Final Fantasy X-2 Ultimate Sphere Break Guide
Version 1.00
by Yevoc (email: john@verastar.com)
Web Page: http://ucsu.colorado.edu/~coveyj/sbreak.html
2/13/2004
NOTE: Although this FAQ makes your chances of winning Sphere Break
very very high, it is not a mindless cheat. This is simply a tool
that still requires a brain to be used. You must already know how
to play Sphere Break to use it. If you don't, go read the other
Sphere break FAQ on GameFAQs or read the Sphere break tutorial
in FFX-2 in Luca. If you do understand the basics of the game and
you are alert enough to type in numbers, you probably have less
than a 1% of losing. With that said, sit back, relax, and read
how to never lose at Sphere break again.
---------------------------------------------
-CONTENTS-
I. Background
II. The Proof
III. A. Files
B. Which is which
C. Installing
IV. How to run it and Win
V.  Tips and suggestions to ensure domination
VI. End
---------------------------------------------
I. ********BACKGROUND - The Trick to -ALWAYS- winning Sphere Break
I got extremely mad the first time I got beat by Shinra at the Luca
Sphere Break tournament because of how unfair it seemed. Despite the
defeat, I noticed something that would make Sphere Break so easy, you
couldn't possibly lose. When a round is about to start, and
"Begin Turn" is displayed, all of the coins for the next round are
visible, you just don't know what the next core number will be. If you
did know the core number, you could write/think of your next move
and hit X when you were ready. If you could do that, you'd have complete
control over the game, and if it were possible to win, you would.
Well after using a New Game Plus and going back, I yet again had to beat
Shinra somehow. This time I got angry, and thought "A computer could
just calculate all of the possible moves for each possible core number
and it'd never lose."  I was angry enough to sit down and code a simple
file that would do just that.
II. ********The Proof*********
After I was done coding, I played against Shinra, and at the beginning of
every turn I typed the coin values into my program before hitting X,
and based on what my program told me, I would make a sphere break in less
than 10 seconds for every turn, and I would always have used 3 coins to
make an echo multiplier. I accidentally hit the wrong coin in one
round, I also got two rounds with a core of 1, and I still beat Shinra
in round 12. That in itself proved to me that as long as your opponent
doesn't keep giving you cores of 1, this program will beat Sphere Break
for you.
III.   ********Files********
If it were as simple as downloading my program and running it, this FAQ
would be a lot smaller than it is. Regardless, that's the first thing
you need to do:
I have several versions of my Sphere break program on my website:
http://ucsu.colorado.edu/~coveyj/sbreak.exe
http://ucsu.colorado.edu/~coveyj/sbreak2.exe
http://ucsu.colorado.edu/~coveyj/sbreak3.exe
http://ucsu.colorado.edu/~coveyj/sbreak4.exe
B. **Which is which
sbreak.exe will display the core breaks you can make with 2,3,or 4 coins.
It's by far the messiest of my programs because there are so many solutions
to Sphere break if you don't narrow down how many coins you want to use.
That's why I made sbreak2,3&4.
As you can probably guess, sbreak2.exe only shows the sphere breaks you
can make with 2 coins (more specifically 1 core coin and 1 outer coin)
sbreak3.exe shows sphere breaks with 1 core and 2 outer coins, and
sbreak4.exe shows sphere breaks with 1 core and 3 outer coins.
At this point there are no programs that will give sphere breaks for
more than one core coin, and once you see how many solutions there are
to a single round of Sphere break, you too will see why it's not really
worth the effort to make such.
C. **Installing
Simply download whichever file you want, and it doesn't matter where you
put the file as long as you remember where it is. The file also creates
a file called "result.txt" in the same directory when it's executed,
so be sure you can find that.
IV.  *****How to Run It and Win*******
Get into FFX-2 and find some poor sphere break player and start a game.
When it says "Begin Turn 01," DO NOT HIT X
Double click on the sbreak file you downloaded, and a command window will
open asking you to "Input Coin 0:"
This is the layout that the program sees:
Sphere Break Table
--------------------
|   0    1    2   3     |
|   4    5    6   7     |
|   8    9   10  11   |
|  12  13  14  15   |
--------------------
With this layout, coins 5,6,9,&10 are the core coins.
So starting from the top left, go across and type in each coin number
you see in your Sphere Break game, hitting enter after each one.
The program will now run and tell you to look at "result.txt,"
So open it in a text editor of your choice, the file will be in
the same directory as your sbreak file.
NOTE: Make sure your text editor has a FIND function! (Notepad is good)
The results text file will now show quite a lot of possible sphere break
combinations like the one below:
-------------------
CORE #2
3 + 4 + 5