Pharos Subterra
| Available from Chests: | Penumbra - North | Indigo Pendant Diamond Armlet Orrachea Armlet Battle Harness Firefly Chaos Bombs |
| Penumbra - South | Golden Amulet Assassin's Arrows Embroidered Tippet Ring of Renewal |
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| Umbra - North | Amber Armlet Stink Bombs Cameo Belt Thief's Cuffs Turtleshell Choker Time Bolts |
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| Umbra - South | Gillie Boots Armguard Windslicer Shot Sage's Ring Jade Collar Sapping Bolts Pheasant Netsuke Nihopalaoa |
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| Abyssal - North | Quasimodo Boots Ribbon*** Opal Ring Icecloud Arrows Hermes Sandals Bubble Belt Wither Jackboots Sash Ruby Ring |
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| Abyssal - South | Trango Tower | |
| Notable Enemy Drops/Steals: | Bune | Gungnir (Drop) |
| Dead Bones | Golden Skullcap (Drop) | |
| Reaver/High Reaver | Golden Axe (Steal) | |
| Nightwalker | Renewing Morion (Drop) | |
| Vagrant Soul | Shikari Nagasa (Steal) | |
| Luxollid | Sagittarius |
Before making for Pharos again, make sure to accept and speak with the Petitioners for both the Ixion and Shadowseer hunts. As both are available to complete as we clear out this area. Shadowseer’s Petitioner is Montblanc which is easy enough, you’ll need to head over to Balfonheim Port and speak to the Whitecap Wench in the Whitecap Tavern to formally accept the Ixion Hunt.
With the hunts accepted, teleport over to Pharos. Look for the Dais of Ascendance on the first floor of the First Ascent. It will give you the option of traveling to the Penumbra.
Pharos Subterra – Penumbra
Be aware that the Ixion mark can appear in any of the interior sections of the whole Subterra. You’ll likely encounter him randomly as you are exploring the area, so be prepared for him at any time. If you’d like to force the spawn, then take the lift between the first floor of the Subterra to any of the other floors. Keep doing this until no enemies spawn when you arrive on a floor. This will mean Ixion is near and will appear in the zone within about 3 minutes.
Boss Battle: Ixion
| Boss: | Ixion |
| HP: | 306,559 |
| Elemental Weakness: | Holy |
| Status Effect Weakness: | Silence, Oil, Sap, Slow, and Berserk. |
| Resistances: | - Dark (Absorb) - Fire, Ice, Lightning, Water, Wind, and Earth. (50% Effective) - N/A (Nullified) |
| Steal: | Storm Crystal Grimoire Aidhed Magick Lamp |
Ixion can be inflicted with both Silence, to prevent its spell casting, and Sap to continuously drain its HP. The best method for inflicting these is not to inflict them directly, as they will trigger Ixion to use its Purify skill to remove the status. But instead, to give your team weapons that will inflict these status effects so that Ixion will waste its time continuously trying to remove the status effects rather than attacking you. Silence shot works well for any Gun user, while the Blood Sword or Chopper can inflict the Sap status effect. Other than that, keep the standard buffs of Protect, Shell, Regen, Bubble, and Haste up. The fight shouldn’t cause you much trouble.
After the battle, you’ll need to return to the Balfonheim Port’s Tavern to turn in the completed hunt for your rewards; 3,000 Gil, Sapping Bolts, and a Ragnarok.
Ixion will likely appear at some point while you’re completing the Subterra so just come back to this section when you need it.
Penumbra – Interior
From the Dais of Ascendance where you entered, head to the northwest and through the door.
Penumbra – North
Head up to the next platform where you’ll find a Pedastal of Night, this requires 9 Black Orbs to activate. Head through the nearby Ancient Door and begin fighting enemies and collecting Black Orbs. Once you have all 9, return to the Pedastal and activate it to illuminate the area. Head back out to the Interior area.
Penumbra – Interior
Make your way east until you reach another Ancient Door in the northeast and head inside.
Penumbra – North
In this northeast section, you’ll find it’s exactly the same as the northwest. You’ll require 18 Black Orbs though to light the Pedastal.
Take the eastern door into a new room, in here you’ll find a Fool’s Facade (Fake Wall) along the northern edge of the room. Hit it to reveal the way forward. Enter the passage revealed by the Fool’s Facade and continue west. Eventually, you’ll reach a large room with a Boss Battle inside.
