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Final Fantasy XIII-2 Walkthrough

Cocoon has fallen! Kweh! Our game guide for Final Fantasy XIII-2 features an in-depth walkthrough covering equipment, monsters, abilities, and more!

Main Story Walkthrough: Archylte Steppe ??? AF

Archylte Steppe Enemies: Clione, Chelicerata, Goblin, Testudo, Scutari, Samovira, Pulsework Gladiator, Cloudburst, Red Chocobo, Blue Chocobo, Gancanagh, Microchu

Archylte Steppe Map

Treasure and Points of Interest
1. TS, 2 Remedies
2. TS, 3 Potions
3. TS, 8 Mana Droplets
4. 600 gil
5. Grimoire Hat Accessory
6. 2 Fractured Horns
7. 6 vitality Droplets
8. Single Horn Adornment
9. 8 Mana Chips
10. 9 Vitality Spheres
11. Phoenix down
12. 8 Mana Bolts
13. Gaurdian's Edge Weapon (Noel)
14. 700 Gil
15. Unicorn Horn
16. 3 Gysahl Greens
17. 8 Power Slivers
18. Cactuar, Crimson Crystal Fragment, teleport to camp
19. Cactuar, Azure Crystal Fragment, teleport to camp
20. Cactuar, Forest Crystal Fragment, Teleport to lake (West)
21. Cactuar, Amber Crystal Fragment, Teleport to Camp
22. Cactuar, Summon Gigantuar (Battle)

Head for the goal on your map. Grab the treasure spheres along the way for 2 Remedies and 3 Potions. There is another sphere containing eight Mana Droplets outside the western entrance to the camp.

When you get inside the camp, open the two spheres in the area for 600 gil and a Grimoire Hat accessory.

Go to the second floor of the fort and talk to the Hunter with the [!] over his head. He'll give you a map of Archytle Steppe.

Talk to him a second time for the quest, Goblin Fragment. It seems like a side quest, but it's the only way to earn the hunters trust. Run to the goal-marker in the field and you'll encounter the goblin mob in no time. I faced off against 3 Goblins, a Miniflan, and a Chocobo. It's a large group, no doubt. Pay close attention during battle, you may need to swap a Medic in once or twice. Overall, it's not a challenging fight. Once you've taken care of the Goblins, you discover the Goblin Fragment and earn 300 CP.

Return to the Hunter you spoke with earlier. He'll direct you to a female hunter at the bottom of the stairs. She needs help gathering wool from three types of Sheep in the steppe.

Head back into the grass and look for herds of sheep. Examine the largest ones in three separate groups to collect rough, thick, and fluffy wool. There are a few cactuars throughout the steppe. The yellow one transports you to the west side of the map, beyond the immediately accessible area.

When you return the Wool, you'll receive the Wooly Stone fragment. It's about time you figure what's goin on with the weather. Talk to the female hunter again and she'll direct you to the weather controlling machine.

Having completed these tasks, the hunters trust you enough to reveal the secret to controlling the weather in the Steppe. There is a machine with two levers, and four possible weather conditions. Each setting results in different weather and enemies. Here are the four possibilities:

Weather Conditions
Up, Up - Cloudy
Up, Down - Rainy
Down, Up - Stormy
Down, Down - Sunny

There is a boss you have to face in order to reach the gate in the south. You'll need proper weather conditions for him to appear; Apply the Stormy setting on the machine. (Down, Up)

Before you head southeast, consider this: There is a treasure sphere in the northwest containing a new weapon for Noel. Head as far northwest as you can, near the ravine that divides the map in the west. In that corner is a treasure sphere in the distance. Toss Mog to collect a new weapon for Noel, the Gaurdian's Edge.

Now, head towards the fearsome Faeryl, located in the southeast. Before you engage in battle, level up your characters/monsters in the crystarium.

When leveling up Noel, I continued to focus on his Commando and Sentinel roles. Since I'm trying to maximize his physical attack, I leveled up his COM role on the larger nodes in the crystarium to utilize the Commando Bonus. I leveled up to a level 69 commando and a level 38 sentinel. When the crystarium expanded, I chose the "COM Bonus Boost II", and, "Increase Accessory Capacity by 20".

Focus Serah's points om her ravager and medic roles. I raised her to a level 64 ravager and a level 34 medic. For her crystarium expansions bonuses, I went with "Increase ATB Gauge", followed by "Rav Bonus Boost".

