I find that as the story is explained, Auron grows more and more annoying, even over his exceptionally annoying intro in Luca, and I was wishing for a mentor figure who could at least back up his attitude instead of still being the weakest link in the party thirty hours of play later, when he's at the end of his normal area of the sphere grid and moving into Tidus' section. His damage with a +18% STR weapon tops out around 5000, and unlike the others he doesn't have anything else to do except be a human shield, which doesn't do much good when even boss battles are more of a challenge to get averyone rotated out so they get a share in the XP before finishing than to keep from dying, due to my heavy-assualt magic setup (Wakka waited at the lv2 lock into the end of Lulu's grid until after the Spherimorph battle, handled with summons, by whiich time he had enough to go all the way around to Flare.
Having spent a lot of time playing Blitzball in Luca, I had Teleport Spheres to pull Kimahri, Lulu, and Yuna over to Flare and since K and L hadn't moved previously either they both rolled back the other way, Lulu into Wakka's grid and Kimahri into Lulu's, backwards, while Wakka teleported over to Kimarhi's start point and worked down to the start of Rikku's for Steal and the first Magic+, ten back again and through that Lv2 lock into the end of Yuna's grid to get to Curaga, and is now one stop shy of Holy. Lulu is a few spaces away from Osmose, at which time she's heading over to the middle of Tidus' grid, were he went through Slowga and then down to the beginning of Yuna's. Rikku is already done with her grid, and has now zapped over to Flare to pick up some magic mojo...
Order of battle is Tidus/Wakka/Rikku first out, with Tidus having a First Strike weapon and Rikku an Inititive weapon. Tidus casts Hastega if the enemies are immune to Slow or Slowga if they aren't, the others steal, Tidus casts Hastega and the others steal, Tidus starts doing the shuffle with the other four, first Auron because he's useless, then the three Big Bad Mojo casters, whose Magic stats are closing on 70 having beaten Seymour again at Mt Gagazet, all of whom have been getting 9999's from Flare since the beginning against enemies with normal levels of Magic Defense, and on the -ga series since the battle at Bikanel. Just call me Nukie I guess... or Captain Stompa. Now that Lulu has whatever the weapon upgrade is called that burns double MP for extra spell damage she's getting 7000+ against the high-M.Def Grenades on Gagazet. I've currently gone back to the Clam Lands to train until I have the gil to get Yojimbo - having stompa'd the boss battle in the cavern without even gotten to end of the character roster to switch out Yuna and summon.
Granted, the party is hardly uber when the stats can go to 255, but they haven't even gotten to Zanarkand yet, and true uberization requires lots of gil to use in the Monster Arena, to bribe for items to make expensive weapons and sell for even more gil and buy Clear Spheres to get rid of the crappy stuff in the beginning parts of the character grids and replace them with +4 stats, +40 MPs, and +300 HPs. I need to check and see if I have three Lv4 keys to get into Ultima, too, now that I think of it.
As a side note, I think calling the summons "Aeons" is a mutated-in-translation thing - there's a Japanese word meaning "eternal" that sounds like "eon," and calling them "Eternals" would make so much more sense...
Anyway, I guess that's CD's Tips for Kicking Ass in FFX. In chronological order: (and having gorwm as I keep thinking things to the main body instead of a summary...)
First, general rule: with the exception of Tidus, who learns new Overdrive moves by using his over and over (I beleive it's 85 times to get Blitz Ace, his last one) get all the characters' guages charged and leave them charged, for use in boss battles. Only use them a couple of times each otherwise in order to know how they work, so you can reasonably expect to pull them off in the boss battle - Wakkas are probably the most annoying, but Lulu's are close (espescially since I have to use an analog controller for it, rather than my beloved old PSX mini-batwing, buttons-only controller) and the reccomended way of pulling off Fury is to take the controller in a pistol-like grip in your left hand, put the palm of your right on the right analogue stick, then shake your arms as if mixing paint so the combination motion quickly spins the stick. I can usually get 7 or 8 hits using this method, once 11.
Don't miss the save shpere on the highway when you're with Auron at the beginning - it's hidden behind the boss corpse and there's more fighting to be done. When you get to the ruins and a re swimming around, find the Al Bhed Compilation Sphere, then the save pint, and save an extra copy of your game in the last slot on your card - if you decide to restart playing, you can go to this savegame first, use the sphere, and copy as much of the Al Bhed as you've gotten primers for into the new game.
