-- Final Fantasy X (US) Ultimate Weapons Guide -- -- by CB! (Christine Bomke, circe@san.rr.com) -- -- Final Version #5, 2/11/02 -- LEGAL DISCLAIMER: This guide is for PERSONAL USE ONLY, copyrighted to me, Christine Bomke. Do not put this FAQ on your site without first emailing me for permission. If permission IS granted, you are not permitted to change a single word of this FAQ when you post it, and must leave it as a .txt file unless I've explicitly told you otherwise that you may change it. Do not steal information from this FAQ for your magazine, or other form of media - printed, online, or otherwise. Do not pass GO, do not collect $200. If you violate this disclaimer anyway, know that I have the means and mettle to pursue this matter legally, and you _will_ regret it. NOTE TO WEBMASTERS: If permission is granted to post this guide on your site, it is _your_ responsibility to get the most recent version from my site or GameFAQs.com periodically. If you can't be bothered to keep it current, then you may not post it. Avast ye matey, thar be spoilers ahead. -- Table 'o Contents -- I. Version History II. Foreword / Contact Information III. Cloudy Mirror / Celestial Mirror IV. Unsealing the Ultimate Weapons V. Ultimate Weapons A. Tidus' Caladbolg B. Yuna's Nirvana C. Wakka's World Champion D. Lulu's Onion Knight E. Kimahri's Spirit Lance F. Auron's Masamune G. Rikku's God Hand VI. Frequently Asked Questions 1. I got 0:0:0 on the chocobo race and all I got was a Turbo Ether! Why? 2. I played the butterfly minigame and got a Teleport Sphere instead of the Saturn Sigil. Why? 3. Is there a cheat to dodge 200 lightning bolts? 4. Why can't I open the treasure chest to get a Celestial Weapon in [name of location]? 5. Why won't the lady in Macalania Woods move? 6. Are there any changes between the original Japanese release, the US release, and FFX International? 7. I'm playing the original Japanese release of FFX - so what's the chocobo race cheat? 8. The information in your guide looks really familiar. Where have I seen it before? VII. Thanks, Acknowledgements, Shameless Plugs -- I. Version History -- v5Final 2/11/02: Rewrote sections I regularly recieve email about, and added a Frequently Asked Questions section. Really, this WILL be the last update. v4Final 1/7/02: Cut a LOT of weight off the Version History, added a section exclusively about unsealing each ultimate weapon, and rewrote each description for just about everything I frequently recieve email regarding. v3Final 12/28/01: Clarified the procedure for charging the Cloudy Mirror, and emphasized that you need the Celestial Mirror to open any chest containing Ultimate Weapons. I apologize in advance for the redundancy of this, when the information is clear as crystal in Section III, but I get enough email and answer this question enough times on message boards to make it nescessary. If one more person emails me asking why they can't open Kimahri's chest the first time they're at Thunder Plains, I will commit ritual seppuku. Ok? Thankupo. v2Final 12/24/01: New information came to light. The AP trick no longer exists in the North American version, nor does the Calm Lands chocobo racing cheat. *cry!* Added a name origin for the Caladbolg, and corrected the Masamume one. vFinal 12/20/01: Finished changing Japanese names to English. This will be the final update, unless new information comes to light. Hope you're all enjoying the game... -- II. Foreword / Contact Information -- First, this is not a gameplay FAQ. This is a guide to obtaining your characters' Ultimate Weapons. If you need help figuring out the Sphere Grid system, or want a walkthough, look elsewhere. If you have a submission or a question regarding ultimate weapons that I haven't covered in this document, you may email me at circe@san.rr.com, or contact me via AOL Instant Messenger as "Ceebsie". I'm also on the GameFAQs boards as "Ceebs" occasionally. If your question is already answered in this FAQ, or one of my FAQs, I will probably delete your email. I hate to be strict like this, but I currently recieve between 20-40 letters per day about Final Fantasy X, most of which are from people who didn't read a FAQ well enough. I have a