The Calm Lands attractions are available as soon as you reach the Calm Lands in Chapter 1. When you first arrive, two attendants will stand next to each hover, and you can speak to either of them to start one of the mini-games on offer. There are two attendants at the beginning because of the infighting between Open Air, Inc. and Argent, Inc., which is related to the Publicity Campaign.
Publicity and Marriage Campaigns Side Quests
Using the button to speak to NPCs about the attractions in the Calm Lands and to build interest in a marriage proposal for the hapless bachelor.
This guide recommends completing the Publicity Campaign to combine all your credits and make traveling around the Calm Lands easier before you start playing any of these mini-games. The prizes for these mini-games aren’t worth going out of your way for, so there’s no point wasting time racking up credits.
Obtaining Credits
You can buy credits from any ride attendant around the Calm Lands. Credits cost 10 Gil each, and you can buy enough directly from the ride attendants if you don’t want to play the mini-games to win the prize you’re seeking.
In the first few chapters, before you’ve completed the Publicity Campaign, you’ll have to buy credits with one specific faction. After you complete the campaign, the credits will combine into one unified pool.
Mini-Game Locations
Use the map below to help you locate each of the mini-games. Note that you can select the Gagazet location to get to “Feed the Monkey” and the Macalania location to reach “Gull Force.”
Most of the mini-games are games of chance, but you can use the table below to look up tips for mastering each:
Lupine Dash
Lupine Dash is essentially greyhound racing but in a Final Fantasy game. Bet on a dog that you think will come in first. It’s entirely random, except you can place bets that shift the odds in your favor.
A “Win Bet” involves picking a winner, while a “Double Bet” involves picking both first and second in any order (a “Quinella”).
The payout includes your initial stake; for example, a 5-credit bet at 1.67 returns 8, so your profit is 3.
The favorite to win tends to finish in the top two nearly 90% of the time, so your best bet is a “Double Bet” that involves the lupine with the best odds.
If you look at the dog’s stats, try to focus on Flux, then Rally, then Speed.
Sky Slots
Sky Slots is a slot machine-style game where you can increase your odds by taking your time and pressing the button at the exact right moment.
Practice your timing and memorize the easy-to-spot fiends (such as the bright red Death Daubers).
The reels will sometimes continue a little further beyond when you press the button, so aim to press it early if anything.
This is the one mini-game where, if you get consistently better at it, you can tilt the odds in your favor and rack up credits without spending Gil.
Reptile Run
Reptile Run is a Frogger-style mini-game where you have to run a gecko from the bottom of the screen to the top while dodging fiends in your way.
You have three movement options: left, right, or middle; the gecko always moves forward. You can’t move sideways or backwards, and you can’t take too long or the timer will expire.
The Level 4 map you start on is always the same, so you can memorize a clear path to the end to make things easier. Take your winnings after you reach the end, then start again.
Just like the Chocobo Training mini-games in the Calm Lands in Final Fantasy X, the controls are a bit janky in this game, so be prepared to be frustrated.
Feed the Monkey
Feed the Monkey is only available if Argent, Inc. won the Publicity Campaign. Keep the monkey in the air by feeding it fruit from one of five chests, without letting its weight drop to 5 or climb to 100.
The fruits in play are shown at the top of the screen, so check whether any of them could push the monkey’s weight out of range before you open a chest.
If a bad fruit is possible, call Rikku for heavier fruit or Paine for lighter fruit, or quit and take your payout.
Your payout depends on how many fruits the monkey eats: 10 fruits returns your stake, and 20 returns just over seven times it.
Opening the same chest three times in a row brings out the Forbidden Fruit (+150 weight), so switch to a different chest on the third turn.
Gull Force
Gull Force is only available if Open Air, Inc. won the Publicity Campaign. It’s a shooting gallery where you fly a gull and shoot the real targets out of each wave of five.
You get one shot per wave, and each round has a minimum number of hits. Fall short of that minimum and you lose your whole bet.
The real targets spin. In Stage 3 the fakes spin too, but in the opposite direction.
You can bet up to 1,000 credits, and the payout climbs to 10 times your bet by round 2-4 and 200 times by round 3-4.
Pausing the game just as the targets start to spin makes it much easier to spot the real ones in Stage 3.
Prizes
So what do you get for wasting some time on these mini-games? You can turn in your credits for the following prizes, or buy credits directly when you have enough Gil and take the prizes without winning the mini-games. Here they are: