What is Final Fantasy Brave Exvius?
A new-ish mobile game for Android and Apple devices, from the company that brings you all things Final Fantasy, in collaboration with A-lim, who handled the Japanese version of Brave Frontier, and Gumi who handled the global release of said game. The plot revolves around a young knight named Rain, and his personal aide/best friend/mentor named Lasswell, and a girl who lost all memories named Fina. The world's crystals are being shattered by a mysterious enemy, and to help restore their power, you require Espers, and the ability to summon the souls of legendary heroes past known as "Visions".
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.
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.
You mentioned Final Fantasy characters? I love Final Fantasy!
FFBE has a wide variety of characters from Final Fantasy, with it's own beefy roster of unique names original to FFBE. Characters from Final Fantasy 1 all the way to 13 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 expect some to show up in Japan's version, which means at least a 5-6 month wait before we would get them in global. 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 Brave Frontier exclusive characters who all have a boring, pointless backstory that is meaningless because let's face it, you're here for your favourite FF character. As previously mentioned, characters are added to the gacha, usually alongside special events that ties in to the game they are 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 actually really easy to level up units. The fact that you pulled Exdeath is where the rarity comes from, as some of the strongest units in the game have a less than 1% chance of being pulled, and that number only gets smaller as the character pool expands.
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.
https://exviuswiki.com/Unit_RankingsI'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? There is a subjective "tier" list of best units, based on role in your team, potential at their role, and overall performance here. Check it frequently as it will update every few weeks as new units are added, and almost always someone will replace the top spot in a given role at any time, with few exceptions.
If you're just starting out and want to know who to look for, below are some of the better units you can expect to see come out of your common blue crystal drop. If you see a prismatic crystal, there's a chance it could contain a 5* base unit, which is very powerful and easily secures a spot on your team at any given time!
3* units to look for: Cecil, Cloud of Darkness, Bartz, Garland, Firion, Exdeath, Kefka, Terra, Vaan, Zidane, Roselia, Faris, Charlotte
4* base units to look for (gold crystal or better): Chizuru, Warrior of Light, Lenna, Garnet, Agrias, Rosa, Amarant, Refia, Snow
5* base units to look for (prismatic crystals only): Lightning, Ramza, Delita, Dark Knight Cecil, Luneth, Gilgamesh
3* base units that if your entire 11-pull 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 pull rate survey info when new Global events come up, so you can determine if it's safe to pull on a banner for a unit you want, and what your expected odds are of getting them. Most of the threads are generally not of much use, however, being whine posts, humblebrags, or speculative "I wish this would happen" commentary.
Friend ID List!:https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OV-F9_Qs8M3TbCKi1XHX3BsTbTdr_xmpu9KI6nj11hs/edit?pref=2&pli=1
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
Lapis: The name of the in-game world. Conveniently, also the premium currency that you'll be getting from doing missions, daily quests, and most events. This is used largely to summon more premium units on banners, but you can also use it to expand your inventory and friend capacity, which is highly recommended. It is never recommended to use Lapis to unlock additional daily dungeons in the Vortex.
Friend Points (FP): Used to summon cheapo units. Most of them aren't worth your time, but a select few are worth holding on to as you accumulate your FP so you can fuse them into a Trust Mastery Reward. More info can be found here.
Trust Mastery Reward (TMR): The reward given for getting a unit's Trust up to 100%. There are a lot of good TMRs that make your life easier or really boost your party's output. That said, TMRs are a luxury, and by no means required to beat the main story content of the game. If you want to get serious about getting TMRs however, you will want to look into setting up an emulator such as Nox or MEmu on your PC and recording a script.
Arena: PVP. Rules change per week which affect the kind of shenanigans you can do, but you never play against another player live - the CPU controls them, and often makes it easy on you. Your worst case scenario is someone who sandbags you with shown unit like Rain, and you end up fighting against 4 Lightnings and a Cecil. Arena rewards include stat pots to fuse to your units to increase their base stats, up to a cap.
Colosseum: Structured fights that have 3 ranks of 5 tiers with 5 classes with 10 battles per class. Great source of Lapis and gear early on. The first two ranks can most easily be beaten with a unit sporting Gravija, such as Exdeath. Kefka's Heartless Angel is a renamed Gravija and works just as well. Most bosses are immune to this, but most of them aren't too bad to deal without it until you get into the S-class of the tier.
Vortex: Daily dungeons are here. When there are no special weekend dungeons, you'll mostly be coming here to use Chamber of Experience or Awakening to strengthen your team. Special events usually show up here tied in to the current rate-up banner featured on the home page. This is where you will be usually end up going to find the Moogle King to trade your event currency in for items. You can also do trial boss fights which reward great gear.
Steam: TheArcadeBear
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.
Today's daily draw is another CoD. Wonder of there is a use for having more than one. I know the arena teams with two just eat a double cast full-raise on round one.
Steam Profile | Signature art by Alexandra 'Lexxy' Douglass
https://www.reddit.com/r/FFBraveExvius/wiki/units
Not seeing the actual materials needed.
Steam Profile | Signature art by Alexandra 'Lexxy' Douglass
Calamity Writ (20)
Calamity Gem (10)
Prismatic Horn (10)
Fairies' Writ (5)
Divine Crystal (5)
Bartz:
Prismatic Horn (20)
Fairies' Writ (10)
Rainbow Bloom (10)
Calamity Gem (5)
Divine Crystal (5)
But if you lose while defending it doesn't effect you at all.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
Awesome, I'm set to upgrade both. Then comes the XP grind.
Steam Profile | Signature art by Alexandra 'Lexxy' Douglass
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
macros are also banned in JP.
so far I haven't heard or seen anyone in global getting banned for anything.
that includes those that are actually hacking the game with stuff like TM infusions/lapis hacks.
Ctrl-F for Bartz or Exdeath, click on unit pages, is near the top.
Also, Gilgamesh, but then Gilga's base 5 star while Mercedes is at least base 4*.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
For real? How the fuck do they expect you to get the TMs if you can't macro?
You sweet summer child.
Steam Profile | Signature art by Alexandra 'Lexxy' Douglass
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
Steam Profile | Signature art by Alexandra 'Lexxy' Douglass
Isn't this because Japan has a lot of limitations on games like this? Don't they regulate it differently there?
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
God. Damn.
I think the same laws affect their global efforts, too.
Steam Profile | Signature art by Alexandra 'Lexxy' Douglass
Steam Profile | Signature art by Alexandra 'Lexxy' Douglass
I am pretty happy I have all of the released FFV units so I can actually save up some Lapis for once.
Exdeath definitely. He's one of the best mages around. Bartz is a lower end 6* unit, but because he's a 3* base, he should be pretty easy to get. And almost ANY 6* unit is going to be a powerhouse.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
When Maxwell gets limit, that thing just spews LB crystals in mass quantities. Like, she's filling up her and Kefka's LB meters to full every round, I don't even need to worry about selecting Thundara. It's just LB round after LB round.
Steam: TheArcadeBear
I also need to hurry up and finish Karma farming, so I can get back to this project:
Someone posted an Arena run where the opposing team had Agrias, Maxwell, and Lightning. Turns 4 through 10 were as follows:
Endless + Stasis Sword + Army of One
They could only heal, when their team wasn't Stopped.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12