FFRK - Spark in the Void (XIII) Event & Strategies

[Kirin]

Spoiler: show

Featuring Lightning from the Final Fantasy series!

"This is it. A lot of dreams died to get us here, and we can't let it be for nothing." - Lightning

After sleeping for five centuries in crystal stasis, the god Bhunivelze sought Lightning out to be the savior, tasking her with guiding the souls of humanity to the new world that will replace Nova Chrysalia. Bhunivelze is the creator god of Pulse, Lindzei and Etro, each having been revered by the different populations of Gran Pulse and Cocoon.

Bhunivelze separated Serah's soul from Lightning and created an illusion of her sister to keep Lightning acquiescent. Serah's soul was saved from fading into the Chaos when the part of Lightning she had suppressed when she first took on her codename was made manifest by the Chaos, creating a girl called Lumina, who acts as a body protecting Serah's soul.

Though she resents the deity for using Serah as a bargaining chip, Lightning's regret over her death convinced her to aid Bhunivelze so she can save her sister's soul. Bhunivelze removed much of Lightning's emotion so she can perform her task more efficiently. While Hope helps her from within his Ark, Lightning rescues souls and gathers Eradia to restore the tree Yggdrasil to delay the Apocalypse.

Event Start Date: October 11
Event Bonus Battle: October 14
Event End Date: October 21

All information is taken from a mixture of Reddit/Spreadsheets and my own obviously expert analysis.

Much info for the event comes from this thread and its related links: https://old.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKee...t4&sh=08b46f8e

Though the information provided is used as a guideline and not always taken directly from the thread. When necessary, additional thoughts on Cid Missions and battle strategies are added.

Notable Rewards:

Ripping Bolt - 5* Celerity: 3-5 ST lightning physical damage. Hits scale with # of actions taken.
(Power/Lightning/Wind)

Aurora Ring - 5* Accessory: Moderate lightning and water resist.

New Characters Acquired:

Fang needs no shame.

Dress Spheres Acquired:

Fang Returns: Final Fantasy XIII would have been a much better game.

Old Characters Acquired:

Lightning
Snow
Vanille
Serah
Noel

New Memory Crystals:

They told hope he could become anything. So he became a god.

Old Memory Crystals:

Lightning MC1/2
Snow MC1/2
Vanille MC1/2
Serah MC1/2
Noel MC1/2

New Record Materia:

None:



New Record Dive

Nothing New. Kind of hard to come up with memes for a Lightning focused event.

New Legend Materia:

Spoiler: show

Because:

• It's not like shes overused or anything.

Acolyte Archives

• Beat 'Lightning on the Wind 凶++' with a party consisting of FF IV synergy characters.
• Beat 'Herald of Truth 滅++' with a party consisting of FF IV synergy characters.

Balance Changes

Icicle Rush was supposed to be Snow's bone toss here. Too bad we got it a few days ago. Sucker.

Relics

Kind of a downer. This is similar to the Rinoa ascension event for Lightning, but sadly doesn't have the same level of accompanying gear that Quistis or Laguna does.

Though overall, between this and the next XIII event you're not doing yourself favors by waiting - both banners are of average quality.

Good news here is that Snow is slowly crawling out of conflicting skillsets with his slot saver USB, Noel gets some decent new toys, and Lightning gains a Brave mode for magicite.

Not a bad place for some uncommon +lightning or +ice gear as well, including 2 +lightning swords.

Future Event Banner Comparison:

https://www.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKee...e3&sh=939bcea9

Kind of a much better overall set of banners than this event. But, two standouts in Vanille (IC Curaga + Regenga) and Raines (Dark ability double) new items were held off until the 4th anniversary (JP Banner 1 and 2) a few weeks later.

JP B1 there was also Tidus's godmode and Celes ice chain.

If you're pulling for Lightning specifically, most of her items will return on B2 of the next event without Vanille's lackluster USB2 and one extra 6* for the format shift.

