Pharos – First Ascent
| Available from Chests: | They Who Thirst Not | Armguard Ruby Ring |
| Wellspring Labyrinth | Argyle Armlet Hermes Sandals Magick Gloves |
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| Wellspring Ravel - 1st Flight | Demon Shield Leather Gorget Dragon Helm |
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| Wellspring Ravel - 2nd Flight | Chaperon Perseus Bow |
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| Wellspring Ravel - 3rd Flight | Bangle Power Armlet Gungnir Holy |
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| Horizon's Cusp | Black Mask | |
| Notable Enemy Drops/Steals: | Hydro (Boss) | N/A |
| Chimera Brain | Celebrant's Miter (Steal) | |
| Mimeo | Zeus Mace (Drop) | |
| Mistmare | Black Robes (Poach) | |
| Pandaemonium (Boss) | N/A | |
| Brainpan | Magepower Shishak (Poach) | |
| Aeronite | Dragon Helm (Drop) | |
| Deidar | Antares (Drop) | |
| Vishno (Rare Game) | Ribbon (1% Drop) | |
| Slyt (Boss) | N/A |
They Who Thirst Not
Continue towards the Lighthouse to trigger our first Boss Battle.
Boss Battle: Hydro
| Boss: | Hydro |
| HP: | 203,800 |
| Elemental Weakness: | Holy |
| Status Effect Weakness: | Confuse, Oil, Slow |
| Resistances: | - Dark (Absorb) - Fire, Ice, Lightning, Water, Wind, Earth (50% Effective) - N/A (Nullified) |
| Steal: | Maggoty Flesh Corpse Fly Wyrm Bone |
Hydro has the ability to drain MP for the party with its Fearga attack. Make sure to switch your healing and resurrection Gambits over to using Phoenix Downs and X-Potions for this fight. The Boss also has the ability to inflict numerous status effects, by this point in the game you’ll have been able to purchase Remedies for quite some time so make sure one of the characters with Remedy Lore is set up to cast Remedies when needed. Set the rest of the party up with Ally: Any – Nu Khai Sand, Gambits as well to prevent Confuse. Dispel the Bosses buffs at the start of the fight and get Slow cast on him as quickly as possible. After that, it’s just a matter of staying on top of healing and status effects.
In the Bosses area, you can spawn up to four chests at a time. One can contain an Armguard and another a Ruby Ring. Grab them and take the east exit.
The Wellspring
If you continue east past the two inactive Way Stones you’ll find the Save Crystal for the area, touch it to heal up and add this location to your Teleport Roster.
Head back and take the south exit just below the first inactive Way Stone to continue.
Wellspring Labyrinth
The enemies here, once defeated, will drop a small glowing light orb. Interact quickly with it to grab it. You’ll need four to complete this area so grab them as you go.
Take the first split in the path you encounter, on the right side, and follow the passage south. Here you can spawn a chest with an Argyle Armlet inside. There are two chests that spawn here so make sure you’re checking for both.
Continue to follow the path until you come to the southeastern section of the area. Here within this “southeastern block” of the map, you want to make your way towards the southwest corner and take the long corridor to find the Map Urn for Pharos.
From the Map Urn, head east as far as you can go and then continue north. Along the way, you’ll encounter a one-time chest containing Hermes Sandals. They will be opposite a door you can’t open yet.
Continue to follow the passage around and into the “northwestern block” of the map. Here in the westernmost chamber, you can spawn a chest with Magick Gloves inside.
By this point, you will have made it around the entire area, and hopefully collected at least four of the glowing orbs left behind by enemies. Head back to where the Save Crystal was and nearby you’ll find an Alter of Night in the center ring of this area, interact with it and offer it a Black Orb. There are four, total, of these Alter of Night Pedestals around this inner ring area. You’ll need to visit all four of them and activate them to unlock the Threshold of Night door that was locked where we picked up the Hermes Sandals. Activate the Alter’s and open the door to be transported into a desert area.
Dunes of Profaning Wind
Don’t worry about exploring this area, leaving the path will force you back to the start. Simply follow the path around to start our next Boss Battle.
