Besaid Island

Story mode. Written for a first playthrough and kept free of spoilers — it will not tell you what happens here, only what the game is asking of you.

After two dark, cramped openings, Besaid is the game exhaling. Sun, sand, a village with a temple at the top of it, and people who are happy to see you. Nothing here is in a hurry. Take your time and talk to everyone — more than once. People on this island give things away.

The beach

Tidus wakes up in the water. Before you swim in to meet anyone, swim east around the rocks: there is a chest in a hidden alcove. Then swim west for another.

On the sand, a blitzball team is practising. After the scene, talk to each of the four players two or three times. Three of them hand over gil or Potions; the fourth takes four goes before he gives in. Then talk to Wakka and follow him inland.

The lagoon

Wakka has you swim across a lagoon. Three chests sit on the bottom — dive for them before you follow him to the far side.

The village

The village is small and everything is close. A chest sits just inside the entrance, and a path runs round the back of the first hut on the left with three more on it.

The big tent second on the left belongs to the island’s guards. Look on the floor near the desk, left of the door: there is a small book lying there. It is the second of a set — pick it up.

Follow the story up to the temple, then rest when you are told to.

The Cloister of Trials

This is the first of the temple puzzles. It is short and the game more or less explains it, with one trap: there is an optional chest, and the obvious solution walks straight past it.

1. Touch the glyph on the wall to open the stairs, and take the Glyph Sphere from the bottom.
2. Put it in the door to open it, then take it back.
3. Put it in the recess on the left wall. A new sphere appears there — the Destruction Sphere. Leave it where it is for now.
4. Touch the glyph on the wall opposite the pedestal. A room opens with the Besaid Sphere in it. Put that on the pedestal. Do not push the pedestal yet.
5. Go back for the Destruction Sphere and put it in the slot the Besaid Sphere came from. The wall at the end of the hallway breaks open. Take the chest.
6. Now push the pedestal into the new room.

The chest holds a rod for Yuna that shows you enemy HP and weaknesses. Equip it as soon as she is in your party.

You name the first summon as it comes out. Then the story takes the evening. When Wakka asks what you think of a certain someone, saying something nice does no harm.

The morning

Wakka gives Tidus a new sword as you come out. Equip it.

Before you leave, talk to the woman behind the shop counter. She mentions her dog has found something. The dog is in the top hut on the right; examine it, and your summon learns a second, stronger finishing move.

The path out

The road to the boat is a string of short tutorials. Each enemy type wants a specific person: Tidus for the dogs, Wakka for the birds, Lulu’s Thunder for the jelly. The game shows you how to swap party members in the middle of a fight; swapping costs nothing, so use it constantly from now on.

Partway along, someone jumps Tidus on the path and you fight alone. Use Cheer two or three times, then attack. Drink a Potion when Tidus drops near 200 HP — the big leaping attack hits hard — and use his Overdrive if it fills. It ends before it gets dangerous.

After that you get a proper lesson in summoning against a large bird. Let the summon do the work.

The dock

The whole village has come to see you off, and several of them have gifts. Talk to everyone on the dock, and talk to them twice. One of them gives Yuna a piece of armor. When the crowd has nothing left to say, board the boat.

Completionist mode. Full spoilers, in play order, with every permanent loss called out before you reach it. 2 entries below are marked where our sources disagree with each other — we have not picked a winner for you.

Spoilers from here.

Besaid is generous on the first visit and hostile on the last. Everything worth having is easy to take now. Later, a Dark Aeon sits on the village gate, and the cheapest copy of everything inside — including the first of the six treasures Anima needs — moves behind a fight with 800,000 HP.

The one thing that matters: the Destruction Sphere

Every Cloister of Trials from Besaid to Zanarkand hides one optional chest that you can only open with that temple’s Destruction Sphere. Here it is the Rod of Wisdom. Those six chests are the key to Anima: at Baaj Temple, late in the game, six statues each light a glyph only if you opened the matching chest, and the door to Anima’s chamber opens only when all six are lit.

The other five can be run again whenever you go back. Besaid is the awkward one:

• Now — the chest is ten seconds off the main route. Take it.
• After you sail away, until the events at Macalania Temple — the ferries still run. Walk back to Luca, take the boat to Kilika, change for Besaid, and run the Cloister again. A long round trip for one chest.
• Once the airship is yours — Dark Valefor waits at the village entrance. A Yevon acolyte summons it as you walk up, and there is no way past. You beat it or you do not get the Rod, and without the Rod there is no Anima.

So the Rod is the one real decision on this island. Do it now.

What else the gate locks

The same rule covers everything inside the village: the four chests, Al Bhed Primer Vol. II, Energy Blast, and — later — the Jecht Sphere beside the temple. Primer Vol. II counts toward the all-Primers trophy. The village is also where you recruit Vilucha for blitzball.

What is truly gone when the S.S. Liki sails: the nine gifts from the blitzball team and the dock crowd, including the Seeker’s Ring. None of them is rare, but there is no second chance.

