Final Fantasy X Monster Arena
General Strategies
– I tend to use only Auron, Tidus, Wakka and Yuna towards the end. Eventually even Auron misses out and it’s just the other three. The only two that truly need to be worked on are Wakka and Yuna. Wakka for his Attack Reels Overdrive + World Champion for lots of 99,999’s and then Yuna for her summons.
As you’ll find out as you defeat these monsters, they drop rare items. Most important are the Juggernaut and his Strength Spheres, and also the Fenrir and his Agility Spheres. By the time you fight Nemesis you’ll want even Yuna to be in the mid 200’s for Attack, taking off 99,999 each time.
Abilities you need for everyone – Auto-Life, Quick Hit, Full Life, Double Cast, Ultima and Hastega. Most of them are just important for situational fights but Hastega and Quick Hit will be used all the time.
The best place to build up AP is Omega Dungeon. Be careful of the Malboro’s here though because they always ambush you in the Omega Dungeon (and never do Inside Sin) and if you don’t have the Masamune for Auron you won’t be able to go before the Bad Breath hits you.
So, have the Masamune equipped to bring in Yuna and get an aeon, so that you don’t die.
Think of the Area / Species / Original Monsters as three tiers. The area monsters are relatively easy and can be done in early while the Species monsters are a definite step up. The original monsters will require lots of building up needless to say.
Area Conquest (Capture one of each monster in each area to unlock these bosses.)
1. Besaid Island – Stratoavis – He’s so slow and weak that he is in the running for easiest of these fights. Even at lower levels Hastega can be the difference in allowing you to romp through his high HP.
2. Kilika Island – Malboro Menace – For this battle you will want Auron in the starting party and Yuna in the reserves, so that Auron can get the First Strike and Yuna can summon Anima. If Yuna is built up enough Anima should be able to survive the Gastric Juice attacks from the Malboro Menace, and if Anima is Hasted she can easily cast Curaga for one turn and attack for about 99,999 the next. Fighting this battle with the characters is a little risky so let the aeons take the blow.
3. Mi’ ihen Highroad – Kottos – Kottos will be countering every attack you do to him. Make sure you have Protect up, but even then you may not be able to survive his physical attacks. If so get an Aeon in, Anima especially should prove to have enough valor to withstand Kottos.
4. Mushroom Rock Road – Coeurlregina – One of the easiest hunts around. Cast Hastega with your characters and get in as many Quick Hits as you can and then get an aeon in to do some damage before taking the blow. Coeurlregina doesn’t have a lot of HP and doesn’t counterattack so it’s possibly that you can kill it without it getting a turn.
5. Djose Highroad – Jormungand – The best basilisk around. That’s not saying much though, as it’s slow and again doesn’t counterattack. Don’t let it stone you, and it’s other attacks really aren’t much besides the tail whip. Quick Hits and Attack Reels can kill Jormungand in a matter of turns.
6. Thunder Plains – Cactuar King – Finally a tricky opponent. Cactuar King will even run away from you sometimes! He also likes to use 10,000 needles and 99,999 needles just incase you were over 10,000. On top of all of that he is near impossible to hit. Anima’s Pain might prove useful or just use Wakka and Tidus and hope they connect a few times. His HP isn’t that high fortunately.
7. Lake Macalania and Macalania Forest – Espada – This little thing doesn’t have much HP but has a Hades Claw that will kill you instantly. He also has Regen going on as you can see, at high rates. Bring in Anima to negate the Hades Claw and his defenses should prove too much for Espada.
8. Bikanel / Sanubia Desert – Abyss Worm – Wow this thing is slow. It has a Swallow counterattack that can take out one of your attackers but if you have Hastega on with three good attackers (Tidus Wakka Auron) this thing probably won’t even get an attack off. It’s HP isn’t even that high, so if you’re taking off near 99,999 this will be easy.
