~B
-- Final Fantasy X (US) Monster Arena FAQ --
-- by CB! (Christine Bomke, circe@san.rr.com) --
-- Version 2.0, 9/23/02 --
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, blah blah copyright violation blah blah legal
action blah.
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
please don't post it.
Avast ye matey, thar be spoilers ahead.
-- Table 'o Contents --
I. Version History
II. Foreword / Contact Information
III. General Strategies / Leveling Up
a. Monster Arena Overview
b. Suggested Abilities and Equipment
c. Leveling Up
IV. Normal Monster Price List
V. Area Creations
a. Besaid Island: Stratavis
b. Kilika Forest: Malboro Menace
c. Mi'ihen Highroad: Kottos
d. Mushroom Rock Road: Coeurlregina
e. Djose Highroad / Moonflow: Jormungand
f. Thunder Plains: Cactuar King
g. Macalania Forest and Snowfield: Espada
h. Sanubia Desert: Abyss Worm
i. Calm Lands: Chimerageist
j. Cavern of the Stolen Fayth: Don Tonberry
k. Mt. Gagazet / Gagazet Cavern / Zanarkand Ruins: Catoblepas
l. Inside Sin: Abadon
m. Omega Ruins: Vorban
V. Species Creations
a. Wolves: Fenrir
b. Lizards: Ornitholestes
c. Birds: Pteryx
d. Insects: Hornet
e. Floating Wizards: Vidatu
f. Eyeballs: One-Eye
g. Flans: Jumbo Flan
h. Elements: Nega Elemental
i. Armored Moles: Tanket
j. Dragons: Fafnir
k. Fungus: Sleep Sprout
l. Bombs: Bomb King
m. Horned: Juggernaut
n. Iron Giants: Ironclad
VII. Original Creations
a. Earth Eater
b. Greater Sphere
c. Catastrophe
d. Th'uban
e. Neslug
f. Ultima Buster
g. Shinryu
h. Nemesis (or "Omega Gold")
VIII. Zen, and the art of Encountering Rare Monsters
IX. Frequently Asked Questions
1. Where can I find [name of monster]? They're so rare!
2. What about Land Worms?
3. Which monsters appear in more than one area, and which area do they
count towards when I capture them?
4. What is this "Passado" trick you keep mentioning?
5. What is the purpose of the Mark of Conquest?
6. Is there a difference between the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth and the
Sunken Cave?
7. I don't like your strategy, nyah nyah. Why don't you write a different
one?
8. What is the Sphere Distiller trick?
9. What do Reppageki, Bushinzan, and Shinryudan mean?
10. Am I missing out on anything if I don't fight Chimerageist on my first
visit to the Calm Lands?
11. What about other bosses? Is there a benefit to fighting them
immediately after unlocking them?
12. I supposedly completed all of the requirements to unlock Nemesis, and
he's still not on the list! Why?
13. I'm playing an NSG (No Sphere Grid) game, can I still make good use
of the Monster Arena?
14. Are there any significant Monster Arena changes between the original
Japanese release, the US release, and the "International"/PAL release?
15. Were there any original boss designs for the Monster Arena?
16. What's in the treasure chest in front of the Monster Arena, and how do
I open it?
17. Does Zanmato work on Monster Arena bosses?
IX. Thanks, Acknowledgements, Shameless Plugs
-- I. Version History --
v2.0 9/23/02: Added a special explanation of rare monster encounters and
encounter rates in general, and went over the entire document with a fine-
toothed comb to fix typos, errors, and translational bugbears. Don't say I don't
love you.
v1.6 4/12/02: Added six new Frequently Asked Questions, added a section on the
prices of fighting regular monsters, and finally wrote part c of Section III.
v1.5 3/26/02: Added exact stats for every monster, rewrote every single
strategy, added 2 new Frequently Asked Questions, and wrote a new section on
suggested battle and equipment abilities. The leveling up portion will be
completed in the next revision.
v1.4 1/30/02: Added Frequently Asked Questions section, changed "Reraise" to
"Auto-Life", and corrected the Iguion omission in the conditions for unlocking
Ornitholestes. Thanks to the ten zillion people who emailed me about this.
v1.3 1/17/02: Added the number of slots in dropped equipment, and number of
abilities in dropped equipment to each optional boss. And despite my
proclamation that I would no longer accept strategic submissions, Ultima
Gamer emailed me with such a great Neslug strategy, I just couldn't help
posting it. Smileys!
v1.2 1/5/02: Expanded upon the strategy for Nemesis, added a strategy for
Catastrophe which I'd forgotten, and fixed the Chocobo Wings/Feathers
problem, thanks to everyone who emailed/IMed me about this. Tweaked little
things about some strategies, and added the AP gained for each boss. (I still
say the AP doesn't matter, since the monsters in the Omega Ruins give you at
least as much per fight with less effort, but some people like to know
everything about everything anyway.)
v1.1 1/3/02: Updated pretty much every existing boss strategy, thanks to
reader submissions, and fixed a few _really_ stupid mistakes. Also noted the
insanely low encounter rates for some monsters (coughTonberrySimurghcough),
and revised the "General Strategies" section.
v0.9 12/29/01: Finished most of the FAQ, and submitted to GameFAQs.com. The
only things missing are strategies for a few bosses, and/or more reader-
submitted strategies.
v0.1 12/25/01: Began guide. Not released to the public.
-- II. Foreword / Contact Information --
First, this is not a gameplay FAQ. This is an explanation of how the Monster
Arena works, and how to level up like mad by fighting in it. If you need help
figuring out the Sphere Grid system, or want a walkthough, look elsewhere.
Most of this information came from my own experiences in the game, but some
information concerning auto-abilities of dropped equipment, slots of dropped
equipment, and drop rates came from the Final Fantasy X Ultimania "Battle"
guide. Exact monster stats came from the Final Fantasy X Ultimania "Omega"
guide. It also bears mentioning I never would have appreciated the Monster
Arena fully while playing the import if not for Muni Shinobu's "Training
Facility" FAQ on GameFAQs, so much respect to him, too.
If you have a submission or a question regarding the Monster Arena that I
haven't covered in this document, don't bother emailing me. I am completely
satisfied with this FAQ as it stands now, and the very thought of ever
updating it again - or answering email about it - makes the bile rise in my
throat. If you'd still like to attempt to contact me, however, my email address
is at the top of the FAQ, and I'm on the GameFAQs.com boards as "Ceebs".
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 erroneous version.
-- III. General Strategies / Leveling Up --
- a. Monster Arena Overview -
To capture monsters, go to the Monster Arena to the east of the Calm Lands,
and buy monster-capturing weapons from the trainer there. If you deal the
killing blow to a monster with one of these weapons, the monster is sent to
the Monster Arena, and you can then fight it there for a nominal cost. If you
lose any battle at the monster arena, it's not a game over, your characters
simply have 1 HP afterwards, and you lose the money you paid to fight the
monster. Capture enough monsters from an area or a species, and you'll unlock
new bosses. The rest of this FAQ deals with these bosses.
- b. Suggested Abilities and Equipment -
Assume that all of the following bosses are immune to all status ailments
unless specified otherwise (Jumbo Flan is succeptable to Slow, and Neslug to
Silence, for example), and defend against all elemental attacks, if not absorb
them entirely. It's not nescessary for all of your characters to know every
single spell, Skill, and Special on the grid, but having at least one person
with a full complement of Black and White magics, someone else with status
ailment Skills, and teaching as many people as possible Entrust and Copycat,
is a good idea. Having Wakka's Attack Reel, and Tidus' Blitz Ace Overdrives
are dirty shortcuts to causing lots of damage, and are absolutely worth your
time to obtain.
Hitting for 99,999 damage with your characters is not essential for the first
group of bosses, the Area Creations, but it certainly helps. For the Species
and Original Creations, consider it vital. This means that you need several
weapons with [Break Damage Limit]. The easiest way to obtain weapons with this
auto-ability is to power up your characters' Celestial Weapons (for
information on how to do that, see the FAQ I wrote on the subject), although
you may customize the auto-ability into a weapon yourself if you have 60 Dark
Matter. Self-made weapons don't have the special damage properties of
Celestial Weapons, however, and won't do as much damage to armored enemies. A
self-made spear for Kimahri will only do about 40,000 damage to Tanket at 255
strength regardless of HP, for example, while his Spirit Lance will do 99,999
damage at 210 strength and full HP.
Quick Hit is a nescessity. Let me reiterate, QUICK HIT IS A NESCESSITY. Quick
Hit will allow you to get many, many extra attacks on a boss before it's had
a chance to move, often allowing you to dispose of it without a scratch on
you to show for it. Some bosses automatically counterattack everything,
however, which brings us to...
[Auto Protect] and [Auto Shell] armor are at least as important as how many
hits you can get in between bosses' turns. In previous Final Fantasies, the
importance of Protect and Shell fell by the wayside - either they were not as
effective in reducing damage, or the enemies in previous games didn't warrant
religious use of them - but not so in FFX. Protect and Shell effectively
halve all physical and magical damage dealt to your party, which can mean the
difference between victory and the Game Over screen when fighting bosses with
very high physical or magical offense, such as Fafnir, Nega Elemental, Greater
Sphere, or Ultima Buster, especially if these bosses counterattack when you
so much as sneeze in their direction.
Hastega, or an armor with [Auto Haste], used in conjunction with Quick Hit,
is a nescessity. The more frequently you can attack, obviously the sooner the
boss will perish. In this author's opinion, however, [Auto Haste] takes a
backseat to Protect and Shell, because unlike Hastega, there isn't a multiple-
character Protect or Shell spell. Likewise, [Auto Regen], [Auto Phoenix],
and/or [Auto Potion] used in conjunction with [Alchemy] are also helpful, but
IMHO, the former three that I just named should take precedence.
Having over 9,999 HP to defeat any of these bosses isn't nescessary, but you'd
best have at least two characters with [Auto Phoenix] and/or keep everyone in
Auto-Life status if you don't have more than 9,999 HP. Auto-Life is preferable
to [Auto Phoenix], because it doesn't require a living party member to activate,
but it wastes a turn. The tradeoff is yours to decide.
