FINAL FANTASY X/X-2 HD Remaster
67 Achievements
1,000
200-300h
Xbox One
Xbox Series
FFX-2: Monster Master
Complete Shinra's Bestiary
35
0.15%
How to unlock the FFX-2: Monster Master achievement in FINAL FANTASY X/X-2 HD Remaster - Definitive Guide
B1ueSeptember
TrueAchievements
TrueAchievements
Having just finished this today, I thought I would put what advice I could here for anyone else trying to fill out the bestiary.
First, to clarify, it's specifically Shinra's Bestiary that nets you the achievement, not the bestiary in the Fiend Arena. Shinra’s Bestiary has eight pages of oversouled enemies and three pages of common enemies. When you kill an enemy for the first time, it will be added to the list. This is all you have to do for the common enemies.
For the oversouled enemies, you must kill each monster on the list in oversouled condition. An oversoul occurs when you've killed x number of enemies of a certain species. Think of it as a monster absorbing the souls of its fallen brethren to become a super version of itself. When you kill an oversouled enemy, its name will turn red in the bestiary, so your goal is to fill out all eleven pages and turn all the names on the first eight pages red. The moment you kill the last oversouled monster, the achievement should fire.
For most monsters, it’s simply a question of killing them as you go. Just stay in an area until you’ve oversouled all the local monsters then move on. There are several enemies, however, that don’t respawn once killed, so you have to get them elsewhere, namely Via Infinito.
Via Infinito is an optional dungeon that opens up in Bevelle in Chapter Five. Every monster in the game will appear in Via Infinito provided that you have opened every location in the game along the way. If you don’t open the ancient ruins under the Chocobo Ranch, monsters like Ultima Weapon and Anything Eater will not be present in Via Infinito, so make sure to open optional areas like the ancient ruins, the secret cave in Thunder Plains, the secret colony on Mi’hen Highroad, Cactuar Cave, etc. If you’re playing an NG+ and opened all the optional dungeons in your first playthrough, it isn’t necessary to open them again. The monsters will carry over into your new game.
In addition to making sure all the monsters are accounted for, you also need to understand how oversoul works. The number of times you have to kill an enemy for an oversoul differs with different species (I had to kill so many Sand Worms, I thought my game was broken). You want to remember, too, that oversouls are shared among members of the same species. Let’s say you’re looking for an oversouled Lacerta, a lizard which appears in the last twenty floors of Via Infinito. Three of them can easily shred your party because they’re so fast. Instead of trying to kill a lot of them, go to the battle simulator in the Fiend Arena and kill Geckos. As soon as a Gecko oversouls, DO NOT KILL IT. Escape the battle. Now return to Via Infinito. The first Lacerta you meet will oversoul. Knowing this mechanic can make your life much easier. It makes some of the bosses in here easier, too. An oversouled Paragon (use Ultima and Omega Weapons to oversoul) won’t use his worst attack. He’ll waste all his time hitting your people one at a time or casting -aga spells.
Most enemies in Via Infinito can be found on two or three adjacent floors. Once you move past them, you’ve missed your chance without starting that area over, so take your time on each floor. Some are very short, so run around and hit a few enemies to see what’s there before moving on. You will hit a boss every twenty floors. Once the boss is beaten, you can teleport to that floor. If you reset in between, you have to start back at one of the teleports, so if you reset at Floor 92, for instance, you can start back no later than Floor 80. Be careful about when it asks you about starting over.
If you’ve made it this far, you don’t need me to tell you how to play the game, but I will give you a couple of warnings. Elder Drakes can be avoided in lower floors of the dungeon, but you must fight them later on. Make sure you have at least one maxed out Berserker to deal with them.
More importantly, you never have to fight a Mega Tonberry unless you just want to. Yes, that’s right – never. Mega Tonberries can always be avoided. In the floors where you come up behind it, for example, climb up behind it then carefully drop onto the platform beneath you. Now jump to the left onto the lower platform; this will open the way forward. Now just backtrack to get out.
Leave to save every few floors so that you don’t lose your progress. You’ll start back where you left as long as you don’t start over.
I would recommend building up the Fiend Arena by finishing fiend tales and fighting in tournaments. Not only will it make more monsters available for you to oversoul individually, but it’s also a great way to stock up on X-Potions, Mega-Phoenixes, and the like.
Good luck!
