Unless otherwise noted, I used my standard party of Fang, Light, and Vanille along with my standard random battle paradigm deck. Going through and figuring out the most logical sequence for these missions has really taken all the difficulty out of the game. Now I'm curious to see if I can finish all the hunts without any level grinding or equipment upgrades, like I did in my FFXII walkthrough.
The Faultwarrens[]
The struggles of the frail and feeble end in loss.
Titan
In case you forgot, the Faultwarrens lie beyond the Haerii Archaeopolis, right next to the Waystone. When you enter for the first time, the fal'Cie Titan will challenge you to test your strength and resolve by completing his trials. Basically, a species that survives the tournament is allowed to survive, while the weak are wiped out to make way for their successors. If you want to actually understand what the big guy is saying, make sure you turn on the subtitles before the scene starts.
Primeval Crossroads[]
Why don't we let him see for himself who's weak.
Lightning
There is only one Cie'th stone in the Truthseeker's Rise, which means you will have to do this mission 7 times if you want to complete the entire quest. The Cie'th stones in the Faultwarrens all act as teleporters, but each only sends you forward to the next mark. You can also use the special gold Cie'th stone at the beginning of each area to quit the trial and go back to the entrance. All other stones in the area are inactive until you have defeated the mark.
Mission 35- The Road Less Traveled[]
This is a very small area, with nothing more than the mark and two more mission stones. You should remember this guy from way back in Taejin's Tower.
If you want 5 stars for this mission, you have to use a Deceptisol. Start him with Ruthless for Deprotect, then do a mid-air shift to Aggression for the kill. The next 6 times, just use Smart Bomb to stagger him and get Deprotect on, then go to Aggression. The fastest I was able to kill him without a Deceptisol was 43 seconds, which was only worth 3 stars.
Dance of Light[]
Take the mission right behind the mark to move on, we're going to take out the easiest paths first and work our way up to the tough ones. When you get to the next zone, the marks will be right in front of you.
There are 5 of them, but they are very easy to preempt just by running straight at them. You have to do this battle at least 3 times, so if you don't get the sneak attack the first time don't worry about it. When you do, Aggression or Cerberus if you have a third Commando will Blitz them to death in seconds.
Via Solis[]
After the mission, take the right fork to get to the next stone, it should be number 40. In Via Solis, look for a short side path off to the left holding a single Starblossom Seed. Once again, the mark is blocking the only path forward. By the way, I should mention at some point that you should save at every available opportunity, that way if you don't get 5 stars on the mission you can reload instead of fighting your way through all the previous rounds to get back to it.
The only thing to worry about here is making sure that they can't Summon. Since there are only two of them, Aggression will cut both down before they have a chance.
Sylphid Path[]
Take the first Cie'th stone you come to, it's off to the left of the main path. In the next area, the path splits off into a circle, go around to the left this time and you will find a Starblossom Seed. You will get into a fight with some Borgbears along the way, make sure you Libra one and get used to killing them with Ruthless.
You will face one of each goblin type here- Munchkin, Munchkin Maestro, Goblin, Goblin Chieftain, Borgbear, and of course the Borgbear Hero. If you didn't know, killing off the big version will cause the smaller one to "Rise to Power" and become the larger version, so you need to focus all your attacks on the little guys first. You should be able to spend the entire battle in Ruthless, and just pick the enemies off from weakest to strongest (the order I listed them in). If you do need to heal, go with Diversity and when you have the last enemy staggered you can finish with Aggression to save a couple of seconds, but you should have plenty of time.
Titan's Throne[]
After the battle, turn around and go back to the Cie’th Stone you passed along the way, it will warp you to Titan’s Throne. Always save before you move forward here, it's a long way to go if you come up with a rating lower than 5 stars. Titan will pick up and deposit your final opponent in a cut-scene, so preemptive strikes are out of the question. Luckily, time shouldn't become a factor in any of the final battles here.
That isn't a typo, they really gave me 15 minutes to defeat 4 Verdelets. I guess the game expected all of them to Summon a few times or something. Use Aggression and target whichever one tries to Summon, between Fang and Vanille you should be able to kill it in one or two rounds. As far as I know, only one at a time can try to summon, so there's no excuse for letting it happen.
Is That All You've Got?[]
Like I said before, this was the easiest of 7 trips we're going to make through the Faultwarrens, the Trial continues on the next page.
