Overview: IF YOU ENTER THE SKY FORTRESS BAHAMUT, YOU CANNOT LEAVE. This isn't like Sin in FF10 where you could leave and go have a coffee and come back whenever. When you enter this area, that's it, you're here till the end of the game, or unless you reload, so I recommend making a secondary save before entering in case you feel you're not high enough level, or you want to get various items before proceeding. Money won't be important anymore, so stock up on Phoenix Downs, Remedies, Ethers, and X-Potions. Also, you should check the Endgame Checklist post to make sure you haven't missed anything you wanted.
To get there, you need to board your airship from an Aerodrome or anchor point. When you arrive, you'll see that you don't get a main map, much like the Great Crystal. Thankfully though, your mini-map is fine, and the names aren't gibberish.
Sky Fortress Bahamut/ Antechamber
Guide: Okay, you have a brief moment here to get yourself organized. Make sure your party is wearing all the best stuff you have. When you're ready, pick either the north or south door marked Bulkhead 3, doesn't matter which.
Sky Fortress Bahamut/ Periphery
Enemies: Imperial Swordsman, Gunner, Magus, Hoplite, Judge, War Hound
Guide: There are four Periphery maps, each one identical, and they're laid out around a central room. While you're in this area, Imperial Soldiers of all kinds, and Judges and War Dogs, will chase you and attack you, much like on the Dreadnought Leviathan. You should be making quick work of them. If they're giving you any sort of trouble, load and get some training in before coming back. You can run around the whole circuit of Periphery rooms and kill and endless supply of Imperials, but they're poor training. To progress, simply enter the central room from any of the Periphery rooms.
Sky Fortress Bahamut/ Catwalk
Enemies: Imperial Swordsman, Gunner, Magus, Hoplite, Judge, War Hound, Helm-Rook, Spinner-Rook, Sphere-Rook
Guide: You might recall from your fight with Doctor Cid that the Rooks here are his creations, and a much more real threat than the Imperials. They like to cast area of effect magic, so try to take them on individually, rather than with a group of Imperials around. Still, like in the Periphery, they are constantly coming after you, so unless you just want to kill a bunch of them, move quickly. Your goal is an elevator in the center of the room. There are three pathways leading to it, spread out like an upside-down peace sign. Find the nearest and head inward and onto the platform.
Sky Fortress Bahamut/ Central Lift
Enemies: Gabranth
Guide: Before you run over and activate the controls, prepare for a boss fight. Protect, Haste, Bravery, the usual. Once you activate the controls, you will watch a small scene, then it's time to fight Gabranth once more.
Strategy: Begin by Dispelling his buffs. Secondly, if Basch is in your party, Gabranth will focus his attacks on him almost exclusively, and he will have a special scene with him at 50% HP, and after the scene, he will need to be Dispelled again. Protect is a must in this battle, as Gabranth hits hard. He also uses a special attack called Innocence, which hits everyone in the party for a great deal of damage. If you see him preparing to use it, start healing ahead of time if anyone is low on HP. Once he gets down to 25% HP, his defense, attack, speed, and combo rate increase, and he uses Innocence repeatedly. Soon after this begins, I recommend a Quickening Chain. Because there's not a lot going on with statuses or elements, this is a speed and power fight, be quick on healing, and keep your party attacking with Haste and Bravery.
Guide: After defeating him you will watch a cutscene, then regain control. Another boss fight is coming, so prepare your Gambits. Firstly, you'll be fighting a single enemy who is weak to Oil, so prepare to either cast Oil or inflict is with a Nihopalaoa + Remedy/Handkerchief. You'll want your mage on Foe: Status-Oil = Firaga. If any of your characters are using Guns, I recommend Wyrmfire Shot, and if you're using a Bow, then Burning Arrows help. The Firebrand has too low a damage value to be of much use. As usual, Protect, Haste, Bravery on everyone. Once you're prepared, activate the controls.
Sky Fortress Bahamut/ Central Shaft
Enemies: Vayne Solidor
Guide: When you arrive, there's a cutscene, then the fight begins.
