-- Final Fantasy X (US) Ultimate Weapons Guide --
-- by CB! (Christine Bomke, cb@positronrecords.com) --
-- Version 1.4, 12/9/01 --

LEGAL DISCLAIMER: This guide is for PERSONAL USE ONLY, copyrighted to me,
Christine Bomke. Do not put this FAQ on your site without first emailing
me for permission. If permission IS granted, you are not permitted to 
change a single word of this FAQ when you post it, and must leave it as a
.txt file unless I've explicitly told you otherwise that you may change 
it. Do not steal information from this FAQ for your magazine, or other 
form of media - printed, online, or otherwise. Do not pass GO, do not 
collect $200. If you violate this disclaimer anyway, know that I have the
means and mettle to pursue this matter legally, and you _will_ regret it.

NOTE TO WEBMASTERS: If permission is granted to post this guide on your 
site, it is _your_ responsibility to get the most recent version from my 
site or GameFAQs.com periodically. If you can't be bothered to keep it 
current, then you may not post it.

VERY IMPORTANT NOTICE: I no longer have a US Playstation 2, and will most
likely NOT be playing Final Fantasy X immediately upon its release in North
America. Therefore, this document may contain names based on the Japanese 
release until a) people write in with the English names (this means you), or
b) I rent a US Playstation 2 and play through the game. I have every 
intention of converting names to the North American release, but it's not 
going to happen overnight.

Avast ye matey, thar be spoilers ahead.


-- Table 'o Contents --

  I. Version History
 II. Foreword / Contact Information
III. Clouded Mirror / Seven Day Mirror
 IV. Ultimate Weapons
     A. Tidus' Ultima Weapon
     B. Yuna's Nirvana
     C. Wakka's World Champion
     D. Lulu's Onion Knight
     E. Kimahri's Longinus
     F. Auron's Masamune
     G. Rikku's God Hand
  V. Thanks, Acknowledgements, Shameless Plugs


-- I. Version History --

v1.4 12/9/01: Converted Japanese seal names to the English ones, added
stats for Belgemine's Aeons at Remiem Temple - good information for obtaining
Yuna's Moon Holy Crest - and rewrote things here and there. 8 days left until
the North American release...

v1.35 12/2/01: Fixed a BIG mistake about the Cactuar-finding minigame, and
converted more names to the North American release. Never update FAQs on
Nyquil.

v1.3 11/19/01: Fixed some translational boo-boo's, and made location and auto-
ability names jive with my other three FAQs. Added a "Difficulty to Obtain" 
blurb to each person's section and revised little bits of text here and there.

v1.2 11/6/01: Spoke too soon. Changed some location names to their North 
American and PAL counterparts, as far as I know. The additions here are pretty
much just clarification of earlier directions, and pointers to scans of key
pages from the Final Fantasy X Ultimania Scenario Guide (what a mouthful!) 
that I've translated for your weapon-hunting pleasure. PLEASE do not repost 
these; I've taken considerable time to scan and translate them, and I really 
don't want them anywhere except my site. So don't ask. Please email me if you 
see them anywhere else.

v1.1 10/16/01: Fixed a few silly typos, added exhaustive directions on finding 
all 10 Sabotendas, an explanation of that @#$%! butterfly-catching minigame, 
and the name origin of Kimahri's Longinus.

v1.0 10/13/01: Second version, added in-depth information about special 
effects, name origins, and of course the minigames. More on the Sabotenda and 
butterfly-catching minigames in the next version, due out on the 15th, 
provided my FFX Ultimania guides arrive from Amazon Japan then. If anyone else
is interested in importing these, and you ask nicely, I may be able to assist 
you with the Japanese checkout.

v0.5 10/11/01: First version, not released to the public yet. Includes basic 
information about the locations of weapons and seals.


-- II. Foreword / Contact Information --

First, this is not a gameplay FAQ. This is a guide to obtaining your 
characters' ultimate weapons. If you need help figuring out the Sphere Grid
system, or want a walkthough, look elsewhere. Also, this document is 
obviously based on the Japanese release, so for those of you reading it 
when FFX comes out in North America and PAL territories, understand that the
information will still be factual and relevant, but names of weapons, crests,
and locations may possibly be different. I've done my best to update this
document as new information becomes available, but bear in mind I'm also 
authoring four other gigantic FAQs on the game, and I don't own a US 
Playstation 2, so it might be a couple months before everything is current 
with the English release. I'm not being monetarily compensated for writing 
this, and unless you plan on doing just that, you have no business 
complaining about the speed of updates. Reader submissions are solicited and
GREATLY appreciated. 

