============================================================== FINAL FANTASY X - NO SPHERE GRID (NSG) CHALLENGE FAQ v1.00 ============================================================== by Dustman and Xharas Dustcloud64@aol.com March 13, 2002 TABLE OF CONTENTS HOW FAR DOWN ----------------- ------------ 1. Author's Notes 0/10 2. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) 0/10 3. Strategy Guide 0/10 4. No Sphere Grid (NGS) FAQ 2/10 Remiem Temple Section 5/10 - Chocobo Races Prizes - Aeon Arena Prizes 5. Capturing Monsters 7/10 6. Alternative Sin Strategy 8/10 7. Timing Explained For Braska's Final Aeon 8/10 8. Evrae Strategy 9/10 - Character Damage - Kimahri Self-Destruct - Items damage 9. Quick Reference 10/10 - Kimahri's Ronso Rage - Rikku's Mixes - Items and Locations - Customize Aeons, Weapons and Armor 10.Credit & Thanks 10/10 11.Copyright 10/10 +----------------+ | AUTHOR'S NOTES | +----------------+ I developed this No Sphere Grid Strategy Guide to help people with weak and financially deficit party members. The premise is that with enough preparation and the right strategy, you can still pass the game with relative ease. This is not a walkthrough so I suggest referring to one of those if you get stuck in the story. For those of you who don't want to read all the details, you can search for '***' to find key steps, or 'boss strategy' to search for bosses. I wanted to pass the game with as little effort and items as possible. I tried to go through the entire game using the same weapons I initially started with, but in eight instances I bought or customized the following weapons and armor: 1. Bought in Luca Stunning Steel for Tidus which has Slowtouch 2. Got Wakka a Scout with Lightning Strike from a chest in Mi'ihen Old Road 3. Customize Armor with Iceproof for Rikku and Yuna 4. Customize Weapon with Evade and Counter for Auron and Rikku 5. Customize Armor with Fireproof for Tidus, Rikku and Auron 6. Customize Master Thief for Rikku's Armor 7. Customize or bought First Strike for Rikku, Lulu, Tidus, Auron and Yuna 8. Got Rikku a Devastator with No Encounter Since people get different armor and weapons in battle, all the weapons I chose are easily found or customized. You're welcome to equip any weapons or upgrade any Aeons since their impact is generally positive and it shouldn't affect most of the boss strategies. One thing that might cause people problems is the notion of having the perfect game where no one gets knocked out (KO). I have chosen to sacrifice this philosophy because there is no perceivable penalty for running away. Your party members are revived after each battle and, most importantly, it takes too much TIME to fight against every monster you come across. Although it is possible to go through the game without running away, I wouldn't want to spend all my time stealing items to customize weapons & armor and fighting with Aeons. +-----+ | FAQ | +-----+ Q1: What does NSG mean? A: NSG is the acronym for No Sphere Grid, in a NSG game you are not allowed to touch the Sphere Grid at all. This means your characters do not gain new abilities or increase their stats. You are still allowed to use spheres for other purposes since this is not a No Sphere (NS) game. Q2: I'm stuck what do I do? A: If you're stuck in the story, refer to a Walkthrough to get unstuck. Q3: I can't beat this boss, help! A: One suggestion is run around for a while and level up your Aeons. The best suggestion is go to an FFX Message board and ask for help or read past threads about NSG. Q4: Is this a Speed Guide? A: No. Although you can finish a NSG game in about 25 hours, you can be even quicker if you use some but not all abilities in the Sphere Grid, like Flee. You can finish the game in less than 20 hours by using the Sphere Grid. Q5. I came up with this great strategy to beat "Boss" can I send it to you? A: Please send only complete strategies that are better than the ones listed in this FAQ. Strategies should maximize the following three factors: A. SPEED of beating the boss B. EASE of beating boss C. EASE of getting items and preparing for the battle We will include strategies that improve any one of these three aspects without sacrificing any of the other two. So don't send in a strategy saying, use BlitzAce to take out 'so and so', because you need to use Tidus's Overdrive 80 times which takes a lot of time. You must prove to us that it's worthwhile to invest in so much training. Q6. Can I beat a No Sphere Grid Game without using any Wings of Discovery? A: Certainly, there are many other mixes to obtain Trio of 9999 with Wings of Discovery, but there is no point in saving Wings of Discovery in a NSG game since they are only useful for customizing weapons and armor with Break HP Limit and Triple AP Limit. In a No Sphere Grid game, none of that stuff isn't important since you can't raise your HP stats beyond 9999 and you don't need AP. Unless you are going to max out your character stats later, there is no need to save your Wings of Discovery. Q7. Can I beat a No Sphere Grid Game without using Trio 9999 or Quartet 9999? A: Yes, the key is increasing Bahumut, Anima and the Magus Sisters stats so they do incredible damage. They have Break damage limit so they can break the 9999 barrier and do extreme damage on bosses but it would mean training your Aeons which is tedious. Q8. Will this NSG FAQ work for Final Fantasy X International? A: Yes, FFX International may have a new Sphere Grid layout but since we never touch the Sphere Grid there should be no difference. +----------------+ | STRATEGY GUIDE | +----------------+ This section is important because it will help you understand how this FAQ was developed FAQ. In some situations, the FAQ won't work because everyone's game is different. By understanding these strategies, I hope it will help you modify the Boss strategies to suit you own game. There are many strategies I haven't mentioned here, either because I thought that they are not really important, took too much effort, or needed the Sphere Grid to obtain a certain ability. 1. ELEMENTAL AND STATUS EFFECTS ------------------------------- All monsters have innate strengths and weakness that can be exploited to defeat them easily. I suggest you go to a Monster Guide to find out which monsters are weak to specific types of damage. I won't go in-depth about how it works since you can find much of the info in reading the manual or tutorials in the game. What most people don't consider is status effects, which is generally more effective than elemental damage. Early in the game, Death and Stone can kill enemies instantaneously regardless of their hit points (HP). Other people may have different opinions but I think status effects are the best. Here are my opinions of what status effects I think are best based on how effective and how easily they can be obtained. 1. Petrify (Stone) 2. Blind (Darkness) 3. Slow 4. Death / Death Sentence 5. Zombie 6. Poison 7. Sleep Status effects on weapons have a modifier at the end. Touch = 50% chance that your weapon will execute the status effect, strike = 100%. This is different from the chances that the status effect will affect the monster. REMEMBER that some monsters are immune or partially immune to certain status effects (check a Monster Guide). In addition, when you attack a monster, it is a 'physical' type of attack, which some monsters are immune to. Monsters like Cactuar and Flans are partially immune to physical attacks. Usually Armor break or sometimes piercing weapons will dispel this immunity but there are other ways around it. Wakka's and Tidus's Overdrives are not physical attacks, they can circumvent any physical immunity. Anima's Pain and Ifrits Meteor Strike are also non-physical. Items damage is non-physical in nature and a Frag Grenade will easily kill a Qactuar. Item damage is independent of your characters' stats. It has a base damage amount that fluctuates slightly. For example a Grenade ALWAYS does around 340-370 damage except in the case of Trio 9999. 2. THE ART OF RUNNING AWAY -------------------------- Since my party members are weak, many times I can't fight wave after wave of monsters so I try to avoid battle. I start running away at Mi'ihen Highroad and generally avoid battle from then on. To runaway successfully, you only need one party member to escape from battle. The other two party members can be knocked out (KO), but as long as one party members escapes, it won't be Game Over. At the end of the battle the KO'd party members are revived with 1 health point. After battle, you should run to the nearest save point to recharge your party members' health or use potions and Yuna's Cure. Running away is always risky since you may get ambushed or encounter enemies with initiative. This will most likely lead to all of your party members being KO'd in one round. Your strongest and fastest party members are needed to survive battle and avoid ambushes. Having party members with high agility will increase your battle initiative, thereby reducing the chance of ambushes. I usually use Rikku, Tidus or Yuna. Auron is also needed since his HP is highest and usually he can survive two rounds. In addition, most characters will get two chances per round to escape battle, thereby increasing your chances of survival. NOTE: A 'round' is defined as the set of turns between each boss attack. Initiative is the likelihood of a party member or monster having the first turn. When you get Rikku in your party, you can start stealing items. You can usually steal twice from each monster before your chances for a successful steal decrease significantly. Since her HP is low, Rikku may only last one or two rounds in battle before she is killed. Later in the game, it becomes more difficult to survive due to monsters having higher initiative, so if you choose to use up her turn stealing, it's unlikely she's going to survive another round and be able to run away. I suggest that you steal near save points so that you can run back and forth to save and heal periodically. In addition, after each battle I don't bother healing Rikku because most monsters will kill her immediately after she steals so there is no point. NOTE: Refer to the QUICK REFERENCE section for important items to steal. If you wish to fight your way through the game I suggest you fight with Aeons and use weapons with status effects. You want to buy weapons and customize with Petrify (stone) and Death early in the game. Another good trick is to use Zombie so that you can zombie the enemy and use curative magic and potions to kill them. 2a. USE WEAPONS TO RUNAWAY -------------------------- As you progress through the game, you will encounter monsters that have higher agility than your party. This means you lose initiative and monsters have a better chance of ambushing your party. First Strike and Evade and Counter would counteract this as well as making it easier for Rikku to steal items. Two items that you want to get your hands on are Return Spheres and Teleport spheres. They give you First Strike and Evade and Counter respectively. Chocobo Feathers only give you initiative which isn't as great since your characters have low stats, thus, initiative doesn't give you much of a stat increase in speed. First Strike is extremely important since it gives you the first turn in battle and ignores ambushes and enemy initiative. Evade and Counter is not as effective but it helps early on in the game when monsters start becoming difficult. Evade and Counter isn't dependent on your evasion stat. It allows you to avoid most physical attacks over 50% of the time, meaning you can last longer in a battle. In addition, each time you evade, you do a counterattack on the enemy. 3. OVERDRIVES ------------- Before each boss battle, certain party members must fill their Overdrive meter. I consistently used Stoic mode for Overdrive Mode since it's the default mode everyone starts off with. Stoic allows the party member's Overdrive to charge when he/she takes damage. For Stoic Mode, the character's Overdrive gauge will charge a certain amount everytime he/she is attacked. The amount of charge is directly proportional to the amount of damage inflicted by the enemy and relative to your max HP. This means that if the enemy inflicts more damage, your Overdrive will charge more. However, the same amount of damage inflicted on a character with a higher max HP will not charge that character's Overdrive gauge as much. The approximate formula is OVERDRIVE % CHARGED = [ENEMY DAMAGE / (3 * MAX HP)]. Thus, the enemy must do damage cumulative to three times your max HP to fully charge your Overdrive. The amount of charge is dependent strictly on the numerical value of the attack and not on the value of HP lost, meaning that a strong attack that is 3 times your max HP will instantly charge your Overdrive completely. Usually I let one party member escape and let the monsters KO the other two party members to quickly charge up their Overdrive. Later in the game, monsters become more difficult and one hit can fully charge a party member's Overdrive. Aeons' Overdrives are slightly different. Aeons' Overdrives charge when they attack, avoid an attack, and receive damage. However, if the Aeon is KO'd, their Overdrive meter drops to zero so never let them be KO'd unless their Overdrive meter is empty. In addition, the Aeon won't be revived for a couple of battles or until you reach the next save point. My best guess is that for Aeons, OVERDRIVE % = [ENEMY DAMAGE / MAX HP]. When you Shield you get no charge. When you Boost, the enemy's damage increases by 1.5x. So instead of a Dingo doing 50 damage it does 75 damage. The good thing about Boost is even though the damage increases; the Overdrive charge has a greater increase. OVERDRIVE % = [(2 * DAMAGE BEFORE BOOST) / MAX HP], this means you get double the Overdrive gain. When an Aeon avoids an attack, it gains the same amount of charge as if it had been damaged so OVERDRIVE % = [DAMAGE AVOIDED / MAX HP]. This includes boosting, too. If you boost and avoid an attack, the OVERDRIVE % gained is double that of a normal evasion. When your Aeon attacks, its Overdrive charge is similar to your party members' Warrior Overdrive. It is based on the amount of damage you inflicted, therefore if you don't inflict any damage, Overdrive Charge = 0. OVERDRIVE % = [(5% * DAMAGE INFLICTED) / THRESHOLD DAMAGE]. Threshold damage is hard to explain but it's the damage your Aeon can supposedly inflict based on their Strength or Magic stat. I imagine there is a formula to calculate how much damage an Aeon is supposed to inflict based on their stats, unfortunately, I haven't figured out any such formula. My best estimate of Aeon attacks is the basic OVERDRIVE CHARGE ~ 5%. Bahumut and Aeons casting strong magical spells can do OVERDRIVE CHARGE ~ 10%. Bahumut is a unique Aeon that can inflict more damage than an Elemental Aeon when their stats are the same. This means Bahumut's Overdrive Charge will be greater(usually double) based on the formula above. In addition Bahumut's Specialty attack(Impulse) hits multiple targets. In that situation each monster killed is counted as a separate Overdrive Charge and Bahumut receives the sum of all the Overdrive Charges. 