Carbon Ocelot's Final Fantasy XII Walkthrough

Chapter 01 - 10

Intro - Good boy, Reks
After the cut scene is over (Faram), you'll have to listen to the guy who simply cannot decide what kind of accent he wants to be. Is he British? Indian? South African? I just can't say. Faram. Press the X button a lot. I mean a lot. Yeah. Faram. Oops. Sorry, I got carried away with the Farams there. Let's meet Reks. You'll hear about his brother, living in Rabanastre. Isn't Basch a pretty hard-core guy? You might say he's a real spark plug. Well, I might say that, but I have pun-related issues. Anyway, we'll learn more about him later. For now, learn how to use the controls. Just do what Basch tells you. There's not anything here. Just look around 360 degrees, then go talk to Sparky... Er, Basch.

After the red line shows up, feel free to enter the control panel and use the "status" area to change things like battle speed. You'll probably be glad you did. You'll probably want to use Battle Mode: Wait until you're comfortable with things. Attack both the guy that shows up, and the boss. You might wanna use cure if you're health gets low, but your comrads will potion you up. Did you notice how nice the enemies were when they talked to each other? It's a little disconcerting, but pay it no mind. For now. ;) Your guy does not appear to level up, so keep on running and fighing. When you get inside the building, follow along using the mini-map. When Basch tells you there is no harm in retreating, that's your ticket to run for it. As long as you don't die, you're fine. Just hold down R2 and book it for the top of the mini-map:

1. Be sure to use select to see the whole map at once. The path to the left goes nowhere - you can ignore it. Go forward to the next screen.
2. In a room to your right is a chest. Get it, then head back to the hall.
3. Turn right from that room, and go forward until you get to the 'T' at the end of the hall.
4. Go left (the path right has nothing).
5. Take an immedeate right. Go to the end of that hallway
6. Turn right.
7. Fight the guy here, and open the chest on your left.
8. Double back and go up the stairway you passed.
9. On the next screen, save if you want, then head up a couple of flights of stairs.

You have two options once the skirmish is over. You may either level up Reks, or you may continue on. Be aware that you will not be playing the game as Reks beyond a few more minutes, so no matter how high you level this character up, it will have no impact on your actual game play. (i.e., Vaan will only start out with 5 Potions and he'll be at level 1 regardless of what you do here, so it's probably not worth it to to level up Reks.)

Optional: If you *really* want to level up anyway, you can use this opportunity to learn the Chain Level mechanics. Head back down the stairs and save your game. If the game tells you you're supposed to go up, just ignore that reminder. Run around the area you came through before and fight a bunch of enemies, but try not to pick up the loot these guys drop. I know - that's weird for a Final Fantasy game, so let me explain. Since all these enemies are of the same type, continuing to kill them will result in a Chain Level. There are 4 levels, and as you achive a new level the loot drops become better. When the enemies stop spawning, you'll need to transition to two new areas to trigger them to respawn. For example, you can head back past the save crystal (without touching it!) to the floor above, then come back down. Fun fact - if you touch the crystal, it will reset your chain level. You can theoretically level Reks up as long as you want here, but again, it won't have any impact beyond the next 5 minutes of the game.

After your skirmish (or after you get bored of leveling up), head through the doorway at the top of the stairs (not the locked fence). Go down the hallway and turn right. Go right again at the end of the line and head for the door. Watch more cut scenes. Lots of death, destruction, and Faram. You'll hear our friendly locale-challanged narrator explain about the deaths of people who's names you do not recognize, and then you'll just generally press X a LOT. Whee! Heh. I mean, Fara... Oh never mind.

Ch 01 - Meet Vaan and Penelo
Your friend Kytes watches while you attempt your greatest challange ever - fighting rats. OK, show of hands. Who the heck didn't see this coming? It's FINAL FANTASY for crying out loud. Of COURSE your first real fight will be the rats. Anyway, you have to fight all three of them. You can steal a fire stone (or a rat pelt, lol) from them, first, if you'd like. It's not like they're going to kill your guy or anything. Use the mini-map at the top left of your screen to find the rats (they're red dots), if you need to. Or just stand in the center of the waterway - they'll probaly come to you.