Serah's ice chain also returns next event on B1, with some good ice magic with Serah and a competent Fang for wind damage.

Element Boosts:

Spoiler: show

Banner 1:

• Lightning: Lightning AOSB, Brave USB, Glint
• Ice: Snow USB

Banner 2:

• Dark: Raines USB, Nabaat USB, Raines BSB, Nabaat LMR
• Ice: Noel LMR

Ultra EX/Chase Type Glossary:

Spoiler: show

Rules of thumb:

1. Stat buffs from the EX mode have a unique ID and will stack with everything.
2. Many USB’s come with a built in class damage boost. These are separate from the iteration class boosts and do stack.
3. EX modes last 15 seconds, while buffs provided by the USB entry last 25 seconds. (Terra is an exception, with her EX Mode lasting 25 seconds).

Special Effects:

• General Boost: These can be anything specifically tied to the EX Mode - HP Stock, Crit Fix, Cast Speed, Element Boost, Stat buffs, and even Break Damage Limit. This will stack with every other buff on the user, including other EX Modes.
  
• Rank Boost: This provides a damage boost scaling with the rank of the ability used. The boost starts out at ~5% for R1 increasing to ~30% for R5+.
  
• Class Boost: This provides a flat damage boost for a specific class of abilities (Knight, Black Magic, etc). Generally weaker than the Rank Boost at ~15-20%, but applies to all abilities under that class - including Burst commands.
  
• Chase: Follow up attack(s) triggered by using abilities of a specific element or school while under the EX Mode. The number of these chase attacks can be random, reliant on the rank of the ability used (Rank Chase), status of the user (Status Chase), or increase in number as the trigger ability is used (Echo Chase).
  
• Cycle: Unit receives a quickcast or instacast charge when using abilities tied to a specific element or school – generally meant to be used in repetition for maximum effect.
  
• Build Up: A gradient damage boost toward a specific ability school based on the number of ability uses from the start of the battle to when the EX mode is applied. This buff is not tied to EX mode duration, and will persist whenever the EX mode is active.
  
• Wind Up/Finisher: Generally applying to Summoners, this will provide additional damage based on the sum total of all type (class or element) damage done during EX mode when the mode expires. The unique aspect of this is that a recast of the USB will count toward the exit damage of the previous EX mode.
  
• Phantom Cast: This effect will auto cast an attack every few second at a set rate independent of the character. The number of attacks or potency is not reliant on any outside factors (Haste, Slow, QC) and will generally produce 4 actions per EX Mode.
  
• Cheer: This will grant a party wide effect after using a triggering ability. For example, Marche will triple the cast speed of every front row party member (himself included) for 1 turn after he uses a Knight ability.
  
• Ability Double: This will guarantee that an ability will cast 2 times per use at the cost of 2 hones. The first cast can trigger appropriate W-Cast materia for a total of 3 hits, but the additional hits will not generate SB gauge.

Banner 1:

Lightning Brave USB works a little different than her USB EX mode with 10x ST lightning/non hits on entry, en-lightning, medium Spellblade and Celerity school boost, and Brave mode triggered by lightning element abilities.

It is worth noting that when Ripping Bolt is fully charged, it outperforms her old EX mode by a good enough amount. The issue is getting there.

Snow becomes the slot saver here, packing a party Atk/Def buff along with a 50% Crit Fix, Shellga, and Hastega.

Noel gets some solid physical ice ability now too, with an entry of 10x ST ranged damage, en-ice, and EX Mode 'Farseer's Guardian' that boosts Atk by 30% and chases ice abilities with Javelin Frost - 5x ST ice/non ranged physical damage.

Noel also gets a new BSB (coming up on Bartz territory here with BSB3). Instant 8x random ranged ice/non entry and Full Breakdown. C1 and C2 are both 1x damage hits, and carry Power or Magic Breakdown respectively.

