FINAL FANTASY IX

FINAL FANTASY IX

51 Achievements

1,000

60-80h

PC
Xbox One
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The Ultimate Sword

The Ultimate Sword

Obtain Excalibur II.

60

0.42%

How to unlock the The Ultimate Sword achievement in FINAL FANTASY IX - Definitive Guide

This is actually incredibly easy with the turbo speed mode activated. Gameplay runs faster, but the clock runs at the normal pace.

If you're familiar with the game then all you need to do is reach the last room in Memoria where you battle Lich before the game timer reaches 12 hours.

I got this in about 8 hours on my first playthrough with the turbo speed mode on. If you're familiar with the game then it is a breeze.

The item is a hidden pickup in the last room in the right corner.
External image
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19 Feb 2019 09:17

16 Comments
This achievement is BS you have to screw over pretty much everything else for a sword you don't really need,
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By AmagiciaNamdGob on 26 Feb 2019 00:38
It was definitely BS back on the original PS1 version, but with hi-speed mode I’ve still managed to grab every other achievement along the way in the same playthrough.
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By lewiswake on 26 Feb 2019 06:44
Comment deleted. We do not encourage exchanging save files.
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By Beanpotter on 02 Mar 2019 10:47
I wish I remembered this before I started playing looks like another one I won't be getting
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By on 04 Mar 2019 04:21
With all the boosters on, and this being my second playthrough, my final time was 3hrs 55mins, and that was purely on Xbox with no scripts. The only problems I came across were when I got to pandemonium (the fight with Steiner and Quina, I kept getting killed without the battle assistance so I had to reload an earlier save and level up everyone to about 30 before beating it, I recommend the area outside Daguerreo once you get the first airship, with the level 60 dragons, I was done in 10 mins) and then the chaos guardians, the four final bosses right before getting this weapon (I just tried fighting them several times, changed the party up a bit and eventually I beat them. I recommend having someone with locomotion ability equipped for the final one so he doesn’t kill your party straight away).
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By Jamone the Afro on 20 Aug 2019 13:29
Sucky that you’d be encouraged to rush through and skip all the dialogue for this.
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By Big Ell on 16 May 2020 17:08
Does the timer continue counting if the game is paused? I'm think I'll need to get the "Another Man's Treasure Achievement" at the same time and don't want to have to worry about the timer running if I'm paused looking at a guide to all the items.
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By HostileMofo on 23 May 2020 08:30
I just tried it and no it doesn't.
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By Apostle92627 on 05 Jun 2020 19:03
I remember on PS1 a trick to speed the game up was to open the disk tray as FMV scenes started to skip them
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By nal81 on 15 Aug 2020 08:18
About 3h 30 minutes was my time as well.

My route was to ignore everything except story until Gizamaluke's Grotto. Once there, I went up to the Grand Dragons and got Freya, Zidane and Vivi to 30ish. I then went back to ignoring everything except story.

The Pandemonium parts were a bit iffy. I had to use a few elixirs to keep Zidane up on the last thing.

The final stretch in Memoria is fine if you bring Freya. So long as she doesn't get one shotted and can get a Jump off, she'll kill anything while immune to their attacks.
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By EmagDrolBot on 25 Aug 2020 04:41
I currently have a "glitched" save file that inexplainable occurred when I switched gameplay from Xbox to pc after syncing save, and now the game play timer is shown in green, simply stuck on 99:59:59 and won't add time (this happened after about 17-18 min of game play with my second playthough and a second save file for this run). I'm gonna "experiment" with this save to see if I can still obtain the Excalibur II or not, although I highly doubt it with the time displayed of course. Will keep you updated on this!
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By TG Airborne 88 on 25 Nov 2020 01:36
3.5h? How the hell did you get that time? I skipped pretty much everything, set game speed and text speed to highest, skipped videos and finished in little under 5.5h...
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By Dr Marty on 05 Feb 2021 20:26
Phew, clocked in at about 4 hours! Those 3 consecutive fights when Zidane is all mopey were a bit hairy though...
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By Ludio Nomen on 08 May 2021 23:02
I just did this today, took 3.5 hours. What helped me out the most was when you get to griz grotto you can climb the ladder where the moogles are and speed level to 40, the rest of the game from there was easy. This achievement was actually the easiest one out of the entire game, those mini games and 10k kills was a complete headache.
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By Zeppelin041 on 24 Feb 2022 01:24
(Cheat Engine) (Windows Store version) If you're running Windows Store Version, you're at Memoria--switch the integer type to double and convert your played time to seconds then run a search. Should be only one result. Change the value to zero and make sure to check the box. Your played time in game should now read zero and you should be able to go directly to loot the sword and pop the achievement.
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By DADxMONSTER on 19 May 2024 16:32
For me, I have a macro that spams the x key to skip dialogue (also you should go to config and turn up battle and text speed). I used all four boosters at all times and didn't grind or pick up any items until the four shrines because you can't use battle assistance and get trance. I was level 25 at that point and then I turned off safe journey at Memoria so that I could get more exp just in case at the end, but with Battle Assistance, as long as you don't get one shot, you will be fine.