Setup these paradigms:

Paradigm Noel Serah Monster
Relentless Assault Commando Ravager Ravager
Consolidation Sentinel Sentinel Medic
Combat Clinic Sentinel Medic Medic
Diversity Commando Ravager Medic
Diversity Commando Medic Ravager
Cerberus Commando Commando Commando

Boss Battle: Faeryl
HP: 108120 / Strength: Fire, Wind / Weakness: Ice, Lightning
Use Faeryl's elemental weakness to your advantage by building up the chain gauge with Relentless Assualt (#1). Whenever you see him ready the Megaton Charge switch to Consolidation (#2) as quickly as you can to increase your defenses. Then, switch to Combat Clinic(#3) to heal your team, and back to Relentless Assault to continue charging the chain gauge. Once he's staggered, switch to Cerberus (#5) to finish him off.
Common Drop: Potent Orb / Rare Drop: None / Reward: 0 CP, 0 Gil
Post Battle Spoils: Black Hole Gem, 3500 CP

Now that Faeryl is dead, collect the Black Hole Gem Fragment and return to Sunleth Waterscape. The Royal Ripeness is no longer at his former glory, but Snow needs your help finishing him off.

Sunleth Waterscape, 300 AF

Boss Battle: Mutantomato
HP: 49,520 / Strength: Fire, Physical, Magic / Weakness: wind
Use Tri-Disaster or Relentless Assault when starting off agaist Mutantomato. His chain gauge will fill up much quicker this time around. If he is able to poison your team prior to becoming staggered, switch to a paradigm with a Medic for some relief via Esuna. Once he is staggered, use triple COMs (Cerberus) to finish him off
Common Drop: Potent Orb / Rare Drop: Mutant Extract / Reward: 300 CP, 0 Gil
Post Battle Spoils: Black Hole Gem, 3500 CP

With your help, Snow's accomplished his goal of preventing the destruction of the crystal pillar at the mouths of the Flan horde. Then, he fades into time, leaving Serah once again.

Run towards the artefact in the distance and toss Mog to retrieve it. Head for the gate marked on your map. When you get there, the Mysterious Artefact will activate the gate and you'll receive the Restoration Artefact.

That wraps up Episode 3. Return to the Historia Crux. We're headed for Academia 400 AF.

Peter Brown
By Peter Brown, Editor

Peter Brown has been writing about video games and hardware since 1999. He grew up with the NES and has an unwavering love for retro and arcade games. Though he's a New England native, he's called the Bay Area home since 2004.

53 comments
chrissogat
chrissogat

Hi... Im stuck at Lvl 15 Augusta Towers AF300. Done everything there, But terminal in middle room says ''Need lvl 13 key, in other time period'' or similar. Also I have no A- Towers AF200, in the Historia Crux. Arrrrgh? Help.Also I cant throw Moogle.Cheers.

kardaniels
kardaniels

regarding the tomato thing, do I have to start over if after getting the black hole gem and the tomato is not mutant?

shademalkovich
shademalkovich

having a hard time completeing map for oerba? is there a way to walk on water?

jensenaholic
jensenaholic

 @shademalkovich There is more than 1 Oerba. there is 200AF, 300AF & 400AF. Not unlocked them all yet but you must be able to reach the water in 300 or 400AF

jensenaholic
jensenaholic

Also how to you get to the other side? there is usually a Chocobo to help but i can't find one you can ride. where treasures 14,15,16 and 21 are.

 

calacake
calacake

 @jensenaholic

 you have to use the way stones in the shape of cactaurs.the weather has to be the way it was when you first got there to find the way stone to the other side, n Mog has to find it.

calacake
calacake

I killed the faeryl in archylte, n I have the black hole gem, but when I went back to sunleth, the frigging tomato was still royal, not mutant!  what do i do?

 

jensenaholic
jensenaholic

 @calacake not sure about that it worked fine with me the other day. did you fight it when the weather was changed to Lightning? 

smurf6
smurf6

how do i get back to augusta in the year 200af im stuck in 300 af and completed everthing im stuck

jensenaholic
jensenaholic

 @smurf6 if you have already been to 200AF it will be unlocked in the Historia Crux.. press the start button and click the top one "return to Historia Crux' and look around and you will find it.

smurf6
smurf6

how do u go back to augusta in 200 af im stuck plz help

LiFERACE
LiFERACE

Cant get to academia? Beat the giant tomato thingy and have all the fragments. Still it hasn't been unlocked. What do I do?

jensenaholic
jensenaholic

 @LiFERACE Go to The Void Beyond and travel through the space distortion. it's orange i thing on the top of the stairs ti the East.

Bulletrush12
Bulletrush12

The weapon Sacred Cross is not "just north of the gate" its miles north of the gate, its at the opposite end of the western section of the map (where as the gate is in the furthest south-westerly position on the map).Make sure you realise this before proceeding. If you assume like i did it will be near the gate its not. youll have to go to the north of the western section first by the 3 toppled pillars marked on the map and then to the very south west  to the gate.

Bulletrush12
Bulletrush12

"the  little arm in the northwest" is actually in the north east....

