforcer, PSICOM Aerial Recon
Treasure 3: Iron Bangle (Side Area)
Treasure 4: 50 Gil
Battle 7: PSICOM Warden x3
Battle 8: PSICOM Warden, Pantheron
Battle 9: PSICOM Warden, Pantheron x3
Battle 10: PSICOM Enforcer x2, PSICOM Marauder (BOSS)
=====
Treasure 5: 50 Gil
Battle 11: PSICOM Enforcer x2
Battle 12: PSICOM Warden x3
Battle 13: PSICOM Warden x2, Pantheron x2
Battle 14: PSICOM Warden x2, PSICOM Enforcer, Pantheron
Battle 15: PSICOM Warden x2, PSICOM Enforcer x2
Treasure 6: Iron Bangle
Battle 16: PSICOM Warden x2, PSICOM Enforcer x2
Battle 17: PSICOM Warden x2, Pantheron x2
Battle 18: Beta Behemoth (BOSS)
=======
Battle 19: Myrmidon
=======
Treasure 7: Power Circle
Battle 20: Pantheron x2, PSICOM Aerial Recon x3 (LAST CHANCE!)
Treasure 8: 100 Gil
Battle 21: PSICOM Warden, PSICOM Enforcer x2

Battle 1: Pantheron
Treasure 1: 30 Gil (BEHIND YOU)
Battle 2: Pantheron
Battle 3: Zwerg Scandroid x3
Treasure 2: Potion x4
Battle 4: Pantheron x2
Battle 5: Zwerg Scandroid x3
Treasure 3: Iron Bangle
Battle 6: Pantheron x2
==========
Treasure 4:Potion x2 (BEHIND YOU)
Battle 7: Pantheron x2
==========
Battle 8: Pantheron x3
Battle 9: Pantheron x2
Battle 10: Zwerg Scandroid x4
Treasure 5: Phoenix Down
Battle 11: Zwerg Scandroid x3
Battle 12: Myrmidon
Battle 13: Zwerg Scandroid x2, Pantheron
Treasure 6: Gladius
Battle 14: Pantheron, Myrmidon (LAST CHANCE!)
==========
Treasure 7: Potion x2 (BEHIND YOU)
Battle 15: Zwerg Scandroid x2, Pantheron
==========
Battle 16: Zwerg Scandroid x2
Battle 17: Zwerg Scandroid x4 (LAST CHANCE!)
Treasure 8: Fortisol
Battle 18: Pantheron x2
Battle 19: Pantheron x2
Treasure 9: 100 Gil
Battle 20: Ghoul x3
==========
When you get control of Lightning and Sazh, go left to the side area before
charging up the steps.
Battle 21: Ghoul x2
Treasure 10: Power Wristband
Battle 22-28: A total of 9 Ghouls, all in a row
Battle 29: Ghast

Okay, let's take a little break here and equip some stuff. Those Ghasts are
starting to get a little tough, and you're going to fight two of them in a
second. The problem with equipping accessories at this point in the game is
that your party is constantly changing. If you leave something equipped on,
say, Lightning, and then you switch to Snow, it will NOT be available for your
use. That sucks, huh? So, just make sure you follow my notes on when to dump
your gear. By now, you should have a new weapon for Lightning, so go ahead
and equip the Gladius. Give her the Power Wristband as well, and go ahead and
slap one of your Iron Bangles on Sazh. Ok, moving on...

Battle 30-34: 5 Ghouls, all in a row
Battle 35: Ghast x2

Okay, now that you have Snow, you might as well equip him as well. Give him
his Power Circle and an Iron Bangle, and let's fight our way to the top!

Battle 36: Ghast
Battle 37: Ghoul, Wight
Battle 38: Ghast, Wight
Treasure 11: Potion x5

Battle 39: Anima (BOSS), Right Manipulator (BOSS), Left Manipulator (BOSS)
This, appropriately, is the first battle that might require a little help. If
you want, you can toss yourself a Fortisol before you go into the battle (just
use L1), but I don't think you really need it if you have everything equipped
as instructed. The key is to kill the manipulators whenever they show up,
then go nuts on Anima herself. With no "arms," she'll just spend her time
making new arms, and not attacking. You'll probably need a potion or two if
anyone gets below 120 or so, so keep an eye out for that as well.

Battle 1: Ghast x3

Let's take a break for a second from the boring battle/treasure routine,
because a lot of stuff is going to happen between Chapter 2 and Chapter 3. The
first thing that you'll notice immediately is that you can now use paradigms to
control your characters' actions. The basics are described way up there in the
first section (PARADIGMS), but here's what to do for now. Your party should be
Light, Snow, and Vanille. Set the paradigms to COM/RAV/RAV, COM/COM/RAV, and
COM/SEN/MED. Make sure your default is #1, or "Relentless Assault." I'm going
to give you a general battle strategy for the next 7 chapters. Use this unless
otherwise noted, and you should be fine.

Your default paradigm should work well for most regular battles. If, however,
you get in a nasty battle with a big guy, just stagger it and switch to
paradigm 2 to finish it off. If you need to heal, just go to 3. One note to
this: if you have 2 Commandos in your party, they will attack DIFFERENT
enemies each turn. This is great if you're fighting a bunch of easy guys
(you will), but actually hurts you if you're fighting a few hard ones. So,
if you're up against some hard enemies, stay with #1 until you kill all of
them but the last one, stagger the last one, THEN switch to #2. That's it,
happy hunting!

Next, Since you're already in the menu, you might as well give Vanille your
other Iron Bangle. Go ahead and remove Sazh's Iron Bangle as well.

Now walk down the hill and you'll get a nice tutorial on the Crystarium.
Finally, you can develop your characters! Well, kind of. You probably have
about enough CP to move 1 or 2 nodes, but at least it's a start. You will
come "preloaded" with some abilities, but not very many. The important
issue with the crystarium is which roles to develop for which characters.
For now, dump all your CP into Commando for Light, Sentinel for Snow, and
Medic for Vanille. I'll update you when this changes. These crystaria
will expand as the game goes on, so if you max out a role, just keep your CP
in the bank for when the next Chapter starts. If you start to stockpile CP,
you can gingerly develop a second role for each character (like whatever
they seem to be using the most), but keep your eye on role number one, as
the bonuses get higher as the crystarium expands. You will gain stats and
skills as you move along this grid, so careful planning is essential!

Finally, you will notice that you now have a TP gauge on your menu screen as
well as your battle screen. It should be yellow and showing "5." Here's a
brief discussion of TP, how it works, and what it's for. TP stands for
Technical Points, and has a max value of 5. When you use a technique in
battle, you spend a certain number of these points. TP is then replenished
very slowly, by getting good battle ratings and certain other activities. The
point is, it is a relatively precious commodity, so be careful when you use
techniques! Fortunately, there are only two important techniques that
consume TP. Summoning an Eidolon (which we'll get to later) will use quite a
bit. Libra will use exactly 1 TP, and it is Libra that merits the final
discussion before we move on.

All of your characters come "preloaded" with the Libra ability. I'll try to
make this short, as I've already covered most of it in the ENEMY INTEL section
before the walkthrough. Libra is one of the most useful and useless skills in
the game. It's useful, because you can use it to gather enemy intel in
battle, which will help your characters not do stupid things while you watch
helplessly. Also, you will gather intel faster with Libra than you will by
just killing a bunch of the same enemy. Unfortunately, there are two huge
drawbacks to Libra. First, it usually takes more than one casting to get all
the intel on an enemy, which wastes turns and can be very frustrating.
Second, it consumes TP, which takes a long time to replenish. Since you only
get 5 castings, you can run out of TP very easily, encounter a rare enemy,
and have no way to get the data! You will, however, get Librascopes pretty
soon, which are much more efficient if you're in a bind, but we'll get to
that later. For now, I suggest you do this: If you're fighting a battle
and the guide says (BOSS) or (LAST CHANCE!) next to it, immediately press R1
and scroll to the enemy you're about to never see again. Look for question
marks on the intel screen. If you see one, go back and use Libra, then press
R1 again and see if it's gone. Keep using Libra until there are no more
question marks for that enemy. This should ensure that you get all the data
before you're out of guys to fight, while keeping your TP gauge high enough
to be there if you need it.

I think that covers the relevant updates, so let's get back to the game!

At the first cross, take the left path.

Battle 2: Ghoul x4 (LAST CHANCE!), Ghast
Treasure 1: Pearlwing Staff

Now take the path past the save point.

Battle 3: Ghast, Wight x3
Treasure 2: Chipped Fang x7 (Side Area)
Treasure 3: 200 Gil (Side Area)
Battle 4: PSICOM Warden x7
Battle 5: Wight x3 (LAST CHANCE!), Ghast x3 (LAST CHANCE!)
Treasure 4: Cie'th Tears x5
Battle 6: Breshan Bass x4

Take the left path.

Battle 7: Breshan Bass x4
Treasure 5: Silver Bangle

Back to the main path.

Battle 8: Pantheron x4
Treasure 6: Phoenix Down
Treasure 7: 50 Gil
Battle 9: Pantheron x2
Treasure 8: Strange Fluid x8
Battle 10: PSICOM Warden (LAST CHANCE!), PSICOM Enforcer x2 (LAST CHANCE!)
Treasure 9: Magician's Mark

Okay, let's stop for a second to get ready for the next battle. Start in the
crystarium. Spend all of Lightning's CP in the Commando section. Snow
actually should have enough to max out all 3 of his roles for now, so do that.
Go ahead and spend all of Vanille's in the Medic section, then go on down to
equipment. Make sure Lightning has the Gladius and the Power Wristband. Snow
still has the Power Circle and an Iron Bangle, and let's go ahead and give
Vanille her Pearlwing Staff and Magician's Mark. Now save at the save point
and get ready for a battle.

Battle 11: Manasyin Warmech (BOSS).

Before you do anything else, Libra this sucker twice right off the bat. That
should get you all the information you need, but hit R1 and check, just to
make sure. Now, just use the standard battle strategy of 1 to stagger, 2 to
kill, and 3 to heal, and you should be fine. If you get the timing right,
he'll even go down in 1 stagger!

Without Snow, your party just got much weaker and much less versatile, but we
play the hand we're dealt. Go ahead and give Sazh a Silver Bangle (he needs
it), and charge right in to annoying fish land!

Battle 12: Breshan Bass x3

Go right at the split.

Treasure 10: Strange Fluid x6
Battle 13: Pantheron x4

Take left beam first, then come back and take right beam.

Treasure 11: Deneb Duellers
Treasure 12: 240 Gil
Battle 14: Bloodfang Bass x5, Breshan Bass

There's a dead end to your right. Go there.

Battle 15: Bloodfang Bass x4, Breshan Bass
Treasure 13: Enigmatic Fluid x6
Battle 16: Pantheron x4
Treasure 14: Wicked Fang x7
Battle 17: Bloodfang Bass x7 (LAST CHANCE!), Breshan Bass x3 (LAST CHANCE!)
Battle 18: Alpha Behemoth
Treasure 15: Librascope (Side Area)
Battle 19: PSICOM Tracker x2
Battle 20: Watchdrone x3
Treasure 16: Digital Circuit x2
Battle 21: PSICOM Ranger, PSICOM Tracker x2

Take the right path up the cliff.

Treasure 17: Parafin Oil x2
Treasure 18: 50 Gil
Treasure 19: Insulated Cabling x3 (Side Area)
Battle 22: Watchdrone, Ciconia Velocycle (LAST CHANCE!)
Battle 23: Watchdrone x3
Treasure 20: 30 Gil
Treasure 21: Begrimed Claw x6
Battle 24: Alpha Behemoth
Treasure 22: 600 Gil
Battle 25: PSICOM Ranger, Watchdrone x3
Treasure 23: Digital Circuit x2
Treasure 24: Begrimed Claw x7 (Side Area)
Battle 25: PSICOM Ranger x2, Crusader
Battle 26: PSICOM Ranger x2, Crusader (LAST CHANCE!)
Treasure 25: Spark Ring
Treasure 26: Potion x3
Battle 27: Pantheron x2
Battle

Battle 28: PSICOM Ranger x2, PSICOM Executioner
Battle 29: PSICOM Ranger, PSICOM Tracker x2
Treasure 27: Millerite
Battle 30: PSICOM Ranger x2, Pantheron x2, PSICOM Tracker x2
Battle 31: Pantheron x3
Battle 32: PSICOM Ranger, PSICOM Tracker (Side Area)
Treasure 28: Ferroelectric Film
Battle 33: PSICOM Ranger, PSICOM Tracker x2, PSICOM Executioner (LAST CHANCE!)
Treasure 29: Librascope x2
Treasure 30: Phoenix Down

Time to take a break and upgrade your characters. In the Crystarium, max out
Lightning's Commando role, then spend the rest in Ravager. Vanille gets Medic,
then Ravager, and Sazh just gets Ravager. Leave the equipment and the
paradigms the same.

Battle 34: Garuda Interceptor (BOSS). First, throw one of your 3 Librascopes
at it. You'll fight him twice, but both are pretty easy. Just hammer away,
switching to #2 whenever you need to heal.

Now, this gets interesting. First, you're going to fight a battle that you
can't win. Just kill however many guards you can, then a scene will take you
into your first Eidolon battle!

Here's the deal with Eidolon battles. There are six in the game, and they
work very differently than regular battles. You're basically trying to
impress these guys enough so they will join your team, and attacking them is
not always the best way to do it. You want to fill that little purple gauge
under them to the top before your doom meter runs out, and then press the
square button to ask them to join you. That's it.

In this battle, start by throwing one of your 2 Librascopes. Then, go into
abilities on your menu, select 3 Steelguards, and select yourself. Repeat
this throughout the entire battle. You won't die, you won't attack, and the
purple bar will get full with about 200-300 left on the timer. When it
fills, press the square button and the battle is over! You can now summon
the girls whenever you want to unnecessarily waste your TP! Also, that ends
Chapter 3.

Battle 1: Pantheron x4

Before you do anything, go to your menu, and unequip the Magician's Mark on
Vanille. Now go forward and you'll end up with Lightning and Hope. As soon
as you finish the Synergist tutorial, go in and give Hope the Magician's Mark.
As long as you're in there, it's time to update Hope's Crystarium. You should
have about 1200 CP, enough to max out his Synergist role. Dump the rest in
Medic, then clean Lightning's out in Commando. Now we're ready to move
forward.

Battle 2: Thexteron (Side Area)
Treasure 1: Librascope
Battle 3: Thexteron, Pantheron x2 (LAST CHANCE! FINALLY!)
Battle 4: Watchdrone x3
Battle 5: Thexteron, Watchdrone x2
Battle 6: Pulsework Soldier

Might as well give Vanille a Silver Bangle, then start fighting!

Battle 7: Watchdrone x3, Pulsework Soldier
Battle 8: Thexteron x2, Pulsework Soldier
Battle 9: Watchdrone x3 (LAST CHANCE!), Thexteron x2, Pulsework Soldier
Treasure 2: Black Belt
Battle 10: Thexteron x3, Pulsework Soldier x2
Battle 11: Pulsework Soldier
Treasure 3: Ninurta
Battle 12: Pulsework Soldier

One note here: Since you have no Commando, it is really, really hard to get
the stagger gauge high enough to stagger an enemy. If you make use of the
Saboteur role, however, this becomes a snap. Just wait for Vanille to stick
DeShell on an enemy, then switch back to RAV/RAV/RAV, and watch the gauge
climb! Incidentally, the Saboteur and Synergist roles are the weirdest,
most underused roles of the game. Those buffs and debuffs are the key to
an easy trip through FFXIII, and sadly I didn't use them at all until the
very end of my first playthrough! Let me give you an example: let's say
you have Lightning, Vanille, and Hope in your party. If you make Lightning
a Commando, and the other two Ravagers, you'll have 1 strong attacker and
two very weak attackers. If, however, you use your first turn to stick
Bravery on Lightning, and DeProtect on whoever you're fighting, you'll do
roughly four times the damage with each of Lightning's attacks! That's like
having four Commandos in your party, with just one smart move on your part.
Add the two Ravagers back in, and you'll be in 5 star city for the rest of
the game. Okay, back to the fight.

Battle 13: Incubus x2
Battle 14: Incubus x2
Battle 15: Incubus, Pulsework Soldier
Battle 16: Incubus, Pulsework Soldier
Treasure 4: Phoenix Down (Side Area)
Treasure 5: Metal Armband
Battle 17: Succubus, Incubus x2
Battle 18: Succubus, Incubus, Pulsework Soldier
Battle 19: Pulsework Soldier x2

Now stop and get the Magician's Mark off of Hope: you're about to lose
him for a while, and you want that on Vanille.

Battle 20: Pulsework Soldier x2
Battle 21: Succubus, Incubus
Battle 22: Succubus, Incubus x2
Battle 23: Succubus x2, Incubus
Treasure 6: Librascope
Battle 24: Incubus x2 (LAST CHANCE!)
Battle 25: Succubus (LAST CHANCE!), Pulsework Soldier x2
Treasure 7: Ember Ring

Battle 26: Dreadnought (BOSS). First, throw Libra at him twice. You really
don't need to change your default paradigms, but you will have to use them.
Just switch to number 4 to get the chain gauge up, and stick DeShell on him,
then go back to 1 till he dies. If you need to heal, use #3. That should take
care of his first form. Now for the second. Start with #2 and stick Faith on
everyone. Heal with 3 if you need to, then pop on over to 4 and stick DeShell
on him. Kill him with 1, heal with 3, and if he removes his DeShell, go back
to 4 and stick it on him. Be patient, this battle will probably take at least
4 minutes.

One of your prizes for this is a fun little tutorial about upgrading weapons
and accessories. IGNORE EVERYTHING IN THIS TUTORIAL! You will waste hours
trying to figure out a bunch of useless crap with all of the components
available, and you really, really don't need to. I'll cover upgrading when
it's actually relevant, but for now, just know that you only need 6 components
total to upgrade everything (except catalysts), and you won't have to upgrade
a single thing until much later in the game. Also, you now can use Lightning
as a Medic, and we'll get to that later in this page. Hopefully you have
been saving your CP since the last upgrade...

Battle 27: PSICOM Tracker, Corps Gunner x4
Battle 28: Corps Gunner, Corps Regular
Battle 29: Corps Regular x2 (Side Area)
Treasure 8: Fiber-Optic Cable x3
Battle 30: Corps Gunner, Corps Regular x2
Treasure 9: Librascope (Side Area)
Battle 31: Uhlan
Battle 32: PSICOM Tracker x2

Okay, this part is a little weird. Hope takes control of this machine, and
you have to walk down the hill, killing some dudes on the way. There are 43
of them, and they can't hurt you. There will be two treasure balls at the
bottom, and what's in them will be determined by how many of the 43 dudes you
killed. Really, the prizes aren't that great, so don't worry if you miss
some. If you want to try to kill all 43, just get on one level, run around
until the pink dots are gone on your map, then drop down to the next level.
Eventually, you'll fall and be back on the ground in front of the 2 treasure
balls.

Treasure 10: Depends on how many guys you killed (Best is Spark Ring)
Treasure 11: Depends on how many guys you killed (Best is 999 Gil)
Treasure 12: Electrolytic Capacitor x2
Battle 33: PSICOM Ranger, Corps Regular x2 (LAST CHANCE!)
Battle 34: PSICOM Tracker, Uhlan, Targeting Beacon (If you let Tracker call
it)
Treasure 13: Spark Ring (Side Area)
Battle 35: PSICOM Ranger (LAST CHANCE!), Corps Gunner x3
Treasure 14: Phoenix Down (Side Area)

Battle 36: PSICOM Tracker (LAST CHANCE!), Targeting Beacon (LAST CHANCE),
Uhlan. I put this battle in its own section, because it's the one that
screwed my whole enemy database in my first playthrough. Don't let this happen
to you! First of all, it's your last battle with the Trackers, but you should
have all their data by now anyway. You will get one more shot at the Uhlan,
so that's OK too. It's the damn targeting beacon you have to worry about. I
suggest you do this: attack one of the trackers immediately, and hit him until
he's dead. By this time, you'll probably have 2 targeting beacons. Quickly
toss your Librascope, then switch to Paradigm 3, because you will need to heal.
As soon as you're set, hit R1 to make sure you have the data, then switch back
to 1 or 4 and kill the beacons. Attack the other Tracker next, and if you see
him call the beacon again, kill it as soon as you can. The problem is, the
Uhlan uses the beacon to quickly destroy your party. Without it, he's pretty
tame, but when that beacon is there it could be game over at any moment. In
fact, I died 5 times just writing this paragraph. The point is, you'll have
to quickly switch paradigms to heal, while getting back to killing the little
guys. Once the beacons and the trackers are dead, though, it's smooth
sailing!

Now, it's time for some more fun! You should have about 1700 CP built up for
Hope and Lightning. Spend her first 1400 in the Medic area, until you get
your second Accessory slot. Go ahead and burn the rest in Commando. As for
Hope, you should have exactly enough experience to get him to a level 2
Synergist, with a second Accessory Slot as well. Give Lightning the Doctor's
Code and a Spark Ring, and give Hope a Spark Ring and a Silver Bangle (thanks
again to Split Infinity and Icequeenzero, I took this strategy straight from
their guide and it works every time). Now, set up your paradigms. Go with
MED/SYN, RAV/RAV, and MED/MED. It's time to get another Eidolon.

Battle 37: Odin (BOSS). Odin likes when you heal, which is great because
you'll be doing it quite a bit. He also likes when you attack. You're
starting with a MED/SYN paradigm, and you're looking for 2 things: complete
data on Odin (Probably take a few Libras), and Protect and Shell on both
characters (provided free of charge by Hope). Once you have this, we can do
this pretty simply.

Just stay in paradigm 2 and attack. When one of your
characters gets low on health, heal the party with a potion. You really
don't even need paradigm 3. If you do this without dying, you should fill
the purple bar with 600 or more left on the timer, so get Odin and get the
hell out of there!

Unequip everything. Don't worry about your paradigms, you won't be using
them for your next battle.

Battle 38: Uhlan x2 (LAST CHANCE!), PSICOM Ranger x3 (LAST CHANCE!). This
is where you get to play with Odin, but since it's also your last chance to
get intel on the 2 enemies, make sure you have that covered first. Summon
Odin, and as soon as it lets you, hit R1 and make sure your files are
complete. If not, use a Librascope. Now kill the dudes and move along to the
next battle. Oops, a quick update. It's not easy to kill these enemies with
Odin alone, so you may lose him and have to finish them off with just Hope and
Lightning. Since your setup is crappy and you have no accessories, it will be
a bit tricky. I was able to do it with just RAV/RAV and MED/MED, but you might
want to retry this battle and set some good paradigms, like COM/RAV or COM/MED.
It's your call...

Now you're back to Sazh and Vanille, and you are woefully underprepared for
the next stage. Let's fix that. First, you should have about 2,000 CP built
up for each one. Use the first 1200 to max out Sazh's Commando role, then use
90 to get Bravery in the Synergist role. Keep the rest in the bank for now.
Vanille could use about 500 CP in the Saboteur role, but that's about it.
Now, we equip: Sazh with Deneb Duellers and a Power Wristband, and Vanille
should still have her Pearlwing Staff and Magician's Mark. Let's fight.

Treasure 15: Phoenix Down (Backtrack as soon as you gain control) Thanks Ryu_Shion
Battle 39: Bomb
Battle 40: Bomb x2
Battle 41: Bomb, Pulsework Soldier
Battle 42: Bomb x2, Pulsework Soldier
Treasure 16: Auric Armlet (Side Area)
Battle 43: Gremlin x2
Battle 44: Gremlin x3
Treasure 17: Ember Ring
Battle 45: Gremlin x2, Pulsework Soldier
Treasure 18: Phoenix Down (Side Area)

Now it's time for a little puzzle. First, you must activate 4 panels to get
the generator going. They are on your map as Points of Interest. Each one
will require a battle:

Battle 46: Bomb, Pulsework Soldier
Battle 47: Pulsework Soldier x2
Battle 48: Bomb, Pulsework Soldier
Battle 49: Bomb x2
Treasure 19: Fortisol (In the middle ring of this area)

Now go back to the previous area, and you'll see four more "Points of
Interest." You'll probably have to fight some previous battles that have
respawned. Activate the first elevator on your right when you get there.

Battle 50: Gremlin x3, Pulsework Soldier x2
Battle 51: Pulsework Soldier x3
Treasure 20: Vibrant Ooze x6
Battle 52: Bomb, Pulsework Soldier

Battle 53: Bomb x3, Pulsework Soldier. This battle gets a special mention,
because the way you're equipped right now, you really aren't built to survive
it. If you try a bunch, though, eventually you'll get lucky without having to
mess with any equipment (maybe Ember Rings would help?). The problem is that
the bombs are only going to be in the battle for about 2.5 turns, then they'll
blow up, killing you all. If you start with a Blitz on the default target,
then do it immediately again, you will probably get one of them to die, while
the other one is mostly dead. This is where it's easy to mess up, because the
third bomb is about to explode and still has full life! Use your next two ATB
bars to attack that third bomb, and with luck you'll get him low enough
before he explodes. Vanille will probably die, so use a Phoenix Down
immediately, switch to paradigm 3, and toss a Potion. You will barely make
it, but you will make it. Then, just kill the Pulsework Soldier and move on.

Treasure 21: Iron Shells x8

Finally, you can go towards the yellow marker! One more battle, then it's
Chapter 5 time!

Battle 54: Bomb x2 (LAST CHANCE!), Pulsework Soldier x2 (LAST CHANCE!)
Treasure 22: 300 Gil

Now, take your equipment off before you move forward.

Well, I guess it's time to be Hope. This ought to be fun... Start by
equipping Hope with your Magician's Mark and a Silver Bangle. Give Lightning
the Power Wristband and a Black Belt. The default paradigms are probably OK,
but I like to change the second one to MED/MED for extra healing. You'll
basically go with 1 for most of your battles, 2 to heal, 3 if you get a hard
enemy that needs some buffs, and 4 to jack up the chain gauge.

As for your crystarium, you're going to earn enough CP in here to max out both
Hope and Lightning. You're going to need to do it for the final battle of
Chapter 5 anyway, so you might as well spend freely in here. Get Lightning
up high enough in Commando to learn the "Launch" ability, which will
immediately make your life ten times easier. You see, when you stagger an
enemy, you can now launch them into the air and kill them without them
attacking you. It's pretty cool. Anyway, happy hunting!

Battle 1: Frag Leech x4
Battle 2: Frag Leech x2, Thexteron
Battle 3: Thexteron x2
Battle 4: Thexteron x2
Battle 5: Frag Leech x4
Battle 6: Frag Leech x2, Thexteron x2
Battle 7: Frag Leech x2, Vespid
Battle 8: Thexteron x2, Vespid
Battle 9: Frag Leech x4
Battle 10: Alpha Behemoth (Side Area)
Treasure 1: Antidote x3
Battle 11: Frag Leech x6 (LAST CHANCE!)
Battle 12: Alpha Behemoth
Battle 13: Vespid x2
Treasure 2: Hawkeye

Equip Hope with this Hawkeye immediately.

Battle 14: Thexteron x2
Battle 15: Thexteron x2, Vespid (LAST CHANCE!)
Battle 16: Thexteron x2 (LAST CHANCE!), Alpha Behemoth (LAST CHANCE!)
Battle 17: Silver Lobo
Battle 18: Silver Lobo x2
Battle 19: Silver Lobo x3
Battle 20: Silver Lobo x2
Battle 21: Crawler x4
Treasure 3: Antidote x6
Battle 22: Crawler x4
Battle 23: Crawler x3, Silver Lobo
Battle 24: Feral Behemoth
Battle 25: Crawler x10 (!)

Finally, you get Light back!

Battle 26: Silver Lobo x2 (Right Path)
Treasure 4: Star Pendant
Battle 27: Silver Lobo x2
Battle 28: Crawler x3, Silver Lobo x2
Battle 29: Barbed Specter
Treasure 5: Edged Carbine
Battle 30: Crawler x2, Barbed Specter
Battle 31: Feral Behemoth

Okay, right after the save point, go into the area and look to your left.
You'll see a glowing barrier, but there's a gap at the end of it where
you can get behind it.

Battle 32: Feral Behemoth
Treasure 6: 1500 Gil
Battle 33: Crawler x4
Battle 34: Crawler x2, Barbed Specter
Battle 35: Barbed Specter x3
Battle 36: Crawler x5 (LAST CHANCE!), Feral Behemoth (Right Path)
Treasure 7: Fragrant Oil x8
Battle 37: Feral Behemoth, Silver Lobo x3

Before you go up the plant, go left to get trapped again.

Battle 38: Barbed Specter (LAST CHANCE!), Feral Behemoth (LAST CHANCE!)
Treasure 8: Watchman's Amulet
Battle 39: Silver Lobo x4 (LAST CHANCE!)
Battle 40: Corps Marksman, Corps Watchman x2
Battle 41: Milvus Velocycle
Battle 42: Corps Marksman, Corps Watchman x3 (LAST CHANCE!)
Treasure 9: Ethersol
Battle 43: Corps Marksman x2 (LAST CHANCE!), Milvus Velocycle (LAST CHANCE!)

Battle 44: Aster Protoflorian (BOSS). This will be the longest, hardest
battle you've fought so far, so prepare yourself accordingly. The strategy I'm
going to give you is probably not the most efficient, but it does fit with what
you've already got equipped. When I did this, it took me 5:10, and I was never
in danger of dying, so I guess it's good enough. You can leave your equipment
and your paradigms the same. Go in and max out all 3 roles for both characters
(you should have about 300 CP left after all that).

This battle will test your understanding of both paradigm shifts and stagger
mechanics, so I'll give you a little background on both. Let's start with the
paradigms. When you queue up attacks, let them fly, then immediately switch to
another paradigm, your ATB will be automatically full about half the time.
This will help you get more attacks in, but also will allow you to switch to
your dual medic roles (#2) to heal almost instantly. Trust me, you'll need it.
Also, if your ATB is charging, you can hit the triangle button to perform the
attacks you have ready so far. So, if only two of your 4 attack commands are
ready, pressing triangle will execute those two immediately. This is how you
keep the guy in the air when he's staggered. As soon as you see him fall, hit
triangle, no matter how full your ATB is, and you'll launch him again before
he can mess you up.

Now, let's talk about staggering. Though certain indirect actions (like
debuffs) raise the stagger gauge, there are only two roles that play a major
part in staggering an enemy: Commando and Ravager. You've probably noticed
by now that attacks by a Commando don't raise the gauge very much, and you
are correct. However, when an attack is done, if the Commando had the last
hit, the gauge drops very slowly as well. The effects last a few more turns,
too: this is why you attack with COM/RAV for a few turns first, then switch
to RAV/RAV. If you just attack with Ravagers, you can't keep the bar high
enough to stagger anyone. If the bar starts to drop too quickly, switch back
to any paradigm with a COM for a few turns, and it will stabilize the bar.
Got it? Good. Let's take this guy down.

Aster Protofloration (We'll call him AP, since I'm a Vikings fan) is a pretty
nasty dude. His attacks can be devastating, he's pretty quick, he has over
100,000 HP, and he's really tough to stagger. Now, when you fight this guy,
you first want to get a round in with paradigm 1. As soon as you finish,
switch immediately to 3 and throw a Librascope. Hope should be able to get
protect on you both before Aster's first attack, but if not, stay in 3 until
he does. Now, switch over to 2 and heal quickly. Your number one priority now
is to stay alive until you stagger AP. Start with a turn or two of 1, then
switch to 4 and hit him until you need to heal. Switch to 2 and get healthy,
then go to number 1 to stabilize the gauge. If it's almost gone, press
triangle as soon as your first attack is ready to hopefully save you from
having to start all over. Trust me, the ONLY way you're going to beat this
guy is by staggering him. Once you stabilize the gauge, go to 2 again if you
need to heal, and 4 if you don't. Repeat this cycle until he's staggered.
Keep an eye on your Protect as well: if it runs out, switch to 3 immediately
and put it back on. Once you stagger AP, you can now have a field day by
switching to 1, launching him in the air, and pummeling him until his stagger
ends. You probably aren't strong enough yet to kill him in one stagger, so
you'll have to start at the beginning and stagger him again. Two should do
it though, with your setup. If' you're having trouble with this battle, the
IceQueenZero / SplitInfinity guide has a different strategy involving potions
and different paradigms. I just don't like using potions, even though
they're about to be useless soon anyway. Good luck, and I'll see you in
Chapter 6!

If you have any opportunity after killing this guy, now would be a good time
to take all the equipment off of Lightning and Hope.

Since you are now Vanille and Sazh, some upgrades are in order. First off, if
you got the equipment off of Lightning and Hope in Chapter 5, give her the
Magician's Mark and him the Power Wristband. If you failed, like I did, we'll
just have to make do with Bangles. Silver for Vanille, Tungsten for Sazh.
Next up, blow through your accumulated CP (you should have about 7,000 by now).
Max out Vanille in Saboteur, then Medic, then dump the rest in Ravager. Max
out Sazh's Synergist, then Commando, then Ravager, which will give you an
extra accessory slot. Let's go ahead and put the Metal Armband on him, though
we won't need it right away. The default paradigms are fine, but I like to
add a 5th one with SAB/COM in case I want to debuff some dudes while still
attacking. It's your call, you probably won't need it through here anyway.
Ready? Good, let's get this over with.

Battle 1: Flandragora x2
Battle 2: Hedge Frog x3
Battle 3: Flandragora x2 (Left Path)
Treasure 1: Mysterious Fluid x8
Battle 4: Hedge Frog x2, Flandragora
Battle 5: Hedge Frog x4
Battle 6: Flandragora
Battle 7: Flandragora x2
Treasure 2: Belladonna Wand
Battle 8: Gremlin x5
Battle 9: Flandragora x2
Battle 10: Flandragora
Battle 11: Flandragora x3
Treasure 3: Procyons
Battle 12: Gremlin x3
Battle 13: Gremlin x5 (Left Path)
Treasure 4: Doctor's Code

Battle 14: Scalebeast. In the next area, you'll see a tutorial about how it's
nice to run from really strong enemies. This is in fact the case with this
next group of Scalebeasts: there are four in your way, but you don't get much
for fighting them and they're hard to kill at this stage in the game. There is
one, however, who is guarding a treasure ball, so fighting him will be good for
your inventory. We'll knock out a whole bunch of techniques, as long as we're
fighting him anyway. First, sneak up on him so you get a Pre-emptive Strike.
Then, whack him a few times till he staggers. Now, switch to any Paradigm
where Vanille is a Saboteur and spam Poison on him until he gets stuck with
it. As long as you're at it, you might as well cast Libra a few times to fill
the intel. Then, hack away until he dies. You'll kill 3 birds with one
stone! Feel free to fight the other three if you want to, but I'm skipping
them and moving on.

Treasure 5: Iron Shell x15
Treasure 6: Librascope
Battle 15: Gremlin x4
Battle 16: Gremlin x3
Treasure 7: Scaled Wing x10
Battle 17: Gremlin x6

You have actually picked up two pretty cool weapons in the last section, so
let's equip them now: the Belladonna Wand for Vanille, which will become your
favorite weapon in Chapter 11, and the Procyons for Sazh, which has the
"Stagger Maintenance" ability. A quick note on this next section: you
will activate a climate control orb when you enter the area, and there will
be a few hanging around. They change the weather, but there are only two
kinds of weather: cloudy and rainy. Different enemies show up depending on
the weather, but I'm not going to cover the variations. So, if you have
different enemies going through here, change an orb to get back on the same
page, or just fight it your way. I'm sure all the avenues are about the same,
so no big deal. The first orb should change the weather to "rainy"
automatically, so let's start there.

Battle 18: Mud Frog, Hedge Frog x3 (Plus more Hedge Frogs that the Mud Frog
summons)
Skip the orb and take the right path.
Battle 19: Mud Frog x2 (LAST CHANCE!), Hedge Frog (LAST CHANCE!) (Plus more
summoned Hedge Frogs)
Battle 20: Gremlin x2, Scalebeast (LAST CHANCE!)
Treasure 8: Metal Armband

Hit the next orb to make the weather cloudy.
Battle 21: Wyvern

Stay to the left up here and take the left path (you don't really want to
fight another Wyvern, do you?)
Battle 22: Flandragora x3
Treasure 9: Aqua Ring
Battle 23: Gremlin (LAST CHANCE!), Garchimacera x2
Battle 24: Garchimacera x2, Wyvern (LAST CHANCE!)
Battle 25: Flandragora x2
Battle 26: Flandragora x4 (LAST CHANCE!)
Battle 27: Garchimacera x3 (LAST CHANCE!)

Battle 28: Enki (BOSS), Enlil (BOSS). Not a terrible boss battle, but
you'll still need to set up correctly and pay attention. First, dump
whatever CP you have into your last role for each character. If you fought
the battles in this guide alone, you should be just short of maxing out both
characters. Next, switch Vanille's Silver Bangle for a Doctor's Code. Now
look in your inventory. Do you have at least 15 or 20 potions? If you do,
that should be enough. If not, buy some from the shop at the save point.

I've seen a few different ways to fight this battle, but I'll give you the one
I found to be the easiest. First, drop your Librascope (you should have 3
before this battle). Now, switch immediately to setup 3 and start hitting the
blue guy with Poison spells. You really don't need to do this, because he's
going to remove it anyway, but it does give you a head start on his chain
gauge. The important thing is that Sazh is sticking all kinds of buffs on the
party. Let him do this until you each have about 4 buffs, then switch to 1.
Now, keep your target on the blue guy (I think it's Enki), and hit him with all
you've got. Use potions when you're less than half full on life, and keep
hammering away. You'll stagger him, you'll almost die, but just keep hitting
him until he's dead. Now, switch back to 3 and do the same thing with the
other guy. You should only need 10 or 15 potions before they are toast.

Now, when you can, get all the equipment off of your two characters. You'll
be changing here again pretty soon....

Back to Lightning and Hope. Just to make sure we're on the same page, let's
check our equipment. I didn't take anything off after Chapter 5, so Lightning
has her Gladius, a Power Wristband, and a Black Belt. Hope has his Hawkeye, a
Magician's Mark, and a Silver Bangle. Let's go ahead and make that a Tungsten
Bangle. Paradigms should be set to COM/RAV, MED/MED, COM/SYN, and RAV/RAV.
So, we use 2 to heal, 3 to buff, 1 to get the chain gauge going, 4 to stagger,
and 1 again to finish anyone off. As for the CP you have stockpiled (about
4,000), give it all to Commando for Lightning and Medic for Hope. Now, let's
fight.

Battle 1: Corps Tranquifex x2
Battle 2: Corps Tranquifex x3
Treasure 1: Fiber-Optic Cable x3 (Side Area)
Treasure 2: Holy Water x3 (Side Area)
Battle 3: Corps Pacifex
Battle 4: Corps Pacifex x2, Corps Tranquifex
Battle 5: Falco Velocycle
Treasure 3: Librascope

You'll have to ride 4 platforms here to move on. The first and last only go
one way, but activate the left switch first for the middle two. It will take
you to areas with treasures. Then, ride the platform back, step off, and step
on again to continue on the main path.

Treasure 4: Phoenix Down
Treasure 5: Holy Water x4
Battle 6: Flanitor x2
Battle 7: Lucidon
Battle 8: Flanitor x2
Battle 9: Flanitor, Lucidon
Treasure 6: Aqua Ring
Treasure 7: Mobius Coil x2
Battle 10: Lucidon (LAST CHANCE!)
Battle 11: Flanitor x3
Treasure 8: Warding Talisman
Battle 12: Flanitor x2

Battle 13: Snow vs. a bunch of dudes and Orion. This is more of an
interactive cut scene than an actual battle. Just mash "X" until you get to 3,
hit triangle to use diamond dust, and this battle will be over in 20 seconds.

Oh yeah, Snow is a character in this game... I forgot about that guy! I guess
we should do something with the 13,000 CP we've accumulated for him, so go
ahead and max out Commando and Sentinel, then leave the rest in the bank. As
for equipment, you really don't need to change anything for this, but let's
just throw a couple of Iron Bangles on him for the heck of it (ooh, 100 more
HP). Lightning still has the good Commando gear, and we're going to lose Snow
again in a second anyway.

Battle 14: PSICOM Bombardier, Corps Tranquifex x3
Battle 15: PSICOM Scavenger, Corps Pacifex x2
Battle 16: PSICOM Predator, Corps Pacifex x4
Battle 17: Corps Pacifex x2, PSICOM Warlord (Left Path)
Treasure 9: Fortisol
Battle 18: PSICOM Scavenger, Corps Tranquifex x2
Battle 19: PSICOM Bombardier, Corps Tranquifex x4 (Right Path)
Treasure 10: Paladin
Battle 20: Corps Tranquifex x2, PSICOM Predator, PSICOM Warlord (LAST CHANCE!)
Treasure 11: Insulated Cabling x4 (Side Area)

Don't bother changing equipment, even though you're about to change parties.
You'll be back to these two in 3 battles, and Fang is awesome without any
equipment, so why bother? Just to test this for you all, I did the next 3
battles by pressing "X," with no strategy whatsoever. The Orion kept picking
on Fang, so I had to switch and heal once, but other than that, there were no
issues.

