There’s another overly complicated minigame waiting for Cloud and company in Cosmo Canyon. To earn the Protorelic this time, you’ll need to complete Gears & Gambit minigames. This battle simulator gives you the tools to program robots with Gambits – if you’ve ever played Final Fantasy 12, it’s a little like that. If you’re looking for help figuring out this surprisingly complex activity, here are some tips to help you overcome every level. Luckily, there are only four, and they’re not nearly as painful as they look.
Phenomenon Intel 1: Planetological Ruins
- For the first round, use the default settings for your team.
- To win, summon robots that counter the enemy spawns. On the enemy health bar, in the top-right corner, you’ll see their elemental weakness. Spawn robots that counter and you’ll win.
- Don’t spawn too many robots. If you attack with more than four at the same time, the center enemy will perform a smash attack. Try to attack with three robots at most, and don’t spawn more until you need to replace. Keep attacking with three and try to spawn them in different lanes.
Phenomenon Intel 2: Empyrean Ruins
- At this stage, you can carefully program your robots. To make this much easier, select the robots and press square to Auto-Program. You can slowly program all the robots, or just go with auto-programming. I highly recommend using auto-programming. Otherwise this minigame is ridiculously elaborate and you can easily screw yourself.
- For this stage, try to avoid targeting the boss with five robots at the same time. You’ll also want to avoid targeting the boss with three robots in the same lane. Separate your robots and send them down multiple lanes, allowing just two robots to attack on a single lane. Use your Comet ability to destroy the large Flan that spawns with a special attack.
Phenomenon Intel 3: Capital Ruins
- In Stage 3, the King Flan spawns flying enemies. Auto-Program your rights to prioritize flying enemies with Gravity or Missile. Also make sure you’re still able to target all three weakness types.
- To win this stage, you must exploit the giant monster’s weakness. After taking out 33% of its health bar, it will become weak to fire. At 66% it will become weak to ice. You must summon three (from three different lanes) and avoid summoning more than four at the same time. Early in the fight, summon one robot from all three portals so you can attack the HQ constantly while your other robots are fighting.
- Save Comet for the end of the fight. Use it against the Large Flan that spawns near the end of the fight.
Phenomenon Intel 4: Temple Ruins
- For the final stage, use Auto-Program and try to equip your robots with [+] Gambits. These are more powerful abilities that will greatly aid in this fight. Swap to Auto-Program your bots to gain Haste [+] and Nullfield [+].
- For this fight, I also recommend selecting the Offensive Loadout for Portal Skills.
- Target the King Flan’s weaknesses as you deal damage. At 33% it becomes weak to Ice, then weak to Lightning at 66% health. Make sure to check its Gambits during each phase — the gambits will change. Even if it heals itself, if you target its weaknesses you can still win the fight.
- Save your offensive Portal powers for the find stage of this fight. Wipe out enemies if they’re getting to your bases and deal constant damage to the boss. Dealing elemental damage to its weakness is the most important part of this fight.
