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LAST UPDATED: 12/20/2016
LAST UPDATED: 01/28/2017

I lurk the thread and answer anons' RK questions often. Feel free to mention anything you want me to add to this guide.

In any case, most anons will start by asking questions before reading this FAQ, but the thread is usually willing to oblige with good responses.

Strategy website & event information: 
http://ffrk.kongbakpao.com/

Game mechanics and 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.

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 and fucking Cloud of Darkness are actual released characters), or whatever you like. Live out your ideal party, unlike Brave Exvius where the drop rates are fucking shit and I'd never be able to get Luneth in a thousand years if I wanted to, fuck you Jewmi.

>Why not BE or Mobius?
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 and fucking Cloud of Darkness are actual released characters), or whatever you like. Live out your ideal party, unlike Brave Exvius where the drop rates are fucking shit and I'd never be able to get Luneth in a thousand years if I wanted to, fuck you Jewmi. 

Just as a warning: the gacha is generous, but you're still liable to get cucked from time to time. If that doesn't appeal to you move on.

>Okay, I guess this is interesting. 
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. 


>Okay, so what important things should I know?

Of course it looks like a lot because a lot of it is fucking game mechanics, but don't worry about having to understand all of this stuff now. Just focus on the bare basics and have fun.

Of particular interest for beginners are the following sections:

[1-4] Equipment and Soul Breaks 
[6-7] Strategizing and Starting Out
[9] Daily Dungeons (see Sunday)
[11] Tips and tricks

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

[1] RECORD SYNERGY AND EQUIPMENT IN GENERAL
    [1.1] Record Synergy
    [1.2] Upgrading, Combining, and Weapon Types
	[1.3] Augment Rank
[2] UPGRADING YOUR PARTY
	[2.1] Character Viability and Building a Party
	[2.2] Essential Skills
	[2.3] Honing
[6] COMMON STRATEGIES

[3] SOUL BREAKS
	[3.1] Super, Burst, and Overstrike Soul Breaks
    [6.3] Lifesiphon

[4] RELIC DRAWS
    [4.1] Rare Relic Draw methods
    [4.2] Special Relic Draws
    [4.3] Which banners should I draw on?
	[4.4] On "trap banners"
	[7.5] Nightmare Dungeons

		 [7.5.1] Ultima

		 [7.5.2] Crushdown
[6] STRATEGY AND GENERAL TIPS
		 [7.5.3] Reraise

		 [7.5.4] Neo Bahamut

		 [7.5.5] Quadruple Foul
    [6.3] Lifesiphon, Wrath, and Entrust
		 [7.5.6] Northern Cross

		 [7.5.7] Meltdown

		 [7.5.8] Curada

		 [7.5.9] Affliction Break

		 [7.5.10] Dervish

	[7.5] Torment Dungeons
	[7.6] Nightmare Dungeons
		 [7.6.1] Ultima
		 [7.6.2] Crushdown
     [11.1] S/L -- or, the quit and reload trick
		 [7.6.3] Reraise
     [11.2] Good and bad ways to spend your Mythril
		 [7.6.4] Neo Bahamut
     [11.3] Differences between Global and JP
		 [7.6.5] Quadruple Foul
		 [7.6.6] Northern Cross
		 [7.6.7] Meltdown
		 [7.6.8] Curada
		 [7.6.9] Affliction Break
		 [7.6.10] Dervish
		 [7.6.11] Valigarmanda
[8] RECORD MATERIA
[9] DAILY DUNGEONS
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 Shantotto's Jupiter Staff [XI] in the Waughroon Shrine [XI] 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.

[11] TIPS AND TRICKS
     [11.1] Force-restarting the app
	 [11.2] Hit-and-run SB charging
     [11.3] Good and bad ways to spend your Mythril
     [11.4] Differences between Global and JP

/*****************************************************************************************************************************
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] 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 almost every* weapon, armor, or accessory. When you use that piece of equipment in said realm (e.g., use Shantotto's Jupiter Staff [XI] in the Waughroon Shrine [XI] 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

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's Stoneblade. Daggers, since they can be equipped by pretty much anyone, usually have lower ATK.
A piece of equipment that is a 3* base combined twice (5*, or 3*++) with Synergy beats or matches an equivalent natural 5* with no Synergy by a mile. Learn to use Synergy or get ready to suck.

[*] rare exceptions: the Dissidia crossover accessories, War Gong event login reward, 6* accessories from Nightmare dungeons

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

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

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 will only make the difference if you need to hit magic numbers (for example, 390 Attack for Shout's multiplier to hit the Attack soft-cap), but it's recommended that you augment the Soul Break equipment of characters you expect to use often.


Be careful about combining your natural 4*, 5*, and 6* equipment. You want to be able to outfit entire parties with synergy sticks if at all possible. So far, natural equipment exists up to 6*, which can be combined twice to create an 8* with a level cap of 35 (not that it matters, since basically only ultrawhales should be doing this). 

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, nominally melee weapons that are the unique relics of a mage, like Ashe's Stoneblade or Garnet's Dagger of Resolve. 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.

- Scrap your core characters. 


However, the problem is that most equipment starts at an Augment Rank of 0. The exceptions are natural 5* and 6* equipment, which start at base Ranks of 1 and 3, which is why this is a rather minor feature -- why the fuck would you use natural 5*s above as material?
The natural stats of most characters usually don't make a difference -- Synergy bonuses or just plain equipment stats are usually able to carry them. What matters, however, are character skillsets -- Tyro / the Keeper being the best example, since he has 5* in literally every set, making him viable in spite of his core class-tier stats. DeNA, in fact, will often update the skillsets of characters to improve their viability. 

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 an Ultimate in an event, or as part of a special login bonus. 

Generally, the few points will only make the difference if you need to hit magic numbers (for example, 390 / 450 Attack for Shout / Vessel of Fate's multipliers respectively to hit the Attack soft-cap), but it's recommended that you augment the Soul Break equipment of characters you expect to use often.

If you have multiple Rosetta Stones and you're dumping them into a relic all at once, though, do it ONE AT A TIME to maximize the chance of something called a Major Augment occuring, which grants a free (and fixed) +1 to Augment rank when it occurs.

[2] UPGRADING YOUR PARTY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

- Elemental attacks (spellblades, Saint Cross, magic attacks) (3* / 4* Spellblade, 5* Knight, 3* / 4* Black / Summoning Magic)


Part of the fun of RK is that in some way or another, almost every character is viable -- even nominally unviable characters (core class characters like Black Mage and Summoner; Gau) can take on end-game content if you have the hones and the strategy and the patience.

That being said, for the beginner:

- Scrap your core characters (i.e., Black Mage and White Mage from the tutorial, etc.)
- Probably the best way to start filling up your party is to go to whatever event is running at the moment, get the character rewards from the early dungeons, and build off of them.
- Once you get your first Soul Break relics, get the corresponding characters for them. Usually, they'll be on the event that corresponds to the banner, but if not, use any Souls of Heroes you have (usually from the 5th stage of an event) and recruit them from the Hall of Rites (The Annex -> Hall of Rites -> Soul of a Hero). Those characters should form your core starting party.
- The 5th stage of an event is usually clearable at the start -- just dump any of your first Growth Egg rewards into your starting five and throw your base 5* tutorial sword at the boss.

