Poll of the Day > So, Blitzball...

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm finally in the Zanarkand Ruins, and knocking out the mobs before the Cloister so I have decent stats as well as Candles of Life for the Omega Ruins. Auron is killing the trash mobs in one hit, save for the Defender, which I just steal from and flee (since I don't feel it's worth the AP rewards to beat).

I still haven't touched Blitzball again since leaving Luca.
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You need to do blitzball if you want stuff for wakka (who is mechanically the best character in the game bar none) but if you don't use him and you don't like BB then don't bother.

knivesX2004 posted...

You need to do blitzball if you want stuff for wakka (who is mechanically the best character in the game bar none) but if you don't use him and you don't like BB then don't bother.

Eh... if you want all of the trophies in the HD remaster, then you need to do it since it bars three or four of them.
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Status Reels get!

1 game away from Aurochs Reels get!

I stopped a game short cus I was getting really bored. Hopefully I can get the Sigil without resetting or playing through 2 Leagues...
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knivesX2004 posted...

You need to do blitzball if you want stuff for wakka (who is mechanically the best character in the game bar none) but if you don't use him and you don't like BB then don't bother.

It really depends on how far you want to go in the game. If you don't have any ambitions of tackling the bonus bosses there's no point in blitzing if you don't enjoy it. If you do want to Wakka is, as you said, the best character - not irreplaceable but certainly worth the effort.
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AdrammeIech posted...

I didn't like Blitzball at all. I ended up following this and I was able to destroy every other team and get it over with.

1. Tidus will be the first shooter.
2. Find Wedge in Luca standing guard by the blitzball stadium
in green. (Press square to recruit for 10 games). He's your
second shooter.
3. Find Zalitz by the Luca Theater. He's a defender.
4. Find Jumaal near the Luca bar in the town square. Goalie.
5. Find Brother in your airship. Center.
6. Finally, find Ropp in the Mihen High road travel agency.
Defender.

Signed and ready to go for when I'm ready to Blitz.
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So

Dark Aeons hurt.

I'm going to need to watch my step and be careful whom I talk to before I'm developed enough to take them.
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KroganCharr posted...

If you do want to Wakka is, as you said, the best character

For example, I barely used Wakka so I never had incentive to play more Blitzball.
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seriously, just spam Jecht Shot. Back in the day I won every game by like 5-0 before I got bored
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What_The_Chris posted...

seriously, just spam Jecht Shot. Back in the day I won every game by like 5-0 before I got bored

Early Nirmrook may ruin that plan. Takes a few levels to make JS work reliably against him.
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Yeah I may end up having to attempt another reset, these Leagues are just not having the Sigil.
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I just scienced the hell out of the number of spheres I'm going to need to grind from the Monster Arena, if I want to max things out and keepmyself from getting omgwtfpwn'd by the Dark Aeons again. It's not pretty. <_<;
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Yeah, I only have 4 games left to get the Jupiter Sigil then I'm finally done with the Celestial Weapons, then that's my next course of action.
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I missed the sun crest for Tidus and when I first went back there fucking Dark Bahamut destroyed me. I maxed out the sphere grid, maxed out my stats for all the characters (except luck) and unlocked every trophy except for the one where I have to beat Penance. I just became so burnt out with the post game grinding I never turned it back on.

Finally done with Blitzball! Jecht Shot is indeed op.
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jecht shot is dumb.

like, the whole story reason for it is dumb.

the jecht shot mk. 3, and there is no mk 1 or mk 2, he only said it was mk 3 to keep the fans coming, but by definition of the naming scheme, he wouldn't use mark 1 or mark 2, anyways, because they'd be inferior to mark 3, since mark 3 denotes that it's been refined to the point that the shots gone through three iterations.

so even if there was a mark 1 and mark 2, he wouldn't use it and no one would want to see it
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Invisible Shot wrecks everything. Loved Blitzball. While numbers played a part, there is a level of strategy to it so you can beat the numbers.

Blitzball in X-2 is a numbers game.
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Entity13 posted...