Boss Battle: Pandaemonium
| Boss: | Pandaemonium |
| HP: | 116,678 |
| Elemental Weakness: | Wind |
| Status Effect Weakness: | Confuse, Silence, Oil |
| Resistances: | - Earth (Absorb) - N/A (50% Effective) - Fire, Ice, Lightning, Water, Dark, Holy (Nullified) |
| Steal: | Ancient Turtle Shell Aries Gem Scarletite |
Below 50% health, Pandaemonium will become invincible for around 1 min, so be prepared to just wait it out. It is immune to a whole bunch of elements so be careful to make sure you’re not equipping characters with elemental-based weapons. Pandaemonium can also inflict both Blind and Petrify so make sure someone has an Esuna Gambit set up for the fight. Other than that it should eventually fall quite easily to your party.
The Wellspring
After the fight, you’ll arrive back at Pharos. Head back to the Save Crystal area to find that the Way Stone is now working. Using it will send you to the next area.
Wellsping Ravel – 1st Flight
Follow the path north to what looks to be a dead-end. This is a Fool’s Facade, something you’ll find scattered about this area, once you get close enough you’ll get a prompt to interact. Doing so will reveal a room behind the wall, you’ll also find a one-time chest here containing a Demon Shield.
Head back to the main path and continue east. You’ll find two Brainpan enemies near a collapsed bridge. Defeating the two Brainpans will trigger new “Green Blocks” to appear over the gap in the bridge. In this area, you’re going to find many of these destroyed bridges and need to find the nearby Brainpan enemies and defeat them in order to proceed. Be warned that later on, they will introduce a Red version of the Brainpan enemy, called a Deidar, killing it will actually remove one of the “Green Blocks” that has already appeared. So keep your eyes open and only defeat the Green ones for now.
Continue to follow the path south, and then east, on the platform after the path turns north you can find a chest containing a Leather Gorget. Continuing east will put you at another of the destroyed bridges, so turn south to find the three Brainpan enemies you’ll need to defeat.
Head into the cluster of three rooms at the bottom of the map, here in the most northern of the three, you’ll also find another chest with a Dragon Helm inside. After you’ve cleared all the Brainpans, the bridge should have formed. Continue to follow the path across it and into the next area.
Wellspring Ravel – 2nd Flight
Continue to follow the path, defeating any Brainpan enemies as you go. You’ll notice as you’ve been climbing the stairs that a floor marker will have appeared under your minimap on screen. As you are ascending the levels here, you’ll come to the large eastern passage on the 23rd Floor (23F on your map), from here if you turn south you can find another Fool’s Facade leading to a branch path containing a chest with a Chaperon inside. Continue to follow the path and destroy the Fool’s Facade at the other end to rejoin the main path.
Along the path you should have found all of the Brainpan enemies needed to trigger the completion of the next bridge, if you missed some, then head back and find them. Cross the bridge and you’ll see another chest off to the west over another destroyed Bridge. We can’t reach it just yet, but this chest contains a Perseus Bow. Follow the path for now and up to the next level.
Wellspring Ravel – 3rd Flight
In this next section, the Deidar (Red) enemies are going to become more frequent. You’ll need to initially focus on defeating the (Green) Brainpan enemies first to open up the bridges. Once you’ve unlocked them all then you’ll need to switch and come back to defeat the Deidars. Doing so will spawn a couple of Red Bridges that we’ll need to reach some of the treasures in this area.
Continue to follow the path, once you come to the first large cross intersection on 30F you can head north to find another Fools Facade with a chest containing a Power Armlet on the other side. Continue pressing forward killing only the Green Brainpans as you go. Remember you can use the L2+R2 buttons to make your party flee if they begin to attack one of the Red Deidars.
Once you’ve built the second bridge and cross it, you’ll notice an area not accessible with a Green Bridge. You’ll need to defeat the Red Deidars in order to complete this section of the bridge and gain access to the two chests on the other side, behind another Fools Facade. These two chests contain the Gungnir Lance and Holy Magick. Well worth your time. You may need to zone in and out of the area a few times to spawn enough of the enemies to complete the Bridges. You can also rezone to the 2nd Flight area to use the Red Bridge there to access the Perseus Bow as well.
Continue to follow the path up to the next level when you’re ready.
Wellspring Ravel – 4th Flight
You know the pattern by now, follow the path and defeat the Green Brainpans, to begin with, to complete the necessary bridges. There are no great items on this level so just press on to the next.
Horizon’s Break
Here you’ll find a much-needed Save Crystal. Head south around the ring and take the southwestern stairs leading up to the next floor.
