5 stars

[vrumpt]

anybody else having increasing trouble getting 5 stars in fights? im in chapter 10 now and im getting really pissed off that i can't get any 5 star fights even though i kill the mobs in a completely reasonable amount of time

anybody else or am i the only nub who can't seem to kill a behemoth and 3 daze shamans in 1 minute?

[avelle]

There's an item I think called a gold watch that increases your target time. No idea where to get it though since I'm on like chapter 5. I've seen it mentioned a few places though.

[Correction]

There's an item I think called a gold watch that increases your target time. No idea where to get it though since I'm on like chapter 5. I've seen it mentioned a few places though.

Yeah, but it's the reward from the hardest mission in the game :D

Better off just looking up video guides or asking here.

[Uzor]

anybody else having increasing trouble getting 5 stars in fights? im in chapter 10 now and im getting really pissed off that i can't get any 5 star fights even though i kill the mobs in a completely reasonable amount of time

anybody else or am i the only nub who can't seem to kill a behemoth and 3 daze shamans in 1 minute?

I'm in chapter 10 too, what's your strategy for them? I don't have a hard time doing it really.

Usually I kill the weaker ones first with com + rav + rav or com + com + rav, and when targeting large mobs I use 3xRav to Stagger them, and then switch to com com rav to finish it off.

I think my best score in chapter 10 is about 22595 points so far. lol @beating a behemoth and 3 other mobs in 19 sec xD Got another score of about 21500 on some other mobs, that fight I finished in 10 sec, but it was trash mobs.

[Despain]

Pre-emptive Strikes also help a shit ton (obviously). If you can get behind a mob, or get their attention before they notice you, COM COM RAV + Pre-Emptive = win in no time.

[Kurp]

I didn't have too many problems getting 5 stars in chapter 10. My party was always Light, Sazh, and either Vanille or Hope.

My default paradigm was COM/SYN/SYN until Sazh got Haste up on everyone and then I either waited another round for him to buff Light with an Enspell or Bravery or shifted to either COM/RAV/MED or COM/RAV/RAV depending on the mob type. The 'healer' put up Protect or debuffed.

I didn't have any items upgraded and used an ATB speed increase build with Light and the Sazh using the stagger maintenance guns. I'd guess I 5 starred 80-90% of the fights.

If you do get a preemptive strike on one of those packs with a lot of monsters, try using Quake to stagger them all while dealing a lot of damage. I ended a lot of fights in about 10 seconds that way and you get about three-quarters of your TP back.

[Uzor]

My team has been ligh snow (for sent when needed, and I prefer him over Fang as he have both rav and com, unlike Fang), and either Hope or Vanille. I know Sazh is good for bravery etc, but I win all fights fast enough with a pure attack set up anyway. Most enemies die before any of my chars even dip in to yellow, and if by some miracle they put me in danger I just use sen med med to cure me up in less than a second.

This strat has worked for me to 5-star most every fight except for that annoying boss that changes role all the time. Bastard used Guard all the fucking time, so killing him took ages...

[Yuri-G]

I sometimes struggle with five stars but usually it's because I fuck up. The timing is usually pretty tight for five stars, you can't even make a single mistake in some battles.

Generally it goes one of several ways, depending on if the enemies can kill me before I can kill them or not. If I can just zerg them without worrying about dying, it goes:
- COM RAV RAV or COM COM RAV, do one set of attacks with the COM(s).
- Switch to RAV RAV RAV, up the chain bar until stagger
- Switch back to the COM setup and kill the enemy (because COMs do more damage, and can juggle). The nice thing about this is, you're already in the right set-up to start all over on the next enemy.

If the enemy is exceptionally weak I don't even bother switching to RAV RAV RAV for staggering. There's no point.

The other scenario is if you need to buff first, whether it's because the enemy has a huge HP bar (Faith/Bravery/Deprotect/Deshell) or there are a ton of mobs/one enemy that does massive damage (Protect/Shell). Either way, it's
- Either SYN SYN MED or SYN MED COM or SYN SYN COM, etc. Some enemies you're better off with a MED in your buffing party so you can start the "real" fight at full health, and save time by not healing later. Others, you're better off scoring a few hits with a COM or even RAV while you buff. I generally have two buffing setups because of this.
- Switch to the first setup.

The trick is figuring out the fastest way to beat each set of enemies. Sometimes Faith/Bravery will save you time in the long run, sometimes not. Some enemies will hit hard enough to justify Protect/Shell, many won't. Some mobs are so strong that the time spent on Deprotect/Deshell will pay off in the end, sometimes it won't.

That's all it really comes down to, knowing your enemy, and knowing what you need to do to take them out ASAP. You can't waste any time if you want 5 stars.

This probably doesn't help much, but hopefully it gave you some ideas.