If you have a submission or a question regarding ultimate weapons that I 
haven't covered in this document, you may email me at circe@san.rr.com or 
cb@positronrecords.com, or contact me via AOL Instant Messenger as 
"Ceebsie". I'm also on the GameFAQs boards as "Ceebs" occasionally. Please 
try to use a modicum of grammar and politeness, and please make sure your 
question hasn't already been answered. If you don't, I can pretty much 
guarantee your message will go ignored. I'm an extremely busy person, and 
have tried to make this guide as thorough and self-explanatory as possible, 
so I have neither the time nor desire to regurgitate material from it. 
Let's put it this way - the more time I spend reading your email, the less 
I have to work on the guide. Capiche? The latest version of this document, 
and all the other ones I've written, can always be found at GameFAQs 
(http://www.gamefaqs.com/) and my site (http://home.san.rr.com/circe/). 
Please reference them before finding fault with what may be an out-of-date 
version.


-- III. Clouded Mirror / Seven Day Mirror --

In your travels around the world of Spira, you may come across chests you 
can't open, and mysterious mandalas on walls. These chests and mandalas house
your characters' ultimate weapons, and require a charged magic mirror to 
access.

To start, head to the Calm Lands and obtain a chocobo from the stationary (ie,
not moving) chocobo riber there. Ride to the south plateau near where you came
in from Macalania Forest, and on the east side you should see a broken bridge
and a chocobo feather on the ground. Press [circle] near the chocobo feather, 
and your chocobo will fly to the plateau below it. Continue east to the Remiem
Temple. Examine the sphere on the left side of the temple, then talk to the 
chocobo on the right to race the second chocobo on the left. If you make it to
the center of the circular track quickly enough, you'll be rewarded with the 
Clouded Mirror.

Side note: if you keep racing here, you can acquire other fine and rare items, 
depending on how many treasure chests you were able to reach while still 
winning the race. These prizes are:

0 Treasure Chests: Potion
1 Treasure Chest : Elixir
2 Treasure Chests: Mega Elixir
3 Treasure Chests: Wing Towards the Unknown x30 (!!)
4 Treasure Chests: Pendulum x30
5 Treasure Chests: Three Stars x60

You can find a translated map of the Remiem chocobo racing track at my site at
http://home.san.rr.com/circe/ultimania_remiem.jpg. Do NOT touch any poles while
racing, or you'll end up with a lousy potion instead of the abovementioned
rare prizes. Whether you can repeatedly win and get unlimited amounts of these 
items, or whether they're one-time-only deals, I don't know. Anyone better at 
this than I am?  :P

To de-fog and charge your newly acquired magic mirror, talk to the mother and 
son at the entrance of Macalania Forest. Head to the right back towards the 
Calm Lands, and speak with the father, who'll run off. Go back to the entrance
and speak with the mother and father again, and head up the sparkly path into
the trees. Bear north at the first fork, and show the Clouded Mirror to the 
large ambrosia salad-looking plant, who'll turn it into the Seven Day Mirror. 
With this, you can now open chests and detonate the crests protecting your 
ultimate weapons.


-- IV. Ultimate Weapons --

You'll notice that your ultimate weapons aren't all they're cracked up to be 
at first. In fact, you can't remodel them, and they prevent you from gaining 
AP! Their powers are sealed, so you'll need to unseal them to take advantage 
of their full potentional.

Each weapon has 2 crests, named after Japanese days of the week. (Seven 
characters, seven days of the week, you do the math. Sun = Sunday, Moon =
Monday, Fire = Tuesday, Water = Wednesday, Wood = Thursday, Gold = Friday,
and Earth = Saturday.) There are regular crests and holy crests, the latter 
usually requiring a lot of effort via minigames to obtain. After collecting 
each, return to the plant in Macalania Forest to unseal your weapons. To get 
the [Exceed Max Damage] effect for your Aeons, you only need to power up your
weapons once with the regular seal, and they don't have to be equipped - you 
simply have to have the weapons in your inventory.