full-time job, a part-time job, and a social life, and I simply don't have time to answer every email. I wish I did. I've done my best to make this document as complete and self-explanatory as possible, so please respect that, and don't ask me to regurgitate material from it. The latest version of this FAQ, and all the other ones I've written, can always be found at GameFAQs (http://www.gamefaqs.com/) and my site (http://home.san.rr.com/circe/). Please take a look at them before finding fault with what may be an old version. -- III. Cloudy Mirror / Celestial Mirror -- In your travels around the world of Spira, you may come across chests you can't open, and mysterious mandalas on walls. These chests and mandalas house your characters' ultimate weapons, and require a charged magic mirror to access. To start, head to the Calm Lands and obtain a chocobo from the stationary (ie, not moving) chocobo rider there. Ride to the south plateau near where you came in from Macalania Woods, and on the east side you should see a broken bridge and a chocobo feather on the ground. Press [x] near the chocobo feather, and your chocobo will fly to the plateau below it. Continue east to the Remiem Temple. Examine the sphere on the left side of the temple, then talk to the chocobo on the right to race the second chocobo on the left. If you make it to the center of the circular track quickly enough, you'll be rewarded with the Cloudy Mirror. Side note: if you keep racing here, you can acquire other fine and rare items, depending on how many treasure chests you were able to reach while still winning the race. These prizes are: 0 Treasure Chests: Potion 1 Treasure Chest : Elixir 2 Treasure Chests: Mega Elixir 3 Treasure Chests: Wings to Discovery x30 (!!) 4 Treasure Chests: Pendulum x30 5 Treasure Chests: Three Stars x60 You can find a translated map of the Remiem chocobo racing track at my site at http://home.san.rr.com/circe/ultimania_remiem.html. Do NOT touch any poles while racing, or you'll end up with a lousy potion instead of the abovelisted rare prizes. (Touching poles will not prevent you from getting the Cloudy Mirror, however.) I'm pretty sure the prizes are one-time-only deals, so don't kill yourself trying to obtain Wings to Discovery over and over. To de-fog and charge your newly acquired magic mirror, talk to the mother and son at the entrance of Macalania Woods. Find the father at the campsite, speak to him, and he'll run off to be reunited with his family. Go back to the entrance and speak with the mother and father again, and keep talking to them until they mention their missing son. This may take 3 or 4 tries. After they mention their son, head up the sparkly path to their left into the trees. Bear north at the first fork, where the son should allow you passage if you talked to his parents enough times. Show the Cloudy Mirror to the large ambrosia salad-looking plant, who'll turn it into the Celestial Mirror. If there's a woman blocking the path instead of the son, either a) you're not far enough in the game yet, or b) you didn't talk to the parents enough times. With the Celestial Mirror, you can now open chests and detonate the mandalas protecting your ultimate weapons. -- IV. Unsealing the Ultimate Weapons -- You'll notice that your ultimate weapons aren't all they're cracked up to be at first. In fact, you can't remodel them, and they prevent you from gaining AP! Their powers are sealed, so you'll need to unseal them to take advantage of their full potentional. Each weapon has 2 power-ups, a Crest and a Sigil. After collecting each power- up, return to the plant in Macalania Woods to unseal your weapons. Without unsealing your weapons at all, they will only bear the [No AP] auto-ability. After unsealing them with the Crest, they will bear [No AP] and [Double Overdrive]. And finally, after unsealing them with the Sigil, they'll have all of the bells and whistles they rightfully should have. Also, you cannot unseal your weapons with the Sigil before you've unsealed them with the Crest. If you have both in your inventory, you still need to talk to the plant twice - once to unseal the weapon with the Crest, and once again to unseal it with the Sigil. To