3a. OVERDRIVE ATTACKS --------------------- Rikku's Mix Overdrive is potentially the most powerful Overdrive in the whole game. By mixing two items together, you can get varying effects. The only problem is you must Steal from monsters so pre-planning are necessary and check a Mix FAQ to find all of Rikku's Mix Overdrives. Kimarhi uses Lancet to absorb abilities from monsters. When you gain a new ability, your Overdrive (Ronso Rage) becomes fully charged and you're able to use this newly gained ability. Stonebreath is extremely useful and necessary early in the game as well as Self-destruct. Use a Sensor Weapon to find out which monsters have learnable abilities or check a Monster FAQ. NOTE: Refer to the QUICK REFERENCE section for more info on Rikku and Kimahri Overdrives Yuna's Grand Summon is necessary early in the game since her summons are capable of doing massive damage. When Yuna uses Grand Summon, the summoned Aeon's Overdrive becomes fully charged. If the Aeon has a fully charged Overdrive before being summoned, Grand Summon allows the Aeon to perform an additional Overdrive. This means that the Aeon has Dual Overdrives, it can do two Overdrives sequentially without recharging. The difficulty comes in that there is a long recovery period after each Overdrive where the enemy can kill your Aeon (Bosses have 3 or 4 turns to attack you). In those instances you want to Summon since with Grand Summon, the Aeon would lose his second Overdrive upon death. NOTE: Ifrit, Ixion, and Shiva are elemental based Aeons; their Overdrives (not attacks) are element based. Therefore Ixion should never use its Overdrive on a Gold Element since the Gold Element would absorb Ixion's lightning Overdrive. Tidus, Lulu and Wakka have multiple attack Overdrives, which is very important with Trio 9999. Wakka can get his Attack Reel Overdrive from BlitzBall. The attack reel can do anywhere from 0 to 12 hits depending on how well you match the slots. If you have all the slots matching, the number of attacks doubles. Lulu's Fury can cast magic multiple times. As Lulu gains magical strength, it gets easier have Fury cast more hits. In a "No Sphere Grid" (NSG) game, Lulu can do up to 9 attacks. Tidus gains other Overdrives when he successfully uses his Overdrives. He can learn Slice and Dice (6 hits) after using his Overdrive 10 times. He can learn Blitz Ace (9 hits) after successfully using his Overdrive 80 times. Auron's Overdrives are only useful in limited situations. His Shooting Star is similar to Kimahri's Thrust Kick. I will eject an enemy from battle but it only works on one enemy and doesn't work on bosses. This is extremely useful for beating hard monsters to gain some quick cash or weapons. Auron has another useful Overdrive called Banishing Blade which is explained later. 4. AEONS -------- Aeons are the key to passing the early stages of the game. They possess high HP and they do high damage. The problem with Aeons is that they're generally slow so they attack once and get pelted by multiple enemies per round. The best Aeons are the ones with high HP, high agility (speed), high evasion, and high magic points (MP). They can withstand many attacks and they have a better chance of pulling off more Overdrives. Elemental Aeons also have the ability to absorb elemental attacks. For example, Ifrit get heal every time Flame Flan casts Firaga. The advantage of this is Aeons like Shiva can cast Blizzard on herself to heal during battle. The largest variable in a NSG game is your Aeons' levels. As I progressed through the game, I notice that the stats for Aeons increase throughout the game. You can level up your Aeons by having your party members fight more battles. For every 30 battles encountered, your Aeons will increase a level. You do not have to win the battle, you can run away and the results are the same. Whenever Yuna visits a temple, the stats of all the Aeons increases as well. Remember that your Aeon levels are linked. For example, if Ifrit's Overdrive does 9999 damage and you get Ixion from Djose Temple, Ixion's level doesn't start at Level 1; it starts on a similar level as Ifrit and most probably, Ixion's Overdrive will also be maxed at 9999 damage. In a NSG game I found there was no point in leveling your Aeons once their Overdrive is maxed at 9999. Trio of 9999 becomes more effect at that point. 4a. AEON ATTACKS ---------------- This strategy should be used only against slow and weaker bosses that can't kill the Aeon after it uses its Overdrive. It works well with elemental Aeons that can heal themselves like Ifrit, Ixion and Shiva. For example, I would Summon or Grand Summon Shiva and use her Overdrive. The boss attacks Shiva repeatedly, charging her Overdrive. Shiva alternates between attacking and casting blizzard (Ice) on herself to heal. When her Overdrive is full, she performs Diamond Dust again. The Boss attacks again and the cycle repeats itself until Shiva runs out of MP. I prefer to use Shiva for this kind of strategy since she has high agility (lots of turns), high evasion, and lots of MP. In a normal game I would give her haste and upgrade her health and magic stats to take on big monsters. NOTE: The Aeon's shield reduces enemy magic and physical attacks by 1/4 of its initial damage but your Overdrive meter doesn't increase. I would use shield in cases where the Boss has one major attack that the Aeon can't survive. Shield would protect my Aeon and in between these major attacks I would attack the Boss, heal the Aeon, and charge up their Overdrive meter. 4b. OPERATION SUMMON SHIELD --------------------------- Often times your characters do not have enough hit points to withstand a certain attack that would kill your party instantly. The solution to this is using Aeons. Sometimes you must sacrifice your Aeons to absorb the damage. To be able to use this strategy effectively, timing is extremely important. Your goal is to summon the Aeon just before the Boss does its big attack, so you want Yuna's turn to be just before the Boss' turn so that she can summon. For most bosses it's quite easy if Yuna gets one or more turns per round. Swap Yuna out of your party when it's her turn and swap her back in just before the boss' turn. Against fast bosses, try hasting your party members or slowing the Boss. Even against slow bosses, it makes it easier since you have more turns to do the swapping. I use this strategy with powerful bosses (ones that can kill my Aeon in one round or after the Aeon's Overdrive). I would summon an Aeon with full Overdrive and use it on the boss. After the Overdrive, the boss would attack the Aeon multiple times, killing it. For bosses that don't kill me in one round, I would Grand Summon the Aeon, use my Overdrive twice and attack the boss until I die. 4c. WHY SHOULD I SACRIFICE MY AEON? ----------------------------------- It is better to KO and sacrifice an Aeon rather than dismiss it. The benefit of doing this is three-fold. First, by choosing to use the turn to attack instead of dismissing, you will do more damage to the Boss. Secondly, the Boss' subsequent turn will be used to attack (and kill) your Aeon rather than attack your party members. Thirdly, the long recovery times that follow an Aeon's powerful attack, which leave it vulnerable to multiple attacks from the boss, do not carry over to your party once the Aeon is killed. This means that after your Aeon does an Overdrive attack on the Boss, the Boss may get 3 turns in a row while your Aeon helplessly recovers. If the Boss manages to kill the Aeon with its first turn, it does not get to use the other 2 consecutive turns against your party once the Aeon vanishes. Instead, your party members re-enter battle immediately ready to fight as it will be their turn. To understand this fully you have to understand how Aeon turn works in respect to your party members. For example look at the Battle order below. Turn1 Turn2 Turn3 Turn4 Turn5 Turn6 Turn7 Turn8 Turn9 |-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------| Party| Yuna | Boss | Auron | Tidus | Yuna | Boss | Tidus | Boss | Yuna | |-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------| Aeon | Aeon | Boss | Aeon gets 2 turns | Boss | | Boss | Aeon | |-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------| NOTE: Yuna can Summon an Aeon in Turn 1 and the Aeon will get to attack since Summoning doesn't take a turn but dismissing does. An Aeon's turn takes longer than a party member's so the Aeon has less attacks per round (Auron, Tidus, Yuna = 2 Aeon turns). In Turn 7 the Aeon doesn't even have a turn because it is too slow. Also, the Aeon's battle order mirrors you're party members' Battle Order. What is consistent is the bosses turns but the Aeon's turns are different than your party members due to the speed of the Aeon in comparison to your party members. If we were to dismiss the Aeon in Turn 5, we use up a turn and the next turn will be the Boss's, resulting in our party members getting hit. Instead, if we attack during Turn 5 and let the Boss attack the Aeon (Turn 6) and use up its turn to KO the Aeon, the Battle Order will begin with Tidus's turn and our party members have thus been shielded. Another example is if the Aeon used its Overdrive in Turn 4.5, the Boss would get two or more turns before the Aeon recovers in turn 9. If the Boss KO's the Aeon in Turn 6, the Battle Order will revert back to the party members' Battle Order and the next turn will be Tidus's. In most cases you will fight battles which allow each of you players to attack once per round (Turn 3 to Turn 6). In these situations with 5 Aeons, the Boss has no way of hitting your party members for 5 rounds and you should be able to do 5 rounds of damage since Yuna can summon (Turn 5) before the Boss has a chance to attack again. With extremely fast bosses, this strategy doesn't work well since you don't have three turns per round as seen from Turn 5 onwards. If Yuna were to Summon in Turn 5 and the Boss takes out the Aeon in Turn 6, Yuna doesn't have a chance to summon before the boss attacks again. 5. TIMING --------- Timing requires you to examine the Battle Order Window in the upper right and plan your moves ahead to maximize your turns and optimize your attack strategy. Good timing is learned through experience and is hard to teach but it is a skill you must master. Many times people have difficulty with this FAQ because their timing is off. The only suggestion I have is to practice, eventually you can see the Boss' pattern and time your attacks better. Haste and slow will grant you more turns in each round. It's important to use haste or slow in battles that take a long time or if you have few turns inbetween rounds. I don't use it much in my FAQ since I can kill most bosses in just a few turns. Each move or attack takes a certain amount of time to perform. For example, an Aeon's attack takes less time to perform than its Specialty attack (e.g. Sonic Wing). When you select a certain attack or move, you'll notice that the Battle Order changes to reflect this. Overdrives usually take around 1.5 turns when compared to a regular attack. The Battle Order Window will help you to decide what your next move should be. In addition, different party members and Aeons can perform the same action with varying speeds. For example, Rikku can use an item or change weapons faster than anyone else. Sometimes Rikku gets an extra turn after using an item, other characters can sometimes do this, too. I believe this is based on agility and therefore, Shiva, who has a high agility, is faster than Ifrit, who has low agility. Agility affects how many turns your party member or Aeon has per round. For example, Shiva usually has two turns per round vs. Ifrit, who has one. NOTE: Generally the higher the agility, the more turns you get per round. This is important in long battles but not short ones. Read TIMING EXPLAINED FOR BRASKA'S FINAL AEON for an example of timing. 5a. PATTERNS, TRIGGERS and COUNTERS ----------------------------------- Monsters and bosses usually have a pattern to their attack. For Seymour, he has two weaker attacks followed by a strong attack. We can use this to our advantage. For the first two rounds we attack Seymour regularly. For the third round we know his strong attack is coming so we summon an Aeon to absorb the damage, thereby avoiding major damage. Other monsters will Counter attack only in response to certain actions. For example, Defender X counterattacks whenever it receives physical damage, but if you use an item to attack it, it doesn't Counter. So far, the triggers I've found for Counters are physical attacks, magic attacks, elemental damage and summoning Aeons. To expand on Counters you should understand that Counters do not take up a turn. It's an automatic reaction that does not require any turns. For example, a Bomb has a Counter, which causes it to expand whenever it is attacked. If a Bomb where to attack a party member with a weapon customized with Counterattack, the Bomb would get hit from the counterattack weapon, but doesn't grow in size. The reason why is because the Counterattack didn't take a turn and doesn't register as an attack. This is different from using an item, which is an action requiring a turn. When you 'Use' an item, it isn't considered to be an attack so most monsters won't counter it. Therefore a Bomb won't grow in size if you use a Grenade. The only time I've seen a monster Counter an items attack is with Crawler since it Counters any Lightning damage. Lastly, there are certain conditions that will Trigger a boss to change its attack pattern or perform some special move. Evrae is a good example as lowering its HP to 10700 will trigger a change in its attack pattern: it casts Haste on itself and will no longer use its Photon Spray but instead uses Swooping Scythe. Usually triggers are HP dependent for bosses. An example of a non-HP trigger is for the YKT-63, which does Thrust Kick if it's the last monster, left. 6. IF YOU CAN'T BEAT 'EM, BREAK 'EM ----------------------------------- Shell and Protect are the backbone of reducing enemy damage. Shell reduces all magic (this includes Cure and Demi) by half and Protect reduces physical damage by half (this DOES NOT include item damage). Although, late into a "No Sphere Grid" (NSG) game, Shell and Protect are not really useful since bosses do incredible damage in comparison to your characters HP. Reflect is more useful but you will require a Star Curtain which isn't available until much later in the game. Reflect bounces back all magic except Ultima and Demi. Some bosses cast reflect on themselves, preventing you from using conventional magic. To counteract this, use Purifying Salt. Another tactic is to cast reflect on one of your own party members and bounce the spell off of them. A spell can only be reflected once, so bouncing it off your own party member will allow it to bypass the enemy's reflect status. The Break techniques (Power Break, Magic Break, Armor Break, Mental Break) decrease the offensive and defensive capabilities of your enemy. Magic Break and Power Break produce similar effects to Shell and Protect by reducing physical and magical damage, respectively, by half. Armor Break and Mental Break reduce the physical and magic defense of enemies. NOTE: Auron's Banishing Blade Overdrive is able to do Power Break, Magic Break and Mental Break but unfortunately, you don't get it until you collect 3 Jecht Spheres. This occurs very late in the game. Although Break techniques are great, they don't always work. Monsters may be immune or partially immune to break techniques so it may take multiple tries for a successful attack. With items like Frag Grenade (Armor Break), it works 100% of the time as long as your enemy is not immune. Item attacks are always 100% for all status effects. NOTE: By combining Break techniques, Shell, and Protect, you can reduce damage to 1/4. Defend your characters it's 1/8 for physical attacks. Aeons with Break techniques, Shell, Protect, and Shield would reduce physical and magical damage to 1/16. 