================ The Last Remnant ================ ----------- Power Guide ----------- ------------------------------ Copyright FF12GrandMaster 2009 ------------------------------ The copyright to this guide is owned solely by me, FF12GrandMaster, from the FFTogether forum at fftogether.com. Whilst all the information found in this guide is available to everyone just by doing simple searches, my guide may not be reproduced in any form, written or electronic, without prior permission be- ing obtained from me. If permission is granted it is on the conditions that the Guide remains in its text form and not a single thing may be altered and that full credit is given to me. If you are from a genuine website that wishes to host this guide it is highly unlikely that permission will be refused; all I would like is to be asked first. =============================================================================== --------------------- The Aim of this Guide --------------------- Whilst this game is also available on the PC I have to say that I play it on an XBox360. I'm unfamiliar with many of the differences between the two and whilst what I say will be fine for the XBox version it may not be correct for the PC version so if you're playing on a PC you might have to make some adjustments to what I say. This guide is not designed to be a Walkthrough, it is to show you a way to play the game so you can get strongest possible Unions which will enable you to de- feat the strongest enemies in the game with very little trouble. You don't have to get your Unions to the level I am suggesting in order to just beat the game. It is perfectly possible to be a LOT weaker than what I will show you and still be able to beat it. How you play the game will be left up to you as I have no intention of holding your hand through all the different quests etc. I am only going to give advice in certain areas but I will be giving a link to all major battles so that you can see that I am not just writing this, I am doing it too! I will also put my BR next to the title of each battle. Some sections will be quite tough to get through if you are following me to the letter, such as the battle with Namul and Niram Sin in the Numor Mines. If you are doing it my way you will face them at BR 04 and I can assure you that it is NOT an easy fight. It took me FOURTEEN attempts to win that battle! However, my instructions are only a guide, you don't have to follow them precisely. You may want to do a few quests to bring your BR and HP up a little before you go to the Numor Mines. However, one of the main points in this strategy is to avoid all unnecessary battles. Ideally, the only battles you want to be undertaking are unavoidable storyline battles and quests. There are some battles that you can't avoid like against the two Qsiti Unions in the Catacombs when the doors come down and trap you in the room. The only way to open those doors are to de- feat the Qsitis. The general rule though is to avoid any unforced battle before the Nest Of Eagles. If you do have to battle then take note of this. Do NOT, NOT, NOT link enemies when battling. You must ALWAYS fight just one enemy union at a time. By doing it that way you will get the best amount of stat and skill upgrades per BR in- crease. You really want the stats and skill to rise fast but the BR to rise slowly. One goal you should aim for is to enter the fight at the Nest of Eagles with a single digit BR. I have done it at BR 07 but others have done it with a BR lower than that. =============================================================================== ---------------------- Things to bear in mind ---------------------- 1. Saving You can never save too often. Don't be a hero! There is nothing more frustrat- ing than having done a boatload of work and then find you have to do a reset so each time you get through a certain difficult part, whether it's after a battle or after having gone through an area dodging enemies, you should get into the habit of saving your game. That way you can always reset and try again should you bump into an avoidable enemy or you lose a battle. Fighting avoidable enem- ies is a waste of your BR. Why increase it with (say) ten skills when you could get maybe 30 or more skills for the same BR rise? Once you have gained Emmy in your group you will be doing a bit of grinding which will increase your BR a little but your skills and stats a LOT! More on that later. 2.Arts The whole of this strategy is based on combat and hard hitting so when you get asked by one of your leaders what they should focus on the answer is ALWAYS combat arts. 3. Leaders Now which Leaders do you use? Obviously that is, of course, up to you but I will still put my two cents in. I am going to recommend the following six leaders: 1. Rush 2. Baulson 3. Torgal 4. Emmy 5. Caedmon 6. Glenys Caedmon and Glenys need to be recruited by the time you get Emmy because you want to have all six leaders by the time you start grinding for a few stats. No point raising stats whilst one of your main characters is still to be recruited into your unions. Speaking of unions, you will only ever use a maximum of three Unions during the game (with one exception - See 4.) and I recommend that you have two leaders in each union. I also recommend that you keep Caedmon away from Baulson for the simple reason that neither of them have the Special attri- bute and so you cannot get a formation III variant which requires one of your union characters to have that Special attribute. Other than that restriction you can group them in whatever way you want. 3. Soldiers It will be a big help if you can have some soldiers who use lotions. Nothing worse than being silenced with no way to remove it so to have a lotions soldier in each union wouldn't hurt. Try to select the ones that have a hefty weapon so they'll be doing some decent combat damage. Because you will have been avoiding many battles it is unlikely that any of your leaders will be using Vivification Herbs just yet so getting three soldiers with that herb ability should really be paramount. Once again look for the ones with the heftier weapons so they will do decent damage too. By the time you come to do the skills grinding after the Nest of Eagles you should be happy with the soldiers you have as it would be a bit pointless to grind their stats out and then get rid of them later on. 4. Unions whilst grinding stats and skills In combat you will only ever need to use three unions of five characters each but whilst grinding you can use four. This will enable you to grind stats and skills for an extra three soldiers. 