So I was playing Sphere Break in FFX-2. I was doing all of these crazy moves, getting a bunch of edge coins, but then something happened — I ran out of edge coins, I got too risky with my moves, and I lost — over and over — to Shinra.

But when I played my winning game, it was using an easy strategy that I have used over and over to both win the tournament and get the 10 victories that unlock an achievement.

This posts shares the strategy that I discovered while streaming FFX-2 on my Twitch channel.

Why Sphere Break

You need to get some level of mastery with Sphere Break so that you can win the Sphere Break tournament in Chapter 3.

Why win the tournament in Chapter 3? It’s for a few reasons:

• To get 100% completion
• To unlock Lady Luck, which allows you to get infinite money
• To get infinite money, so that you can easily pay off O’aka
• To get the achievement for winning 10 games

Everything You Must Do With Sphere Break

For 100% completion and all achievements, you must do a few things with Sphere Break:

• Learn about Sphere Break in chapter 1 by talking to Rin in the locker room in Luca
• Win the Sphere Break tournament
• Win 10 Sphere Break games for an achievement

Unlock Sphere Break

To unlock sphere break and begin practicing, you can speak to Rin on the right-side locker room of the Blitzball stadium in Luca during Chapter 1.

I believe you do not need to unlock Sphere Break before the tournament in Chapter 3. You just won’t have any practice beforehand.

Practice Sphere Break

To win the Sphere Break tournament, I recommend practicing in Chapter 2. When you get to Chapter 3, you get thrown right into the tournament. There is no time to practice then. You’ll be doing it live.

Time Your Save Spheres

During the tournament, be sure to save between each game. If you have autosave turned on, quit the game before you lose so that your start point will be right at the beginning of the Sphere Break game.

This was especially valuable when playing against Shinra. Do not let the game go to the cut scene after losing.

Easy Sphere Break Strategy

Here is an easy strategy that I used to win the tournament:

To win Sphere Break, get the highest coin chain (or ‘echo’) possible by selecting only two coins each turn.

This is a great strategy for multiple reasons:

• You don’t run out of coins
• The math does not get too complicated
• You can think of the move before time runs out
• You can almost always succeed
• When in doubt, you can rely on your entry coins

I was losing over and over by getting a lot of coins at once. If you use this strategy, you run out of coins and can more easily get tripped up. My brain may have felt big, but I was losing.

In the end, I beat Shinra with just two coins per turn. You can even use two entry coins, as long as you keep your chain. Chains have exponential growth to your points and nearly guarantees a win, so long as you don’t get thrown a one.

Ways to Pair Two Coins

It is easy to come up with just two coins. You can even use just your entry coins, as long as you keep the streak (but for that turn, you would not earn any points).

Here are some combos you can make with only entry coins used in the tournament (2, 3, 5, and 6):

• 2 = 3 + 5
• 4 = 3 + 5
• 5 = 2 + 3
• 7 = 5 + 2
• 8 = 3 + 5
• 9 = 6 + 3

As you can see, you can do almost any combo with two coins you know will always be there with the exception of 1, 3, and 6.

Of course, if you can use an edge coin, always choose the edge, but you have this option in your pocket if you get backed into a corner.

Here’s how you should think about the other numbers:

• 1 is always losing. Choose any coin and take the reset on your echo.
• 3 is tricky because it’s easy to accidentally choose a 3 multiple. Avoid 3, 6, and 9 as your first coin. And try finding a ‘4’ in the edge coins. Both 4 + 8, 4 + 2, and 4 + 5 work.
• 6 is tricky in the same way as 3, but this time you can do 3 + 3, which is nice.

Cons to This Strategy

If you get a 1 center number, you lose your echo instantly. There is nothing you can do about this (at least, that I am aware of). You just need to take the L and start your echo streak over. If you can’t recover your streak or you get yet another 1, you have to just restart your game.

The chances of this happening is not uncommon. But your odds are better winning than they are losing. While playing 10 games in a row with this strategy, I won every game without having to reset.

Another con to this strategy is that you are simply chaining with a very low number of coins. If you chained with three or four coins, you would gain points faster and could win faster. However, the math is more challenging and you may have less coins to work with.

Get Advice

If you are still looking for more strategy tips, join my stream and say ‘hi’. I’d love to help you on your FFX-2 journey.