Esto Gaza and Mt. Gulug

When I loaded up my save, I entered Esto Gaza, then went to the right as soon as I regained control. I picked up the Wing Edge behind the counter, then sold all my Wing Edges and bought the missable items as instructed in the guide. After that, I ran to the moogle, read the letter, picked up a letter, and saved.

I then marched into Mt. Gulug. I picked up all the treasure in the top part, then equipped my characters as follows:

Zidane               Vivi                     Freya                       Amarant

Gladius             Flame Staff          Heavy Lance           Scissor Fangs
Green Beret       -                         Cross Helm             Red Hat
N-Kai Armlet      -                         Thunder Gloves        Jade Armlet
Chain Plate        -                         Shield Armor           Brigandine
Lapis Lazuli       Running Shoes     Lapis Lazuli             Power Belt
_________________________________________________________
Distract             Auto-Haste          Accuracy+              Bird Killer
Ability Up                                     Distract                  Add Status
Bandit                                          Bird Killer               Ability Up
                                                   Add Status
                                                   Ability Up
                                                   Antibody
                                                   HP+10%

Bird Killer and Antibody were simply left on from before, so I kept them on because they'll use them again later, and they have magic stones to spare for now. I believe I failed to mention it, but Freya has had Antibody activated ever since Tantarian. I just never really noticed it until now. With that done, I lowered the bucket by pulling the lever down three times, then picked up the Wing Edge in the next room, delivered the letter and picked up the next one, then saved.

Now it's time to take on the Red Dragons. The first one is the most annoying because of the high chance of an encounter along the way. In the battle that finally succeeded, Vivi cast Stop right away, and Amarant inflicted Venom with his attack, ending the battle in short order. After this battle, Zidane mastered Annoy, Clear Headed, Bandit (finally!) and Devil Killer. I thus changed his equipment to better take advantage of the remaining battles, giving him the Exploda, Black Hood, Thief Gloves, and Power Vest. I then returned to the moogle and saved again.

The next Red Dragon battle was easier as I didn't have to worry about random encounters this time. In this battle, Freya stopped the first Red Dragon with her attack. The remaining one dived at Freya but missed. Amarant's attack failed to inflict Venom, but Vivi succeeded in stopping it. With this battle, Freya mastered Devil Killer and Add Status. She doesn't have anything better to equip in those slots at the moment, so I didn't bother changing her equipment. I just picked up the Demon Mail, took care of the Mognet business, and saved with the last moogle.

The last Red Dragon battle has only one dragon, so it was much easier. A single swipe from Amarant ended this battle as soon as it had begun. After this battle, Zidane mastered Ability Up and Accuracy+ and Amarant mastered MP Attack. I then switched everyone's equipment to prepare for Meltigemini as follows:

Zidane                 Vivi                     Freya                       Amarant

Exploda               Flame Staff          Holy Lance              Kaiser Knuckles
Black Hood          -                         Mythril Helm             Green Beret
Thief Gloves         -                         Diamond Gloves       Jade Armlet
Power Vest          -                         Shield Armor            Chain Plate
Germinas Boots    -                         Barette                    Black Belt
_________________________________________________________
Distract                                         Accuracy+               MP Attack
Master Thief                                   Distract                   Bird Killer
Ability Up                                       MP Attack              Devil Killer
Bandit                                            Bird Killer               Ability Up
                                                     Devil Killer
                                                     Ability Up
                                                     Antibody
                                                     HP+10%

This is the last I'll ever see of Vivi in this challenge, so he is stripped of equipment. I saved again and then headed off to take on the boss.  I went through the tedious scenes and took on Meltigemini. I began the battle by having Freya and Amarant attack. Meltigemini then knocked out Eiko with a physical attack, Zidane stole a Vaccine, and Freya attacked again for the win. If Freya's attacks aren't in the high end of her range, Amarant might need to attack again. I got a bit lucky here. After the battle, Zidane learned Lucky Seven, Locomotion, Master Thief, Stone Killer, Gamble Defense, Counter, and Alert. Freya learned Reis's Wind, Insomniac, Ability Up, Jelly, Distract, and Chemist. Amarant learned Countdown, Clear Headed, Body Temp, Devil Killer, and Beast Killer.

