Final Fantasy XIII - Help thing...LOL
So whilst completing Final Fantasy XIII for the 2nd time (Cause 1000G on my profile just wasn’t enough! Hehe) I figured I would make some notes etc on things I have found out whilst playing around and mixing things up.
I will be updating it as I go along as I have only got less than half of all the cieth stone mark missions done.
This is mostly for my general reference if I ever do another playthrough. Which I most likely will once I obtain the ps3 version and re-capture some cutscenes. But seeing as I have found some pretty neat stuff I figured I would share!
First I wanna get this out of the way. Alot of people seem to never really know what to equip on their party when trying to max them out. I found this to work very well when I was farming Long Gui
Fang
HP 24000 Kains Lance *
STR 3826 Kaiser Knuckles* x3
MAG 2221 Genji Glove*
I used the Taming Pole/Venus Gospel route for this one. The stagger lock has no effect seeing as Fang's main role is Commando! Part of the Gestalt synthesis group so TP charges quickly which is very useful when farming for Trapezohedron/Dark Matter. It’s also the second highest for strength and magic.
In the playthrough I’m now doing I will be taking the Dragoon Lance/Dragonhorn route which has about 41 strength difference but no magic. So will be interesting to see how much it affects Fang’s Ravager and other magic based roles and how the Ultimate Physic ability plays.
Lightning
Omega*
Nimbletoe boots* - improved evasion
Sprint shoes* x2 - cast auto haste (Each has an ATB rate +5%)
Aurora Scarf* - ATB rate +10%
Having Lightning’s omega weapon equipped with the Axis Blade/Enkindler route will give ATB rate +30%
Giving you a super fast deadly lightning! So for the playthrough I am now doing this seems like a fun choice.
I took the Organyx/Apocalypse route as it had the highest magic and strength, as I was aiming for power in this playthrough. It does come with the Ironstrike ability which reduces the ATB recharge rate but if you have said accessories equipped it makes no difference!
Hope
Hawkeye/Eagletalon route for Nue (max magic)
Hope basically had his magic maxed out with magic boosting accessories when needed and I used him to carry the Collector Catalogues/Growth Egg.
***
A useful hint!
During the game you get a chance to obtain x3 Genji Gloves in Missions 51,62 and 63. You only need one as Fang is the only one that benefits from it. So * the other 2 and then dismantle them. You will get x2 Trapezohedron for your efforts which means you can upgrade two of your weapons to ultimate tier, giving you a great advantage when you start farming the big guys for Platinum Ingots and Trapezohedron.
***
How to obtain the Growth Egg that will get you x2 CP!
The Cieth Stone is found in Oerba, at the deserted school house on the roof.
It’s mission 55 and it pits you against a Neochu and 5 Picochu. They can be found at the Archylte Steppe - Aggra's Pasture (need a Chocobo to reach)
This one all depends on luck but it's worth doing this early on as you get the Growth Egg as a reward which gives you x2 CP!
I had my team with around 8K health. By this point I had done several other Cieth stone missions and just finished the main storyline. (I hadn’t even started the 10th and final stage of the crystarium)
For this I used:
VANILLE/FANG/HOPE
SAB/SEN/MED >>>SET AS ACTIVE!
RAV/SEN/MED
RAV/SEN/RAV
RAV/COM/MED
Equip Vanille with the Malboro Wand and some defensive accessories. Goddess's Favour on Hope is useful.
Use a Fortisol and Agisol before the battle starts.
All you need to do is keep using Vanille's "Death" Abilty until Neochu falls. Hope should be able to keep you healthy and Fang should take most of the damage.
After he falls kill off the picochu's but don't be reckless about it! They still pack a punch.
Just keep spamming death and hope you get lucky. It may take one try, it may take 10.
I got it on my first try but I was a fool and forgot to put attacking paradigms on when it worked and had to rely on Fang's vendetta and Vanille's death to kill the lil picochu's ¬¬
***
Post-Storyline CP Farming Spot
Mah'habara - An asylum from Light. Can be reached from Cieth waystone or Atmos. See map and my failed map making skills ^^
Cryohedron x6 to battle.