 - A. Tidus' Ultima Weapon -

Weapon location: Northwest corner of the Calm Lands, behind a mandala at 
the bottom of a very narrow hidden trail. Win all four chocobo races, and the 
person blocking the pathway will be gone.

Sun Crest location: Yevon Dome, in a chest in the same area where you 
fought Yunalesca. You may have to go up and down the stairs once or twice to 
get the chest to appear.

Sun Holy Crest location: A prize for winning the fourth chocobo race 
against the other chocobo rider with a time of 0:0:0. This may seem impossible 
at first, but there's a cheat that makes it very easy. Keep holding left or
right and get stuck on the first turn, and let the time run to about 1:55. 
Then proceed along the track and get hit by birds until your time runs out; 
you may need to be hit by a bird at exactly 2:00 to get the cheat to work, 
some people on the GameFAQs FFX message boards have reported that it didn't
work for them the first time. If you've successfully triggered the cheat, in 
the next race, the birds will pass right through you, which will make 
collecting balloons MUCH easier. Grab between 12 - 15 balloons for a time of 
0:0:0.

Difficulty to Obtain: Easy to medium, and not especially time-consuming. Most
people would argue that the hardest part is the third chocobo race, but from 
then on, it's smooth sailing.

Abilities: [Exceed Max Damage] + [Triple Drive] + [Avoid Counter] + [Magic Counter]

Special Effects: Does more damage when Tidus' HP is full, no effect on Aeons.

Name origin: Starting with FFVI, there's been either a boss, or a weapon for 
the main character named this, or both, and the weapon has always done damage 
dependant on HP. In the North American FFVI, it was translated as Atma.


 - B. Yuna's Nirvana -

Weapon Location: In a chest at the Monster Training Facility to the east of the 
Calm Lands, after collecting at least one of each monster from the Calm Lands.

Moon Crest location: Besaid Island beach, in a chest on the east side.

Moon Holy Crest location: Defeat all of your Aeons at Remiem Temple, then 
preform the Farplane Sendoff for Belgemine.

Difficulty to Obtain: Very very easy. Collecting monsters to obtain the weapon
shouldn't take more than 45 minutes, and if Yuna is at least moderately built 
up, defeating your Aeons at Remiem Temple is a piece of cake. Their stats, 
and prizes you get for beating them once, and successive times are:

 Name: Valefor
   HP: 20000
   MP: 500
Prize: Thunder Magic Stone x4 (first time) **, Power Sphere x4 (successive
       times)
Misc.: N/A

** This is assuming you haven't already obtained the Summoner's Heart from 
Belgemine - otherwise you'll recieve that first.

 Name: Ifrit
   HP: 28000
   MP: 800
Prize: X-Potion x30 (first time) **, Magic Sphere x5 (successive times)
Misc.: Absorbs Fire

** This is assuming you haven't already obtained the Summoner's Soul from 
Belgemine - otherwise you'll recieve that first.

 Name: Ixion
   HP: 30000
   MP: 720
Prize: Chocobo Feather x10 (first time), Power Sphere x8 (successive times)
Misc.: Absorbs Thunder

 Name: Shiva
   HP: 20000
   MP: 950
Prize: Mega Potion x60 (first time), Star Curtain x6 (successive times)
Misc.: Absorbs Ice, has a high evade rate

 Name: Bahamut
   HP: 35000
   MP: 1500
Prize: Flowerbud Crown (first time), Magic Sphere x8 (successive times)
Misc.: N/A

 Name: Youjinbo ***
   HP: 32000
   MP: 1200
Prize: Black Magic Stone x8 (first time), Power Sphere x10 (successive times)
Misc.: N/A

 Name: Anima ***
   HP: 54000
   MP: 3000
Prize: Body Power Spring x60 (first time), Magic Sphere x10 (successive times)
Misc.: N/A

*** You need to beat these in order - even if you have Anima, you cannot fight 
her until you've obtained Youjinbo.

 Name: Magus Sisters - Mag
   HP: 48000
   MP: 8000
 Name: Magus Sisters - Dog
   HP: 35000
   MP: 3000
 Name: Magus Sisters - Rag
   HP: 20000
   MP: 7000
Prize: Light Magic Stone x40 (first time) and the Moon Holy Crest if you 
       preform the Farplane Sendoff, Power Sphere x12 (successive times) and
       the Moon Holy Crest if you preform the Farplane Sendoff
Misc.: N/A

Abilities: [Exceed Max Damage] + [Triple Drive] + [Double AP] + [Consume 1 MP]

Special Effects: Does more damage when Yuna's MP is full, and allows Valefor 
to exceed 9,999 damage.