All told, you need at least two different armors for fighting in the Monster
Arena - one to defend against monsters who use a lot of status ailment attacks,
and a second one when fighting monsters who hit for big damage. The status
armor should consist of [Auto Med], [Berserkproof], [Confuseproof], and
[Deathproof]. You could substitute [Curseproof] or [Blindproof] for [Auto Med]
if you like, but consider the other three auto-abilities very important. The
armor to use against monsters with a high offense should consist of [Break HP
Limit], [Auto Protect], [Auto Shell], and either [Auto Haste] or [Auto
Phoenix]. With [Auto Protect] and high defense, [HP +30%] would merely be
decorative - anything that can take off more than 15,000 HP in one hit while
you're in Protect status with 255 defense would probably kill you in one hit
regardless of how many HP you have, but if you'd like to use [HP +30%] anyway,
[Auto Shell] is the most expendable of these abilities. That's not to say it's
unnescessary altogether, it simply means that more monsters use physical
attacks than magical ones.
- c. Leveling Up -
First, a disclaimer - before engaging any of these bosses in battle, read their
writeups below to learn about their statistics and attack patterns. This
section is only a suggestion of who to fight first, it is not nearly as
in-depth a boss guide as the information in sections IV, V, and VI. Disclaimer
over, we now return you to your regularly scheduled FAQ.
At very, very low levels, you'll want to have your Aeons do the fighting for
you. Having Anima - if not the Magus Sisters as well - will help you
tremendously, because not only can these two Aeons break the damage limit
without powering up a Celestial Weapon, but their stats begin porportionately
higher than any other Aeon you have. If even Anima and the Magus Sisters are
being slaughtered in the arena, however, level up Yuna, because the strength
of any Aeon is tied to the strength of the summoner.
You'll probably want to begin fighting either One-Eye or Pteryx before you
take on any other bosses. Both of these Species Creations have very low HP,
and despite a dirty trick or two up their sleeves, they're pushovers if you
use Aeons to do the fighting for you at low levels. If you're concerned about
being ambushed, create a party without Yuna, and equip a member of that party
with a weapon bearing [First Strike]. If you're ambushed, swap the character
with [First Strike] for Yuna, and immediately have her summon. Anyway,
defeating One-Eye yields weapons with [Triple AP], and Pteryx drops Evasion
Spheres. (One-Eye also drops Magic Defense Spheres, but this tends to be
overshadowed by the awesomeness of the weapons he drops. You'll probably have
collected several dozen Magic Defense Spheres by the time you have [Triple AP]
weapons for all seven members of your party - don't hesitate to place these
on the Grid as you go, as well.) [Triple AP] weapons allow you to accrue
ridiculous amounts of AP very rapidly (yours truly likes to exploit this by
fighting Cactuars in Sanubia Desert, but the Omega Ruins is good as well in a
pinch), and when your Evasion stat gets high enough, a good many of the
Creations in the arena won't even be able to make a connecting hit.
Speaking of, once you've gained ungodly amounts of AP with your new weapons,
and raised your Evasion stat to at least 180, ideally 200+, you can take on
Ironclad without fear. Ironclad merely *looks* intimidating - when you have a
very high Evasion stat, his Reppageki counter will never hit you, and you'll
be laughing all the way to the HP Sphere bank. Bushinzan and Shinryudan can't
be evaded, by the way, but hopefully you'll have defeated him before he gets
his second and third turns to use these - refer to the Ironclad information
below for a strategy to take him down fast.
Alternately, if your Wakka has a decent Strength stat, his World Champion
weapon, and Attack Reel, you can make short work of Fenrir before you even
take on One-Eye, Pteryx, or Ironclad. Twelve hits of Attack Reel at 99,999
damage a pop is 1,199,988 damage, considerably more than Fenrir's laughable
850,000 HP. Causing that much damage at one time will always be an Overkill,
therefore, Fenrir will always drop 2 Agility Spheres.
When your Agility and HP are respectable - I'd say at least 110 (plus Haste)
for the former and over 9,999 for the latter - you can move on to Juggernaut.
Now, Juggernaut will automatically forfeit its first turn to charge up for
its second turn, which happens to be a Fire elemental breath attack, which
means that if you wear armor with [Fireproof] or [Fire Eater], your party
actually gets _two_ free turns on Juggernaut! (Nul Blaze works just as well as
the aforementioned two armor abilities.) A moderately leveled party should
have no trouble defeating Juggernaut before its third turn, but if he's giving
you trouble, the tried-and-true method of Passado has never failed.
At some point in the preceeding, you can take on Hornet, who drops Accuracy
Spheres. Hornet doesn't have super high HP, but he hits with absolute accuracy,
his attacks inflict nasty status changes, and his evade rate is pretty high.
You should be used to fighting monsters like him, so I'm sure I don't need to
tell you to use Attack Reel or Passado. Right? Right. Sorted.
Defeating Jumbo Flan, who drops Magic Spheres, is an excercise in patience,
not brute strength. Using the strategy I've outlined in Jumbo Flan's writeup
below, you should be able to defeat him in five to six minutes. The strategy,
in short, is to teach Anima Haste, Lancet, Shell, and Dispel, and have her
repeatedly use Pain on Jumbo Flan, healing with Lancet when nescessary, and
using Shell if Anima's Magic Defense is below 200. If your Anima is of a high
enough level, Pain will do 99,999 damage every time. This is admittedly a
time-consuming and boring strategy, but it's much easier than Doublecasting
Ultima. Moreover, you need a high Magic stat for your party's Ultima to do much
damage, yet you can't _get_ a high Magic stat without defeating Jumbo Flan in
the first place! Catch 22! Anima may be an ugly fish-mummy-thing, but she's a
_useful_ ugly fish-mummy-thing.
Tanket, who drops Defense Spheres, almost qualfies as easy a boss to defeat as
those discussed in the preceeding paragraphs, but the fact that he's armored
makes doing appreciable damage to him very difficult without a high Strength
stat. Consider taking him on towards the end of your stat-raising. Attack Reel
him for a quick kill, or defeat him the regular way with Quick Hit - Tanket is
fairly slow, and he'll have two turns tops if your Agility is high enough.
So you've got great Evasion, Magic Defense, HP, Agility, Accuracy, Strength,
Defense, and Magic, isn't that enough?
Yes and no. Having a high Luck stat will affect how often you recieve a rare
dropped item, how often you can make a rare steal, and the rate at which you
make critical hits, much less hit an enemy with high Evasion at all! If you're
not a completist, but still want the benefit of a high Luck stat, always
making a rare Steal can be accomplished by putting [Master Thief] on an armor,
and maxing out your strength and obtaining the Celestial Weapons eliminates
the need for making critical hits. So yes, Luck is important, but unless you
plan on engaging the Dark Aeons in battle - the only monsters with painfully
high Evasion irrespective of your Accuracy stat - having a low Luck stat can
be compensated for as outlined above. And with the exasperatingly difficult
Greater Sphere and Earth Eater being the only two bosses to drop Luck and
Fortune Spheres, respectively, you've got your work cut out for you.