Horizon’s Cusp
Follow the path, where it turns east you’ll find two one-time chests, one containing the Black Mask. Continue forward to end up in another outdoor area. Head toward the Waterfall to trigger the next Boss Battle.
Boss Battle: Slyt
| Boss: | Slyt |
| HP: | 92,661 |
| Elemental Weakness: | Fire |
| Status Effect Weakness: | Confuse, Reverse, Oil, Disease, Slow |
| Resistances: | - Water (Absorb) - N/A (50% Effective) - Ice, Lightning, Wind, Earth, Dark, Holy (Nullified) |
| Steal: | Yensa Scale Pisces Gem Yensa Fin |
Another battle with a ton of elemental immunities, be sure to equip your party with non-elemental weapons as much as possible here. Fire weapons also work well on this Boss. The biggest issue here is that Slyt has a constant Regen on health throughout the fight, so you need to out DPS his healing. Keep your HP high with Bubble and Protect for the party to defend against Slyt’s physical attacks and make sure to keep up the damage on him, to beat his Regen.
Follow the path and take the next Warp Stone to the next section.
Pharos – Second Ascent
| Available from Chests: | Station of Banishment | Fuzzy Miter Opal Ring Quasimodo Boots Rose Corsage Bowline Sash Minerva Bustier |
| Station of Suffering | Zeus Mace Tourmaline Ring Lead Bolts Agate Ring Tula |
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| Station of Ascension | Dragon Mail Black Belt Gil Toss (Tecknick) Oil Bombs Sash Bamboo Arrows |
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| The Bounds of Truth | Muramasa | |
| Notable Enemy Drops/Steals: | Crusader | Crown of Laurels (Drop) |
| Abaddon | N/A | |
| Reaver | N/A | |
| Bune | Gungnir (Drop) | |
| Dragon Lich | N/A | |
| Necrofiend | N/A | |
| Zombie Warlock | N/A | |
| Fenrir (Boss) | N/A |
The Reach
Make your way over to the west side of the map to find the Save Crystal for the area. Around the outside, you’ll find four doors in this area. One in each of the four corners. Each leads to the same place, but depending on which you take, you’ll lose access to something until after the next Boss Battle.
- Northwest Door – “Steel” in name – Lose the ability to use weapons.
- Southwest Door – “Magicks” in name – Lose the ability to use Magicks.
- Southeast Door – “Knowledge” in name – Lose use of Mini-Map.
- Northeast Door – “Wealth” in name – Lose ability to use Items.
The easiest to go without is the Door of Knowledge, which gives up the use of the Mini-Map. You’ll lose the ability to have the map in the top right corner but can still use the overlay map. Choose your door by activating the Alter in front of the doorway and then opening the door to continue.
Station of Banishment
Make your way to the center ring of the area to make navigation easier. Check the southwest exit, and go one room to the west for a chance at a chest containing a Fuzzy Miter. The four rooms that separate the southwest and southeast areas can contain an Opal Ring in the most southwest of the four.
Continue to make your way around the center ring until you reach the northeast section. Here you’ll find a room with four exits from it, the north exit leads to a chest with a Rose Corsage and the south exit leads to a chest containing Quasimodo Boots.
Continue through to the northwest. Here you can find chests in the southwest most room containing a Minerva Bustier and in the northwest most room containing a Bowline Sash.
You’ll find the stairs up to the next level in the northeastern section of the map. Head up when you’re ready.
Station of Suffering
Head to the northwest corner of the map to find the Map Urn for the area. Go south one room and then east to arrive at the second long corridor from the top of the map. In here you can find a chest containing an Agate Ring. Just south of this room, if you look on the map you’ll find two hallways that almost connect, the west most one of the two contains a one-time chest holding the Tula.
On the south of the map, you’ll find a mirror image of those two hallways that are ‘almost touching’ at the end of each you can find chests containing a Tourmaline Ring and Lead Bolts.
In the southwest cluster of rooms, you’ll find a room in the center with four exits from it. Take the east exit to find a chest containing a Zeus Mace.
Make your way over to the southeast section of the map and take the stairs that are to the northeast of this section. Head through the Ancient Door when you’re ready.
Station of Ascension
Head toward the center ring of the area to find the Tecknick, Gil Toss in a chest near the southeast portion of the map.