I just scienced the hell out of the number of spheres I'm going to need to grind from the Monster Arena, if I want to max things out and keepmyself from getting omgwtfpwn'd by the Dark Aeons again. It's not pretty. <_<;

I determined I would use 333xHP, 25xMP, 60xLuck and 63x everything else except those that govern hit chance and dodge chance (they don't matter if you max luck). I got bored farming Luck spheres, I'm mostly done but haven't actually finished.

papercup posted...

Finally done with Blitzball! Jecht Shot is indeed op.

Congrats! Yeah there's just no defense against it.

helIy posted...

the jecht shot mk. 3, and there is no mk 1 or mk 2, he only said it was mk 3 to keep the fans coming, but by definition of the naming scheme, he wouldn't use mark 1 or mark 2, anyways, because they'd be inferior to mark 3, since mark 3 denotes that it's been refined to the point that the shots gone through three iterations.

Mark 1 and Mark 2 wouldn't necessarily be inferior. In this kind of sport it's often more important to do something that the opponent doesn't expect rather than raw efficiency. They could also just be variations with no specific value assigned to them, Mark 3 just being the one Jecht came up with last.
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I've entered the Omega Ruins tonight, and I developed a routine already for grinding. Since I have Rikku's Celestial unlocked and equipped, I try to make sure she's in the party for every fight, and certainly at the end of Mimic fights. Then, when I've earned 100-200k gil from the mimics, I find a suitable group with which to summon Yojimbo and pay him 65536 gil for a chance at Zenmato.

The mobs are all Zenmato Lv. 1, so each successful Zenmato will add 4 points to the equation used to determine his attack. Long story short, it's part of the equation that starts at 128 when you obtain him--selecting his third option helps too, but that's another matter--and caps at 255, with 252 being the threshold I need to pass. Getting up to where I am, between working on my routine and exploring the ruins a bit so as to grab the last Al Bhed primer, I've risen that number to 144. If I stick with the area until I hit an additional twenty-seven Zanmato uses successfully, then that should hopefully be enough sphere levels to make my characters--especially Rikku and Yuna--worth a damn in the monster arena.

Though, on the other hand, this might give me an excuse to save on Besaid Island and keep trying my hand at Dark Valefor until Zanmato happens and opens the way to the last Jecht Sphere I need. lol

KroganCharr posted...

Entity13 posted...

I just scienced the hell out of the number of spheres I'm going to need to grind from the Monster Arena, if I want to max things out and keepmyself from getting omgwtfpwn'd by the Dark Aeons again. It's not pretty. <_<;

I determined I would use 333xHP, 25xMP, 60xLuck and 63x everything else except those that govern hit chance and dodge chance (they don't matter if you max luck). I got bored farming Luck spheres, I'm mostly done but haven't actually finished.

That's fairly close to what I figured out, save for Magic because I'm fairly certain that Tidus and Auron don't necessarily need 255 of it, being the physical attackers that they are. They'll have 253. However, feel free to correct me on this.

Then I looked at Agility, since apparently it ceases to matter past 170 but is still nice to have. As such I calculated so that Rikku alone would hit 255, and everyone else would trail right behind according to base stats. A guide I was reading suggested 42 spheres minimum, and pour all extra into Agility. I laughed. I re-calculated. I'm going with 60 Agility Spheres.

This left me with 66 extra slots, not counting the 7 Evasion Spheres that the guide suggested. However, while I raise my Luck and other stats, would it not make sense to have some Acc and Eva on standby until they're technically no longer necessary? So I'm splitting those spare slots between Eva and Acc.

The setup I'll be going for (out of the Standard's 775 available-for-use slots), I think, is:
- 333 on HP (grind for 329)
- 25 on MP (grind for 14)
- 63 on Strength (grind for 40)
- 63 on Defense (grind for 50)
- 62 on Magic (grind for 41)
- 63 on Magic Defense (grind for 46)
- 60 on Agility (grind for 39)
- 60 on Luck (grind for 55)
- Roughly 33 each on Accuracy and Evasion (grind 14 of the latter, and the former is uncertain just yet)

Thursday! I have no reason for saying this, actually. I just wanted to start another paragraph with a "Th" word. Also, the grind numbers above are after the spheres provided by the chests and other elements throughout the story. It'll probably all take a while, so I'll probably do some Blitzball every so often between stats to break things up . . . the Lightning Dodging too. Ugh, and I still have to do most of the chocobo stuff in Calm/Remiel.
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Entity13 posted...

