Chapter 1: Besaid, Kilika and Luca

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.

From here the map opens up. Several places are marked as hotspots — those have a mission waiting — and the rest you can simply fly to. One rule covers the whole chapter: the chapter ends when you finish its last required mission, and almost everything optional ends with it. The game tells you clearly which mission that is. Until then, wander.

Besaid is required. Kilika and Luca are not, and both are worth the fifteen minutes.

Besaid

Walk up to the village and the story takes over for a while. When Lulu asks if you are staying the night, say yes. In the morning, talk to her outside and the mission starts.

The shop in the village will try to sell you a key for 900,000 gil. Laugh and move on.

The mission sends you looking for four ciphers — numbers on stones around the island, marked on your minimap. They are random for every player, and the game remembers them for you, so there is nothing to write down. On the way:

• At the waterfall with the wooden bridge, keep left and drop off the back of the bridge to the riverbed. There is a chest down there.
• On the beach, climb the ruins by the child. After the cipher, go round the back and drop into the alcove behind them for two more chests.

Enter the ciphers at the cave on the path down to the beach. Inside, there is a second locked wall near the entrance — leave it, you cannot open it yet. Take the side path for a chest, then jump across the platforms to the Save Sphere.

Save, and put the Black Mage on someone before you touch the sphere on the pedestal. The boss breathes fire over the whole party every few turns; heal after each one. It hates ice. Blizzard, over and over, ends it quickly.

You come away with a new healer dressphere and, from Wakka afterwards, a garment grid.

Kilika

Optional, short, and easy to skip. Do not skip it.

The south docks have five chests, two of them out on the boats by the Save Sphere where you land. Across the bridge on the far side of the docks, a woman with a child and a monkey will ask you a favour you cannot do yet. Say yes now — you will be back.

Head north. As you walk up to the hut at the top, someone comes flying out of the door. Go inside and talk to the woman who threw him. Both of those moments count toward your percentage. Then climb onto the roof of her hut for a chest.

On the eastern docks, a man with a camera offers you a look. Say “Okay, thanks!” It is the first of three visits, a chapter apart, and the last one pays very well.

There are four more chests among the huts in the north. Then leave.

Luca

Fly to Luca and a short, silly mission starts the moment you land: Yuna, still in costume, has balloons to hand out. The worker who gives them to you is by the stall southeast of the statue in the square. Give one to everybody in the plaza except the child running around and the soldier in green. Two of them are behind the glass in the northwest corner.

If you stopped for the moogle on the docks in the opening, you will see why it mattered here.

After that:

• A chest at the bottom of the stairs where you landed.
• Dock 5, southeast of the stadium entrance: go round to the back of the dock and into the gap behind the cargo. The garment grid in that chest is only around for a short while. Take it now.
• In the stadium basement, find Rin at the end of a corridor. He has an Al Bhed Primer and a new game to tell you about.
• In the other basement corridor, a man explains the game and gives you some coins. You can quit the tutorial; it matters later.

Game Notes

Besaid, Kilika and Luca were the first three stops of the pilgrimage, and X-2 sends you back to all three in the first hour on purpose. Same docks, same huts, same stadium — different crowd, different mood.

Pay attention to who is still where you left them and what they are doing now. The game is built on that, and the islands are its first proof.

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.

Everything optional on this page closes when Chapter 1 ends, and Chapter 1 ends when you beat YSLS-Zero at Kilika Temple, at the end of “Awesome Sphere Heist!”. That mission does not appear until Besaid and the Zanarkand Ruins are done, so you cannot stumble into it — but once it is on the map, finish everything else first. Order between these three islands does not matter.

Chests in X-2 are not tied to a chapter the way scenes are. An unopened chest stays put and, at most, is replaced by a better version later. The scenes are the losses. Thunder Spawn is the one item here with a deadline.

Besaid: “Where’s Wakka?”

The arrival, the reunion, Lulu’s hut and the walk to the Promontory all play in sequence; together with the cave they are about 2.2% and you cannot miss them. Answer “Yes, I’d love to” to “Staying the night?”, then talk to Lulu outside in the morning.

The Besaid Key is on sale in the village shop as a rare find for 900,000 gil. Do not bother: someone in the Calm Lands gives it to you in Chapter 3. It opens the temple chest holding the Search Sphere, which finds the second set of ciphers for the cave.

Ciphers. Four, random per save, entered automatically once found: the stone on the Promontory, the top of the broken column at the ruins, the top of the beach ruins by the child, and the cliff at the southwest corner of the beach.