The natural stats of most characters usually don't make a difference -- Synergy bonuses, Record Sphere boosts, Soul Break mastery bonuses, or just plain equipment stats are usually able to carry them. What matters, however, are character skillsets -- Tyro / the Keeper being the best example, since he has 5* in literally every set, making him viable in spite of his core class-tier stats. DeNA, in fact, will often update the skillsets of characters to improve their viability. 
- Double Cut + Retaliate [6.1] (for starting out)

- Protectga / Shellga / Cure/a/ga/ja

- Breakdown skills (Magic / Power / Mental / Armor Break/down) 

- Power / Magic Breakdown (or both) + Full Break (4* and 5* Support)
- Power / Magic Break (at lower levels - 3* Combat)
- Protectga / Shellga (or both) (4* White Magic)
- Curaga / ja (3* / 4* White Magic)
- Lifesiphon (4* Combat)
- Elemental attacks (spellblades, Saint Cross, summoning or black magic) 
- Fire / Blizzard / Thunder / Comet / Bio / Water / Dia -> their higher-level equivalents


In brief: at least a 4* Support, White Mage, and of either physical or magical offense.

[2.2] Skills

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.

- Dragoon Jump / Lightning Drive (5* -- best used with abilities that reduce air time)


ESSENTIAL SKILLS:
- Double Cut / Tempo Flurry + Retaliate [6.1] + optionally Draw Fire
- Protectga / Shellga / Cure/a/ga/ja + Curaise
- Breakdown skills (Magic / Power / Mental / Armor / Mind Break/down) 
- Full Break (5* skill -- Power, Ice, Lightning Orbs)
- Death / Raise / Berserk / Break

- Banishing Strike
- Saint Cross (5* - Holy, Earth, Wind)
- Kirin / Memento of Prayer

- Spellblades (Fire / Blizzard / Thunder / Water / Aero / Drain, rest are not as important)
- Fire / Blizzard / Thunder / Comet / Bio / Water / Stone / Dia -> their higher-level equivalents
- Carbuncle
- Chainspells (Chain Blizzaga / Firaga / Biora etc.)
- Dark Zone + Memento Mori (5* - for Darkness mages, especially if you have EnDark; Memento Mori (4*) boosts Dark Zone)
- Dismissal
- Ruinga / Quake / Valefor / Maduin (AoE)
- Dispel

OPTIONAL SKILLS:
- Multi Break (5* dancer skill -- basically Full Break but hits all targets, or when physical attacks aren't viable)
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.
- Heathen Frolic Sarabande / Exhausting Polka (4* dancer -- AoE Magic / Power Breakdown)
- Twinstrike spellblades (Thundering / Engulfing / Tornado etc.)
- Thief's Revenge (5* - Wind, Dark, Lightning)
- Carbuncle (AoE Reflect - invaluable against certain bosses)
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. 
- Dragoon Jump / Lightning Drive (5* -- best used with BSBs that reduce or remove air time)
- Meteor Crush (+50% ATK boost, same as Shout, for Monks)
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.
- Fires Within (2-hit Fire, for monks, best used with Refia BSB)
- Bahamut / Titan (warning: limited charges, either hone all the way or not at all)
- Magic Lure (Magic version of Draw Fire)

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.

- Entrust / Wrath (SB charger skills, like Lifesiphon)
- Elemental Ninja scroll abilities (Fire / Water Veil, Swift Bolt)
- Death / Raise / Break
- Berserk (usually specifically used against the Defender bosses from X)
- Reflect
Basically augmenting but for characters, Record Spheres grant permanent boosts to a character's stats provided you have the Mote materials to unlock the boosts. Some of the end-level boosts can be fairly significant, from allowing characters to use new weapon types or skillsets (e.g., Rinoa can get to use Staves; Ingus gets 3* Samurai). Bear in mind characters need to be at least Level 65 to make use of this.

- Memento of Prayer
- Haste
- Faith / Boost
- Elemental Jump attacks (Wind Jump, etc.)
- Dark / Venom / Sleep / Silence Buster OR Poison / Blind / Silence Shell
- Save your motes for Onion Knight in an upcoming III event. No, seriously. His Spheres cost less motes for even more stat improvement than most heroes.

- If you have to, you may as well improve Tyro's shit stats, I guess.

- Hold on to your 4* motes. They do not drop easy.

- MAKE SURE YOU'RE SURE WHEN YOU'RE USING 5* MOTES.


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. In any case, once you start clearing bonus battles your Major Orb count will skyrocket without you noticing.

It's 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.

[2.2] HONING ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Honing skills takes a lot of orbs, which means you should be hitting the Daily Dungeons [9], 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. 

[2.3] RECORD SPHERES 

Record Spheres grant permanent boosts to a character's stats provided you have the Mote materials to unlock the boosts. Some of the end-level boosts can be fairly significant, from allowing characters to use new weapon types or skillsets (e.g., Vaan can equip Guns; Luneth gets 4* Support). Bear in mind characters need to be at least Level 65 to make use of this.

Empowered Motes, separate from the basic Record Sphere tree, are 5* motes handed out on occasion during special events to unlock 6* abilities for characters with 5* skillsets in Knight, Monk, Dragoon, Mechanist, etc. It costs 5 motes to unlock a character's 6* skillset, 10 to receive a copy of the 6* skill in question, and 15 to increase that character's damage with that type of ability.

General tips:
Fire Lash
- Hold on to your 4* motes. They do not drop easy, so they're strictly for characters you know you WILL use often (e.g., Tyro with SG / Keeper's Tome, Orlandeau with fucking anything)
Character: Krile
- MAKE SURE YOU'RE SURE WHEN YOU'RE USING 5* MOTES. 
Soul Break: Sheepsong
- If you have relics for Onion Knight, it's worth fullly diving him since his 4* spheres take around half the motes a normal character's Spheres do.
Grants major Regen, Haste, and a 30% Magic boost to the entire party.

[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. 

White Mage Robe

Character: Arc

Soul Break: Word of Kindness

Instantly restores a large amount of HP to the entire party, and grants Blink, enabling them to avoid one physical attack.

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.
Wizard Rod

Character: Garnet

Soul Break: Divine Guardian

Casts party-wide Haste and major Regen, and grants a stackable Resistance buff.

Character: Tyro
Excalibur 

Character: Cecil (Paladin)

Soul Break: Paladin Force

Deals five physical Holy-element attacks to all targets. The user of this SB is then granted Haste, a boost to all stats, Holy elemental attachment, and the following Burst Mode commands replacing Attack and Defend:

- Blessed Weapon: Deal one physical holy attack to one target and restore user's HP.

- Sacred Circle: Deal two physical holy attacks to all targets.

Grants Haste and a 50% Attack boost to the entire party.
Noticing a pattern? Most 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. 

Mistleteinn
Character: Vanille
Soul Break: Transcendent Dream
Instantly restores a large amount of HP to the entire party, increases the user's Mind and grants Haste and a boost to all stats, as well as the following Burst Mode commands replacing Attack and Defend:
- Light Eternal: Deal two white magic holy attacks to one target and lower its Resistance.
- Breath of Vitality: Heals the party a moderate amount.

Metamorphosis Claws 
Character: Cid Raines
Damage-dealing SBs are considered good when they deal truly absurd damage or have the potential to do so. They're best used not as RWs, but as your own SBs.
Soul Break: Metamorphose
Deals six black magic Holy and Dark-element attacks to one target; power increases if user has a Doom countdown; grants Haste and a boost to all stats to the user and Magic / Defense to the party. User gains Burst Mode commands:
- Shining Moment: Deal four black magic holy / dark attacks to one target; removes delay from the next magic attack cast.
- Lingering Spirit: Deal two black magic holy / dark attacks to all targets; increases the user's Magic but lowers their Resistance.

Noticing a pattern? Save for a few, most 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. 