get the [Break Damage Limit] effect for your Aeons, you only need to power up your weapons with the Crest, not the Sigil, and they don't have to be equipped - you simply have to have the weapons in your inventory. -- V. Ultimate Weapons -- - A. Tidus' Caladbolg - Weapon location: Northwest corner of the Calm Lands, behind a mandala at the bottom of a very narrow hidden trail. Win all four chocobo races, and the person blocking the pathway will be gone. You _must_ have the Celestial Mirror in your inventory to get the weapon, otherwise the guard will not move. (There's no point in going down the trail without the mirror anyway.) If you won all of the races pre-mirror, and come back after obtaining it, simply win all of the races again and immediately go to the path the guard was blocking. Sun Crest location: Yevon Dome, in a treasure chest in the same area where you fought Yunalesca. You may have to go up and down the stairs once or twice to get the chest to appear. It's on the left side of the screen, and blends in with the wall. Sun Sigil location: After you can control the airship, it's a prize for winning the fourth chocobo race against the other chocobo rider with a time of better than 0:0:0. I have no advice on how to do this, other than use the other rider as a shield if possible, use the D-pad and not the analogue control stick, and grab balloons like mad. You need between 12 - 15 for a time of 0:0:0. In the Japanese FFX, there was a cheat that made the birds pass right through you, and therefore this process very simple, but it seems to have been taken out of the North American - and presumably PAL - release. So the moral of this story is, practice practice practice, learn Japanese and import the game so that you can cheat, or check out Morelock's Sidequests FAQ for an in-depth strategy of how to win this race. Difficulty to Obtain: Medium difficulty, but not especially time-consuming. Most people would argue that the hardest part are the last two chocobo races. Abilities: [Break Damage Limit] + [Triple Overdrive] + [Evade & Counter] + [Magic Counter] Special Effects: Does more damage when Tidus' HP is full, no effect on Aeons. Name origin: The Caladbolg is a sword of Irish and Celtic myth that was so strong, it once cut a hill in half. Caladbolg can also be a generic name for any kind of death-dealing sword. In the Japanese version of Final Fantasy X, Tidus' ultimate weapon was called the Ultima Weapon, which starting with FFVI, there's been either a boss, or a weapon for the main character named this, or both, and the weapon has always done damage dependant on HP. In the English FFVI, it was translated as Atma. Caladbolg almost makes more sense, in a way, because it's not the typical white, pink, and purple gradiented design of the Ultima Weapon - it's blue and gold. - B. Yuna's Nirvana - Weapon Location: In a chest at the Monster Arena to the east of the Calm Lands, after collecting at least one of each monster from the Calm Lands. Although you can find the chest before leaving the Calm Lands, you MUST have the Celestial Mirror in your inventory to open it and therefore get the weapon. Moon Crest location: Besaid Island beach, in a chest in a cove on the east side, only accessable by swimming. You can get this very early in the game. Moon Sigil location: Defeat all of your Aeons at Remiem Temple, then preform the Farplane Sendoff for Belgemine. All of your Aeons means ALL of them, including the secret ones like Youjimbo, Anima, and the Magus Sisters. If you don't know how to obtain these Aeons, consult a walkthrough, or Paul Friedman's superb Aeons FAQ. Difficulty to Obtain: Very very easy. Collecting monsters to obtain the weapon shouldn't take more than 45 minutes, and if Yuna is at least somewhat built up, defeating your Aeons at Remiem Temple is a piece of cake. Their stats, and prizes you get for beating them once, and successive times are: Name: Valefor HP: 20000 MP: 500 Prize: Lightning Gem x4 (first time) **, Power Sphere x4 (successive times) Misc.: N/A ** This is assuming you haven't already obtained the Summoner's Soul from Belgemine - otherwise you'll recieve that first. Name: Ifrit HP: 28000 MP: 800 Prize: X-Potion x30 (first