Average of 8 - 14 sec battle time.
Go back to 1/4 of way through tunnel to force respawn.
Weapons should at least be tier 1 maxed!
Min health needed: 7,000
CP Recieved: 7,140 CP
CP Recieved with Growth Egg: 14,280 CP
The whole thing (fighting, running, returning again for respawn) should take about 45 secs so:
14,280 CP per 45 seconds = 1,142,400 CP per hour
Best paradigms
COM/COM/COM - Use Blitz
COM/COM/RAV - Use Blitz and Fira/Firaga
Valuable Drops (Have a Collector Catalogue and Survivalist Catalogue equipped so you can increase chance of rare drops and Shrouds - which will come in handy for 5-Staring later Cieth Mark Missions)
Bomb Core (Rare Drop)
UPGRADE VALUE = 788 EXP
WITH x3 EXP = 2364EXP
SELL PRICE = 600 GIL (x99 = 59,400 GIL)
Bomb Shell
SELL PRICE = 420 GIL (x99 = 41,580 GIL)
Bomb Ashes
SELL PRICE = 90 GIL (x99 = 8,910 GIL)
***
Chapter 12 - Proudclad 01
Seeing as this battle can take ages I found an awesome and quick way to do it!
HOPE/LIGHT/FANG
SYN/MED/SEN >>>>SET AS ACTIVE!
RAV/RAV/COM
RAV/RAV/SEN
RAV/COM/COM
MED/MED/SEN
Start the battle and quickly cast Haste/Faith/Protect/Shell on Hope, Haste/Faith/Shell/Protect on Light and Haste/Bravery/Shell/Protect on Fang.
Switch to Relentless to get the stagger bar going then switch to Mystic Tower to stagger. Then switch to Aggression, use one round of magic attacks to higher the chain then spam Hopes "Last Resort". When the stagger ends switch to Combat Clinic. Once he has finished his onslaught of attacks, refresh any buffs (if needed) and do it all over again! He should fall before the end of the 2nd stagger.
Chapter 12 - Proudclad 02
Use the same method as above. Will take a lil longer and watch your health.
***
Chapter 13 - Boss Battles
Barthandelus III (Chapter 13)
Light/Fang/Hope
MED/SEN/MED
COM/COM/MED
RAV/COM/MED
RAV/SEN/RAV
COM/SAB/SYN >>>SET AS ACTIVE!
Can be done without an Agisol and Fortisol but it makes the battle go a lot faster with them
Start by letting Fang caste deprotect, deshell, imperil, slow ect
If you didn't use shrouds then allow time for Hope to cast several buffs while you keep the party healthy
Switch to Diversity and drive up the gauge. If you’re in good health and feel it is going to waste then switch to Mystic Tower and stagger. Once staggered cast a few more spells to increase the gauge and then switch to Tireless Charge.
You should be able to rid half of his HP by the end of the first stagger. (If Fang and Light know the smite ability then during the end of the stagger period you should be able to score a huge chunk of his HP with this)
Quickly switch to Combat Clinic before Ultima and Thanatosian Laughter hit . Always heal your party leader first!
Refresh any buffs you need etc while Fang debuffs him.
Rinse and repeat, he should be down before the end of the second stagger!
Note: Always keep your party’s health in the green as Thanatosian Laughter can wipe out your party.
If you health is low then heal! Don’t worry about losing your chain gauge as you can always get it up again.
Orphan I (Chapter 13)
Hit retry and equip Lightning with x2 or x3 Cherub crowns and Goddess's favour on Hope
LIGHT/FANG/HOPE
RAV/COM/MED
MED/SEN/MED >>>>>SET AS ACTIVE!
RAV/COM/MED
MED/SAB/SYN
As the battle starts Orphan will use his most powerful attack "Merciless Judgement" Which will leave your party in the red. Heal up quickly!
Whenever the prompt for this attack appears quickly change to Combat Clinic as it will lock your controls.
During the Consummate Light stage, use Evened Odds to heal up, place buffs on you and debuffs on him.
Once done switch to Diversity to drive up the chain gauge. If your health can take it then go a few rounds of Relentless Assault to really push it up. He staggers at 400% so a quick round of Relentless Assault should get it to 500/600%
Then switch to Tireless Charge and do some damage! Before the stagger ends switch to Combat Clinic and make sure your health is in the green as he will do another "Merciless Judgement"
Now its Consummate Darkness. Use Diversity, ignore the status aliments and stagger him as quick as possible. (The only aliments you should worry about are pain, fog and slow on yourself or daze on a party member.
If you don’t stagger him quick enough he will change to Consummate Light which is followed by the "Merciless Judgement"
After half his health is gone he will unleash two new attacks. Just keep your party healthy, refresh buffs during Consummate Light and attack when you’re ready.
***
5-Star Mark Mission 54: Gigantaur
LEVEL 5 THEIR 3 MAIN ROLES
FANG/LIGHT/HOPE
SAB/MED/MED >>>SET AS ACTIVE!
SYN/SYN/SYN (FANG LV.1 - LIGHT LV.4) ANYTHING HIGHER IS FINE
COM/COM/MED
Equip Fang with Effulgent Cape* and Pain Deflector*
Equip Lightning Effulgent Cape* and Pain Deflector*
Equip Hope with Effulgent Cape* and Pain Deflector*
(Fang and Lightning should have Tier 2 weapons or higher)
Start the battle and manually cast daze as fast as you can. As soon as it sticks switch to Rapid Growth and manually cast Bravera on Fang and Lightning and Protectra on Hope. By now you should have haste on all 3 and Enfire on the girls(Be sure to cast Libra on him when dazed other wise Lightning will not cast enfire for you). Switch to Tireless Charge and let him have it!
If you want 5 stars and either of the girls lose Haste or Enfire before the battle ends it’s a good idea to hit retry. The battle should take about 1 mins 20 secs.
***
That’s all for now! I will have more done later once I have written it all up! Hope this helps some people and they found out something new.
Coming up soon - Barthandelus I + II, 5 Star Orphan, Mark mission 51, 64.
I will be updating it as I go along as I have only got less than half of all the cieth stone mark missions done.
This is mostly for my general reference if I ever do another playthrough. Which I most likely will once I obtain the ps3 version and re-capture some cutscenes. But seeing as I have found some pretty neat stuff I figured I would share!
First I wanna get this out of the way. Alot of people seem to never really know what to equip on their party when trying to max them out. I found this to work very well when I was farming Long Gui
Fang
HP 24000 Kains Lance *
STR 3826 Kaiser Knuckles* x3
MAG 2221 Genji Glove*
I used the Taming Pole/Venus Gospel route for this one. The stagger lock has no effect seeing as Fang's main role is Commando! Part of the Gestalt synthesis group so TP charges quickly which is very useful when farming for Trapezohedron/Dark Matter. It’s also the second highest for strength and magic.
In the playthrough I’m now doing I will be taking the Dragoon Lance/Dragonhorn route which has about 41 strength difference but no magic. So will be interesting to see how much it affects Fang’s Ravager and other magic based roles and how the Ultimate Physic ability plays.
Lightning
Omega*
Nimbletoe boots* - improved evasion
Sprint shoes* x2 - cast auto haste (Each has an ATB rate +5%)
Aurora Scarf* - ATB rate +10%
Having Lightning’s omega weapon equipped with the Axis Blade/Enkindler route will give ATB rate +30%
Giving you a super fast deadly lightning! So for the playthrough I am now doing this seems like a fun choice.
I took the Organyx/Apocalypse route as it had the highest magic and strength, as I was aiming for power in this playthrough. It does come with the Ironstrike ability which reduces the ATB recharge rate but if you have said accessories equipped it makes no difference!
Hope
Hawkeye/Eagletalon route for Nue (max magic)
Hope basically had his magic maxed out with magic boosting accessories when needed and I used him to carry the Collector Catalogues/Growth Egg.
