Final Fantasy X Endgame Considerations Discussion

Hi all, and welcome to a slightly different Final Fantasy X video.
This is designed to bridge the gap between my Overpowered walkthrough for the story sections and the endgame portions of the game where you start capturing and then stat maxing.
For a full description of what I discuss here, please see this accompanying Reddit post where I cover the decisions that think are important and must be considered before you start stat-maxing and capturing.
www.reddit.com/r/finalfantasy...
I hope that you find this useful! Please like, comment and subscribe for the endgame part of my walkthrough, which I think had some very good tips to speed up capturing 10 of every creatures, and will show the most efficient methods of stat-maxing in Final Fantasy X!

[@kahitano2709]

I cried playing that chocobo race, took me 2 days to get the perfect run!

[@DPhoenix237]

Still, you smashed it in the end, so way to go!

[@SigfridX7]

I just got it done. Luckily it only took me 2-3hrs to get it done 😂

[@mattyy101]

@@SigfridX7 like 20 races here, 15 ballons an got hit by a bird

[@rd6416]

It took me 20 years to do the catcher chocobo race 🤣. The trick for me was to use the Directional Pad instead of the control stick. The chocobo is much much much easier to control and responds much more accurately with the Directional Pad. A couple of tips on balloons and early race strategy helped as well. Thank you, your stat maxing guides have been extremely helpful in my post game play. 👍👍

[@DPhoenix237]

Glad to hear it; thank you! Catcher Chocobo is a right pain.

[@buffybans4642]

@@DPhoenix237eeeerr

[@K_Dog253]

Holy God what did I get myself into?! I was so excited when this game first came out, and put countless hours into it. Now I have the ps4 version, and plan to do everything, without any spoilers. But listening to you makes me really apprehensive. I'm in for a ride...

[@coolguy-qu2su]

great vid, really helpful for my first playthrough:)

[@DPhoenix237]

Thank you, much appreciated! Check out the rest of the Stat Maxing guide for the optimised endgame strategies!

[@mhill0425]

“You need to decide if you’re going to do it right or just zanmato penance” Me: *grinds out all the gear, finishes the sphere grid for all the characters, beats the dark aeons properly. * summon>yojimbo

[@DPhoenix237]

Yeah tbf Penance is an insanely boring fight if done conventionally. It's only properly interesting if done without killing his arms, which is still kinda tedious and beyond my patience levels. And is INCREDIBLY difficult.

[@ZXGoldDragon]

@@DPhoenix237 Completly agree with you, a challenge I recently manage to pull after lots of hours of grind, strategy and thinking, 2 hrs+ in battle against Penance, but after defeating it, all that time really was worthy, the satisfaction...

[@Buffbud96]

9:00 I have confirmed in testing that it is un-necessary to obtain the destruction sphere TREASURES when you want to get Anima. You DO still need to USE the destruction spheres though. This is why, for Bevelle, you are forced to use the dest. sphere, since you're unable to go back to Bevelle temple, Square Enix made it to where you are unable to fail. P.S. if you want the confirmation video, let me know, i'll find the link for you

[@DPhoenix237]

That sounds about right, yeah. Makes no difference really; you should always pick up the treasures anyway. They're all useful to degree.

[@Buffbud96]

@@DPhoenix237 well... see... the thing is, I somehow missed the knight Lance for kimahri in Bevelle, so I was REALLY terrified that I screwed up... then I went and tested it, and confirmed that it was only using the spheres

[@justanotherweirdo11]

That makes sense.

[@dharris1084able]

Ummm so I have the ffx HD version.. and I used zanmato to get back into bevelle... I defeated the dark aeon without max stats or anything... only to find that I DID already have that destruction sphere lol

[@Buffbud96]

@@dharris1084able how did you get back into Bevelle's cloister? Its locked once you leave

[@donutwashington4783]

very helpful thank you!

[@DPhoenix237]

You're welcome! The capturing and Stat Maxing episodes are in my 'How to be OP' playlist for the standard grid if you're interested.

[@ISCREAMSODAsmr]

Dude I forgot which video you @ ed me but Watz is in the VERY begging part of Machalania forest! I thought it was at Mt Gagazet🎮👈💜 thanks for the video dood

[@DPhoenix237]

Lol, no worries. I did say Macalania 🤪 Glad you found him.