So your dude has other "work" to do, eh? I guess we'll see what's going on in the next cut scene! OK, I just have to ask... Who came up with these names, anyway? Penelo? It sound like a kind of fruit. "Hey mom, I'm going to go to the store now." "OK, Joe. Pick me up a nice batch of Penelos, if they're fresh!" Whatever. Anyway, after the cut scenes, you'll have a world map and be free to wander around the city. Head to Migelo's Sundries in East End (use the world map via "select" if you can't find it). After talking to him, head to the Sandsea. Or, if you like, use the opportunity to walk around the place, but since you cannot leave the city (you can't even go to lowtown), just head to the Sandsea. You'll hear about the notice board (see the "Marks" section when you get a chance).

Pay attention to the explination about marks, hunters and (especially) license points. You'll "learn" to use the Orrachea Armlet you just got. When the tutorial is over, be sure to go to Party -> Equip -> Vaan -> Equip -> Accessory -> Orrachea Armlet and get your HP slightly raised. You'll be able to head out of town now, but do something else first. Leave the Sandsea and head to the far left of the inside of the archway that forms the top of the map of Rabinastre. If you can't find it from that description, just keep looking around the farthest north area - you'll see a suspicious looking guy. Now that you have a clan primer, you can go inside. Welcome to Clan Hall. Talk to everyone here, but especially "Montblanc," the moogle at the top of the stairs. You'll be accepted into Clan Centurio. After talking to everyone here, and optionally doing a quick sidequest, walk around. When you're ready to leave the city, head to Eastgate and head out of town.

Save your game after the cut scene, and head out into the desert.

Ch 02 - Dalmasca Eastersand
Here's a tip. When you are leveling up, try going to the config menu and setting battle speed to fast. It'll make life more bearable. You'll watch a short cut scene and then you'll have pretty much free reign here. For starters, kill some Cactite (but steal earth stones from them first). You can also kill off some wolves here, too. Until you get beyond a puny little level one guy, though, you'll probably want to stay away from attacking a whole pack of wolves. Oh, and don't fight the big dinosaur looking thing. If you happen to get a Broadsword by stealing from a cactite, you will need to learn the Swords 1 license (15 LP) before you can equip it. You'll notice various treasure chests around here. One of those occasionally has an Escutcheon (shield) inside. If you happen across that, you can equip it once you learn the license Light Armor 2

As you are wandering around, try not to face too many Cockatrice until you are ready - they can be a real handful (game over, d'oh.) You can steal/win potions from them, though, so if you lure one away and steal, it can be worth it. After each set of kills, look in your Clan Primer's Bestiary. You can learn two things from the bestiary. First, for each enemy you kill, you'll get some extra information about that beast. Second - if you have killed enough - you'll get some general information regarding the game. Notice the "02" by the Dire Rat? That means you have to kill two more Dire Rats to get the extra information associated with that animal.

You can technically so some leveling up here if you want. As you get more license points you may want to learn a few more skills. Some good choices for LP are the [White Magick 1 -> White Magick 2 -> HP+50] route and the [Poach -> Traveler -> Shield Block - Battle Lore -> HP+100 -> Red Spiral route.] If you do want to level up, don't forget to go back to Rabanastre and save at the crystal.

Optional: You can actually get back into the town so you can buy more potions and sell stuff off. Just talk to the guard on the left and stand in line. If nothing happens, try the guard on the right. Eventually it will be your turn at the front of the line, and you can go back inside. If you do head back inside, you can sell loot you've picked up at any shop. If you have 3 Small Feathers (from Chimera), you can sell them to unlock the ability to buy 2x Phoenix Down for 400 Gil. If you sell 2x Wolf Pelt and 1x Earth Stone, you can buy Chromed Leathers for 180 Gil. Sell 2x Cactus Fruit to buy two potions for 70 Gil. You can also unlock several monographs at this time, though you probably can't afford them, and it appears you can't unlock the ones triggered by reading the message board at this time.

While you are killing wolves and cactites, be sure to head to the outpost. On your world map, it's one screen to the north-east. Talk to everyone here, open the treasures, and examine every shiny thing (Mysterious glint). After digging up Gil (I found: 4 Gil, 1 Gil, 5 gil, 12 Gil, 5 Gil, 3 Gil, 3 Gil, and 10 Gil) and talking to everyone, head back the way you came in (note that "resting" for 100 gil doesn't respawn the monster stats - power cycling your playstation, however, will.) I found I could reset the game and keep doing the same cycle to get enough license points to buff up Vaan quite a bit.

