These vast plains are a playground for Pulse's deadly monsters. They share the land with its original inhabitants, a clan of hunters, who have built themselves a comfortable life on this grand terrain.
FFXIII-2 online description
The Archylte Steppe (アルカキルティ大平原, Arukakiruti-daiheigen?) is a location on Gran Pulse in Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIII-2. It is a massive open area where most of Pulse's wildlife roam.
In Final Fantasy XIII, it is the only place in the game where the player can ride wild chocobos. The area links the Vallis Media, Faultwarrens, and Mah'habara Subterra. In Final Fantasy XIII-2, another part of the Steppe is explored, possibly the western side, where it is now the home of a hunters' settlement in possession of a weather changing device.
No part of the area's layout in Final Fantasy XIII is reused in Final Fantasy XIII-2, and though always a vast plain, the area is completely different in each game.
Appearances[]
Final Fantasy XIII[]
Archylte Steppe is visited in Chapter 11, and can be returned to from the final dungeon, and thus also acting as a post-game area. Archylte Steppe is where the player can do optional content in the form of Cie'th Stone missions, battle ferocious monsters, such as the colossal oretoises, and ride a chocobo to move faster and to find buried treasures.
Final Fantasy XIII-2[]
Archylte Steppe is visited in an unknown time period, and is inhabited by a village of hunters who have a weather-controlling device. There are thus four "versions" of the steppe, as the enemies fought are different depending on the weather. The party must uncover cactuar-shaped waystones to explore the whole of the steppe.
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII[]
After Gran Pulse and Valhalla form Nova Chrysalia, Archylte Steppe dries up and turns into a desert that becomes known as the Dead Dunes. This reveals a vast maze of temples underground that predates even Cocoon's building, and contains murals that relate the story of gods and mankind's beginnings. Oretoise skeletons, the dormant fal'Cie Atomos, and the scattered parts of fal'Cie Titan, remain as remnants of the steppe.
Other appearances[]
Pictlogica Final Fantasy[]
The Archylte Steppe appears.
Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade[]
Final Fantasy All the Bravest[]
The Archylte Steppe appears as a downloadable world.
Final Fantasy Record Keeper[]
The Archylte Steppe, Part 1[]
The Archylte Steppe, Part 2[]