7. TRIO OF 9999 --------------- Trio of 9999 is, in my opinion, the ultimate Overdrive Mix for Rikku. It makes the numerical value of ALL actions 9999. You surely know that all damage is 9999, but what most people don't mention is all healing is 9999 as well. Thus, a potion will heal for 9999 and an Al Bhed potion becomes a Super Mega Potion. Even a Phoenix down will revive your character and heal 9999 hit points. Party members with multiple hit Overdrives can do multiple 9999 damage. Tidus's Blitz Ace has 9 hits, which can do 89,991 damage. In a No Sphere Grid 'NSG' game, Lulu's Fury can potentially do up to 9 hits for a whooping 89,991 damage. Wakka's Attack Reel can potentially do 12x9999 damage but you have to get 3 slots with 2 hits. The only draw back with using Overdrives are that they pretty much just a one shot deal since it is unlikely that you will be able to recharge their Overdrives again in the same battle. This, however, is where Rikku truly shines because she can use elemental gems, which do 5 consecutive elemental attacks each. Stock up on gems (Fire, Water, Lightning and Ice Gems) and she can use one to do 49,995 damage each turn. Just make sure that the enemy doesn't absorb that particular elemental attack or else you could be healing it 49,995 HP. Once a player is KO'd, he/she loses Trio of 9999. If you had Guard or Sentinel you could protect them from physical attacks, but too bad we're not using the Sphere Grid. We have to hope that the bosses won't take out Rikku or Lulu or Tidus or Wakka before they get to use their Overdrive. +--------------------------+ | NO SPHERE GRID (NSG) FAQ | +--------------------------+ The FAQ begins in Besaid Village since there's not much you can do in the beginning and it's mostly story plot. I have placed an asterisk on what I thought was absolutely crucial to passing the game. I have written in-depth strategies for difficult bosses and wrote very little for easy bosses. The in- depth strategies begin at Sinspawn Gui which is 1/3 into the game. You can search for '***' to find key steps and 'BOSS STRATEGY' to find the step-by-step strategies for bosses. You will also notice that your Aeon may do more or less damage than the one listed in this FAQ. The Aeon stat is just there to help people get a rough idea of how much damage I was doing when I was playing my NSG. If you want to strengthen your Aeons, read the strategy section above to find out how you can increase your Aeons' stats. When listing the battles I used two forms of numbering systems. The numeric 1-3 tells you the key steps you must follow. I don't list every step since battle orders may be different but I try to be as detailed as possible. The alphabetic A,B,C tells you conditional steps where if something happens, you follow step B and so on. ---BESAID VILLAGE--- ***When you enter the temple and make sure you use the destruction sphere to find the treasure chest. Across Spira, there are six temples which contain puzzles and treasure. You must retrieve the treasure chest from each temple to get Anima, which is important later in the game. Check a GameFAQ to figure out how to get these treasure chests. After Yuna, Wakka and Lulu join your party, go back to the village and sell all your potions for money. While there, the shopkeeper will tell you that her dog found something. ***Search in one of the huts for the Dog and get the item from it. It is Energy Blast, which is the upgraded Overdrive for Valefor. This is extremely important since Valefor's second Overdrive is much more powerful than it's first, Energy Ray. Leave the village and max your overdrive for Valefor, Yuna, Wakka and Tidus. The Water Flan is the best monster to power up your Overdrive. When you reach the beach talk to people to pick up items before entering the ferry. ---S.S. LIKI--- Search the ship for items, in the passenger room there is a box that you can kick to get 20 potions. BOSS STRATEGY: SIN - 2000 HP 1. Use Yuna's Grand Summon 2. Valefor use Energy Blast (1400 damage) twice on Sin (the big fin) NOTE: You can fight Sinscale (200 HP) for extra gold. Each Sinscale gives you about 20 gil which is approximately the same as one battle in Kilika. BOSS STRATEGY: SINSPAWN ECHENILLES - 2000 HP A. Ignore the Sinscales (100HP) concentrate your attack on the Sinspawn B. Use Wakka's & Tidus's Overdrives and Wakka's Dark attack C. When either party member's HP is around 200-250, use a potion to heal. ---KILIKA--- You can search for items in the town and forest but when you go to the temple, avoid fighting Lord Ochu. If you choose to fight it and win, you get Elixirs. If attack it and run away you get 3 Phoenix Down from the Crusaders. I suggest you run for now and come back to finish him off later. ***You can Lancet Ragora to have Kimahri learn Seed Cannon. Fight Ragora and Yellow Element to charge Tidus's, Yuna's and Valefor's Overdrive. BOSS STRATEGY: SINSPAWN GENEAUX - 3000 HP A. Ignore the tentacles B. Use Tidus Overdrive (350 damage) - just in case Valefor can't kill it C. Use Yuna's Grand Summon for Valefor and use Energy Blast(1500 damage) twice ***After beating Sinspawn Geneaux, enter the temple and make sure you get the treasures within. BOSS STRATEGY: LORD OCHU - 4649 HP Lord Ochu is hard without Ifrit because our characters cannot do sufficient damage to take it out quickly but with Ifrit, it makes it a lot easier. You must have Ifrit and recharge Overdrives for Yuna, Ifrit and Valefor 1. Use Yuna's Grand Summon on Ifrit 2. Use Ifrit's Overdrive Hellfire (2300 damage) twice 3. Summon Valefor and use its Energy Blast (2000 damage) 4. Attack with Valefor's Fire Magic and Lulu's Fury ***You get either MP/HP sphere Before leaving Kilika Forest, make sure you have at least 1450 gil and Lulu's Overdrive is full. Full Overdrives for Kimahri, Tidus and Wakka is optional, but recommended. ---LUCA--- *** When you leave the locker room, search dock 4 for a HP Sphere, Magic Def Sphere, and look on other docks for chests. You will find 1600 gil. Find O'aka at the docks and buy Stunning Steel from him. It's a weapon for Tidus with Slowtouch (3050 gils). BOSS STRATEGY: OBLITZERATOR - 6000 HP This boss does hardly any damage and your characters will have an easy time. Make sure Tidus and Kimahri don't attack Oblitzerator since it counters; have them defend and heal. 1. Have Lulu cast Thunder on the crane until it starts running (takes about 3 Thunder spells). 2. Use Tidus' Trigger command to operate the crane, which deals 5000 damage. The crane will neutralize all of Oblitzerator's attacks. 3. Attack with your other players and use Lulu's Thunder Fury (? x 180 damage) to Overkill Oblitzerator. NOTE: You can use Thunder Fury in the beginning to activate the crane and immobilize the Oblitzerator but you won't get Overkill and will receive only 1 Elixir. FIGHT: SAHAGIN CHIEF - 170 HP They come in many waves it takes about two hits to kill one of them. A. When your HP is around 300, use a potion. B. Attack with everything you got but you should save your Overdrive for the third wave. FIGHT: VOUIVRE - 225 HP Auron should be able to kill it in one or two hits. FIGHT: GARUDA - 1800 HP 1. Use Wakka Dark Attack 2. Use Auron Power Break 3. Attack it regularly or with Overdrives ---MI'IHEN ROAD--- This is the area where I stop fighting monsters and start running away all the time. Talk with people along the road to pick up items. ***If you run into a bomb, let Kimahri use Lancet on it to learn Self-Destruct. You can also learn Fire Breath from Dual Horn. On the way to the inn you meet Belgemine the Summoner, she offers to duel with Aeons. If you win you get an Echo Ring. To prepare for this battle you need to recharge Valefor and Yuna Overdrive. I suggest you avoid this fight until after fighting the Chocobo Eater. When you beat the Chocobo Eater, you can get a chocobo that allows you to return without fighting monsters. OPTIONAL BOSS: IFRIT ~ 5000 HP 1. Grand Summon Valefor 2. Use Energy Blast twice (2800 damage) Charge up everyone's Overdrive before going into the inn. At the inn I suggest you buy some Maps and Grenades, buy at least two of each for later bosses. This is for Rikku's Overdrive Potato Masher and Flash Flood, which does 2600 damage and 6000 damage respectively. BOSS: CHOCOBO EATER This boss has three simple attacks. The first is a physical hit that does moderate damage (490 damage). The second is a power up attack called Fist of Fury, which takes one turn to power up. The Chocobo Eater says "You're Next" before it hits you hard (930 damage). At those times use Wakka to blind it. The third is a body slam which pushes all your members back and does moderate damage (200 damage). You can lose this battle and get pushed off the cliff. You can also push the Chocobo Eater off the cliff and you get two Level 1 Key Spheres and 90 AP as a reward. If you're not planning to push the Chocobo Eater over the cliff jump to the strategy below. To push the Chocobo Eater back you need to first knock it on its back by doing 1250 damage. Once the Chocobo Eater is on its back, it will not attack for three rounds as long as you don't attack it. This will give you time to heal your party and the Chocobo Eater. When you want to push it back, do 500 damage and the Chocobo Eater will get back on its feet. If you attack and are unable to do 500 damage before the Chocobo Eater's turn, it will just get up. If you don't do 1250 damage within one or two rounds when trying to knock the Chocobo Eater down, it will most likely Body Slam your party pushing your party back. When the Chocobo Eater is down to 1/3 it changes its attack pattern. It will do Body Slams more frequently and when it's on its back, the Chocobo Eater will counter each attack with Blizzard (250 damage). The key to pushing the Chocobo Eater off the cliff is using Valefor's Sonic Wing. Valefor is able to do five Sonic Wing attacks per round. We use the same strategy as below except we change our tactics from step 6 onwards. 6. Use Valefor's fire magic (465 damage) which pushes the Chocobo Eater back. 7. Use Sonic Wing (110 damage) continuously to push the Chocobo Eater off the cliff. At the time, my Valefor had 885 HP when I tried this strategy. I don't know how well lower Aeons fare in comparison. I suggest you start off with Tidus, Auron and Kimahri. BOSS STRATEGY: CHOCOBO EATER - 10000 HP 1. Use Tidus's Overdrive (300 damage) 2. Swap Kimarhi with Lulu and use her Fire Fury (100 x 8 = 800) 3. Use Auron's Power Break (240 damage) to knock the Chocobo Eater on its back 4. Swap Wakka in the party and use Dark Attack (90 damage) 5. Swap Yuna in and Grand Summon or Summon Valefor 6. Use Valefor's Overdrive Energy Blast (3000 damage) 7. Attack with Valefor's Overdrive and Fire magic (465 damage) until KO'd 8. Attack with your other party members Overdrives 9. Have Yuna Grand Summon or Summon Ifrit as soon as possible A. Use Ifrit's Hellfire (3100 damage) or attacks (270 damage) B. If Ifrit health is below 500, use Fire to heal itself. C. If Ifrit is KO, use your characters Overdrives. Kimahri is best: Seed shot (260 damage), Fire Breath (400 damage) and Self-Destruct (1900 damage). After this fight you get a Chocobo. In the High Road and Old Road there are there places where you can find a yellow feather. There are three feathers in total. Press X and the chocobo will reach a hidden area and open chests. ***You must find a weapon for Wakka that has Lightningstrike, which is useful later in the game. The feather is near the beginning of the Old Road where there are tall cliffs on either side. ---MUSHROOM ROCK ROAD--- Talk to the people along the road to pickup items. When you reach the command center O'aka has a good weapon, T.K.O, which has Stonetouch, which costs 10100. If you're planning to fight tougher monsters instead of running, I suggest you get it. If you planning to run from all battles, don't get it. In addition make sure all the Aeons and party members Overdrives are full before entering the Command Center. BOSS: SINSPAWN GUI This boss is the first real boss in my opinion. From now on, the bosses get tougher. Sinspawn Gui has 2 arms, 1 head and 1 body. Most of our characters cannot do major damage to Sinspawn Gui, so it's better to rely on our Aeons. Be careful of the head since it can do major damage and is the greatest threat to the Aeons. The arms can be taken out with an Aeon Overdrive and the body does moderate damage. The goal of this strategy is destroy the head, then aim for the body since the Arms regenerate. This battle isn't necessarily hard, it's just long and requires some timing so I suggest you start off with Tidus, Wakka and Yuna. BOSS STRATEGY: SINSPAWN GUI - 12000 HP (Body), 4000 HP (Head), 800 HP (Arms) 1. Tidus starts first, swap Auron in to do Power Break on the Body. 2. Summon Valefor and attack the head until you're about to die. 3. When you're about to die use Valefor's Overdrive Energy Blast (1500-2000 damage). 4. Use you party member's Overdrives on the Body until it's Yuna's turn. 5. Summon Ifrit and attack the head until you're about to die. Remember that you can use Fire to heal Ifrit when its HP is low. 6. When you're about to die use Ifrit's Overdrive Hellfire (1500-2000 damage) A. Hopefully the head is now gone but if it isn't then attack with Wakka and Lulu until it is. 7. Make sure you have Tidus, Auron, and Lulu in your party. 8. Use their Overdrives on the body. 9. Have Lulu cast spells on the body while Tidus and Auron attack the arms but make sure to use Phoenix Downs whenever someone gets killed. B. As soon as someone's Overdrive is full use it on the body. C. If Sinspawn Gui has less than 2000 HP use Kimahri's Self-Destruct (1900 damage). BOSS: SINSPAWN GUI - 6000 HP (Body) There is no real strategy, this boss is fairly easy with Seymour. Have Seymour cast Magic on the head, then the body. Have Auron use Power Break and Yuna heal your characters. This battle is very easy and you get Level 1 Key Spheres after the battle. ---DJOSE ROAD--- ***Use Kimahri's Lancet on Basilisk to learn Stone Breath. Talk to people on the road and search the sides for items. When you will reach your third temple, make sure you get the treasure within by using the destruction sphere. ***Once you start travelling to Moonflow, on the side of the road there are small narrow paths leading to chests containing Level 1 Key Spheres & a Magic Def Sphere; pick them up. Try to steal a Poison Fang from Bite Bug but it isn't really necessary that you steal any. Most often you'll get Antidotes since Poison Fangs are rare. When you almost reach Moonflow, you find Belgemine the Summoner again and she offers a duel again. Regardless of the outcome you get Summoner's Soul which allow your Aeons to learn Abilities. OPTIONAL BOSS: IXION 1. Grand Summon Valefor 2. Use Energy Blast twice 3. Use Ifrit's Hellfire if needed ---MOONFLOW--- Before you get onto the Shoofpuf equip Stunning Steel on Tidus and Scout with Lightningstrike on Wakka. I suggest charging Wakka's and Tidus's Overdrive but it's really not necessary. BOSS: EXTRACTOR This boss is hard without proper weapons and weak characters. This boss is fought underwater so only Tidus and Wakka can fight. It has an Aqua Shoot attack, which does 200 damage. After three rounds it charges up for Depth Charges that does 360 damage and blinds both Wakka and Tidus. In addition it continues attacking with Depth Charges until you deal 500 damage, which can only be achieved with Overdrives. Unless you have lots of high potions, it's not recommended to fight it without Tidus's Stunning Steel (Slowtouch) and Wakka's Scout (Lightningstrike). BOSS STRATEGY: EXTRACTOR - 4000 HP By slowing the Extractor you get four turns in between each depth charge attack, which is enough to do 500 points of damage. 