Battle 21: Corps Pacifex x2, Corps Tranquifex x2
Battle 22: Orion
Battle 23: Corps Pacifex x3, PSICOM Bombardier

Treasure 12: Holy Water x4 (Behind you)
Battle 24: Corps Pacifex x3
Battle 25: Corps Pacifex, Corps Tranquifex
Treasure 13: Incentive Chip x2 (up on the ledge to the side of the path)
Battle 26: Corps Tranquifex x3
Battle 27: Corps Pacifex, Corps Tranquifex x2
Treasure 14: Guardian Amulet
Battle 28: Corps Pacifex x2, Corps Tranquifex x2
Battle 29: Corps Pacifex x2, Corps Tranquifex
Battle 30: PSICOM Aerial Sniper x3
Battle 31: PSICOM Aerial Sniper
Battle 32: PSICOM Aerial Sniper x2
Battle 33: PSICOM Aerial Sniper x3
Treasure 15: Shaman's Mark (Side Area)

Might as well equip this on Hope immediately, instead of his Magician's Mark.

Battle 34: Falco Velocycle. These guys can be a real pain in the butt, and I
was going to suggest that you skip them entirely if you can. However, as I
fought through this section, I actually learned a bunch of neat things, and
started to enjoy fighting them. So, I'll share my tips with you on how to take
these guys down. Your default paradigms should be COM/RAV, COM/MED, SEN/MED
and SEN/SYN. Start with Paradigm 1 and start attacking. Eventually, you will
see the Velocycle ready his Gattling Gun. As soon as you do, shift immediately
to paradigm 3. If you auto-battle, you'll get Provoke in, then watch Snow die
while the Gattling Gun rips you apart. You actually might survive if Hope
casts Cure a few times while this is happening, but let's avoid this
altogether. Choose your abilities command, select 2 "Provokes" and 2
"Steelguards," and let that sink in right before the Gattling Gun hits. If
executed correctly, you will survive this devastating attack by blocking almost
every bullet (like in the Matrix) and be with full health when his attack ends!
Then, just go right on back to 1 and hammer away like nothing happened. After
getting killed by these things quite a bit, it felt good to learn a little more
about the Sentinel role and actually laugh in his face for once...


Battle 35: PSICOM Aerial Sniper x2

Skip the first right with the 2 snipers and go to the ledge on the side of the
building.

Treasure 16: Thrust Bearing x3
Treasure 17: Vidofnir (Side Area)
Battle 36: PSICOM Aerial Sniper, Falco Velocycle
Treasure 18: 2,000 Gil (Side Area)
Battle 37: PSICOM Aerial Sniper x3
Battle 38: PSICOM Aerial Sniper x2, Falco Velocycle (LAST CHANCE!)

Battle 39: Ushumgal Subjugator (BOSS). This guy is actually a bit of a
pushover once you know how to handle him. Start by getting his intel:
Librascopes are in short supply right now, so 2 Libras ought to do it. You'll
notice some things very quickly: he loves to attack with fire, and he hits
with some pretty big physical attacks. As soon as you have the intel, though,
switch to 4 and Hope will stick Barfire and Protect on both of you within 10
seconds. That's about all you have to worry about! Switch back to 1 and get
in as many attacks as you can, then use 2 to heal as he knocks you down.
Eventually, you'll stagger him. Sadly, that will be about the time your
Barfire wears out, so go ahead and take a little extra damage until his
Stagger ends. Then, switch over to 2 to heal, then 4 to get your Barfire back.
Once you do this, he'll be down to 10,000 or so HP, so you're only a few turns
away.

Hopefully, you left Snow mostly unprotected through this, because you have no
opportunity to unequip your characters before switching to Fang and Light. No
matter, they're pretty good without help, and we're going to add a little more.
First off, it's time you properly met your Commando for the rest of the game,
Fang. She's stronger than anyone, and probably gives Lightning quite the
inferiority complex. With this in mind, it's time to make Lightning a proper
Ravager. Start by equipping her with the Edged Carbine, Magician's Mark, and
Silver Bangle. Now, let's give Fang the Power Wristband. Next, let's take a
trip into the Crystarium. For Fang, it's Commando all the way. Leave the
rest of her CP in the bank when you're done. For Lightning, dump all you've
got into Ravager. You might have a little left over, but just leave it for
now. As for Paradigms, go COM/RAV, COM/COM, and COM/MED. That's all you
need, trust me. Now, let's kick some ass.

Treasure 19: Bestial Claw x15 (Behind you)
Battle 40: PSICOM Bombardier, Corps Tranquifex x3
Battle 41: Orion
Battle 42: PSICOM Scavenger, Orion
Treasure 20: Gae Bolg
Battle 43: Lodestar Behemoth
Battle 44: Corps Pacifex, Corps Tranquifex x2 (LAST CHANCE!)
Battle 45: Orion x2
Treasure 21: Axis Blade
Battle 46: PSICOM Scavenger, Corps Pacifex x3 (Side Area)
Treasure 22: Tungsten Bangle
Battle 47: PSICOM Predator x2, Orion
Battle 48: Corps Pacifex x2 (LAST CHANCE!)
Treasure 23: Black Belt

Battle 49: PSICOM Bombardier, Lodestar Behemoth (LAST CHANCE!)

Battle 50: Ushumgal Subjugator (BOSS). First off, you can't beat this guy
with Hope alone, so don't try. Secondly, you have not had a chance to equip
Hope, nor set your own paradigms. So, feel free to restart immediately and
set your paradigms. You really don't need to, though: Hope is still equipped
from last time, and the paradigms are good enough to beat this guy, you just
have to know where they are mid-battle. Also, don't forget your enemy intel,
since he's a different form from last time. Here's what I like to do: When
it's just Hope, take a few whacks at him from the Ravager role, then switch to
Medic and heal. Once you do, Libra him until you have all of his intel. After
that, heal and attack for a little bit, and eventually he'll get some help from
his friends. The subjugator will have all of its health back, but the intel
will still be there! Now, the very first thing you want to do is switch to
the last paradigm, SAB/MED/SYN. Just let Fang spam Slow on the enemy until it
sticks. At this point, Hope should have given you all Shell and Protect, so
you're set up to crush this. Switch to 1 and attack, then 2 and heal.
Alternate back and forth for extra turns, and you'll stagger him quickly. Once
you do, stay in 1 until his stagger ends. You should knock about half his
health off with each stagger. If you see Slow come off, wait till the Stagger
ends and put it back on. One final note: If you see him targeting one of your
characters, it's time to switch to 4. stay in this paradigm until the boss
uses Photon Blast, so you don't die. That should do it, so let's see where
Hope lives!

Treasure 24: Phoenix Down
Battle 51: PSICOM Scavenger x2, PSICOM Aerial Sniper x2 (LAST CHANCE!)
Battle 52: PSICOM Predator x2 (LAST CHANCE!), PSICOM Bombardier
Battle 53: PSICOM Bombardier (LAST CHANCE!), PSICOM Scavenger x2 (LAST
CHANCE!)
Treasure 25: Brawler's Wristband
Treasure 26: Ethersol

HERE'S YOUR CHANCE COMING UP TO UPGRADE SOME WEAPONS.
I recommend sticking only to your favorites for now because you most certainly will not have an easy time upgrading anything to its max version. You might find it helpful in some circumstances.
Your weapons and accessories have a multiplier on the experience they get from the components you use to upgrade them. It starts at one and maxes out at 3. There's an invisible point system used to determine the multiplier that ranges from 0 to 501 for max benefit. In order to most efficiently upgrade your equipment, you want to increase the points value to at least 501 before using your beefiest components to really rack up those levels. The components can be separated into 2 categories: organic and inorganic or components that increase your multiplier points and components that decrease your multiplier points respectively.

The gist is that you can rely on more expensive organic components from the shops to reliably increase the multiplier quickly and then use your best inorganic components to reap the most bang for your buck. Why there are so many components I would consider both useless to this end AND worth chump change when sold is not something I can make heads or tails of, but generally your biggest source of organic components will be the stores; however, some of the best components are going to exclusively drop from enemies typically as rares.

Perfumes are the best organic component in terms of multiplier points, but wouldn't you rather sell them for 12500 and buy some Gargantuan Claws for a 150 a pop instead?

When your equip reaches star level, you're going to have to find the right catalyst to transmute your equip to its next form if it exists. These are often found in many places either as treasures or drops, but to get the Treasure Hunter trophy you'll likely find yourself running to the store for some of the less expensive ones. When in doubt, try perovskite. You can always save and reset!

As for suggestions, I like the ones in the Gestalt synthesis group. Especially if they don't have an ability like Stagger Lock or Enfeeblement. These are best paired with at least one of an Energy Sash, Speed Sash, Hunter's Friend, Survivalist Catalog, or Champion's Badge.

Now back to work.

The last two battles can be repeated infinitely by walking around the room, if
you have patience and want to earn some money. Unfortunately, the Incentive
Chips they drop are the Rare Drops, and you can only sell them for 2500 Gil.
I know this looks like a lot right now, but trust me, by the time you actually
need money, you'll be counting it in the millions. Still, fight them if you
want for a while, then get ready for the last battle of Chapter 7.

First off, go into Fang's Crystarium, and select the Saboteur role. Run
through that one just enough to get the second Accessory Slot, then use it to
equip her with the Brawler's Wristband that you just got. This increases her
strength by a total of 70! Everything else can stay the same, but take a look
at your paradigms so you know what you'll see when you start switching on the
fly. Change the default Paradigm to #5, which should be MED/SAB/SYN.

Battle 54: Havoc Skytank (BOSS), Left and Right Hull, Left and Right Turret.
If you have followed my guide so far, this battle should be almost a joke. It
looks scary, but it's really not. Start by tossing a Librascope, and stay in
your current paradigm long enough for Hope to get Protect on everyone. Then,
switch to Paradigm 2 and start attacking the turrets, then the hulls until
they are all dead. Hope should be a good enough Medic to keep everyone alive
while you do this. If you see Protect disappear, switch back over to 5 long
enough to put it back on. Once the four appendages are gone, start wailing
away at the Skytank itself. You will notice that each time you blew up a
turret or a hull, it did 88,000 damage to the main tank, so now you're only
fighting it with about 20% health. Just switch back and forth from 1 to 2,
and soon it will open it's legs and allow you to Stagger it. About 2
staggers later, it'll be dead. That's it for Chapter 7, so watch some videos
and I'll see you in a bit.

Uh oh, we had no chance to take our awesome equipment off before switching to
Sazh and Vanille! That's OK, though, because there are only 9 battles in all
of Chapter 8. So, let's get by with some crappy equipment. First, go into the
Crystarium, and you should see about 11,000 CP for each character. We won't be
using all of it, just enough to develop Sazh in Synergist until he learns Haste
(about 3,000), and Vanille in Saboteur until she learns Imperil and gets her
extra Accessory Slot (about 2,000). Now, give Sazh the Deneb Duellers, a
Shield Talisman, and a Tungsten Bangle. Vanille gets the Belladonna Wand, a
Silver Bangle and a Black Belt. It's not great, but it should be good enough
for this chapter.

Just follow the yellow marker until you board the nautilift for Nautilus park.
When you get to the area with 7 dead ends, follow the one on the end to:

Treasure 1: Phoenix Down

Now play the chocobo mini game. It's pretty easy, so just play until you get
to:

Treasure 2: Star Pendant

One bit of advice before you move forward. Set your default paradigm to
SYN/SAB (should be #3). Since you're wimpy right now, casting Haste on both
of you will help you with all of the upcoming battles, and will take less than
10 seconds.

Battle 1: Corps Gunner x6
Battle 2: Corps Gunner x3, Orion
Battle 3: Zwerg Metrodroid x2
Battle 4: Zwerg Metrodroid
Treasure 3: Spica Defenders
Battle 5: Corps Gunner x3 (LAST CHANCE!), Zwerg Metrodroid x2
Battle 6: Zwerg Metrodroid x3, Orion
Battle 7: Orion (LAST CHANCE!) (Side Area)
Treasure 4: Guardian Amulet
Battle 8: Zwerg Metrodroid x5 (LAST CHANCE!) (Side Area)
Treasure 5: Healer's Staff

Battle 9: Midlight Reaper (BOSS). Wow, I suck at this battle. You might want
to check someone else's guide for this, because it took me almost 9 minutes to
beat him, and he's not really that hard! I think it's because we're saving our
CP for other things, so a lot of the really helpful abilities are not available
to us. Also, we have the crappy equipment. Anyway, here are the priorities.
Start with Haste immediately on both characters. Then send out two Libras so
you get all the intel. Then stick EnFrost on each character. Now, look for
Imperil on the Reaper. It should look like 4 little icons with the bottom
left one highlighted. This is all that really matters, since it's all we've
got. Now, here's what I do. It's slow, but steady. Switch to 1 and get a
few hits in. As you need to, switch to 2 to heal while keeping his gauge up.
If you have a moment, jump down to 4 to boost it even higher. Once you Stagger
him, keep going between 1 and 2 until his stagger ends, then jump back down to
3 and get Imperil back on him. You can also use 5 for this if you don't need
Sazh's buffs at the moment. That's really all I can tell you: watch out for
the Railgun attack after he charges his Main Cannon, stay alive, keep your key
buffs and debuffs on everyone, and he'll go down eventually.

Some serious ♥♥♥♥'s gonna go down, but I'll let you watch for yourself, both
before and after the next battle. Let's look at the battle itself.

Battle 10: Brynhildr (BOSS). This is probably the easiest Eidolon battle so
far, if you know what raises that gauge. Start in your default paradigm, and
send out a Libra to get the data you need. Now, just hit auto-battle a bit
to get some buffs on your characters, while Vanille debuffs the boss. It
really doesn't even matter what you put on, just so you get some stuff on
everyone. Now, you'll probably need to heal, so switch to 2 and do that.
Now, just go to 4, your RAV/RAV paradigm, and attack until you need to heal
again. Simply switching between 2 and 4 and letting everyone do their thing
should get your purple bar full with at least 600 left on the doom meter.
Okay, only 2 more chapters before you can do your own thing!

Before we get into the battles/treasures, let me give you a few tips about
Chapter 9. First, you'll notice that even though Lightning is the only one in
your party, you have access to everyone except Sazh and Vanille. We can't pick
our team yet, but we're definitely going in the right direction. Next, we're
going to get by on the current paradigms and equipment for now, but we are
going to blow through all of our CP before we go any further. Spend
Lightning's in Ravager for now, though we'll be getting her Medic up pretty
soon. Hope's should all go to Medic, and he should now be able to cast Renew.
Fang, of course, gets everything spent in Commando. Snow's will all go to
Sentinel. You'll notice that your CP doesn't go as far when you start getting
into higher levels, and you'll notice this becomes more pronounced as the game
goes on. The cool thing is that the CP from each battle gets higher as well,
so if you have horribly underdeveloped roles right now, you can catch them up
pretty quickly.

The third tip is for those who like money. Most of the battles in these areas
have enemies that drop Incentive Chips pretty frequently, which sell for about
2500 Gil apiece. Since we haven't spent a dime yet, I'm not going to cover
money in this part. If you really, really want to upgrade some equipment or
something, this is a great place to get some cash.

The final tip I have for you involves the Enemy Database. There are 12 enemies
(not counting bosses) that you will meet for the last time in Chapter 9. 7 of
those last meetings will come in the final four battles of the Chapter. You
also probably only have 1 or 2 Librascopes. This makes using Libra a bit of a
stretch there at the end, because you actually might need it more than 5 times
before your TP gauge has a chance to fill. The 7 enemies I'm talking about
are mostly PSICOM officers, and they are the Raider, Dragoon, Reaver, Huntress,
Infiltrator, Destroyer, and Thermadon. I suggest you check your intel fairly
often as you go through this chapter, and use a few Libras early to get some
of these out of the way if you need to. That way, your TP gauge can charge
again before you really need them at the end. The nice part is that you will
probably have full intel on all of these by the time you get there anyway,
since you'll fight a lot of them on your way. I'm just giving you a heads up
in case you get in a bind there at the end. Now back to your long list of
battles.

Battle 1: PSICOM Infiltrator, PSICOM Raider x2
Battle 2: PSICOM Raider, PSICOM Infiltrator x2
Treasure 1: Digital Circuit x4 (Side Area)
Battle 3: Deckdrone x2 (Behind you)
Treasure 2: Millerite
Battle 4: PSICOM Dragoon, Deckdrone x2
Battle 5: Deckdrone x5
Battle 6: PSICOM Dragoon (Side Area)
Treasure 3: Incentive Chip x3
Battle 7: PSICOM Dragoon x2
Battle 8: Deckdrone x3
Battle 9: PSICOM Dragoon, Deckdrone x4
Treasure 4: Silicone Oil x4
Battle 10: Deckdrone x2
Battle 11: Deckdrone x3, PSICOM Dragoon x2
Battle 12: PSICOM Infiltrator x2, PSICOM Raider x2
Battle 13: PSICOM Infiltrator x3, PSICOM Huntress

Skip the battle ahead and take the right path at the intersection.

Treasure 5: Lifesaber
Batlle 14: PSICOM Infiltrator, PSICOM Huntress x2
Battle 15: Viking
Treasure 6: Ember Ring
Battle 16: PSICOM Raider x2, PSICOM Huntress x2
Battle 17: PSICOM Raider x2, Viking
Battle 18: PSICOM Raider, PSICOM Infiltrator x2
Battle 19: PSICOM Huntress x2
Battle 20: PSICOM Raider x2
Batlle 21: PSICOM Infiltrator x3
Battle 22: PSICOM Huntress x2, Viking
Treasure 7: Pandoran Spear

Leave your equipment where it is for now: you're switching parties, but not
for long, and the enemies are easy. Try to avoid your crystarium for now,
even though you'll have some low battle ratings. We need the CP for the next
Chapter.

Battle 23: Flanitor, Flanborg
Battle 24: Flanborg (then go right)
Battle 25: Flanborg x2 (then go right again)
Battle 26: Flanitor, Flanborg x2
Treasure 8: Royal Armlet
Treasure 9: Murky Ooze x12 (Then skip the next battle, there's nothing over
there)

You now have Lightning, Hope, and Fang, and you'll be in an area with 3
concentric circles. We'll navigate this by going counterclockwise around
each circle, starting with the outside ring.

Battle 27: Vespid Soldier x2
Battle 28: PSICOM Raider x2, Thermadon
Treasure 10: White Cape
Battle 29: Viking x3 (might want to use some buffs and debuffs for this one)
Battle 30: Vespid Soldier x2, Thermadon
Battle 31: PSICOM Infiltrator x2, Vespid Soldier x3
Treasure 11: Pain Dampener
Battle 32: Viking x3 (This should end the outer ring)
Battle 33: PSICOM Huntress x2
Battle 34: Thermadon
Battle 35: PSICOM Infiltrator x3
Battle 36: Viking x3 (That's it for the middle ring)
Treasure 12: Perfect Conductor
Battle 37: Vespid Soldier x3
Treasure 13: Rhodochrosite
Battle 38: PSICOM Huntress, Viking

Before you head to the next area, get rid of all of your equipment on all 3
characters. You'll be changing parties, and we're going to upgrade your main
one when we come back to them anyway. Best to start with a clean slate. Once
you are in control of Sazh and Vanille again, go ahead and give Sazh a
Brawler's Wristband and a Tungsten Bangle, and give Vanille the Shaman's Mark
and another Tungsten Bangle. The default paradigms and weapons you have should
be enough. You'll be in another room with two rings, and we'll take the same
counterclockwise path, starting with the outer ring.

Battle 39: Flanitor x2
Battle 40: Flanitor, Flanborg x2
Battle 41: Thermadon
Battle 42: Flanborg x2
Treasure 14: Segmented Carapace x8
Battle 43: Flanitor (LAST CHANCE!), Flanborg x2 (LAST CHANCE!) (Also, that's it
for the outer ring)

Battle 44: Vespid Soldier x3, Thermadon. This battle gets its own honorable
mention, because you're barely equipped to handle it with the levels you're at.
If you sneak up on one of the Vespid Soldiers, you can get a pre-emptive
strike, which is the key to not dying within 10 seconds. Kill the first one
immediately, then switch to your healing paradigm if you need to heal. Sazh
will keep blasting away at the next Vespid Soldier, so switch back and have
Vanille help if you can. Once you're down to one soldier and the Thermadon,
the rest is easy. I would advise, though, using buffs and debuffs against the
Thermadon to make your battle go quicker.

Treasure 15: Phoenix Down
Battle 45: Thermadon

Before you go to the next area, take all of your equipment back off. When you
reach the door, you will have to fight a battle, which will suck with no
equipment. So, if you want to equip some inferior stuff, that's just fine.
Just make sure that your good equipment is available for the upcoming party
switch BEFORE you get to the door. I actually just leave all of their
equipment off: it makes the battle much more fun, but takes about 7 minutes
to beat them. Whatever you decide, go ahead and fight the next battle:

Battle 46: Vespid Soldier, Thermadon

Now that you have Lightning, Hope, and Fang again, let's get them ready for the
road ahead. First, make sure your paradigms are still RAV/RAV/COM,
COM/RAV/COM, MED/MED/COM and MED/SYN/SAB. Next, let's play a little with the
equipment: give Lightning a Shield Talisman and a Black Belt, then give the
Shaman's Mark and Magician's Mark to Hope. Follow this up by equipping Fang
with the Power Wristband and the Brawler's Wristband. Our strategy for the
next little bit will be specialization: Fang kicks ass, Hope has the magic,
and Lightning stays alive...

When you start this area, turn around first and fight the enemies behind you.

Battle 47: Vespid Soldier x3
Battle 48: Vespid Soldier x2, Viking
Treasure 16: Whistlewind Scarf
Battle 49: Vespid Soldier x3
Battle 50: Vespid Soldier x2
Battle 51: PSICOM Dragoon x2, Viking (In the far right corner)
Treasure 17: Perfect Conductor
Battle 52: PSICOM Dragoon x2, Viking (Back on the main path)
Battle 53: Deckdrone x3, Vespid Soldier x2

Battle 54: Deckdrone x7 (!)
Battle 55: Deckdrone x5, Vespid Soldier

This should get you to a save point. I have noticed that I have used quite a
few Phoenix Downs recently, so if you have depleted your inventory as well, it
might be a good time to buy some more. Get your stock back up to 9 or 10. If
you need money, go into your inventory and sell any components you want. Just
don't sell any accessories or catalysts. Now, back to the fight.

Battle 56: PSICOM Dragoon x2 (On raised path in the middle)
Treasure 18: Barbed Tail x13
Battle 57: Deckdrone x5
Battle 58: Deckdrone x3 (LAST CHANCE!), Viking
Battle 59: Vespid Soldier x2 (LAST CHANCE!), Viking
Battle 60: PSICOM Dragoon x3, Viking (LAST CHANCE!)
Battle 61: PSICOM Dragoon x4
Treasure 19: Spark Ring
Treasure 20: 300 Gil (Use the closest moving thruster as a ramp)

After you get the 300 gil, the next battle you fight will be a boss battle.

Battle 62: Kalavinka Striker (BOSS). First, let's talk about getting your
enemy intel. If you have followed the guide, you probably are down to only 2
or 3 librascopes by now. You will ABSOLUTELY need one for the next boss, so do
NOT use your last one on this guy. Since buffs and debuffs are a huge part of
this battle, I suggest you switch to your MED/SYN/SAB paradigm immediately,
then just use Libra until you have full intel. This way, you can mess around
while your other two characters are doing all the work.

Now, let's end this guy: his attacks are all lightning based... meh. He is
susceptible to Slow and Curse... also meh. If you want to really slaughter
this guy, you can update Fang's Crystarium to learn Curse, but you really
don't need it. You could also give a Spark Ring to each of your characters,
but you really don't need to do that either. Your current situation will keep
you alive through any one of his attacks, which is all you really need. Just
stay in your MED/SYN/SAB paradigm until you see he has been slowed, then nail
him with RAV/RAV/COM. Heal with MED/MED/COM, stagger him, and kill his first
form. His second form brings Hellstorm Bolt. If you see it, switch to
MED/MED/COM immediately and start healing. Once you survive the attack, it's
back to business as usual. This really isn't a hard battle for Chapter 9, but
you'll see why in a minute when you fight the real boss of this chapter.

Once you have defeated the Striker, you will FINALLY be able to pick your
party! To celebrate, we're going to choose... Lightning, Hope and Fang! Womp
womp. Theoretically, Sazh or Vanille would be better than Hope right now, but
since you already have the equipment set, why not just leave it? Don't worry,
we'll use this feature eventually. Just not now. For now, carry on with the
home stretch of this long, long chapter.

Take a moment and look around from the starting platform. You'll see that the
area is set up in a kind of diamond pattern with connecting platforms. There
are 8 treasures in here, and 9 battles to be fought, including your LAST chance
to get intel on SEVEN enemies. If you get more than a few platforms away from
a battle you just fought, these enemies will respawn. In addition, there are
many ways to clear the area, so I'll just list all 17 treasures and battles and
hope you can check them all off your list.

Let's go ahead and update our crystarium just a little as well. We'll be
saving most of our CP for later, but at least max out Fang's Commando role.
Then, go into Sentinel for her and move her until she gets to the Strength +6
node that's on the level just above the level 2 rock in stage 6. This should
leave you with about 19,000 CP in storage. Go ahead and run Hope around the
Ravager chart until he drops just below 20,000 as well, which should get his
magic up over 200 with the equipment you currently have. As for Lightning,
there really isn't a great path for her just yet. I guess Commando is where
to spend your CP right now: at least she'll get some good stat boosts, so run
her around until she's below 20,000, just before she learns Scourge. These
upgrades will prepare you for the boss battle ahead, and make the other 9
battles in here quite a bit easier.

Treasure 21: Librascope
Treasure 22: Pain Dampener
Treasure 23: Rune Bracelet x2
Treasure 24: Umbra
Treasure 25: 3600 Gil
Treasure 26: Perfect Conducter
Treasure 27: Gold Bangle
Treasure 28: Ethersol

Battle 63: PSICOM Destroyer, PSICOM Infiltrator x3
Battle 64: PSICOM Destroyer, Thermadon
Battle 65: PSICOM Destroyer, PSICOM Reaver, PSICOM Huntress x2
Battle 66: PSICOM Destroyer, PSICOM Dragoon x3
Battle 67: PSICOM Raider x2, Thermadon
Battle 68: PSICOM Raider x2 (LAST CHANCE!), PSICOM Reaver, PSICOM Dragoon x2
Battle 69: PSICOM Reaver (LAST CHANCE!), PSICOM Dragoon x4 (LAST CHANCE!)
Battle 70: PSICOM Huntress (LAST CHANCE!), PSICOM Destroyer x2
Battle 71: PSICOM Destroyer (LAST CHANCE!), PSICOM Infiltrator x3 (LAST
CHANCE!), Thermadon (LAST CHANCE!)

There is a save point right next to the Ethersol treasure. I suggest you use
it, as you're about to fight what I think is the hardest battle of the first 10
chapters. Before you go in, though, we need to do a few quick things. Unequip
Lightning's two accessories, and give her the Soulfront Talisman and a Rune
Bracelet. This guy attacks with magic, and this will protect her much better.
Next, it's time to use a few -sols: hit L1 to open that menu and select a
Fortisol and an Aegisol. On this playthrough, I actually didn't have any
Aegisols, which is baffling to say the least! If you have this same problem,
just make do with what you've got: the battle will take longer, but you
should still be able to prevail.

You will be woefully underprepared for this battle. If you have followed my
guide to this point, you have done exactly zero upgrading of your weapons and
accessories. You have been miserly with your CP, so your characters are not
well developed. You'll be using Fang and Hope in roles that are better suited
to other characters. In short, you will be making this battle much harder than
it has to be. Before we go into strategy, then, I think a little explanation
is in order. When you get into Chapter 11, you will begin to encounter the 64
C'ieth Stone Missions, and you will have to get a 5 star rating on every single
one to get your platinum trophy. 5 star ratings, as you may recall, depend on
how fast your battle time compares to a calculated target time. The target
time is calculated based on your strength and magic stats, so the higher you
level yourself and your weapons, the lower the target time. This actually
makes fighting these battles much more difficult, since the enemies are the
same. Trust me: the coming missions will be much easier if you keep your
character development to a minimum, at least for the time being. As for weapon
and accessory upgrades, the biggest drawback is that it costs much more gil
than you really want to earn at this point. Also, many of these upgrades will
increase your stats, thereby reducing your target times. Third, there are very
specific weapons and accessories that you will need for the 64 missions, and
most of these are unavailable to your characters at this time. So, why upgrade
a weapon when you'll just be upgrading a different one in a few chapters? So
far, the game has been so easy that most of these shortcomings have little
effect on your battles: at least for the next 10 minutes, that is about to
change.

Battle 72: Barthandelus (BOSS). This guy is the toughest enemy you have had
to fight yet, and the first time you get the pleasure of using -sols. If you
have tossed a Fortisol and and Aegisol before this battle, all 3 characters
will now have Faith, Bravery, Haste, Protect, Shell, Veil and Vigilance. They
will keep these buffs for 5 full minutes, which seems like a long time.

However, this battle may last longer than 5 minutes, even with your characters
as jacked up as they are. Immediately, use a Librascope, and you'll find 5
targets. Pick any Pauldron or Ailette you want and start wailing away with
your default paradigm (should be RAV/RAV/COM). When you get low on health,
switch to MED/MED/COM. Your goal is to take out the 2 Pauldrons and the 2
Ailettes in any order, since Bart himself is immune until you do. As you kill
them off, his attacks will get stronger, but you really don't care. Just keep
watching your health and making sure you're all attacking the same target.
Once the four side targets are gone, it's time for stage 2.

As long as you can kill all 4 targets before your -sols wear off, you can
actually survive quite a while before he casts Doom and kills you. Your
general strategy is to keep RAV/RAV/COM on him until you stagger him, then
switch to COM/RAV/COM, just like the 500 battles before this one. Heal with
MED/MED/COM when you need to. Once your 5 minute free run is over, however,
you'll have to do a little actual gaming to get him down for good. First off,
when you lose your buffs, make Shell your number one priority. Switch to
MED/SYN/SAB when you can and wait for Hope to come through for you. When all 3
characters have Shell, go back to your general strategy. Bart has two attacks
that require special planning. The first is Thanatosian Smile. When this text
pops up by his head, switch immediately to MED/MED/COM and start healing. In
this configuration, you'll definitely need it. The second attack is Destrudo.
When this initiates, there is a 30 second charging time before he will attack.
If you do enough damage in those 30 seconds, the power will be reduced
significantly. You'll hear him groan once, then once more, and you've reduced
his 20 missiles down to 6. So, no matter what you were in the middle of
doing, if you see Destrudo begin then switch immediately to COM/RAV/COM and
hammer away until you at least hear him groan once. Unless you are very
lucky, you probably can't get the second groan in 30 seconds, so right before
he attacks switch to your healing paradigm and start healing. You should be
able to survive this attack. Continue to flail away, and eventually you'll
wear down his 400,000+ HP to zero. Staggering is difficult: it can be done,
but it is not necessary. Good luck, and congratulations on completing Chapter
9!

Welcome to the final chapter of this section. You'll notice that the enemies
get a little more difficult, but they still shouldn't be too hard with your
underdeveloped characters and bad weapons. There is no treasure in the train
station, even though there should be, so just talk to your party and move
forward. Keep your party as Lightning, Hope and Fang, and give Lightning her
Shield Talisman and Black Belt again. Before you enter the first battle, it's
time to spend ALL of your CP in any of the 3 roles that you want, for all 6
characters. After the first battle, you will be able to develop secondary
roles, but DO NOT DO THIS. With one small exception, developing secondary
roles costs way too much CP to make it worth it. When you're ready, let the
battles begin!

Battle 1: Pulsework Knight x2 (When this battle is over, skip the enemies
behind you and start down the stairs.)
Battle 2: Pulsework Knight, Circuitron
Battle 3: Pulsework Knight x2
Treasure 1: Hero's Amulet
Battle 4: Circuitron x2, Pulsework Knight
Battle 5: Circuitron x3 (Side Area)
Treasure 2: Bomb Shell x8
Battle 6: Circuitron x2, Pulsework Knight
Battle 7: Noctilucale x5
Battle 8: Phosphoric Ooze x3, Alchemic Ooze (if you let the last two Merge)
Battle 9: Phosphoric Ooze x2, Alchemic Ooze (if merged), Noctilucale x3 (In
the dead end)
Treasure 3: Saint's Amulet
Battle 10: Noctilucale x6
Battle 11: Noctilucale x4, Phosphoric Ooze x3, Alchemic Ooze (if merged)

Right after this battle, take a right at the fork and jump up some platforms.
You will come to the following:

Battle 12: Noctilucale x10
Treasure 4: Medicinal Oil x10

This is a special battle, as it is the first time we will be staying here and
harvesting for a bit. Before you start this battle, go into the Crystarium.
We're actually going to be staying here until all 3 primary roles are maxed out
for all 6 characters, so you might as well spend everything you've got on any
one of the 3. Just don't blow a bunch of CP in the secondary roles. Once
you're done, fight the battle. You'll get 640 CP for winning. Go back to the
platforms and jump down 4 times, then turn back around and fight the battle
again. Continue this cycle until all 3 roles are maxed out for everyone. It
should take about 30 battles, and if you get good at sneaking up on them, you
can do each battle in less than 10 seconds. You may also want to set your
default paradigm to COM/RAV/COM for this battle, as Blitzing is the key to not
getting killed. If you miss your Pre-Emptive Strike, don't panic. Just do
one round of Blitz, then switch to your double MED paradigm. Fang can kill
all 10 of these guys by herself, if you can keep everyone alive for a minute or
so. Once you're all maxed out, it's time to move on.

Battle 13: Phosphoric Ooze x4, Alchemic Ooze (if merged)
Treasure 5: Rainbow Anklet (Side path)
Battle 14: Stikini, Skata'ne
Battle 15: Skata'ne
Battle 16: Stikini, Skata'ne
Treasure 6: 600 Gil
Battle 17: Circuitron, Stikini, Skata'ne
Battle 18: Berserker, Centurion Blade (only if you let him summon it)
Battle 19: Berserker, Centurion Blade (only if summoned)
Treasure 7: Rigels

You know what? I'm really getting sick of Hope dying all the time. Why don't
we switch him out with Vanille? Unequip Hope's accessories, then switch
parties. Keep your paradigms the same, changing only the 4th one to
MED/SAB/COM since you no longer have a Synergist. Now, give Vanille the
Shaman's Mark and the Magician's Mark, and carry on, starting by turning right
at the next area.

Battle 20: Imp x3, Ahriman (if you let an Imp summon him)
Treasure 8: Auric Amulet
Battle 21: Phosphoric Ooze x2, Alchemic Ooze (if merged), Imp x3, Ahriman (if
summoned)
Battle 22: Phosphoric Ooze x4, Alchemic Ooze (if merged)
Battle 23: Phosphoric Ooze x2, Alchemic Ooze (if merged), Imp x4, Ahriman (if
summoned)
Battle 24: Greater Behemoth
Battle 25: Imp, Ahriman (if summoned), Phosphoric Ooze x3, Alchemic Ooze (if
merged)
Treasure 9: Alicanto
Battle 26: Noctilucale x10 (high road)
Battle 27: Noctilucale x4 (LAST CHANCE!), Greater Behemoth
Treasure 10: Gargantuan Claw x7
Battle 28: Greater Behemoth (low road)
Battle 29: Imp x3, Ahriman (if summoned), Greater Behemoth

You may have noticed a plethora of enemies in this section that must be
summoned before you can get their intel. If, like me, you are killing the Imps
before they can summon an Ahriman, it may be time to force the issue. Before
you go into the far corner for the next battle, switch your MED/SAB/COM
paradigm to MED/SAB/SAB, and make it your default paradigm. This way, you can
stand there and wait for an Ahriman to show up. Two quick Libras should get
you all the data you need, and you should recover your TP before you really
need it again.

Battle 30: Imp x4, Ahriman (if summoned)
Treasure 11: Metal Armband
Treasure 12: Ethersol

After the battle, leave your paradigms exactly where they are: the key to the
next guy is in the debuffs, so two Saboteurs is perfect.

Battle 31: Cid Raines (BOSS). This is a really technical, really cool battle.
You will have to pay attention for about 5 minutes to beat this guy with your
setup. Start by burning some more TP with 2 Libras, so you have all his intel.
Now, sit around for a turn or two while the other girls stick a whole bunch of
horrible stuff on him. Use paradigm 1 to get his gauge up, 3 to heal, and 4
to stick more debuffs on him when he loses them. That's it, but there will be
some moments where you think you're going to die. Once you stagger him,
though, the battle is over almost immediately. Have fun!

Battle 32: Circuitron x3
Battle 33: Phosphoric Ooze x2, Alchemic Ooze (if merged), Pulsework Knight
Battle 34: Phosphoric Ooze x3 (LAST CHANCE!), Alchemic Ooze (if merged) (LAST
CHANCE!), Pulsework Knight x2
Battle 35: Circuitron x4
Battle 36: Pulsework Knight x3
Battle 37: Stikini, Pulsework Knight x2
Treasure 13: Feymark
Battle 38: Imp x4 (LAST CHANCE!), Ahriman (if summoned) (LAST CHANCE!),
Pulsework Knight x2 (LAST CHANCE!)
Battle 39: Greater Behemoth
Battle 40: Circuitron x4 (LAST CHANCE!)
Battle 41: Stikini, Skata'ne x2, Greater Behemoth (LAST CHANCE!)
Battle 42: Berserker, Centaurion Blade (If summoned) (Left path)
Treasure 14: Electrode x3
Battle 43: Stikini, Skata'ne x2
Battle 44: Berserker, Centaurion Blade (If summoned)
Battle 45: Skata'ne x2
Battle 46: Stikini, Skata'ne x2
Battle 47: Stikini x2 (LAST CHANCE!), Skata'ne
Treasure 15: Otherworldly Bone x2
Battle 48: Berserker, Centaurion Blade (If summoned)
Battle 49: Berserker (LAST CHANCE!), Centaurion Blade (If summoned)

Battle 50: Bahamut (BOSS) This battle is actually really easy, even though the
game forces you to switch parties and paradigms. No special preparation is
necessary: just switch to paradigm #6, stick a few debuffs on Bahamut, then
go to #4 to heal. When ready, switch to #1, then back to 4, then back to 1,
and you'll have your new toy with plenty of time to spare. If you are having
trouble, feel free to retry the battle. The main menu will come up, allowing
you to equip your characters and paradigms to your liking.

After this battle, you are officially done with the first 10 Chapters. Take
a deep breath and congratulate yourself, as the next section opens up
tremendously in terms of freedom and sidequests.

Well, you've finally made it to Chapter 11, which is what I like to call the
"Free Roam" section of the game. In a very short while, you'll be on the
Archylte Steppe, a huge area that you can run around and complete little side
quests. I'm going to change the format of the guide for this area, since most
battles can be avoided, and all of the enemies will be available after you
beat the game. So, we won't be focusing on our enemy intel for a while. Our
primary purpose in this area is to get 5 star ratings on the first 18 or so
C'ieth Stone Missions before we move on with the story, and we'll also be
looking for equipment and stat boosts that will help us do this effectively.
First, though, you have to go get Hope back.

Oct 27: I'm adding a very useful map by Koharu Nami that will help you during this chapter and the post game.


The golden-yellow area holds mainly Flans and Dire Flans.
The purple area holds mainly Navidons with a few Rangdas.
The gray areas hold Amphisbaenae.
The brown area holds Adamantortoises and Adamanchelids (Long Guis and Shaolong Guis after you've completed Missions 56-62).
The orange areas hold Gorgonopsids, Megistotherians, and Behemoth Kings.
The light-purple area holds Rangdas and Leyaks.
The light-blue area holds mainly Sahagins.
The green area holds an Ochu, a few Microchus, and some Triffids.
The red area holds a variety of Cie'th, some Gorgonopsids, and a few Goblins.

Gray dots represent Item Spheres.
Blue dots represent Cie'th Stones.
Orange dots represent Waystones.
Yellow dots represent Chocobo digging locations

Alexander (BOSS): First off, you'll have to walk a bit through some enemies to
get to him. Dodge them or fight them, it's up to you. I usually skip the
treasure on the way, as we'll be coming back here later. Once you reach him,
Hope will be forced in your party, with no equipment, and your paradigms will
be crap. Just die and retry, and you can fix this. You actually just want to
keep his HP up, so give him a Gold Bangle and a Tungsten bangle. Then, fight
the way you always fight, and you'll have Alex in your party before the Doom
timer goes below 400.

Once Alex goes down, you'll be transported directly to the Archylte Steppe,
right in front of your first Cie'th Stone! Before you jump right into battle,
however, it's time to do a little housekeeping. First, let's get oriented with
the Archylte Steppe. This area is huge, but there are basically four "exits."
The south exit is the one you are standing right next to, which will take you
to Vallis Media, Yaschas Massif, the Tsubbadran Highplain, and ultimately
dead-end at the Paddrean Archaeopolis. The west exit goes to the Font of
Namva, where it dead-ends as well. The east exit will take you to Aggra's
Pasture, then the Haeri Archaeopolis and Titan's trials. The north exit is the
only true exit, and will be where you ultimately go to continue the story.
I'll be using these exits as reference points for the rest of the guide, so I
just wanted you to know right away what I was talking about.

Now, let's talk a little about the Cie'th Stone Missions. There are 64 of
them, and you have to get a 5 star rating on all 64. A mission begins when
you activate the appropriate Cie'th Stone. Then, you have to find your mark,
which will be "marked" for you on the map. Initiate battle, win the battle,
and move on! If you die, you can restart. If you win, but don't get a 5 star
rating, you'll have to go all the way back to the Cie'th stone to activate
the mission again. This can take a while, so use your save points frequently.