Make your way to the southwest portion of the map, take the east room and then head south one room to find a chest with Dragon Mail inside. Make your way back to the entrance portion of this southwest area, and go down the hallway that almost touches the other on the other side to find a chest at the end containing a Black Belt.
Head to the northeast section and into the easternmost room for a chest containing Oil Bombs. The two nearby hallways that almost touch, again hold a chest in each. The eastern contains a Sash and the western contains Bamboo Arrows.
Head for the northeast area, and go to the northmost room, from there turn west and go down the long corridor. This is the easiest way to reach the stairs in the northwest that lead to the next level. Head up when you’re ready.
Reach of the Damned
Save your game at the nearby crystal and start to make your way south and take the stairs to the next level.
The Bounds of Truth
Follow the path around and grab the two chests just before the large room on the map for a Muramasa and a Hastega Mote. Through the door, you’ll face your next Boss Battle.
Boss Battle: Fenrir
| Boss: | Fenrir |
| HP: | 189,992 |
| Elemental Weakness: | Earth |
| Status Effect Weakness: | Sleep and Oil |
| Resistances: | - Wind (Absorb) - N/A (50% Effective) - Fire, Ice, Lightning, Water, Dark, Holy (Nullified) |
| Steal: | Beastlord Hide Beastlord Horn Behemoth Steak |
Be careful as Fenrir is immune to most elements except Wind, so double check your weapons before the fight. Dispel his positive buffs at the start of the fight and keep Protect up on your team to help with all the Physical Damage that Fenrir does. You shouldn’t have any trouble slowly eating through his massive HP pool to come out victorious on the other end.
Once you’re back in Pharos, find the corresponding Alter to the one you used a few floors below to lock yourself out of using the Mini-Map, or whichever you picked. Activate it to summon the Dias of Ascendance, which is a lift you can now use to travel to the 67F.
Reach of the Occult
Use the Save Crystal and then activate the Way Stone to teleport to the Third Ascent of Pharos.
Pharos – Third Ascent
| Available from Chests: | Spire Ravel - 1st Flight | Wyrmfire Shot Antares Flare Nishijin Belt Map Urn |
| Spire Ravel - 2nd Flight | Ardor White Robes Ultima Blade Blazer Gloves |
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| Notable Enemy Drops/Steals: | Purobolos | N/A |
| Zombie Warlock | N/A | |
| Dead Bones | Golden Skullcap (Drop) | |
| Necrofiend | N/A | |
| Aeronite | Dragon Helm (Drop) | |
| Cataract Aevis | Caldera (Drop) | |
| Tower (Rare Game) | Grand Helm (Drop) | |
| Hashmal (Esper) | N/A | |
| Famfrit (Esper) | N/A | |
| Judge Gabranth (Boss) | N/A | |
| Dr. Cid (Boss) | Magepower Shishak (Steal) |
This area can be a pain, if you want to obtain the Map for the area, you need to touch two way stones that aren’t the Black Sigil Waystone. Doing so will teleport you to a room in a different portion of the map. To the south you’ll find the Map Urn, approaching it will begin to summon enemies. Make sure to change your Attack Gambit to target the foes with the Highest Max HP. Doing so will allow your team to focus on taking down the annoying Necrofiends as they spawn. Make sure that all of your Defensive Gambits are set up for these fights. Once you’re done, you’ll get a notification that the door is unlocked and you can leave this area.
Head back to where all the Way Stones are and this time select the Black Sigil Way Stone. This will send you to the next platform.
Follow the path east and take the south turn when you can to find a chest with Wyrmfire Shot inside. To the east of this chest is another Fool’s Facade. Hit it to open the way forward. Inside you’ll find a chest containing the Antares Gun and the Flare Magick. Grab them both and then use the Green Sigil Way Stone here to teleport to the Spire Ravel – 2nd Flight.
Spire Ravel – 2nd Flight
From where you arrive, you’ll find another two chests. These contain the White Robes and Ardor Magick. Grab them both and then continue to head to the southwest to the platform with all of the Way Stones. Activate the Red Sigil Way Stone to be taken to a platform with a chest containing the Ultima Blade.
You’ll find four Way Stones on this platform to choose from. Now your choice will depend on what you ‘gave up’ for a portion of the 2nd Ascent.