With that done, it was time for more long scenes. I skipped saving in Lindblum because I'm not going through these long scenes more than once, but I made sure to pick up the letter for Kumool. When I finally got control of the Hilda Garde 3, I put Quina, Freya, and Amarant in my party. I immediately docked to get the treasures on board, then went to Pinnacle Rocks to loot it. I then flew to Chocobo's Forest and called Choco, then saved with a time of 08:57:57.

Desert Palace

Now, with the rest of my characters, I get to go through the Desert Palace. I started by lighting the first candle and grabbing the Promist Ring, completing my collection of 10. I then went into the next room, activated the staircase, and ran up to the candelabra. I ran back down, collected the Fairy Earrings, then returned to the moogle to save.

After that, I proceeded through the rest of the palace, lighting all the candelabras and collecting all the treasures from the bloodstones. One thing to note is that, in the last room where you solve the puzzle to activate the staircase, it's unnecessary to ever light the candle on the far left (under the portrait). The only thing it does is unlock a hint about how to solve the puzzle. I got the treasures from the two bloodstones, activated the staircase, and then equipped my party as follows before saving:

Vivi                  Freya                   Quina                       Dagger

(no changes)    Holy Lance           Fork                        Magic Racket
                       Mythril Helm         Green Beret             Black Hood*
                       Diamond Gloves    Magic Armlet*          Egoist's Armlet
                       Chain Mail            Mythril Vest             Silk Robe
                       Power Belt            Fairy Earrings          Opal         
_________________________________________________________
                       HP+10%             Ability Up                 Ability Up
                       MP Attack
                       Bird Killer
                       Ability Up
                       Insomniac

* These pieces of equipment are unnecessary; they're simply what optimizing gave them, and there's nothing better for them to wear in those spots.

NOTE: If you're not going to use Shiva against Shell Dragon, then give Dagger the Feather Boots so she can master Auto-Float.

With that done, it was time to take on Valia Pira. I started the battle by having Freya attack. She did 5082 damage (her maximum with her current setup). Valia Pira then got a turn but wasted it by casting Reflect. I then had Quina cast Night and Freya attack again for the win. This strategy relies quite a bit on luck as Freya only has a 9/49 chance of dealing enough damage this way. If Vivi's turn comes up before Quina's you can try having him cast Sleep instead of using Night. This only has about a 1/5 chance of succeeding, but it can save you time if Quina's starting ATB gauge is low. After the battle, Freya learned HP+10%, Bird Killer, and MP Attack, Quina learned Clear Headed and Body Temp, and Dagger learned Cure, Locomotion, Level Up, Loudmouth, and Shiva.

I removed Dagger's equipment after the battle, but left the rest because nobody's going to need what they've got before they're in my party again. Afterwards, I returned to the moogle to save again after the battle and then prepared Vizuino's trick for card arrow manipulation. I want six arrows on my Namingway card, so here's what I did. I reset the console and loaded my last save in Treno. I bought a whole bunch of cards, then examined them. I saw that the 14th card I bought was the first one to have six arrows. You'll probably want to check to make sure it's the same on yours when using this trick. I then reset the console again and bought 13 cards before doing a soft reset and loading my current save. I got two random encounters with Zidane's group before reaching Kuja, but thankfully, battles don't affect the card arrows. I made a party with Vivi, Freya and Amarant when I got the chance, picked up the Namingway card, and left. I made it out of the palace with no more encounters.

When I arrived at the Lost Continent, I ran halfway to Esto Gaza and saved. After saving, I checked my Namingway Card and it does indeed have six arrows. My time is now 08:27:11.

Oeilvert

So, Zidane and co. tried to break in to Kuja's palace and got caught immediately. When Kuja sent me to Oeilvert, I took Steiner, Amarant, and Eiko with me. Before going anywhere, I equipped Zidane with the Germinas Boots, Amarant with only a Ritual Hat and Leather Plate, and Eiko with only the Running Shoes. I also activated Auto-Haste just for fun. I got into a battle on the way to the Hilda Garde. During the battle I had Eiko attack Amarant to get him in critical HP. With the way I've set them up, she will do 100 or 108 damage, guaranteeing critical range. She has now completed the last useful thing she can do in the entire challenge, so I had Amarant knock her out before fleeing so I don't have to bother with her anymore.

After the battle I boarded the airship and we took off for the Forgotten Continent. When I arrived I made a change that was originally suggested by camdad04 but for some reason never made it into the guide. Instead of heading north to the chocobo tracks, I went south into the canyon. I turned right and then left, stopping to save at the fork where going right takes you to Oeilvert. You don't have to run quite as far as I did; I got really lucky as this was my first try. When I reloaded, I turned left and ran the remaining distance to some other chocobo tracks and called Choco.