1. Attack with Tidus(130 damage) and Wakka(170 damage) and hopefully you can slow the boss before it prepares the depth charges. A. When the boss is readying the Depth Charges, continuously attack the boss until it goes back down. Disregard healing and make sure you can deal 500 points of damage before the bosses next turn, if not, use your Overdrive. B. Heal your characters with Potions if the have around 300 HP or less and the boss is attacking you with Aqua Shooter. After the battle you will meet Rikku and there is a tutorial on how to mix items. Mix two potions together instead, save the Bomb Core for later use. In random battle, chests appear which usually contain Mega Potions, stick around to pick up a couple if you want but again it's not necessary. NOTE: Rikku is now in your party so you can now mix the powerful Trio 9999 but you will need ingredients before you do that. You can win Dark Matter in BlitzBall Tournaments. This is an alternative strategy for people who find the following bosses difficult but you really don't need to get Dark Matter. ---GUADOSALAM--- ***Make you get the Lightning Marbles on the path that leads to the Farplane. The chest is kind of hidden behind the left wall. ---THUNDERS PLAINS--- Most of the monsters here have Lightning based attacks. Ixion is your friend when traveling through the Thunder Planes. It'll absorb pretty much every attack. When you reach Rin's Travel Agency pick up the Yellow Shield lying on the path. Equip the Lightingproof shield on Tidus which completely nullifies lightning attacks. The Thunders Plains is also a good place to steal items. Most of these items are optional but are very helpful against tough monster battles. When you run into a rock with a glowing Cactaur, hit square to release it. Cactuars will appear on the plain allowing you to steal Chocobo Feathers. Steal Lunar Curtain from Larvae Steal Light Curtain from Iron Giant Steal Chocobo Feathers from Qactuar Steal Electro Marble from Aerouge and Gold Element ***You must have two Electro Marbles for the fight against Spherimorph ---MACALANIA--- ***Use Kimahri's Lancet on Chimera to learn Aqua Breath. You will find O'aka at the end of one of the paths. You must buy Sonic Steel (9075 gils) from him, which will give Tidus First Strike. In future battles, it gets difficult to run away and you should equip Tidus with First Strike from now on. If you can't afford Sonic Steel you can buy it later. Charge up Kimahri's, Rikku's, Yuna's and Valefor's Overdrive. BOSS: SPHERIMORPH Spherimorph's has two attacks, a physical attack which does 250 damage, and Press. Press affects all your party members and reduces their HP by half. In addition, Spherimorph is partially immune to physical attacks and absorbs elemental attacks as well. At any given time Spherimorph will take on a characteristics of one element. For example, Spherimorph may take on Fire characteristics. It will then absorb all elemental attacks except for Ice since Ice is the counter element of Fire. Once you do ice damage to Spherimorph will counter with Elemental Shift and change its characteristic element. To determine Spherimorph's characteristic element you must attack it. Spherimorph will then counter with elemental magic thereby revealing its elemental. If your attack is elemental in nature and Spherimorph absorbs it, it will counter with elemental magic on your whole party. For example, if you use an Electro Marble on Spherimorph and it absorbs it, it counters with Fire magic on all your party members. This reveals that Spherimorph is in Fire Mode and can only be hurt by Ice damage or physical damage. I suggest starting off with Rikku, Yuna and Auron and equip non-elemental weapons. BOSS STRATEGY: SPHERIMORPH - 12000 HP 1. Grand Summon Valefor and use Energy Blast twice (5500 damage) 2. Attack until Valefor is KO'd A. Physically attack Spherimorph if you don't know its elemental mode. B. If the Boss' HP is high, Counter Spherimorph with the appropriate elemental attack. Ifrit's Hellfire (3800 Fire damage) Ixion's Thor Hammer (3800 Lightning damage) Afterwards continue attack with regular attacks and healing with magic. or SPHERIMORPH RIKKU's OVERDRIVE Fire Ice Fall (ANTARCTIC WIND x 2, 6 x 1000 damage) Ice Burning Soul (BOMB CORE + LEVEL 1 KEY SPHERE,6 x 1000 damage) Lightning Flash Flood (GRENADES x 2, 6 x 1000 damage) Water Rolling Thunder(ELECTRO MARBLES x 2, 6 x 1000 damage) NOTE: If you don't have the necessary ingredients for Mix, use Lulu's Fury or magic to force an elemental Shift or check a Mix FAQ for alternatives. C. If the Boss' HP is low use Kimahri's Overdrive Self Destruct (1900 damage) ***You gain Level 2 Key Spheres, and later, you gain Auron's Shooting Star Overdrive. ---MACALANIA SNOWFIELD--- ***When you reach the inn you must get 4 maps. They will be essential in boss fights ahead. I also suggest you stock up on 99 potions and a few Phoenix Downs and Hi Potions since this is the last time you'll be able to pick up items for a while. If your Aeons are weak, pick up lots of Grenades and Phoenix Downs and if you didn't buy Sonic Steel (First Strike) before, buy it now. You can earn money buy fighting with Yuna and her Aeons to kill the monsters. When you fight to gain items, don't move on to explore the next screen, stay within the screen near the inn. Steal Arctic Wind from the Ice Flan. Steal Sleeping Powder from the Snow Wolf ***For Rikku, Kimahri and Yuna you need armor with either SOS NullFrost or Iceproof. You can customize Armor with Iceproof using the Arctic Wind you have stolen. You must ensure that both Rikku and Yuna have Iceproof Armor. Kimahri is optional but make sure he has a Seeker's Armor with 10% HP Bonus and a slot. Before leaving the area make sure you have at least 1 Arctic Wind and 4 Sleeping Powders. Do not equip weapons with Lightning Strike since the next boss counterattacks all Lightning based attacks with Assault (~980 damage). Charge up Kimahri's, Rikku's, Yuna's and all the Aeons' Overdrives for the next battle. NOTE: This is one of the last times you can play Blitzball before the Calm Lands. If you are planning to get any items from the Blitz games do it now. You can win Return Sphere for First Strike and Dark Matter for Trio 9999. BOSS: CRAWLER This battle is crucial because after the battle, Yuna is unable to charge up her Overdrives and later on you will have to fight Seymour. Therefore the goal of this battle is to save your Aeons' strength, especially Valefor, and don't use Yuna's Grand Summon. The Crawler has two different attack patterns, when the Negator is up, it only attacks with Gattling Gun (multiple attacks on party) and Assault (counterattack). Assault (760 damage) will always counter any Lightning damage and will most likely KO your party members. If you destroy the Negator, the Crawler will still use Assault but won't use Gattling Gun. Instead it charges for 3 rounds, then unleashes Mana Beam which hurts every party member. Ideally you want to take out Negator as fast as possible. The Negator prevents Yuna from summoning and Lulu from casting magic. I suggest starting off with Tidus, Rikku and Kimahri. BOSS STRATEGY: CRAWLER - 16000 HP 1. Have Rikku use an Electro Marble (560 damage) or Grenade (340 damage) 2. Wakka attacks the Negator (110 damage) 3. Have Kimahri use Seed Shot on the Negator (310 damage) 4. Keep attacking the Negator until it goes down. 5. Use Rikku's Mix Lightning Bolt (LIGHTNING MARBLE + LEVEL 2 KEY SPHERE, ~1325 x 9 damage) 6. Swap Yuna into the party and Summon Ixion (not Grand Summon) 7. Use Ixion's Overdrive (5800 damage) A. If it's still not dead, use Lulu's Lightning Fury, Kimahri's Self Destruct, and Lightning Marbles and Electro Marbles. After the battle, you should get two Elixirs for an Overkill. You can get four Elixirs if you use up all your Aeons' Overdrives but I don't suggest it. ---MACALANIA TEMPLE--- After the battle you end up at Macalania Temple. Save first, then charge up everyone's Overdrive in Macalania Snowfield. The next boss may be easy or hard depending how well you've prepared. This is a long battle with 3 stages. BOSS: SEYMOUR In the first stage Seymour cast strong elemental magic which will instantly kill most of your party members. Seymour cycles through his spells in a predictable order. Use Sensor weapons to find out. His two guards may cast weaker spells or heal Seymour. Anima is called when you do over 3000 damage to Seymour; you don't have to do 6000 damage. Anima alternates between attacking with Pain and boosting its Overdrive which gives you time to heal. When you see Anima's Overdrive almost full, you should try to shield its Oblivion Overdrive. Remember that Pain does not recharge your Overdrive. After Anima is defeated, Seymour comes back, but this time he casts twice as many spells making him doubly difficult. Some strategies that might be used include Kimahri's Stone Breath, which can easily take care of the guards. Mega Null-All will protect your characters from these damaging spells. If you cast Mega Null-All in the first stage, it will still be active in the last stage. Equip Tidus with Stunning Steel and equip all your party members with elemental proof armor, preferably Iceproof Armor. Hopefully, your party members will have initiative to attack after the Guards cast Protect and Seymour casts Shell. You will start off with Yuna, Tidus and Kimahri. BOSS STRATEGY: SEYMOUR - 6000 HP 1. If it's Tidus turn, Talk to Seymour to power up his attack 2. Have Yuna Summon Valefor and use it's Overdrive Energy Blast to take out the guards and Seymour BOSS STRATEGY: ANIMA - 18000 HP When Anima comes, Valefor should die since it will get attacked during the recovery time from its overdrive. 1. Have Yuna Grand Summon Shiva A. If Shiva is at full health and can't use Overdrive, attack Anima normally B. If Shiva's health is around 800 HP cast Blizzard to heal herself C. If Shiva's health is around 400 HP cast Blizzara to heal herself D. If Shiva's Overdrive meter is full, make sure your health is full before using Diamond Dust. If it isn't full, heal until it is. 2. If Shiva dies, summon Ixion and repeat the same pattern above. If Ixion dies then use Ifrit etc. 3. If all of your Aeons are KO'd, use Overdrives, Lulu's magic, Tidus' attacks (500-800 damage), and Rikku to revive or use Grenades (360 damage). BOSS: SEYMOUR 6000 HP Once Anima is defeated, Seymour will counter and most probably kill your Aeon 1. Swap Rikku into the party and Mix Chaos Grenade (SLEEPING POWDER + MP SPHERE, 7000 damage) ***After the battle you get Black Magic spheres. In addition, it's another temple puzzle so get the third hidden treasure chest. When you finish the temple puzzle, you are expected to escape from the temple. ---MACALANIA SNOWFIELD--- Save near O'aka. Make sure Tidus's First Strike weapon is equipped and start running away. At the next save point, start charging up Rikku's and the Aeon's Overdrives. BOSS: WENDIGO This Boss is extremely easy when he's blinded and asleep, it's hard to lose this battle with all your Aeons. With Wendigo, if you have high evasion, many times his punches miss completely. I suggest you start out with Tidus equipped with Sonic Steel, Yuna and Auron. Wendigo has initiative and will kill one of your characters before your turn starts. BOSS STRATEGY: WENDIGO - 18000 HP 1. Swap Rikku in and use Sleep Powder OR her Overdrive Calamity Bomb (LEVEL 1 KEY SPHERE + SLEEP POWDER 3600 damage) to Blind, Power Break and put Wendigo to sleep. 2. Have Yuna Grand Summon Shiva and use her Overdrive (5900 damage). A. Keep on attacking with specialty attacks (Heavenly Strike) and Overdrive until she dies. B. Use Wakka's Dark Attack if you have a turn before Yuna can summon C. If Shiva is KO'd, use Ifrit(4000 damage) or Valefor (6000 damage) or Ixion (4000 damage) and repeat steps 2 and A. ---SANUBIA DESERT--- I found it hard to run away from all the monsters, so I hope you have an ample supply of potions and Sonic Steel for Tidus. Try to avoid using Hi Potions and Al Bhed Potions since they become useful later. Good items to pick up are Al Bhed Potions and Chocobo Wings but they're optional. It's strongly recommended you get one rare Chocobo Wing which can be stolen from Cactuars near the Sandstorm area (the desert near Home). Steal Smoke Bomb from Alcyone Steal Smoke Bombs from Zuu Steal Al Bhed Potions from Mech Gunner Steal Chocobo Feather/Wing from Cactuar ***Smoke Bombs are most important and you should steal as many Smoke Bombs as you can, get at least 10. If you're planning to steal a lot of bombs, read further on about how to obtain Teleport Spheres and come back to steal. In addition, if you haven't learned Tidus' Slice and Dice yet, learn it now by successfully doing 10 Spiral Cut Overdrives. Try to get as many Smoke Bombs as you can from Zuus, who will give you three bombs every time. They are most commonly found in the small area left of the third save point, where you find Al Bhed Primer Vol. XVII. In the same area, there is an Elixir to the bottom left of the screen. In your inventory, you should have 5 Elixirs in total. For Kimahri, you can customize his Seeker Armlet with 5 elixirs to get +20%HP to increase his Self-Destruct damage. This is not really necessary, but is strongly suggested. FIGHT: SANDRAGORA - 12750 HP Just before you enter Home, this plant blocks your path. Hopefully you've been practicing Auron's Overdrive Shooting Star, with it you literally blow Sandragora away. If you fail, you can use Kimahri's Stone Breath, Rikku's Hazardous Shell (SMOKE BOMB x2, Poison and Sleep) or use Lulu's Fire Fury. You can go back and fight the other Sandragora to get Teleport Spheres in a chest. Use those spheres to customize your armor with Evade and Counter, which helps you from getting hit and makes it easier to steal. I suggest you customize Rikku's and Auron's armor since they were my main party members. ---HOME--- You should also charge up Auron's, Rikku's and Kimahri's Overdrive before you enter Home. This part is hard, the monsters are tough and many times they have initiative. That means before your turn comes up, they pelt you to death. You must have Tidus equipped with Sonic Steel in your party. This will allow you to swap Tidus with Rikku or Kimahri in the beginning of the turn. After each battle I suggest you save. The key to beating all these monsters is using Kimahri's Stone Breath but you need to recharge it every time and that is troublesome. FIGHT: BOMBS - 2200 HP Use Rikku's Overdrive Potato Masher (MAP+MAP 2600 damage) Go save and recharge her Overdrive FIGHT: DUAL HORNS - 3795 HP Swap in Kimahri and use his Overdrive Stone Breath After the battle heal your characters and run from all battles until you reach the save point. From the save point, you have the choice of entering the rooms and picking up items. There is good stuff in there if you were planning to use the Sphere Grid or obtain all the Al Bhed books, it's up to you if you want to pick them up or not, but I didn't. Anyway, make sure Kimahri's Overdrive is always full. Leave through the door near the save point. FIGHT: CHIMERA - 9000 HP Use Kimahri's Overdrive Stone Breath. ***Make sure you pick up the chest with the Level 4 Key Sphere. ---AIRSHIP--- Once you are on the Airship it takes time to prepare for the upcoming battles ahead. This is a good place to customize all your weapons and armor. If you don't have any armor with slot(s) to customize abilities, you can buy Seeker Armor from Rin that gives you a 10%HP and a slot. ***On the screen where you find Isaaru the Summoner, you can find a lot of Bombs here. Steal 8 Bomb Core and Customize Rikku's Armor with Fireproof. Once Rikku gets Fireproof, she can easily steal 4 Bomb Cores per battle. Steal another 16 Bomb Core for Tidus's and Auron's Armor. Get 10 more for battles, giving a total of 34. It shouldn't take more than 10 fights to do. ***Before you fight the boss Evrae, make sure that you have weapons with empty slot(s) for Yuna, Rikku, Lulu and Auron. Rikku should also have one armor with slot(s). ***SPECIAL NOTE: For those who played a earlier game of FFX, you should go to your last game and collect all the Al Bhed Primers from the previous game and save at a Compilation Sphere. Now in this NSG game, when you go to the Compilation Sphere on the Airship, it will give all the Al Bhed Primers from other saved games. This way, you can talk to Rin to get 99 Underdog Secrets. When Rikku Mixes two Underdog Secrets, it mixes Sunburst (19998 damage). BOSS: EVRAE This is the hardest battle I've run into so far. You don't have Yuna's Aeons so you must rely on Rikku and your other party members. Make sure you've equipped your new armor and everyone's Overdrive is full. Evrae is extremely fast and has lots of hit points. We don't have Yuna and our characters cannot do much damage so it's a long and drawn out battle. Unless you have ingredients for Sunburst, Trio 9999 or Quartet 9999, this will be a difficult battle. If you have Underdog Secret, follow the strategy listed, otherwise read EVRAE STRATEGY to see a full listing of Evrae's attacks and the strategy to beat it without Underdog Secret. Equip Tidus with Sonic Steel (First Strike). Start off with Tidus, Wakka and Lulu. BOSS STRATEGY: EVRAE - 32000 HP 1. Swap Tidus with Rikku and use a Smoke Bomb 2. Swap Wakka with Tidus 3. Rikku Mix Trio 9999 (UNDERDOG SECRET + LEVEL 4 KEY SPHERE) 4. Use Tidus or Lulu's Overdrive ---BEVELLE--- Once the FMV is over, make sure that you equip your party members with the Fireproof Armor you created earlier. Your party should consist of Tidus, Auron and Rikku, all three with Fireproof Armor. Without Fireproof, only Auron would be able to survive their onslaught. The enemies that you fight will have initiative and you can't escape from battle. FIGHT: WARRIOR MONKS - 1400 HP This fight has two monks with Bayonets and one monk with a Flamethrower. Use