Chapter 1: Luca and the Floating Ruins

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.

Two years after the end of Final Fantasy X, and nothing about the opening looks like the game you just finished. It is louder, faster and far less solemn, and it wants you to notice that straight away. Go with it.

This page assumes you have played FFX. It will not tell you anything about what happens in this one.

Before you start: how this game keeps score

X-2 tracks a Story Completion percentage, shown on your save file. Almost every optional conversation and scene adds a fraction of a percent, and most of them only exist for one chapter. You do not need 100% to enjoy the game or to finish it. You do need it for the best ending, and the very first one can be lost within ten minutes of pressing New Game.

You do not have to chase it. If you want to, this walkthrough tells you what to stop for, and that is all it asks.

The concert and the docks

The game opens on a fight before you have touched a menu. Attack. Rikku can steal from everything in this first stretch; it is worth doing, because the accessories the next few enemies carry are better than anything you own.

The chase runs along the docks. Enemies keep coming while you dawdle, so keep moving — but on Dock 2, stop and talk to the moogle hiding between the crates. It heals the party, which is nice, and it quietly unlocks a scene later in this chapter. Walk past it and that scene never happens. This is the single easiest thing in the game to miss.

On Dock 3 there are two fights back to back. Steal from everyone. The second fight teaches you to change dresspheres — X-2’s jobs, which you swap in the middle of a battle. Do what the tutorial says and keep Yuna dancing.

Your airship

You end up on the Celsius, which is home for the rest of the game. Save at the Save Sphere.

Then talk to everyone on the bridge, one by one: Buddy, Brother (twice — the second time he has something for you), Rikku, Paine and Shinra. Each of those conversations counts. Ask Shinra for the garment grid tutorial; a garment grid is the board you place dresspheres on, and watching the tutorial earns you a second one. Ask him for Treasure Spheres too and watch the one called Journey’s Start.

Take the lift down. The four chests by the engine are yours; they restock every chapter, so check them each time you are aboard.

The cabin is up from the lift. Talk to the Barkeep, then rest. The game will not let the story move on until you sleep once, but get into the habit anyway: resting at least once in every chapter matters at the very end.

When you are done, talk to Buddy. Save first. The first mission is on a clock, and you get one go at it per load.

The Floating Ruins

The first stretch teaches jumping. Hold the button where you want to jump rather than tapping it. Just before the second gap, drop off the edge to the ledge below for a chest, then climb back.

Ride the lift down, go left at the bottom for another chest, and climb on until the story stops you for a fight. Steal from all three.

Then the race starts. Reach the top before the timer runs out. The clock stops while you fight and while the menu is open, so you have more time than it looks. There are several chests along the way — one in a pit inside the ruins you would otherwise jump over, one out of a side exit to the east, one where the path up the spire narrows — and you can afford to take all of them if you do not stop to look at the view. Beat the clock and there is one more chest waiting past the Save Sphere at the top.

The boss at the top

Save at the summit first. The fight at the top hits the whole party at once every few turns and can freeze people in place. Heal after each big hit, keep Yuna dancing to blind it, and if you picked up the red and white rings on the way up, put them on: it does not like fire or ice.

Back on the airship

Talk to Brother before you talk to Shinra. He is upset; comfort him. Talk to Shinra first and you lose the scene.

Shinra then gives you a new dressphere. Put it on a grid. Its ice spells are exactly what the next required mission needs.

Game Notes

The jump from FFX is deliberate and it is meant to jar. The hero of a pilgrimage is now a sphere hunter in shorts, the first scene is a pop concert, and the airship that took the whole of FFX to earn is yours in the first twenty minutes.

Underneath the noise, the structure is careful. Every chapter opens up most of Spira at once and lets you choose your order, and the game remembers almost everything you do along the way. The percentage on your save file is the game keeping that record. You will see it go up by tenths. Let it.

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.

X-2’s completion model in one paragraph, because everything on this page hangs off it: Story Completion is a hidden tally of scenes and conversations, mostly 0.2% each, and almost all of them belong to one chapter. Reach 100% and the ending gains its final scene — the Perfect Ending, and the Sweet Perfection achievement with it. Miss a single 0.2% and both are gone for that save, with no replay to fall back on. The first two of those misses are on this page, and neither waits for the end of the chapter.

The moogle on Dock 2

Talk to the moogle on Dock 2 before you reach Dock 3. It is crouched between the crates, it heals the party, and it gives you nothing visible. What it does is flag a short Yuna narration — “Rikku sure was having fun” — that plays during the Chapter 1 Luca return mission, Behind the Scenes. That narration is worth 0.2%. Walk past the moogle and the line never plays, 100% becomes impossible, and the Perfect Ending goes with it. This is the earliest permanent loss in the game and the one most people find out about too late.

Luca, in order

Concert stage. ???? — Leblanc in Yuna’s clothes — and two Goons. ???? has 82 HP and carries a Hi-Potion to steal; the Goons have Budget Grenades. The fight is a tutorial and cannot be lost in any meaningful way.

Docks 1–2. Goons and She-Goons respawn while you stand still. Take a few for the EXP if you like, then keep going. Moogle on Dock 2.

