Final Fantasy Record Keeper

[DiscipleofBob]

Well, found my new crack.

If you haven't heard, Final Fantasy Record Keeper is a (relatively) new freemium smartphone game which is like Pokemon only instead you collect Final Fantasy characters and classes from every game. Then you form a party of 5 and in classic 16-bit style go through dungeons from every game.

It's not the best-designed game. There aren't a huge number of available characters and a lot of big names are from temporary event dungeons. From what I've read the event dungeons tend to repeat so they're not gone forever. Getting decent equipment is based on a lottery, and there aren't a lot of character customization options. Each character has two slots you can assign up to two abilities that you have to craft from farmable items. And in true FF fashion, there are certain points where you have to farm EXP to progress.

That being said, the graphics and classic music are well worth the game's faults. You get synergy bonuses for taking party members and equipment from the same game as the dungeon you're facing, and the different bosses have the same weaknesses and strategies that they do from their original games, so there are reasons to try different parties.

As someone raised on Final Fantasy, the sheer amount of nostalgia packed into every part of this game is amazing.

Friend Codes:

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Mr.Sandman: 95HA
Suichimo: 9Qce
Infernally Clay: 9uVh
DiscipleofBob: ef9h
Forbiddenwar: QFWA
tyckspoon: e3iN
Starwulf: GUtu
Deadline: esWa
Calemyr: Gmfa
Fleeing Coward: qxZD

[danzibr]

I saw this as new on the app store and wanted to get it immediately, then when I tried to download it, I saw my phone is too old for it :(

[Red Fel]

I'm a bit reluctant to get into this one, to be honest. The nostalgia is there for me too, but... I dunno.

Remember that airship game that they did awhile back? I did that for awhile, but it turned into a slog. I'm a bit reluctant to try again.

It ain't After Years, is what I'm saying.

[Calemyr]

How bad of a "freemium" game is it? I've heard of some horribly blatant money-grab "games" that are simply unplayable without a constant influx of in-app purchases. I've also seen and played games where the "freemium" aspect either has minimal impact on the game play or offers nothing that can't be earned in-game at a reasonable rate, but are purchasable early on.

Honestly, I have an overwhelming suspicion against any "freemium" phone game, but the way you describe it sounds at least worth asking about.

[DiscipleofBob]

I'm a bit reluctant to get into this one, to be honest. The nostalgia is there for me too, but... I dunno.

Remember that airship game that they did awhile back? I did that for awhile, but it turned into a slog. I'm a bit reluctant to try again.

It ain't After Years, is what I'm saying.

I don't think I played the airship game.

After Years is a pretty high standard. I played it when it first came out on the Wii, in-purchase installments and everything, and it remains one of my favorite RPGs of all time.

On a pure nostalgia factor, I recommend it. Even if you only play the bare basics of it it's kind of worth it. The actual gameplay mechanics can be kind of simple and grindy, but I think the nostalgia makes up for it.

The majority of the dungeons at this point are FF4 and FF6-related, going through most of each game's respective content.

How bad of a "freemium" game is it? I've heard of some horribly blatant money-grab "games" that are simply unplayable without a constant influx of in-app purchases. I've also seen and played games where the "freemium" aspect either has minimal impact on the game play or offers nothing that can't be earned in-game at a reasonable rate, but are purchasable early on.

Honestly, I have an overwhelming suspicion against any "freemium" phone game, but the way you describe it sounds at least worth asking about.

I haven't had to spend money on it yet, and with a party of level 25 I'm starting to do some of the temporary "event" dungeons. I can't do all the high-level stuff yet or afford the high-level abilities, but I can manage all right.

From what I've read, most of what people who do spend is for more chances at the equipment lottery, but even that is just luck. I don't think spending any money is absolutely necessary at this point. There aren't any characters/equipment where money is absolutely necessary to get.

[DiscipleofBob]

I'm just going to spoil some of the available characters for people thinking about picking up the game.