time) **, Mana Sphere x5 (successive times) Misc.: Absorbs Fire ** This is assuming you haven't already obtained the Aeon's Soul from Belgemine - otherwise you'll recieve that first. Name: Ixion HP: 30000 MP: 720 Prize: Chocobo Feather x10 (first time), Power Sphere x8 (successive times) Misc.: Absorbs Thunder Name: Shiva HP: 20000 MP: 950 Prize: Mega Potion x60 (first time), Star Curtain x6 (successive times) Misc.: Absorbs Ice, has a high evade rate Name: Bahamut HP: 35000 MP: 1500 Prize: Flower Scepter (first time), Mana Sphere x8 (successive times) Misc.: N/A Name: Youjimbo *** HP: 32000 MP: 1200 Prize: Shadow Gem x8 (first time), Power Sphere x10 (successive times) Misc.: N/A Name: Anima *** HP: 54000 MP: 3000 Prize: Stamina Spring x60 (first time), Mana Sphere x10 (successive times) Misc.: N/A *** You need to beat these in order - even if you have Anima, you cannot fight her (yes, HER) until you've obtained and defeated Youjimbo. Name: Magus Sisters - Mindy HP: 48000 MP: 8000 Name: Magus Sisters - Sandy HP: 35000 MP: 3000 Name: Magus Sisters - Cindy HP: 20000 MP: 7000 Prize: Shining Gem x40 (first time) and the Moon Sigil if you preform the Farplane Sendoff, Power Sphere x12 (successive times) and Moon Sigil if you preform the Farplane Sendoff Misc.: N/A Abilities: [Break Damage Limit] + [Triple Overdrive] + [Double AP] + [One MP Cost] Special Effects: Does more damage when Yuna's MP is full, and allows Valefor to exceed 9,999 damage. Name origin: In the Buddhist faith, Nirvana is a state of complete happiness and omniscience achieved after many reincarnations. - C. Wakka's World Champion - Weapon Location: After you can control the airship, the bartender in Luca Cafe will give this to you if you've won at least 5 Blitzball games. You MUST have the Celestial Mirror in your inventory to get the weapon. Jupiter Crest location: Luca Stadium, in a locker in the Besaid Aurochs locker room. You can get this after you've finished everything you need to do in Luca for story purposes. Jupiter Sigil location: After winning all four of Wakka's Overdrives, this is a random grand prize in the Blitzball League game. Difficulty to Obtain: Easy or difficult, depending on your Blitzball skills, and VERY time-consuming. Winning the Sigil could take anywhere from 50 wins if you're lucky, to over 250 wins if you're unlucky. Having Tidus' Jecht Shot ability really levels the Blitzball playing field, not to mention that the animation wastes about 40 seconds of game time, allowing you to speed through games lightning-quick. Consult a Blitzball FAQ for further information on the minigame. Abilities: [Break Damage Limit] + [Triple Overdrive] + [Double AP] + [Evade & Counter] Special Effects: Does more damage when Wakka's HP is full, and allows Ifrit to exceed 9,999 damage. Name origin: Most of Wakka's weapons have sport-related names, so since you essentially need to become the Blitzball World Champion to obtain this, it's self-explanatory. - D. Lulu's Onion Knight - Weapon Location: In a sealed chest in the pool at Baaj Temple, hidden in a corner on the opposite side of the pool from the doorway to Anima's shrine. The chest will not appear until you've defeated Geosgaeno, and isn't visible until you're literally right on top of it, so dive deep and keep hitting the [X] button to search for the chest. You MUST have the Celestial Mirror in your inventory to open the chest, and therefore get the weapon. Venus Crest location: In a treasure chest that appears during your second visit to the Farplane. You can get this after you've finished everything you need to do in Guadosalam for story purposes. Venus Sigil location: Dodge the lightning at Thunder Plains 200 _consecutive_ times by pressing [X], then go back to Rin's travel agency and examine the treasure chest out front. Do not save in between dodges, leave the screen, or even blink, because this will reset the dodge counter. (Just kidding about that last one.) Also, don't just sit there and hammer [X], or use a turbo controller, because the game senses you're trying to cheat, and will zap you with lightning just to annoy you. You can get the Sigil on your first visit to Thunder Plains, long before obtaining the