Help! Fira/Watera/Thundara etc.

Can anyone give me a hand here?

I've just passed the Thunder plains and had a battle with the Al Bhed' Machina with the little magic-disabler hover thingie. And lost. Twice.

I read up about it and realised I really needed Lulu's advanced spells - Fira, Thundara etc. - instead of Fire, Thunder... I've been trying to get these for ages but I can't seem to unlock these on Lulu's sphere chart.

I do have abilities spheres and I also have the key to unlock the first sphere lock... so why can't I get the spells? As I currently stand, I can't choose the 'Move' option... just 'Use' and all the options on that are grey. Have I taken the wrong route on the sphere chart? Or do I need to increase Lulu's levels through battles?

Fira/etc. aren't behind a lock, as far as I know. You just need to keep gaining sphere levels until you make your way over to the spells... you DO understand how to use the Sphere Grid, don't you? If you got this far without figuring that out, I'm impressed.

That said, you don't NEED those spells. Have an Aeon take the Mana Beam for you (have it use defend or whatever it is called) and use Wakka and Rikku to kill the Negator (Have rikku use electro or lightning marbles - you should have plenty if you were stealing on the Thunder Plains)

If you can't choose the Move option, then yes, you need to gain AP through battle.

And uh.....Prepare for the next battle. Just a tip. The first time I lost a battle was there. Two times. He's badass. Use ??? a lot.

Maybe you went the wrong way along the sphere grid. Try back-tracking. But you don't need any unlock spheres to get her tier 3 elemental spells.

you are that far in the game and you dont have the -ra spells yet!!!!

i had all of those before the mushroom rook sinspawn battles. i am up to the same place as you and i already have Firaga etc.

i think you realy need to level up....... A LOT!!!

also this is my third time thru, im using the expert sphere grid... a lot easier to get lulus spell on that one. shes one of my staple characters.

Thanks, it's sorted now : )

just a thought.
If you have the international version of the game you might have chosen the expert sphere grid at the start. That would explain how you could have taken the wrong route on the sphere grid.
If so I'd restart with the standard grid cos you don't get as many overall nodes on the expert one which means you can't max your stats as much if your looking to do that.