God help me, I'm playing XII again. From the beginning. Not having to fight Omega 100 times to get him to drop a Mythril Sword, is worth more than you'd think.

I'm going to map out everything this weekend, probably. If I don't come to my senses and just quit. So, loot/steal list, rare game, and equipment.

I'll be checking youtube and gamefaqs for cheats for the hard stuff (I actually chained Helvinek last time and it wasn't hard at all), but I was wondering if you two, or any one else chancing upon this thread (Hi Slavka <3) could help me with this stuff:

*Personal tips on chaining for Danjuro (oh the bain of everyone's existence)
*Zodiac Escutchion (the brady guide is retardly missing a second map of Barheim, iirc.

I'll think of others that are gnawing at the back of my mind when I draw everything up. Tell me about equipment that gave you trouble in finding it.

God help me :(

http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/file/459841/48127

Your best bet on getting the Zodiac Eschuon [sic] is the chest at the Great Crystal. Danjuro...fuck that shit.

Unfortunately, getting three of the four pieces of equipment only available from rare game (Grand Armor, Grand Helm, Danjuro) is the one thing I have yet to do. Srsly, everything else there ever is I've done but that, so I can't really help you with Danjuro quite yet. I was actually thinking of picking up my save file next opportunity I get and checking off those three little bitches.

As for Zodiac Escutcheon, you can get it the easy way or the hard way. First of all, fuck the Brady guide to hell. Use this site. www.ff12maps.com (unfortunately that site uses some weird Java or something so I can't really link to stuff directly but it should be very straightforward).
The Brady guide is missing a lot of maps, no Great Crystal, not even Zertinan. That site has the locations and statistics of every chest in the game.
It's possible that you screwed yourself out of the easy way for the ZE, but if you're going for every piece of equipment at the earliest stage in the game then Barheim would be the obvious choice. But you can get it far more easily in the Great Crystal. The chest it's in at the Crystal doesn't regenerate, though. Go to the map (on the site), it's the one on the top right, directly to the right of Virgo. Open it with the Diamond Armlet and you're guaranteed a Zodiac Escutcheon, open it without one and it's 50/50 between that and a Brave Suit (which you can get more easily in the Henne Mines). You can only open that chest once, so if you already opened it and got the Brave Suit then you're forced to get it the hard way.

As for Barheim, the chest does regenerate... but see (you must have the Diamond Armlet), it has a 30% chance of appearing, a 60% chance of having an item instead of gil, and a 10% chance of that item being the Zodiac Escutcheon. So, in exact that's 1.8%.
As for where it is, you can probably find it yourself on the map but it's in the "West Annex" screen, in the upside-down "L" alcove near the top right (you'll see it on the map on the site). But the annoying thing is, in the game itself, it's placed in EXACTLY pixel-for-pixel the same spot as another chest which you must open first (the other one takes priority if they're both there), so when you're running up there you won't be able to see whether or not it's there until you open that chest. You have to open it, and it has to look like it didn't disappear. Try-and-reset method works, but it's hella frustrating as you have to wait to open it each time before resetting (unless you see they're both not there. I got it this way.
Also if you're getting it the frustrating Barheim way (which I have done when playing a "get everything at earliest opportunity" game), make sure to put Float on your party!

Alright, I'll go for it in the Great Crystal, since you said you can get the Brave Suit easier in Henne.

The chest for it in Barheim sounds like the chest for Excalibur. One on top of the other.

God, it'll be months and months before I have to worry about that stuff, though. Boggles my mind. Thanks for the site that actually has legitimate details :)

Like I said, Grand Armor isn't very hard at all. You have to be careful, but it's fairly fun once you get the loop running. Took me maybe 15 minutes. It wasn't that high of a chain. I used to be worried about the Grand Helm, because the first method I saw for it had you running fucking laps from Mosphoran Highwaste all the way to the Pharos. Since then, I've seen it done totally in the Pharos, thankfully.

Alright, I'll go for it in the Great Crystal, since you said you can get the Brave Suit easier in Henne.

The chest for it in Barheim sounds like the chest for Excalibur. One on top of the other.

God, it'll be months and months before I have to worry about that stuff, though. Boggles my mind. Thanks for the site that actually has legitimate details :)

Like I said, Grand Armor isn't very hard at all. You have to be careful, but it's fairly fun once you get the loop running. Took me maybe 15 minutes. It wasn't that high of a chain. I used to be worried about the Grand Helm, because the first method I saw for it had you running fucking laps from Mosphoran Highwaste all the way to the Pharos. Since then, I've seen it done totally in the Pharos, thankfully.

Excalibur? Surely you are not thinking of something else? There is only one Excalibur in the game and it exists in a chest that doesn't regenerate, and always guaranteed an Excalibur no matter what you where, just takes a while for it to appear.

EDIT: Oh, I see what you mean, one on top of the other, yes, it's exactly like that.

I can offer you some tips on the Danjuro, but trust me, it's still a bitch to get.

