Many of the enemies in the Macalania Woods will be Water-based (notably the Brotherhood), so make sure you don’t have any weapons with ‘Waterstrike’ equipped. Use any weapons with ‘Lightningstrike’ instead, if you have it. Additionally, if you have any armor with the ‘Water Ward’ or ‘Waterproof’ passives, they will help reduce damage dealt to you in this area.
There is also a chance you might run into the Chimera Brain enemy in this region — Kimahri can learn the Aqua Breath Ronso Rage by using Lancet on it.
Macalania Woods – South
When you gain control, head up the walkway to the left. On the second turn there will be a hidden chest containing a Sleepy Cait Sith for Lulu. Then, towards the end of the path you will find another chest with 2000 gil. Grab it and then head to the next area.
Macalania Woods – Central
Continue down the path, and at the north end of it you will find a chest with 3 Phoenix Downs.
Further down the road, you will see a figure that will offer you a chance to play the Butterfly Catcher minigame.
The Butterfly Catcher minigame involves attempting to catch all of the blue butterflies before the timer runs out, while also avoiding red ones (these will force you into a random battle).
If you complete this minigame, you will get the Saturn Sigil.
Since you can’t use this sigil until much later in the game, you can just skip this for now and come back later. Continue down the path until you get to the next area.
Macalania Woods – North
On this path there will be a chest containing a Remedy. Otherwise, just keep going until you get to the next area.
Macalania Woods – Lake Road
You will find O’aka here, if you want to stock up on any supplies.
If you talk to O’aka and leave the shop, he will ask what you think of the prices.
If you choose ‘too expensive,’ he will lower the prices for you.
On the road to the lower right, you can find the Al Bhed Primer Vol. XV. After this, head north to be taken to a boss battle.
Spherimorph
The main mechanic for Spherimorph is its shifting elemental weakness. Any time you hit its weakness, it will use the Elemental Shift ability, changing which element it’s weak to. Finding out its weakness is easy: it will counter physical attacks and Overdrives with the spell of the opposite element it’s weak to (for example, when it’s weak to Fire, it will counter attacks with Blizzard).
Utilize Lulu here to take advantage of the weaknesses. Meanwhile, Yuna‘s Nul spells and Shell will help mitigate the damage from Spherimorph’s counters. Have any other character attack the boss to find out its weakness, have Lulu use the correct spells, and then keep everyone healed up — the battle should go by smoothly.
After the battle, you will get your first Jecht’s Sphere. These spheres will give you extra cutscenes showing Braska’s pilgrimage, and if you get enough of those, Auron will learn new Bushido Overdrives (this first sphere will teach teach him one).
Beating the boss also allows you to find Jecht Sphere’s throughout Spira (similar to the Al Bhed Primers).
If you want to find more of them and are willing to do a lot of backtracking, you can walk back to the Moonflow, Mushroom Rock Road, Mi’ihen Highroad, Luca, the S.S. Liki, and Besaid Village.
You can always get these later in the game without having to do all the walking, but if you do wait, the sphere in Besaid Village will be guarded by a superboss.
If you don’t wish to backtrack right now, head back to the Lake Road after the battle. Then, go north to get to the next area.
Lake Macalania
You will find yourself at another Travel Agency here. Just outside you will find O’aka if you want to buy anything from him. To the left of him you will find the Al Bhed Primer Vol. XVI.
You can find Clasko on the other side of the building: when you talk to him, he will ask you what job you see him doing between a Chocobo Knight or a Chocobo Breeder.
If you tell him, ‘Breeder’, then you will be able to see him in the S.S. Liki later in the game, taking care of chocobos.
Otherwise, your choice has no impact on the story.
There will also be a chest behind Clasko, but you can’t get it until later. So, just leave it for now.
Enter the Agency so you can save, and equip any weapons you have with the ‘Lightningstrike’ passive. When you’re back outside, head west and you will be taken into a boss fight.
