Final Fantasy X owned by Square Enix.
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Lake Macalania
- You start out beside a Rin Travel Agency. Handy. O'aka's here, selling the usual stuff. A little ways to the left of him is the Al Bhed Primer Vol. XVI. To the right is Clasko, who will ask whether he should be a Chocobo Knight or a Chocobo Breeder. The choice is yours, though you'll get an item in the future if you say 'Breeder'.
- Enter Rin's. Maechen's tottering about inside, and will tell you about Macalania if pressed. Talk to the rest of the party, rest if need be, and head back out.
- Head down towards the Lake. Seymour's lackey Tromell will show up, and Yuna will temporarily leave your party. After the Al Bhed show up, rush down to the icefront. (Now's also a good time to equip weapons that do electrical damage.) Boss time!
BOSS: Crawler, Negator
This boss is painfully predictable, and not in a good way. Crawler begins by deploying Negator, a rather weak, floating sphere which will prevent you from casting spells or using aeons. Not good. Your first order of business is to bring this thing down using Wakka's ball, Rikku's items, or the occasional Overdrive. It has few HP and is defensively weak, so this won't take long. Once the Negator goes down the Crawler will begin to charge up its Mana Cannon, a horribly-powerful all-hitting attack that takes three rounds to charge up. Any attacks unleashed on Crawler in the meantime will result in a quick counterattack which does roughly 800 HP of physical damage, no small amount. If you take too long and Mana Cannon goes off, Crawler will deploy another Negator.
Fortunately, Crawler's predictability can work to your advantage. Start off by getting rid of Negator, then pull out Yuna, Lulu, and Tidus. Have Tidus cast Haste on both Lulu and Yuna, as well as Slow on Crawler. This will slow its Mana Cannon countdown. Use Lulu to pummel Crawler's HP with Thundera, healing as necessary. Once it's down to half its HP, pull out Ixion, attack a few time to build up its Overdrive gauge, and use Thor's Hammer. This attack will do a ridiculous amount of damage to Crawler and probably give you an Overkill, which, given the AP at stake, is worth the effort. All done!
- Cut scene follows. Tidus will get paired up with whomever likes him most. (Probably Lulu, but you never know.)
- You'll arrive at the temple shortly. Open up the chest outside to find a Mega-Potion before heading inside.
Macalania Temple
- There's an Al Bhed sitting beside the stairs that lead down to the temple. He'll give you 400 gil.
- Run over to the entrance of the temple. Cut scene.
- Step inside. Tromell's within the main chamber; speak to him and he'll give you a Shell Targe.
- Try to approach the Save Sphere after speaking to Shelinda to cause a bit of an uproar. Check the northeast side of the room for a chest containing 5,000 gil; check the northern room, behind the musicians, for some revellers who will give you an Elixir and an Ether; then check the eastern room to continue the plot. Zounds! After the cut scene is done, speak to the man in the back of the room for two Hi-Potions, and check the chest beside him for two Remedies.
- It's that time again. Return to the main room and ascend to the Cloister of Trials. But first...!
BOSS: Seymour, Guado Guardian
Yaaay, sacreligious! Seymour and his two Guardians start the battle by casting Shell and Protect on themselves, respectively. If you try to attack Seymour, the Guardians will leap in and take the damage instead. They'll also use Auto-Potion on themselves to restore a big chunk of the damage done whenever they're hit. Start by killing them first with magic and physical attacks, then targeting Seymour. He'll hit you with strong second tier magic during this, but not with enough resolve to do tons of damage. He always follows the same order of spells - Blizzara, Thundara, Watera and Fira - so if you want to avoid damage you can use the corresponding Nul spells with Yuna.
Get Seymour's HP halfway down and he'll bring in his aeon, Anima. This thing is scary, as it can bring down a character in a single hit with its Pain attack. Worse, its Overdrive gauge will build... and build... and build... and when it goes off, you're probably toast. To offset the danger, bring out Yuna's new aeon, Shiva, to tackle Anima. Use her special attacks and Overdrive to bring it down. Nothing fancy, but it works.
Once Anima is gone, Seymour will reappear for a second round. Though he loses his Guardians, his magic attacks are now ridiculously strong. Counter this by following the same elemental order as before (Blizzara, Thundara, Watera and Fira) in determining which Nul spells to use. Seymour doesn't have much HP, but the damage he can cause shouldn't be underestimated.
As an important aside, Tidus, Yuna, and Wakka can all speak to Seymour during the battle and receive bonuses. Yuna and Wakka get boosts to Magic Defense, while Tidus gets a boost to Strength. The Magic Defense jumps are decent, but it's the Strength jump that's really worth the bother. Tidus becomes a beast, and can wreck even Anima on his own if Hasted.
