Final Fantasy X Side Quests

Cactuar Gatekeepers

The quest is a great way to round up all the enemies and chests on Bikanel. You can read the first clue earlier, but wait until the airship is available before you start in earnest; Elio eventually boards the ship, so you cannot finish without it.

Start the sidequest

Head to Bikanel and go to the place where Home was. From there, you should see a valley on your right that you cannot enter. Go just south of it and you’ll see a stone alter with a painted on it. Go examine it and read the Song of the Gatekeeper:

10 little gatekeepers play in the sand.
Tomay’s gone. Gone to fetch the water.
Be back soon.

You’ll get some instructions. Basically, the story is this: there are some spheres that control the sand and create the sandstorm that keeps you out of the valley. You have to find the ten . Not just any ten, THE ten. Once you find them, you have to catch them to get their spheres. Each time you do, bring it back here and you’ll get directions to the next . If you fail to get the sphere, you’ll get a Sphere del Perdedor (Loser Sphere). The more “personal” spheres you get, the better an award you will receive at the village.

A few things to be aware of here:

You can use the to teleport back to the airship if you need to sell off lots of weapons.
Doing this quest will basically guarantee you capture ten of all fiends in this area.
Once you have captured ten of every enemy, change out your weapons!
Once you have captured ten , consider switching to bribery instead if you have lots of money to spare. Bribing one for 900,000 Gil should net about fifteen ; thirty of those add to a weapon. Do you have a character who has a hard time building up ? cough Yuna cough Just spend 900,000 Gil twice and you should get all thirty. The Best Bribes reference compares this shortcut with the free reward.
Each time you find a Gatekeeper, you will play a game of red light/green light. You’ll have three tries to sneak up on the guy. To do this, RUN FAST. Ignore the chests if you have to, and save between Gatekeepers. The squeak before turning around. Kind of a “squeaky, squeak-squeak.” Then they will squeak again to tell you they are turning around. You can be approaching during the first two squeaks, but after that you’ll get caught. When you finally catch up to them, you’ll be able to attack. You can capture this way, too.

The Al Bhed Needletime! warning is another useful stop signal on most courses, but watching the is safer. When you reach Flaile, both the words and the sounds become useless.

Use the Monster Arena tracker to check your Bikanel totals. The Gatekeeper do not run from their forced battles, and both brothers in the Alek and Aloja fight can be captured. If Bikanel is already complete, will make all those trips back to the altar a lot faster.

Order	Gatekeeper	Clue points to	Area
1	Tomay	The water	Oasis
2	Rovivea	Gone walkabout	Sanubia East
3	Chava	Big numbers	Sanubia West
4–5	Alek and Aloja	Ruins of men	Sanubia Central
6	Vachella	The shining blue	Sanubia East
7	Robeya	Stuck inside	Sanubia Central
8	Isrra	The lord of the hole	Sanubia West
9	Elio	Left on a journey	Oasis, then airship deck
10	Flaile	Always behind	Cactuar Stone

Tomay

Clue: “Tomay’s gone. Gone to fetch the water.” Location: Oasis. Time: 10 seconds.

Go to the watering hole where you first arrived on Bikanel. Tomay waits beside the water under a tree. Duties: fetching water. Takes his time and, as a result, is often left behind. A little dim.

When running to catch up to Tomay, you’ll actually be holding down and right. Play with it a little. Bring the sphere back to the stone altar. “Writing appears when the sphere is set into the stone!”

Rovivea

Clue: “Rovivea’s gone walkabout.” Location: Sanubia East. Time: about 13 seconds.

From the in the center of the desert, head down one screen to Sanubia East and follow the west wall. This guy is running around the treasure chest with four . Press the confirm button when he’s in front of you to start the challenge. When the battle is over, be sure to grab the four out of the chest if you haven’t already got them.

Has no patience for certain dim-witted friends. Not a progressive thinker. When running to catch up to Rovivea, you may actually need to hold down and left. Play with it a little. Take Rovivea’s sphere back to the altar.

Chava

Clue: “Little Chava likes big numbers.” Location: Sanubia West. Time: 13 seconds.

The “big numbers” refers to the 20% off sign. Go read the signs to your left, especially the one that says “Strong Fiend in Vicinity.” It also says 20% off. Recently learned to count to 50. A little needy. Attention deficit.

You’ll probably need to hold straight down while approaching him. While you’re here, open the chest in the area to the upper left, and fight the and get its chest too. If you fought them earlier, just open the chest. The full West-area cleanup gives you three , two , two , three , eight , and the , which is part of Rikku’s .

Alek and Aloja

Clue: “Alek and Aloja play tag in the ruins of men.” Location: Sanubia Central. Time: 13 seconds.