Strategy: Larsa will be helping out for this battle, but he's not a Guest, he'll simply be in the area attacking Vayne. This means he won't be affected by any Gambits your party has. He's not too great a help, since he's at whatever level he was when he was in your party at Mt. Bur-Omisace, so just focus on Vayne and let Larsa fend for himself. Firstly, make sure you inflict Oil and get your mage into damage dealing mode. Vayne's normal attacks hit for a reasonable amount of damage, so keep Protect up, as he'll only be doing physical damage. For the first 50% of his HP he sticks to standard attacks, at 50% a cutscene plays, and his combo rate jumps significantly. He'll also start using an attack called Mach Wave, which hits for a little under 1000 damage. You'll want to keep an eye on everyone's HP. At 25% he begins using Force of Will, a special attack that does almost 2000 damage to everyone in the area, but it's physical, so just focus on Protecting everyone. He'll be hitting fast and hard at the end, and of course, feel free to use a Quickening when he gets low enough.
Guide: After defeating him, you'll have another cutscene to watch. Then it's time for round two! Come on, if you've ever played a Final Fantasy game, you knew this was coming.
Strategy: Vayne Novus has a lot more going on, but you've got Gabranth helping you, and he's a fair bit more useful than Larsa.. First, you have all those Sephira Swords to deal with. They fly around the battlefield, attacking party members and they have a chance to inflict Immobilize. Jackboots can deal with that, and you should set your secondary physical attacker to Foe: Max HP Lowest = Attack. Each one is weak to a certain element, and absorbs another, and if you want you can let your mage deal with them using Foe: (Element) Weak, but since you'll be using an area effect, you'll likely hit multiple ones, and your mage will probably need to focus on healing, so I recommend your secondary physical attacker. Vayne himself won't be using physical attacks, now he'll spend his time using elemental magic, and he changes his elemental weakness with Crimson Vortices, but it's usually not worth keeping track of. Instead, stick to physical attacking for damage, and your mage on healing. While you're dealing with the Sephira Swords, Dispel Vayne and make sure you have Shell up. I wouldn't recommend Reflect, unless you want to do all of your healing with items. Once the swords are dealt with, focus everyone on Vayne. For the first part of the fight he will randomly throw Azure Vortices and Contempt at the party, doing 1500 damage or so to each character. When he reaches 50% HP, a cutscene happens, and all of his buffs return, so Dispel him again after the cutscene. After the cutscene he has three new cinematic attacks he uses: Limit Break, Tree of Sephira, and Inviolable Will. Not only do these damage your whole party for around 2000 damage, but each one increases his stats. When he gets around 30% HP, he might bring up a Magic Paling, so you'll want to turn off any magic damaging Gambits, and he can't be Dispelled after that. I recommend not using a Quickening Chain here, unless you have a lot of MP restoring items to use.
Guide: After defeating him, it's time for a dramatic cutscene! But wait, it's not over yet. Head to the next area for the Final Boss.
Sky Fortress Bahamut/ Cannon Superstructure
Enemies: The Undying
Guide: Let the Final Battle BEGIN!
Strategy: The Undying is an intimidating enemy, made more so by the lack of Health bar. You'll have to guess his health based on his actions. To begin, he'll start off using magical attacks, so Shell is your friend here, but try to cast is far away from The Undying. He can cast Piercing Dispelga, and likes to when he senses you buffing. His magic also Pierces Reflect, so don't bother with that either. Keep your HP up and keep on the offensive. Watch out for his Mega-Flare attack, which hits for 3000 damage. Once he gets down to 75% HP, he puts up a Magick Barrier, so he can't be damage with any magical attacks. He'll also use his cinematic attack Ascension, and focus on hitting you with his cannon arm. His cannon is a Gun-type weapon, and it ignores defense. At 50% HP, he puts of Perfect Defense and cannot be harmed. Once it's up, he begins buffing himself, then using Giga-Flare Sword, which does around 5000 damage. Turn off your attacks and focus on healing, and buff when he's not nearby. When his Perfect Defense drops, hit him with everything you've got. Gil Toss 10,001 Gil and you'll do 9999 damage a hit. He'll still be shooting at you and using Giga-Flare Sword. When he gets down to 25% HP, he spends some time healing. Use this time to keep the damage on, so he doesn't gain ground. Once his buffs start to fade and he's down around 15%, he starts using his final cinematic attack, Tera-Flare, which hits for about 4000 damage to each party member. Use those Elixers, Mega-Ethers, X-Potions, whatever. If you have to revive someone, equip a Pheasant Netsuke and if you have all of the Phoenix Down augments, they should be revived with full HP, it's much quicker than Raise, and more effective. When he gets low, he likes to put on a Magick or Physical Paling randomly. If he puts up a physical paling, use Shock, as it's the most powerful Black Magic that doesn't have a pause time, or Motes.
Guide: Once he's defeated, it's all cutscene from here out. Pause it, make some popcorn. And thanks for using this guide. Hope you enjoyed Final Fantasy XII.
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