I just finished my last class as an English Literature undergraduate. Huh. Weird. Part 21 of Paramina's Final Fantasy XIII Walkthrough.
Taejin's Tower[]
I left you at the doors, right? Just charge in through the corridor to reach the Ground Tier of Taejin's Tower. Welcome to the requisite tower dungeon of FFXIII.
But it looks like we won't be making this trek alone, because the giant stone-men are offering us a hand. One of them stabs the ground and the walls of the tower spin into place, with a little elevator rolling down into place. Since there aren't any stairs around (like I'd be keen for climbing all 50,000 or whatever), it looks like that's our way up.
However, before we head on up, run round the Ground Tier and pick up the treasure chests. There's a Sparkbane Brooch and 4,721 Gil in the... space (?), and Chipped Fang x11 on the other side of the elevator. Once you've collected all of these, then Save Up, and jump into the elevator.
- Note: This area can get pretty convoluted when you try to map the route out in words. So when I say Central Elevator, I mean this great musical bad boy busting out music-box beats in the tower's atrium. When I say Chamber Elevator, I mean the smaller Elevators that you come across in some of the rooms further up the tower. Got it?
Ride the Elevator to the Second Tier. Okay, on this level, there are three Menhirrim statues that will grant you access in the tower if you take care of some monsters for them (hey, gang culture pays). Essentially it's just Cie'th Stone Missions in fancy dress. You'll need to complete all six of the Menhirrim missions to climb the tower, but luckily, the first three are all on this tier. Easy like a Sunday Morning, right? Since they're all so easy to find, it'd be redundant for me to guide you to each statue and each mark (just use your map), so instead, I just put all the strategies for each battle in the nifty table below:
| Second Tier: Cie'th Stone Missions | ||
| No. 21: Gelatitian | No. 22: Ambling Bellows | No. 23: Gurangatch |
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| HP: 679,140 Difficulty: Easy |
HP: - Difficulty: Easy |
HP: 242,500 Difficulty: Easy |
| This guy is possible to pre-empt, so have the patience to land it, it'll really help. Its weak to Thunder so stack those. Relentless Assault is your best bet. This shouldn't be too tricky, you've faced enough Flans to know how they work. | Go for the pre-emptive with a default of Ruthless (COM/RAV/SAB). Have Fang inflict Painga, Fogga and Slowga on the Ambling Bellows, then switch to Relentless Assault to finish off. | You've faced like a million of these guys before, you know how it works: Stagger to get that shell off, then plague it with debuffs and slice it up. Just keep an eye on your HP with this one. |
| Reward: Speed Sash | Reward: Particle Accelerator x3 | Reward: Warrior's Wristband |
Head back the Central Elevator. Dahaka - which would make a really fabulous earring - sails en scene, only to be blocked by our new stone-men possé. They slice of Dahaka's tail, hiss something at us in tongues and then leave. Uh... right on, brethren?
Now that the path is clear, head along the walkway (grab the Sparkplug x5 at the end) and go to the third room furthest from you. There are five Pulsework Gladiators in here, so try and pre-empt them for an easier battle. Take the stairs up to Third Tier, remembering to swipe the Simurgh for Hope on the landing.
Up on the Third Tier, there's another Menhirrim. Examine it to rotate the tower walls. Swish. Now head out of the new exit (there's a chest on the right with Metal Armband x2) and into the Central Elevator. Ride on up to the Fourth Tier. Save Up, grab the chest with the Glass Orb x2 before you head into the chambers.
These chambers have Yaksha in them, which are a variation on those Skat Birds from the Ark. They also have nightmare-fuel faces, seriously. Take them out then hop into the Chamber Elevator and ride it up to the Fifth Tier. You'll find yourself in another chamber with some more Skat Birds, but these are Yakshini (Yak Birds? Yeah, henceforth known as Yak Birds). Clear the room, pick up the Ancient Bones x9 in the far right and accept the Menhirrim statue's mission. The mark is about ten paces behind you, so let's go get it:
| Cie'th Stone Mission: Mushussu |
| No. 24 - A Potent Sting |
The Yakshini can cast supportive magic, so you want to take them out first; Relentless Assault is suffice. The Mushussu is actually pretty buff defence-wise - it absorbs all elemental damage, so be sure to cast Libra to alert the AI. I stuck with Relentless and just stacked Aero to get it to stagger, then switched to Aggression to take it out quickly when it got there, but I suppose you could skip the first step if you want. |
Ride the Chamber Elevator back down to the Fourth Tier, go out onto the central walkway and cross through the Central Elevator. Keep heading along the walk way, and grab the Gale Ring in the chest at the end before making a right into the other chamber. There are some Varcolaci swooping around in here, but they're weak to Ruin, so be sure to spam Ruinga. There's also a chest to your left with Rainbow Anklet x2, so pick that up before riding the Chamber Elevator up to the Sixth Tier.
