Advice for after you leave the Barriym Passage. (Obviously filled with spoilers!)
To the novice player of FFXII
Some tips. Do not go after Thextera before the castle breakin. There is a reason I am saying this. You will get a party to use to fight him. To the gamelog!
After escaping the Bariym Passage.
You will see a being that is complaining about his boss being trapped. (The merchant from the start of the passage is his boss? Hahah!)
Keep this is mind, it might be a sidequest. Look over the side of the cliffs in the first 'open' area of the eastersands, to the north. There is a second entrance, if you go there it will be 'securily locked'. Continue north.
Eventually you will enter a region named for the river to the north. Go in the village on the river (to the north of the river's path.) There is a moogle (carteographer) that is behind a hut that will sell you a map for a reasonable price. Buy it.. you cannot sell wares yet, so I hope you were gathering gil from random boxes. This map is useful, but the ferry is out and the village men are stuck on the upper banks, so be sure to take note.
To the southeast of the region is a entrance (on the map I told you to buy.. if not explore the edges..) with a entrance to a area off the map. Although not named logically (iirc) this area has a crystal and connects to the fortress of Nabila. First purchasing stop outside the nomad village.
Yes.. your first Gambit merchant of the game*. He's in the back of the first area, this is who you are looking for. Buy the gambits, most do not have much cost (and again for me.. I had the gil to waste on all of them.) There is a armor merchant, and a spell merchant with a very decent selection.... if you bought some of them from the merchant in the Barryim passage (hehe) then a few of the ones offered here will be greyed out. (*Since he's selling the 'Ally: all' gambit piece.. I assume visiting him first would net you the gambit system if you took Penelo to see him too.)
-A hint on licences. If somebody in your party has a license and a spell to go with it, other party members may be able to simple accquire the liscenes and accquire the spells. (The spells will be white text in the explination box for the other character's liscence 'page'.) Take atvantage of this, buy first, then purchase licences from the boards of your three selectable character. (Basch cannot accquire skills. Too much dungeon air. :p )
Also look at armors and weapons. (I lastly bought Fran a Silver Bow.. then worked her to get the licence.) By this time I had no monies.. but you can go hunt for more easily killable wolves or other beasts and get the loot to sell for monies.
It's also a good idea if you've not killed the second mobhunt to take care of (Thextera) now. You can go to the Giza plains via a connection in the south of the eastersands, then use a southery connection to the westersands. The creatures that are the master race for that 'Rogue Tomato' are here.. and easy to kill if you have leveled up (, not much harder than a Cactile.)
(A great area for wolves us the area you find Thextera in the weastersands.. it's a stretch, but the area has only wolves and thus, you can collect pelts easily.)
Again... collect any drops ASAP.. this is my key to success. There are some large bird like creatires that are a menance. I can kill them, and they are weak to thunder. (If you took my advice... everybody has it and Vaan can cast at them while the otehrs cast cure all around. Even then I started fleeing through areas, only stopping to get wolf pelts as I saw fit.)
On Thextera
I was lucky that I managed to get a normal wolf protecting the target away, and with four characters and quick healing had no problems. Collect the pelt from the doggie that was killed along side Textwith the 'IwishIwas Fenrir' character.
Also to the west of the westersands in the extremesouth is another red teleport crystal. Go select it and all deceased characters and any damage goes away ala FFX-2.
Lastly, to the far west of the westersands, there is a trading outpost with somebody complaining about 'libra'. You can buy items here and sell them (there is a very good bazaar item here of two pheonix downs and two potions for CHEAP! Buy now!) Guards block the was wester-y. So go east back into the metaregion.
As of now.. I'm heading back to the city using the southern gate, so hopefully I can pawn the gem off to old man Dylan. (Or at least get in the city without using a gate.....)
(As to if you can explore the westersands with penelo.. no. I tried but following the 'edge of the region' revealed a false back. (That region is a seperate region without copnnections to further afield. There is also a region connected to the westersands from the giza plains that is not there.. with a false region in giza keeping you from the westersands further afield than you can explore regularily. If you tried exploring the region alone, with penelo, I suspect you'd be dead in short order. Save the second mobhunt for later after the prision escape, following my advice.)
Lastly, there is a transport crystal outside Nablis fortress, in the westmost region you can get to (that trrading post the imperials are blocking the way west from), and in the south of Giza. Go activate them (activate the action menu) and you will be able to transport there.)
