Should I skip all the locks on the Sphere Grid??

[Mr. Matt]

Alright, so as far as I can tell, keyspheres are rare, including the level 1 ones, unless I'm willing to spend many, many hours on Blitzball, which I despise and am borderline quitting the game over having to keep playing. Do I just skip all of the locks on the Sphere Grid, or wait by the level 1 ones and there's a non-torturous way to get plenty of these without gimping my characters? Help would be appreciated.

I'm a little curious about the level 2 ones, but it would make sense that those would be even more of a pain to come by than the level 1 ones.

[Hinnyuu]

They're only rare in the early game. At endgame, you can easily get as many as you like from various sources (drops, steals, bribes).

Most locks are not worth it early on, but it depends on which Sphere Grid you are using. On the Expert Sphere Grid, you can quickly unlock easy access to Rikku's Steal/Use abilities, which can be useful for a number of things. Many players have Kimahri pick them up so he can use Steal in his solo battle - where, incidentally, you can steal a large amount of lvl. 3 key spheres.

[Mr. Matt]

I'm using the standard sphere grid (not the expert one). I'm on that high road or whatever it's called behind Luca (just reached it), and have killed a few baddies and just reached a level 1 lock on Lulu's grid, shortly before all the Fira/Watera etc. spells. I was planning on using a level 1 sphere for Kimahri sometime to go into Rikku's grid, though I can probably wait a long time to do that since I'll just use him one turn per battle to raise his sphere level for most of the game.

So should I pass the other characters' level 1 locks and just never come back if I'm not the sort to want to burn hundreds of hours?

[Hinnyuu]

Originally posted by Mr. Matt:

So should I pass the other characters' level 1 locks and just never come back if I'm not the sort to want to burn hundreds of hours?

It doesn't take hundreds of hours to get key spheres.

I'd generally recommend getting Kimahri steal because the lvl 3. key spheres from his fight are very convenient at that point in the game, but even if you don't, endgame is just around the corner, and you'll be swimming in keys before you know it.

For everyone else, you can just use whatever you have handy. I wouldn't worry too much about your grid before endgame. Just go down the set path, and you'll be fine by the time you finish the story. If you then want to tackle the superbosses etc. you'll find you'll have more than enough materials on hand to do whatever you like. Nothing on the grid can be screwed up, and later on you can modify and customize the grid in basically any way you like. Feel free to use early game to experiment, and try out things.

[Casurin]

Just a few personal recommendations:

DON'T swap in all the characters for each fight.
Yes it makes them stronger, but if you don't use them as your main party it doesn't really help.
You should get Wakka to decent strength before crossing the Moonflow on the shoopuf (under-water fight comming). Jsut swap the charcters in on the boss-battles.

Key-Spheres:
Use them if you think the thing behind them is good. for most characters on the standard sphere grid you don't need the keySpheres till you reach the end of the main story.

Kimahri - Let him learn Steal.
At mt Gagazet he has a solo-fight were, when you leveled him a bti and he has steal, he can get like 20 Lvl 3 keys. While later it becomes easy to get those, it is still ncie to get them at this point as you can soon use them.

And Blitzball - you really only "need" to play it if you want to use Wakkas insane Power in post-game for the optional bosses. His ultimate weapon and his overdrives are prices to win.

[Mr. Matt]

Thank you for the advice and info, folks! This will no doubt be very helpful. =)

[Mikasa Ackerman]

Originally posted by Casurin:

Just a few personal recommendations:

DON'T swap in all the characters for each fight.
Yes it makes them stronger, but if you don't use them as your main party it doesn't really help.
You should get Wakka to decent strength before crossing the Moonflow on the shoopuf (under-water fight comming). Jsut swap the charcters in on the boss-battles.

Key-Spheres:
Use them if you think the thing behind them is good. for most characters on the standard sphere grid you don't need the keySpheres till you reach the end of the main story.

Kimahri - Let him learn Steal.
At mt Gagazet he has a solo-fight were, when you leveled him a bti and he has steal, he can get like 20 Lvl 3 keys. While later it becomes easy to get those, it is still ncie to get them at this point as you can soon use them.

And Blitzball - you really only "need" to play it if you want to use Wakkas insane Power in post-game for the optional bosses. His ultimate weapon and his overdrives are prices to win.

use is even better , since kimahri gets access to al bhed potions that way (if you have both him and rikku out you can basically have the effect of a mega potion for free since bikanel gives you tons of al bhed potions

[TSense]

Have a look out for stuff you really want behind locks.
I had a non-mage go past a level 3 lock with a strong spell behind it, he was going past the main path of someone else.

So i had him open it with my only pass, learn it, and then use other items to pass the spell to others without them going there.