To find the Rogue Tomatoe, head strait forward from the Rabinastre entrance, toward a little u-shaped alcove just bellow the middle of the screen. Steal (You can get a fire stone or a pebble), then go after him. You should "kill" him in two to three turns. After the cut scene (he jumped off the cliff, if you missed that, head back to where the saurus is, and steal again. Now finish him off, get you Handful of Galbana Lilies, and head back to Rabanastre. Save your game, then talk to Kytes. By the time I was ready to head back into Rabinastre, I was at level 8, had a broadsword and Escutcheon, Had learned Libra, First Aid, Poach, Traveler, Shield Block, Battle Lore, +100 HP, Remedy Lore 1, Battle Lore, Phoenix Lore, Accessories 1, and White Magick 1. This brings me to an interesting point. Once you finish the Rogue Tomato mark and claim your reward, you'll get a Teleport stone. Pro Tip: Don't use your Teleport Stones early on in the game, if you can avoid it. Why? You'll build up INSANE ammounts of LP that you can use to level up your party. Early on, you may find that you don't have much in the way of Weapons, Armor, Technicks, etc. Use the LP you get to apply buffs by heading left from the starting point on the upper license grid.

Ch 03 - Back in Rabinastre
Watch the cut scenes. Remember this dude? You'l see him again, don't worry. "What I ask, I ask plain." Really? It took a bit of listening to figure out what you said. Oh, nevermind. What a "Vayne" man this is. But as eloquent as his speach is, Vaan's response is truely breath taking. OK, so maybe yawning is different from "breath taking," but still... "Well, I'd do something." Wow. Talk about stunning dialogue. Through his followup dialogue, though, you'll learn that it's time to pay Dalan a visit (he's in Lowtown). Let's not go there just yet, though...

Basically, you've got the run of Rabinastre, Lowtown, and the various areas outside. The next chapter will be tough, and you cannot back out, so there are some things you might want to do. I really recommend at least doing as many mark hunts as you can, and going to Nalbina Town at the very least.

