Final Fantasy X owned by Square Enix.
Images used for educational purposes only.
Finding the Ruins
The first step to entering the Omega Ruins is, of course, to find the things. They're only available once you have the airship, and in order to send the airship to the Ruins you have to find them on the map. If you look on the eastern side of the map, closer to the top than to the bottom, ou'll see a small chain of islands extending out of a bank of clouds. Click on these to locate the Omega Ruins.
Omega Ruins
- A word of caution before you step inside the Ruins: this place is intense. The monsters are a substantial step up from the difficulty of anywhere else you've ever visited, including even the game's official final dungeon. Not only are the enemies stronger, they have a lot of tricks that can really trip you up. I don't suggest entering the Omega Ruins until you've beaten the game and collected at least one of the celestial weapons. You've been warned!
- The Omega Ruins are similar to Sin in that the dungeon is obscured when you first enter. You'll have to muddle your way through to find the right path.
- The other thing to note about the Ruins pertains to the treasure chests. The chests do not have unique items in them; instead, they run through a predetermined set of items, cycling through in the same order regardless of which chests you open first. Occasionally you'll also get into a battle with a Zaurus and a Mimic while looking through these chests, so be warned. Other nearby chests will disappear if your luck goes foul and you get a random battle. The contents of the chests are listed in the sidebar. The treasure order resets itself each time you leave and reenter the Ruins, so theoretically you could, say, collect 11 Lv. 4 Key Spheres rather than the entirety of this list - though you'd forever lose out on the other prizes.
- Press onward from the Save Sphere. Ahead you'll find a crossroads. Head east and you'll find a small alcove containing two chests. Head east back at the crossroads and you'll find three more chests in a similar alcove.
- There's nothing of use down the northern path, so take the adjoining pathway in the western corridor that leads north instead. It will take you to another intersection. Go west to find three more chests.
- Return to the split and go east instead. As you near a bend that turns north, overlooking a chasm, you'll see an unlit glyph to your right. Inspect it. This will create a path to your left, at the top of which is a chest. (Does anyone know if this glyph is connected to the glyph mentioned two paragraphs down? Do you need to hit both to make the path appear? I'm not certain. Thanks!)
- Go north once you're back on the main path again. You'll descend into a small room with four more chests. In the north of this room are two purple torches; beside the left purple torch is Al Bhed Primer Vol. XXVI. Again the path splits here.
- Go northwest. Yep, another danged split. Take the lower path that leads west. At the end of the road you'll find a conspicuous glyph on the wall. Inspect it to activate the glyph. What does it do? Good question! Read above!
- Along this loop you'll find a platform set into the ground. Stand on it to be raised to a higher level. Keep following the path and you'll come to another lift, denoted as a green box on the map... and if you approach said box, you'll get into a fight with a rather enormous fiend.
BOSS: Ultima Weapon
Hey there, big fella. Ultima Weapon doesn't quite live up to its name, but it's pretty close. This hulking lug has, despite its looks, a love of magical attacks over physical; it will spend much of the battle casting Sleep, Break, Darkness, Silence and Confuse on your party members, only occasionally throwing in a physical attack to capitalize on the mayhem. This is especially dangerous with Break as it will remove a character from your party. Ultima also uses a very powerful single-hitting attack called Core Energy which can easily kill weaker characters and the all-hitting Shimmering Rain, which isn't as strong but is still dangerous enough. Holy gets trotted out later in the fight, and is very dangerous.
By far Ultima Weapon's greatest weakness is its reliance on spells which you can Reflect. Cast Hastega to get everyone at top speed, then set up Reflect on the majority of your characters. This will protect them from the status ailments. Devote one character - preferably a fast one, like Rikku - to Mega-Potion duty while your other two characters smash away at Ultima Weapon. It has less than 100,000 HP and isn't terribly fast, so you should make relatively short work of Ultima Weapon, assuming the rest of the dungeon hasn't left you horribly weak.
- Still fresh? Then step on the teleporter. You'll be whisked to a new area.
- This next section's a little different. Rather than forcing you to brave the twisting tunnels of a mystery area, the second floor is quite straightforward. It consists of a series of platforms that contain scripted battles with monsters found throughout the Ruins. You have to fight these fiends, whether you want to or not. Consequently, if you've been relying on a No Encounter item to get through the Omega Ruins and aren't actually strong enough to fight the baddies... you might wanna turn around. (Though Tidus' Flee is still an option.)
- There are two paths to choose, one to the left and one to the right. If you take the left path you'll face only two battles, and on the second platform you'll find a dead end... and a chest containing a Friend Sphere. If you take the right path you'll face eight enemies instead, and at the end you'll come face-to-face with the almighty Omega.
BOSS: Omega Weapon
Hey, does this dude look familiar? Hey should, because Omega Weapon is in most respects just an upgraded version of Ultima Weapon. He sports most of the same attacks, though now his physical strikes will cause Break and Confuse, and as the battle wears on he'll add the all-hitting Nova to his repertoire. (Which, by the way, you should probably teach Kimahri.) Depending on which version of Final Fantasy X you play Omega Weapon will either halve elemental attacks or absorb them outright.
Also dependant on the version you're playing is Omega Weapon's overall difficulty level. If you're playing the original Japanese or American releases, Omega Weapon will have almost 100,000 HP. He doesn't take much longer to beat than Ultima Weapon. Play any other versions, though, and you can bump that number up to almost a million HP, along with the absorbing powers mentioned earlier. Yes, Omega Weapon is that much more powerful. Consequently, he's also a lot harder to kill, and lives up to his superboss moniker.
Nevertheless, your tactics won't change much. Start by prepping for the battle with the right equipment. At the very least you want Stoneproof armour to prevent petrification from landing; you should also dispense with any elemental weapons, regardless of the version you're playing. Hastega is the first order of business once you're in the battle, and Protect / Shell should follow shortly after. The rest of the fight consists of beating relentlessly on Omega with your strongest attacks. Celestial weapons are a necessity for whittling down that high HP in a hurry. Aeons are also a great help here, as they naturally resist petrification and can absorb at least a few hits before Omega brings them down. Dedicate one character to full-time healing duty if you have trouble coping with Omega Weapon's attacks.
- After defeating Omega Weapon you'll find a chest sitting at the rear of its platform. Open it up... and... yay. A MP Sphere. Well, it's better than nothing, right? You at least have bragging rights for beating one of the most difficult areas in the game...!