Mt. Gagazet

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 Ronso guard this mountain, and they are not pleased to see you. Get Kimahri ready before you walk up to the gate — the first fight is his alone.

Before the gate

Kimahri needs Steal or Mug for the first fight, and a few levels if he has been sitting on the bench. If he is behind, spend some time in the Calm Lands or the cave below the bridge first. Give him Hi-Potions; he is on his own.

Kimahri’s fight

Two Ronso challenge him. They guard each other, so ordinary attacks barely scratch them — until one uses a charge attack that swaps their positions. Hit hard right after that.

Use Lancet on both of them, over and over. Between them they know eight of Kimahri’s Overdrive moves, and the best two only become learnable once they have used them, which they do when hurt. Learn everything you can from one before you knock out the other; finishing the wrong one first can stop you learning from the survivor.

Steal from both while you are at it. They carry rare Key Spheres.

The trail

Save, then climb. Grab everything:

• A chest on the right at the start of the trail (a lot of gil) and one on a half-hidden ledge on the left.
• At the Y-shaped fork, the north branch has a sphere on the ground at the dead end. Pick it up. The west branch has armour for Auron.
• Further on, two chests at the bottom of a slope: an HP Sphere and a Lv. 4 Key Sphere.

Halfway up, a merchant is standing on the path. Talk to him — if you skip him, he does not appear again later. He sells excellent weapons for Lulu and Rikku and four-slot armour. Most importantly, buy Holy Water. Ten is plenty; more if you can.

Bashura hit hard and counter once they power up; Lulu’s Bio is the easy answer. Gravestones along the trail mean a fight is coming.

The fight on the slope

Save at the last Save Sphere. The next fight is one of the hardest in the game.

• Put Kimahri and Yuna in the party at the start. Each gets a one-time Talk command that boosts them.
• The boss can turn a character into a zombie and then hit them with a revive spell, which kills them outright. Cure the zombie status immediately — Holy Water, Remedy or Esuna.
• He has a companion that charges a huge party-wide attack. When you see it getting ready, raise Shell and Mighty Guard and have everyone Defend.
• Bio on the boss early. Dispel his Protect and Reflect.
• He banishes aeons. Summon only to soak the big attack, and use their Overdrive at once.

After the fight, walk round the corner. Between the pillars on the left, before the Save Sphere, there is a chest that is very easy to miss. Open it.

The caves

Only Tidus, Wakka and Rikku can swim, so the party splits at the water.

The first trial: go left underwater to the device at the end. Wakka throws a ball at the core; two spinning layers get in the way. Watch for the gaps to line up and throw. It takes a few tries. A chest appears when you land it, and a stairway rises near the Save Sphere.

The second trial: up the stairs, left, into the next pool. Three coloured panels — stand each swimmer on the panel matching the colour of their path on the Sphere Grid: Tidus blue, Wakka red, Rikku green. Then swim down beneath the panels for the chest.

With both done, go back for the chests you saw but could not reach: the right fork up the stairs leads to two, and a small alcove northwest of the Save Sphere opens with a third.

The summit

Save before the top. The last fight on the mountain opens with an attack that can inflict a pile of status ailments — confusion is the worst — so armour that blocks confusion is worth equipping. Bio slows it down. If Yuna can cast Reflect, put it on the boss: its own healing and Haste then bounce to you.

Then keep walking. You will see where you are going.

Completionist mode. Full spoilers, in play order, with every permanent loss called out before you reach it.

Spoilers from here.

The whole mountain can be revisited by airship, so most of what is here comes back. Three things do not: the Lv. 3 Key Sphere steals from Biran and Yenke, Seymour Flux’s Elixir steal, and Wantz — talk to him or his later shop never appears.

Mountain Gate: Kelk, then Biran and Yenke

Kelk Ronso, the elder, lets the summoner through after a scene. Biran and Yenke do not: they challenge Kimahri, and Kimahri fights alone.

Get him ready first: Steal or Mug (a Special Sphere or Skill Sphere from someone who already has it), a few grid nodes, and Hi-Potions. Their HP is calculated from Kimahri’s own stats, so over-levelling him does not make the fight easier the way it usually would — but his damage still scales.

Lancet list:

Some Rages — Mighty Guard and White Wind at least — can only be taken after that Ronso has used them, which they do once hurt. Lancet doubles as damage, so the safest plan is to Lancet both of them down to low HP, learn everything, then finish.

Order matters. Kill Biran first and Yenke gets Haste for the rest of the fight. Kill Yenke first and Biran goes Berserk and can no longer be Lanceted — learn all of his before Yenke drops.

They guard each other, so normal hits do a quarter damage. After one uses Bulldoze they stand on opposite sides of Kimahri and the guard drops.

Steal both: a Lv. 3 Key Sphere each, in both the common and rare slot. Drops are Return Sphere (common) and Friend Sphere (rare).

