Final Fantasy Record Keeper

[Red Fel]

Echoing what Deadline said. Being able to use any equipment or ability is all well and good, but it's pointless if he can't do solid damage with them or dies to one or two solid hits. You need specialists in the various roles - Cloud is a great damage dealer, for example, and Lenna a superb healer. Don't be afraid to specialize a bit.

As for abilities, I'd advise you to start emphasizing your breaks. I use spellblade abilities on Cloud, for instance, but my Sephiroth (who just broke, woo hoo!) I use abilities like Armor Break against pretty much anything, Magic Break against caster bosses, and Power Break against meleeing and countering bosses. Consider, for example, the elite Lost Number boss from the current event, in its caster (red) form. It spams Quake, Thundara and Biora, which can be extremely brutal. Know what a well-placed Magic Break does to that? Makes it survivable, is what it does.

I don't know if you're using them, but if you're facing bosses who heap damage onto you, maybe you should use them more.

And drop Tyro. He's just embarassing.

EDIT: Update - I tested Light of Ruin with a roughly equal-leveled Garnet and Vivi. Vivi did less damage with it than his usual spells. Garnet turned it into a nuke. So I'm going off on a limb and saying that, as a holy-element spell effect, it runs off of Mind, not Magic.

[Chen]

Tyro is good as a white mage. Your curagas will be maybe 200-300 less but you get the versatility of a support attack like intimidate or other stat independent spell (death on Norg for example). But perhaps most importantly he can wear heavy armor and has a decent amount of HP. This makes him very bulky for a mage which is convenient. Same reason why Terra is good as a black mage (though without a memory crystal unfortunately sub par compared to Vivi at the moment).

[Calemyr]

And drop Tyro. He's just embarassing.

I dunno. I've found him to be very effective, honestly. Not a top tier fighter, certainly, but his access to all armor, weapons, and abilities means he can always take the best gear available and can easily fill any requirements a boss has without sacrificing too much. Give him a good weapon, a relevant sword spell, and high-grade heal, and he can provide respectable dps, elemental exploitation (Attunement II), and healing in one rather durable package - a great asset for a fifth slot character, where flexibility is more valuable than raw power.

Also, while Red and Sephiroth and who knows who else may have black magic, they can't use equipment that provides bonuses to magic. Tyro can. Combine that with the fact that he's a non-trivial presence in the melee game (unlike most mages) and his Attunement II materia, and I really don't see him getting overshadowed that much by others. He's clearly inferior, but not nearly as bad as he's portrayed. Certainly not in my game, as I have three good weapons and they're all swords, making him a far better option than "better" characters like Wakka. Power, utility, defense, durability. Tyro doesn't win in any of them, but he can be good at several of them at the same time.

Of course, I would drop him in a heartbeat if I got access to Celes or Terra, or other characters with utility as well as a combat presence. Cloud and Squall have that mix, but they're already mains in my party. My standard party has been Cloud, Squall, Tidus, Vivi, and Garnet (or Tyro when I need more versatility than healing): A powerful black mage, two spellsword heavies, a combat specialist, and either a potent healer/summoner or a jack that can rebalance fights in a pinch. Squall has already pushed Tyro out of a guaranteed spot, you see, and even Garnet gets more weight. However, I do not think he is "embarassing". Cloud and Squall get KO'd as often or more so than Tyro, in my experience, and Josef might as well be made of glass.

My original cry of frustration, however, was not a matter of party composition. As I hope my stated levels would indicate, I do have a variety of high-tier characters at or around 50. I've already done my research, already studied the rankings. My combination (even when I include Tyro) gets me superior results compared to other combinations I have tested. I would also like to think my completion rating suggests I'm not bad at the game. My problem is that my luck is pretty incredible. I tend to roll only ones and twenties, and my dice are loaded for ones. I have tried Heroic several times (yes, I can do stage one easily, and with my recent creation of quake I've even won, but not mastered, the last two dailies), but my grand total of 3 star orb drops from them is well past the fifties (I lost track) while my 4 star orb total remains 1 (though I have, of course, gotten 4 star orbs from other sources). I cannot rely on luck. I was hoping there were more effective means of training my party beyond simply abusing Sundays (and the Festival of Gold while it was around).

