FINAL FANTASY XII THE ZODIAC AGE

40 Achievements

1,000

80-100h

Xbox One

Xbox Series

Cartographer

Fully explored every map.

1.1%

How to unlock the Cartographer achievement in FINAL FANTASY XII THE ZODIAC AGE - Definitive Guide

Kimberly cx

TrueAchievements

18 May 2019 14:57

To get the Cartographer achievement, you have to have visited every available area on every map.

If you can't figure out what area you're missing after you're certain you have found every urn and bought every map, try to go through the maps area by area and make sure none of them are dull.

Buying maps and finding urns are a very helpful tool in completing the maps and below is a guide on where to find them all:

Cartographer Guild Moogles - Buying Maps
[Rabanastre / Southern Plaza] - Dalmasca Estersand, Dalmasca Westersand, Giza Plains maps
[Bhujerba - Near Armor Shop] - Bhujerba, Lhusu Mines maps
[Dalmasca Esterand / North Bank Village] - Mosphoran Highwaste map (can also be gotten in [Mosphoran/ Babbling Vale])
[Jahara - Near Entrance] - Ozmone Plain, Jahra Maps
[Mt Bur-Omisace] - Mt Bur-Omisace, Paramina Rift maps
[Phon Coast / Hunters' Camp] - Phon Coast
[Archades / inside Bulward's] - Archades, Tchita Uplands maps
[Balfonheim / near exit] - Cerobi Steppe, Balfonheim

Maps in Urns
Map of Royal Palace of Rabanastre - Get in [Cellar Stores], or buy from Cartographer moogle in [Old Archades / Alley of Low Whispers] (near the end of the game only)
Map of Barheim Passage - [Great Eastern Passage]
Map of Ogir-Yensa Sandsea - [Platform 1-East Tanks]
Map of Nam-Yensa Sandsea - [Platform 1-East Tanks] (right next to the other map above)
Map of Golmore Jungle - [Paths of Chained Light]
Map of Feywood - [Walk of Stolen Truths]
Map of Henne Mines - [Phase 1 Shaft]
Map of Salikawood - [Trunkwall Road]
Map of Nabreus Deadlands - [Vale of Lingering Sorrow]
Map of Sochen Cave Palace - [Mirror of the Soul]
Map of Giruvegan - [The Trimahla Water-Steps] (only after you defeat Shemhazai)
Map of Ridorana Cataract - [Colosseum]
Map of Pharos First Ascent - [Pharos - First Ascent / Wellspring Labyrinth]
Map of Pharos Second Ascent - [Pharos - Second Ascent / Station of Suffering]
Map of Pharos Third Ascent - [Pharos - Third Ascent / Spire Ravel - 1st Flight]
Garamsythe Candle - [Garamsythe Waterway / East Sluice Control]
Barheim Candle - [Barheim Passage / The Zeviah Span]
Lhusu Candle - [Lhusu Mines / Site 5]
Feywood Candle - [Feywood / White Magick's Embrace]
Henne Candle - [Henne Mines / Phase 2 Dig (near where you take on Zodiark near the end of the game)]

Zertinan Caverns does not have a buyable map or urn

Missable Areas
-Areas where Espers are obtained are considered hidden areas that count towards the achievement
Esper Guide
-Grand Arcade and Highgarden Terrace in Archades. You have to obtain every Pine Chop and have it turned into a Sandalwood Chop (go upstairs in the Vint's Armaments store in Nalbasse in Archades). Then go back to Tsenoble and talk to the woman by the elevator in the Northernmost part of the area. Walk through both areas to fully discover them.
You obtain them for free by doing a side event, or purchasing them at the Technick shop in Archades for 20k gil a piece. (You will need 28 of them).
Pine Chop Event Guide
-The area where you fight the Hell Wyrm in Sochen Cave Palace
Hell Wyrm Guide

*One-time visit areas (such as the Draklor Laboratory) are not required for the achievement.
**"Lhusu Mines / Site 6 North (room where the Whale Whisker chest is). Appears cleared (as if explored) if you have the candle."

If there's any more missable areas you would like me to list, please let me know!

18 May 2019 14:57

16 Comments

If you don't want to do the really dull sidequest for pine chops it is possible to buy them from the chopmaster at the technicks shop. Just choose the third option when talking to him and then talk to him again. One pine chop costs 20K gil and you need 28 of them. One easy way to get gil is to reach the clan rank of Brave Companion so you can buy one or more Cat-ear Hood from the clan provisioner for 50K gil. It converts LP into gil. Go nuts in trial mode or just do some random grinding in the main game and you will be swimming in gil in no time.

By GhostMaker mk3 on 19 May 2019 08:56

This info is from the old Gamefaqs guide, right? It's also worth noticing that one time areas, such as the Draklor Laboratory are NOT required for this guide! Since you can't go back there, no need to worry about that area. :)
Probably one of the last few areas to be filled in are where you fight Zodiark in the Henne Mines and where you fight Hell Wyrm in Sochen Cave Palace: two kinda or very hard fights < I was panicking about trying to find a tiny spot on one of the maps and realised all I was missing was the Zodiark fight. :(

By torrens7760 on 27 May 2019 21:03

Actually you dont need to find/buy Maps. You just need to find every places.