5. Money Money isn't easy to come by in this challenge to start with and you will be having to spend 19,800 gold to hire Caedmon and another 17,200 gold to hire Glenys. However I have a way for you to get as much cash as you need really easily. This is the way to do it: Complete events to the Fiery Idol in Blackdale. Once you have your unions sorted out how you want them head to Elysion and go into the Pub. Talk to the Bartender and this will open up the Southwestern Road. Head through there to Balterossa which will open up the Great Sand Sea. Now go west through the Sand Sea and the exit there will open the Vale of the Gods. This is where the action starts. As you enter the Vale of the Gods you will see some Crabs to your right. Near the corner you will find a Dive Point. If you don't know where I mean it's at point a6 (not capital a) on this map: http://lastremnant.wikia.com/wiki/File:Vale_of_the_god_grid.png Use Mr Diggs here and there is 40% chance that you get a Rough Elven Stone which will sell for 300g. When you run out of digs just nip out of the exit to the world map and re-enter and start digging again. As you keep digging Mr Diggs will get better and your digs may become more fruitful. It might be an idea to nip round a few maps and pick some Morsels up for Mr Diggs and increase your dig count before you start to dig. At 300g per item it won't take you very long to accumulate thousands in cash and be able to buy whatever herbs and items you may need. When you are satis- fied just continue with the story and come back if you need more cash. However, once you have completed events in Numor Mine you will be ready for an even bet- ter way of getting cash. After Numor Mine go back to the Pub in Elysion and talk to the Bartender again. This will open up Berechevaltelle on the world map. There is a dig point here which is even better than the one in Vale of the Gods; twice as good actually. You need to head to the point O1 on this map: http://lastremnant.wikia.com/wiki/File:Berechevaltelle_grid.png Here you will find a Sifting Point right on the edge. In here you have a 40% chance of Mr Diggs finding a Rough Cuchulainn Stone which will sell for 600g. Yes, 600g !! I started here with Mr Diggs on 12 digs and in three tries I made over 20,000g. At that point of the game 20k is not to be sniffed at. Once you have used all your digs just head for the exit, go to the world map, return and head back to the Sifting Point again and fill your boots. With these two dig points all your early game money worries are now over. Ob- viously you aren't going to earn vast fortunes doing this but you aren't going to be struggling for cash either. This is a great way to build up your cash (and Mr Diggs' skills) and make life a little easier early on. Now with all that info out of the way it's time to begin. The following info in this guide will contain SPOILERS. =============================================================================== ======================== Disc 1 - The Game Begins ======================== The start --------- Just follow the the scenes and go through the battle. Afterwards make your way through the cave with Emma and on into Athlum. Go to the Castle and speak with David and then make your way with Blocter to: Gaslin Caves - BR 01 -------------------- Make your way to the last area emptying the chests along the way and avoiding all monsters. Your first Boss fight will then begin. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA7EK7GHBug Now return to Athlum and David will send you off with Pagus to: Robelia Castle - BR 01 ---------------------- Head through the castle emptying chests as always until you come to where the Anti-Remnant Activists are and then begin your second Boss fight. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msRc5Npd1mE Back to Athlum once more where you will join the Generals and head off to: Dillmoor - BR 01 ---------------- Again, empty the chests and head up the hill and over the bridge avoiding all battles. After the bridge go left up the hill until the cutscene begins. After that your next Boss fight begins and is a little tougher than before. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NukeQJBBVSM Defeating this boss will give you your first BR increase to BR 02. Now back in Athlum, after some cutscenes you can begin putting together your own unions. Go to the Guild where you can now hire two leaders, Oakes and McGrady. Definitely hire McGrady as he has restore which will be helpful. I also recommend hiring Oakes too if you want to make Baulson's quest a little easier though you will only be using him for that particular quest. Now go to the Pub and do the quest 'A Day's Beginning' which starts off the sidequests. When you have completed that go and talk to Baulson and accept his quest. Baulson's Quest - BR 02 ----------------------- Off to Gaslin Caves where you should avoid all enemies and just do the main fight. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W4CATUYAas On completion you'll be back in the Pub with Baulson getting some cash off him. Baulson is now available for hire in the Athlum Guild so go and get him. Whilst you're there you can dismiss Oakes if you like as you won't need him anymore. Put Baulson in your union in place of Oakes and then talk to the barman to open up Celapaleis. Go to Celapaleis and do the Mr Diggs quest and then return to Athlum where Torgal and Emma's squads will join you and you'll be sent to: Blackdale - BR02 ---------------- Simplest way to do this is to defeat Jager as fast as possible. With him gone and a lot of enemy unions still on the battlefield it is highly likely that David will use the Gae Bolg and bring the battle to a fast finish. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-E616lFKw0 Jager runs off and you go after him through the Blackdale chasm. You will be well able to make your way all the way through whilst avoiding all the monsters in there. You can even open some chests along the way though I advise against going down any dead ends when monsters are around. Remember, save whenever you get past a difficult bit. Go through the Speckled Chasm, through the Sapphire Pit into the Cuspate Post where you will meet: The Fiery Idol - BR 02 ---------------------- Keep on top of your HP here as the Fiery Idol has some nasty attacks. Use the Restore option each time you can as you'll likely only have around 900 HP. Be careful because the Idol's Inferno Insignia does a fair bit of AoE damage and will KO your union if your HP drops too much. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5owQpn5lBbE When you have defeated this Boss you will get another rise up to BR 03 and then it's back to Athlum and then onto Elysion. Here I suggest that you speak to the barman in the pub and open up new areas and then accept the quest, The Secret Letter. Make your way through the Southwestern Road, as usual emptying chests, and then into Balterossa. Give the letter to the Cheerful Man and get the Jade Orb, enabling Rush to use Remedies. Now go and trot round the Great Sand Sea where there are three opportunities to find cash and then head back to Elysion. If you need more cash then this is the time to do the farming at the Diving Point in the Vale of the Gods that I told you about earlier on. Go through the storyline in Elysion until you are ready to enter the Catacombs. The idea here is to get all the way through with as few battles as possible. I had to face six. They were the two Qsitis that are in the room when the doors drop, trapping you in there with them. The other four battles were with the Qsitis that are outside the door in the last area. I