***
A useful hint!
During the game you get a chance to obtain x3 Genji Gloves in Missions 51,62 and 63. You only need one as Fang is the only one that benefits from it. So * the other 2 and then dismantle them. You will get x2 Trapezohedron for your efforts which means you can upgrade two of your weapons to ultimate tier, giving you a great advantage when you start farming the big guys for Platinum Ingots and Trapezohedron.
***
How to obtain the Growth Egg that will get you x2 CP!
The Cieth Stone is found in Oerba, at the deserted school house on the roof.
It’s mission 55 and it pits you against a Neochu and 5 Picochu. They can be found at the Archylte Steppe - Aggra's Pasture (need a Chocobo to reach)
This one all depends on luck but it's worth doing this early on as you get the Growth Egg as a reward which gives you x2 CP!
I had my team with around 8K health. By this point I had done several other Cieth stone missions and just finished the main storyline. (I hadn’t even started the 10th and final stage of the crystarium)
For this I used:
VANILLE/FANG/HOPE
SAB/SEN/MED >>>SET AS ACTIVE!
RAV/SEN/MED
RAV/SEN/RAV
RAV/COM/MED
Equip Vanille with the Malboro Wand and some defensive accessories. Goddess's Favour on Hope is useful.
Use a Fortisol and Agisol before the battle starts.
All you need to do is keep using Vanille's "Death" Abilty until Neochu falls. Hope should be able to keep you healthy and Fang should take most of the damage.
After he falls kill off the picochu's but don't be reckless about it! They still pack a punch.
Just keep spamming death and hope you get lucky. It may take one try, it may take 10.
I got it on my first try but I was a fool and forgot to put attacking paradigms on when it worked and had to rely on Fang's vendetta and Vanille's death to kill the lil picochu's ¬¬
***
Post-Storyline CP Farming Spot
Mah'habara - An asylum from Light. Can be reached from Cieth waystone or Atmos. See map and my failed map making skills ^^
Cryohedron x6 to battle.
Average of 8 - 14 sec battle time.
Go back to 1/4 of way through tunnel to force respawn.
Weapons should at least be tier 1 maxed!
Min health needed: 7,000
CP Recieved: 7,140 CP
CP Recieved with Growth Egg: 14,280 CP
The whole thing (fighting, running, returning again for respawn) should take about 45 secs so:
14,280 CP per 45 seconds = 1,142,400 CP per hour
Best paradigms
COM/COM/COM - Use Blitz
COM/COM/RAV - Use Blitz and Fira/Firaga
Valuable Drops (Have a Collector Catalogue and Survivalist Catalogue equipped so you can increase chance of rare drops and Shrouds - which will come in handy for 5-Staring later Cieth Mark Missions)
Bomb Core (Rare Drop)
UPGRADE VALUE = 788 EXP
WITH x3 EXP = 2364EXP
SELL PRICE = 600 GIL (x99 = 59,400 GIL)
Bomb Shell
SELL PRICE = 420 GIL (x99 = 41,580 GIL)
Bomb Ashes
SELL PRICE = 90 GIL (x99 = 8,910 GIL)
***
Chapter 12 - Proudclad 01
Seeing as this battle can take ages I found an awesome and quick way to do it!
HOPE/LIGHT/FANG
SYN/MED/SEN >>>>SET AS ACTIVE!
RAV/RAV/COM
RAV/RAV/SEN
RAV/COM/COM
MED/MED/SEN
Start the battle and quickly cast Haste/Faith/Protect/Shell on Hope, Haste/Faith/Shell/Protect on Light and Haste/Bravery/Shell/Protect on Fang.
Switch to Relentless to get the stagger bar going then switch to Mystic Tower to stagger. Then switch to Aggression, use one round of magic attacks to higher the chain then spam Hopes "Last Resort". When the stagger ends switch to Combat Clinic. Once he has finished his onslaught of attacks, refresh any buffs (if needed) and do it all over again! He should fall before the end of the 2nd stagger.
Chapter 12 - Proudclad 02
Use the same method as above. Will take a lil longer and watch your health.
