Final Fantasy RecordKeeper X:Listen to my pulls. This is our last chance to whale

[darkdragoon]

LD helped my VII but mixed in characters- I don't use Sephiroth much but I suppose Reunion can come in handy; 2/3 of Rufus's stuff.

TA was mixed. dupes for Ramza when I really wanted the new stuff, and while Marche and Agrias are solid their Ultras would have helped that a lot more.

Not much from IX which is a favorite.

[Anteros]

Are you guys actually sinking money into all these draws? Is this just a gambling thread now?

Reading this thread I'm feeling lucky that I put this game down early without getting drawn in, because I don't think I can afford to play it.

[Starwulf]

Are you guys actually sinking money into all these draws? Is this just a gambling thread now?

Reading this thread I'm feeling lucky that I put this game down early without getting drawn in, because I don't think I can afford to play it.

Unlikely actually, a lot of us just save all of our mythril for very, very specific banners, with a certain amount of surplus for Lucky Draw's that might pop up from time to time. And mythril is all free, earned by completing dungeons and events, plus given out as a daily log-in bonus. If I'm not mistaken, I don't think more than a handful of people on the thread actually put money into the game, and most of that is just a few dollars here and there for 100-gem pulls on new banners.

It's the greatest thing about FFRK, if you are smart with your mythril, you don't need to put a dime into the game and you can still progress into the highest tiers of content with no issue/maybe just a little luck.

[huttj509]

It's the greatest thing about FFRK, if you are smart with your mythril, you don't need to put a dime into the game and you can still progress into the highest tiers of content with no issue/maybe just a little luck.

Def agree on that. A friend of mine started playing like 6 months ago and he was the first of my group of friends to hit magicite dungeons, surpassing the rest of us.

Then there was the guy who started 3 months ago and was clearing the Apoc+ MP events before my normal quad was, but he's in a Discord with some streamers who brought him in, but still...

It's been fun watching my friends hitting walls, then surpassing them, and remembering when I was hitting them, and trying to not sound like I'm bragging when I'm happy about full clearing an event when some of them can't consistently get Memory Crystal IIIs (OMG I got so many when the renewal events came back round, as I had recently topped that particular wall and was able to get soooo many I had missed first time round).

[Antonok]

Have you wasted countless hours closing and reopening FFRK?

Have you spent more time than any sane person should staring at the log in screen?

Does your phone now have a dead zone on the touch screen from pressing the continue battle button?

Well never fear! Because DeNA is adding a new and improved S/L button right in game!

[Merlin the Tuna]

Are you guys actually sinking money into all these draws? Is this just a gambling thread now?

Ha! Heck no. That'd be incredibly irresponsible. I've said it before, but: this game is as generous to F2P players as it is a total ripoff to actually pay for.

Also underrated: it feels like a comparatively light time investment on the scale of mobile games. I'm sticking my toe back into Fire Emblem Heroes at the moment, and whereas I can clear out my FFRK stamina in 5 minutes thanks to high-value dailies, FEH demands dozens of individual battles, often with team futzing between them, in various formats... it's bananas if you want to go whole-hog on it.

Relatedly, while I sometimes rag on FFRK for giving us minor cameo characters as full blown units (The Turks! Rubicante & Barb! Dorgann, Xezat, and Kelgar! Kiros & Ward!) FEH is a true who's who of "Who is this nerd?" even for a relative fan of the series.

[Greg_S]

Crystal tower's down. Diamond Weapon was tricky- brought a CM wind team with Cid being the 5th wheel. Probably should have used someone else, though big brawl did charge the wind chain nicely. Beyond that, Shelke entrusts to Cloud, who goes USB=>BSB2 until Weapon dies of cheese.

Mateus fell to a powered-up Shadow w/USB. Dark ninja was hitting for ~45K a turn at the end- 6500x4 + 9999x2 from the chase. Setzer nerfed Mateus down to 800 damage per AoE, Red kept astra up, and GG.

One of the things I like about the CT is bringing your options out of mothballs. I brought Bartz for Yojimbo. He could contribute to Tidus' water chain as well as use trueblade for a party defense boost (handy against wakazashi spam) and capped the chain off with his Captain Planet finisher. Fenrir was a good magicite choice too, with its party blink.

