The Great Crystal
There is no map and no arrow to tell you which way to go through this area. I will give you as much of a description of each zone as I can. The title of the rooms came from the Brady Games Strategy Guide.
Inside the Great Crystal: it feels very embryonic. Platforms float above what looks like the layered center of a Butterfinger bar. The music here sounds like the climactic character discovers the spaceship or dinosaur scene in any Spielberg film.
A PRAMA VIKAARI
From the way stone, head along the green ramp that descends.
KABONII JILAAM PRATII’VAA
Fight off the two cougars here. They can be tricky so dispel their shell, cast slow, attack with oil then firaga. When defeated, obtain the treasure – it has a trap on it. Then proceed on the next descending ramp.
KABONI JILAAM AVAA
Defeat the next two cougars
DHA VIKAARI BHRUM
Touch the Way Stone
A VIKAARI KABONII
There are three paths from here. One in the middle leads up and then two on either side of it lead down. Take the path that is on your left.
STAHAANA CANCER
There will be two Golems here defending a gate stone. Hit them with oil and firaga. Then touch the stone. Proceed through the path that you have not yet taken – it leads up.
BHRUM PIS AVAA
Get the treasure. Then, go down the path that you have not yet taken. It leads back to the way stone that brought you here in A VIKAARI KABONII.
VIKAARI KABONII
Of the three paths here, take the one on the far right (it descends and is the only one you have not yet taken)
BHRUM PS PRATII
Kill the cougars then continue moving down the path.
DHA VIKAARI TRAHK
Don’t fear the reaper, Oil and Firaga it instead. Touch the Way Stone V.
A VIKAARI BHRUM
Your goal here is to deactivate that Pisces Gate, the switch is two rooms away. Take the path that descends.
TRAHK PIS PRAA
Kill the three cougars. The next path will descend.
STHAANA PISCES
Defeat the two Golems and touch the stone to bring down the Pisces gate. Backtrack through TRAHK PIS PRAA and A VIKAARI BHRUM.
A VIKAARI BHRUM
You can be sure you are in the right spot because this room has way stone IV in the center. There used to be the Pisces gate until you deactivated it. Go down the path that was behind the gate – it is the one that descends.
DA VIKAARI JULA
This room has Way Stone III in the center. Touch it.
CRYSTAL CORE:
Cut Scene: The party transports to the inside of the great crystal. Penelo sees all the swirling Mist and asks Fran if she is ok. Fran is fine. You know, I am starting to think that Fran’s whole Mist affliction is made up. I think she is using it like those kids who say they have asthma any time they don’t want to do something or when they want attention.
Ashe sees this huge piece of Nethicite and her mind starts pondering the possibilities. Fran realizes her intentions and says “You could destroy all of Ivalice if you wished it.” Ashe looks at her and then downward; I swear I heard Ashe say redrum under her breath.
Use the blue save crystal
|| HOUR - 58:06 ||
----- BOSS: Shemhazai -----
Shemhazai looks like the aftermath of a woman and three legged horse collision. Oh and the woman was wearing a poncho.
LEVELS:
- Tanks: 41, 40, 37
- Healers: 40, 38, 36
GAMBITS:
Healer:
- Turn off all elemental black magics such as firaga, water, blizzaga
- [Ally: any > Raise] [Ally: HP < 40% > Cura] [Ally: Disease > Vaccine]
[Self: MP < 40% > Charge] [Self > Protect] [Ally: Any > Haste]
[Ally: Any > Protect] [Foe: Haste > Dispel]
Tank:
- [Foe:any > Attack]
PHASE I
- Send in all of your tanks (no healers) and start off with a quickening.
PHASE II
- Dispel first to eliminate Shemhazai’s haste
- Have a party of 2 healers and 1 tank
- Let your Tank do all of the attacking and the healers keep that tank healthy.
- Keeping everyone protected will stop one hit kills from Shemhazai
- Have both healers equip Rose Corsage to keep them silence free.
- If your Tank is hit with silence ignore it. They should not be casting spells anyway
- Use echo herbs to keep MP available for cures/raises
- Be aware that as Shemhazai’s health decreases she increases in strength
- When Shembhazai’s health is down to the 2% to 5% range, use a quickening
----- End Shemhazai -----
When defeated, continue out the back door to a sunken living room containing the Empyrean Way Stone.
Cut Scene:
A beam of light hits a floating platform and then it is Ashe in the sky with Demons. Before she can figure out where she is, the Prophet’s talk to her and they still sound a little pissed off that Master Chief blew up their Halo. They hit her with a wave of Vick’s Vapor Rub.
They are the Occuria, the gods of Ivalice, and they tell Ashe that they chose her to make more Nethicite by cutting it from the source of it all, the Sun-Cryst. Cutting the Sun-Cryst was the same way King Raithwall got his Nethicite. They want her to make new cuts of it because the old ones either fell into the wrong hands or were all used up. They give her the Treaty-Blade which is the only thing that can shave off new nethicite from the Sun-Cryst. Occurians rule humans by dealing out nethicite like crack. We humans need it so bad and respond to it so well that we will do anything the Occurians want.
And that is why Ashe is listening so carefully when the Occurians tell her to kill Venat (Dr. Cid’s imaginary friend) because Venat left the Occurian clique and told humans (Vayne and Cid) how to make Nethicite. Venat, Ivalice’s version of Prometheus, made the humans self-sufficient. If humans no longer rely on the Occurians for Nethicite, the Occurians are obsolete. Kind of like how your parents feel when you move away to college.
