Weapon Upgrading

[Katlan]

can u upgrade stuff further past the "star" lv?

[Kiarax]

Yes. You use transformer catalysts on items to upgrade them to the next stage. Weapons have 3 stages and accessories vary as far as I know. Lightning's Gladius can transform in to Helter-Skelter, after reaching 61 with that you can transform it in to Omega Weapon, which caps at 100 and can't be upgraded further. Every stage 3 weapon shares in name/appearance, but they all have varying stats. An Omega Weapon upgraded from Gladius will have high strength/low magic, whereas one upgraded from her starting weapon, Blaze Edge, will have balanced stats.

[Boyiee]

so it's still best to upgrade her focusing really on strength alone? Will that affect me later on?

Fang seems to hit pretty hard too, but not sure how I'll set her up. Her weapons have some crazy passives.

[Kiarax]

Doesn't really matter how you do it. Can swap things about at any time and from what I understand it's easy to upgrade stuff once you hit the late-game. Right now I'm using a maxed Gladius and 2 maxed Brawler's Wristband on her. 692 Strength and 304 Magic.

[Yuri-G]

Upgrades depend on what you want. I like balanced, but someone else may be using Light almost solely as a COM. It's kinda nice to have the flexibility, although the tradeoff is a huge level of anxiety for those of us who are OCD about doing things "right."

[Manf]

@Boyiee I wouldn't write off Axis. If you take it to *, and pair it with an accessory called whistlewind scarf she gets some kind of bonus to her ATB gauge. When she deals damage it charges slightly, and with the scarf she starts the fights with 1 gauge already full making her extremely fast. That's what I am using personally on her.

Besides minor upgrades to the starter weapons I haven't upgraded much, and it sort of seems you weren't intended to. I'm on chapter 12, and the few upgrades I've done have pretty much drained me of most of my resources.

[Boyiee]

I wanted to see how far I could get with gladius, was able to upgrade to helter-skelter and a few levels into that using a measly 40k gil. Not too bad actually lol. Basically traded 175str/88mag for whats currently 161/67, with potential to go wayyy higher. Not sure I'm going to even bother upgrading Fang or really anyone elses weapons minus maybe Sazh for a while at least.

I love light as COM, but like I said I'm using her alot as RAV right now in chapter 9 with fang running COM (relent assault for chains, then switch to double com rav for stagger)... but Fang for whatever reason is running around attacking other targets randomly once in a while so yeah.

My brawlers is my next upgrade, sitting at lv 3 now... I only have 1 though

@Boyiee I wouldn't write off Axis. If you take it to *, and pair it with an accessory called whistlewind scarf she gets some kind of bonus to her ATB gauge. When she deals damage it charges slightly, and with the scarf she starts the fights with 1 gauge already full making her extremely fast. That's what I am using personally on her.

Besides minor upgrades to the starter weapons I haven't upgraded much, and it sort of seems you weren't intended to. I'm on chapter 12, and the few upgrades I've done have pretty much drained me of most of my resources.

I mentioned doing this in my first post, since I'll be getting the scarf in about 30minutes of gameplay. It's the Boost passive, it's pretty nice and ends up being 10%, and later 15% bonus to ATB - basically an extra attack every 10 attacks. But in comparison you're looking at 175str to the 88 of axis, infact the upgraded axis even maxes out at 133, whereas helter can hit 448str.

[Misharu]

Was wondering when you can get Trapezohedron's to finish upgrades? Probably still a little early for me now(ch.11 tower), but i want to make sure they are obtainable before the end of the storyline

[Boyiee]

They are from the R&D Depot shop. 2,000,000gil each.

Fuck now I'm torn on axis or glad again cause the speed sounds nice lol. Axis is only looking good cause I'm probably playing COM/RAV 50/50 at this point, really only going COM for staggers.

[Lbelle]

Was wondering when you can get Trapezohedron's to finish upgrades? Probably still a little early for me now(ch.11 tower), but i want to make sure they are obtainable before the end of the storyline

They're also dropped from the big adamantoise in Gran Pulse

[Amiricle]

@Boyiee I wouldn't write off Axis. If you take it to *, and pair it with an accessory called whistlewind scarf she gets some kind of bonus to her ATB gauge. When she deals damage it charges slightly, and with the scarf she starts the fights with 1 gauge already full making her extremely fast. That's what I am using personally on her.

Besides minor upgrades to the starter weapons I haven't upgraded much, and it sort of seems you weren't intended to. I'm on chapter 12, and the few upgrades I've done have pretty much drained me of most of my resources.

Thats what I use, and I highly recomend you level and evolve whistlewind scarf (only goes to level 2 I think so easy) because it turns into aurora scarf which still gives her the passive atb per hit bonus and gives a completely full atb (5 levels for me right now) at start of every battle instead of just the one. Just dont evolve the aurora scarf as it turns into +evasion boots. Also, you have any idea what item is needed to transform a * Axis blade?

