Local Enemy Bestiary¶

Note that there are two particular missions that can be done here: one involving the monsters feeding from the towers (your first) and one involving a new dungeon (second mission). We’ll be covering them in that order, too. Also keep in mind that a Remedy , two X-Potions , and an Ochre Ring can be found in the southern Thunder Plains in chests, while two Budget Grenades , two Turbo Ethers , and two Sleep Grenades are in the northern half’s chests. In any case, if you want to see the preceding boss fight, see Chapter 5 - Thunder Plains - Humbaba ; if you need to see the dungeon you get after (the bulk of this), see Chapter 5 - Thunder Plains - Finding Cid . (There are three trips in all to fully do the dungeon.

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Don’t forget to scour the area for chests (left). You will fight Rhygos (right) at each tower for this mission.

Thunder Plains - Humbaba¶

As you arrive, you’ll quickly be given a mission: to defeat the fiends feeding off the lightning rods. There are ten lightning rods in all, five per half of the Thunder Plains, all of which are easy to spot. (If not, look at the triangles on the minimap.) You’ll end up killing a Rhyos at each southern tower, and one more at four of the northern towers. As you kill them, you’ll find various chests, depending on your success in the button-pressing-minigame in the Chapter 2 - Thunder Plains mission. (The only one of actual note is a Ribbon from the final tower if you did it well enough.) After finishing off the ninth Rhyos, you’ll have to follow the red arrow on the minimap to the destination and opt to go down to Humbaba.

Boss Analysis: Without exception, Humbaba will open the battle by using Mighty Guard on itself, inducing Protect, Shell, Haste, and Regen, effectively halving your damage output for the most part and, in a way, your Agility. (It also uses this again at 1/3 HP - 9,258 for regular and 10,055 for Oversoul.) Humbaba will also use a basic Attack, Uppercut (much stronger + Delay), Tyrant Tail (hits all, Delays), Thundaga (to one in regular, to all in Oversoul), and Meteor (eight random-target hits). Meteor is only used upon death, though. Oversoul Humbaba isn’t much different; other than the all-hitting Thundaga, you’ll notice that he’ll eye certain characters and focus attacks on them for a while.

Strategy: It’ll be easiest if you open the fight immediately with Dispel or a Dispel Tonic, quickly followed by a retaliatory Mighty Guard from a Gun Mage. The main point of Mighty Guard is the quick induction of Protect across the party moreso than Shell (even if it is helpful): Uppercut can easily deal upwards of 1,500-2,000 damage, and even worse if you’re not going 100%. Tyrant Tail is closer to 1,000 damage, and Attack is about 500. Thundaga is about 500-750, but that’s preventable if you have NulShock Rings or the like. (Don’t bother with Reflect since he absorbs Thundaga, and Meteor is unreflectable.)

So, your offense? Opening with Stat Breaks are great, all four if possible (or three if your offense is solely magical/physical). Dark Knights equipped with Ragnarok can be quite useful to do heavy damage without the HP penalties you usually get; using Dark Knights without Ragnarok is not recommended as, even under Protect and Power Break, you’ll see about 500 damage from Uppercut still, and the delay is nasty, sometimes giving Humbaba a chance for another. Generic offenses also work well; it’s mostly just keeping the buffs off Humbaba - you’ll need Dispel or Dispel Tonic at 1/3 HP - and abusing the debuffs you can dole out.

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Humbaba has a few nasty tricks up his sleeve: Uppercut (left) does moderate damage but more dangerous is the Meteor (right) he will use as he dies. Keep your HP topped up!

After the mission, you can opt to head into the hole.

Thunder Plains - Finding Cid¶

When you first enter the dungeon, it is easier - for the sake of navigation and the flow of the walkthrough - to find Cid first and start the dungeon afresh later. Simply begin by heading east, south, west, south, east, and north. You’ll be able to fight a boss here.

BOSS - Machina Panzer¶

Boss Analysis: The Watchers don’t offer nothing really new to you; you have been fighting them for several chapters, after all. Their main purpose (and perhaps your bane) is whether they’ve transmitted too many logs to the Machina Panzer: when they transmit data, it is for the purpose of this battle. They will open with an attack that prevents you from using those attacks that you used on them before.

The Panzer is mostly just a wall against which your skills are limited; even so, he’s no pushover, either. He can use a basic physical (roughly 500 damage), Gatling Gun (1-24 random-target hits, approx 50 damage per hit), and Sorcery Ray (hits most/all magically for about 750 damage). The main thing you’ll see is Hyperdrive Mode: it will put Protect and Shell on the Watchers’, then double their maximum HP and MP (to 1,240 or 1,248 HP and 1,024 MP), and fully heal that HP/MP.

Main Strategy: Opening the fight can be easy enough. If you have your fastest girl equipped with a Haste Bangle and Ragnarok, using Darkness may end up taking out the Watchers before they can disable your attacks. (They have 50 Agility.) If they haven’t been scrambled your Darkness, or you’ve prevented it, using Darkness with two Dark Knights (one with Ragnarok at least) is great. A supportive Gun Mage to throw up Mighty Guard, then White Wind (or switch to White Mage for Curaga) is good to have.

Other than that? That basically means you’ve got to do something with what you’ve got. The odds are you never fought using your Stat Breaks against them; the Watchers and Panzer itself are vulnerable to these. It would be best - especially if you’ve got little you can use - to use each one repeatedly, perhaps from each of the three characters, on Panzer so the damage gets really low from both physical and magical attacks. Then you can have two people pile on Armor or Mental Break while the third abuses that to their fullest.

If what you’ve been limited to is really prohibitive, there is a way to unlock your attacks: beat the Watcher sealing them. Watcher-A locks off physical attacks, Watcher-R locks off curative skills, and Watcher-S locks off the remainder. 620/624 HP is not a lot to deal with, and double that (due to Hyperdrive) is not much more. Dispel or a Dispel Tonic will likely need to be used to remove the Protect/Shell, and we seriously doubt you’ve been using either outside of bosses.

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The Gatling Gun (left) isn’t too strong with Protect on the party. Sorcery Ray (right) can hit hard though.

Winning the battle will net you an Al Bhed Primer . You’ll also return to the ship; head to the Deck and speak with Cid, who will head to the elevator. Go to the Bridge and watch the scene between Brother and Cid, after which Cid heads into the Engine Room. That officially closes everything required for 100% in Thunder Plains, but raiding the dungeon you were in for treasures is a sweet idea.