-- IV. Normal Monster Price List --
When talking to the trainer, after choosing "Fight Monsters", the screen is
arranged like this:
_________________________________________________________
| |
| Besaid Kilika |
| Mi'ihen Highroad Mushroom Rock Road |
| Djose Road Thunder Plains |
| Macalania Bikanel |
| Calm Lands Sunken Cave |
| Mt. Gagazet Inside Sin |
| Omega Dungeon Area Conquest |
| Species Conquest Original |
|_________________________________________________________|
Here are the monsters in the order they appear on the various area and conquest
selections; hopefully if you're missing a monster, this should clue you in to
exactly which one it is:
Besaid
Dingo - 24 gil
Condor - 18 gil
Water Flan - 27 gil
Kilika
Dinonix - 40 gil
Killer Bee - 34 gil
Yellow Element - 49 gil
Ragora - 72 gil
Mi'ihen Highroad
Mi'ihen Fang - 49 gil
Ipiria - 69 gil
Floating Eye - 66 gil
White Element - 72 gil
Raldo - 63 gil
Vouivre - 90 gil
Bomb - 105 gil
Dual Horn (page 2) - 157 gil
Mushroom Rock Road
Raptor - 72 gil
Gandarewa - 93 gil
Thunder Flan - 75 gil
Red Element - 82 gil
Lamashtu - 108 gil
Funguar - 63 gil
Garuda - 210 gil
Djose Road
Garm - 132 gil
Simurgh - 109 gil
Bite Bug - 93 gil
Snow Flan - 139 gil
Bunyip - 145 gil
Basilisk - 187 gil
Ochu - 780 gil
Thunder Plains
Melusine - 162 gil
Aerouge - 216 gil
Buer - 198 gil
Gold Element - 160 gil
Kusariqqu - 168 gil
Larva - 495 gil
Iron Giant - 900 gil
Qactuar (page 2) - 4000 gil
Macalania
Snow Wolf - 288 gil
Iguion - 207 gil
Wasp - 213 gil
Evil Eye - 307 gil
Ice Flan - 282 gil
Blue Element - 270 gil
Murussu - 247 gil
Mafdet (page 2) - 258 gil
Xiphos (page 2) - 330 gil
Chimera (page 2) - 1455 gil
Bikanel
Sand Wolf - 337 gil
Alcyone - 360 gil
Mushussu - 405 gil
Zuu - 1800 gil
Sand Worm - 1500 gil
Cactuar - 400 gil
Calm Lands
Skoll - 630 gil
Nebiros - 480 gil
Flame Flan - 672 gil
Shred - 552 gil
Anacondaur - 1125 gil
Ogre - 1470 gil
Coeurl - 1650 gil
Chimera Brain (page 2) - 1500 gil
Malboro (page 2) - 1650 gil
Sunken Cave
Yowie - 720 gil
Imp - 915 gil
Dark Element - 780 gil
Nidhogg - 903 gil
Thorn - 795 gil
Valaha - 1080 gil
Epaaj - 1425 gil
Ghost (page 2) - 1215 gil
Tonberry (page 2) - 3000 gil
Mt. Gagazet
Bandersnatch - 1320 gil
Ahriman - 975 gil
Dark Flan - 1620 gil
Grenade - 810 gil
Grat - 780 gil
Grendel - 1095 gil
Bashura - 1095 gil
Mandragora (page 2) - 1800 gil
Behemoth (page 2) - 2025 gil
Splasher (page 2) - 300 gil
Achelous (page 2) - 630 gil
Maelspike (page 2) - 495 gil
Inside Sin
Exoray - 1260 gil
Wraith - 1605 gil
Gemini A (armed with sword) - 1666 gil
Gemini B (armed with club) - 1666 gil
Demonolith - 2205 gil
Great Malboro - 2250 gil
Barbatos - 2325 gil
Adamantoise (page 2) - 3300 gil
Behemoth King (page 2) - 2775 gil
Omega Dungeon
Zaurus - 1425 gil
Floating Death - 1897 gil
Black Element - 1560 gil
Halma - 1545 gil
Puroboros - 1455 gil
Spirit - 1950 gil
Machea - 2175 gil
Master Coeurl (page 2) - 3045 gil
Master Tonberry (page 2) - 3600 gil
Varuna (page 2) - 2670 gil
Area Conquest
Stratoavis - 6000 gil
Malboro Menace - 6000 gil
Kottos - 6000 gil
Coeurlregina - 6000 gil
Jormungand - 6000 gil
Cactuar King - 6000 gil
Espada - 6000 gil
Abyss Worm (page 2) - 6000 gil
Chimerageist (page 2) - 6000 gil
Don Tonberry (page 2) - 8000 gil
Catoblepas (page 2) - 6000 gil
Abaddon (page 2) - 6000 gil
Vorban (page 2) - 6000 gil
Species Conquest
Fenrir - 8000 gil
Ornitholestes - 8000 gil
Pteryx - 8000 gil
Hornet - 8000 gil
Vidatu - 8000 gil
One-Eye - 8000 gil
Jumbo Flan - 8000 gil
Nega Elemental (page 2) - 8000 gil
Tanket (page 2) - 8000 gil
Fafnir (page 2) - 8000 gil
Sleep Sprout (page 2) - 8000 gil
Bomb King (page 2) - 8000 gil
Juggernaut (page 2) - 8000 gil
Ironclad (page 2) - 8000 gil
Original
Earth Eater - 15000 gil
Greater Sphere - 15000 gil
Catastrophe - 15000 gil
Th'uban - 15000 gil
Neslug - 15000 gil
Ultima Buster - 15000 gil
Shinryu - 15000 gil
Nemesis (page 2) - 25000 gil
Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Str +5%, Str +10%, Str +20%
Auto-abilites of dropped armor: HP +10%, HP +20%, HP +30%
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3
Strategy: Easy, easy, easy. Don't be fooled by his Zuu-like appearance, this
bird is a pushover. When he flops to the ground, which should happen after
only a few hits, you'll know he's low on HP. At low levels, boost Yojimbo's
Evade % with Speed Spheres, and have him kill Stratavis. Youji's evasion is
so good, Stratavis will miss nearly every time! This tactic is courtesy of
dreavien, who swears up and down that it works great on other Area Creation
and Species Creation bosses. Barring using Yojimbo, or being leveled enough
to kill him with physical attacks, Stratavis has a slight weakness to Slow,
and all four 'Break' skills - these will work 10% of the time. Doom works as
well, but you'll be sitting through 200 turns looking at his ugly mug.
Conditions: Capture at least one of each monster from Besaid Island. These
are: Dingo, Condor, and Water Flan.
Prize for unlocking: Stamina Tonic x99
- b. Kilika Forest: Malboro Menace -
Name: Malboro Menace
HP: 640000 (Overkill: 12000)
AP: 8000 (Overkill: 8000)
Steal: Remedy x4 (common), Mana Spring x2 (rare)
Cost: 6000 gil
Drop: Mana Tonic x2 (common) x4 (Overkill)
Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill)
|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|
| Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % |
|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|
| 60 | 24 | 53 | 63 | 34 | 0 |
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 3-4
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-4
Strategy: This guy is like a souped-up, giant Great Malboro, so equip armor
with the [Berserkproof], [Confuseproof], and [Auto Med] abilities, or [Ribbon]
if you're playing the PAL or "International" releases. Malboro Menace will
_always_ ambush you on the first turn and use Putrid Breath immediately, so if
you have a weapon bearing the [First Strike] auto ability, make sure you have
it equipped to get an extra hit on him at the beginning of the battle, or swap
that character our for Yuna who will summon an Aeon to take Malboro Menace's
Putrid Breath attack. (If anyone is curious, Putrid Breath is simply Bad
Breath plus small damage, but the damage is insignificant compared to having
an entire party afflicted by Confusion...) His other methods of assault
include two different tentacle attacks - one inflicts Petrify on a single
character, and the other inflicts all four 'Breaks' on a single character.
Like Stratavis before him, Malboro Menace is vulnerable to Doom, although the
Doom counter is set at 200.
Conditions: Capture at least one of each monster from Kilika. These are: Killer
Bee, Ragora, Dinonix, and Yellow Element.
Prize for unlocking: Poison Fang x99
- c. Mi'ihen Highroad: Kottos -
Name: Kottos
HP: 440000 (Overkill: 15000)
AP: 8000 (Overkill: 8000)
Steal: Stamina Spring x4 (common), Soul Spring x2 (rare)
Cost: 6000 gil
Drop: Healing Spring x20 (common) x40 (Overkill)
Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill)
|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|
| Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % |
|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|
| 88 | 60 | 12 | 1 | 36 | 0 |
Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Counter, Evade & Counter, Magic Counter
Auto-abilites of dropped armor: HP +10%, HP +20%, HP +30%
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-3
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3
Strategy: Kottos counterattacks everything - Overdrives, phsyical attacks,
magic attacks, even simply Stealing from him will cause him to attack you.
If you fight Kottos when you're just beginning to capture monsters, you may
get creamed, but he's a piece of cake at higher levels. Have everyone in
Protect status, and lots of HP and Phoenix Downs. At 255 Defense and in
Protect status, his counterattack will only do about 1500 damage.
Conditions: Capture at least one of each monster from Mi'ihen Highroad. These
are: Raldo, Floating Eye, Mi'ihen Fang, White Element, Bomb, Dual Horn,
Vouivre*, and Ipiria*. *These last two only appear in the "Old" part of
Mi'ihen Highroad. The "Old" Highroad is the sunken canyon part that you can
get to by doing a U-turn at the screen right before Mushroom Rock Road, where
the chocobo feathers and Auron's Mars Crest are.
Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Deathstrike, Double AP
Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Sleepproof, Silenceproof, Darkproof,
Stoneproof, Poisonproof, Zombieproof, Slowproof, Deathproof
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-3
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3
Strategy: Another pushover - kind of a spiritual successor to the panther
enemies you fought in the Tower of Bab-il in Final Fantasy IV, except without
the difficulty. She'll sit there while you attack her repeatedly, and most of
the time use a combination Doom/Curse/Confuse attack called "Chaos", but so
long as you have [Confuseproof], [Deathproof], and possibly [Curseproof], it
can't harm you. Very rarely, Coeurlregina will use Hyper Blaster, which is
instant death to one character, and fairly weak Flare, Thundaga, and Drain
spells. If for some reason you can't wear down her 380000 HP in a reasonable
amount of time, she too is vulnerable to Doom, and the counter is set at 200.
Conditions: Capture at least one of each monster from Mushroom Rock Road.
These are: Thunder Flan*, Gandarewa*, Raptor, Lamashtu, Red Element*, Funguar*,
and Garuda. *These asterisked monsters appear in more areas than just Mushroom
Rock Road. Thunder Flan also appears in the "Old" part of Mi'ihen Highroad, and
Red Element, Funguar, and Gandarewa appear in the southern part of Djose
Highroad.
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 3-4
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-4
Strategy: Yet another easy fight. Jormungand likes to petrify you, but you
expected that from his palette-swapped Basilisk appearance, right? Right.
If he doesn't use a stone gaze-type attack, he'll attack one party member
with his claws for piddly damage, or use a sonic tail attack that hits your
whole party, which may be halved by Shell. Verily, Jormungand is slow as
molasses, so as long as you have [Stoneproof], and abuse Overdrives and Quick
Hit, he'll probably only get one hit on you. Should you choose to cripple him
further, he's also vulnerable to Slow status, and has 90% resistence to all
four 'Breaks'.
Conditions: Capture at least one of each monster from Djose Highroad. These
are: Bite Bug, Garm, Bunyip, Simurgh, Snow Flan, Basilisk, and Ochu*. *The
Ochu only appears along the Moonflow, which is west of Djose Temple.
Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Str +5%, Str +10%, Str +20%
Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Defense +5%, Defense +10%, Defense +20%
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3
Strategy: Cactuar King is fast with ridiculously high Evade and Magic Defense,
so definately include Wakka in this battle - he may be the only one who can
reliably hit him. And regardless of whether you're able to make a connecting
hit on him or not, the Cactuar King will counterattack with 10,000 Needles.
When his turn comes to, Cactuar King will use 10,000 Needles about 40% of the
time, 99,999 Needles 50% of the time, and run away (!) 10% of the time.
Wakka's Attack Reel Overdrive, or Blitz Ace will finish him off quickly.
Between this fight, and the Cactuar minigame in Sanubia Desert, you may wind
up hating Cactuars for life.
Conditions: Capture at least one of each monster from Thunder Plains. These
are: Aerouge, Buer, Melusine, Kusariqqu, Qactuar*, Gold Element, Larva, and
Iron Giant**. *You will not encounter Qactuars until you've prayed to at
least one of the glowing Qactuar stones. **The Iron Giant only appears north
of Rin's travel agency.
Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Str +5%, Str +10%, Str +20%
Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Defense +5%, Defense +10%, Defense +20%
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3
Strategy: Espada has a rather annoying instant-death counterattack, but very
low HP. You can circumvent this by zombifying your party members, which makes
them immune to instant death, or having the [Deathproof] and/or [Auto Phoenix]
abilities in your armor. If your evade is high enough, you don't even need to
worry about it, because you'll always dodge the counterattack. Espada also has
no resistance whatsoever to all four 'Breaks', and 50% resistance to Slow.
Enjoy this easy fight.
Conditions: Capture at least one of each monster from Macalania. These are:
Wasp, Murussu, Blue Element, Xiphos, Chimera, Evil Eye*, Snow Wolf*, Mafdet*,
and Ice Flan*. The monsters without asterisks appear in Macalania Forest, and
the ones with asterisks appear around Lake Macalania and Macalania Snowfield.
Also, do not confuse Murussu with Mafdet - they're both armored moles, but
one is pink, red, and blue, and has a crystal growing out of its head
(Murussu), and the other is grayish-lavender with smoke coming out of pores
in its back (Mafdet).
Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Str +5%, Str +10%, Str +20%
Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Defense +5%, Defense +10%, Defense +20%
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3
Strategy: The Abyss Worm only LOOKS intimidating - but then you hit him, and
you realize he's just an overgrown earthworm with serious post-nasal drip
problems. Although the Abyss Worm doesn't have any status ailment weaknesses,
outside of Doom (count: 200), he's extremely slow, and he doesn't have much
physical defense power, so if at least one of your party members can deal
99,999 damage every time, this battle is over before it's even begun. Even if
you can't deal 9,999 damage, Hastega, Doublecasting Flare or Ultima, or Lulu's
Fury Overdrives will expedite things muchly. (Unfortunately, the Abyss Worm is
immune to Demi, which means you can't expedite things even further.)
Conditions: Capture at least one of each monster from Sanubia Desert. These
are: Alcyone, Sand Wolf, Sand Worm*, Mushussu, Zuu, and Cactuar*. *All of the
monsters appear in all areas, EXCEPT for the Sand Worm and Cactuar. The Sand
Worm only appears in the Ruins and Sandstorm areas, and the Cactuar only
appears on the screen closest to home - most frequently in the Sandstorm area.
You can find all of these monsters except for the Mulfushu and Alcyone at the
Sanubia Sand Dune location, accessable by searching the coordinates X-15 Y-41
while on the airship. I think.
Prize for unlocking: Shadow Gem x99
- i. Calm Lands: Chimerageist -
Name: Chimerageist
HP: 120000 (Overkill: 10000)
AP: 8000 (Overkill: 8000)
Steal: Mana Spring x2 (common), Stamina Spring x1 (rare)
Cost: 6000 gil
Drop: Return Sphere x1 (common) x2 (Overkill)
Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill)
|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|
| Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % |
|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|
| 66 | 10 | 68 | 10 | 29 | 0 |
Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Firestrike, Waterstrike, Icestrike
Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Fire Eater, Water Eater, Ice Eater
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-3
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3
Strategy: Chimerageist will most likely be the easiest of any of these bosses,
because he'll also be the first one you fight - the Monster Trainer won't let
you fight any of the other bosses until you've captured all the monsters from
the Calm Lands, remember? Aqua Breath, which Kimahri may learn from him, is
the most damaging of his attacks, and it hits your entire party, but so long
as you have [Waterproof] or [Water Eater] armor, or NulTide status, it's
nothing to worry about. His other attacks include a fireball called Megid Flame,
and the usual complement of Chimera spells. Chimerageist has 50% resistance to
all four 'Breaks', and no resistance to Doom.
Conditions: Capture at least one of each monster from the Calm Lands. These
are: Nebiros, Skoll, Flame Flan, Anacondaur, Shred, Coeurl*, Ogre, Malboro*,
and Chimera Brain. *The Coeurl and Malboro also appear in the Cavern of the
Stolen Fayth, but if you capture them there, they count towards your Calm
Lands total. If you're having trouble running into a particular monster, the
trainer even tells you that the rarest monsters tend to spawn in the northwest
corner of the Calm Lands.
Prize for unlocking: Farplane Wind x60
- j. Cavern of the Stolen Fayth: Don Tonberry -
Name: Don Tonberry
HP: 480000 (Overkill: 10000)
AP: 8000 (Overkill: 8000)
Steal: Candle of Life x2 (common), Designer Wallet x1 (rare)
Cost: 8000 gil
Drop: Farplane Wind x3 (common) x6 (Overkill)
Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill)
|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|
| Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % |
|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|
| 95 | 100 | 75 | 100 | 37 | 0 |
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 3-4
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 2-4
Strategy: If you attack Don Tonberry when he's at the far side of the screen,
he'll automatically counterattack with an insanely powerful version of Karma,
(ten times the power of a standard Karma, to be exact) which will usually kill
you, even at high levels. Whereas if you defend for four turns while he walks
towards you, and only attack him when you're staring him in the face, he won't
counterattack. [Auto Phoenix] or Auto-Life are nescessary if you don't heed
the Karma warning, and attack him before you can see the whites of his eyes.
For a laugh, try summoning an Aeon to see his Voodoo attack...
Conditions: Capture at least one of each monster from the Cavern of the
Stolen Fayth. These are: Epaaj, Imp*, Yowie, Thorn, Dark Element, Nidhogg*,
Valaha, Ghost, and Tonberry. *The Imp and Nidhogg also appear in Mt. Gagazet,
but if you capture them there, they count towards your Cavern of the Stolen
Fayth total. The encounter rate for certain monsters in the cave is
ridiculously low, so if you can't find a certain monster right away, like a
Tonberry, don't despair, you're not the only one. I personally spent four
hours searching for Tonberries in the cave, and only found five in that time.
Arcaneja and others on the GameFAQs FFX board have reported that the Tonberry
rate was highest in the "green" room to the right of the first 4-way
intersection, so maybe I was just looking in the wrong place. Regardless,
whomever programmed the encounter rates in this area should be strung up by
their toenails and Everyone's Grudged repeatedly. Grrr!
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 3-4
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 2-4
Strategy: Treat Catoblepas as you would a mega Behemoth, because that's what
he is, and bear in mind that when you defeat him, he'll cast Ultima as a last
gasp. Cast Shell on your party before you slay him, if you don't have very
high magic defense, or cripple him by using any and all four 'Breaks', of
which he has 50% resistance to.
Conditions: Capture at least one of each monster from Mt. Gagazet. These are:
Bandersnatch, Grat, Grenade, Bashura, Ahriman, Grendel, Dark Flan, Mandragora,
Behemoth, Splasher, Achelous, and Maelspike. Bear in mind that this area
encompasses the snowy exterior of Mt. Gagazet, the Cavern interior, the
flooded part of the cavern, and the ruins of the Zanarkand Freeway. Also,
capturing at least two of the Splasher, Achelous, and Maelspike will unlock
Shinryu in addition to Catoblepas - see Shinryu's entry in the Original
Creations section for more detail.
Prize for unlocking: Blossom Crown for unlocking Catoblepas, and 30 Mega
Elixirs for unlocking Shinryu.
- l. Inside Sin: Abadon -
Name: Abadon
HP: 380000 (Overkill: 10000)
AP: 10000 (Overkill: 10000)
Steal: Purifying Salt x3 (common), Shining Gem x1 (rare)
Cost: 6000 gil
Drop: Mana Tablet x1 (common) x2 (Overkill)
Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill)
|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|
| Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % |
|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|
| 40 | 180 | 95 | 160 | 120 | 0 |
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3
Strategy: Cast Hastega. Attack with Quick Hit. Rinse, lather, repeat. Don't
bother with magic, because he has constant Nul-All, Reflect, and other
protective statuses in place. His attacks include Pharoah's Curse, which you
may have been afflicted by when fighting Demonoliths, all of the -aga spells,
Flare, and Demi rarely. Abadon tends to use Pharoah's Curse more than anything,
though, so either have [Blindproof], [Poisonproof], [Curseproof], and/or [Auto
Med] in your armor.
Conditions: Capture at least one of each monster from Inside Sin. These are:
Exoray, Gemini (both kinds, each count as a seperate monster)*, Adamantoise*,
Behemoth King, Wraith*, Great Malboro*, Barbatos**, and Demonolith*. *These
monsters also appear in the Omega Ruins, but if you capture them there, they
count towards your Inside Sin total. **Barbatos only appears in the "deserted
city"-type area - the City of Dying Dreams.
Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Str +5%, Str +10%, Str +20%
Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Defense +5%, Defense +10%, Defense +20%
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3
Strategy: Don't bother with Armor Break, because Vorban is immume to it,
and all of the other "Breaks". Unless your characters can hit for 99,999
damage, this will be a very very long fight, and not one that I recommend at
low to moderate levels. Otherwise, Vorban has all of the same attacks that a
Barbatos does, and whether he'll counterattack when you hit him seems to be
totally random. His only status ailment weakness is Doom (count: 200).
Conditions: Capture at least one of each monster from the Omega Ruins. These
are: Varuna*, Floating Death, Black Element, Zaurus, Spirit*, Halma, Machea,
Master Coeurl, Master Tonberry*, and Puroburos*. *These monsters appear most
frequently (which is to say, still not very frequently at all) in the basement
level of the Omega Ruins, en route to Omega himself.
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 3-4
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 2-4
Strategy: Fenrir is fast, agile, and has two very powerful attacks, one of
which is instant death even to Aeons, and the other does 15,000+ damage on
top of confusion to a single character. And did I mention, he's FAST? Even if
you cast Hastega, you may not be able to keep up with Fenrir. If there was
ever a battle to abuse Mindy's Passado, this is it. He has 99% resistance to
Armor Break and Mental Break, but in my opinion, the 1% chance of making a
connecting hit outweighs the benefit of inflicting either of these on him.
Alternately, if you're playing the "International" or PAL releases, one
multi-hit Overdrive from Anima will send him back to the kennel quickly.