These brothers can be found in the ruins on the next screen to the left. Look around. Two brothers, rarely separated. They move as one, their closeness a paragon of .

Be sure to get the treasure chests in the U-shaped ruin and the one at the far left corner of the map: 10,000 Gil, a , and an . You’ll probably need to hold down and slightly left on this one, at least at the start. Reaching them starts a battle against two , so keep handy if both brothers use 10,000 Needles. The one challenge accounts for Gatekeepers four and five, which is why the next verse jumps from seven little Gatekeepers to five.

Vachella

Clue: “Vachella seeks the shining blue.” Location: the under the tent in Sanubia East. Time: 14 seconds.

Go save at the in the center of Bikanel. (The one that’s three screens down. You’ll actually pass another en route.) Vachella appears when you close the menu. Loves new things. Hard on others, easy on self. Stingy.

This one goes really fast. Pay close attention to the squeaking timing to be sure you’re not approaching when he turns around. You have fourteen seconds on this one. I fail on this one frequently.

Robeya

Clue: “O, Robeya’s stuck inside.” Location: Sanubia Central, inside the chest at the far western end of the main area. Time: 14 seconds.

Head south one screen, past the , pick up the eight in the chest there, and go to the far west corner of that screen. Open the chest. A real needle brain. Likes cramped spaces. Check out his great collection!

The first challenge chest has two . The second has one . The last one has a . If you don’t want those items, just head straight to him. Since you can steal or Mug those items from other enemies in this area, I don’t think it’s worth it to grab them here. If you really want them, though, use the fact that you get three tries to your advantage here. I’d grab the first two chests on the first pass and the last chest on the next one. I usually have time to catch him still on that pass, or I can get him on the last pass.

Isrra

Clue: “A fiery inscription—the lord of the hole is gone. Isrra thinks.” Location: a sand pit in Sanubia West. Time: 15 seconds.

It’s not very obvious, but you probably know where to go now. Remember the you fought earlier? Leave the screen you are currently on, then come back and visit it. The philosopher about town. Today he digs holes. Again. A cautious sort.

This guy is pretty tough. You have to run all the way until the very last second. His pauses are brutal. I usually fail on this one, too.

Once you beat him, you can fight the again. And get their chests, too. You can steal Musk ×10 from these guys as well as , you know. You cannot capture them. Watch out for , though. It’s confusing. :) The chests give you three and two .

Elio

Clue: “Much-curious Elio has left on a journey.” Location: Oasis, then the airship deck. Time: 11 seconds.

Head back to the very beginning of this area. If you teleported directly into the Oasis, leave the water screen and come back. You’ll see Elio teleport to your ship. Notice the overhead shot of the ship that lingers on the deck view? (Hint hint.) Beam up, go out on the deck, and walk left.

If the deck starts the Sin battle

After choosing the Sin destination during late-game progression, entering the exterior deck may commit you to the staged battle with Sin instead of Elio’s challenge. Complete that battle, then return to Bikanel and resume the Gatekeeper quest.

To see what lies beyond the sands, he travels far to distant lands. Hyper-reactive and a bad poet. He turns around almost immediately when the game starts, so pay close attention. The ship tilts during the challenge, too. Once you catch him, he falls to his death. I guess. I haven’t been able to find him ever again. At any rate, you get his sphere, so take it back to the altar.

Flaile

Clue: “Flaile is always behind.” Location: directly behind Tidus at the Stone. Time: 13 seconds.

Don’t bother looking for him; he really will be back soon! Look behind you! The guy you never invite, but he always shows up anyway. Cheeky.

He doesn’t squeak the first time, so you better be careful! (Edit: I don’t think this is a bug; it just sucks.) In fact, ignore the squeaks and Needletime! message for this course and watch Flaile himself. Read the poems at the stone afterward. It’s the same pieces as before, but it adds “gone for good” and Nobody’s here. The sand is gone.

Cactuar Valley rewards

Head into the valley to claim your prize! I got the (not to be confused with the , but also a part of Rikku’s ) in the first chest. On releases using the alternate planet-name set, this is called the . Either way, it powers Rikku’s Godhand, and you receive it regardless of how many challenges you won.

The second chest depends on how many of the nine Gatekeeper challenges you completed successfully. Alek and Aloja are two but share one challenge and one result:

Successful challenges	Second chest
0–2	Potion
3–5	Elixir
6–7	Megalixir
8–9	Friend Sphere

One time around I failed three times and got a in the second chest. Another time through I got a in the second.

If you are fast enough, and you’ve got weapons that give you two or three times the experience, you can level up REALLY fast here. This isn’t where I do my leveling up, however. You don’t run into as often as you run into other enemies. Leave your leveling up to the Omega Ruins. Use , if you can, and you’ll rake in the EXP. When you are finished, equip something with and walk back to a .