• First things first, go and get your due for killing off the Rogue Tomato. That's at the Sandsea, in case you'd forgotten. You'll get 300 Gil, a teleport stone, and 2xPotion. You should also see a new Mark you can hunt.
• If you didn't do it before, return to the Clan Hall and Montblan will give you 3 potions to commemorate your joining the clan.
• Optional: Easy level grinding with the Zone out glitch. (Read this whole section first - the timing is tricky. You're basically exploiting the slight delay between when you kill an enemy and when the LP/XP note pops on screen. If you can leave the screen before that pops up, the game will respawn the enemy.) Get the black magic poison and white magic poisona, you can cast that on Vaan (R1 to target your party) and get him below 10% of his max HP. Technically you could have Vaan attack himself, but sometimes he gets several hits in a row and KOs himself. Next, buy all the Phoenix Downs you can afford (the guy by the orange crystal in Nalbina sells them. Next enter the Westersand from Rabinastre and follow the right wall until you get to the Corridor of Sand. Set your battle speed to SLOWEST. A rare game called Dustia will show up here, but only if your party has a character with less than 10% of their Max HP. Throw a Phoenix Down on it to kill it off instantly. You'll get over 1k experience, 3 LP, and potentially a valuable drop such as Book of Orgain or even a Flame Staff. Now comes the tricky part. If you are able to kill him, grab the loot, and leave the area quick enough, it should respawn when you come back to where you found it. If you have an emulator and can save state, this is a way overpowered place to level up very early in the game. When you run out of Phoenix Down, head back to Nalbina by way of the Giza Plains. If you don't kill anything else, don't enter a city, and don't touch a save crystal, you can maintain your chain level and come back for more. If you get to the point that you have the 20,000 Gil needed to buy the War Mage's Monograph, Dustia will occasionaly drop the Arcana item. Don't sell these until you're ready to use them; they're part of very powerful recipes. So why go to all this trouble? The drops from this enemy sell for a LOT of gil early in the game. Second, all subsequent characters you meet will have the same number of LP as Vaan and their level will be based on his level. It's quite easy to get Vaan up to level 30+ this way, making the rest of the game a bit one-sided. A few tips to make this go faster. You can't target the enemy until the orange bar shows up beneith it. Also, at higher chain levels, you can be healed by the drops. Be sure to attack or poison yourself to get the HP back down under 10%. Consider adding armor and accessories that increase your Max HP.
• Head to the Yugri's Magicks shop. If you didn't return to Rabanastre before, you can sell off your loot - but pay attention to the Bazaar rules. Begin by selling 1x Earth Stone and 2x Wolf Pelt. Exit from the sell menu and you'll unlock the Unassuming Surcoat (Chromed Leathers). After that, go back and sell the any other Wolf Pelt you might be holding on to. You can sell another Earth Stone or two, but be sure to save at least 7 of them to unlock other items later. Also, you won't want to sell a teleport stone until much later in the game; they're rare and very useful. If you have 1300 Gil, go ahead and buy Cure, Fire, Thunder, and Blizard magik, plus the Libra Technick over at the Technicks shop.
• You might want to take this opportunity to unlock some monographs. I certainly would. You probably cannot afford them yet, but that shouldn't stop you from unlocking them.
• Walk around outside and level up/explore a little bit. You can get decent weapons/armor at Nalbina Town (Take the east exit from Rabanastre and go North two screens, then east. I got an Iron Sword that was totally worth it.
• Go fight Thextera, if your guys are good enough.
• Bump into the moogle from the cartographer's guild near the fountain and buy maps of the eastersand, the Westersand and the Giza Plains.
• If your guy is buff enough (level 9+), you might try leveling up off in the westersand (where the Urstrix and Sleipnir are).
• In lowtown, you can get into the Gramsyth Waterway via (where you fought the rats), but you cannot do anything there. Also, be sure not to open the chest by Old Dalan's place while in Lowtown (doing so would prevent you from getting a really powerful weapon later in the game).
• In the westersand, follow the west wall from Rabinastre. The first location change you come to should look like a dead end. Some times there is a powerful wolf type enemy here. You can steal a Gladius from him, which is a rediculously over powered weapon at this point in the game. You may have to kill a bunch of wolves first, and you may get killed very quickly. I was level 8 and used a ton of Potions, but was able to steal one eventually. With that, killing the Ustrix birds goes fast and you can level up pretty quickly.
• Over Powered weapons: If you get the Gladius above, level up a bit, and buy Blind magick from Nalbina, you can go after the Werewolves in the Giza Plains. Blind them and then attack them - try not to fight two at the same time. I was able to get three Kotetsu ninja swords before moving on. It will be easier later, but technically it can be done now.
• Take on the Flowering Cactoid hunt. See the hunts section for more details.
• Unlock Bazaar recipes for Antidote Set (3x Antidote from 2x Drab Wool from bunnies in Giza Plains) and Gilt Shield (1x Escutcheon from 3x Fire Stone from Hyena in Giza Plains and 3x Molting from Slepner in Giza Plains).

Now it's time to head to Dalan's place in old town (QUICK REMINDER: DON'T OPEN THE CHEST OUTSIDE HIS HOUSE!) You'll talk to Dalan, and he'll tell you about a magicked stone that can help you get into the Fete. But it needs a sunstone. Leave his house (don't open that chest!!!) Hang a right, talk to the Jolly Seeq, and head out the doorway there to southgate. Save if you want, then head out onto the plains. Head due south from the gate and you should find yourself in the Nomad Village. Talk to the Village Elder (Brunoa). She'll point out Masyua to you. Go talk to her. Listen to her offer. She'll ask you to go find Jinn (he's got he sun stones). You'll eventually end up with Penelo in your party, and then you can do whatever you want. Talk to Camina there. She'll tell you Jinn is in the Crystal glade. Leave the village and head down to the most southern part of the Giza Planes (use your map). The crystal glade is the place with the big crystal in it. When you leave the village, Penelo will give you some stuff. I got 3 potions and 2 tufts of Phoenix Down.

