I feel like I've said this in every area that isn't Palumpolum, but damn I hate the Fifth Ark. Sorry if this part's a little text heavy. Part 16 of Paramina's Final Fantasy XIII Walkthrough.
And it begins...[]
We crash land in the Upper Traverse, so make the your way down the corridor, stopping to talk to your party, or sashaying past them in a blasé manner, whatever you fancy. Even the game has apprehensions about letting us venture into the incoming gameplay slog. Are you sure you continue into the ruins? Unfortunately.

...
Mission: Buff up our l'Cie powers by fighting through the Fifth Ark.
Snow finally stirs from the shell shock of realising he was wrong about Serah's Focus. Even heroes make mistakes, after all. Lightning tries to give him a little encouragement, but he just stares helplessly at Serah's crystal tear, looking for answers from his baby boo. Hit up the new Save Point, then go into the Vestibular Hold. Fancy lights start glowing and Pulsework Soldiers appear. Dispatch.
Everyone has access to all the Paradigm Roles now, which sounds awesome, but actually isn't all that great. The issue is, to develop anyone into a new role from scratch, the start up is super costly for very little actual gain. Right now, your CP is better spent developing the roles they're currently in, and then foraying into secondary role development at a later time. |
That's not to say it's not worth developing your characters in other roles ever. Just not now. Like, later in game. Lightning actually becomes one of the better Sentinels post-game. Later, that's easy-peasy. Right now, that would require tears of blood and a virgin sacrifice.
But that's not all: new development bonanza. We can also choose our Battle Team. Like I've said in the opening page, Light/Hope/Fang is your best bet, because they offer you all six Paradigm roles at the furthest point of development. Simples. |
Let's move out: take out the respawned Pulseworks and then take the stairs up to your right, clearing out the Pulseworks on each level. Then head on to the next area to meet your second Ark enemy, the Circuitron. They're just like Bombs, and weak to Blizzard. There's a Chest in the right hand corner that's guarded by two Pulseworks, and you can see another chest to your left, but we'll swing round to pick that up in a second. For now, take the stairs up and round. The exit is up and to the right, but let's make a quick detour to pick up that Treasure Chest - head to the left, it has a Hero's Amulet in it.
Go through the exit and hit the Save Point. Head down to the sort of train stationy bit to find new enemies. The Noctilucales are just like the slugs from the Gapra. Um, the Phosphoric Oozes are a little bit trickier than the Flandragoras from Sunleth, because they can merge into an Alchemic Ooze, which is tougher. There's a treasure chest at the back to the left, then head through the rail tunnels. The main path leads off to the left, but there's an area you can jump up to on the right that has a ton of Noctilucales leeching about near a chest with Medicinal Oil x10.
Keep following the tunnels, and you'll come across another Save Station - there's a Rainbow Anklet just South of here - before heading into the High Conflux. Some new enemies come charging at us. They're called Stikini and the Skata'ne, but I can never remember which is which, or how to spell either without looking it up… so they will henceforth be known as 'Those Skat Birds.' Shooby-dooby doo-wop.
Make your way down the walkways; there's 600 gil up for grabs on the second one, but I did hear that there's some sort of glitch occasionally with this chest. If it's not there, then clear the area, head in to the next one and double back - hopefully it will have appeared.
Enter the Hibernatorium, where some aggro-Berserkers leap to life. If you're quick enough, you can pre-empt them as they jump. On the right hand side near the exit is a pair of Rigels for Sazh. Activate the switch and ride the lift down to the Inner Conduit.
There are some Imps guarding an Auric Armlet to your right. Take the tunnel down, but beware of the Phosphoric Oozes morphing up from the ground to take you by surprise. There's also a Greater Behemoth waiting for you around the corner, so heads up before you go charging round there.
Follow the tunnel out to the opening and hop down onto the railing to pick up an Alicanto for Hope. Head down the stairs, but if you jump up to the right and take on the Noctilucales and the Behemoth you'll find a chest with Gargantuan Claws x7 inside. Back on the main path, jump into the other tunnel, and beware of the Behemoth galloping up it.
