Kilika 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.

Kilika is the first stop where the pilgrimage feels like a journey rather than a tutorial. The town is short, the woods are long, and the temple at the top has a puzzle that rewards paying attention.

The port

Watch the scene at the dock, then save. The village is a ring of walkways over the water; walk all of it.

• The tavern at the top of the village has an Al Bhed Primer lying on the bar. Pick it up.
• A little girl is sitting in a half-collapsed house along the walkways. Go in after her. When she is safe, go back to the tavern and open the chest the owner offers you.
• The hut at the top-left, behind the inn, has a chest of Potions.

The stall by the dock sells weapons with Sensor, which shows enemy HP and weaknesses. If someone in your main three does not have it yet, it is worth the gil.

Kilika Woods

The woods are full of armed guards. Talk to all of them, twice. Nearly everything worth having in here is handed to you rather than found in a chest.

Have Kimahri use Lancet on a Ragora, the plant fiend, for a new Overdrive move.

The man just past the save point gives you Antidotes on the second conversation. Then explore before following the main trail:

• Right at the first fork, to the end of the path, for a chest.
• Back west from the fork, a narrow path leads north off the trail. The minimap shows it. There is a new weapon for Wakka at the end.
• Further on, past the crossroads, the left branch north has a chest with a rare sphere in it.

The guards at the crossroads and further up the trail each give you something.

The large fiend in the middle

Partway through the woods a huge plant fiend blocks the central path. You do not have to fight it — the side routes go around — but beating it gets you two gifts from the guards, and the experience is good this early.

If you fight it: bring Lulu and lead with Fire, keep Antidotes handy, and pay attention when it falls asleep. Magic does not wake it; hitting it does, and it wakes up angry with an attack on the whole party. Pour spells into it while it sleeps, and if you have to wake it, call Valefor first so the aeon takes the hit. You can run if it goes badly.

After it is dead, talk to the guards again — including the one by the save point and the woman who gave you something earlier.

Before the temple stairs

The temple is the end of the island, and the boat to the tournament follows it. If you skipped the large fiend and want the guards’ gifts for beating it, do it before you climb the temple stairs. Once the boat sails, the guards are gone.

The boss at the temple stairs

At the foot of the temple stairs there is a boss fight you cannot skip. It hides inside a shell that physical attacks bounce off, and it has two tentacles behind it that soak up your spells.

Kill the tentacles first, one at a time. Do not use Water on them — they drink it. Then have Lulu burn the body with Fire. Once you have taken off a chunk of its health the shell opens, and from then on everyone can hit it. Keep someone ready to heal; it poisons and it hits hard enough to matter.

The temple

Talk to everyone in the temple, then go into the Cloister of Trials. The puzzle uses glowing spheres you carry between slots in the walls and on a movable pedestal, across three rooms with a wall of fire.

1. Take the sphere from the pedestal and put it in the door. Take it back and go through.
2. In the second room, put it in the slot opposite the door to show a glyph, move it to a side slot, and touch the glyph.
3. In the fire room, take the sphere from the right-hand wall and put it in the other empty side slot in the second room.
4. Step on the glowing panel to bring the pedestal over. Put the glyph sphere from the pedestal into the slot in the fire room. The fire goes out and an alcove opens with a different-looking sphere in it — leave it for now.
5. Put a sphere back on the pedestal and push it onto the glowing panel. The floor drops and reveals another sphere downstairs.
6. Put that sphere in the far door to light it, take the odd-looking sphere from the alcove, and put it in the slot downstairs where the last one was. The wall breaks and there is a chest behind it.
7. Take the sphere back out of the far door and go through.

The chest is optional and you can come back for it, but it is free armor for Kimahri and there is a reason to collect every one of these chests that you will learn much later.

At the top, Yuna gains her second aeon. Name it on the way out.

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.

Kilika is generous and forgiving at the same time. The chests and the Primer wait for you; you can fly back for them with the airship. What does not wait is the Crusaders. Every gift in the woods is a conversation with a Crusader posted there for this visit only, and three of them hang on beating an optional boss.

What leaves with the boat

Boarding the S.S. Winno ends all of this for good:

• Lord Ochu, the optional boss in the middle of the woods.
• Luzzu’s Antidote x4 and his Elixir (the Elixir needs Lord Ochu dead).
• The crossroads leader’s Remedy and her NulBlaze Shield (the shield needs Lord Ochu dead).
• The north-trail leader’s Hi-Potion.
• Phoenix Down x3 for fleeing Lord Ochu — see below.
• The tavern Ether, which only exists after the rescue in the port.

Nothing else here is lost. The two Woods sphere chests, the Scout, the Potions and Primer IV stay put, and the Cloister can be run again for the Red Armlet.

