Final Fantasy X owned by Square Enix.
Images used for educational purposes only.
Zanarkand Ruins
- Watch the cut scene. Yep, that's the game's intro replaying for you.
- Follow the party after using the Save Sphere. On the first screen north of the Save Sphere you'll come to a chest on the side of your path; it contains a Fortune Sphere.
- After a quick cut scene you'll be on a westbound path that veers north. At the corner of the two roads you'll find a chest containing a Spiritual Targe.
- North of here... well, Save Sphere.
Dome
- Press forward after the cut scene. When you wind up travelling beneath a bridge, check the right side of it when you emerge to find a path up top. It leads to a chest containing 10,000 gil.
- Keep following the path. It will eventually lead you to a Save Sphere. After watching a quick cut scene about Seymour, of all people, you'll be at a small crossroads. If you go down the right path you'll find a chest; inside it is a Friend Sphere.
- Continue northwest, then east. Creepy visions continue.
- Keep going until you're crossing a bridge that looks suspiciously like a set of columns laid on its side. Beneath is a similar bridge, and you can cross over onto it and go below to find a chest. Inside is a Lv. 3 Key Sphere.
- Eventually you'll be inside the structure itself. Straight ahead, down the corridor, is a chest on your right side. It contains a Luck Sphere.
- There's another Save Sphere ahead. Use it... press on... and... oh, lord, not another one.
Zanarkand Cloister of Trials
1.) To complete this trial, you need to step on the proper lights on the floor. Step on any squares and you'll have to start over. You also don't want to step on too many of the same type, as indicated on the chart at the end of the room. In this case, step on the first light from the bottom, the bottom three lights on the right side of the room, and the topmost light on the left side. This will open the door. It will also push six pedestals out of the walls in the first room.
2.) Push the bottom-left pedestal into the wall again. This will spark a new puzzle in the second room, requiring you to do basically the same thing... on a larger scale.
3.) This time you need three reds, two blues, one green, and one yellow. One red is right beside the stairs leading to the screen; another red is down and to the right of the screen; the third is the bottom of two lights, by the door leading into this room. One of the blues is the closest light to the door; another is on the north side of the pit in the middle of the platform, the closest to the edge. The green is one of the two lights furthest south on the platform, beside the edge of the pit. The yellow is in the bottom-left corner of the platform.
4.) Back to the other room. Push the top-left pedestal into place. Now you need two reds, two greens, and two blues. The two reds are the same ones you pushed last time which are closest to the screen. The first green is beside the red nearest to the screen; the second green is the light closest to the middle of the pit's right side. The two blues are the two northern-most lights on the left side of the pit, past the bronze edge that extends around the pit.
5.) Two down. Push the top-right pedestal into place. Now you need six reds, two blues, and one green. The first three reds are in the same places as in the first two descriptions; two more are in the bottom-right corner of the room; the last is at the bottom-left corner of the pit. (Not the room, the pit.) The first blue one is on the left side of the pit, beside the top-left corner, while the second blue one is the light nearest to the door. The green light is next to the red light that's nearest to the screen.
6.) One more! Push the bottom-right pedestal home. Now you need four reds, two blues, and one green. Get all three reds up top, then step on one of the two reds in the bottom-right corner of the room. The first blue is nearest the door, while the second is the light nearest to the top-left corner of the room. The sole green light is at the bottom end of the pit, almost right in the middle.
7.) There are now two active spheres beside the screen. Remove the Kilika Sphere (left) first and insert it into the left recess in the other room. The Besaid Sphere (right) comes next, and goes in the remaining pedestal.
(Yes, it's difficult to visualize with just a text-based description. This page has maps that can help you find all of the blocks.)
- Use the Save Sphere, then into the adjoining room. Boss!
BOSS: Spectral Keeper
This fight doesn't have to be difficult, but it probably will be by virtue of how weird it is. Spectral Keeper sits in the midst of six platforms, upon which wait your characters. Throughout the fight Spectral Keeper will change the direction it's facing, and if your characters happen to be inhabiting any of the three spaces in front of Spectral Keeper when it attacks, they will all get hit. This situation is made all the worse by the fact that Spectral Keeper will, as the fight wears on, plant mines randomly on the spaces, and if that space is inhabited when a mine blows up... well. Yeah. Bad times.
