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LAST UPDATED: 03/3/2016
LAST UPDATED: 06/2/2016

Strategy website & Event information: http://ffrk.kongbakpao.com/
Elite Dungeon Data and game statistics: http://happypluto.com/~misterp/r/ffrk.pdf
/ffg/'s Friend Codes List: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yjUI0AwTAoBxuZlGQQZfaEQMnNt2bUdzm0gMZHXq4Cs/edit#gid=0
Upcoming event banners: http://bantha.org/~dscotton/ffrk.html

>What's FFRK? 
Final Fantasy Record Keeper is a mobile spin-off of the Final Fantasy series. Like all shitty mobage games, it has a fairly simple plot: for some reason we have a kingdom that gets its power from magical artworks that depict the story of mainline FF games, and some jackass is corrupting them, so you go into the world of paintings and fix everything. Cue battles in these realms using the old Active Time Battle system simplified for the attention-deficit generation.

>mobile
Yes, I know, microtransactions, et cetera, et cetera, good goy. FFRK's mythril / gems system is set up in such a way that you can literally, with time, some strategy, and maybe some luck, beat even the hardest content level without spending so much as a shekel and sucking Jewgle's dick. Don't be fooled. 

Anyway, you might ask: what's the appeal? Waifu/husbando collection. Nostalgia. Whatever. The old ATB system is >fun. Also, All the Bravest was a horrible game and Square probably wanted to make up for that. Are you the kind of guy who enjoys collecting characters like Pokemon? Theoretically, you could collect an entire party of your waifus, or villains (seriously, Exdeath and Kefka are actual released characters), or whatever you like. Live out your ideal party. 

>Okay, I guess this is interesting. 
Great! Welcome to the circlejerk. If you haven't downloaded the game yet, though, keep in mind there's a Friend Invite system like all those shitty browser games on Facebook have -- if you want some bonuses before starting, you could leave a post in the general asking for a reference and maybe gift someone a free mythril while you're at it. 

For RK players on the other end: REMEMBER THAT YOU DON'T NEED TO USE FACEBOOK FOR THAT SHITTY INVITE FUNCTION. USE E-MAIL AND MAKE SOME THROWAWAY EMAIL.
For RK players on the other end: REMEMBER THAT YOU DON'T NEED TO USE FACEBOOK FOR THAT SHITTY INVITE FUNCTION. YOU CAN USE A THROWAWAY EMAIL, TOO!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>Okay, so what important things should I know?

Don't worry about having to understand all of this stuff now -- you can come back to it later when you specifically need a reference.

Of particular interest for beginners, however, are sections 1-4, 7, 9, and 11. More advanced players may want to check 5, 6 and 8.

/**********
>>contents:
***********/

[1] RECORD SYNERGY AND EQUIPMENT IN GENERAL
    [1.1] Record Synergy
    [1.2] Upgrading, Combining, and Weapon Types
	[1.3] Augment Rank
[2] SKILLS, HONING, AND COMBINING
[3] SOUL BREAKS
	[3.1] Super and Burst Soul Breaks
[4] RELIC DRAWS
    [4.1] Rare Relic Draw methods
    [4.2] Special Relic Draws
    [4.3] Which banners should I draw on?
    [4.4] Some notes
[5] ROAMING WARRIORS
[6] COMMON STRATEGIES
    [6.1] Retaliate-based strategies
    [6.2] Magic-based parties
    [6.3] Lifesiphon
	[6.4] Stun chains
	[6.4] VIT0 [historical note]
    [6.5] Historical note: the VIT0 exploit

    [7.1] Core Dungeons
    [7.2] Event Dungeons
    [7.3] Special Events
	[7.4] Nightmare Dungeons
[8] RECORD MATERIA
[9] DAILY DUNGEONS
[10] QUESTS
[10] CID'S MISSIONS
[11] TIPS AND TRICKS
     [11.1] S/L -- or, the quit and reload trick
     [11.2] The airplane mode trick
     [11.3] RW List Shuffling
     [11.4] Good and bad ways to spend your Mythril
     [11.5] Differences between Global and JP
	 [11.6] Banner errors

/*****************************************************************************************************************************
*****************************************************************************************************************************/

[1] RECORD SYNERGY AND EQUIPMENT IN GENERAL ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1.1] Record Synergy -------------------------------------------------------

Whether you are lucky with rare relic pulls or not, PAY ATTENTION TO THE RECORD SYNERGY SYSTEM. I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH. Basically, Record Synergy assigns a "realm" to pretty much any weapon, armor, or accessory. When you use that piece of equipment in said realm (e.g., use Cloud's Buster Sword [VII] in the Midgar Highway [VII] dungeon), all of its stats will get a proportional multiplier. The same goes for characters, who will get a Synergy boost in their realm approximately the equivalent of a 10-level boost.

VISUAL REFERENCES, PULLED FROM THE PDF AT THE TOP:

WEAPON COMPARISONS BY SYNERGY: http://i.imgur.com/iBxE6ey.jpg
ARMOR COMPARISONS BY SYNERGY [1]: http://i.imgur.com/JzwDlFh.jpg
ARMOR COMPARISONS BY SYNERGY [2]: http://i.imgur.com/c10zSI6.jpg

A piece of equipment that is a 3* base combined twice (5*, or 3*++) with Synergy beats an equivalent natural 5* with no Synergy by a mile. Learn to use Synergy well and it'll make your life easier.

[1.2] Upgrading, Combining, and Weapon Types --------------------------------

While we're on the subject of upgrading and combining, let's have an overview.

All equipment have a level cap, which you've probably noticed -- each piece of equipment will also have a different level cap depending on its rank: for example, 5*s have a base cap of 20, 4*s 15, and so on. Naturally, all equips start at level 1 and are upgraded by feeding upgrade materials to level up the piece. While you can use pretty much anything in your inventory barring accessories as upgrade materials, dedicated materials called Scarletite (for weapons) and Adamantite (for armor) exist. (You can use Adamantite for weapons and Scarletite for armor, of course, but the effect is drastically reduced.)

Once a piece of equipment reaches its cap, you can no longer upgrade it except to increase its Augment Rank (more on this below). This is where combining comes in: if you have a second piece of that equip, you can combine them together to increase its level cap and continue upgrading it. Combined equipment is denoted by a + beside its name, such as Mythgraven Sword +. You can only combine equipment up to two times, however, so keep this in mind -- furthermore, combined equipment doesn't have the same base stats as "natural" equipment of that rank, and are therefore weaker as a result.

So far, natural equipment only exists up to 5* (while there are 6* natural accessories in store, you can't upgrade them anyway), which can be combined twice to create a 7* with a level cap of 30. Be careful about combining your natural 4* and 5* equipment, though, since these pretty much only come from Rare Relic Draws and you want to be able to outfit entire parties, not just one character.

In general, weapons have more ATK if they are melee-range and a melee-type weapon, like a sword or katana. Exceptions are, for example, swords that are the unique weapons of a mage, like Ashe and Terra's Runeblade and Enhancer. Daggers, since they can be equipped by pretty much anyone, usually have lower ATK.

[1.3] Augment Rank -------------------------------------------------------

A minor feature worth noting: each weapon has an "Augment Rank". Augment Ranks increase the highest stat point given by a piece of equipment by one per level; in case of a stat point tie, the stat to which the Augment is linked to is arbitrary.

To increase the Augment Rank of a piece of equipment, simply upgrade it by using another piece of equipment with at least an Augment Rank of 1 as material. Combining natural 5*s also increases its Augment Rank, so a 7*++ has a Rank of 3, for example.

However, the problem is that most equipment starts at an Augment Rank of 0. The exception is natural 5* equipment, which starts at a base Rank of 1, which is why this is a rather minor feature -- why the fuck would you use natural 5*s as material?

Now, this wouldn't have been a problem if Giant Scarletite and Adamantite were given an Augment Rank, but unfortunately for us DeNA decided instead to make a new upgrade material specifically to increase Augments: the 5* Rosetta Stone, usually given out as the reward for a +++ Bonus Battle in an event, or as part of a special login bonus. 

Generally, the few points don't make the difference, but it's recommended that you augment the equipment of characters you expect to use often, especially their unique SB relic if you have it.

[2] SKILLS AND HONING ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Skills aren't created equal. Some find more use due to their relevance in a strategy, and some are just plain shit or are too niche.

So let's narrow it down: you want these specific skills, listed in about the general priority you want to craft them:

ESSENTIAL SKILLS:
- Double Cut + Retaliate [6.1] (for starting out)
- Protectga / Shellga / Cure/a/ga/ja
- Thief-type Breakdowns (Steal Defense/Attack, etc.)