9. Calm Lands – Chimerageist
– Chimerageist is a joke at high levels. It is generally the first you unlock so therefore it is likely the easiest. It has a water and fire attack that you may want to defense yourself for, but it’s HP is so low that it can’t last long in a battle with you.
10. Sunken Cave – Don Tonberry – His Karma will basically kill whoever attacks it. His HP isn’t that high so hopefully you have a high attack otherwise you’ll be casting Life often. Not as tough as you’d think besides the whole instant kill counterattack thing.
11. Mt. Gagazet – Catoblepas – Another great candidate for using an aeon on, as it uses Ultima right before it dies. It likes to attack and use Flare. Pretty fast and will likely ambush you to start things off. Tons of HP but if you have a high level aeon like Anima hasted and taking off 99,999 you should be fine.
12. Inside Sin – Abaddon – Now this guy has a high defense. Most of that is because he has protect statuses up. His attacks aren’t that devastating other than Flare, but it likes to use Pharoah’s Curse a lot so try to have protection for that. Or have an Aeon out to not be affected by that.
13. Omega Ruins – Vorban – A Barbatos that is much tougher. It’s Mortar attack will take off a lot on all of your characters, and he randomly counterattacks with this. He is slow but because of the counterattack is still effective, and you can’t armor break him so you have to suffer through his tough defenses. Definitely the toughest of the area creations and another one that might warrant Anima‘s use.
Species Creations – You need to capture a certain amount of each type of monster throughout Spira. It varies for each species but is generally around 3-5 for each (Iron Giants are 10). These are decidedly harder than the area conquests, keep in mind.
14. Wolves – Fenrir – This will be the hardest battle you’ve fought up to this point. Even aeons like the great Anima can’t bail you out from Fenrir’s instant death attacks. So agile and deadly is this Fenrir. Your best options are a powered up Wakka using Attack Reels, or Yuna summoning the Magus Sisters and praying that Mindy uses Passado.
15. Lizards – Ornitholestes – Orny is quick and likes to dodge your attacks, even Wakka’s. Anima can help with Pain but she might be too slow to keep up with Ornitholestes. 800,000 is a lot of HP is whittle down.
16. Birds – Pteryx – One more enemy that has a killer evade. Unfortunately for the Pteryx it doesn’t have the HP that the two above have. Connect on just a few hits and you should be able to kill it.
17. Insects – Hornet – Just let Wakka take this one. With Quick Hit and / or Attack Reels he should be able to take off the 620,000 or so rather fast. Despite having a high evade rate the Hornet only dodged Wakka once out of about 7 attacks.
18. Floating Wizards – Vidatu – Dangerously low HP for an enemy in the species creations but has a tremendous evade. However if you can connect with Wakka or use Wakka’s overdrive this should be a piece of cake. He’ll have regen on but that shouldn’t matter.
19. Eyeballs – One-Eye – One Eye just doesn’t have the HP to survive with you. Cast Hastega and start Quick Hitting and it won’t last long. If it gets a turn off summon an aeon and see how far you can go with that.
20. Flans – Jumbo Flan – You can’t use physical attacks, at all. You can spam Ultima on it, or you can put in Anima and have her caste Haste on herself and use Pain. Jumbo Flan has a ridiculous 1,300,000 HP so don’t expect anything quick. The key is casting Reflect on yourself and then casting Slow on yourself so Jumbo Flan is slowed. This will be an otherwise very grueling battle go a little shorter.
21. Elementals – Nega Elemental – Well you can attack the Nega Elemental with physical attacks but it’ll counter with Ultima. Unless it’s an aeon or you have auto-life on you might as well not do that. Another long battle I assure you. Of course Anima and Pain get by as a magic attack so this is probably your best option.
22. Armored Mole – Tanket – This bastard has a cheap Rush Attack that it’ll use when you’re by yourself to kill you. So don’t let that happen. His defense is pretty high but not as much as you’d expect from the top armored mole. Attack Reels will be a good option and get as many Quick Hits off as you can.
