(note: Wakka is not on here, mostly because I don't have time to make a Blitzball guide)
For anyone who has played FF games, especially FFX, you know that the legendary weapons create an iconic sidequest towards the end of the game. I have found lots of guides on getting the weapons, but they often tend to leave out things like helpful suggestions, and specifics on passing some of the more difficult challenges. I found myself going to lots of different sites searching for things like, "can't beat chocobo race" and "tips for lightning dodging," and "can't play blitzball." So I'm going to try and write a more comprehensive guide on the weapons, and how to get them.
Sections are as follows (Ctrl + F to search for them)
1. Basic info about weapons
2. No encounter
3. Celestial Mirror
4. Auron's Masamune
5. Rikku's Godhand
6. Yuna's Nirvana
7. Kimahri's Spirit Lance
8. Wakka's World Champion
9. Lulu's Onion Knight
10. Tidus's Caladbolg
(I put the weapons roughly in order of difficulty level-- the easiest ones are first)
----*BASIC INFO ABOUT WEAPONS*----
There are three parts to each legendary weapon. The weapon itself, a sigil, and a crest counterpart. The weapon alone does nothing-- it has no abilities on its own except for "No AP" (meaning you don't get any AP after battles). The sigil or crest by themselves marginally adds to the weapon, but together, maximize its power.
Usually two out of the three items are very straightforward-- you just have to go to the right location-- and the third one involves some sort of challenge.
Each fully realized weapon has its own powers, but for most of the characters, tend to involve "break damage limit" and "double AP," as well as "counter," "evade and counter," "0 MP," "magic booster," etc, depending on whose weapon you have.
While you can pick up some of the items during the game, I'm going to assume you're at a point when you have the airship and you have free reign on the direction you want to go in. For example, if you know where it is, Yuna's Moon Crest becomes available to you about thirty minutes into the game, on Besaid. However, Lulu's Venus Crest is in the Guadosalam Farplane, which you visit in the middle of the game, but it will NOT be available to you while you are there-- it's only there if you choose to come back later, on the airship.
None of the weapons or crests/sigils have a "point of no return," as long as you still can travel anywhere with the airship. If you miss anything during the game, don't worry; you can always go back to these places.
Finally, I would like to make a note about Auron's Masamune-- this is not a hard weapon to get, but it is painstakingly slow. I recommend working on it while you are going around Spira getting the other weapons and completing other sidequests-- equip your "catcher" weapons while you're going around Spira, especially when you're in the Calm Lands. NOTE: If you catch monsters outside of the Calm Lands before you've caught all of the monsters IN the calm lands, they won't be in the arena. HOWEVER-- when you DO finish capturing monsters in the Calm Lands, the other monsters you've caught will show up.
Basically, you don't have to go back and catch everything again, if you forgot to finish the Calm Lands before you started catching other fiends!! :)
----*NO ENCOUNTER*----
Before you start getting any weapons, customize a piece of armor with the "no encounters" ability. This will be especially important for Rikku's and Lulu's weapons-- I'm sure it's physically possible to get them without it, but you will probably go insane. I strongly recommend getting the salts by capturing 4 of each type of dragon in Spira, and unlocking Fafnir in the monster arena. The reason I suggest doing this instead of anything else is that this will help you with getting Auron's weapon. If you do capture four types of dragon, go to the guy who runs the monster arena, and he will give you 99 Purifying Salts.
The dragons in Spira are as follows:
On the Mi'hen Highroad: Vouivre
On Mushroom Rock Road: Lamashtu
On the Thunder Plains: Kusariqqu
On Bikanel: Musshusu
On Mt. Gagazet: Mandragora
----*CELESTIAL MIRROR*----
You need the Celestial Mirror to power up any of the weapons in the game. To get it, go to Remiem Temple. Take a Calm Lands chocobo to the entrance to Macalania Woods, but don't switch screens, or get off the chocobo. Go right, to the edge of the raised area, and you will see a yellow chocobo feather on the ground. Press "X" once on the feather to jump off, and you will be in a new area. Take the new path to enter Remiem Temple. Don't go inside the temple, but instead, go to the left after crossing the bridge, and you'll see a chocobo. Talk to him to challenge him to a race. If you win the race, you get the Cloudy Mirror as a prize.
