Tips for ff13

[Uubu]

so after putting in 70 some odd hours into the game looking at various game resources i decided to put this together. I don't think I put in any serious spoilers and please let me know if i did.

1. Story line can be beat with level 1 weapons and accessories (buying and selling nothing from shops) (i did it)

2. Game is linear chapters 1-10, 11-13 the game opens up but you cannot go back to chapter 1-10. You shouldn't have to do any grinding chapters 1-10 unless you skipped a bunch of fights. Theres an area in chapter 9 you can farm gil for incentive chips but i just did 1 fight through and was fine.

3. Easiest cp farming area I found to be is in Chapter 11 Arclytte Steppe Northern Highlands where a Behemoth and giant wolf/dog are fighting, garunteed preemptive strike 50% hp and go in with com/com/rav setup to keep gauges high enough.

4. Do the mission marks in chapter 11 (up to around 28-30) before/as your progressing through the storyline or you'll end up running through the areas more then once. The waypoints/teleports will help immensely in the long run..

5. Once vanille has death, you can do mission mark 55 (its up near titan in a chocobo only access area) to get a CPx2 item. Go Vanille SAB / Snow sent / hope medic use shrouds spam as many deaths as you can before you die, rinse and repeat. You can obviously do this the legitimate way later but you can also get it early. ( I did it later)

6. Accessories - Still figuring out what works best for me but I found 2 builds that work for me

Whistlewind scard > upgrade Aurora Scarf First strike

Hermes Sandals > upgrade Sprinter Shoes Auto Haste

Dismantle 4x iron bangles > Dismantle Tetrahedric Tiara(from mission 7 ) *(capped exp level 1) > Sprinter shoes and some other useless junk

or

Speed Sash / Energy Sash gives a Random: Instant Chain bonus i think (i have to check it once im home from work)

7. The guides on the net are innaccurate about upgrading weapons.
Look up another weapon guide for the actual exp required to upgrade the weapon you want

Math time :

The same items gives different exp to different weapons ! at different stages too!
Example:

Ultracompact Reactor costs 50k but can give 40-48k exp for various weapons on stage 1, and 32k exp for stage 2 !!

Also -> you have to consider cost effectiveness if you need 67k EXP for stage 1, and the 1500 gil item give 800 ish exp, thats 84 of them needed to upgrade costing 126k, or you could have gotten the furnace for 50k with a 1.5 multiplier.

8. Anything listed as premium is better off sold then saved for upgrades.

9. Maps http://twobrothersandasister.com/?p=6449

10. You can go back to chapter 11/12 at the start of chapter 13 or at the end of chapter 13.

11. Crystarium focus depends on which characters you "like" but as a general focus i did

Lightning Rav > Com > Medic > Sentinel
Fang Com > Sent / Sabo > Medic
Hope Rav > Medic > Syn > Sabo
Vanille Medic > Ravager > sabo > Sent
Snow Sentinel (never used him other then when I was forced to)
Sazh Rav/Com/Syn (never used him other then when I was forced to)

I generally used Lightning Fang Hope for most of the game

Paradigm Setups
Rav / Com / Rav
Com / Com / Rav
Rav / Com / Medic
Com / Sent / Medic
Medic / sent / Syn
Medic / sabo/ syn

11. Still trying to farm Trapezohedrons but the ultimate weapons i'm going for are
Lightning Lionheart (early break)
Fang Pandora Spear (improved debuffs)
Hope Vidofnir (defensive) or Otshirvani (offensive)
Vanille Belladona wand (improved debuff)
Sazh Antares Deluxes (chaining)
Snow Paladin (gaurd)

12. You cannot rewatch the CS's at the end of the game, so at the start of a new chapter a seperate save file for the cs should be made

[Blackice]

Energy Sash + Speed Sash also give the Instant chain bonus, VERY nice when it procs right at the start of a fight.

[Uubu]

your probably right, i just did this all from memory fixed it

[Correction]

ill post later, i know this post is full or typos or whatnot I don't care

Not to sound ungrateful, but near 100% of what you posted has already been on this forum for a week now...

[Sumiko]

If you want to grind before chapter 11 just for the heck of it, the enemies in Chapter 9 drop a good sum of money makers. (Chips that sell for 2500 gil and 500 gil, they drop more than once too).

After the first open area, leading into another closed area and a save point with lots of soldiers, the group of the gold robots and the Dragoons are a really fast 700 CP. As you repop them by running from the save point and back outside, sometimes you can get a preempt to speed up the process.

