Final Fantasy XV is the latest in the long-running Squaresoft cash-cow. I’m going to share some insights:

Grind for AP:

• Prerequisites:
  • Noctis must be allowed to drive during the day and night.
  • Progress to at least Chapter 3 (much of the course is locked out prior to then and this is when Ignis finally lets Noctis drive during the day).
  • The Ascension-Exploration/Roadrunning node must be activated (that’s what gives you AP while driving).
  • The Regalia Type-F (beat the game and progress to Chapter 8) (optional, see notes).
  • Sticky tape (but not the residue leaving kind).
• Drive to Lestallum and switch to Manual (Noctis drives).
• Start heading southwest and tape down the R2 button.
• You will drive in an endless circle gathering up AP along the way (the green circle in the figure below).
• Notes:
  • If you have the Supercharger enabled, you will hit the guard rail where I put “CRASH” on the figure below every single time.
  • You will occasionally hit other cars.
  • If Prompto hasn’t asked you who he should take pictures of, he’ll ask once and not again until you rest; otherwise, you will never be bothered.
  • You can use flying mode without taping down R2, but if you botch the landing, you get game over and lose all that precious AP.
  • You can use the regular Regalia, but you’ll run out of gas a lot.

Best Food

• Lasagna al Forno: HP+4000, Double EXP, and nullifies fire, ice, and lightning.
  • Jabberwock Sirloin: Can be bought in Meldacio Hunter HQ. Drops from Jabberwock.
  • Cleigne Darkshell: Can be bought in Cape Caem, Altissia, and the Regalia*.
    • * After beating the game.
  • Fine Cleigne Wheat: Can be bought in Lestallum, Old Lestallum, Cape Caem, and Altissia.

• Marrowshroom Clowder: Guarantees critical hits.
  • Kujata Marrow: Can be bought in Lestallum. Drops from Molokujata.
  • Vesproom: Can be bought in Lestallum. Can be found in the Vesperpool.
  • Malmashroom: Can be bought in Lestallum and Old Lestallum. Can be found in Malmalam Thicket.

Tipster Locations:

• LEIDE: Hammerhead
• LEIDE: Galdin Quay
• LEIDE: Longwythe Rest Area
• DUSCAE: Wiz Chocobo Post
• DUSCAE: Coernix Station – Alstor
• DUSCAE: Taeplar Rest Area
• DUSCAE: Cauthas Rest Area
• DUSCAE: Lestallum (Market)
• DUSCAE: Lestallum (Thoroughfare)
• DUSCAE: Lestallum (Street) (has no hunts, but he sells food and will give you intel and your rewards from competed hunts)
• DUSCAE: Old Lestallum
• DUSCAE: Meldacio Hunter HQ
• DUSCAE: Veromas Mart (Ravatough)
• Altissia (Mahhgo)
• Cartanica and Tenebrae (same guy) (has no hunts, but sells food, has intel, and will grant hunt rewards)

Costlemark Tower

• Once you reach the room with four glowing blocks, you have to do all of them before the important southwest one unlocks. Meaning, you have to fight a hoard of monsters three times. When you do get to do the southwest block and you get to a point where you can choose an east wall or a south wall, pick the east one. The other way just leads back to the room with the hoard of monsters.

Notes:

