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Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster

The Mega Champion

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Cid said:
This thread was originally titled "Yojimbo Zanmato help (FFX HD; please help)." I'm turning this into a general FFX/X-2 HD Remaster thread to open the thread up to wider discussion.

I need help with FFX HD. So if anyone is an expert with this I really need help and would appreciate any help that can be given to me.

I'm trying to get Yojimbo to use Zanmato against the ridiculous superbosses because stat maxing is a pain in the ass and I'm not doing it.

I did as much research as I could. He starts at 128 Comptability (hidden stat) and I grinded it up to the max of 255 in the Calm Lands. I gave him 512 gil consistently until the stat was maxed and then started giving him double that with a bit extra. So 1050 gil. Eventually he started using Zanmato pretty consistently. Plus he used Wakizashi consistently. So it appeared as though I was on the right track. So... I gave him the Ultimate Test.

Dark Yojimbo is apparently available after getting Yojimbo (I know because I triggered the scene for it so I hard reset). But I was there... so...

I tried to do exactly that. Get him to use Zanmato against Dark Yojimbo. Yes I'm aware you have to fight and defeat him 5 times. It was mostly as a 'test.' Yeah... he didn't use Zanmato at all. I even Grand Summoned him so he would have a full Overdrive gauge. He still wouldn't use Zanmato even once. I gave him 1050 gil, 1051 gil, 3150 gil, and even 10,000 gil (this was with no full Overdrive gauge admittedly though). No Zanmato at all. Even once.

What the hell am I doing wrong? Anyone know?
 
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pkmin3033

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As someone who platted FFX back in the day - and I never want to do that again, let me tell you - I'd hope I'm...somewhat knowledgeable. xD

But you're not going to want to see this: ultimately it boils down to luck. There are elements that will contribute towards the probability of Yojimbo using Zanmato (which you seem to be aware of) but it is still down to random chance as to whether or not he'll actually use it. The only advice I can give you, since you're aware of the factors that will maximise your chances, is to keep trying if you're really determined to go down that route. You can only influence the odds so much, and then you just have to cross your fingers and pray. You're not doing anything wrong - it's the game that doesn't want to cut you a break. I'd recommend reading this guide for a more in-depth guide as to how the game calculates whether Zanmato is used or not if you haven't already.

Honestly it would be faster to just max out stats, because you could be trying for hundreds of hours if you intend to do EVERY superboss that way...especially if you count the Monster Arena creations, of which there are many, and many don't actually require maxxed out stats to beat, so you could do them as you go. It'll go by faster than repeatedly trying and failing superbosses if you split tasks up - run Don Tonberry a few times for AP, then run something else for Spheres, go catch some more monsters, etc. It really doesn't take very long at all to max out stats - if you want to do everything you need to capture 10 of every monster for Nemesis anyway, so you'll have access to Species/Arena Conquest monsters that will give you the tools for the job. Sure, it'll still take you around 20-30 hours with a plan, but you could spend the same 20-30 hours trying again and again for Zanmato and never get it...relying on RNG is worse than grinding, I think. But then, that's just me.

You don't actually need to max EVERY stat either - Strength, Defense, Magic Defense, and MAYBE Agility (don't quote me on that; I can't remember off the top of my head if it's necessary) at 255 are all you need. Accuracy and Evasion have a more complicated relationship that mean you won't need to max both, and you can get by with pretty low Luck levels if you use Aim or Rikku's mixes to compensate for that and don't mind the occasional miss - you need 85 to hit Penance's arms IIRC (which are the only things you absolutely NEED to hit every time if you want to survive) and 5 uses of Aim gets you 50...and really you should be using Hyper Mighty G or Ultra NulAll - or both - for superboss battles anyway. You don't need to use Clear Spheres, and you don't need TOO many of each type of stat sphere to get there.

Do you have Wakka's Attack Reels and Celestial Weapon? You will chew through pretty much everything with that once you're set up - that's a quick win on everything except Dark Anima and Penance...and the Dark Magus Sisters if you try and do all three of them at once, but nobody who doesn't have something to prove does that. Anima and the Magus Sisters will do crazy amounts of damage the higher Yuna's stats get, too - Oblivion and Delta Attack are much quicker and easier to use than Zanmato, and just as lethal for anything that isn't a higher-tier Dark Aeon or Original Creation. Honestly, of all the Dark Aeons, only Bahamut and Anima will give you grief if you max out your stats, and you don't even need max stats for the weaker ones like Valefor, Ifrit, and Ixion. But you can easily get Auron's, Rikku's, and Yuna's Celestial Weapons, saving you the pain of minigames (because the Catcher Chocobo is poison, Blitzball is FAR worse than stat maxxing ever was, and dodging 200 lightning strikes in a row...well...yeah) and they can carry you through quite easily. It's not as bad as it sounds, and the best thing about it is that you WILL win if you do it - no relying on unfair RNG mechanics involved.