Take the Cloudy Mirror into Macalania woods. In the southern area of Macalania (from the Calm Lands), walk into the woods, and you will see a mother and her son standing near one of those branch-paths-- they are looking for the father. Go back towards the Calm Lands, and approach the campsite across from the Lake (where Tidus and Yuna had their little thing). Talk to the man in the middle of the campsite, and tell him where his family is. Walk back to where the woman is, and she'll say that her son is missing, as well.
Run up the sparkling pathway, and you will find the kid. He'll move after you talk to him-- go up the path he was blocking. Examine the large crystal thing, and use the Cloudy Mirror. It will then turn into the Celestial Mirror.
From now on, every time you get the three parts to each weapon, take them all to this crystal. You will have to present each weapon twice-- once to use the Crest, and once to use the Sigil. With only one of these two things, the weapon will "grow," but after presenting the weapon a second time, the power will "maximize," and you will have your fully realized legendary weapon.
----*AURON'S MASAMUNE*----
 |
Break Damage Limit
Triple Overdrive
First Strike
Counterattack
(note: this weapon does NOT have piercing, and does more damage the LOWER Auron's HP is) |
This weapon is not exactly the easiest, but I put it first because it's the first one to begin working on. It's definitely not difficult, but you can easily be working on getting this weapon while getting the other weapons, so it's good to keep in mind.
Masamune: Take the airship to the Calm Lands, and go northeast in the direction of Mt. Gagazet. Turn right after the first bridge, and you will see a path going downhill. Follow this path, and it will take you to a small valley, where you will see a cave. This is the Temple of the Stolen Fayth, or the Sunken Temple. Go down from the entrance of this cave, and you will see a very small path leading up and to the right. Follow it-- at the end, you will see a "Rusty Sword." Take the Rusty Sword to the end of Mushroom Rock Road (just before you exit to the battle area where the Crusaders all died), go up on that floating stone, and use the Rusty Sword with that statue of Lord Mi'hen. A glyph will appear on the wall off to the left, touch it, and the Rusty Sword will turn into the Masamune.
Mars Crest: This is on the Mi'hen Highroad. If you get to the Mi'hen/Mushroom Rock Road junction, you will see a path going south. Follow this path all the way to the end, and you will find a treasure chest containing the Mars Crest.
Mars Sigil: This one is the most time-consuming. In the Monster Arena, you unlock monsters either by capturing every monster from a single area, or a certain number of each type of species (ie, unlocking Fafnir by capturing four of each dragon). You have to unlock ten of these types of monsters, in any combination of species OR area monsters. There are other ways to get original monsters, but to get the Mars Sigil, it must be "area" monsters or "species," nothing else. However, you can have any combo of the two you want-- six of one and four of the other will work.
The reason I put this quest first is so that you can work on it while wandering around Spira and getting your other weapons. I think it's kind of stupid to devote all your time to getting this weapon, when you could be working on something else, and just catching monsters as you're being attacked. Be sure you have your catching weapons equipped when you're doing this. Not only will you be working towards getting the Mars Sigil, but as you unlock monsters, you also get cool prizes from the arena guy. Once you unlock ten new monsters, he will give you the Mars Sigil.
----*RIKKU'S GODHAND*----
 |
Break Damage Limit
Triple Overdrive
Double AP
Gillionaire
(does more damage as Rikku nears max HP) |
This is one of the easiest weapons to get, but it takes a bit of time, and you do have to run all over the Sanubia Desert in Bikanel, which is partly why I recommend having No Encounters.