Boss Battle: Phoenix
| Boss: | Phoenix |
| HP: | 134,089 |
| Elemental Weakness: | Alternates |
| Status Effect Weakness: | Blind, Oil, and Libra. |
| Resistances: | - Alternates (Absorb) - N/A (50% Effective) - N/A (Nullified) |
| Steal: | Windslicer Pinion Eye of the Hawk Split Armor |
Phoenix will constantly change what element it is weak to during the fight, and absorb all other elements. Counter this with a Black Mage, you’ll need to set them up so that they have a gambit to target enemy weak to a particular element and then cast that elemental spell on them, something like “Foe Weak: Ice – Cast Blizzaga”. That way your Black Mage will simply keep rotating its spells as Phoenix changes its weaknesses. Boost the Black Mage with Faith and make sure to equip your other characters with Healing and MP restoring gambits, as well as ranged non-elemental weapons. You shouldn’t have too much of an issue with the fight with this setup.
Continue to walk around collecting Black Orbs until you have the 18 needed for the northeast pedestal. Once you’ve got them all, return and activate the pedestal. From there make your way back into the Interior.
Penumbra – Interior
Return to the circular interior, and head for the south doors. Here in the southeast door, you’ll find another pedestal requiring only 3 Black Orbs. To the southwest, you’ll find a pedestal requiring 6 Orbs. Fill them both to unlock the next floor down.
Head over to the Dias of Ascendance again and this time make your way down to the Umbra level.
Pharos Subterra – Umbra
There is no Boss on this level, however, you’ll still have 4 Pedestals to fill with Black Orbs.
- Northwest Pedestal – 9 Orbs
- Northeast Pedestal – 15 Orbs
- Southeast Pedestal – 15 Orbs
- Southwest Pedestal – 18 Orbs
The only real item of note to be sure to collect if you don’t already have one is the Nihopalaoa. You’ll find it by heading into the southwest chamber and taking the south door. Here in this room, you’ll find a Fool’s Facade in the southwestern corner leading south. The final large room at the end of this passage has a 5% chance of spawning a chest in the southeastern corner containing the Nihopalaoa Accessory.
Grab the Accessory and complete the Black Orb Pedestals to gain access to the next layer down called the Abyssal Layer.
Pharos Subterra – Abyssal
Exactly the same as the prior levels you’ll need to gather Black Orbs and light the four Pedestals to continue down to the final layer.
- Northwest Pedestal – 21 Orbs
- Northeast Pedestal – 15 Orbs
- Southeast Pedestal – 27 Orbs
- Southwest Pedestal – 12 Orbs
Make sure to grab the chest that spawns in the northwest section, containing a Ribbon. This is an accessory that makes you immune to all status effects, making it incredibly useful. To find it, head into the northwest section and take the western doorways until you reach the second western room. In here you’ll have a 10% chance of a chest appearing containing the Ribbon. The chest will appear in the northeast corner of this room.
In the room to the north, above where you got the ribbon, you can also spawn a chest containing Icecloud Arrows.
Head back to the entry chamber for this northwest section and take the northern door this time. This first room can hold a chest containing Hermes Sandals. The next room to the north can hold a chest that can contain both Dark Shot and a Bubble Belt. Head two rooms east from here to a larger room, where you’ll have a 10% chance of spawning a chest in the center of the room which contains the Technick Wither.
Grab the gear and complete the Pedestals to be able to access the lowest level, Hell’s Challenge, prepare for a Boss Battle as soon as you enter.
Boss Battle: Shadowseer
| Boss: | Shadowseer |
| HP: | 278,078 |
| Elemental Weakness: | Holy |
| Status Effect Weakness: | Oil and Libra |
| Resistances: | - Dark (Absorb) - Fire, Ice, Lightning, Water, Wind, and Earth. (50% Effective) - N/A (Nullified) |
| Steal: | Foul Flesh Maggoty Flesh Forbidden Flesh |
This is a bit of an endurance battle, once the Shadowseer has lost about 20% of its HP it will become immune to damage and summon four bosses, one at a time, to also fight you. These four bosses you’ve faced before, Pandaemonium, Slyt, Fenrir, and Phoenix. Make sure that you either change your weapons for each enemy, as some absorb particular elements, or keep non-elemental weapons equipped. You’ll also need a Black Mage with Gambits set to target all of the different elemental weaknesses, especially for Phoenix. If you remember back to the last time we fought Phoenix, its elemental resistance changes periodically, so a Black Mage and non-elemental weapons for Phoenix are highly recommended. Since Phoenix is flying you’ll also need your melee fighters set up with Technicks like Gil Toss, or Telekinesis to help out.