Finally, Babs. Physical dragoon team, obviously. But they have to be dragoons who aren't wind-themed, so that knocks out... everyone but Kain, Aranea, Noctis, and Ward. Ok then! Noct comes along for that SSB, Kain does his lightning dive routine. Quina has the SSB boostga, OK BSB for hastega, and Larsa burst to prevent her from petrifying or stopping everyone. All down, and now my previous motes can dive someone for that sweet, sweet doublecast.

3 LDs on their way towards the end of the month, and they're the same 3 from the last few fests: healing (maybe with USBs? Please? No one wants a 15/22 dupefest), BSBs (probably uncurated), and 6*, which sounds like it's curated somehow, but no details yet. Ideally, it's just a select list like Bartz/Terra/Lightning/Shantotto USB, a few chains, and some more interesting OSBs to round out a 20 or 30-deep list. Worst case scenario, it's OSBs only.

No fest banners or even theme yet, but lazy DeNA almost has to reuse superfest and its chain theme, you'd think. At least, I hope so- after skipping the last fest's butchery, I could really use shots at some element chains.

EDIT: Broken soul damage total: 566429. Raines, full LD, going mori/zone contributed about 40% of that. After doing this, I can see why they didn't do any more of these broken soul strength tests- by turn 2, you're just doing the same move over and over again.

[T.G. Oskar]

Well, since nobody mentioned it: there's a new battle in Test of Strength. This one is a "Broken Soul" (aka, No Throttle) battle, meaning you get no SB gauges, but most importantly, you can't fill them. So you're entirely reliant on your abilities and hones, and which ones can do the most damage.

With 2-gauge Jump Start, I managed to achieve about 1.04 mil damage, mostly because Cid had to do Pilot's Steel beforehand. Vaan doing Ark Blast murdered Greg's defense, and both OSBs (his and the THUNDER GOD TECHNIQUE) did some nice damage. I coupled that with Rikku doing Imperil Water and Tidus using his chaser Chain with Sapphire Shot. Was maxing Sapphire Shot pretty quickly, so using the extra damage from the Blitzball was pretty pointless.

In Broken Soul mode, I went with the THUNDER GOD just as much, alongside Zack, Refia, Luneth and Kuja. Mostly because they had access to the combo techniques: Zack used Powercharge, Refia buffed herself with Meteor Crash and then spammed Fires Within like crazy, Luneth used Blood of the Dragon followed by timed uses of Lightning Dive, and Kuja...used Dr. Mog's BoostFaithastega, then MM/DZ. All with my best boosters. Managed to get to 232k worth of damage before Greg bailed out. That's...pretty much what's needed to take down a U++ boss, so that's pretty nice.

Been doing Magicite battles recently. I got Sealion to a hilt, going as far down as 52 seconds. Mostly, Fires Within dealing 4 hits worth of damage became a life-changer (particularly when doublecast!), because that allows Refia to do tons more damage that way. Onion going for Smoldering Flames and dealing 8k per hit (total 16k) also does the trick. Still have a few surprises down the way sometimes, but this has turned into a routine that I can do mostly to farm Wendigos. I got one ready to reach 99, and gonna get another one because it's pretty decent for what it gets. Got a few more Taharkas, which grant Blade Ward, so there's that.

Fenrir is a bit more complex, though, because Ayame can do only so much. However, I've done a bit more progress, so I only need a slight push to make her an Enkidu-farming machine. This gives me more hopes on working with Golem, as I already have a near-topped Enkidu, a Fenrir in progress, and working on a Wing Raptor to top all three. Wind should be slightly easier, as I can use Fenrir to avoid the big Earth attacks, and just go with Fujin and spam OSB like crazy. I feel that, with some effort, I might actually get to sub-30 Golem, which would be a good start.

As for LDs: I missed the last ones (damn you, Hurricane Maria!!!), so I'll pull on all three, even if Bursts are falling down. Particularly excited that my dear is one of the...ahem, "highlighted" specific characters on LD the 3rd (the one with guaranteed 6*). That, plus judicious pulls on the SuperFest (or whatever is the theme of the Christmas fest) should keep me around 150 Mythril, which is good for three pulls on the Fire Goddess banner, which I await with abated breath. Either my dear achieves godhood, or goes down in flames trying, but she's gonna end up sub-30 Sealion soon, dammit!

Speaking of which...

Are you guys actually sinking money into all these draws? Is this just a gambling thread now?

Reading this thread I'm feeling lucky that I put this game down early without getting drawn in, because I don't think I can afford to play it.

Not really. In fact, not even close. Not for a mile. Not for...well, you get the idea.