Godhand: Once on the airship, use Cid's "input" option to write "GODHAND"; this will take you to a small crevasse in Mushroom Rock Road-- just run forward, and you will find the box with the Godhand in it.
Both the Crest and the Sigil can be found in the desert, but I want to do some geography stuff first, so I can explain locations more clearly.
SCREEN ONE: This is the screen where the airship will take you, with the oasis. It's where you woke up when Sin originally dropped you here.
SCREEN TWO: The next screen is basically a long, twisty road in the desert-- there is a tent towards the beginning and a save sphere, and just before the end, there is a little pocket of desert with another tent.
SCREEN THREE: This screen is a massive chunk of desert with random rocks and chests all over the place. There is a section off towards the left with some ruins-- if you read the sign in Al Bhed (next to the save sphere) just before the section, it says that stronger fiends are found on the left, weaker ones on the right.
SCREEN FOUR: Just north of Screen Three, there is a sandstorm off to the right, and a bunch of sandpits on the path-- most of them have boxes and/or fiends in them.
Mercury Crest: In Screen Four, if you run up a bit, there is a little alcove off to the left. Go in here, and you will find a sandpit. Rikku's Mercury Crest is in a chest in this sandpit.
Mercury Sigil: This is the fun one! Just as you enter Screen Four, go right, and up to where the sandstorm is-- you should be on some cliffs, just south of the sandstorm. If you search the edge of this cliff, you will see a stone with a cactuar rune on it. Go up to this stone and examine it, and there will be a poem. For each poem, you have to find the cactuar it's referring to-- each time you find a cactuar, a new poem will be activated, until you have found all ten. (and yes, you MUST return to the stone after EACH cactuar to activate the next one)
When you find the cactuars, you have this game where you need to sneak up on them. This game has nothing to do with getting the Sigil. If you win the game, you get a sphere with the Cactuar's name on it; if you lose, you get a "sphere del perdedor" (loser's sphere). Either way, put the sphere in the cactuar stone when you go back afterwards. The only benefit to getting the sphere with the cactuars' names on it is what you get
in addition to the Mercury Sigil. You get little prizes like potions and elixirs and ethers for getting the "named" spheres-- if you are able to get all of them (or all of them minus one), then you get a Friend Sphere as a prize.
List of cactuar locations:
- 1. Tomay - he will be right next to the Oasis on Screen One
- 2. Rovivea - She is running around in the little pocket of desert to the left on Screen Two.
- 3. Chava - There is a sign near the cactuar stone (to the left) on Screen Four advertising Al Bhed products at 20% off-- examine it, and Chaava will be behind the sign
- 4 and 5. Alek and Aloja - They are both running around the alcove in the Third Screen, off to the left, where the ruins are.
- 6. Vachella - Towards the beginning of second screen where you can find the tent with save sphere, examine the sphere, and Valchella will pop out
- 7. Robeya - In the third screen, on the left, there is a fence running down the side, just south of the section with the ruins-- run down that fence, and you will see a box. She will be inside the box.
- 8. Isrra - There is a glitch with this one-- Isrra is in the fourth screen, but you have to leave the screen and come back for him(/her?) to be there. So, go down to screen three, and come back, and Isrra will be next to one of the pits. NOTE: when you are sneaking up on him, walk INTO the sandpit, and you can keep walking, even when he turns around. You can see where you are with the arrow and map on the top left of the screen.
- 9. Elio - He will be by the Oasis in the first screen-- he will take the save sphere onto the airship as soon as you see him. To find him, get onto the airship, and go up to the top of the airship, where you fought Evrae. He'll be at the edge.
- 10. Flaile - He will show up automatically next to the cactuar stone after you finish reading the last poem.
After all of this, the sandstorm will clear up, and you can go into cactuar village. There will be two chests-- the one closest to you will have the Mercury Sigil, and the one that's slightly farther away will have whatever you won based on the number of cactuars you were able to sneak up on.