• Each 24 hour cycle is roughly 48 minutes real-time.
• Time equal to the time that would have passed passes when using fast-travel, but no gas is used.
• Playing Justice Defenders 5 doesn’t stop the game clock.
• Your level is not capped at 99—it’s 120.
• There’s no breaking the HP limit.
• Even if Noctis’s HP falls to 0 while using Armiger, he will not get knocked out. Except when the Founder King’s Sigil is equipped (ie Armiger Unleashed is in effect).
• Pressing Triangle while driving activates the car horn.
• If you hear, “imperials above us” or “magitek engine, it’s close” and you don’t want to fight, find a tree to hide under and they’ll leave after a short time.
• The entrances to Steyliff Grove, Costlemark Tower, and Pitioss Ruins are only open at night.
• Paths. Look for paths. Almost everywhere you go will have at least a partial well-beaten path to follow.
• You can make Ignis miss turns and hit other cars by using the left stuck while he’s driving.
• The only things that damage the Regalia are enemies.
• You can officially get the big off-road Type-D Regalia at the beginning of Chapter 8. After you and “Hunter” (obviously Gladiolus) fight the demons in the power plant in Lestallum and your party is reunited. You can get the Type-F at the same time.
• You don’t need to be on the road to do Auto Drive or Call Car, you just need to be close enough and you can do Tow Car from anywhere except inside dungeons.
• About Tony in Cape Caem, the guy who trades your Caem carrots for stuff. His only useful item is the Ulwaat berries which you need for a quest in Galdin Quay and grant Healing Level 99, more casts, and more potency when used in Elemancy; however, there are other items which will grant the same (e.g. Treant Trunk). The random weapons he gives you are just slightly better versions of the crap ones you have already. The ones you find in the field or buy from vendors are superior.
• If you’re playing through just for the Manage Beneath Lucis post-game quests, there are a few things to note:
  • You don’t have to do a single hunt or side quest except those involving the four dungeons listed below; the names of those quests are the same as the dungeon names.

    

  • Get the quests from Ezma in Meldacio Hunter HQ near the Vesperpool, but she won’t give you anything unless you beat a few mini-bosses (see below).
  • You have to beat the monsters that lurks within the following: Daurell Caverns, Balouve Mines, Crestholm Channels, and Costlemark Tower and you can do them as soon as you have access to their location (ie Crestholm is available as early as chapter 1).
  • In addition to the above, you’ll have to go to Steyliff twice including the Menace dungeon itself. Steyliff because the story takes you there and the rest because of the monster that lurks within.
  • As mentioned above, Costlemark and Steyliff are only open at night (7:00PM – 4:00AM).
  • To get to the platform where the ladder and crawlspace leading to where the dungeon door is at the end of Daurell Caverns, you have to point-warp while in combat. I usually just point-warp up there and stay there while the other three fight the demons below then drop the ladder afterwards.
  • Costlemark:
    • The block puzzle is rather annoying, but you only have to do it once for each corner. In the fourth corner, remember that, when given a choice between two walls, choose the east one.
    • You do have to fight the mob in the big room three times. More if you pick the wrong wall in the fourth corner.
    • When returning for the Menace dungeon, you don’t have to do any puzzles again, you can just take the same elevator that brought you up from the big room.
    • You cannot use items inside the menace dungeon.

Tips and Tricks

• Teleport Stone farming: Go to The Yensa Sandsea and fight Urutan-Yensa on the tower platforms. Once you get a good chain going, they’ll drop lots of Teleport Stones among other things.
  • You can also buy them on the airship flight between Rabanastre and Nalbina long before you can buy them from the merchant in the Muthru Bazaar in Rabanastre.
• Zalera Battle (Barheim Passage – Optional Esper): Level 49 is best for this fight as it’s not a multiple of 2 (Sleep), 3 (Disable), 4 (Break), or 5 (Reverse) and it’s not prime (Death), so none of his AOE spells work. Prime Lv. Death is a nightmare when you have only five minutes before he kicks you out making you have to start over.
  • For the record: the worst levels to do this fight are 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61, 67, 71, 73, 79, 83, 89, and 97 as these are all prime. Here’s a handy, dandy level breakdown.

• Force Enemy Respawn: Move two zones away before returning. You can also (sometimes) trick the engine by using a different entrance to make it think you’re in a different zone.
  • You can also reload a non-auto save.

Hints/Notes

• Max HP: Your max HP can break the traditional 9999 cap, but the display will only show “9999”. Why? I have no clue, but you can only achieve this with Bubble (Doubles max HP) or Infuse (Consumer caster’s HP to change target’s HP to 10x that amount). *Assuming Infuse works that way, I’ve never used it. Infuse doesn’t work that way.

