Final Fantasy X | X-2 HD Remaster · FFX-2 walkthrough
Chapter 3: Thunder Plains, Macalania and Bikanel
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 more optional stops. The lake is the one that matters: the dressphere it hands out does not come round again.
Thunder Plains
You walk in from Guadosalam. Three chests in the southern half: north of the first Cactuar Stone, east of the lake, and on the west side between towers 4 and 5. Three more in the north: east of where you come in, east of tower 8, and west of the tower near the old shelter.
Two people may be waiting for you out here depending on what you did earlier. If you see someone you know, talk to them. Wild chocobos run around the plains too, and catching one this chapter is worth doing if you have somewhere to keep it.
Macalania Woods
Go north into the woods. On the tree path one screen in from the south there is a chest at the top of the figure-eight; on the shimmering path, southeast from Lake Road and one more screen south, there is another.
If you rounded up the musicians last time you were here, go to the spring off the upper right of Lake Road and talk to all three. Then look at what they brought with them.
The siege at the lake
Monsters have the travel agency surrounded and you are the help. It is six fights in a row with no break to heal in between, so go in with a full party and plenty of items. Heal during the easier fights, not after them. Some of the enemies change form and get much nastier if a fight drags on, so finish them fast.
Win all six and the people inside hand over a new dressphere, a garment grid and a primer. This is the only time it is offered. Walk away from the shop afterwards for a short scene, then grab the chest to the left of the agency; get as close as you can before pressing the button, or the game turns you back.
Bikanel Desert
Nhadala has a favour to ask when you land. Before anything else: do not dig yet. What you dig up has consequences later, and none of it is worth having now. If something enormous appears while you are poking around, run.
Ask the hover pilot to take you to the cactuar village, answer “That makes perfect sense!”, and talk to the big cactus. She starts a hunt for ten hidden gatekeepers. Six can be found now:
- one at the desert Oasis (talk to the Hypello there first),
- one sunbathing on the beach at Besaid,
- one hiding in a chest in the passageway of the house you searched in Guadosalam,
- two together riding a chocobo on the snowy stretch between the Calm Lands and the mountain,
- one beside a cactuar statue on the Thunder Plains.
Each one plays a little shooting game: fire when it shows itself and hold R1 to dodge. You only get one go, and losing does not end the hunt. Pick them up as you pass through those places; there is no rush.
Worth doing on a first run
How this page was made
Researched across 6 community walkthroughs and written from scratch — no source’s wording appears here.
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.
Berserker is Chapter 3 only. Clear “Secure the Agency!” before you beat Ixion at Djose or it is gone for the run, along with Pride of the Sword and the 0.8% the lake is worth. Everything else here either has a later window or is a consumable.
Two chapter-end deadlines touch this area without living in it:
- Catch a wild chocobo before Chapter 3 ends. It needs Clasko’s ranch open (Clean Sweep). Without one, the Chapter 4 CommSphere scenes at the Chocobo Ranch and the Gagazet hot springs play differently and the ranch line never counts. Chocobos roam the Thunder Plains; feed a Pahsana Green to distract one, clear the other enemies, then a Gysahl Green to catch it.
- Every CommSphere Shinra plants here (Thunder Plains, the woods entrance, the lake agency, the excavation camp, the Cactuar Nation) is a Chapter 4 scene. Visit them all this chapter.
Thunder Plains
South half: Echo Screen x5 north of the first Cactuar Stone, Hi-Potion x2 east of the lake, Safety Bit on the west side between towers 4 and 5. North half: Phoenix Down x3 east of the entrance from the south, Dark Grenade x2 east of tower 8, Ether x3 west of Lian and Ayde’s tower.
Cid is here by the southern lake if you told him “You bet I do!” at the Zanarkand Ruins in Chapter 1. If you said “Not really.”, he is by the Lake Macalania agency instead. One scene either way, 0.2%.
Lian and Ayde sit under the old shelter mid-plains, but only if you met them in the Calm Lands in Chapter 2. They ask where to look for a way to fix Kimahri’s horn: Djose, the Moonflow or Kilika. Answer Kilika. The choice decides which Chapter 4 CommSphere they turn up on, and Kilika is the answer tied to the full-completion route.
Macalania Woods
NulFrost Ring at the top of the figure-eight branch path one screen north of the south entrance; Gold Bracer on the shimmering path, southeast off Lake Road and one screen south. Shinra plants a CommSphere at the woods entrance.
Howling Wind: if you rounded up Tobli’s three musicians in Chapter 2’s “Track Down the Troupe!”, go to the spring off the upper-right of Lake Road, talk to all three, then examine the Spherimorph they have made friends with.
Lake Macalania: “Secure the Agency!”
Six fights in a row at the agency, no healing between them:
- Rhyos and Vertigo
- Barbuta x3
- Flan Blanco and Barbuta
- to 6. the same three again.
Use items freely and heal in the cheap fights. Oversouls are the danger: anything left alive long enough powers up, so burst each group down. There is a brief window between fights to flee if a run is going badly.
Clear all six for Pride of the Sword, then the Al Bhed inside give you the Berserker dressphere and an Al Bhed Primer. Berserker is a counter-and- hit-hard job that is better in niche fights than as a main class, but it is required for the dressphere count.
Step away from the agency for the O’aka scene. It only plays out properly if his debt was cleared in Chapter 2, and that also feeds his Chapter 5 shop. Then the X-Potion chest to the left of the agency: edge as far left as you can before opening it, or the game turns you round. A second lake chest, a Beaded Brooch, exists this chapter that nobody places. Search the lakefront.
Before leaving, check the agency’s Save Sphere and do the Macalania campaign talks at the woods entrance.
Bikanel Desert
Nhadala asks you to escort Benzo to the Cactuar Nation. Shinra plants the excavation camp CommSphere.
Do not dig. Every assembly part you dig up raises the level of the Experiment you fight at Djose in Chapter 5, and one Story Completion line needs it beaten before it reaches its last level. The new Eastern Expanse (a machina ambush that ends the dig) and Northern Expanse (Zu on the first visit) can wait. If Angra Mainyu shows up, run.
The Cactuar Connection
Pick “Cactuar Nation” from the hover pilot, answer “That makes perfect sense!”, and walk up to Marnela (0.4% with the arrival scenes). Shinra puts a second CommSphere here.
Ten gatekeepers; six are out now:
- Lobivia: the Oasis. Talk to the Hypello first.
- Toumeya: sunbathing on the Besaid beach.
- Lobeira: in a chest in one of the rooms off Chateau Leblanc’s hidden passageway (the one with Ormi’s things).
- Areq and 5. Arroja: riding a chocobo together on the snowy stretch between the Calm Lands and Mt. Gagazet.
- Islaya: beside a cactuar statue on the Thunder Plains. Follow the green glow on the minimap.
Each catch is a shooting minigame. Fire when it shows itself, hold R1 to dodge every needle volley, and do not fire early or late: a counter takes bullets equal to its HP and you can run dry. No retries, but losing does not stop the quest. Chapter 3 catches pay out small consumables (Hi-Potion, Remedy, X-Potion, Mega-Potion, Mega Phoenix). Chiapa, Erio, Bartschella and Frailea wait for Chapter 5, as does Jumbo Cactuar.
From here the chapter moves on to Bevelle.
Everything in this area
Thunder Plains
Macalania Woods
Lake Macalania
Bikanel Desert
Cactuar Nation
How this page was made
Researched across 13 community walkthroughs and written from scratch — no source’s wording appears here. 2 are marked where sources disagree with each other — we have not picked a winner for you.