----*YUNA'S NIRVANA*----
 |
Break Damage Limit
Triple Overdrive
Double AP
One MP Cost
(Does more damage as Yuna nears max MP, breaks Valefor's damage limit) |
Nirvana: Capture one of every monster in the Calm Lands for the arena. Talk to the guy who works at the arena, and he will give you the Nirvana as a reward. Remember, different monsters appear in different locations of the arena! There are nine monsters total.
Moon Crest: From the beach in Besaid, swim out and to the left, and you will come across a beach. There is a chest on the beach with the Moon Crest inside.
Moon Sigil: This one is the "hardest" to get out of the three, but that's really not saying much. Basically, you have to get all the aeons, and defeat Belgemine, who is in Remiem Temple. You need every aeon in the game, and you need to defeat Belgemine (in Remiem Temple), and send her.
Let's start with how to get Anima.
You will need the destruction sphere treasure from every temple (Besaid, Kilika, Djose, Macalania, Bevelle, and Zanarkand)-- if you didn't get them, you can go back to every temple except for Bevelle, and redo the Trials. Although you can't return to Bevelle, that Cloister is set up so that it is physically impossible to leave without getting the destruction sphere treasure, so if you have Bahamut, then you've gotten the treasure (I believe it's a lance for Kimahri).
If you are not sure if you got all the spheres, skip ahead to my directions for getting into Baaj temple (starting from step 2)-- you can get into the Temple without all the spheres, you just can't get Anima, and there is a simple way to check the destruction sphere treasures you have gotten once you're in the temple.
At this point, you will not have the treasure from Zanarkand (even after fighting Yunalesca), so we
have to return there.
 |
| Room 2 |
- First, go back to Zanarkand temple, and go back to the Cloister of Trials there, with the Tetris-like floor panels. You will have to redo it, in order to get the destruction sphere. You basically have to press all the white square tiles in BOTH rooms without touching any other tile. Here is a map of them for you. The order that you step on them doesn't matter.You have to step on the tile where the LETTER is for the shape to light up.
 |
| Room I |
When they are all lit up, you will get access to a destruction sphere-- take it to Room 2, where the screen is (or used to be), and place it in the recess to the right of the screen. You will receive a chest containing a rod for Yuna with the "Half MP" ability.
2. Now that you have the destruction sphere treasure from Zanarkand, it's time to get Anima. You need to input the coordinates (X 11-16, Y: 57-63) into the airship, and you will go to Baaj Temple. I recommend saving right when you arrive.
3. Run to the edge of the stone pier and jump into the water, and swim towards the doors. You will be attacked...remember this guy? Geosgaeno. I find this battle to be a little tough, given that Wakka, Rikku, and Tidus aren't usually your strongest hitters (which one reason I like having Rikku's weapon at this point). Make sure somebody has stoneproof (the more, the better). Armor break doesn't work on the fish, but piercing weapons hurt him a lot more than regular weapons, so it might be worth customizing Tidus's sword. Be careful what you cast on yourself-- if the fish eats you, he can copy your stats (although you can do a lot of damage from inside the fish). If you kill the fish when someone is inside him, then he will let out a powerful attack before he dies, so make sure nobody is inside him when you have your killing attack.
4. Go inside the temple, and you will find a room with two rows of spheres. Inspect each sphere, and they will light up as you do so. If nothing happens when you inspect one of the spheres, it means you missed a temple. Here the order so you know which temple you missed:
Besaid (top left) Bevelle (top right)
Macalania (middle left) Djose (middle right)
Zanarkand (bottom left) Kilika (bottom right)
5. Once they are all lit up, proceed to the last room, watch the scene, and enjoy getting the best aeon of the game! :)
Next, we will get Yojimbo. He's not my favorite aeon, but you do need him for Yuna's weapon.