In particular, there are three types of relics commonly thought to compose a "trinity": 

- Wall-type SBs (DEF / RES buffs stackable with Protect and Shell)
- Medicas (group heals)
- Hastega SBs

Relic drawing specifically to chase these kinds of relics as a beginner is a common recommendation -- acquire all three and you're usually set for life, ability hones aside.

Damage-dealing SBs are considered good when they deal truly absurd damage or have the potential to do so (Metamorphosis Claws or Saintly Excalibur). They're commonly best used not as RWs, but as your own SBs.

Plenty of other Soul Breaks have subjective usefulness, especially during Cid Missions where your choice of characters becomes severely limited. For non-Cid Mission clears, look to relics like these first.

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

Also known as concrete proof of power creep™, Super Soul Breaks and higher 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. 

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, apart from rare exceptions (Tiny Bee, Iga Blade) really good, but SSBs can be hit-or-miss.

Overstrike Soul Breaks come with 6* weapons and are the equivalent of mechanics such as Limit Break -- they go over the damage cap and can deal up to 99999 damage. Apart from the stat boost for mastering and the overflow effect, however, they're obviously only good when you have them for yourself. They don't make good RWs unless your party has its own needs already covered.

[3.2] ELEMENTAL ATTACHMENTS AND IMPERILS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Several Soul Breaks such as Paladin Cecil's Paladin Force, Cloud's Climhazzard, and Exdeath's Dark Earth Shaker, to name a few, are capable of granting elemental affinity to their users, which manifests as an elemental aura in battle; others, such as Balthier's Strahl Strafe, are capable of lowering a specific elemental resistance.
Now, Rare Relic Draws can pull any equipment piece rated 3* to 6*, and they are where you will draw most of your mid- to end-game 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 generic 5*s and /ffg/ anons commit sudoku by the hundreds, killing the general for real this time.

The former, known as En-[element] or elemental attach, attaches the specified element to the Attack command (usually not useful) and adds a significant multiplier to the power of abilities of that element (incredibly useful). Elemental attachment SBs, especially those attached to BSBs like Hope's Divine Judgment, Cecil's Paladin Force, or Garland's Dark Rebirth therefore usually end up as high-end Soul Breaks because of their ability to shit out DPS -- when in doubt and looking for SBs to improve your DPS, look no further.

The latter, better referred to as Imperil SBs, reduce a specified elemental resistance by 20% -- which can similarly end up as useful as their EnElement counterparts, but are not as common, as far as I know.

[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. If you're a /desperate/ NEET with not enough Mythril to hit the magic 50, DeNA also includes the option to combine what Mythril you do have with a variable number of relative Gems.

Now, Rare Relic Draws can pull any equipment piece rated 3* to 6*, and they are where you will draw most of your mid- to end-game 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 generic 5*s and /ffg/ anons commit sudoku by the hundreds, killing the general for real this time (but not really, since BEfags seem to live off RKfag tears).

[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 AND a guaranteed 5* piece (more often than not a Unique Soul Break, given the current quality of banners) FOR FREE. It's costly, it prolongs your suffering, it tests your patience, and it requires a lot of planning on which events you don't intend to draw from. Nonetheless, it's the most common kind of draw.

Thanks to the guaranteed 5* mechanic, there's literally no reason to not do this if all you want are 5*s -- just don't blame anyone if you still don't get what you're looking for. Pay for a slot machine (or don't) and get what you get.

As a note, though: 3x draws are shit, never do them. They have no advantages whatsoever compared to a 1x or 11x.

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 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

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*.

[4.2] Special Relic Draws ----------------------------
In short, this has the undisputed title of babby's first 11x -- no exceptions. Make it one of your first Relic Draws if you want to make your party good ASAP.

-- 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 relics in the advertised pool are fair game, so if a Realm Dungeon Lucky Draw advertises VII relics that are SSB and up you can draw literally Organics.
Succeeding the now-outdated Beginner's Choice Banner is the Keeper's Choice Banner, which goes like this: for a full-price 11x draw, you then get to pick one extra Unique SB Relic in addition to what you got from the draw (or didn't get).

However, you can only draw once per banner, 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. There are 
The items featured on the Global banner can be somewhat dated: they're SSBs for Cloud, Lightning, Leon, Eiko, Terra, and Gilgamesh, all of which were released fairly early into the introduction of Super Soul Breaks. Really, though, there's not much arguing with the permanent +10 stat boost or that the SSBs still end up being decent beatsticks at this point in time. Unlike the Beginner's Choice banner, you have five chances to draw on this banner and therefore five opportunities to pick from the bonus relics, but realistically you won't be using all five tries.

These are pretty rare, and only happen during special events (like anniversary events or the Black Friday draws) or dungeon updates, but it's well worth your while to stock up at least some Mythril to be ready for them. 
13 SBs are available as the Bonus Relic, each from a different realm and excluding I and XI. While they are good, you have been warned: this banner is the last vestige of a time before guaranteed 5*+ relics with every 11x. Draw with caution, and only if you can't be arsed to draw from anything else (incredibly unlikely).

-- KEEPER'S CHOICE, VOLUME 2
Ratings are written with the assumption that you are also interested in gearing for Cid Mission synergy, because functionally several of these relics are basically the same.

Not even two months after the first one, we have the Keeper's Choice 2 banner, and by Jewgle it's a godsend for beginners. For a full-price 11x draw (no other types of draws are allowed), you can also pick a 5* relic from a varied selection of Record Realms.
Dancing Dagger

Character: Leila

Soul Break: Captain's Command

Casts Shell and Haste on the party.
In short, this has the undisputed title of babby's first 11x, with rare, rare exceptions. Make it one of your first Relic Draws if you want to make your party good ASAP.

Breakdown:

+ II synergy is rare, as are II relic banners, making this a good choice purely for synergy

+ Shellga & Hastega is a dated albeit useful effect
Succeeding the now long-dead Beginner's Choice Banner is the Keeper's Choice Banner, which goes like this: for a full-price 11x draw, you then get to pick one extra Unique SB Relic in addition to what you got from the draw (or didn't get).
- Who the fuck uses Leila?

The items featured on the Global banner are dated: they're SSBs for Cloud, Lightning, Leon, Eiko, Terra, and Gilgamesh, all of them released fairly early into the introduction of Super Soul Breaks. All they're good for now is the permanent stat boost for mastery and being realm beatsticks, which means fuck-all these days. You have five chances to draw on this banner and therefore five opportunities to pick from the bonus relics, but realistically you won't be using all five tries.
The original Shellga + Hastega combo, Sazh's Boon, was highly prized when it was first released -- but those were simpler days, and now Boon-type effects are relegated to garden-variety with stuff like Divine Guardian and Mighty Guard (VIII) running around. Still, this is a Hastega relic, and II synergy is difficult to stock up on. Again, though, who the fuck unironically uses a character who is literally who from literally II?

13 SBs are available as the Bonus Relic, each from a different realm and excluding I and XI. Some of them are good, but you are warned: this banner is the last vestige of a time before guaranteed 5*+ relics with every 11x. Draw with caution, and only if you can't be arsed to draw from anything else (incredibly unlikely).
Holy Wand

Character: Arc
A summary of the bonus relics:
Soul Break: Soothing Light

Casts Cura on the party and raises their Resistance a moderate amount.