Also, time savers I took advantage of: I didn't bother with Dagger's eidolon quest with the old man where you collect 5 memories. I just said I give up and continued on. Also, with the festival I ran into the first enemy with battle assistance turned off and let him kill me. I didn't need the ring that you get for letting Freya win, but most people recommend doing this anyway just for the ring. Lastly, be sure to skip the tour in Cleyra.

Took me 3 and a half in-game hours, but I had to backtrack because I didn't save often and that part in Pandemonium where you battle without trance set me back. This was my second playthrough ever with a walkthrough so if you are more familiar with this game, you can shave it down, but that macro helped me a lot. Spamming A button as opposed to a macro hitting the x key every .001 seconds makes a world of difference.
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By Titanous Arrow on 22 Feb 2019 09:30
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Just wanted to share my experience that it is very doable to complete everything in one playthrough, including this achievement. With the in-game boosters, time is not an issue (as long as you pause the game using the cn_start button, whenever you stop to check the guides). There should be 2 - 4 hours to spare. If you can finish the first 2 discs within 6 hours, you are very safe because disc 4 is very short for the main storyline.

Now, the most difficult part to attempt unlocking everything in one playthrough, is to keep tracking of MISSABLE things, and make sure that you take care of them as early as possible. Make sure to take advantage of the 150 saving slots the games offers and at least try to keep the key checkpoints - so that just in case you end up missing something it is still possible to reload from a point that's relatively close.

Below are a few links I personally found very useful during my own playthrough:

1. Detailed walkthrough: https://jegged.com/Games/Final-Fantasy-IX/Walkthrough/
This is the main guide that I followed. It is incredibly detailed and accurate. It even calls out missable achievements during the visit of each location.

2. Missable trophy guide: https://psnprofiles.com/guide/7973-final-fantasy-ix-missable...
This guide is purely written to call out missable trophy/achievements. Before visiting each location, it's a good idea to take a peek at the missable things that you are looking to complete there.

3. Collectible guide: https://psnprofiles.com/guide/8130-final-fantasy-ix-rank-s-t...
This is for the Rank S treasure hunter achievement. You don't have to find every single one of the collectibles in this list, but you cannot miss too many. I believe it is technically possible to backtrack to most of the location post-game, and still managed to gather enough treasure hunter points, but it will probably save you some time if things are taken care of during the initial run.

4. Lastly, this trophy guide has a categorization between achievements that are non-missable or missable: https://psnprofiles.com/guide/7421-final-fantasy-ix-trophy-g....
Many of the achievements are non-missable, because they can be done post-game (using the last save before the final boss fight). You can safely skip those achievements to save time (because we are still under the 12h limit). You can always come back to work on them once Excalibur II is obtained, and at that point you can stop paying attention to the time.

Hope this helps.

I have to admit that this is such a great game and it's probably worth it to simply enjoy all the dialogs and cutscenes without skipping them in the first playthrough (and forget about the 12h time limit). It's totally understandable if you do decide to leave this achievement to a 2nd playthrough. To be honest, a 2nd playthrough to finish the main storyline will probably only take around 4 hours, which is a relatively small amount of time, comparing to the time needed to finish all the post-game cleanups since some of them are very time-consuming.