Conditions: Capture at least 3 of each monster from the wolf species. These
are: Dingo (Besaid Island), Mi'ihen Fang (Mi'ihen Highroad), Garm (Moonflow),
Snow Wolf (Macalania Snowfield), Sand Wolf (Sanubia Desert), Skoll (Calm
Lands), and Bandersnatch (Mt. Gagazet).
Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Double Overdrive
Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Defense +5%, Defense +10%, Defense +20%
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-3
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3
Strategy: Ornitholestes has a high evade rate, but low speed and physical
attack power compared to most of the other Species Creations. So consider this
an easy fight. However, if you fight him on lower levels, you may run into
one of two attacks: a) a damage plus poison attack that never misses unless
you have [Poisonproof] armor, or b) an HP-draining attack. Don't worry too
much about the latter attack, instead worry about curing the poison before it
has a chance to really damage you. As a last resort, use Doom (count: 200).
Conditions: Capture at least 3 of each monster from the lizard species. These
are: Dinonix (Kilika Forest), Ipiria (Mi'ihen Highroad), Raptor (Mushroom Rock
Road), Melusine (Thunder Plains), Iguion (Macalania) Yowie (Cavern of the
Stolen Fayth), and Zaurus (Omega Ruins).
Prize for unlocking: Stamina Spring x99
- c. Birds: Pteryx -
Name: Pteryx
HP: 100000 (Overkill: 99999)
AP: 10000 (Overkill: 10000)
Steal: Smoke Bomb x4 (common), Candle of Life x1 (rare)
Cost: 8000 gil
Drop: Evasion Sphere x1 (common) x2 (Overkill)
Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill)
|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|
| Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % |
|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|
| 90 | 100 | 5 | 100 | 60 | 60 |
Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Str +5%, Str +10%, Str +20%
Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Defense +5%, Defense +10%, Defense +20%
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3
Strategy: High evade rate, medium speed, extremely low HP, constantly in
Regen status, vulnerable to Doom (count: 200) and all four 'Breaks'. The one
attack that's even worth mentioning is Pteryx's beak attack, which curses you.
Yawn. Next?
Conditions: Capture at least 4 of each monster from the bird species. These
are: Condor (Besaid Island), Simurgh (Djose Highroad), and Alcyone (Sanubia
Desert).
Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Str +5%, Str +10%, Str +20%
Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Defense +5%, Defense +10%, Defense +20%
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3
Strategy: Wouldn't you know it, another monster with a high evade rate!
Heavens to Betsy! He hits pretty hard for an overgrown insect, including a
poison stinger, and instant death stinger attacks, and never misses (there's
a reason the Hornet drops Accuracy Spheres) but all of his attacks target a
single character. His standard non-stinger physical attack inflicts Sleep,
Silence, Blind, and Death on a single character.
Conditions: Capture at least 4 of each monster from the insect species. These
are: Killer Bee (Kilika Forest), Bite Bug (Moonflow), Wasp (Macalania Forest),
and Nebiros (Calm Lands).
Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Double AP
Auto-abilites of dropped armor: MP 10%, MP +20%, MP +30%
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-3
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3
Strategy: Don't bother using elemental spells on Vidatu, because his constant
Nul-All and Regen status will nullify all of them. I believe he's also in
Shell status, so non-elemental spells aren't very powerful either. Take him
down in a single hit if you can hit for 99,999 damage.
Conditions: Capture at least 4 of each monster from the floating wizard
species. These are: Gandarewa (Mushroom Rock Road), Aerouge (Thunder Plains),
and Imp (Mt. Gagazet or Cavern of the Stolen Fayth).
Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Triple AP
Auto-abilites of dropped armor: MP +10%, MP +20%, MP +30%
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-3
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3
Stategy: If One-Eye has the first move, he'll use an attack called Shock Wave,
which is every status abnormality in the book, on top of 9,999+ damage to
every character. When fighting One-Eye, make sure at least one person in your
active part is equipped with a weapon bearing [First Strike], and if he gets the
jump on you, simply swap that character out for Yuna, who will summon. The only
other attack of One Eye's worth mentioning is a staring contest he has with one
character - standard to all of the One-Eyed fiends, that inflicts Curse status.
Conditions: Capture at least 4 of each monster from the eyeball species. These
are: Floating Eye (Mi'ihen Highroad), Buer (Thunder Plains), Evil Eye
(Macalania Snowfield), Ahriman (Mt. Gagazet or Inside Sin), and Floating Death
(Omega Ruins).
Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Magic Booster
Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Fire Eater, Water Eater, Ice Eater
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3
Strategy: Jumbo Flan is HARD... well technically he's jellylike, and probably
soft and squishy to the touch, but he's hard to defeat. Would you want to
touch him, anyway? I wouldn't. Jumbo Flan absorbs all kinds of elemental
spells, and has high Magic Defense to boot, so non-elemental spells don't do
much damage. Don't even think about using physical attacks - no matter how
high your strength is, all weapon-based techniques do 0 damage. Jae kindly
informed me via email to try to use Ultima in conjunction with Doublecast
and Copycat, and having road tested this, can confirm he's correct. To make
this battle even easier, Slow Jumbo Flan by casting Reflect on one of your
party members, then Slow on that same member. (Jumbo Flan is constantly in
Reflect status, and casting slow on him directly will bounce it back to you
- that's why you want to Reflect your Slow spell off a party member.)
Besides Slow, Jumbo Flan is also vulnerable to Blind and Doom (count: 200),
although seeing as he never uses a physical attack, and magic circumvents
Blind status, I don't know why you'd want to use the former on him.
Alternately, make sure Anima knows Haste, Ultima, Lancet, and _maybe_ Shell
and Dispel. Summon her, Haste and Shell her, and have her use "Pain"
repeatedly, which is not weapon-based and will therefore do 99,999 damage if
Yuna is moderately built up. If Jumbo Flan whittles Anima's HP down, use
Lancet to heal her. When Jumbo Flan is close to dying, he'll cast Regen on
himself, which you can Dispel if you like, or keep Paining him, and he'll
probably die in two rounds at most. This is the fastest way to defeat Jumbo
Flan, period. Credits to Crimson Shadow and Billy Auyang for submitting this.
Conditions: Capture at least 3 of each monster from the flan species. These
are: Water Flan (Besaid Island), Thunder Flan (Mi'ihen Highroad), Snow Flan
(Moonflow), Ice Flan (Macalania Lake or Snowfield), Flame Flan (Calm Lands),
and Dark Flan (Gagazet Cavern or Zanarkand Ruins).
Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Firestrike, Thunderstrike, Waterstrike,
Icestrike
Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Fire Eater, Lightning Eater, Water Eater,
Ice Eater
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 2-4
Strategy: Nega Elemental counterattacks all physical attacks with Ultima,
even Overdrives, so don't use those unless your Magic Defense is 255. You
cannot get around this by casting Reflect on your party, either, because
Ultima penetrates Reflect. Instead, use the same strategy you used to kill
Jumbo Flan above - Doublecast Ultima, and Copycat like it's going out of style,
or summon Anima and have her use Pain, because Pain is not a physical attack.
Nega Elemental's regular attacks are insignificant compared to its Ultima
counter, and all they consist of is a weak Drain, and Reflect when its HP is
getting low.
Conditions: Capture at least 3 of each monster from the elemental species.
These are: Yellow Element (Kilika Forest), White Element (Mi'ihen Highroad),
Red Element (Mushroom Rock Road), Gold Element (Thunder Plains), Blue Element
(Macalania Forest), Dark Element (Cavern of the Stolen Fayth), and Black
Element (Omega Ruins).
Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Str +5%, Str +10%, Str +20%
Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Defense +5%, Defense +10%, Defense +20%
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3
Strategy: Despite being the ultimate armored mole, Tanket's defense doesn't
seem to be much higher than any of the rest of these bosses. To level the
playing field and reduce his defense to zero, use Auron's Banishing Blade
Overdrive, or a Frag Grenade item. Tanket has very high magic resistance, and
only a basic bodyblow attack, which also Berserks the target. You do NOT want
your bearers of [Auto Phoenix] to become Berserked, because this will prevent
them from using a Phoenix Down on a fallen party member! Also, when only one
party member is left alive, Tanket will repeatedly bodyblow them until they die,
without giving you a turn, or chance counterattack. If you can kill him without
any of the above transpiring, it's such a cheap and easy way to get Defense
Spheres, I almost feel sorry for the little guy.
Conditions: Capture at least 3 of each monster from the armored mole species.
These are: Raldo (Mi'ihen Highroad), Bunyip (Djose Highroad or Moonflow),
Murussu (Macalania Forest), Mafdet (Macalania Snowfield), Shred (Calm Lands),
and Halma (Omega Ruins).
Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Firestrike, Thunderstrike, Waterstrike,
Icestrike
Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Fire Eater, Water Eater, Ice Eater
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-4
Strategy: Fafnir is like any other dragon you've fought - it has a physical
attack, mauling one character, and an elemental breath attack. Generally on
its first and second turns, it'll use a physical attack against a single
character, but on subsequent attacks, will use a "Three Stage Attack" move.
The first "stage" is a physical attack, the second is a random elemental
breath that can be blocked with any of the Nul-spells or appropriate [Element
Eater] armor abilities, and the the third is another physical attack. Lastly,
Fafnir has 95% resistance to all four 'Breaks', and 0% resistance to Doom
(count: 200).
Conditions: Capture at least 4 of each monster from the dragon species. These
are: Vouivre (Mi'ihen Highroad), Lamashtu (Mushroom Rock Road), Kusariqqu
(Thunder Plains), Mushussu (Sanubia Desert), and Nidhogg (Cavern of the Stolen
Fayth or Mt. Gagazet).
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 3-4
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-4
Strategy: The first rule of Sprout Club is, YOU DO NOT ATTACK SLEEP SPROUT.
The second rule of Sprout Club is, YOU DO NOT ATTACK SLEEP SPROUT. When in
doubt, refer to rule 1. If you attack Sleep Sprout, it will automatically
counter with a spore attack that's quite similar to the Malboro's Bad Breath.