Smoke Bomb once (700 damage) to blind the monks with Bayonets. Kill both of the monks with Bayonets but don't kill the monk with the Flamethrower. ***Unequip Rikku's Fireproof armor and let the monk refill her Overdrive. This is very important since you need her Overdrive later. Lastly kill off the last monk with your other two players. Heal your characters after each battle and re-equip Rikku's Fireproof armor. An alternative strategy is to use Kimahri's Stone Breath which will instantly kill all the monks. FIGHT: YKT-63 - 4200 HP Use a Smoke Bomb (700 damage), then two Bomb Cores (1400 damage) on YKT-63 and lastly a Smoke Bomb to kill everyone. If for some reason you do take out the Monks before taking out YKT-63, use Auron's Shooting Star Overdrive on YKT-63. NOTE: This is the most efficient way to kill these guards. If you kill all the Warrior Monks before you kill YKT-63, YKT-63 will start doing Thrust Kick and will knock your players out of battle. Kimahri can use Lancet to learn Thrust Kick. FIGHT: WARRIOR MONKS - 1400 HP Use two Smoke Bombs (700 damage) FIGHT: YKT-63 - 4200 HP Use a Smoke Bomb (700 damage), then two Bomb Cores (1400 damage) on YKT-63, followed by another Smoke Bomb FIGHT: YAT-99 - 2700 HP Use Rikku's Overdrive Potato Masher (MAP + MAP 2600 damage), and follow it up with your other characters' Overdrives or attacks. YAT-99 is extremely dangerous, it does 750 damage on all your characters, but luckily, it doesn't have initiative most of the time. If for some reason YAT-99 doesn't die, you can use Auron's Shooting Star to blow it away. ***After this battle you will go on to the temple. Make sure you pick up the temple's treasure using the destruction sphere. ---VIA PURIFICO--- You start off with Yuna initially but you can find Lulu, Auron and Kimahri as you search the map. I suggest you find them since it makes running away easier but they're not necessary to pass this area. You can search for items but make sure Yuna's and her Aeon's Overdrives are charged before you face the next fight. For Kimahri, equip any NullFrost or Iceproof armor if he has any. FIGHT: MAZE LARVAE - 2222 HP Have Yuna summon Bahumut and attack, the Maze Larvae does insignificant damage since its attack damage is based on your characters' stats. You will have to fight the Maze Larvae two or three times before you reach the next boss. You will meet Isaaru and Yuna will be forced into a Summoner's Duel. Isaaru's Aeons have high hit points but does relatively small damage in comparison to your Aeons. This Duel should be extremely easy so don't waste all your Aeons' Overdrives. ***Save at least one Aeon's Overdrive (not including Bahumut). You'll need it later when you fight the next boss. BOSS: GROTHIA / IFRIT - 8000 HP Summon Ixion and do its Overdrive Thor's Hammer (9800 damage) BOSS: PTERYA / VALEFOR - 12000 HP Summon Bahumut and use it Overdrive Mega Flare (7800 damage), and then attack (1400 damage) BOSS: SPATHI / BAHUMUT - 20000 HP Grand Summon Shiva and shield against Mega Flare. Use Shiva's Overdrive Diamond Dust twice and continue healing and attacking. If Bahumut is still not dead, attack with Ixion. ---WATERY VIA PURIFICO--- BOSS: EVRAE ALTANA - 16,384 HP This boss has initiative and will kill one of you characters so equip Sonic Steel. He also has a tendency to stone characters so equip any Stone armor if you have it. I suggest you steal Water Gems from Evrae Altana if Rikku and Wakka are still alive after Tidus's turn. 1. Have Wakka and Tidus use Phoenix Down (8192 damage) Evrae Altana is undead so curative magic damages him (X-potions and Elixirs do 9999 damage) ---HIGH BRIDGE--- This area is full of tough monsters, even for your Aeons. It's extremely difficult to charge up Aeons' Overdrives but before you continue you must have at least one Aeon with full Overdrive and Yuna's Grand Summon Overdrive. You must charge up Rikku's Overdrive as well. If you need to charge your Aeon's Overdrive, use Auron Shooting Star and Kimahri's Thrust Kick or Stone Breath to take out two enemies. Then recharge your Aeon's Overdrive. BOSS: SEYMOUR NATAE / MORTIBODY This boss is relatively easy but it still takes some luck since Seymour has several attacks, which can neutralize your party members. He has his elemental magic, Break that petrifies your party members, and Flare which does mega damage on one character. Seymour also has a shield called Mortibody that has two attacks. Shattering claw (320 damage) and Desparado (~500 damage), which hurts everyone. When Seymour's HP gets low, Mortibody casts Cura on Seymour. Poisoning Seymour will counteract any healing Cura does. Initially, Seymour starts off with his elemental magic Blizzard that hurts everyone (350 damage). Blizzara immediately follows this and does 1700 damage to two of your party members. If you don't attack Seymour, he will continue with his elemental attacks. If you damage him, his next attack is probably a Break attack that will petrify one of your party members. This could be followed with Mortibody's Shattering Claw, which would shatter your party member. The most effective attacks are Rikku's Overdrive, Poison, and Yuna's Summons. When Yuna summons a Aeon, the Aeon only has one turn before Seymour will 'Banish' or dismiss the Aeon out of the battle. Banish is a counter, not a turn, so after the Aeon is Banished, we resume the same Battle Order as before. If the Battle Order was Yuna then Rikku; Yuna would summon, the Aeon gets Banished and then it would be Rikku's turn. Armed with this knowledge, the battle plan is to equip Rikku and Yuna with Iceproof or NullFrost Armor. Make sure Yuna has either two Aeons with full Overdrive or one Aeon and a Grand Summon Overdrive. Rikku must have her Overdrive full as well and you must equip Tidus with Sonic Steel. BOSS STRATEGY: SEYMOUR NATAE 36000 HP / MORTIBODY - 4000 HP 1. Swap Rikku in and Mix her Sunburst (UNDERDOG SECRET x2, 19998 damage) OR Chaos Bomb Overdrive (SLEEPING POWDER + HP SPHERE 7000 damage). Mortibody will do an additional 4000. Seymour will cast Blizzard and Multi-Blizzara. 2. Have Yuna Summon an Aeon with Overdrive, probably Valefor and use its Overdrive (9999 damage). Mortibody will do an additional 3000 damage. 3. Hopefully, Mortibody will do Shattering Claw and you can use Rikku to steal, revive or heal. 4. If you're lucky and Yuna isn't KO'd, finish it off with another Aeon Overdrive, probably Ifrit's Hellfire (9999 damage). Mortibody will do an additional 2000 damage killing Seymour. 5. If Seymour is still not dead, you can Grand Summon another Aeon to finish him off or use Rikku's Items or Kimahri's Self Destruct. NOTE: I avoided using Bahumut since its Overdrive only did ~8200 damage while the other Aeons had 9999 damage. Bahumut's stats are generally lower than any of your other Aeons, therefore its Overdrive is also weaker. You should check if Bahumut does more than 9999 damage, if it does, you should use it instead. ---CALM LANDS--- The monsters have high initiative so I don't suggest you steal from them until you reach a save point. Steal Fire Gems from Flame Flan Steal Ice Gems and Lightning Gems from Chimera Brain Near the save point you will find Belgemine the Summoner again. If you win this time, you will get Aeon's Soul, which allows you to increase Aeon stats using power, ability, mana and speed spheres. OPTIONAL BOSS: SHIVA 1. Grand Summon Aeon 2. Use Aeon's Overdrive twice 3. Use Other Aeons if needed Travel to the top left of the Calm Lands and you can find Marlboro's here. Kimahri can Lancet Bad Breath but that's optional. I wouldn't try to get it until after I got a Chocobo and saved. ***You will also find a Chocobo Trainer here, train a Chocobo so you can ride it. Travel with your new Chocobo to the bottom right of the Calm Lands (to the right of where you entered the Calm Lands). You should see a Chocobo Feather near the cliff, hit X when you are near it and you'll go to a hidden ledge. Head to the top right to reach Remiem Temple. ---REMIEM TEMPLE--- There are two areas here, a Chocobo race along the sides and a Temple where you fight Aeons. Chocobo Racing -------------- The rules are simple but to obtain the prizes, you must open the chests without touching the poles and win the race. The time that you must beat varies between 30 seconds to 45 seconds at 5-second intervals. So your opponent finishes the race at 30, 35, 40 or 45 seconds. If you consistently lose races, often times the next time you race, you will get 45 seconds, so keep trying. Here is a list of the initial prizes you get. Cloudy Mirror 1 chest MegaElixir 2 chests Wings of Discovery 3 chests Pendulum 4 chests Three Stars 5 chests ***You must get the Wings of Discovery to Mix Trio 9999. It is also strongly suggested that you get Pendulums as well to customize Master Thief for Rikku's armor. Read a Chocobo Racing FAQ to help you find the easiest ways of winning. NOTE: You don't need Wings of Discovery to Mix Trio 9999; an alterative is to capture monsters from two areas for the Monster Arena. This unlocks Earth Eater, which you can steal Gambler's Spirit from but this is too costly and time consuming. (2 Gambler's Spirit = Trio 9999). Another method is to win Dark Matter from BlitzBall, which is also time consuming. From now on, most of the bosses are easy with Trio 9999. With Trio 9999, the ideal party consists of Tidus, Lulu and Rikku due to the nature of their Overdrives. Their Overdrives can do multiple hits so Tidus with his Slice and Dice can do 6 x 9999 damage and Lulu can do up to 9 x 9999 elemental damage. Rikku and elemental gems do 5 x 9999 elemental damage. ***NOTE: I have found the best way to use Lulu Overdrive is to firmly hold the center of the controller with one hand and use the palm of you other hand to rotate the stick. You must be able to do 8 rotations consistently for Trio 9999 to be effective. If you are unable to do 8 rotations, I suggest you play Blitzball to get Wakka's Attack Reels Overdrive. Attack Reels can potentially do 12 x 9999 damage if you match all the slots. From now on I will use Lulu in all my strategies but remember that you must substitute Lulu with Wakka if you choose to use Attack Reels. Aeon Arena ---------- Within the temple you can find Belgemine and you can Duel with her to win prizes. You can also win Aeon Soul and Aeon Summoner if you didn't battle with her earlier. The first time you fight, you get one set of prizes, which is the good stuff. Afterwards if you repeatedly fight again, you get lesser prizes. Most of these Aeons can be defeated with two Overdrives in succession. Prizes for defeating Aeons the first time. Valefor - 8 Lightning Gem & Aeon Soul(Abilities) Ifrit - 30 X-potion & Aeon Summoner(Attributes) Ixion - 10 Chocobo Feathers Shiva - 60 Mega Potions Bahumut - Flower Scepter Yojimbo - 8 Shadow Gem Anima - 60 Stamina Spring Magus Sisters - 40 Shining Gems You should fight Valefor and Ifrit for the gems and X-potion, the rest are not necessary. The basic strategy is to Grand Summon and use two Overdrives. Bahumut is best for this task because of its Break Damage ability. If you can't beat them now, you can return later when you get Anima. If you get the Magus Sisters, make sure you get the 40 Shining Gems which is useful later. Charge up Rikku's, Lulu's, and Tidus's Overdrives. BOSS: DEFENDER X This boss has high magic and physical defense. He's incredibly strong and immune to Power Break. Luckily, all his attacks only affect one character at a time and it can be blinded. Defender X is difficult for most people because it counters any physical attacks. It doesn't Counter item or magic attacks. In addition, its a deadly attack, Haymaker, isn't effected by darkness. Unfortunately, it has initiative and usually kills one of your characters in the beginning so equip Sonic Steel. Start off with Tidus, Yuna and Lulu. BOSS: DEFENDER X - 65000 HP 1. Swap in Rikku and use Smoke bomb to blind Defender X 2. Defend your party members and swap Yuna with Tidus. 3. Use Rikku's Mix Trio 9999 (WINGS OF DISCOVERY x 2) 4. Use Tidus's Slice and Dice and or Lulu's Fury 5. If he's still not dead, just attack it to finish it off or use Aeons. NOTE: If you steal from and Overkill Defender X, you get four Level 2 Key Spheres vs two. ---MOUNT GAGAZET--- You should recharge Kimahri's Overdrive before entering Mt. Gagazet. Here he has to face Biran and Yenke. Their HP and attacks are based on Kimahri's stats. Therefore if Kimahri's weak, Biran and Yenke are also weak. This battle is long but easy. BOSS: BIRAN / YENKE Biran and Yenke do hardly any damage, if you have plenty of potions, you should be in no danger of being KO'd. The difficulty comes in that their HP is high and your attacks are weak so the battle is long and drawn out. These damage stats are based on Kimahri having weapons with no modifiers. You should equip +Str weapons or +Magic weapons to increase the damage. Lancet = 55 damage Attack = 120 60 against Mighty Guard Jump = 250 Aqua Breath = 300 Biran's and Yenke's attacks are pretty basic except for Bulldoze. When one of the Ronsos does Bulldoze, they separate from each other and you may have Biran in front of you while Yenke is behind you. In certain situations, you must use this to your advantage. The key to doing significant damage is to use your Ronso Rage. Remember that when you learn a new ability, Kimahri's Overdrive becomes fully charged. Both Biran and Yenke have tonnes of abilities for Kimahri to learn. Yenke Ronso: Fire Breath, Stone Breath, Aqua Breath, And White Wind Biran Ronso: Thrust Kick, Doom, Mighty Guard and Self-Destruct White Wind or Mighty Guard cannot be learned through Lancet until either Yenke or Biran has less than 50% HP. When their HP drops below 50%, they counter with either Mighty Guard or White Wind. Be wary since these abilities are party affect abilities that could either fully heal or protect Biran and Yenke, therefore if they are standing together and you see that one of the Ronsos is close to 50% of his health, wait until they're separated before you attack. This way, the defensive spell will only affect on of them. Finally, if you KO one of the Ronso brothers, the other will power up. Biran will cast Berserk on himself which causes him to do double damage. Yenke will cast haste on himself, so Yenke will double his turn. I prefer to leave Yenke for last since he doesn't have Mighty Guard and his HP is lower, it's up to you. BOSS STRATEGY: BIRAN - 1.75 x Kimarhi's MAX HP/YENKE - 1.33 x Kimahri's MAX HP There is no right strategy but I suggest you start off with this pattern so that you don't accidentally cause them to use White Wind or Mighty Guard while they're together. 1. Use Aqua Breath(300) on both of them 2. Use Lancet on Biran to learn Doom, which fills up Kimahri's Overdrive 3. Heal and wait till one of them uses Bulldoze 4. Attack Yenke twice when he's alone so he uses White Wind to heal himself. 5. Attack Biran twice when he's alone. His health will drop below 50% and he will use Mighty Guard. 