Chapter 3: Mt. Gagazet, Zanarkand and the Djose finale

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.

Three stops. Do Mt. Gagazet and Zanarkand in either order. Djose comes last, because it ends the chapter.

Mt. Gagazet

Talk to Kimahri as soon as you land. If your earlier answers to him went well, he hands Yuna a new dressphere.

Then the mission. The teleporters are down and you have to walk to the top: Mountain Trail, Prominence, the Floating Ruins, and the cave by the Fayth Scar. Switch each teleporter back on as you pass it so you can warp later. You do not have to climb the cliff faces; run straight past them. Save in the cave before you step outside.

The fight at the top is a leader and one or two younger fighters. How many depends on how you treated the Ronso earlier. Put Protect, Shell and Haste on your party, keep someone healing, and steal from all of them before you finish it. You get a garment grid for winning.

Zanarkand

All the chests in the dome, the corridor, the Cloister and the great hall have been refilled since your last visit, sixteen in all, and they are easy to spot along the path. Talk to Isaaru in the hallway before the Cloister.

If you did not finish matching up the monkeys last chapter, this is your last chance. Pick up a monkey with hearts over its head and carry it to the others until it finds its partner. Wrong guesses can cost a little gil. It feels like a joke; it is worth doing anyway.

Before you land at Djose

Djose’s mission ends Chapter 3. Before it:

• Visit every place on the map at least once this chapter.
• Rest in the Celsius cabin.
• Watch every new sphere with Shinra.
• Make sure you picked up the sphere from the floor in Bevelle.

Djose Temple

You get an Al Bhed Primer as the mission starts. Inside the temple, the room on the left has a Remedy on the floor. Up the stairs and through the Cloister, cross the central lift into the back room and jump the gap for a chest. Ride the lift up, head north, and open the chest in the pedestal room before you start pushing. One of the five pedestals clears the stairs; the rest start fights. Which one is random.

The boss absorbs lightning and is weak to water. One attack takes most of a character’s current HP, and every few turns it charges up for a big hit on the whole party: heal before that one lands. Steal before you finish it.

The ending scene

When control comes back and Yuna says she is all alone, keep tapping the confirm button until you hear four whistles. Then save. Chapter 4 starts next.

Completionist mode. Full spoilers, in play order, with every permanent loss called out before you reach it. 3 entries below are marked where our sources disagree with each other — we have not picked a winner for you.

Spoilers from here.

Beating Ixion at Djose ends Chapter 3. Read the “Before you land at Djose” list below first, and treat it as a hard stop. Chapter 4 locks almost the whole map, so nothing on that list can be fixed later.

Mt. Gagazet

Kimahri and the Trainer

Shinra sets a CommSphere in a corner as you land. Talk to Kimahri. If your answers to his worries in Chapters 1 and 2 were the right ones, he gives Yuna the Trainer dressphere — Kogoro for Yuna, Ghiki for Rikku, Flurry for Paine. It is weak next to the other jobs and still counts for the dressphere collection. How forgiving the condition is varies by source: most say one right answer in either chapter is enough, one wants the right answer in both, and one counts only Chapter 2. There is no fix on this file.

Battle Blockade

Pick “Let’s go” to start. Garik has disabled the teleporters, so you hike: Mountain Trail, Prominence, Floating Ruins, then the cave by the Fayth Scar. Turn each teleporter back on as you pass. Run straight past the cliffs; you do not need to scale them. Any Floating Ruins chests you left in Chapter 2 are still where you left them.

Garik Ronso and the Ronso Youth

Your Ronso rapport in Chapters 1 and 2 decides the shape of the fight. Good standing: one Youth, and Garik only buffs himself. Poor standing: two Youths with MP Blowout, which empties one character’s MP, and Garik opening with Mighty Guard (Dispel it). Bane Lance curses; a Black Mage in a Gris-Gris Bag is immune and draws every Bane Lance onto herself. Darkness Dance from a Songstress blunts the Youths.

Mighty Guard for the Gun Mage is the steal-adjacent prize here. On the easy version Garik never casts it on his own, so have a Dark Knight Confuse him; when he throws Mighty Guard on your Gun Mage, she learns it. This is the fight to learn it in.