To get the Larva Eater to appear quickly, spam kill the Necrophobes in one of the zones they appear in - I forget which ones, and even then the name's not much help...

Once you've found it, lead it to a zone boundary and kill the thing. Make sure you leave the zone before it disappears and the experience comes up. Since it's a Gargoyle-type enemy, it takes a while for its death animation to play, so you should have time. This way, it should still be there when you re-enter the area. It works much like the Dustia trick, if you're aware of that method.

Now you can either avoid the loot until you get to Chain Level 4, increasing your chances of a Danjuro drop, or pick up each piece it drops and hope there's a Danjuro in there. The problem is, it's much slower to get Chain Levels, and its far more likely you'll just get cheap crap.

But I assume you know all this, it being all over the internet. The only advice from me I can give is that it's more important to keep the chain going than it is to get the loot. The loot is the ultimate aim, of course, but the amount of times I've lost the whole chain for a Demon Eyeball or whatever it is the blasted thing drops...

Also, I did read an alternate theory for getting a high chain before you even spawn Larva Eater. Since killing things with Poison doesn't affect your chain, but does affect the Larva Eater spawn kill count, you could build up a Level 4 chain on the Gargoyle Barons in Giruvegan, then set up Gambits to weaken and kill the Necrophobes with Poison. Seems like too much work to me, but I suppose it'd be useful if you can't quite get out the zone before it dies for good.

AH HA! That means it's just like my old friend Helvinek ;)

I've heard the splitting Necrophobe method and the bomb method (letting them self-destruct), but if I can just zone the son of a bitch like Helvinek, shit, easy times.

This game does not sound fun at all.

The "hard to get" items in this game are for crazy people. The best way to enjoy this game is to forget they exist and just take your 1 gil as it comes.

Indeed. I personally enjoy the challenge for some of them (getting the Tournesol was quite fun, for the most part), but some, like the Danjuro, are rather annoying. As in 'tear your hair in frustration when you accidently let it die for good' annoying.

I say to hell with Danjuro and Zodiac Spear. Tournesol, Masamune and Excalibur are fine though ^^

I got the Zodiac spear my first playthrough. Well worth it, even if the method of getting it is one of the biggest screwovers in gaming history. There's no denying that.

When I first played it, I had heard that the spear wasn't worth it. I mean sure it the strongest but I never heard it to be ultimately powerful so I've never bothered...mabye I should

I let Ashe use it. Vaan had the tournesol. Penelo had the Masamune and Genji gloves. Wrecking ball gloty.

Penelo twists herself around it, iirc, looks pretty cool.

Penelo with Masamune!!!! NOOOOO! The sword of Sephiroth was given to my most hated character!!! My life is over!!!




































































































Joking

I'd certainly hope so. I'd edit your post if you weren't ;)

I have an unhealthy love for Penelo. This is well documented in the annals of this forum.

actually there is a really easy way to get all the items from rare chests. it's called RNG look it up. it's a little hard to explain so i can't say much. ALL i can say I GOT 3 ZODIAC SPEARS IN AN HOUR THANKS TO IT. YEAH THE HENNE MINES CHEST!

Yeah, I've heard of RNG. Never used it though. I don't know, to me it just seems a little too much like cheating...

Never been too worried about chests, seeing as I've always known how to get the Zodiac spear and I THINK that's the hardest chest to endure--if you miss it and are trying to get it in Henne Mines.

I'm working on the equipment list right now. I'm up to Weapons. Just have to catalog armor after that. Then the synthesis list (which is mostly done, I still have the one from my last attempt) and Rare game.

Oh hey, remember that thread about not getting quickenings til late in the game, so they triple a large amount of MP instead of a small amount?

I was looking around and didn't find it. Was that rebutted, or is it a good idea?

Finished the equipment list and my synthesis list is A-OK, so I just need to do rare game.

You're technically ahead of me then.

Rare Game... good luck with that!

I mean I finished the list, not that I got them. I'm still in the Estersand training Vaan :p

I got a ton of rare game last time, they really aren't usually trouble.

Seems that there's only 5 items you need to get by means of a drop. I got 3 of those last time, no problem. Things seem a lot less intimidating now that there are accurate guides out there. Brady had me so paranoid about some stuff.

Oh hey, remember that thread about not getting quickenings til late in the game, so they triple a large amount of MP instead of a small amount?

I was looking around and didn't find it. Was that rebutted, or is it a good idea?


It doesn't matter when you get quickenings, as far as I can recall. You can get them early, and you'll still have triple your max normal MP level at level 99.

Yep, confirmed that tonight. That person was thinking like this:

If I double 80 mp, that gets me 160 mp, but if I double 300 mp, it'll get me 900. Well, that'd be true if the double and tripling occurred statically, and MP just increased after each of those. However, MP gets stated like this after learning a quickening: 160/80, and the increased amount on the left gets higher every time your MP gets higher.