airship, unlike everyone else's Sigils. Difficulty to Obtain: Easy to medium. Dodging lightning to obtain the Sigil doesn't require much dexterity, just a lot of patience and alertness. The Thunder Plains is a HUGE area, and different parts have one of three different frequencies of lightning strikes - for a handy dandy map scanned from the FFX Ultimania Scenario Guide and translated by yours truly, go to http://home.san.rr.com/circe/ultimania_thunder.html. Other prizes in the lightning-dodging game include Mega Elixirs and rare stat node creation spheres, so it's well-worth your time to dodge strikes. Referring to the abovementioned map I scanned, if you go where the lightning is most frequent (3 bolts), it should take less than an hour to dodge 200 strikes, since the lightning seems to strike every five to seven seconds in the 3 bolt zone. KeRoChAn wrote a great Thunder Plains FAQ which you can find on GameFAQs, and Morelock has information on the minigame as well in his Sidequests FAQ, so check those out for in-depth information. Abilities: [Break Damage Limit] + [Triple Overdrive] + [Magic Booster] + [One MP Cost] Special Effects: Does more damage when Lulu's MP is full, and allows Shiva to exceed 9,999 damage. Name origin: All of Lulu's dolls are from previous Final Fantasies (Moogle, Cait Sith, Cactuar, Pupu, Moomba), and the Onion Knight is no exception. It's an onion kid from Final Fantasy IIIj. Frankly from the name, I was expecting it to be Duelle from Legend of Mana, but this isn't Seiken Densetsu... - E. Kimahri's Spirit Lance - Weapon Location: At Thunder Plains, pray by pressing [square] at any 3 glowing Qactuar stones, then return to the south part of the plain and follow the Qactuar ghost to a wrecked tower. It's on the right side of the screen, embedded in the rock wall, equidistant from the north and south boundries of the plain. Pray there. Although you can find the chest during your first visit to Thunder Plains, you cannot open it until you have the Celestial Mirror. Saturn Crest location: Mt. Gagazet, in a treasure chest between the pillars on the left, just past where you fought Seymour. Saturn Sigil location: Macalania Woods butterfly-catching game, _after_ getting the airship. There are technically 3 different versions of this minigame, each at a different difficulty with different prizes: (1) upon first entering Macalania Woods, (2) after fighting the Spherimorph, and (3) after you can control the airship. To start the minigame, talk to the harp- playing demihuman near the entrance, then touch the blue butterfly. The object of the game is to touch all the blue butterflies in one area before time runs out. If you touch a red butterfly, you'll automatically have to fight a battle, and lose a few seconds. You can find a scan of the suggested route from the Ultimania guide at http://home.san.rr.com/circe/ultimania_butterfly.html. Difficulty to Obtain: Finding the weapon and the Crest is simple, and you could easily kill two birds with one stone and get Lulu's Venus Sigil while you were at the Thunder Plains, but the winning the butterfly minigame to get Kimahri's Saturn Sigil is HARD. In this author's not-so-humble opinion, it would be less frustrating to build a custom weapon. Abilities: [Break Damage Limit] + [Triple Overdrive] + [Double AP] + [Evade & Counter] Special Effects: Does more damage when Kimahri's HP is full, and allows Ixion to exceed 9,999 damage. Name origin: Just a silly name cooked up by Square's translators after eating too much Pocky. In the Japanese FFX, Kimahri's ultimate weapon was called Longinus, which is the name of the Roman soldier who pierced Christ's side with his spear. The metaphor of a spear that could pierce the divine is lost in the English translation, sadly. RIP Longinus, we barely knew ye. - F. Auron's Masamune - Weapon Location: Behind a mandala at Mushroom Rock Road. At the bottom of the Calm Lands valley, at the opposite end of the crevasse from the Cave of the Stolen Fayth, take the Rusty Sword (key item) from the rocky alcove. Then go to Mushroom Rock Road and continue straight ahead north until you see a little green square on the area map. (Recall that earlier in the game, during