As mentioned, getting Mythril is pretty easy. Each event grants 13 Mythril (10 from the main event, plus 3 from the Multiplayer events), plus you get 13 more Mythril every 10 days (from Daily bonuses). That's 26 Mythril almost every 2 weeks, meaning you can do an 11-pull once per month. Then, you get the 4 Mythril from the Fat Chocobo store, a few more from doing Classic and Elite dungeons...well, you get the math. The key is knowing where to pull at - pull on LDs that have what you want (say, if you need Medica SBs, you pull on the Healing Lucky every 3 months or so; if your IX synergy is bad, pull on a IX event OR Realm Dungeon Lucky Draw with IX content). Eventually, you'll be swarmed by relics, all without spending a dime.

Of course, there are 100-gemmer pulls, which can be pretty lucky at times. You can afford those if you do purchases with Google Play/iTunes App Store cards for other stuff (I had a surplus of money from purchasing FF Dimensions, then Romancing SaGa 2, for my phone, so I spent it on 100-gemmers). The bulk of my relics, including the most valuable ones (Shout, OnionBurst, Alphinaud's Radiant Shield, the Tanking Trio relics, SSII, and all of Terra's relics I got) have been specifically with Mythril gained by playing. Only like 3 or 4 relics were gained by 100-gemmers, so there's that.

That said, I did spend money on a card, but not for me. You see, a friend of mine had some horrible luck getting relics for his favorite character (Dark Knight Cecil, btw), so knowing there was a Gem-only Draw during the Anniversary, I bought a card for him. It was doubly fortunate I did it before the hurricane hit, and that I managed to get him just as the gem draw released, and he's very happy with DK!Cecil's burst, so I didn't even bought it for me. I *may* have suggested a good karma spin, but that's not entirely certain. So, less "gambling" and more "good Samaritan".

I mean, all things said, I've spent only pittance in this game compared to...say, DDO (to buy some of the content), and I've spent nothing on another FF-related smartphone game (*coughcoughBraveExviuscoughcough*), so that should tell you a lot. So no; don't fear that you'll be consumed by gambling addiction and lose your money by playing; that said, prepare to go semi-hardcore. Well, at least, hardcore enough to get all the Mythril from events.

[spectralphoenix]

I think the biggest defense against whaling is how ridiculously expensive pulls are with real money. I mean, this is the only cell phone game I'm into long term. I might occasionally do an 11 pull for five dollars. I could maybe even talk myself into spending ten once in a great while, though I might be ashamed to admit it. But thirty bucks? That's insane! I can only assume the occasional crazy person burning hundreds of dollars for their waifu outweighs any number of normal players rarely treating themselves.

[Starwulf]

I think the biggest defense against whaling is how ridiculously expensive pulls are with real money. I mean, this is the only cell phone game I'm into long term. I might occasionally do an 11 pull for five dollars. I could maybe even talk myself into spending ten once in a great while, though I might be ashamed to admit it. But thirty bucks? That's insane! I can only assume the occasional crazy person burning hundreds of dollars for their waifu outweighs any number of normal players rarely treating themselves.

Lol, I hate to break it to you, but the "whales" spend so much money on this game it's insane. I've read 3 separate threads over on Reddit since I started going there a year + ago that have stated they've spent $25,000, and one guy actually provided proof of having spent over $50k on this game. And on that particular thread a lot of other whales came out of the woodwork talking about how they've spent roughly $7500-$10k on the game, like at least 2 dozen of them. And that's just us Global players, I've read of a japanese whale that has spent over $100k on the game, and a few dozen that have spent between $50k-$75k(so basically Global's biggest spender is on par with their high-medium spenders)

A few hundred isn't even remotely remarkable for this game. For us here on this forum? Sure, that sounds like a crazy amount, I'm not sure if any of us have spent that. I've not put a dime of "actual" money into it personally(though I do use Google Surveys, and I've earned $18 that has all gone into FFRK), and I imagine most(if not all) of us here on the thread are pretty much the same, but we are literally not even infantfish(google reveals that to be the smallest fish in the world) compared to the real whale spenders, and barely guppies to the average "big" spender.