managed to avoid all the other monsters that were in the Catacombs by saving regularly and reloading if I got caught out which happened a couple of times. Those six battles cost me one level thus moving me to BR 04. After the Catacombs the next place for you to go is Numor Mine with only Emma where, after making your way through the mine, you'll face: Namul and Niram Sin - BR 04 --------------------------- This is hell. I had only 680 HP which is not really enough but I had to deal with it. It was paramount that I was able to use restore before Namul and Niram got their turn otherwise I was in big trouble unless I could block their attack which wasn't very often. Heavensflight did between 300-400 damage, Flash Arrow about the same, Attack anywhere between 150 to 400+ and Spark V could pass 500. As you can see it's a very hard fight but it can be done. You must heal every time and sometimes you have to heal with mystic arts and accept Raidlock. When using 'Keep up your HP' Rush will mostly use restore before Namul and Niram get their turn but if he doesn't you need to hope you either block or hope that you don't take a lot of damage from their attack. If you're facing Spark V or Flash Arrow then I don't hold out much hope for you. Omnistrike is always a good option because if Rush goes last the attack against you will be dodged. Plenty of luck will be needed here for it all to go your way. It took me FOURTEEN attempts to beat this pair at BR 04. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdxu8B75M-o After this fight you will return to Athlum to make preparations for Nagapur. I suggest that you might want to do a few sidequests here to try and raise some cash. With your BR still being so low it won't matter too much if you take on a few battles. It might be a good idea to do both of Baron Nielsen's quests in Celapaleis which will open up the Sword of the Three Realms Guild in Celapal- eis where you have a chance to get some more cash. Also, defeating Bloodthirsty Beast in Ivory Peaks will complete two Guild Tasks and if you manage to get an Elven Core from the split and that will be worth 1,800 gold to you. Save before you fight and reset if you don't get one. Another easy 7,200 gold can be found in a chest at Blackdale. Just enter the area as normal and turn right. Go past the spiders and vultures and there is a chest in the dead end straight in front of you. Open that for your 7,200 gold. If you don't want to do any battling yet then you can always open up Berechevaltelle and dig up Rough Cuchulainn Stones at 600g a pop! There is one quest that really needs to be done now and that is Bravery and Loyalty because very soon Emma will be gone and you won't be able to complete it so I suggest doing it as soon as David returns from the meeting in Nagapur. Don't go to Athlum Castle until you have completed Bravery and Loyalty. I'll give you my opinion as to the best way to deal with the Boss fight in this quest. Send all 3 unions in against the Boss. Two of them will likely get int- ercepted by the Blackwings. With a bit of luck one or the other (or both) of your unions will resist curse. When I did this fight at BR 06 one of my unions did resist the curse. Anyway, after the first round I broke deadlock with both of the unions that were fighting the Blackwings and sent them into the boss. My initial union had Rush in it and he got Omnistrike sending the Boss critical. The second union went in and that finished the Boss off. The cursed union never even got to swing a blow and I never lost a single character to curse. So pound that Boss immediately and concentrate all your characters on him in the second turn. Hopefully you will finish him off before curse starts doing damage. As soon as you're at the point where you're ready to go to Athlum Castle, first take a detour to go and get Caedmon. After that you should make your way to Nagapur and do the quest, Wisdom's Echo. This is available from Glenys in the pub in Nagapur. It is not an easy battle at this stage. I was BR 06 when I att- empted this and I had to take out the five Landworms as soon as possible as I couldn't take five attacks each turn. After they were gone I turned all my att- ention to the Mantroskylo whilst the Spiritlord pounded on one of my unions. I just kept the one union constantly healing against the Spiritlord whilst the others concentrated on the Boss. Of course, when the Boss falls so does the Spiritlord so you don't have to worry about its HP. For your interest I will tell you that I got 33 skill and stat upgrades from this quest. When you have completed the quest you can then recruit Glenys from the Guild in Nagapur and use her in a union. She is very strong at this stage and will out- hit many, including Baulson! You are now ready for the Nest of Eagles but make sure your unions are ready and you have enough herbs for the coming battle. If you really want to make things a little easier for yourself at the Nest of Eag- les you could always go and do the quest, The Hero, and get the Vanguard Form- ation. To get the quest you'll have to complete two other quests, The Silent Soul and For Love the Bell Tolls, both of which are available in the pub in Balterossa along with The Hero. The Nest of Eagles - BR 07 -------------------------- There's a trick to doing this battle which will make it extremely easy but I am not going to encourage its use. It is perfectly possible to win this battle without resorting to cheap gimmicks, even at BR 07. However, there is one tip that I will gove you. Before you start this battle go and hire three soldiers in Athlum that have the Hexes ability. If there aren't three available just get two because Caedmon can use Silencer. When you start this battle the idea is to get rid of the backup unions first, specifically the Magus units, and this is where the Hexers come in. Obviously it would be nice to hit their Magus unions with Silence before they hit you but what you're really looking for is the AoE damage. One hit from a Hexer can remove half of the enemy's HP which will make it possible for you to defeat their union with the attacks from just one of your unions. It enables you to clear up their support unions fast and let you set about the two Bosses. Once the support unions are defeated it's time to begin work on Castanea and Roeas. Castanea will often use AoE attacks and you'll be happy you did those extra sidequests to get Vanguard. You did, didn't you? I suggest that you have one union on Castanea and the other two working on Roeas but the moment you get Roeas critical it's time to turn your attention solely to Castanea. The reason for this is because when you defeat one of them the other one will use Overdrive but the difference is that Castanea is able to multi-deadlock where Roeas can't so take out Castanea before Roeas. That way you will only lose one union to Overdrive or maybe none. After her Overdrive revive any fallen union and then begin pounding Roeas. She has less HP than Castanea so it won't take very long to finish her off. I did the extra side- quests so that I could have Vanguard and so I started this battle at BR 07. I went