1. Once you have Anima, take the airship to the Calm Lands, and go northeast in the direction of Mt. Gagazet. Turn right after the first bridge, and you will see a path going downhill. Follow this path, and it will take you to a small valley, where you will see a cave. This is the Temple of the Stolen Fayth, or the Sunken Temple.
2. Go into this temple, and follow the path. It's pretty linear-- it's possible to get this aeon just after leaving the Calm Lands, but the fiends can be pretty nasty here. It would be helpful to equip weapons with status immunities in here, especially poison, sleep, and stoneproof. Also, if you do run across those vases with the eyes all over them, no, there is no pattern to hitting the right one, and yes, it is impossible to defeat them.
3. Once at the end, you will have to fight Yojimbo. It's a pretty straightfoward battle, and he is not a very strong aeon. Just keep hitting him, and don't worry about the dog.
4. Finally, once in the chamber, you will have to hire him with Gil. When he asks you the questions, answer him with "to defeat the most powerful of enemies." There is no benefit to paying him more than he asks for. To get him to lower the cost, offer exactly half of what he asks for, plus one gil. When he lowers the cost, add ten gil to your previous offer, and when he lowers his cost a third time, add ten more. The fourth time, pay him the price he asks for-- it won't get lower. It's possible that he ends up refusing you if you try and lower the offer too much, but that's no problem-- just talk to him again. You will need at least 200,000 Gil-- try and have one or two thousand more, if possible. I've gotten it to under 200,000, but only once.
And now we need our last aeon, who is actually made up of three Aeons- the Magus sisters! They're kind of fun. (If you've played FFIV, then they should look familiar)
1. The Magus Sisters are in Remiem Temple; to find it, get a chocobo on the Calm Lands and take it to the entrance to Macalania Woods, but don't switch screens, or get off the chocobo. Go right, to the edge of the raised area, and you will see a yellow chocobo feather on the ground. Press "X" once on the feather to jump off, and you will be in a new area. Take the new path to enter Remiem Temple (it looks a bit like a beehive). However, just going into the temple would be too easy.
2. Once you're inside the temple, you will see Belgemine, and she will challenge you to a contest of aeons. You have to defeat them in order of Valefor, Ifrit, Ixion, Shiva, Bahamut, Yojimbo, and Anima. She will heal you before each battle, and you CAN fight each aeon separately-- go and save between each one.
3. Use Anima for all of them to win easily. If you're nervous about one, just go wander around the Calm Lands for a while to go on overdrive (Anima's overdrive will do 99,999 damage), but it really isn't too hard. Against her Anima, just put Bahamut on overdrive. Although Anima is stronger than Bahamut, Bahamut will be able to dodge most of Anima's attacks. Just make sure Anima doesn't go to overdrive.
4. Once you defeat her Bahamut, she will give you the Flower Scepter. This is one of two necessary items you need to get into the area with the Magus Sisters. You don't need to defeat the rest of Belgemine's aeons to get the Magus sisters, but you WILL need to defeat them later for Yuna to get her Moon Sigil. (the problem here is that you need to defeat Belgemine's Magus Sisters to get the Sigil, but you won't be able to fight the Magus Sisters unless you have them yourself)
5. You need the Blossom Crown in addition to the Scepter to get to the Magus sisters. To get this, you need to capture one of every fiend from Mt. Gagazet-- there are twelve monsters total. Be sure to get the monsters inside the caves of Gagazet; people tend to forget that the caves are a part of Gagazet, too, and they also forget the monsters in the underwater parts of the cave that only Tidus, Rikku, and Wakka can get to. However, they do count.
6. Once you get all of the Gagazet monsters, go to the man who runs the monster arena, and he will give you the Blossom Crown as a reward.
7. Take the Blossom Crown to Remiem Temple, where you will be able to enter the chamber at the back, and you will receive the Magus Sisters aeon. Then, go back to the main chamber and finish your battles with Belgemine.
8. When you beat her, you will be faced with the choice of sending her. Do that, and she will leave the Moon Sigil behind.