- Full Break (this is a 5* skill, so leave it until you have the orbs)
- Full Break and Multi Break (these are 5* skills -- leave them until you have the orbs)
- Double Cut + Retaliate [6.1]
- Lifesiphon [6.3] (craft more than one)
- Banishing Strike
- Meteor (same as Full Break)
- Saint Cross (5* - reliant on Major Holy Orbs instead of Power Orbs)
- Thief's Revenge (5* - similar to SC; reliant on Major Wind Orbs)
- Spellblades (Fire / Blizzard / Thunder / Water / Aero / Drain, rest are not as important)
- Lifesiphon [6.3]
- Dismissal
- Spellblades (Fire / Blizzard / Thunder / Water / Aero / Drain / Bio / Break Strike)

- Ruinga / Quake / Valefor / Maduin
- Dark / Venom / Sleep / Silence Attack / Buster
- Dispel

SITUATIONAL SKILLS:
- Elemental Ninja scroll abilities (Fire / Water Veil, Swift Bolt)
- Dispel / Banishing Strike

- Reflect
Situational skills:

- Kirin / Memento of Prayer
- Haste
- Faith / Boost
- Carbuncle
- Elemental Jump attacks (Wind Jump, etc.)
- Dark / Venom / Sleep / Silence Buster OR Poison / Blind / Silence Shell
The reason summons are, generally speaking, shit, is because they start with one ability charge, are one-hit, and are usually damage-dealing skills. In JP, they're buffed and hit two times now, but that boost isn't coming here for a bit.

- Slowga 
- Intimidate

It's generally a good idea to keep up with events, because these often give out free skills and a lot of orbs so that you won't need to craft them.
Some other skills are useful, but if you don't already have them (e.g. Pressure Point, Pound), don't be in a rush to craft them.

Honing skills takes a lot of orbs, which means you should be hitting the Daily Dungeons, because you will want to put serious hones into a lot of these skills. However, not many skills need to be honed to rank 5, because: a.) R3 / R4 can usually last you all the way, and b.) the orbs required for that can easily hone a second same skill to rank 3 -- sometimes, you'll need two of a skill on more than one character to take down bosses faster. You'll only need about one or two of a skill, usually.
Magic is now generally towards the bottom of the list for endgame purposes, as DeNA has gotten into the habit of jacking Ultimate bosses's RES sky-high. Most parties set up to defeat them will often be physically reliant.

There's also a few skills that, while useful, may be outclassed by another skill that comes in the future, like Breakdowns being outclassed by the respective Steal [stat] skill. This means that, as a rule of thumb: if you don't really /need/ a skill ASAP, hold off on crafting it.
Summons hit twice, but are limited by their low total charges. Consider having them crafted for stuff like the Summon Nightmare dungeon, however.

Five-star abilities are, for the beginner, trophy skills because: a.) you won't be honing them for a long while b.) they start with two charges, and c.) you can generally rely on a 3* or 4* skill to deal 9999 damage anyway, especially if you're making use of elemental weaknesses. If you're one of those anons who spams mythril refreshes on the Orb Dungeons (and this isn't necessarily a bad idea) and got lucky, though, this might not apply to you. 

It's generally a good idea to keep up with events, because these often give out free skills and a lot of orbs so that you won't need to craft them. Saint Cross, Dark Zone, Multi Break, and Thief's Revenge, for example, were all rewards from events.

Honing skills takes a lot of orbs, which means you should be hitting the Daily Dungeons, because you will want to put serious hones into a lot of these skills. However, not many skills need to be honed to rank 5, because: a.) R3 / R4 can usually last you all the way, and b.) the orbs required for that can easily hone a second same skill to rank 3 -- sometimes, you'll need two of a skill on more than one character to take down bosses faster. You'll only need about one or two of a skill, unless it's an excellent utility like Lifesiphon.

Orb conversion is a lifesaver in most cases. Don't be afraid to break down Major Power Orbs to hone essential 4* skills or anything similar. Shatter duplicate abilities or those you know won't be fulfilling a niche or usable in some degree for orbs, every one counts. 

[3] SOUL BREAKS --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Soul Breaks are special attacks characters can use by filling up their Soul Break gauge, which goes up with actions or damage taken.

There's three types of Soul Breaks: Default, Shared, and Unique. 

Default SBs come with the character and are generally sub-par.

Shared SBs come with 5* equipment from Relic Draws, can be used by the character that equips the piece, and are kind of a mixed bag.

Unique SBs come with 5* equipment, similar to shared SBs, but the difference is that they can only be used by the SPECIFIC CHARACTER who the weapon is meant for. While the piece can be equipped by other characters, they won't be able to use the SB. Uniques can be deal-makers or deal-breakers for a lot of characters, and sometimes their effects are so good that people will do mass Rare Relic Draws on banners that feature them, blowing upwards of hundreds of mythril.
Golem's Flute

Character: Eiko

Soul Break: Emerald Light

Casts party-wide Cura and Hastega.

Character: Tyro
Thyrus

Character: Y'shtola

Soul Break: Stoneskin II

Platinum Sword
Character: Ramza
Soul Break: Shout
Grants Haste and a 50% Attack boost to the entire party.

Healing Staff
Character: Minwu
Wutai Headband
Soul Break: Will of the White Mage
Character: Yuffie
Instantly restores a large amount of HP to the entire party.
Soul Break: Clear Tranquil

Casts a party-wide cure up to 40% of a character's max HP. 0.1 seconds of cast time.

Character: Quistis
Soul Break: Mighty Guard (VIII)
Casts party-wide Shell, Haste, and major Regen.

Casts party-wide Shell, Haste, and major Regen. Quistis gains +10 MAG when this Soul Break is mastered.
1st Fusion Sword
Character: Cloud
Golden Armor
Soul Break: Fenrir Overdrive
Character: Leon
Deals eight physical attacks to random targets. The user of this SB is then granted Haste, a boost to all stats, and the following Burst Mode commands replacing Attack and Defend:
Soul Break: Hand of the Emperor
- Whirl Slash: Deal two physical attacks to all targets.
Increases Attack and Defense of all allies.
- Quad Cut: Deal four physical attacks to one target.

Moore Branch
Character: Exdeath
Soul Break: Grand Cross
Casts a 4-hit non-elemental magic attack on all targets. Then, single-target casts of Black and White Magic are drawn to caster; caster gains immunity and converts them to an ability charge. Party-wide attacks will still affect the entire party, but the caster will enjoy Grand Cross's effects.

Tyrfing
Character: Luneth
Soul Break: Advance
User's Attack becomes 250%; loses Defense.
A list of characters whose new SBs you might want to pay attention to in future are as follows:

Noticing a pattern? Good Soul Breaks tend to be support effects and not heavy damage dealers, due to the existence of the Roaming Warrior system. There's nothing wrong with drawing for the relic of your favorite characters, but if you have no idea what to use your mythril on or just want to have a relic considered "good", look into relics like these. 
- Ramza (+50% ATK + Hastega)

- Aerith (party-wide Cura + Reraise)

- Garnet (RES increase + Hastega + greater Regen)

There's plenty of other Soul Breaks that aren't on this list and may have subjective usefulness for you, so don't take this list as 100% fact.

[3.1] SUPER AND BURST SOUL BREAKS -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Also known as concrete proof of power creep™, Super and Burst Soul Breaks grant a permanent +10 boost to a certain stat once a character masters the associated SB. Usually, SSBs and BSBs are a cut above regular Soul Breaks, but tend to be damage-dealing.

Burst Soul Breaks are a whole other level: not only do they give the +10 stat boost associated with a SSB, but they also grant a character "Burst Mode" status: a temporary increase to all stats, plus Haste -- and change the character's Attack and Defend commands to special abilities. 
Burst Soul Breaks are a whole other level: not only do they give the +10 stat boost associated with a SSB, but they also grant a character "Burst Mode" status: a temporary increase to all stats, plus Hastega -- and change the character's Attack and Defend commands to special abilities. 

For example, Cloud's 1st Fusion Sword Burst Soul Break changes his Attack and Defend to a two-hit AoE and a four-hit single-target attack.

RWs using Burst Soul Breaks grant these commands to the user.

As a rule of thumb, BSBs are good, but SSBs can be hit-or-miss.

[4] RELIC DRAWS -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here we fucking go.

Relic Draws are your main way of getting equipment, from weapons to armor (accessories, however, can only be won in events). 

Every day, you get one free Common Relic Draw, which usually isn't worth anything since it can pull any item from 1* to 5* and the odds of getting anything good are pretty much zero.

The real monster is the Rare Relic Draw. The game offers three different methods of doing these: 1x Draws, 3x Draws, and 11x Draws, for 5, 15, and 50 mythril respectively -- which you get for clearing dungeons in the core content and events. The thing about Mythril is that it's non-renewable, and free mythril hand-outs, like the daily Mythril login bonus, are slow. If you're a NEET with disposable income, though, Rare Relic Draws go for 100 Gems on your first 1x pull, 300 subsequently, 900 for a 3x, and 3000 for an 11x.

Now, Rare Relic Draws can pull any equipment piece rated 3* to 5*, and they are where you will draw most of your mid- to end-difficulty equipment. The problem is, RNG is a bitch and will pretty much never give you what you want: cue despair as highly anticipated Relic Draw banners give out no 5*s and /ffg/ anons commit sudoku by the hundreds, killing the general for real this time. 

[4.1] Rare Relic Draw methods ----------------------------

There's two common philosophies that go into Rare Relic Draws:

a.) Straight 11x draws. Consider that a 1x draw costs 5 Mythril, which is to say that a bulk draw nets you an extra chance FOR FREE. Not only is this costly, but it also prolongs the suffering as you wait for your desired banner (and as you fail to draw the relic anyway) and definitely requires a lot of planning on which events you don't intend to draw from. Nonetheless, probably the most common kind of draw.

b.) Continuous 1x draws. 