up to BR 08 when it was over. Nest of Eagles Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSIV3v2rR-E Nest of Eagles Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSLaaNkujJU Nest of Eagles Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoapSvXxfJQ After the battle there are lots of cutscenes, then you lose Emma and gain Emmy. Slot Emmy where you want her in your unions, stock up on herbs and get ready for: Grinding at Blackdale - BR 08 ----------------------------- Although I call this grinding it isn't really a grind as it doesn't take that long. I started at BR 08 and by the time I had a chain of 64 (32 battles as there are 2 Skull Scavengers) I had risen to BR 20 and got a truckload of stat increases. I was using three unions consisting of a total of six leaders and nine soldiers and when I hit BR 20 they had increased their unions' HP's to 2879/3136/3222 which is plenty. A good rule of thumb here is to add two zeros to your BR and then see if your HP is higher. Well, two zeros to my BR gives me 2000 and, as you can see, my HP is around 50% higher. The place to grind is in the Obsidian Trail at Blackdale. Just enter from the world map and turn to the right. Go past the three Spiders and two Skull Scav- engers and take the path to the right. Almost immediately you will come to the zone line with the Obsidian Trail. Cross it and immediately in front of you is a Skull Scavenger. If it's not there then it's likely that one of the Rares has spawned so just retrace your steps, exit Blackdale and then re-enter. Head back to the Obsidian Trail and see if the Skull Scavenger is there. If it is then you are ready to begin grinding. With each battle you should get a minimum of forty stat and skill increases though I have had as many as sixty. Obviously, as you increase your BR you will get fewer stats. Having said that, by the time I got to BR 20 I was still getting forty though I had reached the stage where I was able to defeat the Skull Scavengers in one turn. Once you reach this stage I feel it's time to think about moving on. Ultimately I would recommend that you don't continue grinding past BR 25. You still have a pile of quests to do on disc one and it would be nice to get to the next grinding spot on disc two (Ancient Ruins) by the time you are BR 40. Battling the Skull Scavengers is pretty straightforward. Just beat them up, go back across the zone line into the Speckled Chasm, save, reset and then return to battle them once more. Continue doing this until you can defeat them in a single turn with your BR at least 20 but no more than 25. Each of your unions (if you are using 3 x 5) should have HP around 3000. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4vYxNktsq0 When you are happy with your grind you should then move on and complete ALL of the sidequests you are able to do on disc one and maybe even some of the Guild tasks that are also available. By the time I was ready to leave I was BR 35. When you're ready head off to Nagapur and prepare for: The Aquaducts - BR 35 ----------------- Make your way along the Third Channel, through the East Waterway Control and into the Central Sluiceway. Before going through the door you should now save. There are now three consecutive Boss battles but you can only save your game after you have completed the first two so make sure you have a save just before you enter the middle section of the Central Sluiceway. Having said that, if you have done what I have said throughout the game then you will find these next three battles fairly easy. It's highly unlikely that you will find yourself in any bother even against the Gates of Hell. Your first battle will be against five Harpylia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Su6iPX5baL4 This is fairly straightforward though you'll likely get hit with a few status effects. Still, you shouldn't have any problem. After it's over you'll move straight into some cutscenes and then you'll be facing Gates of Hell. During this fight you are going to get burned a lot and I recommend ignoring Refresh opportunities and just heal when your HP gets a little low. Every attack from Gates of Hell is likely to burn someone and if you try to clear all those burn effects you'll be at it from now till doomsday. Just kick its ass! Your new buddy, Cyclops, will be there to help out too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffTi47iFz54 This battle moved me up to BR 36 after it was over. More cutscenes now and Wag- ram will beam you away to Wyrmskeep where you can save your game. Make your way round to the North end and enter the door. Here you will have another battle, this time against: Jager and the Lob Omen - BR 36 ------------------------------ Again you shouldn't have any trouble here either. Begin by taking out all the minions first and then turn your attention to Jager. Send all your unions into battle with him and he will fall pretty quickly. Now you can concentrate on the Lob Omen which won't give you any serious trouble. Heal if necessary, otherwise just hammer it with Combat Arts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJbRuHqaqKM Having completed this battle you will then go through a load of cutscenes which will culminate in the end of disc one. There will now follow a period of skills grinding again so swap discs and get ready for: ====================================== Disc 2 - Grinding at the Ancient Ruins ====================================== In order to get the Ancient Ruins available to you, you will have to complete a little bit of the storyline first so, to start with, take yourself off to Forn- strand and complete that bit first. After returning from Fornstrand you'll need to head off to Elysion and then back to Athlum. After the cutscenes in Athlum, Irina will join your party and you'll get a final upgrade for your unions. You will now be able to use up to five unions, six leaders and recruit up to eight- een soldiers. After preparing yourself you should talk to the Yama a bit further down from the Pub in Athlum and this'll open up the Second Path from which you can gain access to: The Ancient Ruins - BR 40 ------------------------- The first thing you will need to do here is to obtain the Grammi Key in order to gain access to the Grammi Tier - Anatoray which is where you will be grind- ing. The best way to get the key is to keep leaving and re-entering the Ancient Ruins until there are no monsters in the first area. There are three possibil- ities regarding the monsters you will encounter here. The first is Rockgrators, the second Charybdis and the third is no monsters at all. Once you get no mon- sters in this first area you will be free to roam around and empty each of the treasure chests and not get molested by any of the critters in there. The only area you need to keep away from (apart from the room with the teleporter) is down the second turning on your left as you enter the Ancient Ruins. Down that passage is a door which leads to a room containing two Diatrymas. There isn't anything in that room that you need so avoid it. Once you have emptied all of the chests and got the Grammi Key you need to