Miss Mighty Guard or White Wind and the caves give a second chance (Behemoth and Dark Flan). Thrust Kick has only one other source, the YKT machina, so take it here.

The trail

• 20,000 gil — right side at the start.
• Mega-Potion x2 — half-hidden ledge on the left.
• Jecht Sphere — the “Braska’s Sphere”, north branch at the Y-fork. One of ten: three teach Auron Banishing Blade, all ten teach Tornado and unlock Messenger from the Past.
• Defending Bracer — west branch at the same fork. Auron armour.
• HP Sphere and Lv. 4 Key Sphere — two chests at the bottom of the slope past Wantz.

Wantz

O’aka’s brother. Talk to him. If you do, he later moves to Macalania Woods with a second, better shop; if you never spoke to him here, he never appears there. Stock here includes Booster Cactuar (Lulu, Magic Booster), Survivor (Rikku, Alchemy), Double-Edge for Tidus, SOS armour, four-slot armour (customising blanks) and Holy Water — you want ten or more for the next fight, and 30 Holy Water customise Zombie Ward onto armour. Sell spare gear to him if you are short.

The Ronso up here also sell HP +10% armour.

Bashura (17,000 HP) Psych Ups and then counters everything; Bio deals thousands per tick. Grenades here teach Self-Destruct to Kimahri.

Seymour Flux

The third Seymour fight, and a difficulty spike. Max Overdrives and save at the end of the trail.

Seymour Flux: 70,000 HP. Steal: Elixir. Drop: Lv. 4 Key Sphere. Mortiorchis: 4,000 HP, shrinking each time it is broken (4,000, 4,000, 3,000, 2,000, then 1,000), armoured — physical hits need Piercing. Breaking it drains Seymour.

• Trigger commands on turn one: Kimahri’s Talk gives +Strength, Yuna’s gives +Magic Defense. Field both.
• Lance of Atrophy inflicts Zombie; Full-Life follows and kills the zombie. Cure Zombie the instant it lands. Zombie Ward armour removes the problem entirely.
• After two Lances he Dispels the party and Cross Cleaves (~2,000).
• At 75% he casts Protect; at 50% he Reflects and starts bouncing Flare. Dispelling his Reflect can make him Flare himself.
• Total Annihilation: Mortiorchis enters Auto-Attack Mode around the halfway mark and announces when it is ready. Shell, Mighty Guard (Kimahri) or Super/Hyper Mighty G (Rikku), and Defend. An aeon summoned right after Seymour’s turn can eat the blast before Banish comes.
• Bio and Poison work. Poison damage that carries him under half HP does not trigger his half-HP routine.

Prominence: the Saturn Crest

Round the corner after the fight. The chest is between the pillars on the left, just before the Save Sphere — the easiest crest in the game to miss on the way past. It is Kimahri’s, for the Spirit Lance; the Saturn Sigil comes from the Macalania Woods butterfly hunt. If you miss it, it is still there by airship.

The caves and the Trials of Gagazet

The party splits at the water: Tidus, Wakka and Rikku swim. Dark Flans here shrug off most damage — Armor Break and Mental Break first, or Silence them. Lancet a Dark Flan for White Wind and a Behemoth for Mighty Guard if the Ronso held out on you.

1. First trial. Left fork underwater to the device. Wakka throws at the core through two rotating layers; time the press for the gap. Unlimited tries. Chest: Lv. 1 Key Sphere. A stairway rises over the hole by the Save Sphere.
2. Second trial. Up the stairs, left to the pool. Assign each swimmer to the panel of their Sphere Grid colour — Tidus blue, Wakka red, Rikku green. Swim down under the panels: Fortune Sphere.
3. Across the gap. Back up the stairs, right fork, swim to the end: Return Sphere and Recovery Ring (Yuna, HP Stroll). These are the two you could see but not reach from the first swim’s dead end.
4. The alcove. Northwest of the Save Sphere, a crevasse opens once both trials are done: Pep Talk (Wakka, SOS abilities).

Save, take the stairs and go left at the split to reach the summit.

Sanctuary Keeper

40,000 HP. Steal: Turbo Ether (x2 on a rare steal). Drop: Return Sphere.

• Photon Wings opens the fight and can inflict Sleep, Silence, Darkness, Confusion and Curse. Confuseproof is the single best piece of armour to wear. Holy Water clears Curse.
• Reflect the boss: its Curaga, Regen and Haste then land on you. If it Reflects your party, Dispel it so your healing works.
• Bio it; it wastes turns on Esuna.
• Auron’s Armor Break (it answers with Protect — Dispel it) and Mental Break. Tail Sweep can counter and strip Haste.

The summit

A short scene and a long look down at the ruins of Zanarkand. Save before you descend.