Crediting this to anon who first wondered about Relic Pull probability: https://warosu.org/sci/thread/S7389586#p7401007; 
the reasoning: https://warosu.org/sci/thread/S7389586#p7401022 (check 'em)

Replies: https://warosu.org/sci/thread/S7389586#p7401309; https://warosu.org/sci/thread/S7389586#p7401350

The obvious advantage also being that you don't really have to save your Mythril too much -- every event gives out 10 Mythril, giving you a guaranteed two draws in this system too.

To quote: "...if i was interested only in obtaining a [5*], would I be saving any money by [doing Relic Draws] one at a time and stopping as soon as I draw such a prize?" The idea, therefore, is that your goal is to obtain a 5* and then stop -- if the math works out, this should save Mythril more of the time. The wording, however, fails to address the problem that 5* equipment is not created equal: the answers assume that prizes of the highest tier are equally desirable. Furthermore, you may be interested in obtaining several 5* relics from a banner instead of aiming for one 5*.

The former argument, however, can be similarly applied to the 11x draw. I still don't have the time or mental capacity or authority to tell you which one to do, so choose wisely, whichever strategy you go for. They both have their strengths.

[4.2] Special Relic Draws ----------------------------

-- LUCKY RELIC DRAW --

The Lucky Relic Draw was first introduced in Japan's 1-year anniversary event, and works as follows: you get an 11x draw for half-price (25 Mythril or 1500 Gems), and all 5*s drawn are guaranteed to be the unique SB Relic of a named character. Any relic from a past event is fair game here. 

However, you can only draw once per a defined period of time, which is a shame for DeNA's business model because I'm pretty sure there's a bunch of redditfag whales who would love to blow a whole lot of money on that shit.

These are pretty rare, and only happen during special events (like anniversary events or the Black Friday draw), but it's well worth your while to stock up at least some Mythril to be ready for them. Global is lucky in this respect, given that their introduction during the Orb Dungeon means we not only get this a lot earlier than JP, but probably more often than they do as well.

-- THE BEGINNER'S BANNER --

Similar to the Lucky Relic Draw, the Beginner's Banner was introduced at around the same time, and goes like this: for an 11x draw at full price, you then get to pick one extra Unique SB Relic in addition to what you got from the draw (or didn't get).

The items featured on the Global banner are fairly lacklustre: Tyro's Healing Grimoire, Rydia's Ice Whip, Wakka's Official Ball, and Kain's Blood Lance. I won't cover them here since they're all pretty basic and low-tier effects -- what you really need to look into is the extra Unique SB relic that comes afterward.

There's one piece of equipment available from each realm, for a total of 14 items (Core synergy and I - XIV sans XI):

Stormlance Grimoire
Character: Tyro
Soul Break: Stormlance Grimoire
Deal four physical lightning-elemental attacks to one target.

Breakdown:
+ It's Global-exclusive, meaning you might want to get this for the sake of collection
+ Multi-hit SBs are generally good among damage-dealing SBs
+ Its damage multipler is similar to that of Super SBs
- Tyro, who has lower base stats than most non-Core characters, is using it

The multiplier on these attacks is on the level of Squall's SSB Blasting Zone, which would be nice if it weren't Tyro using it. Regardless, it's comparable damage to Tyro's Last Judgment Grimoire SSB and is a good option to consider. It's also apparently meant to be a Global-exclusive relic. For now, at least. Expect not to see it in a Relic Draw for quite some time, if ever.
The multiplier on these attacks is on the level of Squall's SSB Blasting Zone...which would make it good if it were on any other non-core character. One of the things going for this, however, is that it's meant to be a Global-exclusive relic. For now, at least. Expect not to see it in a Relic Draw for quite some time, if ever.

Sun Blade
Character: Warrior of Light 
Soul Break: Shining Wave
Deal one physical holy-elemental attack to one target.

Breakdown:
+ I synergy is rare
- I dungeons are similarly rare
- One-hit one-target SBs are awful

One attack on one target is a pretty awful SB -- this should go without saying. FF I synergy is rare, I guess.

Giant's Gloves
Character: Josef 
Soul Break: Noble Sacrifice
All allies gain +50% ATK. User is KO'd.

Breakdown:
+ Attack-boosting effects are really good
+ II synergy is rare
- Its stats are awful for its weapon type
- It's outclassed by a similar SB
- KO as a negative effect is awful in a game where Raise effects are rare and KOs affect medals

If you were one of the unlucky souls who got this when they were trying to draw for Sentinel's Grimoire, you should know the deal with this weapon. For a melee weapon, it's pretty awful: 101 ATK at Level 20 is beyond shit for a fist when stuff like Zell's Maverick has about 116. Furthermore, it's outclassed: with the release of Aerith's Keepsake Ribbon, which does the same thing minus the KO effect, there's no reason to have this, even with II synergy being scarce.

Tyrfing
Character: Luneth
Soul Break: Advance
Caster's Attack becomes 250%; loses Defense.

Breakdown:
+ Advance is a god-tier RW
+ III synergy is really rare, and later difficult dungeons tend to be in the III realm
- It's not as good a SB as it is a RW
- It's everywhere because it was overhyped as fuck, get in line with all my other Advance RWs

Ahh, here we go. 

I'm not going to go into detail right now about what makes Advance such a good RW. For now, let's just say that this was a fairly rare and popular SB to look for, especially right after the VIT0 bug had been patched.
I'm not going to go into detail right now about what makes Advance such a good RW. For now, let's just say that this was a fairly rare and popular SB to look for, especially right after the VIT0 bug had been patched [6.5].

Or, at least it used to be, until this banner came up. Most people were probably expecting Luneth's second relic, King's Sword, to appear -- so Tyrfing showing up came as a shock. In the aftermath, a lot of people decided to take this relic -- immediately regretting it once its market value as a RW decreased and they realized it wasn't all that good being used on its own.

Advance is a good RW, but not a good SB on its own, most of the time. Thanks to this banner, it's no longer hard to find an Advance RW, so there should be no trouble finding one if you need it to clear a high-level dungeon. It's also been outclassed by Shout as of late.
Advance is a good RW, but not a good SB on its own, most of the time. Thanks to this banner, it's no longer hard to find an Advance RW, so there should be no trouble finding one if you need it to clear a high-level dungeon. 

However, if you like Luneth for some reason, or want to be helpful to others, feel free to take this relic. III synergy is also rare, and a lot of high-level dungeon updates later on have III synergy.

Dark Sword
In the future, skill augmentation will give Luneth the opportunity to use Samurai abilities, which might make this relic worth a spin for Advantaliate [6.1].

Soul Break: Darkness
Deal one dark-elemental physical attack to all targets. Caster loses 1/8th of max HP.

Breakdown:
+ Area-of-effect damage is nice
+ Dark-elemental damage is rare
- It doesn't really stand out
- HP loss is an annoying side-effect
- One-hit SBs aren't usually worth it

Similar to Sun Blade in that one-hit attacks are generally sub-par SBs, because they're generally meant to be used on bosses, moreso if they're multi-targeting. If you have these kinds of SBs, that's nice, but don't aim to get them as a rule.

Healing Staff
Character: Lenna
Soul Break: Royal Devotion
Fully revive one KO'd ally.
User also gains +20% to holy-elemental damage in general.

Breakdown:
+ Having a White Mage staff is nice
+ V synergy is common and useful
+ Lenna is a good White Mage, especially since she has her MC2
+ Bonus effect is actually relevant
- SB borders on useless
+ Lenna is a top-tier White Mage, having a 2nd Memory Crystal

V synergy is nice to have, and being able to have a White Mage who can heal at full potency for your team should be a primary aim for a beginner. Later on, this staff also amps the potency of your Dia attacks, which can be useful.

However, Royal Devotion is useless. In RK, strategies are often built with the assumption that no one can be KO'd at all. Probably the only time you'll be able to use this is ,say, if a high-end boss has no KO condition and has KO'd someone when you're really close to beating them. In other words, it's incredibly situational.

Kiku-ichimonji
Character: Cyan
Soul Break: Bushido Flurry
Deal four physical attacks to random targets.

Breakdown:
+ Katanas are nice. They're usually the weapon of choice for Retaliators.
+ VI synergy is common.
- Cyan isn't the best character, and this SB is fairly lacklustre.

Nothing much to say here. Katanas are a good weapon type to have, but the SB and character aren't of particular note, mainly because multi-hit physical is often inferior to multi-hit magical. If you're looking for a 5* weapon though, this is easily more solid than most of the other choices. 

Buster Sword
Character: Cloud
Soul Break: Braver
Deal one physical attack to one target.

Breakdown:
+ SB damage multiplier is high.
+ VII synergy is common.
- Even worse than Shining Wave.
- First ever Soul Break relic released, meaning that it has a lower base attack due to power creep.
- Cloud has way too many relics -- if you actually want one of his relics, might as well go for another one in a Rare Relic Draw instead of settling for this.

It makes sense that the first-ever released relic is Cloud's iconic Buster Sword, but as a direct result, it's shit. You want to be doing attacks that repeatedly, consistently do high damage, not attacks that are one-hit but cap at 9999. Braver is a prime example of this.

Cloud's a character you will probably be using often, though, since he's one of the first you get and also one of the best. If you're set on getting him a relic, try not to make it this one.