return back to the point where you entered the Ancient Ruins. Now straight ahead down the passage is a door. You need to enter that area but make sure you save before you do because inside is a monster you will need to defeat before being able to move on to the Grammi Tier. Open the door and you should see two Diatrymas with Ymir and Ymir will start to inch towards you if he is a fair way off. If he is close then you inch towards him and engage him without the Diatrymas. Ymir - BR 40 ------------ The only thing you need to be concerned about with Ymir is his AoE attack, Hammerspin. It won't KO a Union but if he were to use it for two consecutive turns then it is possible that you may lose one. Keep your HP up at all times by selecting any healing option available. Should there not be any form of healing available then keep one union on standby, preferably using the option 'Recover Your Health' if it's there. A union using that particular option is highly likely to heal any union that needs healing and if Ymir has used Hammer- spin then you'll need healing! Apart from that there isn't anything to worry about in this battle. Apart from the 'Attack' command, Ymir will only use one of the following: Hammerspin III Provoke III Defence Crusher III I have dealt with Hammerspin and, obviously, the other two need attending to as soon as possible so that you don't take too much damage. I did this battle at BR 40 and Ymir's 'attack' could do up to 1,000 damage so use Rejuvenate if you get hit with Provoke or Defence Crusher. This won't be a short battle but pro- viding you pay attention to the points I have made you shouldn't have any real problems. For your interest, when I completed this battle I got 79 skills/stats upgrades. Yeah, I counted them....sad, eh? Once Ymir is defeated turn around and head back to the World Map exit and save your game as the time for grinding is about to begin. Return to Athlum or anywhere that you can buy the herbs you need and stock up. Once that's done go back to the Ancient Ruins. The place to grind is in the second room on the next level up from the first one, Grammi Tier - Anatoray. In this room are three Rockgrators and they are what you'll be fighting to gain skills and stats. However, you have to get the right monster set in the Apex Tier before you get the Rockgrators in the Grammi Tier. The monsters you need are the Charybdis so keep exiting and entering the Ancient Ruins until these critters appear. You may have to move around a bit as they are invisible unless they are moving. Whatever you do, don't get involved with them as they have a particularly nasty habit of using Cavalry Call and you could end up fighting them for the next two hours which will cripple your BR and won't give you enough skill upgrades. As soon as they appear you need to flee towards the door where you fought Ymir. Open it and run through, avoiding the two Diatrymas in there (use Timeshift if necessary), and move through the door into the next room where you will find the teleporter. Use it and move to the Grammi Tier. On arriving in the Grammi Tier you will have a door straight ahead of you and you need to go through that into the next room where you will see a door to your left. On the other side of that door are the three Rockgrat- ors. Take them on INDIVIDUALLY, saving after each battle, until all three lots have been defeated. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMIeilRiPYQ Now go back into the other room to the teleporter and teleport back to the Apex Tier and save your game. Now reset and then head back into Grammi and the Rock- grators will be back. Keep doing this until you get to BR 60 or so. Once your skills dwindle it's time to move on. The next place to do some more grinding is in the Metopon Tier with the Ancbolders which is probably the best stats/skills grind available. However, to get there you will have to pass Holy Servant in the east part of Grammi Tier - Disith so first head to the lower west side and pick up the Metopon Key. Now move east to where Holy Servant is and begin the battle. This isn't going to be easy so you'll need to keep on top of your heal- ing. Holy Servant will do some decent damage AND you will have to face that damned breath attack at the start of each round. Nevertheless, you should still be able to defeat it providing you keep healing when necessay. When you've done exit the room and go through the door to the south which leads to the teleport- er. If you haven't left the Ancient Ruins at all you should find that the Ancbold- ers are there in the next area. It's worth remembering that when the Charybdis are up in the Apex Tier, the Ancbolders will often be up in the Metopon Tier as well as the Rockgrators in Grammi Tier. Although the Ancbolders give good upgr- ades, the downside is their Hammerspin attack. I could eat a three course meal in the time it takes to go through the attack's animation. Sheesh, SE, are you ever gonna learn that long attack animations are a real pain in the ass when it comes to grinding? Whilst I was fighting Ancbolder after Ancbolder I noticed that I was starting to get a little low on herbs. I was BR 71 and so I thought this would be about the right time to Leave the Ancient Ruins for now and have a go at so skills grinding at Robelia Castle so I went and restocked my herb inventory and then set off for: Robelia Castle, Rush Solo - BR 71 --------------------------------- This is where you increase all the skills for your leaders by using Rush in a union on his own. Go through the castle until you come to the Sweeping Safehold the area where you battled the Remnant Activists with Pagus right at the begin- ning of the game. In that room you will find nine Landworms. The idea is to try to build up a huge chain with these Landworms with Rush alternating between Mystic and Combat Arts. You should take the Landworms on ONE AT A TIME!! Do NOT link them! Sure, if you link two by accident then don't lose any sleep over it but try to avoid doing it again. Once you have defeated all of the Landworms, exit the Sweeping Safehold by crossing the zone line into the previous area and save your game. Reset and then return to the Sweeping Safehold where you will find that all the Landworms are back and your chain is intact. Just carry on chaining the critters. Be careful not to let any of them initiate the battle or your chain will bust. Not drastic as you are saving every nine battles but it's still pretty annoying. The way you increase the skills is by Rush's actions. As you alternate between Mystic and Combat Arts all the leaders will learn corresponding skills. If you want a good way to keep track of the amount of Combat attacks in comparison to Mystic attacks then do this: If there are an odd number of enemies in the union use mystic arts and if the number is even use combat arts. Including the two lizard groups just outside the door, each full round of attacks against the lizards and all the landworms will use just one more combat art than mystic. As your chain increases the leaders will learn skills faster and if you get your chain up to a thousand then it's likely that most of your leaders will have increased their skills a lot. What I will do now is give you a list of my leaders and their skills as I begin this skill grind and I will also show them at the one thousand chain mark to show you how much they have increased. It's not an endless list as I am only using six leaders. As you will see, Rush's skills will increase a lot slower than the leaders who are in reserve. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ==== Rush ==== One-Handed After 1000 Chain ---------- ---------------- Nimble Knee Splitter III Nimble Knee Splitter III Nimble Cutting Lunge II Nimble Cutting Lunge II Power Grip ---------- Nimble Smash IV Peerless Smash V Crossbreak II Mighty Crossbreak IV Switchback Switchback Mighty Dragon's Tail II Mighty Dragon's Tail II Dragon's Flight Victory Sweep Invocations ----------- Spark II Spark V Wind Shear II Double Time II Caustic Blast Permafrost Evocations ---------- Mystic Missile Mystic Missile V Flash Arrow Silencer Eclipse II Remedies -------- Restore IV Restore V Refresh Refresh Rejuvenate Rejuvenate III Revitalise III Herbs ----- Restorative Herbs IV Restorative Herbs IV Vivification Herbs Vivification Herbs Life Powder Life Powder Lotions ------- Antivenin Antivenin Explosives ---------- Flash Bomb Flash Bomb ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ====== Torgal ====== Quad Wield After 1000 Chain ---------- ---------------- Mighty Quad Slice III Nimble Quad Slice V Four Winds II Nimble Four Winds IV Slice and Dice Nimble Slice and Dice IV Nimble Quadrille III Dual Power Grip --------------- Mighty Fury Blow IV Nimble Fury Blow V Bonecrusher II Nimble Bonecrusher IV Twin Gimlet Nimble Twin Gimlet IV Nimble Retribution III Dual Two-Handed --------------- Flash Strike Nimble Flash Strike V Nimble Focus Strike IV Nimble Earthrender III Scattered Petals Evocations ---------- Mystic Missile Mystic Missile V Flash Arrow IV Silencer III Eclipse III Snare Shot Potions ------- Red Potion Red Potion ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ======= Baulson ======= Two-Handed After 1000 Chain ---------- ---------------- Mighty Double Strike IV Nimble Double Strike V Thunderclap II Nimble Thunderclap IV Cascade Strike Nimble Cascade Strike IV Dragon's Crush Nimble Dragon's Crush IV Fleche Nimble Fleche IV Remedies -------- Restore III Restore V Refresh II Refresh V Rejuvenate II Rejuvenate V Revitalise V Support III Kiss of Life IV Second Chance II Herbs ----- Restorative Herbs IV Restorative Herbs IV Vivification Herb Vivification Herb Life Powder Life Powder Restorative Tincture Restorative Tincture ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ======= Caedmon ======= Quad Wield After 1000 Chain ---------- ---------------- Quad Slice Nimble Quad Slice IV Nimble Four Winds IV Nimble Slice and Dice III Quadrille Dual Power Grip --------------- Fury Blow Nimble Fury Blow V Nimble Bonecrusher IV Nimble Twin Gimlet III Retribution Dual Two-Handed --------------- Flash Strike III Nimble Flash Strike V Focus Strike II Nimble Focus Strike IV Mighty Earthrender III Nimble Earthrender IV Scattered Petals Nimble Scattered Petals IV Evocations ---------- Mystic Missile IV Mystic Missile V Flash Arrow II Flash Arrow IV Silencer Silencer IV Eclipse Eclipse IV Snare Shot III Remedies -------- Restore III Restore V Refresh Refresh V Rejuvenate Rejuvenate V Revitalise IV Support III Kiss of Life III Second Chance Herbs ----- Restorative Herb IV Restorative Herb IV Vivification Herb Vivification Herb Life Powder Life Powder Potions ------- Red Potion Red Potion ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ====== Glenys ====== One-Handed After 1000 Chain ---------- ---------------- Nimble Knee Splitter III Mighty Knee Splitter V Cutting Lunge II Mighty Cutting Lunge IV Mighty Blue Streak III Mighty Double Slash II Mighty Helm Split III Power Grip ---------- Nimble Smash III Mighty Smash V Crossbreak II Mighty Crossbreak IV Nimble Switchback II Mighty Switchback IV Dragon Flight Mighty Dragon's Flight IV Nimble Moonset III Mighty Moonset V Mighty Moonshadow II Remedies -------- Restore IV Restore V Refresh III Refresh V Rejuvenate II Rejuvenate V Revitalise IV Revitalise V Support Support V Kiss of Life Kiss of Life V Second Chance IV ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ==== Emmy ==== One-Handed After 1000 Chain ---------- ---------------- Knee Splitter II Knee Splitter V Cutting Lunge IV Blue Streak III Double Slash Cross Slice III Power Grip ---------- Smash II Smash V Crossbreak IV Switchback III Dragon's Flight Dragon's Tail III Dual Wield ---------- Devil's Due III Devil's Due V Bladedancer II Bladedancer IV Resonance Edge II Resonance Edge IV Acala's Wrath Acala's Wrath IV Moulinet Moulinet IV Blood Rage Hexes ----- Poison Gas II Poison Gas V Paralyse Gas IV Smoke Canister III Silent Gas III Dispirit Remedies -------- Restore III Restore V Refresh III Refresh V Rejuvenate III Rejuvenate V Revitalise II Revitalise V Support IV Kiss of Life IV Second Chance III ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I increased my BR 4 times during this grind. It changed from 71 to 72 after 184 chains, to 73 after 403 chains, to 74 after 627 chains and to 75 after 846 chains but, most important of all, I got a lot of skill upgrades for my charac- ters. From here I went back to the Ancient Ruins and made my way to the Metopon Tier in order to continue with the Ancbolders. Very soon after I was at the point where I wasn't getting many stat upgrades even from the Ancbolders and so I made my way back to Athlum to continue with the storyline and also to do a few sidequests. I got all the sidequests done up to date and then carried on with the story up to the six bases at Koenigsdorf. I was BR 93 at that stage. The Six Bases and Koenigsdorf ============================= First thing to remember is to talk to Chairman Ghor at his castle before and after each battle in order to get his quest afterwards. Don't forget to do this or you'll miss out. Snievan at Base 1 - BR 93 ------------------------- Fight your way through the outside defences and on to Snievan. There is nothing to cause you any major problems here and at the end of the fight you will get Brionac which will enable Torgal to use Lugh's Revenge. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iylrnXViVuI Zuido at Base 2 - BR 93 ----------------------- Talk about split personality! This Yama needs to spend a bit of time at the funny farm. I remember fighting this nutter when I was a lot weaker than I was for this challenge and his Giant Press was lethal. However, in this fight it isn't even annoying. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI_p1OuHEds Ludope at Base 3 - BR 93 ------------------------ Lots of wonderful status effects in this battle. I brought Irina in for this fight because of curse. I thought that if the worst came about I would at least have a leader who was immune to the effects of curse. With the amount of HP you have this fight is a lot easier than it could be but try and keep on top of all the ailments that you are likely to get hit with. I was quite fortunate here as I was able to summon Namul Niram who took quite a few of the attacks that would have inflicted status effects on my characters had they been the target instead of Namul Niram. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLQVz9zl77k Hinnah & Hannah at Base 4 - BR 94 --------------------------------- There are a few things you need to take into consideration for this battle. The first thing to remember is that if you leave Hannah alone she will keep casting Support on Hinnah. She will also break Deadlock and heal Hinnah with Second Chance if Hinnah goes critical. If you defeat Hinnah whilst Hannah is still standing she will use Overdrive on the following turn and the same applies to Hinnah if you defeat Hannah. The added problem if you defeat Hannah is that Hinnah will use Total Domination (enthralls union) every other turn. I guess the best way to deal with these two is to drop Hinnah's HP close to critical and then focus on Hannah. When you have defeated Hannah you should be able to finish Hinnah of fairly quickly. I didn't do this because I knew I could batter Hinnah down fairly fast once Hannah was gone. Hinnah did get to use Total Dom- ination once but I healed that comfortably. I would say that this could be a really tough fight at lower levels but if you have used the power strategy you won't have any real bother here. I went over the time limit for Youtube and so I had to divide the battle into two vids. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXwnIQL7gA0 Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RYrhkPGM54 Young at Base 5 - BR 98 ----------------------- Before I did this battle I went back to Robelia Castle to get some more skills for Emmy. This was because I had forgotton to carry on grinding to get Emmy the skill, Cachexia, when I was there last time. I really want that skill as it is a big help if you get to use it against The Fallen as it'll limit the different kinds of attacks that it does. With no AP it's tough for it to launch any form of arts attack at you. So I arrived back here at BR 98, up four due to the grinding in Robelia Castle. Not only that but also Pagus, Glenys and Torgal had their weapon arts too. I'm hardly using Pagus at all but I use Torgal and Glenys all the time and they do decent damage with their weapon arts. Glenys does around 80k and Torgal goes over the 100k. Not that I needed them to beat Young. His Brawl II was a minor irritation but that was all. No problem here! Milton at Base 6 - BR 94 ------------------------ You may notice that my BR here is less than what it was at Base 5. Nothing sin- ister about it, I just did Base 6 before Base 5. Plenty of status effects for this battle but it really isn't a problem. Even with Milton in overdrive you can cope comfortably with him. Nothing to work a sweat up over. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y5FTMcPvvY Cyclops - After the Six Bases - BR 98 ------------------------------------- Well, your friendly Summon decides it's time to kick your ass and somehow has managed to swipe the Gae Bolg from David. If you have got your weapon arts by now (and you should have them) then this will be easy. Two lots of Hawkarang from Torgal took out the best part of 200k and as Cyclops only has around 270k HP it didn't leave me much to do. In fact, if Cyclops hand't blocked Swordflash from Glenys it would have been over even quicker. Nice and easy with the Weapon Arts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of14dFkb_a8 Ala Melvilana Synthesis at Koenigsdorf - BR 98 ---------------------------------------------- After going through all six bases and battling Cyclops you now have access to Koenigsdorf. As you approach you can see the Duke of Ghor facing up to the ex chairman, Duke Hermeien, and the Duke of Ghor isn't faring too well. Lord David decides that you have to step in and help him. The battle is fairly easy; all you have to do is fight your way through all the soldiers that are ahead of you. They will be reinforced as you make your way through them and eventually you come up against Ala Melvilana Synthesis which is none other than Duke Hermeien in "fancy dress." There really isn't much to worry about throughout the whole of this battle other than some status effects which you can deal with comfortably. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq24qG5e_7U Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSZ2a49KmOI After this battle I started to mop up all the outstanding sidequests that need- ed doing and this raised my BR quite a but and by the time I got back to doing the story events, namely rescuing Irina from Darken Forest, I was at BR 108. Anima at Darken Forest - BR 108 ------------------------------- The difficulty of this battle will depend on whether you have your weapon arts or not. If you're able to do decent damage then you'll be able to defeat the enemy unions before they get round to using Bewitch on you and enthralling your unions. As you'll see I had no problem with these critters. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI2JA-Uk2Ho Now the run in to the battle with the Conqueror begins with you heading off to Undelwalt and a meeting with the God Emperor. However, before you go to Undel- walt there is a sidequest that needs doing as it won't be there the moment you enter Undelwalt so head to Baaluk first and speak to Wyngale in the pub and get ready for what is normally a tough battle. The Fallen - BR 108 ------------------- The thing that normally makes this a tough fight is The Fallen always uses the attack, Armageddon, at the end of turn 10. Basically it's Game Over so you have to defeat it before then. I did this fight with just two unions, one for combat and the other for healing, and I had it beaten by the start of turn 5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYLvcV-vERw Now The Fallen is behind you, you can now go to Undelwalt and meet the God Emp- eror. This leads on to the battle at the Holy Plain which will be no problem for your powered up unions. There'll be lots of reinforcing going on but it'll be nothing you can't handle. From this battle you go on through Seibenbur Paths 6 & 7 and onto the Sacred Lands and the Absolute Conqueror but before this you have the opportunity to take on the extra DLC monsters. These can be fairly tough fights, even being as strong as you are so give them a little respect. There is no right or wrong time for you to do these battles so just take them on when you feel you are ready for them. ============ DLC Monsters ============ Jhana Royals - BR 107 --------------------- You can put this battle into three stages and the first one is against Jhana Fighter and Magus unions. The fighters hit hard and the magus unions will hit you with AoE attacks and some status effects but this first stage isn't that difficult and you should be fine. Of course, just when you think you've beaten them, reinforcements arrive! Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHd49EXhLD8 Once you've waded through a load of Jhanas, the Ala Melvilana Fusion appears on the scene. This is capable of doing decent AoE damage so you need to keep an eye on healing all the time. Finishing this stage of the battle with heavily damaged unions is not a good idea considering what follows immediately. Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pRj7WMOVpg After you defeat Ala Melvilana Fusion you will face more Jhana along with the King and Queen. Believe me, even with very strong unions there is a chance that you can be overwhelmed by the sheer numbers and AoE damage. Blackout, Whiteout and Animalcule are distinct possibilities too and this fight can get very messy if you let it get away from you. Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=040A0FdvY1A Eldritch Dragon - BR 108 ------------------------ An easy fight at this stage. Watch how well Vanguard copes with the Breath attacks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJX9asSxl6k The Fiery Gates - BR 109 ------------------------ Well I hope you've done your "homework" at Robelia Castle because Arcana are a big help here in shifting the enemy unions. Irina's Fatal Eclipse and Torgal's Whiteout made short work of enemy unions. When you're down to the Fiery Gates you'll face lots of AoE attacks with Blue Blazes and Hellfire. Units are going to get burned here but I reckon it's pointless trying to Refresh them as they will just cop another dose next turn. I used just 2 unions for this fight, one for combat and the other for healing. I had no trouble as you will see in the vid. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6HENB-oT5M Demigod - BR 118 ---------------- Get used to it, this guy is not going away quickly. You're gonna get plenty of status effects and you'll have to take your time with lots of healing and just chip away at its HP. It has around a million HP and at BR 118 it still took me over 20 minutes to win this fight. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1iwmS7VER0 Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj04KUfDKBw Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-DkU6G3ApU Cyclops Standard Model - Br 120 ------------------------------- This isn't a difficult fight, just an annoying one because Cyclops uses Gae Bolg at the start of every turn which has a very long animation sequence. It's funny but I never saw Cyclops swipe it off David. O.o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5owS-Uu5SA The Idols - BR 120 ------------------ This is a battle against four Idols found in Darken Forest. They are the Fiery Idol, Icy Idol, Charged Idol and Divine Idol. Once this battle begins you won't be able to save until you have defeated all four so keep your wits about you. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDJzrYT8AJk Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vQfEILaxiQ Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rghz017mPgo The Lost Remnant - BR 123 ------------------------- The same kind of fight as The Fallen except this time you only have 5 turns to defeat it instead of the 10 you had for the Fallen. Don't worry though, I took this battle on with just the two unions again and had it beaten during turn four. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOTT4kMYN5k The Enlightened Seven - BR 124 ------------------------------ Oh man, this has to be the best battle of the game. This fight is against all the ones you fought at the 6 Bases but this time they are in their Enlightened form and are a lot tougher than when you first met them. You will also have to face more than one of them at once as one of the others may join the one you are fighting. Beware of Milton, who will likely join Snievan, as he will use Iron Will and you will face him in Overdrive which isn't fun. His attack could do around 2,500 to my teams so he was well capable of KOing a union in just one turn. Enjoy the fight as it won't be a short one. Mine is in 4 parts! Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8ccoaeohSs Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXApwKTKK-E Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUubtvsjY2k Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SoAeUPWucU The Enlightened Conqueror - BR 124 ---------------------------------- This version of the Conqueror, also known as the White Conqueror, can be found in Lavafender and when you fight him this is what you can possibly face: Savage IV Deep Impact IV Photon Field IV Obliterate IV Crimson Flare IV Tao Tie (Conqueror) IV Abyssal Gate IV Seal IV Delta-Petra IV Masterblow IV War God IV Animalcule III Fatal Eclipse III Miracle III Overdrive III Obliterate IV is guaranteed to KO a complete union though it can miss. It's a good fight and one that it is well possible to lose so keep up with the healing and maybe keep a union back if you are really having a hard time. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwIn24DfKPY Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3-6snH6aDE ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ============================================== Final Battle - The Absolute Conqueror - BR 124 ============================================== Having completed all the sidequests and all the DLC monsters you will be left with the Absolute Conqueror. This is the strongest version of the Conqueror and is not to be underestimated. Head for the Sacred Lands and work your way along the route following the patterns with the orange markings beating up all of the critters along the way until you reach the Absolute Conqueror who has quite a range of attacks available as well. Abyssal Gate Arcana - Rank SS Deep Impact Masterblow Obliterate Overdrive Photon Field Savage Seal War God Again, make sure that you stay on top of any necessary healing or you will run into trouble with some of the attacks you'll face. He can have an attack at the start and end of each round so be warned. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ18ZEKL6ks Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJmL0BTrOXg Once you have defeated him you can pat yourself on the back for beating the whole game. ======= The End ======= =============================================================================== =============================================================================== =========== Legal Stuff =========== Whilst the info that is in this guide is freely available to the general public who wish to seek it out, the form that it is in here - i.e. THIS GUIDE - has been put together by me, FF12GrandMaster from FFTogether.com and the copyright to this particular guide lies solely with me. This guide must not be reproduced in any form (with the exception of being printed off for PERSONAL use only) without first obtaining permission from me, FF12GrandMaster - All requests for permission to FF12GrandMaster@yahoo.co.uk. If permission is granted it will be on the condition that the whole document is left unaltered and in the original plain text format and credit for the guide is given to me. I reserve the right to revoke this permission and ask for the guide to be removed should I find it to be altered in any way or credit taken for my work. The Last Remnant and all related media are the property of Square Enix. All trademarks and copyrights are acknowledged.