Those piranha under the al bhed ship at the beginning? They're your freinds, ewven if they do want to eat you. Keep fighting them and going back up for potions from that guy on deck until Tidus learns the Slayer Overdrive style, then until he gets at least Slice & Dice overdrive (preferably Energy Rain) by using it. For that matter, go down and back and get some more potions until you have 99 of them, too. The fish die easy and do only small damge. This will also get him ahead some on the shpere grid, the faster he gets to Haste the sooner you learn of its awe inspiring ownage. Only have Rikku steal at first, until you have 99 grenades, because they cost 300 gil each. She''l have a full OD gauge before long too, but there's no point in using it until the boss battle in those underwater ruins.
On Besaid, make sure you get Yuna's improved weapon with the Destruction Sphere in the Cloister of Trials, so you can get the Sensor enhancement in Aeon battles. Also, know that using Tidus's "Flee" command still counts as being in a battle for the purposes of growing your summons, and is very much quicker than actually fighting. Keep doing it until Valafor's HP are over 1000 (I think it's 1005) and let everyone get munched enough to have full overdrive guages, including both Yuna and Valefor. If you're really patient, get Valefor doing around 700hp with her basic Attack move on a dingo. Make sure you talk to the girl in the shop and then get the slobbery unidentifiable thing from her dog in the weaver's hut before leaving Besaid, it's Valefor's second, more powerful and much cooler Overdrive attack. Make sure to heal using Yuna instead of potions, then you're ready to get on the boat, first go to the shop in Besaid and sell them all. Don't worry, you won't need them in between. Flee from battle on the way back down to the beach if you need to, but Yuna's MP should hold out to get you there. Swim in the bay and get the Moon Crest (I think) formt he treasure chest off to the right in a little alcove before leaving, too. Don't advance Lulu at all, run Kimarhi up the little leg toward Tidus and Yuna if you like, and only move Wakka to where he's in position to unlockt he Lv2 to the middle of Lulu's grid. Yuna, Tidus, Auron and Rikku can all profitably stay in their own tracks for a while at least. Talk to everyone on the dock, because the give you stuff.
In the cabin where you resume on the boat, there's suitcase that drops a potion when you kick it, until you have 20 of them. 20 potions is more than you'll need, by a considerable margin. Make sure you have some free time before starting the boss battle on the boat - you're going to heroically distract Sin from Kilika for about three and a half hours. I hope you have an aftermarket controller with autofire for this BTW, or your thumb is going to be REALLY sore. When the battle starts, immediately shuffle Yuna back out and have everyone attack the sinscales once, then bring her back out and call Big Bird. Make sure the cursor is on "attack" and just keep hitting X; since Valefor is airborne the scales' claws can't reach, and only one of them charges the range attack at once - always the first in series, meaning it's the one the targeting cursor falls on first, and since one attack from Valefor does around 250hp and they only have 200, they never get an attack off. Do NOT use Valefor's OD on the scales. Every now and then the fin will move and drag the boat around, but that has no effect. (If you were extra patient above, every hit will be an Overkill which gives better XP - if not, only about one in three will be crits and hence overkills) The battle can only go for 3:30:00 or maybe 3:45:00 if you're feeling brave, because around 3:50:?? or so the game will freeze - probably from keeping track of so many kills, with the average time being thirty seconds to dispose of three sinscales and have the next batch pop up, ready for killin'. When the time comes, use Valefor's OD on the fin, and you should get an overkill there, too. The second boss underwater isn't too tough, just blind it with Wakka, Haste Tidus at least, both preferably, and use Energy Rain to damage it and kill all its scales, then kill another couple scales to get another OD gauge and do it again, while Wakka throws potions as needed, blows his weak OD, and otherwise bounces his little squeaky ball off the boss. Just remeber to keep it blinded, Darkness wears off after three boss turns.
Make sure to confront Lord Ocha and immediately flee in Kilika before going to the temple, to get Pheonix Downs from one of the Crusaders. There's no need to actually fight him until later, though. Yellow elements are good for recharging everyone's OD guages here, for much the same reasons as the piranha were your freinds before. Spending time training here is annoying due to the bees and their poison, but if you can get a Lightningstrike weapon from the elementals for Tidus or Kimahri (a 1/128 drop, granted, and then it might be for Yuna or Lulu) it'll be a big help, but not really neccesary. Many people will give you stuff here, too, including the barmaid if you save her sister from the damaged stilt-house.
