Not until after the Pharos events.


Yeah the first half was a cakewalk. It was annoying reprioritizing Steal ahead of everything else every 5 seconds so that I wouldn't miss a Genji piece.

I'm at around 170 hours right now. I've been letting my characters auto-level since last night, and the three that have been fighting are in the mid-eighties right now. Not bad! They should be at level 99 by the end of tomorrow. And when I'm done, I can sell all of the festering flesh and crossbows for big, big bucks.

Why not just steal manually?

I didn't even use Gambits other than attacking and healing throughout the entire game. I prefer having control over the flow of battle myself.

Wow, Rock. I thought I was the only one who didn't use Gambits. I like to control the way the fights play out too. Of course, fights will take longer, but I don't mind it.

Why do it manually when you can set it to go over and over again automatically? Steal doesn't always work on the first try; going into the menu over and over again is annoying. I use Gambits for everything, attacking, healing, buffing, rezzing, you name it. The only things that aren't gambited are black magic attacks, because they are almost useless. (Scathe is much fun to use, though. There's nothing like swinging around a giant laser of death.)

As fast as their attack gauges move when hasted, I didn't want to chance missing stealing the genji stuff, so I figure the best way to make sure of that is to set a gambit where Foe nearest visible: steal, that way I KNOW none of my people will attack and accidentally drop his HP past the next quintile. Once I get the item, go in and disable that gambit until he breaks out the next sword.

My first trip through the game, I really only used gambits for attacking and healing, but now on my second trip through, when I'm fighting some battles that I didn't fool with the first time through, it's a lot more convenient to set gambits to keep my various buffs up without worrying with having to manually cast 3 spells each with three different characters, and that's assuming that I am aware that each of the buffs have worn off, since you only see one icon next to each character's life gauge on screen.

Wow, some folks are real control freaks. There are a lot of occasions were keeping to this just makes stealing/fighting rather irritating, since the enemies will hold onto the items like fiends.

Auto buffing+healing/reviving+attack FTW. Black magic is useless in this game, though I love Scathe like nothing else. Definitely something that should show up in some form in later titles.

BTW, anyone notice that most of the Archadian ships are named after classic FF summons? Perhaps the opposite scions to your Espers are said summons?

- Just defeated Vagrant Soul down in the Subterra. Trying to get Luxollid to come out so I can steal the Staff of the Magi.

Well that's nice. Basically everyone is almost or above level 42, except Vaan is still at 32, but I'm more than pleased. I just took down those 5 damned tomato faggots. They just kept running everywhere, but I did a pretty decent quickening to take down most of their health down to 1000 hp left, which is somewhat disappointing, considering I think a 14 chained quickening with a concurrance of Whiteout.

That battle was fun! Sure, I had to run constantly to catch up with them, but fighting five little wicked tomatoes is cute.

You just reached Sochen and your party is at level 42? O.O

Oh, and I forgot to mention that Gilgamesh's entrance is funny.

Expand on that please. :psyduck:

Man i bet this game is great. I want to get this game so bad. But i dont have a job so means no money :(

Christmas is coming up soon, I'm sure one of your friends or family who's kind enough might pitch in.

That's not the last time you'll see the little bastards. They're extremely rare monsters, in that you have to go through quite a bit of trouble just to get them to appear again. Location? The Feywood, and the larger maps at that.

Nice that you got the second or third strongest concurrence. I've yet to get Black Hole...

Goddamn, how do you kill Magick Pots? I need the bestiary entry for it.

Well fuck me sideays with a lunch pale! Apparently I saved my game at the beginning of the Pharos and then proceeded all the way up and part way through the 3rd. But now it would seem I did not save my game there like I previously thought. So apparently I have to go through the whole fucking place again!!! AAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!

How do I apply a tag if for like the spoilers and shit, not sure if this qualifies but just for future reference.