- After knocking Seymour down, leave through the door to your left. Hopefully you weren't planning on leaving swiftly, 'cause, hey, guess where you are!
Macalania Cloister of Trials
1.) Run down the ramp to your left after the walkway gives out under your feet. Near the south end of this next platform is a pedestal. Push it to the right, then, when it slides to a stop, push it northward.
2.) The pedestal will smash a second hunk of ice and slide down a nearby ramp. Grab the Glyph Sphere from the base of the central column on the top floor, then follow the pedestal down.
3.) Insert the Glyph Sphere into the recess in the wall to your left. This will raise a second recess containing a Macalania Sphere to the main floor. Grab the Sphere and insert it into the bottom of the left pedestal beneath the main floor. This will create a new sheet of ice above.
4.) Run back upstairs and touch the spot of light in the bottom-left corner of the platform. This will bring the pedestal back upstairs.
5.) Remove and re-insert the Macalania Sphere in the recess to the right. This will make the hunk of ice that stopped the pedestal earlier reappear.
6.) Push the pedestal to the right again. Once it has stopped, grab the Macalania Sphere you were just fiddling with and insert it into the left side of the pedestal. Push the pedestal north so it slides beneath the platform again.
7.) Back downstairs, push the pedestal to the right. It will slide into the gap beneath the right column and create a second patch of ice to walk across above.
8.) Run back up the ramp and remove the Macalania Sphere against the wall the moment you return to the main floor. Insert it into the central pillar to finish off the ice tunnel above.
All done? Not if you want a bonus treasure. (And you do, right? Of course you do. You're one of the cool kids.)
1.) Run up to the ice bridge and step on the shining spot that just appeared. This will make the pedestal zip up to your location.
2.) Push the pedestal down the slide to your left. A Destruction Sphere will become embedded in it. Step onto the shining spot on the primary platform to jump it down to the main floor again.
3.) Remove one of the three Macalania Spheres from the pillars and place it in the northern-most recess. This will make the slide down to the lower level reappear.
4.) Snag the Destruction Sphere from the pedestal and run to the lower level. Insert it into the recess to the immediate left of the ramp. This will make a chest appear nearby; inside is a Luck Sphere.
5.) Now for the bridge. Return to the ice bridge and hit the spot of light again. Push the pedestal down the ice ramp when it appear and it will leap off to the side, reclaiming the third Macalania Sphere. Bring it back to the main platform.
6.) The remainder of the puzzle consists of putting the bridge back together, which means... doing the first part again, really. Recreate the ramp, push the pedestal back downstairs and into the gap, and reinsert the final Macalania Sphere into the central pillar. Voila, ice bridge.
Macalania Temple
- The remainder of this section is a straightforward flight to freedom. After a Save Sphere and a quick chat with O'aka you'll have to run from pursuing Guado Guardians, each of which will summon fiends. These battles are pretty simple, though the Guado continue to use Auto-Potion if hit and not killed. Lulu's magic is the easiest way to one shot these guys.
- You'll have to continue fleeing after you get out of the Temple, though you won't have to contend with Guado anymore. Stick to the right wall of the canyon you're in and run south, ignoring the ice bridge. After a quick climb across a narrow path you'll find a chest containing a Lv. 1 Key Stone and a way back to the main path. Save when you get the chance... aaaaand prepare for a boss.
BOSS: Wendigo, Guado Guardian x 2
You'd think Seymour would be the more dangerous boss in this section, but, nope. Wendigo has the potential to be much worse. Flanked by Guado Guardians, Wendigo is as straightforward as they get: it will spend every danged turn using a physical attack. Problem is, that physical attack will typically do over 2,000 HP of damage. The Wendigo is also 'blessed' with Berserk on its first turn, making it all the stronger. Great.
First step: use Esuna to cure berserk status. Next use Lulu or an aeon to fry the two Guado Guardians before they can Auto-Potion themselves (or the Wendigo, for that matter). They'll cast Shell and Protect on the Wendigo, and unless you have Dispel learned you'll just have to put up with these extra defenses. Great.
Once the Guado Guardians are gone the battle becomes relatively simple: keep ahead of the Wendigo's damage output. You can do this by having Auron Power Break away some of its attack power and using Wakka's Dark Buster every turn to greatly reduce its accuracy. Beyond that... attack, attack, attack. Whittle it down. The only time you shouldn't be attacking is when the Wendigo raises its arms, as it will automatically counterattack and probably kill one of your characters. Magic does not spark a counterattack, so feel free to keep Lulu on the offensive.
- Weirdness follows. The only thing you need to note here is a semi-hidden chest, near Kimahri, which contains a Lv. 2 Key Sphere.
- Guess what? You're now officially a traitor! Yay!