Sphere Break

The Concept

In the absence of Blitzball, the people of Spira have picked up a new pastime: Sphere Break. This is a game you can play throughout all the Chapters of the game except Chapter 4 which requires quick thinking and some basic mental math skills... or a bit of strategy.

The Game

The key components of this game are the Core Sphere, the Entry Coins, the Border Coins, and the two bonuses: Coin Count Echo and Multiplier Echo.

When you start a game of Sphere Break, after selecting your four Entry Coins, there will be 16 coins and one blue sphere on the board. In the center, there is one blue sphere with a number on; this is called the Core Sphere, and the number is called the Core Number. Around the Core Sphere are your four yellow Entry coins. Surrounding those are 12 grey Border Coins.

The goal of Sphere break is to meet the Quota of Border Coins in the given number of Turns, while not exceeding the Time for each turn (all of which are given to you in the top left corner of the screen.

You play by creating multiples of the Core Number with the Entry and Border Coins. You start by selecting one of your Entry coins, then proceed by selecting Boarder or Entry coins until the sum of all the coins selected is a multiple of the Core Number. For example, if the Core Number is 3, you could select one of your Entry Coins with a value of 2, then a Border Coin with a value of 7 (2+7=9) to get a multiple of 3. At this point you get a “Core Break,” your turn ends, all the Border Coins selected are removed from the board and added to your quota, and the number on all the Border Coins not selected increases by 1.

It is your job to remove Border Coins until your quota is met. You must, however, act within a given number of turns (core breaks), or you’ll lose. Additionally, each turn has a given time limit and if you go over that, you lose.

One way to make your quota faster is to use the Echo Bonuses. There are two types of these: Coin Count Echo and Multiplier Echo. To get a Coin Count Echo you must use the same number of coins to get a Core Break on consecutive turns. The bonus you get for a Coin Count Echo is equal to the number of Boarder Coins used times the number of consecutive turns you’ve sustained the echo.

The Multiplier Echo is similar to this. To activate the Multiplier Echo you must repeatedly get the same multiple of the Core Number. By this I mean that if the core number is 2 and you get a Core Break with a sum of 8, then your “Target Multiplier” is 4 (4 x 2 = 8); then, if your Core Number is 3, you must get a sum of 4 x 3 = 12. Next, if your Core Number is 8, the sum of your coins must be 4 x 8 = 32. The bonus assigned to your Multiplier Echo is equal to your Target Multiplier times the number of consecutive turns you’ve sustained the echo.

The Strategy

Sphere Break is marginally amusing, but the only time you’ll need to play it is in Chapter 3 for the Sphere Break Tournament. During this, you’ll eventually play Shinra for the Lady Luck Dress Sphere, a game which you must win. While there are more complex strategies, the most basic (and the only one you’ll need to beat Shinra in Chapter 3) is this: go for big numbers on a small amount of coins with multipliers if you can.

The Multipliers truly are the key to easily meeting your quota. If you can manage to get a good 4 turn chain in a 2 or so multiplier, you can have a very high quota met very quickly. Additionally, don’t forget that once a Border Coin reaches the number 9, it is removed from the board, so try and use high numbers over the low ones. Finally, coins are not replenished very often, so don’t use too many at once or you may find yourself in a sticky situation.

By keeping the number of coins you use low and by going for the high numbered coins, you should be able to defeat your opponents before Chapter 5 pretty quickly, but don’t forget to use your Echo Bonuses - they are the key to winning with ease.