Breakdown:
Banner is available until the end of July next year, which is way too long. It's already drowned in the powercreep, so unless you have a good reason (e.g. grabbing a III or X Medica for a Cid Mission) don't bother.
+ Same as Dancing Dagger -- III synergy is rare and III events are rare

+ It's a medica, and holy fuck it's a III medica

+ Resistance buff as opposed to Shellga is actually fairly useful since it's stackable

- Other than that, it's still Cura-level and rarely gets synergy


Stackable buffs are useful stuff, as are group heals, but the problem with this particular one is that it will rarely get synergy. It's definitely on the level of, say, Oerba's Boon (see below), albeit from a less common realm. If you're short on medicas, this isn't particularly a bad one to have.


White Dress

Character: Rosa

Soul Break: Miracle

Casts Shellga and Protectga.

In terms of SB viability:
Breakdown:

+ Frees up ability space when planning set-ups for Cid Missions

- It's a bad effect otherwise

- It's not a weapon

- A Medica (Will of the White Mage, Asylum, Sync, etc.)
If you aren't using this for a CM don't bother, since Wall-type SBs exist. Rosa has better SBs she could be using, two of them being Medicas -- one of them a Curaga + Magic Blink, an extremely valuable effect. 
- A Hastega (Apocalypse, Shout, Sheepsong, etc.)

Aevis Killer

Character: Faris

Soul Break: Kindred Spirit

Deal one ranged physical attack to all targets and lower their DEF / RES by a large amount.

Other interesting types of SBs are:
Breakdown:

+ It's a stackable Breakdown effect

- Do not expect to use this for DPS

- It's not an ATK/MAG debuff

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].
The thing about Soul Breaks with combined debuffs is that they stack with normal effects such as Full Break and Armor Breakdown simply because they have a different effect ID, and this SB is no exception. Unfortunately, this is neither Sea Lord's Broadside or Beryl Serpent, both of which are also Faris's Soul Breaks and happen to provide more important ATK/MAG debuffs for the sake of mitigating enemy damage.

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 used to rank banners by how many waifus there are in them, fuck if I care. Actually, where is he now? I kinda miss him.
As a ranged weapon, don't expect this to do much in the way of being a synergy beatstick, either.

In terms of synergy: 
Rising Sun

Character: Locke

Soul Break: Mirage Dive

Deal one physical attack to all targets; guaranteed to Slow them if they are not immune.


Breakdown:

+ Slow, I guess

- It's super old

- One-hit physical SBs suck

Generally, if there's a lot of buzz in-thread about SB fest banners or something hyped up like Alphinaud and Minfilia's event to the point where there's genuine derision for anyone doing relic draws for any reason before then, DeNA is probably working some trap banner magic. Of course, it never hurts to ask.
Basically, don't. If you're looking to pad your VI synergy or get something for Locke, this isn't the place -- it's a relic that predates the Roaming Warrior system, and as a result has an incredibly dated effect and damage multiplier.

[4.5] Some notes -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Diamond Pin

Character: Red XIII

Soul Break: Lunatic High

Casts Protect and Haste on the party.


Breakdown:

+ Like Dancing Dagger, it's a double buff effect

+ It's on a Support character and offers extra versatility to their role

+ Unlike Leila, Red XIII is a lot more viable

- Dated effect, although useful for CM stuff


The original Hastega effect, and unironically still Red XIII's best Soul Break to date, because Stardust Ray is shit. There's not much to say, really -- it's a good relic for a good character in their realm, but its age can show at times.
There are three ways, in total, to follow players: at the end of every dungeon or multiplayer fight 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.

Rising Sun

Character: Rinoa

Soul Break: Angel Wing Quake

Deal two black magic Earth attacks to all targets with a high chance to Slow.

There's a gil reward for every time someone else uses your SB to the tune of 200 gil each, calculated during 24-hour periods. It's usually a non-issue and is mostly useful for giving you a baseline indicator of how good your RW is.
Breakdown:

- Not about to deal a ton of damage except when hitting weakness; it's a synergy stick

- Black mages that use thrown weapons are few and far between

- Earth magic isn't even rare anymore


One of the old reasons to have this SB was that back in the day, the Stone magics didn't exist and Quake was the only means of normally dealing earth-elemental damage. In any case, Hope, Edea, and Rinoa are the only mages to use thrown weapons, and they all have better relics, to be completely honest. If you're planning to use any one of those three, Ninurta, Shooting Star, and Sorceress's Crown, for example, are much better relics to have than what basically amounts to a stat stick with outdated elemental abuse. 
As of the latest client update you can also remove followers from your list. If you have to, though, try to limit yourself to nuking either redditors who wear their site on their shoutout, or people who haven't played for like a month or so, or people who don't know how to set RWs so they still have a Judgment Grimoire Tyro. Don't be that guy.

Asura's Rod

Character: Garnet

Soul Break: Leviathan

Deal two summonming magic Water attacks to all targets and boost party's MAG a small amount.

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.
Breakdown:

+ MAG buff

- From experience, the damage is shit

- Plenty of better MAG buffs out there, don't chase this one
[6] STRATEGY AND GENERAL TIPS ---------------------------------------------------------------

It has its uses, like being the designated MAG buff for your Summon Nightmare party, but as far as I'm concerned this is an IX stat stick when stuff like Song of Swiftness and Sheepsong exist. Hell, you could just use Sheepsong period because Krile has 5* Summoning too.


Lullaby Rod

Character: Yuna

Soul Break: Hymn of the Fayth

Casts Cura on the party and grants high Regen.

- [DAMAGE MITIGATION] ---
Breakdown:
First rule of RK: do NOT allow your characters to be KO'd. 
+ Major Regen ticks really pay off

+ Medica for a common realm
For one, Raise, Arise, and Curaise are all out of the reach of the beginner, take up valuable skill slots (except Curaise, generally), and worse -- they have no buffs whatsoever and are easy bait to knock down again. When a character is KO'd, just S/L [11.1].
+ Dated, but still good

The question then becomes: how do you prevent your characters from being KO'd? Damage mitigation. These are skills like Multi Break, Power Breakdown, Steal Power, and a plethora of Soul Breaks with debuffing effects, as well as Shellga, Protectga, and so on.
If I'm not mistaken, there's actually a shortage of X-based medicas, but that doesn't particularly matter when Hymn of the Fayth has been out a long while and is still pretty good despite its age. Major Regen is huge -- basically doubling as a second Cura over time. A solid pick from a common realm.

Without any protection or stat debuffs against bosses, they can easily pop 4k+ damage against you with an AOE attack, likely causing a wipe. Worse, group-healing abilities in RK are limited to Soul Breaks, making it harder to recover from these attacks. 
Demonsbane

Character: Ashe

Soul Break: Heaven's Wrath

Deal three black magic Holy attacks to one target, with a moderate chance to Confuse and Sleep.
Extra notes: 
- White magic, including offensive skills such as Diaga and Holy, scale off Mind, and require Mind Break/down to weaken. 
Breakdown:
- (Holy attacks that scale off Magic exist but are rare, such as Alexander and Hope's BSB command Purification)
+ Holy damage that uses MAG is rare

- Basic compared to other SBs in the selection

- Side effects are not too useful
In RK, buffs and debuffs are the name of the game. 