Kilika Port

Yuna performs the sending at the dock; the party rests at the inn and you get control the next morning. Save first.

Al Bhed Primer Vol. IV lies on the bar in the tavern at the top of the village, beside Kulukan. A girl trapped in a collapsing house on the walkways is the Ether: carry her out, go back to the tavern, and the owner lets you open the chest. Potion x3 sit in a chest in the top-left hut behind the inn.

The stall by the dock sells Sensor weapons and HP +5% armor. Sensor is the only purchase that matters here.

Kilika Woods: gifts first, then chests

Seed Cannon: have Kimahri Lancet a Ragora, the plant fiend here, for a new Ronso Rage. Miss it and the Grat on Mt. Gagazet teaches it too.

Luzzu is past the Save Sphere at the entrance. After his scene, talk to him a second time for Antidote x4. Lord Ochu poisons; these are for him.

The chests, in the order you reach them:

• Mana Sphere x2 — right at the first fork, to the end.
• Scout — back west from the fork, a narrow path north. Wakka’s ball with Icestrike and Sensor. A clear upgrade.
• Luck Sphere — past the crossroads, the north-west branch that avoids Lord Ochu. Rare this early; hold it for a Fortune Sphere.

The Crusaders: the leader at the crossroads gives a Remedy once her two companions leave (talk twice). The leader further up the trail gives a Hi-Potion.

Lord Ochu

Optional, one-time, and worth it. 4,649 HP, weak to fire. Steal a Potion if you like; it drops an MP Sphere, and an overkill can turn that into HP Spheres.

• Poison Claw poisons one target. Antidotes or Esuna.
• Water on one target. Yuna can cover it with NulTide if she has it.
• Around half health it falls asleep and gains Regen. Magic does not wake it. Any physical hit does, and it answers with Earthquake on the whole party.

Take Tidus, Wakka and Lulu with everyone’s Overdrive gauges as full as you can get them. Lulu casts Fire every turn. When it sleeps, keep the fire going and do not touch it physically until you are ready; if you must wake it, summon Valefor first so the aeon eats the Earthquake. Rotate Yuna and Kimahri in for a turn each so they share the AP.

Afterwards: Luzzu gives an Elixir, and the crossroads leader who gave you the Remedy gives the NulBlaze Shield on a further conversation.

The Phoenix Downs

There is a third Crusader reward, Phoenix Down x3, for running from the fiend. The reported trigger is walking into Lord Ochu from the west side and choosing Flee; it works once. If you want it, do this first, then come back and kill him.

Sinspawn Geneaux

Mandatory, at the foot of the temple stairs. 3,000 HP, plus two Tentacles at 450 HP each.

• The shell makes the body immune to physical damage.
• The Tentacles take spells meant for the body, absorb Water, and take half from Thunder and Ice.
• The body is weak to Fire. Sigh hits everyone while the shell is closed; Venom poisons whoever has the most HP; Water picks on the weakest; Staccato hits hard, and Tidus’s Cheer softens it.

Kill one Tentacle at a time with physical attacks. Then Haste Lulu if you can and burn the body. At about 2,400 HP the shell opens and it is open season. Silence Attack from Wakka shuts off its Water. Drops a Power Sphere.

Kilika Temple and the Cloister of Trials

Dona and Barthello are here ahead of you. Speak to everyone, then go in.

1. Take the Kilika Sphere off the pedestal, put it in the door, take it back and go through.
2. Second room: put it in the recess opposite the entrance. A glyph appears. Move the sphere to a side recess and touch the glyph.
3. Fire room: take the Kilika Sphere from the right-hand wall and put it in the other side recess in the second room.
4. Step on the glowing panel in the fire room to bring the pedestal over. Take the Glyph Sphere off it and put it in the recess where the second Kilika Sphere was. The fire dies and an alcove opens with the Destruction Sphere. Leave it.
5. Take a Kilika Sphere from the second room, put it on the pedestal and push the pedestal onto the panel. The floor sinks and reveals a third Kilika Sphere downstairs.
6. Put that sphere in the far door to burn it open. Take the Destruction Sphere and place it in the recess downstairs where the third Kilika Sphere came from. The wall blows open: Red Armlet, Kimahri’s armor.
7. Pull the Kilika Sphere out of the far door and climb to the fayth.

Ifrit joins. You name him as you leave.

The Red Armlet is one of the Destruction Sphere chests you need — every one of them, from Besaid to Zanarkand — before Anima will join at Baaj Temple late in the game. Skip it now and you can run the Cloister again later.

Leaving Kilika

After the temple the next stop is the S.S. Winno. Finish the woods before you climb the temple stairs — check every line in the list at the top of this page. Once the Winno sails, the Crusaders and Lord Ochu are gone.