COM / SENT / RAV worked really well for me. 5 stars, and the chips drop often.

Max out your CP and just to beat on the soldiers inside now, just don't go into any of the zones. They pop super fast.


Post chapter 11: If you're still too weak to take on the behemoth and the wolf as Uubu mentioned above, just head into the next area. You'll see some yellow Constructicon looking robots and those go down way fast. Just keep fighting from the savepoint/entrance, up the ledge to the left, leading toward a dead end, then back to the save point, rinse, repeat, super fast ~40000 CP without breaking a sweat.

The Dead End has this optional crazy boss though. XD If you can't beat it, just ignore it for the time being.

[Elcura]

10. You can go back to chapter 11/12 at the start of chapter 13 or at the end of chapter 13.

Just reached Chapter 13, it's at the start that you can warp back.

[Yuri-G]

If you time Paradigm Shift and do it right after an ally finishes their turn, they'll go again immediately. So a team of COM COM COM or RAV RAV RAV or any combination can do massive damage with well-timed Paradigm Shifts.

There's more to it than that, I think, but I'm at work and haven't experimented with it. I'm not even sure if it helps enough to be a viable strategy but it's a tip worth noting.

[Uubu]

Not to sound ungrateful, but near 100% of what you posted has already been on this forum for a week now...

Yeah but I found myself saying these things to various friends of mine who do read forums, that i decided to put it all up.

[Atreides]

if anyone's having trouble killing Cactuars quickly (you do get a stupidly long time to 5-star them, but it still takes a while), Enfire does ridiculous amounts of damage esp. when you get the chain gauge around 200 or so. SEN/SYN/whatever and then SEN/COM/RAV makes the fight take about 3-4 minutes instead of 5+

[Yuri-G]

omg there are cactuars?

I really need to get through this game faster.

[Uubu]

to spawn the cactuars you have to go to the upper chocobo access only ledge near the cluster of adamanchelid things, you should get a cs.

[Atreides]

you dont need a chocobo to get there, just need to sneak by the big adamantoises blocking the path and jump up on the north side of the island in the center/north of the map

[Kiarax]

if anyone's having trouble killing Cactuars quickly (you do get a stupidly long time to 5-star them, but it still takes a while), Enfire does ridiculous amounts of damage esp. when you get the chain gauge around 200 or so. SEN/SYN/whatever and then SEN/COM/RAV makes the fight take about 3-4 minutes instead of 5+

You get a long ass time to kill them because you can let them Grow in to big Cactuar. If you interrupt the dancing they're a total joke. And Enspells tear everything up in this game, not just limited to Cactuars!

[Insanecyclone]

Don't be afraid to die.

[Kisamoo]

Upgrade the damage mitigation items(Blackbelt etc). All of my characters had 50% damage reduction from phys/magical and it made the game ridiculously easy.

[Maguspk]

You get a long ass time to kill them because you can let them Grow in to big Cactuar. If you interrupt the dancing they're a total joke. And Enspells tear everything up in this game, not just limited to Cactuars!

Oh shit! That's why they were always so easy for me! I have to remember this next time I fight a cactuar... going to let it grow. Bring it on funny looking cactus.

[Tobi]

Which mission is the Cactuar one again?

[Souj]

Oh shit! That's why they were always so easy for me! I have to remember this next time I fight a cactuar... going to let it grow. Bring it on funny looking cactus.

definitely trying this as well. Ive fought like 9 of them so far and I didnt know they grow. hoping they use 1k/10k needles, as it just seems odd that they wouldnt have it.

[Kiarax]

definitely trying this as well. Ive fought like 9 of them so far and I didnt know they grow. hoping they use 1k/10k needles, as it just seems odd that they wouldnt have it.

Spoilered incase you'd rather find out yourself:

Spoiler: show

If you let them grow once they just spam kick like normal but do it (I think) 3 hits at a time instead of once. If you let them grow twice they run around spamming 1k Needles. Also seemed to inflict Pain and Fog. The Jumbo Cactuar uses 10k Needles.

[Boyiee]

Just reached chapter 11, did 2 missions, and am about to zone into Mah'Habara (area after acrchylte).

Should I start grinding or wait till later? Is Lightning/Sazh/Vanillie the setup I should be using (for haste) or should I toss in fang for sazh? The strat guide seems to favor the Light/Fang/Hope group best.