Final Fantasy X Monster Arena

Original Creations

Every so often, the Arena owner comes up with something original. He will give you something to celebrate, after which he charges you to fight whatever nightmare he just assembled. These creations unlock from milestones across the capture tracker, Area Conquest, and Species Conquest.

Original Creations award 50,000 AP and 0 Gil. Earth Eater through Shinryu cost 15,000 Gil per rematch; Nemesis costs 25,000 Gil. The first attempt is free. The normal item drop has a small chance to be replaced by , and an doubles the item quantity but not the AP.

Original Creation Unlocks

Creation	Unlock condition	First reward
Earth Eater	Unlock 2 Area Conquest creations	×60
Greater Sphere	Unlock 2 Species Conquest creations	×60
Catastrophe	Unlock 6 Area Conquest creations	×99
Th’uban	Unlock 6 Species Conquest creations	×99
Neslug	Unlock every Area Conquest creation	×99
Ultima Buster	Capture at least 5 of every capturable fiend	×99
Shinryu	Capture 2 each of , , and	×30
Nemesis	Capture 10 of every capturable fiend and defeat every other Area, Species, and Original Creation	×10

For Nemesis, unlocking another creation is not enough. You must actually defeat it. Bear in mind that escaping from or having Catoblepas obliterate your your party with its final do not count as victories.

Earth Eater

Boss Fight: Earth Eater

HP /	1,300,000 / 99,999
Steal	×1; rare: ×1
Weak / Absorbs	No elemental weaknesses or absorbs; immune to Gravity
Reward	50,000 AP; 0 Gil
Drops	×1; rare: ×1 (quantities double on )
Strategy	Earth Eater has two modes: standing and toppled over. Remember the ? While standing, it counters damage with Megaton Punch, which combines heavy physical damage with instant death, and it may punch twice on its own turn. Deal at least 100,000 cumulative damage to knock it down. or keeps the standing phase manageable. On its back it loses Armored and cannot attack normally, but every hit earns a reflected counter capped at 9,999 damage; Shell or high Magic Defense handles that. Keep attacking while it looks pitiful, because it gets back up on its third turn.

Earth Eater’s activate Luck nodes, so anyone maxing Luck will eventually know this thing far better than they ever wanted. Restock periodically if is doing the work.

Greater Sphere

Boss Fight: Greater Sphere

HP /	1,500,000 / 99,999
Steal	×1; rare: ×1
Weak / Absorbs	Has one shifting elemental weakness and absorbs the other four elements; immune to Gravity
Reward	50,000 AP; 0 Gil
Drops	×1; rare: ×1 (quantities double on )
Strategy	Greater Sphere counters ordinary damaging actions with and targeted Overdrives with Hydraulic Press, which removes 15/16 of every target’s maximum HP and can still kill anyone who was not nearly full. , very high Magic Defense, , and are the practical preparations. A powerful can use Haste, Protect, and Shell, then Shield before Greater Sphere’s turns; a maxed party can use a strong multi-hit and survive the single Hydraulic Press counter. Its elemental weakness changes when struck, while all four wrong answers are absorbed, so physical damage is simpler for farming.

Greater Sphere drops , while Earth Eater drops the needed to activate the resulting Luck nodes. Greater Sphere can also drop armor with already attached, which is useful before you start manufacturing a full set yourself.

Catastrophe

Boss Fight: Catastrophe

HP /	2,200,000 / 99,999
Steal	×1; rare: ×1
Weak / Absorbs	No elemental weaknesses or absorbs; immune to Gravity
Reward	50,000 AP; 0 Gil
Drops	×1; rare: ×1 (quantities double on )
Strategy	Catastrophe begins inside its shell, where it is Armored and alternates between waiting and Toxic Mist, a party-wide combination of Poison, Confusion, and Curse. Five 99,999-damage hits are enough to force it open. Outside the shell it loops through Toxic Spray against the character with the highest HP, against the party, and Hundred Thorns against everybody. Protect, , or a sacrificial handles Hundred Thorns; removes the four Breaks left by Toxic Spray. Strong parties can and through the entire 2.2 million HP before the pattern matters, while weaker parties can use a Hasted, Protected and Shield for the dangerous turns.

Th’uban

Boss Fight: Th’uban

HP /	3,000,000 / 99,999
Steal	×1; rare: ×1
Weak / Absorbs	No elemental weaknesses or absorbs; immune to Gravity
Reward	50,000 AP; 0 Gil
Drops	×1; rare: ×1 (quantities double on )
Strategy	Every damaging action triggers Condemn, a party-wide physical counter that removes , Haste, the Nul spells, Protect, Shell, Reflect, and before dealing damage. Armor-based and cannot be removed and are much more useful here than cast buffs. Th’uban’s turns loop through Swipe, Rainbow, a self-buff, and Convergence. Ribbon or proof abilities cover Rainbow’s Curse, Confusion, Silence, Sleep, and Darkness; Convergence deals 99,999 damage to one target. A strong party can use and heal through Condemn. A developing party can let an absorb Rainbow, dismiss it before Convergence, revive the victim, and summon again.