Now it's time to dig up some treasures! I started by riding north just a little bit and used a Dead Pepper on the mountain crack to get the Genji Helmet along with some other junk. I then went west and used another Dead Pepper to dig up the Dragon's Hair and Gauntlets. All these things won't be used until Pandemonium or later, but it's most convenient to dig them up now. If you don't have enough Dead Pepper right now, you can wait until you can fly to dig these up, but it will be a bit longer of a detour. NOTE: If you're going to have Steiner defeat Abadon, then you should skip the crack with the Genji Helm as it has nothing useful for you.

There's still one more thing to dig up here, and it's the most important of all! I headed south to unearth the Dusk Plains Chocograph and obtain the almighty Kaiser Knuckles. With all that done I rode to Oeilvert, dismounted, and entered. I collected the Mognet letter and bought everything according to the guide, but I skipped saving because getting to the chocobo tracks from my previous save point was really easy.

In Oeilvert, I collected the Remedy and ran up the stairs to activate the orb thing and then collect the two treasures up there. I then went back down the stairs and followed all the directions except that I delayed equipping everyone until right before I was ready to save again so I would only have to enter the menu once. I swapped Zidane's and Amarant's positions and equipped everyone according to what the guide instructs, including the Shield Armor. The only change I made was that I had Zidane keep the Germinas Boots on because I don't have a Reflect Ring.

After saving, I collected the Gaia Gear and went to face Ark. Skipping the FMV of the ride down takes just as much game time as simply letting it play, so it's not worth the hassle. When I fought Ark, Zidane got the first turn and stole the Elixir. Ark then used Propeller Wind to no effect because everyone had Clear Headed activated. Amarant attacked and Steiner used Charge!, causing Amarant to attack again. Zidane then stole the Power Vest, and Ark used Propeller wind again. Before finishing Ark with Amarant and Steiner's turns, I had Zidane steal one more time, and he got the Holy Lance this time. Thus, I picked Ark clean, and as a bonus, it dropped an Ether. As a result of this battle, Amarant learned Curse, Add Status, Stone Killer, and Bird Killer, Steiner learned Insomniac and Man Eater, and Zidane learned Flee. He would have also learned Bandit if he hadn't died in that one fight in Alexandria, but this will be remedied before too long.

I made sure to remove everyone's equipment before grabbing the Gulug Stone. Next comes the most annoying minigame for doing a speed run of this game. When trying to get the key as Cid, I refrained from tapping circle as fast as I possibly could to avoid screwing up, but I still managed to get caught once. Despite that, I still made it to the hourglass with about four minutes left on the clock, and I hate this minigame so much that I'm fine with losing a little time here. When the party got together, I picked up the letter and saved with a time of 08:11:19.

Promist Ring Detour

Now it's time to buy those Promist Rings. With careful calculations I've been able to determine that having 132,000 gil at the end of the auctions will be enough to get me through the rest of the challenge. I could actually go a bit lower by selling some more things in Esto Gaza, but I decided this was good enough. With my current gil, this gives me target prices of 20,400 for each Promist Ring, 16,000 for the Dark Matter, and 23,000 for the Thief Gloves.

NOTE: If you're going to have Steiner take the experience from Abadon, then you're going to need some more money to compensate for the fact that you won't be doing an extensive training session like the one I'll be doing later. You basically have two choices. You can either increase the amount of gil you finish the auctions with to 170,000 or you can use an extra Dead Pepper to get the mountain crack on the Lost Continent when you go there. The contents will sell for 38,000 gil, making up the difference quite nicely.

In my first auction I bought a Promist Ring and the Dark Matter. I allowed myself to go over budget because it will be easier to make up the difference when I don't have to buy the fourth-slot item anymore. I then equipped the Promist Ring and saved. In my second auction I got the Promist Ring for a price considerably lower than my budget price, so I went ahead and left without getting the Thief Gloves just yet. I got them in my third auction for pretty close to my target price. At this point I was 1,500 gil over my budget, so I adjusted the target price for the remaining Promist Rings. I bought two more rings, equipping one to each member of my party and having one more in my inventory. I then went back to the Blue Narciss and put Eiko in my party, equipped her with the remaining Promist Ring, then switched in Steiner, Freya, and Amarant.

