It’s a new world with new rules, especially when it comes to equipment. Unlike prior FF entries, gear in FFX has several slots that can be filled with any other number of abilities. You can’t control the placement of these abilities until a ways into the journey, so in the meantime you’ll have to take what Spira gives you from chests, drops, and shops. That said, there’s still plenty of great early-game weapons to snatch up. Let’s take a look at the better weapons you can get early in your adventure, specifically which ones are the best for each character in your party.
Tidus – Brotherhood
Tidus obtains the Brotherhood sword before even officially starting his journey out of Besaid – and it will sustain him for a good, long while. It starts with a healthy strength +5%. But after a certain point in the story, it upgrades to strength +10% with Sensor and Waterstrike. It’s really a very solid choice for a weapon that you’ll stay with for a while. Possibly right up until you can get Break Damage Limit. How To Get: Brotherhood is obtained as part of the story, so you’ll get it by default.
Wakka – TKO
Right after traversing Mushroom Rock, Tidus and crew get caught up in the Crusader’s risky Operation Mi’ihen. During this conflict, our old friend O’aka XXIII is there to sell sundries and weapons. One of the weapons he has on offer is Wakka’s TKO ball. The TKO has Stonetouch built into it, which has a fair chance of instantly petrifying an enemy (which is a KO). On its own, this is pretty cool. But when paired with Wakka’s high accuracy it becomes pretty amazing. A few good smacks with this ball and your enemies could actually crumble at your feet. How To Get: Buy from O’aka XXIII after Mushroom Rock Road.
Auron – Fireblade
When you get to the Mi’ihen Highroad for the first time, you’ll find a whole new set of roaming fiends. A few of these newcomers stand out for having higher-than-average drop rates for weapons and gear. The best one is the Bomb. Taking some time to farm the thermal creatures to get Auron’s Fireblade weapon will be a big help for the next few areas and bosses (and the grind will more than likely get you plenty of AP and a few armor pieces too, which never hurts). Auron isn’t known for his outstanding accuracy. He’s more a big swing, big hit kind of guy. So adding elemental damage that many fiends fear is a great idea for the early game. How To Get: Farm Bomb enemies in Mi’ihen Highroad.
Kimahri – Hypnos Spear
Kimahri’s accuracy is almost on par with Wakka, which also makes him a good candidate for status infliction. The best early-game spear to get for this purpose is the Hypnos Spear(also called the Dream Lance), which comes with Sleepstrike. As you probably assumed, Sleepstrike puts enemies to sleep. And it’s far more effective than the weaker Sleeptouch ability. As long as enemies are snoozing, they skip their turns. But getting the spear requires a bit of loading and reloading, because it’s a drop from the boss of Operation Mi’ihen: Sinspawn Gui, specifically the head. Practice getting good at defeating him (with some grinding) to get your spear, and Kimahri will become a tremendous tool for subduing random battles. Also, all this practice might help you land an Overkill, which will give you a considerable AP boost as well. How To Get: A rare drop from Sinspawn Gui. There isn’t any data online on the exact drop rate (that I could find), but this thread has more info from players that got this spear from Sinspawn.
Yuna – Rod of Wisdom
The Cloister of Trials are all those puzzle-filled holy sanctuaries of the Fayth. And they’re the goal for every summoner on Spira. In every Cloister of Trials there are two in-game objectives: To get to the Chamber of the Fayth, and to find the hidden treasure. The latter is usually locked behind optional extended parts of the Cloister’s puzzles, and are always worth it. Besaid Island’s Cloister, the first you solve your way through, has the Rod of Wisdom. It’s an optional prize, so you’ll have to specifically solve a separate part of the puzzle for this. But for such an early weapon, it’s absolutely worth getting. This comes with Sensor and Magic +8%, which are really helpful to have before even leaving Besaid. How To Get: A hidden treasure in the Besaid Cloister of Trials. Follow this video guide to get it.
Lulu – Magical Mog
Lulu doesn’t ask for much when it comes to weapons.
She’s not too concerned with accuracy or physical traits in battle.
All Lulu needs is magic power, and the more, the better.
If you’ve ever played FFX before then you know her magic speaks for itself. But what about an early weapon for her?
The humble Magical Mog weapon that you can procure from the Besaid weapon shop is actually a perfect fit, and offers a simple Magic +3% – which is enough take you all the way to the point when you can customize abilities onto whatever stuffed creature she wants to carry around.
How To Get: Simply buy one from the Besaid weapon shop before leaving the island.
Rikku – Break Claw
After Rikku joins your party, you get the invaluable ability to customize weapons and armor.
Unfortunately, being so early in the game, you won’t have a lot of items to make anything too great. So you’ll still be largely at the whim of chests, drops, and stores.
However, there are a few things you can do – one of which greatly helps Rikku (who starts out pretty weak and needs all the help she can get).
Right after the point she joins your party, turn around and backtrack to the Djose Highroad to fight Basilisks. This can take a little while, but it’s so worth it.
Rikku can steal Petrify Grenades from them.
And ten is all it takes to customize Stonetouch onto her weapon (or sixty Petrify Grenades for Stokestrike).
Either way, this makes her another character that can petrify enemies, and in turn, finish them quickly.
If you wanna go crazy and steal 60 grenades to customize a weapon with Stonestrike, be my guest. That would make the petrify effect nearly 100% effective!
How To Get: Get Rikku’s “Steal” ability, then go back to the Djose Highroad. Steal Petrify grenades from Basilisks (x10 or x60) to customize Stonetouch or Stonestrike onto her default weapon.