• FFXIII on Reddit

Anything below level 30, you’re gonna die anyway, so they’re not listed; although, 30-40 is a bit iffy in that regard. “X” means it will effect that character at that level. Gear with the appropriate immunity does work against his status effects, so if all your characters are level 99 and you have a Black Belt equipped to all of them, you have nothing to worry about, but the higher in level you are, the less you have to worry about any of them.

Matchmaking & Publicity

Whether you pick Argent, Inc or Open Air, Inc the pitches are the same and it’s the same people for both, so you might as well do them both at the same time. Here are the pitches you need to make.

In chapter 5 a 100 level deep dungeon called Via Infinito becomes available. In said dungeon you are presented with challenges in that each level is one of 15 random floors. The deeper you go, the tougher the fiends and the Charm Bangle has no effect.

I recorded the solution to each level and here they are in no particular order.

The Last of Us may be the best video game series to date. 10/10. Here are some insights into the game. If you’re looking for tips on getting all the collectibles and other stuff, you’ve come to the wrong place.

Note: The title of TLoU on the PS3 and PS4 does not contain “Part I”, it was added for the PS5 and PC versions and the PS4 version contains “Remastered”. For simplicity, I will just call it “The Last of Us”.

*** SPOILERS AHEAD ***

The Last of Us

• When acquiring trophies for collectibles (artifacts, training manuals, shiv doors, comics, crafted items, Firefly pendants, jokes, and conversations), you don’t need to get them all in one run. I would recommend it, though, if you don’t know which ones you’re missing. The Chapters menu on the main menu does, however, show how many you have collected per chapter, so you can easily tell if you need to repeat a chapter.
• If you’re hunting for collectibles by going through the Chapters menu, I would recommend doing them in reverse order because if you go back to a previous chapter, you can no longer access the subsequent ones.
• When you’re hanging upside down in the warehouse in Bill’s town, you have unlimited ammo, but you can’t change weapons.
• I’m Bill’s Town when you’re push-starting the truck after you push it out of the garage, if you’re low on ammo, you can basically summon infected to loot. Don’t push the truck. Instead walk away until Bill leaves the truck. An infected will come out and attack Ellie. Then just run back and melee fight it. Then repeat if needed. And there are bricks that re-spawn to assist you if you want.
• If you equip a brick or bottle, it becomes your melee weapon. Unfortunately, it’s a one-hit wonder, but it does do significant damage.

Left Behind

• Like Part I, you don’t need to get all the conversations on one play through.
• There’s no trophy for picking up all the artifacts.
• Takes place in Winter in Boulder, CO, right after Joel gets impaled by rebar and right before you chase down the deer and meet David for the first time (as Ellie) and the flashbacks are three weeks prior to Summer in Boston, MA, when Ellie and Rylie get bitten.
• The gas for the empty generator in the loading dock is always in the same truck, the one on the other side of the first truck you see when you are by the generator looking toward the vehicles. It has an external tank.
• You don’t have to win either the window breaking game or the water-gun fight (except to get the trophies), but you do have to do them both.
• You don’t have to go to Winston’s tent nor the photo booth (except to get the conversion trophies and insight into Winston’s, Rylie’s, Ellie’s characters).

