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[FFRK] Maintenance 8/13 when you sleep 8/14 when you wake
silence1186
Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered User regular
Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered User regular
Do Your Daily Draw!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbAOQrH7MHMPast Thread Silence1186 wrote:How naive I was about this little game.Naive, past Silence1186 wrote:[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.
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 the Active Time Battle system you've come to know from many previous entries. 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. There are also limited time events that occur every week featuring additional stages, characters, and rewards.
All F2P "Gacha" games have an ingame currency, and FFRK's is Mythril. Using it allows you to pull relics (weapons and armor that can be worn by anyone, but give new Soul Breaks to specific characters) from the various banners that are currently active. 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, but for a new player it's possible to clear many month's worth of content without spending a dime. And for a smart player who plans ahead, it's possible to clear even the hardest content over time, also without spending real money. 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 high-rarity item per 11-pull you do. Additionally, generous amounts of free Mythril are available between a combination of login bonuses, stage completions, event participation and quest completion.
New Player Tips!
1) Build your relic pool. Save up your Mythril so you can spend it, 50 at a time, to do an 11-pull on an active banner. This will get you at least one 5* relic, and a variety of those will enable more strategies for you.
At least once a month we receive "Lucky Draw" banners which are usually half-price, and these are pretty great for new players. Note: there are three "Newcomer Relic Draws" that offer a half-price first pull, but they're not actually that great (the relic pools are extremely dated, so you have a higher chance of drawing something poor.)
2) Take advantage of Synergy. Characters get a ten level effective boost when brought to a mission in the realm they're from. Equipment from that realm gets an even more dramatic boost.
3) Offensive Buffs on your party, Offensive Debuffs on the enemy, and Defensive Buffs on your party are extremely important. A difficult fight often becomes a routine one after application of these categories, and the game's hardest content (Magicites being the one notable exception) demands all three.
Consequently, these constraints will guide some of your first decisions as a new player. Your first 4* Abilities should include Power Breakdown and Magic Breakdown, Protectga and Shellga. Your 5* Ability will almost certainly be Full Break. Some of your first prize possession relics will be those that grant Soul Breaks that combine Hastega + ATK or MAG Buffs, or that provide Wall (a very strong stacking DEF/RES buff.)
Remember, you can summon a Roaming Warrior to provide what you don't personally have! The RW system for Story Missions will soon be changed, but you'll still be able to use your RW to activate Sentinel's Grimoire (Wall), or a Hastega + Offensive Buff like Shout (+50% ATK) or Vessel of Fate (+30% ATK/+30% MAG).
4) Learn when to reapply buffs and debuffs. How long does Power Breakdown last? What about Protect? Wall?
Unfortunately, except for status effects like Blind, Haste, Silence, etc, you rarely get any visual indications on when Buffs expire. Taking an unmitigated hit that kills or nearly kills a character is usually how you find out, and that's not fun. The following rules of thumb assume your characters are Hasted.
Offensive Debuff Abilities, like Power Breakdown and Magic Breakdown, last a fixed 15 seconds. You'll want to reapply them on the third turn.
Defensive Buff Abilities, like Protectga and Shellga, are a little trickier. Their duration scales based on the caster's Mind stat. At zero Mind, they last 35 seconds, but with every 100 Mind they last another 3 seconds. For most White Mages you'll want to recast them after ten+ turns, but often you'll be finishing a fight by then at the worst.
Buffs and Debuffs from Soul Breaks typically last 25 seconds. The extra time is to maintain coverage while you build and spend another SB gauge. The exception is SBs that provide Haste, Protectga or Shellga; since those durations are based on MND to begin with, their durations when caused by SBs are also based on MND. Basically, if you pull Ramza's Shout, try to get him close to 200 Mind.
5) Tyro and Cloud, your first two characters, should be the first two characters you level to 65 (and apply Memory Crystal IIs to.) The reason for this is that they both have Record Materia which, when equipped to any character, give that character a full SB gauge at the start of battle. This allows you to start boss fights with two utility/buff Soul Breaks.
