Zanarkand 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.

This page tells you what to do and what to pick up. It deliberately says nothing about what you see or learn once you are inside the dome. Let that happen to you.

Before you go in

Stock up while you still can. You want Phoenix Downs (twenty or more), Remedies and Holy Water. Armour that blocks Darkness, Silence, Confusion and Berserk is worth having on hand, along with something to swap it in and out.

The ruins

You make camp at the edge of the ruins. Save afterwards.

The path across the overpass has two chests: a Fortune Sphere on a bend, and armour for Rikku on a small platform on the left a little further on. Save again at the sphere by the dome’s entrance.

Inside the dome

The robed fiends in here are undead: a Phoenix Down kills them outright. That is the cheapest way through every fight with them.

Four chests on the way to the Cloister. Look on the upper level after the tunnel (turn back on yourself), down the right-hand path past the Save Sphere, on the lower level reached by doubling back after the small bridge, and on the right just inside the corridor at the end. Two of them are spheres you will want badly: a Friend Sphere and a Lv. 3 Key Sphere.

The Cloister of Trials

The last Cloister is a pattern puzzle, not a sphere-carrying one.

1. Step on the panel at the front. Shapes appear on the screen. Walk the floor tiles that build the same shapes — tiles light up as you step on them, and a wrong one resets that pattern.
2. Six pedestals rise. The four in the corners push into the wall; each one sets a new pattern on the screen in the second room. Solve all four, in any order.
3. Two coloured spheres are now waiting beside the screen in the second room. Carry the red one to the empty pedestal on the left of the first room, and the light-blue one to the right.
4. Save at the Save Sphere that appears. Then go through.

There is a chest hidden in this Cloister that you cannot reach yet. Do not spend time looking for it.

The guardian

The fight takes place on a ring of six glyphs, and you can move characters between them with a command. Its counterattack hits the three glyphs in front of it, so keep the party spread out. When it arms a glyph with a mine, step off before its next turn — anyone standing on it dies. Its tail can send a character berserk; cure it or wear armour that blocks it. Protect, then magic.

Save afterwards.

The last fight here

This one has three stages, and each heals the boss fully.

• First stage: hitting it physically can blind the attacker; casting at it can silence the caster. Darkproof and Silenceproof armour, Remedies and Holy Water. Cast Haste on everyone.
• Second stage: it opens by afflicting your whole party with Zombie. Zombied characters are hurt by healing, so it starts healing you. Cure the Zombie status where you need to — but read the next point first.
• Third stage: it opens with an attack that instantly kills anyone who is not a zombie. Before you finish the second stage, make sure at least one character still has Zombie, or have an aeon out to take the hit. Then revive, cure, and finish it with everything you have.

Before you leave the room

When the fight is over, walk to the back and go down either staircase. You are moved to the top of the other one, and a chest appears. Open it now. If you walk out without it, getting it back later is very hard.

Then keep following the story out.

How this page was made

Researched across 7 community walkthroughs and written from scratch — no source’s wording appears here.

How we decide what to print

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

Spoilers from here.

One thing to do before you leave: take the Sun Crest. After Yunalesca, go down either staircase at the back of the Beyond; you are warped to the other stairs and a chest appears. If you walk out without it, Dark Bahamut — one of the hardest Dark Aeons — guards that room on every later visit, and the crest is behind him.

Everything else here comes back by airship. The Magistral Rod cannot be taken on this visit at all.

The ruins

The campfire scene at the edge of the ruins: Tidus, the party and the last night before the end of the pilgrimage. Save.

• Fortune Sphere — the left bend of the overpass.
• Spiritual Targe — on a small platform further along. Rikku, MP Stroll.

Save at the dome entrance. A figure at the door welcomes Yuna as the next summoner — the first of many memories left in the dome by those who came before.

The dome

Fallen Monks are undead. Phoenix Down kills them in one.

• 10,000 gil — upper level past the tunnel; turn back on yourself.
• Friend Sphere — right-hand (east) dead end past the Save Sphere. A memory of young Seymour and his mother plays nearby.
• Lv. 3 Key Sphere — lower level, back down past the small bridge, as the memory of Braska, Auron and Jecht walks past.
• Luck Sphere — right side, inside the corridor before the Cloister stairs.

Learn Holy now if you can. A Lv. 3 Key Sphere plus a Return or Teleport Sphere puts it within reach for Yuna or Rikku, and it is the best spell for the next two fights.

The Cloister of Trials

Pattern-matching on floor tiles. A wrong tile resets the current pattern; the tiles inside a pattern can be walked in any order, and so can the four corner puzzles.

1. Room one. Step on the start panel; walk the tiles that build the shapes on the screen. Six pedestals rise and the door opens.
2. Corner pedestals. Push each of the four corner pedestals into the wall. Each sets a new pattern on the screen in room two; solve it there. The two middle pedestals do not move.
3. Spheres. From beside the screen in room two, take the Kilika Sphere (red, left side) to the left middle pedestal in room one, then the Besaid Sphere (light blue, right side) to the right middle pedestal. All six glyphs light up and a Save Sphere appears. Save.
4. Entering room two starts the boss.

Spectral Keeper

52,000 HP. Steal: Ether (Turbo Ether rare). Drop: Lv. 4 Key Sphere.

Six glyphs in a ring, and a Move trigger command. Every time you attack, it counters the three glyphs it faces — keep one empty glyph between characters so it can hit at most two. Glyph Mine arms a glyph; whoever stands on it when it goes off on the boss’s next turn is KO’d. Berserk Tail berserks one character (Berserk Ward blocks it). No elemental weakness. Protect, Mental Break, then Lulu and Overdrives. Tidus’s Provoke turns it to face him, which makes positioning easier.

The Destruction Sphere (later)

Not on this visit. Come back once the airship’s NavMap is open:

1. Find and step on the seven floor panels that light white squares — three in room one, four in room two.
2. The Destruction Sphere appears on a pedestal in room one.
3. Set it in the recess to the right of the screen in room two. The screen shatters and reveals a chest: Magistral Rod, Yuna, Half MP Cost.

This is the last of the six Destruction Sphere chests. Bevelle’s is the only one that can be lost for good; whether a skipped Bevelle chest leaves its Baaj statue dark, and so costs Anima, is disputed.

The Great Hall and the Fayth

The last memory: Braska, Jecht and Auron arguing over the cycle, and Jecht saying he will think of something. Then the Chamber of the Fayth, which is empty — the fayth here is long gone, and Lady Yunalesca is waiting in the Beyond to grant the Final Summoning by turning one of Yuna’s guardians into the fayth. Yuna refuses.

Yunalesca

Charge Overdrives and save. Darkproof (or Dark Ward) on physical attackers, Silenceproof on Yuna and Lulu. Bring Remedies, Holy Water and twenty-plus Phoenix Downs.

HP: 24,000 / 48,000 / 60,000 across three forms; each form refills. Steal: Stamina Tablet (Farplane Wind rare). Drop: Lv. 3 Key Sphere.

• Form one. Physical hits draw a Darkness counter, magic a Silence counter, other actions Sleep. She Dispels and Absorbs. Hastega early; Holy hurts. Reflect on the party bounces her status spells — drop it before form two.
• Form two. Opens with Hellbiter: Zombie on everyone. She then heals you with Cura, Curaga and Regen, which now damage you. Dispel the Regen. Remember that Phoenix Down and Life KO a zombie.
• Form three. Opens with Mega Death: everyone not Zombied dies instantly. Leave Zombie on at least one character going in — or have an aeon on the field, which it cannot kill. Then revive, Holy Water the zombies that need healing, and finish her. She also uses Mind Blast (Confusion, or Curse on aeons) and Osmose on aeons.

Yojimbo’s Zanmato does not skip her — it pushes her to the next form unless she is already in the third.

Before you leave the Beyond

Sun Crest. Walk down either staircase at the back; you appear at the top of the other one and a chest appears. Tidus’s crest for Caladbolg. The Sun Sigil is the chocobo trainer’s 0:0.0 race in the Calm Lands.

Save in the Great Hall. Auron and Tidus talk on the way out. Sin rises as you leave, and the airship arrives.

The airship and the Highbridge

• On the bridge, walk to the back and talk to Yuna, who is with Kimahri at the window. The scenes that follow set out the plan: Mika will know more, and the Hymn of the Fayth can calm Sin.
• Talk to Cid to open the NavMap. Every place you have been is now a destination.
• Fly to the Highbridge. Shelinda gets the party in; Mika tells you that Yu Yevon is the true enemy and Sin is its armour, and then he fades. The fayth explain the rest.
• Back aboard, Sin sits at the top of the NavMap. That is the start of the next chapter, and the last good moment to take stock: the airship chapter lists every sidequest and what closes when.

How this page was made

Researched across 10 community walkthroughs and written from scratch — no source’s wording appears here.

How we decide what to print