("Goodnight", indeed.) These rules don't apply if you can hit for 99,999
damage every time, in which case, attack away! Tip: use Aeons to do the dirty
work for you at low levels, because they're immune to Goodnight's deleterious
status effects. Sleep Sprout has no resistance to Power Break or Doom (count:
200), but the fact that it never uses physical attacks makes Power Breaking it
pointless. Apart from Goodnight, Sleep Sprout uses Firaga, Thundaga, Waterga,
Blizzaga, Flare, and Ultima, but you'll probably kill it so quickly, that it
won't have the opportunity to use these spells.
Conditions: Capture at least 5 of each monster from the fungus species. These
are: Funguar (Mushroom Rock Road or southern Djose Highroad), Thorn (Cavern of
the Stolen Fayth), and Exoray (Inside Sin).
Prize for unlocking: Healing Spring x99
- l. Bombs: Bomb King -
Name: Bomb King
HP: 480000 (Overkill: 10000)
AP: 10000 (Overkill: 10000)
Steal: Fire Gem x4 (common), Shining Gem x1 (rare)
Cost: 8000 gil
Drop: Door to Tomorrow x1 (common) x2 (Overkill)
Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill)
|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|
| Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % |
|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|
| 73 | 200 | 71 | 200 | 46 | 0 |
Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Str +5%, Str +10%, Str +20%
Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Defense +5%, Defense +10%, Defense +20%
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3
Strategy: Bomb King is a strange one. Unlike his bomb brethren, normal
attacks don't automatically make him swell... sometimes. Christian Washington
postulated that when you deal a certain amount of damage to Bomb King,
regardless of whether it was a physical or magical attack, he will swell.
When Bomb King swells a fourth time, every attack you do will make him
counter with Ultima. Bomb King's other attacks include Fire, Fira, and Firaga.
An easy way to defeat Bomb King is to make sure all of your characters are
equipped with weapons that have [Magic Counter], and possibly armor with [Fire
Eater] for the sake of keeping everyone at full health, then Haste the Bomb
King, Shell your party members to offset some of Bomb King's magic damage, and
have them defend. Whenever Bomb King attacks, your characters will
automagically counterattack. However, these counterattacks by your party do
not make Bomb King swell. Again, credit to Christian Washington for this
strategy.
Conditions: Capture at least 5 of each monster from the bomb species. These
are: Bomb (Mi'ihen Highroad), Grenade (Mt. Gagazet), and Puroburos (Omega
Ruins).
Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Str +5%, Str +10%, Str +20%
Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Defense +5%, Defense +10%, Defense +20%
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3
Strategy: Juggernaut isn't hard, it's just hard to wear down. Immediately cast
Hastega upon entering the battle, and use Quick Hit until Juggernaut's second
turn comes up. You actually get a free turn - the first move Juggernaut will make
is to charge up for a multiple-character fire breath attack, which is the second
move. If you're swift about it, you can probably kill Juggernaut before it has a
chance to unleash this move, but if you're not, swap one of your characters for
Yuna, and have her summon an Aeon to take the brunt of Juggernaut's fire breath
attack. Alternately, armor with [Fire Eater] will absorb its breath, and NulBlaze
and [Fireproof] armor will nullify the breath altogether. During subsequent turns,
Juggernaut may charge up for another fire attack, thus forfeiting its turn, or
(more likely) it will rush up to one or more characters and maul them, like Fafnir
above likes to do. Juggernaut has 95% resistance to all four 'Breaks', and 0%
resistance to Doom (count: 200).
Conditions: Capture at least 5 of each monster from the horned species. These
are: Dual Horn (Mi'ihen Highroad), Valaha (Cavern of the Stolen Fayth), and
Grendel (Gagazet Cavern or Zanarkand Ruins).
Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Str +5%, Str +10%, Str +20%
Auto-abilites of dropped armor: HP +10%, HP +20%, HP +30%
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3
Strategy: Like Vorban, Ironclad is armored, and Armor Break only works 5% of
the time, so use Auron's Banishing Blade Overdrive or a Frag Grenade instead
to crack his armor. Whenever you attack Ironclad, he'll automatically
counterattack with Reppageki, but if your evade rate is high enough, he'll
never hit you! It's a very good idea to kill Pteryx lots before taking Ironclad
on - or any of these bosses, really. Ironclad's pattern of attack, eschewing
couterattacks, is thus: Reppageki (medium damage attack against a single
character), then Bushinzan (large damage to all characters plus reduces MP to 0),
then Shinryudan (large damage to a single character). After he preforms all
three, he starts over with Reppageki again.
Conditions: Capture 10 of each from the iron giant species. These are: Iron
Giant (north part of Thunder Plains), Gemini A (Inside Sin or Omega Ruins,
armed with a sword), and Gemini B (Inside Sin or Omega Ruins, armed with a
club). Each Gemini counts as a seperate monster!
Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Triple Overdrive
Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Auto Potion
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 3-4
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1
Strategy: When standing upright, the Earth Eater will attack (AND
counterattack) with Megaton Punch, which inflicts Death on one character if
the damage doesn't kill them outright. [Deathproof] armor and Protect status
will help tremendously. If you do enough damage to the Earth Eater
cumulatively or all at once, you'll knock it on its back - I believe something
in the neighborhood of 100,000 damage is required to knock the Earth Eater
down. When it is on its back, it cannot attack you, or do anything except roll
back and forth looking pitiful... unless you attack it, which will net you an
automatic Flare counterattack directed at a random character. Luckily this
Flare does not break the damage limit, in other words, 9999 damage is the most
that it can do, but this is still quite punishing at low levels. Cast Shell on
your party while the Earth Eater is trying to pick itself up to halve the Flare
damage.
Conditions: Capture the nescessary number of monsters to conquer 2 areas.
Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: One MP Cost
Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Auto Phoenix
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1
Strategy: If there was ever a poster child for [Auto-Protect] armor, it would
be Greater Sphere. Even at very high levels, Greater Sphere still gave me lots
of trouble, because it constantly randomly counterattacks with Aqua Press or
Ultima, and the former does ridiculously high damage even at 255 defense -
Protect makes it barely survivable. Besides that, obsessively keeping your
party in Auto-Life status will save your rear. Luckily, Greater Sphere doesn't
have much HP, so a few 12-hit Attack Reels at 99,999 per hit should dispose of
it, or if you have the patience to wait 255 turns, it's vulnerable to Doom.
Conditions: Capture the nescessary number of monsters to conquer 2 species.
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 3-4
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-4
Strategy: Catastrophe begins the battle in its shell, and won't come out until
you've inflicted about 500,000 damage upon it. While in its shell, its defense
is slightly higher, and it will attack all of your characters with a
combination Poison/Confusion/Curse attack if given the chance. Hastega at the
beginning of the fight, and proceed to attack Catastrophe until it comes out of
its shell.
Once you've coerced Catastrophe out of its shell, its pattern of attack goes:
Toxic Spray -> Demi -> Hundred Thorns. Toxic Spray does minimal damage to a
single character, and puts them in in Power Break, Magic Break, Armor Break,
and Mental Break status. Demi is a standard Demi - it reduces your party's HP
by 1/4. Lastly, Hundred Thorns hits all of your party members for large damage,
which at low defense does upwards of 30,000 damage - half that with protect -
and clues you into why this boss is called "Catastrophe". This is the easiest
battle of the Original Creations, easier than most of the Species Creations too,
and only the fact that Catastrophe has 2.2 million HP would prevent you from
winning this battle before you can hit for 99,999 damage.
Conditions: Capture the nescessary number of monsters to conquer 6 areas.
Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Triple AP, Triple Overdrive
Auto-abilites of dropped armor: HP +10%, HP +20%, HP +30%
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 3-4
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3
Strategy: Fighting Th'uban is lots of fun, if your idea of fun is DYING
QUICKLY AND REPEATEDLY. Th'uban annoyingly counterattacks every physical and
magical attack with a tail swipe that instantly removes any protective
statuses from your whole party, like Regen, Haste, Protect, etc, unless that
character has [Auto Regen], [Auto Haste], [Auto Protect], etc, in their armor.
He also has a Pulsar Shockwave-esque attack that does 99,999 damage to one
character, regardless of defense, and a vicious wing attack called Rainbow,
which hits all characters multiple times, on top of cursing them. (Speaking
of cursing, that's what I do every time Th'uban kills me. #$@&@*!!!)
To defeat Th'uban the legitimate way, you'll probably want to employ Blitz Ace,
Attack Reel, Passado, and a little bit of luck. If you don't mind cheating,
however, and have lots of patience, there's a dirty trick you can use...
Th'uban is vulnerable to Death Sentence. You can sentence him by using Kimahri's
"Doom" Ronso Rage, or a Candle of Life item. To ensure that you'll win the
battle, keep everyone in Auto-Life status, and defend for all of the 255 turns
that it will take for Death Sentence to automatically kill him. Do NOT attack
him while you're Auto-Lifed, otherwise his tail swipe counterattack will remove
the Auto-Life, along with any other positive statuses.
Conditions: Capture the nescessary number of monsters to conquer 6 species.
Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Piercing (Kimahri, Auron), Triple AP
Auto-abilites of dropped armor: HP +10%, HP +20%, HP +30%
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-3
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3
Strategy: Besides having fallen out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on
the way down, the Neslug likes to retreat into its shell and regenerate large
amounts of HP per turn with Curaga and Regen when you've depleted some of its
life. While in its shell, it becomes impervious to all weapon-based attacks.
(In other words, Mindy's Passado doesn't work. Boo hoo!) So what do you do?