At least once a month we receive "Lucky Draw" banners which are usually half-price, and these are pretty great for new players. Note: there are three "Newcomer Relic Draws" that offer a half-price first pull, but they're not actually that great (the relic pools are extremely dated, so you have a higher chance of drawing something poor.)
2) Take advantage of Synergy. Characters get a ten level effective boost when brought to a mission in the realm they're from. Equipment from that realm gets an even more dramatic boost.
3) Offensive Buffs on your party, Offensive Debuffs on the enemy, and Defensive Buffs on your party are extremely important. A difficult fight often becomes a routine one after application of these categories, and the game's hardest content (Magicites being the one notable exception) demands all three.
Consequently, these constraints will guide some of your first decisions as a new player. Your first 4* Abilities should include Power Breakdown and Magic Breakdown, Protectga and Shellga. Your 5* Ability will almost certainly be Full Break. Some of your first prize possession relics will be those that grant Soul Breaks that combine Hastega + ATK or MAG Buffs, or that provide Wall (a very strong stacking DEF/RES buff.)
Remember, you can summon a Roaming Warrior to provide what you don't personally have! The RW system for Story Missions will soon be changed, but you'll still be able to use your RW to activate Sentinel's Grimoire (Wall), or a Hastega + Offensive Buff like Shout (+50% ATK) or Vessel of Fate (+30% ATK/+30% MAG).
4) Learn when to reapply buffs and debuffs. How long does Power Breakdown last? What about Protect? Wall?
Unfortunately, except for status effects like Blind, Haste, Silence, etc, you rarely get any visual indications on when Buffs expire. Taking an unmitigated hit that kills or nearly kills a character is usually how you find out, and that's not fun. The following rules of thumb assume your characters are Hasted.
Offensive Debuff Abilities, like Power Breakdown and Magic Breakdown, last a fixed 15 seconds. You'll want to reapply them on the third turn.
Defensive Buff Abilities, like Protectga and Shellga, are a little trickier. Their duration scales based on the caster's Mind stat. At zero Mind, they last 35 seconds, but with every 100 Mind they last another 3 seconds. For most White Mages you'll want to recast them after ten+ turns, but often you'll be finishing a fight by then at the worst.
Buffs and Debuffs from Soul Breaks typically last 25 seconds. The extra time is to maintain coverage while you build and spend another SB gauge. The exception is SBs that provide Haste, Protectga or Shellga; since those durations are based on MND to begin with, their durations when caused by SBs are also based on MND. Basically, if you pull Ramza's Shout, try to get him close to 200 Mind.
5) Tyro and Cloud, your first two characters, should be the first two characters you level to 65 (and apply Memory Crystal IIs to.) The reason for this is that they both have Record Materia which, when equipped to any character, give that character a full SB gauge at the start of battle. This allows you to start boss fights with two utility/buff Soul Breaks.
Additional various game and system information:
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, growth eggs and Mythril, and have easier difficulties.
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) 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.
7) 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!
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.
Each day offers two rotating Daily Dungeons with two difficulties apiece. The first is great for farming 5* orbs, the second is great for farming 6* orbs. You can also access Upgrade Materials, Gil, and EXP dungeons any day of the week. Sunday offers enhanced versions of the latter trio.
Enemies in the daily dungeons can drop Gysahl Greens, and you also get some upon completion. 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 individually open for two days on a rotation, like the Daily Dungeons. They each feature a single boss fight where all characters start with one SB gauge and cannot earn more. Clearing them for the first time awards a large amount of 4* Motes for Legend Dives, and they can be repeatedly cleared for lesser amounts, with bonuses for faster clears.
There are Torment dungeons, with more on the way. Each features a single boss fight in three difficulties. 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.
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.
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, growth eggs and Mythril, and have easier difficulties.
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) 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.
7) 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!
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.
Each day offers two rotating Daily Dungeons with two difficulties apiece. The first is great for farming 5* orbs, the second is great for farming 6* orbs. You can also access Upgrade Materials, Gil, and EXP dungeons any day of the week. Sunday offers enhanced versions of the latter trio.
Enemies in the daily dungeons can drop Gysahl Greens, and you also get some upon completion. 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 individually open for two days on a rotation, like the Daily Dungeons. They each feature a single boss fight where all characters start with one SB gauge and cannot earn more. Clearing them for the first time awards a large amount of 4* Motes for Legend Dives, and they can be repeatedly cleared for lesser amounts, with bonuses for faster clears.