Don't go near the front of the second boat until you've talked to everyone and saved, because you NEED to win the Jecht Shot Challenge before proceeding to Luca. Also, you should spot Oaka some gil to keep him around, but no more than 2500 or so (100 will be fine for now) and keep at least 6000 for yourself.
When Yuna springs you from the locker room, go around the docks to collect goodies and buy (at least) the Stunning Steel from Oaka, which will be your new best freind, as it casts Slow on enemies about half the time. If you didn't get an electric weapon for Kimahri on Kilika, you can get one now, IIRC. Explore the rest of Luca, but don't go in the bar until you're done and have used the save sphere again. Once the machina attack begins, get to the save sphere on the docks, use it, then keep running in circles to fight more machina until you've got 50 or so Hi-Potions, more if you have the patience. Use the save sphere as needed to top back up. For the boss, a Thunder Rage should get the crane started, then Tidus' trigger command using it will make the Oblitzerator easy pickings.
You want general Blitzball advice, go read a FAQ. The Aurochs suck and while you can win the match, it's not really worth the effort. Once they're done, go out to the Mi'ihen Highroad save sphere so you can play Blitz, use the 'reset' option on the Blitz screen until the League prizes are a Teleport Sphere and a Return Sphere for high scorer, then train for a while right there by the sphere. When you get around 12,000 gil, go back down, and into the bar, where you should hire the girl in the maroon jacket and knee pants, Shuu, then out to the fountain, where Jumal is sitting, then back toward the stadium. Hire the reporter girl in the middle of the bridge, then the guy with the brown uniform and pink belt at the stadium gates, then Zev Ronso on the dock to the right of the gates. Jassu and Letty are the only Aurochs worth keeping, Jassu to stay on defense for now, Letty to warm the bench and not be annoying on another team. Wedge will probably be benchwarming too, but if not Shaami will - hire everyone for 11 games, except whichever of those two you don't plan on using yourself - six will do for them, and you can in fact wait until after game 4 and hire them for 4 then, both saving more gil and being more sure they won't be used against you. Go back tot the Auroch's locker room and get the Jupiter Sigil, I think it is... from Wakka's locker.
Save in two slots, then start the league season. If your first game is against the Psyches, reset the PS2 and try again - the Glories, Fangs, or Beasts are best, the Goers workable, but the Psyches will eat you alive unless your players have had time to level up. For the first half, your only goal is to pass to Tidus and get him to make two successful passes, then to Zev and the other forward as much as possible - put Shuu in the other forward position for now, Zev as center, Jassu defense behind Tidus, Shaami or Wedge in the other defense slot, Jumal in goal. Putting the forward in back makes it easier to pass to and form them a lot without attracting the other team, and Shaami actually doesn't do too bad in defense normally, thoguh she's better as 'forward defense' due to how the game sorts players during a confrontation.
Anyway, get Tidus his two passes so he'll have the use of a technique in the second half, and generally keep the ball away from the other team. Make sure your set Tidus' technique to Jecht Shot instead of Sphere Shot when it becomes available, for that matter, and for other players equip tackles first, Tackle Slip second, then Passes, then Shots - for Jumal, Super Goalie then Grip Gloves, if he ever gets enough XP for Lv7. After you win, save in one of the two slots, then play again - the second slot is insurance against the Psyches being your second game, as once the season is started the order of games is permanent. Keep checking whenever there's a tournament available, if the top prize is "_____ Reels" or "____ Crest" you'll need to play it, and remember that you'll need more gil when contract renewal time comes up to finiah out the league season afterward. It hardly needs saying, but only shoot with Tidus, and as often as he has hit points for the Jecht Shot, getting right up in the goal first so there's next to no chance of getting caught, except by Nimrook, who will always catch you unless yor shot is at least two points higher (with the Jecht Shot bonus) than his catch, at which point about half of them will get in. Never pick "Keep Playing" after you win a game, always go back out and save first. After winning the season, go train some more, reset the league data until you have the desired prizes, ad do it again. Note that one of the ____ Reels items is a League prize and that once it comes up you have to play that season. Also, there's some kind of stats-fiddling going on during that season, either yours are lower or the opponents are higher or both, so expect it to be tough. When Yuna is far enough in her grid to get Cura, you can go on down the Mi'ihen Highroad to the Travel Agency. Talk to everyone on the road, they give you stuff.