Valkyrie
Character: Rinoa
Soul Break: Angel Wing Bolt
Deal three magical lightning-elemental attacks to random targets.

Breakdown:
+ 5* Black Mage relics are nice to have; Rinoa is a high-tier BM.
+ Multi-hit magical SBs are usually better damage-dealers than their physical counterparts.
- Most Black Mages can't equip thrown weapons, making your selection fairly limited.

One of the better SBs you can pick from this lot, mainly because it provides you with a solid Black Mage going forward. The SB is average -- it's pretty good if you're just starting out as well.

VIII synergy is so-so. Thrown weapons are not very common to Black Mage equipment useability, though, so keep that in mind.

Storm Staff
Character: Garnet
Soul Break: Ramuh
Deal one magical lightning-elemental attack to all targets.

Breakdown:
+ Has high MAG and MND, making this useful for both WMs and BMs.
+ IX synergy is one of the rarer ones.
- See above for synergy.
- SB is average.

- Same as the above for synergy.


Ramuh is decent on Garnet if she has it, but it's nothing special.

Dusk Lance
Character: Kimahri
Soul Break: Mighty Guard (X)
All party members are granted immunity to one magic attack.

Breakdown:
+ SB has situational use against dangerous attacks.
+ X synergy is common in events and dungeons.
- Kimahri has stats rivaling Core characters, which is to say he's shit.
- Spears are not as commonly equippable as one would like.

There's a few AoE attacks later on that you can use this to repel: stuff like Bahamut's Megaflare. X synergy is fairly common, too.

The character using this relic, however, is consistently low-tier and spears don't see much use. Pity. Not a weapon I'd recommend among other choices here.

Ras Algethi
Character: Balthier
Soul Break: Tides of Fate
Deal one water-elemental physical attack to all targets.

Breakdown:
+ Guns are nice to have, especially against ranged bosses where you might want to use physical attacks.
+ The SB animation is amazing.
- SB isn't much to talk about.
- XII synergy is possibly the least used in events and core dungeons.

Since the XII SBs are all based on the characters' Quickenings, expect their SB animations to generally be on a higher level than that of most others. Guns are useful for physical characters who need to attack out-of-range targets, as well as for attacking from the back row.

However, XII synergy is one of the least relevant and the SB is fairly ordinary as they come. Might be worth the pick if you enjoy the use of this leading man.

Wild Bear
Character: Snow
Soul Break: Froststrike
Deal one physical ice-elemental attack to one target.

Breakdown:
+ XIII synergy is common enough.
- One-hit one-target SBs are awful.
- It's not even a fucking weapon.
+ XIII synergy is common enough

Same as Shining Wave and Braver, except this one is even worse by virtue of being Light Armor instead of being an actual weapon.
- It's not even a weapon

Please don't pick this.

Ninja Chainmail
Character: Thancred
Soul Break: Death Blossom
Deal one physical attack to all targets with a chance of inflicting Slow.

Breakdown:
+ Slow is a target condition on many bosses, making this useful for those.
+ XIV relics are rare collectibles since they usually only come out in SB Celebration, Lucky Draw, and rare XIV eventws
- XIV basically has no synergy in Global save for its precious few dungeons.
+ Slow is a target condition on many bosses, making this useful for those
- It's armor, not a weapon.
+ XIV relics are rare collectibles since they've only come out in SB Celebration, Lucky Draw, and the crossover event so far

- XIV basically has no synergy in Global
If you don't have Thancred, don't bother. Pretty much the only way to get him or Y'shtola right now is to use Hero Souls, and Empty Memory Crystals for their SBs. This isn't even his other relic, Yoshimitsu, which is a fairly decent dagger for having no synergy, and has an Armor Breakdown-like effect.
- It's armor, not a weapon

- If you don't have Thancred, good luck getting him and using this SB
It's nice to collect, I guess.

Basically, if you don't have Thancred, don't bother. Pretty much the only way to get him / Y'shtola right now is to use Hero Souls later on, and Empty Memory Crystals for their SBs. This isn't even his other relic, Yoshimitsu, which is a fairly decent dagger for having no synergy, and has an Armor Breakdown-like effect.


It is nice to collect, I guess.


Interesting in general: Storm Staff, Valkyrie, Stormlance Grimoire, Healing Staff, Tyrfing, Kiku-ichimonji, 

Situational: Ras Algethi, Dusk Lance, Dark Sword, Ninja Chainmail

Interesting in general: Storm Staff, Valkyrie, Tyrfing, Healing Staff, Kiku-ichimonji, Stormlance Grimoire
Please don't pick these: Sun Blade, Giant's Gloves, Buster Sword, Wild Bear

An extra closing note: the banner's available until the end of September, which is a pretty long time from now. There's no rush; draw from it during a dry spell of good RWs or anything you're not really interested in.

Probably don't pick these: Sun Blade, Giant's Gloves, Buster Sword, Wild Bear


In the end, the main object of RK is >fun. Feel free to ignore this and just draw for your favorite characters' relics if you like.

However, if you need to be serious about it, go for viability first and then synergy.

Generally, realm-specific banners are inferior to Soul Break Celebration banners, which usually only come once every two months or so, and don't often contain all the best SB relics in one banner compared to Celebration banners, but it's still worth pulling on them.

In terms of SB viability:

Three types of SBs are essential to making the RK experience a lot less difficult:

- A Wall-type SB (Sentinel's Grimoire, Stoneskin II)
- A Medica (Will of the White Mage, Miracle Prayer, Pulse of Life, Sync, etc.)
Wall-type SBs (Sentinel's Grimoire and Stoneskin II) are a must if you can for high-level content, as are group-heal SBs like Vanille's, Eiko's, Yuna's, Yuffie's, and so on. Runic-type SBs are also good (Celes, Exdeath).
- A Hastega (Emerald Light, Divine Guardian, Shout, Flames of War, etc.)

Attack, Magic, and Haste-granting SBs take a similar status.
Other interesting types of SBs are:

Damage-dealing SBs are also useful, but these take a backseat to the aforementioned. Having these is a good way to start building up a Lifesiphon-based team, however [6.3].
- Runics (Grand Cross, Indomitable Blade)
- SSBs and BSBs in general (Fenrir Overdrive, Trueblade of Legend, and so on)

Damage-dealing SBs, while also useful, take a backseat to the aforementioned. Having these is a good way to start building up a Lifesiphon-based team, however [6.3].

In short, the following rules apply:

If you can get both, you're set for a really good while and can feel a bit more free to draw for the relics of the characters you want.

- Get a party-healing SB of some sort. 
As always, it's still a good idea to grab really good upcoming SBs.
- A Hastega is optional but incredibly helpful.

If you can get these, you're set for a really good while and can feel a bit more free to draw for the relics of the characters you want.

As always, it's still a good idea to grab really good upcoming SBs, the thread will usually know about them. Or you could listen to that guy who ranks banners by how many waifus there are in them, fuck if I care.

In terms of synergy: 

Look at your equips and see which ones you think you're lacking in or consider which realms you're having difficulty in.

[4.4] Some notes -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In closing, remember this: A RARE RELIC PULL IS A GAMBLE. Don't go over what you can afford, and never let bad luck cause you to make bad decisions -- remember the sunk cost fallacy! Give yourself a Mythril budget for banners you want to draw from and STICK TO IT. More importantly, don't be those whales on Reddit who apparently spend like thousands until they draw what they want. When they quit or the game's service ends, they'll lose all of it, but DeNA still has their shekels, and at the end of the day that's what counts to them. 

[5] ROAMING WARRIORS --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Building on that, let's look into the Roaming Warrior (RW) system.

Roaming Warriors are the game's call-a-friend system: at the start of every dungeon, you're given a list of Roaming Warriors, each with their set Soul Break, and if you want to check, their equipment, stats, and comment. Pick one, and you can use the Soul Break's effect in that dungeon - two charges total.

The second main feature of Roaming Warriors is that you can follow them. 

There are three ways, in total, to follow players: at the end of every dungeon that you have a non-followed RW, through the Friend Search function, or going through your Followers in the Friend List and following them back.

Since the list of RWs generated is random and picked from the global playerbase, you're essentially guaranteed to miss a Roaming Warrior once the RW list refreshes. Follow an RW to pin it to your followed players list, so that you have a better chance of drawing the SB you need to clear a dungeon. Bear in mind that once you follow enough people, you'll basically have two lists of RWs: ones you've followed, and random RWs; which is to say that you may have to re-roll RWs to find a SB amongst several players you're following.

That being said, looking for a good SB by surfing the RW list is a crapshoot. Most people will use the Friend Code system: each player is assigned a four-character case-sensitive code which you plug into the Find Friends option in Menu -> Friends -> Find Friends. Inputting a valid code brings up the stats of that player's RW and an option that lets you follow them.

