Final Fantasy Record Keeper
[Final Fantasy Record Keeper] Is actually a pretty fun mobile free-to-play game for iOS and Android. It's not perfect by any means, but it's a HUGE improvement over such duds as All The Bravest. It's a walk down memory lane with a simple ATB style combat system with a surprising amount of depth and strategy. There is a new event every week, featuring your favorite characters and stages from Final Fantasy history, so it never gets old, and it IS free to try, so give it a shot if you have some time to spare. Just don't give them any of your money.
How naive I was about this little game.
This is the thread for talking about Square Enix's F2P Mobile game Final Fantasy Record Keeper (FFRK) for iOS and Android. Initially met with skepticism after some of SE's lackluster F2P entries in the past, it has grown in scope and popularity to the point where it gets as much discussion as any other mainline Final Fantasy game.
The game features a pretty basic Active Time Battle system. You can take up to 5 characters, made up of all your favorites from past games (and one original starter character) as you journey through the cliff notes version of all the Final Fantasy games. Each Final Fantasy game is a world, made up of "Records" with several stages. Each stage requires you to spend stamina to attempt them. Stamina recharges at a rate of 1 every 3 minutes. There are also limited time events that occur every week featuring additional stages, characters, and rewards.
There is a surprising depth of strategy to this game, as each character can equip different combinations of equipment and abilities, allowing for many different approaches to tackling some of the (at times) quite intense challenges. Characters and equipment also get bonuses if you match them to the world you're in (for example, Cloud gets a bonus in FF7 stages, as does anyone equipping his Buster Sword). You can even earn Magicites to equip to your entire party that raise everyone's stats and offer unique activated abilities!
The F2P comes in the form of the in-game currency, Mythril, which allows you to pull powerful relics from reward banners. Mythril also allows you to recharge stamina, and to try again if you happen to be defeated in a stage. You can spend real money on Gems which have the same function as Mythril, though refreshingly for a F2P game it's possible to clear all content without spending a dime. This is thanks to several quality of life features implemented by DeNa, chief among them the Friend Summon system and Guaranteed 5*, which gives you at least one top-rarity item per 11-pull you do. Additionally, rather generous amounts of free Mythril are available between a combination of login bonuses, stage completions, event participation and quest completion.
Tips and information for new players starting out;
1) Quests.
From the home screen, the Missions button in the upper-right features Wayfarer, Normal and Special missions. The Wayfarer missions are meant for new players and will guide you to some of the game's basic features, as well as giving you some nice ability and item rewards. Move on to the Normal missions from there. Special missions typically involve defeating some of the game's highest difficulty level fights with certain team limitations, which are usually "only use characters from this realm."
2) Stamina.
You can see the current / maximum Stamina numerically in the upper right corner of your Home screen. Below that is an orange bar that shows the same thing, but below that bar is a set of 5 hexagons representing your current Stamina Shards. When you get 5 Stamina Shards, you refill your stamina to full and your maximum goes up by 1. The filled in hexagons show you how many stamina shards you have towards the next stamina refill and maximum +1.
It is to your benefit to collect that fifth shard when you're running out or empty of Stamina. Efficiency is good! If you do a Stamina refill with Mythril/Gems, however, you'll get your maximum Stamina added on to your current, which means you'll have a surplus available. You won't start recharging Stamina again until your current drops back below your maximum.
3)Record Info.
When reading about the record in question, several tabs will be available with story, reward and boss info. Here you can read about the story background, rewards, and boss strategies as well as any medal requirements.
Upon completing any given stage in a record, your performance will be ranked. For any stage without a boss, you can earn up to 9 medals. You will lose medals if more than one party member dies, or if the party takes too much damage or uses too many actions to clear the stage. Earn enough medals and you will gain the Expert or Champion rating for the stage, which provides 150% and 200% experience, respectively.
Upon finishing the entire record, there are 3 reward levels; Completion, First Time Completion and Mastery. You can get the Completion bonus every time you complete that record. However, the other two can only be achieved once and typically include excellent rewards. To attain Mastery rewards, you must have earned 83.33% (5/6th) of all medals within the record. Remember those boss medal requirements? Each gives 3 medals if completed or 0 medals if not, so for records with few or only one stage, boss medal requirements can be crucial for obtaining Mastery rewards.