I speak as someone who hates RNG mechanics and never got a Zanmato despite trying the same things you did - despite people on the internet screaming that it was foolproof, 100% guaranteed, etc - so yeah, feel free to ignore me if you want. But I can tell you that you're doing everything you possibly can, and that the thing you see as a pain isn't THAT much of a pain if you split up the various tasks you're going to have to do anyway if you want to tackle Nemesis with it.
 

The Mega Champion

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To me that is a grind though and I don't really like grinding. I only did it for Yojimbo because I thought I would get Zanmato consistently. But clearly that's not the case. Stat Maxing is to ridiculous and requires too much Monster Catching to do it (and I don't want to Monster Catch either). My intention when I played this game was to just beat it without cheating because I've never beaten it without cheating before. But I thought I could maybe pull it off when I heard about Yojimbo and Zanmato.

Also I only did Blitzball for Attack Reels and stopped. That's too much RNG for me as well. I hated Blitzball honestly. Sorry?

Maybe I should just go back to regular play and maybe just try to get Anima & Magus Sisters. The Penance trophy would have been nice but I'm not spending 100% of my gil on this when there are several bosses coming up that I'm EXTREMELY worried about (Mt. Gagazet Seymour battle and Yunalesca battle).

I just thought it would be more consistent then this because I watched a few YouTube videos about 'easy' Zanmato's too but I haven't gotten it against a single superboss once yet. Or at least not against Dark Yojimbo.
 

pkmin3033

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That's fair enough; to each their own. I assumed that because you were talking about superbosses you also meant the Monster Arena; I can see why you wouldn't want to go out of your way if you're only doing Dark Aeons. But there are different levels of Zanmato resistance and they're all at the top of the scale, meaning you'll need to be much luckier than you would need to be for lower-tier enemies...which makes sense I guess, since they ARE superbosses after all.

Honestly, that's more Blitzball than I've done in any playthrough outside of my Platinum one. It's a good OD to have because it does a stupid amount of damage, but it is by no means essential. Just nice to have. Wakka is quick and easy damage for postgame, but he is by no means essential.

Yeah...superbosses are really a postgame thing, and you can't even get Anima without Airship access. But for Aeons to be at their best you need to increase Yuna's stats, as the Aeons scale with her. At the end of the game your Anima's Oblivion will *probably* be strong enough to take out Dark Valefor, and take a good chunk out of Ixion, Ifrit, and Shiva (although with Dark Shiva you'd need a First Strike weapon if your Agility isn't maxxed) but it won't put much of a dent in others....Dark Anima and Bahamut are both a pain. I'd say AT LEAST get the Airship before you start hunting Dark Aeons, amongst other things it'll get you more Gil, which you'll need if you want to go the Zanmato route.

Seymour Flux is a pain in the backside, and if you can cheese him with Aeons, do it - he'll banish them after a single turn but if you make that turn an Overdrive you'll probably be able to kill him before he does anything irritating...that Aeons will target his Morti companion which will then take 4K HP from him is great as well; it's doing your job for you. He has 70K HP and you have 6 Aeons, and one of them is Bahamut. You shouldn't have to hit him much. Yunalesca is pretty easy, though - get Doublecast and third-tier spells for Lulu, and most importantly Holy for Yuna. If nothing else, get Holy for Yuna. Have an Aeon out when she's about to switch to her third form to avoid Megadeath (or keep your characters in Zombie status and use Dispel to remove Regen), dismiss the Aeon after she's used it, and demolish her with Holy. Her attacks prior to that are pretty weak. Mega Flare is your best weapon at that point in the game for massive damage, too.

Also bear in mind you'll need to kill Dark Yojimbo five times to actually end him...good luck if you plan on doing that with Zanmato each and every time =x
 
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The Mega Champion

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I suppose there is a possibility that I'm doing this way too early. Yojimbo was just consistently using Zanmato in regular random battles so I thought that was a good sign and I accidentally triggered the Dark Yojimbo scene and I was there so I stupidly thought it would be a good 'test' and I was expecting it to work... consistently. Without having to pay almost 100% of my gil each time.