I've entered the Omega Ruins tonight, and I developed a routine already for grinding. Since I have Rikku's Celestial unlocked and equipped, I try to make sure she's in the party for every fight, and certainly at the end of Mimic fights. Then, when I've earned 100-200k gil from the mimics, I find a suitable group with which to summon Yojimbo and pay him 65536 gil for a chance at Zenmato.

The mobs are all Zenmato Lv. 1, so each successful Zenmato will add 4 points to the equation used to determine his attack. Long story short, it's part of the equation that starts at 128 when you obtain him--selecting his third option helps too, but that's another matter--and caps at 255, with 252 being the threshold I need to pass. Getting up to where I am, between working on my routine and exploring the ruins a bit so as to grab the last Al Bhed primer, I've risen that number to 144. If I stick with the area until I hit an additional twenty-seven Zanmato uses successfully, then that should hopefully be enough sphere levels to make my characters--especially Rikku and Yuna--worth a damn in the monster arena.

Though, on the other hand, this might give me an excuse to save on Besaid Island and keep trying my hand at Dark Valefor until Zanmato happens and opens the way to the last Jecht Sphere I need. lol

Do you just like Yojimbo? It seems like needless steps to be using him to grind levels. I dunno if you want any leveling tips but what you're doing just sound inefficient to me.

The method I used to level I found on my own but turned out to be part of the fastest way to get sphere levels.

edit: on a side note, I don't think I ever even used Yojimbo.
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Entity13 posted...

That's fairly close to what I figured out, save for Magic because I'm fairly certain that Tidus and Auron don't necessarily need 255 of it, being the physical attackers that they are. They'll have 253. However, feel free to correct me on this.

I never looked too closely into what stats are really necessary. From everything I know you don't even need that many HP, 9999 will do. I just wanted to max out everything because it looks nice. More MP makes no sense because I would need MP break armor to even see the difference so 25 MP speheres will be enough. This left me with the choice to either sacrifice some HP or not max out evasion and accuracy. Since a couple of more HP do almost nothing but those stats do actually nothing I chose to sacrifice those. I'm also planning to fill up my spare slots with acc/eva simply because I can.

Here's my farthest character, Tidus. Currently in the process of maxing luck, next thing would be HP and I'm done.

http://fs5.directupload.net/images/170517/csbobjqw.jpg
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AllstarSniper32 posted...

Do you just like Yojimbo? It seems like needless steps to be using him to grind levels. I dunno if you want any leveling tips but what you're doing just sound inefficient to me.

The method I used to level I found on my own but turned out to be part of the fastest way to get sphere levels.

edit: on a side note, I don't think I ever even used Yojimbo.

At this point, I'm mainly leveling Yojimbo to say I've done it for once, or maybe to get a little actual usage out of him on a couple Dark Aeons just so I can roam more freely across Spira while I develop enough to, you know, take down the Dark Aeons ~without~ using Yojimbo. The personal achievement is more important than the latter point. =p
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Entity13 posted...

AllstarSniper32 posted...

Do you just like Yojimbo? It seems like needless steps to be using him to grind levels. I dunno if you want any leveling tips but what you're doing just sound inefficient to me.

The method I used to level I found on my own but turned out to be part of the fastest way to get sphere levels.

edit: on a side note, I don't think I ever even used Yojimbo.

At this point, I'm mainly leveling Yojimbo to say I've done it for once, or maybe to get a little actual usage out of him on a couple Dark Aeons just so I can roam more freely across Spira while I develop enough to, you know, take down the Dark Aeons ~without~ using Yojimbo. The personal achievement is more important than the latter point. =p

Gotcha, I disliked him and never wanted to ever use him lol.
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Oh nice. While doing my thing in Omega Ruins this evening I got a couple pieces of No Encounter gear. When I sell off the junk I'll have to be sure to keep one or both of those.
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Entity13 posted...