The following are available through the main storyline:

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Tyro - The game's original character. Can use all equipment and abilities.

Knight
Red Mage
Black Mage
White Mage
Summoner
Ranger
Bard
Warrior of Light
Gordon
Josef
Luneth
Rydia
Cyan
Cloud
Wakka
Snow

These next characters have appeared in promotions or events. They're no longer available, but most have already reappeared at least once in the JP version, so they'll likely show up again eventually.

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Warrior
Dark Knight Cecil
Paladin Cecil
Terra
Celes
Tifa
Aerith
Sephiroth
Rinoa
Tidus

A few names on that last list I'd really like to recruit, but I can wait for them to come back around.

I should also mention that some signature character abilities are available through Soul Break (this game's version of limit break) or through alternate Soul Breaks you get by getting lucky and finding character-specific equipment.

[Starwulf]

I love FFRK. Started up about a month ago, though I don't play every night. Primary characters are all 30+(Rydia, Aerith, Cloud, Tidus & Wakka). I'm working on the Elite set of dungeons of the new FFVIII event(this is the first time in the States they've released Elite version of event dungeons).

Been saving up my Mythril for a big roll(11 for the price of 10) in the hopes of getting my 2nd 5 star(first was Genji Shield). Hell a couple of 4 stars would be nice at this point, would boost me quite a bit I think.

[Red Fel]

Tried it out, and I stand corrected, with a few provisos.

The game is fun. It's basically an FF battle simulator, so it's easy to grasp. The graphics are appealing, the music is lovely - it's the nostalgia factor writ large. And oh, the nostalgia.

That said, my two provisos. First, after the tutorial, it fairly unceremoniously deposits you into gameplay. And although it offers you some cursory explanations of abilities and equipment, it really doesn't explain much at all. I'm intuitive enough to get that I can craft new abilities, and something something equipment upgrade, but the game doesn't really explain those mechanics to you all that well. I'm probably going to have to delve into a wiki or guide to get what I should do there, and if I have to go to outside sources to understand core game mechanics, the ball has been dropped.

Second, difficulty curve. The difficulty ramps up quickly. I went to the FFIV zone (my favorite in the franchise), fairly waltzed through the first several zones, and then Baigan and Caignozzo handed my Pink Tail to me. It was brutal. That's not to say difficulty is bad, but the difference between "cakewalk" and "oh god my face" is a pretty fine line.

Overall? I'm going to keep playing it. Good recommendation.

[DiscipleofBob]

Tried it out, and I stand corrected, with a few provisos.

The game is fun. It's basically an FF battle simulator, so it's easy to grasp. The graphics are appealing, the music is lovely - it's the nostalgia factor writ large. And oh, the nostalgia.

That said, my two provisos. First, after the tutorial, it fairly unceremoniously deposits you into gameplay. And although it offers you some cursory explanations of abilities and equipment, it really doesn't explain much at all. I'm intuitive enough to get that I can craft new abilities, and something something equipment upgrade, but the game doesn't really explain those mechanics to you all that well. I'm probably going to have to delve into a wiki or guide to get what I should do there, and if I have to go to outside sources to understand core game mechanics, the ball has been dropped.

Second, difficulty curve. The difficulty ramps up quickly. I went to the FFIV zone (my favorite in the franchise), fairly waltzed through the first several zones, and then Baigan and Caignozzo handed my Pink Tail to me. It was brutal. That's not to say difficulty is bad, but the difference between "cakewalk" and "oh god my face" is a pretty fine line.

Overall? I'm going to keep playing it. Good recommendation.

I recommend this site for your wiki needs. It seems to be missing some information I'd like, but covers about 90% of what you ask for.

I've noticed that the challenge is largely into boss battles and they range from long but easy to ridiculously hard, largely because the boss battle was set up for a specific party in the original game that you just don't have. Later in the game, for example, Golbez and his Shadow Dragon. They're doable, but overleveling definitely helps.