Conclusion: Get ur quickenings early, without fear, kids~

I unlocked the grimoires and I'm going to bust ass on making money to buy them all, being the synthesis whore that I am. I'm killing Saurians for fun and profit, as well. So far each one has bought me insta-levels. Oh sweet nectar <3

If I double 80 mp, that gets me 160 mp, but if I double 300 mp, it'll get me 900.

If you triple 300, you'll get 900. If you triple 80, you'll get 240.

Also, good fucking luck going after all that shit. I'd rather grind for wow epics. At least other people will see them. And my mounts. :P

What the hell was I smoking the day I posted that?

Probably the same thing I was when I necro'd the thread. My bad, bro.

It's cool. I'm not sure I'll ever actually get this done. But I planned it out completely and that was fun in and of itself.

Just have way too many new games to play. Gotta keep moving forward :)

Ha, this reminds me I have shit to finish too...

I worked through a bit of Garamsythe, today. I'm thinking I'll get back to this, now. It's something I can do without needing any brainpower to focus on a story.

Which is nice, considering what else I'm playing.

Got Balthier and Fran. 2500 license points a piece.

Awwww, yeah~

Damn, what level did you finally take Vaan through the Treasury? When I got Balthier and Fran they had around 1600 LP each. Clearly I have just been owned.

I was thinking about updated my thread with progress, but I'm really just too lazy right now. ;)

I didn't level since I took the picture. So, 21.

Got all of their quickenings, somehow missed two of Fran's gambit slots, but Balthier has all of his. I usually go for all the augments first, then spells. Always leave armor to last, which of course takes the most points.

If this game goes like my last, I'll have complete boards for everyone by Golmore ;)

What picture? I'm at work now so I probably can't see it, but I didn't see anything when I was home either.

But nice nice, maybe my team did have more LP than that, I was 32 with Vaan when I got Fran/Balthier. Oh well, overlevelled is still overlevelled.

And I went with augments first as well, besides the weapon licenses I needed. Everyone has over 2300 health but some are still wearing bronze armors. :D

I haven't messed around with gambits yet, just some basic attack/cure/blinda ones. I'm getting ready to take on the Bomb King, went in once and just got trashed, ran out and back in, took him to around 60% then renewed (forgot the timing of it) so I just left. It was...frustrating.

I'll get him though!

This one:



I probably posted it in a different thread. Sorry about that.

Were you using Dustia? Does it give 1 LP? If so, I probably got more because I was using wolves to raise money for monographs, and the Wild Saurian for levels.

Dang, I've got some work to do in that game! Great job guys!

At the rate I'm going, this playthrough will take years, but that doesn't really bother me.

^^Yea, my playthrough is going to take me a long, loooong time.

Also, I thought Dustia gave 3 LP per kill? I remember seeing the EXP/LP numbers....a few times..... and I thought it was 3, maybe 2. (or maybe 1 and I've started to turn into a zombie for playing this game so long).

I've been away from my home for a couple days so I haven't been able to play! :( But tonight I'm going to get back on it!

Edit: Center - Gamefaqs has a power level guide that I've been using. I would only recommend it if you've played through the game before, which I think you have. It guides you to spend around 10-15 (or more) hours with Vaan by himself, and then you shred about half the game really fast blah, blah, blah. The guide gives you a good idea of what to do, but there are plenty of other methods to go with, like Neg's dinosaur slaying.

Oh cool!! Actually, the furthest I ever managed to get in XII was to the Geruda in the Sandsea, which massacred my party time and again :( Then life's events forced me to be unable to play the game for a couple years until just recently I've gotten back into it, so everything from then on will be completely new for me. Right now I'm in the Dreadnaught Leviathan and there's some not-so-friendly soldiers in there (I think they really just wanna be my friend) who are making it very clear that they don't entirely like it that I'm around, and heh heh, they're making my stay aboard that fine vessel a rather unpleasant one.. but I know I got past that once, so I can, and will do it once again :D

I'll have to check for that guide; Vaan's my weakest link right now :( I keep finding myself using Balthier, Fran, and Basch and shortchanging Vaan, when I should really keep interchanging them regularly. Or rather, I should probably focus mainly on Vaan, because for what it's worth he's got the makings of a very strong fighter with the Licenses I've provided him and am expanding on! I've been really mixing up my characters' weaponry too, like giving Balthier a sword (he may not like it, but tough shit Balthier, your gun ain't gonna pierce those soldiers' armor too well [I don't think]!) and I'm working on Axes for Fran. Old . . . eh . . . whoever the main head honcho toughguy of evil of this game is isn't gonna like me too well when I confront him :D

Haha, yea I use Vaan in my main party as my damage dealer. But it really doesn't matter who you use.

And about Balthier, guns ignore defense my friend, and they're ranged ;) I have him with an Icebrand right now, but he's in my backup party. As soon as I can unlock the 'best' gun (I shall not spoil it for you!), he's going back to ranged.

I've moved on to trying this with XIII, not that anyone gives a shit or didn't already know.