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[FFRK] 30th Anniversary Fest Tonight! Free 30 pull to get you started.
Rius
Globex CEONobody ever says ItalyRegistered User regular
Globex CEONobody ever says ItalyRegistered User regular
Final Fantasy Record Keeper
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 a pretty basic Active Time Battle system. You can take up to 5 characters, made up of all your favorites from past games (and one original starter character) as you journey through the cliff notes version of all the Final Fantasy games. Each Final Fantasy game is a world, made up of "Records" with several stages. Each stage requires you to spend stamina to attempt them. Stamina recharges at a rate of 1 every 3 minutes. There are also limited time events that occur every week featuring additional stages, characters, and rewards.
There is a surprising depth of strategy to this game as each character can equip different combinations of equipment and abilities, allowing for many different approaches to tackling some of the (at times) quite intense challenges. Characters and equipment also get bonuses if you match them to the world you're in (for example, Cloud gets a bonus in FF7 stages, as does anyone equipping his Buster Sword). You can even earn Magicites to equip to your entire party that raise everyone's stats and offer unique activated abilities!
The F2P comes in the form of the in-game currency, Mythril, which allows you to pull powerful relics from reward banners. Mythril also allows you to recharge stamina, and to try again if you happen to be defeated in a stage. You can spend real money on Gems which have the same function as Mythril, though refreshingly for a F2P game it's possible to clear all content without spending a dime. This is thanks to several quality of life features implemented by DeNa, chief among them the Friend Summon system and Guaranteed 5*, which gives you at least one top-rarity item per 11-pull you do. Additionally, rather generous amounts of free Mythril are available between a combination of login bonuses, stage completions, event participation and quest completion.
Tips and information for new players starting out;
1) Quests.
From the home screen, the Missions button in the upper-right features Wayfarer, Normal and Special missions. The Wayfarer missions are meant for new players and will guide you to some of the game's basic features, as well as giving you some nice ability and item rewards. Move on to the Normal missions from there. Special missions typically involve defeating some of the game's highest difficulty level fights with certain team limitations, which are usually "only use characters from this realm."
2) Stamina.
You can see the current / maximum Stamina numerically in the upper right corner of your Home screen. Below that is an orange bar that shows the same thing, but below that bar is a set of 5 hexagons representing your current Stamina Shards. When you get 5 Stamina Shards, you refill your stamina to full and your maximum goes up by 1. The filled in hexagons show you how many stamina shards you have towards the next stamina refill and maximum +1.
It is to your benefit to collect that fifth shard when you're running out or empty of Stamina. Efficiency is good! If you do a Stamina refill with Mythril/Gems, however, you'll get your maximum Stamina added on to your current, which means you'll have a surplus available. You won't start recharging Stamina again until your current drops back below your maximum.
3)Record Info.
When reading about the record in question, several tabs will be available with story, reward and boss info. Here you can read about the story background, rewards, and boss strategies as well as any medal requirements.
Upon completing any given stage in a record, your performance will be ranked. For any stage without a boss, you can earn up to 9 medals. You will lose medals if more than one party member dies, or if the party takes too much damage or uses too many actions to clear the stage. Earn enough medals and you will gain the Expert or Champion rating for the stage, which provides 150% and 200% experience, respectively.
Upon finishing the entire record, there are 3 reward levels; Completion, First Time Completion and Mastery. You can get the Completion bonus every time you complete that record. However, the other two can only be achieved once and typically include excellent rewards. To attain Mastery rewards, you must have earned 83.33% (5/6th) of all medals within the record. Remember those boss medal requirements? Each gives 3 medals if completed or 0 medals if not, so for records with few or only one stage, boss medal requirements can be crucial for obtaining Mastery rewards.
4) 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.
From the home screen, the Missions button in the upper-right features Wayfarer, Normal and Special missions. The Wayfarer missions are meant for new players and will guide you to some of the game's basic features, as well as giving you some nice ability and item rewards. Move on to the Normal missions from there. Special missions typically involve defeating some of the game's highest difficulty level fights with certain team limitations, which are usually "only use characters from this realm."
2) Stamina.
You can see the current / maximum Stamina numerically in the upper right corner of your Home screen. Below that is an orange bar that shows the same thing, but below that bar is a set of 5 hexagons representing your current Stamina Shards. When you get 5 Stamina Shards, you refill your stamina to full and your maximum goes up by 1. The filled in hexagons show you how many stamina shards you have towards the next stamina refill and maximum +1.
It is to your benefit to collect that fifth shard when you're running out or empty of Stamina. Efficiency is good! If you do a Stamina refill with Mythril/Gems, however, you'll get your maximum Stamina added on to your current, which means you'll have a surplus available. You won't start recharging Stamina again until your current drops back below your maximum.
3)Record Info.
When reading about the record in question, several tabs will be available with story, reward and boss info. Here you can read about the story background, rewards, and boss strategies as well as any medal requirements.
Upon completing any given stage in a record, your performance will be ranked. For any stage without a boss, you can earn up to 9 medals. You will lose medals if more than one party member dies, or if the party takes too much damage or uses too many actions to clear the stage. Earn enough medals and you will gain the Expert or Champion rating for the stage, which provides 150% and 200% experience, respectively.
Upon finishing the entire record, there are 3 reward levels; Completion, First Time Completion and Mastery. You can get the Completion bonus every time you complete that record. However, the other two can only be achieved once and typically include excellent rewards. To attain Mastery rewards, you must have earned 83.33% (5/6th) of all medals within the record. Remember those boss medal requirements? Each gives 3 medals if completed or 0 medals if not, so for records with few or only one stage, boss medal requirements can be crucial for obtaining Mastery rewards.
4) 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.
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 refereed to as Wall. These SBs apply a massive defensive buff to the whole party.]
SB - Soul Break [Powerful abilities learned by acquiring character-specific relics, then equipping them until mastered.]
SSB - Super Soul Break [Like an SB, but stronger, with a variety of bonus effects.]
BSB - Burst Soul Break [Like an SSB, except they also grant Burst Mode, which changes your Attack and Defense commands to something else for a limited time.]
- C1 - Command 1 [Replaces the Attack command during Burst Mode]
- C2 - Command 2 [Replaces the Defend command during Burst Mode]
OSB - Overlimit Soul Break [6* items! They're very powerful SBs that hit only once, but can break the 9999 damage limit.]
USB - Ultra Soul Break [6* items! These are what utility/healer characters get instead of an OSB. Bundles several beneficial effects into one. There are also DPS character USBs now, because fuck precedent.]
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, super break details, upcoming event information, etc etc. It's been a month since this was updated, and as such doesn't feature information on some of the game's newest content. It's still plenty useful for learning about mechanics and other unintuitive things.
Enlir's spreadsheet includes information about damn near everything. What various soul breaks do, what Burst mode commands do for which characters, who gets what Record and Legend Materia, etc. And it's current through JP content, so you can use it to look ahead and see what your favorite characters are destined to receive.
Kaonohiokala's spreadsheet is specifically great for looking at the contents of upcoming Relic banners. You can see the order in which these banners appeared in JP, as well as the contents of them. IF we get an Event (and we skip most of JP's collabs with non-FF content, sadly), we typically get the exact same banners. Our Festivals have different contents, however.
Informational diagrams (from current JP content) regarding 5* Legend Dives.
Who uses what motes.
Folks with Trance LMs.
Those with 35% Dualcast LM2s. (note that Vivi's is a Trance which gives him 50% Dualcast BLM.)
Those with escalating ATK/MAG/MND buffs based on ability uses.
Those with chances to Minor Imperil after using certain ability schools.
A while ago, FFRK added a friend summon system. We have a spreadsheet here you can plug your friend code into, and find the friend code of other PAers.
If you're looking to fill out your Friends list now that RW lists can be refreshed during selection, I recommend this site, which features a searchable list of Friend Codes that constantly updates and can be sorted by realm stats.
Torment Jump Start (D300) Major Orb Drop possibilities, two ways;
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.
Rius on
+1
This discussion has been closed.
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.
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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
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Pretty much, yep. They exist only to provide the passives and increase the total stats of all equipped Magicites combined (which means something when it comes to the passives, but I'm not certain what yet. I think some passives increase Party stats by percentages of combined Magicite stats? Not sure I've seen that yet.)
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.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
Banner 1: August 24
Aphmau USB: Instant party Curaga + haste + Instant Cast 1. Instant Curaga is great, party noncharge is great. Hastega as the other effect is not the best, but the other two parts are still great.
Aphmau BSB: Party Cura and +30% MAG/MND. C2 is a medica, C1 does a small heal and turns on a mode that adds damage to both commands. A pretty nice combination healer/buff burst for a mage team.
