Final Fantasy X is a game that is not too difficult to get through normally, aside from a few challenging bosses. Most of the challenge in the game will come from the optional superbosses, as you will need to do a lengthy grind to boost most of your stats to the maximum.

Step 1

The first step is to play through the main story, with you gaining access to the final story dungeon. There are two important things to keep in mind as you’re going through the story, though. The first thing is to make sure you complete both the Besaid Trials and Macalania Trials on your first visit. If you don’t, then later on in the game, both of these places will be blocked off by powerful optional bosses.

The second thing to keep in mind is to collect the Al Bhed Primers in both Home, as well as your mandatory visit to Bevelle. These are both locations you only visit once, so if you don’t collect the Primers then, you will miss them and have to start over from the beginning of the game. While there are other Primers in locations you only see once, those can be collected in another area you will always have access to.

Step 2

Upon gain access to the final dungeon, if you haven’t done so yet, head back to the Calm Lands and purchase three Capture weapons from the Monster Arena NPC. For collecting one of each fiend in the Calm Lands, you will receive enough items to customize Deathstrike (preferably Tidus), which helps immensely with capturing fiends. Continually fight the Anaconduar in the Monster Arena, stealing Petrify Grenades, then once you get enough, add Stonestrike to another character’s weapon (preferably Wakka). The last Capture weapon should be Auron, with just Piercing added to it.

Your goal should be to capture at least five of every monster that contributes to the Monster Arena. This will unlock Ultima Buster, which gives 99 Dark Matters. Preferably, you’d want to capture ten of every monster, as that will be one thing you need to do to unlock Nemesis. Do this for every area in the game, although you will need to trek through the final story dungeon enough to access the second area, where you find new fiends not in the first area.

Step 3

Now that you’ve captured all of the fiends (or most of them), you should have a bunch of items from unlocking Creations. You need to customize some armors for your characters, preferably with Auto-Haste and Auto-Phoenix on your main three (should be using Wakka, Rikku and Tidus). You also want to work towards Auto-Protect, with Ribbon on one character. The others could get something like Def +%. Your one goal should be to go after One-Eye, so you could try to get Triple AP weapons from it. You only need enough for your main three for now. Once you have those weapons (with two empty slots), customize Overdrive -> AP, as well as Double/Triple Overdrive.

From here, you will be doing AP grinding on Don Tonberry. You will want to grind out enough to fill in all of the non-empty nodes on the Sphere Grid. Don’t worry too much about the nodes behind the Locks, as they shouldn’t be too important. Should you need more Power/Mana/Speed/Ability Spheres, purchase the Distillers from the shop and use Kottos to get more, as needed. This will probably take a bit of time, but it will prepare you for the next step.

Step 4

Your three main characters should be strong enough now to start taking on some of the other Creations. This step will start diving into filling out the empty nodes on the Sphere Grid, with stat nodes. Start with Strength Spheres, which drop from Juggernaut, as having 255 Strength will go a long way. With Strength at 255, you will definitely want maxed Defense and Magic Defense. Agility only needs to be at 170, while Evasion could go to 255 if you want. There is no reason to go beyond the 9999 HP and 999 MP cap, which you will get from the HP/MP nodes already on the Sphere Grid. Despite it being a pain to farm, because of the enemies involved, you should get Luck to 85 on three characters, since it will help make sure you don’t miss Penance’s arms.

Step 5

Now that you’ve worked on character stats and should have followed the step above, you can begin working on finishing off the Monster Arena. Note that you will need to capture ten of every monster that you can, as well as defeat all other Monster Arena Creations before Nemesis will unlock. With near maxed out stats on your main party, you should have no trouble with really any of the bosses, except for Nemesis.

Step 6

With the Monster Arena finished, you can now turn your attention to the Dark Aeons and Penance. Start with Dark Valefor, as she’s the easiest, then work your way up down the list of the Aeons as you earned them during the game. You should leave the Magus Sisters and Bahamut for last, as they are considered the most difficult. However, if you fight the Magus Sisters separate, then they are a lot easier. When you’ve finally finished the Dark Aeons, you will have access to Penance. Before diving straight in, you will want to create an armor specific to him, which includes Auto-Haste, Auto-Protect, Auto-Potion, and Def +20%. Stock up on X-Potions (Bribe Valaha from the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth), making sure to get rid of the Hi-Potions and regular Potions, as well as Megalixirs (bribe Varuna).

Step 7

This is the final step for getting all trophies and achievements, which will be for cleaning up. There shouldn’t really be anything to clean up, although you might need to max the Sphere Grid for all characters. If you’ve already cleared the Monster Arena and Penance, then you could use a Clear Sphere on some of the Luck nodes to make it easier on yourself. Also, if you missed any of the Al Bhed Primers, then you can import a save at one of the Al Bhed Compilation Spheres, then rush through the story until you get to the ones you missed. Lastly, don’t forget about the Movie/Music Spheres from Luca Theater.