Final Fantasy Record Keeper VI: I'm no Whale! I'm a RELIC Hunter!

[Jurai]

It's so disconcerting, going through early dungeons with ultra powerful gear when early on, it was levels that pulled me through.

[Greg_S]

I started JP yesterday, twenty-three hours and twenty-eight minutes ago, and, over the course of three three-pulls, have THREE Super Soul Breaks and one Unique Soul Break: Buster Sword H (Angeal's Wings of Pride), Javelin (Cid's PILOT FORCE (See also: Shout)), and Cid's Goggles (Big Brawl) for my Super Soul Breaks and Cloud's Guise (Climhazzard). It was enough to make me consider giving away my Global account.

Started JP last week, and have done 3 11-pulls: the SSB-only lucky draw, the Ice-ele lucky draw, and FF7 banner 1. My loot's not as great as yours, but still pretty solid: 2x Yuffie's SSB, Cid's Shout, Lulu's en-Ice Mog, Steiner's SSB, and Shadow's SSB. Saving up for the FF5 event now in the hopes that I pull Gilgamesh's OSB and SSB.

[Simkin]

Started JP last week, and have done 3 11-pulls: the SSB-only lucky draw, the Ice-ele lucky draw, and FF7 banner 1. My loot's not as great as yours, but still pretty solid: 2x Yuffie's SSB, Cid's Shout, Lulu's en-Ice Mog, Steiner's SSB, and Shadow's SSB. Saving up for the FF5 event now in the hopes that I pull Gilgamesh's OSB and SSB.

What's the driver for playing JP version too? Just for fun? Can you read any of it or is it all in JP?

[Simkin]

My friend code is: BwDj

[Merlin the Tuna]

Gaaah, Cid Mission'd the U without too much trouble and came so close on getting the U+ in hand on my third try. But after downing Asura, Kain dropped a couple ticks before heals came in, which left me short on damage for cleaning up Leviathan. That run definitely benefitted from friendly RNG though; Asura burned a lot of turns casting protects and shells that didn't really matter. Lineup so far:

Pecil: Banishing Strike, Shellga - BSB
Decil: Armor Break, Full Charge
Kain: Tempo Flurry, Lightning Jump
Porom: Curaja, Protectga
Edward: Magic Breakdown, Power Breakdown
RW: Shout

So far Decil has felt like kind of a liability - he's the lowest level (60) and isn't bringing much utility to the table. But the only person I have available to swap in for him is Palom, who brings even less utility and doesn't benefit from Shout's ATK buff. I dunno, maybe having his conveniently-lightning-elemental SSB makes up for that. It's just a big juggling act; Edward needs to split his focus, and every skill feels "required" except for Decil's. Even if I skip the Cid Mission to bring in a tauntailiator, I still can't squeeze in Palom.

Edit: Maybe give Edward the Celebration Blade for the shared Slow SB so that Kain can swap Tempo Flurry for Leeching Leap? I dunno. Feels like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

[Greg_S]

What's the driver for playing JP version too? Just for fun? Can you read any of it or is it all in JP?

I was traveling a lot last week and needed to kill some time. It's definitely something I'm just playing with. It's all in Japanese, but the icons are the same, so I can fill in the gaps.

[danzibr]

Spent $0.99, got a 3*.

Almost done mastering new stuff. Going to have 168 stam, sweet. Saving the last one for Sunday.

[spectralphoenix]

Did a 100 gem pull, got Quistis's Haste+Cast Speed whip. Which would be an okay ability if I had any idea what Quistis was supposed to do. Seriously, Support 4, BM 4, and WHM 2?

[Merlin the Tuna]

The FF8 cast really does love having those uselessly low proficiencies. I guess Quistis is replacement support for Irvine when you're fighting a mostly-magical boss that you for some reason don't want Full Break for? She's got 20 RES on him; that's about it though.

[Slayn82]

Sweet pull. Quistis gets Black Magic 5 and White Magic 4 through Records Dive, making her much more useful.