[Deadline]

Also, while Red and Sephiroth and who knows who else may have black magic, they can't use equipment that provides bonuses to magic. Tyro can. Combine that with the fact that he's a non-trivial presence in the melee game (unlike most mages) and his Attunement II materia, and I really don't see him getting overshadowed that much by others.

He's a trivial melee presence if you've outfitted him for magic duty (meaning you gave him a rod or staff). Sure, he can take a punch in that role with heavy armor, but most of the white mages you can get can already do that (well, White Mage is also pretty terrible).

He's clearly inferior, but not nearly as bad as he's portrayed. Certainly not in my game, as I have three good weapons and they're all swords, making him a far better option than "better" characters like Wakka. Power, utility, defense, durability. Tyro doesn't win in any of them, but he can be good at several of them at the same time.

If you are comparing Tyro to terrible characters (like Wakka, or Josef when talking about defense), then of course he looks better!

Of course, I would drop him in a heartbeat if I got access to Celes or Terra, or other characters with utility as well as a combat presence.

Yeah, Celes and Terra rock. I really want Terra's Enhancer weapon, if I had that she wouldn't leave my party, despite not having a memory crystal yet.

Cloud and Squall have that mix, but they're already mains in my party. My standard party has been Cloud, Squall, Tidus, Vivi, and Garnet (or Tyro when I need more versatility than healing): A powerful black mage, two spellsword heavies, a combat specialist, and either a potent healer/summoner or a jack that can rebalance fights in a pinch.

That's a pretty solid setup.

My original cry of frustration, however, was not a matter of party composition. As I hope my stated levels would indicate, I do have a variety of high-tier characters at or around 50. I've already done my research, already studied the rankings. My combination (even when I include Tyro) gets me superior results compared to other combinations I have tested. I would also like to think my completion rating suggests I'm not bad at the game. My problem is that my luck is pretty incredible. I tend to roll only ones and twenties, and my dice are loaded for ones. I have tried Heroic several times (yes, I can do stage one easily, and with my recent creation of quake I've even won, but not mastered, the last two dailies), but my grand total of 3 star orb drops from them is well past the fifties (I lost track) while my 4 star orb total remains 1 (though I have, of course, gotten 4 star orbs from other sources). I cannot rely on luck. I was hoping there were more effective means of training my party beyond simply abusing Sundays (and the Festival of Gold while it was around).

Yeah, the RNG is rough sometimes. I have spent many a days worth of stamina farming Wind Orbs (and Greater Wind Orbs) from FF6 Moblitz, often getting nothing or Mithril Swords instead. It's still the best place to farm those dang orbs (needed for Bladeblitz and a couple of other useful abilities). I haven't mastered all of the daily Heroics myself (I think I'm missing two of them), so be rest assured that they aren't easy. However, having a good Quake and Bladeblitz will take you incredibly far (also, use your abilities like crazy to power down the enemies).

[DiscipleofBob]

In Classic story mode, the next missions for me are the FF7 and FF13 bosses that are immune to melee attacks.

Since my main party consists of three swordfighters, any recommendations? I have a 4* Bow and Irvine's Valiant in terms of decent long-range weapons.

[Chen]

Besides quake and maybe protectga the 4 star abilities are not that much better than the three star ones. Vivi will be hitting 9999 damage with a -ga spell against elemental weakness (especially if you have devotion on them). Honing abilities is really what helps. Going into battle with your -gas at 6 or 8 casts, your retaliates/double cuts at 6-10 uses really makes a difference. The breaks are especially useful too. Magic and Power break are saviors for reducing damage taken. Having each up to 4 uses is pretty key. Mental break and Armor break are also useful so getting those up there is helpful as well. Intimidate is nice since it works on a lot of bosses.

