It's time to upgrade your weapons for our last 2 chapters. If you follow this guide, you should have received all rewards from Bhakti. 1 Gold Nugget, 5 Perfumes, and 3 Platinum Ingots, these can be sold for a whooping of 572,500 gil but we need around 900,000 gil for our upgrade. Now look at your gil if you have this much. If not, start selling other components (but keep one each for the shake of completion) that are not listed below until you have the amount needed. I'm not going to explain it here, but you can check it out at Equipment Upgrade Guide section.

Here is a list of components to buy from:

• Sturdy Bone - from Creature Comforts shop
• Superconductor - from Lenora's garage shop
• Ultracompact Reactor - from R&D Depot shop
• Adamantite - from R&D Depot shop

Upgrade in the following order:

• Fang: Taming Pole Lv. 1 -> Venus Gospel Lv. *
  Sturdy Bone (x36), Superconductor (x33), Uraninite (x1), Sturdy Bone (x36), Ultracompact Reactor (x3)
   
• Lightning: Axis Blade Lv. 1 -> Enkindler Lv. *
  Sturdy Bones (x37), Superconductor (x46), Adamantite (x1), Sturdy Bone (x36), Ultracompact Reactor (x3), Sturdy Bone (x27), Superconductor (x35)
   
• Hope: Hawkeye Lv. 1 -> Eagletalon Lv. *
  Sturdy Bone (x36), Superconductor (x17), Perovskite (x1), Sturdy Bone (x36), Ultracompact Reactor (x3),Sturdy Bone (x22),Superconductor (x29) 
   
• Vanille: Belladonna Wand Lv. 1 -> Balboro Wand Lv. *
  Sturdy Bone (x36), Superconductor (x23), Uraninite (x1), Sturdy Bone (x36), Ultracompact Reactor (x1), Sturdy Bone (x7), Superconductor (x27)

Note: Taming Pole is the weapon with the highest strength in the game but it has a negative effect "Stagger Lock" which means that you cannot stagger an enemy with it. However, you can still stagger the enemies with two other members.

Equip these weapons immediately and go to the end of railway.

• ITEM (T-01): Ethersol (x1)
   
• BOSS (B-01): Barthandelus (x1)
  Strategy:
  • Start with SAB/MED/SYN and cast Depetect, Deshell, and Slow on him, then switch to COM/RAV/RAV and when the stagger meter is high enough switch to COM/COM/RAV for full damage.
  • If buffs/debuffs are faded, switch back to SAB/MED/SYN.
  • Switch to SEN/MED/MED if you need healing and always keep your health above yellow or green.

Now that your Crystarium is expended, spend your CPs on primary roles in the following order again.

• Fang: Commando > Saboteur > Sentinel
• Lightning: Ravager > Commando > Medic
• Hope: Synergist > Ravager > Medic
• Vanille: Saboteur > Ravager > Medic
• Snow: Sentinel > Commando > Ravager
• Sazh: Synergist > Commando > Ravager

*** Make sure that Lightning get access to "Army of One" and Vanille "Death". These abilities are unique to each character and we really need "Death" for our next mission.

There is one last thing we need to do. Remember a Cie'th on a rooftop of a schoolhouse? Head back there, it is where you picked up Bhakti's part "Aspheric Lens", on second floor.

The reason we do this mission first is because of the prize of the mission "Growth Egg" which gives you x1.5 EXP when you equip on one of your party member. But what is the chance of winning this mission fair and square? It's zero, even if you maxed out Crystarium and equipment, it is still a very tough battle, that's why we are going to go a easy route.

So the idea is to spam Vanille's Death ability on Neochu; Death ability, if connect, will instantly kill the enemy. Unfortunately, chance of connecting Death is only 1%. That's very low, that's why we use Malboro Wand to increase the chance. Also, every debuff you stick to the target will also increase the Death chance.

The Mark is all the way back to Archylte Steppe. Luckily, you can use the Waystone in the village and teleport to "Archylte Steppe - Central Expanse". Don't forget to pick up an item on your way to the Mark.

• ITEM (T-02): Diabolic Tail (x7)

Now Set up your party by removing all accessories from Fang and Hope, then equip them on:

• Vanille: Malboro Wand (weapon), Whistlewind Scarf, Sorcerer's Mark, Diamond Bangle
• Snow: Power Circle (weapon), Black Belt, Platinum Bangle, Platinum Bangle
• Lightning: Enkindler (weapon), Warrior's Wristband, Whistlewind Scarf, Black Belt

Paradigm (Vanille/Snow/Lightning):

• SAB/SEN/MED (default)
• RAV/SEN/COM
• MED/SEN/MED
   
• MISSION 55: Penanggalan (x1), Chonchon (x4)
  Reward: Growth Egg (x1)
  Strategy: 
  • First and foremost, you are most likely have to "Retry" this battle so many times so don't worry if you are dead.
  • Before the battle, press L1 and cast Fortisol and Aegisol shrouds.
  • When the battle starts, throw 1 Librascope.
  • Then Vanille casts Imperil on Neochu. Once the spell sticked, immediately start spamming Death. You have about 1 minute before Neochu starts using "Screech" which wipe out your entire party.
  • If any one of your party member dies, you should retry again.
  • Repeat until the Death spell connect then we can move on to phase 2; killing its minions.
  • For phase two, you probably have to switch between these two paradigms very often RAV/SEN/COM and MED/SEN/MED. Switch to RAV/SEN/COM for one or two turn then MED/SEN/MED for one or two turn until your health is full again. Repeat this paradigm shift until you won the battle. Don't worry about target time though, you have about 30 to 40mn to complete.

That one hell of a battle. Pick up the item that it guarded:

• ITEM (T-03): Gloomstalk (x5)

On the opposite side is a much weaker version of Neochu, but you still cannot take it down now so we'll skip it by walking around and pick up the treasure behind it instead. DO NOT go near those little monsters because it will trigger Ochu to appear and you won't be able to pick up the item unless you it kill. If you did, you can come back later when doing mission 30.

• ACCESSORY (T-04): Platinum Bangle (x1)

You probably notice a giant sheep here, if you examine the sheep you'll get a short cutscene and an item. Nothing special about it. Just like Chocobo Chick, the reward reset every time you get in/out of the area.

We are officially done with Oerba Village for now. Let's head back the same way to where you fought Barthandelus at Oerba railway. There you will see an active Cie'th Stone and an airship. Talk to the Cie'th for a cutscene then board the ship to progress the storyline.