Lake Macalania and Macalania Temple

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.

The woods open onto a frozen lake with a travel agency half-buried in snow. The temple is on the far side. There is a fight between the two, so do your shopping first.

The travel agency

Before you go in, look on the snow to the left of the building for an Al Bhed Primer.

Behind the agency, a young man with a chocobo asks what he should do with his life. Tell him to be a chocobo breeder. It is a kind answer and it costs you nothing. There is a chest behind him you cannot reach yet; it will still be there later.

Inside, Hi-Potions are finally on sale. Buy a stack, and save. If anyone has a weapon with Lightningstrike, put it on now.

The fight on the ice

You are ambushed as you set out across the lake: a large machine with a small floating companion. The little one is the problem — while it is alive, nobody can cast and Yuna cannot summon. Magic and swords both miss it; Wakka’s ball doesn’t.

Once it is down, Cheer, Focus, and hit the big one with lightning. Ixion is very good here. Watch the countdown above the machine: when it reaches zero it fires a beam that hits everyone. Hurting the machine calls in a fresh companion, and while the companion is up the beam cannot fire — so near the end of a countdown, leaving it alive is a fair trade.

The temple

There is a chest on the path just before the doors, and a wounded man at the foot of the stairs who will give you some gil.

Inside, talk to everyone. The old man at the door has a piece of armor for you. The hall has two chests, one each side. Someone rushes out of the right-hand room as you head for the stairs — go in there for a chest and a man with Hi-Potions, then cross to the left-hand room for another chest and two people with an Ether and an Elixir.

Buy what you need from the merchant in the hall and save before you go up the stairs. Do the talking first — you will not get another chance this visit.

The fight upstairs

A long, three-stage fight, so go in healthy.

In the first stage, the two guards heal themselves every time they are hit. Have Rikku steal from them — taking their potions stops the healing — and kill them before you touch the man they are protecting. Several of your party have a “Talk” command in this fight. Use it; it raises their stats. Their leader casts one element after another in a fixed order, so Yuna can put up the matching Nul spell a step ahead of him.

The second stage is a summoned creature that can kill a party member outright. Yuna has a new aeon on her list, shown as “????”. Call it. Aeons are immune to the instant death, it heals itself from ice spells, and its Overdrive does a lot of damage.

In the last stage, Magic Break and Yuna’s Nul spells keep you alive. Lulu’s Bio works well if she has it.

The Cloister of Trials

The doorway beside the Save Sphere. Pushed pedestals slide on the ice until something stops them. The idea is to get the Glyph Sphere downstairs, use it to raise a platform, then put a Macalania Sphere into each of the three pillars to rebuild the ice bridge.

Before you cross the bridge, do the extra steps for the hidden chest. Step on the glyph by the entrance, push the pedestal that appears down the big ramp (its sphere changes on the way), and set that sphere in the recess left of the ramp. A chest appears. Doing this breaks the bridge, so you will have to put the spheres back afterwards — it is worth the ten minutes.

Getting out

You leave in a hurry and you are chased. The chasers are faster than you, so expect several fights; steal from the guards in each one. In the crevasse, take the right-hand branch at the first fork for a chest, then save at the next Save Sphere. There is a boss straight after it.

The boss is a huge, very angry beast with two guards who speed it up and make it berserk. Steal from the guards so they stop healing. Wakka’s Dark Attack makes it miss, and Auron’s Power Break makes the hits that land smaller. When it raises its fists, it hits back at anyone who attacks it physically.

Under the lake

Open the chest beside Kimahri and the one at the back by Auron — a new sword for Tidus. Then talk to Auron. That conversation ends the area.

Completionist mode. Full spoilers, in play order, with every permanent loss called out before you reach it. 1 entries below are marked where our sources disagree with each other — we have not picked a winner for you.

Spoilers from here.

Two losses to plan around. The temple turns on you after you kill Seymour, so every gift inside it has to be collected before you climb the stairs. And the Luck Sphere in the Cloister is far cheaper now than later — on this version, coming back for it means going through Dark Shiva first.

Agency front

Al Bhed Primer Vol. XVI is on the snow to the left of the agency, by the merchant. It is not missable, but there is no reason to leave it.

Clasko is behind the building with a chocobo. Tell him “Chocobo breeder.” The answer only changes a later scene. The chest he is standing in front of holds 4,000 gil and stays shut until he moves on later in the game; it does not go anywhere.

Buy Hi-Potions from O’aka, equip Lightningstrike if you have it, and save.

Crawler

16,000 HP, weak to lightning, with a Negator floating beside it. While Negator is up, nobody can cast magic or summon. It dodges most swords; Wakka’s ball, Kimahri’s Lancet or Rikku’s items and Mix take it down.

Crawler’s Mana Beam runs on a three-turn counter and hits the whole party. Damaging Crawler calls in a new Negator — and a Negator on the field stops the beam firing. So the rhythm is: break Negator, Cheer and Focus, haste, pour Thundara and Ixion’s Thor Hammer into Crawler, and if the counter is about to hit zero with Negator up, let it live a turn. Steal Lunar Curtain before you finish it.

Yuna leaves the party after the fight. You follow on foot.