With the group I posted earlier I'd set the abilities up as:
Cloud: Drain strike, armor break (replace with approriate -ra strike for elemental weaknesses)
Squall: Drain strike, power break (replace with approriate -ra strike for elemental weaknesses)
Vivi: Quake (R2 preferably, farm Phantom Train and Mist cave), -ga spell that's highest honed or appropriate elemental weakness
Tyro: Curaga (honed as high as possible), spare (can be a summon, intimidate, silence etc)
Wakka: Magic break, Mental break

Alternatively:
Cloud: Retaliate, power/magic break (depending on the boss)
Squall: double-cut, armor break
Wakka: double-cut, mental break
Tyro: Curaga, double-cut
Vivi: same as above

Break the boss appropriately, retaliate and then have everyone double-cut Cloud who is equipped with your strongest weapon, attack armor and attack accessory.

[Hunter Noventa]

Well I unlocked Sephiroth and then tried my hand at getting his record materia, i was just barely able to get Elite Lost Number to it's second form. I guess I'll have to wait until next time around like so many others.

[Red Fel]

Well I unlocked Sephiroth and then tried my hand at getting his record materia, i was just barely able to get Elite Lost Number to it's second form. I guess I'll have to wait until next time around like so many others.

The trick with the elite Lost Number, much like in VII originally, is to carefully choose its final form. I tend to have a melee-heavy/caster-light party, so I just had Vivi nuke it until it went into its red mode. The down side of red mode is that it spams some heavy-hitting spells, but that's quickly addressed with Magic Break. The up side of red mode is that although it's protected from spells, it's susceptible to physical attacks - and as mentioned, melee-heavy party. I wasn't able to get the ring, but I was able to beat the boss, which was enough to break Seph.

If instead you find that you use a caster-heavy party, have your casters hold back while your melee smacks him around, and then he'll go purple. He'll hit absurdly hard, but he's open to magical nukes at that point.

At least he wasn't that [CENSORED] dinosaur.

[Chen]

He has around 86k hp on Elite and changes on the attack that pushes him past 50%. So you can use that to determine when to make either a physical or magic attacker push him over.

[Suichimo]

I've got two elite bosses left to take out in Sephiroth's event, Materia Keeper and Jenova. I'm downright frightened to fight Jenova, but I think I can take Materia Keeper this time. Last time, my 3 hardest hitting abilities(2 Fira Strikes on Cloud and Squall, and Firaja on Vivi) were all fire...


Edit: Nope! Even having healed up before the fight, I couldn't beat the Materia Keeper. I did get it to the point of using Trine, which hit everyone in the group for about 2k...

[Starwulf]

Bah. Honestly about to give up on this game >< Just made my 4th 11 relic pull, and once again, no 5*. So out of 4 11 relic pulls + about 8 single pulls, I've gotten exactly TWO 5*, and both were generic Genji items >< Didn't even get a soul-break one. Absolutely retarded and is honestly pissing me off to the point that I kinda don't want to play anymore.

[Red Fel]

I've got two elite bosses left to take out in Sephiroth's event, Materia Keeper and Jenova. I'm downright frightened to fight Jenova, but I think I can take Materia Keeper this time. Last time, my 3 hardest hitting abilities(2 Fira Strikes on Cloud and Squall, and Firaja on Vivi) were all fire...


Edit: Nope! Even having healed up before the fight, I couldn't beat the Materia Keeper. I did get it to the point of using Trine, which hit everyone in the group for about 2k...

Yeah. It's gotten to the point for me that I run every elite event zone except for the boss ones (although I can generally handle the first or second). They get pretty out of hand.

Still, even the non-boss zones give you some useful loot. Not complaining.

Bah. Honestly about to give up on this game >< Just made my 4th 11 relic pull, and once again, no 5*. So out of 4 11 relic pulls + about 8 single pulls, I've gotten exactly TWO 5*, and both were generic Genji items >< Didn't even get a soul-break one. Absolutely retarded and is honestly pissing me off to the point that I kinda don't want to play anymore.

