Macalania Woods
Welcome back to Macalania Woods! It looks the same as it did in Final Fantasy X, including the sparkling path that offers a shortcut that leads from the south end of Macalania right through to the north. Just like before, you won’t have to deal with random enemy encounters when you pass over it (although there are sometimes forced battles, which will be pointed out).
A short scene with Bayra, the first of the three spirit musicians of Macalania Woods, plays automatically as soon as you enter the woods. Nothing is required on your part.
This pathway that lets you skip sections of the woods may prove to be pretty helpful as you travel through Macalania Woods in Chapter 1. Save your game at the 
Save Sphere, because there’s a good chance that you’ll run into…
Warning
The enemies in Macalania Woods are pretty tough, and none more so than the Amorphous Gel enemies that roam around these forests. The trouble they present in these early chapters is that they have an attack that automatically reduces one of your party members down to 1 HP, and they use magic attacks that hit all three party members.
As a result, there’s a high likelihood of your party members being KO’d and your party simply falling behind on healing through the damage, even if you have a 
White Mage active and present. Unfortunately, your best bet at this stage is to either Escape or Flee.
Start by heading east, to the far right, from the Save Sphere location. You’ll find yourself in an area with two guards. Continue to the right again to find yourself in an area with four entrances and exits, shown in the screenshot below, towards the spring.
Spring
Head south into the next area to find the second of the three musicians, Donga. Have Yuna speak to him and he will disappear, reuniting with his crew.
Note that the guide has checkboxes for many of the interactions here in Macalania Woods because, technically, they are all individually skippable. This makes the page a little busier than some of the others, but it’s meant to make sure you don’t miss anything.
Travel back to Macalania Woods South, which is the area with the Save Sphere at the entrance to Macalania Woods.
Macalania Woods South
There are two paths you can take to get through the woods. The shining pathway on the left, a.k.a. the shortcut, or the regular pathway to the right of it. This time, take the regular pathway that leads into the Central and North Woods. As a reminder, you may run into an Amorphous Gel in this area, so be prepared to disengage from battle if you need to.
Continue along the trail until you come across the next musician, Pukutak. Talk to her; she will also disappear, reunite with the other musicians, and then you can keep following the trail.
Lake Road
The Lake Road is a four-way path, and if you played Final Fantasy X recently, you may remember where each of the paths leads already. If not, you’ll have to make do with the descriptions in this guide. Right now, for example, you’re going to take the pathway leading northeast to another area called the “Spring,” where you fought Spherimorph.
Spring
Your only task in this area is to reconnect with Tromell and speak with him four times. Each time you speak to him, he says something different, and after the final conversation, he disappears. Each of these conversations is missable for this chapter.
You can speak to Tromell a total of four times, even though one of them doesn’t trigger a Story Completion Percent.
At the conclusion of the conversation, Tromell will disappear as mentioned, but not before giving you Paine’s special Dressphere, 
Full Throttle. If you skip Tromell here, you get one more chance in Chapter 2 (talk to him four times at the spring) to receive her Dressphere, but the three Story Completion lines above are only available now. You also receive the 
Unerring Path Garment Grid.
Helpful Hint
This hint appears in the tutorial message that pops up, but it’s worth reiterating here. You can transform each character into their Special Dressphere once they’ve activated every Dressphere on whichever Garment Grid they have active. This new Unerring Path Garment Grid that you’ve received makes that extremely easy to do; in fact, that’s its only purpose.
Just add two Dresspheres to it, switch between the two roles during battle, and party members can enter their Special Dressphere… well, only Paine can right now, since she’s the only one who has her Special Dressphere.
Head back out to Lake Road and go north toward Lake Macalania.
Lake Macalania - Agency Front
A scene automatically plays out once you reach the Agency Front involving a bunch of Al Bhed trying to track down O’aka XXIII. You’ll see him sneak up behind you and then run away. The scene also awards you an 
Al Bhed Primer automatically. Once it ends, follow him back south into the Lake Road area.
Lake Road
O’aka will already be halfway down the road by the time you enter this area, but it’s time for your next Mission…
Mission: Follow That O’aka!
Instead of following O’aka back into Macalania Woods, where you’re bound to be thrown into many random fiend encounters, take the shining pathway. You can reach it by going southeast from this location, and you can follow it through both Macalania Woods trails, avoiding encounters… except for one.
For some reason, if you take this path, you’ll be forced to battle an Amorphous Gel at the intersection that leads to the old ‘Celestial Mirror’ area in Final Fantasy X. Although this is a forced battle, you can still Escape or Flee from this fight.
Once you get back to the Save Sphere, head east towards the lone Guado that was standing there, and you’ll see O’aka run away again. Follow him east, and then east again, and this time, instead of heading south towards the Spring where Donga was standing, head north to the location pictured below.
You’ll find O’aka up in the trees. Finding O’aka will net you some Story Completion Percent.
Locating O’aka will award you some Story Completion Percent, and you’ll need to engage with him a few more times throughout the story, so make sure you complete this step.
Talk to O’aka again, and he will tell you about his recent troubles. Make sure you let him hide aboard the airship when you get the option. This unlocks scenes aboard the Celsius and scenes in later chapters that you’ll need for 100% Story Completion. Completing the Mission also earns you the Ice Queen Garment Grid.
Speaking of which, head back up to the Celsius and speak with O’aka XXIII in the cabin.
You’ll notice a debt tracker that tracks O’aka’s 100,000 Gil debt. That’s definitely a lot! And while you are going to make sure that you get that debt down to zero before you proceed to Chapter 3, you don’t have to worry about it much for now. You can make things a bit easier, though, if you make any of your item purchases from O’aka directly; so if you need 
Potions, Phoenix Downs, etc., make sure you buy from him. He offers the following:
His prices are about normal while he’s paying off his debt, but once it’s cleared, they drop to roughly a tenth of that, making him the cheapest shop in Spira. That’s the payoff for clearing the debt in Chapter 2. For now, it’s time to move on to the next location.
Checking the “Macalania Woods Complete” box adds the Story Completion Percent for the automatic scenes in Macalania Woods.