Be sure to setup Penelo's Licenses, and equip stuff for her. Be ready to UNEQUIP it, though. She tries to tell you about Gambits, but you can't really use them. All you can do is turn on/off the USE of gambits via the menu that pops up when you press 'X' in the field. Try it, and enable Vaan's Gambits. If you enable it, your character will actually go AFTER your targets, but that's about it. When you get Balthier and Fran, THEN you can use Gambits. You actually can level up a bit here as well, if you're into that kind of thing. It may have been a total fluke, but when I was fighting a Werewolf I managed to get my hands on a Kotetsu. As I understand it, it's only going to happen 5% of the time, or so. This is unbelievably powerful this early in the game. Once I had that, I could take on just about anything around - including the Wild Saurian back in Dalmasca Eastersand. Well, if he hadn't gone and eaten a bunch of other stuff already. ^.^

Make your way to the Crystal and talk to Jinn. Explain the situation to him. he'll give you a shadestone. You'll see that there are 4 of the large crystals. Go and "examine" the crystals that now show up on your map. Start with the lower right, and work your way around the map in a counter-clockwise direction. You'l get 50 gil, 2xpotion and 2xteleport stone. Feel free to save your game in the Nomad Village, and level-up using Penelo if you want, but I'd really recommend against it. You'll see why later. Just head back to Rabanastre. Be sure to UNEQUIP anything from Penelo that you don't have 3 of. Then, go talk to Dalan (take the southgate-lowtown entrance - DON'T OPEN THAT CHEST). Penelo will leave as soon as you approach Dalan's house. "The signet years for sunstones strength to light the clouded way. The signet stone light the path if they are given the sunstone's light." After you talk to Dalan, head to storehouse 5 (don't open that chest!) You'll get 2x potions and 4x phials of eye drops from Kytes. Open the door.

Ch 04 - Garamsythe Waterway

• Head slightly left and save at the crystal there.
• Next, head to the right and follow the path all the way around you should find a chest on the next area.
• Backtrack to the save crystal, and take the north exit
• If you can chain a bunch of rats here, you can win a leather shield, which is very useful, but you should have bought one long ago.
• Explore this Northern Sluiceway, and find the exit to the east.
• Continue east and make your way to the North Spur Sluiceway.
• If you come across a razorfin, and you have a LOT of patience, you can steal a water crystal. Also, if you explore every nook and crannie here, you can probably get an oak staff AND a mage masher. Of course, these were for sale in Nalbina, so you may have 'em already.
• At the end of this line, you can decide if you want to turn back now, or if you want to head into the palace. Be aware that it'll be a while before you can save again, if you go up into the palace. When you are sure you are ready to head out, go ahead and ascend the stairs into the palace.

Ch 05 - The Royal Castle of Rabanastre
When you first get inside the palace, save your game (in a new slot). The game isn't kidding - this isn't an easy place to get out of. On the other hand, if you you've been leveling up and/or fighting marks, this should really be a no brainer for you. The urn here contains a map of the palace cellar. Do not open any other chests in the cellar here. Just head through the doors, take a quick left, and go strait to the next exit. After the *nice* boys in armor talk to you, try to go upstairs, then talk to the Seeq near the stairs. Call the guard by pressing square, and then run along the stair-wall to avoid alerting the guard.

Walk around looking at the floor. Use the same shouting technique to avoid the guards. Try not to get caught in between them. The map below shows the floorplan. You start at the S. The 'H' is a hawk (useless).

1. Run down then right to get to point 1.
2. Shout to call the guards at point 2.
3. Once they are following you, back track to point 3 and shout again.
4. Head past the H to point 2.
5. Go up and left to get to the Lion at point L.
6. Use the sunstone
7. When the hidden way has been lit, head to point 4 and shout to the guards.
8. Backtrack past the L to point 5
9. Head on to the Exit (E).

  x
  x  x
Exxxx5xx
  x  xx
  4  x
xxxxxLxx
  x  xx
  3  x
SxxxxHx2
  x  xx
  x  1
  xxxxxxx
    x
    x
    xxx

• Give everyone Cure (this is the only one I'll single out)
• Balthier and Fran should get any/all Gambits
• Armor you have acquired
• Weapons you have acquired
• Technicks
• Accessories you have acquired
• Healing magic
• Black Magic
• Ability up (more HP, more swiftness, more battle damage, etc)

Ch 06 - Nalbina Dungeon

Walk around and talk to everyone, then save at the save crystal. When you're ready, take the exit to the North. Watch another cut scene. You'll end up thrown into a pit with some other nasties. Cast blind (on your enemies), and protect (on you and Balthier). Make sure your Ally: HP<70% -> Cure gambits are set, then steal. After you've stolen from everyone, attack. I went after Gwitch, then Galeedo, then Daguza. Honestly these guys aren't really worth stealing from, but whatever. After this, you'll watch more cut scenes. Eventually, you'll see a save point you can run towards. Go ahead. You'll find your stuff here, but...