For the most part, the standard setup that you've used will work fine.
However, quite a few of these will require special paradigms, party members, or
equipment, so I'm going to use a template for each battle. This way, you'll be
able to quickly prepare yourself for the battle. Here's the template:

MISSION --: ENEMY

MEMBER 1: NAME, WEAPON, ACCESSORY 1, ACCESSORY 2, ETC.
MEMBER 2: NAME, WEAPON, ACCESSORY 1, ACCESSORY 2, ETC.
MEMBER 3: NAME, WEAPON, ACCESSORY 1, ACCESSORY 2, ETC.

PARIDIGMS: ---/---/---, ---/---/---, ETC.

BATTLE DESCRIPTION:

Lastly, let's talk a little about the theory of these battles. Your goal is
to dispose of each enemy as quickly as possible, but the higher you level your
characters, the lower your target time will be. The goal, then, is to keep
your people strong enough to beat the enemy, but weak enough to keep the target
time high. Accessories that allow you to get more hits in, like Sprint Shoes,
without increasing your stats, then, are an absolute must for these missions,
and our first priority will be getting a full set of Sprint Shoes. Whenever
possible, sneak up on your target to get a Preemptive Strike. We're going for
ratings here, not style points. Finally, there are all kinds of "crutches"
you can use to kill these guys, and we will be avoiding them for the most part.
Shrouds are hard to come by and really not necessary. Eidolons take a long
time to summon and can actually hurt your ratings. Maxed out weapons are nice,
but will reduce your target time quite a bit. So, we'll just be using straight
battle skills and our heads to get these done. If you want to use shrouds or
eidolons, I won't judge you: whatever works is fine with me.

You also may want to update your Crystarium, at least for your party. It won't
go far, but every little bit helps: Fang's in Commando, Hope's in Medic, and
Lightning's in Ravager.

Now that the preliminaries are out of the way, it's time to get you some Sprint
Shoes. Go to the save point right behind you and choose any vendor you want.
Sell every component you've amassed thus far, but keep 1 of everything in your
inventory. Do NOT sell catalysts: if you sort your inventory, they'll end up
at the bottom, and they have names like Millerite, Cobaltite, Uraninite, etc.
Selling everything else should net you around 150,000 gil! Whoopee!
Now that we have some money, let's make a pair of Sprint Shoes. Go to Lenora's
garage and buy one Ferroelectric Film and five Turbojets. Go to the Motherlode
and drop 30,000 on a Perovskite. You should have a Tetradic Crown in your
inventory, so upgrade it with the Ferroelectric Film and three of the
Turbojets. This should get you to the * level for this item. Now, dismantle
it and get your pair of Hermes Sandals. Next, use the last two Turbojets to
upgrade your sandals, then use the Perovskite. Voila, Sprint Shoes! We'll be
making some more of these in a bit, but for now let's start our battles.

MISSION 1: ECTOPUDDING

FANG, Bladed Lance, Sprint Shoes, Brawler's Wristband
HOPE, Hawkeye, Gold Bangle, Magician's Mark
LIGHTNING, Edged Carbine, Power Wristband, Blessed Talisman

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTON: If you go straight north from the stone, you'll eventually
run into this bright blue hunk of goo. Don't stop to heal- if he kills you,
just restart. Button mash your auto-battle with your default paradigm, and
you should be fine. My target time was 1:10, and I got this guy in 41 seconds.

----------------------------------------------------

MISSION 2: URDIMMU

FANG, Bladed Lance, Sprint Shoes, Brawler's Wristband
HOPE, Hawkeye, Gold Bangle, Magician's Mark
LIGHTNING, Edged Carbine, Power Wristband, Blessed Talisman

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: The stone is right by the end of your first battle, and
the mark is just a little southeast of the stone. Even though your map is
foggy, you should be able to see the star right on the edge of the area. Don't
bother going to a save point: you'll either die or get a 5 star on this one.
The problem, and also the nice part, is that your mark is joined by 4 other
wolves, and you'll have to eliminate them first. Start with a few blitzes.
You should be able to kill one of the other guys before you have to heal.
Then, take out the other 3 in succession until only Urdimmu remains. You
should be able to kill all 4 of the other wolves before your Haste wears off,
which is at the 1 minute mark. Then, the battle will be over quickly. My
target time was 2:07, thanks to the 4 other wolves, and I did this in 1:07.
It did take a few tries, though.

-----------------------------------------------

MISSION 3: Ugallu

FANG, Bladed Lance, Sprint Shoes, Brawler's Wristband
HOPE, Hawkeye, Gold Bangle, Magician's Mark
LIGHTNING, Edged Carbine, Power Wristband, Blessed Talisman

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: First off, the stone is right by where you finished
mission 2. The mark, however, is a loooong walk from here. Go out the south
exit and start your trek. Keep walking until you come to the mark somewhere in
Yaschas Massif. Fortunately, there is a save point right by him: use it. The
fight itself is going to be mostly luck again, as you'll be relying on him not
killing you before you stagger him. Just hammer away with your default
paradigm, stagger him, then get him up in the air and keep him there. You'll
probably die a few times from poison, but eventually you'll finish. My target
time was 1:47, and I finished this in 1:00. Also, you get a Platinum Bangle
for this battle, so you might as well give it to Hope.

-------------------------------------------------

MISSION 4: Adroa

FANG, Bladed Lance, Sprint Shoes, Brawler's Wristband
HOPE, Hawkeye, Platinum Bangle, Magician's Mark
LIGHTNING, Edged Carbine, Power Wristband, Shield Talisman

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

MISSION DESCRIPTION: The stone for this is directly south of where you fought
mission 3. It is also a teleport stone, which will save you mad walking in a
few missions. The battle itself is further down the Massif, so just keep
walking till you see your mark. You CAN sneak up on them and get a PS, but it
isn't entirely necessary. The small problem with this battle is that there are
6 enemies. The huge problem with this battle is that those enemies like to
summon more enemies, including the Ugallu from Mission 3! Fortunately, your
time is very generous (at my levels it was a flat 5:00), so you actually do
have time to kill everyone if you can stay alive. Start in paradigm 2, then
bounce back and forth when you need to heal yourself. The 2 Commandos are a
huge help, and can blitz all 6 guys into oblivion in about 1:30. Without the
Ugallu summon, that is. If you are unlucky enough to have him show up, just
kill off the birds first and give it your best go. Again, you have about 3:30
to finish this without hurting your rating.

Okay, I think I may have goofed a little on guiding you through this part. My
plan was to get you back out of Yaschas Massif, then have you farm some CP to
upgrade your characters. Unfortunately, you're just a little too weak to get
through all of these battles. I wasn't even able to GET to Mission 5, as
there's a Svarog on the way that loves to kill me. It doesn't matter: some
upgrading was going to be necessary anyway before Mission 7, which is all the
way down at the tip of this area. You'll have a long walk ahead, and I
apologize. On the bright side, you need 10,000 steps in this area before you
get the top prize from Bhakti a little later on, so this little side-trip will
certainly help you with that.

You want to start walking, and go all the way to the Archylte Steppe. You'll
come out on the south side, and you want to walk all the way to the north exit.
You'll come to a little path with a behemoth fighting another dude, so dodge
them to get around the corner. Then, when you're in the next area, it's time
to level up. If your map says Mah'habara - Maw of the Abyss, you're in the
right place.

You are now in a great area to level up your characters. Basically, you're
going to fight your way through three battles, turn left, fight four more
battles, then get into battle with the Juggernaut. As soon as the battle
starts, pause the game and retry. Now, turn around and fight your way back
to the save point. Do this, and you'll gain about 40,000 CP in 12 minutes or
so. Repeat until you have met the following goals.

For Fang, develop her Commando role enough to get her ATB Level upgrade. Then,
move to Saboteur, and grind enough to get Deprotect and Deshell. Finally,
develop her Sentinel role until she gains her third Accessory slot.

For Hope, start in Medic until he gets his Accessory slot. Then, just dump
everything into Synergist. All extra can go in Ravager, since he'll be done
before the other two.

As for Lightning, get her ATB segment from Commando, then move on to Ravager
to find her Accessory slot. There's nothing really good in Medic, so leave it
alone unless you max out the other two.

While Sazh and Snow are useless, Vanille is not. Even though she isn't in your
party, pay attention to her while you're doing this. Her ATB and Accessory
upgrades are both in Medic, but as soon as you get them, stop and put the rest
of your CP into Saboteur.

That should do it for your goals. Continue to upgrade every lap or so, and the
battles will get easier each time. You can expect about 160,000 CP per hour,
which means that you'll be in here for a few hours before you're done. I know
it sucks, but you won't have to do this again until well after you beat the
game.

Incidentally, this is a good time to point something out about Fang's attacks.
Once you get the fifth ATB segment, you'll notice that she finishes a full
round of attacks with this annoying little animation where she does three more
little attacks. These don't do much damage, and take a bit of time to
execute. So, start getting in the habit of hitting the triangle button after
her 4th segment fills. It's a good skill to learn when a few seconds make a
difference, which they will in future battles.

Once you're done with your CP farming, it's time to get back on the 5 star
trail. Go back to the Archylte Steppe, and walk all the way back until you're
near the south exit. Do you see the red Cie'th stone glowing there up against
the wall? Go activate it to start Mission 9. I know it's out of order, but
you can teleport once you finish this mission, and we really don't want to walk
all the way back to the Massif, do we?

Also, this would be a good time to get another of the must-have accessories for
Fang: the Morale Talisman. You should have a Hero's Amulet in your inventory.
If not, go to Magical Moments and spend the 5,000 gil to get one. As long as
you're at it, you might as well spend 30,000 on a Perovskite. Now, just go to
"Upgrade," and give the Hero's Amulet a Bomb Core and your Perovskite. Boom,
Morale Talisman! Now, let's fight this Behemoth.

MISSION 9: Kaiser Behemoth

FANG, Bladed Lance, Sprint Shoes, Brawler's Wristband, Morale Talisman
HOPE, Hawkeye, Magician's Mark, Shaman's Mark, Blessed Talisman
LIGHTNING, Edged Carbine, Power Wristband, Shield Talisman, Whistlewind Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: This battle can be either really tough, or really easy,
depending on how you want to play. If you want, you CAN sneak up on him and
get a pre-emptive strike. The method is difficult, and if you want to learn
it, I'll refer you to Auron402's guide here: http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps3/
928790-final-fantasy-xiii/faqs/60472. Or, if you don't care about any of that,
maybe this is a good time for your first Deceptisol. I'll leave it up to you.
You CAN 5-star this mission without a pre-emptive strike, though, and I'll show
you how below.

First, be aware that if you get this guy without a pre-emptive strike, it will
be close. When I fought him, my target time was 2:53, meaning I needed to kill
him in under 2:01 to get my 5 star rating. I ran this battle 10 times to make
sure I wasn't just getting lucky, and my times were between 1:38 and 2:04.
The next thing you need is his intel before you step into battle. Since he's
just north of his respective stone, I suggest you fight him once and use a
Libra or two, then go back to the stone and fight him again. This way, you
can use the auto-abilities and not waste time finding the right spells. Now,
it's time to fight him for real. Start with paradigm 1 and just hack away
until his health is a little over half. Don't stop to heal yourself: if he
kills you, just restart the battle. Once he turns blue and starts glowing,
it's time to act quickly. Shift to paradigm 4 and spend 1 turn sticking him
with slow, while Hope does whatever and Lightning heals you. Then, switch to 3
if you can, and heal. This guy loves to stick Fog on your party, which means
you can't heal, so make sure your characters are all in the green before he
does this. Now, just go to Paradigm 2 and blast away at him, switching to 3
to heal when you need to. If you did this right, his stagger gauge will be in
the 200% range when you start hammering away, which will give you enough oomph
to take him down in less than 2 minutes. Or, use your deceptisol. Either way,
have fun, and I'll see you in the next mission!

--------------------

MISSION 5: Edimmu

FANG, Bladed Lance, Sprint Shoes, Brawler's Wristband, Morale Talisman
HOPE, Hawkeye, Magician's Mark, Shaman's Mark, Blessed Talisman
LIGHTNING, Edged Carbine, Power Wristband, Shield Talisman, Whistlewind Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: Since we went ahead and beat the Kaiser Behemoth, we can
use the Cie'th Stone to teleport us back to the Tsubaddran Highlands. From
here, start walking east to the Ascendant Scarp. The map, annoyingly, will
flip on you, but just keep going until just before the second save point. Here
is the Cie'th stone that will activate Mission 5. Once you activate the
mission, come back to where you teleported in and you will be able to follow
your map to the mark.

As for actually fighting this guy, I suppose you could use different equipment
and really think this through, but I'm inclined to go with what I've got and
hope for the best. In this case, Edimmu is not a good guy to be attacking with
physical attacks: they don't do much damage, and he dodges them quite a bit.
Fortunately, your characters are just strong enough to 5 star this without
making any adjustments. Make sure you cast Libra immediately, so your
auto-attacks become "Ruin" instead of "Attack." Then, switch to 3 to heal and
keep your COM/RAV/RAV for attacking. When I did this, my target time was
1:39, and I beat him in 1:09, which I think was 1 second under the 5 star
threshold. If you want a bit of a cushion, replace Fang's Strength boosting
accessories with something that boosts magic, or HP, or whatever. This will
probably make the target time a little higher, plus you'll spend less time
almost dead. You might just want to get the treasure that's right here as
well, which has a nugget of Millerite in it. If not, we'll get it on the way
back from Mission 7.

------------------------------------

MISSION 6: Munchkin Maestro

FANG, Bladed Lance, Sprint Shoes, Brawler's Wristband, Morale Talisman
HOPE, Hawkeye, Magician's Mark, Blessed Talisman, Sorcerer's Mark
LIGHTNING, Axis Blade, Power Wristband, Shaman's Mark, Whistlewind Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: Another long walk lies in wait for you here. Start by
going all the way back to the Cie'th stone you just activated for Mission 5.
Continue on the same path, and you'll come to an area with 3 Munchkins waiting
to skate their way into you. Turn left here and jump up the rocks to another
path. You'll probably run smack into 5 more Munchkins, then keep on trucking.
Go all the way through the Pass of Padra, and you'll see a battle at the end
with some Munchkins and a Munchkin Maestro. Fight them, then watch the video
when you get to the Paddrean Archaeopolis. As soon as the scene ends, you'll
be looking right at your Cie'th Stone. Also, make sure you noted the changes
in the equipment section above: we got some good new stuff recently, and it's
about time we started using Lightning's Axis Blade anyway.

As for the mark himself, this fight is a total joke. Set your default paradigm
to COM/RAV/COM and Blitz your way to victory. Make sure you kill the Maestro
last, though, or one of the smaller guys will promote himself to fill the void.
Seriously, my target was 1:06 and I got them in :23. Unfortunately, the next
battle is not so simple....

---------------------------

MISSION 7: Bituitus

FANG, Bladed Lance, Sprint Shoes, Brawler's Wristband, Morale Talisman
HOPE, Hawkeye, Magician's Mark, Blessed Talisman, Sorcerer's Mark
LIGHTNING, Axis Blade, Power Wristband, Shaman's Mark, Whistlewind Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: Go right back to Cie'th Stone 6 and keep going deeper into
the Archaeopolis. About halfway up the second level, you'll see a Cie'th Stone
against the right wall. The mark is right here as well, just go back down the
stairs and he'll be waiting.

Umm, I'm not sure why this battle drove me nuts the first time I played through
this game. Maybe I hadn't leveled up yet, or maybe my equipment was all wrong.
I remember playing this battle for about 2 hours and only winning 2 or 3 times,
and this time I was done in 1:11, with a target time of 2:34, and I barely
broke a sweat. Anyway, equip your characters like I have, and you should have
the same results.

Bituitus, supposedly, is effectively immune to physical attacks, so
theoretically your strength boosting accessories are a waste of time. Really,
I didn't see a need to replace them with anything else, so let's just leave
them there. Make COM/RAV/COM your default paradigm if it isn't, but be ready
to switch immediately. I call this the "Fake Libra" trick. If you use your
first round to attack Bituitus, Fang and Light will realize the attacks are
not great and go for Ruin instead, from here on out. As soon as you get a
turn in, switch to SAB/SYN/MED and start spamming Deshell. As soon as it
sticks, alternate between 2 and 3 to attack and heal, and he should go down
pretty easily. Remember that hour you spent getting Fang to learn Deshell?
That's what that hour was all about, so you don't have to waste your time
with Vanille.

--------------------------------

Before we move on to the next mission, it's time to take care of a few things
in this area: first, and most importantly, is to get a set of Sprint Shoes for
every member of your party. When you fight Bituitus, there is a chance that he
will drop either a Tetradic Crown or a Tetradic Tiara. As you may recall,
these are how you build Sprint Shoes, which we want desperately. So, continue
to battle Bituitus until you have any two of these accessories. You'll
probably make some money with the other spoils of the battle as well, which
we'll cover in a minute. First, get your two accessories and go over to the
save point.

If you want to turn a Tiara into Sprint Shoes, just use 6 of the Bomb Cores
you just won to upgrade it to the star level. Then, dismantle it. Boom,
Sprint Shoes! If it's a Tetradic Crown you have, do what you did to get the
first one: throw two Bomb Cores at it to get it to star level, then dismantle
it to get the Hermes Sandals. Buy a Perovskite. Throw one Bomb Core at it,
then use the Perovskite. Boom, Sprint Shoes! Now that you have them, equip
them on every character. I was going to do a little treasure hunting in this
area, but since the teleport stone is right here, we'll skip it until after
Mission 8.

-------------------------

MISSION 8: Rakshasa

FANG, Bladed Lance, Sprint Shoes, Brawler's Wristband, Morale Talisman
HOPE, Hawkeye, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Sorcerer's Mark
LIGHTNING, Axis Blade, Sprint Shoes, Shaman's Mark, Whistlewind Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: Take the teleport stone that's right behind you back to
the Archylte Steppe. Now, just take the south exit and go all the way to
Vallis Media Base Camp, where you started Chapter 11. at the intersection, by
the save point, is your Cie'th Stone. The mark is all the way down this area,
so hike on down there and start the battle.

Beating this is actually a button masher's dream: choose COM/RAV/COM as your
default paradigm and hammer away until all the Flans are gone. Be quick with
killing the first two: if you dally, they will merge into a big Flan, and your
5 star dreams are lost. Once the flans are gone, switch to COM/RAV/RAV and go
after the mark. He shouldn't take too long, but if your haste wears off, you
may want to switch to your COM/RAV/COM again and finish him quickly. My target
time was 1:44, and I did this easily in 1:06, which only left about 5 seconds
to spare. If you lose, I bet going back and doing it again will make the
difference, since you'll have intel, but you should be able to finish this in
one shot.

Ok, we've mostly cleaned this area of Missions, and there shouldn't be any
enemies that you have to fear at this point. So, let's go ahead and get all
the treasure out of this area before we move on. We'll use the battle site of
Mission 8 as a starting point, and I'll list all the treasures to look out for
as you make your last long walk down to the Archaeopolis.

Treasure 1: Rune Bracelet. There are some rocks sticking out from the path
right by where you fought Mission 8.
Treasure 2: Partisan. Go north toward the base camp, it's right on the path,
guarded by a Dire Flan.
Treasure 3: Diabolic Tail x9. Backtrack south until you reach the Tsubaddran
Highlands. As soon as you get to an open area, follow the right wall to the
treasure, guarded by two Triffids.
Treasure 4: Watchman's Amulet. Follow the right wall past the save point, and
you'll be in the Tsubaddran Basin. As soon as you get down the hill, go left.
The treasure is guarded by some Layaks and Rangdas.
Treasure 5: Glass Orb. Follow the wall from treasure 4 and keep going down
the basin. Eventually, you'll see a little path going out past a Behemoth.
Take it until it dead ends, fight the Svarog and Gorgonospids, and this one's
done.
Trreasure 6: Millerite. This is the one right where you fought Mission 5,
still in the basin. If you skipped it, some Rangdas will be guarding it now.
Treasure 7: Esoteric Oil x8. Run back up to the Highlands, then take the path
that goes down to the Ascendant Scarp. As soon as the map changes, turn
around and go back in the corner. You'll have to fight some Triffids and
Alraunes to get this one.
Treasure 8: Rune Bracelet. Back on the main path, walk past the save point
and veer right. Fight a Svarog and get the treasure.
Treasure 9: 1827 Gil. Back on the main path, go down until you get to the
Mission 5 Cie'th Stone. The treasure is right above you, on a ledge.
Treasure 10: Millerite x2. From the last treasure, drop down to the main
area and head right. You'll come to a dead end with some Alraune, another
damn Svarog, and this treasure.
Treasure 11: Mythril Bangle. Go back to the main path and take it all the way
through the Deepgap and into the Pass of Padra. When the path splits, take the
right path. It's right on the path, guarded by some Layaks and Rangdas.
Treasure 12: Rhodochristite. It's in the Archaeopolis, right where you fought
Bituitus in Mission 7. Guarded by some Nelapsi.
Treasure 13: Spined Horn x3. About halfway up the Archaeopolis, in an alcove
in the wall.
Treasure 14: Whislewind Scarf. All the way in the back corner of the
Archaeopolis, guarded by 4 Taxim.

Okay, that's enough treasure for now. Teleport back to the Archylte Steppe
and save your game.

MISSION 10: Ambling Bellows

FANG, Bladed Lance, Sprint Shoes, Brawler's Wristband, Morale Talisman
HOPE, Hawkeye, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Sorcerer's Mark
LIGHTNING, Axis Blade, Sprint Shoes, Shaman's Mark, Whistlewind Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: From the south exit of the Archylte Steppe, look out over
the plains. You'll see a small mesa right in front of you, and the Cie'th
Stone is on the left side of this mesa, by some flans. The mark, however, is
all the way by the north exit, so get walking. There's really no need to mess
around with this guy, since he's so easy to sneak up on. Just start the
battle, then restart the battle, and he'll be facing sideways. Walk right
into him, and boom! Pre-emptive Strike! If you start with your COM/RAV/RAV,
you can get his stagger gauge up to 700% or so, then switch to COM/RAV/COM and
hack away until his stagger ends. I don't think you can finish him in one
stagger, but you'll have him down to about 50,000 HP before he gets an attack
in. My target time was 1:44 and I ended his day in :53, so you definitely have
some time to play with.

-----------------------------------

MISSION 11: Adroa

FANG, Bladed Lance, Sprint Shoes, Brawler's Wristband, Morale Talisman
HOPE, Hawkeye, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Sorcerer's Mark
LIGHTNING, Axis Blade, Sprint Shoes, Shaman's Mark, Whistlewind Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: Getting to this stone is not easy- from where you fought
the Ambling Bellows, come back into the Steppe and bear to your left.
Eventually, you'll come to a foggy area with a bunch of Behemoths running
around. The stone is all the way on the other side of this area, overlooking a
whole bunch of Turtles that you'll be very sick of looking at by the time
you're done playing. The mark, of course, is all the way back on the other
side of the Steppe. Use COM/RAV/COM as your default and kill them quickly.
That's it. It's that easy.

---------------------------------

MISSION 12: Geiseric

FANG, Bladed Lance, Sprint Shoes, Brawler's Wristband, Morale Talisman
HOPE, Hawkeye, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Sorcerer's Mark
LIGHTNING, Axis Blade, Sprint Shoes, Shaman's Mark, Whistlewind Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: First, the stone is out on a peninsula to the west of
where you finished Mission 11. The mark is easy to find, and don't worry about
saving before you start. You'll either die or 5 star this one. Start with
SAB/SYN/MED and let Fang play around, learning which debuffs Geiseric is
susceptible to: it's Deshell, Deprotect, and Slow, by the way, but give her 4
or 5 turns to figure it out for herself. While this is happening, Hope will
be loading you up with buffs, and Lightning will keep you alive. Once all 3
debuffs are on Geiseric, switch to COM/RAV/RAV and stagger him. It won't take
long. Now, go to COM/RAV/COM and keep him in the air. He won't be able to
attack you, and you'll kill him in one stagger. Target time, 4:53. Battle
time, 1:11. Next!

-------------------------------

MISSION 13: Goblin Chieftan

FANG, Bladed Lance, Sprint Shoes, Brawler's Wristband, Morale Talisman
HOPE, Hawkeye, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Sorcerer's Mark
LIGHTNING, Axis Blade, Sprint Shoes, Shaman's Mark, Whistlewind Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: Wow, they sure like to make you walk, don't they? The
stone for this Mission is a little hard to describe, since it's out in theo
pen. If you backtrack from where you fight Geiseric, you'll come all the way
back to the peninsula where the stone was for Mission 12. Keep going south,
and you'll see the stone up against a large hill. It's right by the treasure
ball that's guarded by the four birds. Of course, the mark is all the way up
by the north exit. Save your game at the save point that's up there, so you
don't have to walk up here again. The battle itself is easy. COM/RAV/COM,
blitz the little guys until it's just the Chieftan, then COM/RAV/RAV to
stagger and back to COM/RAV/COM to kill. You shouldn't even need to heal.
2:57 was my target time, 1:21 was all it took.

-----------------------------

MISSION 14: Sahagin

FANG, Bladed Lance, Sprint Shoes, Brawler's Wristband, Morale Talisman
HOPE, Hawkeye, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Sorcerer's Mark
LIGHTNING, Axis Blade, Sprint Shoes, Shaman's Mark, Whistlewind Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: There's a lake in the middle of the Steppe, south of where
you fought your last Mission. The stone is on the edge of the lake. The mark
itself is through the barrier that was blocked by Cie'th Stone 12, which we
will now call the western exit of the Steppe. The battle is easy:
COM/RAV/COM, and take out the Ceratosaurs first, then Blitz the rest into
oblivion. My time was 21 seconds, against a target time of 1:08, so don't
stress much about this.

BREAK TIME: After Mission 14, a few things become newly available. First, you
now have access to the Font of Namva, which you're pretty much looking at in
its entirety. Secondly, and much more important, you can now ride chocobos all
over the Steppe! Unfortunately, this won't save as much time as you're
thinking, since you have to get off the chocobo to fight any battle, and you'll
lose your bird when you do. Still, it saves some time, and gives you access to
areas that you can't get to without one. So, we're going to do a little
treasure hunting!

CHOCOBO CHICK: Before you get on the Chocobo, walk over to the edge of the big
lake in this area. You'll see an "Object of Interest" moving around, which is
a Chocobo Chick. If you wait for him to fly close to you, you can hit "X" and
get either a Chocobo Tail Feather or a Chocobo Plume. Each time you come back,
you can repeat this and get another one. Sadly, neither of these treasures is
all that great, and you can get both of them elsewhere. But, we're
completionists, so there's one more thing we've completed, eh?

Treasure 1: Seapetal Scale x6. This one's right here in the font of Namva.
Treasure 2: Water Charm. Also in the Font of Namva, but you'll have to fight
some Sahagin to get it.

Before we tackle the treasure in the main Steppe, I want to make a few points.
First, there will be some treasures that are guarded by enemies that are too
powerful to fight at this time. We'll be skipping these for the time being,
so don't despair if you keep walking past a treasure and it doesn't show up in
the guide: it will be there eventually. Second, you will be losing your
Chocobo quite a few times during this circuit, but I'll tell you when to walk
around and find another one. Third, it might be time to bring up the "Chocobo
Treasure" minigame, since you'll be riding one all over.

Sometimes, when you are on your Chocobo, a little "!" will start bobbing around
above his head. This means that your Chocobo has sensed some buried treasure.
Run around looking for it: the faster the "!" bobs up and down, the closer you
are to the treasure. When you find it, an icon will pop up prompting you to
dig, and voila! You've found some buried treasure! Here's what you should
know.

First, the locations are semi-random, and reload every time you reload a game
or leave the Steppe and come back. There are about 20 locations of treasure,
but only about 7 or so actually load each time you come in here. Each location
is in a bare spot of the steppe, meaning there is no grass. Once you learn the
spawn locations, you can run right to them and dig.

Second, you want to do at least 20 digs, as you'll get a special prize for your
5th, 10th, 15th and 20th successful digs. You will also get a PS3 Trophy when
you complete your 20th dig. For the ones in between, there are 11 possible
prizes you can get. Being a completionist, I kept digging until I got at least
1 of each, even though there are other ways to get all 11 of these items. The
random items are:

Chocobo Plume..............................................Chocobo Tail Feather
Dawnlight Dew.....................................................Dusklight Dew
Gold Nugget.......................................................Moogle Puppet
Plush Chocobo.........................................................Gold Dust
Cobaltite.............................................................Millerite
Rhodochrosite

The non-random prizes you get are an Entite Ring, a Tetradic Crown, a Tetradic
Tiara, and a Ribbon, so make sure you get at least 20 digs in at some point
during your wanderings. That pretty much covers the basics of Chocobo
Treasure, so let's get on our Chocobo and head back out to the Steppe!

TREAURES, WESTERN BENCHLAND: There are 7 treasures to collect in this area.
Start by turning left when you come out of the Font of Namva, and head for the
lake with the Save Point, Cie'th Stone, and Chocobo.

Treasure 1: 2615 Gil. On the edge of the lake.
Treasure 2: Librascope x5. Directly west of the lake, in a corner against a
cliff. Unguarded, so keep your Chocobo.
Treasure 3: Severed Wing x5. From the last treasure, turn around and face
the two low ridges that are right behind you. When you pop up to the second
one, you'll see a small mesa, and just to the left of it will be your treasure.
Again, this one is unguarded.

The next three treasures are all guarded, and they're all down in the lowest
area of the Western Benchland, which I like to call "the hole." From the last
treasure, turn back around and aim for the lowest area. When you get to the
sheep roaming around, dismount. All three chests are up against piles of
rubble down there in the hole.

Treasure 4: Smooth Hide x8
Treasure 5: Fire Charm
Treasure 6: Ice Charm
Treasure 7: Millerite. Come back to the entrance to the hole and turn left.
Follow the ridge line that overlooks the hole, and you'll come to another
guarded chest. Now, go back to the lake and grab another Chocobo. We're done
here.

TREASURES, NORTHERN HIGHPLAINS: There are actually 5 treasures in this area,
but 4 are guarded by either Behemoth Kings or Adamanchelids, so we'll only be
getting 1 right now.

Treasure 1: Monstrous Fang x11. Go directly to the Save Point by the northern
exit of the Steppe. Look directly east, and you'll see it.

TREASURES: EASTERN TORS: There are 5 treasures here, and we'll be getting them
all.

Treasure 1: Cactuar Doll. From the northern Save Point, head south and then
start running a little east. You'll come to an Adamanchelid guarding a
treasure, and there will be a Save Point right below him. This leads to a side
area occupied by lots of turtles, which you CAN slip by without fighting. When
you get back there, you can hop up on the mesa to get this treasure.
Treasure 2: Clay Ring. Same place as treasure 1. Also, walk around up here
until you're introduced to Cactuars. It's a funny scene, and you'll save some
trouble later in the game.

IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE! While you're up here on this mesa, you will also notice a
Cie'th Stone. This stone activates Mission 16, and I suggest you go ahead and
activate it while you're up here. You'll be fighting this mission soon anyway,
so you might as well save yourself the trouble of running all the way back up
here. The mission will stay active while you finish your treasure hunting.

Treasure 3: Diabolic Tail x7. Exit the little "Turtle Loop" area and head
south. Keep the wall on your left, and you'll come to a circle of "dead"
Cie'th Stones. Just south of that, you'll see a treasure ball up high on your
left. Jump on up there and get it, but don't go further into this area just
yet. That's the eastern exit, and we'll get there after Oerba.
Treasure 4: Earth Charm. From your last treasure, jump down and turn left.
You'll see it against a corner, and you'll have to lose your chocobo and fight
for it.
Treasure 5: Speed Sash. You'll have to backtrack a bit to get this one, but
I didn't want you to lose your Chocobo before getting Treasure 3. Head back
north towards the "Turtle Loop." Pass the south entrance to it, then stay to
the left of the big long crack in the ground. You'll see the treasure below,
but you'll have to run around some more cracks to get to it.

TREASURES, CENTRAL EXPANSE: There are 6 treasures to get in this area, 4 of
which are guarded. Directly south of your last treasure from the Eastern
Tors, you'll find a Chocobo, so go get him. He's standing at the base of a
double mesa, and your first treasure is on top of it.

Treasure 1: Scarletite. On top of the mesa described above.
Treasure 2: Mnar Stone x2. There's a lake just below the mesa, and the
treasure is on an island in the middle of the lake.
Treasure 3: Rod of Thorns. You can see this directly from your last treasure.
Point yourself back at the south exit. It is guarded, though, so say goodbye
to your chocobo.

Treasure 4: Lightning Charm. Head back to the south exit of the Steppe, then
head south along the wall. You'll enter "Flan Land," and eventually you'll see
your next treasure.
Treasure 5: Wind Charm. Keep following the outside wall until the fog lifts.
There's the treasure!
Treasure 6: Zephyr Ring. Go back to the south exit and head directly north
along the wall. You've passed this treasure at least 5 times already, so it's
time to finally get it.

Congratulations, you are now finished with your treasure hunting for the
moment! If you took my advice, you have already activated the Cie'th Stone for
Mission 16, and you should be standing right next to the western exit. First,
it's time to burn all of the CP you've accumulated thus far. Start with Fang:
you should have enough to max out Commando and Sentinel, then put the rest in
Saboteur. Finish Ravager for Hope, then put the rest in Medic. You should
have enough CP to max out Lightning in all 3 roles, so do that as well. Go on
back to the Font of Namva, and save your game. Mission 16 awaits!

MISSION 16: Sahagin

FANG, Bladed Lance, Sprint Shoes, Brawler's Wristband, Morale Talisman
HOPE, Hawkeye, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Sorcerer's Mark
LIGHTNING, Axis Blade, Sprint Shoes, Shaman's Mark, Whistlewind Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: This battle is an absolute mess, but the extra crystarium
work you just did should keep you alive long enough to 5-star this. You'll be
fighting 2 Sahagins and 4 Ceratoraptors, but almost instantly each
Ceratoraptor will summon a Ceratosaur, making a total of 10 enemies. To make
matters worse, the AI will target all the wrong enemies, so you have to pay
attention to who you're trying to kill. If you'd like to Pre-emptive Strike
this battle, I will again refer you to Auron402's guide. It will make things
much easier, but with some strategy you can avoid all of that and do this
consistently with plenty of time to spare.

First off, make COM/RAV/RAV your default paradigm. The worst bastards in this
battle are the Ceratoraptors, but your first target should be the Sahagins.
So, make sure you select one of the Sahagins before your first round of
attacks. You should be able to get two full rounds of attacks in before you
start getting killed, which should be enough to kill at least one of the
Sahagins and most of the second. When the killing starts, it goes quickly, so
switch to your COM/MED/MED and heal. Do not leave this paradigm unless all 3
characters are in the green on health. When they do, flick back to
COM/RAV/RAV long enough to stagger your next enemy, then hop back to
COM/MED/MED. If done efficiently, you should be able to kill both Sahagins,
one Ceratoraptor, and have the second staggered before your buffs wear off at
the 1 minute mark. Now, keep switching, staggering, and healing until all 4
raptors are gone. With just the ceratosaurs left, the battle should be an
easy one. My target time was 4:26, and once I started killing Sahagins first
I was able to get this done in about 2:30 without stressing out too much.
When you're done, pick up the chocobo here and head back to the Steppe.

----------------------------

MISSION 15: Goblin Chieftan

FANG, Bladed Lance, Sprint Shoes, Brawler's Wristband, Morale Talisman
HOPE, Hawkeye, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Sorcerer's Mark
LIGHTNING, Axis Blade, Sprint Shoes, Shaman's Mark, Whistlewind Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: On your chocobo, head to the lake with the two islands in
it, down by the south exit. From there, look around and you'll see a nice high
mesa with a Cie'th stone on top. Jump up there to activate the mission. Then,
follow your map to the battle: there is a save point on the way, but you
shouldn't need it.

The battle itself is pretty easy, as your major challenge seems to be keeping
Hope alive. For some reason, these Goblins love to pick on him. Just set your
COM/RAV/COM as your default and Blitz around for a while. Switch to
COM/MED/MED when Hope is almost dead, then hop on back to your default and wail
away. At the 1 minute mark, you should have killed about 3 of the 6 goblins.
The rest should be mostly done as well, since you've been attacking different
ones the whole time. When you get down to 1 Goblin, switch to COM/RAV/RAV so
everyone goes after him, then stay there until the Chieftain is staggered. A
few more hits, and he'll be dead. The target time for me was 3:46, and this
was over in just under 2 minutes. Again, remember that if you kill the
Chieftain before the rest, one of the Goblins will elect himself to the
position. Next!

-----------------------------

MISSION 17: Pulsework Champion

FANG, Bladed Lance, Sprint Shoes, Brawler's Wristband, Morale Talisman
HOPE, Hawkeye, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Sorcerer's Mark
LIGHTNING, Axis Blade, Sprint Shoes, Shaman's Mark, Whistlewind Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: The stone for this Mission is by the north exit, all the
way down by the entrance to the cave. Finding him is easy. Make sure you get
a Preemptive Strike on him. He's out there all by himself, it's really easy
to sneak up on him, and he's pretty tough to 5 star if you don't. Once you do,
just wail away with COM/RAV/RAV or COM/RAV/COM, and this should be over in less
than 30 seconds.

-------------------------

STORY LINE TIME: You've now done everything you want to do here for now, so
head north to the exit and enter the cave. In the interest of keeping space to
a minimum (he says after 65 pages), I won't list every battle below. The
enemies are all here after you beat the game, so you don't even really need to
fight each battle. I will point out the treasures that aren't guarded by
really nasty enemies, though. Also, there will be 9 Cie'th Stone Missions on
the way, which I'll include below.

MAH'HABARA: The path is linear. Fight your way through, and pick up:

Treasure 1: Hauteclaire. Right at the beginning
Trreasure 2: Electrode x4. In the Earthworks, in a little nook to your left,
about 3 battles down.
Treasure 3: Chobham Armor x4. Right past the last treasure.
Once you get to the Twilit Cavern, you'll see a Cie'th Stone. Activate it,
then run down past it to a dead end with:

Treasure 4: Tesla Turbine x4

Now go back to the other path and fight Mission 18.

-----------------------------------

MISSION 18: Ambling Bellows

FANG, Bladed Lance, Sprint Shoes, Brawler's Wristband, Morale Talisman
HOPE, Hawkeye, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Sorcerer's Mark
LIGHTNING, Axis Blade, Sprint Shoes, Shaman's Mark, Whistlewind Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: This is an interesting one, as we'll need some (well, one)
debuffs for the first time in a while. Use SAB/SYN/MED as your default, and
auto-battle until you stick DeShell on him. He loves to kill Hope, so switch
between COM/RAV/RAV and COM/MED/MED and get him gone before the 1 minute mark.
The hoplites will only take another 10 seconds or so, so you should be in good
shape. My target time was 2:03 and this was over in 1:05. One note: if you
miss the target time the first time, it's probably because you didn't have his
intel yet, so Fang wasted some turns with attacks and other debuffs that
didn't work. Since the stone is so close, just go back and re-activate the
Mission, and you should be fine.

-----------------------------

Keep going on the path, and you'll find:

Treasure 5: Saint's Amulet x2

Battle (?): Hecatoncheir (BOSS). I think it's time I admit this: I'm a lazy
fella. I hate equipping all of my characters, upgrading their crystarium and
selecting paradigms, just so I can change them all again one battle later.
You've probably noticed this by now, which is why all characters have had the
same equipment for 5 or 6 hours. So, when I got forced into an Eidolon battle
with Vanille (who still has about 300,000 unspent CP and no equipment) and
Fang, I was convinced I could finish this battle without restarting it. As it
turns out, I was right. Hecatoncheir alternates between two modes: Looming
Wrath, and attacking. If you switch to SAB/COM while she's in looming wrath
mode, you can spam debuffs over and over to increase the gauge. As soon as
the "Looming Wrath" icon disappears, switch to MED/SEN and spam Cure spells.
You'll heal, she'll attack about 4 times, then go back into Looming Wrath
mode. Make sure both girls are in the green again, and go back to spamming
debuffs. You'll finish the battle this way with about 200 on the doom meter.
A smarter gamer would restart the battle, set up a SAB/SAB paradigm, put some
Accessories on Vanille, and finish this battle faster than it took me to write
this paragraph. Meh.

------------------------------

Now you'll be in the Dusktide Grotto. Keep on going to find:

Treasure 6: Ice Charm. On the main path.

Treasure 7: Particle Accelerator. Right after the bridge, turn right and jump
down to get this.
Treasure 8: Crystal Oscillator x3. Visible from the main path.
Treasure 9: Perfect Conductor x3. Also on the main path.

If you board Atomos, then immediately turn around and board it again, it will
take you to an optional area with treasures and some Cie'th Stones. Ignore
this for now: we'll be back later. For now, activate the Cie'th stone for
Mission 19 and go to the next area, which should say "Subterranean Lake" on
your map. Explore this area thoroughly: there are 9 treasures in here, as
well as your easy battle for Mission 19. I suggest you set your default
paradigm to COM/RAV/COM and kill the enemies as you go. It's easier than
evading them all, let me tell you. Also, the last 4 treasures can only be
obtained by going to the weird pattern in the water and getting Bismarck to
raise some islands for you.

