Part 104: Part One Hundred and Four: Interstellar Hitcher

Part One Hundred and Four: Interstellar Hitcher

It's time for one last small and obscure sidequest.


You may recall this encounter I had outside Winhill way, way back. I was just hangin' out and some UFO came around the place. Well, I want to know more about that.

We're going UFO hunting.


UFO hunting, by the way, is far easier if you have Enc-None equipped. UFOs are special encounters and will show up anyway. In fact, they're the only encounters on the entire world map that will ignore Enc-None.


Our first hunting site is on the beach near Timber.


If you don't have Enc-None on, you can still tell if you're in a UFO encounter because the "enemy" doesn't show up instantly. Odin also never shows up in them, so if you're somehow absurdly, unreasonably lucky and that's how you know whether or not you're fighting a boss, there you go.


After a few seconds, the UFO flies by, carrying a Moai head.


And that's it! No reward!


Next up is a little island near Trabia.


This time, the UFO is carrying a crop circle. I have to say, I didn't know that was something that could be carried, but aliens are not stymied by that.


Finally, we're taking a trip to the Centra-Esthar region. This area is the Kashkabald Desert, which is considered a part of Esthar even though it's on the Centra continent.


Squall getting paid for doing shit like this is probably my favourite bit of unintentional comedy in this game.


The UFO's final acquisition is this tiny gift shop pyramid.


Ragnarok lookin' handsome in the desert. The Ragnarok design owns.


And now it's on to the second part of this quest. This actually requires the Ragnarok, while the first four encounters can be found with Balamb Garden.


This one is different since the UFO appears immediately and is much lower to the ground.


This is a "real fight" in the sense that the UFO is an actual enemy you can attack here. It has no attacks or abilities of any sort and no dialogue. The only spell it carries is Demi, you can't Card it, and you can't Mug it.




There is no method of interaction with the UFO other than beating the shit out of it while it hovers harmlessly and eventually explodes, and wow I just bummed myself out right there.



After the explosion, the UFO is launched over the horizon and all you can see is smoke.


You get an Aegis Amulet for doing this! The Aegis Amulet is one of the rarest GF Ability items. Eva-J is a slightly more common ability than Luck-J (as in two GFs learn it, rather than one) and Luck is the better stat to junction to, since Luck affects evasion just as much as Evasion the stat, but is easier to raise through junctions. In a very, very strict sense, both Aegis Amulet and Luck-J Scrolls are infinitely available through the twin magics of playing cards and refining items, but fucking don't. Don't do it.

Fun fact: until writing the previous lines, I always thought the item was called Aegis Armlet.


With the UFO busted up, we can head over to the Balamb Garden crater to wrap this quest up. Unlike chocobo forests or Obel Lake, this quest is short. I also find the UFO porting random crap around with it to be pretty charming. If you're not expecting it, it's also a neat surprise to be running around somewhere and just have the game throw an alien at you like nothing.


Having gone to the Balamb crater, we can finally meet this cute little guy. This is PuPu, and he's the alien. If you scan it, the description is "an alien from another planet. Someone destroyed its UFO and the alien is in need of help." So, let's help an alien.

PuPu and its UFO also showed up in Final Fantasy XIII-2 DLC, where it was a boss fight in the Colosseum. There, multiple PuPu are flying/riding in the UFO. Like Moombas, PuPu also show up as some of Lulu's dolls in Final Fantasy X, and as Rikku's doll in the Mascot dressphere in Final Fantasy X-2. For some bizarre reason, it's also the memory card data icon for FFX-2 saves.


Like the UFO, this isn't a real fight. PuPu only ever asks for Elixirs.


And, since I have several, I'll give them to him.


You can infer from this that PuPu only has 10 HP, and you'd be right. PuPu only has 10 HP, so if you're an absolute piece of shit, you can kill him with minimal effort. However, that's both extremely poor manners and the less rewarding end to this quest.


This is, in a technical sense, a different ability than PuPu just saying "Elixir please!"


In a practical sense, it's the exact same.




PuPu will ask for Elixirs five times, total. I like his little scribbled-on eyes.




When you hand over five Elixirs, PuPu does a little dance and thanks you. This quest owns.


For doing the battle properly, you don't get any items, but you do get PuPu's card. This is the only way to get PuPu's card. If you kill PuPu, you get an Accelerator, which is an item that teaches a GF Auto-Haste.


PuPu's card is notable for being the rarest card in the game and for being the only unique card that isn't a character or GF.


It's not a great card for actually playing and its Card Mod item isn't awesome, either. PuPu is a card that you get to complete your collection and hold onto - the real reward for this quest is the Aegis Amulet. If you do refine the card, you get a Hungry Cookpot, which teaches a GF the Devour ability. Devour is an ability that lets the user eat an enemy and it has a variety of results, ranging from massive damage and a bunch of negative statuses to raising a stat by 1 point (or 10 HP). Devour can also be used to finish an enemy without gaining EXP. This means that having Devour makes it technically possible to max out HP, Str, Vit, Mag, and Spr without raising a character's level and without using junctions, but that's another one of those things you should never, ever do. If you're really an asshole, you can devour PuPu to get a one-point bonus to Spd, but it's the only enemy in the game that gives that bonus (there's a GF that learns Devour so you can have it without refining the PuPu card).

And that's it for UFO hunting!