The Seitengrat Bow and Following Instructions

I recently set out to get a secret weapon in Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age. The process convinced me to be much more critical of what information I consume, and to always listen carefully to all instructions.

Zodiac Age, as I’ll call the game for brevity’s sake, has a number of powerful weapons not available in the original release of Final Fantasy XII. Fortunately, none of them are as ridiculous as the original way to get the Zodiac Spear, which could be rendered unavailable if the player unknowingly opened any specific chests throughout the game, without any indication that they might play a part in obtaining what was the most powerful weapon available. The Zodiac Spear is still available in Zodiac Age, but they’ve generously removed that awful chest mechanic. Plus, there are actually several more powerful weapons available, so players might not even decide to procure the Zodiac Spear anyway.

Many new weapons are upgrades to existing weapon classes, like the Kumbha katana. Most of these require some extensive bazaar manipulation, as well as some steep license requirements, to obtain and use. As such, they are most definitely end game weapons, ones that a player would likely only pursue after completing much of the main story. These are the sorts of weapons that you might track down in preparation for fighting superbosses like Yiazmat.

However, some of the most unique weapons are the two “invisible” weapons. As the name implies, the Great Trango and Seitengrat have no visible model, and thus do not display when wielded by characters. What’s more interesting and convenient, neither weapon has a license requirement, which means any character can equip them, regardless of class. Put the Seitengrat bow on a knight or the Great Trango sword on an archer, and it doesn’t matter.

Both invisible weapons require significant luck to obtain, but can be guaranteed with some RNG manipulation. The point at which Great Trango can be found is moderately far into the game, but the Seitengrat is actually available rather early. So early, in fact, that it was already accessible to me when I finally learned about it. Since I eventually planned on fighting the superbosses and getting the platinum trophy for Zodiac Age anyway, I figured it couldn’t hurt to go ahead and pick up a few invisible bows just to have on hand. As long as I could resist the temptation, I could just keep them in my inventory and wait until the end of the game to equip them.

There was a YouTube tutorial for the Seitengrat RNG manipulation linked in the Fandom article, but the article also listed the steps in text format. Since I figured it would be easier to follow text, rather than shift a video back and forth, I decided I would just go by those. Surely, the Fandom author would have given me enough information to get the bow. Besides, the tutorial video was 18 minutes long, and I didn’t feel like watching the entire thing.

“It is possible to guarantee that the Seitengrat will spawn on the Skyferry by exploiting the game's random number generator (RNG) in The Zodiac Age version, with various methods such as this in this YouTube guide. The player should create a new save file in Nalbina Fortress at the beginning of the game as Reks, and then load their main save file. In their main save file, the player should set Vaan as the main party member and equip him with a Diamond Armlet, and then visit Rabanastre and take the Skyferry to Nalbina. From there, the player should enter the deck, and then close their application.

The player should load up their newly created save file at the beginning of the game in Nalbina Fortress as Reks, and cast Cure on themselves, until the amount cured is three specific numbers in the exact order: 88, 97, then 90 (Depending on the player's PlayStation 4 model, they may need to instead reach a different set of numbers: 97, 94 and 95; or 88, 94, 92, 92, and 96, providing the other methods do not work). The player should quit to title screen, load the auto-save made in the Skyferry, and the invisible Seitengrat chest will have spawned. The weapon can be obtained repeatedly with this method up to 99 Seitengrats.”

I followed the instructions to create a new save file with Reks and proceeded to set up my main save file with all the right conditions. I already had a diamond amulet, as well as access to the skyferry. While I had never used the skyferry for actual transportation (I’d rather walk), I decided it was worth riding to grab a few super powerful bows. Looking back now, I should have watched the YouTube tutorial just to confirm. I could have saved myself several hours of headache just by watching the video, but I was determined that I could follow the steps in the article without visual aid.

I closed the application, started it again, loaded my Reks save, and began the cure routine to find my place in the RNG table. I reached the 88, 97, 90 pattern rather quickly. “That was super easy,” I thought to myself. I carefully exited to the main menu and loaded the autosave file on the skyferry. As soon as the game loaded, I ran up to the deck. Sure enough, the invisible chest stopped me from walking straight back. I opened it immediately, and received 10 gil. I was frustrated, but I knew that I might not get so lucky as to get it on the first try. I assumed that my PS4 model might be one that required a different RNG pattern.

I restarted the process of finding my place in the RNG table and began looking for the other two cure patterns. I seem to have noticed the original pattern come up several times before I finally got the 97, 94, 95 pattern. Finally, I should be able to get the bow. I reloaded my autosave, went up on the deck, and I got 10 gil once again. I was even more frustrated that both codes hadn’t worked for me, but I was determined to get this bow.

Since I had never used the skyferry transportation, I decided that maybe the first time on a skyferry did something different to the RNG. I rode the ferry as normal to the destination, returned to the original point, and started the process again. Even though the first trip might not have anything to do with the Seitengrat spawn, I wanted to remove the possibility at least.

Once again, I restarted the application and loaded my Reks save. I casted cure so many times that the button inputs became muscle memory. If neither of the first two patterns worked, it must have been the third pattern I needed. I watched the cure amounts scroll by. Cure five times, hit the save crystal, don’t save, start curing again. I did this over and over and over again. I passed the original pattern numerous times, and each time I saw it, I became more annoyed. Eventually, I concluded that I should restart the entire console to cycle the RNG.

I turned the console off entirely, booted it back up, and started the process again in hopes of getting the Seitengrat with the original pattern. Once I saw the pattern, I very carefully went through the steps to load my autosave. I was very deliberate with each button press, as I didn’t know if perhaps extraneous inputs would cause the RNG to advance, and maybe that was what caused me to get the 10 gil chest. When I opened the chest on the deck and got 10 gil for what seemed like the hundredth time, I nearly threw my controller.

At this point, I decided that I didn’t need the Seitengrat anyway. I had the entire game to get the bow before I needed to use it on any of the superbosses. Why should I go out of my way to get it right now, if I could just keep playing the game like normal? Reloading the save that I made before I began the Seitengrat setup process, I continued on with the story.

Later that same day, I decided I may as well watch the tutorial video. I watched the player go through the beginning of the game as Reks, and he explained how this gave any player a definite set of values that would appear. It crossed my mind that maybe I had accidentally allowed Reks to level up, so my cure values didn’t match what they should have been to indicate a certain place in the RNG table. I made a mental note to myself that if/when I decided to try to get the Seitengrat again, I should make sure my Reks save was still at the proper level.

When the player in the video reached the deck of the skyferry, he just stood there. Why isn’t he opening the chest? He then explained that there is an element of time, since NPC movement accesses the RNG table. The player panned the camera around, and pointed out a certain NPC that moves in cycles up and down the stairs of the deck. On the fourth cycle, you should press X to open the chest as soon as the NPC reaches the top of the deck.

As soon as I reached this point in the video, I was potentially more irritated than when I was actually trying to get the Seitengrat. If the timing was so important, why didn’t the Fandom article say that? I suspected that there might be some element of time, since many forums mentioned it, but I assumed the tutorial video’s method somehow circumvented the timing. I wasn’t doing it wrong, I just didn’t have all of the information that I needed.

I immediately booted the game back up and ran all the way back to Rabanastre. I quickly set up my party to mimic the configuration from the video. Unfortunately, I had a guest NPC in my party, and I wasn’t sure if that would affect the method, but I couldn’t help trying anyway. With a second wind, I started the Reks file, found the original cure pattern, and loaded my autosave. As I ran up the steps of the skyferry, I noticed that the NPC I was to use for my visual cue actually started on the stairs, and didn’t go up to the top of the deck until I reached the chest. Did that count as the first cycle? Was it four cycles AFTER you reach the chest? At that point, I didn’t care to check the video, and tried the chest after the fourth time that I SAW the guy walk up on the deck. The chest contained 10 gil. Alright, no problem, it could just be a miscommunication about the cycles. I’ll just watch this part of the video again.

I loaded up the video and carefully watched the NPC’s walking pattern. Sure enough, the video showed four cycles including the cycle that begins before you could reach the chest. What the guy in the tutorial video called four cycles, I would have called three. No matter, I knew what to do now. If this didn’t work, I would probably blow a gasket. I held out hope that it would.

Again, I loaded the Reks file and got to the proper RNG point. I loaded my autosave and ran up to the chest. I panned the camera and watched like a hawk. My hands were sweaty with anticipation. I counted the NPC cycles aloud, refusing to leave anything to a lapse in attention. As he stepped up onto the deck for the final time, I pressed the X button. Sure enough, I received the Seitengrat.

Finally, after all that frustration, I got the bow. It was so easy, knowing exactly what I had to do, that I went on to get two more immediately after. It helps having all the information, and knowing that you had to time the button press right.

I equipped the Seitengrat on Fran and ran around for a moment, just testing it out. Where Fran was hitting around 150-200 before, and my melee characters were hitting roughly 300-400, Fran with the Seitengrat was hitting at least 2000 on everything. I was baffled. This was with one character. If I put the bow on all three party members, nothing would stand a chance.

I made the compromise that I would leave the Seitengrat on Fran, but not equip it to any other characters unless I ran into a battle that I just could not beat. I didn’t want to make the game a complete cakewalk, but it was definitely nice hitting for so much damage from a distance twice as far as any other bow can reach.

Take it from my experience, if you need to do something that has a YouTube tutorial available, watch it. As a matter of fact, watch the whole thing. Maybe watch it a few times. Make sure that you have all the information you need before you waste a few hours following incomplete instructions.