While retreating after parting ways with Lightning, Vaan strays from his friends. He is nearby a lake in the mountains looking for a way back to Sanctuary...
Introduction
Chapter two, titled Stern Eyes, is the third level available on Story Mode in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy. This chapter features Vaan.
Separated from Laguna and Tifa after leaving Lightning, Vaan is alone while looking for a path back to Order's Sanctuary. Entering a gateway, he finds Terra, who attacks him. Fighting her off, Vaan tries to talk to her, but she flies away. Confused by the encounter, Vaan continues on and finds Kefka arguing with Terra, goading her to fight despite her refusal. Initially planning to continue on without getting involved, Vaan changes his mind when Kefka tries to torture her into submission, and intervenes to stop him. After a battle Vaan takes Terra and flees, while Kefka is distracted and decides to let them go, confident Terra will eventually return.
Vaan leads Terra through the mountains, though she worries it'll do no good to flee. Stopping briefly at the next gateway, Vaan introduces himself, but Terra doesn't reply, instead asking Vaan to kill her, not wanting to fight or hurt others anymore as she did under Kefka's control. Vaan refuses in spite of their opposing allegiances, and explains she's still a person who needed help. Assuring her he won't hurt her, the two continue on. As they open the gateway, Terra - now fully free of Kefka's influence - is encouraged by Vaan to make her own decisions. Vaan assures her Cosmos will win the war and allow them to go home. He tells her to find a safe place to hide away so she won't have to fight, and he'll come back later and take her to see Cosmos to become one of her warriors instead of a Warrior of Chaos. As Vaan goes to leave to continue fighting, Terra finally introduces herself to him.
Spoilers end here.
Map Treasure[]
1
EX Charge
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2
BRV Charge
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3
200 Gil
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4
Cure
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5
Leather Chest Plate
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6
Green Drop
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7
EX Charge
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8
Rosetta Stone
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9
Pink Tail
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Shops[]
"Something troubling her, sir? The best solution is to buy something, kupo!" — Shop Moogle
This is the first optional Gateway - the player can skip it if they choose, but there are treasures inside worth looking for. The close placement of the enemies around C3 makes it easy to chain three of them. The player encounters their first Strange Battle Piece at F4. It begins battle with a full EX Gauge and uses the Bahamut summon to gain 99 Bravery every couple of seconds, and will repeatedly use Crushing Blow, possibly doing heavy damage with Bahamut's boosts. Fortunately it only has 1 HP, so the player simply needs to wait for an opening and use an HP attack to win. Use a Jump Chain at C3 or a Multichain at D3 to chain the four enemies besides for the Strange Battle Piece
A1
Treasure Chest
First Contents
200 gil
Subsequent Contents
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B2
Assist Character - Onion Knight
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Onion Knight: Guess it can't be helped. I'll lend a hand. But I'll only help in this gateway.
The three battle pieces in the upper-right can be avoided, as they offer access to no treasures or the end piece, but if the player wishes to chain them for KP a Multichain at D3 will work. Terra is the boss of this stage. She enters EX Mode at the beginning of the battle and continually casts Tornado, but never uses her EX Burst, and with her EX Mode ability Dualcast may use Tornado twice in a row. The best way to handle her is to keep a distance until Tornado ends, then attack while Terra is recovering.
The player has a chance to earn a considerable amount of KP in this gateway with one Straight Chain. Using it at D4 will chain all five enemies, resulting in 25 KP if the player can defeat each of them in under 90 seconds. The Expert Battle Piece is a new sight here, and at level 15 with over 2,000 HP defeating it in the time limit can be a challenge. The player should try to give themselves whatever advantages they can, such as a Summonstone, a full EX Gauge, or using an Attack skill. The enemy's Boosters result in a 32.0x multiplier when it has full HP, so the player should try to land an HP attack early in the battle to drop the multiplier to zero. Kefka is the boss fought at the end of the stage.
This gateway has only handful of weak enemies, and their placement makes it easy to chain them to earn a fair amount of HP. The two treasure chests here hold rare items, so although it is optional the player should not pass this area up. Use Multichain at C3 or a Jump Chain at B3 to chain all of them.
In this final stage the enemies are positioned to be chained by a Multichain or Cross Chain at C4, which can be purchased from the Moogle not far from the gateway's entrance. The enemies are a bit higher level than the ones encountered thus far and may prove a bit of a challenge, so the player should consider using an Attack or Charge skill before initiating the chain to make the battles easier.