Cheers.
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05 Jan 2021 07:50

Excalibur II is the most powerful weapon in the game, although not essential (Steiner, the user of the weapon, can max out his damage without the weapon, and there are no unique abilities associated with the sword). It is obtained by defeating the boss Lich at the end of Memoria in under 12 hours and searching the pillar to the right of the room.

On the PS version of the game, this was considered very challenging, mainly due to unskippable cutscenes and long loading times. On Steam, the challenge is much easier as cutscenes can be skipped, loading is faster, random encounters can be disabled, and the party can be made unbeatable by the use of the built in boosters. This significantly reduces the playtime, allowing the player to clear the game with time to spare.
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04 May 2020 00:00

This achievement will most easily be done on a second playthrough, and should be your only achievement left when starting a second new game. You could combine it with a full playthrough getting all missable things along the way, but it would be close (and impossible if you want to play without boosters).

Excalibur II is obtained by completing the Memoria dungeon in less than 12 hours of game time. Normally this would be quite difficult, but with the boosters available in this version of the game, it can easily be done in half the required time. Be sure to always have all four boosters active, only do whatever is required to move the story along, skip all cutscenes and rush through the dialogue.

You will want to take a break at least once to level up to make the end game doable. Even with Battle Assistance on, you can be killed if the damage done is higher than your max HP, so getting that up is important. Make sure Freya wins the Hunt mini-game in Lindblum to get the Coral Ring which negates lightning attacks, and grind the dragons found up the vine at the back of Gizamaluke’s Grotto. You can get to Level 30 here very quickly and could get to 40 in not much extra time if you want. Another important thing to do is winning the card tournament on Disc 3. This will give the Rebirth Ring which casts Auto-Life, a handy ability to keep you alive during harder fights.

Once you finally get the Memoria and defeat the Lich, loot the Excalibur II from the platform. It is at the base of the pillar on the right side. Again, it will only appear if you've got to this point in less than 12 hours, which you can check from the character menu. If you need to take breaks at all, the pause screen () DOES stop the game timer, while entering the character menu does not.

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The Excalibur II is a missable weapon found in
The only thing to keep in mind is that it only appears when your in-game clock reads 12 hours or less. While in the original versions, this was a pretty tight requirement, seeing as it's at the end of the game, in this version there are a few tricks we can utilize. First, you can utilize the x4 speed booster, activated from the pause screen. When this is in effect the game will move much faster, but the in-game clock will still tick like normal. Secondly, both the 9999 damage and no random encounter booster will both help a lot as well. Just be aware that you will be a very low level by the end of the game, so I would recommend spending at least 15 real world minutes gaining some levels at the end of Disc 3, before the point of no return. Level 30-40 should be enough to survive a few attacks from the last few bosses.

All in all, you should be able to get to that point in the game around 4-6 hours, utilizing these strategies.
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13 Dec 2020 20:00

MISSABLE

The Excalibur II is the most powerful weapon available in the game and can only be equipped by Steiner but obtaining it is tricky. You must reach Memoria on Disc 4 and find this weapon, which is located at the end of the dungeon after defeating Lich, in less than 12 hours of game time.

This is a very daunting task under normal circumstances but luckily this is a very trivial task with the High Speed, 9,999, Battle Assistance and Safe Travel boosters activated. To save even more time, you are able to skip FMVs by pressing and selecting 'skip'. Also remember to change both the Battle Speed and Text Speed to 'Max' in the Config menu.

Bearing in mind that this should be your second playthrough so you should know exactly where to go and how to progress the story. If you are skipping all text, FMVs and battles, only fighting bosses and unavoidable encounters, it should take you no more than five hours to reach Excalibur II's location. You can check your current playtime by pressing ; the character menu will have your playtime in the bottom-left corner. Entering this menu will not pause the timer but pressing will, which is handy to know in case you need to take a break.