4) Realm Synergy.
Every character and every item comes from a specific realm. When you go into a record for a realm, characters from that realm are treated as if they are 10 levels higher. Items from that realm are significantly boosted in stats, provided the item itself is leveled up. If you're going into an FFVII record, it's a good idea to bring Cloud. It's a great idea to bring someone carrying the Buster Sword. It's a fantastic idea to bring Cloud carrying his own Buster Sword!
The boost from synergized items is stronger than the boost from synergized characters, so it's good to collect and maintain a spread of items from all realms. You will accumulate this over time, so don't worry too much.
5) Events.
Typically, there's 1 or 2 events running at any given time. These events start at a very low difficulty that even first day players can participate in, and end at very high difficulties that even longtime veterans can have trouble with. Rewards for completing event stages can include new or returning characters and their Memory Crystals (used to break level caps), weapons, armor or accessories from the event's realm, orbs, upgrade materials and of course Mythril. Events typically run for about two weeks and overlap, and you should definitely try to complete as much of each event as possible.
6) Hall of Rites.
The Hall of Rites is a place where you can exchange Hero Souls for characters and Blank Memory Crystals for their MCs. MC1s are used to break past level 50 and enable the Record Materia slot. MC2s are used to break past level 65, and MC3s are used to break past level 80.
7) Record Dive.
The Record Dive system allows you to power up certain characters who have reached level 65, adding small amounts of stat points, percentage boosts to certain types of abilities, adding or increasing ability ranks, adding additional equipment options, or even unlocking exclusive character-specific Legend Materia. The available powerups are different for each eligible character. You unlock these power ups by expending Spirit/Wisdom/Bravery/Dexterity/Vitality Motes, which are a special type of currency obtained from a variety of sources including Event rewards. 4* motes are attainable by completing the harder difficulties of weekly multiplayer content. 5* motes are attainable by completing the harder difficulties of weekly single player content. Some exceptions may apply.
Record Dive is also where one can spend 5* Job Motes (like Thief, Spellblade, Ninja, etc), which enable the use and provide copies of certain 6* abilities. Sources of these motes are few and far between.
This is a complicated system with a lot of moving parts and limited resources. There are not nearly enough motes to unlock every character's everything.
8) Daily Dungeons.
Each day has a specific set of 2 dungeons. You can only get the First Time Completion and Mastery rewards once, same as the records, and those rewards don't refresh from week to week. So if you complete a stage of the Sunday dungeon, next Sunday it will still show them as all completed (though you could still farm the dungeon for normal drops or experience.)
Most daily dungeons offer a pairing of orbs, like Summon and Non-Elemental, or Fire and Ice. They're a good place to farm orbs for newer and older players alike, especially if you need both kinds. There are also Experience dungeons which offer tremendous amounts of EXP for clearing them, as well as Egg drops you can use for more EXP.
The daily dungeons now reward Gysahl Greens upon completion, and enemies have a small chance to drop additional Greens. These Greens can be exchanged for orbs, eggs, gil or upgrade materials at any time, and once per week the Special Shop will restock a variety of Major Orbs (at half price, relative to buying 10x Greaters), MC lodes and Mythril. Additional purchases may become available from time to time (accessories, items, etc.)
9) Nightmare, Mote, Torment and Magicite Dungeons
The Nightmare area is now permanently open, and features a set of 12 dungeons with 5 challenging boss fights apiece. Each dungeon culminates in a special fight where all characters with 5* rank in a specified ability will get full synergy for themselves and all equipped items, regardless of what realm they or their equipped gear are from! These final fights are like puzzles that must be solved and typically require planning and tactics instead of super powerful gear.
Completing the final boss of a Nightmare dungeon gives you a Record for a powerful 6* ability, which require 6* crystals to make. These crystals are somewhat slow to acquire, so spend them carefully.
There are five Mote dungeons which are all accessible for a few weeks at a time. Each features a single boss fight, and completing these fights reward you with large amounts of 4* motes for record diving. The first, vs Ifrit, is very overtuned; the rest are more reasonable to complete.
