Man...I only cake-walked through Ranks I and II. Once III sprang up, I've been having big trouble. I start off fine, but then all goes to hell :D

Spat, I was at level 30/31 when I fought that Ring Wyrm or whatever it was called, with everyone over 2000HP. No guest character (would've liked those hi-potions or phoenix downs!). I had crappy armour, which probably explains my failures. Even with Belias, it was hard going for me. For such giant monsters, they sure can run fast!

I discovered last night that I missed out on a sidequest b/c I went too far ahead, and it only works if you haven't gone that far yet. Puuu....it's apparently the only one though. *whew*

I like how there's multiple ways to get the same location, some faster than others.

I went through the side quest portion several times to make sure I didn't miss out on anything. I had about the same stats, with guys about 2500 while Penelo at 1600 at the time. Yeah your type of armor is important for most battles up. Do you have an esuna gambit? A lot of bosses now are going to unleash status ailments on your party, because they are very nice folks.

What? What sidequest is this?! *pout*

And yes, Ashe is loveliness.<3

Heh, I was on my way to fight that guy when I decided to go kill that snake in the Zertinan Caverns.
Needless to say, two hits and a party member was dead. Rinse, repeat. Game over. :(

I'm around lvl 23 so that might explain why I die so fast. Heh.

Is the westersand wyrm the mark hunt? If so it was pretty easy, but then again I was levelled up to about forty-something. I'm onto the rank IV hunts, they aren't that bad, just have alot of HP. And i have the deathbringer, so Vaan does about 2500-3000 each hit, and with berserk on, he does 3500. So hunts arent that bad.
XD

Wow, Freelance, you definitely mentioned something that's been at the back of my mind since I started playing. I've noticed that even after a minor armor refresh/renewal, enemies that were once handily whooping your ass become much more reasonable. I was at 37ish when I fought him, and it's easily one of my favorite marks so far. I just used Blind, Slow, Silence, Shear and then kept hitting him with magic (Balthier too), while Vaan distracted him, again with Berserk status.

Whoa, what sidequest is that!?

Rank IV marks are piss easy right now (level 49). BTW, has anyone managed to get to the big monsters in the Necrohol in their first trip in there? I couldn't get past the Baknamys and their fucking instantaneous spawning/mobbing.

So I started on my second playthrough a few days ago... Attempting to try a different strategy this time, one filled with intrigue. And such.

First time out, I had three buff folks in what I suppose would be the "ideal setup"

Balthier - Sword/Shield - Heavy - Tank/Damage
Fran - Bow - Mystic - Support/Black magic
Penelo - Gun - Mystic - Big damage/White magic/Support

So, two people at range away from the tank which absorbs everything and gets the nice healage. Supported me pretty well though the whole game, despite a lack of gambit strategy which I made up on the fly in most situations and did many things manually.

This time around, I'm trying a slightly different layout but with a strategic gambit loadout now that I know more about their ups and downs... I can't seem to give up Balthier and Fran though, but they get quite different roles this time.

Fran - Katana - Heavy - Tank/Big Damage/Self-buff
Balthier - Bow - Mystic - Heal/Support/Damage
Ashe - Pole - Light - Damage/Support/Backup heals

First off, Fran looks badass as a fighter. Second, apparently bows deal damage based on agility. Considering Balthier has the highest, I figured he could reap those benefits. Plus, he's critting like a madman. Third, Ashe looks awesome with a pole :D For some reason I had totally overlooked them 1st playthrough, but they're quite nice weapons.

In post-game impressions, one thing I would have loved... would be the ability to save different gambit templates, and apply them to your characters. So that you could have your general wander/fight/steal set, and then switch to a different one for boss encounters or should you chance to run into a rare spawn... Something that almost always occurs when I'm low on health. Those bastards :D

Woah woah, why can't people ask me questions while I'm not at work? :D

The sidequest I'm talking about is the one that starts off in Nalbina. In the guide, it's called July the Streetear. Apparently, you have to do the first part of the quest BEFORE you move on to the Mosphoran Highwaste. Boooo!!!

--

Thanks for the other replies, people! I'll definitely be grabbing some new armour now and then go for the Earth Tyrant again. I checked my armour list and I was wearing crap! XD The only new armour I got was a Platinum Shield for Basch :D
I have to check if I got an Esune Gambit...

Yeah, it's pretty important in this game that you keep up on your weapons and armor (which can get VERY expensive later on. I'm looking at shops that are selling armor for 10,000 gil a piece).

I personally don't find hunts all that useful. They take forever to do, they don't advance the plot any and the rewards are nothing special (at least the early ones. I haven't touched any of the rank III and above). At this point, I'm trying to finish up the game so I can start "Okami."