To fix this rogue Occurian and the threat of manufactured nethicite, they want Ashe to “administer Judgment” and “destroy them all.” Ashe is suspicious, understandably because the Occurians seem like total fascist douche bags. They go on to tell her that they know best because they live forever while we dumb humans don’t live long enough to know anything. Every so often though, they need a human to serve as their “fist” and steer the human race in the right direction. Ashe will be this “Jesus Cryst.” They chose Ashe because they know as well as you or I that it is easiest to pickup a girl when she is on the rebound.
The Occurians then bring out Rasler and use some pretty heavy peer pressure to say “come on kill the Empire, you know you want to, take revenge, what? are you going to cry? Rasler wants you to kill. Why don’t you just do it?” Ashe’s lip quivers and it looks the developers equipped it with a modified version of the Dead or Alive Xtream VBall breast physics engine. Ashe caves and grabs the sword so that she can make more nethicite and make more nuclear explosions.
Ashe is beamed back down to the rest of the clan. They all heard what the Occuria were saying and they are all against the Occuria’s plan to make more nethicite. Then, Balthier realizes that Cid had tricked the clan into going here so that the Occuria could use Ashe for their own good. Balthier surmises that Cid just wants to see Vayne and Ashe blow each other up with nethicite. Ashe looks into the camera and says “I will seek out the Sun-Cryst.” WRONG. ANSWER.
Cut Scene:
Hey! It’s the Lordling, we haven’t seen that fop since Bur-Omisace. He is there asking Vayne to make peace with Ashe. Vayne counters that it is Ashe who is the one who is ready to fight, the Empire is just reacting to her. Larsa is all “No she’s not.” Then Vayne says “Yah Hu.” To settle their spat, Vayne sends Judge Gabranth to spy on Ashe. Larsa prances off.
Dr. Cid approaches Vayne and asks how they are related. Venat gives Cid an update: Ashe will be going to make more nethicite. Vayne then says that Ashe is their scribe, she is the one who will make things the way that they want it. Notice how the Occuria call her their fist where as Vayne calls her their scribe. Vayne is a little concerned that she will have fresh nethicite. But Cid says “bah, nethicite is overrated.” Vayne reveals that they invaded Dalmasca and Nabudice all for the nethicite. However, Cid says that the nethicite was useful to study but now that the Empire makes manufactured nethicite, Ashe’s Sun-Cryst stuff is not that great.
Venat appears, he actually looks like a Jawa wearing an oversized Mexican Poncho. It was Venat who instructed Cid on how to make nethicite. Making Venat a true Prometheus. It turns out that Vayne’s motive is not to conquer all of Ivalice, rather, it is really to stop the Occurians from controlling us. Vayne and Cid refer to having control over their lives as “history.”
This is where I sympathize with Vayne just a bit. All Vayne wants is freewill. Although, when I think of freewill, I think of being able to choose who I marry or what I will do as a profession. For Vayne, free will probably means he gets to choose which race to decimate.
Back in the Giruvegan, Vaan wonders aloud if Reddas could help us find the Sun-Cryst. Balthier says he is not to be trusted and shut up. Vaan answers his challenge by once again flashing his abs.
Go back to Way Stone in CRYSTAL CORE. Then make the long trek back through and the CITY OF GIRUVEGAN. Use the orange transport crystal in GATE OF EARTH to transport back to BALFONHEIM PORT.
GO BACK TO THE MAP.
Save in the Water Steps:
|| HOUR 60:00 ||
The Water Steps are a good place to level up. Spend some time chaining the monster of your choice and bring your party up a couple of levels to the 40 to 42 range.
Save in GATE OF EARTH:
When your clan emerges from the depths of the WATER STEPS and reaches THE EARTH GATE (where you fought Daedalus) save at the Orange Stone. Then transport back to Balfonheim Port.
Check your map when in Balfonheim Port and proceed to the red “X”. Talk to the guard to be let into Reddas’ Green Zone.
Quick cut to Reddas who is back in his pirate cabana. He is yelling at his swarthy crew to prepare for an escape. I think they are going to use his busty red crewmate as a floatation device. Reddas tells the teleporting clan that his fleet got stuck on some Mist at a place called the Ridorana Cataract.
The clan tells Reddas what happened in Giruvegan and about the Sun-Cryst. They tell him that they have two plans to counter Vayne’s Dusk Shard. Either they use the Sword of Kings against the Sun-Cryst and nullify Vayne’s nethicite. Or, they fight fire with fire by using the Treaty Blade to make their own piece of nethicite. Reddas gives us his own plan which is “throw it away.” Reddas, did you listen to a single thing we just said? Even Vaan ignores Reddas’ inane plan and says lets just go find the Sun-Cryst. It is in a lighthouse that is across the sea. Balthier asks “how do we get there?” and Reddas tells him to “try putting this one in your ship.” Balthier extends his middle finger and says “why not try sticking this one up your ass.” The stone in questions will let the Strahl fly in Jagd territory.
Reddas joins your party. You are free to do some shopping in preparation for the next section.
Shopping List for the next levels
- 10 x Remedy
- 20 x Vaccine
- 10 x Antidote
- Remedy Lore 3 for Healers/Casters
- Ensunaga
- Everyone (even Tanks) should have Firaga and Aeraga
- Party Level range: 40 to 42
When you are ready to move on with the story, go to the Aerodome in the eastern part of the city. Talk to the woman standing behind the counter with the name “Private Airships.” At the map screen, select the destination Ridorana Cataract.
Cut scene: Flying over the sea and there is a huge castle right next to and on top of a giant waterfall. That is cool, the castle is at the edge of the world.
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