Fairly basic effect. As always, XII Soul Breaks are A E S T H E T I C when they're based off characters' Quickenings, and this is no exception. Unfortunately, the only real thing this has going for it is that it provides a MAG-based source of Holy damage, which is fairly rare. 
And they work best when stacked. The general rule of stacking buffs and debuffs, however, is to pay attention to which stats they buff at a time:

Wyrmfang

- All buffs without visual cues have a fixed effect time unaffected by MND. These are buffs like Punishing Palm, Sentinel's Grimoire, Sheepsong, Protector's Roar, Shout, etc.
Soul Break: Oerba's Boon

Casts Cura and Protect on the party.
- (Extra note: Focus, Lulu's old +20% MAG / +50% RES Soul Break, is a unique effect and stacks even with +MAG/RES effects.)
- Burst Mode stat boosts stack with everything else.
Breakdown:

+ Protectga is a nice bonus effect, can save you a slot in teambuilding

+ A Medica for a common realm is never a bad thing
 The longer the battle, the more mitigation / DPS you want to be consistently maintaining. A Torment D300 boss in Japan, for example, goes up to absurd levels of HP. There are even multiplayer raids against the FF X superboss Nemesis that go up to literally one million HP for the ultrawhales that just don't know when to quit. 
- Miracle Prayer exists -- if you have it, this is probably not a good idea

- Keeper's Choice V2 also happens to have Miracle Prayer
The common factor in being able to power through these kinds of fights is hones (and, well, a fuckton of BSB commands, but I digress). Hone your abilities or you won't last. Ultimate bosses usually have HP in the ballpark of 200k and above, and it gets worse from there.

While Vanille does have a Curaga-level medica, Miracle Prayer's bonus effect (+1 party-wide ability refresh) can be somewhat iffy, but Protectga is always solid, speaking from experience. XIII is a common enough realm, but the added Protectga can be useful enough to justify taking this on your A-team everywhere in the absence of a Curaga-level heal, much like Lullaby Rod.
- [BUILDING A PARTY / BATTLE STRATEGY]

Yoshimitsu
-- Are there multiple targets? 
Character: Thancred
-- Do you have to kill all of them to win, or just a main body? (i.e. bring AoE magic / attacks or not)
Soul Break: Dancing Edge
-- Does the boss primarily look like they'll use physical or magical attacks? (You can usually glean this from target conditions.)
Deal four physical attacks to one target and lower its DEF by a large amount.
-- If they're a mixed attacker, do you have the slots to spare for mixed Breakdowns or dances?
-- If not, which one is more important?
Breakdown:
-- Do they use single-target or AoE attacks more?
+ It's Armor Breakdown
-- If the former, would Magic Lure / Draw Fire / Runic effects neutralize the threat well?
+ It's decent XIV synergy
-- If their damage is elemental, is it serious enough to merit bringing an elemental resist accessory?
- It's literally Armor Breakdown, meaning it doesn't stack
-- Which phases of the fight are more difficult? Can you get by some portion of the early stage without boosting to save them for later?
- It's not an ATK/MAG debuff

- The Air Knives exist

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 whale who needs to git gud because holy shit how are you dying with that high a level and that many good SBs and that much synergy motherfucker explain yourself.
Also an old relic. Strictly better than Ninja Chainmail from the Beginner's Choice banner by virtue of being a weapon and being an XIV weapon with an Armor Breakdown effect to boot. While Thancred's Air Knives do exist and have a nice SB by virtue of being a Hastega, this is also an acceptable substitute if you're straight-up looking for XIV synergy.

[6.1] Retaliate-based Strategies --------------------------------------
Grand Armor

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). 
Soul Break: Tailwind

Casts Protect on the party, as well as a Cura based on maximum health and not the user's MND.


Breakdown:
Retaliate is often combined with a 2* Combat skill named Double Cut or a 3* Celerity skill Tempo Flurry, 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.
+ It's on a top-tier character

+ Not being MND-based saves you the trouble of having to gear to make it useful

+ Protectga is a nice bonus effect, can save you a slot in teambuilding

- Not a weapon

- You're using this SB over Shout 

In the days before Shout was released Advance was one of the best Soul Breaks to set as a RW, but it's still a good discount pick whenever you can find it.
For plenty of reasons, Shout chief among them, Ramza sees plenty of use: a Support 5* / Combat + Knight 4* lets him use an excellent variety of useful moves. Tailwind is simply another feather in Ramza's cap of versatility, at times relieving you of the need for a dedicated White Mage for healing or even casting Protectga. 

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.
While Tailwind is a good SB, the problem is that Ramza also has Shout -- and if you have both, by definition you're giving up Shout to use Tailwind. Nonetheless, easily one of the best picks you can make from the selection.

[6.2] Magic-based Parties -----
A summary:

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 strategy.
An extra closing note: the banner's available until the end of July next year, 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, which is fairly unlikely.

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, or otherwise using Burst Soul Break commands. 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. 

Bear in mind that one of these days you'll want to build at least one of these parties if you want to clear quite a bit of content: for example, VII's Bottomswell, XIII's Havoc Skytank (and all of XIII's hundred other out-of-range bosses). Retaliate can only get you so far.

Just as a note, though: If you are tackling Ultimate bosses for the first time, physically-biased parties are the easy way out. While aagic-biased parties are equally as viable, they will tend to rely a lot more on elemental attach / imperils, elemental weaknesses, and buffs such as Ley Lines or Sheepsong.

[6.3] Lifesiphon, Wrath, and Entrust --------------------------------------

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

The conclusion is obvious: several honed Lifesiphons are enough to be able to simply charge down a boss with repeated casts of powerful SBs. Once you build up your team and collect offensive SBs, you will start relying on SBs for better DPS, which is why Lifesiphon becomes incredibly useful later on.

It's a 4* skill, which means it needs Greater Power, Ice, and Wind Orbs from the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday dailies.

Wrath is a 4* support skill that charges the Soul Break gauge and is usually paired with a 5* skill called Entrust that transfers a user's Soul Break gauge to another. It's good for plenty of things (Y'shtola on her own makes good use of Wrath, and there are plenty of quick boss kill strategies that rely on charging an Overstrike with Entrust), but Lifesiphon is generally more common, mainly due to the fact that if you have a support character you have to wonder why they're not bringing a breakdown skill instead.

- A Medica (Will of the White Mage, Miracle Prayer, Pulse of Life, Sync, etc.)

- A Hastega (Emerald Light, Divine Guardian, Shout, Sheepsong, etc.)

[7.1] Starting Out and Core Dungeons

Long story short: your first priority is getting a core group of 5 characters leveled up to 50, and then 65, and so on -- absolutely focus on them before you worry about anything else. These are whoever you have Soul Breaks for plus a healer if your healer doesn't have a Soul Break -- if you get any new Soul Breaks along the way feel free to occasionally swap some characters in and out, of course.

Starting out is usually really confusing, especially if you come in during a "fest" event where there's tons of banners and events going on at the same time. Even then, you'll want to go through Core Dungeons first to amass not only Stamina Shards, which are handed out by the truckload at the beginning, but also Mythril for throwing at banners. The sooner you can do your first 11x draw, the better. A good benchmark for this is generally how many Classic dungeons you can take out in one go thanks to your Stamina Shard refreshes before you finally have to wait for it to recharge.

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. 

If events are ending really soon, though (a day or two before they end, let's say): prioritize Event Dungeons if only to get the featured characters. Again, if you're literally just starting out, use your 5* swords to clear the first stage or so. You'll get Growth Eggs as a clear reward for the first few sets -- dump them immediately into your characters so you can rush into higher-level stages.

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 proper 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 Finishing Touch or Energy Rain. They'll usually die in one hit, and your 5* from the first draw should be able to carry you through the mobs alright. 

Some of the early Elite dungeons are notable for having 4* equipment as rewards, which might be useful starting out. These are the Soul Break relics of the Core characters. The SBs are shit, obviously.

Sudden drops in Elite difficulty between dungeons are indicative of a split between dungeon updates, as an aside.

[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 or 3rd 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-round boss battles. 

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.