[Correction]

For the curious here are the calculations behind your battle rank and target time, taken from Ultimania

Battle rank is based purely on your score:

13k+ = 5 stars
12k~12999 = 4 stars
9k~11999 = 3 stars
8k~8999 = 2 stars
7k~7999 = 1 star
below 7k = 0

Score Given = (Target Time - time taken) x Battle Rate + 10000

Target time = floor(Enemy Strength / Party Strength) + 8, in seconds
Enemy Strength = floor(Enemy HP x Level / 16)
calculate each enemy separately and sum it
Member Strength = floor( max(strength, magic attack) x ATB level / (3.5 + ATB level) )
Add your 3 member's strength to get Party Strength

Battle Rate is just 10000/Target Time

tl;dr The higher your group's ATB and offensive stats, the shorter your target time gets, to the point where if you are even a second over/under the sweet spot you won't get 13k and 5 stars becomes annoying to get without maxed stats on weaker mobs. It follows that if you fight very strong enemies while you still are pretty low level you have a lot of latitude in how long it takes you to kill the mob

[Yuri-G]

Yeah, sometimes it helps to equip a weaker weapon, depending on the fight, especially on buffers/medics/maybe ravagers depending.

[Correction]

Yeah, sometimes it helps to equip a weaker weapon, depending on the fight, especially on buffers/medics/maybe ravagers depending.

This is actually pretty important and the reason to keep a level 1 weapon around for stronger mobs if you're seriously after 5 stars on everything. On weak mobs though you can't take more than one round of attacks to kill it no matter what weapon you're wearing.

[Uzor]

This is actually pretty important and the reason to keep a level 1 weapon around for stronger mobs if you're seriously after 5 stars on everything. On weak mobs though you can't take more than one round of attacks to kill it no matter what weapon you're wearing.

Yeah, most weaker mobs die from 2 Blitz from Lightning.

[vrumpt]

my biggest problem was my party setup i think. i had just upgraded everybodys weapons too so that hurt me on the timer, and i usually play safe just because i don't want people dying, even though vanille seems to make it happen when shes the only med in group

i'll just mess with it

[Correction]

my biggest problem was my party setup i think. i had just upgraded everybodys weapons too so that hurt me on the timer, and i usually play safe just because i don't want people dying, even though vanille seems to make it happen when shes the only med in group

i'll just mess with it

Note that Preemptive assaults almost guarantee 5 stars as long as you know the enemy weakness and can break the group with one large attack then just spam that attack until they all die. It's pretty easy to preempt almost every non-boss mob in the game. Even some mission mobs can be sneaked up on.

[KuroTsuki]

I used Lightning/Hope/Vanille for all of chapter 10 and was able to 5-star most fights(except when the Behemoth decides to alter his form >.<). I just abused the hell out of Paradigm switching. I made 2 RAV/RAV/RAV Paradigms, and just switched between them to get hella fast chains. Worked great for me on the bigger stuff. As for the smaller things like the slugs/imps, I would just spam Blitz.

[Maguspk]

Why are people talking about COM/COM/RAV to do damage?

Isn't COM/RAV/RAV the most efficient after a mob is staggered? One COM is plenty to keep something launched, and RAVs build the stagger meter way quicker than COMs do. I was able to zerg boss fights such as Cid Raines without him every metamorphosing due to this fact, if I had gone COM/COM/RAV I'm 100% positive I would have lost my stagger before he had died.

[Kiarax]

Depends on mob I suppose. Lightning does significantly more damage in COM than she does in RAV unless there's an element to abuse with the elestrike abilities with the way I have her equipped. I'll often run COM RAV RAV then swap to COM COM RAV the second it's staggered for the extra damage. Especially on those shelled enemies that take like no damage out of stagger mode.

[KuroTsuki]

Well, one thing that's nice about COM/RAV/RAV even after it's staggered is that the Chain Bonus is still going up, making you do more damage. Whether it's more over time, I don't know, but I like seeing those high numbers lol. I usually COM/RAV/RAV+RAV/RAV/RAV even when it's staggered just to get the Chain Bonus higher. I just use elestrikes with Lightning since those are based off of str.

[Uzor]

Why are people talking about COM/COM/RAV to do damage?

Isn't COM/RAV/RAV the most efficient after a mob is staggered? One COM is plenty to keep something launched, and RAVs build the stagger meter way quicker than COMs do. I was able to zerg boss fights such as Cid Raines without him every metamorphosing due to this fact, if I had gone COM/COM/RAV I'm 100% positive I would have lost my stagger before he had died.

I've killed faster in com/com/com or com/com/rav mode while an enemy is staggerd, even though com/com/rav build up the stagger gauge faster.

[vrumpt]

i kill faster with COM/COM/RAV than COM/RAV/RAV, the latter i've found on some mobs i tend to cap the chain guage which makes it inefficient.

on the other hand on certain mobs its better for to just stay COM/RAV/RAV and get the fight done and over with, really it depends on the situation and who you are fighting.