Treasure 10: Strange Fluid x13.
Treasure 11: Enigmatic Fluid x10
Treasure 12: Aquabane Brooch
Treasure 13: Moistened Scale x6
Treasure 14: Seapetal Scale x5
Treasure 15: Uraninite
Treasure 16: Riptide Ring
Treasure 17: Water Charm
Treasure 18: Mnar Stone

-----------------------------

MISSION 19: Uridimmu

FANG, Bladed Lance, Sprint Shoes, Brawler's Wristband, Morale Talisman
HOPE, Hawkeye, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Sorcerer's Mark
LIGHTNING, Axis Blade, Sprint Shoes, Shaman's Mark, Whistlewind Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: Easy, easy, easy. COM/RAV/COM. Kill them all.

---------------------------
When you have all the treasure, and your 5 star rating on Mission 19,
keep going on the path.

Treasure 19: Abyssal Scale x7. On the main path.
Treasure 20: Cie'th Tear. On the main path.

-----------------------------------

MISSION 20: Goblin Chieftain

FANG, Bladed Lance, Sprint Shoes, Brawler's Wristband, Morale Talisman
HOPE, Hawkeye, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Sorcerer's Mark
LIGHTNING, Axis Blade, Sprint Shoes, Shaman's Mark, Whistlewind Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: The Cie'th Stone is right in front of you as soon as you
enter the Palisades of Taejin's Tower. Go further up the path to find your
mark. Your default paradigm should still be COM/RAV/COM. My plan was to Blitz
the one Munchkin and the two Goblins away, then hit the Maestro, then the
Chieftain. At some point, I accidentally killed the Maestro, so when I
switched to COM/RAV/RAV to focus my attacks, there was only a Goblin and the
Chieftain left. Either way, the target time was a whopping 2:33, I finished in
:48, and nobody's health ever left the green.

------------------------------

Treasure 21: Sinister Fang x20. This is right where you just fought Mission
20.

Treasure 22: Sparkbane Brooch. On the Ground Tier of Taejin's Tower, just walk
around till you find it.
Treasure 23: Chipped Fang. Same as 22.
Treasure 24: 4721 Gil. Same as 22.

When you get these three, use the little ring looking elevator by the center
circle to get up to the Second Tier. While we're taking a break here, let's
talk for a minute about Taejin's Tower. It's essentially a big, multilevel
puzzle. You'll fight a bunch of Cie'th Stone missions (well, 6 anyway), and
get a bit of treasure, and I'll walk you through it step by step. I'm going
to put this in BIG BOLD LETTERS, AND SET THIS IN A SEPARATE PARAGRAPH.

DO NOT ATTEMPT ANY OF THE CIE'TH STONE MISSIONS IN THIS TEMPLE WITHOUT SAVING
YOUR GAME FIRST! If you die, it's no big deal: you can just restart. But what
if you get a 3 or 4 star rating? Well, you will not be able to attempt the
mission again until you finish the entire puzzle, meaning you'll have to come
back later to get your 5 star rating. Or, you'll have to go back to the most
recent save, which for me was about 4 hours ago! Good thing I have a handy
guide to get me back there :)

For the moment, we're going to go back to battle by battle directions, just so
you have a reference point if you get lost. Of course, we'll take big breaks
to do the Missions, as well.

Battle 1: Pulsework Gladiator x3
Cie'th Stone 21: Gelatian. This is activated by talking to the statue, not a
traditional Cie'th Stone. Turn left and go up the stairs to continue.
Battle 2: Managarmr

----------------------------

MISSION 21: Gelatitan

FANG, Bladed Lance, Sprint Shoes, Brawler's Wristband, Morale Talisman
HOPE, Hawkeye, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Sorcerer's Mark
LIGHTNING, Axis Blade, Sprint Shoes, Shaman's Mark, Whistlewind Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: Okay, I give up. I tried this damn thing for almost 3
hours tonight, trying to get you a solid way to 5 star this without a
Preemptive Strike. I tried developing secondary roles, changing equipment,
using buffs, and everything else I could think of, and I just kept missing the
5 star by less than 10 seconds. The problem is, the guy is just too hard to
stagger, and has too damn much HP. Since we're not even going to start with
the upgrade festival yet, let's just roll with it and get our Preemptive
Strike. Or use a Deceptisol, I won't judge you.

Run down to where this guy is and let him know you're there. When he charges,
run over by the steps and tilt the camera around so you're watching him.
Eventually, he'll give up on you and turn back around. Now, walk a little way
towards him, then run the rest of the way. He likes to hear you and turn
around, but you'll get the hang of it a lot quicker than trying to 5 star this
without the Preemptive Strike.

Set your default paradigm to COM/RAV/RAV and give it two full turns to get his
stagger gauge as high as you can. Then, COM/RAV/COM until he's dead. I
actually missed killing him in the first stagger, but was still able to finish
him in 1:05, against my target of 2:03. Go figure: I kept getting 1:30's
without the Preemptive Strike.

------------------------------------------------

MISSION 22: Ambling Bellows

FANG, Bladed Lance, Sprint Shoes, Brawler's Wristband, Morale Talisman
HOPE, Hawkeye, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Sorcerer's Mark
LIGHTNING, Axis Blade, Sprint Shoes, Shaman's Mark, Whistlewind Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: The "stone" is right in the room where you just killed the
Gelatitan. To get to the mark, backtrack to the first "stone" and keep going
to the next room. Again, you may want to save before going into battle. The
battle itself isn't nearly as bad as the last one. He is susceptible to Pain,
just like before, but your time will be a little tighter this time. I suggest
you use your SAB/SYN/MED as your default, then manually select 5 Pain spells
and throw them at the Ambling Bellows. Then, you can select "Repeat" by
pressing the right arrow on your next turn. This will keep Fang from using
DeShell. Once Pain sticks (should be within 2 or 3 tries), switch to
COM/RAV/RAV and don't let up. Kill him, then whichever little guys survived.
I mangled this badly my first time, took 4 turns to get Pain to stick and
still got a 1:19, which I think is exactly 1 second below the threshold with a
1:55 target time.

----------------------------

MISSION 23: Gurangatch

FANG, Bladed Lance, Sprint Shoes, Brawler's Wristband, Morale Talisman
HOPE, Hawkeye, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Sorcerer's Mark
LIGHTNING, Axis Blade, Sprint Shoes, Shaman's Mark, Whistlewind Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: The "stone" is right in front of you after Mission 22, and
the guy is right over in the next room. This is another PS or bust situation,
but for once you can blame the game mechanics and not my laziness. You see,
his HP is so low that his target time will be somewhere around 1:20, giving you
56 whole seconds to kill him. What the game doesn't account for, however, is
his shell. This makes him immune to everything until he's staggered, which
will pretty much take a minute even with 3 Ravagers. So, start the battle,
retry, then sneak up on him or use one of your many Deceptisols. Then, just
use COM/RAV/COM for the whole battle and move right along.

------------------------------------------

Treasure 25: Spark Plug x5. Once the fire is gone, go to the end of the ring
Battle 3: Pulsework Gladiator x5
Treasure 26: Simurgh. On the stairs going up to Tier 3.
Battle 4: Managarmr x2
Battle 5: Pulsework Gladiator x2
Treasure 27: Metal Armband x2. After the last battle, activate the elevator by
talking to the statue. The door to the inner ring will open. Go there and
turn right. After you get this, take the other way to get to the elevator and
the 4th Tier.
Treasure 28: Glass Orb x2. At the 4th Tier, exit toward the save point, then
go to the end of the ring.
Battle 6: Yaksha x2. Inside the arch after the last treasure. When you win,
use this mini elevator to go to the 5th Tier. The room you go to will have 1
treasure, 2 battles, the "stone" for Mission 24, and the battle itself.
Treasure 29: Ancient Bone x9
Battle 7: Yakshini x2
Battle 8: Yakshini, Yaksha x2

---------------------------------

MISSION 24: Mushussu

FANG, Bladed Lance, Sprint Shoes, Brawler's Wristband, Morale Talisman
HOPE, Hawkeye, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Sorcerer's Mark
LIGHTNING, Axis Blade, Sprint Shoes, Shaman's Mark, Whistlewind Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: As my favorite guide writer, Auron402 put it, this Mission
lacks challenge. COM/RAV/RAV until you're done.

--------------------------------

Once the battle is over, take the same elevator back to the 4th floor. You're
going back down, all the way through the main elevator to the other side,
through the arch, then up the next mini elevator, this time to the 6th floor.
On the way you'll find:

Treasure 30: Gale Ring
Battle 9: Varcolaci x2
Treasure 31: Rainbow Anklet x2

Battle 10: Vampire (in the room when you get out of the mini-elevator)
Cie'th Stone: Mission 25
Battle 11: Varcolaci. Inner ring after activating the mission. After the
battle, go to the next outer room.
Battle 12: Chonchon x4
Battle 13: Varcolaci x2. When you're done, talk to the statue and the tower
will move around. Go back to the inner ring and go back the way you came.
Skip the first room and go to the second one.
Battle 14: Vampire
Treasure 32: Tear of Woe x4
Treasure 33: Unsetting Sun. After you get this, take the stairs in this
room to the 5th floor.

------------------------------

MISSION 25: Vetala

FANG, Bladed Lance, Sprint Shoes, Brawler's Wristband, Morale Talisman
HOPE, Hawkeye, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Sorcerer's Mark
LIGHTNING, Axis Blade, Sprint Shoes, Shaman's Mark, Whistlewind Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: Another easy battle. COM/RAV/RAV to stagger, then
COM/RAV/COM until he's dead. Should take less than a minute, and your target
time should be over 3 minutes, so you have time to heal if you need to.

-----------------------------------

Treasure 34: Librascope. Right where you fought Vatala. After you get it, go
to the next room.
Cie'th Stone: Mission 26.
Battle 15: Tyrant, Centurion Blade (if summoned). In case you were starting
to wonder if you were ever going to be challenged again, Square threw this guy
in there to remind you that the game isn't over yet... Seriously, you'll get
killed if you try to win this battle. Just move on to the inner ring to see a
video. Then, backtrack all the way to the 6th floor and follow your map to
your next Mission battle.

------------------------------

MISSION 26: Pennanggalon

FANG, Bladed Lance, Sprint Shoes, Brawler's Wristband, Morale Talisman
HOPE, Hawkeye, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Sorcerer's Mark
LIGHTNING, Axis Blade, Sprint Shoes, Shaman's Mark, Whistlewind Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: Easy, easy, easy. COM/RAV/COM. Kill them all.

-------------------------------

Once this battle is over, you have basically solved the puzzle. Getting out of
here is still no picnic, though. Start by backtracking down the steps again,
through the two rooms, into the inner ring, and over to the statue that you can
now talk to. When that's over, go back to the outer room and call the
mini-elevator, which will take you to the 4th Tier. Come out of here and go to
the inner ring, then into the main elevator and take it to the 6th Tier. Get
out and head right.

Battle 16: Vampire (inner ring)
Battle 17: Chonchon x3, Vampire (outer room)
Treasure 35: Tear of Remorse x8 (same room)
Treasure 36: Clay Ring (same room)
Battle 18: Vampire x3 (if you want some fun. Just remember to use DeShell for
these guys and don't die).

Now, take the next mini-elevator to the Apex.

Treasure 37: Ethersol (Outer Ring)
Treasure 38: Frostbane Brooch x2 (Outer Ring). Now walk into the middle of
the area for:

Battle 19: Dahaka (BOSS): This guy is actually pretty easy, if you don't mind
getting a low battle ranking and taking your time. See, his most dangerous
attacks come after you stagger him for the first time, and at your current
levels, you can't kill him in your first stagger. So, you can do one of two
things: you can adjust your equipment and upgrade yourself to do lots of
damage, or you can leave everything where it is and take about 7 minutes to do
the battle. If you leave everything the same, here's how to proceed. Start
with your SAB/SYN/MED paradigm and let Fang throw debuffs at it until she
figures out what you already know: the only two things you can stick him with
are Deprotect and Slow (well, there's Imperil, but you don't have it and you
actually don't want it for this strategy). In the meantime, Lightning will
keep you healthy and Hope will buff the crap out of everyone. Now, switch to
COM/MED/MED and just flail away at the guy for about 4 minutes with just Fang.
The other two will just be healing, and you can chip away at him slowly
without raising his stagger gauge by too much. If you want to make this
faster, give yourself a COM/MED/COM paradigm. Just don't hit him with
ravagers, as you want to keep his stagger gauge from getting to the top until
you've whittled away about half of his HP. He has 2.3 million or so, so hack
at him until he's down to about 1.2 million. Then, switch to your
COM/RAV/RAV and stagger him. Get the gauge up to about 600%, then go to
COM/RAV/COM until he's dead. He won't attack you while he's staggered, so
even if your HP is in the red you can leave it there. If he survives his
first stagger, you may want to switch to COM/MED/MED and let Fang finish him
by herself, as he has some real nasty attacks in this stage. That should do
it, so let's move on!

After you're done, there is one bit of housekeeping we have to do before moving
on to the yellow marker. On the edge of the ring, there is a statue. Talk to
it, then take the elevator that shows up down to the 7th Tier. Go ahead and
fight:

Battle 20: Yakshini x2, Yaksha x2,

Then talk to the statue in this room. He'll spin some rings and let you take
the central elevator to any floor you want. Head for it. On the way, pick
up:

Treasure 39: Collector Catalog

Now, take the elevator to the Apex. Next, take it straight to the first
floor. Then, take it straight back to the Apex. I know it sounds weird, but
you'll need it later for one of your Mission Marks to spawn, and this will
save you a few minutes later in the game. Finally, you're ready to move on.
Again, since all the enemies will be here when you get back, I'll just list
the treasures as reference points, and the sidequests, of course.

Finally, welcome to Oerba! The path looks crazy, but it's really linear, with
a few little buildings and side areas to explore. The enemies here will all be
back when you come back, so don't worry about fighting them if you can avoid
them. More importantly, there is a little broken robot in one of the buildings
named Bhakti. It is absolutely vital that you find the 5 components you need
and repair him immediately. Also, you'll fight one more Cie'th Stone Mission,
kill the boss, then take a side trip to fight another Cie'th Stone Mission.
These will be out of order, but they yield important things for later. First,
I'll just list all the treasure on the way, then we'll get to Bhakti.

Treasure 40: Perovskite
Treasure 41: Heavenly Axis
Treasure 42: Librascope
Treasure 43: Pleiades Hi-Powers
Treasure 44: Moogle Puppet
Treasure 45: Flamebane Brooch
Treasure 46: Taming Pole
Treasure 47: Ethersol

Bhakti: As soon as you get to the Village Proper, a cut scene will happen.
Afterwards, you want to go straight ahead to a 2 story building with a Vetala
on the first floor. Skip him and go to the second floor to find Bhakti. In
order to repair him, you must find 5 components, all of which are in Oerba.
Directions to each are as follows:

Power Cable: As you come out of Bhakti's building, fight the Seekers and
Chonchons in the middle of the area, then examine the little cart in the
corner.
Battery Pack: Back towards the ramp that you came to this area on, there is a
little building with a stairway. Fight the Vetala here and pick up this item.
Trochoid Gear: After you get Treasure 41, you'll go down a ramp and come to
some roots that you have to jump through. Fight the Vampire that's there
(Remember DeShell), and you'll get this as a battle reward.
Aspheric Lens: After the last battle, keep going down the path. To your right
will be a schoolhouse with some Chonchons and another Vetala to fight. The
item is in this room, and you really can't miss it. Also, go up to the roof
to get some more of those treasures I listed above.
Metal Plate: Right after you get to the last part of the area, and pick up
Treasure 45, turn around and walk a little ways up the left side of the
tracks. It's on the path before you have to fight anyone. You might as well
keep going and get the last two treasures, but turn around as soon as you get
the Ethersol: we're not ready to fight the boss just yet...

Now that you have all the treasures, and all of the components, go on back to
Bhakti and repair him. Once that's done, go up and talk to him. He will tell
you how awesome you are, then offer some useless advice, and then, finally, he
will give you some treasure! What you get is based on the number of steps you
have taken while on Gran Pulse (chocobo riding doesn't count), and the top
prize is for 10,000 or more steps. If you have followed the guide, you will
get the top prize. If not, walk around a bunch and come back to get
everything. You should get the following:

Deceptisol x10 (We won't use 10 of these the whole game, but whatever)
Ultracompact Reactor x2 (Save these, they're the best upgrading components in
the game)
Gold Nugget, Perfume x5, Platinum Ingot x3 (Sell all of these immediately.
They're worth about 600,000 gil!)
Do you feel rich yet? Good, we'll be spending all of this in a little bit, but
for now let's knock out the Cie'th Stone Mission.

-----------------------------

MISSION 28: Ceratosaur

FANG, Bladed Lance, Sprint Shoes, Brawler's Wristband, Morale Talisman
HOPE, Hawkeye, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Sorcerer's Mark
LIGHTNING, Axis Blade, Sprint Shoes, Shaman's Mark, Whistlewind Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: First off, the stone for this mission is all the way back
by where you came in. It's easy to get to as soon as you repair Bhakti, just
by going back toward the beginning. The battle is in the open space right in
the village proper. Now, I hope I'm not misleading you when I say this is
easy: you are fighting TEN enemies, so it's a little hard to do anything but
hit and hope. My first time playing this, my target time was 1:07, and I
ended the battle in :24. All I did was set COM/RAV/COM and Blitz them until
they died. It took about 3 turns. I think you will get the same results if
you don't die first.

-----------------------------

Once you end these guys, go forward down the path until you come to your next
Save Point. We're going to do a little bit of upgrading, now that we have some
money and some equipment worth upgrading. Before you do this, go ahead into
your Crystarium and max out the 3 primary roles for all 6 characters: you
should still have 300,000 or so CP in the bank after this: leave it there.
Now, let's do some upgrading:

First off, let's talk a little about the theory, and also about what I can't
take credit for. Upgrading weapons and accessories is actually a very simple
process, but it looks ridiculously complicated. I'm actually a little mad at
the guys that decided that this would be cool, because it really just ends up
awkward and dumb. It works like this: in order to make your stuff better, you
need to put some Exp into it. In order to do that, you need to add components
to it. Components are either organic or inorganic. Sounds ridiculous, right?
Organic components boost your experience multiplier for your next input, while
inorganic components give you a bunch of experience, while reducing your
multiplier. All of the components can eventually be purchased, and each one
adds a different amount of experience. In addition... no, forget it. The
whole thing is silly. Let me just tell you what to do.

Before I go step by step at this point, I have to give basically all the credit
to Toan, who did all the math and posted this at xboxachievements.com. It's an
awesome guide for the weapons, and I have no reason to add to it. Later on,
there will be plenty of work that I did on this on my own, but for now, we'll
just be using his numbers.

Now, let's upgrade. First, remember this: the only components you need for
upgrading are Sturdy Bones, Superconductors, Ultracompact Reactors, and
catalysts (Millerite, Cobaltite, etc). That's freaking all! You can sell all
the rest of your components, but if you want a complete inventory later, I
suggest you keep 1 of everything. Do NOT sell weapons or accessories. What
you get for them will be easily earned in a battle or two later on, and some
of the Accessories are not for sale, so you will miss your trophy if you sell
them all now! Ok, go ahead and sell your junk, I'll wait.

You should now have somewhere around 800,000 gil, depending on how many battles
you fought and how lucky you were with items. The most important upgrade you
need is for Vanille, and you'll see why in about 2 battles. Buy 36 Sturdy
Bones and 23 Superconductors, and add them in that order to her Belladonna
wand. You should have a few Uraninites laying around, so add this next. This
will give you a Malboro Wand. Now, buy 43 more Sturdy Bones and 26 more
Superconductors. Add the following components in the following order: 36
Sturdy Bones, 1 Ultracompact Reactor (You should have 2 from Bhakti), 7 Sturdy
Bones, 27 Superconductors. This should get your Malboro Wand to the * level.

Let's do Lightning next: I really hate to do this, but it's got to be done:
we're going to upgrade her Axis blade to a maxed out Enkindler. There are two
problems with doing this: first, you're going to have to buy an Adamantite
for 220,000 gil, which sucks. Second, this will NOT be the weapon you end up
fully upgrading: the Lionheart isn't available yet, and making this upgrade
now will basically make Lightning so fast that you can't count her attacks.
We'll need that for the next 10 hours or so, so let's just bite the bullet and
do it.

Buy 37 Sturdy Bones, 46 Superconductors, and 1 Adamantite, and add them
to the Axis Blade in that order. Next, buy and add 36 Sturdy Bones, 3
Ultracompact Reactors, 27 more Sturdy Bones, and 35 Superconductors, and this
will max this out. Ouch!

Hope is next: You'll be doing the same thing with the Hawkeye: Start with 36
Sturdy Bones, then 17 Superconductors, then 1 Perovskite (you should have one),
then 36 Sturdy Bones, then 3 Ultracompact Reactors, then 22 Sturdy Bones, then
29 Superconductors.

Now for Fang. We're going to be upgrading the Taming Pole you just got to a
maxed out Venus Gospel. Before we do, though, be aware that this carries the
STAGGER LOCK ability, which can be a huge problem if you don't know what it is.
Fortunately, you're reading page 74 of a guide, so I'll tell you. Stagger Lock
means that you are unable to stagger an enemy with this weapon. You will still
raise the stagger gauge like normal, but the final blow has to come from
someone else. This isn't a huge issue, provided you watch the gauge from here
on out and make sure someone else is a COM or RAV when it's time to stagger.
Also, you're going to be seriously short on cash by the time you get to Fang,
so start selling your Gold Nuggets, Perfume, and whatever other components you
can: all of these items can be purchased, found, or won later in the game.
Once you're ready, put in 36 Sturdy Bones, 33 Superconductors, 1 Uraninite, 36
Sturdy Bones, and 3 Ultracompact Reactors in that order.

We're done for now: we'll do accessories later, but only if we need them.
You're probably down to a few thousand gil as well, but we'll get it back
after we beat the game. Since you spent all this money, it may be a good
idea to equip the 4 weapons you made and save your game. Once you're done,
follow the yellow marker and you'll be smack in the middle of:

Battle 21: Barthandelus (BOSS). This guy is a walk in the park compared to the
last time you fought him, mostly because you're so much stronger. I just used
the lazy approach with Fang, Hope and Lightning, and I still beat the target
time with 2 minutes or so to spare. If you want to go faster, start in
SAB/SYN/MED and stick him with DeShell and DeProtect. Then, COM/RAV/RAV to
stagger, COM/RAV/COM to attack, and COM/MED/MED to heal. He only has one
attack that you should be scared of: Thanatosian Laughter, which will take all
3 characters down by about half. Fortunately, the charge time for this is more
than enough to switch to your healers and absorb the damage. If he takes his
debuffs off, go back to SAB/SYN/MED and put them back on, and you'll be out of
there with barely a scratch!

Once the battle ends, go ahead and touch the Cie'th Stone to watch the scene,
but don't get on the airship. We have important business elsewhere. Start by
spending all of your CP in your newly available Crystarium. You should have
enough CP to max out one role for each person: Vanille in Saboteur, Lightning
in Ravager, Snow in Sentinel, Fang in Commando, Hope in Synergist, and Sazh...
well, I don't really care what you do with Sazh, that guy's useless anyway. I
guess Synergist. The extra CP can go pretty much anywhere you want, but go
ahead and spend it all somewhere.

Next, walk all the way back to the schoolhouse that's half under water, and go
up to the roof. Activate the Cie'th Stone for Mission 55. Now, go all the way
back to the beginning of Oerba and go to the Teleport Stone that you recently
activated in Mission 28. Use it to go to the Archylte Steppe, Central Expanse.
From there, hop on a Chocobo and head east. If you hug the east wall and go
north, you'll come to an exit that you have to jump up on a ledge to reach.
Go through this exit and you'll be in a new area: Aggra's Pasture. You will
be fighting a really, really hard battle that you have no business getting
into, but the reward makes the frustration worth it. Your mark is in this
pasture, but don't go up there just yet.
First, check to make sure you have an Aegisol, by hitting L1. You should have
at least 1, but for some reason I didn't during the playthrough where I wrote
this section. You WILL die without it, so here's how to get one if you need
it before this battle.

Equip anyone with the Survivalist's Catalog and start fighting the little
flowers that are in the area. Don't fight the mini Ochus, and certainly don't
run into your mark. There are 4 groups of Triffids in this area: a single, a
double, and two triples. Fight all of them except the double one, then walk
around until the Triffids spawn again. Keep fighting the same three battles
until you get an Aegisol. I'll warn you, it may take a while. According to
AZorro007, the probability of getting one during any given set of these 3
battles is about 24%, though it took me about 30 battles to get this. If you
already have one, don't worry about it: just head to the Save Point.

Next off, make use of the Save Point. We have to upgrade some things, and it's
going to cost you around 20,000 gil, so sell anything you can to get to that
number. Buy 108 Sturdy Bones (you'll need to go in twice, of course), 6
Superconductors, and 1 Black Belt from the shops. Take each of your 3 Black
Belts and upgrade them to * level with 36 Sturdy Bones and 2 Superconductors
each. Now equip your characters as described below, hit L1 to use a Fortisol
and Aegisol, and move on to the nastiest mission (in my opinion) of the whole
64.

---------------------------------------------

MISSION 55: Neochu

VANILLE: Malboro Wand, Sorcerer's Mark, Royal Armlet, Black Belt
LIGHTNING: Enkindler, Shaman's Mark, Sorcerer's Mark, Diamond Bangle
SNOW: Paladin, Black Belt, Black Belt, Warrior's Wristband

PARADIGMS: SAB/MED/SEN, MED/MED/COM, RAV/COM/COM

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: Let's get one thing clear right away: you are WAY
underpowered for this battle. However, the prize for winning is a Growth Egg,
which will double your CP from here on out as long as you have it equipped.
So, we're going to use every trick we have in our arsenal to get this done.
Again, you will probably have to retry quite a few times to win this battle.
You'll get killed A LOT, and you'll probably spend an hour or two messing
around before you finally win. However, if you are equipped as above, you can
tell very quickly if you have what it takes.

First of all, this is the best opportunity to learn the ins and outs of the
game mechanics. I'll explain some, but I'll try to be brief. Since you're
tossing the Fortisol and Aegisol, none of your accessories that cast
Auto-anything will be of any use, since the -sol effects last for 5 minutes.
Second, you'll be relying on Vanille's Death spell for the first of only two
times in the game. In this battle, the chances of Death connecting are exactly
1%. These chances go up by 1% for every debuff you can stick on Neochu, which
in this case is only Imperil. Also, your chances go up by equipping that
Malboro Wand that you just spent 250,000 gil upgrading. I don't know the
actual amount of the increase, so let's just be conservative and say you have
a 1 in 50 chance of connecting with your Death spell, if you can get Imperil
on him first.

The equipment you're using all has a reason as well. Anything that boosts
magic will also boost your healing, which you will need. The attacks in this
battle are all physical (I think), which is why everything else is equipped to
reduce physical damage as much as possible. Snow (remember him?) gets the
Warrior's Wristband, because he'll really be the only one that will be
attacking. Now that you know the theory, let's talk about the battle itself.

First off, you'll be fighting one Neochu (the big one), and 5 freaking
Picochus. These guys all have a lot of HP and pack quite a punch, and they
like to hit you all in one big flurry. About 1 minute into the battle, Neochu
will use an attack called Screech, which will kill you 100% of the time.

So,
killing the little guys first is a bad plan. Your only chance at these levels
is to instantly kill Neochu with Vanille's Death spell before he uses Screech.
So, start with your SAB/MED/SEN paradigm and use one turn to cast 5 Imperil
spells at the big guy. You'll have to do every step of this manually, and
quickly, so learn the button combinations so they're automatic. The Neochu
is also NOT the default target, so make sure you pick him by hand on the first
turn. Once you've done that, use your next turn to cast Death at him. Nothing
else that's happening in the battle matters, so don't be distracted. Keep
casting Death every chance you get until you either kill him, or die. That's
it for the first part, but be warned: you can only get about 7 or 8 death
spells in, which means you'll only kill him about 1 out of 8 battles.

Now that Neochu is dead, the second difficult part of this battle begins.
Switch to MED/MED/COM and you'll be at Snow's mercy for the next 4 minutes.
Trust me, when there are 5 Picochus coming at you, Vanille and Lighting will
barely be able to keep everyone alive while Snow whacks away. Use the triangle
button liberally to cut your attack queue short, so you're not healing the
wrong person while they're killing the right one. Keep hitting R1 to check the
health of the Picochus, but don't dally too long: your -sols will wear off.
Once you kill the first one, you can CAREFULLY and QUICKLY switch to
RAV/COM/COM, but only for 1 turn at a time. This will help you do some more
damage without dying. When you get to 3 Picochus, you can switch a little more
often, but make sure you stay alive: this sucks to have to restart because you
got greedy. Trust me, I did it at least 5 times. You absolutely must be down
to 2 Picochus before your -sols wear off at the 5 minute mark, so if you start
to get desperate, start using your RAV/COM/COM a little more frequently. Once
the -sols wear off, you should survive if you're down to 2 little guys, so stay
in MED/MED/COM until Snow kills them. Your target time will be somewhere
around 27 minutes, so you will 5 star this if you win at all. Good luck, it's
definitely the hardest battle you'll have to fight for a while.

*UPDATE* As I'm putting the finishing touches on this guide, I remember
gaining a much greater respect for the Sentinel role as I neared the end of the
game. Revisiting this mission makes me wonder if keeping Snow as a full-time
Sentinel would be better than letting him try to kill all of the Picochus. So,
if you're having trouble with the second part of this battle, try adding a
MED/COM/SEN paradigm to your list. Maybe switch one of Lightning's magic
accessories with a strength one, and let her do the damage while Snow takes the
hits and Vanille heals. I figure, if you can keep them all alive with only one
Medic while Neochu is alive, it shouldn't be too hard to do the same thing with
him dead, right? Anyway, I don't have any save files with comparable levels to
test this out, but if you're having trouble with this battle, it might be worth
a shot.

----------------------------------------

Finally, it's time for the longish trek back to Oerba and Chapter 12. Back on
the chocobo, go to the Teleport Stone in the Central Expanse, take that to
Oerba, and walk all the way back to where you fought Barthandelus. Hop on the
Airship and finish Chapter 11!

Now that you're back on Cocoon, let's change gears a little bit. The path is
fairly linear, and the enemies will be here if you need to come back, with one
HUGE exception. So, I'm just going to list the treasures again and provide
directions only when necessary. It's pretty much a straight brawl through the
rest of the game, so be advised. Also, keep your party the way it was after
fighting the Neochu. I'll explain why in the next paragraph.

Battle 1: Anavatapta Warmech (BOSS): I listed this guy as a boss, but I don't
know if you get free intel after his battle. So, I suggest you use Libra if
you get the opportunity and still want your complete enemy database. At the
very least, check after the battle to make sure all the info is there before
you save and move on. Now for the battle itself. Theoretically, you should be
able to stagger the guy with Razor Gale and kill him immediately with
Zantestuken, and you'll never even have the chance to worry about equipment,
party members, or Libra. Due to my own stupidity, my experience went a little
differently. Let me tell you how.

First, I have used Eidolons 3 times now in 2 full playthroughs, and only in
this battle did I use Odin. So, I was quickly trying to figure out the
controls, which I failed to do. Of course, I didn't kill the Warmech, which
left him unstaggered and invincible to everything until I staggered him again.
Odin left, and my party returned. My second mistake became apparent when
Vanille, Lightning, and Snow showed up. I had already switched my party and
my equipment back to Fang, Hope and Lightning, so I was left with almost no
equipment and 4 crappy paradigms. I soon realized, however, that this guy
wasn't strong enough to do any real damage, so I just ho-hummed my way to
victory. My target time was 44 seconds, and my actual battle time was 10:54,
for a battle score of... ZERO! It was kind of fun, actually, but if you
don't want to make this same mistake, keep your old party, retry the battle
with good paradigms, and don't switch your party members until you beat him.

Now that the battle is over, let's get our party back together. This will be
basically the last configuration you use until you finish Chapter 13, and it's
pretty much the same as it has been all along. We want Fang, Hope, and
Lightning, with their maxed out Tier 2 weapons that we just spent almost 1
million gil on. Our Paradigms will be back to COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM,
COM/MED/MED, and SAB/SYN/MED. Equip Fang with the Sprint Shoes, Warrior's
Wristband and Morale Talisman. Hope gets the Sprint Shoes, Sorcerer's Mark,
and Blessed Talisman. Lightning gets the Sprint Shoes, Sorcerer's Mark, and
that Growth Egg that we worked so hard to get.

Treasure 1: Lionheart (In the first area)
Treasure 2: 9240 Gil (Also in the first area)

After you jump, be careful if you want complete enemy intel. Right after your
3rd battle (with the 4 Adamantheron), switch your default paradigm to
SAB/SYN/MED. The next battle is the HUGE exception I mentioned in the first
paragraph of this section.

Battle 2: Sanctum Seraph x2, Bulwarker x2 (LAST CHANCE!), Targeting Beacon (if
summoned) (LAST CHANCE!). The targeting beacon will ONLY be summoned in this
battle, as it only happens when the two enemies are paired up. In addition,
you can NOT go back and fight this battle later on, so you absolutely must get
the targeting beacon to spawn. If you start in SAB/SYN/MED, you can wait
forever for the thing to spawn without accidentally killing anyone. Then,
throw a Librascope and kill them all.

Treasure 3: Rebel Heart (On the main path)
Treasure 4: Otshirvani (Main path, guarded by Proto-Behemoth)

Battle 3: Proudclad (BOSS): if you can knock him down in one stagger, I suggest
you do so. In fact, you may want to start in COM/RAV/COM to slow down the
stagger gauge until he has about 1 million HP left. Then, stagger him and kill
him quickly. If you don't kill him in one stagger, he'll heal himself a little
and start doing much more damage. Even then, though, you can switch to
COM/MED/MED and chip away until he's dead.

Battle 4: Adamanchelid. This guy gets a special mention, because he's your
introduction into fighting turtles, and also is a big nasty dude that can mess
you up. Since we're lazy, we're not going to bother equipping defensive
equipment: we're just going to make sure to use SAB/SYN/MED and hit him with
DeShell and DeProtect before we attack. Keep this philosophy in mind when
fighting any big enemy from here on out. Sometimes they're immune, but often
this makes a huge difference. Moving on...

Treasure 5: Punisher (Right after the Adamanchelid)
Treasure 6: 15,000 Gil (In the next area with all the 3 way battles, you'll
see a side path to the right with an Adamanchelid walking around. It's down
there.)
Treasure 7: Perfect Conductor x5 (Right before you go down to the next area)

Siren Park- At first, this area looks like a maze. Really, though, there's an
entrance, an exit, and some paths that loop over each other. All of the
enemies can be avoided if you want, or fought if you feel strong, but you will
have to fight the battle right before the exit door. The treasures are:

Treasure 8: Blaze Ring x2
Treasure 9: Particle Accelerator x6
Treasure 10: Librascope
Treasure 11: Champion's Badge

Battle 5: Harvester, Tyrant, Centaurion Blade (If summoned). This is a 3 way
battle, so you can usually walk right into one of them and get a Pre-Emptive
Strike. When you do, kill the Harvester first, then go after the Centaurion
Blade. Once that's done, you can stagger the Tyrant and take him out. When
he goes, the next blade he summons will go with him. Be careful: without any
physical protection, these guys can do quite a bit of damage. If you're having
trouble surviving, equip some Black Belts to stay alive.

Before we get to the next area, it's time to switch gears a little. First off,
if you fought even a moderate amount of battles to this point, you should have
350,000 CP to spend. This will be enough to max out at least 2 of each
character's primary roles, so do that. You'll notice that most of the nodes in
this stage add strength and magic in bunches, so those accessories that add 100
to each are no longer that much of a help. You know what is, though? Black
Belts. Take off Fang's Warrior's Wristband, and Hope and Lightning's Sorcerers
Marks and replace them with your * level Black Belts. You'll lose about 5-8%
of your attack power, but your physical defense will be 20% better, which will
help a lot against the next mess of enemies.

Treasure 12: Antares Deluxes (In a dead end as soon as you get to Leviathan
Plaza)

When you get to the broken road, there are a bunch of battles with Humbabas and
Juggernauts. I suggest you fight all 5, just so you get a feel for Debuffs and
quick switches of paradigms. You'll pick up some good CP as well. If you can
take down a Humbaba in about 60 seconds without a Pre-Emptive Strike, and a
Juggernaut in about 90 seconds, you're right about on pace.

Treasure 13: Plush Chocobo. This one gets a paragraph. When you come into the
building, there will be two treasure balls in front of you. The Chocobo is in
the one on the right. As you approach the second one (which has some Particle
Accelerators), the turtle will walk in and wreck the area, and you'll miss this
treasure. You CAN get both treasures if you want, but you'll have to kill that
giant turtle that's walking around before you come here. It is possible, but
it involves Eidolons and Death spells, and it just takes too damn long just to
get some Particle Accelerators. However, if you want to know how to do this,
go all the way down to the section called "Killing Turtles - The Death
Method." Moving on...

Treasure 14: Hellish Talon x12 (In the left side of the room with the Humbabas)
Treasure 15: Hellish Talon x17 (In the right side of the room with the
Humbabas)
Treasure 16: Mistleteinn (On the main path)

In the next room, the Tyrant is a dead end, so fight the Juggernaut to move on.

Treasure 17: Power Glove (Past the Save Point in the room with the Sacrifices).
Treasure 18: Ethersol (On the main path)

Battle 6: Proudclad, Again (BOSS). As you would expect, this guy is a little
harder the second time around. He's immune to basically all your tricks,
until he starts flying. At that point, you can hit him with DeShell and
DeProtect. Fortunately, you have diligently followed my guide for about 80
pages now, and you are well protected and strong enough to make mincemeat of
this guy. He basically has 3 modes: the first one is the ground mode.
COM/RAV/RAV will stagger him quickly, then COM/RAV/COM will do token damage
until his stagger ends. Don't worry about how much damage you'll do: he'll
immediately switch to flying mode and heal himself. Now the battle really
begins: he has two modes: Annihilation Mode, where he kicks your ass for a
while, and Aerial Defense Mode, where he charges up and only attacks if you
attack him. So, once he flies, go with SAB/SYN/MED until you get DeShell
and DeProtect on him, then COM/RAV/RAV to stagger, COM/RAV/COM to kill, and
COM/MED/MED to heal. If he's in defense mode and almost kills you, just stop
attacking long enough to heal. About 2 staggers will finish this guy off for
good, and Chapter 12 along with it!

First off, beating Proud Clad now gives you access to the Eden Pharmaceuticals
shop at every Save Point, and you can now purchase Librascopes for 10,000 gil.
You can get some of the -sols, too, but we're not really using those much.
Make sure you have at least 3 Librascopes, though, as we'll need a total of 4
as we finish the game.

Next, be aware that while you can come back to this area after you beat the
game, you can only access the first room and the final room, meaning every
enemy except the Sacrifices, Barthandelus, and Orphan will disappear forever.
So will all of the treasure, so get it while you can. I'm going to list all 11
enemies in here, so make sure you have complete data on all of them before you
go to the final room:

Sacrifice
Aquila Velocycle
Megrim Thresher
Dagonite
Sanctum Templar
Jabberwocky
Bandersnatch
Immortal
Centaurion Blade
Wladislaus
Tiamat Eliminator

As for strategy, forget about the Sacrifices: you can come back and get their
data, but you'll fight enough here that you won't have to. Towards the end of
the level, you will encounter the only Immortal, who will summon a Centaurion
Blade if you give him the chance. As soon as he does, use your Librascope:
it's the only time you'll ever fight these guys. After that battle, you'll be
in a room with groups of enemies. These will include the Aquila Velocycle,
Megrim Thresher, Dagonite, and Sanctum Templar in various configurations. Do
not leave this room until you have complete data on all 4 of them. As for
Jabberwocky, Bandersnatch, and Wladislaus, I'm pretty sure they count as boss
battles, so you shouldn't have a problem getting their data. You'll get a
second chance to fight all 3 of them towards the end of this, so make sure you
get their data by the second time around. If you miss some, just save and
reload at the next Save Point. The Tiamat Eliminator is a boss, I'm almost
positive of that. You may want to throw a Librascope at him anyway, though,
just to make sure. Doing this will also make your battle a little easier.
That's it: just make sure these 11 have complete data before you go to the
final room.

Next its time to do some crystarium work. You probably have about 300,000 CP
to spend, but not many places left to use it. Avoid secondary roles and just
dump it all into primary roles for everyone. If you max someone out, leave
the rest in the bank.

Finally, a quick note about fighting the enemies in here: most of them are
vulnerable to debuffs that will make these battles relatively easy. As such,
you might want to switch your default to SAB/SYN/MED, as you'll be debuffing on
almost every encounter. Some of them are immune, but you'll learn which ones
those are pretty quickly in your battles.

The area itself is a mostly straight path with a whole bunch of side paths that
have battle and treasure, so I'll walk you through this step by step.