To avoid this, players will often mutually follow one another, because the system does not bump off mutual followers. This creates a problem: RWs can be filled if the player has mutually followed all 100 people on their list -- that is, no more players are allowed to follow this RW through the search function, and it will not appear on random lists. This is mostly a problem for good SBs such as Advance or Boon, especially if it's someone from Reddit who gets into the habit of mutually following pretty much everyone whose profile message is PLS FOLLOW /r/FFRecordKeeper 99/100 :)


Now, the Followers system is kind of wonky and I don't understand how it works myself, but here's my best approximation. Two lists govern the system: people you follow, and people who follow you -- both cap at 100. Your following list is a hard cap: if you follow 100 people, you won't be able to follow any more unless you unfollow at least one person. The followers list is a soft cap: once you reach 100 followers, you can still gain new followers, but older followers will then be bumped off the list in First In, First Out order. It doesn't matter how often you use their RW --  if you're out, you're out.

To avoid this, players will often mutually follow one another, because the system does not bump off mutual followers. This creates a problem: RWs can be filled if the player has mutually followed all 100 people on their list -- that is, no more players are allowed to follow this RW through the search function, though it still shows up on random lists. This is mostly a problem for good SBs such as Shout or Divine Guardian, especially if it's someone from Reddit who gets into the habit of mutually following pretty much everyone whose profile message is PLS FOLLOW /r/FFRecordKeeper 99/100 :)

Balance-wise, RWs are fairly important, because people with horrible Relic Draw pulls can and should be making good use of it -- and since some RWs are basically paramount to clearing a good number of high-level content, it's important to know good RWs to pick and set for other people. Help someone help you, help someone else too.

And for the love of Etro, if you draw a really good SB, like Scream (or whatever it ends up being translated as in Global), post it to the thread. /ffg/ always needs some help clearing high-level content.


Setting your own SB is fairly simple: it's in Menu -> Profile -> Change Roaming Warrior. Set up equipment here, and try to make it good, because MND stats affect buff duration, for example. Your Friend Code is also listed on your Profile Page.

And for the love of Etro, if you draw a really good SB, like Shout, post it to the thread. /ffg/ always needs some help clearing high-level content.

[6] COMMON STRATEGIES --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Higher-level content can't be brute-forced by that really good sword you got when you started the game, so you'll have to start planning your parties, sometimes very specifically and carefully. 

Not an exhaustive list.

>Whenever possible, HONE YOUR SKILLS REALLY HIGH. The longer the battle, the more mitigation / DPS you want to be consistently maintaining. An Ultimate+ Boss in Japan, for example, can go up to 350K HP, which is several levels above our ability and needs a serious amount of R4 / R5 hones.


>Learn the concept of damage mitigation. Without any protection or stat debuffs against bosses, they can easily pop 2k+ damage against you with an AOE attack, instantly losing you a medal and making it a lot more difficult due to the rarity of group healing abilities. Pay attention to the boss's main method of dealing damage when you have limited slots so you can decide whether to bring Shellga or Protectga and Magic or Power Break/down, and stack all these things with Sentinel's Grimoire or Stoneskin II if possible.

>Whenever possible, HONE YOUR SKILLS REALLY HIGH. The longer the battle, the more mitigation / DPS you want to be consistently maintaining. An Ultimate ++ boss in Japan, for example, can go up to 400K HP, which is several levels above our ability and needs a serious amount of R4 / R5 hones.

>Prepare to overprepare, Monster Hunter-style. A standard party should consist of at least one White Mage, only as many physical attackers as is necessary, and Black Mages for nuclear options. Don't stack up on too many of a kind unless the boss of a dungeon is especially weak to it. PAY ATTENTION TO WEAKNESSES AND RECORD SYNERGY.

>Not sure if your party is going to cut it? Struggling with this one boss? Post your set-up in thread, along with relevant information such as your hones, the SBs you have, and what other characters you have at a good level. Someone's bound to help, after they call you a filthy redditor who needs to git gud and stop using Redditaliate and other such strategies, of course.

[6.1] Retaliate-based Strategies --------------------------------------

Retaliate is fun -- it's a 2* Samurai skill that causes all physical attacks directed at the user to miss for three turns; the user then responds with a counter basic attack. What's so important about Retaliate, however, is that if YOUR party members attack the Retaliate user, they'll still aim for the enemy (when there are multiple enemies, it targets the one with the lowest HP). 

This is intentional: the official strategy for Humbaba in Mobliz suggests this as a method. It also simplifies party-building: if your equipment selection is limited, you only need to stack all your attack power onto the Retaliate user, while the rest can be relegated to supporting roles or allow you to use the Retaliate user to clear mobs while backrow mages deal most of the damage to the boss. Since it's not very efficient or easy to build a party where all the members are equal physical damage dealers, Retaliate becomes kind of the default physical attacking strategy -- for a while, at least.

Retaliate is often combined with a 2* Combat skill named Double Cut, which attacks a target twice for 0.9x the power of a normal attack each. Attack the Retaliate user with Double Cut? Two hits at 1.0x power each. For this reason, Retaliate is one of the few skills you want to hone as much as is possible, while Double Cut is a skill you want to have multiples of. 

Tauntaliate relies on either Paladin Cecil's first SB, Sentinel, or the 3* Knight Skill Draw Fire -- what these abilities do is draw all single-target physical attacks to the user while simultaneously increasing DEF. Combine this with Retaliate and you will get bosses who can do nothing as all their attacks are funneled into a Retaliate user who avoids every blow. As of the time of writing, Gilgamesh and Tyro are the only characters who possess this combination of skills. Basch will get it when he arrives, and Auron will receive an ability pool update in the future.

Advantaliate is basically Retaliate, but combined with the Advance RW to maximize damage (extended even further by Boost and Armor Breakdown, among other things) -- and it's stupidly good, to the point that it can mindlessly destroy 90+ difficulty bosses, and it is for this reason that the SB is so prized. Bear in mind that due to Advance's DEF drop, you'll have to pay even closer attention to when Retaliate's effect stops if you don't want to KO the user from damage. 

Now, the thing with Retaliate is that it's an excellent skill for carrying players with sub-par gear and hones, but at some point you'll have to consider branching out.

[6.2] Magic-based Parties -----

Fairly simple concept: a party focused on nuking bosses with magic. 

Some bosses are out of melee or physical range altogether, or greatly discourage physical strategies (some Ultimate bosses, then others with absurdly high DEF such as Seifer's gang or Proud Clod), making this another viable end-game strategy.

The one problem with mage-focused parties is how severely limiting the concept of ability charges is to spell-casting, so to conserve charges this is paired frequently with a Retaliate user to clear mobs. 

You'll need to go into dailies as often as possible to achieve the ability hones needed to outfit a full party of mages, so bear this in mind if you want to construct a consistent mage-focused party. 

Lifesiphon was introduced in Fang's event, where Lightning also gets her 2nd Memory Crystal. It's a 4* Combat skill which does an attack and greatly charges the Soul Break gauge.


[6.3] Lifesiphon --------------------------------------

Lifesiphon was introduced in Fang's event, where Lightning also gets her 2nd Memory Crystal. It's a 4* Combat skill which attacks and greatly charges the Soul Break gauge.

[6.4] Stun chains ---------------------------------------------


Zack's original event introduced the 4* Celerity skill Dismissal, which does physical damage and has a chance to Stun the target. A successful Stun resets the target's ATB gauge.


Only a handful of bosses have immunity to Stun, usually high-end Bonus Battle bosses.
[6.4] VIT0 [historical note] --------------------------------------

Several SBs also have good rates of triggering Stun, like Zack's Air Strike, Snow's Sovereign Fist, and Krile's Wind Drake's Roar, so you can either combine this with Lifesiphon strategy or just flat-out create and hone a million Dismissals.


You have to admit there is something nice about the opponent being unable to move at all.


[6.5] historical note: VIT0 --------------------------------------


Any character at a certain baseline attack (somewhere in the low 220s) will now deal 9999 damage to that target with the Attack command. This was known as the VIT0 bug, which occurred because:

1. [DEF <- Protect] --> DEF * 2
2. [DEF * 2 <- Breakdown] --> DEF
3. [DEF - DEF <- Breakdown] *2

To clarify: the crucial step here is #3, which is the second time you cast Protect: it "refreshed" the original Protect, removing the stats of the original buff before re-applying it and multiplying 2. Breakdown, however, was continuous -- it called priority to debuff before the Protect was refreshed, and subtracted itself instead of acting as a multiplier. This meant that

- Protect being lost meant that it returned to base DEF
- Breakdown's debuff effect, however, still remains at the value of [DEF * 2] / 2, which is subtracted from the DEF before Protect is re-applied
- DEF becomes 0, which is rounded to 1 by the game. 1 * 2 = 2 DEF.

Why is it named VIT0 and not DEF0? Probably because of the FF VIII status that does the exact thing.

If I recall correctly, the bug was first discovered in JP during the closing stages of Selphie's event, right around the time of the EX+ battle with Edea -- coincidentially, the same event in Global where it was patched out. Since they didn't know how to fix it directly back then, they settled for nerfing Breakdowns to 40% and applying Break Resistance to a ton of EX and EX+ bosses, or in some cases making the boss immune to Protect buffs. Usually combined with Retaliate.

This bug was the reason Vanille's Deprotega SB was popular -- it had the longest effect duration of all Breakdown skills available. However, it never quite reached Advance's popularity due to the fact that it was an exploit, and therefore frowned upon.

[7] PROGRESSION AND EVENTS -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

[7.1] Core Dungeons

You'll want to go through these first to build up your stamina, obviously. 