Name origin: In the Buddhist faith, Nirvana is a state of complete happiness
and omniscience achieved after many reincarnations.


 - C. Wakka's World Champion -

Weapon Location: After getting the airship, and charging your magic mirror,
the bartender in Luca Cafe will give this to you if you've won at least 5 
Blitzball games.

Water Crest location: Luca Stadium, in the Besaid Aurochs locker room.

Water Holy Crest location: After winning all four of Wakka's Overdrives, 
this is a random grand prize in the Blitzball League game. 

Difficulty to Obtain: Easy or difficult, depending on your Blitzball skills, 
and VERY time-consuming. (I personally racked up about 10 hours playing 
Blitzball from Mi'ihen Highroad to the end of the game just to get the Holy 
Crest, then never touched the game afterwards.) Winning the Holy Crest could
take anywhere from 50 wins if you're lucky, to over 250 wins if you're 
unlucky. Having Tidus' Jeckt Shoot ability really levels the Blitzball 
playing field, not to mention that the animation wastes about 40 seconds of 
game time, allowing you to speed through games lightning-quick. Consult a
Blitzball FAQ for further information on the minigame.

Abilities: [Exceed Max Damage] + [Triple Drive] + [AP x2] + [Avoid Counter]

Special Effects: Does more damage when Wakka's HP is full, and allows Ifrit to
exceed 9,999 damage.

Name origin: Most of Wakka's weapons have sport-related names (Fastbreak, No 
Game, Official Ball, etc), so since you essentially need to become the 
Blitzball World Champion to obtain this, it's self-explanatory. 


 - D. Lulu's Onion Knight -

Weapon Location: In a sealed chest in the pool at Baj Yevon Temple, hidden off
in a corner on the opposite side of the pool from the doorway to Anima's 
shrine. The treasure chest isn't visible until you're literally right on top 
of it, so dive deep and keep hitting the [circle] button to search for the 
chest.

Fire Crest location: In a treasure chest that appears during your second visit
to the Farplane. I _think_ you can do this as soon as you obtain the airship, 
although you might have to beat Seymour inside Sin first.

Fire Holy Crest location: Dodge the lightning at Thunder Plains 200 
_consecutive_ times by pressing [circle], then go back to Lin's travel company
and examine the treasure chest out front. Do not save in between dodges, or
enter the building, because this will reset the dodge counter. You can get 
this on your first visit to Thunder Plains, long before obtaining the airship,
unlike the rest of the Holy Crest. The Thunder Plains is a HUGE area, and 
different parts have one of three different frequencies of lightning strikes -
for a handy dandy map scanned from the FFX Ultimania Scenario Guide and 
translated by yours truly, go to 
http://home.san.rr.com/circe/ultimania_thunder.jpg. Other prizes in the 
lightning-dodging game include Mega Elixirs and rare parameter spheres, so 
it's well-worth your time to dodge strikes.

Difficulty to Obtain: Easy to medium. Dodging lightning to obtain the Holy 
Crest doesn't require much dexterity, just a lot of patience and alertness. 
Referring to the abovementioned map I scanned, if you go where the lightning 
is most frequent (3 bolts), it should take a little over an hour to dodge 200
strikes, as the lightning seems to strike every five to seven seconds in the
3 bolt zone.

Abilities: [Exceed Max Damage] + [Triple Drive] + [Magic Booster] + [Consume 1 MP]

Special Effects: Does more damage when Lulu's MP is full, and allows Shiva to 
exceed 9,999 damage.

Name origin: All of Lulu's dolls are from previous Final Fantasies (Moogle, 
Cait Sith, Cactuar, Pupu, Moomba), and the Onion Knight is no exception.
It's an onion kid from Final Fantasy IIIj. (Frankly from the name, I was 
expecting it to be Duelle from Legend of Mana, but this isn't the Seiken
Densetsu series...)