6. Now use your Ronso Rage, Lancet and attacks to finish off one of the Ronsos. Then kill the other one. In addition here are rules you should follow: A: Never lower either Ronso HP below 50% unless they have separated (not standing together). B: When the Ronsos are together, use Aqua Breath if you can. C: If the Ronso is alone, use Jump otherwise just attack with either Lancet or physical attacks. D: Before you KO either of them, make sure that you have learned all their abilities. E: Always heal when your hit points drop to 300 HP. F: Make sure Kimahri learns all the abilities before you KO one of the Ronsos. ***After the battle you must make sure you get two Return Spheres. You need these to customize Rikku's and Lulu's or Wakka's weapons with First Strike. It depends on your preference of either Wakka's Attack Reels or Lulu's Fury Overdrive. Continue up Mt. Gagazet and you will meet up with a variety of monsters which you can steal stuff from. Make sure you have two elemental gems in your inventory, but the more you have, the better. Steal Al Bhed potions from Mech Defenders Steal Fire Gems from Grenades BOSS: SEYMOUR FLUX / MORTIORCHIS Seymour is back again with Mortiorchis. Seymour still has the ability to Banish summons (see Boss info on Seymour Natae) and Mortiorchis, like Mortibody, absorbs health from Seymour whenever its HP drops to zero. What is new is their attacks involves the Lance of Atrophy which Zombies your character. This is followed by Full Life, which instantly kills zombied characters. The interesting thing is that the Lance strike will instantly kill one party member, in which case, Seymore will cast Full Life on another party member. Without First Strike Seymour has initiative; he does two rounds of Lance of Atrophy, then one round of casting Dispel followed by a devastating attack called Cross Cleaver which does a lot a damage and kills your party. So the goal is to take him out fast. When you lower Seymour's HP below 50000, he counters with Protect and starts doing Flare, which will kill one of your party members. When Seymour's HP drops below 35000, he counters with Total Annihilation and Reflect that bounces back Lulu's magic and Fury Overdrive. Therefore we want to use Lulu's Overdrive as soon as possible. Total Annihilation is another devastating attack that will kill your party. It takes one turn to charge up. So immediately after you lower his HP to 35000, you have one round to finish Seymour before Game Over. The strategy I have developed is based on statistics and luck. Multiple hit Overdrives cannot be targeted on one enemy and is spread out between Seymour and Mortiorchis. Since Tidus can do ~60000 damage and Lulu a maximum of ~90000 damage, that means it's a total of ~150000 damage. Spread between Mortiorchis and Seymour, your chances of killing Seymour ~50%. In actuality, it's less than 50% since Lulu doesn't always do ~90000 damage and you run the chance of Tidus getting killed before he attacks. If you are having a lot of trouble, you may try to learn Tidus' Blitz Ace or get Wakka's Attack Reels to increase the amount of hits you have. NOTE: If you have Chocobo Wing, your chances become greatly increased because you will have more turns before Seymour uses Total Annihilation. You should have Rikku use Chocobo Wing in the beginning and then have Lulu and Tidus defend. Make sure that Tidus, Lulu and Rikku have their First Strike weapons equipped and charge up their Overdrives. BOSS STRATEGY: SEYMOUR FLUX 70000 HP / MORTIORCHIS - 4000 HP 1. Have Rikku use her Trio 9999 Mix Overdrive (WINGS OF DISCOVERY x2) 2. Have Tidus attack Seymour 3. Use Lulu's Fury and try to get 9 attacks 4. Seymour will counter and probably cast Flare, if Tidus is alive use his Overdrive and hope that Seymour dies. 5. If Seymour is still alive, have either Rikku use a gem or swap Lulu with Yuna and use Bahumut's Overdrive Mega Flare. BOSS STRATEGY: SANCTUARY KEEPER - 40000 HP Without First Strike, this boss would kill your party instantly with its Photon Wing. With First Strike, this boss is so easy. 1. Use Rikku's Overdrive Trio 9999 (WINGS OF DISCOVERY x2) 2. Use Tidus's Overdrive Slice and Dice ***You should get two Return Spheres after the battle. You must equip it on Yuna's and Auron's weapons. ---YEVON DOME--- You should charge up Rikku's and Tidus's Overdrive before you enter the temple and solve the puzzles. You can't get the treasure chest just yet, you have to return later to obtain the temple's treasure. BOSS STRATEGY: SPECTRAL KEEPER - 52000 HP Like the Sanctuary Keeper, this boss is easy. You don't even need First Strike, you have initiative. 1. Use Rikku's Overdrive Trio 9999 (WINGS OF DISCOVERY x2) 2. Use Tidus's Overdrive Slice and Dice After beating this boss, go back outside and charge up Rikku's, Tidus' and Lulu's Overdrive BOSS: LADY YUNALESCA Lady Yunalesca is a weak boss and most of her attacks cannot harm you. What harms you is when she turns your party members into zombies and using healing magic to kill you. In addition, Lady Yunalesca has three forms but with Trio 9999, you can take them out quickly before she kills you. You don't even need First Strike but it is suggested. The key is setting up your battle order in one round such that either Tidus or Rikku kill the first two forms and have Lulu kill the last form. If you have Chocobo Feathers or Chocobo Wings, it is useful to use them in the first round to speed up your characters. Equip everyone with First Strike Weapons. BOSS STRATEGY: LADY YUNALESCA - 24000 HP 1. Have Rikku use Trio 9999 (WINGS OF DISCOVERY x2) 2. Have Lulu and Tidus defend 3. Lady Yunalesca should attack, make sure all your characters are alive and have at least 300 HP and then have Rikku use an elemental Gem, probably a Fire gem. Otherwise heal your party members. I suggest using a Mega Potion just before Rikku's Turn 4. Repeat step 3 and 4 until you see an opening for Rikku to attack BOSS STRATEGY: LADY YUNALESCA - 48000 HP Lady Yunalesca will change form and counter attack with Hellbiter(250 damage). Hellbiter shouldn't kill you if your HP is above 300 but it will turn all your party members to zombies. 5. Have Tidus use his Slice and Dice BOSS STRATEGY: LADY YUNALESCA - 60000 HP Lady Yunalesca will change form again and this time she will cast Mega Death on your party, but since your party is already dead (zombies) it will have no effect. 6. Use Lulu's Fury Overdrive to finish Lady Yunalesca. ---HIGHBRIDGE--- After Highbridge you can return to Zanarkand Temple to retrieve the last treasure chest which is needed to obtain Anima. To complete the game, Anima is not necessary but it makes fighting Sin a lot easier. If you haven't opened all the chests in every temple, check a GameFAQ to see how you can get all the treasure chests. Charge up Tidus's and Rikku's Overdrive. ---BAAJ TEMPLE--- After you have retrieve all the treasures in each temple. Use the Airship to find a location; Baaj Temple at 11,16 | 57,63. Travel to Baaj Temple and equip Rikku and Tidus with their First Strike weapons. BOSS STRATEGY: GEOSGAENO - 32767 HP This boss has initiative and a petrify attack that shatters your player if the damage exceeds your players HP. Without First Strike you have to pray that Geosgaeno takes out Wakka or Tidus, and not Rikku, or else you have to try again. 1. Equip Rikku's and Tidus's First Strike Weapon 2. Rikku's Overdrive Trio 9999 (WINGS OF DISCOVERY x2) 3. Tidus's or Wakka's Overdrive. After this boss, you may receive a "No Encounters" weapon. With this weapon equipped, you no longer have to worry about fighting monsters except for battles that you can't run away from. This is definitely something you should pick up. After the battle, enter the temple and you should see six statues with spheres. Walk in front of each statue and the spheres will light up. If you have all the treasure chests from six temples, the spheres will light up and you can now get Anima. Leave the temple and hit square to surface and return to the save point screen. ***If you haven't gone to the Remiem Temple to pick up X-potions you should do that now. Use 30 X-Potions to give Anima Cura. If you have extra Chocobo Feathers, you can teach Anima Haste for the upcoming battle. NOTE: If you didn't get a No Encounters weapon or wish to get the Magus Sisters refer to the Capturing Monster section. ---AIRSHIP--- Sin is tough like Evrae because the battle is long and it's easy to make a mistake. In addition, you'll end up fighting three consecutive battles, which makes it hard to use Trio 9999 all the time. There are many cut scenes, which make it even longer. I chose to use Anima in this fight since my party often gets killed too easily. I have been able to beat Sin without Aeons and rely on Trio 9999 but it was hard. Read the section on ALTERNATIVE SIN STRATEGY to see it. Charge up Rikku's, Lulu's, and Tidus's Overdrive and equip everyone with their First Strike Weapons. BOSS: SIN Like Evrae, Tidus and Rikku issues commands to move the ship close and faraway from Sin. Is potentially risky moving in from afar since your characters lose their guard status from defending themselves once the ship moves in and Sin can do a lot of damage, killing your characters. When fighting close range with Sin, Sin has two main attacks. A physical hit that does 1750 damage on all your players, and Gravija that reduces your health by 75%. What is worse, is sometimes Sin attacks multiple times in one turn. His most devastating combo is two physical attacks followed by Gravija. Auron is the only character that can survive this attack if he has Protect and defends himself (Sin's damage is reduced to 430 damage per physical attack). From afar, Sin has only one attack: his physical attack, and it doesn't occur very often. Usually, if you don't attack it, Sin will remain motionless If Sin does attack, it does approximately the same damage as his close range physical attack. Unfortunately, most of our characters cannot attack from this range and the Aeons can't use their Overdrive. The only thing that affects Sin at this range is Lulu's Magic, Wakka's attack, and the Aeon's specialty attacks and magic. All the Aeons except Anima have very weak specialty attacks. Often their magic attacks are stronger than their physical attacks, but it varies depending on your Aeons' Stats. The table below should give you an idea on how much damage each attack inflicts. Valefor Sonic Wing 380 Ifrit Meteor Strike 860 (Extremely slow) Ixion AeroSpark 860 Shiva Heavenly Strike 634 Bahumut Impulse 1000 Anima Pain 6000 Yojimbo N/A Magus Sisters Fight close range, it's more effective Magic (Thundara, Blizzara, etc) ~2000 damage ***Make sure all your characters have First Strike Weapons equipped and Anima has Cura. Go to Remiem Temple if you don't have Cura yet. You should start off with Tidus, Lulu and Yuna. BOSS STRATEGY: SIN LEFT FIN - 65000 HP 1. Yuna Summons Anima A. Have Anima use Pain (6000 damage) B. Use Cura (1800 heal) to heal when your HP drops below 2000 NOTE: This is fairly easy. Sin will probably only attack you twice with his attack which you can easily heal. BOSS STRATEGY: SIN RIGHT FIN - 65000 HP 1. Repeat same steps as the previous battle. NOTE: Sin will increase the frequency of his attacks. Sin starts off counterattacking after five attacks by Anima. This will eventually increase to one Sin attack for every three attacks. If Anima gets KO'd for any reason, you should use Bahumut or Shiva's strongest magic. BOSS: SINSPAWN GENAIS This boss is actually one boss with two parts but we'll treat them as separate since you want to take out one part at a time. Having them attacking you simultaneously is not a good idea. You can use either Aeons or Trio 9999 to defeat this boss, I prefer Trio 9999 since it's less time consuming and less risky. This boss has two types of physical attacks, a Venom attack (1800 damage) that will damage one party member and a Thrashing attack that damages all your party members. The Thrashing attack occurs after two Venom attacks and your party members cannot withstand such a powerful attack. In addition, if you damage Sinspawn Genais to less than 50% of its HP, it retreats into a shell and has an attack called Sigh (1330 damage) which damages all your party members, knocking them out. This boss also has initiative so you need First Strike to get the first blow in. BOSS STRATEGY: SINSPAWN GENAIS - 24000 HP 1. Guard Tidus 2. Swap Yuna with Rikku use her Trio 9999 Mix Overdrive(WINGS OF DISCOVERY x2) 3. Use Lulu's Fury to kill Sinspawn Genais BOSS STRATEGY: SIN CORE - 36000 HP This boss has two general attacks: Gravija, which reduces your HP by 75%. When the Core's HP drops below a certain threshold, Sin Core begins to counter and attack with elemental magic. Luckily, we'll never reach this point. 4. Have Rikku use an elemental gem (probably a Fire Gem) to take out the core or Tidus's Slice and Dice. NOTE: You can use Yuna's Aeons to beat Sinspawn Genais but I find it riskier and too time consuming to summon so many Aeons. To reduce your chances of losing, Grand Summon Anima, use Pain then its Overdrive twice. You can finish the Core with your other Aeons' Overdrives. ---SIN--- ***Before you travel to Sin make sure you have at least two or three gems and a Chocobo Wing. To find the Chocobo Wing return to Sanubia Desert and go to the Sandstorm area to find Cactuar. Steal a Chocobo Wing from Cactuar at Sanubia Desert, it's rare so equip Rikku's Master Thief Armor. The next battle is extremely easy, start of with Rikku, Lulu, and Wakka. You can equip your First Strike Weapons if you want, but it isn't really necessary. Sin doesn't even attack you until it gets within close range. Recharge Rikku's and Lulu's Overdrives. BOSS STRATEGY: SIN - 140000 HP Sin comes at you from far away and it takes Sin three turns to reach you. You should be able to kill it with Trio 9999 before it even attacks. You should equip Rikku with her Master Thief armor and try stealing from Sin to get a Supreme Gem, which is useful. A. Use Rikku's Trio 9999 Overdrive (WINGS OF DISCOVERY x2) B. Use Lulu's Fury Overdrive and then continue attacking with her magic C. Attack with Wakka D. Have Rikku steal and use gems when Sin is close enough otherwise defend ---END OF THE SEA OF SORROW--- Recharge Lulu's and Rikku's Overdrive and then equip the No Encounters Weapon if you have it. BOSS: SEYMOUR OMNIS Seymour is extremely easy to beat since we have our Fireproof Armor. Seymour has elemental attacks similar to Seymour Natae except this time he doesn't change elements often. There are four discs behind him that determines what type of elemental magic he casts. It starts off as Fire and stays there for an extremely long time. With Fireproof armor, you can attack him without worrying about damage. After two rounds of fire attacks Seymour casts Dispel on your party. On the next turn, he will cast Ultima, killing your entire party, but with Trio 9999 he'll never get to that point. I suggest you equip your Fireproof Armor and your First Strike weapons, probably for Tidus, Rikku and Auron. BOSS STRATEGY: SEYMOUR OMNIS - 80000 HP 1. Have Rikku Use her Trio 9999 Overdrive (WINGS OF DISCOVERY x2). 2. Have Tidus attack. 3. Have Auron attack. 