The key to winning this fight is to spread out so that, ideally, Spectral Keeper is only facing one person at a time - and that person should be one with a lot of HP and a high defense score. For most players, that'll be Auron. Spend the first few turns not attacking Spectral Keeper, but setting up everyone's defenses with Protect and casting Hastega on the party. Every time you attack Spectral Keeper it will use its sweeping attack, so hold off until it's facing a Protected Auron. Then you can begin mauling the thing, and healing Auron whenever his HP gets low.
By far the biggest problem with this fight is Spectral Keeper's Berserk Claw. It'll make any characters hit by it stronger, true, but it makes removing them from mined platforms impossible. Worse, they'll attack when you're not ready, often resulting in terrible casualties. It's not so bad if this happens to Auron, since he's slow even when Hasted, but you should use Esuna or a Remedy on anyone who goes berserk. Like, right away.
It's a fiddly fight, but it's not that terrible. Use Mental Break to bring down Magic Defense, let Lulu attack from the side, and allow Auron to swipe away at Spectral Keeper while taking the brunt of its attacks. Not elegant, but it works.
- After the fight you'll wind up at the bottom of the Spectral Keeper's pit. Save and prepare for a slew of cut scenes. (Pretty common in Zanarkand.)
- The terrible truth! Gasp!
BOSS: Yunalesca
Betcha didn't think you'd be fighting her, eh? Eh?
Yunalesca is a three-part battle, and each form is unique in its attacks. Her first form is by far the weakest: aside from occasionally using Absorb to steal a big chunk of HP, Yunalesca spends the battle performing weak physical attacks. These will take away beneficial statuses like Haste, true, but they're otherwise mostly harmless. She only gets more troublesome when somebody attacks her, as she usually (but not always) blinds them in retaliation. Bring out two big-time hitters, hopefully ones immune to blindness, and have them wail away on her while Yuna or someone with items restores their accuracy. No biggie.
The second form is a bit different. Yunalesca begins with Hellbiter, which turns everyone into a zombie and does a bit of damage. From that point on she'll use curative magic - either Cura or Regen - to hurt your zombies. She'll also occasionally use Hellbiter again to re-inflict zombie should you clear it up with Holy Water. Despite the obvious problems zombie causes, it's better to focus on dishing out tons of damage to Yunalesca instead and reviving characters when they die. Yunalesca really doesn't do much damage, except on the off chances that she uses Cura.
The main reason you don't want to get rid of zombie comes at the beginning of the third round. As soon as Yunalesca changes she'll use Mega Death, which will kill normal characters without fail. Those still inflicted with zombie status, though, will be fine. At least one team member needs to be a zombie (or have protection from auto death, though that's unlikely at this point) to get past this stumbling block and revive everyone else.
The remainder of the battle is a slow, painful, but not terribly difficult slog. Yunalesca will alternate between zombiefying, 'curing', and otherwise weakly hitting your characters. Occasionally she'll use Mega Death again, which is bad, and occasionally she'll use Mind Blast to confuse everyone, which is actually worse. Heal anyone who gets confused, keep a few of your characters in zombie status, and keep swapping your characters to ensure that they aren't killed by Yunalesca's magic. Once you get her down enough, bring out one of Yuna's aeons in Overdrive and wipe her out, preferably Bahamut. It should be more than capable of inflicting 20,000+ HP damage by now.
- Ouch. So. That's a thing you did. After Yunalesca bites the dust, check the stairs at the rear of her, uh, chamber. There's a chest sitting here; inside is the Sun Crest.
- Leave. What else can you do at this point, really?
Airship
- After the usual chattiness subsides, make your way to the rear of the ship. Talk to Yuna to spark another cut scene.
- Back to the bridge. Cut scene, then you gain a new ability: travelling around the world on your... Cid's... whatever... airship. Your next destination is Bevelle... buuuuuut we have a loose end to tie up first.
Zanarkand Cloister of Trials
Thought you were done with Zanarkand? Nope. Return to the Cloister of Trials. You didn't get the treasure chest of this Cloister, and you need it to unlock one of the best aeons in the game. The process here is pretty simple: all you need do is step on the white block lights that you always had to avoid before. They're in the following places:
1.) Bottom light on the far left of the first chamber
2.) Top-middle light in the first chamber
3.) Top-right light in the first chamber
4.) Second-closest light to the door in the second chamber
5.) Second light south of the previous light in the second chamber
6.) Third light from the top in the four light chain just south of the screen in the second chamber
7.) Middle light on the left side of the second chamber
Hitting all seven of them without activating any of the other lights will reveal a pedestal carrying a Destruction Sphere. Insert the Sphere into the right recess beside the screen in the second chamber to reveal the chest. Inside is a Magistral Rod.