Operation Mi'ihen, you were diverted to a west exit instead of allowed to venture north.) It's the second left on the first screen of Mushroom Rock Road. The green square represents a floating mushroom stone, ride it up to a plateau, and stick the sword in the ground next to the statue of a warrior standing over a slain behemoth. The mandala will appear on the wall behind you. You MUST have the Celestial Mirror in your inventory to get the weapon. Mars Crest location: In a chest in the old part of Mi'ihen Highroad. To get there, go north on Mi'ihen Highroad until you reach the entrance of Mushroom Rock Road, then hang a U-turn and go south. Mars Sigil location: Unlock any combination of 10 Area Creations or Species Creations bosses at the Monster Arena to the east of the Calm Lands, and the trainer will give this to you. Area Creations are unlocked by capturing at least one of each monster in a particular area, and Species Creations are unlocked by capturing several of each monster from a particular species - Bombs, Wolves, or Floating Eyeballs, for example. If this isn't descriptive enough, see my Monster Arena FAQ for the exact conditions to unlock bosses. And if the trainer doesn't give the Mars Sigil to you, either a) keep chatting with him until he does, or b) you didn't unlock enough special bosses - Original Creations do NOT count towards your total. Difficulty to Obtain: Fairly easy, but time-consuming. You have to do a lot of running around to get the weapon and the Crest, and unlocking 10 special battles at the Monster Arena to obtain the Sigil is a lengthy endeavor. To speed things up, buy monster-capturing weapons from the Arena as soon as you reach the Calm Lands, and keep them equipped as much as possible. Abilities: [Break Damage Limit] + [Triple Overdrive] + [First Strike] + [Counterattack] Special Effects: Does more damage when Auron's HP is depleted, and allows Youjimbo to exceed 9,999 damage. Name origin: All recent Final Fantasies have had a katana-type weapon called the Masamune. The name comes up a lot in video games and anime, and is derrived from a famous Japanese legend about a swordsmith named Masamune. Goro Nyudo Masamune lived during the late 13th to early 14th century, and was considered to be one of the - if not THE - greatest Japanese swordsmiths of all time. (Do not confuse Masamune with Muramasa or Murasame, as these are all completely different legends that have attained something of an "urban myth" status in video games and anime.) To further illustrate the historical significance, a ronin is a samurai without a master; Auron was once a Guardian for Braska, but Braska no longer requires Auron's protection, therefore, Auron is a ronin. To keep one's left arm inside one's shirt, and carry a jug of sake at one's hip are both very ronin things to do. - G. Rikku's God Hand - Weapon Location: In a sealed chest at the bottom of Mushroom Rock Road, accessable by selecting Password on the airship, then inputting "GODHAND". You MUST have the Celestial Mirror in your inventory to get the weapon. Mercury Crest location: In a treasure chest in the fourth area (see below) of Sanubia Desert, in an alcove to the northwest. If your area map is turned on, you cannot miss this. Mercury Sigil location: Sanubia Desert, in a treasure chest in the area protected by a sandstorm. To get rid of the sandstorm, you need to play a hide-and-seek minigame with the Cactuars after you can control the airship. (You can examine the Cactuar glyph during your first visit to Sanubia Desert, but again, you cannot play the minigame until you have the airship.) First, let's get our bearings... Sanubia Desert is divided into four screens: (1) The oasis with the save point. (2) The winding path with the save point inside a tent. (3) The huge open area with the ruins to the northwest and the save point next to the large Al Bhed sign in the middle. (4) The area right before Home with the sandstorm, Cactuar glyph, antlion pits, and numerous small Al Bhed signs. To initiate the minigame, go to the fourth area and examine the Cactuar glyph. You'll then be asked to find 10 Cactuars in the desert. After finding each one, you'll recieve a green sphere - if