Winning pays Wishbringer, and the game ferries you to the Celsius.

Zanarkand Ruins

Isaaru is in the hallway before the Cloister; talk to him for the Zanarkand Story Completion line. Every chest in the ruins is restocked for this chapter:

• Dome: Dispel Tonic x2, Phoenix Down x3.
• Corridor: Hi-Potion x3, S-Bomb x2, Stamina Spring, Remedy x2.
• Cloister of Trials: Mana Spring x2, Lunar Curtain x2, 2,000 gil, Light Curtain x2.
• Great Hall: Remedy x4, Hi-Potion x3, Phoenix Down x3, Remedy x3, Ether x3, Mythril Bangle.

Operation: Monkey! — last chance

If you did not finish it in Chapter 2, finish it now. Twelve pairs of monkeys loiter around the ruins. Pick up one with hearts over its head and carry it to the others; offer it until the right partner falls for it. A wrong offer can lose you some gil. It gives no Story Completion on its own, but pairing every monkey unlocks a Chapter 5 Zanarkand scene that does. When Ixion dies, the window is gone.

Before you land at Djose

Everything below closes when the Djose mission ends. Check it off first.

• Crimson Sphere 1, on the Bevelle floor after the Malboro. Den of Woe.
• Crimson Sphere 4, Chateau Leblanc Hidden Passageway. Den of Woe.
• Crimson Records 1 and 4, watched with Shinra. Both are Story Completion.
• Berserker: all six “Secure the Agency!” bouts at Lake Macalania.
• Undying Storm: seven machina during “Machina Mayhem!” on the Highroad.
• Trainer (above), and Wishbringer and Mighty Guard from Garik.
• Operation: Monkey! (above).
• A captured chocobo, for Clasko’s Ranch scene in Chapter 4.
• The Kilika camera operator, second of three talks for Invincible.
• Rest in the Celsius cabin. A Chapter 5 scene needs a rest in every chapter.
• Every location visited this chapter. Shinra’s CommSpheres go in as you land; a place you skipped has no CommSphere in Chapter 4, and its scenes — most of Chapter 4’s Story Completion — never play.
• Publicity past 400. Chapter 4 has one top-up, on the Moonflow road.
• The first six Cactuars of “The Cactuar Connection”.
• Lady Luck from beating Shinra at Sphere Break. Not fatal: Chapter 5 has a rematch.
• Squatter Monkeys in Kilika (Chaos Maelstrom) can also wait for Chapter 5.

The target before Djose is 57.4%; Chapter 3 should close at 59.6%.

Djose Temple: No Way, Djose!

An Al Bhed Primer arrives as the mission starts. Shinra places his last CommSphere inside the first doorway.

• Remedy on the floor of the living quarters, west of the foyer stairs.
• Stamina Spring in the Cloister: cross the central lift into the room with the sparks and jump the gap of machine parts.
• Wristband on the upper level, north of the lift, in the pedestal room. Take it before you start pushing.

Five pedestals; push them back into their alcoves. One clears the stairs and the other four start fights. The correct one is random per playthrough.

Ixion

It cycles Aerospark (62.5% of one target’s current HP) several times, recharges a little HP and MP, then lands Thor’s Hammer for heavy damage on everyone. Heal to full before the Hammer. Thundara is its only lightning move, so NulShock Rings help less than they look. Open with Mighty Guard or Shell and Protect, Break its stats with a Warrior (unlike Yojimbo, it takes them), and hit it with Water, Watera, Waterga or Water Gems. Steal the Sprint Shoes first; there is a second pair in a Calm Lands chest this chapter if you miss them.

Afterwards: Unwavering Guard, the Soul of Thamasa drop, and Crimson Spheres 2 and 3 during the closing scenes.

The four whistles

Yuna falls through into the Farplane. When she says “I’m all alone…”, tap the confirm button repeatedly until you hear all four whistles and she climbs the green stair. It is a Story Completion line. Do one more Fiend Tale Bonus if you are counting them, then save.