Baigan's a pain but not impossible. Cagnazzo's easier IMO, but that largely has to do with the timing of your Thunder spells. The worst by far has been the Phantom Train from FF6. It almost comes down to luck as it can randomly afflict all of your party members with Blind/Poison/Confuse/Doom at once. The one time I managed to beat it I managed to just throw everything including my Cure spells and somehow killed it before it used Doomwhistle. Other times it used that attack before I even got a turn.

One thing I learned the hard way: save your Mythril. There's a lot of things you can spend it on, but aside from emergency heals to get through a ridiculously tough series of bosses (normally I'd say it's better just to start a dungeon over), 50 Mythril gets you 11 Relics.

[Red Fel]

I recommend this site for your wiki needs. It seems to be missing some information I'd like, but covers about 90% of what you ask for.

Useful, thanks. Still, it's frustrating that the game itself gives you next-to-zero guidance on ability and gear upgrading and such.

I've noticed that the challenge is largely into boss battles and they range from long but easy to ridiculously hard, largely because the boss battle was set up for a specific party in the original game that you just don't have. Later in the game, for example, Golbez and his Shadow Dragon. They're doable, but overleveling definitely helps.

Yeah. Went back and tried it again, having overleveled Rydia and shifted some spells around. Went a lot smoother, but a fair portion of it was luck. That strikes me as problematic design.

One thing I learned the hard way: save your Mythril. There's a lot of things you can spend it on, but aside from emergency heals to get through a ridiculously tough series of bosses (normally I'd say it's better just to start a dungeon over), 50 Mythril gets you 11 Relics.

True of most free-to-play games. They tend to have a regular currency and a premium currency (FFRK also seems to have gems, in addition to mythril, but I've yet to encounter any); as a rule, premium currency should only be spent on rare gacha, and only in packs of multiple (usually 10), since that tends to either get you bonus odds or an extra pull.

[Starwulf]

http://www.ffrkguide.com/

This site will become your best friend once you reach a bit further into the game and need to start hunting specific equipment drops for record synergy, or specific orbs in order to craft new spells/abilities. It's always loaded and ready in my browser for when I need it.

[DiscipleofBob]

Just got my first limited event character: Rinoa. Now I'm leveling her and Josef as a potential replacement for Kain.

Only level 28 right now, so these event characters aren't unattainable.

[Starwulf]

Just got my first limited event character: Rinoa. Now I'm leveling her and Josef as a potential replacement for Kain.

Only level 28 right now, so these event characters aren't unattainable.

Congrats! I'm hoping that they bring back past events eventually, as I missed Cecil/Dark Cecil, it was the event going on when I first started, I couldn't make it past the 4th or 5th stage even by the end of it.

[Forbiddenwar]

I'm deep into this game, my party is 35. Ive havent spent a thing. I've unlocks dungeons from ff1,ff2, ff4, ff5, ff6, ff7 and ff10.

Things I've learned:
Only use mithral on rare relics. I'm too impatient for the 10 for 11 deal. I feel I've gotten really lucky to get 3 5 star weapons. I was just a thinking of dumping Kain when I got my first 5 star golden spear.

On stamina:
I spent 5 hours playing today straight without running out. See, nearly every other dungeon I cleared gave me enough stamina shards to raise my max stamina which also fills the bar back to full.

Do the dailys! It is the best place to get the orbs money and upgrades you need.

There are difficulty spikes, but by working on the special events, I haven't had much difficulty overcoming them. Each dungeons displays the difficulty before playing them, so you can tell which ones to tackle and which to avoid.

But that's just my experience your mileage may vary.

[DiscipleofBob]

Congrats! I'm hoping that they bring back past events eventually, as I missed Cecil/Dark Cecil, it was the event going on when I first started, I couldn't make it past the 4th or 5th stage even by the end of it.

According to the people who play the JP version, characters get repeated every six months or so, sometimes as part of a different event. They should be back soon.