Now 4 people know Flare way before they are suppose to, and i can nuke whenever i get in a corner (and run out of mana in 2 turns)

[Mr. Matt]

Yeah, if I'm getting Steal, I can't see NOT getting Use. It's "right there" and all with just a few more minutes' investment to obtain.

It's such a shame to pass up all those sweet stat gains along the way behind lv 1 and lv2 locks. I just know that Blitzball will turn me off on the game badly to try and get those. :'(

[Hinnyuu]

Originally posted by Mr. Matt:

It's such a shame to pass up all those sweet stat gains along the way behind lv 1 and lv2 locks. I just know that Blitzball will turn me off on the game badly to try and get those. :'(

You don't need to do Blitzball for keys. That's a colossal waste of time. Use that time to go further in the story, and get to higher AP areas for better leveling, which will also get you better stats.

Blitzball you should only do for Wakka's overdrives and Sigil (or if you enjoy it, of course).

[Mr. Matt]

Originally posted by Hinnyuu:

Originally posted by Mr. Matt:

It's such a shame to pass up all those sweet stat gains along the way behind lv 1 and lv2 locks. I just know that Blitzball will turn me off on the game badly to try and get those. :'(

You don't need to do Blitzball for keys. That's a colossal waste of time. Use that time to go further in the story, and get to higher AP areas for better leveling, which will also get you better stats.

Blitzball you should only do for Wakka's overdrives and Sigil (or if you enjoy it, of course).

Unfortunately, Blitzball is soul-crushing for me. Just playing one match after the story one drove me to the limits of my patience for what was just an affair of maybe 12 minutes or so. It was a miserable 12 minutes. I can grind in combat for over an hour just fine, but I lose my mind trying to level my team for just a few minutes, sadly. I'm sure folks who love Blitzball have their reasons which synch well into their personalities, but the lack of any palpable reward without hours of investment in a fictional world is something I cannot abide by. At least with combat, I can fight stuff and "feel" the power increase. With Blitzball, I'm the other team's punching bag to an extreme degree.

Some will say it'll feel that much better when I hit a feasible level to win reliably and not have to scum victories (like I did to beat the Goers in the story game), but I just want to lay down and sleep or stare at a wall when I even think about Blitzball. Not an insult to people who like it, but for me, Blitzball is a miserable sensation.

Can I reliably hold off on spending more sphere levels without getting my butt kicked in combat until I get some lv 1 key spheres?

[Hinnyuu]

Originally posted by Mr. Matt:

Can I reliably hold off on spending more sphere levels without getting my butt kicked in combat until I get some lv 1 key spheres?

You can, but it's probably just not worth it to do so, except if you want Kimahri to get Steal for his fight.

The rest of the team's low-key locked nodes are just largely irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. There's some abilities behind lvl.3/4 locks that are worth it, but not until much later in the game. Everything else you can just ignore until you're at a point where you have all the key spheres you could ever need anyway.

Me personally, the only abilities I ever actively go and unlock are Steal/Use for Kimahri, and Ultima and Holy for Lulu (I usually put Yuna on a different path). Or for shortcuts (like getting Bribe from the other side). That's on the Expert Sphere Grid, I don't know much about the Standard one.

[Mr. Matt]

I may tiptoe forward on Lulu's to get the four -ra spells, because I can grab them all from exactly four spaces away from the level one lock! That way I can spend one sphere level to jump back over to where I was. It'll net me 8 Defense and 200 HP for Lulu to get what's behind that lock.

[Hinnyuu]

If you have the keys available, go for it. Feel free to spend them liberally, as at endgame they'll be plentiful anyway, as I said.

[Mr. Matt]

I suppose my concern is whether or not I'll be getting enough keys in time that I won't get trounced by the bosses. All of my characters except for Kimahri and Auron are currently parked by level 1 locks, waiting for key sphere. I've only gotten one so far, but I haven't used it. When Kimahri gets over to Rikku's side in a few levels, he needs two level 1's just to get into it! Argh. =/

[Casurin]

As Hinnyuu said - you don't really need any spehrekeys untill the very end. And once you are that far into the story there are easy ways to get the key spheres.

just for refrence: Plaiyng with the stndard sphere grid - once you reach the end of the path without taking any of the sidetracks you are still strong enough to beat the game.
And at that point getting key-spheres is easy.
lvl 1 keys - certain enemies just drop them and you can get them with bribe.
lvl 2 keys - a normal drop from an enemy in the omega ruins (extra dungeon)
lvl 3 - drops from the same enemy as lvl 2 - and Kimahris fight you can easily steal 10+ - and there are alter enemies you can get 40!!!! at once (for a bit mroe money)
lvl 4 - steal from an optional boss that 1-shots you, or again a simple bribe.