Oh awesome... I totally missed the Merlose reference! You're totally right. I guess that tells us what she went on to do with her life :D Also missed the Leamonde Entite since i never saw one in the game my first time through (didn't check out Nabreus that much). But yeah, totally fitting for the master dark elemental.

There's also the Grimoires: Gran Grimoire thing, but that may not be a reference. But you're right, I remembered hearing "Merlose" before and decided to check up on VS to see if my hunch was correct. Hell, it even says it on the bottom that most of the team that worked on it was also involved with FFXII. Some are even saying that Yiazmat is the localized name of the dragon that in the Japanese version is called Yazmat (Yasumi Matsuno?).

Leamonde Entite appears in the Nabreus Deadlands when it's really foggy. While that may seem rather vague, you'll know what I mean when it happens. If you're decently setup, you can take them at 40 or even 35.

Serpentarius is a reference to FFT's secret boss of the same name (Just hearing/reading that name brings back memories of that battle). The bestiary entry for one monster mentions that the gods sent down 12 messengers from heaven, but this entry speculated that with each one there was a jewel so with the discovery of the serpentarius gem, the conclusion was that there was a 13th.

Ok, so luckily, I had another save that I had made just before entering the Raithwall area, so I restarted from that, beat the tomb (that esper was no challenge at all) and NOW, for some inexplicable reason, the Giza Plains are open again. Phew. They look much nicer when not all dried up, too.

Hey guys, i wanna finish ff12 100%. So i decided to use a guide. Now i have to make an important choice, between a gamefaqs guide or the official guide. Do you know any gamefaqs guide that is better than the official guide? I also have to consider the price of the official guide, and the number of pages to print a gamefaqs guide (including the sidequests).

I'm semi-seconding this question. I'd like to know if the official (Bradygames) guide is worth the money, because I was also planning on getting it, but heard a number of bad things about it (mainly being that the book is full of spoilers and you can't even use the tables without being spoiled).

Well being as I have the Limited Edition book, I can say it's not that bad really. I think it helps a lot when you searching for treasures and you wanna know where the hard to find things are. Sure the next page might have an uber spoiler, but you just dont pay mind to it really.

And MetalSphere...so that's what that belt does. I was wondering 'why the hell would you want something like that...'. That could be helpful in Hunt battles for sure! lol. I just had to kill that bloodwing hunt, and it wasnt the fact he was difficult, it was the undead skeletons around him that made it annoyning. :/.

All i've been doing lately is hunts and what not, I really should continue on in the story. I'm still around the Phon Coast.

Honestly, not many of the guides on GameFAQs are too great. A lot of them are based still on the Japanese version, and the new ones I've seen that aren't seem to be full of misconceptions about a lot of things that get rather cleared up in the guide.

What's nice in the BradyGames book is that it gives you the real deal on how the treasure system works, has large maps to scope out (with hidden parts), and includes lots of pretty art too ;) Some of the strategies they give aren't as effective as someone's FAQ strategy, sure, but as far as being an aide during the game it does quite well.

The biggest problem I have with the BradyGames guide is that it's terribly organized (without an index) and that it's incomplete. It doesn't even have maps for some of the optional areas!

On the bright side, it's certainly a gorgeous book with all the pictures and the charts are very handy (especially if you've beaten the game).

Really? i've always found all the books I own from them, have been detailed enough, but not too much to give away certain things. For instance, I don't know why people bitched about FFIX's guide. I thought it was very good. Gave what info was needed [like boss/battle preperations], and didn't give away things that just used good ol' fashioned work to get. Brady has nice guides I think, they're good quality most of the time.

In order to work on the Bestiary, I went back to previous areas to fight the elementals so I can type them up. I traveled around the Westersand to bring forth a sandstorm, but I didn't see a single one! Bah!

I did venture into the Caverns there (never knew and entrance existed!) and kill some new enemies though, as well as confront the Esper hidden there. Apparently, he's the easiest one of all to get, and he kicked my butt. He has a cool design :3

Wanted to do a Hunt yesterday, but the King Bomb stopped my progress. BOOO!

Wait, you didn't kill the skeletons around before he appeared? He wasn't difficult at all, just annoying, that's all. With his constant leeching, it seemed like he had more health than was actually the case.