Zeid BSB: En-dark. Damage and interrupt. C1 gets an extra hit vs weakness, C2 boosts ATK. Not the top DPS in the game, but not terribly far off.
Curilla BSB: Holy/non damage and a weird party ATK/DEF buff that stacks with most other ATK/DEF buffs. Has a Sentinel command for tanking. Solid!
Curilla LMR: Small chance to cover PHY attacks with small damage reduction. I think if you want this effect, you want it as the LM2 for the much higher proc rate and damage reduction.
Aphmau LMR: 25% chance to grant 2000 HP stock on single target cures. Seems ok, especially if you're going to mash C1 on her burst. Her LM2 is not great (auto-reraise) so if she's your gal, you might want to chase this.
Aphmau SSB: Party status barrier ("Astra") and high regen. Very weak unless you really need status barrier and don't have any other options.
Zeid SSB: Dark/ice damage, bonus damage based on missing HP, then self heal 40%. Meh.
Curilla SSB: Holy/non damage with party 40% heal and Esuna. Top of the line for an SSB - lifesiphonable medica with good damage is still very usable, and occasionally the Esuna effect will save your bacon.
Shantotto SSB1: Damage and self Quick Magic Attacks 5. Way behind the current level of power creep.
Banner 2: August 27
Ayame OSB: It's an OSB.
Ayame BSB: En-ice. Damage and self ATK/RES buff. C1 has fast cast, C2 has an ATK buff. One of the best sources of ice damage, and of physical damage overall.
Lion BSB: Instant damage and ATK/DEF break. Commands for Power and Armor breakdown. Dual breaks are good! Not very synergistic with Mug Bloodlust though.
Prishe BSB: Damage with self Quick Monk Attacks 5. C2 boosts ATK, C1 deals more hits based on how many different monk attacks you've used since the last time you used C1. A very strong option for non-elemental damage, especially if you hone Lifebane.
Ayame LMR: 35% to get Quick Actions 1 after using a Samurai ability. Ehhh.
Lion LMR: Increased stat break duration. OK if you're trying to juggle multiple of her SBs, otherwise not exciting.
Prishe SSB: Party 40% heal + Last Stand + high regen. Lifesiphonable medica has its uses, and this is also a source of Last Stand. Pretty good for an SSB.
Lion SSB: AOE damage and DEF/RES break. DEF/RES is the exception to the general rule of "dualbreaks are good."
Ayame SSB: Wind damage, self +50% ATK, party haste. Not a convenient form factor for hastega, but there are compositions where you might want this. Overall not that exciting.
Shantotto SSB2: Fire/ice/lit damage and party +30% MAG/RES. You need MAG buffs to make a mage team work, and this'll do that.
Overall thoughts, future banners, etc.
JP hasn't seen another XI event yet, so the next one is at least five months away for us. Note that we will be getting an XI torment some time soon (Seeker and Dark Dragon). Some folks have posted no-SB CM clears on reddit, but it's certainly no walk in the park. Depending on how much you care about Torments and Cid Missions, you may want to pull here for synergy.
I have a sneaking suspicion we might see some surprise festival-grade banners dropped on us this week (say, Monday or Tuesday). If you want to pull, maybe wait a few days and see if there's any news? There's definite confirmation of the 30th anniversary festival happening in one month, and those banners are guaranteed to be nuts, so that's also a consideration. And of course the next few events are also full of chase items (Bartz USB, Edge USB, Shadow USB), so...
Upcoming event schedule:
XI - Super Fest? - V (Bartz USB/Faris USB2)- IV (Edge USB/Rubicante) - T (Meliadoul/Delita USB) - VI (Shadow USB/Setzer USB) - 30th Anniversary Fest! - Dissidia villains (Gabranth USB/Garland Chain) - II (Minwu USB/Leon USB) - III (Refia USB/Ingus Chain) - XV (Prompto USB)
Alternate opinions:
https://www.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKeeper/comments/6uximy/relic_discussion_the_shadow_lord_awakens_double/
Some of my other recent banner reviews:
VII: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/38037093#Comment_38037093
VIII: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/37995550#Comment_37995550
This is not quite right; for example, Hydra has one, but you can also get Enlil as a random 3* drop from the Hydra fight and he's got a Magicite Ultra. Humbaba, however, doesn't. As a tradeoff, Humbaba gets Empower Crit Chance for 5% extra crit for the party.