Good luck with your second playthrough, and yes, poles are awesome! I gave Vaan a pole just 'cause, and they're awesome weapons. I love it when they hit five times consecutively, and their long reach is a nice advantage compared to a sword. Great fun.

@jb1234: The Earth Tyrant is a side quest, not an actual hunt. Although hunts don't give you anything valuable (at least, from the ones I've done so far), but I find it appealing to go after giant monsters ala bounty hunters and see how you fare against them. With 45 of the damn things, I have my work cut out for me.

How did anybody beat the bunny mark in the forest? Thought the answer would be to clear out the area so I'd be free to chase him, but after you to that, a whole mess of dark skeletons pop up. You can't immobilize or sleep him. Am I missing a really obvious tactic or what?

Well we know the FMV where Penelo was dancing got cut out but so far I haven't seen the one where all the Judges are walking together. And since I am already at the Sochen Cave Palace I highly doubt I'll see it. It seems quite a few scenes were cut out of the game.

Berserk the bastard. :)

Oh, yes. The FMV with Penelo dancing was beautiful and I was sad to see it had been omitted. I'm wondering under what circumstance she would've been dancing. xD

So where can I see this FMV of Penelo dancing? Why would she even be dancing? Is it actually in the game or was it made just for promotional purposes?

Okay, I just came back from a game session and went on a looting spree in the Sandsea. Then I teleported to the Phon Coast and bought everyone armour there, and earned extra money by selling all those older armour/weapons that offer no benfits.

Now with my new found armour, I went and fought the Earth Tyrant to see how I fared this time. WOW, armour really does make a difference! I beat him with no fuss, except that the Decoy was working a tad too well. Basch was getting severely beaten up :D

Thanks for helping me WIN! I should be cruising through the Phon Coast easier now.

I've bought this game when it released and palyed ALOT in the following few days. (Lacked in the last few weeks because of school :() Its a magnificent game so far, both in storyline and gameplay. Somethings I didn't like:

1. Walk, walk again, continue walking, you're almost there!
So...much...walking... BUT we can teleport to key locations using those orange save stones so its not that bad. It does suck when you need to hunt something far from those save points, especially if the monsters around are weak; they just don't give enough XP or challenge to be wothwhile. (Although LP is always welcomed.)

2. XP grind or die, fast!
Ok, I hate to enter a dungeon and see some monsters 5 or so levels higher than you own you in a few secs. Its not just hard, its almost impossible. I mean, you NEED the lastest equips (Money++) and be around their levels to actually compete.

3. Licenses: All characters are the same?
I don't know about you guys, but some licenses are obviously much more useful than others (Accessories? LOL) and it tends to make all the characters somewhat similar. Of course you can simply choose to make your characters differently but it is still somewhat the same thing.

4. Spells.Sucks.
Support spells are pretty much useless so far. I'm only using Shield and Shell (Sometimes Haste, mainly against boss, and even then, its not THAT useful because it just doesn't last long enough. Mostly use it with my non-mage team for maximum damage since they barely use any MP.) I haven't even found the usefulness for Float yet. :S

Status-inducting spells are also lacking in usefulness. Poison hardly makes any damage, most boss are immune to the regular stats effects (Silence, Blind, etc) and its not worth casting on regular monsters. Only Sap would make a difference if the bosses didn't have so much HP. (It sucks to have your characters Sap'ed though :() Its not so different from the other games though; I never really liked to use status-inducting weapons/items.

The attack spells are also useless after a while so you'll always need to use your lastest spells, even though its not their weakness just because it deals more base damage. And what about those boses who cast reflect on themselves. >.> ANNOYING for my mage-heavy team. You're much better off with a team that relies mainly on weapons.

Healing spells are great though. Esuna, Raise, Cura/ga <3



Then again, I haven't finished the game yet. Good game everyone.

Once you reach the penultimate dungeon, you have access to personal airship travel which is quite handy since you can travel to any overland area even if it doesn't have an orange crystal there. For dungeons though, you're either out of luck or hope you can teleport in. So I guess that's one incentive for doing optional content at "endgame".

Float makes you immune to Earth attacks, as well as make it so you can't activate traps at all.

Barheim Passage for the motherfucking win. Float is a godsend there, especially with the deadbones doing their little irritating attacks. It helps not having to worry about your characters wandering/getting knocked into a trap. Some of which are especially brutal, I might add.

Well, here's what I did today:

- Took down Aegha in Salika
- Needled/Drained Vorpal Bastard in Golmore
- Took down Bloodwing in Barheim (after a long sidequest or two in order to gain access =/)

I'm not sure I mentioned this, but I wandered into the Zertinan caverns near Jahara when I was around ~32. Had some trouble with the Mallicants there, and after the second cave I discovered another Esper. Didn't catch his name then, but today I went back at level 49 to see if I stood a chance. Surprisingly, it was pretty easy, didn't need to use quickenings or anything.