Start by following the yellow marker until you get a scene and the area
changes. Once you do, look at your map. At the bottom should be what looks
like an upside down peace sign, with teleports at each of the ends. Just above
that should be the round area with the Save Point and the 7 Sacrifices, unless
you already killed them. There are 3 other paths that branch out from here:
we'll be starting with the left one. If your first battle is with 2
Sacrifices, you found the correct path. Clear the area of enemies, and you'll
get:

Treasure 1: Librascope
Treasure 2: Cherub's Crown
Treasure 3: Millerite

Come on back to the circle of 7 Sacrifices, and take the right path. After
chatting with the statue, two movable platforms will show up. Take the one that
goes down first (I think its behind you after the scene). Follow your map to
clear the area of enemies, and along the way you'll find:

Treasure 4: Supercharger x4
Treasure 5: Perfect Conductor x4
Treasure 6: Turboprop x5
Treasure 7: Particle Accelerator x2
Treasure 8: Uraninite

Go on back to the platform that got you here, then take the other one that
goes up. You'll notice that your destination marker is on this path, so make
sure you get the following treasures before you go there:

Treasure 9: Seaking's Beard x20
Treasure 10: Aegisol x2
Treasure 11: Tear of Woe x9
Treasure 12: Gale Ring
Treasure 13: Shamanic Spear

Now that the area has changed again, go down until the paths splits. The right
path will take you back to where you were, so ignore it. The left path has
your destination, but don't go there until you've fought a few enemies and
found:

Treasure 14: Tetradic Crown

Once you go down the next elevator, save at the Save Point and look at your
map. From the little bit you can see, the area looks like 3 straight "lanes"
moving to the north. Go up the right one first, then the map will clear up and
you'll see the way to go. You'll find:

Treasure 15: Starblossom Seed x6
Treasure 16: Black Mycelium x8
Treasure 17: Rhodochrosite

Battle 1: Jabberwocky (BOSS), Bandersnatch (BOSS). These guys have a few
attacks that can mess you up pretty bad, but by this point they're not all
that hard to beat. Don't worry about Libra: you should get their intel pretty
quick. Jabberwocky (the big one) is susceptible to Imperil and DeProtect, so
stick him with those and fire away. Bandersnatch is susceptible to Imperil and
DeShell, so do the same after the big one goes down. When you're done, you'll
be in a crazy honeycomb-looking room with an Immortal standing right in front
of you.

Battle 2: Immortal, Centaurion Blade (if summoned). Make sure you stick around
long enough for him to summon the blade, then hit him with a Librascope.
They're both susceptible to the usual debuffs, and you don't even have to
attack the blade if you don't mind it messing you up a little. Once you beat
him, use the teleport behind him to get:

Treasure 18: Weirding Glyph
Treasure 19: Adamant Bangle
Treasure 20: Elixir
Treasure 21: Scarletite

Use the warp again, and you'll be back in front of the Immortal. You can
actually avoid all of the other battles here, but make sure you have all the
enemy intel for the Aquila Velocycle, Megrim Thresher, Dagonite and Sanctum
Templar. If you need more data, fight them here before you move on.

Battle 3: Wladislaus (BOSS). Again, I'm pretty sure he counts as a boss, since
I didn't use Libra and still got all his data. He's a piece of cake, since
you're in SAB/SYN/MED and you can stick DeProtect, DeShell, and a bunch of
lesser stuff on him. I had Fang give him about 4 debuffs, then switched to
COM/RAV/RAV. I killed him in 3 turns, totaling aobut 1 minute.

When you come out, there are elevator platforms, to take shortcuts, but we want
to go the long way, which is up the ramps. On the way, you'll get:

Treasure 22: 3,000 Gil
Battle 4: Sanctum Templar, Wladislaus (Your last chance to get his data)
Treasure 23: 5,000 Gil
Battle 5: Jabberwocky, Bandersnatch (Your last chance to get their data)
Battle 6: Sanctum Templar (Your last chance to get his data)

Now stop at the Save Point here and check your Librascope inventory. There are
4 more battles in the game, and you want to drop one on each of the four. If
you don't, it's not that big of a deal, since you'll just waste a few turns
casting the wrong spells. You can buy some now, and I'm sure you have enough
components to sell to get the money. Anyway, here comes the final stretch!

Battle 7: Tiamat Eliminator (BOSS), besides having almost 4 million HP, this
guy is really a pushover. First, switch to COM/RAV/RAV, as he's immune to
everything right now. Once you stagger him and his stagger ends, he'll come to
the ground. You can now stick DeProtect, DeShell, Slow and Imperil on him, and
once you do, he goes down quickly.

Treasure 8: Ethersol

The next 3 battles are all in a row, so you won't have time to change
equipment or paradigms. Fortunately, you're already set up pretty well for
this battle. The only thing I'd suggest is replacing Fang's Sprint Shoes with
a Cherub's Crown. Since you're starting in SAB/SYN/MED, Hope's first action
will be to give Fang Haste anyway, and the second guy loves to cast Death,
which will end your battle immediately if it connects with Fang. The Cherub's
Crown prevents this just enough to win almost all the time.

Batlle 8: Barthandelus (BOSS). The guy, again, isn't all that bad, even though
he has over 5 million HP. Throw your Librascope, then get DeProtect, Deshell,
and Imperil on his ass. Most of his attacks are just annoying, but there are
two you have to watch out for: Ultima and Thanatosian Laughter. If you see
him readying either one of these, stop what you're doing immediately and switch
to COM/MED/MED. Throw a Phoenix Down if he kills anyone and get back to
killing him instead. Again, just go COM/RAV/RAV to stagger him, then
COM/RAV/COM to shave off his HP. You won't get him in one stagger, but two
should do it nicely.

Battle 9: Orphan (BOSS). So, this is the second to last battle of the game,
but this is the real final battle. If you have followed me through all of
these pages, though, you know what I'm going to tell you. Ready? 1. Drop a
Librascope. 2. SAB/SYN/MED until you get DeProtect, DeShell, and Imperil on
him. 3. COM/RAV/RAV until he's staggered. 4. COM/RAV/COM until he's not
staggered. Sounds easy, right? Well, it is, kind of. You really have to
watch for some of his attacks, and be ready to react accordingly. First off,
the debuffs you want will take about a minute to finally connect, or at least
they did for me. So, be patient! Second, the battle opens with my favorite
of his attacks, Merciless Judgement. This will take away 90% of whatever HP
you have, for all 3 characters. You won't be able to switch paradigms until
he's done, either. Obviously, if you get hit with this, it's time to switch
to COM/MED/MED and heal immediately. Now, let's talk about Progenitorial
Wrath. This baby has a 50% chance of causing Death to one person. If it's
Fang, that's the end for you. That's why the Cherub's Crown, although to be
honest I didn't equip mine and was lucky enough not to get the whammy. Of his
12 other attacks, only two should really concern you. These are Dies Irae and
Ailmentation. One will give you DeProtect, and the other will give you
Imperil. Either of these are not that bad, but remember that Merciless
Judgement attack? Well, if either of these statuses are on you when he unloads
it, you WILL die. So, if you see brown things by your characters, its time to
go to COM/MED/MED and make them go away. Got it? I've tried to be brief, and
hopefully this will be enough information to kill him efficiently. I just
remember fighting him like 15 times on my first playthrough, and I hope I just
didn't get incredibly lucky this time and steer you all the wrong way. If I
did, I'm sorry: the next time we fight him we will be so maxed out that it
will be laughable, so if he gives you trouble now, at least you know you'll
get your revenge.

Battle 10: Orphan (BOSS) This is the lesser form of Mr. Orphan, but it's the
only one you need to 5 Star to get a trophy. There are two things you need to
know: first, you can't damage him until you stagger him. Second, his attacks
are really weak, so you shouldn't need to heal at all. If you start with
SAB/SYN/MED, you can get Imperil, DeProtect, and DeShell on him, but if you
want to go a little faster, I'd do this: start with COM/RAV/RAV for about 4
turns to get his gauge up to about 300%. Then, put your debuffs on him. While
you're doing this, Fang's haste will wear off, to be immediately put back on by
Hope (if you left the Sprint Shoes on like I did). Regardless, you'll be
really close to the time for a 5 Star on this. My target time was 2:21, giving
me 1:38 to 5 star it. My time was a heartbreaking 1:41, so I guess I'll have
to get my Superstar trophy later....

Incidentally, it's not the end of the world if you don't 5 star this on your
first try. You can come back at any time, and I suggest you try again when
you're totally maxed out and have Lightning's ultimate weapon. If you pass
Mission 64 first, you'll get a Gold Watch, which will increase your target
time, and you'll only need about 30 seconds to beat him. Plus, I always like
to get my Platinum trophy on the final boss anyway :)

Congratulations, you have now completed Final Fantasy XIII! Have fun watching
the ending and the credits, and I'll see you in a little bit. Now it's time
for the second half of the game!

Now that the storyline is complete, it's time to stop for a minute and think
about how we want to approach the rest of our FFXIII experience. Let's start
by reprinting the goals of this guide right below, so we can refocus on what
we're trying to do:

1) Complete the story line of the game, watching as many video sequences as I
can.
2) Receive the Platinum Trophy
3) Have a final save file with a complete collection of weapons and
accessories.
4) Have a complete enemy database with all information for all enemies.
5) Have at least one of every item and component that I can.

We should be done with the first goal at this point, but the other four are
still hanging around out there. Let's start with a look at the trophies in
this game.

There are 35 trophies to achieve before you get the Platinum, and they can be
categorized very easily. The first 13 correspond to completing each Chapter,
so those should be done already. 8 trophies correspond in some way to the
Cie'th Stone Missions: 5 star all 64 and you'll pick these up along the way.
Since that's going to be our next goal, I'll leave them out of the discussion.
7 trophies correspond in some way to filling out everyone's crystarium (that's
all 6 roles, folks). Believe it or not, this is actually going to come way
before you're done, because you'll be fighting so many turtles to get the
money you need for your equipment upgrades. Each turtle battle yields 80,000
CP, so we're not going to discuss these trophies, either. Wow, If my math is
correct, that only leaves 7 trophies that even merit a discussion.

Let's get Loremaster out of the way: you get this for learning enemy intel on
100 enemies. If you've followed the guide, you earned this somewhere back in
Chapter 7 or so. Even if you didn't, you probably already have it by now. If
you get to the end and still don't have this one, just fight some enemies that
you have incomplete data on and Libra them until you do.

Next is Superstar. You get this for getting a 5 star rating on the final form
of Orphan (the easy one). If, like me, you missed this by a few seconds the
first time around, don't worry: it will be the very last thing I cover in the
guide. I mean, he is the last boss, isn't he?

Limit Breaker will come when you do more than 100,000 damage in a single hit.
You can't do this right now, because your limit is 99,999. Believe me though,
by the time you're done with this game you'll be sick and tired of doing this
over and over and over and over. Just be patient: it will come in the turtle
section.

Pulsian Pioneer is for taking 10,000 steps on Gran Pulse. If you already got
the Platinum Ingots from Bhakti in Chapter 11, you already have this trophy.
If you haven't yet, check back with him periodically, as you'll be walking A
LOT around Gran Pulse in the next 50 hours or so.

Gysahl Wreath is for finding buried treasure with the Chocobo. You need to do
20 successful digs with the chocobo to get this trophy, and you'll also get a
Ribbon as a prize.

Our last two trophies are Adamant Will and Treasure Hunter, and these both will
get their own sections. Taking down Long Guis is quite a challenge, and you
don't even want to get one to spawn until you've done all the turtle hunting
you plan to do. Treasure Hunter is the one for holding all the weapons and
accessories, and I'm going to devote quite a bit of time to this during the
rest of the guide.

I guess that covers it for trophies: we're going to start with finishing the
64 Cie'th Stone missions. At some point we'll probably have to stop and fight
some turtles, then we'll go back to the missions. Once that's done, we'll
work on our last 3 goals, beat the Long Gui, 5 star the Orphan boss, and take
our Platinum home to mommy! Ready? Let's begin.

If I'm not mistaken, we have already completed and 5-starred Missions 1-26, 28
and 55, leaving 36 missions on our list. We're actually in pretty good shape
to knock out a bunch of them before we start making turtle soup, so let's see
how far we can go. After you beat the game, your save file sticks you in the
Narthex, right before the final boss again. We obviously don't want to be
here. Turn around and take the warp back to the beginning of Chapter 13, then
take the warp on one of the sides to get you to Gran Pulse. Watch where
you're going, though, because the other one will take you to Chapter 12 areas.
Once you have made it back to Vallis Media Base Camp, you'll find another warp
stone and a Save Point.

While you're at the save point, let's start with a little crystarium work. Now
that the final Stage is open to you, you can spend all of the 600,000 or so CP
you have accumulated so far. You'll notice a few things when you do: first
off, each node gets to be around 60,000, so your 600,000 won't go very far.
Second, each character has a fourth accessory slot in one of their primary
roles. Get these first, and don't continue with the guide until you do.
Fang's is in Commando, Hope's is (annoyingly) in Ravager, Lightning's is in
Commando, Sazh's is in Ravager, Snow's is in Commando, and Vanille's is in
Ravager. Third, the top ring of the crystarium has no abilities: only
Strength, Magic, and a BUNCH of HP. Goodbye Bangles!

Now that you have beefed up your characters, let's do a little accessory
maintenance. Start by upgrading a Whistlewind Scarf with any component you
have that gives more than 350 exp. I used a Perfect Conductor, but it doesn't
matter, you're about to sell the rest anyway. Now add a Rhodochrosite that
you should have and it will turn into an Aurora Scarf. Make two of these, and
they go in Fang's and Lightning's new slots. Hope gets the Imperial Armlet
that you won from the Tiamat Eliminator. Now that we're loaded up and ready,
let's 5 star some more missions!

----------------------------

MISSION 27: Mithridates

FANG: Venus Gospel, Fulmen Ring, Black Belt, Morale Talisman, Aurora Scarf
HOPE: Eagletalon, Fulmen Ring, Blessed Talisman, Black Belt, Imperial Armlet
LIGHTNING: Enkindler, Spark Ring, Black Belt, Growth Egg, Aurora Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: First of all, we have to get to the stone. Use the
teleport stone at Base Camp and take it to Oerba. Now, walk backwards until
you come to the rolly elevator that takes you back to the tower. You'll end up
on the Apex, and the stone is there waiting. Since you already lined the
elevator up when you were here before, just jump on it and take it straight to
the ground floor. The battle will begin immediately.

The battle itself is more difficult than it seems, and there are two reasons:
the first reason is that he immediately removes your buffs, sticks a bunch of
debuffs on you, and is immune to debuffs himself. The second reason is his
Levinbolt attack, a thunder-based attack that can kick your ass real bad if
you're ill equipped. If you look at the equipment above, you'll notice that
the Sprint Shoes have been replaced by accessories that resist lightning. You
could probably dump the Black Belts as well, since he doesn't have physical
attacks, but I like to change as little as possible for each battle, and this
setup should be enough.

Make sure your default paradigm is SAB/SYN/MED. Your goal is to get Barthunder
on all 3 characters before he kills you with Levinbolt. Obviously, Fang is
useless as a Saboteur during this battle, but she can cast Libra until you get
the data you need. Lightning will be helping tremendously by casting Esuna
and removing all the nasties that are stuck on you. Hope will start by casting
Haste on everyone, and won't do anything else until he gets this done. If you
have full intel by the time he finishes, his next move will be Barthunder on
everyone. As soon as you get this, switch to COM/RAV/RAV and start the stagger
train. You may need to switch a few times to heal, but pretty rarely with your
setup. Once he's staggered, he'll go down without much trouble. My target
time was 3:09 and I got it done in 1:55, which was 17 seconds early.

One note on this: your experience may vary a little from mine, as my 5 star
time was actually the SECOND time I fought him. I got a 4 star the first time
before equipping the rings, but the Cie'th Stone was so close that I just went
back and activated it again. This meant that I went into battle with full
data on him already, and didn't have to Libra him.

-------------------------------

MISSION 29: Juggernaut

FANG: Venus Gospel, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Morale Talisman, Aurora Scarf
HOPE: Eagletalon, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Black Belt, Imperial Armlet
LIGHTNING: Enkindler, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Growth Egg, Aurora Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: From the last mission, walk back to Oerba and take the
teleport stone to the north exit of the Archylte Steppe. Go into the cave
where you fought all the Hoplites and Chryohedra for CP back in Chapter 11.
Remember the Juggernaut that you restarted to respawn the enemies? Go fight
him for real this time. He's guarding a treasure chest with a Platinum Bangle,
so get that, and the Mission 29 Cie'th Stone. Once you activate the mission,
go back to the teleport you came in on and take it to the Palisades at Taijin's
Tower. He'll be right there.

You absolutely, positively MUST get a Pre-Emptive Strike for this battle.
Juggernauts have way too much defense to get their 1.6 million HP down with a
target time around 1:30. You don't HAVE to use a Deceptisol. You can run up
to him, let him chase you, then stand there until he turns around. If you're
directly behind him you'll have your Pre-Emptive Strike. Or, just use a
Deceptisol. You have a ton by now anyway.

Fighting him is easy once the first part is done. Use COM/RAV/RAV for one
turn to stagger him, then SAB/SYN/MED to stick some debuffs on. A turn or
two is fine, until he's got about 3 on him. Then, COM/RAV/COM. You'll be
done in around 30 seconds.

----------------------

A SHORT EXCURSION- We're going to take a little trip before our next mission,
and we might as well pick up a few treasures on the way. After you end the
Juggernaut, go back to your teleport stone and choose Archylte Steppe, Central
Expanse. Hop on the chocobo that's right there and head east. On the way, if
you see the "!" pop up on its head, go ahead and wander around until you find
some treasure. When you're done, head to the eastern exit, where you fought
Neochu for the Growth Egg (I'm sure you remember fighting Neochu, right?). As
soon as you jump the ledge, there's a treasure sphere on your left:

Treasure 1: Diabolic Tail x7

You may have already gotten this on the way to Neochu... I would have, but I
wanted to put them in chunks in the guide so we weren't getting distracted all
the time. Anyway, continue on the path until you're in Aggra's Pasture again.
There are two treasures in here:

Treasure 2: Gloomstalk x6
Treasure 3: Platinum Bangle (Be careful to sneak behind the Picochus, or they
will summon an Ochu to guard the treasure!)

If you mess up and the Picochus summon an Ochu, you are actually strong enough
to kill these guys. The Picochus are actually Microchus, and all of these
guys are much weaker than their big brothers. Just make sure to kill the big
guy first, or he will summon more little guys for you to fight.

After you get the two treasures, there is one more thing to check out. Look
around: do you see the little herd of sheep across the way? Go talk to the
big one. A scene will occur, and you'll get some wool.

If you're interested
in a complete inventory, you will need this wool to finish the list: he's the
only guy you can get it from, and he'll give you four types of wool: Rough,
Scraggly, Fluffy, and Thick. Again, this is the only guy who gives you these
components. They're not especially good for anything, so if you don't care
about completing your inventory, you can forget about him for good. If you
need the other three types, however, read the next paragraph.

Once you pluck some wool from the Wooly Sheep, you have to give him time to
grow back some more wool. This time is measured in video game time, by which
I mean "leave the Archylte Steppe and come back." He will appear with any one
of the flocks of sheep scattered about the area, not always at this location.
He will change his wool type randomly depending on if you have reset the game
or teleported. Since you'll be teleporting a lot, keep an eye out for the big
sheep in your travels and you will probably acquire all 4 wool types without
special work. Also, he will appear as an "Object of Interest" on your map if
you get close enough. I lost him for a while, and was able to use the map to
find him hiding under a building in the Haeri Archaeopolis.

Once you have both treasures and the wool, look for a little gap in the walls
that leads you further away from the Steppe. When you get to the end, you'll
see a Cie'th Stone and a big red fuzzy barrier. Examine the Cie'th Stone to
start Mission 30. Now ride all the way back to one of your teleport stones and
choose Sulyya Springs. As soon as you get there, turn around and ride Atomos
to a new area, the Twilit Cavern.

The enemies in here should be pretty easy by now, so we're just going to stick
with a treasure guide. After the first set of enemies, there will be a fork
in the road. Start with the right path.

Treasure 1: Moogle Puppet (jump down to the right)
Treasure 2: Perovskite

-------------------------------

MISSION 30: Syphax

FANG: Venus Gospel, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Morale Talisman, Aurora Scarf
HOPE: Eagletalon, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Black Belt, Imperial Armlet
LIGHTNING: Enkindler, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Growth Egg, Aurora Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: Piece of cake: your target time is going to be somewhere
around 6:30, and even if you do this poorly you'll be out of here in under 2
minutes. He won't be in the battle at first, so set COM/RAV/COM as your
default and Blitz away until he shows up. Now, switch to COM/RAV/RAV. If you
feel frisky, go ahead and switch to SAB/SYN/MED and debuff him once you hit
the 1 minute mark. This will let Hope cast Haste on you again, and Lightning
will have a short chance to heal you a bit. Stagger then kill. I actually
didn't kill him during his first stagger, didn't debuff him or buff myself,
and let him summon even more bats, and I still got 1:58 and was in no danger
of dying.

-------------------------------

Treasure 3: Perfect Conductor x4 (Right where you fought Syphax)
Treasure 4: Particle Accelerator x2 (Same as Treasure 3)

Now go back to the first set of enemies and take the left path.

Treasure 5: Perfect Conductor x3 (in a little alcove to the right, guarded by
some Puddings)
Treasure 6: Rainbow Anklet
Treasure 7: Particle Accelerator x2 (where 3 of the 6 Cryohedrons were hiding)
Treasure 8: Metal Armband x2 (where the other 3 Cryohedrons were hiding)

Keep going to the end of the path to fight a Tyrant. He guards nothing, but
the room behind him has a Cie'th Stone for Mission 53. Being bold and lazy
like we are, we're going to go ahead and activate it, then go all the way back
to the Sulyya Springs teleport and take it to the Padraean Archaeopolis. Then
we're going to save our game, because we don't want to 4 star this and have to
come all the way back.



-------------------------------

MISSION 53: Zirnitra

FANG: Venus Gospel, Sprint Shoes, Warrior's Wristband, Morale Talisman, Aurora
Scarf
HOPE: Eagletalon, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Weirding Glyph, Imperial
Armlet
SNOW: Paladin, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Black Belt, Black Belt

PARADIGMS: SAB/SYN/SEN, SAB/MED/SEN, COM/RAV/SEN

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: We went a little out of order here, but I really didn't
feel like walking back into the cave. A wise person might upgrade their
crystarium, but the target time is close enough right now, and I didn't want to
risk dropping it even further. That said, the setup you have above should get
you a 5 star rating, if you stick to the basics and don't let Snow die, ever.
Zirnitra has a sweet little trick up his sleeve: he hits you with DeProtect,
then swoops down and wipes you out. Fortunately, keeping Snow in Sentinel will
focus the attacks all on him. That's why all the Black Belts go to Snow for
this battle.

Start in COM/RAV/SEN and kill the 4 snails that are running around. Once
they're dead, you basically have 3 things to do, depending on the
circumstances. If Snow has less than half of his health, switch to
SAB/MED/SEN and let Hope heal him. If your party loses Haste, switch to
SAB/SYN/SEN and let Hope put it back on. Otherwise, stick with COM/RAV/SEN
to stagger and kill him. If you're in another paradigm, just let Fang spam
debuffs at random: some of them will stick. You should get the guy to go
down in about 2:30, with a target time of 4:00 or so.

One quick note on this: Auron402 has a much more intricate strategy, but it
means having Hope as your leader. Casting Enfire on Fang is a great way to get
more damage done, but I can never seem to get Hope to do it when Fang is the
party leader. If you're having trouble, though, look up Auron402's guide and
give it a go.

-----------------------------

MISSION 31: Pulsework Champion

FANG: Venus Gospel, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Morale Talisman, Aurora Scarf
HOPE: Eagletalon, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Black Belt, Imperial Armlet
LIGHTNING: Enkindler, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Growth Egg, Aurora Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: From the end of Mission 53, go back to the Archaeopolis
and teleport to the Central Expanse again. You're going all the way back to
the red fuzzy barrier at the end of Aggra's Pasture, which is now gone. Hop
on a chocobo and head east. On the way, it's a good idea to digress a bit to
dig some treasure. Also, if you come across the big sheep again, give him a
tug and get some more wool. Go past the pasture to enter the Haerii
Archaeopolis. You want the red stone, which will also be a teleport stone.
The mark himself is right in this area: just head for the star.

After a few hours of attempts, I am now convinced that this battle can't be
5-starred without a pre-emptive strike. I got within 5 seconds, but the guy is
just too hard to stagger and the target time is really, really low. I even
took off my good weapons to get the target time up, but it only added 8 seconds
and added 10 to my battle time! Point is, get a pre-emptive strike. A
Deceptisol isn't a bad idea at this point, but I found a reliable way to
Pre-Emptive Strike without one. Start the battle then retry. When you have
control, don't move at all. The Seeker closest to you will crawl your way,
stop, then turn around. When he does, walk into his back (shoulder?) and you
should be good to go. One thing to note: the Pulsework Champion is not your
default target, so make sure you select him on your first attack. Then,
COM/RAV/COM will work the rest of the way.

--------------------------------

MISSION 34: Tonberry

FANG: Venus Gospel, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Morale Talisman, Aurora Scarf
HOPE: Eagletalon, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Black Belt, Imperial Armlet
LIGHTNING: Enkindler, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Growth Egg, Aurora Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: Again, after 300 hours of playing this game, I'm not a big
fan of walking all over Gran Pulse. As such, we're going to go out of order
for a second. The stone for this mission is the blue one in Haeri Archaeopolis
that's out by the other exit, where you'll see another red fuzzy barrier. The
Tonberry is right back down the hill.

As anyone who has played other Final Fantasy games knows, fighting Tonberries
is always a bizarre and frightening experience. Their attacks are always based
on some kind of statistic or other weird thing. So, I remember having a hell
of a time with this guy on my first playthrough. This time, my characters
never left the green on their HP bar. I don't know why. Anyway, you have a
TON of time to fight this battle (why couldn't I have a few seconds from this
one for the last one, man?), so start in SAB/SYN/MED and wait until he has
Imperil, DeShell, and DeProtect. It might take a while, but it's worth it.
Then, COM/RAV/RAV will finish him really quickly. My target time was 11:42,
and I won in 1:02.

I think that in this game, their attacks get stronger as their health gets
lower. So, it pays to set them up for failure while they're still healthy,
then kill them quickly before they can really do any damage...

---------------------------------

MISSION 33: Adamanchelid

FANG: Venus Gospel, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Morale Talisman, Aurora Scarf
HOPE: Eagletalon, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Black Belt, Imperial Armlet
LIGHTNING: Enkindler, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Growth Egg, Aurora Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: The stone for this guy is the other blue stone on your
map, over by the exit back to the Archylte Steppe. You can walk to him if you
want, but I found it easier to use my new teleport stone from Mission 31. Take
it to the Central Expanse, hop a chocobo, save your game, then haul on over to
greet him. Beware, there is a big turtle whose path comes rather close to the
little turtle you're looking for. You'll know quickly if you ran into the
wrong one, though. If you die in 5 seconds, you ran into the wrong one.

The target time is going to be a little close for this one, so be prepared to
retry until you get your timing down. My target time was 1:39, giving me 57
seconds to play with. He went down in 50 seconds.

Start with SAB/SYN/MED and spam the Auto- commands until he's got at least
DeShell and DeProtect. Imperil helps as well, but if you take more than 3
turns to stick it, you'll lose your time. Then, COM/RAV/RAV until he's dead.

-------------------------------

MISSION 32: Amam

FANG: Venus Gospel, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Morale Talisman, Aurora Scarf
HOPE: Eagletalon, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Black Belt, Imperial Armlet
LIGHTNING: Enkindler, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Growth Egg, Aurora Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: Trek on back to your favorite teleport stone, and go to
Vallis Media Base Camp. Head back up the path towards the Steppe and the stone
will be right there. Then, go back and teleport to the Northern Highplain.
Get a chocobo and take it west to your mark. Don't forget to look for treasure
and sheep!

This guy seems hard, but the battle is really a cinch. He loves to stick you
with Fog and Pain pretty much immediately. Plus, he steals your HP to heal
himself. He's frustrating to fight, but spamming COM/RAV/COM should get you
there every time. My target was 1:50, everything went wrong, and I still beat
him in 50 seconds.

Before we get into the next batch of missions, let me explain a few things:
Missions 35-51 are called Titan's Trials, and they're all in that last section
to the far east of the Haeri Archaeopolis. They're set up in tiers, so that
each series requires 6 battles before you can get out of there, and some of
them are really nasty. In addition, there are a few enemies that you'll need
for your intel that you can't find anywhere else, as well as some treasure.
We'll be walking a bit of a tightrope with the levels that we're at right now:
keeping your level low keeps the target times high, which makes the battles
easier. If you're ill equipped, though, you'll get no battle rating because
you'll be dead. Anyway, we're going to try to 5 star as many of these as we
can, but I'm almost positive that we'll have to come out at some point and
start doing some turtle hunting. Just follow along, and hopefully you'll be
fine. Let us begin.

First, we're going to find the rest of the treasure, now that we're strong
enough to beat Behemoths and Adamanchelids. Teleport to the Northern Expanse.
If you didn't get the treasure behind the Juggernaut, go back into the
Mah'habara cave, turn left, and fight him again. You'll get:

Treasure 1: Platinum Bangle

If you already got it, head south, then turn left, keeping to the wall on your
left. Soon you'll come to an Adamanchelid guarding:

Treasure 2: Gold Nugget

Now stay along the edge of this wall and take it all the way to the back of
the foggy area with all the Behemoths. You'll come to a peninsula with two
Behemoths guarding:

Treasure 3: Platinum Bangle x2

Now head back out and keep the barrier on your left still. Eventually, you'll
come to another Adamanchelid guarding:

Treasure 4: Gold Nugget
Treasure 5: Gold Nugget (on the hill just behind the Adamanchelid you just
fought)

Now, go get a chocobo and take it to the eastern exit again. Don't forget to
sidetrack yourself if you still need to dig for treasure. Ride the chocobo all
the way past Aggra's Pasture and into the Haeri Archaeopolis. You could also
teleport there, but when I took the chocobo I found 3 treasures and some more
wool, so it might be worth the walk. Anyway, there are 3 more treasures in
this area:

Treasure 6: Collector Catalog (From Aggra's Pasture, turn right and fight the 3
Strigoi in by the ruins. There's a little hidden passage that leads under this
building. You'll probably have to kill a Cactuar to get in here as well).
Treasure 7: Fractured Horn x9 (Walk all the way around the building, sticking
to the path that's on your map. You'll come to some rubble and a Pijavica, who
is guarding the treasure)
Treasure 8: Witch's Bracelet (Keep going forward from the last treasure.
There's a little area that looks a bit like a shepherd's cane that takes you
under another building. You'll have to fight some Seekers and a Strigoi)

The only treasure balls that are left in the game are now in the Faultwarrens,
and we're about to go there to fight some battles. Go ahead and use the exit
that you haven't used yet. Your map will show it as "The Way of the
Ancients." Sounds scary, doesn't it? There is a Save Point at the other end:
I suggest you use it. Walk forward to begin Titan's Trials.

The first thing you'll notice is a little tutorial explaining how Titan's
Trials works. Each one of the battles (A1, B2, etc.) leads to a choice. You
choose your path through the sideways pyramid, fight different missions
depending on your choice, and end up in the same place every time. If you want
to get all 17 battles, then, you'll have to make your way through this gauntlet
a minimum of 7 times. Because, you see, there's a big nasty dude at the end of
it that only appears when you beat every single challenge in here. So, you
have to end at E1-E6, then go back through AGAIN and fight the final dude
(Mission 51). Got it? Good, let's begin.

---------------------------

MISSION 35:

FANG: Venus Gospel, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Morale Talisman, Aurora Scarf
HOPE: Eagletalon, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Black Belt, Imperial Armlet
LIGHTNING: Enkindler, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Growth Egg, Aurora Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: Just use a Deceptisol, man. My target time was just
stupid: 40 seconds. The dude has so much armor that you can't really hurt him
until you stagger him, which takes much more than 40 seconds to accomplish.
You can get a Pre-Emptive Strike without a Deceptisol, but you have to tease
him out of his hole and mess around with him for a while before you can get
him to turn around. Just use a Deceptisol, man.

Once you're done, you'll have a choice to make: the stone right in front of
you takes you to Mission 37: so, turn around and take the other blue one.

-------------------------------

MISSION 36: Amam

FANG: Venus Gospel, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Morale Talisman, Aurora Scarf
HOPE: Eagletalon, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Black Belt, Imperial Armlet
LIGHTNING: Enkindler, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Growth Egg, Aurora Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: We've already fought one of these, now its time for two.
Start with SAB/SYN/MED and spam some debuffs for a few turns. It actually
doesn't matter if anything sticks: you're waiting for the bad guys to debuff
you and Hope to fix it. Once you do that, switch to COM/RAV/COM and hammer
away at one of them. Heal if you need to, then keep hammering. They take
longer than you think, because they steal your HP. However, we were smart
enough to keep our levels low, so our target time is really generous: mine
was 3:32. Even with me messing around looking for better ways to kill them, I
knocked them out in 2:01. Incidentally, you should be up around 500,000 CP
again, but we are going to keep it in the bank until the last possible
moment...

Before you leave this area, there are two treasures to get: one is right
behind the battle, guarded by some Borgbears:

Treasure 1: Gold Dust
Treasure 2: Starblossom Seed (On the ledge directly across the path from the
last treasure)

Again, you have 2 choices: skip the first stone and go to the far one for
Mission 38.

-------------------------------

MISSION 38: Verdelet

FANG: Venus Gospel, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Morale Talisman, Aurora Scarf
HOPE: Eagletalon, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Black Belt, Imperial Armlet
LIGHTNING: Enkindler, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Growth Egg, Aurora Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: Make sure you set your default paradigm to COM/RAV/COM,
then Blitz them out of the water. Target time: 2:08. Battle time: 8 seconds.
One note, though: if you dally with these guys, they summon more guys,
including a Juggernaut. Don't let that happen.

There is one treasure to get here. Look up to your map and head for the pink
dots. They guard:

Treasure 3: Zealot's Amulet

Go back to the Save Point and save your game, as there won't be another chance
for a while. When you get to the fork in the road, take the left one to start
Mission 41.

-----------------------------------

MISSION 41: Tonberry

FANG: Venus Gospel, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Morale Talisman, Aurora Scarf
HOPE: Eagletalon, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Black Belt, Imperial Armlet
LIGHTNING: Enkindler, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Growth Egg, Aurora Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: As you probably know from the last time we fought these,
fighting Tonberries is one of the most frustrating ways I can think of to spend
my night. I have, however, learned a bit more since fighting the single
Tonberry a few missions ago, which is good because now we have to kill THREE.
Yeehaw.

First off, don't worry about time at all: your target time should be about 34
minutes for this battle. You'll either die or win in less than 10. Second,
remember this, and keep remembering it for the entire time you fight this
battle: auto commands are your WORST enemy when fighting Tonberries. Let me
explain.

From what I can tell, Tonberries are relatively innocuous until you touch them.
They just walk around and hit you with the Knife attack, and that's fine. As
soon as you piss them off, however, things get really ugly. In addition to the
Knife, they start this whole progression of Grudge attacks, and each one is
nastier than the first. The final one (I think it's called Everybody's
Grudge), takes most of your HP away, then sticks Curse on you so you can't heal
yourself. Fun, huh? Imagine two of them doing this at once: you will be
dead.

The trick, then, is to never, ever, EVER mess with more than one Tonberry at a
time. Ever. There are two main reasons, then, that the auto battle will kill
you when you're fighting this Mission. First, if one single Commando gets the
bright idea to Blitz someone, you've now pissed off more than one Tonberry.
Second, you will be debuffing these guys, and as soon as a single debuff
sticks to one of them, the target will change to the next one. Again, you've
now pissed off two Tonberries. Don't do that: do this instead, and be
careful when you do.

Set your default paradigm to SAB/SYN/MED. Use the Auto-Hinder to cast whatever
you want on your default target, which should be Tonberry C. On the next turn,
select Auto-Hinder again, but make sure you switch back to Tonberry C as your
target. Continue doing this until Tonberry C has DeProtect, DeShell, and
Imperil, then switch to COM/RAV/RAV.

Your next task is to kill this guy without messing with the other two.
Fortunately, the only COM in this Paradigm is under your control, so you might
just be able to do it. Select Abilities instead of the Auto command, and
queue up 5 rounds of Ruin. Make sure your target is Tonberry C, then unload.
Next, go down to Abilities again, press right on the D-Pad, and a selection
called "Repeat" will pop up. This will allow you to cast Ruin 5 more times
without selecting them individually again. Make sure Tonberry C is your
target, then go for it again. Keep repeating until he's about halfway down,
then switch to COM/MED/MED and heal until everyone is in the green. While
in this paradigm, keep repeating the ruin commands.

Part 3 is ahead. It's basically a mad dash to kill your first Tonberry before
he uses his massive attack and kills you instead. You probably won't have time
to heal yourself, so just keep COM/RAV/RAV'ing him until he goes down. A few
tries at this and you should get the patterns down. Once you can accomplish
this first kill consistently, getting the other two is only a matter of time,
so I'll let you figure it out.

If you are unlucky enough to get hit with Everybody's Grudge, the battle is not
automatically over. You might be too busy focusing on your attacks to notice
what the Tonberries are doing (I usually am), but you'll know you got hit with
the big one when everybody's HP goes into the red and you can't heal yourself.
By the way, the Tonberry will also gain all of his HP back and lose all of his
debuffs, essentially putting you right back where you started. On the bright
side, he'll also go back to only Knife attacks again until you mess with him.
So, what do you do? First, switch to COM/MED/MED immediately. Then quickly
throw a Phoenix Down at anyone who is dead, with Lightning getting the
priority (remember, she's faster). Then, throw a Holy Water at anyone who
survived, except Fang. You should have at least 4 or 5 of each of these in
your inventory, and if you need more you're probably screwed anyway. Now,
just stay in COM/MED/MED until everyone is green again, and start over.

I have one helpful hint and one disclaimer about the above information, and
I'll start with the disclaimer. Hope and Lightning both have Abilities as
Ravagers that can affect more than one target (stuff like Firaga). I don't
know why, but in 20 or so times of fighting this battle, I wasn't aware of them
casting these even once. I don't know why: I was so busy looking at my
commands that I never saw what they were doing. I'll just warn you that your
experience may differ, in which case its time for the helpful hint. If you
wait for them to turn around, it is possible to get a Pre-Emptive strike. If
you do, you can stagger at least one and kill him quickly. Getting the other
two, though is still up to you.

Also, it may be time to upgrade your characters. You have a bunch of CP, but
I'm still trying to keep it in the bank until absolutely necessary. Just know
that if you decide to beef up, our target times will be different for a while.

Ok, enough about Tonberries. There's treasure in this room. It's behind the
Ochu, which you can dodge by sneaking behind the rock. I suggest you fight it,
though: good practice for your next run through here.

Treasure 4: Warding Talisman

If you go further down this path, you'll see an inactive Cie'th Stone: make a
note of it, as you'll be using it eventually. For now, go to the only active
stone in here to start Mission 45.

--------------------------------------

MISSION 45: Neochu

VANILLE: Malboro Wand, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Shield Talisman, Sorcerer's
Mark
LIGHTNING: Enkindler, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Growth Egg, Aurora Scarf
SNOW: Paladin, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Warrior's Wristband, Royal Armlet

PARADIGMS: SAB/MED/SEN

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: Remember this guy? Well, also remember that when you
fought him earlier, he was battle 55, so this guy is just a little easier. The
biggest reason is that there are no Picochus around. He can summon them, but
he'll still kill you long before that happens. We're not quite ready to make
ourselves good enough to beat this guy in a straight brawl, so we're going to
spam Death again. Remember, have Vanille cast Imperil 5 times first, then just
sit there and cast Death until either of you dies. You can survive the first
Screech now, so you'll get 10-15 castings per battle. Even so, it took me
about 12 battles to finally kill him. Time, of course, is not an issue.

You're now done with your first run through Titan's Trials: only 6 more to
go! You'll be back where you started, so go ahead and activate the Cie'th
Stone again, and we'll take a different path: the one of low battle times!

---------------------------

MISSION 37: Rafflesia

FANG: Venus Gospel, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Morale Talisman, Aurora Scarf
HOPE: Eagletalon, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Black Belt, Imperial Armlet
LIGHTNING: Enkindler, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Growth Egg, Aurora Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: Go ahead and fight the Gurangatch again, but don't worry
about your battle rating this time: only your highest score counts. Once
you're done, activate the stone right behind him to start this mission.

If you can Pre-Emptive Strike these guys, go for it. It's pretty easy to sneak
up on them, and will make this really easy. If not, you can still 5 star this,
but the time will be close. First, set your paradigm to COM/RAV/RAV. When you
get into battle, throw a Librascope immediately. These guys are weak to fire,
and you only have a few seconds to spare. Once you know this, though, your
ravagers will throw fire spells at them while Fang Blitzes them to death. My
target time was 56 seconds, and without a Pre-Emptive Strike I did this in 36
seconds, giving me 2 seconds to spare. Whew!

Once you're done, take the right path to activate Mission 40.

---------------------------------

MISSION 40: Verdelet

FANG: Venus Gospel, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Morale Talisman, Aurora Scarf
HOPE: Eagletalon, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Black Belt, Imperial Armlet
LIGHTNING: Enkindler, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Growth Egg, Aurora Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: Set COM/RAV/RAV as your default paradigm and wait for just
a second. The first one you see that uses the "Summon" command, make him your
target. With luck, you'll kill them both before they summon anyone. I
actually picked the wrong target and still killed them both before anyone else
showed up: battle time was 10 seconds.