[@marmotiuxmarmol9215]

Ahhh , that chocobo rum turned my hair white 😂. I spent 7 hrs in a row playing it over and over until I finally got it.

[@2_572]

For me it's the lightning shit.

[@rd6416]

@@2_572 yep I still haven't bothered with thr lightning dodging. It's a fly in my ointment though as I have all other celestial weapons fully powered up.

[@2_572]

@@rd6416 You could use no encounter weapon skill then in the 1st area there is a pot hole kinda and lightning strikes twice dodge 50 times to get your mental ryhthem going and don't stop if you feel if you mentally miscounted don't stop until you feel you hit 50 sometimes unknowingly you did 70 or 58 or 60 record your progress with tally marks every "50" you get pause the game but take a few minutes to mentally collect yourself then go at it again and before you know it you will get it:)

[@piewy2196]

@@2_572 for me it was blitzball idk why i could never get into it i even finished the chocobo and lightning dodge both in under an hour individually

[@2_572]

@@piewy2196 haha oh wow!

[@goldensus7778]

This is an eye opener for someone that have no idea what to do first after almost clearing the main story in the game 👍

[@lavayuki]

I have just done the story, got all the aeons and al bhed primers and Yuna, Aurons celestial weapons and the treasures to power up all the others before the dark aeons appeared. . I've not anything else but want to try and get the platinum trophy in this. I find a lot of the mini games tough in this though and had chosen the expert sphere grid so my character roles are all different. I might just go for Tidus and Lulu's as they are tied to trophies, and Rikku's is easy to get. This is so useful as I have no clue where to start with so much to do.

[@DPhoenix237]

Glad you found it useful! Check out my OP Playlist for FFX as it has all my tips for capturing and Stat Maxing. The minigames do suck though. Get the map online for Kimahri's; it's much easier when you know the route to take. Use the crater trick for Lulu's. Man, I hate that one. Tidus' one is just the worst. It takes patience and luck.

[@SteelValkyrie202]

@@DPhoenix237 Thank God the Crater trick still exists on the remaster because with an HD TV the lightning is almost impossible to dodge due to input lag. Never had any problems back on PS2 when I was still using my old TV.

[@DPhoenix237]

Indeed. Thank goodness I never use Lulu in playthroughs any more 😅

[@kingzach5000]

I love how you actually pronounce the letter H. (Haych )

[@machdude3366]

Considering that Lulu is damn near useless at the end of the game and the resources are available to just MAKE a comparable weapon for Tidus... yeah, I am in no rush to do any of this in 50 years.

[@DPhoenix237]

Lulu is pretty useless yeah. There is a trophy for Lightning dodging if you're into that, though. Tidus can't make a comparable weapon to Caladbolg. Any customised Break Damage Limit would deal something like 30k damage to Penance even with Piercing; the Celestials have a special innate ability that ignores the enemy's defense.

[@madlaz9575]

Hey I know this video has been uploaded a while ago but I need to put some doubts to rest, I'm using the ESG, I want my endgame party to be Lulu, Yuna and Rikku (already got their CWs), I want to clear all the content (without Zanmato) and get all the achievements, I don't care about having max stats on everything only enough to beat the endgame bosses, how many stat boosting spheres (+4 STR, +4 ACC, etc) would I need on the the ESG to at least soft cap the necessary stats?

[@DPhoenix237]

Well, you'll need the Luck to be able to beat the Dark Aeons as discussed in this video, so you want the minimum of 35, but 85 or 114 is much better. Basically, follow my Stat Maxing guide (the non-BHPL playlist) and it'll show the beat way to do it 👍

[@madlaz9575]

@@DPhoenix237 Thanks! your videos been really helpful on making the whole endgame grind more efficient

[@GSS1Sirius]

I'm waiting to get my cartridge for this game for my Switch and is planning my endgame. I only played the og FFX once back in the day and since I had only borrowed it, I just played though the main game and never did any endgame stuff. I had planned to use Yuna/Lulu/Rikku as my main team but no one seems to like either Yuna and Lulu. Everyone is just using Tidus/Wakka/Rikku. Also, everyone says to have auto-protect on their endgame armor but is that one *really* necessary? The skills that appeal to me are Ribbon/Haste/Phoenix/Regen.

