Final Fantasy XIII – Cie'th Stone missions guide

Note: Missions 21 – 26 are required story missions and are impossible to miss as you ascend Taejin's Tower. 

Mission 21: A Tremulous Terror

Rank: C
Mark: Gelatitan
Cie'th Stone location: Taejin's Tower – Second Tier
Mark location: Taejin's Tower – Second Tier
Reward: Speed Sash



This is the first of the mandatory missions you’ll need to finish in order to ascend this tower.  You’ll receive this quest not from a Cie'th stone, but from a statue-like structure that promises to help you progress once you’ve killed the mark.  Gelatitan is another flan-like enemy, and probably the biggest you’ve yet encountered. It’s weak to Thunder attacks, so go after it with the appropriate elemental strikes. It’s also possible to sneak up on Gelatitan from behind with patience and timing, giving you a huge boost in your efforts to stagger it.

Mission 22: Infernal Machine

Rank: C
Mark: Ambling Bellows
Cie'th Stone location: Taejin's Tower – Second Tier
Mark location: Taejin's Tower – Second Tier
Reward: Particle Accelerator (x3)



You know the drill by now, right? This should be the last time you’ll ever see this guy as a mark, so savor your final meeting.

Mission 23: Natural Defenses

Rank: B
Mark: Gurangatch
Cie'th Stone location: Taejin's Tower – Second Tier
Mark location: Taejin's Tower – Second Tier
Reward: Warrior's Wristband



You’ve likely seen a few creatures very similar to Gurangatch wandering around the Archylte Steppe. If you’ve fought them already, you know their gimmick: They are resistant to damn near everything you throw at them until you stagger them, destroying their spiny shield and leaving them completely defenseless. Keep on the offensive to crack this one wide open without much trouble.

Mission 24: A Potent Sting

Rank: B
Mark: Mushussu
Cie'th Stone location: Taejin's Tower – Fifth Tier
Mark location: Taejin's Tower – Fifth Tier
Reward: Moonblossom Seed (x6)

Mushussu itself isn’t tough, but there are a couple of Yakshinis acting as backup that can debuff your team and cause some serious hurt – they should probably be your initial targets. Mushussu is resistant or immune to most elemental spells, so non-elemental offense (physical or magical) is the best strategy. A balanced party with a strong offense and a healer/buffer is the ideal team.

Mission 25: Spectral Haunt

Rank: B
Mark: Vetala
Cie'th Stone location: Taejin's Tower – Sixth Tier
Mark location: Taejin's Tower – Fifth Tier
Reward: Cobaltite



Much like Gurangatch, Vetala has some very tough defenses – it’ll laugh off almost every elemental spell you can toss at it, though physical strikes are somewhat more effective. It also has some pretty powerful spellcasting skills that can leave you hurting if you’re not sufficiently buffed. Your goal here is to smash through its barrier and then juggle it as much as possible while it’s staggered. Vetala can be tough if you’re unprepared, but don’t breathe a sigh of relief when it’s finished - it’s got relatives later on that are even more difficult.

Mission 26: So Shrill, the Cry

Rank: B
Mark: Penanggalan
Cie'th Stone location: Taejin's Tower – Fifth Tier
Mark location: Taejin's Tower – Sixth Tier
Reward: Diamond Bangle



Bats, bats everywhere! Penanggalan’s really not too tough, mainly because both he and his crew are weak to Ruin and Ruinga. Time to go Commando and blast these bats back to kingdom come!

Mission 27: Mithridates, the Lone

Rank: B
Mark: Mithridates
Cie'th Stone location: Taejin's Tower – The Cloven Spire
Mark location: Taejin's Tower – Ground Tier
Reward: Blaze Ring



This where things get a lot harder. Mithridates is the “hidden” hunt of the Tower – in order to encounter it, you’ll need to defeat all the other marks and set up the central elevator so that it can run from the tower apex to the bottom floor. Once that’s taken care of, run the elevator from the top to the bottom and you’ll encounter Mithridates immediately upon stepping outside.

Mithridates is tough, to boot. He’s nearly impossible to stagger and can hit you with poison, numerous debuffs, and some very damaging spell attacks. A Synergist is must to have on hand for at least part of this fight to counter its debuffs, and a Medic or two are essential.  You’ll want to Paradigm Shift regularly between focusing on recovery and attacking once your team can withstand a few more of Mithradates’s enchantments. He’s weak to Fire, Wind, Ice, and Water elements, so keep those spells coming – just don’t go too deep into the red, because he can easily go in for the kill.

Mission 28: Faded Glory

Rank: C
Mark: Ceratosaur
Cie'th Stone location: Oerba – Village Proper (Waystone)
Mark location: Oerba – Village Proper
Reward: Giant's Glove



Ceratosaurs aren’t terribly difficult enemies – they’re weak to Fire and Earth and don’t have too much HP, though staggering them’s a little tough. Still, there are a lot of them here, so use spells and strikes with a large area of effect to hit as many of them at once as you can.

Mission 29: Faltering Faith

Rank: B
Mark: Juggernaut
Cie'th Stone location: Mah'habara – Maw of the Abyss
Mark location: Taejin's Tower – The Palisades
Reward: Uraninite



You’ll essentially have to fight the Juggernaut twice for this mission: once to access the Cie'th stone (it’s guarded by a tough enemy similar to the mark), and once to actually complete the mission. The Juggernaut has heavy defenses and hits hard with fire attacks, so be sure to have a Synergist on hand to set up appropriate elemental protection. Fortunately, its stagger percentage is pretty low. Commando skills won’t work too well initially, so get your Ravagers in, stagger him, then Shift back in a melee attacker or two to go in for the launcher.

Mission 30: Syphax, the Insidious

Rank: B
Mark: Syphax
Cie'th Stone location: Archylte Steppe – The Haerii Oldroad (near the ring of Cie'th Stones)
Mark location: Mah'habara – Abandoned Dig

Another red barrier mission. You can only access the area where this mission sits on Chocobo-back – and there are many other fights, including the Titan quests, lying just behind this barrier. But you’ll have to tread back to Mah'habara first… and trek a long ways in to find Syphax’s lair.

This can be a hard fight – not due to any inherent strength of the enemies (they’re pretty weak), but because there are just so damn many of them – and they keep on coming! You’ll have to fell over thirty or forty of the smaller bat-like beasties before Syphax will even turn up, and they are proof that strength lies in numbers. Keep a Medic on hand to make sure they don’t suck out too much of your HP. Syphax will reveal itself once enough of its underlings have been decimated, and while he has a decent-sized HP buffer, he also had a fairly low stagger percentage and a weakness to wind elemental attacks.

Skip to:
Missions 1 - 10
Missions 11 - 20
Missions 21 - 30
Missions 31 - 40
Missions 41 - 50
Missions 51 - 60
Missions 61 - 64