You'll finally come to another stationy area. Other than the Metal Armband in the chest in the top right hand corner, there's also a vial of Ethersol beside the Save Point.
There's a boss battle coming up - I chose to swap out Hope for Vanille to make use of her Saboteur skillset. Set up Exploitation (COM SAB SAB) as your default Paradigm. You'll also want Combat Clinic (MED SEN MED), Diversity (RAV COM MED) and your staple, Relentless Assault (RAV COM RAV). Your last two slots should depend on how you've found the battles in the Fifth Ark so far. If you've been breezing through, then I recommend something like Ruthless (RAV COM SAB), Safe Subversion (MED SAB SAB) or Scouting Party (COM SAB MED). If you've been struggling a little, then I'd defo go for a Sentinel based offence like Delta Attack (COM SEN RAV), maybe with Attrition (SEN SAB MED)? It's entirely up to you. |
Now with your new-fangled Paradigms in place, head round the corner to see… BishouCid, is that you? What's he doing here?
Raines has been a l'Cie this entire time, which explains why he bothered helping us out in Palumpolum. Every example of luck that we've experienced so far as down-and-out l'Cie has been the machinations of the Sanctum fal'Cie, who are desperate for us to complete our Focus and lay waste to this place. Why? Because they're trying to recall the Maker (a God that created the world to recycled cut scenes) via a mass sacrifice. But Raines doesn't want it to go down like that; he's going to try and save Cocoon, regardless of the fal'Cie's plans. Of course, the only thing standing in his way of achieving that goal is… well…
Boss Battle: Cid Raines |
Level: 68 This battle is extremely quick-paced, so there's only so little I can actually instruct you on, you're going to have to pay attention to your screen and react to Cid's moves accordingly. But I can tell you to open with Exploitation to inflict some debuffs on the guy. Raines cycles through Offensive Shift, Defensive Shift and Recovery Shift, which should generally dictate your course of action. Use Relentless Assault as your main offence, and Diversity to clean up any damage - switch to Combat Clinic if HP bars get too orange. Conversely, if you're struggling to deal with his Offensive Shift, try Delta Attack to keep up the damage output whilst using Fang as a meat shield. He'll eventually transition into using Saboteur skills, which can easily be cleaned up by a Medic. Heal with Combat Clinic post-Seraphic Ray and keep pushing this guy to Stagger. Once Fang launches him, his attacks are greatly incapacitated. I'll admit a lot of the later strategy is guess work - it usually takes around five minutes for me to kill this guy, this time I even managed to do it before he whipped out Metamorphose (I don't even know how I managed that - fal'Cie intervention, perhaps), so I'm kind of pulling from memory, here. Let me know if you have alternative strats on the Talk Page. |

"Low move, brah."
For that fight, we get a Tetradic Crown, the shop Moogleworks and the standard Crystarium Expansion.
Raines implores to us that we do 'what is right' before he becomes the third character to crystallise before us. Naturally, Snow is pissed at being out-heroed by such a grand, dramatic gesture - sacrificing your life beats out fist-pumps, pep-talks and piggy backs any day - and storms off in a huff.
We regain control in the Mezzanine (keep your party as Light/Fang/Vanille if you switched to them for the Raines battle; it'll come in handy in a bit) so follow the path round to another lift. Activate with and some Circuitrons will fall down on you. You'll arrive now in the Central Conflux. It's kind of insinuated that there are more three-way battles here, but truthfully, they all stop whatever spat they're having in order to tag-team and kill you, so keep that in mind when you approach them. Make your way down the Conflux again, then Save Up when you hit the station.
I hope you're ready for a cage match in the Synthora: we'll get boxed in rooms with Pulseworks and Cricuitrons in the first round, and a Skat Bird and some Pulseworks are waiting in round two. Exit to the corridor, and there's a chest with a Feymark in it for Snow on the right hand side.
