Ultima Blade Upgrade Guide (Glass Gemstone, Sturdy Helixhorn Locations)

The Ultima Blade is one of Final Fantasy 15's ultimate upgraded weapons, which players can acquire by completing a series of quests and finding hidden upgrade items in the game world. The actual upgrade steps are achieved by interacting with a particular NPC known as Cid.

Once you've completed Chapter 2 of the main story (i.e. very early on) you'll be introduced to Cid outside of the garage. At this point an entire set of Side Quests is unlocked called "Cid Sophiar Master Mechanic". This guy will help you upgrade some of the games best weapons through typical RPG scavenger hunts.

Engine Blade

The starting item for the Ultima Blade is the Engine Blade sword. This one handed sword is given to you at the start of the game so there is no need to hunt this one down. However, although you get a headstart in not having to find the base item, you must complete three separate upgrade quests in order to get the Ultima Blade.

Upgrade Quests

The three upgrade quests within "Cid Sophiar Master Mechanic" are titled:

A Better Engine Blade
A Better Engine Blade II
A Better Engine Blade III

You must complete each quest in order since the starting item in each case is the upgrade from the previous step. The final reward from "A Better Engine Blade III" is the Ultima Blade.

Important: You MUST wait 1 x quest or hunt before claiming the Engine Blade II, and 3 x quests of hunts before claiming the Ultima Balde from Cid. This is because he needs time to upgrade each of them after you return the material.

Upgrade Materials

Of particular importance for the Ultima Blade is the location of:

Rusted Bit (A Better Engine Blade)
Glass Gemstone (A Better Engine Blade II)
Sturdy Helixhorn (A Better Engine Blade III)

Let's look at the location of each of these upgrade materials/parts:

Rusted Bit

This material is actually very common and can be found almost anywhere. A good example is in Chapter 4, to the south side of Coernix Station - Cauthess, across the road from the Chocobo.

Glass Gemstone

Slightly rarer than Rusted Bit, Glass Gemstone can be found in:

Lestallum (central north east of world map) - in the long rectangular building opposite the parking spot
Vesperpool (north west of world map) - inshore from the eastern side of the lake
Rock of Ravatogh (dungeon on western side of world map) - towards the end of the main route just after the camping spot

I have highlighted these regions with a yellow circle on the map above.

Sturdy Helixhorn

This material has an RNG drop chance from three of the games creatures:

10% - Duplicorn
75% - Leukorn
? - Spiracorn

These creatures have no common habitat so I recommend that you look for these during the Old Lestallum hunts called "Scrap it Now" or "The Last Spiracorns". Break the appendage of the creature to claim the Helixhorn drop.