Did a 100 gem and 3 pull. Got to upgrade a 3* and a 4*. Wondering if I keep pushing another 3 pull on this banner, or throw my next 25 mythril on the banner 2.

[tyckspoon]

Did a 100 gem pull, got Quistis's Haste+Cast Speed whip. Which would be an okay ability if I had any idea what Quistis was supposed to do. Seriously, Support 4, BM 4, and WHM 2?

She makes a passable Black Mage, especially if you've got one of her whips, and support 4 is Breakdowns which never hurts to have flexibility and extra slots for those. But yeah, unless you're willing to invest in Record Dive for her she's kind of odd.. Still more useful than Irvine, anyway.

[Slayn82]

There's more than meets the eye on Irvine, with Canister Shot he has been an staple for my teams. While he is lacking a bit in RS weapons, his damage using a gun damage + RM isn't bad, Support abilities are reasonably strong and always on demand, and light armor on back row give him enough durability to withstand AOE physical damage from Bosses. Plus Machinist.

He feels kinda like another twist on Wakka, but theoretically he can have RS in other Realms, even if so many guns are Mag sticks, and of those guns who increase attack, you would be better served using its native owner than Irvine.

The nice thing about Canister Shot is that it helps both physical and Magic characters, and the other support is free to bring a DPS or utility ability instead of a aggressive breakdown, or you can stack FB +?BD + Canister Shot.

[Red Fel]

Well, all dungeons are cleared - again - and I'm partway through the VIII event.

Oh, hey, you guys, there's this VIII event. No new characters, but MC2s for Seifer and Irvine. First banner has Rinoa's BSB, Laguna's SSB (Ice AoE with Imperil Ice), and Quistis' SSB (Hastega + party Short Charge 3). Second banner has Seifer's SSB (AoE with high chance to Instant-KO, plus party Def), Irvine's SSB (random-target with auto-Blind and auto-Slow, deals bonus damage if either status is in place), and Selphie's Dreamstage. There's some other stuff too, but a lot of it is middling and gets overshadowed. Squall's Jacket (second banner) does feature an En-Ice SB, which will be even better in light of the upcoming (eventually) 6-star Spellblade Double Blizzaga Strike. But honestly, nothing wows me on these.

Bonus battles!

• +: Boss rush. You'll need Atk reducers. Good news, both bosses are purely physical, so mitigation is straightforward. Victory gets you orbs, motes, and Irvine's MC2.
  • King Tonberry. Medals for reducing his Atk and not getting KO'd. He uses only physical attacks, so Power Breakdown + Full Break + Protectga is a thing. He can also be Stunned, so consider Dismissal.
  • Odin. The exact same thing. Exact same. Note that he uses Zantetsuken every tenth turn, so if you kill him before that you're golden.
• ++: Cerberus. Medals for reducing his Mag, reducing his Res, and not getting KO'd. He absorbs Lightning and nulls Wind, but he can be Stunned, so you might consider swapping Squall's Spellblades out for Seifer's Banishing Strike. Dispel Triple when he uses it, or let it expire after several turns of him nuking you into the ground. He uses a lot of spells, but also uses Berserk, Silence, and Blind, so he's one nasty customer. Victory gets you orbs, motes, and Seifer's MC2.
• +++: Ultima Weapon. Medals for reducing his Mag, reducing his Atk, and not getting KO'd. No elemental weaknesses, but Stun again. His physical attacks are fairly simple - either one or two standard attacks - but his magic attacks are powerful AoEs, so if you must choose, mitigate magic. He also has a proportionate-damage AoE (Gravija), and uses Light Pillar after a certain number of turns, so try to win quickly. Victory gets you orbs, motes, a Rosetta Stone, and an Empty MC2.

The bad news is that the Ult is a multi-boss Ult. The good news is that it has an exploitable Ice weakness, and only two will be on screen at a time (you face a total of 5). The U+ is a magical nuclear nightmare. There are also full-VIII quests for both, but if you've been keeping up with your VIII cast, it shouldn't be too difficult (except for the lack of wall).

Happy hunting.