There are two things to do before moving on: first, go back to the little dead
end behind you. You'll find:

Treasure 5: Starblossom Seed

Next, save your game. Now, head to the left at the fork to activate Mission
43.

------------------------------

MISSION 43: Borgbear Hero

FANG: Venus Gospel, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Morale Talisman, Aurora Scarf
HOPE: Eagletalon, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Black Belt, Imperial Armlet
LIGHTNING: Enkindler, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Growth Egg, Aurora Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: Mashing COM/RAV/RAV will almost get you there. I can only
think of one thing to watch out for: you'll be fighting 3 pairs of similar
enemies, so make sure you take out the lesser one of each first. The default
target will not always help you with this, so make sure you're picking on the
little guys first. Otherwise, you should blow through this one with plenty of
time to spare.

There is a treasure in here as well. If you took the left path to get to your
mark, you probably already got it. Otherwise, continue around the circle and
you'll find:

Treasure 6: Starblossom Seed.

From the treasure sphere, go to the stone closest to you to activate Mission
48.

---------------------------------

MISSION 48: Verdelet (Again)

FANG: Venus Gospel, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Morale Talisman, Aurora Scarf
HOPE: Eagletalon, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Black Belt, Imperial Armlet
LIGHTNING: Enkindler, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Growth Egg, Aurora Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: Okay, before you go into this battle, it's officially time
to use your stockpiled CP. You should be close to 1 million by now, so get
ready to beef up considerably. It really doesn't matter where you put the CP,
but I suggest you just start maxing out primary roles. Don't touch the
secondary roles just yet. You should be able to max out at least one role for
everyone: some people will get 2.

Now save your game, then go on in to the fight. There are 4 of these guys this
time, and almost immediately they will start summoning things. Kill them
before they do: they summon Tonberries. Just wait until you see one getting
ready to summon, then waste them with COM/RAV/RAV. That should do it. See, we
weren't worried about the target time for this one anyway, were we?

That should do it for your second pass through Titan's Trials. Let's go for
the harder ones now.

-----------------------------

MISSION 39: Ochu

FANG: Venus Gospel, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Morale Talisman, Aurora Scarf
HOPE: Eagletalon, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Black Belt, Imperial Armlet
LIGHTNING: Enkindler, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Growth Egg, Aurora Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: Again, go ahead and fight the Gurangatch, then pick your
next mission (I chose the Rafflesia because they're closer). Now, go to
whichever stone activates Mission 39.

After all the battles against Ochus, this one will probably come as a pleasant
shock. Start with SAB/SYN/MED and let Fang go for Imperil, DeShell, and
DeProtect in that order. You're really just wasting time until Hope gets
Enfire on everyone, so make sure you target the big guy every turn and keep an
eye on what Hope is doing. Then, COM/RAV/RAV and he will die pretty quickly.
After that, you'll have to deal with any number of summoned Microchus, but you
shouldn't even need to heal. I screwed this up all over and still ended up
beating the 5 star time by by about 10 seconds. When you're done, take the
stone on the left to activate Mission 42.

--------------------------------

MISSION 42: Borgbear Hero (Again)

FANG: Venus Gospel, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Morale Talisman, Aurora Scarf
HOPE: Eagletalon, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Black Belt, Imperial Armlet
LIGHTNING: Enkindler, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Growth Egg, Aurora Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: This one is a little more technical than you might expect,
what with having killed these guys many times already. The only issue is that
they can do some crazy things once they've been alive for a minute or so, which
they will be in this battle. Start by COM/RAV/RAV'ing each little guy in turn.
About the time you kill the 3rd one, your haste will wear off. This should
coincide with one of the nasty Borgbear attacks I was telling you about, which
is perfect. Lightning can cure you from whatever that was, Hope can get Haste
back on you, and Fang can Dispel the Borgbears and bring them back to reality.
Then, just hop on over to COM/RAV/RAV again and kill the last two. The whole
battle should take a little less than 2 minutes, which is fine compared to a
target time of around 3:45.

Before you leave this area, take a trek on back to the beginning of the level.
Do you see a little branching path by the entrance with a bunch of pink dots at
both ends? Those pink dots are Flowering Cactuars, and this is the only place
in the game that you'll find them. If you are interested in complete enemy
intel, then, you'll have to get the information for them at some point. I will
warn you, though: from the time the battle starts to the time they all flee is
usually less than 10 seconds. I suggest you use your COM/RAV/RAV paradigm and
throw a Librascope as quickly as you can. Then, mash the attack button and
hope you kill one. If you fail, go to the other branch in the path and try
again. If you still fail, you will be through here at least one more time,
and maybe even twice, so don't worry. They'll also still be here after you
finish Titan's Trials. Anyway, let's move on to the first branch you come to,
which has a stone at the end that should activate Mission 46.

--------------------------------

MISSION 46: Zirnitra

FANG: Venus Gospel, Sprint Shoes, Warrior's Wristband, Morale Talisman, Aurora
Scarf
HOPE: Eagletalon, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Weirding Glyph, Imperial
Armlet
SNOW: Paladin, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Black Belt, Black Belt

PARADIGMS: SAB/SYN/SEN, SAB/MED/SEN, COM/RAV/SEN

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: The nice part about going out of order in these battles is
that you've already fought the harder version of this battle. Remember Mision
53, when I was too lazy to walk back to the cave? Same guy. So, start in
COM/RAV/SEN and attack for a while. If you lose Haste, go to SAB/SYN/SEN to
put it back on, and if Snow gets below half on his health meter go to
SAB/MED/SEN to fix that. The target should be about 4 minutes, and you'll kill
him in 2.

Well, that's it for your third pass through this gauntlet. Ready for number
four?

----------------------------------

Before we go back into the Trials, it's time to take a short break and ready
ourselves for the nightmare that is the next battle. Go back to the save point
and sell all your crap. Again, keep 1 of everything, and do not sell
catalysts. You should get somewhere around 500,000 gil, though your results
may vary. For the next step, you're going to need about 270,000 gil, so if
you don't have that, run around and get components, then sell them for gil
until you have the money. We're going to need 9 Witch's Bracelets, and all of
them need to be at the * level. You should have 3 in your inventory, so buy
the other 6 from the store. To upgrade one, you'll need 36 Sturdy Bones,
followed by 12 perfect conductors. Go ahead and get them: I'll wait.

UPDATE: I destroyed this next battle with the equipment we just bought, so it
may be a bit of overkill. If you're a little short on cash, and can only
upgrade, say, 6 of your Witch's Bracelets, you will probably be fine.

Now that that bit of boringness is complete, make sure you have at least 1
Librascope left in your inventory. Leave the Witch's Bracelets off for now,
and re-equip yourself the way you were before the last battle. Now, start the
trials again. You want to go from Mission 35 to 36, then 38, then 42 and beat
them all. Again, don't worry about time. Fight the Flowering Cactuars if you
need the intel, then find the stone that activates Mission 47.

----------------------------------

MISSION 47: Raktavija

FANG: Venus Gospel, Witch's Bracelet, Witch's Bracelet, Witch's Bracelet,
Warrior's Writstband
HOPE: Eagletalon, Witch's Bracelet, Witch's Bracelet, Witch's Bracelet,
Weirding Glyph
LIGHTNING: Enkindler, Witch's Bracelet, Witch's Bracelet, Witch's Bracelet,
Aurora Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: Well, this is supposed to be a really hard battle. Umm,
my target time was 7:24 and I just won in 1:50. None of my characters' health
ever left the green. Did I get lucky? I don't really know....

If you set your people up in the way I described above, you should have plenty
of protection from this guy's all magic attacks. You'll have to Stagger him to
get any damage done, but you should just be strong enough to kill him in one
stagger. Start in SAB/SYN/MED and toss a Librascope immediately, or waste a
few turns casting Libra if you don't have one. You'll soon find out that he's
vulnerable to 3 things: Imperil, Slow, and Pain. You only care about Imperil
and Slow, and they should be Fang's Auto-Commands. So, keep Auto-Hindering
until both of these are stuck on Mr. Bad Guy.

Once that's done, you should have a nice assortment of buffs all over you from
Hope, and you should be mostly immune to his magic thanks to the quarter-mil
you just spent. Just switch to COM/RAV/RAV, then, and belt away until he
staggers. Stay here until the gauge gets to 500% or so, then go to
COM/RAV/COM and do away with the rest.

The one huge problem with this strategy is Dispelga. He has a tendency to cast
it right after he gets staggered, which means all of your buffs go away with
all of his debuffs. If this happens, immediately switch to SAB/SYN/MED again
and waste some turns putting Imperil and Slow back on, while Hope hooks your
party up with stuff. Unfortunately, these two or three turns will mean you
can't kill him in one stagger.

Fortunately, you're not going to take much damage from his (now weak) spells,
so you can take your time, stagger him again, and move on. Don't get too
cocky, though: soon you'll have to fight two of these dudes at once...

For now, congratulate yourself on your fourth trial, and get back on the road
for the fifth. You may want to put your original equipment back on, as well.
Go from battle 35 to 37, then 40, then 43. Once you beat the Borgbear Hero
again, find the stone that activates Mission 49.

--------------------------------

MISSION 49: Tyrant

FANG: Venus Gospel, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Morale Talisman, Aurora Scarf
HOPE: Eagletalon, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Black Belt, Imperial Armlet
LIGHTNING: Enkindler, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Growth Egg, Aurora Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: If you haven't gotten in the habit of this before now,
make sure you save before you fight this guy. The battle can be really easy,
or really hard, and it all depends on luck. If you're equipped as described
above, you shouldn't have much of a problem, though.

Start in SAB/SYN/MED and get Imperil, DeShell, and DeProtect on him. Ignore
the blade that he forges: it goes when he goes. Then, switch to COM/RAV/RAV
and button mash until he's dead. If the blade gets one of your party into the
red, switch to COM/MED/MED and heal. This should be over in well under a
minute.

Now that this fella is out of the picture, let's do our "final" trial. Go
from battle 35 to 37, then to 40. When you beat the Verdelets again, go back
and save then head for the stone that activates Mission 44.

----------------------------------

MISSION 44: Corrosive Custard

FANG: Venus Gospel, Sprint Shoes, Witch's Bracelet, Morale Talisman, Aurora
Scarf
HOPE: Eagletalon, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Witch's Bracelet, Witch's
Bracelet
LIGHTNING: Enkindler, Sprint Shoes, Witch's Bracelet, Growth Egg, Aurora Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: This fight comes down to a matter of a few seconds either
way, so unless you want to try for a Pre-Emptive Strike or use a Deceptisol,
be prepared to act fast and know what you're doing ahead of time. When I first
did this, I missed the target time by 4 seconds. With a few adjustments and a
little more focus, I was able to bring it down 6 seconds faster on my second
try, for a nail-biting 5 star.

First off, you're fighting 3 Flans, which use only magic: hence all the Witch's
Bracelets instead of Black Belts. Second, you know nothing about 2 of these
Flans, so start in SAB/SYN/MED and use a Librascope. Take 1 turn and
Auto-Hinder the Hybrid Flora first. It doesn't really matter if anything
sticks, you just want to give Hope time to buff you. Then, switch to
COM/RAV/RAV and kill the Hybrid Flora. Your target should move over to the
Monstrous Flan, which is great. Just keep slicing until he's dead as well.
If you've done this efficiently, your Haste should be just wearing off, meaning
you're at the 1 minute mark. This gives you roughly 52 seconds to dispose of
the Corrosive Custard.

Switch to SAB/SYN/MED again and get Imperil and DeShell on him. You'll probably
have to enter these commands manually, unless you want to wait for Slow to
stick first (I actually got Slow on him, but I don't know what good it did).
Now, your COM/RAV/RAV paradigm should be enough to end him in time. If you
want, though, look at Lightning's buffs real quick: do you see the "Enthunder"
on there? It looks like a lightning bolt. If it's there, that means she'll
do more damage as a COM, so switch over there for the big money. Again, if you
keep missing the 5 star by a few seconds, just use a Deceptisol.

Once these guys are done, head to the long dead-end with no Cie'th Stone at the
end. You'll find a few Borgbears who guard:

Treasure 7: Cactuar Doll

Which, if you have followed my guide, is the LAST treasure in the game!
Congratulations, you got them all! It only took 98 pages, but we finally
finished something! Woohoo!

Sorry, though, it's time to come back down to earth. The next battle awaits,
and it's at the end of the only active Cie'th stone in this area.

---------------------------------------

MISSION 50: Humbaba

FANG: Venus Gospel, Sprint Shoes, Witch's Bracelet, Morale Talisman, Aurora
Scarf
HOPE: Eagletalon, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Witch's Bracelet, Witch's
Bracelet
LIGHTNING: Enkindler, Sprint Shoes, Witch's Bracelet, Growth Egg, Aurora Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, SAB/RAV/COM, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: Killing the Humbaba is not the problem: killing him in
time is the problem. You'll have a target time around 1:20, meaning you have
56 seconds to finish this battle. Since he's a Behemoth, he will heal himself
and remove all of his debuffs when his HP gets to half. So, what are we to do?

There are a few ways to approach this battle. Auron402's strategy revolves
around killing him quickly enough so he doesn't have time to heal. I didn't
find this to be very successful, but you're welcome to check his guide out if
you want to give it a try.

What I did instead was to use mostly the same setup we've been using, and tweak
it just a little bit to fit our goals. If you notice, the COM/MED/MED paradigm
has been replaced with a SAB/RAV/COM, probably for the first time in 100 pages.
If you need to heal during this battle, you've already lost anyway. Why are we
doing this? Let me explain.

The general strategy is to knock down his HP to halfway as quickly as possible,
then immediately debuff him again and attack the crap out of him. So, start in
SAB/RAV/COM and manually select some combination of Deshell and Deprotect. If
either one sticks, you should be fine, but both is even better. Once they're
on, switch to COM/RAV/RAV and blast away for about 1 turn.

If all goes well, this will cause the Humbaba to stand up and heal himself.
As soon as he stands, quickly shift to SAB/SYN/MED and spam your Auto-Hinder
for 2 turns. You should get Imperil, Deshell, and Deprotect on him again in
those two turns. Then, it's time to make a choice. I chose COM/RAV/RAV and
it worked for me, but if you missed the Deshell, try COM/RAV/COM so you have
two commandos attacking him. If you're lucky, Hope had time to cast Enfire,
which will certainly end this quickly.

I'm not going to lie: I made this in 51 seconds, meaning I only had 5 seconds
to spare. I hope you get the same results: if not, you could add a Blessed
Talisman or a Morale Talisman to Lightning, or just try Auron402's strategy and
see how it works for you.

Once you've defeated Humbaba, it isn't quite clear what you're supposed to do
next. There is one more mission in these trials, and it's sort of weird how
you get to him. You can access the final mission from any of the "D" areas in
this map. So, do missions 35, 37, 40, and 43 again (I think they're the
easiest). When you beat the Borgbear Hero again, you'll see a Cie'th Stone on
your map that wasn't active before. This will take you to Mission 51.

-----------------------------------------

MISSION 51: Attacus

FANG: Venus Gospel, Sprint Shoes, Warrior's Wristband, Morale Talisman, Aurora
Scarf
HOPE: Eagletalon, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Weirding Glyph, Witch's
Bracelet
SNOW: Paladin, Black Belt, Black Belt, Black Belt, Aurora Scarf

PARADIGMS: SAB/SYN/SEN, COM/MED/SEN, COM/RAV/SEN

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: There are a few things that make this battle different
from the first 50 you've fought so far, so I'm going to digress a little bit
here. On a personal note, the scene before this battle is my favorite in the
game, and for some reason I just love fighting this guy. With that said, there
are quite a few ways to tackle this battle. Most of them involve secondary
roles, weapons and accessories that we don't have yet, and a whole bunch of
paradigms. I'm going to attempt to make this as simple as possible, but I warn
you: this battle will be long and boring unless you like watching Attacus
slice away like I do.

First, I chose the "don't think too much and just kick his ass" philosophy, and
it worked. Barely. This may not work for you, so you might have to adjust
things to suit your own style. When I 5 starred it on this playthrough, my
target time was 19:41. If you do the math, that gives you 13:46 to work with,
and my time was 13:13. Wow, that was a little too close.

This guy has over 9 million HP, is basically impossible to stagger, and will
remove your buffs and his debuffs over and over again, all while kicking your
ass. On the bright side, by making Snow a full time Sentinel, you really don't
have to worry about dying, which just leaves the question of how to get rid of
his 9 million HP in less than 13:46. Hmm.

If you use the equipment and paradigms above, you will probably notice that
stuff like Sprint Shoes is pretty useless in a 13 minute battle, since the
effect wears off after 1 minute. I won't argue with you: I was just too lazy
to change it, so if you think something else would make more sense then use it.
Just remember: he doesn't afflict you with status ailments if you have Snow as
a Sentinel, he doesn't attack you if you have Snow as a Sentinel, and any
status boosting accessory will wear off really quickly. Also, anything that
adds to your Strength or Magic will reduce the target time. It may be worth
it, but what the heck would we use for this guy? I really don't know, so I
just left my normal stuff in there. Make sure Snow has all those Black Belts,
though.

So, we have Snow as a full time Sentinel, which leaves only two people left for
our party: I chose Fang because she can debuff and attack, and I chose Hope
because he can cast Magic and buff everyone. What I did was use the
COM/RAV/SEN most of the time, SAB/SYN/SEN when I needed to get Deshell or
Deprotect back on him, and COM/MED/SEN on the one or two occasions where he
didn't attack Snow. That was it: Snow can actually heal himself with
Mediguard, so mostly it was just 13 straight minutes of hacking away.

Attacus is susceptible to the following: DeShell, DeProtect, Slow and Curse.

The first two matter greatly, and the second two don't matter at all. However,
if you're waiting for Hope to buff you again, go ahead and try to get Slow on
Attacus.

Here's a tip from Auron402's guide: if you equip Fang with 2 Iron Bangles, a
Weirding Glyph, and a Power Glove, she will gain 20% attack power if her HP is
above 90%. That sounds cool, but I didn't have a Power Glove. So, I just went
with what I had. I found out later that my lack of a Power Glove was somehow
due to me missing a treasure ball back in Chapter 12, even though I wrote it in
my own guide. How the hell did I miss a treasure that I wrote in my own guide?
Anyway...

Good luck with this guy: you'll have to use your own clock so you know when
you're around 13 minutes. If you're not doing so well, I suggest you rethink
your strategy and restart the battle. That's about all I can tell you:
hopefully you can do what I did and 5 star this without too much effort.

------------------------------------------------------

You are now finished with Titan's Trials. Congratulations! That leaves only
11 Cie'th Stone Missions, and a few other obnoxious grinding things to take
care of. As long as we're messing around with the missions, let's finish the
ones we can before we go for the other things.

MISSION 52: Zirnitra

FANG: Venus Gospel, Sprint Shoes, Warrior's Wristband, Morale Talisman, Aurora
Scarf
HOPE: Eagletalon, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Weirding Glyph, Witch's
Bracelet
SNOW: Paladin, Black Belt, Black Belt, Black Belt, Aurora Scarf

PARADIGMS: SAB/SYN/SEN, SAB/MED/SEN, COM/RAV/SEN

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: To get to the stone from where you are, go back to the
Haeri Archaeopolis and teleport to the Central Expanse. Then, head north for a
while. The stone is all the way on the western edge of the Steppe, surrounded
by a bunch of birds. The battle is in the Steppe, so just follow your map.

You've already fought this guy twice. COM/RAV/SEN to start, SAB/SYN/SEN to get
Haste back, and SAB/MED/SEN to heal Snow. The nice part is you don't have to
change your party, since this was probably your setup for Attacus.

---------------------------------------

If I'm not mistaken, we only have Missions 54 and 56-64 to finish now. We're
going to do most of these, but we'll be skipping a few. Missions 54, 62, 63
and 64 are best left until your crystarium is totally maxed out. Mission 60
will be a little easier with just a little upgrading, so we'll farm some
turtles a little before that one, as well.

---------------------------------------

MISSION 56: Ugallu

FANG: Venus Gospel, Sprint Shoes, Warrior's Wristband, Morale Talisman, Aurora
Scarf
HOPE: Eagletalon, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Weirding Glyph, Witch's
Bracelet
LIGHTNING: Enkindler, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Growth Egg, Aurora Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: The stones for missions 56-62 are in the ring of stones on
the Eastern portion of the Steppe. The battle is best reached by teleporting
to the Tsubaddran Highlands and following the map from there. Make sure you
save on the way: your target time will be about 30 seconds, so it's easy to
miss the 5 star time if you get unlucky. The nice part is, you shouldn't get
unlucky. You only need COM/RAV/COM, and a little button mashing action. You
should be done in less than 20 seconds.

--------------------------------------

MISSION 57: Sahagin

FANG: Venus Gospel, Sprint Shoes, Warrior's Wristband, Morale Talisman, Aurora
Scarf
HOPE: Eagletalon, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Weirding Glyph, Witch's
Bracelet
LIGHTNING: Enkindler, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Growth Egg, Aurora Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: Pick your favorite teleport stone and get back to the ring
of Cie'th stones. Then teleport to Base Camp and follow the map. COM/RAV/COM
should kill these guys in a few seconds, but save just to make sure.

-----------------------------------

MISSION 58: Humbaba

FANG: Venus Gospel, Sprint Shoes, Warrior's Wristband, Morale Talisman, Aurora
Scarf
HOPE: Eagletalon, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Weirding Glyph, Witch's
Bracelet
LIGHTNING: Enkindler, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Growth Egg, Aurora Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, SAB/RAV/COM, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: The stone is in the ring. The battle is in Mah'habara,
and you can teleport to the caves and walk back, or just walk there. It's
about the same either way. Save your game right before the battle: you could
easily need 3 or 4 tries to get these guys, and you definitely don't want to
walk all the way back...

This is the same as Mission 50, with an added element of the Pulsework
Centaurion. Unfortunately, he only adds about 9 seconds to the target time,
so this one is going to be VERY close again. Set your default to COM/RAV/RAV
and blast the Centaurion to bits. It will take about - 9 seconds. Now,
switch to SAB/RAV/COM and let Fang get some kind of debuff on him, either
Deshell or Deprotect or both. Then back to COM/RAV/RAV until he stands up and
heals himself.

Quickly, switch to either paradigm with Fang as a SAB (I prefer SAB/SYN/MED)
until you have Imperil, Deshell, and Deprotect (should take 2 turns). Then,
COM/RAV/RAV again and he'll die quickly. I forgot to use my SAB/RAV/COM
paradigm in this, but was still able to 5 star it with a time of 1:02, the
exact time I needed.

Before you go on to the next mission, update your Crystarium. You should have
about 600,000 CP to use, and you'll need the boost for the next battle anyway.
This CP should just about fill your 3 primary roles for each character, so if
you have extra, start developing the secondary roles. The only important one
to start with is developing Ravager for Fang: the rest will come all at once
in a minute, so just put the CP wherever you want for the others.

----------------------------------------

MISSION 59: Zirnitra (Again)

FANG: Venus Gospel, Sprint Shoes, Warrior's Wristband, Morale Talisman, Aurora
Scarf
HOPE: Eagletalon, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Weirding Glyph, Witch's
Bracelet
SNOW: Paladin, Black Belt, Black Belt, Black Belt, Aurora Scarf

PARADIGMS: SAB/SYN/SEN, SAB/MED/SEN, COM/RAV/SEN, COM/SYN/SEN

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: Back to the circle, then back to your favorite teleport
stone. The mark is in Sulyya Springs, right by the teleport stone.

By my count, you've fought Zirnitra 3 times already, but this battle adds a
little wrinkle: Ceratoraptors. Of course, the little green lizards will
immediately start summoning little pink lizards, so this whole thing can be a
giant mess if you don't know what you're doing.

Notice the added paradigm this time: COM/SYN/SEN. Use this as your default
and send Fang after the Ceratoraptors one by one. You're waiting for Hope to
get around to casting Enfire on her, which will take a little while depending
on how many debuffs you get stuck with. See, his first priority is removing
your debuffs, then casting Haste on everyone, then some other thing that I
don't know, THEN Enfire. Meanwhile, just keep attacking the lizards and wait
for Enfire to stick. If you need to switch to SAB/MED/SEN to heal, do it
quickly.

Once Enfire is on, Fang can pretty much kill anyone in this room by herself,
though switching to COM/RAV/SEN is OK too. Kill the Ceratoraptors, then the
Ceratosaurs, then use the same strategy you've used already to knock out
Zirnitra. That is, COM/RAV/SEN, SAB/SYN/SEN to get Haste back, and SAB/MED/SEN
to heal Snow when he gets below half. Your target time will be just under 5
minutes, and you know it takes at least 2 to kill Zirnitra. This gives you 60
to 90 seconds to dispose of the lizards.

--------------------------------------

MISSION 61: Juggernaut

FANG: Venus Gospel, Sprint Shoes, Warrior's Wristband, Morale Talisman, Aurora
Scarf
HOPE: Eagletalon, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Weirding Glyph, Witch's
Bracelet
LIGHTNING: Enkindler, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Growth Egg, Aurora Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: I really wanted to wait until we fought some turtles to
take you through this mission, but the target time is already only 1:29. I
didn't want to make it even lower, thus making the battle any harder than it
had to be. So, let's get him out of the way before our little turtle killing
spree.

You absolutely must get a Pre-Emptive Strike for this battle. Just run around
a bit until he chases you to the edge of his range, then stand still.
Eventually he'll turn around and show you his ass, so make sure you're directly
behind him and run on in. If you fail, retry the battle until you get a
Pre-Emptive Strike.

Once you do, the rest is easy. Start in SAB/SYN/MED and stick some debuffs on
him for 1 or 2 turns, then switch to COM/RAV/RAV and melt him away. 30 seconds
is all you'll need.

IMPORTANT TO NOTE FOR PC People: Easy Mode makes this easier!

TURTLE FARMING- We've now reached the point in the game where we need to start
killing turtles. I'm talking, of course, about the Adamantortoises and
Adamantoises that are wandering around the Steppe, which you have hopefully
avoided to this point. If you want to get all the trophies, you will probably
have to kill at least a few hundred of these guys, so getting a set strategy is
paramount. Why kill turtles, you say? For a few reasons:

First, every one you kill gives you 80,000 CP if you have the Growth Egg
equipped. Whichever way you choose to drop one, the battle takes less than 3
minutes. You really can't beat that for maxing out your Crystarium.

Second, they drop the best items in the game. Their "common" drop is the

Platinum Ingot, which can be sold for 150,000 gil, and you'll need millions of
gil to upgrade all of your weapons later on. Their "rare" drop is the
Trapezohedron, and you'll need 7 of these if you want Tier 3 weapons. They are
the only enemies in the game that drop these items.

I think those two reasons are enough: let's talk for just a second about drop
rates: the drop rates for the items, I think, are only 5% and 1% respectively.
However, you can increase this by equipping one Collector's Catalog and one
Connoisseur's Catalog. If you follow the equipment list that is included in
the sections below, you'll end up getting a Platinum Ingot about every 4th
battle, and a Trapezohedron about every 20th. Once you get your 7th Trap, you
can take off the Connoisseur's Catalog.

MAJOR UPDATE: I don't know if this is a real thing or not, since I haven't
seen it mentioned by anyone anywhere. However, I noticed after the mother of
all dry spells that turtles tend to drop more stuff when the weather is foggy
on the Steppe. I seemed to get a 50-75% drop rate in foggy conditions, so it
might help to teleport in and out until you get the fog. There is another way
to make the weather bad too: activate one of the circle of death missions
(56-62) and Titan will make the weather nasty until you complete it. I haven't
tried this, but if it helps, give it a shot.

Now, there are two ways to kill these guys: using Death and in a straight-up
brawl. The Death method is great for lower levels, but you will want to switch
to the brawl method as soon as you can, for one huge reason: you need to
Summon an Eidolon to use the Death method, and summoning uses up TP. For a
while, you can replenish it with Ethersols that you have in your inventory, but
you will start running low very quickly. There is no place to buy an Ethersol:
to get another one you either need to fight about 100 battles with certain
enemies, or dismantle a very expensive accessory. Instead, you'll have to run
around fighting random battles until your TP gauge is full again, so it will
end up taking you around 15 minutes to defeat your next turtle. Ugh.

We're not quite ready to use the brawl method yet, so let's begin with the
Death method.

---------------------------------------------------------


KILLING TURTLES: THE DEATH METHOD

Part One: The Setup - Fighting the big turtles actually has 3 parts: fighting
the turtles, getting your TP back, and doing it all quickly enough so you don't
fall asleep. Your party for the actual turtle battles will be Vanille, Fang,
and Hope. You only need one paradigm, SAB/SAB/SYN, but I would add RAV/ANY/ANY
as well, which will speed things up in a minute. Make sure Vanille has an
Energy Sash, Weirding Glyph, Sprint Shoes, and a Blessed Talisman, as well as
her * level Malboro Wand. Fang gets her Venus Gospel, Sprint Shoes, Warrior's
Wristband, Morale Talisman, and Aurora Scarf, and Hope gets the Growth Egg and
a Collector Catalog. His other slots can stay empty. Set SAB/SAB/SYN as your
default, find a big turtle, and run right into him.

Part Two: The Battle - We chose these characters for a specific reason, which
is to maximize the impact of Vanille's Death spell. You see, there is a 1%
chance of Death connecting when you cast it, which is raised slightly by the
Malboro Wand. For every debuff you can get on him, the chance goes up by 1%.
There are 8 debuffs that these guys aren’t immune to, and Fang knows 6 of
them. Hope casts Haste, and that's really all that matters.

So, when the battle starts, summon Hecatoncheir immediately, before the
turtle's first attack. When Heca shows up, the two legs immediately die,
forcing the turtle to the ground. Happily, he will now lay idle for a full two
minutes while you try to kill him, so start spamming Death. Don't even worry
about anything else: eventually you'll lose your Haste, Heca will leave, Hope
will put it back, and Fang will debuff the crap out of the turtle. In all,
you should be able to get 15 -20 casts of Death in before he stands up and
kills you, some of them with lots of debuffs added. Theoretically, this
should end the battle in your favor about once every 3 or 4 tries, but my
experience was a little different. I did this 10 times and killed the first 6
on the first try (also picked up 3 Platinum Ingots and a Trap, I might add),
then retried probably 40 times on the last 4. I don't think I did anything
different, I guess the odds just caught up with me. Anyway, that's how you
kill them.

Part Three: The Circuit - You took down your first turtle, so now what? Well,
summoning Heca took away 3 of your 5 TP, so you'll have to fight some random
battles to get it back. Switch Hope out and put Lightning in, and make sure
she still has her Sprint Shoes and Black Belt. You're going to be switching
these two quite a bit in the next few hours, and I don't feel that switching
the Growth Egg is worth the time. If you disagree, go ahead and put it back
on her. Set your first paradigm to RAV/COM/RAV, and your second to
SAB/COM/COM, but only use the second if you want to fight Adamanchelids (I
always fight them when I can because they drop Scarletites and Gold Dust).
Then, pick a fight with some random fiends until your TP goes back up to 3.
It should take 4 or 5 battles with the Energy Sash equipped.

A note about Ethersol: this item will completely refill your TP, and you
probably have 7 or 8 in your inventory right now. This sounds like a great
deal on the surface, but be very careful: these items are really, really hard
to come by if you run out. However, you also have absolutely no use for them
other than right now, so you might as well run through them (keep one for your
complete inventory if you want it, though). I think a compromise is in order.

Fight the first big turtle, then fight random battles until your TP gauge is at
3. Then, fight the second big turtle. Now that your TP is empty, use your
Ethersol. Fight the 3rd turtle, then get your TP back to 3, then the 4th
turtle, then an Ethersol. You get my drift: doing this will actually get you
two battles for one Ethersol.

Finally, let's talk about the route: there are 4 big turtles hanging around
the Archylte Steppe: 3 by themselves, one with some Gorgonopsids as
companions. Two are out in the open: one north and one south, and the other
two are stationary in that little loop out to the east. There's a save point
on the north end of that loop, so I suggest you start there. Clear out the
little loop, including the Adamanchelids (you may have to jump up and fight the
Cactuar on the mesa to get your TP up to 3 again), then get the north wanderer,
then the south one. Then, walk over to the teleport stone and go anywhere.
Come back, and they have respawned. Retrace your steps, and you'll be back at
the save point with 8 kills, so save, reload and let them respawn again. Just
keep doing that loop, and you'll be done in no time (well, maybe an hour or
two).

---------------------------------------

Or
You can do this
start at the Archylte Steppe - Central Expanse
--> kill the1st one wondering nearest to you
--> kill the 2nd one with Gorgonopsids
--> kill the 3rd one near the save point standing still
--> kill the last one wondering outside.

After the hunt, go to
--> Archylte Steppe - Northern Highplain teleport stone

Teleport back to Archylte Steppe - Central Expanse
-->The map will go into loading screen

Last you start back on Archylte Steppe - Central Expanse with all of them respawned
--> Repeat from the beginning

Fight and kill 10 of these turtles using one the above methods. With the little
battles in between, this should get you darn near 1 million CP. First, max out
the 3 primary roles for everyone, then develop some secondary roles. Run Fang
through the first nodes of Ravager, but only until she learns Thunder. Put the
rest in her Synergist role. Lightning will need to be a Saboteur for this
battle, so stick her CP in there. It doesn't matter where you put the rest, as
we're only fighting one battle before we max this sucker out entirely. Make
sure you spend it though, as anything over 999,999 will be lost.

Once that's done, head back to the circle of Cie'th Stones in the eastern part
of the Steppe, and activate Mission 60.

-------------------------------------


MISSION 60: Gelatitan

FANG: Venus Gospel, Sprint Shoes, Pain Dampener, Morale Talisman, Aurora Scarf
HOPE: Eagletalon, Sprint Shoes, Blessed Talisman, Ribbon (or Pain Dampener),
Weirding Glyph
LIGHTNING: Enkindler, Sprint Shoes, Black Belt, Pain Dampener, Aurora Scarf

PARADIGMS: COM/RAV/RAV, COM/RAV/COM, COM/MED/MED, SAB/SYN/MED, SAB/SYN/SAB,
RAV/RAV/RAV

BATTLE DESCRIPTION: You activated the stone, but the battle is all the way at
the top of Taejin's Tower. You can get there by teleporting to the Palisades
and going up, or to Oerba and going back. I chose Oerba because I can dodge
all the battles and the mountains are pretty.

There is a save point up here: before you fight, make sure you go over to it.
For this battle, you'll need at least 3 or 4 Painkillers, so buy them if you
don't have them. Also, if you already got the Ribbon from chocobo treasure,
you'll need it. If not, buy a Pain Dampener for 12,000 to go with the two you
should already have. Next, set up your paradigms and equipment, then save your
game. This battle is really hard to get in time, and you don't want to walk
all the way back to activate it again.

Okay, enough with the small talk. This is one of the more annoying battles in
the game, and if you use a Deceptisol, again, I won't judge you. Your target
time is really low, and you can't really sneak up on these guys. Fighting a
straight fight is frustrating, but it is possible. Originally I had Fang as
my leader (as usual), but it just took Hope to damn long to cast Enthunder,
even with the Librascope. You don't have time for much of anything, so we're
taking control of him and casting it ourselves.

Unfortunately, you've never really had to pick buffs before, and it will be
frustrating learning how to cast them manually quickly enough. So, plan on
playing this one a few times until you get the timing down. Start in
SYN/SAB/SAB. Cast Enthunder on Fang, then Enthunder and Bravery on Lightning.
I've found that it's actually quicker to queue up both of them, because it will
automatically go to the target screen, instead of me fumbling around trying to
figure out how to cast one spell without canceling it. You are probably better
at this than me, so use your judgment. Anyway, they'll be debuffing while you
do this. Once that's done, switch to RAV/COM/COM. Use your Auto- command, but
manually pick whichever target has the most debuffs on it. Now, just mash the
button and keep your eye on the status screen at the bottom right corner. When
you see Haste disappear, get back to SYN/SAB/SAB and put Haste back on
everyone. Then, pick another target with lots of brown and carry on. If you
see pain, throw them a Painkiller. Once everyone is dead, take a look at how
you did before you reset and try again.

I tried this mission before fighting the Juggernaut, and kept missing by a few
seconds. When I came back, I still had to retry this thing about 5 times, and
I think it just comes down to luck at this point. Your target time is 2:26, or
2:30 if you take Hope's Weirding Glyph off. My successful time was 1:41, which
I think is exactly the time I needed. My other times were all 1:44-1:50, with
an occasional 2:10 thrown in there when things really went wrong. The thing
is, all of the freaking attacks these flans have take a few seconds and also
interrupt your attack queue. So, if you just kill one of the guys right before
his next attack, you'll probably save 3 or 4 seconds. There's so much to
watch, though, that I suggest you just keep trying and hope for the best. Or,
just use the damn Deceptisol, man.

Once you smash these guys into the ground, it is time to prepare yourself for
the dreary grind of turtle farming, but this time for real. You'll need these
turtles to max out your crystarium, but you'll need the Platinum Ingots they
drop even more when you start upgrading your stuff in earnest. Once you finish
your crystarium, you can do battles 54, 63 and 64 to break up the boredom, but
you can't do 62 or most of your turtles will go away forever. So, let's just
get it over with. By the time you're done, you'll have maxed out characters,
an almost complete inventory, and all that will be left will be a few battles
and your enemy database. So, let's get farming!

Start by going back to the save point by the "turtle loop" that I mentioned
earlier, in the eastern part of the Steppe. You need some equipment, and we'll
just get it right here. Sell all of your components, remembering to keep all
catalysts and one of everything for your inventory. You'll need about 85,000
Gil to equip yourself properly for the turtles, and the next paragraph will
show you where to spend it.

Your first priority is getting 3 maxed out Gaian Rings. You should have two
Clay Rings in your inventory, so let's start with those. I assume you've
picked up enough of the necessary catalysts for this, so I'm not including them
in the price. We're not even going to mess around with Sturdy Bones: buy 99
Superconductors instead. Throw 2 at the Clay Ring, then a Cobaltite, then 5
more Superconductors, then a Uraninite, then 8 more Superconductors. You'll
have a maxed out Gaian Ring. Do the same thing with the second Clay Ring.
Now, look for the other Siltstone Ring in your inventory. Give it 9
Superconductors, then a Uraninite, then 8 more Superconductors, and you'll have
your third maxed out Gaian Ring. So far, we've only spent money on 47
Superconductors, so we're out of this for less than 40,000 Gil. Awesome!

Next, we need to take one of your Collector Catalogs and turn it into a
Connoisseur Catalog. That's easy, too: just throw 3 Superconductors and a
Mnar Stone at it. You're out of this one for 2520 Gil. Nice!

Our final task is to get some accessories that boost strength and magic.
You'll need a TOTAL of 4 Warrior's Wristbands, 1 Weirding Glyph, and 2
Sorcerer's Marks. If I remember correctly, you should already have 1 of each
in your inventory, meaning you need to buy 3 Warrior's Wristbands and 1
Sorcerer's Mark. At 10,000 Gil apiece, this comes to another 40,000 Gil.
Once you have all of this, let's fight some turtles!

KILLING TURTLES: THE BRAWL METHOD

Part One: The Setup - Your party will be Fang, Vanille, and Lightning. Set
your paradigms as follows:

SYN/MED/MED
RAV/RAV/RAV
COM/MED/MED
SYN/SAB/SAB
COM/RAV/COM

This battle is all about focusing on one thing at a time and staying alive
while you do it: hence the paradigms with double and triple roles. As for
equipment, you really need about 6 slots for everyone, but we have to make do
with four. Goodbye, Sprint Shoes! Goodbye Morale Talismans! Give Fang a
Genji Glove, a Gaian Ring, and 2 Warrior's Wristbands. Vanille gets a Gaian
Ring, 1 Weirding Glyph and 2 Sorcerer's Marks. Lightning gets the Growth Egg,
a Gaian Ring and 2 Warrior's Wristbands. The rationale for this setup is that
you just don't have the slots for starting the battle with Haste, Bravery, or
anything else that's going to wear off anyway. You'll need all the strength
you can get, as well as all the HP you can muster. This is why Hope rides the
bench for this: he just dies too much, and with a bit of CP investment Fang
can become your Synergist while making turtle soup with her blade. Anyway,
let's take one of these down.

Part Two: The Battle - Here are step by step directioins for killing a turtle.

1) Start in SYN/MED/MED and use your first turn to cast Haste and Protectra on
Fang.
2) Cast Haste and Protectra on Vanille
3) Cast Haste and Protectra on Lightning
4) Switch to RAV/RAV/RAV
5) Stagger the first leg.
6) Switch to COM/MED/MED
7) Hit the staggered leg with a Highwind

Did it die? If so, return to step 1, but target the other leg. If not,
return to step 4.

8) As soon as both legs are dead, switch to SYN/SAB/SAB
9) Cast Haste and Bravery on Fang
10) Cast Haste and Faith on Vanille
11) Cast Haste and Bravery on Lightning
12) Switch to RAV/RAV/RAV
13) Stagger the turtle
14) Switch to COM/RAV/COM
15) Kill the turtle.

Did it die before it stood up? If so, congratulate yourself and go fight
another one. If not, return all the way to step 1.

Part Three: Tips - Of course, quite a bit can go wrong in the course of this
battle. The first few will be really hard since you're barely strong enough
and still learning the command sequence. So, I'll try to give you some things
to look for in case you're having trouble.