There are several Torment dungeons, with more on the way. Each features a single boss fight in three difficulties, and when they debuted they replaced the Mote dungeons as the game's hardest content. The first two difficulties are precluded by 4 or 6 (based on difficulty) waves of high-HP trash which themselves require significant effort to clear, and there is no stage break between the trash and the boss. The bosses have elemental weaknesses, but at reduced potency. Rewards include 5* Orbs, 6* Crystals and 5* Job Motes for specific ability schools. The third, highest, difficulty has no trash waves and uses the Jump Start rules, where each character starts with 3 SB bars and cannot gain any more.
New to the game as of this thread are the Magicite dungeons, which take the throne as the game's hardest content (and can't even be accessed until you clear all the Nightmare dungeons!) Each features a single dungeon with a single stage, and you are challenged by an incredibly powerful Esper. If you can defeat them, you gain a copy of them and other Espers as Magicites, which can be equipped on the Party screen and benefit the entire party. You can even call on your Main Esper to fight alongside you with a variety of positive effects. Magicites are leveled up and have their level caps broken just like characters do, and you can only finish one Esper fight per day. This is a very deep system which we're just beginning to scratch the surface of.
10) Relics.
The Relics page, accessible via shortcut on the bottom right of most screens, is where one can "pull" from a variety of "banners" for items. Banner pulls are always at least 3* rarity, with a lesser chance at 4* rarity and a ~13% chance at 5* rarity. Doing so costs Mythril (in game currency) or Gems (purchased with real $$$).
All banners from this point forward will have "Guaranteed 5*", which means every 11-pull comes with at least one 5* item. The likeliest result is two 5* items per 11 pull.
Banners are typically linked to current Events, and every banner has featured 5* relics. When you pull a 5* item, most of the time it will be one of the featured relics, but there's still a very small chance (0.1%) it won't be.
One can do a single pull for 5 Mythril, a triple pull for 15 Mythril or an 11 pull for 50 Mythril. In this modern era of Guaranteed 5*, it is most efficient to do 11 pulls and only 11 pulls. Aside from that, on a per-draw basis your odds of drawing a 5* item are the same no matter how many items you pull at once and no matter which currency you use to pay for them.
11) Stacking Debuffs.
A relatively common feature of relics these days are an SB that includes stat debuffs to the enemy targets. A good party setup might include one or more of these SBs, and a key piece of information is that they stack if the affected debuff/debuffs are different combinations. One ATK/MAG debuff won't stack with another, but an ATK/MAG debuff will stack with an ATK/DEF debuff and an ATK/RES debuff. This rule of thumb goes for Support abilities as well; see the second post for more information.
Multiplayer!
We have a Discord channel set up to coordinate PA runs of Multiplayer bosses. You can join it with this link;
https://discord.gg/mNKVTKf
FFRK Acronyms 101
MC - Memory Crystal [MCs break a character's level 50 limit. MC2 is used to break their level 65 limit, and MC3s break the level 80 limit.]
RM - Record Materia [New equipment type once MC is used. The RM slot is unlocked by using a character's MC1. RMs are acquired from level broken characters in a variety of ways.]
SG/SSII - Sentinel Grimoire/Stoneskin 2 [Also refereed to as Wall. These SBs apply a massive defensive buff to the whole party.]
SB - Soul Break [Powerful abilities learned by acquiring character-specific relics, then equipping them until mastered.]
SSB - Super Soul Break [Like an SB, but stronger, with a variety of bonus effects.]
BSB - Burst Soul Break [Like an SSB, except they also grant Burst Mode, which changes your Attack and Defense commands to something else for a limited time.]
- C1 - Command 1 [Replaces the Attack command during Burst Mode]
- C2 - Command 2 [Replaces the Defend command during Burst Mode]
OSB - Overlimit Soul Break [6* items! They're very powerful SBs that hit only once, but can break the 9999 damage limit.]
USB - Ultra Soul Break [6* items! These are what utility/healer characters get instead of an OSB. Bundles several beneficial effects into one. There are also DPS character USBs now, because fuck precedent amirite?]
CSB - Chain Soul Break [6* items! These are Elementally themed, with boosted party elemental damage that increases with each hit.]
GxO, MxO [the middle x represents which type of orb is being talked about, i.e. MPO for Major Power Orb.]
_*++ - Blank is a number 1-5 which represents an items base rank (not combined). Every plus after the * represents how much its been combined. [A 3*++ will show up as a 5* in game but will be only about as powerful as a 4*. Rule of thumb is every item combination adds about half a rarity level of power.]
