Chapter 2: Infiltrating Bevelle

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.

This mission ends the chapter. Once you start down, you are not coming back up until it is over. If there is anything else on the map you meant to do this chapter — a side job, a town you have not visited, a rest in the cabin — do it now.

The bridge

Pick Bevelle on the map. The guards do not let you in quietly: expect a fight at the gate and more in waves along the bridge. Most of them are machina, so anything that hits machina hard is welcome. Save in the central area once you are through.

Headquarters

Inside, stand on the platform in the middle to open the far wall, cross into the room on the west side, climb up to the level that opened and drop through. Examine the nearer of the two glowing pedestals and the central lift changes course. Ride it down.

The trials

The old Cloister of Trials, but the glowing platforms are plain floor now. Walk every side passage: six chests, and the gil and healing items add up.

The room after it has a Save Sphere, a shop and one more chest. Stock up and save.

The towers

Slide down the chain to the middle and you are in a ring of six towers. Each one starts a fight when you touch it. Activate all six — the blue ones open the way forward, the red ones lower three more platforms beneath.

Do not leave yet. Those lower three platforms can be moved: a red tower selects one, a blue tower turns or flips it. Line all six up into a staircase going down and hop to the bottom for the best accessory in the chapter — it stops every status ailment. It costs a few extra fights. Take it.

Chains behind some of the towers lead out to ledges with three more chests, each guarded by a fight. Then climb back up and carry on.

Deeper down

A short maze of ledges with two chests, then a fork. Right takes a lift to a new Garment Grid; left is where you climb two lit pillars to raise a bridge. Do both.

Next is a room of giant pistons. Stop them with the switch when one lines up with a platform, jump on and climb. Once Rikku takes the controls you can start and stop the machine from anywhere. Three chests here; the two high on the far wall take some fiddling to reach.

Then a room of coloured lifts. Riding a light-blue lift up makes it disappear, and that changes where the dark-blue lift in the middle goes. Light the square blocks each route reaches, then stand on the two raised platforms to wake the lift on the back wall. At the top is a new dressphere. Equip it. It hits hard without needing MP, and it can blind.

Before the last door

Save. Equip that accessory from the towers on whoever matters most, and bring a Thief if you like stealing.

The first fight is against one opponent who answers every tenth change to his HP — including heals — with a heavy hit on whoever made it. He can also freeze people in place and drain MP. Blind him, keep Protect and Shell up, and keep someone immune to Stop if you can.

The second fight follows straight after. It opens by locking your dressphere changes, then runs a fixed pattern: three ordinary attacks, two moves that take a big chunk of everyone’s HP but cannot kill, a countdown, and then a huge hit on the whole party. When you see the big chunks come off, heal everyone to full. Then repeat until it falls.

The end of the chapter

Watch it all. The next chapter starts on the airship.

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

Spoilers from here.

Beating Bahamut at the bottom of Bevelle ends Chapter 2. The mission is a one-way trip: once you ride the lift down from New Yevon Headquarters, you do not surface again until the chapter is over. Clear the list below first.

What Chapter 2 closes

Story Completion scenes are locked to their chapter. Everything Chapter 2 had on offer goes with Bahamut. Before you select Bevelle:

• Every Chapter 2 hotspot scene and mission you have not done. Each one is Story Completion and none comes back.
• The Chapter 2 cabin rest. Yuna has to sleep in the Celsius cabin once every chapter for a Chapter 5 scene.
• O’aka XXIII’s debt. Pay it off now or a Chapter 5 Macalania scene never plays.
• YRP’s tickets. All ten sold at the Moonflow, or the Chapter 5 Moonflow episode is short a scene.
• Thunder Spawn. Chapters 1 and 2 only. Last chance.
• Full Throttle, if you did not get it in Chapter 1: four talks with Tromell at the Macalania Woods spring.
• Kimahri’s question on Mt. Gagazet, second and last chance. Answer it right even if you did in Chapter 1: sources split on whether one right answer is enough for the Trainer dressphere in Chapter 3.
• Cuckoo for Chocobos! If you have not done it, do it now, and finish it without failing: a failed run changes who Rin can blame in the Chapter 5 Highroad mystery.
• Clean Sweep (Alchemist) and Operation: Monkey! both have a second window in Chapter 3. Take this one anyway; Chapter 3 is busy.
• The New Yevon route loses its Bevelle scenes here; on the Youth League route that does not apply.

Chests are a different matter. Unopened chests stay in the world and carry into the next chapter unless the game restocks them, so a chest you skipped elsewhere is not gone at chapter end. The things above are.