I'll focus on main story for now I guess and maybe do some extra Yojimbo grinding around the save sphere before Seymour Flux just to be safe and go from there I guess.
 

pkmin3033

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Skimming through the guide I linked, if you want 100% guaranteed Zanmato against Dark Aeons, with Full Overdrive and max compatability, you're looking at a minimum of 8388608 gil a time...I think. With 1050 gil it looks like you're sitting at a 67% chance. There are probabilities between those and 80% may be enough to get you through, although I wouldn't count on it personally. RNG be like that. It looks like to get 100% chance - which I didn't know was possible; guess I should have done some research at the time too, although getting that much gil would have taken longer than stat maxxing! - you have to pay ridiculous sums to bypass the RNG element.
 
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The Mega Champion

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Which is why I was trying to pay the least amount as possible so I could save money for equipment that I may need later for future boss fights.
 

pkmin3033

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If you're going to use Zanmato every time, you really don't need to save money for equipment. Just pay enough so that you have a 75%+ probability or so with a full Overdrive gauge so you stand a better chance. All you really need is a weapon with First Strike on it for Yuna so that she goes first and you can summon Yojimbo. If you have any Return Spheres - and you should if you've been opening chests - you can use those to customise the ability onto any weapon with an empty slot. Offhand I can't remember where you can buy them, but I am fairly sure you can.

If you want money for endgame, your best bet is going to be to unlock some Species/Original creations in the Monster Arena and customise some gear from the rewards you get. You'll get 99 of an item for most, which you can then use to customise a good ability onto cheap armour and sell back for a profit. As a quick and easy example: capture one Dingo, one Condor, and one Water Flan in Besaid. Talk to the guy at the Monster Arena and he'll give you 99 Stamina Tonics. Go to Kilika and buy any of the Tetra gear the lady there has in stock. Use a Stamina Tonic to customise HP +30% onto it. Immediately sell it back to her. Your net profit is 28,406 gil. Multiply that by 99 and you'll have 2,812,194 gil profit by the end of it. That's just from ONE monster, too. Need more gil? Repeat the process for a different area and use those items to customise armour and sell back. You don't need to fight the monster to get the reward. Just make sure it's Tetra armor with empty slots, because it goes for the most money, which is what you need.

You don't even need to do it that many times if you're comfortable with taking lower percentage chances with Zanmato...which you could be with everything, even Dark Yojimbo, if you go in with his Overdrive gauge and four other characters (one ideally being Yuna) filled - just make sure they have First Strike weapons and the Entrust ability so they can pass their Overdrive to her immediately and let her Grand Summon. Make sure their Agility is higher than hers or that you have Auto Life up though, just in case something goes wrong. Check the tables in the guide and decide what level of chance you're happy with. Personally I'd want at least 90% chance with Dark Yojimbo, but the rest? You could reload a few times.
 

Cid

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Just dropping by to say I'm glad Dawn knows a lot about Final Fantasy X. I mean I knew this game had a lot packed into it; I played it for a long time. I even recall dodging 200 lightning bolts to get Lulu's ultimate weapon because I felt like that was the easiest one to get at the time. But wow, this is something else. :o

I'll keep this thread in mind when I eventually play through Final Fantasy X again.
 

The Mega Champion

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So... um... something interesting happened.

I gave it one more try just for the hell of it with a full Overdrive for Yojimbo (Grand Summon) and gave him 10k gil.

He used Zanmato on Dark Yojimbo. But his Overdrive was empty and when I tried again in the second battle... nope.

Just thought you should be aware.

Also... I saved right before the Seymour Flux battle. 😨
 
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pkmin3033

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Well, checking the charts, with max compatibility...

10k gil with full overdrive = 75% chance
10k gil with no overdrive = 44% chance

...yeah, you need substantially more gil - you'd need 16,777,216 gil for an over 70% chance, to be exact - if you're going to do this with no overdrive, unfortunately. This is why the Entrust ability and First Strike on weapons is essential for the Dark Yojimbo fight - with no way to fill up the gauge between rounds, you'll need 4 spare overdrives to get through it without spending an absolute fortune...and honestly I wouldn't go below paying him 524,288 gil (91% chance to use with full OD) for that because if he doesn't use it even ONCE you'll have to do the previous fights all over again. Although 32768 gil nets you an 80% chance so if you're feeling lucky and don't want to grind for significantly more money...

If you're happy with 75% odds, don't throw any more than 8192 gil his way when you summon him, though.
 
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The Mega Champion

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I just lost most of my money buying stuff from Wantz on Gagazet mountain in preparation for the Seymour Flux battle. I'll take your suggestions to heart but it'll be awhile before I try again most likely.

Unless I'm able to get enough money to maybe try again against Dark Bahamut or something.
 

The Mega Champion

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Um... something... happened... 😱

Can I post a video on here? I mean, yes, it's technically a video I made but I don't mean it as an advertisement.

Well I'll do it anyway I guess and if a mod has such a problem with it they can remove it I guess. I'll post it in a spoiler though.


evil plan back on
 

Cid

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Um... something... happened... 😱

Can I post a video on here? I mean, yes, it's technically a video I made but I don't mean it as an advertisement.

Well I'll do it anyway I guess and if a mod has such a problem with it they can remove it I guess. I'll post it in a spoiler though.


evil plan back on
That is a great reaction haha. Congrats!

Content warning: language
 
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Coincidentally I started this game the other day. Bar a 10 minute go on one of the other PS2 games it's my first final fantasy, and first real foray into non Pokemon turn based battles.

Will probably use this thread to ask for advice when I inevitably get stuck.
 

The Mega Champion

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Coincidentally I started this game the other day. Bar a 10 minute go on one of the other PS2 games it's my first final fantasy, and first real foray into non Pokemon turn based battles.

Will probably use this thread to ask for advice when I inevitably get stuck.

1. Get Flee for Tidus ASAP. It's a life-saver.

2. Don't run from every battle. I honestly didn't run from anything. (except Cactuars in the Thunder Plains) Only do it if you think you are moments away from a Game Over or an enemy you don't like dealing with (even then still try to win). I'm pretty sure the fact that I did this allowed me to pretty much win on most bosses on the first try. Maybe. That and likely other reasons. lol. 😅

3. Make sure all characters get at least one action per battle so that they all get experience/AP. (You can just defend if you want. That's what I did.)

That's about all I've learned from playing it without cheating. lol. Because this thread's 'tactic' could potentially be called 'cheating' by those FFX players who actually put in the grind for stat maxing. I just chose not to because I feel like it's too ridiculous and a waste of too much time for me. 😩
 
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The Mega Champion

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Apologies for the double post... but... I'm pretty much ready to go FULL FORCE with this.

I finished bribing to get Teleport & Return Spheres and taught everyone Entrust except Yuna and customized everyone a First Strike weapon except Tidus (because I already bought one).

Why? Because I'm at the 'point of no return' save sphere. So I'm going to do the Anima, Magus Sisters, and Omega Ruins sidequests (I have two sets of save files).

Omega Weapon will be the 'final test' of this tactic. If it works out... then I truly go FULL FORCE with this. The only obvious problem... is Dark Yojimbo. We'll see though. I'll update again with results. Though due to my signature having my PSN Profile Trophy Card just keep an eye on that and that'll be an immediate indication on if this worked if you see that I get the Penance trophy. 😅
 

The Mega Champion

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In case it wasn't obvious enough... my plan FAILED MISERABLY.

Why? BECAUSE DARK YOJIMBO RUINS EVERYTHING. THAT'S WHY. 😡

It should have worked. It really should have. But no. Dark Yojimbo ruins everything. Whatever. I guess. 😑

I've already moved on (in case it wasn't obvious enough with my Trophy Card in my signature) to what you can pretty much call 'the death of me'

Why? Because I want Perfect Ending 100% Story Completion in X-2. That's why. It pretty much requires beating a superboss in a really difficult dungeon that's full of other superbosses. Oh and BTW... no Zanmato to save me this time. Yep. There you go. Plan my funeral for me if you don't mind. 😭

I'm also one of the rare people that actually likes X-2. Most others hate it. 😕

Wish me luck if you want. I'LL CLEARLY NEED IT.

Everything was going rather smoothly until Seymour round 3. Probably did use flee a bit much trying to progress the story. Oh well, I knew I was going to have to grind at some point.

Yeah it sounds like you ran too much. I didn't run from anything and did extra leveling around Mi'ihen (because I wanted Attack Reels and was money grinding at the same time). So I beat Flux on my first try with little issue. 😅
 
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