When the boss fight starts, switch everyone through, making sure to have Tidus haste himself first and hit it until its Slowed, then pull out Yuna, and Kimahri or Auron, whichever can do more damage. Haste the other two, then keep healing the boss (and party, as needed - using Pray on her turns usually takes care of that) when it gets around 7000 HP with Cura, until you drive it backwards off the cliff. Boss beaten, get a chocobo and go down to the Oldroad, because there's another Crest or Sigil in the chest at the end of it and the save sphere by Oaka is the best area to train in the accessible sections - pretty much, you'll be doing the character shuffle so they've all done something, then pulling out a summon to kill the monsters so you get Overkill, and hence more XP.
Keep an eye on how many red spheres you have in your inventory - when it gets close to 99, sell some to Oaka (down to 50 or so) since while they may only be worth 1 gil each, they're just wasted if you already have 99. Sell off any crap equipment, too. Keep training and blitzing until you have at least four teleport spheres, but now that you can get at him, hire Ropp in the travel agency to be your second defender instead of Jassu. Don't move Yuna past Cura, Tidus past Hastega, or Lulu past Jinx after removing the Lv1 lock above her, and if you did start moving Kimarhi out Tdus/Yuna's way, stop before the +1 accuracy and Lv2 lock into Yuna's grid. Make sure you loan Oaka at least 2500 gil, so his prices will be lower later - check the FAQs to see by how much.
Since I'm sure you'll be heartily sick of this area by now, save and move on to the Mushroom Rock road and watch te stupid, long, annoying cutscene. Wierd, the Garuda are a lot tougher here that that one on Besaid, huh? Maybe it got hurt being blown there by a storm or something... Anyway, train until you have ebough gil to get TKO from Oaka at the end, before the boss battle - Avenger too if you want, because once you have the Slow spell slowtouch on a weapon is no longer your best freind, if something better is in the offering. This boss battle is pie, BTW, since by now you'll surely have been in enoguh battles that your aeons have overdrives doing 9999 damage. Grand Summon after the character shuffle, then hit it with overdrives twice. Watch the battle, then summon the other Aeon for the second strike, and Attack (or Meteor Strike if it's Ifreet) then OD.
Talk to everyone on the Djose road, because they will give you stuff. You might as well flee from battles until you've been in and out f the temple to get the next summon, too, and if you like you can also go to the shoopuf dock and get the stuff along the way, but it is adviseable if not required to fight and kill as many Basilisks as you can on the Djose road, at lest until you get some Stonetouch weapons - Wakka's you can buy form Oaka before getting here, but Tidus, Auron, or Kimahri can all profit form one, even the girls if you're going to send one or both of them through a fighter's grid like I did with Lulu. They're a semi-rare drop, but worth it if you have the patience. The Ochas (which are tougher than the boss version, due to where they are in the game) give good XP too, but don't drop anything espescially good, and there's much better training opportunities on the far side of the Moonflow. Go on when you're ready to, fleeing battle for now as you go through Guadosalam, the Thunder Plains, and Macalania Woods, until you reach and save at the sphere in the woods with Oaka standing a ways beyond it. Back out when you first talk to him and tell him his prices are a little high, then talk to him again and buy stuff if you want. Save again and patse the Spherimorph, then pop that lock into Lulu's grid and go to town. After that... well, just remember to get Kimahri over to learn Steal before you head up Mt. Gagazet, so he can steal the Lv3 keys off his solo fight enemies, and the rest is pretty much gravy.
ETA: Oh, and while you're in the desert, cactaurs give GREAT XP. Make sure you have Tidus and Rikku set up with the weapons like I said at the beginning, then immediately Slow the cactaur and haste the party. Do the shuffle with non-attacks like Pray, Cheer, Steal, etc., then use an Overdrive (Tidus or Auron, Wakka's if you can stand to use the damn slot machine minigame to charge it) to kill the beastie - they give good item drops, too, but watch out for the 10,000 Needles attack - that's why I say to not attack it until the end, not only do they tend to flee if damaged, they're more likely to use 10K if attacked.
- CDThat which does not kill us... has made its last mistake.
SERVO: Loook *deeeeply* into my eyes... Tell me, what do you see?
CROW: (hypnotized) A twisted man who wants to inflict his pain upon others.
" It's crazy to try to spell out all the mega-nooks and hyper-crannies of a Borg contrivance." - Doug Drexler
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows
Having spent a lot of time playing Blitzball in Luca, I had Teleport Spheres to pull Kimahri, Lulu, and Yuna over to Flare and since K and L hadn't moved previously either they both rolled back the other way, Lulu into Wakka's grid and Kimahri into Lulu's, backwards, while Wakka teleported over to Kimarhi's start point and worked down to the start of Rikku's for Steal and the first Magic+, ten back again and through that Lv2 lock into the end of Yuna's grid to get to Curaga, and is now one stop shy of Holy. Lulu is a few spaces away from Osmose, at which time she's heading over to the middle of Tidus' grid, were he went through Slowga and then down to the beginning of Yuna's. Rikku is already done with her grid, and has now zapped over to Flare to pick up some magic mojo...
Order of battle is Tidus/Wakka/Rikku first out, with Tidus having a First Strike weapon and Rikku an Inititive weapon. Tidus casts Hastega if the enemies are immune to Slow or Slowga if they aren't, the others steal, Tidus casts Hastega and the others steal, Tidus starts doing the shuffle with the other four, first Auron because he's useless, then the three Big Bad Mojo casters, whose Magic stats are closing on 70 having beaten Seymour again at Mt Gagazet, all of whom have been getting 9999's from Flare since the beginning against enemies with normal levels of Magic Defense, and on the -ga series since the battle at Bikanel. Just call me Nukie I guess... or Captain Stompa. Now that Lulu has whatever the weapon upgrade is called that burns double MP for extra spell damage she's getting 7000+ against the high-M.Def Grenades on Gagazet. I've currently gone back to the Clam Lands to train until I have the gil to get Yojimbo - having stompa'd the boss battle in the cavern without even gotten to end of the character roster to switch out Yuna and summon.
Granted, the party is hardly uber when the stats can go to 255, but they haven't even gotten to Zanarkand yet, and true uberization requires lots of gil to use in the Monster Arena, to bribe for items to make expensive weapons and sell for even more gil and buy Clear Spheres to get rid of the crappy stuff in the beginning parts of the character grids and replace them with +4 stats, +40 MPs, and +300 HPs. I need to check and see if I have three Lv4 keys to get into Ultima, too, now that I think of it.
As a side note, I think calling the summons "Aeons" is a mutated-in-translation thing - there's a Japanese word meaning "eternal" that sounds like "eon," and calling them "Eternals" would make so much more sense...
Anyway, I guess that's CD's Tips for Kicking Ass in FFX. In chronological order: (and having gorwm as I keep thinking things to the main body instead of a summary...)
First, general rule: with the exception of Tidus, who learns new Overdrive moves by using his over and over (I beleive it's 85 times to get Blitz Ace, his last one) get all the characters' guages charged and leave them charged, for use in boss battles. Only use them a couple of times each otherwise in order to know how they work, so you can reasonably expect to pull them off in the boss battle - Wakkas are probably the most annoying, but Lulu's are close (espescially since I have to use an analog controller for it, rather than my beloved old PSX mini-batwing, buttons-only controller) and the reccomended way of pulling off Fury is to take the controller in a pistol-like grip in your left hand, put the palm of your right on the right analogue stick, then shake your arms as if mixing paint so the combination motion quickly spins the stick. I can usually get 7 or 8 hits using this method, once 11.
Don't miss the save shpere on the highway when you're with Auron at the beginning - it's hidden behind the boss corpse and there's more fighting to be done. When you get to the ruins and a re swimming around, find the Al Bhed Compilation Sphere, then the save pint, and save an extra copy of your game in the last slot on your card - if you decide to restart playing, you can go to this savegame first, use the sphere, and copy as much of the Al Bhed as you've gotten primers for into the new game.