Vanille's new BSB is an improvement over her old one - trading the instant entry for an instant C1 Curaga like most other healers out there. Entry is a functional party M.Blink and Curaga entry.C1 carries High Regen, while C2 is a standard Medica.

Returning Items:

Vanille: USB2
Snow: BSB
Lightning: BSB2

Banner 2:

Actually a halfway decent dark/ice banner truth be told. Nabaat is the expert dark imperil user, Raines BSB still holds up in utility, Serah is a quickcast cycle ice mage, and Sazh's USB has a really nice buff suite.

Returning Highlights:

Raines: USB
Nabaat: USB
Serah: USB, BSB
Sazh: USB

Legend Materias:

• B1 - Lightning: Begin battle with en-lightning.
• B1 - Snow: Begin battle with Haste and Instant Cast x1.
• B1 - Lightning: Small chance to w-cast lightning element abilities.
• B1 - Vanille: Small chance to increase amount healed when using White Magic healing abilities.

• B2 - Nabaat: Small chance to w-cast dark element abilities.
• B2 - Serah: Small chance to w-cast ice element abilities.
• B2 - Noel: Small chance to w-cast ice element abilities.
• B2 - Sazh: Begin battle with Haste and Instant Cast x1.

Relic Discussion
https://www.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKee...xc&sh=b6a770db

[Kirin]

Coming faster than FFXIII's development cycle.

Ultimate + Apocalypse Battles

Lightning on the Wind ++
凶Garuda Interceptor
HP: 350,000
Target Score:

• Defeat the Garuda Interceptor with at least 3 characters not KO'ed.

Weak: Wind
Absorbs: None
Resists: None
Null: Earth
Vulnerabilities: None

Notes: Mixed damage, but it's piercing attack is physical. You also have to worry about a reasonably accurate Slowga and Pro/Shell/Haste buffs.

Good news is that the Slowga is scripted, so it will only be used once. On top of that, you can bring lightning resist for accessories.

Otherwise a straightforward fight.

Acolyte Archive: Wind weakness. It's almost like someone in the event is a competent Celerity user. Or, you know, a Dragoon.

This isn't a difficult fight. Even without wall, lightning resit accessories and no counters lets you bring Sazh + Vanille + 3 damage.

Brand of the fal'Cie (Apoc +)
滅Anima (w/Right and Left Manipulator)
HP: Anima: 470,000 - Right/Left Manipulator: 30,000
Target Score:

• Defeat Anima with 2 or more heroes not KO'ed.

Weak: None
Absorbs: None
Resist: None
Null: None
Vulnerabilities: None

Notes: Mostly a physical fight, but the manipulators will toss out piercing magic when Anima is under 70% HP.

The mechanic here is that Anima's actions are reliant on countering damage done to the manipulators. Any damage done to a manipulator will result in an AoE physical hit from Anima.

Along with that, the manipulators will use ST or AoE physical hits when above 70% HP, and then begin tossing out that piercing magic when below that.

The manipulators will respawn around 8 seconds after being defeated.

Herald of Truth (Apoc ++)
滅Odin
HP: 575,000
Target Score:

• Defeat Odin with 2 or more heroes not KO'ed.

Weak: None
Absorbs: None
Resist: None
Null: None
Vulnerabilities: None

Notes: Mixed damage with a piercing physical hit.

You can ignore Odin's haste effect, his speed is over 9000. (But really, its 650.)

Like other, earlier versions of this fight the only real worry here is the 45 second Doom timer to start things off. A few multi hit attacks and piercing physical hits, but all his magical output is lightning based and no other status to fear aside from the Doom.

Acolyte Archive:

The time limit may be a factor for some realms teams who have support covered but not a lot of offense in-realm.

Hones may play a role if you're going that route, so even something like Lightning's BSB2 can be the different between a W and L here. Because of the set-up, you can do the same Sazh + Vanille + 3 DD here.

He sounds tougher than he is. A sock full of quarters and biggity bam LeFours is on the floor.