What is Final Fantasy Brave Exvius?
A mobile game for iOS and Android, produced in collaboration between Square Enix (Final Fantasy et al) and Gumi/Alim (responsible for Brave Frontier). The game’s story is based around a young knight named Rain and his friend and stepbrother Lasswell, who one day encounter a strange sight: a young girl trapped in a crystal. Following her words, they encounter the power of “Visions,” or the ability to summon warriors from other places and times to assist in battle.
Note to new or returning players
Due to the developer's servers being hacked, there's a pause on new content presently. No user data was compromised or negatively affected (the developers don't keep that stuff since they outsource it to FB, Google, etc.), but the devs appear to be focusing on security updates in lieu of new content. Do the story, farm some stuff, and I'm sure it'll be rolling with new stuff before we know it!
What is with the name of the game?
It's SquareEnix, responsible for making a trilogy of games called Fabula Nova Crystalis. They're kind of known now for making up fanciful words like Crystarium, and Dissidia Duodecim 012, and 358/2 Days. Be the Bravest Exvius you can be, and define that on your own terms, that's what I say.
I've played Brave Frontier and liked/hated it. How does this compare?
Final Fantasy Brave Exvius is an expanded spin on Brave Frontier, with whom it shares some similarities. It's another gacha game, meaning you will earn in-game currency, coming in the form of Friend Points and Lapis, to summon new units on a seemingly unfair spreadsheet of hidden factors that emerge in the form of unique characters, and many familiar to the world of Final Fantasy. This game, though, adds the usual Final Fantasy elements of equipment and materia, giving a surprising depth to the gameplay as units can be mixed and matched with different abilities and stats boosted or modified.Each unit can equip up to 6 types of equipment and 4 materia, but each unit also has limitations and advantages to what they can equip and use.
You mentioned Final Fantasy characters? I love Final Fantasy!
FFBE has a wide variety of characters from Final Fantasy, with its own beefy roster of unique names original to FFBE. Characters from Final Fantasy 1 all the way to 15 and even outliers such as Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy Type-0 are represented. Funny enough, there are no Final Fantasy 7 or 8 characters yet, but they’re coming (we know they are coming soon, due to the JP version being ahead). The animation sprites used in this game are gorgeous, by the way.
The roster of characters in game is a mishmash of various Final Fantasy games and units exclusive to FFBE, although most people care about the FF characters. As previously mentioned, characters are added to the gacha, usually alongside special events that tie into the game they're from (unless it's just more FFBE exclusives). Unlike other games of this type, the rarity isn't just in the higher rank of the unit, but also the characters themselves. You should ignore the fact that the Exdeath you pulled is 3*, for example, because it's possible to increase the rarity of units to their natural cap (Exdeath is capable of reaching 6*, the game's current top rarity).
Further, different units are good at different things. A healer like Rosa may be less valuable than a damage dealer like Gilgamesh, since the best defense is often a good offense. There are other mechanics in play, such as elemental affinity, stat breaks, buffs, and so forth, to keep it ever evolving around the core gameplay.
Here's a link to a site that will update regularly as the global version gets more characters, and ranks the units by various categories to back up the reasoning for their position in the tier list.
Unit Rankings
I'm new, and got a bunch of these characters out of my first 11-pull. Are any of these good? I love Shadow/Sabin/Penelo!
Unfortunately, your Shadow/Sabin/Penelo are some of the worst characters in the game. Yes, they are beloved Final Fantasy characters, but that doesn't exclude them from being King of the Trash Heap. Someone has to be, right? A lot of early characters are mainline Final Fantasy units, but by nature of power creep, they’ve been long overshadowed by new units. Different units are powerful or weak in different ways, and just because a unit is popular in their original Final Fantasy series doesn’t mean they will be useful in FFBE.
However, FFBE is unique in that many older units are perfectly viable. Good team composition and strategy can make mid-tier units very good, and sometimes spending a bit of time thinking through a tough fight can result in eeking out a well-deserved win. Many players are F2P (they spend no money) and have a good roster of units, or are otherwise able to tackle some of the hardest content in the game.