Ugh, another Conflux, this time the Basement Conflux. Do the usual, hop down, and enter the Hypogeum, which is essentially the Synthora Redux. This time you'll be caged in with some Circuitrons in the first room, and three Skats and a Behemoth in the second. The exit is to the North of the second room, but if you take the door to the left first, you can face a Besererker for Electrodes x3.
Hit up the Save Station and activate the lift. It's the exact same sitch as before: ambush. Liftbush. Whatever. This time with a bunch of Skats, but you can pre-empt them before they land by running up to their shadows on the ground.
We arrive down in the Transept. I am so over the Fifth Ark because I feel like we've been through it five times already. We're at another room with Berserkers, so take them out to reach...
…the Subterra Conflux, which is our fourth conflux. Guys, I can feel myself ageing. I will hit the menopause whilst going through the Fifth Ark. There are Skat Birds all the way along this path and like, zero way to avoid them, so have fun. Finally reach the corridor we've been through a million times and pick up the Otherworldy Bones x2 in the chest off to the left.
We get closed in to yet another face off with Berserkers, …
A dead end. Are you kidding. One of the party tries to reason that they shouldn't have expected anything less, because hey, this is a bootcamp for l'Cie, after all. Oh my God, it is not fun to play through a bootcamp. People do not go to bootcamps for fun, this is not an activity I want to vicariously experience. It's made worse by the fact that this bootcamp is essentially the same map repeated over and over again within itself. And the fact the Fifth Ark is basically a redux of the Vestige creates some sort of perverse... Ark-ception that I have no desire to be involved with any longer. Sazh loses his cool and shouts "I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS." SAME, SAZH, SAME.

... x2
Luckily we're given a bit of plot to lighten the slog. Snow has been mentally deliberating as to how to regain his role as HERO! since Raines' little stunt back in the Mezzanine and he's decided that since Raines bit the bullet and all, he'll just hijack Raines' plight and colour it with a little romantic context: he, too, is going to defy the fal'Cie, because he made a promise to Serah to protect Cocoon. Barthandalus can shoot him down, but he won't fall, I am titannnniummm, bitches. Our whole party have a little hands-in moment, but Fang's not buying it. She's talking sense: Cocoon blows, so why are we bothering to save it?
Unfortunately, her attempts at trying to make the party see any sense are interrupted by the ominous glowing of her brand. Hmm. Looks like I should dust out the Eidolon fight template...
Eidolon Battle: Bahamut | ||
Yields to | ||
.....∙ those who amass chain bonuses | ||
.....∙ those who defend against and endure attacks. | ||
.....∙ those who weaken and debilitate their enemies. | ||
Difficulty: Easy | ||
Strategy | ||
Compared to the last few Eidolon battles, this is a super easy bout. All you need is Safe Subervsion (SAB MED SAB) and Combat Clinic (SEN MED MED), and all you need to do is alternate between the two accordingly. If you don't have these two Paradigms ready when you're thrown into the fight, just hit Retry and set them up with Fang, Light and Vanille. |
Swish: a path right out of here. Convenient: an airship at the end of the path. Okay, I get it fal'Cie, we can take it from here: and a gate out to Gran Pulse!
"It's Pulse or bust."[]
Technically it's Pulse or wallowing in the Fifth Ark, so I think we know which option we'll be taking here.
Of course, since our team can apparently never fly in an airship for longer than three minutes without some form of obstacle derailing them, a Pulse creature knocks us clean out of the ship and free falling into the sky. Since Fang is the only one with an Eidolon that flies, she is tasked with summoning it and saving them all, so she tosses her crystal in the air (Lightning needlessly shoots it - here's hoping Fang doesn't want to use it again) and hitches the party a ride down to the greenery below.
Welcome to Gran Pulse.
→ To Hell on Earth...
← I'm in this bitch for terror, got a handful of stacks.
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