23. Dragons – Fafnir – Fafnir is very slow and you can get in a lot of Quick Hits before he goes. His breath attack and triple attack can kill you in short work so having an aeon up when his turn goes would be smart.
24. Mushrooms – Sleep Sprout – If you attack Sleep Sprout he uses Goodnight. That will kill you and afflict you with so many status ailments you’ll want to restart. Fortunately he has 98,000 HP so if you have an aeon or character who can do 99,999 this will be over fast. Attack Reels, Passado or an Aeon can get the job does. Aeon’s are especially good since Goodnight doesn’t affect them as much.
25. Bombs – Bomb King – The king of bombs is here. He swells not when you attack him but when you cause a certain amount of damage. The bigger it gets the higher level fire magic it uses. At it’s biggest it’ll cast Ultima on you every time you attack. You don’t want this so as you get towards 480,000 you’ll want to pull an Attack Reels or something to kill it fast.
26. Horned Beasts – Juggernaut – The Juggernaut will charge and use Salvo on you. Having an Aeon to shield this attack might be smart. It will also use regular attacks, but if you have Protect on you’ll be fine. Having Fire Ward or Fire Eater to stop the fire breath would help. Really though Juggernaut is not that tough despite a decent defense and high HP.
27. Iron Giants – Ironclad – This will be a long fight. It is unlikely that you will get off Armor Break but you can use Banishing Blade to do the same thing. Every attack you do is counterattacked with Reppageki so it might be a good idea to have an aeon out there. Surprisingly the Magus Sisters faired a little better than Anima but the two of them combined to kill the Iron clad for me.
Original Creations – These are the toughest monsters in the game. Not even Sin or the final bosses measure up to these beasts. They all have different ways of unlocking but are generally the most difficult to unlock as well.
28. Earth Eater – As you will begin to see starting in this battle, the monsters become much more difficult. Earth Eater only has about 130,000 HP but has a Megaton Punch for an attack and counterattack that will destroy most of your characters. Some of your aeons like the Magus Sisters would be ideal for deal with his damage. When Earth Eater is on his back he’ll cast Flare for 9999 so be prepared for that every time you attack him.
How to unlock Earth Eater – Have two areas of monsters complete (meaning at least one of each).
29. Greater Sphere – This bastard counterattacks with Ultima or the Hydraulic Press. Now this press will bust through any Aeon’s defenses unless they are shielding, which you can’t do if you’re attacking the Greater Sphere. Auto-Life is your best friend in this battle, so is Attack Reels and Passado. The Magus Sisters do pretty well as long as they don’t get the Hydraulic Press too early. Passado can really do some damage. Continuing to summon aeons over and over isn’t a bad idea on this level considering the counterattacks by Greater Sphere.
How to unlock Greater Sphere – Gather at least two species to unlock Greater Sphere.
30. Catastrophe – Probably the easiest of the Original Monsters. It starts off in a shell and doesn’t come out until you do about half a million HP to it. Once it opens up start using Toxic Spray and some other things that might be useful to have an Aeon for (or have your members protect against the ailments). It’s most powerful move is Hundred Thorns so you might want Anima to shield you from that. Still the 2 million goes by fast especially with an Attack Reels or Anima doing 99,999 each attack.
How to unlock Catastrophe – Gather at least six areas of monsters
31. Th’uban – You’re going to love Thuban’s Condemn tail sweep. It removes all good protective stuff (like haste, protect, auto-life, and so on) so you’ll love it even more for that. It also takes off a decent amount. Thuban also uses Rainbow which will curse you. Using aeons is the best way to take Thuban down in my opinion, but Thuban likes to use Convergence every now and awhile to take off 99,999 and wipe our your aeon. Fortunately this is why you should pull out the Magus Sisters, because Condemn won’t do much to them and Rainbow shouldn’t damage them much either (it will curse them but you don’t need their overdrive). Convergence will kill one of them but Cindy can cast life spells for that. Mindy’s Passado is the best offense of course. Just choose fight until she uses it and then choose “one more time” forever with mindy. The other aeons can work for a time but again Convergence will kill them in an instant. Th’uban has 3,000,000 HP so you’re in for a long ride. He’ll cast Protect as well but that should only lower Passado (even with protect you should be doing about 99,999 with the magus sisters attacks).