Apparently $10k is what's required to hit the highest tier of DeNa's special MVP reward program(there are several tiers, silver, gold, emerald and ruby I think, pretty sure I'm missing one though I believe). That guy that spent $50k was somehow not even in the biggest tier, he made a big stink about it on the reddit forums a while back, was totally pissed that he has been repeatedly denied the highest tier even though he's outspent literally everyone else in Global. A lot of the highest tier guys(the ones that came out and admitted to having spent $10k or so) told him he needed to stop doing it in smaller chunks, and sink one single monstrous payload into the game, roughly $2500 or so all at once, as according to them, that's how they got moved from the 2nd highest tier into the highest one.

[Merlin the Tuna]

EDIT: Broken soul damage total: 566429. Raines, full LD, going mori/zone contributed about 40% of that. After doing this, I can see why they didn't do any more of these broken soul strength tests- by turn 2, you're just doing the same move over and over again.

Eh, it's pretty much the same for the JS as well. Turns out punching bags just aren't that intellectually stimulating. I had about 800k for mine thanks to Bartz, Raines, and Cloud all doing some doublecasting, but yeah... not a lot going on with these.

For the fests, I'm starting to honestly wonder whether to pull on all the luckies. I still think the folks who are opting out of BSB+ luckies are nuts, but that healing one is getting some side-eye from me. The only realms I lack medicas for entirely at this point are 1, 6, 8, 11, 15, and 0. That's... actually more than I thought, so I may have just talked myself into it even if a lot of those are small-fries as realms go.

I do seriously worry about the folks throwing money at this though. I'm pretty well-to-do financially, and even I'm a tightwad about my gaming habits. These stories of people throwing tens of thousands of dollars at mobile games are heartbreaking, and it doesn't help that threads about it inevitably draw in a choir of "Oh, I only spent $500 on this game, that's not so bad." That's still a ton!

[huttj509]

Eh, it's pretty much the same for the JS as well. Turns out punching bags just aren't that intellectually stimulating. I had about 800k for mine thanks to Bartz, Raines, and Cloud all doing some doublecasting, but yeah... not a lot going on with these.

For the fests, I'm starting to honestly wonder whether to pull on all the luckies. I still think the folks who are opting out of BSB+ luckies are nuts, but that healing one is getting some side-eye from me. The only realms I lack medicas for entirely at this point are 1, 6, 8, 11, 15, and 0. That's... actually more than I thought, so I may have just talked myself into it even if a lot of those are small-fries as realms go.

I do seriously worry about the folks throwing money at this though. I'm pretty well-to-do financially, and even I'm a tightwad about my gaming habits. These stories of people throwing tens of thousands of dollars at mobile games are heartbreaking, and it doesn't help that threads about it inevitably draw in a choir of "Oh, I only spent $500 on this game, that's not so bad." That's still a ton!

And here I am having checked my budget for a $70 controller for my Nintendo Switch this morning.

[Antonok]

I do seriously worry about the folks throwing money at this though. I'm pretty well-to-do financially, and even I'm a tightwad about my gaming habits. These stories of people throwing tens of thousands of dollars at mobile games are heartbreaking, and it doesn't help that threads about it inevitably draw in a choir of "Oh, I only spent $500 on this game, that's not so bad." That's still a ton!

As far as whales in mobile games/F2P games goes, FFRK whales are lightweights from some I've seen. I used to play a game called Pockie Ninja (Naruto/Bleach based game) and near the end they started doing a *whoever buys the most paid currency gets the new outfits' system. The largest bid I saw? Over 100k USD. And the really sad part? It was the same 5 or so people every week that topped the boards when the new outfit was released.

In regards to my personal amount spent on FFRK, somewhere between $100-200 in the 2 years I've been playing, but I really don't mind spending a little cash every now and then on something I enjoy to help support it. Spent WAY more than on say, WoW with all the expansions and sub cost, or FFXIV.

[spectralphoenix]

<The ways of the whale>

Well, I stand by my statement that thirty bucks a pull is insane. But apparently it's the customer base who's insane, not DeNA. Fifty thousand dollars?!? That's about 1600 pulls over about three years of gameplay - that's what, ten pulls a week?


Anyway, got through the crystal tower but didn't master any of the dungeons (which is pretty weird, because I almost always either get all the medals or die, there's usually no in-between.) I beat Weapon with just Sephiroth left standing after his BSB shield stopped a Diamond Flash so he could finish it off with his OSB. I figure I'll go back and fight each one individually, because there were a few guys I wanted to use more than once (Seph against Mateus, someone other than Krile and a summoning team plus Tyro for jumps and affliction break vs Barb.) I'll probably put that off for a while though.