First, make sure at least one person knows Ultima and Doublecast, everyone
knows Copycat, and you've got a good supply of Turbo Ethers. Cast Hastega at
the beginning of the battle, and Quick Hit, Attack Reel, or Blitz Ace the
Neslug until it retreats into its shell. If you're quick enough, the Neslug
won't even get a change to attack you before it goes into its shell. The
Neslug will not come out of its shell until it is completely healed, so don't
wait for it to come out, and thereby negate all of your hard work. Instead,
Doublecast Ultima, and Copycat until its shell shatters, stopping only to
replenish the MP of a party member who's low. Alternately, despite Blitz Ace
being weapon-based, it still does damage. You could go into battle with
everyone's Overdrive bars full, and Entrust them to Tidus so that he can Blitz
Ace over and over. When the shell shatters (and this is a pretty cool
animation, IMHO), you'll know the Neslug only has about one million HP left.
Obviously it cannot retreat into its shell anymore, so eleven hits at 99,999
damage later, you've won! Congrats.
On the other hand, Ultima Gamer (ultimagamer@hotmail.com) submitted the
following, which I am paraphrasing: go into battle with Wakka and any other
two characters. Wakka and the other two characters must have a strength of 255,
or near to it, and everyone must have full Overdrive gauges. Wakka must know
Attack Reel, and you must be skilled at lining up the "2 Hit" slots. The other
two characters must know Entrust, and someone must know Hastega. Cast Hastega at
the start of the battle, and use Wakka's Attack Reel. If you successfully lined
up three slots of "2 Hit", Attack Reel will hit Neslug 12 times. Then use Quick
Hit 8 times, for a total of 20 hits. Now, these numbers are very precise for a
reason - Neslug automatically goes into its shell when you've dealt 2,000,000
damage to it. 20 hits at 99,999 equals 1,999,980 damage, which is just barely
enough for the Neslug to stay out in the open. Immediately Entrust one of your
character's Overdrive gauges to Wakka, and have him use Attack Reel once more.
This should break the shell before Neslug has even had a chance to retreat
into it! Finally, use Quick Hit until Neslug dies. This is an awesome strategy,
and takes a fraction of the time my strategy above does, so please send Ultima
Gamer your praises for it.
One warning, however, that applies to both strategies - kill the unshelled
Neslug as quickly as possible, because once its shell is broken, it will only
attack you with an ultra powerful Slime attack that does large damage to your
entire party, plus puts everyone in Poison, Curse, Armor Break, Mental Break,
and Delay attack status. ...Unless you Silence it, in which case it will only
use Megaton on a single character when its turn comes up. Megaton does a good
bit of damage and inflicts Confusion status, but it isn't nearly as bad as
Slime's multiple status ailments. Neslug has no resistance whatsoever to
Silence status, by the way, so it's not difficult at all to shut its gaping
trough of a mouth. Silencing Neslug won't prevent it from using Regen while
in its shell, but it will prevent it from using Regen AND Curaga.
Conditions: Conquer all areas. This means you need to pretty much capture one
of each monster.
Prize for unlocking: Winning Formula x99
- f. Ultima Buster -
Name: Ultima Buster
HP: 5000000 (Overkill: 99999)
AP: 50000 (Overkill: 50000)
Steal: Gambler's Spirit x1 (common), Level 3 Key Sphere x1 (rare)
Cost: 15000 gil
Drop: Winning Formula x1 (common) x2 (Overkill)
Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill)
Ultima Buster
|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|
| Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % |
|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|
| 168 | 60 | 178 | 71 | 72 | 0 |
Ultima Buster's Head and Arms
|----------|----------|
| Defense | M. Def. |
|----------|----------|
| 1 | 1 |
Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Triple AP, Overdrive -> AP, Triple Overdrive
Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Break MP Limit
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 3-4
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1-3
Strategy: This isn't nescessarily a hard battle, just a long-ish one. First,
cast Hastega, and if you can spare the turn, Auto-Life at least one party
member. Then destroy its arms and head with Quick Hit, and continue to use
Quick Hit until Ultima Buster's turn comes up - if your Magic Defense statistic
isn't at least equal to Ultima Buster's Magic Power statistic, immediately have
Yuna summon an Aeon to bear Ultima Buster's attack, which 4 out of 5 times will
be an extremely powerful Ultima spell. The other time, it will bodyslam a
single character for 10,000+ damage, but because this is so unpredictable, use
Aeons as damage absorbers just in case. Ultima and the bodyslam attack may be
halved by Shell and Protect, respectively. The reason for killing the arms is
self-evident - they shield Ultima Buster from your attacks - but the idea behind
killing the head as well, is because every third turn, it will preform an attack
that causes more damage than Ultima Buster's Ultima spell, and inflicts Slow,
Poison, Confusion, Zombie, Power Break, Magic Break, Armor Break, and Mental
Break. Very nasty.
Conditions: Capture at least 5 of each monster.
Prize for unlocking: Dark Matter x99 (!!)
- g. Shinryu -
Name: Shinryu
HP: 2000000 (Overkill: 99999)
AP: 50000 (Overkill: 50000)
Steal: Gambler's Spirit x1 (common), Three Stars x1 (rare)
Cost: 15000 gil
Drop: Wings to Discovery x1 (common) x2 (Overkill)
Dark Matter x1 (rare) x2 (Overkill)
|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|
| Power | Defense | M. Power | M. Def. | Speed | Evade % |
|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|
| 92 | 60 | 86 | 98 | 70 | 0 |
Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Double AP
Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Auto Med
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 2-4
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1
Strategy: Because this battle takes place underwater, you can only use Tidus,
Wakka, and Rikku. Shinryu will counterattack with his claw whenever he is
attacked, which does about 8000+ damage to one character with 120 defense, but
so long as one of your other party members has [Auto Phoenix] in their armor,
this doesn't matter. Some people recommend killing off Tidus and Rikku, and
letting Wakka take care of Shinryu with his Attack Reel Overdrive, because
Shinryu won't use Eraser - his infamous petrification and shattering attack -
if only one of your party members is alive. Barring that strategy, if your
speed is high enough, just cast Hastega, and Quick Hit, Attack Reel, or Blitz
Ace him to death. Shinryu's other offenses pale in comparison to Eraser, but
they include Shining, which hits all of your party members multiple times for
small damage, and a simple claw attack to one character, the same as his claw
counterattack. There isn't any pattern to his attacks, and ideally your stats
are high enough that you'll be able to kill him within one turn.
Conditions: Capture at least 2 Splashers, 2 Achelous, and 2 Maelspikes from
the flooded portion of Gagazet Cavern.
Auto-abilites of dropped weapons: Break Damage Limit
Auto-abilites of dropped armor: Break HP Limit
Number of slots of droppped equipment: 3-4
Number of abilities in dropped equipment: 1
Strategy: First of all, you don't need high HP or even Auto-Life to defeat
Nemesis, all you'll need is to be able to hit for 99,999 damage, and an
agility stat of at least 170 to pull this off in a reasonable amount of time -
220+ is ideal. If you don't, stop reading this strategy right now and go
slaughter Fenrir until you do. ...Done? Good. Nemesis counters Overdrives,
but nothing else. Using whomever you like, cast Hastega at the beginning of
the battle. Use Quick Hit until Nemesis' turn comes up, and swap someone out
for Yuna, who will immediately summon an Aeon to act as a sacrificial lamb.
(If you're already using Yuna as one of your three characters, even better.)
One hit from Nemesis will probably kill your Aeon, but this is okay, because
doing so will bring the turn to move back to you, even if Nemesis had two or
more turns in a row after your Aeon! At 220+ agility, you should be getting
18-20 Quick Hits between each of Nemesis' turns. Seven dead Aeons later,
Nemesis will turn into pyreflies and that sweet "Overkill" will appear on
your television. Congratulations, you've just beaten the "hardest" boss in
Final Fantasy X. The moral of the story is, HP size doesn't matter, it's the
motion of the Quick Hit ocean. I'm not claiming this is the end-all be-all
strategy for defeating Nemesis, but it IS the only way that's worked
consistently for me. Best of luck to you!
Conditions: Capture 10 of each monster, and beat all of the bosses at the
Monster Arena.
Prize for unlocking: Master Sphere x10
-- VIII. Zen, and the art of Encountering Rare Monsters --
Monster encounters work like this - there are preset enemy parties for every
environ that appear at random. You'll never see a party of a Xiphos and 2 Blue
Elements in Macalania Forest together, for example, or 3 Snow Flans in the same
party along the Moonflow. You will however encounter Xiphos by their lonesome,
or with 2 Wasps, and Snow Flans exclusively keep company with Garms and Bunyips.
These are just three examples of the hundreds of preset enemy parties.
You will always encounter the same combinations of monsters in a given area (ie,
the same preset enemy parties), but the order in which you encounter the parties
will always be random. There is no way to increase the chances of encountering a
certain group of fiends, but because encounters are ranomly generated, saving
your game, then resetting will give you a new random order of fiends you've yet
to encounter.
In plain English, encounter rates are randomly decided every time you load up a
new game. If you haven't encountered the fiends you're looking to capture within
10-15 battles, simply save your game, reset, and the encounter rates should be
different. Not nescessarily more favorable, just different. Changing party members
and member positions also seems to affect encounter rates in practice, although
I haven't hacked the game files, and therefore don't know why it would help in
theory.
There are a few exceptions to these rules, however. They are: Simurgh, Qactuar,
Cactuar, and "rare" monsters in the Calm Lands and Omega Ruins.
If you're lucky enough to have encountered a Simurgh without tearing your hair
out looking for one, you may notice that the terrain on the battle screen has
little sunny spots on it, unlike the rest of Djose Highroad. This clues you in
to the factoid that Simurghs appear where the patches of sunlight are. The
largest sunny area is near Djose Temple at the north end of the highroad. It is
therefore suggested that you do your Simurgh hunting there.
The Qactuar is a special fiend found in the Thunder Plains, that you will ONLY
encounter after you've prayed to one or more _glowing_ Qactuar glyphs. Pray to
one stone, and you'll meet parties of singular Qactuars. Pray to two stones, and
you'll meet parties of two Qactuars. Pray to three Qactuar stones, and... need
I continue?
Cactuars are encountered in small amounts all over Sanubia Desert, but as one
would infer after playing the "Village of the Cactuars" minigame, you can find
them most frequently in the village itself. This is located in the sandstorm
area, which becomes available after the minigame has been completed. It's also
a fantastic place to level up - if you have the Wings to Discovery to spare,
you can put [Triple AP] on your [Capture] weapon and really clean up.
