Part 18. At the Thunder Plains Agency... Intros are now short and sweet.

Someone's a Peeper!Edit

Once you're inside, you can purchase some Yellow equipment to improve your thunder resistance by half, which will come in useful for the rest of the area. Don't buy a Yellow Shield though, you'll get one soon. Read the book on the counter which is about Quactars, and then speak to Rikku. Now, say that your Al Bhed is going well to Rin and he'll give you the Al Bhed Primer XIV. Now, go into the right passage to ...*ahem* visit Yuna. When you've done all that, another book is on the desk about dodging lightning bolts, read it si vous voulez. Finally, talk to Rikku again to leave, and you may spot your Yellow shield right outside the door there. Equip it and continue down the road.

I can't remember where the stones were here, but I do remember that there were a few Quactar stones here, so find and use them if you want to fight those prickly things in larger groups. As well as these, you'll now encounter the seemingly dangerous Iron Giant enemy prowling about. They are weak to petrify, slow and poison, so use that to your advantage, but they're not really that hard as long as you have Auron attacking and Yuna healing or summoning. There is an easily missable X-Potion on the right path behind you, on the very right edge. Try to find it, those X-Potions can come in very handy. If you keep going down the path, Yuna will ask the party to stop for a while as she tells them her thoughts on Seymour. After this, on the left, there will be a chest with an Ether in it, as well as another chest a little further on but on the right side with 2000 Gil in it. Slightly further ahead, there is a final chest on the left containing a Remedy. Go into Macarena... sorry Macalania now to escape the dreaded plains.

MothmanEdit

After a short scene, head forward and save up, and then go north through the woods, because the north-east route is close for now (I think they said a tree fell on it or something). OK, so the enemies in this area are mostly pretty standard, kill the Blue Elements with Lulu's Thundara (she should have it by now, but use Ixion if you don't), Iguions with Tideut's Attack, Wasps with Wakka (or Lulu) and Murussus with Auron or Kimahri. The two more dangerous enemies can kill you if you're not careful, so make sure to stay up to date with the Sphere Grid at all times. Xiphos can inflict poison I believe, so try to kill them quickly where possible, and keep Yuna in the party at all times to Esuna anyone inflicted. Try to steal from these guys where possible, because they have a rare Mega-Potion drop, which is extremely useful at the moment, and will also be later on. There is also another extremely dangerous enemy here, the Chimera. They take half damage from Fire and Water, and are immune to the ever-useful sleep. Before you kill them, make sure Kimahri learns Aqua Breath from them, and head in with Yuna, Tideut and Auron. Tideut should cast Slow and then use Delay Attack if you have it. Auron should use his hard-hitting skills, and Yuna should be on the defensive, casting Nul-Tide and Nul-Blaze. If anyone has Stonetouch/strike, get them to attack the foe, because it is weak to that, and can result a quick defeat of the 5000+ HP-strong enemy.

In the first area, there are two chests containing a Sleepy Cait Sith and 2000 Gil. If you don't see the first one, backtrack to find it camouflaged behind some branches. It's not very useful though, because Lulu's not really a physical attacker (though it is quite comedic). In the central area up ahead, there is a chest with 3 Phoenic Downs behind a root on the linear path. At the end of this area, you'll meet Borra, the butterfly-hunt mini-game person. This will be explained here, but you only really get good stuff if you do it later. In the next area, there's a Remedy hiding on the left side.

On the Lake Road, you'll meet O'aka, here to sell you more goods at not-so-affordable prices. You can actually choose whether to make his wares cheaper by choosing the option "too pricey", and they'll be reduced by 25%. The boxes here are respective of the original price. Save up, after stocking up and maybe buying a Sonic Steel for its handy First Strike ability, and pick up the Al Bhed Primer XV on the right side, near the blocked right entrance. There's a rather difficult boss battle coming up, so be prepared.