How to unlock Th’uban – Complete six species of monsters
32. Neslug – You’ve seen this creature before posing as Sin but now it is Neslug. It likes to use a Megaton ability that is relatively powerful, a Slime attack that is very dangerous for your human party but not so much for Aeons, and last a regular physical attack that will put down any Aeon almost. Okay, it hides in it’s shell (impervious to physical damage) after 2,000,000 damage and regenerates random amounts of HP but sometimes over 100,000 a turn! To break the shell you are best off having the Black Mage ability Doublecast and use Flare or Ultima (and then Copycat). Using Flare wasn’t powerful enough for me to break Neslug’s shell. I prefer to attack it 20 times (taking off 99,999 each time) and then bust out Attack Reels for 12 more 99,999’s, automatically busting the shell and foregoing dealing with the shelled version of Neslug. Now it will just spam Slime so kill it with Aeons as fast as you can.
How to unlock Neslug – Capture one of every monster
33. Ultima Buster – Another former Sin creature. Start off with Hastega and then get your Quick Hits in on the hands and head (with Wakka) to overkill them quick. If Ultima Buster gets a turn you’ll probably want to get an aeon in incase Ultima Buster uses Ultima. Once all of it’s extensions are off and you are Hastega-ed it’ll be easy to get at the body of Ultima Buster. Attack Reels, Blitz Ace, Passado, Quick Hit, etc. The arms will regenerate but that’s just a Quick Hit excursion for you. Continue this process for a relatively easy win.
How to unlock Ultima Buster – Capture five of each monster!
34. Shinryu – A water creature, the ultimate water dragon. So it’s up to Tidus, Wakka and Rikku. Fortunately Wakka and Tidus should be two of your best characters. Shinryu counterattacks with a powerful physical attack, but with the defenses I have it takes off about 3500 on Wakka and 5000 on Tidus when Unprotected. So, Protect them and then attack Shinryu for hopefully around 99,999 each time. The counterattacks shouldn’t be as bad so use Rikku to heal (or the weaker out of the other two). Shinryu will use Shining, a devastating attack to all three members. Rikku died real early for me so I just focused on Attack Reels and keeping Wakka healed for his Quick Hits. You’ll probably unlock this battle early but won’t be able to beat it until the very end. Careful of his petrification / destruction attack that erases a member basically.
How to unlock Shinryu – capture two of the water monsters at Mt. Gagazet (2 Splashers, 2 Maelspikes and 2 Achelous)
35. Nemesis – Congratulations to all of you who wasted hours of your life capturing 10 of every monster (especially those fuckers with low encounter rates) to unlock Nemesis. Now you want to know how to kill him of course. Despite the 10,000,000 it’s not as hard as you think. First of all don’t use overdrives or he’ll kill you with his counterattack. Hastega and Quick Hit until it is Nemesis’ turn and then get in an aeon to deliver some damage quick and then take Nemesis hit. The more help the aeons can do the better (basically the more legendary weapons the better as this will allow the lesser aeons to break the 9999 barrier). Nemesis will quickly dispose of the aeons though with Ethereal Cannon or Ultra Spark or Ultima. He also has a nifty attack called Armageddon that he’ll use when he wants your entire party to die. Nemesis really likes using Armageddon on your Magus Sisters, like the first turn he gets. Towards the end if he kills off all of your aeons then it might be worth your time to try Attack Reels to see if it ‘ll kill him or not. That’s probably a better strategy than letting Nemesis do his turn, which will probably end up killing you anyway. Improving your agility and strength for anyone not doing 99,999 (only yuna needs work probably) will allow you to get in more high powered attacks in between summoning aeons on Nemesis.