There are 2 mistakes in your solution. Please can you update for the other player ?

By Lejy old on 11 Jun 2019 14:51

Great info but slight inaccuracies. After putting this off for a long time it took a nasty cold to get me to crank this out, same with the others.

I can 100% say you don’t need to FULLY explore the maps, meaning you can have “grey areas” the ONLY thing you need to do is ENTER the area of a map. Buying a map only reveals the locations, you still have to visit them. I did not enter every zone of the great crystals for the Magicks yet, and did not fully enter every zone to my knowledge of one time areas like the leviathan so I believe it still holds true to the original version.

I was stuck at 99%, frustrated and spending a huge amount of time fully exploring areas(turning them white). Forgot I had yet to enter the Kaff Terrace zone in Bhujerba and it popped as soon as the screen went from black and loaded in zone.

Hopefully this helps any latecomers stuck on this.

By xDarkSoul18x on 05 Oct 2019 21:54

Also agree with xDarkSoul18x as I just got this without fully exploring each area, just enough to set foot in each one. Popped when I entered site 6 north in lhusu mines, I also didn’t explore all of great crystal and there are some areas where the map is still partially greyed out

By Jamone the Afro on 21 Jan 2020 16:00

I would assume this achievement is tied to Sky Pirate's Den unlock for map completion, as all the other achievements excluding the story progression ones are. If that is the case, then xDarkSoul18x is correct.

This theory is further reinforced by the fact that the Zertinan Caverns has no buyable or urn maps and must be explored manually. This fact inherently proves this solution to be false.

By Ashen Seraph on 31 Jan 2020 05:22

Thanks for updating it. Might want to call them "Easily overlooked areas" instead of "Missable areas." Calling them missable could be misleading to someone speed reading. I might also suggest adding the Nabreus Deadlands and Necrohol of Nabudis to that particular list as you are never required by the game to visit either region outside of sidequests.

By Ashen Seraph on 04 Feb 2020 01:23

I'm assuming from the guide and the comments that it isn't required to visit every platform of the great crystal? *prays*

By GamePadZebby on 19 May 2020 03:20

Zertinan Caverns does not have a buyable map or urn

This isn't true -- the urn for Zertinan Caverns is in the lower area of the Balamka Fault, behind the two Archaeoaevis enemies. Technically not needed as you'll set foot in Balamka Fault to fill out the beastiary for the Archaeoaevis, but just wanted to share that info.

By ZSquared8080 on 28 May 2020 15:51

Was stuck at 99% for ages and couldn’t work out what I was missing... in case it helps anyone, it was Lhusu Mines / Site 6 North (room where the Whale Whisker chest is). Appears cleared (as if explored) if you have the candle, so took me bloody ages to find!

By BadRubberPiggy on 21 Feb 2021 14:30

@BadRubberPiggy

Dude, thank you so much! That was the last place missing for me, I don´t know how much time did I waste searching for the last 1%.

By M4edhr0s on 20 Mar 2021 17:18

Was the same for me, thank god I didn't start working through each map double checking everything 🤣

By Flying Chips on 10 Jul 2021 22:31

My last spot was in the Abyssal floor of the Pharos (specifically either South door/area). Figured I'd throw that in for others who may not have covered that area previously.

By JORAX on 16 Feb 2022 06:28

Walking all the way from Balfonheim to Rabanastre (via Nabreus) going through every missing area and then going through the northern exit of Ogir Yensa to Nam Yensa got me the achievement

By Bownzinho on 26 Aug 2023 07:47

The last location I needed was Zeromus' arena in the Stilshrine of Miriam. As soon as the battle started it popped for me. I hadn't visited all of the locations in the Great Crystal, including Omega XII's arena, so I'm guessing none (or not all) of the Crystal is needed for this achievement.

By Greek Ingenuity on 08 Oct 2023 21:25

Few things: It is stated that the "no dull areas" is simply a helpful indicator of what you could or could not be missing if you are unsure, but I suppose I could have worded that better. Haven't gotten around to updating it.

There are tricky areas that are commonly missed and I try to have them listed, and can add more as needed.

By Kimberly cx on 02 Feb 2020 00:54

View all 16 comments Show less comments

Vivenmort

TrueSteamAchievements

26 Mar 2019 00:00

You do NOT have to clear the fog of war on every zone. Merely visiting every zone at least once is all that is required. Few key areas people miss for the achievement.

1) The area in Archadia you need to collect all of the chops to access.
2) The zone where you fight the Hell Wyrm.
3) Multiple esper related zones (miniboss rooms in Nechorol of Nabudis, the peak of Mosphoran Highwaste, final Henne Mines area). If you have Zodiark, you're covered.

26 Mar 2019 00:00