Chests:

• Chocobo Wing x2 — Waterfall Way, drop off the back-left of the wooden bridge to the riverbed.
• Hi-Potion and 1,000 gil — the hidden alcove behind the beach ruins.
• Potion x2 — in the cave, the side path at the first intersection.
• Ether — the cave’s second chest. If it is out of reach, waiting costs nothing: the chest carries forward and holds more Ethers later.

The second cipher-locked door in the cave cannot be opened yet. It needs the Besaid Key and the Search Sphere, both Chapter 3 pickups, and Raging Giant is behind it. It is covered with the Chapter 3 Calm Lands section, where the key comes from.

Boss: Flame Dragon

980 HP, weak to ice, resists fire. Flame Breath hits everyone for roughly 100–200 at this level and is the whole fight; its basic attack goes for whoever has the most HP. Black Mage Blizzard or a Warrior with Ice Brand, Darkness Dance if you want the breath to miss more, heal after every breath. Equipping the Red Ring from the Floating Ruins helps. Steal a Hi-Potion (two on a rare steal); it drops a Red Ring.

Take the White Mage dressphere from the pedestal, save, and walk back to Wakka for the Besaid Sphere and the Protection Halo grid. You should be at about 9%.

Kilika: the short visit

Kilika is not a hotspot yet, which is why it is so easy to skip. The scenes here are Chapter 1 scenes. Some guides put Dona on the later mission visit instead; both visits fall inside Chapter 1, and doing her now settles it.

South docks, five chests: Ether and Mana Tablet on the boats by the Save Sphere where you land, then Antidote x2, Eye Drops x2 and Phoenix Down along the docks.

Squatter Monkeys. Across the bridge, the woman with a child and a monkey. Talk to her before you ever enter Kilika Woods on the Chapter 1 mission, or the quest does not start. Now is easiest; she is still on the docks when you come back for that mission. The thirteen monkeys are caught on the return leg of that mission. Not required for 100%.

Dona’s hut in Kilika Port North:

• Barthello gets thrown out of the door as you approach — 0.2%.
• Dona inside, once he has gone — 0.2%.
• 1,500 gil on the roof.

The camera operator on the eastern docks. Answer “Okay, thanks!” to “Go ahead, take a look!”. This is visit one of three, Chapters 1, 3 and 5; all three pay the Invincible accessory in Chapter 5, which carries Break Damage Limit. Skip this one and the chain is broken. No Story Completion either way.

Kilika Port North, four more chests: Light Curtain, Holy Water x2, Star Curtain, Lunar Curtain.

Kilika’s arrival is worth about 0.2% on its own.

Luca: “Behind the Scenes”

Luca is optional in Chapter 1, and it is the stop with the most riding on it. Landing starts the mission: Yuna is back in the moogle suit, and the game replays the concert from the side you did not see.

Get ten balloons from the concert worker by the vendor booth southeast of the statue. Every plaza resident gets one except the running child and the green patrolling soldier. Two recipients are behind the glass wall in the northwest corner. The tenth balloon pays Healing Wind (Cure; Cura and Curaga through its gates).

The moogle payoff. If Rikku talked to the Dock 2 moogle during the opening, an extra flashback plays here: Rikku on the docks, and Yuna’s line “Rikku sure was having fun.” That is the 0.2% the moogle bought you, and it is the one the Perfect Ending needs. Without the moogle, nothing plays and nothing tells you.

Thunder Spawn. From the stadium entrance go southeast to Dock 5, round the left side to the back, and into the gap behind the cargo. Thunder, Lightning Eater, Thundara and Thundaga behind its gates. The missables lists close it after Chapter 2; one walkthrough says the chest is there in Chapter 5. Take it now and the question never comes up.

Lunar Curtain x2 — the chest on the ledge at the bottom of the stairs where you land.

Rin, at the end of the Basement A corridor in the stadium: “Ah, the Lady Yuna.” is 0.2%, and he hands over an Al Bhed Primer. If you leave without him, one walkthrough has Rin’s entry in Shinra’s Dossiers on the Celsius playing the same line. Do not rely on it.

Sphere Break. The man in the other locker-room corridor explains the rules and gives you five each of Helm, Zurvan, Coyote and Flan coins. You can quit the practice game. The real tournament is in Chapter 3, and Lady Luck is its prize.

Luca’s scenes come to about 1.6% in all. From Town Limits the stairs lead up to the Mi’ihen Highroad, which is the next page.

Game Notes

The balloon mission is a small joke with a structural point. The Chapter 1 opening was told from Leblanc’s side of the deception; Behind the Scenes tells it from Yuna’s, in the same costume, in the same square. X-2 does this all the way through — the same places, revisited a chapter later, with the context changed.

The moogle flashback is the joke’s punchline and the game’s first test. It costs ten seconds in the opening and is worth one of the scenes the best ending needs. Most players learn about it from the ending they did not get.