There are Torment dungeons, with more on the way. Each features a single boss fight in three difficulties. 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.
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 (thanks to Bluecyan for the initial list of these)
MC - Memory Crystal [MC1s 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 equippable slot on a character once their MC1 is used. The RM slot for a character, as well as that character's RM1, are unlocked by using that character's MC1. Successive RM are acquired from level broken characters in a variety of ways.]
LM1/LM2 - Legend Materia 1/2. Special character-specific RMs that use separate slots and are acquired by spending 5* motes on a character's Legend Dive.
LMR - Legend Materia Relic. A category of LM that's acquired by pulling and mastering Record Materia equipment.
SG/SSII - Sentinel Grimoire/Stoneskin 2 [Also refered 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.]
CSB - Chain Soul Break [6* items! These are like Elementally themed SSBs, with a 15 second party elemental damage buff that increases with each hit of that element.]
En-Element - An SB that gives the user a buff that vastly increases their damage of a specific element.
Imperil - An SB that afflicts enemies with a debuff that increases damage taken of a specific element by 20%. These stack up to 3 applications, to 60%.
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, soul break details, information on stacking buffs, mechanics calculations, etc.
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.
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.
Total credit to @Rius whose work I carried over from the previous thread. I hope to tinker with this going forward.
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https://imgur.com/a/uyUWhwz
More in depth guide to Magicite Inheritance.
Legend Dive Information:
(includes current JP content. This section courtesy of Jragghen who is less lazy than I am.)
Who uses what motes
Dualcast LM2
Imperil LM2
Progressive stat boost LM2
Quickcast LM2
Trance LM2
Start with haste/instant LM2
Chase effect and Other LM2
Dualcast by school, both LM2 and LMR
Characters still without Legend Dive/USB in JP
Future uses for 5* orbs:
Future uses for 5* Wind orbs
Future uses for 5* Holy orbs
Future uses for 5* Dark orbs
Future uses for 5* NonE orbs
Future uses for 5* Fire orbs
Future uses for 5* Ice orbs
Future uses for 5* Lightning orbs
Future uses for 5* Power orbs
Future uses for 5* White orbs
Future uses for 5* Black orbs
Future uses for 5* Summon orbs
Who has what Magicite Passive
New Player 3* and 4* 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 in effect 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 only have one use per rank, plus one extra use at R1. 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 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+), and then you'll make Curaja. 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.
If you need to Dispel beneficial effects from opponents, Knight has a 4* ability called Banishing Blade that deals Holy damage and Dispels. Also, White Magic has a 3* Dispel ability that will do so without dealing damage.
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.
Acolyte Archives: A system to acclimate new players to the different modes and functions of the game, and rewards them with Tyro's "Wall" relic, 8 other random items, and 9 lists to choose an additional relic from. Details: here.
[Magia System: Level 99 characters continue to accrue a second, separate type of experience called Magia, which they can use to improve certain attributes. More details found here.
Anima Lenses: A system to allow players to convert event rewards and duplicate pull relics into new SBs not available on banners anymore. There are three grades of Lenses, and when you accumulate enough, you can teach an old SB to a character without the appropriate relic. List of what's available here.
Thanks again to Rius who ran these threads for several years over many iterations.
Squall BSB2 Snowspell Strike Full Dive
Laguna USB1 Freezing Snipe/Icicle Shot
Shelke
Ramza LS/Entrust Battle Cry
Y'shtola BSB Curada/Shellga
I have a couple 4* Ice magicites I threw on for +Ice, but I'm wondering if I shouldn't instead be aiming for dampen fire/wind. I can survive the first Jet Fire, but the second one is just way too soon.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
It’s a Fire/Wind attack. Because of how FFRK calculates elemental damage, it will be treated as whichever of the two you have less defense against.
A speedup healer USB is best. Tiamat's damage goes way down if you can DPS her quick, since she wastes a lot of turns on steals and light attacks. I think in my run with Relm USB I only see one or two Savage Jet Fires.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
My hated enemy is vanquished. I can at least access Madeen. Phew.