The RNG is a fickle beast, but that's mobile gaming for you. Gachas are hateful. At least this isn't PAD, where if you don't pull a specific set of monsters from the gacha you outright cannot complete certain zones.

I've done a bunch of 11-pulls, and only gotten a total of two 5-stars from them. My others I've gotten from combining gear (3+3+3=5, yay!) or from that one event that gave Zantetsuken (which my recently-broken Cloud adores). Fortunately, having 5-star gear is less important than having powerful abilities that have been honed well. Unfortunately, that means I have to go back and farm more orbs...

[Infernally Clay]

Well I unlocked Sephiroth and then tried my hand at getting his record materia, i was just barely able to get Elite Lost Number to it's second form. I guess I'll have to wait until next time around like so many others.

My advice is to make its second form the physical one. With Protectga or a Sentinel's Grimoire and Power Break, he'll end up doing hardly any damage at all. At the moment, without Shellga, the game is geared quite heavily towards easily tanking physical attacks.

[Calemyr]

Bah. Honestly about to give up on this game >< Just made my 4th 11 relic pull, and once again, no 5*. So out of 4 11 relic pulls + about 8 single pulls, I've gotten exactly TWO 5*, and both were generic Genji items >< Didn't even get a soul-break one. Absolutely retarded and is honestly pissing me off to the point that I kinda don't want to play anymore.

I feel your pain. I've horrid luck with relic rolls as well. Unfortunately, I'm a sucker for most anything Final Fantasy, so I keep chugging along, collecting 3 star after 3 star because I don't have the patience to do the 11 pulls. Just friggin' give me some decent weapons already! Ahem. Anyway, you're not alone in your frustration.

[Hunter Noventa]

The trick with the elite Lost Number, much like in VII originally, is to carefully choose its final form. I tend to have a melee-heavy/caster-light party, so I just had Vivi nuke it until it went into its red mode. The down side of red mode is that it spams some heavy-hitting spells, but that's quickly addressed with Magic Break. The up side of red mode is that although it's protected from spells, it's susceptible to physical attacks - and as mentioned, melee-heavy party. I wasn't able to get the ring, but I was able to beat the boss, which was enough to break Seph.

If instead you find that you use a caster-heavy party, have your casters hold back while your melee smacks him around, and then he'll go purple. He'll hit absurdly hard, but he's open to magical nukes at that point.

At least he wasn't that [CENSORED] dinosaur.

Oh no, I didn't have a chance, I only had one party member alive at that point, it was nothing to do with choosing the wrong form.

[Starwulf]

Yeah. It's gotten to the point for me that I run every elite event zone except for the boss ones (although I can generally handle the first or second). They get pretty out of hand.

Still, even the non-boss zones give you some useful loot. Not complaining.



The RNG is a fickle beast, but that's mobile gaming for you. Gachas are hateful. At least this isn't PAD, where if you don't pull a specific set of monsters from the gacha you outright cannot complete certain zones.

That's actually totally untrue, you can complete every dungeon in the game for PAD with entirely farmable monsters, it just takes excessive grinding(Our local Jasmine has proved that time and again) ^^

But yeah, it's irritating as hell to have not gotten squat in the mythril 11 pulls. I probably won't actually quit though, I was just very tired and very irritated last night with the game and the total lack of a nice soul break weapon, or honestly just a nice 5* in general(genji armor/shield are just about at the bottom of the list for "cool) as far as I'm concerned).

[Red Fel]

Oh, look, upcoming event - XII. Good thing we have all those XII characters ready for the event!

... Oh, right, all we have is Fran, with a sub-par SB, middling stats, and limited ability access.

This should be fun, right?

[Suichimo]

I really just wish they'd quit putting out events at this point... I haven't even gotten to FFXII material because of all of the events. I just got to the point where I could finish Gapra Whitewood(Elite), not due to difficulty but due to needing to actually go through the missions ahead of it, to get Cloud's memory crystal. I ignored most of the event time for Squall's event, basically just got the characters and crystals, to get that far.

[Fleeing Coward]

The events don't actually take up that much time though. I'm usually done with each new event in less than 2 days.