Those piranha under the al bhed ship at the beginning? They're your freinds, ewven if they do want to eat you. Keep fighting them and going back up for potions from that guy on deck until Tidus learns the Slayer Overdrive style, then until he gets at least Slice & Dice overdrive (preferably Energy Rain) by using it. For that matter, go down and back and get some more potions until you have 99 of them, too. The fish die easy and do only small damge. This will also get him ahead some on the shpere grid, the faster he gets to Haste the sooner you learn of its awe inspiring ownage. Only have Rikku steal at first, until you have 99 grenades, because they cost 300 gil each. She''l have a full OD gauge before long too, but there's no point in using it until the boss battle in those underwater ruins.
On Besaid, make sure you get Yuna's improved weapon with the Destruction Sphere in the Cloister of Trials, so you can get the Sensor enhancement in Aeon battles. Also, know that using Tidus's "Flee" command still counts as being in a battle for the purposes of growing your summons, and is very much quicker than actually fighting. Keep doing it until Valafor's HP are over 1000 (I think it's 1005) and let everyone get munched enough to have full overdrive guages, including both Yuna and Valefor. If you're really patient, get Valefor doing around 700hp with her basic Attack move on a dingo. Make sure you talk to the girl in the shop and then get the slobbery unidentifiable thing from her dog in the weaver's hut before leaving Besaid, it's Valefor's second, more powerful and much cooler Overdrive attack. Make sure to heal using Yuna instead of potions, then you're ready to get on the boat, first go to the shop in Besaid and sell them all. Don't worry, you won't need them in between. Flee from battle on the way back down to the beach if you need to, but Yuna's MP should hold out to get you there. Swim in the bay and get the Moon Crest (I think) formt he treasure chest off to the right in a little alcove before leaving, too. Don't advance Lulu at all, run Kimarhi up the little leg toward Tidus and Yuna if you like, and only move Wakka to where he's in position to unlockt he Lv2 to the middle of Lulu's grid. Yuna, Tidus, Auron and Rikku can all profitably stay in their own tracks for a while at least. Talk to everyone on the dock, because the give you stuff.
In the cabin where you resume on the boat, there's suitcase that drops a potion when you kick it, until you have 20 of them. 20 potions is more than you'll need, by a considerable margin. Make sure you have some free time before starting the boss battle on the boat - you're going to heroically distract Sin from Kilika for about three and a half hours. I hope you have an aftermarket controller with autofire for this BTW, or your thumb is going to be REALLY sore. When the battle starts, immediately shuffle Yuna back out and have everyone attack the sinscales once, then bring her back out and call Big Bird. Make sure the cursor is on "attack" and just keep hitting X; since Valefor is airborne the scales' claws can't reach, and only one of them charges the range attack at once - always the first in series, meaning it's the one the targeting cursor falls on first, and since one attack from Valefor does around 250hp and they only have 200, they never get an attack off. Do NOT use Valefor's OD on the scales. Every now and then the fin will move and drag the boat around, but that has no effect. (If you were extra patient above, every hit will be an Overkill which gives better XP - if not, only about one in three will be crits and hence overkills) The battle can only go for 3:30:00 or maybe 3:45:00 if you're feeling brave, because around 3:50:?? or so the game will freeze - probably from keeping track of so many kills, with the average time being thirty seconds to dispose of three sinscales and have the next batch pop up, ready for killin'. When the time comes, use Valefor's OD on the fin, and you should get an overkill there, too. The second boss underwater isn't too tough, just blind it with Wakka, Haste Tidus at least, both preferably, and use Energy Rain to damage it and kill all its scales, then kill another couple scales to get another OD gauge and do it again, while Wakka throws potions as needed, blows his weak OD, and otherwise bounces his little squeaky ball off the boss. Just remeber to keep it blinded, Darkness wears off after three boss turns.
Make sure to confront Lord Ocha and immediately flee in Kilika before going to the temple, to get Pheonix Downs from one of the Crusaders. There's no need to actually fight him until later, though. Yellow elements are good for recharging everyone's OD guages here, for much the same reasons as the piranha were your freinds before. Spending time training here is annoying due to the bees and their poison, but if you can get a Lightningstrike weapon from the elementals for Tidus or Kimahri (a 1/128 drop, granted, and then it might be for Yuna or Lulu) it'll be a big help, but not really neccesary. Many people will give you stuff here, too, including the barmaid if you save her sister from the damaged stilt-house.