Oh nice. While doing my thing in Omega Ruins this evening I got a couple pieces of No Encounter gear. When I sell off the junk I'll have to be sure to keep one or both of those.

I reloaded for the No Encounter weapon you can get from the underwater boss (I think it was Geos G-something) at the entrance of Anima's temple, simply because No Encounter weapons usually don't exist. Same with the Magic Counter shield at the shop when you first enter the Calm Lands, that's usually a weapon-exclusive ability so I buy and keep one.
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Last place I needed to go to capture monsters was the Cave of Stolen Fayth. Spent an hour capturing Tonberrys and Ghosts, then I turn around to leave and Dark Yojimbo roflstomps me. :P
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papercup posted...

Last place I needed to go to capture monsters was the Cave of Stolen Fayth. Spent an hour capturing Tonberrys and Ghosts, then I turn around to leave and Dark Yojimbo roflstomps me. :P

Yep. Walking back from that room is out of the question until you've beaten him. Instead, I used the pad to warp back to the entrance, doing so every few kills of Tonberries and Ghosts so I can save and prevent the loss of progress. I made the mistake once, and never again...

Fun fact: apparently you fight Dark Yojimbo five times and can reset that counter by saving (or something like that?), meaning you can effectively farm his drops if you want to.
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Dark Yojimbo drops 3 and 4 slot ribbon armor sometimes. I farmed him for a long time but I didn't get the armor for every body. As long as you never kill him the 5th time you can always come back and restart the first fight.

AdrammeIech posted...

Dark Yojimbo drops 3 and 4 slot ribbon armor sometimes. I farmed him for a long time but I didn't get the armor for every body. As long as you never kill him the 5th time you can always come back and restart the first fight.

The Dark Aeons also have a 87.5% chance of dropping Dark Matter, and a 12.5% of dropping Master Spheres. 99 Dark Matter can provide the Ribbon ability as well. With some lucks, I'll get a few Master Spheres and throw them at the native +4 nodes so my characters might potentially have less work to do.
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Speaking of the Dark Aeons, Dark Valefor is down, freeing up Basaid Village for exploration, and Auron's Tornado Overdrive is mine. I'll eliminate the others later.
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3 2 1 let's blitz
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Entity13 posted...

With some lucks, I'll get a few Master Spheres and throw them at the native +4 nodes so my characters might potentially have less work to do.

What do you mean by "less work"? Less Sphere Levels? Because there's a method to farm them extremely quickly. There's a weapon abiltiy that converts overdrive to XP which is also compatible to the Triple Overdrive and Triple XP abilities. I can enter a battle against Don Tonberry, do one attack, die from the counterattack, resurrect the dead party member, then run and jump straight from lv0 to lv99.
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KroganCharr posted...

Entity13 posted...

With some lucks, I'll get a few Master Spheres and throw them at the native +4 nodes so my characters might potentially have less work to do.

What do you mean by "less work"? Less Sphere Levels? Because there's a method to farm them extremely quickly. There's a weapon abiltiy that converts overdrive to XP which is also compatible to the Triple Overdrive and Triple XP abilities. I can enter a battle against Don Tonberry, do one attack, die from the counterattack, resurrect the dead party member, then run and jump straight from lv0 to lv99.

I'm well aware of this, and less work is still welcome. As in, if I see +4 nodes or ability ones that require me to go out of my way just for them, and I ~happen~ to be able to just knock them out, then I might, because, again, I totally could. More than that, however, is if I find myself wondering where a missed node is for one character I can just throw a Master Sphere at it then rather than seek it out and grind up sphere levels to reach it.

This is to say that if I'm going to grind Dark Yojimbo anyway, then I might as well hope to become able to do these things. It won't be a loss if I don't get Master Spheres, but they would be most welcome.
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I took down the Dark Magus Sisters via Yojimbo, because I felt like it, and one of them dropped a Ribbon armor for Kimahri. So my least used character is set as far as armor goes, once I customize Break HP Limit upon it. Also, Tidus got the Genji Shield (Break HP Limit + Auto-Haste), so I need the same material to put Ribbon on that, maybe. <_<
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Wakka's got the Ribbon ability on him now, thanks to a Dark Yojimbo drop. One more on Tidus, Yuna, or Auron, and I'll be more than happy to enter Sin and capture all of the things in there without being encumbered by crap.
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Entity13 posted...