[Calemyr]

Well, I got it and I'm in the later 20's. Even got Rinoa. The game is oddly addictive, despite my horrendous luck when it comes to relic drawing (seriously, only one 4* item so far, and it isn't even a very good one). Just kind of cool to build your own dream team out of heroes from across the franchise. Granted, they lock off my favorites behind events (Terra, Celes, and either Cecil), I despise stamina, it's constantly going online and won't let you play if you're in an area with bad reception, and they're basically brainwashing me to like Cloud...

Still, it's addictive. And it is really kinda cool to see these old bosses pop up again. The shiver down my spine upon seeing the Atma Weapon, Rubicante, or Ultros (he'll always be Ultros to me).

Edit: Maybe you guys could help me with something. I'm on the second Rubicante fight (where he's enveloped in the flame shield, after the king and queen of Eblan). There has to be a trick to this guy, but darned if I can figure it out. Physical attacks cause a party-wide Fira, while he absorbs ice damage. What's the trick to this guy?

[Chen]

You need to wait until he opens his cloak to hit him with ice/water attacks.

One of the KEY things to this game is closing the app if a fight is going badly. Starting the app up again starts you from the beginning of the wave you left at. Sometimes you get some really bad RNG, so this can be used to mitigate it without having to may mythril to heal. Just remember to press "Continue" when the app opens again. Pressing cancel exists the fight and uses up stamina. This can be used to re-roll on fights where the boss drops something good though. Basically turn off your wifi/data connection at the start of the boss wave. Kill the boss see if he drops what you want. If not, reset the app but press cancel. You will lose the stamina for the boss fight but you'll be able to start the fight again without doing the rest of the levels. Useful when you get to farming greater orbs. Drops are rolled once a fight a specific level is loaded so doing the previous trick of resetting a wave and starting it again WONT re-roll the loot.

I started in the middle of the Aerith event and was still easily able to get her. Seems most of the characters are quite easy to get even if you've just started the game. Finishing the whole special event is much harder though. This current one is in fact ridiculously difficult in the end. My team of full level 50s with several 5 star relics can't do it. I'd need more honed abilities to get through it I think.

[Calemyr]

You need to wait until he opens his cloak to hit him with ice/water attacks.

One of the KEY things to this game is closing the app if a fight is going badly. Starting the app up again starts you from the beginning of the wave you left at. Sometimes you get some really bad RNG, so this can be used to mitigate it without having to may mythril to heal. Just remember to press "Continue" when the app opens again. Pressing cancel exists the fight and uses up stamina. This can be used to re-roll on fights where the boss drops something good though. Basically turn off your wifi/data connection at the start of the boss wave. Kill the boss see if he drops what you want. If not, reset the app but press cancel. You will lose the stamina for the boss fight but you'll be able to start the fight again without doing the rest of the levels. Useful when you get to farming greater orbs. Drops are rolled once a fight a specific level is loaded so doing the previous trick of resetting a wave and starting it again WONT re-roll the loot.

I started in the middle of the Aerith event and was still easily able to get her. Seems most of the characters are quite easy to get even if you've just started the game. Finishing the whole special event is much harder though. This current one is in fact ridiculously difficult in the end. My team of full level 50s with several 5 star relics can't do it. I'd need more honed abilities to get through it I think.

Yeah. First couple of times, I didn't notice his cloak (the two sprites are very similar). Figured it out eventually.

I'm currently around level 28, and I'm running into a bit of direction loss. The only classic missions are level 30 or higher at this point and stamina starvation is killing me. Also, I'm getting absolute utter crap for relic rolls (one 4* item total, crystal sword. Only two of the 3* items are even useful, since all I'm getting is heavy armors, shields, and staves). Random number generators hate me. Trust me when I say the feeling is mutual.