[Red Fel]

Yeah, same with me. After 2-3 days, I've pretty much cleared the bulk of the event, or at least gotten whatever sweet prize I've been eyeing (such as a memory crystal). After that, I just go back to classic levels, occasionally stopping back into the event to test my strength.

I'd look at it as a game of resource management. On the one hand, clearing classic levels gets you extra stamina, so you can do more. On the other, clearing event levels gets you extra mythril, so you can try and fail miserably to roll on new 5-star gear. On the other, clearing classic levels gets you memory crystals for staples like Cloud. On the other, clearing event levels gets you awesome new characters like Sephiroth. On the other, clearing event levels gets you crappy new characters like Red XIII.

It's a balance. You do too much of one, you miss out on the advantages of the other. So you alternate.

Short version: Red XIII continues to disappoint me.

[Starwulf]

The events don't actually take up that much time though. I'm usually done with each new event in less than 2 days.

The event's don't take up more then 2-3 days if you have the time to log on more then once a day. I know for myself I manage to log in around 1a.m. and then again around 4a.m. and that's it, and sometimes it's only at 4a.m. So I often don't finish the events until the day or so before they are over, which leaves me high and dry for finishing the regular dungeons. Heck, I'm only sitting on 66 stamina right now, and from what I've read the cap is like 100, that's how far I'm behind because of these CONSTANT events. It's irritating. And I just don't have the time to sit down and play the regular dungeons, even if they are basically self-sustaining stamina-wise through constant stamina leveling up. I tried to the other night and made it through 2 sets of stages and that was it, all I had time for.

[Fleeing Coward]

The event's don't take up more then 2-3 days if you have the time to log on more then once a day. I know for myself I manage to log in around 1a.m. and then again around 4a.m. and that's it, and sometimes it's only at 4a.m. So I often don't finish the events until the day or so before they are over, which leaves me high and dry for finishing the regular dungeons. Heck, I'm only sitting on 66 stamina right now, and from what I've read the cap is like 100, that's how far I'm behind because of these CONSTANT events. It's irritating. And I just don't have the time to sit down and play the regular dungeons, even if they are basically self-sustaining stamina-wise through constant stamina leveling up. I tried to the other night and made it through 2 sets of stages and that was it, all I had time for.

I guess if you don't have the time, it can be rough but if that's the case, it's just a matter of prioritising and deciding what you prefer doing.
All the event characters do come back eventually so if the current event doesn't have any character that you desperately want, you could always just ignore it and focus on dungeons for a week.

[Starwulf]

I guess if you don't have the time, it can be rough but if that's the case, it's just a matter of prioritising and deciding what you prefer doing.
All the event characters do come back eventually so if the current event doesn't have any character that you desperately want, you could always just ignore it and focus on dungeons for a week.

Well the thing is, is the events have such better rewards for the effort expended, and since I've had zilch luck on the relic pulls, event weapon/armor rewards are my primary way of making my guys stronger, plus the chance for Greater orbs.

On another note, I just managed to beat "Lost Number". I didn't master it unfortunately(I think I would have, but Tidus died RIGHT at the end), but hey, I got Sephiroths Memory crystal :)

[Deadline]

Short version: Red XIII continues to disappoint me.

A friend of mine pulled his Golden Hairpin weapon from a Relic draw. He still sucks to have in your party, but as a RW, he's ace. Lunatic High is awesome. Dropping Haste and Protect on your whole party when you most need it? Yes please!

[Red Fel]

A friend of mine pulled his Golden Hairpin weapon from a Relic draw. He still sucks to have in your party, but as a RW, he's ace. Lunatic High is awesome. Dropping Haste and Protect on your whole party when you most need it? Yes please!

A character that stinks on ice unless you get his special item in a gacha, and then he's only useful for people other than you, is still a character that stinks on ice. Lunatic High is awesome; the character is not.

Red XIII has failed me, and has shamed the Red name. I'll be over here chilling with Red Mage now.