[Starwulf]

Well, I stand by my statement that thirty bucks a pull is insane. But apparently it's the customer base who's insane, not DeNA. Fifty thousand dollars?!? That's about 1600 pulls over about three years of gameplay - that's what, ten pulls a week?

Oh definitely, it's pretty nuts to be honest. I mean, I would like to do it ONCE, just to support a game that I've sunk so many hours into over the last 2+ years, if I can ever reasonably set aside the money without it being earmarked for something else, but beyond that....can't say I could ever understand putting that kind of money into a tablet game. I mean, I'm thankful that we have whales like that, otherwise the game wouldn't exist, or at least, not in the form it does now, but it doesn't make it any less nuts to me ^^>

[Maryring]

I forgot how utterly awful the FF XIII-2 music was.

I did not feel the need to be reminded.

[Merlin the Tuna]

Speaking of people who spend way too much money on this game, I did some quick napkin math yesterday to calculate what I'm calling the Nostalgia Cap.

As an alternative to hurling money at FFRK, what's the cheapest that you could legally purchase and play a version of every FF game represented in it?

Steam covers most of FFs 3 through 14, Type 0, & World of FF. Add a smartphone to the mix, and you've got FF1, FF2, FFT covered. (And also the best Final Fantasy of all: Chrono Trigger. :P) A PS4 takes care of FF12 and 15, which leaves us with just Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus, and FFTA. Weirdly, the Wii U covers Tactics advance, leaving just the FF7 tie-ins orphaned on old hardware.

• Literally the first "Gaming PC" on Best Buy's website seems to hit the minimum specs for FF14, so that's a surprisingly affordable $480.
• For the smartphone, we'll buy a Samsung Galaxy J7, which I've never heard of but Verizon is selling for $240 and will probably work.
• For the consoles, Amazon's dealing the Wii U for $240 and a PS4 slim for $280.

That gives us a total hardware cost of $1240.

For software, I'm not gonna chase all the prices down, but it's 21 titles by my count. (1-15, two Tactics, Type 0, WoFF, and two sequels to FF13. X-2 and 4:TAY are bundled and priced with their originals on Steam). Ballpark them at $25 apiece for $525 total.

All in all, you could get the entire nostalgia experience for about $1800, plus tax.

[Slayn82]

In 2 years, I have spent near U$ 300,00 on this game. Not cheap, but averages to an affordable amount. Since I'm spending money I would use on entertainment anyway - used to go twice a month to movies, for 5 hours of entertainment. Now, spend same amount, for 40+ hours of entertainment monthly, including here, reddit and gameplay. Works for me, my stress has lowered considerably, and I'm still seeing the movies, just some time later.

Finally got a team able to sub 60s Hydra consistently. Kept Maria, OK and Ovelia, switched Braska's SSB for Tellah's BSB, and brought Rinoa, with her aged BSB 1, for the final nail in the coffin.

Sure, Rinoa's BSB 1 doesn't hit as hard as Maria's, but unlike Ingus and Tiffa, Rinoa benefits from the Quick cast and Mag buffs, and she also got +40 mag from relics, plus extra mag from her Relic Legend Materia as she casts Black Magic. She also can use my R4 Titan to hit as hard as Ingus or Tiffa's BSB entries per casting - around 24 K per cast, so she is dealing 120 K pretty quickly. Tellah adds 10K damage per cast of Command 1, but mostly important, he also speeds up Maria and Rinoa.

Now to farm Hydra until I get enough magicite to move on to Bismarck.

[Anteros]

Speaking of people who spend way too much money on this game, I did some quick napkin math yesterday to calculate what I'm calling the Nostalgia Cap.

Even assuming that's a fair representation of the price, there's no way you can compare one phone game with the content of all those other games.

[Red Fel]

Even assuming that's a fair representation of the price, there's no way you can compare one phone game with the content of all those other games.

Yeah. The phone game lets you fight Sephiroth with a team composed of Cecil, Onion Knight, Terra, Lightning, and Cloud. No comparison.

[T.G. Oskar]

Yeah. The phone game lets you fight Sephiroth Mama's Boy with a team composed of Cecil, Onion Knight, Terra, Lightning, and Cloud. No comparison.

Dude, you cheatin'. You're using the same character twice. Then again, you didn't mention which Cecil, and there's vanilla and chocolate flavors, so... HURR DURR

That said, I kinda approve of the list. Needs more THUNDER GOD though. Raines is acceptable too. Wonder when they're gonna bring out Cid Randell to pad out the Three Broken Cids team.