RS - Realm Synergy [Applies when a character or his equipped items matches the current realm. An example would be Cloud in any FF7 dungeon or an equipped Blitzball in any FFX dungeon. This adds about 10 levels of stats to a character or about a rarity level in power to an item.]
Mister P's PDF is a compilation of super useful information about FFRK. Ability damage multipliers, character skillsets, super break details, upcoming event information, etc etc.
It's been a month since this was updated, and as such doesn't feature information on some of the game's newest content. It's still plenty useful for learning about mechanics and other unintuitive things.Enlir's spreadsheet includes information about damn near everything. What various soul breaks do, what Burst mode commands do for which characters, who gets what Record and Legend Materia, etc. And it's current through JP content, so you can use it to look ahead and see what your favorite characters are destined to receive.
Kaonohiokala's spreadsheet is specifically great for looking at the contents of upcoming Relic banners. You can see the order in which these banners appeared in JP, as well as the contents of them. IF we get an Event (and we skip most of JP's collabs with non-FF content, sadly), we typically get the exact same banners. Our Festivals have different contents, however.
Informational diagrams (from current JP content) regarding 5* Legend Dives.
Who uses what motes.Folks with Trance LMs.Those with 35% Dualcast LM2s. (note that Vivi's is a Trance which gives him 50% Dualcast BLM.)
Those with escalating ATK/MAG/MND buffs based on ability uses.Those with chances to Minor Imperil after using certain ability schools.
A while ago, FFRK added a friend summon system. We have
a spreadsheet here you can plug your friend code into, and find the friend code of other PAers.
If you're looking to fill out your Friends list now that RW lists can be refreshed during selection, I recommend
this site, which features a searchable list of Friend Codes that constantly updates and can be sorted by realm stats.
Posts
Keeper's Choice Volume 1 - This banner can be activated up to 5 times, each for an 11-pull. It does NOT come with Guaranteed 5*. The featured relics are all SSB strength.
Additionally, after pulling on the banner you can choose one 5* relic from a predetermined list. There are several useful relics on the list, with Ramza's Armor (party 40% max HP heal and Protect) likely at the top, followed by Leila's party Shell + Haste and Red XIII's party Protect + Haste. There are also a pair of good Medicas; Arc's which also raises Resistance and Yuna's which also adds party high regen.
Keeper's Choice Volume 2 - This banner can be activated up to 5 times, each for an 11-pull. It DOES come with Guaranteed 5*, and the banner items include Sentinel Grimoire (Wall) and Platinum Sword (Shout), both extremely powerful soul breaks good for any account. The other items (3x BSB, 2x SSB) are decent.
Additionally, after pulling on the banner you can choose one 5* relic from a predetermined list. This list includes items with Shared soul breaks (good for running Cid Missions) and elemental resists/boosts. Of these, the Red Armlet and Oath Veil are probably the most useful, especially if you have Fire- or Wind-element SBs.
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New Player Hone Recommendations:
Mitigation is king in the game and never stops being useful, so Shellga, Protectga, Power Breakdown, and Magic Breakdown should be at the top of the priority list. The regular breaks are useful too, just because a different set of characters can use them. AoE Mitigation (without damage) is offered by the Dancer line; 3* dances match up with 3* breaks, 4* with 4* breakdowns, etc. Good Dancers include Faris, Lenna, Penelo, Cait Sith, Mog, Rikku and Yuffie. Bards have their own 4* abilities which are identical to Protectga and Shellga.
Abusing Retaliate's mechanics can cheese you through a LOT of content and it's a 2* ability, so is incredibly cheap to hone up. You can pair it with Draw Fire (also cheap) for extra cheese with cheese on top. Give the rest of your team copies of Double Cut or Tempo Flurry and use them against your Retaliator.
Self Boosts are useful to increase a character's damage before you pull relics with Party Boosts. Many jobs have access to them; Monks have Punishing Palm which deals damage and increases ATK, Samurai have Mirror of Equity which does the same. Thieves have Steal Power which doesn't do damage but does debuff the target's ATK at the same strength as Power Breakdown. 4* Darkness users have several options depending on which stat they'd like to boost; Casters can use Memento Mori which increases MAG but also Dooms the caster. Physical characters can use Death Throes which increases ATK but also Dooms the caster. And Physical users can opt for Dark Bargain which raises ATK but lowers DEF.