First, to clarify, it's specifically Shinra's Bestiary that nets you the achievement, not the bestiary in the Fiend Arena. Shinra’s Bestiary has eight pages of oversouled enemies and three pages of common enemies. When you kill an enemy for the first time, it will be added to the list. This is all you have to do for the common enemies.
For the oversouled enemies, you must kill each monster on the list in oversouled condition. An oversoul occurs when you've killed x number of enemies of a certain species. Think of it as a monster absorbing the souls of its fallen brethren to become a super version of itself. When you kill an oversouled enemy, its name will turn red in the bestiary, so your goal is to fill out all eleven pages and turn all the names on the first eight pages red. The moment you kill the last oversouled monster, the achievement should fire.
For most monsters, it’s simply a question of killing them as you go. Just stay in an area until you’ve oversouled all the local monsters then move on. There are several enemies, however, that don’t respawn once killed, so you have to get them elsewhere, namely Via Infinito.
Via Infinito is an optional dungeon that opens up in Bevelle in Chapter Five. Every monster in the game will appear in Via Infinito provided that you have opened every location in the game along the way. If you don’t open the ancient ruins under the Chocobo Ranch, monsters like Ultima Weapon and Anything Eater will not be present in Via Infinito, so make sure to open optional areas like the ancient ruins, the secret cave in Thunder Plains, the secret colony on Mi’hen Highroad, Cactuar Cave, etc. If you’re playing an NG+ and opened all the optional dungeons in your first playthrough, it isn’t necessary to open them again. The monsters will carry over into your new game.
In addition to making sure all the monsters are accounted for, you also need to understand how oversoul works. The number of times you have to kill an enemy for an oversoul differs with different species (I had to kill so many Sand Worms, I thought my game was broken). You want to remember, too, that oversouls are shared among members of the same species. Let’s say you’re looking for an oversouled Lacerta, a lizard which appears in the last twenty floors of Via Infinito. Three of them can easily shred your party because they’re so fast. Instead of trying to kill a lot of them, go to the battle simulator in the Fiend Arena and kill Geckos. As soon as a Gecko oversouls, DO NOT KILL IT. Escape the battle. Now return to Via Infinito. The first Lacerta you meet will oversoul. Knowing this mechanic can make your life much easier. It makes some of the bosses in here easier, too. An oversouled Paragon (use Ultima and Omega Weapons to oversoul) won’t use his worst attack. He’ll waste all his time hitting your people one at a time or casting -aga spells.
Most enemies in Via Infinito can be found on two or three adjacent floors. Once you move past them, you’ve missed your chance without starting that area over, so take your time on each floor. Some are very short, so run around and hit a few enemies to see what’s there before moving on. You will hit a boss every twenty floors. Once the boss is beaten, you can teleport to that floor. If you reset in between, you have to start back at one of the teleports, so if you reset at Floor 92, for instance, you can start back no later than Floor 80. Be careful about when it asks you about starting over.
If you’ve made it this far, you don’t need me to tell you how to play the game, but I will give you a couple of warnings. Elder Drakes can be avoided in lower floors of the dungeon, but you must fight them later on. Make sure you have at least one maxed out Berserker to deal with them.
More importantly, you never have to fight a Mega Tonberry unless you just want to. Yes, that’s right – never. Mega Tonberries can always be avoided. In the floors where you come up behind it, for example, climb up behind it then carefully drop onto the platform beneath you. Now jump to the left onto the lower platform; this will open the way forward. Now just backtrack to get out.
Leave to save every few floors so that you don’t lose your progress. You’ll start back where you left as long as you don’t start over.
I would recommend building up the Fiend Arena by finishing fiend tales and fighting in tournaments. Not only will it make more monsters available for you to oversoul individually, but it’s also a great way to stock up on X-Potions, Mega-Phoenixes, and the like.
Good luck!
6 Comments
What Za Pantsupati said is true, you don't need to kill any enemies only see them in battle which saves a ton of time.
By New Zer0 Kanada on 19 Jul 2019 16:25
Hi, I just wanted to add that I have an incredibly detailed solution for this achievement over on TrueTrophies. I can't add it here for some reason. Perhaps I need to have actually registered as playing the game on my Xbox for me to add a solution. Anyway, if you're struggling, just pop on over there.
By Hercules SR117 on 14 Aug 2019 20:31