The first few dungeons are easier, can usually be auto-'d through with the 5* you got from the Relic Draw, and are usually just a check to see if you can follow target conditions and get the hang of using SBs and charging them up. 

They also give out Stamina Shards like candy. Reaching or going over 5 refills your Stamina and increases your cap by 1. To make the most of it, always check your current number of shards, and if clearing the dungeon will refill it, try to clear it at exactly the stamina needed so that you hit 0 stamina which immediately refills after you clear.

When dungeons get longer and harder, they also start to give out less Shards and can't be cheesed through, which means it's time to start planning out your team. Black Mages are not always mandatory, but White Mages pretty much are for obvious reasons.

Start looking into strategies by the time Elite difficulty starts to hit 100.

Elite difficulty as marked is often misleading: these dungeons are meant to be tackled at the same level of progression as you have gone in the Classic dungeons once you get far enough. Beginners should avoid them for the time being, however, especially if their difficulty goes above 36 or so.

If you want, you can try to clear some of the early Elite bosses with a powerful damage-dealing RW like Blasting Zone or Blade Beam. They'll usually die in one hit, and your 5* from the first draw should be able to carry you through the mobs alright. 

Start looking into strategies by the time Classic difficulty starts to hit 50 or so.


Sudden drops in Elite difficulty between dungeons are indicative of a split between Dungeon Updates. For reference, here's the breakpoints:

DU #1: Mako Reactor No. 1 (VII) to South Figaro Cave (VI)
DU #2: Phantom Train (VI) to Darill's Tomb (VI)
DU #3: Fire Cavern (VIII) to Library of the Ancients (V)
DU #4: Gapra Whitewood (XIII) to Shinra Cargo Ship (VII) / Palumpolum, Part 2 (XIII)
DU #5: Corel Prison (VII) to Cave on the Veldt (VI)
DU #6: Mushroom Rock Road (X) to Giant of Babil, Part 2 (IV)
DU #7: Mysidian Tower, Part 1 (II) to Alexandria Castle, Part 3 (IX)
DU #8: Dragon Spire (III) to Ronka Ruins, Part 2 (V)
DU #9: Sanubia Sands (X) to Big Bridge (V)
DU #10: Via Purifico Sewer (X) to Galbadia Garden, Part 3 (VIII)
DU #11: Underground Waterway (V) to Cultists' Tower, Part 1 (VI)
DU #12: Xezat's Fleet (V) to Lunar Subterrane, Part 5 (IV) / Mt. Gagazet - Cavern (X)
DU #13: Fossil Roo (IX) to Ultima Weapon (VII)
DU #14: Trabia Ravine (VIII) to Fifth Ark, Part 3 (XIII)
DU #15: Alexandria Castle, Part 4 (IX) to Lake Dohr (III)
DU #16: Narshe, Part I (VI) to Mt. Gulug, Part 2 (IX)
DU #17: Light Cruiser Shiva (XII) to Castle Exdeath, Part 4 (V)
DU #18: Ipsen's Castle (IX) to Dreamscape, Part 2 (IV)
DU #19: Dome, Part 1 (X) to Airship, Part 3 (X) + Sastasha Seagrot (XIV) to Tam-Tara Deepcroft (XIV)
DU #20: Ebot's Rock (VI) to Kefka's Tower, Part 2 (VI) / Stilshrine of Miriam (XII)
DU #21: Vallis Media (XIII) to Sister Ray (VII) + Copperbell Mines (XIV) to The Bowl of Embers (XIV)

[7.2] Event Dungeons

You'll want to give Event Dungeons some priority while trying to rack up Stamina in Realms, because in Events you'll be gathering most of your characters, as well as plenty of needed orbs, Growth Eggs, Memory Crystals, and even skills. 2 of a 3* relic, one weapon and one armor each, are also given out in addition to accessories.

I should note that if you haven't gotten to the end of the Classic-level dungeons at the very least and gotten the event's featured character, make the Event Dungeons your priority over Core Dungeons. Don't be afraid to go further and try for Memory Crystals, too.

Sometimes it might be worth challenging high levels and using RWs to break through them if the reward is great enough. Mythril revives are also viable if you need to beat high-level bosses in order to get a 2nd Memory Crystal, for example.

The bonus battles should be of no concern to you until you get a properly geared party. You'll need to clear all the Classic-level and Elite-level dungeons to even unlock them, and they pose significant challenge. The tiering is as follows:

+ battles - A boss rush. You'll need to fight through a collection of bosses adhering to a certain theme. Make the most out of your ability selection and RW to meet target conditions and have abilities honed to survive the entire rush.

++ battles - One battle on a level higher than the boss rush. 

+++ battles - A tier higher than ++, obviously, but on some occasions the power difference is negligible. 

Ultimate - End-game level challenge. You need to know what you're doing, have the hones and equipment for it, and have a proper battle plan. Don't be afraid to ask in thread; post your set-up and a few anons can always recommend changes if yours sucks. Include relevant information such as SBs you have available.

Just note that not all Ultimate bosses are created equal. Some are notoriously difficult (Vossler, Beatrix, Bahamut-SIN, Cagnazzo) while some are, relatively speaking, jokes (Garland, Yunalesca, Maduin). Trying them out never hurts.

[7.3] Special Events

Just note that not all Ultimate bosses are created equal. Some are notoriously mean (Vossler, Beatrix, Bahamut-SIN) while some are, relatively speaking, jokes (Garland, Yunalesca, Maduin). Trying them out never hurts.


You want to be running these dungeons as often as possible when they are active for as long as they are active. Most other things can wait unless some other event runs entirely within the special event's range. Do only as much of it as you need, in that case, then go back to the special event ASAP. EXP and Orbs are the main draw here, because they are given out much more freely than in the Daily Dungeons, and for more than one day at a time. Personally, during the Orb Dungeon alone I was able to take at least 30 characters to the 65 cap, along with a haul of quite a few Major and Greater Orbs, as well as 3* orbs in the hundreds.

Don't miss out. More than anything, these events are also the best time to attract new players. Login bonuses during these times often have 5* weapons, 4* skills, or accessories being handed out for free as well.

[7.4] Nightmare Dungeons

The Nightmare dungeons are available for a limited time each month, each one of them containing themed challenges based on the record they protect. While the 6* skills themselves are the genuine definition of a trophy skill, the dungeons do contain excellent rewards in the form of orbs, Hero Souls, Memory Crystal Lodes, and a 6* accessory that grants major resistance to an element. Note that their difficulty level ranges from + to +++ difficulty, so be ready.

Once you clear all four dungeons protecting a Record, the Nightmare dungeon boss is unlocked. It's roughly equivalent in power to an Ultimate, but pay enough attention to each gimmick and your life will become a lot easier. Note that apart from Support Nightmares, Nightmare bosses are IMMUNE to break-type effects. 

Once the Nightmare Dungeon opens, you can tackle dungeons even from previous records as well, so don't sweat missing them too much.

-- BLACK MAGE NIGHTMARE #1: Ultima Buster

This one is fairly simple. Ultima Buster has three phases: in the first, he won't deal much damage with second-tier black magic. Simply damage him enough until the Mana Sphere appears.

Once it does, you enter Phase 2, and Ultima Buster gains Reflect, which cannot be dispelled; attempts to attack him with all-target magic like Ruinga, or physical attacks, will result in a Counter Death.

The Mana Sphere is the crux of this fight. It responds to most types of magic used to attack it:

Josef #2: Double Hit
- Water / ice: Party-wide Cure directed at you
The Attack command takes on Double Cut's effect.
- Fire / lightning: Attacks Ultima Buster for 10x the damage the attack dealt to the Sphere
[Condition: Randomly obtained in II dungeons with Josef in your party; must have Josef's RM #1.]
- Non-elemental: Attacks Ultima Buster for a small amount, and greatly damages the Sphere

You'll need to hit the Sphere at least once with a non-elemental and water attack to master the fight, but aside from that, bombard the Sphere with fire and lightning to kill Ultima Buster. You will want to do this quickly: the Sphere charges Ultima Buster, indicated by glowing lights on his body: if he reaches four, he'll trigger Nightmare Ultima and obliterate your party. Hastega is necessary here, from experience.

Alternatively, you can destroy the Sphere early, triggering a weaker Nightmare Ultima, avoid the Nightmare Ultima with a Magic Blink, or go through it with a Reraise-type effect like Pulse of Life. When the Sphere is destroyed or Nightmare Ultima is triggered, Ultima Buster enters Phase 3. All his attacks at this point will ignore RES, but this shouldn't be an issue if you can kill him quickly enough.

-- COMBAT NIGHTMARE #1: Demon Wall

[Condition: Randomly obtained in dungeons with Tidus in your party; must have Tidus's RM #2 and broken his second level cap.]
This one is a bit more direct than Ultima Buster.

Demon Wall's attacks can hurt, especially Eviscerator, which can force resets if you get unlucky enough. Protectga and Wall-type effects (on, say, Tyro) can be helpful. 

Like Ultima Buster, Phase 1 consists of dealing enough damage. You will need to do about 85000 HP of damage in FOUR turns, or Demon Wall will trigger Gravija and cost you mastery. Either way, once you deal enough damage or Gravija triggers, light will appear in the arms, they'll become targetable, and you move to Phase 2. Use Shout or Fenrir Overdrive if you can't muster the damage to force him quickly.

Phase 2 is simply a matter of mastering Dynast-King's Curse's mechanic, which is simple: those marked by the cone should attack Demon Wall; those outside attack the arms. Note that those outside attacking Demon Wall will trigger Nightmare Gravity on marked targets, which is basically Gravija but worse, since it inflicts Sap. A character marked inside the cone attacking an arm triggers Counter Annul, which osmoses skill charges from you. The latter is salvageable; the former is often not. Multi-target SBs are not generally a good idea; the one in the center is free to attack Demon Wall all the time, which makes positioning in your formation crucial.

[Condition: Randomly obtained in dungeons with Vivi in your party; must have Vivi's RM #1.]
You'll need to deal at least some damage to both arms and Demon Wall for every time it uses Dynast-King's Curse to avoid Nightmare Gravity.

It's possible, preferable, and a common occurence to kill Demon Wall in this phase. Do note that he will only use Dynast-King's Curse a limited number of times before moving to Nightmare Crushdown, which is a TPK. 

[Condition: Randomly obtained in dungeons with Cloud in your party. Must have Cloud's RM2 and broken his 2nd level cap.]
Phase 3 begins when both arms have been killed. At this point, simply finish off the rest of his HP before he decides to use Nightmare Crushdown and you should be golden.

-- WHITE MAGE NIGHTMARE #1: Evrae Altana

This one hurts.

The + level dungeons have pretty much the same rewards as the Heroic ones, although Greater Orbs tend to drop often and there's a rare chance that a Magic Pot will drop a Major Orb. The enemies also hit stupidly hard, so be careful.
In Phase 1, set up your defenses and attack Evrae Altana with Diaras, Diagas, and whatever Cures you can throw at him. Whenever possible, try to rely on SBs for healing your party unless all your offensive Holy skills have been honed really well, and I mean Rank 4 well. Several of them. Otherwise, expect to be using your Cures to attack Altana.

The rewards will not reset every week, which is to say that once you have cleared a dungeon and obtained the First-Time and Mastery rewards, they'll show up as completed the week after that. The Daily Dungeons have only ever changed once, during the Memory Crystal update some time ago, and the current set is still being used in Japan (although it may change soon or already have changed, but that's a pretty long time to wait), so don't expect a refresh or any free mythril from the Daily Dungeons any time soon, apart from new difficulty levels which are hard enough they don't count as free mythril.
Note that you'll need to be careful and have a White Mage on standby in case he decides to charge Nightmare Poison Breath, which you will immediately have to dispel with Esuna, because this fucker moves fast.

In Phase 2, he'll revive and summon four Lenses with him. He'll attack using only Photon Spray in this phase and the Poison Breath mechanic will be gone, but the lenses are frustrating. A light will point from Evrae to a lens at any given time -- the lens it points at affects Photon Spray's effect:

1st lens: Photon Spray can inflict Poison
2nd lens: Photon Spray becomes more powerful
3rd lens: Photon Spray can inflict Petrify
4th lens: Photon Spray can inflict Silence

It takes about three Diagas to destroy a lens so that when the light points to it, Photon Spray won't have an added effect. Try to destroy the 3rd and 4th first, for obvious reasons, then the 2nd and 1st before dealing with Evrae again. It's possible to destroy the 2nd through 4th before he gets to any of them, but move fast.

You can actually use Raise or Arise (but not Curaise) to destroy a lens immediately, but it'll counter with Explosion to hit you for a good chunk of your HP, so heal up.

Phase 2 ends once you kill Evrae again. He'll use Explosion like the lenses do, but for about less damage. You will want to shatter all four lenses beforehand too, because if you kill Evrae before shattering them, they'll explode as well.

Base ability orbs are always useful to have. If you're building a mage-focused party you want to stock on as many Black Orbs as your filthy hands can carry, while Lesser Power Orbs are useful for crafting and honing things such as Retaliate and Double Cut. Power Orbs are useful for crafting 3* Physical skills like Breaks.
In Phase 3, Evrae will summon a Guado Guardian which will spend all of its time attempting to buff Evrae. You can ignore it, dispel its buffs, or kill it, which will spawn a new one several times over and probably isn't a good idea.

The Poison Breath mechanic returns, but apart from the Guado Guardian this is exactly the same as Phase 1. Use all that you still have left and finish him off.

Note that you'll be taking a lot of damage throughout this Nightmare, but that's what White Mages are for. Good luck!

[8] RECORD MATERIA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The base level cap for characters is 50, but once you start clearing content in dungeons both core and events, you'll start to pick up Memory Crystals that break this cap and put a character at 65. Furthermore, clearing bonus battles and other high-level content in event dungeons give out 2nd Memory Crystals that raise the cap further to 80. With breaking the cap comes a neat little bonus called a Record Materia: an equipped bit that gives an extra boost to its user -- think VII's Materia or VI's Magicite. These can range from a boost to stats (with a penalty / condition such as weapon type equipped), abilities, or even a free buff granted at the start of every battle. 

Breaking the level cap grants a character's first Record Materia and a slot to equip RMs. Some characters have two or more RMs, which can be obtained by meeting conditions, usually a random drop with the character in your party.

Some noteworthy RMs:

Terra #2: Blood of Espers
Chance to doublecast Black Magic.
[Condition: Break Terra's second level cap. Randomly obtained in dungeons with Terra in your party; must have Terra's RM #1.]

Dark Knight Cecil #3: Pride of the Red Wings
Significantly increase damage when user is equipping a sword.
[Condition: Randomly obtained with DK Cecil in your party; must have DK Cecil's RM #2 and broken his 2nd level cap.]

Zidane #1: Thief's Code
Similar to the Monday daily. Holy orbs tend to see a lot of use, especially with White Magic skills, while Dark Orbs supplement Black Magic skills like Bio, Drain, and a select few others.

[Condition: Break Zidane's level cap.]

Tidus #3: Ace Striker
User actions greatly charge the Soul Break gauge.
[Condition: Randomly obtained with Tidus in your party; must have Tidus's RM #2 and broken his second level cap.]

Fusoya #2: Moon's Grace II
Restores one White Magic and Black Magic ability charge at the start of every battle.
[Condition: Randomly obtained in IV dungeons with Fusoya in your party; must have Fusoya's RM #2.]

Vivi #2: Devotion
Increases MAG at the cost of DEF and RES.
[Condition: Randomly obtained with Vivi in your party; must have Vivi's RM #1.]

Cloud #3: Mako Might
Begin each dungeon (not each stage of each dungeon) with one full charge to the Soul Break gauge.
On Heroic / +, maximizing the use of your stamina and Growth Eggs can level a party of 35s straight to 50 -- once you really get going, you can cap characters faster than this game can shit them out for you.
[Condition: Randomly obtained with Cloud in your party. Must have Cloud's RM2 and broken his 2nd level cap.]

[9] DAILY DUNGEONS ------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the Events section in Realms, you'll notice that apart from the event(s) which are active at any given time, a Daily Dungeon also exists. The name speaks for itself -- these dungeons appear once every week and give out rewards ranging from Orbs to upgrade materials like Scarletite to gil to EXP. Each dungeon has five difficulties: Easy, Normal, Hard, Heroic, and + giving out rewards from their tier level -- and even if you have already built up a party that can take on the Heroics consistently, it is still in your interest to clear and master lower-tier dungeons, if only for the first-time Mythril.

The + and ++ level dungeons have pretty much the same rewards as the Heroic ones, although Greater Orbs tend to drop often and there's a rare chance that a Magic Pot will drop a Major Orb. The enemies also hit stupidly hard, so be careful. For some strange reason, ++ level dungeons seem to be easier than their + counterparts.

The rewards will not reset every week, which is to say that once you have cleared a dungeon and obtained the First-Time and Mastery rewards, they'll show up as completed the week after that. The Daily Dungeons have only ever changed once, during the Memory Crystal update some time ago, so don't expect a refresh or any free mythril from the Daily Dungeons any time soon, apart from new difficulty levels which are hard enough they don't count as free mythril.

[9.1] MONDAY: ARENA OF STEEL and BRIMSTONE CALDERA (CORE)

REWARDS: 
Arena of Steel: Scarletite and Adamantite
Brimstone Caldera: Fire and Earth Orbs

Overall, not a very interesting daily. One you should only visit if you specifically need these materials. Earth Orbs are mostly useful in honing or creating Breakdown-type skills, or Protectga and Shellga and the like.

[9.2] TUESDAY: EBONFIST KEEP (IV)

REWARDS:
Ebonfist Keep: Black and Power Orbs

Base ability orbs are always useful to have. If you're building a mage-focused party you want to stock on as many Black Orbs as your filthy hands can carry, while Lesser Power Orbs are useful for crafting and honing things such as Retaliate and Double Cut. Power Orbs are useful for crafting 3* and 4* physical skills like Breaks and Breakdowns.

[9.3] WEDNESDAY: GIL GREENWOOD and FLASHWIND PLAINS (VI)

REWARDS:
Gil Greenwood: Gil
Flashwind Plains: Wind and Lightning Orbs

If you've missed out on all these events where they give out shittons of gil like Festival of Gold and Forbidden Treasure, you might need to make a quick stop at the Gil daily to finance the escalating costs of your equipment upgrades and ability hones. As always, elemental orb dailies are strictly situational.