----*KIMAHRI'S SPIRIT LANCE*----
This weapon is not overly difficult to get, but it can be a little frustrating.
Saturn Crest: This crest is at the top of Mt. Gagazet. Right after the location where you fought Seymour, there is a small path lined with pillars that go off the main road. Follow this little path, and at the end, there is a chest with the Saturn Crest. IIRC, it's kind of hidden, so just sort of poke around, pressing "X" until you find it, but it's right there at the end.
Spirit Lance: On the Thunder Plains, you may remember those glowing Qactuar stones? Go up to four stones (any ones), and press Square at each one, so you can pray. Once you do this, you will see a little ghost cactuar that you are supposed to follow. NOTE: it is sometimes difficult to follow in the rain and mist so keep an eye out.
Saturn Sigil: For this one, you need to go into Macalania woods, find the bird-man, and do the infamous butterfly-catching game. You must do both games without touching a single red butterfly. Here is a nifty little map I've found that helps you with the butterflies.
----*LULU'S ONION KNIGHT*----
 |
Break Damage Limit
Triple Overdrive
Magic Booster
One MP Cost
(NOTE: the "Magic Booster" will cause the spells to cost an extra MP, so each spell will actually be 2 MP cost)
(Does more damage if Lulu is closer to her max MP, breaks Shiva's damage limit) |
Venus Crest: the Farplane, in Guadosalem
Onion Knight: Baaj Temple (coordinates from airship: X 11-16, Y: 57-63), after beating that hideous fish, you can find it to the right of the stairs.
Venus Sigil:
This is the most difficult part of the weapon-- you have to dodge 200 consecutive bolts of lightning on the Thunder Plains. The guides all suggested turning out the lights, drinking a lot of coffee, and turning down the sound. The sound thing was helpful, actually-- really starts throwing you off after a while, since it's so rhythmic, but it doesn't go in sync with the lightning bolts. I made my "dodging lightning" playlist that I'm very pleased with. Other things that help:
1. Find a place in the Thunder Plains that has
fairly regular lightning strikes. Trust me-- it's much easier.
3. Turn off the obnoxious
Thunder Plains music. Make a playlist for yourself with of short, interesting songs that lasts a few hours. The music on the Thunder Plains is very rhythmic, and it will throw you off after a while. You'll start dodging in time with that music, instead of the thunderbolts.
3. COUNT. (I've read reviews that say counting makes you more nervous, but I think it's way more difficult when you don't know if you're on 50 or 150). Some people just suggest dodging for a certain amount of time, instead of a certain number of bolts. I think it's way easier to count, and way more certain.
4. On this note, take a break every ten dodges or so. Record each set of ten, and then when you go back to playing, start at one again. Then once you do ten, you can record twenty, and so on.
6. I also recommend doing an extra dodge or two every so often that you don't count, so if you do have that horrible crisis of getting to 198 and messing up, you will be okay.
NOTE: You CAN'T save in the middle dodging lighting. Some guides say you can. Trust me you will have to start over if you do.
----*TIDUS'S CALADBOLG*----
 |
Break Damage Limit
Evade & Counter
Magic Counter
Triple Overdrive
(deals more damage as Tidus nears his max HP, |
This is another fun weapon that everybody loves to get! And by that I mean most people just give up and decide to settle for the Godhand, the Masamune, and the Nirvana, and Tidus was never that good, anyway. But I found that, while there are no shortcuts to getting the fully-powered Caladbolg, there are definitely tips that help out with the more painful parts of this weapon.
Sun Crest: This can be found in the room where you defeated Yunalesca, back in Zanarkand. (Shortcut to get inside the temple: if you haven't already figured out how the portals work, right outside the Zanarkand temple, next to the save sphere, you can see a panel with a glowing green arrow-- step on it to teleport to the main dome) From here, just walk through the puzzle rooms, up to the hole in the ground, and you can travel back to where you fought her earlier, in that sort of weird "outside" area. The box will be kind of hidden next to the stairs that are farthest away from you-- just at the top.