I actually did get the Black Hole when I least expected it at the Stillshrine of Miriam where I fought the three dragons. I just kept chaing and chaining. When I saw the Black Hole, I was like FUCK YEAH, TAKE THAT. I usually see Ark or Torrent or something like that. I try not to get Infernos.

So, fought Yiazmat for... 4 hours and a half today. >_>

My first time, lost of course.

Got him to around 3%, lost control and Cyclone + Death Strike screwed everything, learned very much about his attacks and I think I have a good strategy now. Gonna need a couple more stronger katanas (Orochi, Yagyu) then try again. This bastard is going down.

Give them an elixir, just like in past Final Fantasy games.

Damn, I've got everything except Black Hole and I got them early in the game:

- Inferno
- Arc Blast
- Cataclysm
- Torrent
- White Out

IIRC, that's from weakest to strongest, and literally the order I saw them in, but I can never manage to get Black Hole. I'm going to jump for joy when I actually nail it. What's everyone's favorite Quickening? I'm torn between Flame Purge, Ruin Impedent, Pyroclasm and White Whorl. The others seemed too tame/boring.

That's why I mentioned the best advice for low-HP Yiazmat is to leave the coliseum. He stops doing his insane move combos and becomes much easier to manage.

I did, it just ran around gleefully. Was I supposed to kill it afterwards? Last time I saw a magic pot was in FFX and that was a long time ago.

Yeah they become vunerable once they start running around.

Damn, I wasted my godforsaken elixer. Will a megalixer do? The good news is that while hanging around Abyssal, hoping to find a Venetian shield, I found myself a Dueling Mask to complement the Brave Suit from Henne.

Anyone managed to find a more reliable Seeq spawn spot? The thieves in the Highwaste only spawn sporadically without any apparent rhyme or reason to it.

Use gil toss against Magic Pots, works. :D

What the hell? Are you serious? If it doesn't, and it nukes Balthier with Flare.... I'll just revive him. Won't hurt the next time I run into one.

Got the Magi staff from the Diakon derived rare game.

Edit: It works, like a charm too. You just to have make sure you either set it to a Gambit (too much of a hassle) or give each character the command twice. That way you kill it before it stops being "appalled and dismayed" and starts raping you.

Where do you get the Grand Helm and Armor? I read somewhere that "Tower" drops it, where do I find that?

For sure. Basch is so badass. Balthier's tidal wave one is pretty cool, too. "Heads up!"

Sadly, I've never chained higher than Arc Blast, which is actually stronger than Torrent, I think.

Grand Helm - It's one of those Mithril Golems, or at least a derivation, and it's literally called Tower. Rare drop, too. I've never got it, though it's easier to get him to appear than the next guy:

Grand Armor - Helvinek, in the Necrohol of Nabudis. Many of you guys may know this guy as the clown who appears out of the blue (mist) after killing all six Oversouls in the Necrohol. From what I've observed, there's 1 on each map and 3 in the Cloister of the Highborn map.

Unfortunately, you have to leave the Necrohol entirely and move two maps away to make the Oversouls respawn. Anyways, he has something like 99,999 and is weak against Holy. He drops High Arcana (keep them for the Tournesol) and some other things, like Aidhed Togail. But the armor is just as rare as the helmet.

Yeah, that one's awesome. Balthier's really mesh with his overall demeanor, as does Basch's. I thought Ruin Impendent was too awesome to be a 2nd tier quickening... until I saw Flame Purge.

Right on the money! Damn, it wouldn't be so bad if I needed 1 or 2 more along with Black Hole, but it's going to take a lot of luck to get Grabanth in the Den.

Edit: Ah! Forgot to mention, after I killed the necessary amount of Magick Pots, I got some nice info. It mentions the origins of the Kiltias religion, and what it's based on. The last part would throw a wrench into the timeline we had cooked up.

It mentions that soon after Kilitias started spreading the light, or what he saw in his vision, St. Ajora said that Faram (the holy god in their dualistic/polytheistic) religion was the one true god. Unless this is simply a nod to FFT, then disregard all this.