This is it, this is our final stop on our journey through Gran Pulse. It was an enjoyable adventure and I, Cymbeline, am sure that I gave you great company. Either that, or I made you regret you ever started this journey in the first place.
Oerba[]
You know whats interesting? When you arrive in Oerba you see that the pod kind of just rolled its way down to Oerba, but I guess that the guiding system is unable to be seen by the human eye, because when you take it back to the tower it can roll its way right back to there. Anyway we're still a little ways walk to Oerba, but nothing to bad. On a side note I think the music in Oerba is one of the best tracks in the game.
Anyways run forward and develope your characters for this new area, then save. If you look in the sky you'll see how close to Cocoon we've come, but thats not all to important. The path leading to Oerba serves as nothing but a path leading to Oerba so follow it until you get to the Village itself. BTW it can be assumed that the Cie'th we're fighting are the citizens of Oerba who all failed their Focus, its quite sad really that Vanille and Fang have to kill off what might have been their good friends.
When you reach the town save, then continue down the street, until you see an area thats off to your left on the mini-map. Head down here and open the treasure sphere here for some Perovskite. After that continue down the streets of Oerba. Soon you'll get a scene where Vanille and Fang explain how people lived in Oerba. Continue forward and head up the stairs right in front of you. Turn left at the top of the stairs to enter the home. You can examine a bunch of things in here that all give clues that this is Vanille and Fang's old residence. At the end of the room, by the table you will find Bhakti, Vanille's pet robot. However after 500 years of rusting, we need to repair him.
Leave the house and head downstairs. Fight off the enemies in the Square again and examine the scooter by the turbine for a Power Cable. Now turn around and head into the building by the slope leading down to the square. Kill the Vetala then examine the shelf for a Battery Pack. Now continue down into Oerba to find the remaining parts. On your way down open the treasure sphere in plain sight for the Heavenly Axis. As you continue into the city be sure to fight the Vampire after jumping the roots to get the Trochoid Gear. After that climb up the stairs to your left and open the treasure sphere up here for a Librascope. After that continue forward and turn right heading down the stairs into the old schoolhouse in Oerba. Fight the enemies in here and then examine the desk for an Aspheric Lens. Now head out the left exit and climb up to the roof of the schoolhouse. Open the treasure spheres up here for a Moogle Puppet and the Pleiades Hi-Powers. With all of that taken care of head back down and out of the schoolhouse continueing on heading to your right.
When you reach another Save Station, save, then continue forward into the train station. Climb up the stairs and out to the roof and then onto the Railroad. Examine the rubble pile right in front of you for the final part needed to repair Bhakti, then turn to your left and open the treasure sphere there for a Flamebane Brooch. Now make your way all the way back to Bhakti, I suggest ignoring as many battles as you can because at this point your probably really close to maxing out all your characters Major Roles. When you return to Bhakti, Sazh will fix him up and he will reward you based on how many steps you've taken on Gran Pulse. By now you should have taken well over 10,000 Steps and get the title Pulsian Pioneer, thus he shall reward you with: Deceptisolx10, Ultracompact Reactorx2, a Gold Nugget, Perfumex5, and Platinum Ingotx3. The Gold Nugget and Platinum Ingots are designed to be sold of high amounts while the Perfume also makes a fine price when sold. Anyway once you've gotten your reward, develope you character to see if you can max them out. (I was able to max Vanille). If you can't don't worry there are still a few fights we can do before facing the final enemy on Gran Pulse. Now make your way back to the Railroad.
Once there make your way to the right and follow the thin railroad to a more open area where you should defeat the Vetala for the simple reason that in the chest behind him is the best weapon to give to Fang, her Taming Pole. It takes away her ability to Stagger (But how often does a Commando Stagger anyway?) but gives her huge stat boosts to her Strength and Magic. Now make your way to the end of the bridge and open the save sphere past the Save Station then save, because theres a boss comming up. (Also max out their major roles). Then its weapon upgrading time.