Caladbolg: The weapon itself is a prize for beating the chocobo trainer in the Calm Lands. If you haven't talked to the chocobo trainer at all yet, go west from the shop in the middle of the Calm Lands, and she will be by the edge of the cliffs (on a chocobo, obviously). (NOTE: If you have already talked to her, she will be just south of the shop-- you can actually get to her from the shop without switching screens) Tell her you want to train, and she will take you through a series of exercises. The last option you will have is racing her. Avoid the birds, hit the balloons. Beating her isn't too hard-- it shouldn't take too many tries. Her time changes drastically every race, so if she gets a really amazing time one race, it should be way back above forty seconds the next race.
Once you beat her, go to an area in the northwest section of the Calm Lands (just to the right of the first major crack in the ground), and you will see a tiny new area open to you. Go down here, and you'll see a glyph on the wall. Touch the glyph, and you get the Caladbolg. Yay!
Sun Sigil: This is probably the most infamous of the legendary weapons, with good reason. You have to get a time of UNDER 0:00 in the chocobo race against the trainer (NOTE: a time of exactly 0:00 will NOT count). Basically, as everybody always says, the best thing you can do it hit the balloons, avoid the chocobos. It's similar to Lulu's Thunder Plains in that there isn't any shortcut, but there are some things that definitely helped, or were good to know, as I played:
- In the beginning of the race, do NOT go for the balloons to the right. The trainer will get to them first, and then she'll be ahead of you for the rest of the first section. Stick to the left. If you happen to have no balloons to the left, that's bad, but don't try and go to the right to get them unless you KNOW you're already ahead.
- On that note, get as many balloons from this first section as you can. There are no birds to distract you, so this is your best opportunity for that.
- Seriously, a whole lot of this race is luck. Keep this in mind. The locations of the balloons and the number of birds change every race (this is especially annoying at the beginning, when it's all balloons). So while you notice yourself getting marginally better at navigating the field, don't worry if you have several horrible races in a row. You're kind of meant to lose.
- Again, with the first section, try and get four to six balloons, if you have the opportunity (ie, if they're right in front of you). If they're not in front of you, just use this race as bird-avoiding practice.
- When you round the first corner, and start getting attacked by birds, dodge straight to the right, especially if you're right behind the trainer. The trainer will get hit by most of the birds, and you'll be free to go.
- The birds tend to come in waves, and they alternate between targeting you and targeting the trainer. If you see them heading straight for you, try your best to dodge them, and then use the valuable next few seconds to scoop up as many balloons as possible, as the next wave targets the trainer.
- Just because they are TARGETING the trainer doesn't mean they won't hit you if you're in the way. Do stay out of the way. It just means that they won't actively chase you.
- Feel free to go to the left, but the farther left you go, the more your chocobo will try and veer back to the right. There are also no balloons that way, and you're adding seconds to your time (although there are no birds there, either). Watch out for cracks in the ground towards the end, though-- they will block you if you're trying to go right to avoid birds, and you'll get hit.
- One thing to remember about the birds-- although it says they add three seconds to your time, when you get hit by birds, you stall for two seconds, so in actuality, they're adding more like five seconds.
- It is definitely possible to get below a zero and still get hit by a bird, so don't give up if that happens. It's not like butterfly-catching with Kimahri, where one red butterfly pretty much means you're screwed. To win, you will want at least 11-12 balloons, minimum. I won with twelve. butterflies, and a time of 35 seconds (no birds). If you get a bird, you'll need at least thirteen balloons to make up for it. A good time to aim for (without adding birds or balloons) is somewhere between 33-38 seconds; anything under that is unrealistic (maybe possible, but not realistic), and anything over that is too much.
- Again, turn down the music. The birds will drive you crazy if you don't.