[T.G. Oskar]

A character that stinks on ice unless you get his special item in a gacha, and then he's only useful for people other than you, is still a character that stinks on ice. Lunatic High is awesome; the character is not.

Red XIII has failed me, and has shamed the Red name. I'll be over here chilling with Red Mage now.

Wait, isn't Red Mage a Core character, and therefore sucks more than Tyro, who's the best Core character but not worthy of a slot compared to other Legendary characters? Isn't the entire game an offense to the Red name, Fel?

On other topics: I didn't imagine they'd skip over to Balthier now...is it? Gotta wait a few hours to find out, but if it's true, then I have my second character for my main team set up. Will be kind of a shame to miss Locke, since he's really good, but he's great as a reserve; Balthier, on the other hand, is distilled awesome even if his set-up is strictly worse than Locke...but I don't care, since he has Celerity, Combat, Support and Thief (aka, exactly what Locke gets) and fights at a distance (with Guns, true...), which is what I'm looking for Slot 2. Now, to wait for Steiner (who's gonna be Slot 5) and, if they eventually release her in Japan, Rosa for Slot 4 (hehe!)

[Deadline]

A character that stinks on ice unless you get his special item in a gacha, and then he's only useful for people other than you, is still a character that stinks on ice. Lunatic High is awesome; the character is not.

Red XIII has failed me, and has shamed the Red name. I'll be over here chilling with Red Mage now.

True, but he's like Bard in that respect. Awful to have in your party but great as a RW (with the Madhura harp in Bard's case)

[Chen]

On other topics: I didn't imagine they'd skip over to Balthier now...is it? Gotta wait a few hours to find out, but if it's true, then I have my second character for my main team set up. Will be kind of a shame to miss Locke, since he's really good, but he's great as a reserve; Balthier, on the other hand, is distilled awesome even if his set-up is strictly worse than Locke...but I don't care, since he has Celerity, Combat, Support and Thief (aka, exactly what Locke gets) and fights at a distance (with Guns, true...), which is what I'm looking for Slot 2. Now, to wait for Steiner (who's gonna be Slot 5) and, if they eventually release her in Japan, Rosa for Slot 4 (hehe!)

Balthier also has one of the best record materias which is auto-haste at the start of the battle. It could be worth throwing a bunch of growth eggs into him and using his memory crystal just to have that materia for other characters.

[Red Fel]

Wait, isn't Red Mage a Core character, and therefore sucks more than Tyro, who's the best Core character but not worthy of a slot compared to other Legendary characters? Isn't the entire game an offense to the Red name, Fel?

Sure, it seems everyone with Red in the name has disappointed me, but at least RM has that sweet hat.

On other topics: I didn't imagine they'd skip over to Balthier now...is it? Gotta wait a few hours to find out, but if it's true, then I have my second character for my main team set up. Will be kind of a shame to miss Locke, since he's really good, but he's great as a reserve; Balthier, on the other hand, is distilled awesome even if his set-up is strictly worse than Locke...but I don't care, since he has Celerity, Combat, Support and Thief (aka, exactly what Locke gets) and fights at a distance (with Guns, true...), which is what I'm looking for Slot 2. Now, to wait for Steiner (who's gonna be Slot 5) and, if they eventually release her in Japan, Rosa for Slot 4 (hehe!)

Ooh, it is Balthier. Pity he doesn't give some kind of synergy bonus to Fran to make her suck less. Looking at his stats, though, he's actually pretty solid. Statwise, he's better than Locke in every area except HP and Evasion (by one measly point!); unlike Locke, Balthier's record materia is ready and waiting; and both of his SBs hit all targets. He gains one rank Combat, loses one in Celerity and Thief (seriously, when will they implement that?), but gains another 20 points for sheer style.

Hey, dude's got swagger. I can respect it.

[Mr.Sandman]

Even better, throughout the course of the regular dungeon you can get 3 of a 3* gun, making him immediately usable, unlike Red XIII, Irvine, Sepheroth, or anyone else that uses a rarer weapon type that never seems to drop.