***
Chapter 13 - Boss Battles
Barthandelus III (Chapter 13)
Light/Fang/Hope
MED/SEN/MED
COM/COM/MED
RAV/COM/MED
RAV/SEN/RAV
COM/SAB/SYN >>>SET AS ACTIVE!
Can be done without an Agisol and Fortisol but it makes the battle go a lot faster with them
Start by letting Fang caste deprotect, deshell, imperil, slow ect
If you didn't use shrouds then allow time for Hope to cast several buffs while you keep the party healthy
Switch to Diversity and drive up the gauge. If you’re in good health and feel it is going to waste then switch to Mystic Tower and stagger. Once staggered cast a few more spells to increase the gauge and then switch to Tireless Charge.
You should be able to rid half of his HP by the end of the first stagger. (If Fang and Light know the smite ability then during the end of the stagger period you should be able to score a huge chunk of his HP with this)
Quickly switch to Combat Clinic before Ultima and Thanatosian Laughter hit . Always heal your party leader first!
Refresh any buffs you need etc while Fang debuffs him.
Rinse and repeat, he should be down before the end of the second stagger!
Note: Always keep your party’s health in the green as Thanatosian Laughter can wipe out your party.
If you health is low then heal! Don’t worry about losing your chain gauge as you can always get it up again.
Orphan I (Chapter 13)
Hit retry and equip Lightning with x2 or x3 Cherub crowns and Goddess's favour on Hope
LIGHT/FANG/HOPE
RAV/COM/MED
MED/SEN/MED >>>>>SET AS ACTIVE!
RAV/COM/MED
MED/SAB/SYN
As the battle starts Orphan will use his most powerful attack "Merciless Judgement" Which will leave your party in the red. Heal up quickly!
Whenever the prompt for this attack appears quickly change to Combat Clinic as it will lock your controls.
During the Consummate Light stage, use Evened Odds to heal up, place buffs on you and debuffs on him.
Once done switch to Diversity to drive up the chain gauge. If your health can take it then go a few rounds of Relentless Assault to really push it up. He staggers at 400% so a quick round of Relentless Assault should get it to 500/600%
Then switch to Tireless Charge and do some damage! Before the stagger ends switch to Combat Clinic and make sure your health is in the green as he will do another "Merciless Judgement"
Now its Consummate Darkness. Use Diversity, ignore the status aliments and stagger him as quick as possible. (The only aliments you should worry about are pain, fog and slow on yourself or daze on a party member.
If you don’t stagger him quick enough he will change to Consummate Light which is followed by the "Merciless Judgement"
After half his health is gone he will unleash two new attacks. Just keep your party healthy, refresh buffs during Consummate Light and attack when you’re ready.
***
5-Star Mark Mission 54: Gigantaur
LEVEL 5 THEIR 3 MAIN ROLES
FANG/LIGHT/HOPE
SAB/MED/MED >>>SET AS ACTIVE!
SYN/SYN/SYN (FANG LV.1 - LIGHT LV.4) ANYTHING HIGHER IS FINE
COM/COM/MED
Equip Fang with Effulgent Cape* and Pain Deflector*
Equip Lightning Effulgent Cape* and Pain Deflector*
Equip Hope with Effulgent Cape* and Pain Deflector*
(Fang and Lightning should have Tier 2 weapons or higher)
Start the battle and manually cast daze as fast as you can. As soon as it sticks switch to Rapid Growth and manually cast Bravera on Fang and Lightning and Protectra on Hope. By now you should have haste on all 3 and Enfire on the girls(Be sure to cast Libra on him when dazed other wise Lightning will not cast enfire for you). Switch to Tireless Charge and let him have it!
If you want 5 stars and either of the girls lose Haste or Enfire before the battle ends it’s a good idea to hit retry. The battle should take about 1 mins 20 secs.
***
That’s all for now! I will have more done later once I have written it all up! Hope this helps some people and they found out something new.
Coming up soon - Barthandelus I + II, 5 Star Orphan, Mark mission 51, 64.