Bulletrush12
Bulletrush12

You already have Beta and Gamma NOT Alpha and Gamma as stated at the top of the page. So you need alpha, delta and epsilon if you are using this guide ;)

 

Bulletrush12
Bulletrush12

tell me how can you have 4 paradigms for monsters when you only get a paradigm pack of 3? You have Ravager, Commando, Sentinel and Medic roles for the monsters in the table above but this is surely not possible.

Quelastra
Quelastra like.author.displayName 1 Like

 @Bulletrush12 Some monsters, much like Noel and Serah, they can have more than one paradigm. Behemoths can be Commandos or Ravagers. Cait Siths can be medics or commandos. Sometimes three. It depends on if they are late bloomers, well grown, or early bloomers.

Bulletrush12
Bulletrush12

first id like to say thanks for making this guide its helped me a lot. however im now a bit confused. When I went through the gate after collecting the artefact in waterscape I was given the options:

Quelastra
Quelastra

This guide helped a lot for myself and my husband. We enjoy the FF series, and he had gotten stuck in XIII-2 at Augusta 200AF the first time through, not sure where to go to use the Wild Artifact. ^^ This is a great guide.

doc-brown
doc-brown moderator moderatorstaff

@angel1212 - Not anymore! Thanks for the heads up.

angel1212
angel1212

Your Paradigm titles are all wrong on the Faeryl battle. Good editing ;)

Doomluap
Doomluap

This is turning out to be a game of little content, certainly not up to the level of FF#13. I can't recall another FF this shallow. On the positive side - IT'S FINAl FANTASY - STILL THE BEST RPG SERIES EVER.

FuegoLindo
FuegoLindo

Thanks Doc Brown...I apologize and to tell you the truth i followed your stradegy with maxing out Noel as a commando and serah as Ravager and been breezing threw the bosess like nothing. Great walkthrough

doc-brown
doc-brown moderator moderatorstaff

Interesting opinions Fuego...Anyway, since you asked, you get it from the Mystic in Serendipity. You can acquire it after the conclusion of Episode 5. Our fragment skills page listed under primers has the requirements for each skill.

FuegoLindo
FuegoLindo

[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

FuegoLindo
FuegoLindo

I should have not been cheap this time around and bought the strategy guide...by the time they finish this walkthrough ill already have beaten Final Fantasy XIII-3, and be playing Final Fantasy XIII Verses

FuegoLindo
FuegoLindo

btw how do you get glide jump...ign doesnt thoroughly go through that

FuegoLindo
FuegoLindo

You think you can silence me Gamespot! this walkthrough is amateur at best. IGNs is much better! and no i do not work for IGN....TIME AND SPACE!!!!!

doc-brown
doc-brown moderator moderatorstaff

@mkrool Check back this evening (Pacific time) for the completion of Episode 4. Episode 5 will wrap up tomorrow, with the final Episode going up on Friday.

mkrool
mkrool

this guide stops exactly where i have lol would love if u could put guide up bout where to go after u see caius in augusta tower and u need key 50

128BitDragon
128BitDragon

Hey could you add what you are putting your points into in the crystarium, You stoped letting us know what are you leveling into and what you take when the crystarium levels up for your characters after Oerba. Thanks, Otherwise great job on the guide so far, I hope you finish it soon. :)

jonb4play
jonb4play

hopefully they finish this guide, unlike the zelda: skyward sword walkthrough

king-titan
king-titan

why bother with this when there is split infinity's guide...

doc-brown
doc-brown moderator moderatorstaff

Check back in a few hours; Updates are on the way!

FuegoLindo
FuegoLindo

damn gamespot you bozos are slow as sh*t..only up to episode 3 part one. Like an idiot i followed your walkthrough not knowing it was complete till i got to the end of yaschas massif. but then i finally came to my senses and went to IGN where they not only had a complete walkthrough, but a complete wiki on everything ffxiii-2. Step your sh*t up gameFLOP

yukinaze
yukinaze

Final Fantasy is the best!!!!! :)

yukinaze
yukinaze

yehey! thanks for the walkthrought...!!!!! :)

darkagent7
darkagent7

OH GOD, NOT ANOTHER WALKTHROUGH!!! Gamespot diddnt even finish the skyrim walkthough, and all they have to do its stupid stuff like achievements, and the parts that are done, are really awfully written. Its very disappointing.

psuedospike
psuedospike

I'd honestly rather go back and play Resonance of Fate again.

grim0187
grim0187

Im sure this will come in handy when I eventually pick this up. Thanks!

doc-brown
doc-brown moderator moderatorstaff

@Yukari_DeviL We're workin' on it :) Stay tuned for daily (often hourly) updates.

doc-brown
doc-brown moderator moderatorstaff

@lilflex1 It will, starting later today.

lilflex1
lilflex1

@doc-brown will this walkthrough have fragment locations

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