Still need three more copies though, *dreads.* My kill was over a minute, so I'm not sure if I can repeat it. I'm not sure what I did to make it go right. I ended up just going with what felt best at any given moment for any given character, without a hard and fast rotation like I might have on a sub-30s run. 60s the chaos theory is too much. The longer the fight goes on, the more likely I am to lose focus and lose my place on what a character just did/should do next.
The squad:
Alphinaud Dark Valefor/Dispel (BSB) +DMG
Aerith Ultra Cure/Protectga (USB2) MM (LM1, 2)
Fujin Meltdown/Raging Winds (USB, AOSB) +DMG (LM1, 2)
Zack Lifesiphon/Flash Disaster (BSB, CSB) Ace Striker (LM1, 2)
Wall/Syldra (Spell Ward, Dampen Earth)
Syldra (+Wind x2)/Tiamat (+Wind)/Phoenix (Blade/Spell Wards)/Evrae (+Health)
Aerith had the Major Earth resist, everyone else moderate. +40% Wind on everyone relevant.
OK would instant mUSB, Wall, Tornado spam, mUSB on the phase transition? Fail, then just Hastega. Resume Tornado spam. Repeat mUSB, fail timing, just Hastega, finish Tornados, refresh mUSB for quickcast, twiddle thumbs. Not sure if getting the timing down would help, since he'd have to sit around and waste a lot of time, since Tortuga is so slow.
Alphinaud would DV, dispel, DV until BSB, command 1, dispel, command 1 spam, maybe refresh Wall? DV when you have quickcast from OK? It was sloppy, let me tell you.
Aerith Protectga, Ultra cure a bit, USB2 after 2nd Whomp, then just heal unless Guts pops, in which case USB2. The boss being slow helps a ton, since you can afford to be casting, and refill your ATB before the boss acts again. She ended up refreshing Wall due to fat fingering, and it occurs to me now Protect probably fell off towards the end of the fight. The Ultra Cures on the confused worked out perfectly somehow, which I don't think I can repeat.
Fujin did Windy things. Meltdown, then ninja magic. Summon Syldra at 10s with quickcast. USB. Spam appropriate wind ability based on boss's defenses. Refresh USB after Slice. Try to AOSB when chain is mostly full, imperil at 4 or 6, and boss isn't Savage. Not sure I can get the timing down to do 300k again.
Zack would LS x2, Imperil, then Flash Disaster if no Quickcast, LS if he had Quickcast, and then alternate Chain/BSB.
Just a fucking mess. Still, elated.
I personally am in no rush to get 4 of him. Though, I did get a second copy today; I was trying out a new strategy for a Wind Mage team, using Gogo Bubsy.
I have Edge, and... Idk, I have a lot of relics, but I need to figure out how to get google sheets to pull the skill data or something, because I can't keep track of what each one does...
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nTsfLk4XcO-s0zP1V0h97R36kj3f-LtW_XRD-_ZJ7Zo/edit?usp=sharing
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
You should level up Rosa, USB Benediction is super duper good. Relm USB is also pretty good.
As other folks have said, Savage Jet Fire is dual element Wind/Fire, so you have to resist BOTH to not get murdered by it. Get used to the idea of bringing two defensive magicites! You can also attempt to sneak in a Power Break(down) immediately after Absorb Strength to try to mitigate it. It's not piercing damage, so Protectga (in addition to Wall) should help, too.
Another option is you can Physical Blink the Savage Jet Fires. Edge SSB would be an obvious choice for that, though he won't be the best at DPS in that fight (some combination of Quick Hit, Icicle Shot, Stitch in Time, probably)
Battle Cry is not a great choice for your boost, since Absorb Strength will overwrite it. Maybe go with Rikku's USB as your boost, instead. Suggested team: Squall, (Sora or Laguna), Rikku, (Rosa or Relm), (Edge or Shelke)
Edit: looks like you do have Raijin's Aura SSB, so if you really want to hold on to your butt, you can try no-healer strats. That team would probably be something like Squall, Sora, (Rikku or Ramza), Raijin, Shelke
Rikku over Ramza also gives me ProShell, and also might as well bring the break dances with her, since she can't entrust and I want my better ice machinist/sharpshooter abilities on Laguna.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
My original Tiamat kill was Shelke and Ramza entrusting to Raijin spamming his SSB for party Guts and Instant cast. Rinoa Chain and Squall BSB2 actually killed it.