If you want to get into Black Magic, start with the Water line in each tier as opposed to fire/lightning/ice; Water is infrequently resisted and easier to hone than the primary elements are. Plus it casts faster, so it does more damage over time not counting resistance/weakness.
If you want to get into Summoning, note that Summons are difficult to hone for the time being, and you only get one use per hone. Having said that, the 3* primary element ones are an ok place to start for lesser difficulty fights. As for 4*, Carbuncle is occasionally useful at R1 but the others take a lot of resources to hone. Once you have a large pile of 4* Summon orbs, Maduin is always useful where AoE is needed. With regard to elemental 4* summons, the good ones are Alexander, Leviathan and Fat Chocobo. Syldra is an upgrade from Ramuh, and if we ever get Noel then that's an upgrade from Shiva. The only 4* fire summon is Phoenix and it does not hit twice, so it is not recommended.
With regard to White Magic, Curaga will suffice until it doesn't (party level ~55-60+). Renewing Cure is an alternative that heals for less than Curaga but applies Low Regen. Memento of Prayer applies Low Regen to the entire party. The Dia line is really only viable if the target is weak to Holy or if you pick up some MND gear/RMs and +Holy% gear.
With regard to Status Effects, the Machinist line is a series of 4* abilities that have a high chance to apply a status effect, and deal additional damage if the target already has that effect. White Magic has access to high proc chance Slow and Silence, while Black Magic has access to high proc chance Blind.
With regard to Spellblades, the 3* abilities are fine. It's not really necessary to push into the 4* ones.
After that, it all depends on your relic pulls. We're at a point in the game where pretty much every smaller population job is fleshed out with 3*, 4* and 5* abilities, so there's plenty to choose from.
Inquisitor77: Rius, you are Sisyphus and melee Wizard is your boulder
Tube: This must be what it felt like to be an Iraqi when Saddam was killed
Bookish Stickers - Mrs. Rius' Etsy shop with bumper stickers and vinyl decals.
Soon, it'll be Ace, Deuce and Nine. Then Gladio and Iris.
Steam: TheArcadeBear
Final Major Dark equivalent: 448
Hmm, not sure how that happened. Probably just spent more Ice in the past.
Oh well. Back to leveling. I have everyone at 80, so I'm spending MC3 lodes to not waste EXP. I think I'm done with Sundaily going forward.
Hooray for finally getting to tackle the FF6 event.
Deployment Tactics, robes I already had 3 of.
Whyyyyyyyyyyyy.
omfg.
i just pulled my 2 50s.
1/11 Deployment Tactics
2/11 Deployment Tactics, and the SSB Genji Gloves.
Holy fuck FFRK, fuck you forever.
I think this is another temporary uninstall moment. Because fucking jesus christ really? i am mega tilted.
50 mythril 2/11. No discos. Terra continue to escape me. Alphinaud's SSB and Relm BSB! So no Terra relics, but a completely rounded out White Mage Death Squad. Super awesome! Second best result!
My pull: 1/11, Alphinaud BSB
About as happy as I could be for a 1/11 non-disco. Been chasing this thing for a LONG time.
Son's pull: 4/11, Gilgamesh USB, Alphinaud SSB, Ramza SSB, dupe Pecil BSB
That kid
1/11: Cecil BSB dupe
1/11: Terra USB
Well, got what I wanted most, I guess. I'll take it.
Dupe Orichalcum Dirk/11
Welp.
I knew the risk going in, and i still can have a pull done on Ultracloud before it's done. And at least it's a stat stick that I use, which is now stronger. So, I'm terribly disappointed, but not crushed. There are other opportunities in the future for shiny new toys.
I don't understand how some people say they just RW'd Alphinaud BSB and that was enough to get through the last 30%. He wasn't exactly outhealing it but I was only getting like 16k per CMD1 at most and he's got 330k HP left to chew through at that point. Even with a pair of casters they just ran out of BSB duration long before it was dead and then I had nothing left.
Wait for Cloud USB to come out and RW that?
i am still kind of in disbelief that just happened.