[@DPhoenix237]

Yuna is good; she's perfectly fine in the endgame. I use her in playthroughs where I don't want to play Blitzball for Wakka's Sigil. Anima and the Magus Sisters are strong. Lulu is the worst endgame character, probably. Her Celestial is amaz8ng for spellcasting but her animations are slow and FAR more importantly, her Overdrive is useless and she doesn't have any Counter ability on her Celestial. Auto-Regen is terrible unless you have Break hp limit and close to 99k HP. Auto-Protect is ABSOLUTELY necessary. There's a reason that people that know what they're talking about recommend what we do.

[@GSS1Sirius]

@@DPhoenix237 I see, so Lulu really is that bad, huh. Guess I can swap her for Auron. Also, is the Expert Sphere Grid big enough to max all stats to 255? I want to make Yuna a black mage from the get-go and I know the Expert grid allows that. I also know that luck and a few other stats are functionally capped earlier but there is something about seeing the perfect numbers on the stat screen that allures me. I don't mind the extra grinding but if there's no way to max every stat to 255 on the Expert Grid, I'll just stick to the normal one.

[@DPhoenix237]

@GSS1Sirius with 9999HP, or wanting 99k and BHPL? For a normal 9999 HP playthrough there's easily enough nodes. It's only when you want 99k HP and perfect stats that Expert Grid has too few nodes. 255 Luck is a serious waste of time though. 230 is the maximum and you're wasting hours of your life getting 25 Luck extra for 7 characters when Earth Eater takes over a minute per fight even with a perfect Wakka strategy .

[@GSS1Sirius]

@@DPhoenix237 cool, the Expert grid it is then. 👍 As I said, I don't mind the extra grinding, even if it's unnecessary. I see all-perfect-stats as an accomplishment, just like a speedrunner finds short times or people beating games low-leveled. 😎 At the very least, I will max Yuna's stats since she'll be my definitive main character. 😎

[@FilmFan-iv7sz]

Is it better to just focus on 3 characters I was thinking rikku, wakka and auron then yuna for anima and magus sisters or are aeons not worth using against superbosses

[@DPhoenix237]

Yeah, those would be fine if you didn't want to use Tidus. You can do everything with those 4; I'd definitely include Yuna if you're not using Tidus because Anima can help with not having Tidus' overdrives. Check out the Capturing and Stat Maxing episodes of guide for tips to make things easier and quicker.

[@FilmFan-iv7sz]

@@DPhoenix237 awesome thanks or could I get away with just yuna, wakka and rikku or is it better to have auron too so I have 3 front line fighters

[@terry85mar]

Oh my God I did it. This is my first time ever getting this far in the game and I finally beat catcher chocobo with 15 balloons and no birds hit me at all. Finally. I only got to this area yesterday and I got 13 balloons and only 1 bird over 8 times but that still wasn't enough to get 0.0 It's honestly not that hard I tried again a few minutes ago and got 14 balloons and 1 bird so within an hour I was able to get 0.0 two times. What I'm worried about is the damn lightning bolt mini game. At least you have control in the chocobo race the lightning is random. Even if you exploit the crater that walking into makes a bolt come down you could still get a random bolt right after so it's a pain. Save states would be a blessing on these horrible mini games. Whoever created them needs to die a slow horrible death and not be sent so they can turn into a fiend.

[@DPhoenix237]

Congrats on the Chocobo training win! The lightning bolts can't come down within a few seconds of each other, which is why the crater trick works; if you do it properly you don't get sny random bolts - only the ones from walking into the crater.

[@Onimyst]

Don't suppose you still have the text saved from that reddit post? Seems some mod removed it...

[@DPhoenix237]

www.reddit.com/r/finalfantasyx/comments/c2xycx/spoilers_final_fantasy_x_endgame/?

[@DPhoenix237]

If you're mobile, try opening it with the app 👍

[@Onimyst]

Sorry dude it looks like the content of the post itself has been removed. Can't see when using the app either :( Cheers

[@DPhoenix237]