Dock 3: Logos and Ormi. The real Yuna joins. Steal Silver Glasses from Logos and an Iron Bangle from Ormi; these two plus the Silver Bracer below are your whole accessory set for the next hour. Logos has 86 HP and hits harder — kill him first. Ormi is 86 or 97 depending on who you read. Both drop a Potion, rarely a Phoenix Down. Afterwards Yuna gets the Songstress dressphere and the First Steps grid.

Dock 3: Leblanc. 130 HP. The dressphere-change tutorial: Yuna has only Darkness Dance, which is the right thing to use anyway. Let Rikku steal the Silver Bracer before you finish her.

The Celsius, first arrival

Six things count here, and the four conversations close when you leave for the Floating Ruins — the crew’s dialogue moves on once the mission is done.

• Buddy and Brother hand over four Al Bhed Primers (one and three). Talk to Brother again after “Party! Party!” for the Festivalist dressphere. Brother’s own line plays automatically.
• Rikku (“Having fun?”), Paine and Shinra: one narration each, 0.2% each.
• Journey’s Start: Shinra → Treasure Spheres. 0.2%.
• Barkeep, down the lift in the cabin: his first greeting is 0.2%. Then Rest. Chapter 1’s rest is compulsory — Buddy will not brief you until you have slept — but every chapter’s rest counts toward a Chapter 5 scene, so make it a habit.
• Shinra’s garment grid tutorial pays Vanguard (Strength +5, Magic +5). Its battle tips are optional.

Engine room: Potion x4, Phoenix Down x4, Remedy x3, Ether. These four chests restock every chapter with larger stacks. An unopened chest carries forward and gives the newer contents, so nothing is lost by skipping one — you are just choosing when to have it.

Your save should read about 3% before you leave. Save before you talk to Buddy. The race is one attempt per load.

Dressphere notes for now: Paine stays a Warrior for a long time. Rikku as Thief with First Strike steals before anything moves. Yuna’s Gunner looks weak until Trigger Happy Lv. 2; start learning it.

“Outrun the Leblanc Syndicate!”

Upper tier. Hold the jump button where you want Yuna to jump. Drop to the lower ledge before the second gap for the Yellow Ring.

Base. Save, hit the switch, take the lift. Down the ledges and left for the Elixir. Climb on to the Syndicate.

Leblanc, Logos and Ormi. 120, 100 and 130 HP. Steal the Tiara first: Leblanc’s Love Tap Hastes an ally and that gets messy. Logos carries a White Cape. Ormi’s steal is Gauntlets in two walkthroughs and an Iron Bangle in a third. Darkness Dance blunts Sonic Fan and the physicals.

The race. Win it — reaching the top before the timer hits zero is required for 100%. The timer stops in battle and in the menu. Route and chests:

1. Mega Phoenix past the pillar at the north end of the first platform.
2. Climb the fallen pillar; the next one is a dead end, so drop to the platform on its left.
3. Jump the southern gap. Logos sends two Goons and two Recoils; kill them and go inside.
4. Hit the switches at the end of both short side corridors.
5. Drop into the pit you could jump for the White Ring.
6. Take the optional eastern exit for the Red Ring, then come back.
7. Round the north side; Ormi starts another fight.
8. On the spire, cross the fallen column and keep right where the path narrows for the Star Pendant.
9. Jump the marked ledge. That ends the race.

Save at the top. The Muscle Belt chest past the Save Sphere is the race prize — two walkthroughs say it is only there if you won. If the timer beat you, reload.

Boss: Boris

480 HP, weak to fire and ice. Equip the Red and White Rings and their free casts do real work. Four physical turns (one hits twice, about 20–40 a hit), then Sticky End — about 50 to everyone, with Stop. Remedies cure Stop but there are only three in the engine room; Darkness Dance and Warrior’s Power Break are the cheaper answer. Steal a Remedy (two on a rare steal); he drops a Star Pendant, a second copy if you got the chest.

The sphere turns out to be a dud as far as the Syndicate is concerned. Yours is the Gagazet Sphere.

Brother, before Shinra

Back on the bridge, talk to Brother first and choose “Comfort him”. Yuna thanks him and it is 0.2%. Talk to Shinra first, or pick “Ignore him”, and Brother joins Shinra’s conversation instead and the scene is lost.

Shinra then plays the sphere and gives you the Black Mage dressphere. You should be at about 6.8% (the save shows 6%). Besaid and the Zanarkand Ruins open as hotspots; Besaid’s boss is weak to ice, so give Black Mage a slot.

International additions on this page

Festivalist from Brother is new to the International release. So is the Creature Creator, which Shinra mentions here: you can trap fiends and fight with them. It is skippable for now; nothing in Chapter 1 depends on it.

Game Notes

The Floating Ruins sit above the Gagazet trail from FFX, and the summit shrine is a hollowed-out cousin of the fayth chambers. It is a good first dungeon precisely because it is a race. X-2 wants you moving, collecting as you go rather than combing every corner, and its first mission tells you so with a clock.

The moogle on Dock 2 is the opposite lesson. The game will remember a thing you did for ten seconds in the first scene and quietly cash it in an hour later. Most of what Story Completion asks of you is exactly that: noticing.