In other words, let’s try about 220 Strength and 190 Agility, at least before we attempt Nemesis. Things will go much smoother that way. Once you get those stats up by fighting Juggernauts and Fenrir respectively, then follow the above strategy and you should be able to defeat Nemesis.
How to unlock Nemesis – Capture 10 of every monster and defeat every Species, Area and Original creation.
For defeating Nemesis you receive the Mark of Conquest. The Mark of Conquest is “Given to those who have surpassed mortal bounds”. You can look at it on your Key Items tab, that’s about it.
I heard clear spheres can get rid of lvl. 4 sphere blocks, yet when I tested that, it didnt work, is that only applied to international version? also, I have perfect stats and my strategy is to mix a perfect formula for tidus and wakka and yet I still have not beat nemesis
Hmm, first guess is I’d say no it doesn’t work, but I guess I’m not sure about the clear spheres + lvl. 4 sphere blocks.
You have perfect stats but you cannot beat Nemesis? You need to build Yuna up too. Use Quick Hit with Wakka and Tidus and when he’s about to go, use all of her summons as sacrificial lambs. And repeat. If you have those three maxed you should be fast / strong enough to pull it off without even getting hit.
it is great
love this game ( _ )
so ture
i beat Nemesis only in 7 minutes and 10 seconds….. i only use quick hits and the last attack i use wakka overdrive attack reel ,you must first calculate how many time you use quick hits after a masssive of damage and if nemesis’s hp is about only 1190000 left then use wakka attack reel, but you must have already a perfect status for wakka tidus and yuna( or other character whos will fight nemesis along with wakka..its up to you to choose) . i dont use anyone of aeons. try my move.- (Chocobos alattas _Jordan)-.
wow,…. i just beated that Nemesis in just 4minutes and 50seconds…..hahaha that Nemesis is a peace of cake, (sorry … i dont bluffing… beleive me) i took my old move and i beat that cute Nemesis. sorry guys ….maybe that is the fastest time i ever made.
Hi. Don’t know if anyone still plays this game but i need to ask someone. Whats the story with the silver dragon outside the arena? I heard something like you get to fight it after beating every monster in the calm lands. Is this true? Or is it just a decoration?
Sounds like some lip service, Tom. Pretty sure you can’t fight that Dragon, it’s just there to look cool. Only the monsters above are the ones you fight.
I just beat Nemesis in less than 3 minutes. 3 wakka overdrives + quick hits. Lol
I don’t believe it, Jed. I thought he counterattacks overdrives with something too devastating to survive? Or how do you survive it? That fight vs. Nemesis would definitely go a lot faster being able to use Wakka’s Attack Reels.
what’s so special about quick hit? Am I not using it right? It’s still only one turn at a time as far as I know. Appriciate any help.
There is no Silver Dragon even after you beated all monsters in arena, the only strongest boss is Panacea, but you must defeat all Dark Aeons first to make him appears. and for what i know the fastest time to beat Nemesis is 4 minutes and 38 seconds, if there is anyone claim that he/she defeated Nemesis in less than 4 minutes and 38 seconds (without using Zanmato) i dont believe it coz that bluffing or not true. dont fool me …. are you trying to make a joke?
I hate the sphere type enemy it takes a while to figure out how to defeat him at the Arena.
In a vacuum Nemesis is probably the toughest but I find by the time I get to Nemesis my characters are built up enough so that he’s not really a problem. That’s why some of the earlier battles are fun when your characters aren’t quite super powered and you have to scratch and claw to beat some of the Area bosses…
Ah yea the Hydraulic Press, I hate that damn move it takes off a ton.
I already beat nemesis in 4 minutes 43 seconds, no cheats. that the fastest i ever made.
ill beat him for 3mins 56secs zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
no cheats and my saving time is 206hrs lol :D
hey guys i beat him in 1 attack :) lol all u need is yuna to have first strike and have a gd relationship with yojimbo it was funny n yet rather boring