DON'T OPEN ANY TREASURE CHESTS!!! It's not really worth it anyway. Just a few Gil and stuff you can buy in a few minutes.

OK. Now that that's over with, save your game, and let's head out. Go forward and you'll sneak through the door. Balthier doesn't want you to attract any attention down here; I wouldn't really care, though. These guys are easy to kill, and you can get potion and phoenix downs from them. When you're done killing them off, wander to the north western area, and watch a cut scene, then head down the stairs here. Watch more cut scenes. After emotional cut-scenes, you'll regain control of many people. Quddities? Right. "The nature of a thing." "Talking about the nature of a thing." "That which is going on and makes sense." No, actually I threw that last one in because I was bored. ;) So you get another guest. Whee. Anyway, welcome to...

Ch 07 - Barheim Passage

A quick check of the map shows a store nearby. Just follow the path along. Duck into the alcove nearby for a bunch of Gil and save at the save point. If you have played much Final Fantasy, you may recogize part of the music here. That's right: it's the hymn of the faith. Open any treasures you find, then talk to Burrogh. Sell off all your unneeded loot, and buy any and all gambits/magicks you don't have. BTW: If you've went exploring the eastersand areas before hand, this is the guy who went into the Barheim Passage to find loot. You may have run into his friends outside. Buy what you need, then do a little exploring:

• Press the Gate switchboard.
• Go up the stairs and examine the Timeworn Device in the middle of the room; press the switch.
• Talk to Burrogh again; get the Tube Fuse.
• Go back up the stairs and put the Tube Fuse in the Power Relay.
• Go talk to Burrogh again, and buy whatever you need, then press the switch next to him again.
• Save your game, then head down the passage.
• Pay attention to Bathier's schpeil here - you wanna kill off minachs, er, I mean mimics that are sucking on the power cables.
• In each of the next areas kill off the guys on the power cables first, THEN go back and look for treasure, etc. You can see the Mimics on your main map, which is very useful, indeed.
• Kill off the Mimic that's attached to the power cable, then steal from/kill off the other enemies. When/if they run - follow them! Don't let them turn out all the lights unless you like the game to be harder. The charge was 89% when I left this section.
• When you run across steelings, STEAL! You can steal teleport stones from them! Continue on to the Great Eastern Passage, and proceed to kill then search. You'll take the right fork (when you come to a fork) to kill a mimic, then you'll double back and take the left fork.
• Further down, take the far left fork and kill off the Mimic there. Backtrack and take the right fork.
• A little further down, you'll see a passage heading backup up and to the right. Take that fork to find an Urn; you can open it to fill out your map.
• Backtrack and continue down the path until you come to a platform on your right. Head up there and into the next area.
• Kill off the power suckers first, then take the stairs leading up. Look for chests, then backtrack to the platform; continue south.
• You should now be in Special Op Sector 3 (ignore any non-hostile enemies you find - like, for example, bombs. Kill off the mimic strait ahead, then take that passage to the right and kill off that one. Remember, Flan enemies are suseptable to fire. Once you've killed off the two mimics, head up the stairs to the next area.
• When you get to Op Sector 37, kill off the two mimics feeding on the power cables first, then finish off everyone else. In the northwest corner of Op Sector 37, toggle the Gate Switchboard to allow you to move forward.
• When finished, backtrack to the main tunnel heading south, and continue south. Save.
• Optional: If you want some sport, backtrack a little and try those bombs. When you are ready, be sure you have saved, and head south. My guage was at 70% here.
• When you leave the save crystal screen, the first thing to do is kill off the Mimic. Now look at these treasure chests. Notice how some of them have blue in them, while other have gray? It's OK to open the grey ones, but the blue ones are Mimics in disguise. You're welcome to examine them - if you're powerful enough to defeat them. Btw: See that passage you cannot take here? Remember it.
• Continue down to the Zeviah Subterrane. There are three Mimics that are sucking on the power here. Kill them off first, then go looking around. There is another blocked doorway here to remember. One of these chests should contain Gambit -> Self. Once you've got that, have one or two characters enable a gambit to use Libra on themselves. After you've taken a good look around, take the path that leads to the east.
• Save here, and get ready for your next battle (to the south). It's a biggun. Cast protect on your party, and head south.
• Watch some cut scenes, then fight. Don't forget to steal from the Mimic Queen. After that, kill off all the babies. Finally, use blizzard black magic to finish her off. If she gets off a "Shock Storm" attack, heal back up!!! Once the babies are all killed, I just had Fran and Balthier go after her (using blizzard, duh)), and I had Vaan just kill off any new babies as they were born.