Ultimate / + / ++ - End-game level challenges. 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; likewise share your winning set-ups if you think they'll be helpful. 

Memory Crystal III lodes are handed out at the Ultimate + level.

A note: with the advent of realm-based Cid Missions for Ultimate-level bosses, their damage output has become significantly more manageable to cope with the likely loss of Wall in Cid Mission builds, making non-CM clears all the easier. The challenge, of course, usually stems from whether you have enough characters in a realm leveled enough to form a full party, and whether you have enough realm synergy or Medicas to pull through, meaning that once you have one or two of SG / Shout, it starts to become a good idea to do relic draws for realm-specific Medicas or pure synergy to clear CMs.

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

[7.3] Special Events

As of the latest update you can also remove followers from your list. If you have to, though, try to limit yourself to nuking either redditors who wear their site on their shoutout, or people who haven't played for like a month or so, or people who don't know how to set RWs so they still have a Judgment Grimoire Tyro. Don't be that guy.


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. From personal experience, Orb Dungeons are the reason I've been able to grind up characters enough to build Cid Mission-focused parties, with a ton of orbs just as a bonus.

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, skills, or accessories being handed out for free as well.

[7.4] Multiplayer Raids

Accessed from Raid Dungeons in the normal Event Dungeons menu, Multiplayer Raids are exactly what the name implies: form parties with up to four players, two characters each for a total of eight maximum in an instance. 

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


/ffg/ usually makes rooms with the password 7243 (rage), as is common for /v/ or /vg/, but you'll usually have to ask in the thread if anyone is interested in starting a raid instance. List whatever you can offer in terms of Soul Breaks / characters so we don't have four Ramzas / Tyros / Onion Knights running around.

A few tips:

- Make sure to set up your party in the Multiplayer Raid menu beforehand, because party set-up in a room is total shit: there's a huge delay on swapping out characters, practically locking in the characters you had before you entered. While there's a similar delay on swapping out skills, materia, and equipment, it's all visual and your changes will register properly and immediately.
- Double-check that your Soul Breaks are all in your deck, since at first every character only has their Default. Multiplayer loadouts are handled completely separate from solo loadouts.
- Randoms are super hit-or-miss. Usual signs of shitters include blowing their OSB load at the beginning with Mako Might before Shout or Vessel of Fate is cast, bringing physical-heavy characters when bosses counter physical attacks and vice versa, and so on. When they're good, though, they're really good (but also tend to be redditsheep).
Without any protection or stat debuffs against bosses, they can easily pop 4k+ damage against you with an AOE attack, likely causing a wipe. Worse, group-healing abilities in RK are basically limited to Soul Breaks, making it harder to recover from these attacks. 

[7.5] Torment Dungeons

As though Ultimate++ bosses weren't hard enough.

Buffs and debuffs work best when stacked. The general rule of stacking buffs and debuffs, however, is to pay attention to which stats they buff at a time:
The Torment Dungeons' nominal purpose is to hand out 5* motes first introduced in the far easier Five Dooms event, as well as some extra 6* crystals for honing, but they are, in general, whale / veteran bait and bragging rights. The Torment bosses at the end of each dungeon usually equal or surpass the strength of Ultimate++ / Apocalypse bosses, with a metric ton of HP and higher defenses to show for it. Worse, these bosses are actually preceded by mob rounds with actual difficulty -- and more of them than even regular dungeons do (4 mob rounds in D200; 6 in D250). 

Other than that, there are no gimmicks or tricks to it.

Some tips:
- Remember Retaliate strategy? Ingus and Gilgamesh's Bursts have built-in Draw Fire + Retaliate effects attached to their commands, and they are invaluable for preserving your ability charges through mobs if you have them. Normal Tauntaliate should work as well, but gimps you of a character's moveslots. Otherwise, AoE magic works well here.
- The boss(es) at the end of the dungeon have HP totals going well into 400,000 ~ 600,000 and onwards. If you don't have Burst commands to spam, you are very likely to run out of hones, so be careful.
- Abusing or creating elemental exploits is effective. If you can cause an Imperil or otherwise unload the element of a boss's weakness onto it, it's a huge plus.
 The longer the battle, the more mitigation / DPS you want to be consistently maintaining. A Nightmare D250 boss in Japan, for example, can go up to 600K HP, which is several levels above our current level and needs a serious amount of R4 / R5 hones.
- Hit-and-run charging your SBs at the start is absolutely not a bad idea [11.2], but from personal experience it's awful and tedious. Your stamina is refunded in all cases except a win, including fleeing.
- In general, being able to clear D200 Cid Missions and D250 relies on a lot of things going right, but most of it will have to do with how many good native Soul Breaks and synergy you have. Consider them the purest form of whalebait.

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.
[7.6] 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 often the genuine definition of trophy skills, 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 or ailment. The difficulty level of the gatekeeper dungeons ranges from + to Ultimate ++ and is usually ascending by order of Nightmare dungeon release.

Once you clear all four dungeons protecting a Record, the Nightmare dungeon boss is unlocked. It's roughly equivalent in power to an Ultimate or 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. Once the last Nightmare opens in February (Omega Drive) all the Nightmares will be open indefinitely.

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. 
[7.6.1] BLACK MAGE NIGHTMARE #1: Ultima Buster

REWARD: Ultima Record

Deal two devastating non-elemental attacks to all targets.

It's shit, don't bother.
-----------------------------------------
Recommended RWs: Sheepsong (Krile), Ley Lines (Papalymo)
Useful skills: As much Lightning and Fire as you can carry

This one is fairly simple. Ultima Buster has three phases: in the first, he won't deal much damage, given that his attacks will be low-tier 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:
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. 

- Water / ice: Party-wide Cure directed at you
- Fire / lightning: Attacks Ultima Buster for 10x the damage the attack dealt to the Sphere
- Non-elemental: Attacks Ultima Buster for a small amount, and greatly damages the Sphere
Just as a note, though: while magic-based parties are still viable in end-game content, DeNA hates them and jacks Ultimate-level bosses's RES sky-high, forcing you to rely heavily on elemental exploits, plenty of buffing (Sheepsong, most commonly), and plenty of hones. If you are tackling Ultimate bosses for the first time, physically-biased parties are the easy way out.

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

It's viable to forego heals on your set-up and use Water attacks on the sphere on the off-chance you'll need to heal.

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.

[7.6.2] COMBAT NIGHTMARE #1: Demon Wall

REWARD: Crushdown Record

Deal two massive physical attacks to all targets with a high chance to instantly KO.

...Long story short, 6* abilities won't be good for a while. It's generally not a good idea to craft the earlier Nightmare records.
Starting out is usually really confusing, especially if you come in during a "fest" event where there's tons of banners and events going on at the same time. Even then, you'll want to go through Core Dungeons first to amass not only Stamina Shards, which are handed out by the truckload at the beginning, but also Mythril for throwing at banners. The sooner you can do your first 11x draw, the better.

Recommended RWs: Shout (Ramza), Thunder God (Orlandeau)
If events are ending really soon, though (a day or two before they end, let's say): prioritize Event Dungeons if only to get the featured characters. 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. 


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 80000 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. If you can't force Phase 2 quickly enough on your own, Shout or some physical Overstrike SB will work well here as a RW.

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.

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. 

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.

[7.6.3] WHITE MAGE NIGHTMARE #1: Evrae Altana

REWARD: Reraise Record

Grants Reraise status, which revives a KO'd character with a massive amount of HP.