[Chen]

Im not sure how representative the mission levels are. I had no issue with any of the classic missions when I was going through them. Some of the elite missions are also quite low level and have good rewards. I think one rewards the light staff (or rod don't recall which), which is awesome for your healer. I saved all the mythril I got doing the regular levels and such to do an 11 pull and it resulted in some good gear. That said, record synergy gear is of HUGE importance. I have a level 20 Danjuro (natural 5 star) and it's much worse than my 4 star leveled greatsword (from the Celes event) when in FFVI. Seems items get a bigger boost depending on what level they are so those 2 star items you can farm from monsters get very strong when leveled up and in the appropriate dungeon. The other key is spend ALL your stamina on Sundays doing the Exp dungeon. Having a solidly leveled squad is definitely a huge boon. The other day's dailies are useful too, but Sunday is the most important one. Also just squeeking through the "hard" dailies can be worth it just to get that 1 mythril for completing them.

[Red Fel]

Well, Seifer has become a complete roadblock for me, on regular mode, which is frankly just embarassing. Go into the fight with full health and spells, walk out a corpse. Not fun. Tried using Bio. "It's super effective!" And he still won't die. I have Slow now, and every expectation that it won't help. This difficulty curve is officially punching me in the face.

I get the distinct impression that I should go back and orb-hunt until I can have better abilities and hone them. Unfortunately, I haven't the slightest idea where to begin. As Calemyr points out, the game gets very directionless when you hit a difficulty hump; the things that might make a difference are too hard to beat, or too much of a stamina drain, and the things you can handle just seem to be a waste of stamina. It would be nice to have an indicator of "you should probably go over here and work on this for awhile," other than that flashing NEW! sign which seems more interested in mocking my weakness than offering a helpful suggestion. I'll probably just go back and level-grind, given that most stuff worth farming appears to be in the Elite zones, which are likely beyond my abilities.

... Still gonna do it, though. Grumble grumble addiction grumble.

Out of curiosity, I get how important record synergy is, but does that also apply to 1- and 2-star gear? Or is the power gap between them and 3-5-star such that record synergy doesn't bridge it?

[Calemyr]

Im not sure how representative the mission levels are. I had no issue with any of the classic missions when I was going through them. Some of the elite missions are also quite low level and have good rewards. I think one rewards the light staff (or rod don't recall which), which is awesome for your healer. I saved all the mythril I got doing the regular levels and such to do an 11 pull and it resulted in some good gear. That said, record synergy gear is of HUGE importance. I have a level 20 Danjuro (natural 5 star) and it's much worse than my 4 star leveled greatsword (from the Celes event) when in FFVI. Seems items get a bigger boost depending on what level they are so those 2 star items you can farm from monsters get very strong when leveled up and in the appropriate dungeon. The other key is spend ALL your stamina on Sundays doing the Exp dungeon. Having a solidly leveled squad is definitely a huge boon. The other day's dailies are useful too, but Sunday is the most important one. Also just squeeking through the "hard" dailies can be worth it just to get that 1 mythril for completing them.

Light staff is nice, but the only characters I can use it on at this point are Tyro (whose stats are poor for any role, but can play any role) and White Mage (who is very useful in some cases but otherwise pretty unimpressive).

Well, Seifer has become a complete roadblock for me, on regular mode, which is frankly just embarassing. Go into the fight with full health and spells, walk out a corpse. Not fun. Tried using Bio. "It's super effective!" And he still won't die. I have Slow now, and every expectation that it won't help. This difficulty curve is officially punching me in the face.

I get the distinct impression that I should go back and orb-hunt until I can have better abilities and hone them. Unfortunately, I haven't the slightest idea where to begin. As Calemyr points out, the game gets very directionless when you hit a difficulty hump; the things that might make a difference are too hard to beat, or too much of a stamina drain, and the things you can handle just seem to be a waste of stamina. It would be nice to have an indicator of "you should probably go over here and work on this for awhile," other than that flashing NEW! sign which seems more interested in mocking my weakness than offering a helpful suggestion. I'll probably just go back and level-grind, given that most stuff worth farming appears to be in the Elite zones, which are likely beyond my abilities.

... Still gonna do it, though. Grumble grumble addiction grumble.