1) If Fang has not developed her Syngergist role enough to cast Haste, you
have three options. You can fight some smaller battles until you have the CP,
you can use the Death method from a few pages ago, or you can put Hope in
Vanille's place. The equipment should be fine, but you'll have to adjust your
paradigms accordingly. What you want to do is wait until Hope casts the
required buffs, which will find you standing out there and dying quite a bit.
You can't control him, because then you wouldn't be able to use the Highwind.
It is much more difficult than controlling the buffs and the melee, but it is
doable.

2) You may not want to re-cast Haste or Protectra when you start attacking the
second leg, and I don't blame you. Just remember, though, that Fang's buffs
don't last nearly as long as those cast by Sazh or Hope, so there's a good
chance you'll lose them in the middle of trying to kill the second leg. At
first, anyway: once you beef yourself up a little more, you can probably skip
this.

3) Adamantortoises and Adamantoises have a really annoying habit of ruining
your moves with their leg stomps and falling down. So, try to time at least
your buffs and your Highwinds so that they don't cast right when the turtle's
trying to do something. The buffs aren't that big of a deal: just watch them
and re-cast if they were interrupted. The Highwind is a different story: if
you hit the leg when it's in the air, there will be much less damage done. So,
wait for him to quit stomping.

4) If you remember, try to manually select ONE attack right after you kill the
first leg. The default target will not be the other leg, and this will set the
correct target. If you forget to do this like I always do, your first turn
will be wasted by Vanille and Lightning attacking the wrong target, and the
Chain Gauge will run out before they get another crack.

5) Once you get this down, you'll be staggering something exactly 3 times.
Get in the habit of staying in RAV/RAV/RAV just a little longer than you need
to, like around 4 or 5 ATB segments. This drives that percent up by another
100-150, which will ensure that you kill the legs with one Highwind and the
turtle with one stagger. Don't linger too long, though, or you'll run out of
time to complete each phase.

6) You just took the legs out, switched to SYN/SAB/SAB, and got the buffs you
needed on everyone. You're about to switch to RAV/RAV/RAV. Stop right there
for a second and look at the status bar for the turtle. It is VERY important
that he have Deprotect, Deshell, and Imperil on him. If he doesn't, do not
switch paradigms until he does, as you will not kill him before he stands up
without these 3 debuffs. With 2 SAB's in your party it won't take very long,
and it's worth waiting a second or two before stopping them.

7) Remember that when Fang is in COM mode, her last attack of every turn is
that stupid little 3 hit thing that does very little damage and takes a very
long time. Use the triangle button to cancel that final attack if you can.

8) Finally, you do have one last hope if you're really desperate. After about
3 turns with COM/RAV/COM, the turtle is going to stand up. If you see this
happening and he has less than 1/3 health or so, have Fang hit him with another
Highwind. There's a good chance you'll kill him before he gets his defense
back. It will also reset his stagger gauge, so only do this as a last resort.

Part Four: The Evolution of this Battle - If I told you how many turtles
you're going to have to fight before you're done with this game, you'd probably
be sad for at least an hour. The first 10 or so will be pretty difficult, but
you get so much CP for them that the battles get easier as you level up. In
fact, after 100 or so, it just gets really boring and repetitive. Fortunately,
there are some things you can do to speed things up a bit as you keep growing.

1) The first time you get a Trapezohedron from them, use it to upgrade Fang's
Venus Gospel to a Kain's Lance. You'll lose a little strength, but you'll gain
a 6th ATB segment.

2) Sell the first 3 Platinum Ingots you get from them and use the 450,000 Gil
to buy 9 Ultracompact Reactors. Use 36 Sturdy Bones followed by the reactors
to upgrade the Kain's Lance you just made, and your Strength will go up by
about 300. If you want to continue to do this, you're welcome to, but the
boost won't be as high as you keep using them.

3) As soon as you feel comfortable, take off one of Vanille's Sorcerer's Marks
and replace it with the Collector Catalog. This will increase the Platinum
Ingot drop rate.

4) As soon as you feel comfortable, take off one of Lightning's Warrior's
Wristbands and replace it with the Connoisseur Catalog. This will increase the
Trapezohedron drop rate.

5) These accessories are at minimum levels for completing this mission, which
makes it hard at first. If you're having trouble staying alive, replace the
Growth Egg or one of your "wristbands" with a Black Belt. If you're having
trouble doing enough damage, try upgrading the wristbands to Power Gloves and
the marks to Weirding Glyphs. Don't go any further than that: there's no
reason to ever buy a Dark Matter. I was going to upgrade them in the guide,
but we only really need them for the first 20 or 30 turtles anyway, and I
didn't want to spend the money just yet.

That's it, have fun and kill some turtles!

If you're still with me through 112 pages of the guide, I assume you're with me
for the rest of it. There actually isn't too much more to do: deal with the
whole upgrading thing, which we're going to do right now, complete your
inventory, complete your enemy intel, fight 4 more battles, then go back and 5
star the final one. I think that's it, right? Well, getting this trophy is
the thing that takes forever, mostly because you have to fight so many turtles
to get the money you need to upgrade your stuff. It is now time to make a
decision: how do you want your inventory to look when you're done with this
game? Let me explain.

The Treasure Hunter trophy requires that you "held every weapon and accessory."
This does NOT mean that you have to have them all in your inventory
simultaneously, just that they were there at some point during your game.
There is a HUGE difference between the two: if you upgrade a level 1 weapon to
a level 3 weapon, it counts as having held all 3, even if you only have the top
tier weapon on hand. In addition, every character's tier 3 weapon has the same
name, regardless of which one you started with. This means that you only have
to upgrade 1 weapon for each character to level 3. The properties will be
different depending on which one you started with, but as far as the trophy
goes, it's all the same to the game.

This gives you a few options: you can go for just the trophy, which I will
call the "fast method." I'll list the details of this method below, but
basically you're going to buy, upgrade, dismantle or sell everything in such a
way that you get all of the accessories and weapons with the least amount of
money. At the end, you'll only be carrying a few things. The second method
is what I'll call the "John method," named after me. In this method, you'll
have at least one of everything in your inventory when you finish the game.
Every character will have one maxed out "ultimate weapon," instead of 8, but
each name on the list will be represented. This takes quite a bit more money,
but I sure do like to see one of everything. The third method I'll call the
"completist" method, in which you have a maxed out version of every single
possible weapon and accessory in the game. I will not be doing this for this
guide: I'm already sick of turtles, and the amount of money you'll need means
fighting turtles in the thousands. So, here are the costs associated with each
method: choose your path wisely, read another paragraph about this, then go to
whichever section you like and start building!

TOTAL MONEY NEEDED FOR FAST METHOD: 4,188,877 (Net)
TOTAL MONEY NEEDED FOR JOHN METHOD: 15,978,635 (Net). This is if you want to
max out one of everyone's weapons. If not, subtract about 7 million from this
total.

A few more notes before we start doing this: first, you will NOT get
everything you need at this stage in the game, for two reasons: there is an
Accessory called the Gold Watch that you get for beating Mission 64, and it's
the only way to get this. We're not going to fight him until we're done with
the turtles. Second, once you finish Mission 62, most of the turtles you've
been fighting will be replaced by much stronger versions, and you don't want
to do this until you're done farming Platinum Ingots. However, the smaller
"tough turtles" drop Dark Matters, so we won't be upgrading the stuff that
requires Dark Matters until we beat Mission 62. Trust me, it's much easier to
get these from the tough turtles than it is to spend 840,000 Gil on them.

If you choose the fast method, there is a chance that you will skip an
accessory or something and not get your trophy. Since you're selling all your
stuff as you go, then, there will be no way of telling what you forgot unless
you keep good notes. Or, get all the money you need and make a separate save
file. This way if anything goes wrong, you don't have to get all that money
again. Absolutely, under no circumstances, sell any elemental rings! There is
no way to get them back once they're gone.

Finally, once you meet the requirements you must go back to Bhakti and talk to
him to get your Treasure Hunter trophy. It won't pop after you get the Gold
Watch, so don't freak out.

Ok, enough said: have you chosen your path?

Before we get into specific steps, there are a few notes I'd like to make:

First, we're going to divide this into two sections: Accessories and Weapons.
The upgrade process is similar, but the particulars are different enough to
keep them apart.

Second, I'm going to assume that if you chose this method, you don't care about
your inventory at the end of the game. So, we'll be getting rid of almost
everything as soon as we make it. We will only keep things for three reasons:
we need them for a future battle, we can't get them back if we mess this up,
or we need a Dark Matter still before we can finish. Otherwise, we're going
to keep our inventory as low as possible.

Third, we'll be balancing simplicity, speed, and cost in this method. So, the
upgrades and discards are not necessarily the most efficient. Sometimes it's
worth just selling something rather than gaining a few hundred gil by upgrading
it, dismantling it, and selling the components. Since we can fight 4 turtles
and probably get a Platinum Ingot in about 12 minutes, we aren't overly
concerned with a few hundred gil at this point.

Fourth, there are 119 Accessories in this game, and you have to have them all
at one point in your inventory. Don't panic: you're closer to being done
than you think, just by playing the game.

Fifth, I assume that you've followed along with this guide so far and have
substantially the same inventory that I do. I noticed that my stock of
catalysts is not that big, so I'll be including these in the cost
calculations: however, if I already have an Accessory or Weapon, I'm
assuming that you already have it too. If you don't, then buy it or find it
and carry on.

Sixth, and most importantly, it is very easy to forget a step and miss an
accessory if you don't keep good notes. Because we're discarding everything
as we go, there's no way to tell what you forgot. So, keep good notes and
don't mess this up. Remember, you won't get the trophy until you get the
Gold Watch from Mission 64, and you won't get it until you talk to Bhakti,
so don't freak out if you get "done" and it doesn't pop for you.

SECTION ONE: ACCESSORIES

Okay, we have 119 Accessories to get, so let's start with the Bangles. There
are 10 bangles in ascending order. If you look in your inventory, you should
have 8 of them already. The only ones that should be missing are the Titanium
Bangle and the Wurtzite Bangle. Go ahead and buy a Titanium Bangle from B&W
Outfitters. You're down 3600 Gil. The killer here is the Wurtzite Bangle:
the only way to get it is to max out your Adamant Bangle, then use a Dark
Matter, which we're not getting just yet. So, you'll need to buy 36 Sturdy
Bones, then 4 Ultracompact Reactors. Ouch! Total cost: 202,880, bringing
your total so far to 206,480 Gil.

Now let's get some of this back: Keep your Adamant Bangle and two Iron
Bangles, and sell the rest. If you have the same inventory I do, this will get
you, amazingly, 208,350 Gil, meaning you're now UP by 1,870 Gil! Woohoo!
You'll need 3 Bangles of any kind for an upcoming battle, and you still need to
upgrade the Adamant one, so that's why we're keeping those.

Double check to make sure that you've had Iron, Silver, Tungsten, Titanium,
Gold, Mythril, Platinum, Diamond, and Adamant in your inventory, then we'll
move on.

--------------------------

The next category is the strength boosters: there are 5, and you'll need
another Dark Matter to get the highest level. Again, though, you should have a
Power Wristband, Brawler's Wristband, about 4 Warrior's Wristbands and a Power
Glove already in your inventory. The only thing we need to upgrade is the
Power Glove. Buy 36 more Sturdy Bones and 1 Ultracompact Reactor and put them
on your Power Glove. This should get it to star level, but we'll wait until we
get free Dark Matters later. Total Cost: 52,880 Gil.

Keep 2 Warrior's Wristbands and your Power Glove, and sell the little bit you
have left. You should get back a measly 7,000 Gil, but every penny counts,
right?

Double check to make sure that you've had Power, Brawler's, and Warrior's
Wristbands in your inventory, as well as your Power Glove, then proceed.

--------------------------

The next category is the magic boosters, which are essentially the same as the
strength boosters. You should already have 4 of the 5 accessories in this
group. Stick 36 Sturdy Bones and 1 Ultracompact Reactor on your Weirding
Glyph. We're done for now, because the Dark Matter creeps up yet again. Total
Cost: 52,880 Gil.

Once again, sell your extra crap. I think I actually bought a few too many
Sorcerer's Marks when I was about to fight the turtles, so you may not have as
many as me. Just keep your Weirding Glyph and 1 Sorcerer's Mark and sell the
rest: I got 12,000 Gil back.

Again, make sure you've owned a Magician's, Shaman's, and Sorcerer's Mark, as
well as your Weirding Glyph. We have now owned 17 items out of 119. Moving
on...

------------------------------

The next group is comprised of the defense Accessories: one group protects from
physical attacks, one group protects from magic attacks, and one group protects
from both. Let's start with the last of these first, since there are only two:
Royal Armlets and Imperial Armlets.

You should have both of these in your inventory, and you don't need any. Sell
the whole mess: I got 130,000 Gil for all of it, and I'm pretty sure we don't
need these for anything else.

Now let's get to the physical protection accessories. The first is the Black
Belt, which you should have 3 maxed out already. The second is the General's
Belt, and you should have 1 of those as well. It's actually cheaper to upgrade
the General's Belt at this point rather than buy a Uraninite to convert one of
your Black Belts. So, let's do that: You'll need 36 Sturdy Bones, 23
Superconductors, and an Adamantite (Ouch), but you will get a Champion's Belt.
Don't sell any of these. Total Cost: 242,200 Gil.

The magic protection accessories are similar to the physical ones, except you
already have 9 maxed out Witch's Bracelets, right? So, just take one of those
and add an Adamantite to it. Total Cost: 220,000 Gil.

Sell all of your Rune Bracelets (I had 4), but keep all the rest, as you'll
need them soon. You'll get back 6,750 Gil.

Once again, you should have seen the Royal Armlet, Imperial Armlet, Black
Belt, General's Belt, Champion's Belt, Rune Bracelet, Witch's Bracelet, and
Magus's Bracelet. If so, it's time to move on to the next section.

--------------------------------

Elemental Rings: I have mentioned this a few times in this guide, but I'm
going to shout it out again right now: IF YOU SELL THESE THINGS THERE IS NO
WAY TO GET THEM BACK! You can sell your duplicates, but if you mess up
somehow and forget to upgrade any of these, you will get to Bhakti and be
totally screwed. Since the most you can get for the rings is a little less
than 6,000 gil, I'm going to advise against selling any of them. It's just not
worth the risk.

Now, there are 6 elements, each of which is represented by 3 stages of rings.
That makes 18, right? Well, if you look at your inventory, you should already
have 10, and since you have 3 Gaian Rings you know you got them from the Clay
rings and Siltstone Rings earlier. That leaves only 6 rings that we have to
make. So, let's make them.

Start with the Frost Ring and give it 2 Superconductors and a Cobaltite - wham,
Icicle Ring. (By the way, how pissed off am I that we only get 2 Frost Rings
to work with? My complete inventory - ruined!). You now have a complete set
of level 1 and level 2 rings. Take the Blaze Ring and throw 8 Superconductors
and a Uraninite at it: wham, Salamandrine Ring! Repeat this process 4 more
times with the Icicle Ring, Fulmen Ring, Riptide Ring and Gale Ring. Total
Cost: 277,280 Gil. This is getting expensive, isn't it?

Again, I suggest you keep all of these since you can't get them back once you
sell them. Theoretically, the only ones you need are the Gaian Rings, but
why take the chance?

18 more things can come off your list: Ember, Blaze, Salamandrine, Frost,
Icicle, Boreal, Spark, Fulmen, Raijin, Aqua, Riptide, Nereid, Zephyr, Gale,
Sylphid, Clay, Siltstone and Gaian Rings should be finished, bringing our total
to 43 of 119. Let's keep rolling...

--------------------------------------

The next section has the accessories that resist status effects: there are 12
pairs, making a total of 24 accessories in this section. The base accessories
can all be bought at B&W Outfitters for 3,000 Gil, but you should have most of
them in your inventory. You'll need 1 of everything, plus 3 Pain Dampeners and
3 White Capes. For me, this meant buying 3 things at a cost of 9,000 Gil.

So far, if you've followed my guide, you've upgraded exactly zero of these, so
we're going to assume that we're starting from square one. The general formula
for upgrading this is 6 Superconductors and 1 Perovskite, which will get you to
your next level. You'll need to repeat this 12 times to get one of each, then
4 more times to upgrade your Pain Dampeners and White Capes. Each upgrade will
cost you 35,040, so this section will ding you for 560,640.

Before we move on, let's prepare ourselves for one of our upcoming battles.
Take one of your new Pain Deflectors and add 36 Sturdy Bones and 9
Superconductors, taking it to * level. Repeat with your other two Pain
Deflectors, then repeat again with your 3 Effulgent Capes. Total Cost for this
step: 62,640 Gil.

Now that you have seen all 24 of these, it's time to sell most of them. Keep
your Seraph's Crown, all 3 Pain Deflectors, and all 3 Effulgent Capes. Sell
all the rest, which should net you about 56,504 Gil.

Once you've completed this, you should have seen the following 24 accessories:
Giant's Glove, Warlord's Glove, Glass Buckle, Tektite Buckle, Metal Armband,
Ceramic Armband, Serenety Sachet, Safeguard Sachet, Glass Orb, Dragonfly Orb,
Star Pendant, Starfall Pendant, Pearl Necklace, Gemstone Necklace, Warding
Talisman, Hexbane Talisman, Pain Dampener, Pain Deflector, White Cape,
Effulgent Cape, Rainbow Anklet, Moonbow Anklet, Cherub's Crown, Seraph's Crown.
That brings your total to 67 of the 119. We're more than halfway done!

--------------------------------------

Just like the previous section that helps you avoid debuffs, this section has
11 pairs of accessories that provide you with buffs. You are actually familiar
with quite a few of these, so we'll be quick. Magical Moments has all the base
accessories except the Hermes Sandals, and I'm assuming you've seen those when
you made your Sprint Shoes after Mission 7. I bought a Hero's Amulet just to
make sure, even though I'm pretty sure I had one and used it to make my Morale
Talisman. But, it's been a few months and I didn't want to take the chance:
total cost, 5,000 Gil.

Upgrading these is probably the easiest of the bunch: all you need is 1
Superconductor and 1 Perovskite, so each upgrade costs you 30,840. I still
needed the Battle Talisman and all of the Earrings, so this was 5 for me,
totaling 154,200 Gil.

Time to sell it all! Well, not all of it: keep your 3 Sprint Shoes, your
Morale Talisman, and your Blessed Talisman. The rest can go, which should get
you back about 98,500 Gil.

The 22 accessories to check in this section are the Guardian Amulet, Shield
Talisman, Auric Amulet, Soulfront Talisman, Watchman's Amulet, Shrouding
Talisman, Hero's Amulet, Morale Talisman, Saint's Amulet, Blessed Talisman,
Zealot's Amulet, Battle Talisman, Flamebane Brooch, Flameshield Earring,
Frostbane Brooch, Frostshield Earring, Sparkbane Brooch, Sparkshield Earring,
Aquabane Brooch, Aquabane Earring, Hermes Sandals and Sprint Shoes. 89 down,
30 to go!

---------------------------------------

The rest is just a hodgepodge of random crap. It's good crap, but its still
crap.

I assume you have (or have had) a Tetradic Crown and Tetradic Tiara by now. If
not, you get them as prizes for digging for Chocobo Treasure, or you can go
back to Mission 7 and win them from that dude. I had 2 of each by this point,
which I sold for a cool 110,000 Gil.

Whistlewind Scarves have been in your inventory for a while as well, and I
assume you've already upgraded at least one to an Aurora Scarf. That leaves
Nimbletoe Boots for this group, but don't upgrade the Aurora Scarf. Just buy
one from Moogleworks for 6,000Gil. Sell it back for 3,000, along with any
Whistlewind Scarves you have. Keep the Aurora scarves, though. You should get
about 3500 back from this.

You should also have at least one Hunter's Friend, Energy Sash and Speed Sash,
so this category is complete. Sell them all, unless you're still killing
turtles by summoning Heca and casting Death. Total money back: 37,500 Gil.

Let's get to the Charms: again, YOU CAN'T GET THESE BACK ONCE YOU SELL THEM!
Also, this is your bail out plan if you messed up and sold one or all of the
elemental rings earlier: if you upgrade this to a max level then dismantle
it, you will get that same element in a ring form. But you didn't sell all
of your rings anyway, did you?

The nice part about these is that you should already have a complete set.
That's a Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind, Water and Earth Charm. They all upgrade
into the same thing: a Twenty-Sided Die, which you should also have. I
strongly suggest that you leave these alone in case something goes wrong.

If you're still keeping track, we have now accounted for 15 more accessories,
bringing our total up to 104. That leaves 15.

------------------------------------

You should have 3 Doctor's Codes by now: sell 2 of them, but keep the other
one in stock. You'll get 5,000 Gil.

If your crystarium is maxed out, you no longer need your Growth Egg. Sell it
for 250,000 Gil.

You definitely have a Genji Glove if you're fighting turtles, but keep that:
you still need it.

Did you get your Ribbon yet for your 20th successful Chocobo Dig? If not, go
get it. There are some other ways to get them too, but you need to do this
anyway for a trophy. Now, we need to get the Ribbon to * level. 36 Sturdy
Bones and 24 Superconductors should do the trick, at a cost of 23,040 Gil.
Leave it there for now, as you need a Dark Matter to go further.

You should have 2 Entite Rings as well as a Goddess's Favor. Sell the Entite
Rings for 120,000, and - wait, you only get 10 gil for a Goddess's Favor?
Screw that! Add 8 Sturdy Bones and 3 Superconductors to it then dismantle it.
You'll get a Scarletite, a Perfume, and a Ribbon! You can sell the Perfume,
use the Ribbon if you don't have one already, and keep the Scarletite to save
you 100,000 Gil.

This only leaves a few things: you should have a Champion's Badge, a
Survivalist Catalog, a Collector Catalog, and a Connoisseur Catalog already.
You can sell the Survivalist Catalog, Champion's Badge, and any duplicate
Collector Catalogs that you have (they don't stack), but keep one Collector
Catalog and one Connoisseur Catalog for your turtle farming. You should get
58,500 Gil back from these.

If I'm not mistaken (I hope I'm not), you have now owned 114 of 119
accessories in the game. You can't get the Gold Watch until you beat Mission
64. The Wurtzite Bangle, Kaiser Knuckles, Magistral Crest, and Super Ribbon
all require Dark Matters, but you are ready to upgrade as soon as you get
them. Congratulations, you're done with Accessories for now!

---------------------------------

PART TWO: WEAPONS

When it comes to weapons, there is a huge difference between doing what it
takes to get the Treasure Hunter trophy and having a complete set of
everything. It looks very complicated, but we can simplify things quite a bit
and get you out of here with minimal turtle grinding. Since this is the fast
mode, we're only going to be keeping the weapons we're going to use.

First off, each character has 8 Tier One weapons. By getting these to either
level 21 or 26 and adding a catalyst, you can turn them into Tier 2 weapons.
Tier 2 weapons go to either level 41 or 61, at which point you need a
Trapezohedron. This will turn any maxed out Tier 2 weapon into a Tier 3
weapon, but each character only has ONE Tier 3 weapon! They all turn into the
same thing! Well, not quite: the properties of your "ultimate" weapon will
vary depending on which one you started with, but we don't care about that,
do we? The thing to remember is that you don't have to max out every single
weapon for every single character, and you won't need 48 Trapezohedrons:
you'll only need 6. This should come as a relief if you've tried to get Traps
already, as they're almost the hardest things to acquire in the game. I'll
even write a section about how to get them, but first let's talk about some
other things.

You will need 12 Scarletites to upgrade all of your weapons. Don't buy them
for 100,000 gil unless you have a bunch of money and you're in a real hurry.
The Adamanchelids drop them fairly frequently, so I suggest that you fight the
3 that are right next to each other while you're looping around fighting the
big turtles. Alternately, you can teleport back to Orphan's Cradle and fight
the Sacrifices that are still hanging out there: you'll get them much faster
this way. Either way will be quicker than fighting 50 or so turtles to get 1.2
million gil, trust me.

You will also need 6 Trapezohedrons to finish the upgrading process. There are
actually 3 ways to get Traps if you need them, and none of them are much fun.
First, you can buy one for something like 2.2 million gil. I only suggest you
do this if you are done with everything else and the turtles are dropping a ton
of Platinum Ingots and no Traps. The second way, of course, is to fight the
big turtles until they drop them. If you have the Connoisseur Catalog equipped
(and you should), this will happen about once every 20 battles, which should
give you enough before you get the money you need to upgrade. The third way is
by maxing out certain weapons and dismantling them. The best one to do this
with is Fang's Pandoran Spear. This method is not mine: the credit goes to
mr_flarp from about 4 years ago on one of the gamefaqs boards.

Take the Pandoran Spear and upgrade it with 36 Sturdy Bones and 49
Superconductors, then give it a Scarletite. This will give you a Calamity
Spear. Upgrade that with 36 Sturdy Bones, 2 Ultracompact Reactors, 15 Sturdy
Bones, 46 Superconductors and a Trapezohedron. This will give you a Kain's
Lance. Give it 36 Sturdy Bones, 24 Ultracompact Reactors, 36 more Sturdy
Bones, 37 Superconductors, and you'll be at * level. Dismantle it and you'll
get 36 Moonblossom Seeds to sell for 216,000 Gil, and 3 Trapezohedrons. The
whole mess will cost you about 1.2 Million Gil.

All this messing around really shouldn't be necessary, though. You've already
fought a bunch of turtles, and you'll need many more before you get enough
Platinum Ingots to finish this. On the way, you should get at least 6 Traps,
so be patient and you should be fine. However, if you get everything upgraded,
have a million left over, and still don't have the Traps you need, use this
method to get them.

Our catalysts are out of the way, so let's talk about the weapons themselves.
I will be assuming that you've followed this guide so far, so you already have
a Kain's Lance for Fang, which came from the Taming Pole. In addition, I
assume you have a maxed out Enkindler for Lightning, a maxed out Malboro Wand
for Vanille, and a maxed out Eagletalon for Hope. All other weapons should
still be at level one, and you haven't bought anything for anyone during the
entire game. Obviously, if you don't have these, you'll have to adjust your
strategy to get them.

Ready? Let's begin.

--------------------------------------

Lightning's Weapons show up first on the list, so let's start with her. Again,
she has 8 base weapons. You shouldn't have an Axis Blade, because you already
upgraded it to the Enkindler. Of the remaining 7, you should have picked 6 of
them up in your wanderings, but if you missed one you can buy it pretty
cheaply. The 7th one is the Organyx. It's available at Gilgamesh for a
startling 280,000 gil, and you should probably just bite the bullet and buy
it. There is a way to get it, but it's tied to the shroud drop rate in one
battle only, and you'll probably have to restart that battle for 3 hours to
pick one up. This pattern will be true for the expensive weapon for each
character, by the way, and it's much easier just to get 2 Platinum Ingots from
the turtles and buy the damn thing. So, pick up an Organyx and kiss that
280,000 Gil goodbye.

Start with the Blazefire Saber. You'll need 36 Sturdy Bones, 13
Superconductors and a Perovskite. Now you have a Flamberge, at a modest cost
of 43,800 Gil. Sell it and get back 6,196 Gil.

Next up: the Edged Carbine. Give it 36 Sturdy Bones and 17 Superconductors,
then another Perovskite. Boom, Razor Carbine at a cost of 47,160 Gil. Sell
it for 12,128 Gil.

Moving on to the Lifesaber: 36 Sturdy Bones, 49 Superconductors and a
Scarletite that you got for free, and you'll have a Peacemaker that cost you
44,040 Gil. Sell it for 33,875... not bad, though we did get the free
Scarletite.

The Gladius is next: 36 Sturdy Bones, 33 Superconductors and a Uraninite.
Helter-skelter for 75,600 Gil. Sell it for 20,518.

Now it's time for the Organyx. Give it 36 Sturdy Bones and 10
Superconductors, then add a cheap Cobaltite. You'll get an Apocalypse for a
mere 28,280 Gil. You can sell it for 34,428 which sounds great, as long as
you forgot about the 280,000 you spent to buy it in the first place...

The Hauteclaire is next on our list, and it's the same as the Gladius: 36
Sturdy Bones, 33 Superconductors, one Uraninite. Durandal at 75,600 Gil.
Sell it for 32,318.

Last, but not least, comes the Lionheart. You'll need 36 Sturdy Bones, 53
Superconductors and a free Scarletite. You'll have an Ultima Weapon for
47,400 Gil. I wouldn't suggest selling this one: maxed out, it's better
than the Enkindler, and we'll be using it in a future battle.

That's it for Lightning. At some point, you'll have to take a Trapezohedron
and stick it on her Enkindler to get an Omega Weapon. If you have a bunch of
Traps at the moment, might as well do it now. If it's your only one, though,
keep it in case you need to do the "Triple Trap Trick" later on.

----------------------------------------

The next person on the in-game list is Sazh. If you haven't noticed yet,
we'll be keeping two weapons for each character. Since one of his requires a
Dark Matter, we're keeping that, and since all of his weapons are horrible,
we'll be upgrading the one that costs the least. I'm sure you've noticed by
now that I don't use Sazh unless they make me: sorry guy, you're just not that
good at anything. Chocobo's cute, though...

Anyway, you should have 7 of his 8 starting weapons: the one you're missing,
of course, costs 263,000 Gil, which is the Aldebarans. Buy it.

Vegas 42s need 36 Sturdy Bones, 13 Superconductors and a Perovskite to become
Altairs. Cost: 43,800. We'll sell them all at the end.

Spica Defenders need 36 Sturdy Bones, 47 Superconductors and a free Scarletite
to become Sirius Sidearms. Cost: 42,360.

Deneb Duellers need 36 Sturdy Bones, 17 Superconductors and a Perovskite to
become Canopus AMPs. Cost: 47,160.

Rigels need 36 Sturdy Bones, 33 Superconductors and a Uraninite to become
Polaris Specials. Cost: 75,600.

Aldebarans need 36 Sturdy Bones, 10 Superconductors and a Cobaltite to become
Sadameliks. Cost: 28,280.

Pleaides Hi-Powers need 36 Sturdy Bones, 17 Superconductors and a Perovskite
to become Hyades Magnums. Cost: 47,160.

Antares Deluxes need 36 Sturdy Bones, 23 Superconductors and a Uraninite to
become Fomalhaut Elites. Cost: 67,200. This is the one we're going to use

for our Tier 3 weapon as well, so let's go ahead and give it 36 Sturdy Bones, 1
Ultracompact Reactor, 9 more Sturdy Bones and 28 Superconductors. This will
take it to * level, and if you have an extra Trapezohedron, go for it. Cost
for this stage: 77,120.

Procyons need 36 Sturdy Bones, 53 Superconductors, and then you're stuck
because you need a Dark Matter. Just leave them that way and enjoy the last
47,400 Gil you'll ever spend on Sazh!

Let's get some of our money back. Sell the Altairs, Sirius Sidearms, Canopus
AMPs, Polaris Specials, Sadameliks, and Hyades Magnums for a total of 142,413
Gil!

-----------------------------------

Snow is next on the list, and he will actually be useful in a few of the
upcoming battles. As such, we'll be keeping his Winged Saint to upgrade and
his Battle Standard for more attack. You may also want to get all the
catalysts you'll need right now: you'll need 2 Perovskites, 2 Uraninites, 3
Scarletites (remember, they're free), and an Adamantite.

Start by going to Gilgamesh again and buying the Sacrificial Circle for
210,000 Gil. You should have the rest in your inventory.

Wild Bear needs 36 Sturdy Bones, 13 Superconductors and a Perovskite to become
a Feral Pride. Cost: 43,800.

Paladin needs 36 Sturdy Bones, 47 Superconductors and a Scarletite to become a
Winged Saint. Cost: 42,360. In addition, we need to add 36 Sturdy Bones, 2
Ultracompact Reactors, 15 more Sturdy Bones and 27 Superconductors to get this
one to the * level. Again, if you have more than one Trap, use it right here
and make a Save the Queen. Cost for this upgrade: 126,760 Gil

Rebel Heart needs 36 Sturdy Bones, 23 Superconductors and a Uraninite to
become a Warrior's Emblem. Cost: 67,200.

Power Circle needs 36 Sturdy Bones, 1 Ultracompact Reactor and a Scarletite
to become a Battle Standard. Cost: 52,880.

Feymark needs 36 Sturdy Bones, 23 Superconductors and a Uraninite to become a
Soul Blazer. It's special property also moves from "Enfeeblement" to
"Hindrance." What a wimp... Cost: 67,200.

Sacrificial Circle needs 36 Sturdy Bones, 1 Ultracompact Reactor and a
Scarletite to become an Indomitus. Cost: 52,880.

Unsetting Sun needs 36 Sturdy Bones, 17 Superconductors and a Perovskite to
become a Midnight Sun. Cost: 47,160.

Umbra needs 36 Sturdy Bones, 47 Superconductors and an Adamantite to become a
Solaris. Ouch, that's 262,360.

Time to sell some stuff. Get rid of the Feral Pride, Warrior's Emblem, Soul
Blazer, Indomitus, Midight Sun and Solaris and you'll get back 180,607 Gil.

---------------------------------

I'm glad Hope follows that nightmare, because I think he's the cheapest of the
bunch to get done. As usual, we're keeping 2 weapons: the Eagletalon and the
Skycutter because they're easy to spell. Also, you already have the
Eagletalon, so this will be a breeze.

Start, as usual, by dropping 198,000 Gil on the one weapon you don't have, the
Malphas. You'll also need 3 Uraninites and 2 Perovskites to finish this, so
get them as well.

Airwing needs 36 Sturdy Bones, 14 Superconductors and a Uraninite to become a
Skycutter. Cost: 59,640

You already upgraded the Hawkeye to a maxed out Eagletalon, so if you have an
extra Trap, stick it on. Otherwise, keep going.

Otshirvani needs 36 Sturdy Bones, 47 Superconductors and a Scarletite to
become a Urubutsin. Cost: 42,360.

Ninurta needs 36 Sturdy Bones, 17 Superconductors and a Perovskite to become
a Jatayu. Cost: 47,160.

Vidofnir needs 36 Sturdy Bones, 47 Superconductors and a Scarletite to become
a Hresvelgr. Cost: 42,360.

Simurgh needs 36 Sturdy Bones, 23 Superconductors and a Uraninite to become a
Tezcatlipoca. Cost: 67,200.

Malphas needs 36 Sturdy Bones, 17 Superconductors and a Perovskite to become
a Naberius. Cost: 47,160.

Alicanto needs 36 Sturdy Bones, 33 Superconductors and a Uraninite to become
a Caladrius. Cost: 75,600.

Now sell your Urubutsin, Jatayu, Hresvelgr, Tezcatlipoca, Naberius and
Caladrius for a cool 172,984 Gil.

--------------------------------

Vanille is next on the list, and we'll be keeping her Malboro Wand to upgrade
and her Healer's Rod for other purposes. You'll ultimately need an Adamantite,
2 Uraninites, 3 Perovskites, a Cobaltite and a Scarletite, so make sure they're
in your inventory before you start.

Go ahead and blow 300,000 for the Tigerclaw that you'll never use. Hope those
2 turtles you killed for it didn't feel a thing...

Binding Rod needs 36 Sturdy Bones, 13 Superconductors and a Perovskite to
become a Hunter's Rod. Cost: 43,800.

Tigerclaw needs 36 Sturdy Bones, 10 Superconductors and a Cobaltite to become
a Wyrmfang. Cost: 28,280.

Healer's Staff needs 36 Sturdy Bones, 44 Superconductors and an Adamantite to
become a Physician's Staff. Cost: 259,840.

Pearlwing Staff needs 36 Sturdy Bones, 17 Superconductors and a Perovskite to
become a Brightwing Staff. Cost: 47,160.

Rod of Thorns needs 36 Sturdy Bones, 17 Superconductors and a Perovskite to
become an Orochi Rod. Cost: 47,160.

Mistilteinn needs 36 Sturdy Bones, 47 Superconductors and a Scarletite to
become an Erinye's Cane. Cost: 42,360.

Malboro Wand should already be maxed out Tier 2. Add a Trap if you have more
than one.

Heavenly Axis needs 36 Sturdy Bones, 33 Superconductors and a Uraninite to
become an Abraxas. Cost: 75,600.

That's it for Vanille. Sell the Hunter's Rod, Wyrmfang, Brightwing Staff,
Orochi Rod, Erinye's Cane, and Abraxas and you'll get 139,313 Gil.

------------------------------

Well folks, it's down to Fang. Let's get this done so I can go to bed. Again,
you should already have a decently leveled Kain's Lance, so keep that as well
as the Dragonhorn you're about to make. Go ahead and get 2 Perovskites, 2
Uraninites and make sure you have 3 Scarletites so you don't have to stop to
buy catalysts.

Dragoon Lance. 230,000 Gil. Buy it.

Bladed Lance needs 36 Sturdy Bones, 13 Superconductors and a Perovskite to
become a Glaive. Cost: 43,800.

Dragoon Lance needs 36 Sturdy Bones, 23 Superconductors and a Uraninite to
become a Dragonhorn. Cost: 67,200.

Partisan needs 36 Sturdy Bones, 17 Superconductors and a Perovskite to become
a Rhomphaia. Cost: 47,160.

Shamanic Spear needs 36 Sturdy Bones, 23 Superconductors and a Uraninite to
become a Heretic's Halberd. Cost: 67,200.

Punisher needs 36 Sturdy Bones, 49 Superconductors and a Scarletite to become
a Banescissor Spear. Cost: 44,040.

Pandoran Spear needs 36 Sturdy Bones, 49 Superconductors and a Scarletite to
become a Calamity Spear. Cost: 44,040.

Gae Bolg needs 36 Sturdy Bones, 49 Superconductors and a Scarletite to become
a Gungnir. Cost: 44,040.

Of course, the Taming Pole has already been turned into Kain's Lance, so we're
done here. Sell the Glaive, Rhomphaia, Heretic's Halberd, Banescissor Spear,
Calamity Spear and Gungnir for 164,663 Gil.

You are now basically done upgrading the weapons in the game, using the "fast"
method. Congratulations! All that's left to do is upgrade Sazh's Procyons
when you get a Dark Matter, then upgrade all of the Tier 2 weapons when you
get the Trapezohedrons. Huzzah!

---------------------------------------

Once you get done with this mind-boggling night of boringness, you are ready to
continue the game.

Before we get into specific steps, there are a few notes I'd like to make:

First, we're going to divide this into two sections: Accessories and Weapons.
The upgrade process is similar, but the particulars are different enough to
keep them apart.

Second, I'm going to assume that if you chose this method, you care about your
inventory at the end of the game. If you are a completionist like I am, this
is the method for you. At the end of all of this, you will have one of every
weapon and accessory that is available in the game.

Third, this devotion will come at a price. You'll need about 8.9 million gil
to carry one of everything at the same time, whereas you'll need about 4.1
million to carry one of everything at any time. This difference can really
be broken down into Platinum Ingots, since that's where you'll get the money,
and comes to 32 Platinum Ingots. At an average of 1 every 12 minutes, then,
it will take you about 7 more hours just to have one of everything. Of
course, just having one of everything isn't enough, so I had to max out at
least one weapon for every character. This alone will add about 7 million
gil to your requirement, which translates to 48 Platinum Ingots, or about
10 additional hours of gaming. You certainly don't need to do all of this to
get the trophy, but if this is the method you've chosen, at least you know
what you're in for.

Fourth, we'll be balancing simplicity, speed, and cost in this method. So, the
upgrades and discards are not necessarily the most efficient. Sometimes it's
worth just selling something rather than gaining a few hundred gil by upgrading
it, dismantling it, and selling the components. Since we can fight 4 turtles
and probably get a Platinum Ingot in about 12 minutes, we aren't overly
concerned with a few hundred gil at this point.

Fifth, there are 119 Accessories in this game, and 102 Weapons. Don't panic:
you're closer to being done than you think, just by playing the game.

Sixth, I assume that you've followed along with this guide so far and have
substantially the same inventory that I do. I noticed that my stock of
catalysts is not that big, so I'll be including these in the cost calculations.
The exceptions to this are the Dark Matters, which we'll wait to get, the
Trapezohedrons, which we get from the turtles, and the Scarletites. You'll
ultimately need 16 of these, so if you want a little break from constant
turtles, warp to Orphan's Cradle and kill Sacrifices until you have them. If I
already have an accessory or weapon, I'm assuming that you already have it
too. If you don't, then buy it or find it and carry on.

Seventh, remember that you won't get the trophy until you get the Gold Watch
from Mission 64, and you won't get it until you talk to Bhakti, so don't freak
out if you get "done" and it doesn't pop for you.

SECTION ONE: ACCESSORIES

Okay, we have 119 Accessories to get, so let's start with the Bangles. There
are 10 bangles in ascending order. If you look in your inventory, you should
have 8 of them already. The only ones that should be missing are the Titanium
Bangle and the Wurtzite Bangle. Go ahead and buy a Titanium Bangle from B&W
Outfitters. You're down 3600 Gil. The killer here is the Wurtzite Bangle:
the only way to get it is to max out your Adamant Bangle, then use a Dark
Matter, which we're not getting just yet. Also, since you only have 1 Adamant
Bangle, you'll need to start with your duplicate Diamond Bangle and work your
way up. Take the Diamond Bangle and add 36 Sturdy Bones, 1 Ultracompact
Reactor, 36 more Sturdy Bones, 49 Superconductors, 1 Adamantite, 36 more
Sturdy Bones, 2 Ultracompact Reactors, 36 MORE Sturdy Bones and 23 more
Superconductors. You should now have 2 Adamant Bangles, one of which is at *
level. Total cost for this operation is a massive 442,000 gil. Ouch.