@@Onimyst I've been doing a series of KZbin videos about how I play FFX and some of the things that a player should consider before you start the post-game grinding and stat-maxing, because your eventual goals and targets should affect how you approach the endgame processes. I discuss these issues or considerations in the accompanying video. kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z2K4pYCDoJuGndk So without further ado here is what I wanted to discuss: 1. Are you going to fight the Dark Aeons legitimately or just Zanmato them? If you're just going to Zanmato, no stat maxing is necessary or relevant. 2. Are you going to use Break HP Limit (BHPL) or not? Using Break HP Limit is only for do obsessive, completionist-type players. It is not really worth getting or using because every enemy, including the Dark Aeons and Penance, can be beaten comfortably with 9999HP and the correct stats, gear and tactics. Break HP Limit takes a long time to get, and an even longer time to get the HP Spheres to be able to properly use it. If you're planning on using BHPL you should be aiming to get 99,999HP as well, which is hours of grinding Ironclad. You must decide if you're going for 9999HP or 99k HP before you start the stat-maxing process, and preferably even before you start the capturing process. It also isn't worth doing if are using the Expert Sphere Grid because there are less total nodes and you can only max out at 67k approximately, which isn't even enough to survive Dark Anima's Oblivion. 3. How many Ribbon armours are you going to get? Ribbon needs 99 Dark Matter to customize, or you need to get armour that already had Ribbon and 3 free slots (or Ribbon & BHPL for 99k HP). The Dark Aeons drop armours with Ribbon, but the chances of getting Ribbon + 3 free slots is extremely low, and even lower considering that you probably want that armour for specific characters. You get one chance at customizing a Ribbon armour for free because you get 99 Dark Matters as a one-time reward for the capturing process. These should ALWAYS be used to customize a Ribbon armour out of a blank 4 slot armour, preferably for Rikku so that she can use Mix against Dark Anima and other enemies. 4. Did you get the Sun Crest, and did you get the Besaid and Macalania Destruction Spheres? If you missed the Sun Crest then you can't upgrade Caladbolg to its maximum potential, so Tidus wouldn't be a good endgame character. If you missed either of the Destruction Spheres then Besaid and Macalania will be guarded by Dark Aeons, so you won't be able to get Anima (and subsequently Magus Sisters) or upgrade Yuna's Celestial weapon Nirvana. This makes beating some key monster arena creatures a potentially difficult task if your characters aren't strong enough by themselves. 5. Sidequests. Are you going to complete or ignore any of the following: Blitzball, Butterfly catching, Chocobo Catching or Lightning Dodging? Whether you do these things or not affects which character's Celestial weapons you'll be powering up, and therefore which characters you can use in your grinding and endgame party. 6. Will you be maxing Magic? It's arguably the least important of the stats, but raising it goes much quicker if you have Anima, particularly if you plan ahead and use Mana and Speed Spheres to raise her MP and Agility whilst capturing monsters (whilst both Yuna's and Anima's stats are lower). 7. How much Luck are you going to aim for? 35 is the minimum needed for Penance and the Dark Aeons, but requires more in-battle strategy and use of Aim x5. 85 is the minimum needed to hit Penance's arms and most of the Dark Aeons (again using Aim for some of the Dark Aeons). 114 is a good benchmark for always hitting Dark Yojimbo 100% of the time, whilst also hitting Dark Sandy 100% of the time with 255 Accuracy. The only enemy you can't hit with physical attacks would be Dark Mindy. 230 Luck is the effective maximum but it is literally ONLY to be able to hit Dark Mindy. If you're battling the Magus Sisters together then you can't even knock her out with Quick Hit + Overdrives before the sisters get their turn and use Delta Attack. Basically there is no practical application for using 230 Luck versus the Dark Magus trio because the only Non-Zanmato ways to win the battle are: A) Fight them separately (no Delta Attack, can easily beat Mindy with Overdrives and luck is irrelevant). B) Fight them together, use an Aeon to block Delta Attack, kill one of the sisters afterwards and use Overdrives/Magic on Mindy (230 Luck irrelevant). C) Kill them before Delta Attack using 255 Magic, Magic Booster BDL weapons and Overdrives on Mindy (230 Luck irrelevant). The only reason you'd ever need 230 Luck is because you either want technically perfect stats, and if you're getting 99k HP using BHPL you do not have enough nodes in the Sphere Grid to fit 99k HP, 999 MP, 255 Strength/Defence/Magic/Magic Defence/Accuracy, 170 Agility, 176 Evasion and 114 Luck on the grid. Lowering Accuracy would mean you'd miss hits on Dark Sandy, lowering Evasion would mean some evadable attacks could hit you, and lowering the HP would mean that Dark Anima's Oblivion could potentially KO you (80k+ damage). These aren't massive concerns, but if you're spending all that time grinding for perfect stats and BHPL you probably want effectively perfect stats, so that necessitates 99K HP, 230 Luck, 60 Evasion (or 255 Luck/35 Evasion) and 0 Accuracy, which does fit on the Standard Sphere Grid.