you managed to catch the Cactuar without it looking at you, the sphere will be named, but if not, it will be called a "Sphere del Perdedor". (In other words, "Loser Sphere".) The more named spheres that you collect, the better your prize will be. Regardless of which type of sphere you recieved, take each one back to the Cactuar glyph in the fourth area after collecting them. The order of Cactuars is is: (1) Tomay - found in the first area, the oasis, to the right of the save point. (2) Rovivea - running around in the northwestern alcove of the second area. (3) Chava - hiding behind the Al Bhed 20% sign in the fourth area; examine it to find him. (4) Alek - running back and forth in the ruins in the northwestern part of the third area. (5) Aloja - with Alek. (6) Vachella - hiding behind the save point inside the tent in the second area; examine it to find him. (7) Robeya - hiding in a treasure chest in the southwestern corner of the third area. This chest contains two Mega Potions otherwise. (8) Isrra - running around inside an antlion pit in the fourth area. ** (9) Elio - at the oasis, then beams up to your airship and can be found on the roof. (10) Flaile - appears automatically after bringing the rest of the green Cactuar spheres to the glyph. Once you've found a Cactuar, you don't have to find them again - you can leave the desert whenever you want, and the minigame will not have reset. ** There is a bug with Isrra where he won't be there. I speculate that if you find the Cactuars all at once without leaving the desert, you'll encounter it. Just leave that screen, return, and you can find him. Why on earth Square fixed the chocobo race and AP trick cheats but not this bug, I don't know. Difficulty to Obtain: Easy, but time-consuming. Having the [No Encounters] auto-ability is extremely helpful in getting the Sigil. You can add this ability to an armor with 30 Purifying Salts, or win a weapon with this already added from Geosgaeno. Normally you can only put [No Encounters] on an armor, but the Geosgaeno weapon keeps the monsters away all the same... Abilities: [Break Damage Limit] + [Triple Overdrive] + [Double AP] + [Gillionaire] Special Effects: Does more damage when Rikku's HP is full, no effect on Aeons. Name origin: The God Hand was one of Tifa's best weapons in Final Fantasy VII, and Kevin's Light-Light aligned fighting class in Seiken Densetsu 3, also known as Secret of Mana 2, another Square game. The name also appears in Ehrgeiz, another Square game, where Godhand is a playable character with a gun arm. -- VI. Frequently Asked Questions -- 1. I got 0:0:0 on the chocobo race and all I got was a Turbo Ether! Why? You actually need a time of _better than_ 0:0:0 to get the Sun Sigil. If you collect enough balloons and avoid enough birds to get _exactly_ 0:0:0, you'll recieve the aforementioned Turbo Ether instead of the Sun Sigil. 2. I played the butterfly minigame and got a Teleport Sphere instead of the Saturn Sigil. Why? You must complete both butterfly minigames in Macalania Woods, not just one of them. Finish the second and you'll get the Sigil. 3. Is there a cheat to dodge 200 lightning bolts? No. The cheat where you dodge 15, leave the screen, check the chest, revive Aeris, and get General Leo in your party has been proven false. Some people have reported that tapping [X] in time with the 4/4 rythmn of the Thunder Plains music helps you dodge bolts, yet isn't rapid enough for the game to sense you're cheating and blast you with lightning. Yours truly sucks at lightning dodging however, and suggests that if you do too, you coerce a more coordinated friend into getting the Venus Sigil for you. 4. Why can't I open the treasure chest to get a Celestial Weapon in [name of location]? Probably because you don't have the Celestial Mirror - go back and reread Sections III and IV, please. I didn't write those for my health. Alternately, if you have the Celestial Mirror and the treasure chests still won't open, it's probably because you used a Gameshark to get it. There isn't anything you can do in that event, other than hope you have an earlier save sans Gameshark, or start the game over from scratch. 