If you're just starting out and want to know who to look for, note that as we are 18 months into the game, the hardest content tends to require some fancy gear and "rainbow" base units. If you see a rainbow crystal, rejoice, for it will grant a 5* base unit, which range from useful to very powerful and can easily secure a spot on your team!
THIS SECTION SUBJECT TO PENDING UPDATE
3* units to look for: Cecil, Exdeath, Timothy, Camille -- any that can go to 6, generally, otherwise they're only useful at the very beginning
4* base units to look for (gold crystal or better): Chizuru, Warrior of Light, Garnet, Mystea, Agrias, Refia, Veritas of the Earth, Rikku, Ashe
5* base units to look for (prismatic crystals only): Orlandeau, Veritas of the Dark, Ayaka, Tidus, Onion Knight -- basically anyone but Lightning!
3* base units that if your entire starting roster is full of, you might want to re-roll: Vivi, Lani, Galuf, Shadow, Penelo, Sabin, Maria, Fran, Clyne, Russell, Bedile, Anzelm, Gilbert, Rakshasa, Medius, Cyan
Helpful Links:ExviusWiki: Best source for Global version information, with maps for exploration dungeons, quest guides, and unit details.
Final Fantasy Brave Exvius Reddit: The reddit community for FFBE, containing info and updates for both the Japan and Global versions. Check here if you want to know what kind of stuff we'll get 5-6 months in advance since Japan gets it first. Also contains useful player-submitted guides, and has a Wiki which is up to date with the current state of Japan's game, so you can look ahead at unit enhancements and trust masteries, that sort of thing.
Friend ID List!:https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HfEIPxz_tV42C8dhfSiuVsWJ_f2YQhXiNg5BwiuJCik/edit?usp=sharing
To find your friend ID in the game, tap Home in the upper right corner (on most screens), then the Menu icon in the upper right, then Player Info on the left. Your ID should look like this in your little character card: 123,456,789. This is also where you change your greeting, and rename your character if you like. Adding friends is the only way to use your "guest character" limit break in combat, and only your current party's Leader is shared to friends. Remember to set a Companion Party from the Options in the Main Menu! This way, you will always have a party set up with a specific character that will be shared to your friends, and you should never ever edit that party except to change the Leader if you want to change who you share.
Posts
I'm not going to argue with free progress on meta-defining TMRs, but now I can't use a 100% moogle on those units.
Steam: TheArcadeBear
Still at 20% All, 20% Marshall Glove, 10% Buster Style from this raid. Currently sitting on 270% in Moogles that Im afraid to use. Ill probably finish off Buster/Glove after this week then go back to building up Moogles for TTerras TMR so I can QuadCast
FFBE: 838,975,107
Dokkan: 1668363315
Games: Ad Astra Per Phalla | Choose Your Own Phalla
I guess I owe him a beer because it turned into my 4th Ayaka for a nice big spirit staff STMR in my future.
Also Zarg Enhancements this month yes?
FFBE: 838,975,107
Dokkan: 1668363315
He was released in July last year, so possible but better chance that Zarg is next month.
We have no idea, he's a GL exclusive. So it's all up to Gumi.
Man oh man, I was really struggling with Terrarat. Couple attempts where I was only using WoL's FB or chaos grenade (to try and bring decent friend and self chainers) and best I could do was 70% before fully getting murdered. I tried a different tactic (especially since ppl mentioned here how important strong breaks were for it) and grabbed a friend's poorly geared HT Lid. What a freaking difference. Makes me want to pull hard for her if she comes back in CG specific banner at some point.
I realize now CG and WoL FB are only 30% either way (when I ran it I mistakenly thought 45% for WoL), so I'm thinking if my M.Ramza was ready that might've worked fine instead. But HT Lid difference was huge. I never once lost anyone, but I had to use my 2 Sephs with only 600 and 800 attks. So it took probably 14 rounds to bring it down.
Also managed to get full Lure of Echinda down, felt like a pretty good weekend for progress. Getting closer to pulling off a full evade build.
XBOne | LyrKing
However, I left them in the farm because "you never know" and glad that they both finished this morning. Now I don't know what to put in there. Drace TMR for a slight upgrade to Fryevia? I have two extra Onion Knights and two (normal) Ramzas. Both of those TMRs are kind of niche now but it doesn't hurt to have them, either. I also have a Rem and Queen just sitting there but those TMRs are also kind of feeling the powercreep into obscurity now. I threw M. Ramza in there for now because if I pull a dupe, I want him to be 7* ready since he's actually worth using now. But there's one extra space...
Current farm team is:
Snow #1: 85.3%
Snow #2: 86.4%
White Knight Noel: 15%
M. Ramza: 6.6%
Steam: TheArcadeBear
After those, I've got two more shines I can farm up, then I'll probably take a look at any other dps gear to farm. Non weapons that is. I've got a plethora of those now.
I should look at all those trials and start to see which of those I can start clearing out.
FFBE: 838,975,107
Dokkan: 1668363315
Just FYI, if you can hit the DH cap on Olive (which is kinda easy with her weapon and innate DH) Cloud's Uniform is actually a lot better than Apron Dress. Apron Dress is still nice to have if you can't hit the cap or for others who use guns who would like the extra 30% ATK.
Not sure on the cap. Right now she's on sparky, black cowl, cloud's uni, bracer, marshal glove with her four abilities all hit 30% ATK. (broadmind, azure crimson, general offensive, one other I think). that's what the ffbe app recommends for phy damage setup. Throws her just under 1400 atk though she is nowhere near full pot cap.
Mainly I want the apron so I can swap the uniform around without downgrading her much.
Yours is at 250% (150% innate when enhanced, 50% Sparky, 50% Marshall Glove). DH cap is 300%. If you have a regular DH TMR sitting around (was available from MK shop recently I believe) you may see a boost in ATK replacing one of your 30% ATK materia with it.
I waited till last night to do 350K worth of pulls. Got 20% Buster Style and 5% Marshal Glove, along with a couple normal moogles. I used the Cactuars to level up Cerius just in case I need that sweet 100% resistance action (no marie).
I leave my 10% moogles alone and merge the lesser ones together. I have a 100% made of all 1% moogles and another closing in. Also have a 100% of 5% moogles. Just not sure what to spend them on.
Buster Style: 5% (have 2 Clouds)
Marshall Glove: 40% (have 0 Elfreedas)
ALL: 8%
Going to save the rest until the end of the event in case I pull something worth leveling.
Due to the developer's servers being hacked, there's a pause on new content presently. No user data was compromised or negatively affected (the developers don't keep that stuff since they outsource it to FB, Google, etc.), but the devs appear to be focusing on security updates in lieu of new content. Do the story, farm some stuff, and I'm sure it'll be rolling with new stuff before we know it!
Steam Profile | Signature art by Alexandra 'Lexxy' Douglass
This was the result.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
That's what I thought but he's been magic immune both times....
Not sure if you're killing both arms? They both have to be killed before the body will drop the right kind of immunity based on which arm was killed first.
And I'd use them on the Cloud banner.
4* yielded a Soleil, which, whatever. Somewhere around the 8th or 9th normal ticket, a gold crystal broke into a rainbow. And Merc Ramza now has his buddy Knight Delita. I guess the armor is nice at least to beef up physical units who can equip it? Not like I need to give it to any tank when I can make them 100% evade...
The next ticket started blue into yellow into rainbow. Elfreeda #2, which was exactly what I wanted (though I wouldn't have said no to a third Cloud, but SMTRs can wait). I can now fully TDH several units, including Hyou when that drops. No Tomb Raider TMRs, but oh well. There's always that future Nal unit.
Steam: TheArcadeBear
HOWEVER...
One gold went to rainbow and I covered my eyes. I opened them to a Prishe! I now can farm her hairpin.
Rydia gets DualCast for her Esper abilities
Kain chains with friggin Lila...hell goddamn yes!
Also Zarg Enhancements this month! (and Kings Knight lololol)
Edit: oh wait Ray Jack now chains with Sephiroth?
FFBE: 838,975,107
Dokkan: 1668363315