Crawler
The battle will start with a Negator accompanying the boss. This will prevent all magic and all Aeons from being used. Since the Negator is a ranged enemy, you will only be able to damage it with Wakka, Kimahri‘s Lancet, or Use items/Mixes with Rikku. However, Keep in mind that Negator will come back after a while, negating all magic again when it does so.
While taking care of the Negator, you can have your other characters attack the Crawler. As you do so, use abilities such as Cheer and Focus. Once the Negator is defeated, you can use Haste on your party members, and then have Lulu take advantage of the boss’s Lightning weakness with Thunder spells. Ixion can be summoned for great damage as well.
The main thing to worry about with Crawler is its Mana Beam attack. After a countdown, it will deal a lot of damage to the entire party. Something to keep in mind, though, is that if the Negator is up, it will prevent Mana Beam from going off.
Macalania Temple
After the battle and following cutscenes, you find yourself right in front of an entrance. Open the chest for a Mega-Potion, then enter. From here, just continue down the path until you enter the temple — along the way you will find someone at the bottom of the stairs who will give you 400 gil.
Inside the temple, you can speak to Tromell for a Shell Targe for Rikku. On the east side of the room you will find a chest containing 5000 gil. Then, on the south side you will find another one with 2 X-Potions.
When you try to go up the stairs you will be interrupted and will have to go into the room on the right. After the cutscene, go to the chest at the back for 2 Remedies. Then, talk to the person near it for 2 Hi-Potions. Finally, go to the room on the right side of the temple to find a chest with 3 Phoenix Downs.
After this, buy any supplies you might need from O’aka in the main room and head up the stairs. Just follow the path and you will trigger a boss battle.
Seymour
Phase One: Seymour and Guado Guardians
The battle will start with Seymour and 2 Guado Guardians. The guardians will immediately cast Protect on themselves, while Seymour will cast Shell on himself. Tidus, Yuna, and Wakka will have a Trigger Command for this battle to talk to Seymour. If Yuna and Wakka use it, their Magic Defense will increase for this fight, while Tidus’s will raise his Strength.
The guardians have Auto-Potion. So, every time they get damaged they will counter by healing themselves for 1000 HP. You can prevent this counter in one of two ways: either have Rikku Steal from them, so they lose their Hi-Potions, or have Auron use Threaten on them. If you have the Stone Breath Ronso Rage for Kimahri, you can also use that to kill them instantly.
Once the guardians are taken care of, focus on Seymour. Once you do enough damage, he will summon Anima.
Phase Two: Anima
Anima is a dangerous enemy — she has access to the Pain attack, which will instantly kill a party member. Furthermore, her Oblivion Overdrive can potentially kill your entire party if you don’t have enough HP to handle it.
Yuna will have access to a new Aeon in this fight (Shiva, though her name will show as ‘????’ for this fight), and it is recommended that you summon her against Anima (if Tidus and Yuna are both in the party when Anima comes out, Tidus will even suggest summoning Shiva to Yuna).
Shiva can heal herself with Blizzara, and she will be immune to Anima’s instant-kill effect from Pain. So, keep attacking and healing as needed, and use her Diamond Dust Overdrive for extra damage (it will deal more damage if you wait for Anima to use Boost).
If Shiva dies before you can beat Anima, just have your party finish her off. Then, Seymour will come back into the fight.
Phase Three: Seymour’s Multi-Attacks
For this last phase, Seymour will do a Multi attack of a -ra spell every turn (for example Multi-Fira): this will allow him to cast the spell twice in one turn. He will use -ga spells if an Aeon is out.
The Multi spells are deadly, so you want to use Auron‘s Magic Break and Yuna‘s Nul spells to help mitigate the damage. Lulu’s Bio can help the fight go a little faster, since Seymour is susceptible to Poison. As long as you can keep everyone’s HP up, the rest of the fight is straightforward.
Once the battle is over, you will be able to name Shiva. Now, head back the way you came from. After you make a bit of way down the bridge, it will disappear, making you begin the Cloister of Trials.