Don't know if I should spoiler tag or not, but just in case:

Float never has been all that useful in the history of the series, only certain situations that warrant it. Same with this game. Most spells have their place and while they may be used infrequently, when they do need to play their role, they are a godsend. Black magic really doesn't play any sort of role until you hit two, but mainly three.

I went back to the hunt in the forest intending to berserk the bunny per your suggestion, Soapy, but to my dismay I found that the spell only targets allies! I remembered that there was a dagger available gave berserk on hit, but I was already there. I just hunted that asshole down, train of enemies be damned. The mess I had to clean up after I finally ended that fucker.

Agreed. I didn't even use black magic until I got the second level spells, and I've yet to get things like Aerora yet. Arcane spells, on the other hand, are awesome if the enemies aren't immune to their effects (unfortunately, a lot of them are). Technicks are easily the best, IMO. 3 Shears and your hasted "mage" character will be dishing out some serious damage. It also increases the amount drained from said enemy, a good thing to know when your magic is missing, something that rarely happens with drain.

Not really all that hard. Just debuff him, and Drain + Needles until he dies. When he runs, hold R2 to stash your weapons and give chase. He's actually slower than you when you do this, which forces him to double back, right into the range of Drain + Needles.

Has anyone been able to get Charm to work? Every, and I mean every, single enemy I've tried it on has been immune to it. It's the "immune" syndrome that renders a number of technicks/spells unusable or unreliable.

Wait.

How can I get into Barheim Passage, again? I want to kill the Bloodwing or whatever he is. :(

Yeah, that was the same question I had when I got that mark to go hunt. Basically, if killed the Cactoid that Dantro wanted you to kill (with the flower on it's head), go to the village in the Estersand, north of the Barheim Passage. There, go to the house nearest the shore and talk to Dantro's wife to give her the flower. After that, the next item on the list is 3 shells that can be found glinting in the water near the shore (village or outside, it doesn't matter). Next, she'll ask you to go back to Dantro (at the Estersand outpost) and get the phial by examining the crates nearby. Head back and give it to her and she'll ask for a flower which you can get over in the Broken Sands map near the south entrance (it's a poking out of a crevasse with white flowers). Take this back to her and reenter the village 2 times and then go speak to her. After some chitchat, the healed hunter that she was caring for will give you the key to reenter Barheim.

But before you can do this, you have to give her the flower for Step 1, then go over to the shore and speak with the people in the crowd. This takes you on a short sidequest where all the work you'll be doing is going behind the house after you're told to find Dran. Examine the flower and head back to the ship to wrap this up. After this is done, you'll be able to do the rest of the errands she gives you.

Hachi, what level are you at? Bloodwing's all the way in the West Annex of the mines in the new area open now. Remember that split in the path with all the mimics around a rock formation in the middle and along the walls? Take the path to the left and just follow that. I asked your level because the enemies go from level 8-9 to 40-42 in an instant. Not just that, but somewhere on the Zaivha span map, Deadbones and Bogeys start to appear. Oftentimes they've got some combination of Protect, Haste and Shell on and an inclination towards mobbing you. Keep Libra refreshed as there are traps everywhere here, none of which I triggered since I had Float active.

New mimics appear here too, Mimeos, and their Leech is irritating if your blows aren't heavy enough.

And Bloodwing himself isn't too bad, but his Leech-spamming is a pain in the ass, especially given where he spawns. The West Annex has an elevated strip that has Bogey x 1, DeadBones x 2 teams spawning every few steps. Worse case scenario is you get tangled up in that while 'Wing's tearing you up.

The question I have is how to get to the spot in the waterway for the white mousse hunt. Seems like I need a key for the device to drain the water levels on the east central side and I have no clue how to go about finding that, if that's even what I need to do.

You're in luck, U, as that has nothing to do with it. Basically, you go down into the Waterway, and of all those paths, choose the one on right from when you enter. This one should have a level 40 Lizard running around in it. Follow the path from their (pretty straightforward, remarkably) and in the West Sluice Control get close to the edge to lure him out. Don't go to the corner or a Lizard will join the fray too.

Malboro Kings will fight you along the way, along with the Lizard (looks like a Gigan Toad/Suriander/etc) I mentioned before.

Aaand if anyone's interested, in the Southeast, follow the wall and you'll find a doorway that leads into Barheim Passage, but from the OTHER side of the room with the Esper in it. Blew my mind to find that I'd gone from 3 or 4 maps away from Rabanastre to right under it.

Ah, okay, I see. Yeah, thought I had taken all the paths, I ran around that area for awhile, guess that must of been the only way I overlooked. Kinda funny that I thought I needed that key when that's part of the reward for completing the hunt, heh.