Your going to want to for sure get Fang's Taming Pole up to Lv*, but you can also get everyone up to rank two weapons as well. (To get Fang's Taming Pole up to Lv* use 36 Sturdy Bones [Buy from Creature Comforts] and 61 Crankshafts [Buy from Lenora's Garage]) Vanille and Hope's weapons can be upgraded to the Brightwing Staff and Eagletalon through use of the two Perovskite's you have. Fang's Taming Pole can be upgraded to the Venus Gospel through use of some Uraninite. You don't have to get them up to Lv* just yet, but you can get them up to around Lv30 or so for some decent stat boosts. Or you can keep them at Rank 1 and be just as fine.
I upgraded my weapons to Brightwing Staff Lv30, Venus Gospel Lv30, and Eagletalon Lv30. If you need money you can sell those Platinum Ingots and the Gold Nugget you got from Bhakti for a little over 500,000 Gil. For upgrading Rank 2 Weapons I would use Perfect Conductor's instead of Crankshafts. (At Lv13 Hope's Eagletalon took 36 Sturdy Bones and 40 Perfect Conductor's, Vanille's Brightwing Staff at Lv13 took 36 Sturdy Bones and 40 Perfect Conductor's and Fang's Venus Gospel at Lv19 took 36 Sturdy Bones and 26 Perfect Conductors) NOTE: All of these numbers are about getting them to Lv30, not to Lv*!
With your weapons taken care of, its time for accessories. First off if your willing to Part with 80,000 Gil you can buy 2 Warrior's Wristbands and 6 Sorcerer's Marks from B&W Outfitters for and additional boost of 300 to your Character's Strength and Magic Stats. I had over 300,000 Gil so I went with that route and had 1183 Magic on Vanille, 1303 Strength on Fang, and 1366 Magic on Hope. With all that you should be set to destroy the next boss.
Oh look its Serah, wait why is she here? Last I checked she was frozen in Crystal. Snow seems to think that this Serah is real but I don't by it. Hmm oh look its Minerva the metal Owl/Airship, that must mean that Barty is nearby. "Serah" pleads us to destroy the world, but Lightning goes to draw her weapon. Thats when "Serah" tells us Lightning's true name: "Claire". Well after that "Serah" turns into the Pope and he disappears as soon as Snow goes to punch him causing him to fall to the ground. If theres one thing I like about our good friend the Pope is that he always makes Snow fall somehow, its nice. Anyway when the Pope rambles for a time and turns into Bathandelus the Fal'Cie for another Boss Fight.
| Boss Fight: Barthandelus |
Oh Barthandelus, I remember last time when you were an annoying thorn in my side, but the tides have turned on you this time. What can you do to a team with half-way developed Rank 2 weapons and even more power-up Accessories? Little I'm afraid, just little. Barthy has a Laser attack that can inflict Pain or Fog and that should be healed right away with Diversity. He can also use Poisonga, Cursega, and Dazega, which are all mere annoyances. He also has his "Thanatosian Laughter" attack which is just a stronger version of the Smile. Like last time if the battle goes on for more than 20 minutes he can cast Doom on the Party Leader, but thats not a problem. He also has an attack called "Apoptosis" the removes all of our buffs and his debuffs, so using Saboteurs and Synergists isn't a great idea. For this fight just use Relentless Assault, Diversity and Combat Clinic. Dispelga will help out if you feel overwhelmed by debuffs, and Renew will heal you up from the brink of destruction if that ever happens. This battle isn't really all that hard, compared to last time, just remember to heal your team and keep up the pressure and that 3 million HP will be gone before you know it. Oh interesting fact: during this fight Vanille will shout out "You Monster!" when you make a Paradigm Shift, and I found that rather cute. For winning you will get a Goddess's Favor and a Crystarium Expansion. |
After being defeated a second time the Pope still doesn't die and still gives you a ship to get back to Cocoon. Then he leaves us behind. If you need to save turn around and do so, then examine the Cie'th stone nearby to activate a scene explaining what happened to Oerba. Then board Minerva and return to Cocoon: We have a world to save!