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.
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.
Stamina Shards can only be collected by running the Story Dungeons, available from the lower-left archway on the main menu. 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) Newcomer Dungeons.
In the Events section are three Newcomer Dungeons, one each for FF7, FF10 and FF13. They feature 10 Records apiece that grant characters, Memory Crystals and Mythril, and have easier difficulties. They also feature a few difficulties of Experience Dungeons each. Taking characters from those realms into those dungeons will be a good source of EXP outside of certain Daily Dungeons.
5) 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.
6) 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.
7) Unlocking Characters (and breaking their level caps.)
Each weekly event features a specific realm. Completing the first half of these events will get you several characters from that realm, as well as a Hero Soul (more on this below.) Completing the second half of these events will get you Memory Crystals for those characters, as well as a Memory Crystal Lode (again, more below.) Completing the bonus battles for these events will get you Memory Crystal IIs for those characters, as well as a Memory Crystal II Lode (ditto.) Completing the Ultimate battle will get you a Memory Crystal III Lode.
To unlock characters who aren't currently featured in events, you'll visit the Hall of Rites. Hero Souls can be turned in for any character, and MC Lodes can be turned in for their various 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.
8) Record Dive.
The Record Dive system allows you to power up 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 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 and there are not nearly enough motes to unlock every character's everything. Feel free to ask questions in the thread!
9) 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.)
10) 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 can 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. These battles feature
ZERO Synergy bonuses, you can't bring any of your Roaming Warrior friends, and the Espers have an 80% resistance to Break effects, so they're quite a challenge! Fortunately there's a mysterious ally who can help you out...
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.
Here's a post written by silence1186 which has some great info on which Magicites are good for what.
11) 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.
12) 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.
We have a Discord channel set up to coordinate PA runs of Multiplayer bosses. You can join it with this link;
is a compilation of super useful information about FFRK. Ability damage multipliers, character skillsets, soul break details, information on stacking buffs, mechanics calculations, etc.
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.
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.
A while ago, FFRK added a friend summon system. We have
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
, which features a searchable list of Friend Codes that constantly updates and can be sorted by realm stats.
Posts
Keeper's Choice Volume 2 - This banner can be activated up to 5 times, each for an 11-pull. The banner items include Sentinel Grimoire (Wall) and Platinum Sword (Shout), both extremely powerful soul breaks good for any account. The other items have fallen behind the power curve, with the slight exception of Gilgamesh's BSB as it fills a unique, usable niche on a versatile character.
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.
Newcomer's Banners - These banners feature Unique, Super, and Burst Soul Breaks for FF7, FF10 and FF13 characters, respectively. The first 11 pull on each is half-price. All of the Unique and portions of the Super Soul Breaks have fallen behind the power curve, so they're somewhat of a trap pull, even at half-price. The best use scenario for these banners would be new players looking for any relics to help fill out their inventory, and these are of course popular realms. I would recommend pulling only once on these, and only if you're very new (and there's nothing extraordinarily better going on) or if you absolutely know what you're doing.
--- --- --- --- ---
New Player Ability 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.
--- --- --- --- ---
Party Building:
To be populated!
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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um_cUEd7vl0
Here's the mythril income for the next couple weeks;
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.
Data for posterity:
15/137 lifetime
5/42 this batch
Note to self: No whining, Rikku USB, never forget. Also Cloud BSB2.
Banner 3, meanwhile, there are more useful things on there than I was giving it credit for.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
Odds are still very much not in my favor.
And you can always sim for fun!
https://altema.jp/ffrk/gacha/321
edit: Eyyy finally got a run where I got super lucky with slows and was just barely able to get it under a minute.
I'm 5/44 on the last four draws, three of them luckies. I'm due.
Or on a hot streak.
It'll go live with the rest of the fest stuff, tonight at 8pm central
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.
TGCid and Noctis's OSBs are USBs in all but name.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqfAunYEZ7s
Old budget reta meta we hardly knew you
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
Turning attacks from random jobbers into 20-30k/turn is very valuable. My best attackers on Liquid Flame are only doing 13k/turn with BSB commands and only get to 20k (capped) if they have hones.
And, of course, combining Cid Orlandeau's OSB with his Powerchain SSB would be godlike.
I had Lightning OSB & Orlandeau OSB. Then yesterday I got Agrias OSB (another decent Holy OSB) and Fang OSB (which I don't care about). Nobody else that I use has an OSB. Hey, DeNa, add in a Garnet OSB.
I guess Terra because that would be one piece of the Combo? Or is there a Water+ OSB weapon for Edge to hold?
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
Aegis you goddamn weirdo, yes you want other OSBs so that maybe you don't try to run lightning team on everything.
I don't have any strong wants. Terra OSB, Krile OSB, Quistis OSB, Bartz OSB, Ayame OSB, maybe Rinoa OSB and Agrias OSB are the current desires.
Oh, and it looks like one of the better +Water weapons that Edge can use would be Rikku's Tidal Knuckles (USB Hyper Mighty G). That's not an OSB, though.
Anyhoo, looking forward to seeing what pops out later.
Bonus points for the free OSB, as right now I don't actually own a single one :cool:
O S B B O Y S
Yes but...Lightning :P
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
?? Gi Nattak's been gone for like a week.
The scheduling was very precise.
If I had a desire, as I said in the previous thread, it'd be Vayne's OSB. It leans more on ATK, but it's got 166ATK/159MAG and has +dark in all realms, so it's a fantastic sword for most anyone who uses darkness barring pure mages like Edea, Kefka or Kuja or a great stat stick for hybrids who don't use dark like Ashe or Terra.
For what it's worth, we can look forward to April/May when our 3rd anniversary happens. The 33 relic draw does contain USBs as my friend who made a JP account this morning found out (he went 8/33).
I'm also super curious to know if Yuffie's busted UOSB or USB2 will have all realms +water...
Steam: TheArcadeBear
Edit: The USB2 has no element.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
Tidus, Terra, Ayame, Squall, Fujin, Cloud, Maria, Orlandeau, Lightning. Maybe Bartz for coverage.
Basically stuff for Magicites. Are there any good Dark OSBs for Mist Dragon?
This might have just saved me a few dire pulls on Banner 4. Why chase Knuckles when I can get an even better relic/effect on a banner later down the line for the purposes of propping up my husbando?
Steam: TheArcadeBear
Jecht, if you've got his BSB which is enDark. Unfortunately its boost is more SB bar, so it hits hardest with a full bar.
Sephiroth has a dark OSB, right? Does Leon?
I got Noctis' BSB in the lucky draw so I'd be super okay with his OSB.