Henne Mines



The Henne Mines (ヘネ魔石鉱) is a location in the land of Ivalice in Final Fantasy XII. It is an underground magicite mine explored by the Archadian Empire.

At first only the Phase 1 site and dig are accessible from the Ozmone Plain; also, Phase 2 can be accessed from the Feywood, but only a small portion is accessible until the Esper Zodiark is defeated. When accessing Phase 2 it is recommended to wait until the party's average level is above 70.

Location
The Henne Mines are located just to the southeast of Jahara, and at first are only accessible via chocobo through the Ozmone Plains.

Phase 2
Phase 2 is also accessible through the Feywood, but only a portion of the Phase 2 Shaft. The rest of Phase 2 is blocked off unless the Mindflayer clan hunt is completed, the player has obtained 10 Espers and has spoken to the garif Geomancer in Jahara. He will send a Garif to open the east gate in the Ore Separation section of Henne Mines.

The entry to Phase 2 seen on the map from early on, Phase 2 Shaft linked to Feywood, is blocked off by a mine cart until the Esper Zodiark is defeated.

Treasures
During the player's first venture into the mines treasures can be found in the Phase 1 Dig, although a few of them are actually the Thunderbug mimic. Some good items can be found here; all the treasures are either gil, Knot of Rust or a good item. The good items include Elixir and Shielded Armor in the Hidden Passage section of the map in the lower western corner, Golden Amulet in the southeastern dead-end, and Musk Stick near the middle of the map in a cave where enemies can be found fighting each other. Many of the treasures can also contain Motes. When the Diamond Armlet is equipped the item treasures are either Knot of Rust or Hastega/Scathe Motes.

After gaining access to Phase 2 Dig the player can find more treasures, and acquire special rare treasures if the Diamond Armlet is equipped; when the Diamond Armlet is equipped, and item treasure has 90% chance of being a Knot of Rust, and 10% chance of being a rare item, such as Megalixir, Brave Suit or even the Zodiac Spear. The chance to obtain the Zodiac Spear is phenomenally low, however, as the treasure has 10% chance to spawn, 10% chance to contain an item, and when it contains an item the chance of it being the Zodiac Spear is only 10%, resulting in a 1/1000 overall chance (0.1%).

There is a method, however, which lets the player get any rare treasure from a chest 100% of the time, by exploiting the games console's predictable random number generator. Without equipping the Diamond Armlet the player can still get good treasures from Phase 2 Dig, such as Elixirs, the Platinum Dagger, the Gold Hairpin, Ring of Renewal and Dark Matter.

Deeper into the mines still, the player can find more treasures in the Special Charter Shaft at the deepest end of the mines. Most of the treasures can rarely be Megalixir when the Diamond Armlet is equipped (the other treasure is Knot of Rust, as usual), except the northernmost treasure which is either the Fomalhaut (80%) or gil (20%); when the Diamond Armlet is not equipped, this treasure is Dark Matter or gil.

This treasure will never respawn. Without equipping the Diamond Armlet, the other treasures can contain other good items such as Ribbon, Renewing Morion, Brave Suit, Sage's Ring, Lordly Robes, Ensanguined Shield and Judicer's Staff.

The placement of treasures on the map is shown in the map further down this page.

Story
The party is on their way to Mt. Bur-Omisace when they find they can't get past Golmore Jungle because of the viera's magickal barriers. Fran thinks her younger sister Mjrn could help them, she has gone missing in the mines. The party ventures into the mines looking for her, and find Imperial soldiers dead at the entrance.

The party finally find Mjrn, who has been used for scientific experiments during the Empire's nethicite research, and she has gone mist-crazy and is possessed by Venat by the time she is found. The party defeat the mist monster Mjrn sends after them and she is released. The party take her back to Eruyt Village.

Later, after the party has acquired 10 Espers, the Geomancer of the nearby garif village opens the way into the deep section of the mines. Zodiark, the 13th Esper, can be fought at the very end of the mines.

Grinding Spots
Henne Mines is renowned for two convenient grinding spots. The first is Pithead Junction B, which is closer to the Gate Crystal. After touching the gate switch in the room, a limited number of Jellies fall from above, and if they die from the Time Magick Break, they will respawn endlessly. If player programs their Gambits correctly, it is possible to sustain an auto-leveling without touching the controller. Besides the Break spell, it is recommended to have another ally to cast Sleepga on the Jellies and another one prepares curative spells to keep the party alive.

The second spot is Pithead Junction C. It is quite far from the Gate Crystal and riskier than Pithead Junction B. After flipping the gate switch Abysteels will appear. They do not respawn endlessly like the Jellies because of immunity against the Break spell, but are vulnerable to Sleep and Disable, and are damaged by curative magick. With the proper gambit set-up, the player can use Sleepga or Disable to neutralize the Abysteels and kill them with Curaja (Renew does not work on them) or Black Magicks without waking them up.

Once all the Abysteels are slain, the player must move two areas away and return to spawn more when the switch is flipped again. The Abysteels will leave roughly 3,000 EXP each, which in tandem with their large numbers makes leveling quick and easy. If the party is equipped with Embroidered Tippets, they could potentially earn up to of 100,000 EXP with each press of the switch.

Tips
The deep section of the Henne Mines is one of the hardest areas in the game, with plenty of strong enemies to face. Some tricks can be used to get past the area more easily. Firstly, the reaper type enemies will ignore the players if under Vanish, so casting Vanishga on them neutralizes them. The player can also use the Immobilize Glitch to make all nearby enemies disappear.

Monsters

 * Seeker
 * Etém
 * Hecteyes
 * Jelly
 * Nightmare
 * Redmaw
 * Tyranorox
 * Thunderbug
 * Abysteel
 * Gizamaluk
 * Necrofiend
 * Glaring Eye (Rare)
 * Melt (Rare)
 * Ixtab (Mark)
 * Mindflayer (Mark)
 * Tiamat (Boss)
 * Zodiark (Hidden Esper)

Map


Henna-Minen