[Starwulf]

Sigh. Did 3 single pulls(because even though my VIII synergy is awful, I"m just not interested in burning 50 mythril on it), 2 gold and 1 rainbow(both gold were junk, sadly). The rainbow was my SECOND party dress. Obviously I'm not going to combined them into a 6*, as I can use every bit of equipment I can get for VIII, lol.

[Hunter Noventa]

VIII is a decent realm for me. I have two SBs for Seifer, and Selphie's Dreamstage, and Selphie and Rinoa are 80. The rest is kind of a crapshoot though. Squall's all right at 55ish, as is Seifer. Laguna is just plain 50 and I have no idea what Irvine is at other than being level broken, but it sounds like I'll need him for breakdowns. The Bonus Battles shouldn't bean issue, but the Ults might be.

And i only have so many eggs, though every hero Record and MC turning into one is nice.

[Merlin the Tuna]

++: Cerberus... He uses a lot of spells, but also uses Berserk, Silence, and Blind, so he's one nasty customer.

As a heads up, it looks like this version does not actually have status spells. I haven't run him yet, but so sayeth the data miners.

[SuperPanda]

My gem pull netted me nothing, but I'm doing okay on this relm.

I've cleared through the ++ without incident using Squall, Rinoa, Selphie, Edea, and Irvine.

I currently have Irvine in the back with an off Relm gun instead of up front with a RS dagger.

Rinoa is scary strong with a RS hat, a 5*++ RS weapon and a +30 mage relic. Maudlin was double-capping on the boss rush and wishing star was crazy strong on the ++.

[Hunter Noventa]

I tried for a 3-pull on the banner and got nuthin. Such is life. I have a couple more dungeons before the bonus battles, I'm not too worried about those. Elite Adel was a little rough, but mostly because Energy Bomber seems to laugh at mitigation. With mitigation up even her Ultima was doing sub-1k to everyone, and that was just Magic Break and Shell, not even Magic Breakdown.

[Morbis Meh]

I think I shall pass on doing a pull for this event since I have never been a fan of FFVIII anyway XD My realm synergy is laughable except for my beastly Edea (she's sporting roughly 500 mag with her SSB relic atm so that's something). Just going to save my mithril for the next event or hoard it for the FFT event since it is by far my favorite FF game along with 9.

Edit: how does one gain access to 4 star motes? You can only exchange for 3 star from the fat chocobo and 3 stars are only given as a reward...

[danzibr]

I think I shall pass on doing a pull for this event since I have never been a fan of FFVIII anyway XD My realm synergy is laughable except for my beastly Edea (she's sporting roughly 500 mag with her SSB relic atm so that's something). Just going to save my mithril for the next event or hoard it for the FFT event since it is by far my favorite FF game along with 9.

Edit: how does one gain access to 4 star motes? You can only exchange for 3 star from the fat chocobo and 3 stars are only given as a reward...

This comes out in a couple days.

EDIT: Just to clarify, only VIII. The come later, sort of like Abyss stuff.

[Red Fel]

This comes out in a couple days.

EDIT: Just to clarify, only VIII. The come later, sort of like Abyss stuff.

Yeah.

3-star motes are eventually going to flow like water. Buy 'em for greens, get 'em in every event, etc. 4-star motes are going to be like 5-star orbs were before the green shop - rare commodities, you won't have enough to spend on everyone, budget and plan, etc. And where you get them will be the Mote Dungeons, which, as Danzibr says, function like Nightmares - monthly dungeon which lets you access earlier versions. But where Nightmares are based around an ability category (e.g. BLK, WHT, Combat, etc.), Mote Dungeons are based around a realm (VIII, XIII, etc.).

The first Mote Dungeon, VIII Ifrit, is described as both the hardest (by some anyways) and the lowest-paying. It pays out 5x of three different 4-star motes. Later iterations will pay out dramatically more. By comparison, the III dungeon pays out a total of 200 4-stars, as compared to the VIII's 15.

Budget accordingly.