Out of curiosity, I get how important record synergy is, but does that also apply to 1- and 2-star gear? Or is the power gap between them and 3-5-star such that record synergy doesn't bridge it?

Seifer was a wall for me as well. My white mage used all four slow spells and didn't land one, while I let loose with bio and poison strike with other characters. Took me many tries to pull it off. Fortunately Edea (the final stage) is a pushover. Girl only used one target spells that did moderate damage.

From what I've heard, Synergy is can make 3* item outperform a 5*. I personally haven't seen this in play as a major factor, though. I haven't even seen a 5*.

[Chen]

Out of curiosity, I get how important record synergy is, but does that also apply to 1- and 2-star gear? Or is the power gap between them and 3-5-star such that record synergy doesn't bridge it?

A two star greatsword which you got 3 of in Celes' event becomes a 4 star item after combining twice. It is a fair bit stronger than my Danjuro dagger which is a natural 5 star items, once record synergy is taken into account. Since you can farm 2 star items from various bosses it means you can get by with quite strong items as long as the record synergy works. Sure if I upgraded the Danjuro to 7 stars it would be stronger, but getting multiple 5 star items that are the same is quite unlikely to begin with. Even then they'd probably be more valuable distributed among your group than used in combining.

There are various posts on the FF record keeper reddit or Gamefaqs boards that can show where and what to farm. I believe there's even a 3 star mage helm (black cowl) that is farmable meaning you can get that up to 5 stars which will be quite strong defensively.

[Deadline]

I've been playing this since a few days after it first dropped here in the states, and my oh my is it strangely engaging. But Red Fel is right, there are some things that are left as a frustrating exercise for the player. I'm going to see if I can put down the general advice a friend of mine gave me, maybe it will help you folks as well:

1. How to use equipment upgrading and combining
   
   • What's with these stars?
     Ok, so by now you will have noticed that your weapons and equipment has a number of stars from 1 to 5. This is a straight up basic evaluation of the power of the item, and you can expect that more stars means a more powerful item. The only exception to this is equipment that has been combined (see Combining below).
     
     There are other factors to an items power level. Each item has a designated Final Fantasy game it is from, and if you use that item in dungeons from that game, it will be much more powerful than normal. This bump can be as much as a two star increase. If you ever want to check the stats of an item while it is boosted, you can enter the party screen while in the game dungeon (before you select a battle to fight), and then take a look at the item's stats at that time.
     
     Another factor to item power is synergy with a specific character. Some items are meant to be used by certain characters, and you can see that if you equip them with said item, they will have an option of using a different Soul Break (which is usually much more powerful than their regular one). As an example: Rydia's normal Soul Break duplicates the Summon Chocobo ability. The improved Soul Break she gets from equipping her Ice Whip changes that to duplicate the Summon Shiva ability.
     
   • Upgrading
     To upgrade your items, the process is simple, but not terribly intuitive. You select the Upgrade Equipment option on the Party screen, and are then presented with a list of all of your equipment. You need to select the item you want to upgrade at this point. Then you are taken back to your list of equipment without explanation. At this point you can select up to 10 items to fuel the upgrade. These items are destroyed when used. The best items to use in this process are Scarletite (for weapons) and Adamantite (for armor). Rather frustratingly, these items will be found as the last items in your equipment list. You can upgrade items to a maximum level based on their Star rating. Once that is done, they cannot be increased in power further unless you use Combining.
     
     Note: I would recommend selling items that you don't use, and only upgrade or use 3 Star or higher items on your characters. It's expensive to burn items for upgrade purposes, as they give far less "item experience" compared to Scarletite or Adamantite, but cost the same amount of gil to burn.
     