Don't go near the front of the second boat until you've talked to everyone and saved, because you NEED to win the Jecht Shot Challenge before proceeding to Luca. Also, you should spot Oaka some gil to keep him around, but no more than 2500 or so (100 will be fine for now) and keep at least 6000 for yourself.
When Yuna springs you from the locker room, go around the docks to collect goodies and buy (at least) the Stunning Steel from Oaka, which will be your new best freind, as it casts Slow on enemies about half the time. If you didn't get an electric weapon for Kimahri on Kilika, you can get one now, IIRC. Explore the rest of Luca, but don't go in the bar until you're done and have used the save sphere again. Once the machina attack begins, get to the save sphere on the docks, use it, then keep running in circles to fight more machina until you've got 50 or so Hi-Potions, more if you have the patience. Use the save sphere as needed to top back up. For the boss, a Thunder Rage should get the crane started, then Tidus' trigger command using it will make the Oblitzerator easy pickings.
You want general Blitzball advice, go read a FAQ. The Aurochs suck and while you can win the match, it's not really worth the effort. Once they're done, go out to the Mi'ihen Highroad save sphere so you can play Blitz, use the 'reset' option on the Blitz screen until the League prizes are a Teleport Sphere and a Return Sphere for high scorer, then train for a while right there by the sphere. When you get around 12,000 gil, go back down, and into the bar, where you should hire the girl in the maroon jacket and knee pants, Shuu, then out to the fountain, where Jumal is sitting, then back toward the stadium. Hire the reporter girl in the middle of the bridge, then the guy with the brown uniform and pink belt at the stadium gates, then Zev Ronso on the dock to the right of the gates. Jassu and Letty are the only Aurochs worth keeping, Jassu to stay on defense for now, Letty to warm the bench and not be annoying on another team. Wedge will probably be benchwarming too, but if not Shaami will - hire everyone for 11 games, except whichever of those two you don't plan on using yourself - six will do for them, and you can in fact wait until after game 4 and hire them for 4 then, both saving more gil and being more sure they won't be used against you. Go back tot the Auroch's locker room and get the Jupiter Sigil, I think it is... from Wakka's locker.
Save in two slots, then start the league season. If your first game is against the Psyches, reset the PS2 and try again - the Glories, Fangs, or Beasts are best, the Goers workable, but the Psyches will eat you alive unless your players have had time to level up. For the first half, your only goal is to pass to Tidus and get him to make two successful passes, then to Zev and the other forward as much as possible - put Shuu in the other forward position for now, Zev as center, Jassu defense behind Tidus, Shaami or Wedge in the other defense slot, Jumal in goal. Putting the forward in back makes it easier to pass to and form them a lot without attracting the other team, and Shaami actually doesn't do too bad in defense normally, thoguh she's better as 'forward defense' due to how the game sorts players during a confrontation.
Anyway, get Tidus his two passes so he'll have the use of a technique in the second half, and generally keep the ball away from the other team. Make sure your set Tidus' technique to Jecht Shot instead of Sphere Shot when it becomes available, for that matter, and for other players equip tackles first, Tackle Slip second, then Passes, then Shots - for Jumal, Super Goalie then Grip Gloves, if he ever gets enough XP for Lv7. After you win, save in one of the two slots, then play again - the second slot is insurance against the Psyches being your second game, as once the season is started the order of games is permanent. Keep checking whenever there's a tournament available, if the top prize is "_____ Reels" or "____ Crest" you'll need to play it, and remember that you'll need more gil when contract renewal time comes up to finiah out the league season afterward. It hardly needs saying, but only shoot with Tidus, and as often as he has hit points for the Jecht Shot, getting right up in the goal first so there's next to no chance of getting caught, except by Nimrook, who will always catch you unless yor shot is at least two points higher (with the Jecht Shot bonus) than his catch, at which point about half of them will get in. Never pick "Keep Playing" after you win a game, always go back out and save first. After winning the season, go train some more, reset the league data until you have the desired prizes, ad do it again. Note that one of the ____ Reels items is a League prize and that once it comes up you have to play that season. Also, there's some kind of stats-fiddling going on during that season, either yours are lower or the opponents are higher or both, so expect it to be tough. When Yuna is far enough in her grid to get Cura, you can go on down the Mi'ihen Highroad to the Travel Agency. Talk to everyone on the road, they give you stuff.