Also: JP is about to get a Cid Mission rehaul. This time it's called the "Library of Guidance", and it's comprised of several missions that you can complete. The most important here is the "Book of Trials", which will help newbies unlock the game bit by bit, by completing several trials such as "Clear 5 Classic Dungeons", "Master Mako Reactor Classic" (like, the first one or two dungeons), "Master Fabul Castle Classic" (ah, the times when there wasn't a RW reloader... Fabul Castle was raided one too many times!), or "Master The Vile Peaks" (...don't remember this one. Images of "Damn you, Vargas!!!" come to mind, though).

Why is this important? Well, when you complete a portion of the "Book of Trials", you apparently unlock a free "Equipment Selection", which seems to be a Cult of 3 pull with a guaranteed 5* relic, starting with Uniques and going all the way to Bursts. You also get a selection of equipment to choose from.

...But, why is this important? Well, finishing the 2nd or 3rd...page, I think? of the Book of Trials has the subsequent roll grant a guaranteed Sentinel's Grimoire. You know. Wall. The OG Wall, alongside Y'sh's Stoneskin II. So, every newbie WILL have SG granted to them. As well as all existing players, since granting bonuses is retroactive. With Wall 2.0 (aka, Tyro's USB the Third) in JP, that means they're finally embracing Wallitude.

Six months, gents. Six months. If not earlier (QoL updates usually release faster).

[Slayn82]

That's good to know. I finally will have Yshtola's Wall, yay.

I hope they someday allow us to choose a few old SB/SSB era relics, I would be very glad to take Lunneth's Advance or Red XIII's Hastega, for collection.

[Maryring]

I managed to push my Ice Magicite clear time to sub 30, and now I shall never want for MIO again! Or at least not as much as I've done before. I have been sub30ing Fire for a while now, but the others avoid me. I'm very close to sub30 on Lightning, so I'm considering diving Shelke to shave off the required 5 seconds. I'm also trying to figure out how to sub30 the Dark and Holy magicite, as ostensibly that should be doable with little more than Raines BSB and a full dive of him. I do have Hope's BSB2 but that would require using Hope, and it's also very weak damagewise.

Anyhow, that's great news T.G. I'm one of those who has never gotten wall, despite multiple attempts to acquire it. So this is amazing. It'll be nice to acquire some uniques to finish up older character sets.

[Jurai]

Dude, you cheatin'. You're using the same character twice. Then again, you didn't mention which Cecil, and there's vanilla and chocolate flavors, so... HURR DURR

That said, I kinda approve of the list. Needs more THUNDER GOD though. Raines is acceptable too. Wonder when they're gonna bring out Cid Randell to pad out the Three Broken Cids team.

Also: JP is about to get a Cid Mission rehaul. This time it's called the "Library of Guidance", and it's comprised of several missions that you can complete. The most important here is the "Book of Trials", which will help newbies unlock the game bit by bit, by completing several trials such as "Clear 5 Classic Dungeons", "Master Mako Reactor Classic" (like, the first one or two dungeons), "Master Fabul Castle Classic" (ah, the times when there wasn't a RW reloader... Fabul Castle was raided one too many times!), or "Master The Vile Peaks" (...don't remember this one. Images of "Damn you, Vargas!!!" come to mind, though).

Why is this important? Well, when you complete a portion of the "Book of Trials", you apparently unlock a free "Equipment Selection", which seems to be a Cult of 3 pull with a guaranteed 5* relic, starting with Uniques and going all the way to Bursts. You also get a selection of equipment to choose from.

...But, why is this important? Well, finishing the 2nd or 3rd...page, I think? of the Book of Trials has the subsequent roll grant a guaranteed Sentinel's Grimoire. You know. Wall. The OG Wall, alongside Y'sh's Stoneskin II. So, every newbie WILL have SG granted to them. As well as all existing players, since granting bonuses is retroactive. With Wall 2.0 (aka, Tyro's USB the Third) in JP, that means they're finally embracing Wallitude.

Six months, gents. Six months. If not earlier (QoL updates usually release faster).

Mt. Kolts (VI) is just one Vile Peak, whilst Vile Peaks (XIII) is multiple.

