Gil doesn’t play as important of a role in Final Fantasy X as it does in some of the other games in the Final Fantasy series, but there are a few times when you may need a fair bit of cash, including…

• Buying the supplies for auto-abilities for customization
• Purchasing Music Spheres and Movie Spheres in the Luca Sphere Theater
• Initiating battles in the Monster Arena

Unfortunately, there are no tricks like the Item Duplication trick in Final Fantasy VII, the Triple Triad card game in Final Fantasy VIII, or the Cotton Robe Synthesis Trick in Final Fantasy IX. So what methods are there for earning gil quickly?

Auto-Abilities

There are some auto-abilities that you can add to your weapons to increase the amount of gil that you earn. These are passive methods of earning gil, though, so they won’t immediately resolve any issues that you have.

That being said, if you utilize auto-abilities early enough, you can accumulate enough items and gil that it won’t be as much of a problem for you later in the game.

There are two auto-abilities you’ll want to focus on:

• Master Thief
• Gillionaire

Master Thief will increase the effectiveness of using Steal by increasing the quantity and value of items that you steal. You can then sell them back to any of the merchants to add to your gil stockpile.

Gillionaire simply increases the amount of gil dropped after each battle. Rikku’s Godhand weapon automatically has the “Gillionaire” auto-ability added to it when it is fully charged up.

Mimics in the Omega Ruins

This method isn’t exactly efficient or expedient, but defeating Mimics in the Omega Ruins is one way to obtain gil. Mimics start disguised as treasure chests on the field of battle. Use Steal to “open them up” and then defeat them. They drop 50,000 gil after they have been defeated.

The Monster Arena

Alternatively, you can simply defeat powerful enemies that become available in the Monster Arena. You will need to do this automatically if you plan on leveling your characters through the Sphere Grid and challenging any of the superbosses at the end of the game.

If this is the case, make sure that you are battling fiends efficiently by defeating the ones that provide other rewards that you might need, like Power Spheres, Fortune Sphere, etc.