When the boss fight starts, switch everyone through, making sure to have Tidus haste himself first and hit it until its Slowed, then pull out Yuna, and Kimahri or Auron, whichever can do more damage. Haste the other two, then keep healing the boss (and party, as needed - using Pray on her turns usually takes care of that) when it gets around 7000 HP with Cura, until you drive it backwards off the cliff. Boss beaten, get a chocobo and go down to the Oldroad, because there's another Crest or Sigil in the chest at the end of it and the save sphere by Oaka is the best area to train in the accessible sections - pretty much, you'll be doing the character shuffle so they've all done something, then pulling out a summon to kill the monsters so you get Overkill, and hence more XP.
Keep an eye on how many red spheres you have in your inventory - when it gets close to 99, sell some to Oaka (down to 50 or so) since while they may only be worth 1 gil each, they're just wasted if you already have 99. Sell off any crap equipment, too. Keep training and blitzing until you have at least four teleport spheres, but now that you can get at him, hire Ropp in the travel agency to be your second defender instead of Jassu. Don't move Yuna past Cura, Tidus past Hastega, or Lulu past Jinx after removing the Lv1 lock above her, and if you did start moving Kimarhi out Tdus/Yuna's way, stop before the +1 accuracy and Lv2 lock into Yuna's grid. Make sure you loan Oaka at least 2500 gil, so his prices will be lower later - check the FAQs to see by how much.
Since I'm sure you'll be heartily sick of this area by now, save and move on to the Mushroom Rock road and watch te stupid, long, annoying cutscene. Wierd, the Garuda are a lot tougher here that that one on Besaid, huh? Maybe it got hurt being blown there by a storm or something... Anyway, train until you have ebough gil to get TKO from Oaka at the end, before the boss battle - Avenger too if you want, because once you have the Slow spell slowtouch on a weapon is no longer your best freind, if something better is in the offering. This boss battle is pie, BTW, since by now you'll surely have been in enoguh battles that your aeons have overdrives doing 9999 damage. Grand Summon after the character shuffle, then hit it with overdrives twice. Watch the battle, then summon the other Aeon for the second strike, and Attack (or Meteor Strike if it's Ifreet) then OD.
Talk to everyone on the Djose road, because they will give you stuff. You might as well flee from battles until you've been in and out f the temple to get the next summon, too, and if you like you can also go to the shoopuf dock and get the stuff along the way, but it is adviseable if not required to fight and kill as many Basilisks as you can on the Djose road, at lest until you get some Stonetouch weapons - Wakka's you can buy form Oaka before getting here, but Tidus, Auron, or Kimahri can all profit form one, even the girls if you're going to send one or both of them through a fighter's grid like I did with Lulu. They're a semi-rare drop, but worth it if you have the patience. The Ochas (which are tougher than the boss version, due to where they are in the game) give good XP too, but don't drop anything espescially good, and there's much better training opportunities on the far side of the Moonflow. Go on when you're ready to, fleeing battle for now as you go through Guadosalam, the Thunder Plains, and Macalania Woods, until you reach and save at the sphere in the woods with Oaka standing a ways beyond it. Back out when you first talk to him and tell him his prices are a little high, then talk to him again and buy stuff if you want. Save again and patse the Spherimorph, then pop that lock into Lulu's grid and go to town. After that... well, just remember to get Kimahri over to learn Steal before you head up Mt. Gagazet, so he can steal the Lv3 keys off his solo fight enemies, and the rest is pretty much gravy.
ETA: Oh, and while you're in the desert, cactaurs give GREAT XP. Make sure you have Tidus and Rikku set up with the weapons like I said at the beginning, then immediately Slow the cactaur and haste the party. Do the shuffle with non-attacks like Pray, Cheer, Steal, etc., then use an Overdrive (Tidus or Auron, Wakka's if you can stand to use the damn slot machine minigame to charge it) to kill the beastie - they give good item drops, too, but watch out for the 10,000 Needles attack - that's why I say to not attack it until the end, not only do they tend to flee if damaged, they're more likely to use 10K if attacked.
- CDThat which does not kill us... has made its last mistake.
SERVO: Loook *deeeeply* into my eyes... Tell me, what do you see?
CROW: (hypnotized) A twisted man who wants to inflict his pain upon others.
" It's crazy to try to spell out all the mega-nooks and hyper-crannies of a Borg contrivance." - Doug Drexler
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"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows