Game:

Final Fantasy X (2001)

Duration: 7:18

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6

Obviously at this point there are lots of known methods for lightning dodging. The "Crater Method" is probably the best one, but I've always felt like I was pretty good at lightning dodging and have always done it the hard way. That said, even the Crater Method can actually be difficult when enemy encounters are available, as they are when you first reach the Thunder Plains and are going for easy MP/Strength/HP Spheres at 20/50/100 dodges.

The common solution for this is the "Water Ball" method, which involves dodging in the cul de sac around the Qactuar pillar on the southern plains. Here you can stand in one place while dodging, eliminating enemy encounters. Lightning strikes here come with alternating 5 and 10 second gaps, so it's a predictable but slow method.

This method I demonstrate here is my preference. In the spot where I'm standing here, lightning comes in "double" strikes, every 5 seconds. So you dodge the first strike based on the flash. For the second strike, however, just ignore the lightning/flash/sounds, and instead press X during Tidus' "turning" animation. If you hit X while Tidus is turning you'll consistently dodge the second bolt. Next, while walking back to where you started, count to 5 at a reasonable pace. Once you get the timing right, you should finish counting right around the time you want to start watching for the next flash, then start the pattern over.

There are a few reasons I'm partial to this method. First, it cuts the number of bolts you have to time by the flash in half, since you can consistently time the second hit in a variety of ways. I prefer to do it based on Tidus' animation, but you can also just time it based on whenever you dodged the first bolt, since it's consistent.

Second, since you know there's always a 5 second break between the second bolt and the next occurrence of the first bolt, it gives you a period to "reset" your brain. Instead of struggling continuously to tune your senses and wait for the next lightning hit, you take a breather, tune in for about a second, then get one dodge and then one "automatic" freebie dodge. For me, this makes a big difference. The hardest part of dodging lightning, I've always found, is that after you do it for long enough your brain starts to fog. There's no way around this, it's just human nature. The longer you do a task the more your mind tries to optimize it, and for most of us this makes us less sharp. By making it so that I'm only doing one "reaction" dodge per cycle and taking 5-second resets in between, I find this method keeps me fresh longer than others, making it easy to hit higher numbers.

This also removes the threat of enemy encounters for the most part, since they'll only ever occur during your 5-second countdown period. Sometimes this can trip you up a little, since you have to estimate how far into the gap you are, but usually it's easy enough to pick back up with a regular "wait for the next flash" method.

I don't go for anything beyond the 50 dodges prize here, as it's still easier to perform this with No Encounters, but getting the 3 Strength Spheres given at 50 the first time you come to the Thunder Plains is game-breaking.

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