Ch 08 - Back to Rabanastre
Feel free to continue looking around, if you want. You can walk around and get access to various areas, but you'll eventually want to end back up in Good, ol' Rabanastre. (You still cannot get past the South Bank Village, the guards at Nalbina Fortress, or the Westersand blockade.) If you want to level grind as Vaan, be sure to remove any accessories you would like to reassign from Fran and Balthier before you approach the city. I don't typically leave the city without them, though. Watch the cut scenes, and you'll eventually get control again. Save your game in a new slot, and then find the moogles nearby. Learn about the moogling, and use that to take you to the Sandsea tavern.

Shopping time. Just north from there is the Gambit shop, and you can buy stuff now!!! Of course, this guy basically has the same stuff the guy in Nalbina Fortress has, but that's OK. Buy what you can afford then get the "charge" technick from the technicks shop. You can also buy new magicks: Immobilize, Disable, Shell, and Dark. The Armor shop has Sallet, Scale Armor, and a Buckler for sale. The weapon shop has a Javelin, an Assassin's Dagger, and a Capella, which has no instruments played behind it when it attacks. No, wait. That's a cappella. Sorry. My mistake. (Editor's note: Ignore him; he thinks he's being funny.)

Hunting: If you want to hunt, head to the Sandsea and check the Notice Board to start hunt: Wraith. Also, go talk to Montblanc in the Clan Hall. You'll get 150 Gil from the Rabanstre Common Council for the Flans, 200 Gil from the Rabanstre healers Covent for the Firemane, and 300 Gil from "a young lady" for finishing off the Mimic Queen. You can also accept two new hunts here - Cluckatrice and Rocktoise.

When you are done wandering around as just Vaan, go to Migelo's Sundries and look for Penelo. You'll be told to go talk to Old Dalan (DON'T OPEN THE CHEST!). After you receive the Sword of the Order, you'll head to the Northwest corner of old town, well, not quite, but close. Look on your map. Watch a bunch of cut scenes, then Basch will join your party. You'll need to find Balthier and Fran. Wanna guess where they are? Hit up Dalan, and he'll tell you they needed a meal and a drink, which basically means the sandsea. Use the moogling, and go find 'em on the second floor.

Now that you have a full party, why not take advantage of it and have a few fair hunts? This is where I do all the hunts that are available in Ch 08 (Well, one requires you to go to Bujerba, so not that one). If you DO go on some hunts, be sure to return to Montblanc in the Clan Hall to receive your 3x Remedy and 2x Teleport Stone. If you've completed 4 hunts, you can now buy Gysahl Greens from the clan provisioner. If you also used the zone-out glitch earlier and managed to earn at least 15 Arcana, you can get auto-haste by unlocking the Wind Walkers (Hermes Sandals) in the Bazaar. Just buy and immidiately sell back 33 Gysahl Greens along with 15 Arcana.

Don't forget to equip everyone again; Basch has LP to distribute. If you can afford it, the Warmages Monograph will be useful in Bhujerba. I usually start the Cluckatrice hunt at this time. Head to the south gate, but talk to the lovestruck man near the fountain first. See the Misc Side Quests section "A Viera in Rabanastre" for more about this side quest. If you take down the Cluckatrice, you'll receive a Rainbow Egg as part of your reward. This item is used in only one receipe in the Bazaar. If you sell it, you can buy 10x Hi Potion. This is a repeatable recipe, btw. If you get another Rainbow Egg you can do it again.