5. Why won't the lady in Macalania Woods move? Keep talking to the reunited parents until they mention their missing son. Until they mention the son, the woman who prattles on about how nice it is that someone cut down the tree will not move. Period. 6. Are there any changes between the original Japanese release, the US release, and FFX International? Yes, there are a few - the chocobo race cheat (see question below) that was in the original Japanese release was taken out of the US release, and FFX International. Crests and Sigils were called Seals and Holy Seals in the original Japanese release, and had to do with Japanese days of the week, rather than planets. Kimahri's Spirit Lance was called Longinus in the Japanese relase, and likewise Tidus' Calabolg was the Ultima Weapon. Lastly, most of the Crest and Sigil names are juxtaposed in FFX International - Wakka's power-ups are the Mercury Crest and Sigil instead of Jupiter, Lulu's power-ups are the Mars Crest and Sigil instead of Venus, Kimahri's are the Jupiter Crest and Sigil instead of Saturn, Auron's are the Saturn Crest and Sigil instead of Mars, and Rikku's are the Venus Crest and Sigil instead of Mercury. Tidus' and Yuna's power-ups remain Sun and Moon, respectively. Whew. 7. I'm playing the original Japanese release of FFX - so what's the chocobo race cheat? Let me preface this by reiterating that the cheat only works in the original Japanese release of FFX - it does not work in the US release, nor FFX International. That said, the cheat goes like this: get stuck on the first turn in the track by holding left or right (I like left), and let the timer run to about 1:55:00. Then go around the turn and try to be hit by a bird exactly at 2:00:00. In the next race, if you triggered the cheat correctly, the birds should pass right through you. 8. The information in your guide looks really familiar. Where have I seen it before? A certain FAQ writer who was new to the FAQ scene asked for permission to "use" information from this guide for their own FAQ/Walkthrough. I consented, assuming they'd take small parts of this document and put it in their own words, as is common courtesy among FAQ writers. In their next update I found that they'd copied and pasted my entire FAQ verbatim. I emailed the author about this, politely explaining why it was wrong that they did that, and asked them to rewrite it. (If my FAQ and someone else's FAQ contain the exact same information, what's the point of them existing in seperate text files?) Anyway, they changed a word here and there, after much griping and several insult-ridden emails sent my way, but for the most part, the content of their FAQ is still part and parcel _my work_, and they've ignored all emails from me asking that they remove their section on ultimate weapons, since they seem to be incapable of rewriting it. The same goes for their "Bribe" section, and a other bits and pieces that look suspiciously exactly like things I've written. If you don't know who I'm talking about, all the better, but if you do, kindly email them and tell them that you don't appreciate their plagarism - maybe you'll have better luck reaching them than I did. -- VII. Thanks, Acknowledgements, Shameless Plugs -- Thanks to Dragon T (dragont@yahoo.com) and Druff for the name origin of Kimahri's Longinus. Thanks to Tom Cheng (Shivan on the GameFAQs FFX board) for English names of Crests, Sigils, and Tidus and Kimahri's ultimate weapons. BIG thanks to Terence Fergusson for the name origin of Tidus' Caladbolg, and for the Masamune / Murasame / Muramasa legend correction. Thanks to Bryan Thvedtq and Daniel Stringer, who also wrote in about the Caladbolg. Thanks to Muni Shinobu (muni_shinobu@yahoo.com) for his excellent FFX walkthrough and numerous other guides on the game. Without him, we would not know wairo from Shinola. Thanks to everyone who wrote in about Godhand and Ehrgeiz, all 178 of you. No, I'm not exaggerating. Extra special thanks to Square (http://www.playonline.com/) for creating FFX and many other quality titles, and GameFAQs (http://www.gamefaqs.com/) for hosting FAQs on every game imaginable, and respecting FAQ author's rights. If your name isn't here and it should be, blame the memory and not the heart.