- Weapons – Pick the White Way Stone
- Magicks – Pick the Purple Way Stone
- Mini-Map (Recommended) – Pick the Pink Way Stone
- Items – Pick the Yellow Way Stone
Activate whichever corresponds to your prior choice to continue.
From where you land, head west and then continue north as far as you can go. You’ll find another Fool’s Facade on the western side of the northern dead-end here. Bust through to find a chest that can contain Blazer Gloves, as well as another Way Stone. Activate the Way Stone to continue.
You’ll end up on another platform, here you’ll find another Dais of Ascendance here. Activating it will put you into the next Boss Battle after a couple of scenes.
Boss Battle: Hashmal
| Boss: | Hashmal |
| HP: | 209,060 |
| Elemental Weakness: | Wind |
| Status Effect Weakness: | Oil |
| Resistances: | - Earth (Absorb) - N/A (50% Effective) - Fire, Ice, Lightning, Water, Dark, Holy. (Nullified) |
| Steal: | Leo Gem Hi-Ether High Arcana |
To make this fight much easier, you simply need your team to have the effects Float and Bubble. Float will make you immune to the Bosses most damaging attack Quakeja, and Bubble will make you immune to the Disease status that he can inflict. Dispel him at the start of the fight to remove his buffs and then make sure your team is either using Wind elemental weapons or non-elemental, as he is immune to all other elements. He should go down quickly, and you’ll score a new Summon for your trouble.
Empyrean Ravel
After the battle, you’ll reboard the Dais and arrive at the next location, the Empyrean Ravel.
This area is a linear circle, simply follow it all the way around to the Save Crystal. Once you pass this Crystal, Reddas will leave your party, so if you wanted to keep him around for some of the Optional Content then now is a good time to save and back out. If you don’t mind then continue up the path and activate the Way Stone to be taken to a series of Boss Battles.
Boss Battle: Judge Gabranth
| Boss: | Judge Gabranth |
| HP: | 64,049 |
| Elemental Weakness: | N/A |
| Status Effect Weakness: | Silence, Oil |
| Resistances: | - N/A (Absorb) - N/A (50% Effective) - N/A (Nullified) |
| Steal: | Potion Hi-Potion X-Potion |
You’ll get a bonus scene if Basch is in the party for this fight, so switch him in. Dispel the Bosses Protect status and put up your own to limit the damage of his physical attacks. At 50% health, he will become immune to Magick for approximately two minutes, continue with the physical attacks and he will still fall.
You’ll get a few scenes after the battle and then you’ll be thrown straight into the next.
Boss Battle: Dr. Cid and Famfrit
| Boss: | Dr. Cid Famfrit |
| HP: | Dr. Cid: 82,093 Famfrit: 149,060 |
| Elemental Weakness: | Dr. Cid: Holy Famfrit: Fire |
| Status Effect Weakness: | Dr. Cid: Oil Famfrit: Oil |
| Resistances: | Dr. Cid: - Dark (Absorb) - Fire, Ice, Lighting, Water, Wind, Earth. (50% Effective) - N/A (Nullified) Famfrit: - Water (Absorb) - N/A (50% Effective) - Ice, Lighting, Wind, Earth, Dark, Holy. (Nullified) |
| Steal: | Dr Cid: Hi-Potion Ketu Board Magepower Shishak Famfrit: Aquarius Gem Elixir High Arcana |
Make sure to equip non-elemental weapons for this fight. Hit Cid with Dispel as the battle starts and then start chipping away. At around 50% HP he’ll have Famfrit join the battle. Once this happens, Cid becomes immune to everything, so switch your attention to taking down Famfrit instead. Protect, Bubble, Haste, and Shell will all make this fight a bit easier. Once Famfrit falls, you can go back to Dr Cid.
Once the battle is over, you’ll trigger a bunch of cutscenes and eventually wind up back in Balfonheim Port. From here you now have access to all the optional content in the game, so you can head straight for the end of the game aboard the Airship Bahamut or your can head over and complete the optional content.
End Game Hunts
Walkthrough covering the last of the remaining Bounty Board Hunts up to the Pharos Subterra.
Hunts Covered: Belito, Carrot, Roblon, Goliath, Deathscythe, Gilgamesh, Catoblepas, Piscodaemon, Deathgaze, Wild Malboro, Pylraster, Fafnir, and Diabolos.
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