Same with the Earth Magicites; Golem and Shell Dragon have Ultras, but Sand Worm doesn't. He seems to get Health Boon as a tradeoff.
Of course, you get the passives even if they're in a sub-slot, so I don't see why you'd ever run an Ultra-less Magicite in your main slot.
Inquisitor77: Rius, you are Sisyphus and melee Wizard is your boulder
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Duplicate passives stack additively, but additional copies of the same effect have reduced effectiveness (half, then one quarter, then one eighth). So it's probably better to get one Party ATK up and one Party Crit Chance up and one Party Crit Damage up rather than three Party ATK ups.
My mage team needs a hastega and a debuffer, and those three are really the best.
OK is generally fantastic. Fujin would slot into a mage team and give a huge boost to my wind team, since I've already got Alph's BSB. Rapha would be fantastic on a mage team, and I've already got Ashe's BSB/OSB so Rapha would give me a stellar lightning magic team as well.
HMMMMM.
- Definitely passing on FF11 and FF4 banners. While I want a good few things on them, there's too many that I don't want compared to other banners.
- FF5 banner has the highest chance of whiffs by far of everything that I compared, but I'm still going to roll on it, because I am not a smart individual.
- Will probably only roll on FF6 banner if the Super Fest banners don't happen, and either way, probably only once.
- Of elemental banners, the second (Water/Wind) is by far the most interesting for me, largely thanks to my water options being weak and the inclusion of Zack Chain and Rikku USB
- Of 30th anniversary banners, the 2nd one stands out as the best for me, although that may change if I hit stuff on FF5. Third banner is extremely good, but already having Cloud/Squall relics hurts it.
Maybe if the Esper (they are called Espers by Dr Mog) has an action set you really want to have. I saw one that had Haste as a random action, for example.
Didn't drop Enkidu which was the one I was going for though. 1/3? chance?
What do the magicite stats on the magicite screen do?
Still doing the hyper carry thing. Sealion (instant cast, party wind 'blink' (actually reduce damage 100%)) is very useful for taking care of the uber piercing slowing winds. Iris's Astra no doubt helped too. Brought ST haste after being frustrated by random slows at awful times, ended up not using it at all on the winning run. A late Mystic Flurry to reEnIce got eaten by a blink. Used all the Empower Ice magicites I had. No idea how much they helped. Squall was doing ~91k with his enOSB.
Tomorrow: Bismarck
I think I'm going to pull once on XI-2 and then save for fest banners.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
Wouldn't say that. Even with Magicite help if you have no options at all then there is nothing to buff. Earth element is very rare. If you don't have Maria relics there's a decent chance you don't have anything.
Bartz's USB gives him a chase after every Spellblade of the four included elements, and it's 50/50 to be a 2-hit or 8-hit chase. Shadow and Edge have chases as well, after Ninja (or is it their element?) abilities, and they pair nicely with the new 5* Ninja physical combos debuted in their events. Just high throughput damage for both of them.
Inquisitor77: Rius, you are Sisyphus and melee Wizard is your boulder
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1) click slot
2) click Magicite
3) click Change
What's the reason for that third step? It keeps tripping me up.
Inquisitor77: Rius, you are Sisyphus and melee Wizard is your boulder
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I think Liquid Flame is a no-go for now. Without Imperil Water, Bartz is only doing 5000 per hit on Woken Water recasts. He's not killing me or even coming close, but Im gonna bump up against the Enrage timer. My other option is Strago, but while Lore is great, I'm not sure if 9999x2 per turn is fast enough for Magicite. Maybe I could put them both in one team? Larsa seems capable of solo-healing this.
I think I need to level up my Water Magicite more. Maybe fight Bismarck again for some combinables. I would record Dive Bartz for more damage, (LM2 + LM1 + dualstrike RM) but I really don't want to do that until I see what shakes out of the Ultrabartz banner.
If you can kill any one of the magicite, being able to grind it to get five level 99 magicite and potentially something like +140 ATK to your whole party ain't nothin'. It's not going to be an auto-win, sure, but it'll definitely be a big help.
Edge USB turns the water ninja skills into crazy dps, especially if you have his en-water. Rosa's USB, as I can personally attest, is ridiculously strong. If I didn't already have Rosa's USB I'd probably take a swing at the banner, but Edge's stuff isn't enough.