While you deal with the summoned Bosses, you’ll also have the Shadowseer on the sideline casting spells at you. It can use Fearga, which will remove the MP of your party members, counter this by setting up Charge Gambits on your healers and casters. You’ll also want to try and maintain your buffs as much as possible during the fight, Protect, Shell, Bubble, Haste, and Regen if possible, but at least the first three. The Shadowseer can cast Dispel so you’ll need Gambits to reapply the buffs if they’re removed. Make sure your healer is set to heal the party if anyone is below 80% just to be safe for this battle.
Once you’ve defeated the four Bosses and taken down the Shadowseer you’ll be transported back to the first floor. From here make your way out of the Subterra and head back to Montblanc to turn in these two Hunts you’ve completed. The rewards for the Shadowseer are; 20,000 Gil and 2x Megalixir’s. While you’re at the Clan Hall, Montblanc should also have another Mark for you to accept, the Behemoth King.
The Truth Shrouded In Mist – Behemoth King Hunt
Accept the Hunt from Montblanc and then head down into Low-Town to find the Petitioner. You’ll find Koqmihn, the Petitioner, in Old Dalan’s Place. Speak to him to formally accept the Hunt.
For this battle, it is highly recommended that you are around level 70. Behemoth King is a very tough battle. See our leveling guide if you need some help gaining a few levels for the battle.
Edge of Reason
Once you’re ready, teleport to Giruvegan. From here take the exit back into the Feywood area called the Edge of Reason. Head into roughly the middle of the area and try to find the Giruveganus enemy, it is a T-rex enemy that starts off partly invisible. Defeat it and then take the exit out of the area into the Ice Field of Clearsight.
Ice Field of Clearsight
Here you’ll need to defeat every single enemy in the area. There are 29 of them exactly so take the time and count them out as you go. Once you’re done head back to the Edge of Reason.
Edge of Reason
Head between the Ice Field of Clearsight and Edge of Reason and defeat any enemies that may reappear. Once all of them are slain, enter the Edge of Reason one last time to trigger the Behemoth King to appear, roughly where you fought the Giruveganus.
Boss Battle: Behemoth King
| Boss: | Behemoth King |
| HP: | 1,668,491 |
| Elemental Weakness: | N/A |
| Status Effect Weakness: | N/A |
| Resistances: | - N/A (Absorb) - Fire, Ice, Lightning, Water, Wind, Earth, Dark, and Holy. (50% Effective) - N/A (Nullified) |
| Steal: | Ring Wyrm Scale Behemoth Steak Elixir |
We’re going to use the Reverse strategy again for this fight, but even using that, you’ve likely got a tough battle ahead. Your tank will need to constantly have Reverse and Decoy on it for the entire fight. If they still die, which they will, you need to get these statuses back on them as quickly as possible. Try to keep Bubble and Haste on your tank as well. Protect and Shell are not needed, as the damage will heal them with Reverse status.
On your other 2 characters, keep up Protect, Shell, Bubble, and Regen. Do NOT put regen on your tank or you’ll kill them. You’ll also need to adjust your Healing Gambits to use single target spells or X-Potions, you’ll also need to make the Healing Gambits individually for both characters that aren’t the tank. You may even simply need to manually stay on top of healing yourself. All characters need Phoenix Down/Arise Gambits as well as Gambits to use Chronos Tear. Make sure at least one character is set up with a Foe:Any – Dispel Gambit as well, this will keep the Behemoth King from setting up its Buffs.
Behemoth King has the ability to make itself immune to either Physical or Magickal attacks as the fight progresses, if it casts its Physical Barrier you can make it change to the Magick one, by casting Arise on it twice.
Its a tough battle, but if you can stay on top of keeping your support characters out of the firing line and maintain Decoy/Reverse then you’ll eventually come out on top.
After the battle, return to Low Town for your reward; 250 Gil and 2x Bacchus Wine.
Teleport straight over to Mt Bur-Omisace and head to the Temple Approach area for the second half of the reward. Unequip Vaan’s weapon and head over to what looks like a dragon’s head carved in the stone. Strike it and you’ll recieve 500,000 Gil and a Rod of Faith.
From here make sure that you’ve obtained all of the Espers that are available, as obtaining those will take you through the last few areas that we haven’t explored in the game. After that you’ll be prepared to take on the games Super Bosses.
