Local Enemy Bestiary¶

As usual, let’s begin by raiding some treasures. When you arrive in Djose from Mushroom Rock or the Moonflow, you can head along Pilgrimage Road to get two X-Potions , then four Phoenix Downs as you enter the temple. The living quarters on the west side will have a chest with two Remedies within. After grabbing those, head into the Cloister of Trials and grab the Mana Spring and Soul Spring you easily find, then head to the floor above. In the Antechamber, get the Power Wrist , then head to the Chamber of the Fayth for a Hyper Wrist . As you enter the temple, you will be allowed to take on the Experiment boss after a cutscene.

BOSS - Experiment¶

There are five different levels of strength regarding the Experiment. As noted in the guide (and pretty much every time you went to Bikanel), we strongly suggest against unnecessary digging. You could easily excavate items that would upgrade the Experiment’s power, and, since this first fight is required for 100% completion, you can easily make life difficult for yourself. (Granted, you will also have to beat it when it’s Level 5 for 100% completion, but that’s only required the second time.) The chart above are the constant stats for this boss: HP, MP, etc., will never change. The others will, per the below table.

In essence, you’ll see huge increases from stats as the “bad digs” accumulate. By Level 5, you’ll be seeing almost double damage and your attacks will be far, far less effective than normal, dealing 0.5% of the damage they would at Level 1.

Strategies: We will cover two strategies. That means one for Level 1, and one for Level 5. The Level 5 one itself is generic and applies completely to this boss and myriad other enemies, so those at Level 2-4 for the first fight (or even Level 1) can use it.

When fighting the Level 1 Experiment, all you’ll see is an Attack. That’s it. It’s physical, and it’s blockable. In essence, then, you can easily throw up Mighty Guard or Protect on everyone, then have a White Mage use Pray or Curaga as needed while two attackers bring the Experiment down via whatever means you prefer.

The Level 5 Experiment is pretty difficult to deal with. The Dark Knight is probably the best you can get for an offense, since their Darkness skill can ignore Defense, as can some other jobs’ skills. Defense ignorance is about the only way to go about it, short of maxing out your stats. Throwing up Mighty Guard in the opening of the fight will also really help.

Honestly, both fights devolve into a buff-and-strike strategy, with the Level 5 version being much harder to beat of course.

After the first Experiment battle, you’ll get an Al Bhed Primer . You will then be tasked with finding repair manuals and repair parts to fix up the Experiment so you can fight it the second time around.

Manuals:

• Djose Cloister of Trials: Go to the upper floor and speak with the man nearby, using the password “ MARNELA “ to get the manual.

• Djose Living Quarters: In the western of the two living areas in Djose Temple, speak with the man.

• Djose Temple Exterior: Go northeast and you’ll see some monkeys. Stand amongst them and they’ll soon begin to jump; press X as they do for another manual.

• Mi’ihen Highroad: Examine the machina running (or standing) around. One of them will hold the manual.

• Calm Lands Chocobo Ranch Dungeon: One of the chests will end up containing the manual. There’s a lot involved in this one, so see Chapter 5 - Calm Lands for more.

Once you’ve gotten the five manuals, you next need to head to Bikanel. There, you’ll need to dig until you find enough parts to build the Experiment’s levels up. Imagine it like this:

Hopefully that makes things clear mathematically. In any case, dig up enough of these repair parts until the Experiment hits Level 5, then go back to Djose and beat it again. The strategies are in the box above here; winning nets you the Magical Dances Vol. II.