My question is, how do you get a sandstorm to start? I kept going into the caverns and back out but the most I could get is a slightly grey sky. The reason why I want to start it up is to steal a Gnoma Halcyon so I can make an Ultima Blade/Sword for Balthier. While looking through my inventory, I noticed I have most of the ingredients for that recipe.

Ah, I got Cuchulain and Ultima in the same day, though the latter was definitely not intentional. Today, I beat the Behemoth King/King Behemoth. This guy is irritatingly difficult to find, as you have to kill all the enemies in the two snowy maps before Giruvegan and then look around the gate to said city and you literally can't miss him. That first part took a good 30 minutes because the Basilisks, IIRC,. kept spawning.

Anyway, he appears and all hell breaks loose. This thing is ridiculously fast, following up Rake (Protectga + Shellga + Maximillian armor = 2300-2500+ damage) with White Breath (fucking Fafnir move..) and then Slowga. He mixes these up with deadly effect, as Rake can put disease on you, while doing incredible amounts of damage, White Breath is massive damage + occasional stop and Slowga is just irritating. Tried the Nihaopaloa trick, he's immune to every status effect, though Expose works (Shear doesn't however). Bastard also switches his immunity more than any other mark before and uses Greater Barrier at about halfway (read: invincible).

I had Curaja going all around, as well as Balance when he wasn't magic immune, and Drain when he was Phys Immune/Mag Vulnerable. He has some weird regular attack, where he slashes in front of him and kicks out from behind. If you want to see one of your characters get KO'd faster than anything you've seen before, cast Berserk+Bravery+Haste on them. They'll go crazy on him, but he'll return the favor basically making your buffs a waste of MP.

Just expose with your leader, keep everyone with Haste so he can waste a turn using Slowga, position yourself so he can't hit everyone with White Breath. Same applies for his magic spells, (from what I saw, Blizzaga,Thundaga, Darkra/ga, Holy) even though they're much weaker than his physical attacks. Which leads me to my next point, he's immune to Wither as well. =/

Oh! He also starts using Ardor towards the end, and finishes the fight with one final cast, so be prepared. He looks like a Behemoth of olden FFs, not the humanoid ones here.

Anyways, enough of my ramblings, anyone make the Sagittarius Bow? I want to know how to get Beastlord Horns, but no one really seems sure how to do so? Anyone with a guide can tell me what method is best? Humbabas are supposed to have these, I've heard.

I was unprepared for the fight (twas first time fighting) and I lost cause of it. I can try again tomorrow now that I know what I should be doing.

I think sandstorms just appear randomly, but don't quote me on that. Maybe it appears if you stay in area for too long.

Sandstorms are pretty random whenever you zone within the Westersand. I'm not exactly sure what the circumstances are for getting Gnoma Entites to spawn though, or where they are. I know that the actual Earth Elementals/Chaosjets are in Tchita Uplands though. Only entite I've seen is Salamand in the Sandsea so far, though I'm not buff enough to take it on, (Level 41 currently in secundo playthrough)

I managed to get the lore on Storm, Water and Ice elementals tonight though. Thankfully it's just 2 kills per.

The only condition that it takes for Gnoma Entites to spawn is for there to be a sandstorm, because that's that the only environmental condition that was present every time I saw them. The elementals themselves are very strange, as they don't exactly share the same location as the entites. For example:

Leamonde Entite (Dark) - Nabreus Deadlands
Dark Elemental - Necrohol of Nabudis

Diakon Entite (Holy) - Giruvegan
Holy Elemental - The Feywood

Seems like Gnoma matches up with this pattern, as does Undin (which I haven't seen, though I assume it's over at Ridorana). If you want any of the bestiary entries for the higher level marks or monsters you don't have, let me know. So the sandstorm is random, eh? Know anything about getting Beastlord Horns?

I'm THIS close to making a Sagittarius Bow. That, couple with Artemis and Assassin's Arrows (Sweet KO status effect is VERY active). For anyone wondering how OHKO works with said arrows, Penelo just shoots off an arrow, the enemy goes down in one hit without any damage being inflicted. The turtles seem to be very susceptible to this, as all the Adamantitans I've fought today have gone down like this.

Beastlord Horns drop from the Humbaba Mistant, or stolen from. Either or.

