Final Fantasy X-2/Chapter 5/Bikanel Desert


 * Area Enemies
 * Aculeate -
 * Aquila -
 * Big Bully Cap -
 * Bolt Drake -
 * Bully Cap -
 * Cactuar -
 * Canis Major -
 * Chocobo -
 * Elder Zurvan -
 * Fly Eye -
 * Gigas -
 * Great Haunt -
 * Gucumatz -
 * Guard Machina -
 * Haunt -
 * Heavy Sallet -
 * Hrimthur -
 * Killer Hound -
 * King Takouba -
 * Machina Hunter -
 * Pop Fry -
 * Sahagin -
 * Sahagin Prince -
 * Sallet -
 * Sand Worm -
 * Takouba -
 * Watcher-A - Should be taken out first with physical attacks only. Will only appear before defeating the Machina Panzer boss found on the Thunder Plains.
 * Watcher-R - Should be taken out first with physical attacks only. Will only appear before defeating the Machina Panzer boss found on the Thunder Plains.
 * Watcher-S - Should be taken out first with physical attacks only. Will only appear before defeating the Machina Panzer boss found on the Thunder Plains.
 * Wasp Queen -
 * Zu -
 * Zurvan -

Arriving at Bikanel Desert, Benzo and Nhadala greet the girls. Trouble has arisen at the Cactuar Nation. Hundreds of fiends are threatening to attack. Head to the Cactuar Nation and speak to Marnela. All 10 Gatekeepers are needed to protect the area. 9 of the Gatekeepers are spread throughout Spira. Find them and return them to their mothers waiting for them. Each time you encounter a Gatekeeper, you must convince them to return by playing a mini-game. For more information about this mini-game, visit the Cactuar Hunting page.

Cactuar Hollow
When you have found the first nine Gatekeepers, return to Bikanel Island and again travel to Cactuar Nation. Speak to Marnela. Frailea, the last Gatekeeper, will appear near the top. She runs into a cave. Follow her until you are thrown into a battle. It's a pretty simple battle with random monsters found in the area. Once you defeat the fiends and end the battle, the cactuar will revive one of the monsters in a now larger form. You will have to fight it again. All battles from here on out will be with over-sized versions of the fiends you have encountered before. They have higher HP and Defense, but give better rewards.

Continue through the cavern to the north east. Near a set of waterfalls, jump across the platforms for a chest containing an Ether. Jump back and head down the eastern path. The chamber will begin to fill with sand. You have 60 seconds to reach the concrete path before Yuna is buried alive. There are quite a few items and accessories along the way, but it can be a waste of time to try to get all of them if you just want to get to the end and continue the mission. But it's up to you. Anyway, along this first section of the path, there are four chests. They are as follows from beginning to end: Faerie Earrings, Mega Phoenix, Hi-Potion, and a Megalixir. After the path narrows and opens up again there are five chests on top of platforms. Again in order they contain: Twist Headband, Ether, Mute Shock, Beaded Brooch, and Phoenix Down. When you reach the concrete path, continue to the east to the end of the cavern until you reach the Frailea sitting alone on a ledge. Approach her to begin the mini-game with her. After the mini-game is completed, all the rogue cactuars ambush each other, uniting to form a Jumbo Cactuar in an attempt to stop you from taking Frailea.

A non-oversouled Jumbo Cactuar is pretty easy to defeat. He will mainly only cast Hastega on his group and then do nothing. His two sidekicks are a little tougher. They will deal exactly 1000 HP in damage with their 1000 Needles attack and they take some serious accuracy to hit. Use special attacks such as a Dark Knight's Darkness or a Black Mage's magic (only in the original PS2 version) if their evasion becomes too much. If you have the unfortunate luck of encountering Jumbo Cactuar oversouled (usually if you have killed 10+ cactuars before reaching the end of the cavern), this battle will be another matter. Instead of sitting idle in the sidelines, Jumbo Cactuar will actually perform ga-level spells and Flare against the Gullwings, and his magic gets more powerful as his HP depletes. Either way, have a White Mage prepared.

Ancient Power
Once the threat to the Cactuar Nation has been thwarted, a new threat, Angry Mainyu, is about to attack the Al Bhed camp. Speak with Nhadala and then you are given the option to return to the Airship to prepare for battle properly. It is suggested that you do return to the airship because Angra Mainyu is one of the tougher bosses of this chapter and will take some leveling and strategy to defeat. If you are below level 70, take the chance to visit other areas to increase your strength because any attempt to travel back to Bikanel after this point automatically throws you into battle against this massive beast. Equip your characters with accessories that enable automatic Protect and/or Reflect or at least the ability to cast either spell. A Garment Grid that allows White Mage abilities will be extremely useful as well. Have one character dressed as a Alchemist with tons of Potions and Hi-Potions at her disposal to mix for Mega-Potions or as a White Mage. Equip this character with Grid or accessory that allows Auto-Haste or at least the ability to cast Haste. Have the other two dressed as strong attackers, preferably Dark Knight or powerful S-sized creatures like a Tonberry and Dark Elemental (only in the HD Remaster).

Start the battle by casting Protect and Reflect on your party. Then use the two Dark Knights to perform Darkness. Focus on taking out Tawrich and Zarich first. You will want both of them dead so that Angra Mainyu cannot cast her deadly Perdition's Flame attack. (This attack will damage all your characters for up to 4000 HP, with each of the 10 hits doing damage equal to 18.75% of max HP). Keeping Tawrich and Zarich KO'd will also cause Angra to waste her turns trying to bring them back to life, allowing you to focus on keeping your party healthy and sneak in more attacks without getting hit. While Zarich is alive, he will use attacks that drain your party's MP, so save it for casting Protect and Reflect. These are important to reduce the damage done from attacks and reflect back Flare spells that can cause 9999 HP damage.

This battle can be lengthy so be prepared to sit for a while. Use the above tactics and Angra Mainyu will go down eventually. When she does, Episode Complete! will be awarded for Bikanel Island.