Now let's get some of this back: you can sell any duplicates you have of any
of your bangles except the Adamant Bangle. This should clear your inventory a
bit and get you about 97,650 gil. Your duplicate Adamant Bangle is going to
have to wait until you get the Dark Matter, so hang on to both of them for now.

Double check to make sure that you have Iron, Silver, Tungsten, Titanium, Gold,
Mythril, Platinum, Diamond, and two Adamants in your inventory, then we'll move
on.

--------------------------

The next category is the strength boosters: there are 5, and you'll need
another Dark Matter to get the highest level. Again, though, you should have
a Power Wristband, Brawler's Wristband, about 4 Warrior's Wristbands and a
Power Glove already in your inventory. We're keeping the Power Glove as is,
but we can upgrade one of our Warrior's Wristbands. Give it 36 Sturdy Bones,
37 Superconductors and a Scarletite, then 36 Sturdy Bones and 16
Superconductors. You should now have a * level Power Glove. Again, you'll
need a Dark Matter to go further, so leave this where it is. Total Cost:
50,280 Gil.

There won't be much to sell from this section, as you'll need to keep 2
Warrior's Wristbands and 2 Power Gloves to fight the turtles, plus one each of
the other two. I had an extra Warrior's Wristband, so I sold it for 5,000
Gil.

Double check to make sure that you have Power, Brawler's, and Warrior's
Wristbands in your inventory, as well as your Power Gloves, then proceed.

--------------------------

The next category is the magic boosters, which are essentially the same as the
strength boosters. This means that you should already have 4 of the 5
accessories in this group. Again, take one of your Sorcerer's Marks and add 36
Sturdy Bones, 37 Superconductors and a Scarletite to it to get another Weirding
Glyph, then 36 Sturdy Bones and 16 Superconductors to get it to * level.
Again, you'll need a Dark Matter to go further, and again you've spent 50,280.

Again, sell your crap while keeping both Weirding Glyphs, though you might not
have any duplicates. I think I bought one too many when I was setting up the
turtle farming, so I got back 5,000 gil.

Again, make sure own a Magician's, Shaman's, and Sorcerer's Mark, as well as
your Weirding Glyphs. We have now owned 17 items out of 119. Moving on...

------------------------------

The next group is comprised of the defense Accessories: one group protects from
physical attacks, one group protects from magic attacks, and one group protects
from both. Let's start with the last of these first, since there are only two:
Royal Armlets and Imperial Armlets.

You should have both of these in your inventory, and you can sell any duplicate
Royal Armlets you have, which should get you 60,000 Gil.

Now let's get to the physical protection accessories. The first is the Black
Belt, which you should have 3 maxed out already. The second is the General's
Belt, and you should have 1 of those as well. Go ahead and buy another one.
Then add 36 Sturdy Bones, 23 Superconductors and an Adamantite and get a
Champion's Belt. Total Cost: 256,200 Gil.

The magic protection accessories are similar to the physical ones, except you
already have 9 maxed out Witch's Bracelets, right? So, just take one of those
and add an Adamantite to it. Total Cost: 220,000 Gil.

Sell all of your duplicate Rune Bracelets (I had 2) and one of your Black
Belts. Keep all the rest, as you'll need them soon. You'll get back 6,995
Gil.

Once again, you should have the Royal Armlet, Imperial Armlet, Black Belt,
General's Belt, Champion's Belt, Rune Bracelet, Witch's Bracelet, and Magus's
Bracelet. If so, it's time to move on to the next section.

--------------------------------

Elemental Rings: there are 6 elements, each of which is represented by 3
stages of rings. There is no place to buy or find these, so be VERY careful
selling this stuff. I assume you have the same inventory that I do, since
these are all acquired by treasure or Cie'th Stone Missions, so I'll be very
specific on what to do.

First, clear out some of your inventory. You need to keep one Ember Ring and 2
Blaze Rings, so sell the rest. Don't even touch the Frost Ring: you only
have two, and if you want a complete inventory you're going to have to get
tricky in a minute to get the third. Keep 1 Spark Ring and 2 Fulmen Rings.
Keep 1 Aqua Ring and 2 Riptide Rings. Keep 1 Zephyr Ring and 2 Gale Rings.
Carefully selling the rest will only get you about 15,000 Gil, so you might
just want to keep them all if you get nervous.

Next, we need to get another Frost Ring. Scroll down your list and you'll come
to your Elemental Charms. Notice that you have 2 Ice Charms? Take one of
them, add 2 Superconductors to it, and dismantle it. Boom, Frost Ring! Plus,
you'll get 3 Crystal Oscillators and 10 Chocobo Plumes which you can sell for a
total of 3200 Gil. When all is done, you should have 3 Frost Rings and
actually be 1520 Gil richer.

Start with the Frost Ring and give it 2 Superconductors and a Cobaltite - wham,
Icicle Ring. Do the same thing again to get another one. You now have a
complete set of level 1 and level 2 rings. Take the Blaze Ring and throw 8
Superconductors and a Uraninite at it: wham, Salamandrine Ring! Repeat this
process 4 more times with the Icicle Ring, Fulmen Ring, Riptide Ring and Gale
Ring. Total Cost: 295,960 Gil. This is getting expensive, isn't it?

If you're looking at your inventory right now, it will become apparent to you
that because you upgraded your Clay Rings and Siltstone Rings, you'll never
see them again. Fear not, we'll get them back by dismantling the Gaian
Rings, but not until we're done fighting turtles.

18 more things can come off your list: Ember, Blaze, Salamandrine, Frost,
Icicle, Boreal, Spark, Fulmen, Raijin, Aqua, Riptide, Nereid, Zephyr, Gale,
Sylphid, Clay, Siltstone and Gaian Rings should be finished, bringing our
total to 43 of 119. Let's keep rolling...

--------------------------------------

The next section has the accessories that resist status effects: there are 12
pairs, making a total of 24 accessories in this section. The base accessories
can all be bought at B&W Outfitters for 3,000 Gil. You can sell any of them
for 1,500 Gil, so do the necessary steps to get exactly 2 of everything,
exactly 4 Pain Dampeners, and exactly 4 White Capes. I had to buy 10
Accessories for 30,000 gil, then I was able to sell 9 other ones for 13,500.

So far, if you've followed my guide, you've upgraded exactly zero of these, so
we're going to assume that we're starting from square one. The general formula
for upgrading this is 6 Superconductors and 1 Perovskite, which will get you to
your next level. You'll need to repeat this 12 times to get one of each, then
4 more times to upgrade 2 of your your Pain Dampeners and White Capes. Each
upgrade will cost you 35,040, so this section will ding you for 560,640.

Before we move on, let's prepare ourselves for one of our upcoming battles.
Take one of your new Pain Deflectors and add 36 Sturdy Bones and 9
Superconductors, taking it to * level. Repeat with your other two Pain
Deflectors, then repeat again with your 3 Effulgent Capes. Total Cost for
this step: 62,640 Gil.

Once you've completed this, you should have the following 24 accessories:
Giant's Glove, Warlord's Glove, Glass Buckle, Tektite Buckle, Metal Armband,
Ceramic Armband, Serenety Sachet, Safeguard Sachet, Glass Orb, Dragonfly Orb,
Star Pendant, Starfall Pendant, Pearl Necklace, Gemstone Necklace, Warding
Talisman, Hexbane Talisman, Pain Dampener, Pain Deflector, White Cape,
Effulgent Cape, Rainbow Anklet, Moonbow Anklet, Cherub's Crown, Seraph's Crown.
That brings your total to 67 of the 119. We're more than halfway done!

--------------------------------------

Just like the previous section that helps you avoid debuffs, this section has
11 pairs of accessories that provide you with buffs. You are actually familiar
with quite a few of these, so we'll be quick. Magical Moments has all the base
accessories except the Hermes Sandals, and I'm assuming you have a pair from
somewhere. If not, upgrade and dismantle one of your Tetradic Crowns in the
next section. In order to make one of each of these, you'll probably have to
buy a Hero's Amulet, Flamebane Brooch, Sparkbane Brooch and an Aquabane Brooch,
which will only cost you 14,000 Gil. In addition, you can sell any duplicates
except the Sprint Shoes, which should get you around 39.500 Gil.

Upgrading these is probably the easiest of the bunch: all you need is 1
Superconductor and 1 Perovskite, so each upgrade costs you 30,840. I still
needed the Battle Talisman and all of the Earrings, so this was 5 for me,
totaling 154,200 Gil.

The 22 accessories to check in this section are the Guardian Amulet, Shield
Talisman, Auric Amulet, Soulfront Talisman, Watchman's Amulet, Shrouding
Talisman, Hero's Amulet, Morale Talisman, Saint's Amulet, Blessed Talisman,
Zealot's Amulet, Battle Talisman, Flamebane Brooch, Flameshield Earring,
Frostbane Brooch, Frostshield Earring, Sparkbane Brooch, Sparkshield
Earring, Aquabane Brooch, Aquabane Earring, Hermes Sandals and Sprint Shoes.
89 down, 30 to go!

---------------------------------------

The rest is just a hodgepodge of random crap. It's good crap, but its still
crap.

I assume you have (or have had) a Tetradic Crown and Tetradic Tiara by now. If
not, you get them as prizes for digging for Chocobo Treasure, or you can go
back to Mission 7 and win them from that dude. I had 2 of each by this point,
so I sold 1 of each for 55,000 Gil.

Whistlewind Scarves have been in your inventory for a while as well, and I
assume you've already upgraded at least one to an Aurora Scarf. That leaves
Nimbletoe Boots for this group, but don't upgrade the Aurora Scarf. Just buy
one from Moogleworks for 6,000Gil, and keep your 2 Aurora Scarves.

You should also have at least one Hunter's Friend, Energy Sash and Speed Sash,
so this category is complete. Sell your duplicates for 22,500 Gil.

Let's get to the Charms: again, YOU CAN'T GET THESE BACK ONCE YOU SELL THEM!
The nice part about these is that you should already have a complete set.
That's a Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind, Water and Earth Charm. They all upgrade
into the same thing: a Twenty-Sided Die, which you should also have. I had a
duplicate Water Charm which I sold for 7500 Gil. If you're going in order,
you'll now have 1 of each. If you skipped to this section, you'll still have
2 Ice Charms. DON'T SELL THE OTHER ONE! You need it when you try to get a
set of elemental rings.

If you're still keeping track, we have now accounted for 15 more accessories,
bringing our total up to 104. That leaves 15.

------------------------------------

You should have 3 Doctor's Codes by now: Do NOT under any circumstances sell
these! They look useless, but if you don't have an Elixir and want a complete
inventory, keep these for later. It's just not worth the 5,000 Gil you get.

You definitely have a Growth Egg and a Genji Glove by now. This only leaves a
few things: you should have a Champion's Badge, a Survivalist Catalog, a
Collector Catalog, and a Connoisseur Catalog already. Go ahead and sell your
duplicate Collector Catalog for 50,000 Gil.

You should have 2 Entite Rings, a Goddess's Favor, and a Ribbon. You CAN get a
second ribbon, but it involves those Flowering Cactuars at a drop rate of 1%,
so we're going to take the easy route on this and make it from your other
Entite Ring. Give it 36 Sturdy Bones, 22 Superconductors and a Uraninite,
which will get you a Goddess's Favor that's at the * level. Dismantle it to
get your Ribbon and some stuff you can sell. You'll get some awesome stuff: a
Ribbon, a Perfume, and a Scarletite! You can sell the Perfume for 12,500 Gil,
offsetting a bit of the 66,360 you just spent.

We're not quite done, however: we need to add 36 Sturdy Bones and 24
Superconductors to the Ribbon to get it to * level.

There's a Super Ribbon,
but we need yet another Dark Matter. So, let's just spend the 23,040 Gil and
wait a while.

If I'm not mistaken (I hope I'm not), you now own 112 of 119 accessories in the
game. The Clay Ring and Siltstone Rings are currently living as Gaian Rings,
which we'll get back later. You can't get the Gold Watch until you beat
Mission 64. The Wurtzite Bangle, Kaiser Knuckles, Magistral Crest, and Super
Ribbon all require Dark Matters, but you are ready to upgrade as soon as you
get them. Congratulations, you're done with Accessories for now!

---------------------------------

PART TWO: WEAPONS

When it comes to weapons, there is a huge difference between doing what it
takes to get the Treasure Hunter trophy and having a complete set of
everything. It looks very complicated, but we can simplify things quite a bit
and get you out of here with minimal turtle grinding.

First off, each character has 8 Tier One weapons. By getting these to either
level 21 or 26 and adding a catalyst, you can turn them into Tier 2 weapons.
Tier 2 weapons go to either level 41 or 61, at which point you need a
Trapezohedron. This will turn any maxed out Tier 2 weapon into a Tier 3
weapon, but each character only has ONE Tier 3 weapon! They all turn into the
same thing! Well, not quite: the properties of your "ultimate" weapon will
vary depending on which one you started with, but we don't care about that, do
we? The thing to remember is that you don't have to max out every single
weapon for every single character, and you won't need 48 Trapezohedrons:
you'll only need 6. This should come as a relief if you've tried to get Traps
already, as they're almost the hardest things to acquire in the game. I'll
even write a section about how to get them, but first let's talk about some
other things.

You will need 13 Scarletites to upgrade all of your weapons. Don't buy them
for 100,000 gil unless you have a bunch of money and you're in a real hurry.
The Adamanchelids drop them sometimes, so you can fight the 3 that are right
next to each other while you're looping around fighting the big turtles.
Alternately, you can teleport back to Orphan's Cradle and fight the Sacrifices
that are still hanging out there: you'll get them much faster this way.
Either way will be quicker than fighting 50 or so turtles to get 1.2 million
gil, trust me.

You will also need 6 Trapezohedrons to finish the upgrading process, and 7 if
you want to have one in your inventory when you're done. There are actually 3
ways to get Traps if you need them, and none of them are much fun. First, you
can buy one for something like 2.2 million gil. I only suggest you do this if
you are done with everything else and the turtles are dropping a ton of
Platinum Ingots and no Traps. The second way, of course, is to fight the big
turtles until they drop them. If you have the Connoisseur Catalog equipped
(and you should), this will happen about once every 20 battles, which should
give you enough before you get the money you need to upgrade. The third way
is by maxing out certain weapons and dismantling them. The best one to do this
with is Fang's Pandoran Spear. This method is not mine: the credit goes to
mr_flarp from about 4 years ago on one of the gamefaqs boards.

Take the Pandoran Spear and upgrade it with 36 Sturdy Bones and 49
Superconductors, then give it a Scarletite. This will give you a Calamity
Spear. Upgrade that with 36 Sturdy Bones, 2 Ultracompact Reactors, 15 Sturdy
Bones, 46 Superconductors and a Trapezohedron. This will give you a Kain's
Lance. Give it 36 Sturdy Bones, 24 Ultracompact Reactors, 36 more Sturdy
Bones, 37 Superconductors, and you'll be at * level. Dismantle it and you'll
get 36 Moonblossom Seeds to sell for 216,000 Gil, and 3 Trapezohedrons. The
whole mess will cost you about 1.2 Million Gil.

All this messing around really shouldn't be necessary, though. You've already
fought a bunch of turtles, and you'll need many more before you get enough
Platinum Ingots to finish this. On the way, you should get at least 6 Traps,
so be patient and you should be fine. However, if you get everything
upgraded, have a million left over, and still don't have the Traps you need,
use this method to get them.

Our catalysts are out of the way, so let's talk about the weapons themselves.
I will be assuming that you've followed this guide so far, so you already have
a Kain's Lance for Fang, which came from the Taming Pole. In addition, I
assume you have a maxed out Enkindler for Lightning, a maxed out Malboro Wand
for Vanille, and a maxed out Eagletalon for Hope. All other weapons should
still be at level one, and you haven't bought anything for anyone during the
entire game. Obviously, if you don't have these, you'll have to adjust your
strategy to get them.

Ready? Let's begin.

--------------------------------------

Let's get the "easy" stuff out of the way first. If you look at your
inventory, you should have exactly 42 weapons, which is 7 of each for each
character. If you want a complete inventory, you'll need two of each one, and
3 of whichever one you're going to upgrade to the ultimate weapon. The
exception to this is going to be Lightning. You'll only need one Axis Blade
(which replaces the one you upgraded), but buy 2 Lionhearts. This one is
better at level 3 anyway, and you won't need another exhorbitant Adamantite.
Fortunately, these can all be purchased for a modest amount from the shops, so
get shopping.

But there are 8 base weapons for each character, you say? Yep, that's right.
When you go into Gilgamesh, you'll see one weapon for each person that costs a
ridiculous amount of money (like 250,000 Gil). You'll need two of each of
these for each character, meaning the total bill is going to be around 3
million gil, just to BUY these things. Of course, these weapons are the only
ones that you don't already have. There is another way to get them that I'll
describe below, but I suggest you just get 3 million Gil together and buy them
from Gilgamesh.

Remember the final 6 missions of Titan's Trials (Missions 45-50)? Well, you
can get each of these weapons in each of these final missions, but the drop
rate is really rare. In addition, it's tied to the SHROUD drops, and not the
actual item drops. Why they did this, I'll never know. Regardless, if you
fight these 6 missions enough, you can get the Aldebrans, Organyx, etc.

The problem is, the shroud drop rate goes up the lower your battle score, so
you actually want to get zero star ratings on these battles to increase your
odds of getting these weapons. That means waiting around for a few minutes
before you finish each battle. In addition, you have to fight your way
through all of Titan's Trials just to get back to the missions themselves. I
tried to do this to save a little time, and it took me 12 minutes just to get
to the Zirnitra (Mission 46). My target time was around 3:00, so I equipped
my Survivalist Catalog and fought 4 battles, waiting until the time went over
4:00 to finish it. After 28 minutes of playing, I still came up empty.
Since we can get a Platinum Ingot at least every 12 minutes from the turtles,
then, it makes much more sense just to grab 20 of those babies and buy your
weapons from the store.

So, make sure you have 2 of every base weapon, as well as 1 extra Taming Pole,
Lionheart, Hawkeye, Paladin, Antares Deluxes, and Belladonna Wand. The total
bill should be a disgusting 3,737,300 Gil. You won't be selling anything back,
and I assume you know how to upgrade by now, so I'll make the list as short as
possible.

Lightning's Weapons

Blazefire Saber: 36 Sturdy Bones, 13 Superconductors and a Perovskite: 43,800
Gil
Edged Carbine: 36 Sturdy Bones, 17 Superconductors and a Perovskite: 47,160
Gil
Lifesaber: 36 Sturdy Bones, 49 Superconductors, Scarletite: 44,040 Gil.
Gladius: 36 Sturdy Bones, 33 Superconductors, Uraninite: 75,600 Gil.

Organyx. 36 Sturdy Bones, 10 Superconductors, Cobaltite: 28,280 Gil.
Hauteclaire: 36 Sturdy Bones, 33 Superconductors, Uraninite: 75,600 Gil
Lionheart: 36 Sturdy Bones, 53 Superconductors, Scarletite: 47,400 Gil
Lionheart again: 36 Sturdy Bones, 53 Superconductors, Scarletite: 47,400 Gil
TOTAL: 409,280 Gil.
----------------------------------------

Sazh's Weapons.

Vegas 42s: 36 Sturdy Bones, 13 Superconductors, Perovskite: 43,800 Gil
Spica Defenders: 36 Sturdy Bones, 47 Superconductors, Scarletite: 42,360 Gil
Deneb Duellers: 36 Sturdy Bones, 17 Superconductors, Perovskite: 47,160 Gil
Rigels: 36 Sturdy Bones, 33 Superconductors, Uraninite: 75,600 Gil
Aldebarans: 36 Sturdy Bones, 10 Superconductors, Cobaltite: 28,280 Gil
Pleaides Hi-Powers: 36 Sturdy Bones, 17 Superconductors, Perovskite: 47,160
Gil
Antares Deluxes: 36 Sturdy Bones, 23 Superconductors, Uraninite: 67,200 Gil
Antares Deluxes Again: 36 Sturdy Bones, 23 Superconductors, Uraninite: 67,200
Gil
Procyons: 36 Sturdy Bones, 53 Superconductors, and then you're stuck because
you need a Dark Matter: 47,400 Gil
TOTAL: 466,160 Gil

-----------------------------------

Snow's Weapons

Wild Bear: 36 Sturdy Bones, 13 Superconductors, Perovskite: 43,800 Gil
Paladin: 36 Sturdy Bones, 47 Superconductors, Scarletite: 42,360 Gil
Paladin Again: 36 Sturdy Bones, 47 Superconductors, Scarletite: 42,360 Gil
Rebel Heart: 36 Sturdy Bones, 23 Superconductors, Uraninite: 67,200 Gil
Power Circle: 36 Sturdy Bones, 1 Ultracompact Reactor, Scarletite: 52,880 Gil
Feymark: 36 Sturdy Bones, 23 Superconductors, Uraninite: 67,200 Gil
Sacrificial Circle: 36 Sturdy Bones, 1 Ultracompact Reactor, Scarletite:
52,880 Gil
Unsetting Sun: 36 Sturdy Bones, 17 Superconductors, Perovskite: 47,160 Gil
Umbra: 36 Sturdy Bones, 47 Superconductors, Adamantite: 262,360 Gil
TOTAL: 678,200 Gil.

---------------------------------

Hope's Weapons

Airwing: 36 Sturdy Bones, 14 Superconductors, Uraninite: 59,640 Gil
Hawkeye: 36 Sturdy Bones, 17 Superconductors, Perovskite: 47,160 Gil
Otshirvani: 36 Sturdy Bones, 47 Superconductors, Scarletite: 42,360 Gil
Ninurta: 36 Sturdy Bones, 17 Superconductors, Perovskite: 47,160 Gil
Vidofnir: 36 Sturdy Bones, 47 Superconductors, Scarletite: 42,360 Gil
Simurgh: 36 Sturdy Bones, 23 Superconductors, Uraninite: 67,200 Gil
Malphas: 36 Sturdy Bones, 17 Superconductors, Perovskite: 47,160 Gil
Alicanto: 36 Sturdy Bones, 33 Superconductors, Uraninite: 75,600 Gil
TOTAL: 428,640 Gil

--------------------------------

Vanille's Weapons

Binding Rod: 36 Sturdy Bones, 13 Superconductors, Perovskite: 43,800 Gil
Tigerclaw: 36 Sturdy Bones, 10 Superconductors, Cobaltite: 28,200 Gil
Healer's Staff: 36 Sturdy Bones, 44 Superconductors, Adamantite: 259,840 Gil
Pearlwing Staff: 36 Sturdy Bones, 17 Superconductors, Perovskite: 47,160 Gil
Rod of Thorns: 36 Sturdy Bones, 17 Superconductors, Perovskite: 47,160 Gil
Mistilteinn: 36 Sturdy Bones, 47 Superconductors, Scarletite: 42,360 Gil
Belladonna Wand: 36 Sturdy Bones, 23 Superconductors, Uraninite: 67,200 Gil
Heavenly Axis: 36 Sturdy Bones, 33 Superconductors, Uraninite: 75,600 Gil
TOTAL: 611,320 Gil

------------------------------

Fang's Weapons:

Bladed Lance: 36 Sturdy Bones, 13 Superconductors, Perovskite: 43,800 Gil
Dragoon Lance: 36 Sturdy Bones, 23 Superconductors, Uraninite: 67,200 Gil
Partisan: 36 Sturdy Bones, 17 Superconductors, Perovskite: 47,160 Gil
Shamanic Spear: 36 Sturdy Bones, 23 Superconductors, Uraninite: 67,200 Gil
Punisher: 36 Sturdy Bones, 49 Superconductors, Scarletite: 44,040 Gil
Pandoran Spear: 36 Sturdy Bones, 49 Superconductors, Scarletite: 44,040 Gil
Taming Pole:36 Sturdy Bones, 33 Superconductors, Uraninite: 75,600 Gil
Gae Blog: 36 Sturdy Bones, 49 Superconductors, Scarletite: 44,040 Gil
TOTAL: 433,080 Gil

---------------------------------------

Wasn't that fun? And expensive? If you're still with me, you should have
exactly 17 weapons for everyone: a complete set of Tier One and Tier Two
weapons, plus an extra one to turn into each person's "ultimate" weapon.

Of course, before we do this, we'll need to get them to * level. Hope, Fang
and Vanille should already be done. Sazh and Snow will need upgraded.
Lightning is a little quirky, as you probably have a * level Enkindler. This
is actually NOT the weapon we'll be turning into her Omega Weapon, so you'll
need to beef up one of her Ultima Weapons instead. It's actually a better
weapon at max levels, and you don't have to buy another freaking Adamantite.
So...

Ultima Weapon: 36 Sturdy Bones, 2 Ultracompact Reactors, 15 Sturdy Bones, 31
Superconductors: 130,120 Gil
Fomalhaut Elites: 36 Sturdy Bones, 1 Ultracompact Reactor, 9 Sturdy Bones, 28
Superconductors: 73,520 Gil
Winged Saint: 36 Sturdy Bones, 2 Ultracompact Reactors, 15 Sturdy Bones, 27
Superconductors: 126,760 Gil


If you have enough Trapezohedrons by now, go ahead and add them to the Ultima
Weapon, Fomalhaut Elites, Winged Saint, Eagletalon, Malboro Wand, and Venus
Gospel if you haven't already. This will give you a complete set of every
weapon in the game! Woohoo!

Here's where it's time to make another decision. I went ahead and maxed out
each person's Tier Three weapon, but it took me a long, long time to get the
money to do it. However, once I did, I wrote the rest of this guide with those
weapons equipped. So, it's time to decide if you want the ultimate of the
ultimate weapon set: you certainly don't need it at this point, and it's going
to cost you about 7 million more gil, which means about 200 more turtles, which
means about 10 more hours of grinding. It's your call.

If this sounds like too much messing around, I suggest a compromise. Take the
time to max out Fang's weapon (you're already a third of the way there) and
Lightning's weapon. Then, grind until you have about 15 more Platinum Ingots
in your inventory and leave them there. If you get into a really tough battle
later on, go ahead and upgrade the character you think will help you the most.
I'm not sure who our party will be for the Long Guis just yet, but I'm positive
that Fang and Lightning will be there. This should cut your turtle time down
to 5 hours or so.

Have you made your decision? Good. If you chose not to max out each person's
weapon, skip to the next section. If you're still with me, however, this is
what it will take:

Kain's Lance (From the Taming Pole): 36 Sturdy Bones, 14 Ultracompact
Reactors, 10 Superconductors: 711,280 Gil. This is only valid if you took my
advice and already had the Kain's Lance at Level 69. If not, add 9 more
Ultracompact Reactors at 450,000 Gil to max her out.
Omega Weapon (From the Lionheart): 36 Sturdy Bones, 25 Ultracompact Reactors:
1,252,880 Gil.
Nirvana (From the Belladonna Wand): 36 Sturdy Bones, 28 Ultracompact Reactors:
1,402,880 Gil.
Nue (From the Hawkeye): 36 Sturdy Bones, 18 Ultracompact Reactors, 22
Superconductors: 921,360 Gil.
Save the Queen (From the Paladin): 36 Sturdy Bones, 24 Ultracompact Reactors:
1,202,880 Gil.
Total Eclipses (From the Antares Deluxes): 36 Sturdy Bones, 30 Ultracompact
Reactors, 36 Sturdy Bones, 52 Superconductors: 1,549,440 Gil.

Congratulations, you are finally done with the weapons and accessories! If you
chose to max out all the weapons like me, its been a long, boring road full of
dead turtles. I wish I could say we were finally done with them, but alas, we
are not so lucky.

If you're still with me, you should still have 4 Cie'th Stone Missions to
complete, the Shaolong Guis and Long Guis to fight, and a few more accessories
to get when you get Dark Matters, as well as the Gold Watch. In addition, you

should be mostly done with your enemy database, and have most of the components
and items the game has to offer.

We can't really move on until we finish the enemy intel and components list,
and I'm torn which one to do first. We really should complete our items list
before we make the turtles disappear, so it would make sense to do that next.
But I'm really, really sick of fighting the same battle, so we're going to do
the enemies next. At least we'll pick up a few more components on the way...
There are 238 unique enemies to fight in FFXIII, and if you look in your enemy
intel section of your menu, you'll see most of them. There are actually 239
enemies in the game, but I decided to add this part to avoid any confusion.
The 239th enemy is called "Geiseric's Fist," and is summoned in Mission 12 if
you wait long enough (much like the Centaurion Blades). However, after using
at least 10 Librascopes, this guy's data never did show up in my database. I
could see it in battle, but there was no entry for it in the intel section, so
I assumed the game was glitched for everyone and left it out of this list.
If you want a complete collection of each enemy's information, you'll have to
either use Libra, a Librascope, or fight them multiple times. But you know
all of this-- just look for the check mark next to each one to determine if
you have all the available intel.

I'm just going to list all the enemies below, and I'll make a note of an easy
(not the only) place to find them if you need to fight them again. I'll use
the following abbreviations:

YS - You're Screwed: If you don't have the complete intel on this enemy by the
time you beat the game, you're screwed. It's in a chapter that you can't get
back to, so you can probably forget about getting the complete database at this
point.
CS (MM) - Cie'th Stone (Mission Number): It's the mark, or is in the battle
for the given mission. Use Ctrl+F to find that mission in the guide above.
GP (LOC) - Gran Pulse (Location)
ED (LOC) - Eden (Location)
OC (LOC) - Orphan's Cradle (Location)

Ready? Let's Begin

SOLDIERS
--------------
PSICOM Enforcer..........................................YS
PSICOM Tracker...........................................YS
PSICOM Scavenger.........................................YS
PSICOM Raider............................................YS
Sanctum Seraph..............................ED (Siren Park)
Targeting Beacon.........................................YS
Targeting Beacon.........................................YS

PSICOM Warden............................................YS
PSICOM Ranger............................................YS
PSICOM Predator..........................................YS
PSICOM Infiltrator.......................................YS
Sanctum Archangel.............................ED (Edenhall)

PSICOM Bombardier........................................YS
PSICOM Destroyer.........................................YS
Sanctum Celebrant......................ED (Leviathan Plaza)

PSICOM Aerial Recon......................................YS
PSICOM Aerial Sniper.....................................YS
PSICOM Dragoon...........................................YS

PSICOM Huntress..........................................YS
Sanctum Inquisitrix...........................ED (Edenhall)

PSICOM Marauder..........................................YS
PSICOM Executioner.......................................YS
PSICOM Warlord...........................................YS
PSICOM Reaver............................................YS
Sanctum Templar..........................................YS

Corps Regular............................................YS
Corps Watchman...........................................YS
Corps Pacifex............................................YS
Corps Steward........................ED (Ramuh Interchange)

Corps Gunner.............................................YS
Corps Marksman...........................................YS
Corps Tranquifex.........................................YS
Corps Defender.......................ED (Ramuh Interchange)

MILITARIZED UNITS
----------------------------
Watchdrone...............................................YS
Deckdrone................................................YS
Myrmidon.................................................YS
Crusader.................................................YS
Orion....................................................YS
Viking...................................................YS
Uhlan....................................................YS
Bulwarker................................................YS
Ciconia Velocycle........................................YS
Falco Velocycle..........................................YS
Milvus Velocycle.........................................YS
Aquila Velocycle.........................................YS

Midlight Reaper..........................................YS
Megrim Thresher..........................................YS
Havoc Skytank............................................YS
Starboard Hull...........................................YS
Starboard Turret.........................................YS
Portside Hull............................................YS
Portside Turret..........................................YS

Pantheron................................................YS
Thexteron................................................YS
Adamantheron................................ED (Siren Park)
Zwerg Scandroid..........................................YS
Zwerg Metrodroid.........................................YS
Vespid...................................................YS
Vespid Soldier...........................................YS
Frag Leech...............................................YS
Lucidon..................................................YS
Thermadon................................................YS
Flanitor.................................................YS
Flanborg.................................................YS

Beta Behemoth............................................YS
Alpha Behemoth...........................................YS
Lodestar Behemoth........................................YS
Proto-behemoth.......................ED (Ramuh Interchange)

Manasvin Warmech.........................................YS
Manasvin Warmech.........................................YS
Anavatapta Warmech.......................................YS
Garuda Interceptor.......................................YS
Kalavinka Striker........................................YS
Aster Protoflorian.......................................YS
Vernal Harvester..............................ED (Edenhall)
Ushumgal Subjugator......................................YS
Ushumgal Subjugator......................................YS
Tiamat Eliminator........................................YS
The Proudclad............................................YS
The Proudclad............................................YS

FERAL CREATURES
---------------------------
Silver Lobo..............................................YS
Gorgonopsid.........................GP (Steppe, Everywhere)
Uridimmu.............................................CS (2)
Amam................................................CS (32)
Managarmr....................GP (Taejin's Tower, Palisades)
Ugallu........................................CS (03 or 56)
Megistotherian..............GP (Steppe, Northern Highplain)

Bloodfang Bass...........................................YS
Breshan Bass.............................................YS
Hedge Frog...............................................YS
Mud Frog.................................................YS
Ceratosaur..........................................CS (16)
Ceratoraptor........................................CS (16)

Gremlin..................................................YS
Garchimacera.............................................YS
Imp......................................................YS
Ahriman..................................................YS
Leyak........................GP (Steppe, Western Benchland)

Rangda.......................GP (Steppe, Western Benchland)
Adroa................................................CS (4)
Verdelet............................................CS (38)

Incubus..................................................YS
Succubus.................................................YS
Skata'ne.....................GP (Mah'habara, Abandoned Dig)
Stikini..................................................YS
Yaksha......................GP (Taejin's Tower, Fifth Tier)
Yakshini....................GP (Taejin's Tower, Fifth Tier)
Rakshasa............................................CS (08)

Barbed Specter...........................................YS
Triffid................GP (Yaschas Massif, Ascendant Scarp)
Mushussu............................................CS (24)
Scalebeast...............................................YS
Gurangatch..........................................CS (35)
Navidon...........................GP (Steppe, Eastern Tors)
Crawler..................................................YS
Noctilucale..............................................YS
Alraune.................GP (Vallis Media, Fingers of Stone)
Rafflesia...........................................CS (37)

Wyvern...................................................YS
Svarog.................GP (Yaschas Massif, Ascendant Scarp)
Amphisbaena..................GP (Taejin's Tower, Palisades)
Zirnitra..............................CS (46, 52, 53 or 59)
Enki.....................................................YS
Enlil....................................................YS
Bandersnatch.............................................YS
Jabberwocky..............................................YS

Adamantoise............................GP (Archylte Steppe)
Left Foreleg...........................GP (Archylte Steppe)
Right Foreleg..........................GP (Archylte Steppe)
Adamantortoise.........................GP (Archylte Steppe)
Left Foreleg...........................GP (Archylte Steppe)
Right Foreleg..........................GP (Archylte Steppe)
Adamanchelid...........................GP (Archylte Steppe)

NOTE: The next 4 enemies will not appear until you finish Missions 56 - 62.
They will replace the much "easier" turtles above.

Long Gui...............................GP (Archylte Steppe)
Left Foreleg...........................GP (Archylte Steppe)
Right Foreleg..........................GP (Archylte Steppe)
Shaolong Gui...........................GP (Archylte Steppe)

Flan....................GP (Vallis Media, Fingers of Stone)
Dire Flan...............GP (Vallis Media, Fingers of Stone)
Monstrous Flan......................................CS (44)
Rust Pudding..........GP (Mah'habara, An Asylum from Light)
Ferruginous Pudding...GP (Mah'habara, An Asylum from Light)
Corrosive Custard...................................CS (44)
Flandragora..............................................YS
Hybrid Flora...........GP (Yaschas Massif, Ascendant Scarp)
Phosphoric Ooze..........................................YS
Alchemic Ooze............................................YS
Gelatitan...........................................CS (21)
Ectopudding..........................................CS (1)

Feral Behemoth...........................................YS
Greater Behemoth.........................................YS
Kaiser Behemoth......................................CS (9)
Behemoth King...............GP (Steppe, Northern Highplain)
Humbaba................................ED (Leviathan Plaza)

Goblin..............................................CS (43)
Goblin Chieftan.....................................CS (43)
Muchkin.............................................CS (43)
Munchkin Maestro....................................CS (43)
Borgbear............................................CS (43)
Borgbear Hero.......................................CS (43)

Sahagin.............................................CS (16)
Dagonite.................................................YS
Orobon......................................ED (Siren Park)
Ochu...................................GP (Aggra's Pasture)
Microchu...............................GP (Aggra's Pasture)
Neochu........................................CS (45 or 55)
Picochu.......................................CS (45 or 55)

The next 5 enemies are the Cactuars, and require some explanation. Flowering
Cactuars are only in the Salamandrine Path in the Faultwarrens, which is
marked D2 on the Titan's Trials map and is where you fight Mission 42. You
have about 10 seconds to get their intel and kill them before they flee.
Gigantuar is your mark for Mission 54, which is pretty self-explanatory by
this point. The other three are actually different forms of the same enemy.
The regular Cactuars are running around all over Spira (oops, I'm playing FFX
right now too!)... umm, the Archylte Steppe. If you don't see any, make sure
you have gone up to the mesa over by all the turtles in the Eastern Tors and
seen the cutscene. You'll have to fight at least 3 of them total, and I
suggest you choose the one right by the save point on the Northern Highplain
so you can reload. If you don't touch it, a regular Cactuar will do a Cactus
Dance and turn into a Giant Cactuar. If you stay idle, it will then do an
Encore Dance and turn into a Cactuar Prime. The problem is, using a
Librascope or casting Libra will count as "touching it," thereby stalling the
process. So, get the Cactuar data, kill it, save, reload, get the Giant
Cactuar data, kill it, save, reload, then get the Cactuar Prime data, kill
it, and move on. Make sure you're in a paradigm with only SYNs and MEDs or
you will mess with the little guy too soon!

Cactuar....................GP (Archylte Steppe, everywhere)
Giant Cactuar..............GP (Archylte Steppe, everywhere)
Cactuar Prime..............GP (Archylte Steppe, everywhere)
Flowering Cactuar......GP (Faultwarrens, Salamandrine Path)
Gigantuar...........................................CS (54)
Tonberry............................................CS (34)

PULSE AUTOMATA
--------------------------

Pulsework Soldier........................................YS
Pulsework Knight ........................................YS
Pulsework Gladiator........GP (Taejin's Tower, Second Tier)
Pulsework Centurion..........GP (Mah'habara, Twilit Cavern)
Pulsework Champion..................................CS (31)

Boxed Phalanx................GP (Mah'habara, Twilit Cavern)
Hoplite......................GP (Mah'habara, Twilit Cavern)
Ambling Bellows.....................................CS (22)
Cryptos.............................................CS (22)

Berserker................................................YS
Centaurion Blade.........................................YS
Tyrant........................................ED (Edenhall)
Centaurion Blade..............................ED (Edenhall)
Immortal.................................................YS
Centaurion Blade.........................................YS

Bomb.....................................................YS
Circuitron...............................................YS
Cryohedron...................GP (Mah'habara, Abandoned Dig)
Dreadnought..............................................YS
Juggernaut....................................ED (Edenhall)

CIE'TH
---------
Ghoul....................................................YS
Ghast....................................................YS
Strigoi.............................GP (Haeri Archaeopolis)
Taxim............................................GP (Oerba)
Vampire..........................................GP (Oerba)
Sacrifice...............................OC (The Tesseracts)

Wight....................................................YS
Pjavica.............................GP (Haeri Archaeopolis)
Nelapsi..........................GP (Paddrean Archaeopolis)
Varcolaci........................................GP (Oerba)
Edimmu...............................................CS (5)

Chonchon.........................................GP (Oerba)
Penanggalan.........................................CS (26)

Vetala...........................................GP (Oerba)
Raktavija...........................................CS (47)
Seeker...........................................GP (Oerba)

Mithridates.........................................CS (27)
Bituitus.............................................CS (7)
Geiseric............................................CS (12)
Syphax..............................................CS (30)
Numidia.............................................CS (30)
Attacus.............................................CS (51)
Wladislaus...............................................YS
Vercingetorix.......................................CS (64)

OTHERS
-----------
Anima....................................................YS
Right Manipulator........................................YS
Left Manipulator.........................................YS
Dahaka...................................................YS
Barthandelus.............................................YS
Right Pauldron...........................................YS
Right Ailette............................................YS
Left Pauldron............................................YS
Left Ailette.............................................YS
Barthandelus.............................................YS
Barthandelus...............................OC (The Narthex)
Orphan.....................................OC (The Narthex)
Orphan.....................................OC (The Narthex)
Cid Raines...............................................YS

Odin.....................................................YS
Stiria...................................................YS
Nix......................................................YS
Brynhildr................................................YS
Alexander................................................YS
Hecatoncheir.............................................YS
Bahamut..................................................YS

And that should be it for the enemy intel. Of course, if you're still on pace
with me, you are missing exactly 6 entries (Gigantuar, Vercingetorix, Shaolong
Gui, Long Gui, Right Foreleg, Left Foreleg), which we'll get to later. Just
add this to the growing list of things to do at the end. For now, it's time to
get our collection of items and components!