And thanks, I'll let you know if I need assistance with stuff. What I may need help with from folks later on, are Lore elements unlocked from stuff I might have missed the opportunity on... Such as Ghosts from the first time through the Garamsythe Waterway... I went back tonight, and none showed up at all. It seems they only exist the first time you go through the dungeon. Similarly, I haven't been able to find any Wildsnakes in Giza... One popped up on me the first time I explored with Vaan, but since then nothing.

Oh, and speaking of awesome projectile weapons... I gave Penelo a crossbow equipped with bolts that inflict Disabled status. Went off on nearly every King Malboro I fought. Happiness ensued.

I'm beginning to take down some marks I never bothered with in my first time through, also. Fun stuff :D

Oh, something neat: there's a rare game version of the Leamonde Entite called "Vagrant Soul" in Pharos Subterra. Tie-ins within tie-ins!

With the Vagrant Soul in Pharos if you kill him, go two zones away to reset the zone and return the Vagrant Soul should be up again. I haven't tried this for xp/hour or anything so I am not sure that it is the best way to "grind" xp, but he gives you around 9,000 xp. With Embroidered Tippets equiped that would be over 18,000xp per kill + whatever xp you get from killing your way to him.

Also, you can steal 8-fluted Poles from him which sell pretty decently.

On a side note: Has anyone actually defeated the final hunt Yiazmat yet? Apparently he has like 50,000,000 or 60,000,000 hps. I ask this because I fought him for over 5 hours, got him down to about 45% hp then he just chain casted Death Strike on me about 30 times until I just wasn't able to keep up with the rezzes.

So you say that it wouldn't be a good idea to buy the official guide, since it contains spoilers? I always hated spoiler guides, and loved spoiler free ones.
But if you say that it's not even full, then i'm definitly going for a gamefaqs guide.
I'll ask you wich gamefaqs guide is the best, later, when they'll be more updated (but before christmas of course :) ).

And about the Beastlord Horns... are you sure? I keep stealing from these guys and I come up with nothing. Even with the Thief's Cuffs. Hopefully it works like the Sagittarius Gems and the Flans/Slimes/Oilings/Foobars that once you get 1, the rest come pretty easily.

I'm beginning to wonder if my off-characters need to be leveled up...
My main party are at levels 29 and 28, but the rest of the gang (Basch, Penelo, Fran) are all around level 11.
Granted, I could level them up and strap some quickenings on them (I think Penelo has 1100 LPs heh) for a quick backup during boss fights, but I don't know if I want to spend the time doing so.

I haven't had much difficulty with the bosses thus far, and I just wrapped up the Mt. Bur-Omisace area (even fought Bergan). No wait, actually I did have trouble fighting Bergan, but that was due to running out of MP and having to rely on Hi-Potions to heal. Plus his counters were killer during the end there.

Oh yeah, that could well be the case. I didn't try it myself again until after I defeated Yazmat.

I can't imagine having a 'main team' - my only anchor is Vaan (currently level 45), and all of my other guys are at 37 because I keep them rotating in and out at all times. They're all pretty powerful, and I've got a good balance with 3 ranged attackers (Penelo has a crossbow) and 3 melee attackers.

I also think having a main party is pointless. Especially because the game allows such quick changes even in mid-battle. Since all characters have their unique advantages and disadvantages, rotating them seems to be the best idea. Hell, I found myself switching members according to situations and enemies in some encounters.

I have no main party. My highest-leveled character is at level 28 right now, and my lowest is 26. As soon as one of them levels up, I switch him or her for another one. Leaving some characters at a very low level is a mistake, one that I've made far too often. I swore I wouldn't do it this time. And I haven't.

I haven't bothered to specialize my characters, though. All of them are good at everything. However, this means that if I do need to specialize them for a particular battle, it will only take a few gambit and/or weapon changes to make them into whatever I want.

Yea, i'm the same way. I think in a particular game such as this, it's important to keep all of your characters lvl'ed evenly if possible. I remember when I was fighting Adrammelch [sp], I had to go and use my reserve team, because my first team would get clobbered after using quickenings.

Right now my whole party is around 47-44 in levels, and i'm continuing on from the Phon Coast and i'm in the Sochen Cave. Just fought the Mandragoras...so adorably funny. I didn't expect XII to have that type of humor. I thought it rocked, hahaha.