[Maryring]

Does anyone know if we can expect any game-changing christmas gifts? So far I haven't bothered to take a stab at the Crystal Tower, because I was expecting to get my team beefed up just a bit, so that my fight against the Diamond Weapon won't be an endless struggle of beating my head against a wall. But all my planned pulls kind of... dwindled away. The previous Vivi banner didn't entice me enough to pull as Vivi himself was the only star, and on the current XIII banner, my Ice Princess is surrounded by her useless Dork Knights, meaning that while there are no dupes, there's a way too high chance to get something for Dumb and Dumber.

[Antonok]

Does anyone know if we can expect any game-changing christmas gifts? So far I haven't bothered to take a stab at the Crystal Tower, because I was expecting to get my team beefed up just a bit, so that my fight against the Diamond Weapon won't be an endless struggle of beating my head against a wall. But all my planned pulls kind of... dwindled away. The previous Vivi banner didn't entice me enough to pull as Vivi himself was the only star, and on the current XIII banner, my Ice Princess is surrounded by her useless Dork Knights, meaning that while there are no dupes, there's a way too high chance to get something for Dumb and Dumber.

Well, I dunno about free stuff they plan to give out (if any), but the fest banners have been detailed.

3 LD banners, Healer (23rd), BSB+(24th), and 6* (25th)

5 Fest Banner which I'll just copy/paste the MVP email:

Spoiler

Show

Happy Holidays from FFRK!

■ The game’s startup screen and BGM music will be changed to a special holiday theme from 5:00 PM 12/15 PST (1:00 AM 12/16 UTC). We hope you enjoy these festive features!

■ Festival of Wonder Relic Draw - 5 Phases

The Festival of Wonder Relic Draw will have bonus drop rates for equipment with Burst Soul Breaks and equipment with Legend Materia for a limited time. There are new pieces of equipment with elemental aspects of every type included in the lineup, and four or more new pieces of equipment will appear in the phases. You could also get new 6★ relics!

・Phase 1: 5:00 PM 12/25 PST to 4:59 PM 12/27 PST
Locke and Krile’s new Chain Soul Breaks will make their debut in this Relic Draw.

Locke’s Atomic Dive activates a fire chain to raise the fire damage of all allies a small amount, deals eleven physical fire attacks to one target, and temporarily lowers its Defense and Resistance a large amount.

Krile’s Unbroken Chain also activates a fire chain to raise the fire damage of all allies a small amount, deals eleven magic fire attacks to one target, and reduces delay of all allies' actions for two turns.

Either would likely be a welcome addition to any fire team.

・Phase 2: 5:00 PM 12/27 PST to 4:59 PM 12/29 PST
Galuf’s Ultra Soul Break and Tifa’s new Burst Soul Break will make their debut in this Relic Draw! Ingus’s Chain Soul Break and Bartz’s Ultra Soul Break will also appear, along with other powerful Soul Breaks.

・Phase 3: 5:00 PM 12/29 PST to 4:59 PM 12/31 PST
Tidus and Zack’s Chain Soul Breaks, and Cloud’s Ultra Soul Break will appear in this Relic Draw along with four new pieces of equipment (including Kimahri’s Ultra Soul Break).

・Phase 4: 5:00 PM 12/31 PST to 4:59 PM 1/2 PST
Kain and Snow’s new Chain Soul Breaks will make their debut in this Relic Draw.

Kain’s Impulse Drive activates a lightning chain, raising the lightning damage of all allies a small amount, and deals twenty-two jump lightning attacks to one target.

Snow’s Frost Geyser activates an ice chain, raises the ice damage of all allies a small amount, deals eleven physical ice attacks to one target, and automatically restores HP to allies when they take damage (up to 2000 HP total).

・Phase 5: 5:00 PM 1/2 PST to 4:59 PM 1/4 PST
Seymour’s Chain Soul Break and Garland’s Overstrike Soul Break will make their debut in this Relic Draw.

Seymour’s Oblivion activates a dark chain, raising the dark damage of all allies a small amount, dealing eleven magic dark attacks to one target, and reducing the delay of all allies' actions for two turns.

Edit: In addition, we'll be getting 6 mithril tomorrow from the daily dungeon update, and another 5 mithril from a log in campaign starting the 20th (5 day login, so the mithril will be collected on the 25th).

[Greg_S]

Banner 1 having both fire chains is really nice. Fire's super-easy to chain together, since it's present in machinist, spellblade, black magic, summoning, monk, and shooter. Banner 2's prizes look the worst, except that Bartz' USB, probably the second-strongest relic in the game, is there. Yeesh.