Temple approach and the hall

A Mega-Potion sits on the path before the doors. The wounded Al Bhed at the foot of the stairs gives 400 gil.

Inside, collect in this order, all before the stairs:

• Tromell at the door — Shell Targe (one slot, SOS Shell).
• Left side of the hall — 5,000 gil.
• Opposite side, near the camera — 2 X-Potions.
• A Guado storms out of the right-hand room as you near the stairs. Inside: a chest with 2 Remedies, and the man beside it gives 2 Hi-Potions.
• The left-hand room: a chest with 3 Phoenix Downs, and the two people there give an Ether and an Elixir.

Tromell, the man with the Hi-Potions, the priests and the Al Bhed soldier are the ones you cannot rely on after the fight. The chests stay. Shop from O’aka in the hall and save.

Seymour

The fight upstairs is in three stages.

Seymour and two Guado Guardians. Seymour has 6,000 HP and Shell. The Guardians take physical hits for him and heal 1,000 HP with Auto-Potion each time they are struck. Steal their Hi-Potions with Rikku, Threaten them with Auron, or petrify them with Kimahri’s Stone Breath or a Petrify Grenade. Kill both before you touch Seymour.

Tidus, Yuna and Wakka each have a Talk trigger command; using it raises that character’s stats for the fight. Seymour’s spells come in a fixed order — Blizzara, Thundara, Watera, Fira — so Yuna can cast NulFrost, NulShock, NulTide and NulBlaze one step ahead.

Anima arrives when Seymour drops below about 3,000 HP. 18,000 HP. Pain is an instant KO on a party member and Oblivion, her Overdrive, will wipe a wounded party. Summon the aeon listed as “????” — this is Shiva. Aeons are immune to Pain’s death effect, Shiva absorbs ice so Blizzara heals her, and Diamond Dust hits harder if Anima has just used Boost. Two Diamond Dusts do most of the work.

Seymour alone, at full HP. He casts a -ra spell twice in a turn and -ga spells at an aeon. Auron’s Magic Break, the Nul spells and Bio (he is open to poison) carry you through.

You name Shiva after this stretch.

The Cloister of Trials

Through the doorway beside the Save Sphere. Pedestals slide on the ice until they hit a wall or drop down a ramp.

The main puzzle:

1. Cross the ice bridge; it vanishes and drops you back, opening a ramp down.
2. Downstairs, take the Glyph Sphere from the pillar north of the empty pedestal and put it in the pedestal.
3. Push the pedestal right until the ice stops it, then north. It breaks through and slides down a ramp.
4. Take the Glyph Sphere off and set it in the far-left recess. A platform rises.
5. Take the Macalania Sphere from the platform and put it in the left pillar. Part of the bridge reforms.
6. Take the Macalania Sphere from the far right upstairs, put it in the pedestal downstairs, and push the pedestal right into the right pillar.
7. Take the last Macalania Sphere from the top of the ramp and put it in the middle pillar.

Stop before you cross. The Destruction Sphere chest has to be done now:

1. Back at the entrance, step on the glyph in front of the bridge. A pedestal rises.
2. Push it down the big ramp. It hits a glyph halfway and its sphere becomes a Destruction Sphere.
3. Step on the glyph in the main area to bring the pedestal back.
4. Move the Macalania Sphere from the middle pillar to the spot that forms the downstairs ramp; take the one from the left pillar and put it on the right side upstairs.
5. Carry the Destruction Sphere down the ramp and set it in the recess right of the left pillar (left of the ramp). The chest appears: Luck Sphere.

That breaks the bridge. Put the Destruction Sphere back in its pedestal, push it down the big ramp again to turn it back into a Macalania Sphere, return the pedestal with the glyph, slide it right and north and right again to restore a bridge section, then shuttle the spheres back into the pillars. Cross and climb the stairs out.

The Luck Sphere is one of the six Destruction Sphere treasures you need for Anima at Baaj Temple. If you leave it, the temple stays open to you — but on this version, a Guado summoner with Dark Shiva can be waiting on the approach any time after Bevelle — possibly before you even have the airship, though accounts differ on that. She is one of the hardest optional fights in the game. Take it now.

On a later visit, solving the Cloister again leaves a Magic Sphere, Magic Def Sphere and Accuracy Sphere in the Chamber of the Fayth.

The escape and Wendigo

Guado Guardians chase you back across the lake. They are faster than Tidus and each catch is a fight with a Guardian and fiends; steal from the Guardian every time. In the crevasse, take the right (south) branch at the first fork for a Lv. 1 Key Sphere, then save.

Wendigo — 18,000 HP, with two Guado Guardians who cast Haste and Berserk on it and, as they die, Protect and Shell. Some players kill the Guardians first and accept the buffs; others leave them and steal their potions so the buffs never come. Either way, Wakka’s Dark Attack blinds Wendigo, Power Break cuts its damage, and Threaten or Esuna removes Berserk. When it raises its fists it counters physical attacks — keep HP up and keep swinging.

Under the lake

Two chests, and the area ends when you talk to Auron:

• Beside Kimahri — Lv. 2 Key Sphere.
• At the back, by Auron — Avenger, Tidus’s sword with Counterattack.

Open both, then talk to your party and Auron. Sin arrives, and the next thing you see is sand.