[Greg_S]

I have Leviathan on the ropes, Cid Mission almost complete. A second Eblan Dual Wield has weakened him to the point where the next hit will kill him. Edward's the only other one left standing. Full Break's charging. AoE Blizzara takes out Edge, but wait! Edward's got a sliver of HP left! The bar's charged, here comes the finishing blow!

Ding! -74 HP from DD's sap. Cue the game over music.

EDIT: Got 'em! Fang's RM3 (+30% dragoon damage) was the big winner. Asura cast protect on Leviathan, so I had a ton of HP to cut through, but one final blood of the Wyvern ended Leviathan and finished the mission. That felt good.

[Starwulf]

Well, even with my absolute crap synergy, the FFVIII +/++/+++ battles weren't much of a challenge. I didn't even have to refresh Shout in the ++ or the +++ battle, I had the fights won before it wore off.

Honestly, I'm not sure I'm going to have much issue with anything below U+ difficulty from now on. I've discovered the wonders of using Faris with her Yoichi's Bow. That things debuff(atk/mag down) stacks with both Fullbreak AND Power/Magic Breakdown. I've seen bosses of stages with 100-120 difficulty hit me for damage in the TEENS with full mitigation up now(SG+Protectga/Shellga+Fullbreak+Power or Magic Breakdow+Sea Lords Broadside). It's...freaking absurd how little damage I get hit for now. And best of all, Faris gets her MC2 in the upcoming V dungeon! It's literally like having 2x Wall up, if Walls could stack.

I'm so enamored of it, that I am actually finally going to go and make a concerted effort to get Clouds RM3 so I can stick it on Faris so she can use her SB at the start of fights for maximum amount of mitigation as quickly as possible. Literally nothing else I have has made me even consider wanting to put myself through the stress of trying to farm a specific Record Materia, but this does.

[danzibr]

Glad things are going well, Starwulf :)

Me, I'm working on the VIII event. Did dailies yesterday.

[Slayn82]

EDIT: Got 'em! Fang's RM3 (+30% dragoon damage) was the big winner. Asura cast protect on Leviathan, so I had a ton of HP to cut through, but one final blood of the Wyvern ended Leviathan and finished the mission. That felt good.

Congrats on the Victory. That first loss, ouch, story gave me flashes from Yunalesca. But that only serves to spice things, makes victory more satisfying.

Honestly, I'm not sure I'm going to have much issue with anything below U+ difficulty from now on. I've discovered the wonders of using Faris with her Yoichi's Bow. That things debuff(atk/mag down) stacks with both Fullbreak AND Power/Magic Breakdown. I've seen bosses of stages with 100-120 difficulty hit me for damage in the TEENS with full mitigation up now(SG+Protectga/Shellga+Fullbreak+Power or Magic Breakdow+Sea Lords Broadside). It's...freaking absurd how little damage I get hit for now. And best of all, Faris gets her MC2 in the upcoming V dungeon! It's literally like having 2x Wall up, if Walls could stack.

Faris is a powerhouse as support, hands down the closest to challenge Ramza and Tyro. And the chance of getting a "Reverse Wal" is the only thing making me have doubts on skipping Support Lucky Draw. I've been using Heroic Harmony/Cleansing Strike as RW on challenging battles, sometimes skipping Magic/Power Breakdowns or Protectga/Shellga.

The support Lucky Draw is the best for mitigation and utility, look at this spread sheet, (https://m.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKeepe...f=search_posts) it has:

Tyro's Wall.
Reverse Walls for Gordon, Faris, Setzer, and Fran.
Shellga/Protectga from Quina's Mighty Guard IX and Tyro's Keeper Tome.
Extended, damaging AOE Full Breaks for Fran and Faris.
Edward, Red XIII, Szah and Ramza offer Protectga + something, Red XIII, and Szah offer Shellga + something.

That's 15 mitigation Relics ranging from nice to broken. Then you get the situational stuff:

Ramza's Stun.
Blind inflicts from Wakka (with Poison) and Irvine (with slow).
Wakka's damage and extended Magic Breakdown.
Blind inflicts from Setzer (somewhat bad).

