If you speak with one of the Al Bhed workers near the Southern and Northern
entrances of the Thunder Plains twice during Chapters 2 and 3, you’ll be asked
to assist in calibrating the Lightning Rod Towers. This mini-game is totally
optional, but the better you are at it, the greater the rewards will eventually
be.
There are ten
towers to be calibrated in total. They each require you to participate in
exercises that will test your hand-eye coordination skills and your short-term
memory. To successfully calibrate each tower, you have to perform 30 calibration
sequences without making any more than 3 mistakes. The first few towers are
fairly easy to work with, but the going gets much more difficult with the latter
towers.
There are three
different calibration methods you will go through. One involves Rikku, and it
requires you to input controller sequences that appear on all sides of the
screen, in a fashion somewhat reminiscent of the Jecht Shot challenge in FINAL
FANTASY X. Paine's calibration requires you to choose the right button out of
three falling options. The final one involves Yuna and will put your memory to
the test by having you repeat randomly-generated controller sequences.
The first 9
towers are easily accessible on foot. The tenth one you have to calibrate from a
distance, since it is located on the other side of a pool of water on the left
in the Northern part of the Thunder Plains. The more calibrations you are able
to make on each lightning tower, the better the prize you will receive at each
tower during the Thunder Plains episode in Chapter 5. If you find yourself
having difficulty with this rather sadistic sidequest, however, don’t worry too
much about it. The premium prizes for calibrating each tower flawlessly aren’t
one-of-a-kind, and can be obtained in other places in the game. Heck, if you
wanted to avoid it altogether you’d still get treasure, although it wouldn’t be
nearly as nice as what you receive for doing it.
•The
Secret Dungeon in the Thunder Plains, the New Cave•
Once you’ve defeated the boss Humbaba and completed the Thunder Plains episode
in Chapter 5, an optional dungeon called the "New Cave" will become available
for exploration. Choose "yes" when asked to explore the hole in the tenth
Lightning Tower to get to it.
The first time
around exploring the New Cave is very straightforward. Just follow the arrows to
get to the goal inside. There you’ll find Cid lying down, injured. After
speaking with him you’ll be thrown into a boss battle with the Machina Panzer.
Once you’ve defeated it, exit the cave and take Cid with you on your airship.
Upon returning to
the New Cave, you’ll find that there are a series of walls blocking paths that
were previously open to you. Before progressing any further into the New Cave,
we highly recommend you take the following precautions:
• Get a pen or
pencil and some paper
• Equip the Charm Bangle to prevent enemy encounters
Once you’ve made
those preparations, you’ll have the opportunity to view a tutorial of how to
open each wall in the New Cave. To break it down for you, when you go to input
the code for one wall, the first of two numbers for the numeric password for the
next wall is given to you in the lower-right hand corner of the screen. Write it
down! Next, follow the red arrow on the map to get to the next wall in the
sequence. When you get to the wall, the second half of the code will be given in
the upper-left corner of the screen. Write it down! Add the first clue to the
second clue in order to get the numeric code. Input the code to open the wall,
but not before writing down the first clue to open up the next wall in the
bottom right-hand corner of the screen. You’ll also want to write down the full
code you just put in. Trust us on this.
The first few
numbers given to you as clues are simple enough, but after that it gets tricky.
On later walls, they will give you clues like "How many battles have you fought
since entering" or "How much gil have you made". They’ll also throw curve-balls
at you like re-using old wall codes as clues for the next wall code. And you
have to add the numeric amount to whatever other number they give you. If you
equipped the Charm Bangle, the going will be a lot easier, since the answer to
any battle or gil related questions will be 0. If you were unfortunate enough to
ignore our warning, however, your task will be considerably more difficult, but
not impossible. If you forgot to write down certain code clues or need to know
how many battles you’ve been in or how much gil you’ve made between walls, there
are signs with that information located in the northeast, southeast and
southwest corners of the New Cave.
Oh, and if you’re
wondering if the reward is worth the effort, this is the only place you’ll be
able to get the key item Corpus Invictus, which contains one of the missing
abilities for Paine’s Special Dressphere, Full Throttle. Happy writing…oops, we
mean, happy hunting!