[[Cookies]]

Was wondering when you can get Trapezohedron's to finish upgrades? Probably still a little early for me now(ch.11 tower), but i want to make sure they are obtainable before the end of the storyline

You can't kill the mobs that drop them till after you've beaten the game and gotten upgrades. I've spent a few hours upgrading (at roughly 8k health with my chars) and the attacks they use just one shot my whole group (deals around 10k damage).

And as mentioned, R&D for 2m each. You need 6 (I think) for each ultimate weapon so 12m. You're probably best off waiting.

[Correction]

You can't kill the mobs that drop them till after you've beaten the game and gotten upgrades. I've spent a few hours upgrading (at roughly 8k health with my chars) and the attacks they use just one shot my whole group (deals around 10k damage).

Not true, you can cheese them with Vanille's Death trick.

Not the most practical course of action since you need 3TP for a 1% chance of a trapezoihedron drop but it's possible.

[Boyiee]

Thats what I use, and I highly recomend you level and evolve whistlewind scarf (only goes to level 2 I think so easy) because it turns into aurora scarf which still gives her the passive atb per hit bonus and gives a completely full atb (5 levels for me right now) at start of every battle instead of just the one. Just dont evolve the aurora scarf as it turns into +evasion boots. Also, you have any idea what item is needed to transform a * Axis blade?

Adamantite.

I'm sticking with my Gladius (now helter skelter) the str and even magic loss from switching to axis is huge. But if I'm reading what you said right, you start the battle with a full ATB gauge? I know it refils faster (1 or 1.5 extra attacks per every 10), but the 448str/190mag I'm currently capable of getting compared to the 48/48... is... yeah. Even if I'm running ravager 50% of the time, Helter rapes.

Can anyone tell me why Fang is attacking different targets at random now? lol

[Misharu]

Thanks for the reply's. Kinda figured it would be after the story, which sucks but good to know

[Wakabo]

Adamantite.

I'm sticking with my Gladius (now helter skelter) the str and even magic loss from switching to axis is huge. But if I'm reading what you said right, you start the battle with a full ATB gauge? I know it refils faster (1 or 1.5 extra attacks per every 10), but the 448str/190mag I'm currently capable of getting compared to the 48/48... is... yeah. Even if I'm running ravager 50% of the time, Helter rapes.

Can anyone tell me why Fang is attacking different targets at random now? lol

Read something about 2? COM's they each separate and fight their own targets.

[Maguspk]

Adamantite.

I'm sticking with my Gladius (now helter skelter) the str and even magic loss from switching to axis is huge. But if I'm reading what you said right, you start the battle with a full ATB gauge? I know it refils faster (1 or 1.5 extra attacks per every 10), but the 448str/190mag I'm currently capable of getting compared to the 48/48... is... yeah. Even if I'm running ravager 50% of the time, Helter rapes.

Can anyone tell me why Fang is attacking different targets at random now? lol

If you double up on COM the AI COM will offtank. Only way to deal is to follow the AI instead of mashing X or put her on something other than COM.

[Amiricle]

Adamantite.

I'm sticking with my Gladius (now helter skelter) the str and even magic loss from switching to axis is huge. But if I'm reading what you said right, you start the battle with a full ATB gauge? I know it refils faster (1 or 1.5 extra attacks per every 10), but the 448str/190mag I'm currently capable of getting compared to the 48/48... is... yeah. Even if I'm running ravager 50% of the time, Helter rapes.

Can anyone tell me why Fang is attacking different targets at random now? lol

Awesome, thanks. Yea, you start with a completely full atb gauge. Even with a helter (losin the 10% gain synergy), I think I'd still keep the aurora equiped. Aurora & auto-haste boots are probably my favourite accessories.

[Cylo]

little late but i found some scans of the guide for the weapons

SNOW: http://www.flickr.com/photos/48263855@N04/4422702471/

VANILLE: http://www.flickr.com/photos/48263855@N04/4423467724/

SAZH: http://www.flickr.com/photos/48263855@N04/4423466578/

FANG: http://www.flickr.com/photos/48263855@N04/4423466066/

HOPE: http://www.flickr.com/photos/48263855@N04/4423465518/

LIGHTNING: http://www.flickr.com/photos/48263855@N04/4423464950/

These scans are missing the blurbs at the bottom which explain some pros/cons of each of these weapons.

[[Cookies]]

Not true, you can cheese them with Vanille's Death trick.

Not the most practical course of action since you need 3TP for a 1% chance of a trapezoihedron drop but it's possible.

Is that actually possible if they one shot you? The chances of Death not failing and a trapezoihedron dropping are extremely low. It's not practical for farming them and you'd be better off farming CP and upgrading weapons later.