The Sixth Tier chamber is guarded by a Vampire, so take care of it before you Save Up and examine the Menhirrim next to the SPN (accept the Mission, obv). Head through to the second chamber to see loads of Chonchon's flitting around, which is definitely the kind of Cie'th I can imagine Hope becoming should this all go spectacularly wrong (I feel like Snow would be one of those lumbering Vampires, but with a bandanna on). Chonchons are super weak and can be obliterated in a couple of rounds of Ruinga. Examine the Menhirrim in here to realign the tower walls... and respawn all the enemies (cheers, bb).
Go through to the newly opened room (to the right) and pick up the Tear of Woe x4 in the top right corner, and then the Unsettling Sun (a weapon for Snow) by the stairs. Take the stairs down to find our mark, Vetala, on the Fifth Tier.
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Before you go charging at it, you'll possibly need to do a little battle team recon. Vetala is pretty much immune to Fang's Saboteur skillset, so she's on the bench for this one, let Vanille have a go. Set your default to Ruthless (RAV COM SAB). The only other Paradigms you'll need are Diversity (COM RAV/MED RAV/MED), Discretion (COM MED MED) and the usual Relentless Assault. |
| Cie'th Stone Mission: Vetala |
| No. 25 - A Potent Sting |
Vetala has crazy good defences, and if you don't find a way to turn the tides in your favour quickly, then this is going to be a long, dull, exhaustive, no-starred battle. Open with Ruthless - quickly cast Libra - and have Vanille inflict Imperil. Once Imperil has stuck, switch to Relentless Assault to push it to Stagger (you might want to switch back to Ruthless when you hit Stagger to inflict Poison and Deprotect with ease), and heal up with Diversity and Discretion. |
Garb the Librascope from the chest before heading down the corridor to the adjacent chamber. There's another Menhirrim statue in here, but let's take out the Tyrant first. You're going to want to sneak around the side of it to get a pre-emptive. This battle can be pretty touch, so try and inflict Curse, then beltit with all you've got before it has a chance to really hurt you. Once you're done, examine the Menhirrim and accept its mission. Double back through to the other room, and go back up to the Sixth Tier to find our mark.
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Heads up: the Penanggalan (such a bitch to spell, ugh) is immune to almost all debuffs, so a Paradigm with a Saboteur is pointless, for this fight anyway. You only need three Paradigms to take this on: your default, Delta Attack (COM RAV SEN), Combat Clinic (MED MED SEN) and Aggression (COM RAV COM). |
| Cie'th Stone Mission: Penanggalan |
| No. 26 - So Shrill, the Cry |
Stay in Delta Attack for crowd control with the Chonchons. Since you control the Commando, just spam Ruinga - Ruin - Ruin for like, two turns, and you should be all clear. Switch quickly to Combat Clinic to clean up, then target Penanggalan with Aggression. |
Let's go hit that snazzy new Point of Interest on the Fifth Tier. Dahaka returns, but the Menhirrim have still got our back, because we've scratched theirs a couple of times. They slice yet another part of Dahaka's tail off, leaving him only with a little pearl stump. Of course Vanille, who is fast proving to be the Dr. Doolittle of Gran Pulse, can understand the Menhirrim's Parseltongue: apparently they want to help us. Well. Thank you.
Examine the new Menhirrim statue to realign the tower walls again. Make your way back to the Central Elevator and ride it to the Sixth Tier. There are more Cie'th enemies up here, but nothing new. In the first chamber, pick up the Tears of Remorse x8 by the door and the Clay Ring at the back. The second room has three Vampires in it which just... ugh, be wary, it's a slog. You can run past them easily, and I won't even cast the frown of judgment upon you. Take the Chamber Elevator up to the Apex, and since this page is getting on the Justin Long side of things, I'm going to cut it here.
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