Wakka's got the Ribbon ability on him now, thanks to a Dark Yojimbo drop. One more on Tidus, Yuna, or Auron, and I'll be more than happy to enter Sin and capture all of the things in there without being encumbered by crap.

Inside Sin was a powerleveling place for me before I unlocked Colosseum fights. That area right outside the airship was good because I could fight things then heal up at the save spot. The encounter rate right there seemed pretty high as well so it worked out well for me.
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Just farmed some gil, got a couple Triple AP/Overdrive -> AP/Double Overdrive weapons, got some level 4 keys, then I filled in almost the entire grid for Tidus, and a large chunk of it for Yuna and Rikku, but I still need to get some spheres to fill all the empty spaces.
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I'm nearly done capturing everything for the Monster Arena. The two most annoying things right now are the specific mobs' spawn rates and the Mortar ability used by Barbatos. Once I'm done with the Barbatos, Behemoth Kings, and Gemini yellows and blues (as there are two kinds), I shall have all of the MA unlocked except for Nemesis.

Then I can start buying Clear Spheres--I should be able to do that now, actually, as you need 5 of each of everything--and replacing some lower potency nodes with +4s.

I'm thinking of matching what appears in the entire left column of the sphere grid (only upgraded), and adding Luck Spheres in the blank nodes. I'll go from there, but I suspect that will be a fine place to start for my characters. It's going to be a lot of tedious work, but I can see this happening if I pace myself.

I just have to not forget about the other things, like Blitzball, Thunder Dodging, and the chocobo stuff.
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whatever you're doing

you need to rethink it because that's just too much effort for something as silly as a sphere grid.
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helIy posted...

whatever you're doing

you need to rethink it because that's just too much effort for something as silly as a sphere grid.

lol no. Silly is thinking bait will work somewhere that it will not.

Now if you excuse me, I have a platinum trophy to work towards little by little.
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uh

k?

i think.

completely maxing out your dudes stats still seems completely unnecessary and lifekilling grind towards complete hatred towards the game.

Perfect Sphere MasterPerfect Sphere Master xtroComplete the Sphere Grids for all main characters.

yeah fuck that
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Finished capturing monsters! Now to get serious about the Dark Aeons.
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papercup posted...

Finished capturing monsters! Now to get serious about the Dark Aeons.

Barbatos took so long, but it was nice to finally sell my capturing weapons. I saved, grabbed the music and cutscene trophy at Luca Theater, reloaded, and am back at the MA to grab a few spheres to help Titus, Yuna, and Rikku out at first.
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I made a spread sheet to help keep track of my sphere grid progress. I rarely ever do simple checklists for most RPG grinds, let alone spreadsheets. <_<
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I also made sure to beat the main story now so that the Aeons phase of the final battle doesn't become unnecessarily lengthy due to them being buffed up by Yuna's stats.
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Entity13 posted...

I also made sure to beat the main story now so that the Aeons phase of the final battle doesn't become unnecessarily lengthy due to them being buffed up by Yuna's stats.

I'm not sure it works that way. A friend of mine did that battle with a stat-maxed Yuna once and managed to one-hit them.
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KroganCharr posted...

Entity13 posted...

I also made sure to beat the main story now so that the Aeons phase of the final battle doesn't become unnecessarily lengthy due to them being buffed up by Yuna's stats.

I'm not sure it works that way. A friend of mine did that battle with a stat-maxed Yuna once and managed to one-hit them.

I'm sure that's right, and the aeons' stats only go up so much, but better safe than sorry imo, especially when beating that fight is easy enough already.
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I loathe feeling as though I need high stats in order to effectively grind for high stats. It's part of why I was glad to use gameshark in the ps2 version of this game. Now, though? Blegh. The heightened chances for Zanmato aren't helping as much as they should, either.
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I haven't exactly played much in the last day or so, but I'm still progressing bit by bit on the sphere grid. At least my spreadsheet is super effective in keeping track of what I've done and what I still need to accomplish.
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