The beach

Swim east round the rocks to an alcove: Moon Crest. It is half of the upgrade for Nirvana, Yuna’s celestial weapon, and does nothing until then. The beach stays reachable later, so this one is not in danger. Swim west for Antidote x2.

The Besaid Aurochs are practising. After Tidus shows them a shot, talk to each player until he repeats himself:

Talk to Wakka to recruit him and head inland.

The lagoon

Wakka has you swim across. Three chests on the bottom: Phoenix Down, Hi-Potion and Antidote x2. Grab them before you follow him; the swim is also your first look at the underwater controls you fight with on the boat.

The village

• Phoenix Down — chest inside the entrance.
• Hi-Potion, Potion x2, 400 gil — three chests along the hidden path behind the first hut on the left, the shop.
• Al Bhed Primer Vol. II — in the Crusaders’ lodge, the large tent second on the left, on the floor by the desk just left of the entrance. Luzzu and Gatta are inside; one of them can stand on it. Talking to them plays a short extra scene.

Follow the story to the temple, pray at the statue, then rest in Wakka’s hut when told to. After the dream, go back to the temple: Yuna has not come out.

The Cloister of Trials

The order matters only for the treasure.

1. Examine the wall ahead, then touch the glyph that lights on the right wall. Stairs open.
2. Take the Glyph Sphere from the bottom of the stairs. Put it in the door; take it back.
3. Put it in the recess on the left wall of the next hall. The wall opens on the Destruction Sphere. Leave it.
4. Touch the glyph on the wall opposite the pedestal. A room opens with the Besaid Sphere. Set it on the pedestal. Do not push the pedestal.
5. Carry the Destruction Sphere to the slot the Besaid Sphere came from. The wall at the end of the hall blows open: Rod of Wisdom.
6. Push the pedestal into the new room. It sinks, and the floor takes you down.

Rod of Wisdom — Yuna’s rod with Magic +3%, Magic +5% and Sensor. The magic bonuses are slight. Sensor is not: it shows HP and weaknesses on every enemy you target, which makes the next few areas noticeably easier.

Clearing the Cloister unlocks The Right Thing. It is part of the story; you cannot miss it, whether or not you open the chest.

Yuna comes out of the chamber with Valefor, and you name it.

The evening and the morning

Talk to Yuna. When Wakka asks what you think of her, “Yeah!” nudges the hidden affection tally that decides one scene much later on the airship. Rest when Wakka suggests it.

Outside his hut in the morning, Wakka gives Tidus Brotherhood. Equip it.

Energy Blast. Talk to the woman at the shop counter; she says her dog has dug something up. The dog is in the top hut on the right. Examine it and Valefor learns Energy Blast, a second, harder-hitting Overdrive. Set it in Valefor’s Overdrive menu. Valefor is the only aeon with a second Overdrive, and this is the only place it is given.

The Jecht Sphere on the dirt to the right of the temple doors is not here yet. Auron’s spheres start appearing only after the fight in Macalania Woods; this one is the hardest of the ten to reach. Sail back for it before the events at Macalania Temple, or face Dark Valefor for it.

The path out

Three tutorial fights: Tidus on the Dingos, Wakka on the Condor, and Lulu’s Thunder on the Water Flan, which shrugs off weapons.

Boss: Kimahri. Tidus fights alone. Kimahri’s spear hits for 60–80 and Jump for well over 100 every few turns. Cheer two or three times, attack, and drink a Potion whenever Tidus drops near 200. Spiral Cut ends it fast if the gauge has filled. The fight stops when Wakka steps in, after under a thousand damage; his HP is printed as both 750 and 800, and it makes no difference. No steal. Kimahri joins straight afterwards.

Two forced fights against Garuda follow. The first teaches summoning: let Valefor take it, and note that aeons have their own HP and Overdrive gauge and come back at a Save Sphere if they fall. The second has no aeon. Swap Wakka in — swapping costs no turn — and use Dark Attack so Garuda’s blows miss.

The dock

Everyone in the village is here. Talk to them all, more than once:

• Seeker’s Ring — the priest. Yuna’s armor, one slot, HP +10%.
• Phoenix Down x3 — the woman in brown, twice.
• Ether — the man in long trousers.
• Remedy — the boy, twice.
• 400 gil — the man in tan shorts.

Board the S.S. Liki when they run dry.

Coming back

• By ferry, before Macalania Temple. Luca docks to Kilika, then Kilika to Besaid. The way to pick up the Jecht Sphere, a missed Primer, the dog or the Rod of Wisdom without a superboss. Run from every fight on the way.
• By airship. Dark Valefor is at the gate (International content, in this release). It is the weakest of the Dark Aeons and still far beyond anything in the story; its own Energy Blast can wipe a party without Auto-Life. Leave it for the Dark Aeons guide. Besaid Falls, which the airship can find with a search, holds Kimahri’s Dragoon Lance.

Game Notes

Besaid is the island Tidus comes back to in every sense — the place the pilgrimage starts and the place the sequel opens. The game uses it to teach you almost everything: swimming, swapping, summoning, temple puzzles. The Destruction Sphere is the one lesson it does not explain, and it is the one that costs the most to learn late.