At this point, it was time to do some more Chocobo Hot & Cold. On my very first try I got Green Plains, a Chocograph Piece, a Dead Pepper, and a decent limit bonus, so I was very happy with that. It took quite a while after that to get a good second game but I eventually got a game with Forbidden Forest, another Chocograph Piece, and two Dead Peppers. I need two Dead Peppers at a minimum right now, so having three is nice.

With that done, I ran up to the South Gate entrance on Bohden heights to get the Elixir Card that Steiner couldn't reach earlier, then returned to Treno to buy the rest of the Promist Rings. It wasn't too difficult to buy the rest of them now that I didn't have to worry about getting anything else. I ended up buying the Mini-Cid in my second-to-last auction, but I kept it because the auction went super fast (1:23 save to save), and I got the Promist Ring for about 18,000. This made the last auction slightly more annoying, but it didn't give me too much trouble.

Now that I'm finally done with that accursed auction house I can get back to the story. Before I did that, I made a few more stops. I looted the South Gate entrance below the mist on the Alexandrian side, then dug up the Forbidden Forest Chocograph. I then hopped over to Gizamaluke's Grotto and traded my Kupo Nut for an extension. After that, I hit both sides of North Gate, getting a good view of the rainbow only visible there on disc 3. With all the gates looted, I climbed the mountains again to dig up the Green Plains Chocograph, then swam across the ocean to reach the Black Mage Village. The scenes there didn't take long, and then I was off to Kuja's secret palace. I saved next to the quicksand with a time of 07:50:25.

Chocobo's Lagoon and Catoblepas

Now it's time to get some essential Chocographs. I followed the roundabout way you have to take to get to Chocobo's Lagoon and got the Dawn Lagoon Chocograph in my first game. I then saved and went back in. I decided not to insist on getting a Chocograph and Chocograph Piece in the same game because it's so difficult at this point. Instead I played a game and got a Chocograph, then immediately played another game without saving and got the Chocograph Piece. On my way back to the Blue Narciss I selected Dawn Lagoon and checked to make sure I had Dusk Plains.

When I got back to the Blue Narciss I sailed over to the Chocobo tracks by Chocobo's Forest and called Choco again. (On one attempt I got a random encounter on my way to these tracks, which was really annoying.) I went and dug up Dawn Lagoon for the mountain transformation, then ran over the mountains to Treno and entered. I ran to Mogrich, equipped Vivi with the Running Shoes and activated Auto-Haste, then saved.

With that done, it was time to take on Catoblepas. I used Vivi because I no longer have a Needle Fork. According to the Battle Mechanics FAQ, Vivi's Stop should have a 16% chance of working against Catoblepas, which is slightly better than the Needle Fork. However, Stop takes a few seconds longer due to the spell animation. With Catoblepas defeated, I unequipped Zidane and Vivi and purged my inventory of things I don't need. I bought a Coral Sword and sold all of the following except where noted:

Remedy
Antidote
Soft
Magic Tag
Tent
Mage Masher
Multina Racket
Mythril Rod
Stardust Rod
Ritual Hat
Mage's Hat
Headgear
Feather Hat
Mythril Gloves
Chimera Armlet
Mythril Armlet
Leather Wrist
Oak Staff
Ice Staff
Lamia's Flute
Golem's Flute
Healing Rod
Silk Shirt
Magician Cloak
Survival Vest
Cotton Robe
Magician Robe
Mythril Armor
Desert Boots
Glass Buckle
Madain's Ring
Coral Ring (all but one)
Yellow Scarf (all but one)
Gold Choker
Fairy Earrings
Angel Earrings
Cachusha

With my backpack much lighter, I saved once more in preparation for buying Promist Rings. I now have 355,319 gil and my time is 07:19:15.

NOTE: I forgot that I still had things equipped to my other characters that could have been sold. If you sell more than I did here, you will need to adjust your target gil amounts accordingly.

Tantarian and Obtaining the Blue Narciss

Tantarian wasn't as bad this time around as I remember him being. Perhaps it was because of the new strategy I used. Lucky Seven goes out with a bang here as the guide calls for it to do 7777 damage three times. Thankfully, this is the last time Lucky Seven will be needed. Since I hate Lucky Seven, I played around with the strategy to instead rely on getting 7777 twice and 777 once. This triples the chance of Lucky Seven working out how I want it to.