   • Combining
     Once you have fully upgraded an item, the only way to increase its power is to Combine it. In order to Combine an item, you need to have another item of the same kind. So if you want to Combine a fully upgraded Wooden Staff, you need another Wooden Staff in your inventory. You select the Combine Equipment option on the Party Screen, and are then presented with a list of all of your equipment that is a viable option for Combining. After you have selected the item you want to modify, you are returned to the screen to select an item to combine it with. When an item is combined, it gains a "+" symbol after its name, and it gains 1 star to its rating. You cannot Combine an item more than twice, after which your item will have two "+" symbols after its name and 2 extra stars to its rating. Yes, this means that if you have enough of the same 4 or 5 Star items, you can improve one of them up to a 6 or 7 Star rating, respectively.
     
     Note: A fully upgraded Combined item will be weaker than a fully upgraded item that naturally has the same number of Stars. So if you Combine a 3 Star item up to a 5 Star item and fully upgrade it, it will be weaker than a fully upgraded natural 5 Star item.
     
2. Ability Creation and Honing
   
   • Orbs? Where do I get those?
     So, if you've taken a look at the "Create Ablities" section of the Party screen, you will probably have noticed that you need lots of various qualities of Orbs in order to create them. You will find that you are always on the hunt for these little buggers, and finding a good place that drops them can often be tricky. That said, there are three daily events that drop orbs. Check the daily event schedule to see what day will be running the event that provides the orbs you want. Also note, daily event dungeons regularly drop Minor Orbs at Easy and Normal difficulty, Lesser Orbs at Hard difficulty, and the normal 3 Star Orbs at Heroic difficulty. You have a chance of getting rare drops of Lesser Orbs at Normal, 3 Star Orbs at Hard, and 4 Star Orbs at Heroic. You will also get orbs of varying quality out of the various game dungeons. If you find a dungeon that regularly drops a type and quality of orb you need to farm, make sure to remember it and frequent it. Also, if it drops Black, Lightning, or Wind Orbs, please let me know, because I need a lot of those
     
   • Honing abilities
     A newly created ability will be at level 1. By Honing the ability, you improve the ability level (up to level 5). A higher level ability simply allows for more uses (i.e. how many times you can use the ability in a dungeon). Most abilities have 2 uses per level. Summon abilities tend to have 1 use per level. You'll need a ton of the orbs you used to create an ability in order to Hone it.
     
3. Difficulty Curve
   This can generally be tricky, but there's an easy way to tell when you'll get stomped, and when you won't. Every dungeon has a "level" in its description. As a general rule, if you have decent equipment and abilities, and your characters are all above the dungeon level, you'll probably breeze through it. If you take party members that are at or below the dungeon level in with poor equipment and weak abilities in, you'll probably get hammered down. There are a couple of bosses or enemies that require you to either perform a certain gimmick, or to pay attention to their attack patterns or such (Magitek Armors, for example, will counterattack the entire party every time they are hit with a physical attack that doesn't kill them, so use magic abilities and only make a physical attacks when you are sure you'll kill them). For the most part though, if you've got decent equipment and levels, you can autobattle your way to every boss (most of the bosses require your attention).
   
4. Daily Events
   These are very useful dungeons, don't ignore them! Each day of the week has a specific daily event dungeon, and they don't seem to change. You can get various Orbs, Scarletite, Adamantite, Gil, and EXP. I'm fond of Sunday's EXP dungeon for rapidly leveling characters. Every daily event dungeon also has a Final Fantasy game descriptor, so if you find yourself needing the extra boost from same-game synergy, pay attention to that.
   
5. Special Events
   These events almost always reward a special character after you've completed a certain amount of them. They are also an excellent source of Orbs, EXP, Equipment, and often Mythril. As I understand it, they are supposed to be on some sort of repeating cycle, though I have not seen them repeat a Special Event yet.

Hopefully that info helps somewhat.

[Forbiddenwar]

. You cannot Combine an item more than twice, after which your item will have two "+" symbols after its name and 2 extra stars to its rating. Yes, this means that if you have enough of the same 4 or 5 Star items, you can improve one of them up to a 6 or 7 Star rating, respectively.