4. You must have Rikku steal from Seymour, you should get either a Supreme or Shining Gem. 5. Use Tidus' Slice and Dice Overdrive or Rikku's Gems to finish Seymour off. ---SIN TOWER OF THE DEAD--- ***Recharge all your Aeons' and party members' Overdrives. Make sure all your party members have First Strike equipped, especially Auron, Tidus and Yuna. When you go into the Tower, you will be in a circular room where pillar of ice come up from the ground. If you hit the pillars, you will end up fighting a battle, but you can run away. To get out of this room you must touch 10 yellow orbs, each of which gives you an item. It's best to run towards the bottom of your screen, then left or right to get a full view of the area. This way your chances of seeing the orbs are better. Once you get all 10 orbs you will travel to a new area. ***You will have a chance to equip new weapons if you want, but what you really need is to equip First Strike weapons for Auron, Tidus and Yuna. BOSS: BRASKA'S FINAL AEON Finally, you get to fight Jecht, which is a difficult boss. He has several attacks: his regular physical attack, Jecht Shot, which is a petrify attack, and his Overdrive, Triumphant Grasp. I'm sure I missed one or two, but either way, all these attacks will kill your party member(s) instantly. You can use Tidus' Talk Trigger Command to lower Jecht's Overdrive gauge, but it uses up one turn. Using the talk command will also stop Jecht's attack for one round, but you can only use it twice before it becomes ineffective. In addition, Jecht is fast. Sometimes he will have two attacks before your characters have a chance to make a move. There are also two Yu Pagodas that charge up Jecht's Overdrive, remove status ailments, and each heal him 1500 HP. These Pagodas can never be destroyed but they can be stopped for three roundss. Unfortunately, every time you stop a Pagoda, the Pagoda's HP increases to the total amount of damage it received earlier. If you use an Aeon's Overdrive to do 18000 damage, you have will have to do the same amount or more damage to take it out again. Even with Trio 9999, it is very difficult, but with the right strategy and excellent timing, you can kill Jecht every time without taking any damage. For a complete explanation of the strategy read the Section on TIMING EXPLAINED FOR BRASKA'S FINAL AEON. STRATEGY 1 ---------- This strategy will only work if have an Aeon with around 2300 HP or less. If you have extremely powerful Aeons, use Strategy 2 or reload your last save and fight until you have damaged an Aeon sufficiently. BOSS STRATEGY: BRASKA'S FINAL AEON FORM 1 - 60000 HP 1. Tidus talks to stop Jecht from attacking 2. Swap Yuna with Rikku 3. Have Rikku use Chocobo Wing to haste party 4. Swap Auron with Lulu 5. Have Rikku use her Trio 9999 Overdrive (WINGS OF DISCOVERY x2) 6. Use Tidus' Overdrive Slice and Dice 7. Swap Lulu with Yuna, summon your Aeon with the lowest HP (probably Valefor) and use its Overdrive BOSS STRATEGY: BRASKA'S FINAL AEON FORM 2 - 120000 HP 8. Have Rikku use an elemental gem 9. Have Lulu use her Fury Overdrive (8 times should kill him) 10. If Sin isn't dead, you're in trouble. STRATEGY 2 ---------- This strategy works best with the Magus Sisters or strong Aeons. BOSS: FORM 1 - 60000 HP 1. Have Tidus Talk 2. Swap Yuna with Rikku and use a Chocobo Wing 3. Lulu defends 4. Have Tidus Talk again 5. Have Rikku Mix Trio 9999 (WINGS OF DISCOVERY x 2) 6. Attack with Tidus, then Lulu and then Tidus again 7. Have Rikku use an elemental Gem 8. Swap Lulu with Yuna and Grand Summon the Magus Sister 9. Use their Delta Attack Overdrive BOSS: FORM 2 - 120000 HP 10. Use their Delta Attack Overdrive again and attack until they are KO'd A. Use Tidus' Blitz Ace Overdrive B. Use Rikku's Gem C. Swap Yuna with Lulu and use her Fury Overdrive Soon after you will have to fight your Aeons and Yu Yevon but this part is easy since you have Auto-Life. BOSS: AEONS You should have charged up all your Aeons Overdrives earlier. The nature of this battle is having you fight each of your Aeons. Each battle is separate so you can't use Trio 9999 all the way. Once you defeat your Aeons you cannot summon it again, so plan well. If you got the Magus Sisters earlier, you should have fought with them at Remiem temple and obtained 40 Shining Gems. Shining Gems do 5500-6000 damage and are much quicker to use than summoning Aeons. I suggest you use them if you have them. You should first summon Valefor since he was KO'd from the last battle and fight it with your strongest Aeon. Afterwards you should systematically fight your strongest Aeon first and use your second strongest Aeon's Overdrive to defeat it. So the order goes like this CHOSEN AEON YUNA SUMMONS Valefor Magus Sisters Magus Sisters Anima Yojimbo Anima (Grand Summon) Anima Bahamut Bahumut Shiva Shiva Ixion Ixion Ifrit Ifrit PARTY MEMBERS FIGHT ***For the last Aeon, let it attack you until it charges up you party members' Overdrive. You can finish it off with Rikku's items. Use the gem that you picked up from Seymour Omnis (Shining Gem or Supreme Gem). BOSS: YU YEVON Yu Yevon is an annoying boss that often uses one attack, Gravija, that takes away 75% of your HP. If you attack Yu Yevon it counters by healing 9999 HP. It has two Pagodas that heal it as well. The Pagodas also have their own attacks (Curse). These don't usually occur unless you take out one of the Pagodas. Yu Yevon's Gravija never really kills you it just keeps on reducing your HP by a percentage. In addition, Gravija hurts Yu Yevon so he damages itself every time he uses Gravija. For this battle, you must ensure that all three of your party members have consecutive turns within one round so you can attack Yu Yevon. BOSS STRATEGY: YU YEVON - 99999 HP 1. Have Rikku use Trio 9999 (WINGS OF DISCOVERY x2) 2. Have Lulu and Tidus defend 3. Have Rikku use a Gem 4. Have Tidus use his Slice and Dice 5. Have Lulu Use her Fury attack 6. If it doesn't work use Kimahri's Doom to take out Yu Yevon in 3 rounds If for some reason it didn't work, you can recharge your Overdrives and try again. To charge up your Overdrive quicker, you should use potions to heal since Overdrive is dependent on the amount of damage you've taken and your max HP. Congratulations! You have finished a No Sphere Grid (NSG) Game. For a real challenge try to take on the Monster Arena bosses. +--------------------+ | CAPTURING MONSTERS | +--------------------+ This section was included to help those who wish to capture monsters and fight the Monster Arena bosses or obtain the Magus Sisters. This doesn't give a full description on how to capture all monsters. Consult a Capture or Monster Arena FAQ to find the information you need. You first must go to the Monster Arena in the Calm Lands to obtain capture weapons and then capture one of each monster in the Calm Lands. I suggest you get capture weapons for Tidus, Wakka, Auron or Rikku. There are 5 main strategies I suggest you use, depending on the monsters. Most of these strategies take advantage of the monsters' inherent weaknesses. Therefore, you should check a Monster FAQ to see which strategy is most effective. 1. Customize Death and Stone on capture weapons. Some monsters are partially immune to Stone and Death attacks but keep trying. Eventually it will work. 2. Use Sleep Powder or Dream Powder followed up by Items, Magic, Ifrit's Meteor Strike, or Anima's Pain to weaken monsters. 3. Items, Aeon Overdrives, and magic are used to weaken and reduce the number of monsters. 4. Zombie Strike or Touch followed by curative magic or potions. 5. If all else fails use Quartet or Trio of 9999 NOTE: Against magic-casting monsters, use Star Curtain to cast Reflect on yourself. You cannot capture monsters with your party members' Overdrives. The key in capturing monsters is exploiting their weakness. Most monsters are weak against Stone and Death attacks. The first step is to obtain Stone Touch, which requires 10 Petrify Grenades. The fastest way to get petrify grenades is to fight Anacondaurs in the Calm Lands. With Master Thief Armor, you can steal two grenades at a time. Anacondaurs are weak against sleep, therefore, have Rikku use Sleep Powder (~700 damage) or Dream Powder (~950 damage). This will put monsters asleep for about 5 rounds. From there, it's easy to capture most monsters in the Calm Lands. I suggest you put Stone Touch on Wakka's Capture Weapon. CALM LANDS -> Capture one of each monster and get 60 Farplane Winds ----------- You may choose to fight at Djose Road afterward to obtain 99 Petrify Grenades to get Stonestrike for Tidus. This is optional, but suggested, if you're planning to capture all the monsters. In addition, make sure you customize one of the capture weapons with Deathstrike after you get 60 Farplane Winds. Rikku is the best choice, but if you're planning to steal while capturing, use Tidus instead. MONSTER PROBABLE LOCATION STRATEGY Anacondaur 5800 HP West of the Shop hut 2,3 Coeurl 6000 HP Just south of Shop hut 2,3 Ogre 9400 HP Just east of the Shop hut, Near Gorge 1 Chimera Brain 9800 HP Just east of the Shop hut 1 Flame Flan 1500 HP Near Monster Arena 1 Nebiros 700 HP Near Monster Arena 1 Shred 1950 HP Near Monster Arena 1 Skoll 1000 HP Near Monster Arena 1 Marlboro 27000 HP Just east of Chocobo Trainer, Near Gorge 3 DRAGON SPECIES -> Capture 4 of each Dragon and get 99 Purifying Salts -------------- If you did not get the No Encounter weapon from Geosgaeno, you can customize your Armor with 30 Purifying Salts to get No Encounter. MONSTER PROBABLE LOCATION STRATEGY Vouivre 255 HP Mi'ihen Old Road, Mushroom Rock 1 Lamashtu 275 HP Beginning of Djose Road 1 Kusariqqu 445 HP Thunder Plains between Guadosalam & Inn 1 Mushussu 680 HP Middle of Sanubia Desert 1 Nidhogg 2000 HP Beginning of Mt Gagazet 1 MT GAGAZET -> Capture one of each monster and get Blossom Crown ---------- To get the Magus Sisters you need to obtain the Blossom Crown. You must then defeat all the Aeons at Remiem Temple. You will win a Flower Scepter from Bahumut during the process. After you defeat all the Aeons you can obtain the Magus Sisters from the sealed room found in Remiem Temple. Make sure you fight the Magus Sisters at Remiem Temple to obtain 40 Shining Gems. MONSTER PROBABLE LOCATION STRATEGY Bandersnatch 1800 HP Beginning of Mt Gagazet 1 Grat 4000 HP Beginning of Mt Gagazet 1 Grenade 7500 HP Beginning of Mt Gagazet 1 Ahriman 2800 HP Mt Gagazet Cavern & Zanarkand Ruins (road) 1 Bashura 1700 HP Mt Gagazet Cavern & Zanarkand Ruins (road) 1 Grendel 9500 HP Mt Gagazet Cavern & Zanarkand Ruins (road) 1 Splasher 400 or 600 HP In the water at Mt Gagazet Cavern 1 Achelous 5100 HP In the water at Mt Gagazet Cavern 1 Maelspike 10000 HP In the water at Mt Gagazet Cavern 1 Mandragora 31000 HP Zanarkand Ruins (road) & Mt Gagazet Cavern 1 Behemoth 23000 HP Zanarkand Ruins (road) & Mt Gagazet Cavern 2,3,4 Dark Flan 12800 HP Zanarkand Ruins (road) & Mt Gagazet Cavern 3,4,5 NOTE: You can steal Star Curtains from Dark Flan and use them for Reflect +--------------------------+ | ALTERNATIVE SIN STRATEGY | for those who don't want to get Anima. +--------------------------+ This method is not suggested for most players. It could take multiple tries to perfect this battle. On average, I estimate it takes half an hour for the entire battle to play out. You get three consecutive battles where you don't have a chance of recharging your Overdrive, which makes it difficult. Before you start, make sure you have two elemental gems, lots of Phoenix downs (10), Al Bhed Potions (5) and Mega Potions (5). If you have less than three Mega Potions, you can steal more from Grendal at Zanarkand or the caves of Mt Gagazet. Remember that Mega potions are rare steals so you better have Master Thief armor on. The secret in beating Sin is to use Trio 9999 with your Overdrives and attacking from far away. The risk comes in Rikku having to charge her Overdrive all the time and Sin's attacks are strong. Therefore, our goal is to recharge Rikku's Overdrive while killing Sin as fast as possible. Make sure everyone's Overdrive is full before you start. It's best to equip armor with HP bonuses and make sure everyone has their First Strike Weapons. BOSS STRATEGY: SIN LEFT FIN - 65000 HP 1. Have Rikku use her Mix Overdrive Trio 9999 (DISCOVERY WINGS x2) 2. Swap Tidus out with Auron and have Auron defend 3. Swap Lulu out with Kimahri and use Kimahri's Mighty Guard 4. Use Rikku's Trigger command to fly in 5. Have Kimahri and Auron guard When Cid flies close to Sin you may or may not be attacked. Just follow these rules until Rikku's Overdrive is full. A. If Rikku's health is full have her steal from Sin, otherwise have her heal and revive B. Have Auron and Kimahri defend when they are at full health. Ignore Rikku's health C. After Sin physically attacks, have Auron use a Mega Potion or X-Potion to heal D. When Sin charges Gravija have Auron revive Rikku with Phoenix Down E. After Gravija, have Rikku use an Al Bhed Potion to heal everyone When Rikku's Overdrive is full, make sure you have at least two consecutive turns before proceeding (two party members are alive to attack Sin). If not, just follow steps A through E until you do. Usually, the opening comes after Sin uses Gravija. F. If it's Auron turn, attack Sin (he should still have Trio 9999) G. If it isn't Auron's turn, swap in Tidus and use his Slice and Dice Overdrive This strategy works most of the time, the risk comes from flying in and hoping your characters do not get killed. If you get killed every time flying in, try flying in at different times, there are certain turns where Sin won't attack at all. BOSS STRATEGY: SIN RIGHT FIN - 65000 HP 1. Gather a party with Rikku, Wakka and Lulu, you don't need to heal the other party members 2. Have Rikku use her Overdrive Trio 9999 (DISCOVERY WINGS x2) 3. Swap Lulu with Auron A. Attack Sin with Wakka but make sure he doesn't do more than 6 attacks to Sin(~60000 damage) B. Have Rikku heal Auron and guard C. Have Auron guard constantly If Sin doesn't attack before Wakka does a total of 6 attacks; have Wakka attack himself. Get Rikku to revive Wakka and continue attacking with Wakka until Sin attacks. Sin will attack, killing everyone except Auron. 4. Have Auron revive Rikku 5. Have Auron revive Wakka 6. You can have Rikku heal everyone with an Al Bhed Potion or heal Auron with High potions if you don't have Al Bhed Potions D. Have Wakka continue his attack E. Have Auron guard constantly F. Have Rikku guard Repeat D through F and wait for Sin to attack again. By now Rikku's Overdrive is full, if not, repeat Step 4 to 6 and D to F. 7. Revive Rikku and Wakka 8. Swap Tidus and Lulu in the party but keep Rikku 9. Have Rikku and Tidus guard while Lulu uses her magic to attack Sin You run the risk of Sin killing your party when you have Lulu, Tidus and Rikku together but luckily Sin doesn't attack often, about once for every 10 rounds. +------------------------------------------+ | TIMING EXPLAINED FOR BRASKA'S FINAL AEON | +------------------------------------------+ STRATEGY 1 ---------- I thought to put this section in because I wanted people to know that timing is just as important as weapons and armor and sometimes even more so. In the NSG game, some people think Braska's Final Aeon is extremely difficult, but this will show you how easy it is because of timing. Timing is not something that can be easily taught, it's learned through experience. The more you fight, the better you are at timing your moves. A. Equip your party members with First Strike Weapons, this will allow them to have three turns before the Boss even has a chance to attack. The Battle order will be: 1 Tidus 2 Yuna 3 Auron 4 Boss 5 Mon A 6 Mon B B. Have Tidus Talk, which makes the Boss lose its turn. Then the Battle Order will be: 1 TIDUS / TALK 2 Yuna-->Rikku / Swap 3 Auron / 4 Boss / Boss won't attack for one turn due to talk 5 Mon A / 6 Mon B / 7 Boss / Boss will attack on this turn 8 Tidus / Notice that the Boss will have two turns to attack before it's our turn again. We need to haste our characters to give them more turns per Round. C. Swap Yuna with Rikku and use Chocobo Wing After using Chocobo Wing all the characters are hasted, but now Rikku has another turn before Tidus! The reason why this happened is that Rikku is the fastest party member to use items. Each action takes a certain amount of time. Tidus' "Talk" takes more time to complete than Rikku's "Use" item. Often times, Rikku will get two turns with one round if she uses an item. 2 YUNA-->RIKKU / SWAPPED / CHOCOBO WING 3 Auron / 4 Rikku / Rikku gets extra turn for using a Chocobo Wing 5 Boss / Boss won't attack for one turn due to talk 6 Tidus / Turn gets Bumped up due to haste 7 Mons B / 8 Mons A / 9 Auron / Turn gets Bumped up due to haste 10 Rikku / Turn gets Bumped up due to haste 11 Boss / Bosses turn stays the same, no change D. Swap Lulu and defend 3 AURON-->LULU / SWAPPED / DEFENDED 4 Rikku / Rikku gets extra turn for using a Chocobo Wing 5 Boss / Boss won't attack for one turn due to talk 6 Tidus / 7 Mons B / 8 Mons A / 9 Rikku / Turn gets Bumped up because Lulu is slower than Auron 10 Lulu / Not hasted, slower than Auron Defending isn't a long turn, but after Lulu is swapped in to take Auron's spot, she is slower and gets bumped down below Rikku because Lulu was not hasted like Auron was. E. Rikku Uses Trio 9999 and Boss does nothing due to Tidus's Talk 4 RIKKU / TRIO 9999 OVERDRIVE 5 BOSS / Did nothing due Tidus's Talk 6 Tidus / 7 Mons B / 8 Mons A / 9 Lulu / 10 Boss / 11 Tidus / 12 Mons B / 13 Mons A / Rikku had her next turn between Monster A and Lulu before, but that turn is now lost because her Overdrive takes more time than a regular attack. If Rikku did an attack we would see that the Battle Order would the same as before. As well, see how Tidus, Lulu, and Rikku all conveniently now have Trio 9999. This is what good timing can do for you. The Boss had his turn but didn't even hit anybody yet. F. Tidus Uses Slice and Dice (Boss has 6 HP left) and Monster A & B heal the Boss 1500 each 6 TIDUS / SLICE AND DICE OVERDRIVE 7 MONS B / HEALED THE BOSS 8 MONS A / HEALED THE BOSS 9 Lulu-->Yuna / Swap 10 Boss / 11 Mons B / Moves up due to Tidus's Slice and Dice 12 Mons A / Moves up due to Tidus's Slice and Dice 13 Rikku / Moves up due to Tidus's Slice and Dice 14 Tidus / Moves down due to Slice and Dice Overdrive 15 Boss / 16 Mons B / 17 Mons A / 18 Rikku / Tidus was originally at turn 11 between the Boss and Monster B, but since Tidus used his Slice and Dice Overdrive, his turn is push down to turn 13, after Rikku's turn. G. Swap Lulu with Yuna and use Valefor's Overdrive to do 9999 damage. 