You have my sympathy. I never want to see that stupid Coat again (or the Shield).
Reminds me of four 11-pulls in a row, when I went Coat/Shield/Coat/Shield, all 1/11.
Bleh.
@enlong wanna trade?
FFS, I just got that as my 1/11 on the BSB+ lucky draw, I haven't even had an opportunity to use it yet
Fight the FF3 torment yet? If not, there's your chance!
Now you have a super powerful book? You'll also learn it 50% faster! (I have spent so much Mythril chasing that damn thing, and I don't even really want it anymore).
This is just a sick joke at this point how questionable my draws have been over the past couple months.
This exactly. Your counters hit for 1.2, instead of 1.0.
My record for misses in a row is in the high 30s, so things could always get worse.
Yes
Yeah.
Penelo: Protecta/Curaja, USB, Lionheart
Y'shtola: Shellga/Curada, Wall, Mako
Faris: Wrath/Sapphire Shot, BSB & Atk/Mag Break, Ace Striker
OK: Lifesiphon/Ultra Cure, BSB & OSB, Dr. Mog
Lion: Lifesiphon/Thief's Revenge, BSB, Truthseeker
RW: Eiko USB
I actually got this on the second try, and with pushing two phases at the completely wrong time. The trick for me was to not use Wall in the first phase and to just try to suffer through until I got mitigation up, blowing the RW pretty early and using a Penelo USB to recover and get breathing room. Once I got mitigation up he wasn't too much of a threat, and in the final phase he was struggling to put any dent in my bars. It was mostly a matter of killing him quickly enough to not lose out on medal conditions.
Nostalgia... I remember mastering the first several Ultimates using Advantaliate (Luneth's Advance RW + Retaliate for you whippersnappers). That ended with Bahamut SIN. Too much defense on bosses nowadays for a retaliate strategy to do much.
First pull - 1/11 dupe Ramza SSB. One of the six I had on the banner.
Second pull - 1/11 Gilgamesh USB. I would've loved Ramzas, Terra or Cecil's over his, because Greg just doesn't really make it on the team that often except for niche cases, buuuut, it's a 6* Bracer that is transferrable to anyone and has 44 ATK on it. I mean, it could be way worse.
Steam: TheArcadeBear
Success! Not as amazing as Terra USB or Vaan/Fujin BSB would have been, but still very good. I was fully expecting to spend 100 here and get nothing. Ramza USB should enable all sorts of shenanigans, albeit probably only situationally, and Cecil's is an excellent one-piece Guardbringer enabler (in fact, if I legend dove him even a little I think I could get it to four hits without Protectga in a pinch). Gonna go ahead and Rosetta Lightbringer I think, since I hadn't done Saintly Excalibur yet.
I have 169 mythril banked and no full-price pulls planned until XI. That's way more than I thought I was going to have; I was sure I'd be running on fumes for a while. So that's nice too.
Pfft. Not a boss killer? Retaliate's on its way back!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmz9xwO6-No
I guess it's nice to have a new tool (my first Instant Curaja command), but that was the non-dupe item I was least interested in on the banner
Can't afford to try any more, gotta save for Banner 6. I know that the odds are against me, and also that I don't really need it, but I gotta try for Cloud USB.
BSBs tend to be a decent self-contained package, outside of mostly Monk and Dragoon ones, whereas USBs tend to work a little better with a couple bars or solid 5*/6* abilities to use with them.
I have hit some absolutely miserable lows while playing this game, so I completely understand. Somehow I'm still here, so I hope you can persevere. I won't say it will go the way you want it to eventually, but at the very least you might get some nice things you hadn't considered from time to time. Plus you have the great community here.
On the other hand, if you ever do stop having fun, and or feel the game is deleterious to your health or personal finances, don't hesitate to uninstall. Gacha gaming is predatory in nature.
Trying to get people to spend more to create game-breaking relic combos.
2/11 with a disco. Dupe Genji Glove and a sword. TERRA'S SWORD!!!!!! USB GET!!!!! FUCK YEAH!!!!!
I've got wall, shout, y'sh BSB, and a runic, but all came a LONG time after release, usually after they stopped being breaking. Meanwhile I've missed on Cid OSB, vaan bsb, Raines BSB, and any healing USB.
Being on the forefront of one of the metas would be a nice change of pace.