A lot depends on what's downbanner, but maybe, just maybe, they won't screw this one up.

New feature just hit JP. Not the library of guidance (that's later this week), but the new story dungeon type- it feels like this is what the story dungeons should have been in the first place. You go to scenes from the original games, fight battles with fixed parties of Tyro and "guests" (Cloud in Reactor 7, then Cloud/Barret in Reactor 7 interior) with set skills, equipment, and levels. It's not free roaming with random battles (like Exvius, if you've played grinded that), but involves tapping onto waypoints. But hey, they're in a field map, and both Tyro and Elarra have conversations with the characters, which is fun. Also, new home screen UI- mote dungeons and dailies get their own regions on the map.

There's yet another improvement item introduced with this- stat-boosting crystals. These dungeons will reward items that can buff a character's stats permanently. There's a cap per character, so no boosting Rosa to 999 attack and going nuts with sharpshooter. No idea how high the cap goes yet, I haven't played with that much- had to struggle with the Ignis event's D260 Leviathan. D260: where debuffs matter again!

[Jurai]

We're getting two 5* accessories. One is Holy and Ice Resistance, moderate. The other is Slow and Petrify resistance, moderate.

[Greg_S]

Fest banner list is out!

Spoiler: Thoughts in brief

Show

Banner 1: Fire themed. Locke and Krile CSBs good, Refia USB/BSB pretty solid, Locke OSB is... a really good stat stick. Evaluating BSBs is tough now, because in most cases it's better to pack a good skill, and it's easier to hone them now with new dailies. But Papalymo, Vivi 2, and I think Braska hold up well enough.

Banner 2: Ingus' Chain is probably the worst of the chains because its rider, last stand, is common elsewhere. Bartz USB is here and great. BSBs here are kinda forgettable. Maria's is still very good, but most of the other ones are like getting a character's SSB. LMRs aren't bad though, Galuf's is a doublecast monk.

Banner 3: Tidus and Zack chains, Kimahri's water radiant shield (which boosts chain count)+ party buff, and Cloud USB. Great top of the banner. BSBs hold us fairly well too- Edge's gets better when the water/dark ninja skills get split to 7 hits at max, Cloud's has the omega drive-esque wind command, Alph can spam C1 for fast-blast. Very strong.

Banner 4: 3 chains! Kain's is 22 lightning hits, and Lightning's USB is really strong too. Yeah, Snow's CSB actually involves, well, Snow, and he can't boost it on his own, but there's an ice rush coming around 3rd anniversary that works for that. Downbanner, Squall BSB2 and Edea BSB have held up well, Kain's burst is still a good lightning dive enabler, and there are worse things than Desch wrathing into his BSB, then blasting away with chain thundaga. Some duds with Shelke, Lightning 2, and (sorta) Rinoa 2 though.

Banner 5: Oh my. Banner 3's great, but this one is a strong contender as well. Holy and dark chains plus Marche's sweet USB. Garland's OSB is a bit of a downer. Raines, Ramza 2, and Shadow bursts are all good (Shadow for when dark ninja gets buffed). Marche USB also helps TGC's BSB commands be more useful. WoL's BSB isn't great anymore, and divine cross/guardbringer is a strict upgrade to its commands, but again, it's like an enholy SSB, which is fine.

All in all, it's a pretty good lineup! Keep in mind the OK double USB event and TGC USB are on the horizon, so you may want to hold onto a bit of mythril for those as well.

[Merlin the Tuna]

Fest banners have been mined! Full grisly details here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKee...dits_to_enlir/

The short version is,
Banner 1: Fire (with some multi-element tech)
Banner 2: Earth
Banner 3: Water & Wind
Banner 4: Ice & Lightning
Banner 5: Holy & Dark

I'm actually not looking too bad on dupes right now, with a 2/1/4/3/2 breakdown. I'm a little bummed at how banners 3 & 4 shook out, but I'm not putting any plans in stone until the Lucky Draws have come and gone. On 3, I'd have loved a solid shot at Zack CSB to really take Cloud to the next level, and on 4, I'm stacked for lightning but could definitely use ice. But such is life.

From a future-proofing perspective, JP players seem to agree that the 4* Tiamat magicite (wind element, ice-weak) is a total nightmare, and Hades & Siren (dark & holy) are near the top of the difficulty pile as well. We've got a fair while yet until the latter two show up, but Tiamat and company are due to show up in January I think, so prepare accordingly.