Although not strictly necessary, we do suggest taking a couple of brief time-outs during the journey to make sure you can breeze through the end of the game. The difficulty spikes around halfway through Disc 3 and bosses start having a lot more health than 9,999, which means even if you hit for 9,999 they will have a turn and likely annihilate your party in one attack thanks to your very low HP. This is particularly troublesome in the 'You're Not Alone' section when you only have Zidane.

The first stop is to spend just 10-15 minutes fighting Grand Dragons outside Gizamaluke’s Grotto in Disc 1. To save time earlier, you should have immediately killed yourself in the Festival of the Hunt. This means that Freya would have won and she wins the Coral Ring accessory. Equip this on Zidane to negate the Grand Dragon's Thundaga attack. Now, fight Grand Dragons with the 9,999 booster and your party's levels will rocket. Some of your characters will inevitably die as the Grand Dragon will always get one attack in but his only group attack is Thundaga so Zidane will always survive that. Save and heal up between every battle and once you hit Level 30 (stretch it to 40 if you want to be completely safe), carry on with the game.

The second is to make sure you win the card tournament in Treno during Disc 3. With the autosave feature, this is extremely easy as if you lose the mandatory final, you can just quickly reload. Winning the tournament gives you a Rebirth Ring, which teaches the Auto-Life ability. Equip this on Zidane and you will have no problems later on in the game.

When you get to Memoria, the Excalibur II is located in the same room that you battle Lich. After the battle, climb the ladder and on the right hand side of the platform, a ! field icon will show up. Press and you will receive this weapon, provided the in-game clock is less than 12 hours.

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Excalibur 2 is the best Steiner weapon in the entire game. But it is also the most difficult to obtain. To get this sword, you will have to get to the Memoria location in less than 12 hours.
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20 Sep 2017 12:29

6 Comments
4 hours 30 minutes, race from 9999, time acceleration. I didn't turn off random battles. Sword and trophy received.
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By anykey_vrn on 18 Jun 2022 23:21
It may work, but the hint is not correct. We are not talking about 99:99, but about two years of real time.
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By sshirogumi on 17 Oct 2017 08:58
I checked that after the timer passes 99:99, the countdown will actually start from 00:00, only the color of the timer changes to red. But the sword, like the trophy, will not fall out
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By anykey_vrn on 11 Jun 2022 15:46
I don’t know if this glitch works in the PS4 version, but in the old version, when the timer exceeded 99:99, it started the report again from 00:00. Thus, if this glitch works, you can calmly enjoy the game, and at the end, wait until the timer is reset and you’re done.
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By ljovvka on 27 Sep 2017 17:49
Got to the memorial in 3:45 with 9999, without random battles and with time acceleration, no trophy dropped
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By Prinny on 22 Mar 2020 19:10
In this version of the game, the trophy couldn't be simpler. Speeding up the game does not speed up the timer. Therefore, if you know the game, you can speed up and fly 9999 hours in probably 5. The main thing is to pause the game, otherwise the timer will not stop. Also a tip for leveling up: when you get to the gizamalook, go to the moogles. Behind them there will be a rise to the field where wild mobs will offend you. Save, turn on 9999 and accelerate and forward. Dragons fall in 2 hits but can kill the entire party. Therefore, after each battle we save again. Personally, I raised the party to lvl 45 in 10 minutes on the timer using this method.
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By Solbadguy891 on 24 Sep 2017 21:03
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One writes that you got to Memoria and the trophy is in your pocket, the other writes that you got to Memoria with cheats and the trophy did not fall out. So many hints and no specifics, the ru community segment is really useless.
To get the trophy, you need to get not only to Memoria in the allotted time, but also almost complete it, or more precisely, reach the Lich boss. After winning, we approach the right side of the screen and see! Sign, press the cross, read the information, catch both the sword and three.
You can use cheats. Speed ​​up time, 9999 damage, infinite trance if you need it, cancel battles, none of this will block the trophy. The trophy is blocked only by those cheats that are in the game settings. Per level, money and master abilities. Got this trophy today in 3 hours 35 minutes.



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20 Dec 2020 14:57