9 YUNA-->VALEFOR / SWAPPED AND OVERDRIVE ENERGY BLAST 10 Boss / Will attack and KO Valefor 11 Mons B / Will be KO 12 Mons A / Will be KO 15 Boss / 17 Mons B / 18 Mons A / ? Boss / ? Mons B / ? Mons A / ? Valefor / This is a very important event. With Valefor's Overdrive, it takes out both Monster A and Monster B for three turns. It also forces Sin to transform to its Second Form, which starts off with 120000 HP. When you summon an Aeon, the Battle Order changes. Aeons are very slow and their Overdrives are even slower. When Valefor uses his Overdrive, the Boss has three turns to attack Valefor. He does 2300 damage, which KO's Valefor in just one turn (This is also an example of Operation Summon Shield). H. The new Battle Order is 9 LULU-->VALEFOR/ SWAPPED and SUMMONED VALEFOR AND USED OVERDRIVE 10 BOSS / KO Valefor and continued with old Battle Order 11 MONS B / KO 12 MONS A / KO 13 Rikku / Use gem to attack Boss 14 Tidus-->Lulu / Will be swapped with Lulu to do Fury 15 Boss / Supposed to be Monsters afterwards but they're KO'd 16 Rikku / Rikku will now attack with her gems, which attack multiple targets. These types of attacks hit multiple enemies and will spread the damage randomly between the targets. This is bad in this instance since damage will be spread over the Boss and the Monsters. Luckily for us, Valefor took out the two Pagodas so now Rikku can use her gems on the Boss to do ~50000 damage. It's not really luck, but good timing and strategy, we can do this every time over and over again with the same results. I. The last step is to swap Tidus with Lulu and have her use her Fury (8x) and take out the Boss (~80000 damage). If you do only 7x, Jecht will have 12 HP left. As you can see, this is how we where able to beat the Boss without taking on any damage and using only a few items (three First Strike Weapons, one Chocobo Wing, and two Wings of Discovery). This is an amazing example of how strategy and timing work together. TIMING FOR STRATEGY 2 --------------------- For Strategy 2, it's difficult obtain consistent results because of the variability of the Overdrive damage and Aeon damage. With situations like this, we want to maximize our potential of winning by maximizing our turns while reducing the amount of turns the boss uses. Tidus / Talk Yuna-->Rikku / Chocobo Wing Lulu / Defend* Rikku / Trio of 9999 Boss / Skip Tidus / Talk Mon A / Heal Mon B / Heal Lulu / Attack Boss / Skip Tidus / Attack Mon A / Heal Mon B / Heal Rikku / Gem/Attack** Lulu-->Yuna / Grand Summon Magus Sisters -------------------- Use Delta Attack twice and attack the Boss until he dies. In second form, attack him until he kills you. -------------------- Tidus / Blitz Ace Rikku / Gem/Attack*** ****Yuna / Summon or Lulu / Fury --------------------- *You may do a regular attack but don't do Power Break or an Overdrive. It will cause the timing to be off. **If you use a gem, then just hope that it doesn't hit the Boss 5 times (since it would kill him and cause him to kill you when he goes to his second form) It can hit him 4 times since Tidus and Lulu already hit him twice and he would have 6 hp left. ***If you get lucky and enough of the hits go to the Boss then he will die. Otherwise, keep going. ****Depending on how many times he got hit by the Gem, your strategy will change. If you know that he has less than 9999 HP left then switch to Auron and finish him off. If he has more than 9999 HP then I hope that Anima is in overdrive mode. If you're lucky, he might just use Jecht beam, which leaves two other characters left to finish him off. +----------------+ | EVRAE STRATEGY | +----------------+ In this battle we can fight Evrae up close or far away by moving the airship. Rikku and Tidus are able to command Cid to move in or away using the trigger commands. Unfortunately, this is slow (Cid actually has a turn), so you have to check the Battle Order Window to see if Cid will move the Airship in time. We must slow Evrae to ensure Cid has one turn for every round. Evrae has a poison breath attack that is preceded by Evrae inhaling. It does 1700 damage, which will instantly kill all your characters. To avoid it, we must move the Airship away and it will discharge harmlessly. It also has a close range attack called Stone Gaze that petrifies your characters, and a physical attack that can kill everyone instantly except for Auron. His far range attacks include Photon Spray, which does multiple 100 point damage on your characters, and Swooping Scythe, which does around 700 damage. To kill Evrae, we should start off with Chaos bomb, which does ~7000 damage. When the Airship is far away from Evrae, three rounds of missiles will do 2400 damage each time. This leaves Evrae with 17800 of health. What is most disturbing is when Evrae's health reaches below 10700 HP. It triggers Evrae to cast Haste on himself. If you try to slow him again, it counters with Haste so you can't slow it. This means your party members must do 7100 damage and at the end do 10700 damage as quickly as possible. This is long and tedious. I rely on Rikku's Tallboy (8600 damage) and Kimahri's Self Destruct (2100 damage with +10% HP armor) to do the final 10700. Sometimes they will do more damage if Rikku's or Kimahri's attack is a critical attack. +------------------------------+ | CHARACTER AND AIRSHIP DAMAGE | +------------------------------+ This is a summary of damages for characters' attacks. Since this is a No Sphere Grid game, this damage is constant throughout the game. When fighting against Evrae, it has resistance to elemental attacks so Lulu's damage is halved. Auron 270 Overdrive Shooting Star 420 Kimahri 150 Overdrive Self-Destruct SEE BELOW Rikku 60 Overdrive Calamity Bomb 7000, Tall Boy 8600 to 9000 Wakka 110 Overdrive Slots varies but it's low ~220 Tidus 130 Overdrive Spiral Cut 320 Lulu (220 x 1/2) Overdrive Fury x 8 320 Kimahri's Lancet - 83 damage Airship - 3 salvos of 2400 damage - total 7200 damage. +-------------------------+ | KIMAHRI's SELF-DESTRUCT | +-------------------------+ A lot of Kimahri's Ronso Rage damage is dependent on his stats. With Self- Destruct, max HP determines the total amount damage. Thus, if you have any armor with HP Bonus, always have it equipped. Damage | HP Bonus in Armor | Kimahri's Max HP 1900 644 2100 +10% 708 2200 +15% 740 2500 +30% 837 +-------------+ | ITEM DAMAGE | +-------------+ With Rikku, most of her Overdrive Mixes are fixed damage. Using items are also fixed damage. Poison Fang 2000 Water Gem 1500 Sleep Powder 770 Smoke Bomb 730 Bomb Core 500 (1000 x 1/2) - Fire damage Arctic Wind 480 (960 x 1/2) - Ice damage Lightning Marble 480 (960 x 1/2) - Lightning damage Grenade 340 Electro Marble 280 (560 x 1/2) - Lightning damage Fish Scale 280 (560 x 1/2) - Water damage Antarctic Wind 280 (560 x 1/2) - Ice damage This boss is resistant to all elemental magic. That means any elemental items like Arctic Wind or Electro Marble does half its damage. These two items do approximately 480 damage and 280 damage respectively. STRATEGY -------- ***Make sure Kimahri's customized Armor has 10% HP bonus. Equip Tidus with Sonic Steel (First Strike) and equip any armor with HP bonuses on your other characters as well. Make sure you have a few Phoenix Downs, around 10 Softs, and stock up on potions. 1. Start off with Auron, Kimahri and Tidus 2. Swap Rikku into your party and Mix Chaos Bomb (SLEEP POWDER AND MAGIC DEF. SPHERE,7000 damage) This causes Power Break, Mental Break, Slow and Blind. 3. Continually attack and heal with Kimahri and Auron. 4. Have Rikku steal Water gems. NOTE: After two rounds of attacking, Evrae will inhale, signaling Poison Breath. You have a limited amount of time to pull away since Poison Breath is a fast attack. Always make sure that Cid has a turn each round to allow you to avoid Poison Breath. If not, you have to pull away earlier but this doesn't happen often. Another option is to use a Lunar Curtain on Auron to halve the Poison damage. He can revive the other players in the next round. 5. If you see Evrae inhale the turn before Cid's turn, then swap Tidus in if you don't have Rikku there already. 6. Have either of them use the Trigger command to Pull Away. 7. Let Evrae attack you with Photon Spray to recharge Rikku's Overdrive. Then use potions to heal and Phoenix Down to revive. 8. When Rikku's and Kimahri's Overdrive is full, Move the Airship closer to Evrae. NOTE: Defending does not reduce damage but does inhibit charging of Overdrives so have Rikku use a potion instead of defending. The ship should give off 3 volleys of missiles that do 2400 damage each for a total of 7200 damage. A. Have Rikku continue stealing Water Gems (1500 damage) until she has two gems in her Inventory. B. Have Auron and Kimahri attack and heal. Do not lower Evrae's HP below 10700 C. Make sure you avoid those Poison attacks by pulling away. (Steps 5 and 6) D. Rikku can attack with the Water Gems and any items NOTE:Make sure that you save 10 Smoke Bomb, 4 Bomb Core, 1 Sleeping Powder and Chocobo Wing(s) if you have any. I suggest you use Bomb Cores and Smoke Bombs whenever Evrae isn't blinded. 17. Try to bring Evrae's HP to around 10700 HP, DO NOT GO BELOW 10700 HP!!! I suggest you use Lancet (83 damage) to get as close as you can 18. Heal constantly and on the next Poison Breath move away 19. Swap Kimahri and Auron with Tidus and Wakka 20. After Evrae uses Poison Breath, have Tidus or Rikku move the ship in 21. Have Rikku use her Overdrive Tallboy (LEVEL 1 KEY SPHERE + LEVEL 4 KEY SPHERE) 22. Swap Kimahri in and use his Self-Destruct NOTE: An alternative strategy is to attack Evrae with Wakka from far away. Evrae will use Swooping Scythe (1/2 * 700 damage ) which doesn't kill any of your party members. This could give you more time to do TallBoy and Self- Destruct since Swooping Scythe is slow. +-----------------+ | QUICK REFERENCE | +-----------------+ This section is devoted to help you keep track of the items you need to finish the game. Refer to the Evrae Strategy section to find character & item damage info as well as Kimahri's Self-Destruct stats. KIMAHRI RONSO RAGE ------------------ JUMP - does double damage on one opponent SEED CANNON : Ragora from Kilika Forest - launches a seed projectile against one enemy and does double damage of a regular attack SELF DESTRUCT: Bombs from Mi'ihen Road - it does [3 x Kimahri's max HP] on one opponent, KO's Kimahri, and he can't be revived in battle STONE BREATH : Basilisk from Djose Road - petrifies all opponents and shatters them AQUA BREATH : Chimera from Macademia Forest and Home - causes water damage on multiple opponents THRUST KICK : YKT-63 from Bevelle, Biran Ronso, YKT-11 from Yevon Dome - knocks one enemy out of battle DOOM : Biran Ronso, Ghost from Cavern of the Stolen Fayth - inflicts a countdown to death, most bosses are immune or have long countdowns RIKKU'S MIXES ------------- Here are some of the mixes I used but check a Mix FAQ if you want to find alternative mixes. POTATO MASHER (MAP + MAP) - around 2600 non-elemental damage for all enemies LIGHTNING BOLT (LIGHTNING MARBLE + LEVEL 2 KEY SPHERE) - does 9 random lightning bolts doing around 650 damage each. MEGA NULL-ALL (ARCTIC WIND + HIGH POTION or MAP + CURTAIN) - immune to fire, water, thunder and ice spells for all party members HAZARDOUS SHELL(SMOKE BOMB x 2) - poison, silence, blind, sleep and 2100 damage CALAMITY BOMB (SLEEP POWDER or SMOKE BOMB + LEVEL 1 KEY SPHERE) - poison, silence, blind, Magic Break, Power Break and 3600 damage CHAOS BOMB (SLEEP POWDER or GRENADE + MP or MAGIC DEF. or HP SPHERE) - poison, silence, blind, sleep, slow, Magic, Power, Mental, Armor Break and 7000 damage SUPER MIGHTY G (LIGHT OR LUNAR CURTAIN x2) - halves magical(Shell) and physical(Protect) damage,haste, regeneration QUARTET 9999 (BOMB CORE + UNDERDOG SECRET) - like Trio 9999 but randomly affects only one party member SUNBURST (UNDERDOG SECRET x2) - does 19998 damage on all enemies TRIO OF 9999 (WINGS OF DISCOVERY x 2 or BOMB CORE + DARK MATTER or LEVEL 4 KEY SPHERE + UNDERDOG SECRET) - all attacks and all healing becomes 9999, this includes item damage and Phoenix Down ITEMS & LOCATION ---------------- Here are places to find the items I used. They are sorted in the order I found them. I did not include potions, high potions and phoenix downs as you should always have an ample supply of them. 1 - ENERGY BLAST at Besaid Village 1 - MP or HP SPHERE from battle with Lord Ochu 1 - STUNNING STEEL with Slowtouch from O'aka at Luca 1 - HP SPHERE from a chest in Dock 4 in Luca 1 - MAGIC DEFENSE SPHERE from a chest in Dock 4 in Luca or Djose/Moonflow Road 5 - ELIXIR from boss battles (Oblitzerator, Crawler) and a chest in the Desert 1 - SCOUT with Lightningstrike in the Mi'ihen area (Low Road) 6 - MAPS buy from the inn at Mi'ihen Highroad or inn at Macalania Snowfield 2 - LEVEL 1 KEY SPHERE chests in Moonflow Road and dropped by bosses 1 - LIGHTNING MARBLE from a chest in Guadosalam 2 - ELECTRO MARBLE steal from Aerouge and Gold Element in Thunder Plains 0 - LUNAR CURTAIN steal from Larvae in Thunder Plains and Defenders(multi) - LIGHT CURTAIN steal from Iron Giant in Thunder Plains and Geminis in Sin 1 - SONIC STEEL with First Strike from O'aka at Macalania 1 - LEVEL 2 KEY SPHERE from Spherimorph at Macalania 17- ARCTIC WIND steal from Ice Flan and Chimeras in Macalania and Home 4 - SLEEPING POWDER steal from Snow Wolf in Macalania Snowfield & Sand Wolf 0 - CHOCOBO FEATHER steal from Qactaur in Thunder Plains and Cactaur in Desert 2 - TELEPORT SPHERE from chest under Sandragora in the Desert 1 - CHOCOBO WING steal from Cactaur in Desert near Sandstorm area 10- SMOKE BOMB steal from Alcyone and Zuu in Sanubia Desert 1 - LEVEL 4 KEY SPHERE a chest in Home and dropped by bosses 3 - UNDERDOG SECRET get all Al Bhed primers from an old game and talk to Rin 34- BOMB CORE steal from Bomb in Airship and Home 30- WINGS OF DISCOVERY opening 3 chest in the Chocobo Races 30- PENDULUM opening 4 chest in the Chocobo Races 1 - AEON SOUL fighting Valefor at Remiem Temple (didn't fight Belgemine) 30- X-POTION fighting Ifrit at Remiem Temple 4 - RETURN SPHERE from fighting Sanctuary Keeper, Biran and Yenke 1 - ANIMA Baaj Temple at 11,16 | 57,63 1 - DEVASTATOR with No-Encounter won from fight against Geosgaeno 6 - GEMS steal from Evrae(Water), Chimera Brain(Ice/Lightning) and Flame Flan(Fire) in Calm Lands and Grenades(Fire) at Mt. Gagazet and many other monsters and bosses. CUSTOMIZE AEONS, WEAPONS AND ARMOR ---------------------------------- Iceproof = 8 Arctic Wind for Rikku's and Yuna's Armor (Kimahri optional) Fireproof = 8 Bomb Cores for Rikku's, Tidus's and Auron's Armor First Strike = 1 Return Sphere for Auron's, Yuna's, Rikku's and Lulu's Weapons Evade & Counter = 1 Teleport Sphere for Rikku's and Auron's Weapons (Optional) HP +20% = 5 Elixirs for Kimahri's Armor (Optional) Master Thief = 30 Pendulums for Rikku's Armor (Optional) Cura = 30 X-Potion for Anima +-----------------+ | CREDIT & THANKS | +-----------------+ Special Thanks to CB! for the invaluable information in her FAQs, Monsters Encyclopedia and Mix List Haunter120 for his Boss FAQ and inspiring me DarkDragonX he could of wrote this FAQ himself Cannibal, dbbv99live and Jim Irwin for their helpful hint and strategies Azure Edge, Morelock, rpglover, Slawdigi, tsanth and to many other for their devotion to the NSG game Jackal (aka x3mgame) for helping me out with writing the FAQ Gestahl for his thought provoking questions anybody else I missed on the GameFAQs FFX Message Board and finally CJayC and GameFAQs for hosting our FAQ +-----------+ | COPYRIGHT | +-----------+ Final Fantasy X(tm) is copyright by Squaresoft(tm). This NSG FAQ is Copyright(c) by Dustman and Xharas on March 2002 All Rights Reserved. This FAQ is intended for Personal Use Only. If you wish to post this FAQ up on your site, we will give you permission but you MUST follow 3 Conditions: 1) This FAQ may not be altered in any shape or form. 2) This FAQ must show proper credit to the authors and people who have helped. 3) This FAQ must be used for non-profit purposes.