 - E. Kimahri's Longinus -

Weapon Location: At Thunder Plains, pray by pressing [square] at any 3 Cactuar
statues, then return to the south part of the plain and follow the Cactuar 
ghost to a wrecked tower. Pray there.

Wood Crest location: Mt. Gagazett, in a treasure chest between the pillars on
the left, just past where you fought Seymour.

Wood Holy Crest location: Macalania Forest butterfly-catching game, _after_
getting the airship. There are technically 3 different versions of this 
minigame, each at a different difficulty with different prizes: (1) upon first
entering Macalania Forest, (2) after fighting the huge Sphere boss, and (3)
after getting the airship. To start the minigame, talk to the harp-playing 
demihuman near the entrance, then touch the blue butterfly. The object of the 
game is to touch all the blue butterflies in one area before time runs out. If 
you touch a red butterfly, you'll automatically have to fight a battle, and 
lose a few seconds. You can find a scan of the suggested route from the 
Ultimania guide at http://home.san.rr.com/circe/ultimania_butterfly.jpg.

Difficulty to Obtain: Finding the weapon and the regular crest is simple, and 
you could easily kill two birds with one stone and get Lulu's Holy Crest while
you were at the Thunder Plains, but the winning the butterfly minigame to get
Kimahri's Holy Crest is HARD. In this author's not-so-humble opinion, it would 
be less frustrating to build a custom weapon.

Abilities: [Exceed Max Damage] + [Triple Drive] + [Double AP] + [Avoid Counter]

Special Effects: Does more damage when Kimahri's HP is full, and allows Ixion 
to exceed 9,999 damage.

Name origin: Longinus is the name of the Roman soldier who pierced Christ's 
side with his spear, in keeping with the religious theme seen in Yuna's 
Nirvana wand. The name shows up in the Neon Genesis Evangelion anime series, 
too, not surprisingly. If the Christian church could sue for infringement of 
copyright...


 - F. Auron's Masamune -

Weapon Location: Behind a mandala at Mushroom Rock Road. At the bottom of the
Calm Lands valley, at the opposite end of the crevasse from the Cave of the 
Stolen Fayth, take the Old Sword (rare item) from the rocky alcove. Then go to
a previously inaccessable part of Mushroom Rock Road, ride the floating stone
up to a plateau, and stick the sword in the ground next to the statue of a 
warrior standing over a slain behemoth. The mandala will appear on the wall 
behind you.

Earth Crest location: In a chest in the old part of Mi'ihen Highroad, nearer 
to Mushroom Rock Road than Luca.

Earth Holy Crest location: Unlock any 10 special battles (Zone Conquer OR
Race Conquer) at the monster training facility to the east of the Calm Lands, 
and the trainer will give this to you.

Difficulty to Obtain: Fairly easy, but time-consuming. You have to do a lot of
running around to get the weapon and crests, and unlocking 10 special battles
at the Monster Training Facility is a lengthy endeavor. To speed things up, 
buy monster-capturing weapons from the Training Facility as soon as you reach
the Calm Lands, and keep them equipped as much as possible.

Abilities: [Exceed Max Damage] + [Triple Drive] + [Strike First] + [Counter]

Special Effects: Does more damage when Auron's HP is depleted, and allows
Youjinbo to exceed 9,999 damage.

Name origin: Like with Tidus' Ultima Weapon, all recent Final Fantasies have
had a katana-type weapon called the Masamune. The name comes up a lot in video
games and anime, and is derrived from a famous Japanese legend about 
swordsmiths named Murasame and Masamune. They both produced blades of 
astounding quality, but Masamune's blades were said to embody the true spirit
of the samurai, while Murasame's were cursed and unlucky. Auron keeps his left
arm in his shirt and carries a jug of sake at his hip - both very ronin things 
to do - which further illustrates the historical significance.


 - G. Rikku's God Hand -

Weapon Location: In a sealed chest at the bottom of Mushroom Rock Road, 
accessable by selecting Password on the airship, then inputting "Goddohando"
in hiragana. In other words, "GO tsu DO HA N DO". If you don't know kana, you
can find a chart with a simple web search. In the English release, it'll 
provavly be plain "Godhand".

Gold Crest location: In a treasure chest in the fourth area (see below) of
Sanubia Desert, in an alcove to the northwest.