At the start of the battle, Amarant went first and used an Ore on Zidane to bring his HP to 117. Zidane then brought out Lucky Seven for 7777 damage, opening Tantarian. I then had Freya use Lancer, Vivi cast Fira, and Amarant attack. Surprisingly, Lancer does not close Tantarian despite it both looking and acting like a physical attack.

Amarant's attack caused Tantarian to close, and Zidane immediately followed up with another Lucky Seven for 7777 more damage, opening it again. Vivi and Amarant then repeated their attacks, causing it to close again. I didn't have Freya attack this time because my previous attacks had been on the high end, and I wanted to make sure Freya could deal the final blow with Tantarian open. For reference, here are the possible damage values with the way my characters are set up:

Freya's Lancer: 500, 520, 540, 560, 580

Vivi's Fira: 1334, 1392, 1421, 1479, 1508

Amarant's attack: 819, 832, 871, 897

Freya's Jump: 555, 585, 600, 630, 645

If you care to do the math, having Freya use Lancer twice, Vivi cast Fira twice, and Amarant attack twice, along with the aforementioned required Lucky Seven damages will leave Tantarian with about 20 HP if the attacks all do average damage. This is why I held off on the second Lancer. Anyway, after all that Zidane used Lucky Seven one last time for 777 damage, opening Tantarian for a third time. I then had Freya jump and Vivi cast Fira on the party to knock everyone out. Freya then finished it off when she landed. As a result of this battle she learned Lancer, High Tide, Bug Killer, Man Eater, Locomotion, Undead Killer, and Gamble Defence.

With the battle done, I had to go through some scenes and skip a lot of dialogue, then run around Lindblum to get the three potions. I skipped saving with Mogki because there's nothing luck based here, though I did pick up his letter and deliver it to Moodon. I also skipped picking up the Elixir next to him because it's not missable and I don't need it. While I was in the Business District, I stopped at the synthesis shop and made 99 Cotton Robes, 99 Desert Boots, and a Glass Buckle, all purely for profit. I got all the other treasure mentioned in the guide.

When I finally got to the Blue Narciss, I put Vivi, Dagger, and Quina in my party just because they were the most convenient. Vivi is the only one I actually need in my party. I then sailed to the island with the chocobo tracks by Chocobo's Lagoon and saved with a time of 07:09:39.

Detour to Dali and Defending Alexandria

There's not a whole lot that's remarkable about my trip to Dali. I bought 99 Wrists, Leather Hats, and Leather Shirts, then picked up all the missable treasure in Dali and turned in the coffees at Observatory Mountain. When I got back to Treno I ran straight to the card stadium and handily defeated the champion by playing defensively.

After going through some scenes, including giving orders to the Pluto Knights, Steiner and Beatrix rushed out to defend the streets of Alexandria. I didn't bother going into the menu at first. I simply faked out the Mistodon by moving right and then left so I could get around it without fighting. The first battle went really quickly. Both Steiner and Beatrix started with their ATB gauges close to full, so Steiner knocked himself out and Beatrix cast Life on the Mistodon to kill it. In the second battle, I managed to cast Life on the second Mistodon before it could act, so Beatrix only got hit twice. After the battle, I had Beatrix cast Cura on herself, then I removed all of Steiner's and Beatrix's equipment except I gave her a Bronze Helm to mitigate some of the magic damage.

The next Mistodon I fought didn't get a turn before Beatrix killed it with another Life spell. The one after that cast a Fira spell before getting the Life treatment. After that, I had Beatrix use an Elixir on herself before dispatching the Mistodon with yet another Life spell. The last battle always has Beatrix's ATB gauge initially set to empty, so she will get attacked three times in that battle. This is where the Bronze Helm comes in handy. She survived and killed them both with Life spells. In all the times I've done this, I've never had Life miss, so I'd say it's very reliable.

When I gained control of Zidane, I equipped his group as follows:

Zidane                     Freya                   Vivi                       Amarant

Exploda                   Partisan              Flame Staff            Cat's Claws
Ritual Hat                Barbut                 Mage's Hat            Ritual Hat
Chimera Armlet        Mythril Gloves      Magic Armlet         Bone Wrist
Brigandine               Plate Mail            Magician Robe       Chain Plate
Black Belt               Barette                Gold Choker           Power Belt
_________________________________________________________
HP+20%                (no changes)         (no changes)          Devil Killer
Distract                                                                          MP Attack

I also moved Amarant to the front row. Being thus prepared for Tantarian, all that was left was to run to the moogle and save with a time of 06:45:24.