The Last of Us: Part II

• General    
  • There’s no trophy for conversations, so you don’t really need to talk to anybody (pressing Triangle when prompted) save for the ones that are forced (Maria before the snowball fight, the person waiting in line in the mess hall, Nora at the FOB, the guy standing guard at the apartments in the FOB, the guy sitting by the elevator in the FOB apartments, to get Yara to throw the dog toy after her amputation, Dina at the sink in the farmhouse).
  • The “Skip Puzzle” option allows you to skip guitar playing, dumpster pushing, and rope swinging. Thank God for that (I hate rope swinging).
  • As with Part I and LB, you don’t need to get all the collectibles (safes, artifacts, journal entries, work benches, trading cards, and coins) in one run for the corresponding trophies.
  • You can’t manually save with Permadeath active, but if you have a PD auto-save and you want to play a regular game, don’t worry, your auto-save will be backed up first, so you won’t lose it when your regular game auto-saves.
  • In fact, anytime you start a new game or even start a game using the Chapters menu, your auto-save gets backed up to the next available slot.
  • The Encounters menu only has the encounters you’ve seen in your current auto-save.
  • Same with the Chapters menu.
  • There’s nothing to gain from doing encounters from the Encounters menu. Except practice, I guess.
  • You can’t use cheats on Grounded mode nor with PD active.
  • If you have the option to shoot or melee, you can break almost any glass.
  • Pressing L3 shows you where to go (if the option is enabled), but it sometimes leads you to places that aren’t required to go (mostly in downtown Seattle with Ellie and Dina) and if you press it quickly enough, it’ll just lead you in circles.
  • There are only a few places you are required to kill all the enemies (other than forced). Everywhere else, you can grab-crawl your way through (with unlimited “invisible while prone” and “reduced enemy perception” active) or run if you have “reduced enemy accuracy” enabled or kill just enough and be out of range/eyesight of the rest or get to the next checkpoint.
    • In the area right after your first encounter with an infected (the one you have to throw a bottle at) with Ellie and Dina.
    • In the area right after Dina gives you the molotov (where you have to toss a cable over the ductwork) with Ellie and Dina.
    • The bloater in the arcade with Ellie.
    • The parking garage of the courthouse with Ellie and Dina.
    • Sniping infected with Ellie and Tommy.
    • The bloater in the hotel with Ellie and Joel.
    • In the lobby of the same hotel with Ellie and Joel.
    • In the warehouse with Abby, Manny, Mel, and Alice.
    • During your first encounter with Lev and Yara after the Saraphites ambush you. Right after Lev cuts down Abby. I guess technically you aren’t killing them all, but you do kill all the ones you see before someone says “that’s all of them”, then run away while your UI lights up with warnings from all directions. With Abby, Lev, and Yara.
    • In the area where Lev gets ambushed, shot, and outed (Abby is so clueless). Despite “allies don’t get grabbed” being enabled, Lev still gets grabbed when you try to go up the ladder on the other end. With Abby and Lev.
    • The rat king in the hospital with Abby.
  • Places where you might think you have to kill everything, but you don’t:
    • The loading dock with Abby, Joel, and Tommy. Technically, you can just run around until Tommy gets the gondola over to the window, but only if “allies don’t get grabbed” is enabled. Though, you may have to kill a few.
    • The shootout at the gas station. Technically, you can just run around dodging bullets until backup arrives. You do have to kill a few. As Abby, Manny, Mel, and Alice.
    • The area where Lev and Yara help Abby escape after going through the auto shop garage. Technically, you can just run around until Lev and Yara bust through the ambulance that crashed through the wall. You do have to kill a few of them, though. With Abby, Lev, and Yara.
    • The shop where you have no choice but to break the glass and alert all the infected inside to get through. It’s your first encounter after leaving Yara at the aquarium to go get supplies from the hospital. You can just break the glass and haul ass to the other end and climb through the wall. With Abby and Lev.
    • The parking garage with Tommy shooting at you. You can get to the other end, without killing them all, but you’ll have to kill some, though. With Abby and Manny.
  • The places where you are riding in a vehicle, you have unlimited ammo, but you can’t change weapons.
• Jackson
  • Prologue
    • You don’t need to win the snowball fight.
• Seattle Day 1 (Ellie)
  • The Gate
    • If you don’t pick up the Map of Seattle artifact from the trailer, it’ll be a forced pick up when you try to pick up the Checkpoint Gate Codes artifact (don’t worry, it’s in the other drawer) and if you don’t pick that one up, you can’t enter the code on the Main console even if you know it (it’ll just fail after the third digit).
  • Downtown
    • You are only required to go to two places: the dome and the courthouse, but you have to do them both because the first one, regardless of which you do first, will have no gas.
    • As soon as you enter the dome, “Skip Puzzle” becomes available and allows you to skip the entire area right up to the exit including getting (or not getting) the gas. You do, however, miss some chatter about the Torah Scroll, insight into Dina’s Jewish heritage, and Ellie’s confusion about the year on the calendar.
• Seattle Day 2 (Ellie)
  • Finding Strings
    • The bloater in the hotel will grab Ellie after you’ve shot him enough times. There’s no avoiding it.
  • Flooded City
    • It’s easier to swim underwater when going to the aquarium after your boat sinks, that way you won’t get hammered by waves.
• Seattle Day 1 (Abby)
  • The Stadium
    • In the mess hall, you only need to talk to the guy waiting in the food line.
    • You don’t need to compete with Manny in the shooting range.
  • The Aquarium
    • You have to go into the cabin of the boat and pick up the kid’s clothes on the bed, but that’s all you have to do.
    • Once you get into the big room with the whale hanging from the ceiling, you can just head right up the stairs.
  • Hostile Territory
    • After offering ways with Manny and after getting ambushed by an infected, you come to an area with stores on either side. You don’t have to go into any of them unless you need artifacts.
  • Winter Visit
    • There’s no way to avoid the shooting gallery, but you don’t have to get the high score or even shoot anything. If you don’t shoot anything, Owen gets cheeky and Abby says she “didn’t have anything to prove”.
• Seattle Day 2 (Abby)
  • The Shortcut
    • There’s no way to avoid falling off the sky bridge, but if you fall too soon, you’ll die.
  • Return to the Aquarium
    • You have to throw the dog toy…twice and you can’t leave the room until you talk to Yara.
• Permadeath and Cheats
  • The game doesn’t allow you to activate cheats with Permadeath active; forever, there is a workaround.
    • Step 1: Load any save that allows for cheats.
    • Step 2: Activate the cheats you want.
    • Step 3: Without exiting to the title screen, load up your Permadeath save.
    • Step 4: Enjoy your cheats.
    • Caveats: You can’t change them without repeating all of the above steps and it doesn’t work if the difficulty is set to Grounded.

