FFXII - Walkthrough - Pharos at Ridorana
They Who Thirst Not: go forward a bit, and you'll trigger the cutscene of the boss awakening...
Hydro
Status: None (Undead creature though)
Steal: Corpse Fly
Attacks: Fearga (like Annul, lose massive mp), Bile (~500-600), Lunge (~1100 single), Bio (~600 range + Sap), Regular (~800, comboable), Darkra (~1000 range, at HP Critical)
LP: 35
Advice: He's Undead, so feel free to have your magic users batter it with Curaga/ja. Hits somewhat hard with some moves (Especially his combos), but again, I personally found this boss easy. If you're having trouble, you might want to put the Pharos on hold for now & go level some more.
After the fight, go up the stairs... cutscene, and you're in!
PHAROS - FIRST ASCENT / THE WELLSPRING
-Get ready for another tedious dungeon. Tedious, and LONG. It's composed of Three Ascents, each somewhat maze-like, each more tedious than the last. Anyways, teleport crystal here, so save your game. Let's do this!
01 Floor: go through the South door.
Upon defeating the occasional enemy, you may notice some remnant floating in the air - TOUCH IT. You'll need a few Black Orbs to proceed farther. That is, there are 4 Altar of Nights spread out around that ring area - by placing a Black Orb into each one, the door in 2F leading out of this area will be opened (the door faces east, and is located beside the centre of the ring... look at your Location Map frequently to see how to get from room to room so you don't get lost.
So once all three Altars of Night have had Black Orbs inserted into them, save your game, then go to the previously-locked door (titled Threshold of Night) and enter it. You'll be in a darkened version of the Sandsea... go straight ahead (if you try to go elsewhere you'll be teleported to the start). A large rock... springs to life. Boss fight time!!!
Pandemonium:
Status: Protect
Steal: Aries Gem
Attacks: Flash (Blindga), Regular (~1200, comboable), Perfect Defense (phys/mag immunity), Power Spin (~600 range + chance of Slow), Flatten (~1000 range), Stone Gaze
LP: 36
Blackrock Vault: return to the start. Save your game, and touch the Way Stone.
Wesllspring Ravel, 1st Flight, 10F: go through either door. Get ready for a long, lengthy journey. Go up the stairs facing east (your location map will notice gaps between different sections, but dont worry... they're there, or can be added). Defeating Brainpans will add the necessary space to allow you to proceed. Note that Brainpans occasionally do not appear on the Mini-map, so just because you don't see any red doesn't mean something's not there!
11F: keep going
12F: Brainpan.
13F: Keep going.
14F: Go South, up the stairs.
15F: One brainpan hidden in the corner, one inside the room. Kill them both, and go back to 14F.
14F: kill the brainpan, and your pathway to continue is complete. Go through it.
15F: nothing here
16F: go up to next area.
Wesllspring Ravel, 2nd Flight
17F, 18F, 19F: keep going
20F: Brainpan in the corner as you go up the stairs. Brainpan inside the room. Room with the red dots has Chimera Brains, pay no heed to them... continue up the stairs.
21F: Brainpan. Kill, continue.
22F: nothing here
23F: strike the wall. Go up those stairs, and strike the other wall. I'm honestly not sure if this does anything special, but you might as well.
24F: Continue up
25F: Three Brainpans, take them out to complete your path. Continue along - you'll see an unreachable ledge in the distance, but ignore it. Go up the stairs.
26F: continue
27F: continue to next area
Wesllspring Ravel, 3rd Flight
28F: continue
29F: a pair of Brainpans.
30F: our first real intersection. After going south a bit, open the "Ancient Door" (red symbol) and enter the room... kill the Brainpan inside. Now exit the room and continue south, up the stairs, kill the Brainpan. Return to the intersection; going north just gives you a treasure (Hi-Potion for me), so go East, up the stairs.
31F: three Brainpans here, take them out to finish off your connecting bridge. Continue.
32F: One Brainpan and one Deidar here... a Brainpan palette-swap. Not sure if you need to defeat it for bridge-building purposes, but might as well.
33F: continue
34F: two Brainpans. Either staircase takes you to the same floor, which forms a square (so they're connected).
35F: Brainpan in the northeast corner - don't forget it. Three Brainpans in the area with the bridge. Now go back down to 34F...
34F: ...the two Brainpans are back. Take them out - again. Go up the stairs heading east for a Brainpan in the Southeast corner. Continue along.
35F: Brainpan in the northeast corner, again. Three brainpans in the area with the bridge - again. Just one left... back in 34F Southeast corner.
34F: Southeast corner, defeat this last one, and your bridge is complete!
