Pharos - First Ascent
THEY WHO THIRST NOT > THE WELLSPRING > BLACKROCK VAULT
THEY WHO THIRST NOT
A dragon gets up and sounds all crunchy and sloppy. It descends the stairs towards the party. When it reaches the bottom, it rears back to roar. Of course it has wings.
----- BOSS: Hydro -----
GAMBITS
Healers:
[Ally:Disable > Ensuna] [Ally: Doom > Remedy] [Ally: Sap > Ensuna] [Ally: Disease > Vaccine]
- Start with Dispel to remove Haste
- Cast oil on him
- Set everyone’s gambits to [FOE: Oil > Firaga]
----- End Hydro -----
Cut Scene: Hydro’s knees get wobbly and I guess the camera man looses focus and falls back looking at the sun. Lens flare back to Hydro just in time to see him fall right on his face. I kind of feel bad for him.
Cut Scene: A huge gate blocks the entry into the tower. Vaan goes up to look at the plaque but can’t read and asks Fran to do it. She translates that the Dynast King was here before and wrote the message to warn anyone who enters. He wrote it for his descendant he knew would come one day: Ashe. Then Fran repeats the following words rhetorically “Rend illusion, cut the true Path. Words of much mystery. Yet his blood runs in your veins. Perhaps it Whispers to you the truth?” Ahhh... ya, thanks Fran we asked for a translation, not a sermon. Why don’t you shut your rabbit hole and get back in line. The door rotates open and the party enters.
THE WELLSPRING
The central room has been split into three separate parts by a cave-in. The two rear rooms can only be accessed from the LABYRINTHS that are to the north and south of this central room.
Save at the orange crystal.
|| HOUR - 61:21 ||
Follow the path that circles around the large central atrium until you see the “Altar of Night” which will be on your left. Read the inscription. The text instructs you bring Orbs back to the Altar.
You get Black Orbs by fighting monsters. Randomly, the defeated monster may drop a small blue thing which will float over their body, it looks like a firefly. Run up to it and press X when you have the exclamation point over your head. You will be prompted to touch it, do so and they will pop. I bet they taste minty.
Go to the southern door to reach...
WELLSPRING LABYRINTH
Proceed east through the narrow hallway until the last right. Then, fight room-to-room heading south and eventually east. Your destination is a long room flanked by columns. At the end of this room is the map urn.
Continue to fight beasts in the LABYRINTH until you obtain at least 3 black orbs. When you have them, head to the far east end of the narrow hallway. The door leads to one of the two back rooms of the WEELSPRING. In this room is an altar that also requires a black orb. Touch it to place it. You will “Break the Seal.” I guess you better find a bathroom – all that water probably doesn’t help either. Exit the way you came and return to the central room of the WELLSPRING.
THE WELLSPRING
Walk southeast to the altar and activate with the second of your black orbs. Walk back towards the center of the WELLSPRING but enter the northern door to access the northern section of the WELLSPRING LABYRINTH.
WELLSPRING LABYRINTH
In this northern part, head east through the hallway to gain access to the other obstructed room of THE WELLSPRING. Place the last orb on that Altar.
When all orbs have been placed, return to the orange save crystal. Go to the eastern most point in the WELLSPRING LABYRINTH. The door here was unlocked when you broke the dark seals. This place is also indicated on your map.
|| HOUR - 61:58 ||
Open the door and you are in Sedona, Arizona. No wait, on second thought I think saw Dave Mathews play here back ‘97. Follow the path around until you get to a giant rock that looks like an Outback Bloomin’ Onion.
----- BOSS: Pandaemonium -----
Levels
Tanks: 43, 41, 41
Healers: 43, 43, 42
GAMBITS:
[Ally:Petrify > Ensunaga]
- Send in 2 Tanks, 1 Healer.
- Start by dispelling the Boss.
- Do not use quickenings, they don’t do that much damage and it will drain all of your MP.
- Instead, just beat him with physical attacks.
