In the International / HD Remake of Final Fantasy X, there were quite a few things added in. One of my favorites was the inclusion of Dark Aeons, superbosses of the summons you know, love, and man do they pack a punch! Here’s the quick of each of the battles and what you can expect from each:
Dark Valefor
- Location: Besaid Island – going back into the village
Dark Ifrit
- Location – Bikanel Island – going back to Home
Dark Ixion
- Location – Thunder Plains, second area – Speak to Yevon Soldier under Thunder Rod
Dark Shiva
- Location – Macalania Temple Entrace
Dark Bahamut
- Location – Zanarkand – Where you fought Yunalesca
Dark Anima
- Location – Mt Gagazet Gate after you repeat the First Trial of Gagazet
Dark Yojimbo
- Location – Cavern of the Hidden Fayth, all the way to the bottom warp panel, then try to leave normally.
Dark Magnus Sisters
- Location – Mushroom Rock Road – Speak with two summoners by the entrance of Mi’ihen then run away unless you want to fight all three together.
Strategies
With all of the Dark Aeons, you want massively high stats. 255 is the number to shoot for for each of them. You’ll want to have Auto-Life/Auto-Phoenix abilities as well as Ribbon customization on your armor. Having the Celestial Weapons fully powered up is pretty critical too. Using your strongest Aeons will also be so super helpful as well; Anima, Yojimbo, and the Magnus Sisters.
Each of these aeons have smaller pieces to their boss fights that make them unique. Here’s some of the pieces to keep in mind:
- Valefor – This is the simplest of the dark aeons, also cannot hit over 9999
- Ifrit – This aeon counters EVERYTHING, even steal. He’ll only use Meteor Strike on his turn which also uses a Delay and is a magic based attack. Also worth mentioning, while normal Meteor Strike will go through defenses, this one does not, so Shell will help.
- Ixion – This aeon has two phases, in which you can save and return when ready. The first battle, Ixion will counter, much like Ifrit. The Second he will not. Ixion will not use Thor’s Hammer until the second phase, do you have a bit of a breather there
- Shiva – This aeon is EXTREMELY fast and her moves do a whole lot of nullification of benefits. Using spells to get your buffs means you’ll spend a whole lot of time redoing them over and over and over again. Using Auto based equipment is going to be essential to keeping alive in this fight.
- Bahamut – This is one of the hardest dark aeons, not only does his attacks and Impulse inflict massive status ailments, they’re also strong enough to bypass Ribbon in some cases. High luck is suuuuper important for this fight. Evade and Counter / Counterattack is also super useful.
- Anima – This aeon is super strong in every aspect. It can instantly kill and petrify and shatter your team. While it’s attacks can nullify status buffs, it will not nullify Auto-Life so continue to use that as much as possible.
- Yojimbo – You have to fight this aeon 5 times before it will finally fully fall, because of this Yojimbo is the dark aeon that is most often farmed as you can reset the counter by just leaving the cave. Max stats is almost required and Yojimbo will always attack first, at least on the first battle, only way around with is with a weapon with First Strike.
- Magnus Sisters – The most critical piece to make the each of these manageable is to RUN! Once you begin getting chased, if you run you’ll find that the members of the Magnus Sisters will break away. Once you get them separated, they become very manageable.