On the offensive, things aren't bad either: Shout and Song of Swiftness are top relics.
Barret, Faris and Irvine have Wall Breakers (-Def/Res) of 25s, Wakka and Fran have 10s WBs (I like them, but 10 s is a bit too short).
Those stack with FB and Armor/Mental Breakdowns. Everything else at least offers Synergy. Setzer's blind is one of the weakest relics in this Banner, along Red XIII party ability refill and Irvine's first relic.

I think they should have included Dancers in this draw, would have made things more interesting. 6 free pulls is tempting, and there's few terrible relics, they even gave us 20 Mythril right before this banner. Yet, something keeps telling me this isn't the best banner for me right now, and I should give up Seifer's Banners for FF XII.

[SuperPanda]

I'll have my fingers crossed big time for Support Lucky Draw.

I have the following from the Draw list:
Red XIII's Diamond Pin
Wakka's Official Ball
Sazh's Sirius Sidearm
Ramza's Grand Armor+

So there is a high chance of pulling a win on the banner even if it isn't the best one.

For the time being, I've cleared 3 of the new classics, done some daily farming, cleared the event (so far). The team's not up to much at the moment and new RMs are not dropping.

I also picked up FFT:WotL on my iPhone, the port takes a bit to get used to but it works just fine. I'm thinking of getting the 6+1 pack for myself around christmas (That's FF1-6+IV:TAY).

I've played through and loved IV and VI (VI on an emulator) - but not the re-released bonus dungeons. I never played through and beat I-III+V and I've got the feeling that I'm really missing out (on V) and might as well give I and III a shot.

[Greg_S]

Congrats on the Victory. That first loss, ouch, story gave me flashes from Yunalesca. But that only serves to spice things, makes victory more satisfying.

Thanks! It felt really satisfying to drop them after that. 5* skills are worth every orb.

On the lucky draw: you know how good the prizes are on this one, and ATK/MAG combo breaks can make your A-team unstoppable.

I'm with Slayn, though- I've been lucky enough to get the prizes on this banner, so I'll skip it for FFV 1, FFIX 1 (2 BSBs!), or shots at Vaan's crazy BSB on FFXII 1.

[huttj509]

Thanks! It felt really satisfying to drop them after that. 5* skills are worth every orb.

On the lucky draw: you know how good the prizes are on this one, and ATK/MAG combo breaks can make your A-team unstoppable.

I'm with Slayn, though- I've been lucky enough to get the prizes on this banner, so I'll skip it for FFV 1, FFIX 1 (2 BSBs!), or shots at Vaan's crazy BSB on FFXII 1.

When is the lucky draw? Can't find info.

[danzibr]

When is the lucky draw? Can't find info.

With the next Abyss dungeon, which drops... on my birthday! July 27. Nice.

EDIT: Also, way down the road, Cid (like the FFVII dude) gets a SSB which gives Hastega and +50% attack to the party, i.e., Shout.

EDIT EDIT: Also also, with that event, we get a 4* Darkness ability which deals damage, gives +30% attack, and Doom (45 s), then a 5* Darkness ability which deals damage split over 2 attacks, and gets a bonus if your Doom'd. What's this? Yes, it's a physical version of MM and DZ!

[Greg_S]

With the next Abyss dungeon, which drops... on my birthday! July 27. Nice.

EDIT: Also, way down the road, Cid (like the FFVII dude) gets a SSB which gives Hastega and +50% attack to the party, i.e., Shout.

EDIT EDIT: Also also, with that event, we get a 4* Darkness ability which deals damage, gives +30% attack, and Doom (45 s), then a 5* Darkness ability which deals damage split over 2 attacks, and gets a bonus if your Doom'd. What's this? Yes, it's a physical version of MM and DZ!

Galuf just got his BSB over in JP. It's fire-elemental with imperil fire. The cool part? The burst commands are both attacks which have a heal rider. Each of his burst commands heals the lowest-HP char for 30% of their max HP. Going to do a pull on that banner with my JP account.