[@Onimyst]

@@DPhoenix237 Thanks very much for that dude, it's a nice summary

[@shakeitoff1000]

I was considering doing endgame… now I think I’ll just finish the story 😂

[@DPhoenix237]

😄 The endgame is tremendously fun though!!

[@davidfortuin4146]

I totally ignore Lulu and Tidus's sigils. For my sanitys sake.

[@DPhoenix237]

Understandable 😂

[@walterhufana2212]

@@DPhoenix237 I feel ur agony

[@thefmtt2452]

Me too...

[@PsyChoLogicZ]

I'm always proper anxious about how hard it's gonna be (choccobo racing) then I always end up doing it after like an hour. Lulu's though... Nah mate

[@PsyChoLogicZ]

I'm considering buying an audrino set and builidng a light sensitive switch... 😂 Don't have the tenacity to attempt it like I did when I was a kid

[@clocktowers1]

The mini games suck, but I think the monster arena capture quest is the absolute pits. See, in the mini games you have control over the situation still. It's reliant on your input where monster capturing is all RNG and then you're stuck using these doo doo capture weapons for hours upon hours while you're itching to just slap on the Celestials and keep em attached.

[@DPhoenix237]

I feel you. Capturing doesn't bother me too much anymore because I just level up a ton when I do it and I've really honed the capturing process to make it as efficient as possible. Check out my FFX OP Playlist and you'll hopefully find some useful tips there.

[@clocktowers1]

@@DPhoenix237 Oh believe me, I have. You helped a ton with Smiruge and Tomberry locations. I also remember watching my entire party kill themselves to a Master Malboro after 30+ minutes in the Omega Dungeon and then you helped me out with that. You have very comprehensive guides and I'm grateful for that.

[@DPhoenix237]

@@clocktowers1 Awesome stuff. I'm glad to see the guide working as intended 🤘

[@ISCREAMSODAsmr]

Bo offense but Timestamps were/are needed. I'll try but I'm also grinding so...

[@Buffbud96]

11:20 The butterfly hunt minigame really isnt that hard... i managed to do it, fully, in around 45 minutes... without prior knowledge of what i was doing. I figured it out, and completed it all in around 45 mins... P.S. I also have video proof of this, if anyone wants the link lmk

[@DPhoenix237]

Good stuff, I believe you. It's not difficult, per se...it's just tedious and irritating.

[@Buffbud96]

@@DPhoenix237 I came into this game completely fresh, so I wasn't aware of the dangers XD

[@stevenkurinec4194]

Why do so many people like rikku? Other than her overdrive, she seems to be shit tier.

[@DPhoenix237]

Two things here. 1) That statement is like saying 'Other than his 3 point shooting, why does everyone think Steph Curry is a good basketball player?' And 2) Steal and Use are actually godlike. And her Celestial has Gillionaire and Double AP so she's mega useful for capturing and can get really strong even if you don't know what you're really doing (in a non-guide sort of playthrough). Mix is like....stupidly, hilariously OP. It's absolutely ridiculous and she's nearly essential for a lot of late-game strategies. Even if you did BHPL 99K, she's pretty much essential for the fastest grinding methods AND has the only good way to heal large amounts of party health. Steal is great, she gets Mug, and a ton of the stuff thar you can Steal is low-key hella powerful, like gems for Strike spells and items that guarantee poison, dark etc before you even learn those spells. Tidus and Wakka have the brute force Overdrives and Yuna has the Aeons, and Auron has some decent stuff too, but Rikku is easily the best character...and on top of everything else she has the highest Agility so moves most often too. She's the best character hands down.

[@stevenkurinec4194]

@@DPhoenix237 So essentially it's only the overdrive that matters? I guess that makes sense because post game everybody has all spells and abilities.

[@jamesworkshop9181]

reach the thunder plains and steal a few curtains to mix haste, protect, shell and regen on everyone in a single move. about yunalesca is the only story boss who can easily still beat you if not being careful. Her joining is what unlocks customising, most enemies only have a 3% drop rate for gear, way easier to make your own equipment for who you want. If she didn't have all that she'd be left in the dust by all the hours of leveling everyone else had done.