High-Magic parties can Reflect themselves and off a party member without triggering Condemn, then it and Th’uban’s Shell or . Doom also works, but its 255-turn counter is less a strategy than a long-term commitment.

Neslug

Boss Fight: Neslug

HP /	4,000,000 / 12,000
Steal	×1; rare: ×1
Weak / Absorbs	No elemental weaknesses or absorbs; immune to Gravity and to weapon-based physical damage while inside its shell
Reward	50,000 AP; 0 Gil
Drops	Pendulum ×1; rare: ×1 (quantities double on )
Strategy	Silence before attacking; it blocks Slime’s party-wide damage and status pile and prevents inside the shell, though it cannot stop . After losing slightly more than 2,000,000 HP, retreats, becomes immune to weapon-based physical attacks, gains , and heals with until it reaches 3,000,000 HP again. Break the shell by forcing it below 1,000,000 HP with magical damage or Overdrives, then finish quickly before the unshelled Slime starts. Do not summon during the shell phase: heals dramatically more HP while an is present.

Skipping Neslug’s Shell Phase

At 99,999 damage per hit, use Attack Reels once and then eight times: the 12 Reel hits plus eight Quick Hits total 1,999,980 damage, leaving just outside the shell trigger. Immediately Wakka and use Attack Reels again. Because the whole resolves before changes phases, a perfect Reel crosses both the retreat and shell-breaking thresholds in one action. Finish the last million HP with . If that setup is not available, use and (or repeated physical Overdrives) until the shell breaks.

Ultima Buster

Boss Fight: Ultima Buster

HP /	5,000,000 / 99,999 (main body); 80,000 HP each for the head and arms
Steal	×1; rare: ×1
Weak / Absorbs	No elemental weaknesses or absorbs; immune to Gravity
Reward	50,000 AP; 0 Gil
Drops	×1; rare: ×1 (quantities double on )
Strategy	Destroy both arms first so they stop shielding the body with maximum Defense and Armored, then kill the head before it finishes charging Contamination. Wakka, , or magic can reach the head; the parts have only 80,000 HP apiece and nothing to steal. Contamination hits the party with severe damage plus Poison, Confusion, Slow, Zombie, and all four Breaks. Once the parts are gone, use and on the body. Buster usually answers its own turn with and sometimes adds a brutal physical attack, so use Shell and high Magic Defense or summon an to take the turn. If the battle lasts long enough for parts to return, remove them again before resuming body damage.

Unlocking Buster also adds to the Arena shop for 10,000 Gil each. They erase an activated stat node from the so it can be replaced with a stronger node; they do not erase ability nodes.

Shinryu

Boss Fight: Shinryu

HP /	2,000,000 / 99,999
Steal	×1; rare: ×1
Weak / Absorbs	No elemental weaknesses or absorbs; immune to Gravity
Reward	50,000 AP; 0 Gil
Drops	×1; rare: ×1 (quantities double on )
Strategy	This is an underwater battle, so only Tidus, Wakka, and Rikku can participate. Shinryu counters physical attacks with its claw and can use Shining for eight randomly targeted magical hits. Eraser inflicts unavoidable and removes a character from the battle regardless of or Ribbon, but Shinryu will not use it when only one character remains alive. A strong trio can use , , , , and Attack Reels while healing as needed. If only Wakka is ready, start with Tidus and Rikku knocked out and let him fight alone; Eraser stays out of the move list.

Without , this is a long, tough slog: two million HP means more than 200 hits at 9,999 damage. It is worth waiting until at least two of the underwater fighters can contribute properly.

Nemesis

Boss Fight: Nemesis

HP /	10,000,000 / 99,999
Steal	×1; rare: ×1
Weak / Absorbs	Absorbs Fire, Ice, Lightning, Water, and Holy; immune to Gravity
Reward	50,000 AP; 0 Gil
Drops	×1; rare: ×1 (quantities double on )
Strategy	For the original North American PS2 release, bring 99,999-damage attacks and roughly 170 or more Agility, cast , and use until Nemesis’s turn approaches. Swap in Yuna and summon an as a sacrificial lamb; one hit will probably kill it, but control returns to the party even if Nemesis had more turns queued. Repeat until ten million HP becomes pyreflies. Nemesis cycles Ethereal Cannon, Ultra Spark, and a scripted physical among additional physical attacks, then uses Armageddon when its internal attack counter reaches 20; Armageddon deals an unblockable 99,999 damage to the whole party, even through an Shield. It also counters targeted Special commands and Overdrives with , so plain is the clean offense.

Nemesis is a second source for Kimahri’s Nova if you missed it from Omega Weapon. Use and the skill remains learned even if the party loses afterward.

The International, PAL, HD Remaster, and later versions make slower and more expensive. Sacrificing an before every Nemesis turn can therefore exhaust the roster before the fight ends; in those versions, survive and recover from single-target attacks, then reserve or for Ultra Spark and Armageddon.

While you can attempt to farm here, the easier option is to wander around the Calm Lands until you find a and use the Lv. 4 Key Sphere Bribe.

Defeating Nemesis awards the . At that point you have defeated every Arena creation and, in the original North American PS2 release, the game’s ultimate optional boss. I managed it after roughly 70 hours. Your mileage may vary.