35F: cross the bridge, and continue. Another area with an unpassable ledge, but once again don't worry about it. Continue up the stairs to next area.
Wesllspring Ravel, 4th Flight
36F & 37F: continue
38F: 1 Brainpan, 2 Deidars.
39F: continue
40F: go inside the rooms. In the main, largest one, there are 3 Brainpans/Deidars. Take them out.
41F: Deidar
42F: Brainpan
44F: Brainpan & Deidar
45F: Continue
46F: One Brainpan inside the room (going west). Continue up
47F: Even though the bridge is complete, kill the Brainpan anyways.
48F: If you did things right (and possibly even if you didn't?) rare monster Vishno is here. Continue along to next area.
Horizon's Break
48F: Save your game. Go south... you'll notice where the exit to the next area is on your mini-map, so follow the necessary path and go through the door.
49F: continue along, and get ready... another boss fight up ahead. Open the door and you'll once again appear in some.... area, and the boss jumps out.
Slyt
Status: Regen
Steal: Yensa Scale
Attacks: Enrage, Regular (~600)
LP: 36
Don't worry - despite the appearance of Flying, it's NOT a Flying monster, so you can hit it with your melee weapons. It's regular hit is comboable (up to 6 times!), but even without combos he can still perform this "Regular" attack with virtually no Action/waiting time. At HP Critical his stat gets a boost, bumping it up to around 900-1000, and combined with the frequency of it, it can spell KO troubles if you're not careful.
After the intial Enrage, all he seems to do is this "regular" attack... no surprises here. Just constant, frequent attacks of fair-sized damage. Have your gambit set to Curaga and watch out, I suppose!
Continue to next area once it's defeated.
50F: Way Stone, up to next area... about halfway done, I suppose.
PHAROS - SECOND ASCENT / REACH OF DIAMOND LAW
60F: first thing first, go around the area and SAVE YOUR GAME.
There are four altars in this area - Steel, Magicks, Knowledge and Wealth - which cover physical attacks, magic, the mini-map and items, respectively. Whichever altar you touch, you need to go through the entire area, and the next boss fight, without. I'm going to recommend you go without Items - you can (probably) live without Items, and whatever Altar you chose comes into play in the Third Ascent. So, touch the Altar of Wealth. You cannot use items, and that's a crying shame. Go through the door directly behind the altar, and as you can see on your mini-map, take the path up to the next floor.
Station of Banishment (61F): the staircases leading up to 62F are in the southwest and northeast parts of the map. Consult your Location Map regularly, as it'll fill things in and indicate where you should go, and how to avoid getting lost.
Station of Suffering (62F): entrance to next area is in the Southeast... so go to that area of rooms and work your way around.
Station of Ascension (63F): entrance to the next area is in the northwest. Go to the northeast area, as far north as you can go, then start heading west.
Reach of the Damned (64F): take a breather... you got a save crystal. Head south, and the exit to the next area will be evident on your mini-map.
The Bounds of Truth (65F): venture forth, this should be a familiar sight for you. Boss fight coming up... the 3rd of 3 Watchers.
Fenrir
Status: Protect, Haste, Bravery
Steal: Beastlord Hide
Attacks: Wail (~2000 + Blind, chance of Silence, Range), Regular (~1500), Ram (~2000 single), Ice Break (~1400 range)
LP: 36
This guy hits hard and, in my opinion, is much tougher than the previous two watchers! Hell, he might even be tougher than the next boss fight, but maybe that's just me. Sealing items might not seem like a good idea with the frequent Blindness induced by Wail, but oh well, set your gambits to Blindna. Just imagine what would've happened if you sealed steel? It would've taken foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Anyways, I recommend going all out with a Curaja gambit, as Fenrir hits hard & for considerable range. If you've got Bubble or Bubble Belts, it would certainly help pad your melee characters' HP.
After it's done, continue forward.
66F: THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT - don't "touch" an altar unless it's the one you chose earlier. That is, if you chose Altar of Wealth back on the 60th Floor, then touch the Altar of Wealth here. If you touch the wrong altar... it will have grave consequences for later on in this dungeon.
So, after touching the appropriate altar, whatever you lost is returned to you. An elevator descends on the Western side of the ring... it'll only let you go to the 67th floor, but it's better than nothing.
Reach of the Occult (67F): Save point, and Way Stone. Note that, once you touch the Way Stone, there's no way back to this save point... touching the accompanying Way Stone will take you all the way back down to the 1st floor and the teleport crystal... so, I hope you're ready.
