Lightning Stones

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The only way to get Lightning Stones is by finding, and correctly defeating, Black Ballades.

These tricky little fellas can be found only in the Deep Jungle’s Bamboo Thicket. Enter the world at the Camp save point and the Thicket is only one zone away.

It shouldn’t be too hard to make the ballades appear:

Simply enter and exit the zone until they show up. Once you defeat them, however, you must return to your Gummi Ship to reset the world and turn back on their spawn switch.

Let’s take a look at actually battling these clever little beasties:

Black Ballades

Out of all the new speciality Heartless added to the Final Mix (and further re-releases) of the game, the Black Ballades are easily among the most obnoxious to farm.

When you enter the Bamboo Thicket and they’re around, it won’t be hostile.

Instead, the single Black Ballade will split into five Ballades (Balladii?) and then shuffle themselves up.

As you can probably guess, it’s up to you to determine which one is the real deal.

Yup, it’s a shell game.

It does the shuffle four times, with each go increasing the shuffle speed.

If you correctly guess the original between 1 and 3 times, you have a 10% chance of a Lighting Stone drop. If you can peg the perp perfectly all four times, then you’re guaranteed a 100% Stone drop.

This, of course, is easier said than done.

After splitting into 5, the OG Ballade will do a little spin jump to show you that it’s the one to keep your eye on. Then they’ll shuffle.

The first time is slow, but it only gets crazier.

And don’t even think about trying to cheese it with AOE spells like Thunder and Gravity. Doing so will cause a lighting retaliation and cost you a try.

Tips & Tricks for Black Ballades

There are a few things you can do to make this easier:

1. Don’t get too close. Not only does getting too close cause the Ballade to go bye-bye, but it also narrows your field of view, meaning you won’t be able to follow the leader as easily. The best thing to do is stay near the middle of the area and point the camera in a way that frames the entire set of Ballades.
2. Keep Sora still while watching the shuffle. Sometimes it might be muscle memory to move about in an attempt to keep up, but the camera in Kingdom Hearts 1 isn’t that precise and the odds of you losing track are pretty high.
3. Spamming pause & unpause can create a quasi slow-motion effect. This can allow you to keep track of the original a little easier as it moves around.

Using Lighting Stones

You’ll need four Lighting Stones to make one of everything that requires them. This is a mercifully low number, considering what a pain it is to farm them.

Seven Elements is an okay shield for Goofy that doesn’t really play to his innate strengths.

The real prize here is the Gaia Bangle, which provides one of the biggest HP boosts you can get from a single accessory. It’s perfect for the more brazen player (or somebody who’s created a magic-based Sora).