The Highbridge and Headquarters

Youth League route: Yevon Guards and a Yevon Defender at the gate, then waves along the bridge. Mostly machina; Gun Mage’s Mech Destroyer clears them fast. Save in the Central area.

In New Yevon Headquarters, step on the central platform to open the far wall, go into the west room, up to the opened level and drop through. Examine the nearer hologram pedestal to reroute the central lift, and ride it down.

Cloister of Trials

Flan Blanco, Skink, Vertigo. The platforms are just walkways now. Six chests: Remedy x3 twice, 3,000 gil, Hi-Potion x4, Potion x8 and Phoenix Down x4. Leave by the southeast exit.

The Antechamber has a Save Sphere, Barkeep’s shop and a Chocobo Feather.

The towers and the Ribbon

After a Leblanc Syndicate scene, explore the northeast edge so Yuna rides the chain down to the middle platform. Two YAC-13 ambush you.

Six towers ring the platform. Activating each one is a fight: YSLS-Zero, Precepts Guard, Georapella. The three blue towers lower the top three platforms to the centre and open the main way on. The three red towers lower three more below them — and those three move. A red tower selects one; a blue tower moves it (one rotates it clockwise, one counter-clockwise, one flips it across), each move with a fight attached. Line all six into a descending staircase and hop down to the room at the bottom for the Ribbon, which also unlocks Treasure Hunter.

Precepts Guard: about 3,680 HP, weak to Holy, immune to Gravity. Opens with Death. Steal Mana Tablet, drops Regen Bangle. Repeated fights can push it to its Oversoul form (about 7,864 HP). Georapella: about 4,420 HP, area -ga spells; Reflect or Shell. Steal Water Gem, drops NulTide Ring.

Do the puzzle now. You want the Ribbon on for the last two fights of the chapter, not afterwards.

Chains behind three towers lead to ledges, each with a machina guard: 500 gil, Glass Buckle and Pearl Necklace.

Labyrinth and the Gaol

Ether x4 on a platform; drop to the lower level on the far side for Remedy x4 tucked to the left. At the split, right takes the lift to Downtrodder (Gravity Eater; Demi and Gravitystrike on the gates; all three for Double HP). Left: climb the two lit pillars to raise the bridge.

In the Gaol, talk to Logos and Ormi on the left. Stop the pistons with the switch when one is level with a platform, jump on and climb. Rikku then runs the machine remotely with the action button. Bloodlust and Wring are high on the far wall — move the pistons until you can reach them. Phoenix Down x5 is on the far left before the exit.

The lift room and Dark Knight

Flan Amarillo, Kukulcan, YAU-28, YSLS-Zero. A wall falls to reveal three lifts: two light-blue, one dark-blue in the middle. Ride a light-blue lift up for a Hi-Potion, walk off the south ledge. That lift is gone, and the dark-blue lift now goes somewhere new; step on the square block there to raise platforms. Repeat with the other light-blue lift. Stand on the two raised platforms to wake the back-wall lift, ride it, and take Dark Knight from the chest on the left.

If you leave without it, the chest is still there in Chapter 3 — but a Dark Knight now makes the next two fights much easier, so do not.

Baralai

Save first. 3,380 HP, no weakness. Every tenth HP change, healing included, triggers Drill Shot on whoever made it. Looming Glacier inflicts Stop and drains MP; Glint hits everyone in range.

• Steal the Charm Bangle. If Logos already dropped one at the Chateau, this is your second.
• Learn Drill Shot: let a Gun Mage make the tenth change. If you miss it, the Chapter 5 Youth League Tournament is the last chance.
• Ribbon or Stopproof on your key character, Darkness from Dark Knight, Protect and Shell. Drops Pearl Necklace.

Bahamut

Into the last room. 8,400 HP, immune to Gravity. The pattern is fixed:

1. Curse — opener only; no dressphere changes for the fight.
2. Three physical attacks.
3. Impulse, twice. Each takes 37.5% of current HP and cannot kill.
4. Countdown, then Mega Flare on the whole party.

Repeat from 2. Impulse is the warning. Heal everyone to full before Mega Flare. Steal Mute Shock before he falls — there is no second Bahamut to steal from. Drops Gris-Gris Bag. The win unlocks Defeating an Old Friend.

If the party is too light for it, there is a Save Sphere behind you and the Labyrinth fiends give decent EXP for a Dark Knight.

Chapter 2 ends

Scenes, the Fiend Tale bonus, and Chapter 3 opens on the Celsius. The ending is worth about 2.6% Story Completion. A clean Youth League run sits at about 44.6% here.