PHAROS - THIRD ASCENT / METE OF DYNASTY
80F: Northwest corner, touch the "Way Stone - Black Sigil"
81F: In the southewest area, there's a "Fool's Facade" (breakable wall) - break it, go through, and touch the "Way Stone - Green Sigil"
83F: go either way, breaking through two walls/fool's facades. At the area with the four sigils, touch "Way Stone - Red Sigil"
84F: four sigils here - the sigil you touch corresponds to whatever it was you "gave up" in the second ascent.
Altar of Steel = Attack = White
Altar of Magick = Magick = Purple
Altar of Knowledge = Mini-map = Red
Altar of Wealth = Items = Yellow
Since I advised you to give up Wealth, I hope you did... touch the yellow sigil.
86F: Go north, and hit the Fool's Facade.
88F: wow, I just ran into a rare monster called Tower. If you do too, you don't need to fight it... just go over to the elevator and rise up to the 90F.... keep in mind there's a boss battle next! Not just a boss, but an Esper!
Hashmal, Bringer of Order
Status: Protect
Steal: High Arcana
Attacks: Regular (~900, comboable, chance of Disease), Roxxor (1400 earth dmg?, single), Battle Cry (?, used after 1/2 hp down), Quakeja (~1200 + Slow)
LP earned: 52
LP to acquire: 50
Regular attacks for the bulk of the fight. After losing about 1/2 his hp he'll use Battle Cry (not sure what it does), and Quakeja follows almost immediately after. Watch out for Disease, which has a chance of being inflicted during a Regular hit/combo, so have Cleanse or Vaccines on hand.
After the battle, you'll be on Empyrean Ravel, 90F. Continue through 91F and 92F... cutscene. Save Crystal at 98F - SAVE YOUR GAME, because there's another big boss fight up ahead!
99F, one final Way Stone... let's do this. Triple - that's right, THREE - pronged boss fight
Gabranth
Status: Haste
Steal: Potion
Attacks: Protect, Circle of Judgment (~500 range), Regular (~500-600), Magick Shield, Guilt (?)
LP: 36
As I said, this is the first of several bosses, so don't use and Quickenings/Espers on him. And as he's the appetizer before the main course, you should have no trouble with him. After he spouts some dialogue mid-battle, he'll become immune to magick, so keep pelting him with physical attacks. The battle ends when he hits HP Critical, just like vs. Doctor Cid in Draklor.
Speaking of the good Doctor...after having dispatched the appetizer and viewing a cutscene, it's on to the main course.
Doctor Cid
Status: Protect, Shell, Haste
Steal: Hi-Potion (pre-Famfrit), Hi-Potion (post-Famfrit)
Attacks: Regular (~900-1000), Gatling Gun (~800 range), Paling & Magick Shield, Haste, Shell, Protect, S-85 Cyclotrone (~1000 range)
LP: 36 (18 beating him pre-Famfrit, 18 beating him post-Famfrit)
Famfrit, the Darkening Cloud
Status: Protect, Shell
Steal: Aquarius Gem
Attacks: Regular (~500), Briny Cannonade (~1700), Waterja (~1700 all + chance of Silence)
LP earned: 52
LP to acquire: 90
The fight starts off with Doctor Cid, who mainly deals in "regular" attacks. Once his HP drops about halfway, he'll summon Famfrit. While Famfrit is on the field, Doctor Cid will have both a Paling and a Magick Shield around him, ensuring his immunity. He'll stick to regular attacks & magicks buffs like Protect and Shell in the meantime, though he does eventually use S-85 Cyclotrone. Make sure your gambits are set accordingly so you don't waste attacking turns on an immune Cid. Famfrit is largely a lumbering paperweight... Waterja is his big move though, so make sure your team's HP is above 2000 at all times, and be prepared to get rid of Silence if it is incurred. Famfrit gets a boost at HP Critical, almost doubling the damage done by his regular physical attack.
Once he's done, Cid's paling/magick shield will collapse, and it's back to beating on him... and he shouldnt be a problem. He mainly deals in his regular attack and his HP total is unimpressive... it's very easy to shave away to nothing.
Afterwards, many cutscenes... in the end, the Strahl will have access to the Sky fortress, Bahamut. It's on the world map, accessible via the Aerodrome or any area the Strahl can dock.
DO NOT GO TO BAHAMUT
I REPEAT
DON'T GO TO BAHAMUT!!!!
While the Bahamut is technically a dungeon, there's no save point & no turning back. So if you go there, it'll be final battle(s) time and you'll either beat the game, or die trying. Plus, with all kinds of extra Marks and secret dungeons opened up, why beat the game now?
....when you ARE ready to go, get on the Strahl and choose Bahamut. The game will remind you that there's no turning back.
After many, many cutscenes (some of them FMV's) you'll be on the Sky Fortress Bahamut.