The game continues with Zidane in the Guest Room of the castle. Start off by speaking to Mogki and selecting the Mognet option to pick up a letter for Kumool.
Exit the Guest Room and take the elevator to the Upper Level. Walk forward into the main hall for a few cutscenes.
Cid, Hilda and the team will discuss the next course of action which involves traveling to Ipsen’s Castle on the Forgotten Continent in order to break the seal in the Shimmering Isles and get to Kuja’s world: Terra.
Zidane will meet up with Beatrix in Alexandria during the sequence. Beatrix will give him a Garnet accessory for the Princess and Zidane will finally locate her in the ‘Resting Place’. The team will now have access to an Airship - the Hilda Garde III - and can complete a number of side quests at this point in the game.
Your next destination to continue the story is Ipsen’s Castle. You can head directly there now if preferred. Optional side quests are included below and are not required in order to complete the game:
Use this opportunity to do more frog catching at each of the Qu’s Marshes to complete the Frog Catching side quest.
Deliver the Kupo Nut in your inventory to Moguta in Gizamaluke’s Grotto to complete another part of the Kupo Nut side quest.
You can find another Friendly Creature called Garuda if you climb the vines near where Moguta is standing (in Gizamaluke’s Grotto) and search the Popos Heights area.
Add Quina and Vivi to your party and return to Quan’s Dwelling to watch a short cutscene and then examine the grandfather clock out on the dock to obtain another pair of Running Shoes.
Return to Lindblum Castle and land the Hilda Garde III by hovering over Lindblum and pressing the Button. Turn around immediately and choose to “Board, but go to the bridge”. Climb the ladder on the bridge to find an Elixir.
You should catch up on the Chocograph hunting side quest by making sure that you have found Chocographs #1 through #19.
Locate the first 4 out of the 5 total Chocobo Dive Spots that you can find right now.
Lastly, you should track down the first 3 Chocobo Mountain Crack locations.
There are some additional Chocographs you can obtain as well…
It is time to complete more of the Chocobo Hot & Cold and Chocographs side quests.
Return to the Chocobo’s Forest and the Chocobo’s Lagoon and dig in each of those areas until you find all of the Chocograph Pieces that you need. You may have already found some but it is only at this point in the game where it becomes possible to obtain all six.
The last two that you can obtain now that you have the Hilda Garde III are available in the Chocobo’s Lagoon but you may need to visit the Chocobo’s Forest if you are missing any from that location.
Mene will tell you when there is nothing left to find in each of the areas. All six of the Chocograph Pieces will create:
Obtaining Chocograph #20 will give your Chocobo the Sky Ability, the last of the abilities that he can obtain. A Chocobo with the Sky Ability can take off and land in forested areas which allows it to fly anywhere in Gaia. Press the Button while in a forest to start flying.
Obtaining the Sky Ability will not unlock any new Chocographs in either the Chocobo’s Lagoon or the Chocobo’s Forest but you can now reach the Chocobo’s Paradise. The Chocobo’s Paradise is located in the northwestern corner of the map in the middle of the ocean. Fly your Chocobo over to the island (which does not appear on the mini-map) and use a Dead Pepper on the crack in the mountain to gain entry.
There isn’t much that you can do at the Chocobo’s Paradise. You can challenge Fat Chocobo to a Tetra Master match to obtain a Chocobo Card. You can return here and speak to Fat Chocobo once you have found all of the Chocobo treasures and he will give you back any cards that were accidentally discarded (if your inventory was full).
You can return here after you have obtained all of the Chocographs for a short cutscene involving Choco and you can then start the Chocobo Beaches side quest. For now though, it is time to travel to the last place where you can obtain more Chocographs.
The final destination is the Chocobo’s Air Garden. The hints to its location can be found on the Chocograph Pieces that you dug up in the Chocobo’s Forest and Chocobo’s Lagoon.
To view the Chocograph Pieces, enter the menu screen and check the “Key” items tab in the Items section. Select each of the Chocographs to read the hints.
There are six different spots that you can search but only one will have a shadow allowing you to reach the Chocobo’s Air Garden. Use the map below to help you pinpoint the locations:
Use a Dead Pepper while flying over the shadow to be taken to the Chocobo’s Air Garden.
You can now obtain and find the following Chocographs from the Chocobo Air Garden:
And don’t forget to grab Chocograph #22: Outer Island 2 which you can now reach as well.
Find and track down all of the remaining Chocograph treasures. This should fully complete the Chocograph side quest and you should now have obtained all of the rewards from this side quest. Congratulations!
There is another Friendly Monster that you can reach once you have obtained a Chocobo with the Sky Ability. Make sure that you save beforehand though as the enemies on that island are extremely difficult and make sure that you have found all of the other Friendly Monsters by referring to the Friendly Monster side quest page (using the link above).
Travel to Vile Island (shown in the screenshot below) and wander around in the forested areas until you encounter Yan. Yan will just ask “Have you met the others?” and run away if you have not seen all of the other Friendly Monsters. Give Yan a Diamond and the Friendly Monsters side quest is complete.
You can also now reach the hidden and optional area of Daguerreo. Click on the link below for more information:
Take this time to return to Treno and head back to the Queen’s House to turn in the Stellazzios that you have picked up from the last time you were here. This should include:
You need to return 10 of the Stellazzios in order to obtain the Earning the Queen’s Favor Trophy. Assuming that you have been following this walkthrough and picking up all of the Stellazzios along the way, you should be at 10 Stellazzios at this point in the game.
You can also complete another round of fighting at the Knight’s House (Weapon Shop) against Amdusias. Make sure you equip Zidane with his strongest weapon which should be the Sargatanas from Daguerreo and his strongest armor and the battle should be fairly easy.
You can use the Bird Killer ability to make the battle easier and use the Auto-Regen ability to heal up from attacks. Amdusias has approximately 6,578 HP. The prize for defeating it are another pair of Running Shoes.
It’s time to move on to Ipsen’s Castle. Jump back in to the Hilda Garde III and fly to the Forgotten Continent. Ipsen’s Castle is marked on the mini-map and is pointed out in the screenshot below.