- He is immune to Firaga so the oil and Firaga trick will not work.
- About half way through Pandaemonium will cast “perfect shield” and will be totally immune to attack for one minute. So turn off all attack gambits and switch everyone to cast heal, haste, and protect on each other until his spell stops. Keep watching Reddas’ attacks and start your attack when his hits no longer say IMMUNE.
- Continue with the same 2 Tank, 1 Healer attack method.
----- End: Pandaemonium -----
When you finally whittle him down to nothing, he runs right into a rock wall. I feel sorry for him. I mean he was just sitting in this nice desert until we came along. The clan reappears in the LABYRINTH and we are told that the way stone is open for business.
|| HOUR - 62:26 ||
Use it to be transported to the next section. You know how I can tell that this area is magical – the architecture floats. Any time you see a platform that should be very heavy being held up by nothing, there is a good chance all of it or at least most of it is magic. Either that or the designers thought it looked too cluttered to put in the necessary pillars and buttresses that would make all the platforms functional in the real world.
WELLSPRING RAVEL - 1ST FLIGHT
Head east and up the stairs. Kill the two brainpans at the top to activate a bridge. From there, continue up the stairs.
At 14F there is another bridge that needs to be constructed by killing the following brainpans:
- Kill the brainpan at the bridge
- Run up the stairs north of you and kill the one hiding in a small alcove at the top
- The third one is sitting in a room all by himself.
Those brain pans remind me of something from Return to OZ.
WELLSPRING RAVEL – 2ND FLIGHT
I have to laugh because a Chimera rolls down the long staircase right in front of you. I bet they do that all day. Run up the stairs and observe the quite impressive water torrent – the humidity in there must be killer.
Extend the bridge on 25F by killing the following
20F – 2 Brainpans
21F – 1 Brainpan
25F – 3 Brainpans
If the flying Aeronite comes near you, hit him with Oil and Firaga.
Extend the bridge on 31F by killing the following
29F – 2 Brainpans
30F – 1 Brainpan (behind the “Ancient” Door)
31F - do NOT kill the Deidar at the gate, run past it to the next 2 Brainpans. If you do kill Deidar, a bridge block will be subtracted. If you did kill Deidar, go back to 30F and kill the respawned Brainpan.
Its funny that the designers picked red and green as the two colors of the flames for Brainpan and Deidar. 20% of all males are red/green color blind. If you do have problems with the colors, check the names, you want to kill Brainpans, not the Deidars.
Extend the bridge on 35F by killing 10 Brainpans. In this section the Brainpans will respawn so you should just make a loop killing them until you have 10. Here is the breakdown of floors and numbers of each.
32F – 1 Brainpan, don’t kill the Deidar
34F – 2 Brainpans
35F – 2 Brainpans
WELLSPRING RAVEL – 4TH FLIGHT
Extend the bridge at 47F: You only need to kill 4 Brainpans but they give you a ton of them.
36F – 2 Brainpans
38F – 1 Brainpan
40F – 2 Brainpans
42F – 1 Brainpan
46F – 1 Brainpan
HORIZON’S BREAK
Use the save crystal here
|| HOUR - 63:27 ||
Travel counter-clockwise around the ring to find the door in the southwest corner. Enter and head left and up the stairs to the door.
HORIZON’S CUSP
Circle around to the Ancient door. Make sure everyone has haste before entering. This leads to the room of the second watcher (the first was the giant stone turtle named Pandaemonium). Notice how instead of desert this one is based in a marsh.
----- BOSS: Slyt -----
Slyt, as its name would have you believe, is not a female. Instead, it is a giant flying fish. This boss is quite possibly the easiest boss in all of FFXII.
- Send 2 casters and 1 Tank
- Oil him
- Set everyone to cast Firaga.
- I disable healing spells on one of my casters so they could focus on being a blowtorch.
----- End Slyt -----
After the battle, proceed through the hall and touch the Way Stone.
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