New Bodhum - 003AF

The introduction to the game is pretty much a cinematic with lots of button pushing. Hit auto-battle to get through the fights. Lightning gets healed any time her HP drops. You'll be introduced to your first Cinematic Action commands. They happen fairly slowly so you shouldn't miss them.

After the opening you'll be in control of Serah in the NORA house. Hop over the obstacles and head outside. Note: You'll come across many live triggers (dialogue trees). At the end of the story sequence you'll often get a treasure box or reward. There is a slightly different reward for the different answers.

After the introduction to Noel, fight your way through the Nektons and Meonektons. Auto-battle in the Slash & Burn Paradigm should work for these battles. Once the square is cleared it's time to go check out the crash site. You can speak to townspeople in the square if you'd like. When you're ready to go speak to Noel and then jump over the barrier. You'll be introduced to the Mog Clock feature. The trick here is to make sure you're facing the enemy you want to engage. If you miss you'll lose time as Serah completes her (lengthy) sword animation before you can attack again. Fight and jump your way along the main path. For small enemies you'll be fine with Double Trouble. For larger enemes switch to Slash & Burn. Note that you won't do a lot to damage the Pulsework Soldier until he's staggered so Slash & Burn is vital. Along the main path you'll find several treasure spheres. Sphere 1 contains 3 Potions. Sphere 2 contains a Map of New Bodhum. Sphere 3 contains a Librascope. Sphere 4 contains a Phoenix Down. The end of the path holds two treasure spheres - 300 gil and 2 Gysahl Greens. However, you'll likely trigger the boss battle with Gogmagog before you reach them.

Boss: Gogmagog Part 1

As this is your first boss battle, it shouldn't be too much trouble. At the start switch to Slash & Burn. Drive up the Chain Gauge until you stagger him and switch to Double Trouble for maximum damage. To keep from losing too much HP you can switch to Twin Shields (two sentinels) when he telegraphs his strong Swipe attack. You can also use a potion if you get desperate. At the end of the battle you'll get the Gogmagog Fragment Alpha

After the battle collect the two treasure spheres if you haven't already and then approach the gate in the crater.

When you wake up in the NORA house pick up your live trigger reward and head outside. Outside you can talk to the townsfolk but the only two of note are Labreau and a girl on the beach who instigates the Heart Prism Fragment Quest (see the Fragments section of this page.) Don't forget that you now have access to the Crystarium and Paradigm creation. You shouldn't need to deal with the latter, but make sure to spend those Crystarium points. If you have questions then you should check out our Crystarium Section.

Approach the rocky area by the waypoint marker to discover Lightning's Knife. Next head to the south where Mog will get excited upon seeing a cat. Examine the cat and then follow Mog until you catch up to the cat again. Next go up to the gathering of kids south-east of the NORA house. Talk to the boy with the speech bubble and then chase him as he takes off. You'll catch up to him at the Winding Way. When you talk to him you'll get a Live Trigger. You can keep selecting all the options until you hit the right one so don't be afraid to be a little crazy with your responses. When you're done you get Snow's Necklace. Head back to town but make sure that when Noel stops along the way you talk to him for an optional Live Trigger conversation.

Back at the NORA House head into Serah's room and examine the strange mirror. After the cut-scene where you acquire your first Artefact, the Giant's Artefact, head back toward the meteorite crater. Note at this point the previously closed shallows area is now open. You can pick up the Iron Bangle (make sure to equip it) and another sphere with a Phoenix Down. While you're in the shallows be cautious while fighting the Sarracenia enemy - they can be a little dangerous at this point in the game.

Before approaching the waypoint be sure to spend any Crystarium points you have. When you're ready go forward to take on Gogmagog one more time.

Boss: Gogmagog Part 2

You can use a similar strategy in this confrontation. However, Gogmagog now uses a barrier that reduced the amount of physical and magical damage it takes. Stick to Slash & Burn while this happens. You won't do much damage but you should be able to drive the chain gauge up to a stagger, at which point the barrier drops. If you've done a decent amount of fighting up to this point you should have no problem taking this boss out before the first stagger runs out. With any luck you'll even get a five star finish.

After defeating Gogmagog for good you'll get the Gogmagog Fragment Beta. After you're comfortable with your progression and have done the Heart Prism quest (if you choose to) head for the Gate to move on to Bresha Ruins 005AF.