"I don't understand where you got this idea so deeply ingrained in your head That this world is something that you must impress Because I couldn't care less." —Rise Against, Black Masks and Gasoline
Make your way to the Cie'th Stone Circle on the Archylte Steppe's Eastern Tors, and examine the only yellow stone there. The next three marks will all be in the Mah'habara Subterra.
Mission 58- The Culler of Many[]
Is that supposed to be an allusion to The Color of Money? They are really stretching for some of these, but I know the feeling since I'm trying to come up with page titles and section headings when there is no more plot to reference. I stuck with my standard random battle setup for all 5 marks on this page, there isn't anything difficult or unexpected coming up.
The Humbaba is joined by a Pulsework Centurion, which seems like an odd pairing to me. Lead off with Relentless Assault to quickly stagger and defeat the robot, then go into Smart Bomb and do the typical Behemoth strategy. Since you're getting stronger, you won't be able to stagger him before he can stand up and regain his HP. It doesn't really matter, this will give you time to reapply Deprotect between him changing and you chaining him. Go to Aggression to finish the job, you shouldn't need to worry about healing at all here.
Mission 18- So Close, Yet So Far[]
Actually, it's not far at all. Continue through the Subterra until you find a Cie'th Waystone, check your map if you aren't sure exactly where it is (it's the blinking orange dot). You'll find the mark just up the stairs and across the bridge.
Go in with Ruthless until you get Deshell on the Bellows, then use Relentless Assault to kill him. He shouldn't even have time to get staggered first. If your Ruingas didn't kill off the 4 Hoplites, you can switch to Aggression if there is more than one left.
Mission 29- Faltering Faith[]
Head back toward the entrance to Mah'habara, and take the side path that I told you to ignore the first time we were here. You'll know it's the right path because the map will show a Cie'th stone at the dead end. There are a few random encounters here, but it's just the normal enemies for this area. At the end of the road, you will be attacked by a Juggernaut which can't be preempted. By now, these things are no trouble at all- I didn't even need to heal once. Stagger it with Smart Bomb, then use Aggression for the kill. There is a Platinum Bangle here, pick it up before examining the stone to be sent after another Juggernaut. He's at the Palisades near Taejin's Tower.
This one is no different than the one from mission 61, and yet that one was Class "A". Weird. Once again, he's very easy to sneak up on as he's lumbering away from you. As always, use Ruthless until he's fully debuffed, then do a mid-air shift to Aggression to finish him. You can equip upgraded weapons to make sure you get him in that initial stagger if you need to. Or you could use the same strategy as the one we just fought and take him head on. I got 5 stars on that battle, but 1 second slower and it would have dropped to 4 stars. That's a little too close for comfort as far as I'm concerned.
Odds and Ends[]
We're done with the Subterra for now, but I didn't want to have 3 short pages in a row so I tacked on two more hunts. When you get back to the Waystone at the Palisades, just run right by it.
Sulyya Springs[]
Go all the way through here to the save point next to Atomos. By the way, if you didn't pick up the treasure spheres guarded by those tough battles earlier, you won't have any problem getting them now. This is another Waystone mission, and this stone will prove to be very useful later on.
Mission 19- Triangle of Tragedy[]
Go back into the Subterranean Lake and climb up the hill to the right. You should remember this enemy from mission 2.
There are 4 of them, but a couple of Blitzes from Aggression or Cerberus if you have a third Commando will finish them off in a hurry. They only reason it took me so long is because I confused Uridimmu with Ugallu, so my starting paradigm was Ruthless. Oops. You can probably finish this in less than 10 seconds easily.
Archylte Steppe[]
Make use of that new Waystone, and go back to Base Camp. There is a mission to accept along the path to the Archylte Steppe, which is where the mark is located. It's a long chocobo ride, all the way to the pond in the northern end of the steppe.
Go to the northern end of the pond, and walk into the water as far as you can go. This will allow you to stay out of his field of vision and get right behind him for an easy preemptive. These things don't have very many HP, but they can be annoying. Since we'll be seeing a pair of them later on, get a Libra in now. There isn't any need to change paradigms in this battle, just stick with Ruthless all the way. His Accursed Breath hit my Fang with Pain, but he still didn't even come close to surviving that initial stagger.
Getting to the Good Part[]
We're headed to a brand new area on the next page, and we'll unlock the path to some actual difficult fights. I promise, there will be some good battles eventually.