So if you have five Magicite equipped with Level 10 Lightning Damage Boost each, and supposing that each level is worth 1% extra Lightning Damage, you'll get 10+5+2.5+1.25+0.625=~19% extra all told. So it seems worth it to equip the first two, but after that you might want to move on to some different passives.
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.
I was looking for it, but does the same % follow with damage reduction, where 1 level = 1% element resist?
Probably? There's several math posts on ze Reddit from a few months ago for JP, but I haven't dived deep into them yet. 1% per level seems like a reasonable assumption.
Yeah, they won't mess with each other for stacking. For stacking, ignore which bonuses comes from which Magicites, just take all the bonuses with the exact same name and apply the above scaling.
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.
e: Or whatever the bubble is called. Can't remember :P
Alas, did not get Enkidu. Some day.
Don't look down on Wing Raptor. Its Fast Act bonus is unique among Magicite. Of course, it takes three copies just to unlock it...
What's the consensus on the arcana, just use it on whatever you get first to help with the others?
Team was:
Refia with BSB
Galuf with BSB
Ramza with Shout
Ysh with BSB
Celes with BSB1 and LMR
Took it out in 55 sec or so.
Oh yeah, I'm happy to get any and all magicite right now. Want to build up my options. I just want Enkidu the most, for obvious reasons.
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
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Original data for self:
4, 3, 3, 4, 4 for second day part 1.
Second day part 2: Eggs, 4, 3
Second day part three: 4, 4, 4, 3
Third day part one: Greens, 4* AND Gladio's RM2 (Woot!), 3, 4
Third day part two: 4, 4* AND Iris's RM2 (So fast!), 3, 4
Data for 255 Nemesis farm:
Day one second part: 4, 3, Greens, 4
Day two first part: 4, 3, Greens, 4
Day two second part: Eggs, 4, 4, Eggs
Day three first part: 3, 4, 3
Day three second part: Eggs, 4, 3, 3, 3
Day four first part: 4, 3, 4
Day four second part: Greens, 4, 3 (done, finally!)
Data for posterity:
5 misses in a row
15/128 lifetime
5/33 this batch
Note to self: No whining, Rikku USB, never forget. Also Cloud BSB2.
By element:
Sephiroth OSB
Steiner BSB+Imperil
Krile BSB (+Sheepsong)
LIGHTNING
Ashe BSB+OSB
Lightning SSB2+OSB
Orlandeau OSB
Fran SSB(Imperil)
ICE
Snow BSB
WIND
Zidane SSB+OSB+BSB(Imperil)
Fang BSB
Cid BSB
WATER
Rikku BSB(Imperil)
EARTH
Guy SSB(Imperil)
(Not shown: like fifty thousand holy and dark relics that I can't use yet.)
General utility:
Ramza Shout+Chant+USB
Onion Knight BSB (+OSB)
Sazh BSB
Minfilia SSB
Papalymo SSB
Krile SSB
Yuna BSB
Raines BSB
(Zell BSB)
HEALS
Vanille BSB (soon-to-be fully dived)
Eiko USB
Relm BSB
Lightning and Wind really ought to be doable somehow. Maybe Fire as well. I'm SOL in terms of Ice/Water/Earth obviously. We'll see where I am after another month I guess.
Given the stubborn need for Protectga/Shellga in a format where offensive paladins are useless, I feel like I'm pretty shackled to this for my party format:
-Main DPS (usually OSB)
-Secondary DPS/Imperil/extra Entruster
-Buffer w/ Protectga (usually Onion Knight with an off-heal I guess)
-Buffer w/ Entrust (usually Ramza)
-Healer (Vanille)
Maybe if the DPS is self-buffing I can cut a buffer for a pure Entruster or a better off-healer, but for the most part this seems to be pretty much it.
I think this team has room to improve too. If I give Strago a Dualcast Black RM, and Legend Dive Bartz, my DPS should shoot up significantly.
Oh, and I got 2 Liquid Flame Magicite in the rewards, so I have something I can combine!
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Ok so then I've got a follow-up question.
I'm on Kongbakpao right now, reviewing the new banners. And I'm seeing on banner 1 a few holy options on USB's. I really want Warrior of Light's Holy Link sword. Out of the Holy USB's available, either on banner 1 or banner 2, which has the best EX mode?
You can do wind the same way I did: Ramza for Shout+Chant, two healers (so Vanille and Relm in your case, probably?), an entrust battery, and Zidane to enWind himself and then OSB it to death. In my case, it was Luneth, but principle applies.