When you're ready to leave, head out by going to the West Gate, saving, and entering the Aerodrome. Talk to Balthier in the Aerodrome, and tell him you're ready to leave. When you next have control, you'll be in...

Ch 09 - The Skycity of Bhujerba
Wander around. See the sights. Smell the... Well, maybe not that. See what you can buy, and don't be afraid to spend what you need to, to get the good merchandise. Be sure you find the representative of the Cartographers guild (outside the armore shop.) Buy BOTH the map of the city AND the map of the Lhusu mines. There is new Armor, new Weapons, new Technicks, etc. Ironically, I saw no new gambits. If you don't have the money for this, don't worry. You will soon. You'll also run into Lamont very quickly. He'll join your party. This is a good thing. ;) Just make your way around to where the Lhusu Mine entrance is. Save, and head in. I went in with my characters all at about level 16 (basch at 18, Lamont at 17). Enter the...

Ch 10 - Lhusu Mines
This is another decent place to level up. Lamont will potion your guys up if they drop below 50%, so it's OK not to have cure gambits. This is a GREAT place to practice chaining with the Skeletons. You can find a bunch in the Shunia Twinspan and Site 2 - but be careful with Site 2. Don't go past room at the top of the stair case. You can go to the top, but don't go any further. If the skeletons stop respawning, you can FLEE back to the Shaft Entry screen, then FLEE back to Shunia Twinspan. This will reset the counter and respawn the skeletons. The FLEEing will keep your chain level (otherwise you'll likely kill off a bat, then you'll have to start all over). Just run around and get lots of XP and money - but try not to kill any bats, or you'll destroy your chains. When you have 95 or so Bone Fragments, head back and sell them for nearly 20k Gil. Items I ended up selling include the following: Bone Fragment, Antidote, Wind Stone, Dark Stone, Bat Fang, Iron Helmet, Arm Guard, Pebble. I also acquired some of the following items, but opted not to sell them: Teleport Stone, Knot of Rust (from treasure chests), Dark Mote.

If you didn't use the zone-out glitch to level up against the Dustia rare game, this is a decent place to earn the money to buy monographs. You know, all those monographs you got access to way back in chapter 3? Earn the cash to buy them all by chaining skeletons for fun and profit! Spending the time here will also allow your guys to level up, making it a little easier to save Penelo. You can use the steal gambits to make this go much faster (you *did* set your battle speed to fast, right?) Basically, I used Vaan, Fran, and Balthier (and Lamont, I guess). One time through, when I had purchased all the monographs, Vaan, Balthier and Fran were all at Level 23. Another time, they were at 26. It depends on how much time you spent leveling up before this, I guess. Anyway, the setup below assumes Vaan is the party leader.

Vaan:
* Foe: HP = 100% -> Steal
* Foe: party leader's target -> Attack
* Foe: nearest visible -> Attack
Bathier:
* Foe: party leader's target -> Attack
Fran:
* Ally: any -> Phoenix Down
* Ally: any -> Blindna
* Ally: any -> Vox
* Ally: any -> Poisona
* Foe: party leader's target -> Attack

Also of note, there is a chest in Transitway 1 in which I found a Killer Bow (not to be confused with an Aevis Killer; it does 25% more dmg). Fran WANTS this! When you have leveled to your heart's content, head on through the mines to the North Eastern end of Site 2 (top right corner of your Lhusu Mines map). When you get to the top of the stairway there, cast protect and shell on all your guys, and head down the tunnel to the West. Watch some cutscenes, and then you'll have to decide who/what/when/where/how to fight. And sometimes "Y." No, wait... That's a different grammar rule. Anyway, steal from everyone if you can. If you get a round shield, don't be afraid to equip it immediately. Also, if you used my gambit list above, be sure to undo the steal gambit and do things manually. I didn't have any trouble with this crew, but I had just spent a few hours buying all my monographs (read: leveling up). I got 5 LP from each of the cronies, and

I stole:
Bwagi: 30 Gil
Gijuk: 30 Gil
Rinok: Water Mote
Ba'Gamnan: Hi-Potion (round shield in another game)

If you cannot hold your own in the fight, just hold down R2 and book it toward the mine entrance. Otherwise, leave the mine when you've beaten Ba'Gamnon and he flees in disgust. You may find new enemies on your way out, but they're not that challenging.