Gold Holy Crest location: Sanubia Desert, in a treasure chest in the area 
protected by a sandstorm. To get rid of the sandstorm, you need to play a 
hide-and-seek minigame with the Cactuars after obtaining the airship. First, 
let's get our bearings... Sanubia Desert is divided into four screens: 

(1) The oasis with the save point.
(2) The winding path with the save point inside a tent.
(3) The huge open area with the ruins to the northwest and the save point next
    to the large Al Bhed sign in the middle.
(4) The area right before Home with the sandstorm, Cactuar glyph, antlion 
    pits, and numerous small Al Bhed signs.

To initiate the minigame, go to the fourth area and examine the Cactuar glyph.
You'll then be asked to find 10 Cactuars in the desert. After finding each 
one, you'll recieve a green sphere - take this back to the Cactuar glyph in 
the fourth area. In the Japanese version of Final Fantasy X, the Cactuars were
found in a specific order, which may differ from the English release, although
I don't know why it would. This order is:

(1) Toome - found in the first area, the oasis, to the right of the save
    point.
(2) Robibia - running around in the northwestern alcove of the second area.
(3) Chapa - hiding behind the Al Bhed 20% sign in the fourth area; examine it
    to find him.
(4) Areku - running back and forth in the ruins in the northwestern part of 
    the third area.
(5) Aroya - with Areku.
(6) Bachera - hiding behind the save point inside the tent in the second area;
    examine it to find him.
(7) Robeira - hiding in a treasure chest in the southwestern corner of the 
    third area. This chest contains two Mega Potions otherwise.
(8) Isuraya - running around inside an antlion pit in the fourth area. **
(9) Erio - at the oasis, then beams up to your airship and can be found on 
    the roof.
(10) Furaire - appears automatically after bringing the rest of the green 
    Cactuar spheres to the glyph.

Once you've found a Cactuar, you don't have to find them again - you can leave 
the desert whenever you want, and the minigame will not have reset. ** There 
is sometimes a bug with Isuraya where he won't be there. I speculate that if
you find the Cactuars all at once without leaving the desert, you'll encounter
it. Just leave the desert, save, return, and you can find him.

Difficulty to Obtain: Easy, but time-consuming. Having the [Encounter None] 
(enkaunta nashi) auto-ability is extremely helpful in getting the Holy Crest. 
You can add this ability to an armor with 30 Cleansing Salts, or win a weapon 
with this already added from Geosgaeno.

Abilities: [Exceed Max Damage] + [Triple Drive] + [AP x2] + [Gil x2]

Special Effects: Does more damage when Rikku's HP is full, no effect on Aeons.

Name origin: The God Hand was one of Tifa's best weapons in Final Fantasy VII,
and Kevin's Light-Light aligned fighting class in Seiken Densetsu 3, also 
known as Secret of Mana 2, another Square game. 


-- V. Thanks, Acknowledgements, Shameless Plugs --

Big thanks go out to Tronix (http://www.tronixweb.com/) and National Console 
Support, Inc (http://www.ncsx.com/) for selling me Final Fantasy X and a 
Japanese Playstation 2, respectively. Best import shops on the web, they are!

Thanks as well to Amazon Japan (http://www.amazon.co.jp/) for stocking the two 
FFX Ultimania guides, and being kind enough to ship overseas.

Thanks to Dragon T (dragont@yahoo.com) and Druff for the name origin of 
Kimahri's Longinus.

Thanks to AceOfSpaces on the GameFAQs FFX board for the English name of
everyone's Crest/Seal, and TONS of English weapon names for my Equipment 
Remodeling Guide.

Thanks to Muni Shinobu (muni_shinobu@yahoo.com) for his excellent FFX 
walkthrough and numerous other guides on the game. Without him, we would not 
know wairo from Shinola.

Thanks to my friends and family for putting up with me throughout the writing 
of this, and my other Final Fantasy X guides, especially my sister Annie 
(ajbomke@yahoo.com). Show your appreciation by flooding her email box with 
marriage proposals. Really. She likes it.

Special thanks to J. Parish (http://www.toastyfrog.com/), without whom I'd 
never have begun importing games, and FAQs like these wouldn't have been 
written.

Extra special thanks to Square (http://www.playonline.com/) for creating FFX 
and many other quality titles, and GameFAQs (http://www.gamefaqs.com/) for 
hosting FAQs on every game imaginable, and respecting FAQ author's rights.