E: hell on the nerves, though.
Squall
Laguna (Not dived)
SHelke
Rikku
Relm
and I died around 30 seconds in with no maybe a quarter of his health chipped off.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
Do you have an Ice Chain?
No, hopefully I'll luck into a couple more chains on the 4A banners, cause that seems to be the name of every game these days.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
Squall - Snowspell Strike, BSB2/OSB, Gathering Storm, LMR/LM2
Sora - Snowspell Strike, Glint/AOSB, +30% Sword, LMR/LM2
OK - Wrath/Entrust, BSB, MM, LMR/LM2
Cait Sith - Protectga/Curaja, BSB, DMT, no LM
Relm - Shellga/Curada, USB, Ace Striker, no LM
RW - Fabula Guardian
Magicite - Wendigo
OK BSB and Cait Sith BSB don't get nullified by Absorb Strength, and no magic attackers means Absorb Magic is a free turn. OK Entrusts to Relm so she can spam her USB for the party instant cast. Sora and Squall do ice things, ending with their OSB/AOSB finishers. The team runs a comfortable sub-20 if I don't screw up.
Snowspell Strike is roughly equal to Squall burst commands if you aren't using speed cheats. If you ARE using speed cheats (especially for the Raijin SSB strat), the burst commands are way better.
Tiamat starts at 50% ice weakness, so Laguna's imperils are proportionally less effective than they are against neutral enemies. (The hype for Laguna USB is that Syldra will actually start resisting ice if you don't stack some imperils, and also it has a massive DEF buff you can't remove so you need every ounce of extra damage you can squeeze out)
4* magicites are 80% resistant to stat breaks (as opposed to typical event bosses, which are 50% resistant to stat breaks). I generally would not recommend bringing breaks, UNLESS you're doing it to overwrite a buff the opponent is applying to itself.
Combining the above two points, I would probably recommend Sora USB over Laguna USB, and go ahead and put your ice machinist/sharpshooter stuff on Rikku.
Absorb Power really does screw up your damage output pretty badly, so I would recommend doing a couple tries before deciding that your DPS can't hack it. That fight's RNG can be especially frustrating.
I've been lazy about Magicites this month but I really should jam some out for the mythril, before fest starts.
I just steal liberally from the mastery thread in reddit.
The only real proud ones I have are Belias and Geo because I did those without chains and were basically "fuck you, you're dying anyway"s
No shame in taking any clear you can get.
Squall SSS R3/LS BSB2 LD
Sora SSS R3/LS USB/BSB LD
Relm USB
Rikku Power dance/Freezing Snipe USB
Shelke -> Relm
Managed to make it to about 40sec and maybe 60% health remaining. Neither Squall nor Sora was hitting better than ~5k, and I'm not sure how I would fit in another boostga. Maybe replace Shelke w/ Ramza and his instant Atk/Mag/Mnd, but then I'm not feeding Relm as much meter, and petering out.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
My deck is a mess.
Krysta Dampen Air/Defense Boon
Fenrir Dampen Air/Res Boon
Liquid Flame Damp Fire/Def Boon
Isgebind Boost Ice
Taharka Boost Ice /Blade ward lvl3
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
This is probably my biggest thing. I just keep looking at it like "I've got some sick ice SB's, I should be able to do this" and then get mad when I can't seem to get it to work. Its what caused issues for me last time. I had the tech that I should have been able to clear Bismark, but either I was missing something/just plain doing it wrong, and so I kept feeling like I was just being really bad at the game, and got tired of playing.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
You'd actually be better off with Ramza's USB1 than Shelke. You really need that second boostga.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
I hope not. Torments are awful. I resent being forced to pull on every realm despite the fact that some are downright horrible compared to the others. XII I think is one of the worst offenders. Whoever it was that got a Riku usb some what two years late on a recent banner.