One of the best accessories in Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age is the ribbon. Finding it can be quite difficult, however. If you are having a hard time locating the accessory, you can check out our strategy guide below.
About Ribbon
Ribbon will protect the wearer from all negative status effects with the exception of Instant Death, Stone and X-Zone. In The Zodiac Age, the accessory adds Libra, which allows you view hidden floor traps in addition to the being able to check out the elemental weaknesses, HP, status ailments and status buffs of enemies. Furthermore, the accessory will also provide Regen, which will periodically restore HP, to the wearer.
Final Fantasy 12 has a lot of enemies that will hit players with a multitude of status effects. Thus, ribbons can be quite useful during some of the tougher battles in the game.
Location #1: Treasure Chest found at Abyssal – North of Pharos – Subterra
The first ribbon can be found in the Abyssal – North section of Pharos – Subterra. The Subterra optional dungeon can be accessed after clearing the story events of The Pharos at Ridorana. Return here via the orange teleport save crystal and use the Dais of Ascendance elevator to go to the Subterra.
In order to move deeper into this dungeon, you have to collect Black Orbs from defeated enemies and set these items on Pedestal of Nights. Once you set enough, the pedestal will glow brightly. You have to set the right amount as going over would mean that you would lose all your Black Orbs on the pedestal. If you are unsure, you can just set one orb at a time until the game won’t let you set anymore.
Each floor of the Subterrra have four of these pedestals on the northwest, northeast, southwest and southeast corner rooms. You will have to fully light all four in order to gain access to the lower floors via the Dais of Ascendance elevator.
Once you get to the Abyssal floor, head to the northwest corner room. Once inside, go through the west door.
In the next room, head straight through to the open western path and then turn right, hugging the right wall. The treasure chest will spawn at the corner. However, there is only a 10% chance of the chest spawning. If you don’t see it, you have to exit back out of the northwest corner room and repeat the above-mentioned steps until you can get the chest to spawn.
Location #2: Treasure Chest found at Special Charter Shaft in Henne Mines
The next ribbon is located at Special Charter Shaft in Henne Mines. In order to access it, however, you will first have to acquire 10 Espers, including the optional ones not found in the main story path. Once you accomplish this, talk to the Geomancer in Jahara, who will send someone to open the eastern gate at the Ore Separation area of the Henne Mines (the area above the orange teleportation save crystal).
Head over to the Special Charter Shaft. The ribbon chest is located in the top section at the end of the J-shaped area:
Keep in mind that there is only a 15% chance of this chest appearing. As a result, you have to leave the zone and head back again until it spawns. You have to also make sure that you only have to move just one zone away. If you move two zones away, the enemies will respawn in Special Charter Shaft. Also keep in mind that the Zodiark Esper boss is located in the northern exit of the shaft. So, you may want to avoid going that way until you are ready.
Location #3: Rewarded by Stok in Rare Game Hunt Club
You can also get another ribbon by completing the Rare Game Hunt Club side quest. You can initiate it by talking to a group of bangaa hunters at The Phon Coast. After finding all 30 trophies, you have to give at least 16 of them to Stok. After giving out all 30, there will be a short ceremony. Afterwards, you will be rewarded with the ribbon.
Location #4: Dropped by Vishno
A ribbon can also be dropped by Vishno, a rare game enemy that can be found at the very top of the First Ascent/Wellspring Ravel – 4th Flight area of The Pharos at Ridorana. In order to get the monster to spawn, you have to create a chain of 10 Deidars in the floor below. In other words, you have to kill ten consecutive Deidars without killing anything else on the way to the top of the fourth flight.
You only have a 1% chance of Vishno dropping a ribbon. So, you might want to take advantage of the new auto-save in The Zodaic Age version of FF12 feature by pressing the Options button and then choosing to exit to the main menu if you didn’t get the accessory. Make sure you don’t exit the zone where you defeated Vishno as the auto-save will be overwritten as a result. Once you managed to get the ribbon drop, you can safely exit the zone.
Location #5: Dropped by Lv. 99 Red Chocobo
The one enemy in Final Fantasy 12 who will always drop the ribbon is the Lv. 99 Red Chocobo. In order to get this ultra rare enemy to spawn, you have to first kill at least six Chocobos at the Haulo Green in Ozmone Plain. Once you did that, you have to move two zones away and then head back in order to get the Chocobos to respawn. From there, you only have a 1 in 256 chance of a Lv. 99 Red Chocobo spawning in place of other Chocobos in the area.
You can expedited this process by using the new 4x speed mode that was added in The Zodiac Age version of FFXII. Once you managed to spawn and defeat the elusive enemy, there is a 100% chance of getting the ribbon from the drop.
Location #6: Trial Mode
The last way to get a ribbon in Final Fantasy Xii: The Zodiac Age is through the Trial Mode. Players will be able to bring over any items, LP, weapons, equipment and accessories found in this mode into their main game. To do so, they simply have to choose the Trial Mode auto-save when loading to the main game. You can find out more specific details as to how to do so with our previous guide here.
The ribbon is a rare steal from Hashmal at Stage 49 and Lv. 99 Red Chocobo at Stage 93. It is also an uncommon steal from Omega Mark XII at Stage 99. Although you can find ribbon inside a chest (with Diamond Armlet equipped) at Stage 100, you won’t be able to bring that one over to you main save file.
We highly recommend just stealing from Hashmal at Stage 49 as the enemies from the latter stages are a lot tougher if you can managed to even make it that far in the Trial Mode. The character you are using to steal should also be wearing the Thief’s Cuffs accessory, which increases you chances of getting a rare steal from 3 percent to 6 percent.
There is an auto-save between each stage in the Trial Mode. So, if you did not manage to steal a ribbon off of Hasmal, you have to exit to the main menu before killing the Esper. Doing so will let you load back straight into Stage 49.
Once you do steal the ribbon, kill Hasmal and then you can exit to the main menu at Stage 50. You can get an endless amount of ribbons this way although you will need to start from Stage 1 of Trial Mode every time since bringing over items to your main save file will reset you progress in the trials. This is probably the best method when it comes to getting multiple ribbons in Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age as you don’t have to worry about spawning any enemies or treasure chests.