As for the rare Calm Lands monsters (Ogre, Malboro, Chimera Brain), the Monster
Arena trainer throws you a bone to make learning this minigame easier, and tells
you specifically that "the rarest fiends spawn in the northwest".
The hardest and rarest fiends in the Omega Ruins are found on the basement level,
accessable after defeating (or intelligently Bribing!) the Ultima Weapon. Prior
to defeating Omega, the encounters will always occur at the center of the
circular areas, and never on the slopes between them. This does not affect the
type of fiend encountered, only the location.
-- IX. Frequently Asked Questions --
1. Where can I find [name of monster]? They're so rare!
Skip back to the section above. I didn't write it for my health. ;)
2. What about Land Worms?
Land Worms only appear in the very last part of the very last dungeon, past
where you may backtrack from. So obviously, you can't capture them. Thank
you, drive though!
3. Which monsters appear in more than one area, and which area do they count
towards when I capture them?
I specified when monsters appear in more than one area earlier in this FAQ,
but for the sake of reiteration, here we go again. Thunder Flan appears in
both the "Old" part of Mi'ihen Highroad, and southern Mushroom Rock Road,
and counts towards Mushroom Rock. Red Element, Funguar, and Gandarewa appear
in both Mushroom Rock Road and Djose Highroad, and all count towards Mushroom
Rock. The Coeurl and Malboro appear in the Calm Lands and Cavern of the
Stolen Fayth, and both count towards the Calm Lands. The Imp and Nidhogg
appear in the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth and Mt. Gagazet, and both count
towards the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth. Lastly, the Geminis (both colors),
Adamantoise, Wraith, Great Malboro, and Demonolith appear in Sin and the
Omega Ruins, and all count towards Sin.
4. What is this "Passado" trick you keep mentioning?
"Passado" is Mindy's unique attack, like Meteor Strike is Ifrit's unique
attack, or Pain is Anima's unique attack. It consists of 15 (?) bee stingers
fired at an enemy for up to 99,999 damage apiece, which if Yuna is leveled up
enough, is sufficient to defeat almost all of the Area and Species Creation
bosses in one shot. The problem is that the Magus Sisters are so
unpredictable, when you tell Mindy to attack, she may do a standard attack,
Passado, or cast a black magic spell. I suppose that's the tradeoff for such
a cheap attack, no? If Passado is only doing mediocre damage for you, level
Yuna up. The strength of any Aeon is tied to the strength of the summoner.
5. What is the purpose of the Mark of Conquest?
The "Mark of Conquest" does nothing other than take up space in your Key
Items inventory, and is proof that you defeated Nemesis. If you played Final
Fantasy VIII, you may remember recieving a similar item for defeating the
Omega Weapon, the "Proof of Omega". The description for this item goes "For
those who have surpassed mortal bounds"; this is an obvious allusion to
Nemesis' name in the Japanese import, Subete Wo Koeshimono, which translates
to "He who has surpassed all". Makes sense, seeing as you have to "surpass"
all of the Monster Arena bosses to obtain the item.
6. Is there a difference between the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth and the Sunken
Cave?
No, they're two names for the exact same location. "Cavern of the Stolen
Fayth" is kind of a long name, and wouldn't fit into the tiny text box. Hence,
Sunken Cave.
7. I don't like your strategy, nyah nyah. Why don't you write a different one?
Gee, I forgot that writing a _free_ guide required me to bend to your every
whim. If the strategies I've given don't work for you, you're not of a high
enough level - and how are your lousy stats a mistake on my part? Most of
these bosses do not require that you have 255 on every stat - all of the
Area and Species Creations, and a few of the Original Creations can be
defeated with stats between 100 - 200. Only the harder Original Creations
require stats above 200. Short of coming to your house and playing the game
for you, I don't know how I could possibly be more specific.
8. What is the Sphere Distiller trick?
At some point in the game, especially if you use one of the ubiquitous "AP
Tricks", you'll probably run out one or more of the common Sphere types. To
get 20-40 in one fight, simply use a Sphere Distiller on Kottos or Fafnir,
who will then drop 20 after the fight for a standard kill, and 40 for an
Overkill. If they only drop two of that type of Sphere, consider it bad luck
- they would have dropped two Dark Matter otherwise.
9. What do Reppageki, Bushinzan, and Shinryudan mean?
I've never studied Japanese formally, and thus don't claim to be fluent, but
here are my best attempts at translation:
- Reppageki: Violent Tearing Attack (retsu ha geki)
- Bushinzan: Weapon God Slicing (bu shin zan)
- Shinryudan: Divine Dragon Judgement (shin ryuu dan)
Any dissimilarities between the spoken reading of the kanji, and the English
translation were probably just shortenings of the long kanji compounds due
to a limited number of spaces in the battle window. What might only take
three spaces in Japanese can take up to 10 in English, as demonstrated in
the example above.
10. Am I missing out on anything if I don't fight Chimerageist on my first
visit to the Calm Lands?
No, you're not missing anything if you wait until later to fight
Chimerageist (except maybe a quick death for your party :), so yes, feel
free to wait. You can also level up around the Yevon Dome before fighting
Yunalesca and backtrack to the Calm Lands if need be - the Defender Z's in
the Dome drop Level 2 and Level 3 Key Spheres, allowing you to unlock
previously inaccessable parts of the Grid, and the groups of 3 robots give
out ridiculously high AP. If you're concerned about the time it would take
to backtrack, you can win [No Encounters] armor from Ghosts in the Cavern of
the Stolen Fayth, or steal Purifying Salts from zombie Yevon monks in the
Dome to make your own [No Encounters] armor, ergo cutting your walking time
to a fraction or what it would otherwise be.
11. What about other bosses? Is there a benefit to fighting them immediately
after unlocking them?
The only benefit to fighting bosses immediately as they're unlocked is that
you may do so for free. They're not easier, nor do they drop better items.
12. I supposedly completed all of the requirements to unlock Nemesis, and he's
still not on the list! Why?
There are several possibilities: one, you didn't really defeat all of the
Area, Species, and Original Creations. Two, you don't really have 10 of
every capturable monster - compare your list with the monsters I listed in
every area, and remember that some areas have two pages' worth of monsters.
Or finally, barring both of those possibilities, there seems to be a bug
where if you unlock Nemesis after defeating one or several Creations and
not saving or leaving the arena after doing so, the trainer won't
acknowledge that you have until you do just that. So if you're positive that
you've captured 10 of each monster, and defeated every creation at least
once, and there's no Nemesis on your list, keep leaving the arena, returning,
and chatting with the trainer until he says "I've created a monster!"
13. I'm playing an NSG (No Sphere Grid) game, can I still make good use of the
Monster Arena?
Certainly, I don't see why not. Capturing monsters doesn't require much
strength, and the rewards for doing so will allow you to build lots of great
equipment, as well as give you reagents for Rikku's Overdrive. If you choose
to fight in the arena for the dropped equipment that the Creations yield,
you'll definitely need to use powered up Aeons to participate in the melee
for you. Best of luck with your NSG game!
14. Are there any significant Monster Arena changes between the original
Japanese release, the US release, and the "International"/PAL release?
Gameplay mechanics-wise, the Monster Arena functions exactly the same in all
four commercially released versions of Final Fantasy X. The most welcome
change is that while there was not a save point at the Monster Arena in the
original Japanese import, there IS one in the US, "International", and PAL
releases - it was a real pain to have to backtrack all the way to the Calm
Lands trading post between boss fights to save and heal, let me tell you. ;)
The observant player will also note that Behemoth King counterattacks with
Meteo when you capture him in the original Japanese and US releases, but does
not counterattack when captured in the "International" or PAL releases.
There were also name changes; omitting the minor ones that could be
attributed to different romanizations of the kana, they are:
- Marlboro Worst became Malboro Menace
- Tô Oni (translation: Fighting Demon) became Kottos
- Wizerusha became Vidatu
- Jumbo Purin* became Jumbo Flan (*all Flans in the Japanese release were
called "Purin")
- Elemental Nega became Nega Elemental
- Nemuridake* became Sleep Sprout
- Huge Sphere became Greater Sphere
- Brachioredos became Th'uban
- Subete Wo Koeshimono became Nemesis
15. Were there any original boss designs for the Monster Arena?
Neslug has the only original boss design, the rest of the Area, Species, and
Original Creations are just palette-swapped versions of other bosses.
16. What's in the treasure chest in front of the Monster Arena, and how do I
open it?
Yuna's Celestial Weapon, the Nirvana, is in the chest. To open it, you'll
need to obtain the Celestial Mirror. Read my Ultimate Weapons Guide for in-
depth information.
17. Does Zanmato work on Monster Arena bosses?
Yes it does! However, all Monster Arena bosses have a whopping Zanmato
resistance level of 5, which translates to a very high affection level and
lots of gil needed to preform it. Azure Edge's superb Yojimbo FAQ contains
everything you could possibly wonder about Yojimbo, and then some. Gaze
upon its FAQqiness and be enlightened, grasshoppa.
-- IX. Thanks, Acknowledgements, Shameless Plugs --
Thanks to Jae for submitting good, detailed battle strategies for Jumbo Flan
and Th'uban, and thanks to Crimson Shadow, Arcaneja, dreavian, Christian
Washington, HuskerCubs, and Billy Auyang for submitting strategies for
Chimerageist, Fafnir, Jumbo Flan, Bomb King, and Catastrophe. Thanks to Ultima
Gamer for submitting the holy grail of Neslug strategies. Kudos, guys, I would
have either given up on trying to beat these bosses, or written less informative
strategies without you.
Much respect to Alexander O. Smith for his fantastic localizations of Vagrant
Story, Parasite Eve 2, et al, worthy of fine literature.
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.
Matt, for making me too happy to update this thing for months on end. Mush.
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 should be here and it isn't, blame the memory and not the heart.