Note: A fully upgraded Combined item will be weaker than a fully upgraded item that naturally has the same number of Stars. So if you Combine a 3 Star item up to a 5 Star item and fully upgrade it, it will be weaker than a fully upgraded natural 5 Star item.[/I]:

Huh? You can or cannot combine + items? If you cannot, how do you get a ++ item?

[Deadline]

Huh? You can or cannot combine + items? If you cannot, how do you get a ++ item?

I never said that? I said you can't combine more than twice. The first time you get a "+" item, the second time you get a "++" item.

Edit - Ah, I see what you are asking. Yes, you can combine a "+" item. If you do, you wind up with a "++" item.

[Starwulf]

Just to expound a little on the combining bit since I didn't a specific reference to it in deadlines post: You do NOT have to upgrade both items to a + to make a ++. When I first started playing I wasted a fair amount of resources upgrading two pieces of equipment to +'s to combine them into ++'s when that is totally unnecessary. The only thing feeding a + to a + does that feeding a regular to a + does not, is grant a bit more item experience, and it's totally not worth the effort(the gain is absolutely minimal, I fed off a ++ 1 star staff to a 4 star staff and it gave maybe twice the exp a regular 1 star staff gave).

So, I had a quick question for peeps: I have 52 Mythril, I want to do a pull, but I do not want any of the Soul Break items from the "special" draws, and I've read on the subreddit that the special equipment draws have higher %'s for the featured, but much lower for the other 5 stars. So given the choice, would you all hold onto the mythril for an event where you can get some 5 star equipment that you actually want, or just roll it now?

I only have 1 5 star piece of equipment, and 2 4 stars(well, native 4 stars), so getting some better equipment could be a huge boost, but I don't want to come away with something I'm never going to use(Cyan/Josef/Rinoa/Tyro/Lenna are all people who will never make it into my party, at least not until my primary guys are all 50).

[Chen]

Apparently right now Tyro's Sentinel Grimoire is one of the most powerful relics in the game. From what I've read it's almost a must have for the very difficult Ex+ content that is already present on the Japanese server. It changes his soul break into a 60% damage reduction for the entire party which is crazy good (and stacks with things like protectaga I've read). If you're sure you're not going to be using Tyro then I guess wait until an event comes up that has a character who's special item you want. The chance for the individual characters special relics drops to almost 0 (0.001% I believe) when it's not their particular event so getting one later is nigh impossible.

Note too that some other people can use unique character's relics. I have Cloud using Cyan's katana just because it's better than the other 5 star weapons I have (Danjuro). I also have 2 of Wakka's game ball and when I need to grind something easyish out I dump that on Tyro to use. It helps a fair bit.

I do like the fact that Tyro can wear heavy armor. Even though he heals less (about 300 on a Curaga) than Aerith I find he takes damage MUCH better. Not sure if I'm going to find a good white mage replacement for him. The fact he can use any skill is excellent too since I can keep a curaga on him and a double-cut or boost or something on him to use with my retaliate guys.

[DiscipleofBob]

The newest event character, Lenna is easy to get. Even people who started playing yesterday shouldn't have too much trouble I should think. She also looks to be an incredible white mage. I'll give her a shot when I'm done leveling my current party to 50.

[OrcusMcP]

Been having lots of fun chugging around with this. Hits me right in my nostalgic feels.

I have 2 characters I'm always using (Wakka and Kain, have both their 5 star weapons), but switch everyone else out based on what the event/dungeon is.

[Red Fel]

The newest event character, Lenna is easy to get. Even people who started playing yesterday shouldn't have too much trouble I should think. She also looks to be an incredible white mage. I'll give her a shot when I'm done leveling my current party to 50.

Oh yeah. After Easy, Easy +, and Normal, I had enough to grab her, plus both event Mythril. Stats-wise, she's easily superior to WM, and has a broader range of equipment and spells. And after running her semi-solo through Easy and Easy+ (with only one chaperone), she's already on par with the rest of the party, at least for the event zones.

And Deadline, very helpful guide!