Wind Orbs are used in Thief's Revenge; Lightning Orbs are used by Full Break.

[9.4] THURSDAY: SHRINE OF IVORY MIGHT (III)

REWARDS:
Shrine of Ivory Might: White and Power Orbs

Similar to the Tuesday daily, except with White Magic. Healing and damage mitigation skills do tend to be useful, so you'll want to make good use of this one.

[9.5] FRIDAY: MAZE OF DARK DIVINITY and DREAMFORGE VILLAGE (X)

REWARDS:
Maze of Dark Divinity: Dark and Holy Orbs
Dreamforge Village: Adamantite and Scarletite

Similar to the Monday daily. Holy orbs tend to see a lot of use, especially with White Magic skills and the excellent Saint Cross, while Dark Orbs supplement Black Magic skills like Bio, Drain, and a select few others, as well as Darkness abilities.

[9.6] SATURDAY: GIL GHOST SHIP and ICENOUGHT SHRINE (VII)

REWARDS:
Gil Ghost Ship: Gil
Icenought Shrine: Ice and Non-Elemental Orbs
On the topic of inventory expansion, you definitely want to expand your equipment inventory a bit (personally, I had to expand to 140 slots), because 100 slots will not hold all your equipment once you start doing tons of 11x draws. You don't need to expand your abilities list too much, but it may be an issue in the future.

Similar to the Wednesday daily. 

Full Break uses Ice Orbs.

[9.7] SUNDAY: SHORES OF WISDOM 

REWARDS:
However, if you haven't started in JP now, you've already missed out on stuff like the Abyss events, which are end-game content with limited completion time. They may come back in the future but that's a huge question mark. However, it's also easier to catch up, with Experience and Orbs being handed out by metric fucktons in events.


In terms of characters missed in previous events, this isn't much of a problem: later JP events will often give out pretty much all the missed characters as rewards, along with their Memory Crystals -- even if they're not even remotely close to being the featured characters for the event. This doesn't even take Bonus Quests into account.


The requirements to access the JP client is fairly simple, as far as I know: you just need to download the app for the JP version of RK through a third-party site. Try it out if it's your kind of thing.
On + / ++, maximizing the use of your stamina and Growth Eggs can level a party of 50s straight to 65 -- once you really get going, you can cap characters faster than this game can shit them out for you.

Note that this dungeon has no synergy because it'd be even more ridiculous if it did.

Incidentally, if the EXP dungeon and an Orb Dungeon are running at the same time, the Orb Dungeon more likely takes priority, but it's up to you.

[11.6] Banner errors 


Occasionally, DeNA fucks up some of the info or mechanics of Relic Draw banners, such as during Sabin's event when Golden Shield (VI) was listed as granting ATK instead of DEF, or in the XIV event when the first-time 100 Gem draw initially cost 97 Gems. When they correct these errors, they'll often send a note informing players about the change, and a refund of some Mythril to players who drew from the banner before the error was corrected, regardless of intention.


If you notice discrepancies in banner information at any point, it's worth considering drawing from that banner if only because you know you'll get refunded.


Unlike the old Quests, you won't have to accept the Mission to complete it: as long as you accomplish the task, it'll mark as cleared and you can collect the reward. As a result, leveling quests no longer auto-complete, which means that the next time the Raise a Character to 80 mission clears is the next time you get a Memory Crystal II to break a cap.

In general, don't be in a rush to complete quests or actively go out of your way to complete them, especially the honing quests -- just do them as they come. 

[11] TIPS AND TRICKS --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[11.1] S/L -- or, the quit and reload trick
If the battle isn't going well for you (suppose your ATB gauges started empty and all five of the mobs acted before you did) tab out of the game and close the app. Then restart the app -- when you hit Play, you'll be prompted to either continue the battle from the beginning of the current round, or quit the battle and restore your status pre-battle (but not your stamina used). Starting the battle from the beginning of the current round gives you your status at the start of the round, complete with ability charges and so on.

This is pretty fucking important to know, since beating a good number of bosses will rely on your first turn -- whether you can apply a debuff that isn't 100% guaranteed to land, whether you can hit it with Power / Magic Break and cast Protectga / Shellga before it attacks, and so on. ATB gauges are not set in stone when you restart rounds, which is what makes the trick work.

S/L is not just for bosses, as mentioned above in the example concerning mobs -- you want to stay as healthy as possible before you get there. It's perfectly possible to stay at 100% HP, for example, if there are two mobs each round that require two hits to kill, but if they have annoying skills or damage output a few S/Ls may be necessary.

[11.2]  The airplane mode trick
The daily isn't really the most efficient way to grind Greater Orbs. Plenty of bosses will have excellent Greater Orb drop rates, but the problem is that they are at the end of long Elite Dungeons that cost a lot of stamina, and what if it doesn't drop the orb at the end anyway?

The trick goes like this: once you enter the battle round containing the boss, set your phone to airplane mode.

This works because once a battle starts, the game does not need to access the Internet for information until it resolves (which is why drops are set once you enter the battle), so even without Internet connection you could complete all the rounds of a battle before the battle results prompted you to reconnect. See where I'm going with this?

If the orb doesn't drop at the end of the boss round, quit the game, just like you would do when trying to S/L, then turn off airplane mode so the game can connect. Once you restart the game, choose the option to EXIT OUT OF THE BATTLE, and then restart the battle, turning airplane mode on again. Repeat until the orb drops, in which case you can turn off airplane mode to bring you to the Battle Results screen and clear the dungeon. Granted, it costs stamina, but it sure beats having to go through the dungeon again and wasting even more.

[11.3] RW List Shuffling
If you need to shuffle your list of RWs, that requires you to enter at least one battle and expend at least 1 stamina, no exceptions. Fortunately, Fabul Castle (IV) on Classic has battles that only cost 1 stamina. Fairly simple: enter the dungeon, clear the easy single round, and flee the dungeon. 

Note that once you use an RW on your list once it disappears from the list for a day, so you can also whittle down the search pool by picking an RW that you don't really need to clear the next dungeon at hand. Just remember to use them, though, because it is still nice to be appreciated.

[11.4] Good and bad ways to spend your Mythril
Ranked from best to worst:
- Relic Draws
- Inventory expansion
- In-dungeon revives when you lose a battle
- Stamina refreshes
- In-dungeon heals at camp

Heals at camp rank lower than in-battle revives and stamina refreshes mainly because there is no incentive to do so, not when you get a random stat bonus for using the in-battle revive option along with all the normal effects of a party heal. Party wipes do not have any bearing on medals, either, but only for the current round of battle.

Keep in mind that it's still generally a bad idea to use Mythril for anything below inventory expansion. Only do so if:

a.) You really, really need to beat the boss. Is it high-level enough that this becomes important? Is it within your reasonable range so long as you get something like a stat boost? More importantly, is it a battle on a timer, like an event? Don't use revives for core dungeons. Just quit, git gud, and try again. It'll be there next time.

b.) Is it a timed event that you want to farm? Granaldo in Squall's event's boss rush, for example, was an example of a farmable because it could drop up to 4 Greater orbs at a time with a reasonably good rate. A similar situation applies to the Sunday daily dungeon and special Festival-like events which dole out lots of EXP and orbs.

On the topic of inventory expansion, you definitely want to expand your equipment inventory a bit (personally, I had to expand to 210 slots), because 100 slots will not hold all your equipment once you start doing tons of 11x draws. You don't need to expand your abilities list too much, but it may be an issue in the future.

[11.5] Differences between Global and JP

JP is ahead in characters, relics, power creep, and has plenty of cross-over events, which sometimes contain skills that aren't always included in the global client. As of time of writing we're still missing some skills from the SaGa event.

As of the release of Oversoul Breaks, JP now has guaranteed 5* drops with every 11x draw as well.

Furthermore, they also have features such as the Record Dive: a way of upgrading your characters' stats and ability sets by using a new kind of material. They'll come to the Global client soon, though -- or if you're reading this and these features are here, then I haven't updated the guide and you can feel free to call me a faggot in the thread.

In terms of characters missed in previous events, this isn't much of a problem: later JP events will often give out pretty much all the missed characters as rewards, along with their Memory Crystals -- even if they're not even remotely close to being the featured characters for the event.

If you want to start over from Global to JP, catching up shouldn't be too much of an issue with the ridiculous metric fucktons of experience and orbs they hand out on a regular basis. The requirement to access the JP client is fairly simple, as far as I know: you just need to download the app for the JP version of RK through a third-party site. Try it out if it's your kind of thing.

The global client, while behind for obvious reasons, often gets plenty of JP's quality-of-life updates early, such as the Roaming Warrior system, the Lucky Relic Draw, and several Memory Crystals (Vivi's MC was not originally available with Garnet's event, for example). 

Also, unless you speak moonrune, it's pretty easy to access and deal with.

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Okay, that got a bit long-winded. Most of this stuff is based on my personal knowledge from playing the game (I started near the end of Terra's original event) so feel free to correct me whenever there's some info that could be improved or is just plain wrong.

I'll update this in the future when the need arises; until then, as the FFRK announcements always say, we hope you continue to enjoy Final Fantasy Record Keeper!

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