Macalania Cloister of Trials
Something to keep in mind for this Cloister: since the floor is ice, pushing a pedestal will cause it to slide until it either hits a wall, or falls off of an edge.
Finishing the Cloister
Go to the right to head down a floor. Then, grab the Glyph Sphere from the pillar and place it on the pedestal.
Push the pedestal east (which will destroy the icicle that it stops on). Then, push it north to send it to the lower level and follow it.
Grab the Glyph Sphere and place it on the on the leftmost recess. This will reveal a Macalania Sphere back up on the middle floor.
Go to the middle floor and and grab either the newly revealed Macalania Sphere, or the one on the right side of the floor, and take it to the pillar on the lower floor.
Take the other Macalania Sphere and place it on the pedestal, then push it east to activate another pillar.
Grab the last Macalania Sphere on the middle floor (this will cause the ramp to the lower floor to disappear), and place it on the pillar. This will allow you to finish the Cloister. However, there are more steps if you want the Destruction Sphere treasure.
How to Get the Destruction Sphere Treasure
Head to the top floor where you started. Then, step on the newly revealed shining spot to move the pedestal here.
Remove the Macalania Sphere and push the pedestal down the ramp. This will cause it to grab the Destruction Sphere on the nearby icicle.
Go down to the middle floor and place the Macalania Sphere on the recess in the back. This will recreate the ramp to the lower floor. Then, step on the shining spot on the middle floor to make the pedestal appear here.
Grab the Destruction Sphere and take it to the lower floor. Place it on the recess immediately to the left of the ramp, and the chest with a Luck Sphere will be revealed. You will now have to rebuild the bridge to leave the Cloister.
Leaving the Cloister After the Treasure
Begin by going to the middle floor and grabbing the Macalania Sphere from the pillar. Place it on the recess on the right (making the icicle which was previously destroyed return). Then, remove it and place it on the pedestal.
Push the pedestal down to the lower level, and then push it east to reactivate the pillar.
Finally, go back to the middle floor. Take the Macalania Sphere from the back of the room and place it on the pillar. This will finish the bridge and allow you to leave the Cloister.
Once you’re outside of the temple, you can save and then buy supplies from O’aka, if needed.
As you run back to Macalania Lake, you will be chased by Guado Guardians. When one catches you, you will be put into a battle with him.
The guardian will act the same as the ones in the Seymour fight. However, he will also summon two fiends to assist him in the battle.
Take care of any guardians that run into you and make your way to the next area.
Head down the path, and stay on the right side on the first fork on the road. At the end of this path, you will find a chest containing a Lv. 1 Key Sphere. Now just continue down the path. At the end, you will be put into another boss fight.
Wendigo
The Wendigo will be accompanied by two Guado Guardians, and they will have the same Auto-Potion passive they did in the Seymour fight. They will cast Haste and Berserk on the Wendigo, and will cast Shell and Protect on it when they die. You can choose to deal with the guardians first — the same way you did in the Seymour fight — or keep them alive to avoid Protect and Shell from being cast.
To reduce Wendigo’s damage, you can use Wakka‘s Dark Attack and Auron‘s Power Break. You can also remove Berserk with Yuna‘s Esuna or Auron’s Threaten.
If you can survive Wendigo’s punches, the fight is pretty straightforward: just keep attacking it, and at some point Wendigo will raise its fists. When it takes this stance, it will counter all of your physical attacks. Just keep your HP up and continue attacking, and the Wendigo should go down.
After the battle, a cutscene will start and take you to a new area. Once you regain control, talk to everyone in your party to continue the story.
After talking to them, you can open the chests that were blocked by Kimahri and Auron, which contain a Lv. 2 Key Sphere and Avenger for Tidus, respectively. Speak to Auron again, then approach your party to trigger a cutscene. You will then be taken to the next area.
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KainHighwind27
I'm a huge gamer who especially loves the Final Fantasy series. I will play just about any game, especially if it has anything resembling a Dragoon.