Every guide I’ve found which tells one how to access the Ruin Depths in the Calm Lands is wrong! They all show some elaborate method for unlocking it which includes sending L5 birds 1, 2, and 3, then 2, 3, and 4, then 1, 3, and 4, then 1, 2, and 4, after sending 4 of each previous level out. And they always insist that you must send them ALL to the Calm Lands.

Here’s why it’s bullshit:

1. You can send them anywhere you’d like.
2. You need only send four of each level (maybe fewer, I haven’t tried fewer) – once the four L5s return, exit and reenter the ranch. Boom – the Depths are now open.
3. Only Chocobos with max potential will work, so if your Chocobo can’t get to L5, it’s pointless to dispatch it, but don’t release it because it still helps to keep the runners from running away.
4. You also only need to fight 7 battles between batches.

Notes about acquiring access to the ranch:

1. If you don’t help Cassie catch a Chocobo and subsequently fight the Chocobo Eater in Mi’ihen Highroad in chapter 1 and talk to Clasko in Mushroom Rock Road in chapters 1 and 2, you won’t be able to access the Chocobo Ranch because he won’t be in Mi’ihen Highroad in chapter 3, so you can’t pick him up to take him to the Calm Lands.
2. If you don’t pick him up from Mi’hen Highroad in chapter 3, you won’t be able to access the Chocobo Ranch.
3. If you don’t take him to the Calm Lands in chapter 3, he’ll jump ship in chapter 5 and head for the Calm Lands himself, so as long as you get him on board, your set.