Dark Yojimbo

Dark Yojimbo is one of the Dark Aeons and can be fought as soon as you have completed the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth and obtained Yojimbo, then left and re-entered the cavern. The airship is not required, and some players farm his equipment drops before even facing Seymour Flux. You can find Dark Yojimbo in the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth.

Note that the Dark Aeons only appear in the International, PAL, and HD Remaster versions of Final Fantasy X. They are not present in the original North American PlayStation 2 release.

Location

Travel back to the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth. Walk to the back of the cave or use the teleportation pad to warp directly to the back of the cave. Make your way back towards the front of the cave, and a Yevon Soldier will ambush you and summon Dark Yojimbo to attack your party.

You must defeat Dark Yojimbo five separate times as you work your way out of the cave, and the game only counts your victories while you remain inside the cavern. You can safely use the Save Sphere between battles to heal up, but several things will reset the count back to the first battle: reloading a save, getting a Game Over, leaving the cavern, using the teleporter back to the entrance, and even opening the Blitzball menu at the Save Sphere.

Dark Yojimbo will drop items after every one of the five battles, not just the final one, which makes him an excellent target for farming Dark Matters and endgame equipment. Just make sure that you win all five battles if your goal is to unlock Penance, as Dark Yojimbo does not count as defeated until the fifth battle is complete.

Battle Preparation

Each of the Dark Aeons, including Dark Yojimbo, is considered a superboss, and they are some of the strongest enemies that you can fight in the game. As such, you will need to ensure that your party is fully leveled, has their best weapons, and has their stats maximized as much as possible. Refer to the Advanced area of the Tips and Tricks section for additional details.

Also note that Dark Yojimbo has an extremely high Luck stat, just like Dark Bahamut, which means that it will dodge most of your physical attacks (in Final Fantasy X, an enemy’s Luck stat reduces your characters’ chance to hit, even with maxed Accuracy). You can counter this by ensuring that your characters have a very high Luck stat, but grinding Luck Spheres and Fortune Spheres can be a painstakingly long process. High Luck is not required but will make the battle much easier.

Preparing for battle against Dark Yojimbo involves a few additional steps that are similar to those for battling Dark Bahamut. Ensure that you equip at least one of your party members with the Stoneproof or the Ribbon auto-abilities added through customization. You will also need to have Auto-Phoenix and Auto-Protect equipped. Your party members will likely be KO’d several times during the battle.

Dark Yojimbo Stats

HP: 1,600,000
Overkill: 99,999
Elemental Affinities: None
Immune to Sensor

Battle Strategy

Dark Yojimbo has several attacks that it can use, all at random:

Kozuka: targets a single character and inflicts Full Break and Slow
Daigoro: targets a single character and can petrify/shatter a character
Wakizashi: targets all characters
Zanmato (Dark Yojimbo’s Overdrive): targets all characters

Zanmato is the most dangerous attack because it removes the Auto-Life status effect. If it hits your characters, it’s pretty much “Game Over.” The most effective way to survive it is to defeat Dark Yojimbo before it gets to use its Overdrive or to have Yuna summon an Aeon to take the blow of Zanmato.

Focus on using Quick Hit to get as many attacks in as you can. Dark Yojimbo will dodge many of the attacks, as mentioned above, but keep working away until you bring him down.

Items and Rewards

You can Steal the following items during the battle:

• Stamina Tonic (x2) (common)
• Elixir (rare)

And Dark Yojimbo will drop the following items when it is defeated:

• Dark Matter (common)
• Master Sphere (rare)

Dark Yojimbo will also always drop a weapon or piece of armor with three or four ability slots after each battle. His weapons can include abilities such as Break Damage Limit, Counterattack, Magic Counter, and Overdrive → AP, while his armor can include Ribbon, Break HP Limit, and Curseproof.