"lel"
-----------------------------------------
Recommended RWs: Transcendent Dream (Vanille), Asylum (Y'shtola), Seal of Heaven (Minwu), Star Prism (Relm)
Useful skills: Raise / Esuna / Dispel

This one hurts. It's also a nasty hone check: get plenty of Diaras and Diagas. You may as well keep the Diagas for later, too, seeing as Nightmare Guardian is a thing.

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.

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. Minwu's and Relm's BSBs work well here.

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, enough to force you to cast a healing SB.

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 all explode at the same time too and probably kill you.

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 everything you have left and finish him off.

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

[7.6.4] SUMMONER NIGHTMARE #1: Neo Bahamut

REWARD: Neo Bahamut Record

Deal three devastating non-elemental attacks to all targets.

Basically Ultima but in Summon form.
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- Randoms are super hit-or-miss. Usual signs of shitters include blowing their OSB load at the beginning with Mako Might before Shout or Vessel of Fate is cast, bringing physical-heavy characters when bosses counter physical attacks and vice versa, and so on. When they're good, though, they're really good.
Recommended RWs: Ley Lines (Papalymo), Sheepsong (Krile)

[7.5] 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 often the genuine definition of trophy skills, 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.


It's fairly easy to tell when he enters Phase 2, because at that point the background will change, which is Neo Bahamut's gimmick: he resists the element of the background and is weak to a corresponding element. Every two turns, the background will change, and the order is predetermined: it goes Fire -> Ice -> Thunder -> Fire; he's weak to Ice, Fire, and Water in that order as a result.

The trick, however, doesn't stop there: you'll have to do the counter-intuitive thing and hit him with the element he RESISTS. For every 1000 damage from a resisted element, Neo Bahamut will create or enlarge an energy sphere, one for every different resisted element. Attempt to enlarge two spheres at least once before moving on to Phase 3.

[7.5.1] BLACK MAGE NIGHTMARE #1: Ultima Buster


Spheres aside, at this point it's a race to the finish line -- kill him before he kills you.

[7.6.5] SUPPORT NIGHTMARE #1: CPU

REWARD: Quadruple Foul Record

Deal two physical attacks to random enemies with a moderate chance to Blind, Silence, Sleep, and Poison them.
Recommended RWs: Song of Swiftness (Edward), Sheepsong (Krile), Focus (Lulu)

I have no idea why this is even worthy of being 6*, especially given that at the end-game level almost everything is immune to almost all of those ailments.
-----------------------------------------
Recommended RWs: Shout (Ramza)
Useful skills: Multi Break

In an interesting departure from the preceding Nightmares, the CPU and its nodes are only resistant rather than immune to Break effects.

Phase 1 starts with a five-turn countdown to Nightmare Quadruple Foul. Set up your buffs and hammer on the Nodes -- once you kill both of them, Phase 2 begins as the CPU revives both, and the Quadruple Foul counter will reset to ten.

The two Nodes will, at this point, begin to deploy barriers and fields around the CPU. Barriers are removed by attacking the Attack Node with Power and Magic Breakdown, while fields are removed by attacking the Defense Node with Armor and Mental Breakdown. The physical ones will be deployed first, followed by the magical ones -- remove physical ones with Power / Armor; remove magic ones with Magic / Mental. It should go without saying that you shouldn't allow the Nodes to stack barriers or fields -- leave them long enough, and the CPU will go batshit insane and hit your party for 9999s, which will fuck your shit up.

The CPU also goes batshit insane if you somehow manage to let the Quadruple Foul countdown reach 0 or if both of the Nodes die, which shouldn't be happening anyway.

If there are no barriers or fields around the CPU and the Nodes are hit with a total breakdown effect like Full Break or Multi Break, they will go haywire and turn against the CPU for two turns -- the Defense Node will start healing your party, and the Attack Node will hit the CPU for 9999 each turn. Really, the only efficient way to do this is with Multi Break. 

Once the Nodes are haywire, wail on the CPU -- without either Node supporting it, it basically becomes helpless, since its attacks will get healed off by the Defense Node. Time a second Multi Break as the Nodes recover from haywire state and they'll immediately go berserk again before they even have a chance to deploy another barrier, which is usually enough time to bludgeon the CPU to death.

[7.6.6] CELERITY NIGHTMARE #1: Tonberries
[7.5.2] COMBAT NIGHTMARE #1: Demon Wall

REWARD: Northern Cross Record

Deal two physical attacks to one target with a moderate chance to Stop and interrupt its next action.

Northern Cross is actually the first 6* ability worth crafting, but it's unfortunately left forgotten most of the time since the Crystals required to craft it are usually reserved for a 6* ability that came right after, like Snowspell Strike, so it's an either-or situation with the two.
Long story short, 6* abilities won't be good for a while. It's generally not a good idea to craft the earlier Nightmare records.

Recommended RWs: Shout (Ramza), Vessel of Fate (Onion Knight)
Useful skills: Halting Rumba, any AoE Soul Breaks
Recommended RWs: Shout (Ramza), any pure damaging BSB

You'll start out with one Tonberry, and it's vulnerable to every paralyzing ailment there is, be it Slow, Stop, Interrupt, or Paralyze. It's to your benefit to do so, seeing as the less the Tonberries inch towards you, the less damage you'll take.

Once the first Tonberry dies, three will show up, as do nine colored circles. The gimmick here is that a Tonberry standing on a colored circle is twice as likely to be affected by a status effect: red being Stop, white being Slow, and blue being Interrupt -- they become immune to Paralyze from this point onwards.

The best way to control all three Tonberries is Halting Rumba to stop all three of them while you try to kill them. Also useful, if you have it, is Zack's Air Strike SB. Other than that, you'll need to bring Tempo Flurry and Dismissal as well to hit the target conditions.

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.


Once you kill the second wave, a third wave spawns, along with a new arrangement of circles which isn't as kind as the first and basically boils down to hoping Halting Rumba can stop two or three of them in one go. Repeat what you did for the second wave -- once they're all dead, the Tonberry King spawns. It's only vulnerable to Interrupt, is gimmick-less, and basically boils down to whichever one of you can kill the other first. Unlike the normal Tonberries, however, Tonberry King's Junk does not ignore DEF, which might come in handy if you don't want to be murdered by his occasional fits spamming it.

Probably a test of hones more than anything, since killing seven Tonberries comes up to about 460k HP + the Tonberry King's 160k. Hone plenty, make good use of AoE, and good luck.

[7.6.7] BLACK MAGE NIGHTMARE #2: Kaiser Dragon

REWARD: Meltdown Record

[7.5.3] WHITE MAGE NIGHTMARE #1: Evrae Altana


Meltdown is actually a great skill if you can get past the fact that you'll be stuck with 2 charges for a while, which people usually circumvent by using stuff like Indomitable Blade or Grand Cross to refresh ability charges.

There are ultrawhales in JP who actually spam stamina refreshes on Ultimate bosses (because they drop 6* crystals now!) -- just so they could hone this thing to Rank 3. So yeah, it's actually good (don't actually hone this to R3).
-----------------------------------------
Recommended RWs: Ley Lines (Papalymo), Sheepsong (Krile), Focus (Lulu)

Kaiser Dragon is a lot more dangerous on paper than it looks, mainly because his attacks actually hurt, but with a MAG boost and enough spam his HP is usually reducible to shreds. Bring a healer or two regardless.
Recommended RWs: Will of the White Mage (Minwu), Divine Guardian (Garnet), The Sending (Yuna)

As is commonplace, the first phase of the fight is plain damage. Once you get to the second part, Kaiser Dragon will kick off by using Meltdown, which ignores RES, and the Crystal beside Kaiser Dragon will become active, and Dr. Mog will tell you to use it but not really explain how.

The trick here is two-fold. The first part is as follows:

- Kaiser Dragon is weak to the element he is currently using against you. He'll cycle through them every two turns or so -- while he starts with a random element, he'll cycle through all of them at least once before repeating.
- To use the Crystal, as Dr. Mog suggests, use the element Kaiser Dragon is weak against on it, and it'll grant your party resistance to that element and a weakness to an opposite one. 

The main challenge of the fight is actually not beating Kaiser Dragon, but rather mastering the fight, since you'll have to bear the brunt of several elemental phases to hit both his Water and Lightning weaknesses. Use the Crystal's effect often (actually, only three times at most, for reasons explained below). A word of warning: his Earth-elemental phase uses physical attacks.

Again, damage him enough and you'll enter Phase 3, in which he loses weaknesses, the Crystal goes inactive, and all his attacks will start ignoring RES. 

The second part to the trick with the Crystal happens once you finish off Kaiser Dragon: before dying, Kaiser Dragon will cast Ultima once, then Meltdown twice, which you're basically guaranteed not to survive if you have to take the full brunt of it -- however, the Crystal from Phase 2 can actually block all three attacks before shattering, but only if you've used the resistance effect three times or less -- four or more and you'll have to find a way to survive the rest of it. It's blockable with Magic Blink effects such as from Tyro's Keeper's Tome or Selphie's Dreamstage, and Meltdown can be blunted by fire-resisting accessories, but it's probably not the best idea unless you're really struggling with the second phase of the fight.

[7.6.8] WHITE MAGE NIGHTMARE #2: Guardian

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. Yuna's The Sending SB is great for hitting all four of them at once, actually.


Restore an enormous amount of HP to one ally and grant a 2000 HP shield to recover any additional damage.

What makes Curada one of the more obviously viable 6* skills is the fact that it starts with four charges like all other heal skills. Currently, Yuna and Garnet have SSBs that do the same thing, and it's liable to become a more common effect in the future.

Anyway, it's literally a heal. There's not too much to say about it, but it's good.
-----------------------------------------
Recommended RWs: Ley Lines (Papalymo), Sheepsong (Krile), Strange Vision (Selphie), Tenets of the Fayth (Yuna)
Useful skills: Fire Veil, Water Veil, summons
Note that you'll be taking a lot of damage throughout this Nightmare, but that's what White Mages are for. Good luck!

Apparently the devs ran out of creativity so they gave us this shit. 
[7.5.4] SUMMONER NIGHTMARE #1: Neo Bahamut

The Guardian is composed of two Launchers, a Wave Cannon, and the Guardian's main body itself, which only becomes exposed if the two Launchers are destroyed. The Launchers regenerate after a certain amount of time; or along with the Wave Cannon when the Guardian reaches certain HP thresholds. 

The gimmick is as follows: the Wave Cannon will begin a cycle by locking on to one of your characters. If a character being locked on to uses an ability, the cursor will lock on to that character's target, or in the case of AoE (like a summon) one of the targets. Soul Breaks will not redirect the cursor. At lower health, the Wave Cannon will generate two and then three cursors at a time.

Practically, however, you're only allowed to use White Magic or Summons to redirect the cursors, as any other type of attack on any part of the Guardian except the Wave Cannon will be met with a counter that redirects the cursor back onto you. The cue to redirect the cursor onto a target is roughly when the DIFFUSION BEAM CANNON: ONLINE message appears, since on the next turn the Wave Cannon will fire.
Basically Ultima but in Summon form, made even worse by the lower return on even daring to hone it.

A note: Wave Cannon's damage is dependent on how much health it has, so if you're going to try to kill it the legitimate way, you can't allow the Wave Cannon to take damage. Anyway, this would be fine if not for the fact that the timing for redirecting the cursor is unpredictable, a fucking pain in the ass, forces you to play it incredibly safe, and finally, is even slower than brute force, so the generally accepted strategy for this Nightmare is to actually ignore the gimmick. 

Recommended RWs: Song of Swiftness (Edward), Sheepsong (Krile)
Destroy the Launchers and Wave Cannon with AoE and then brute-force the Guardian. Another problem is that the Guardian has fucking space-high DEF and RES (somewhere in the neighborhood of 10k, fuck if I know -- I've only heard this secondhand) which means Diagas off synergy-boosted MND usually hit in the range of ~2000; the Guardian has ~140k HP. This is why you'll need to either boost your damage as high as humanely possible (Selphie / Yuna BSBs are really good, since it's +30% MAG/MND) or find some other way to crank out damage, like summons, ninjutsu (which ignores RES), or even Soul Breaks (Beatrix's Knight Protector has niche use here, like inflicting Imperil Holy).

Note that ninjutsu triggers the Guardian's annoying Atomic Rays counter, which is from experience comfortably survivable under Shellga + SG. Other than that, brute force turns this into a hone check of the worst kind, so remember to dispel Regen on one of the Launchers for one of the target conditions, and good luck.

[7.6.9] SUPPORT NIGHTMARE #2: Necrophobe

REWARD: Affliction Break Record

Deal two physical attacks to one target and moderately reduce the chance its debuff skills will land.

Apparently good for multiplayer where bosses will throw out debuffs like no one's business, but outside that it's generally niche.
-----------------------------------------
Recommended RWs: Shout (Ramza), Keeper's Tome (Tyro), Beryl Serpent (Faris)
Useful skills: Carbuncle + AoE heal Soul Breaks
[7.5.5] SUPPORT NIGHTMARE #1: CPU

Like most other Nightmare bosses, Phase 1 consists of dealing enough damage to Necrophobe until his Barriers show up. He's vulnerable to any kind of breakdown effect in this phase and mostly uses physical attacks. Try to stack as many DEF-reducing debuffs as you can in this phase.

Once the Barriers show up, Necrophobe becomes immune to breaks with DEF / RES reductions (including Full Break), and gains a ton of DEF. The key is in the four Barriers surrounding him:

- Blue barrier: Armor Breakdown
- Red barrier: Power Breakdown
- Green barrier: Mental Breakdown
- Yellow barrier: Magic Breakdown

Any EXACTLY equivalent effect will also work (for example, the Deluge and Rough Tides commands on Faris's BSB can also trigger the Barriers' effects). The Barriers don't take damage and therefore don't die, so don't use Breakdowns on them unless you need to.

Anyway: at the start of this phase, a random Barrier will inflict Nightmare Doom on one of your characters with a 20-second timer. The gimmick entails using the correct Breakdown on the correct Barrier to trigger a Doom timer on one of your characters -- which in turn decreases Necrophobe's DEF/RES but increases his ATK/MAG. Likewise, toggling a barrier with an active Doom timer (you can tell which one is linked to a barrier by the color of the aura around the character) removes the Doom timer and reduces Necrophobe's ATK/MAG, but increases his DEF/RES.

This would be simple enough if not for the fact that the Barriers like to actually fucking attack as well. Apart from the odd AoE, however, most of their attacks are single-target (as are some of Necrophobe's magics) which is why Carbuncle will blunt most of the pain -- obviously this entails that you can only heal with Soul Breaks. 

You'll want to toggle on two or three Barriers at a time to deal steady damage to Necrophobe in Phase 2; focus essentially all of your mitigation on him since he has the bulk of the painful AoE attacks, plenty of which can't be reflected (Vacuum Wave is one). With proper handling of the gimmick and if your party has good survivability you should be able to kill him in this phase.

If you want to risk it, though: you can ignore the gimmick and wait out the ten turns on the second phase, in which case he'll recall all the Barriers and go back to his Phase 1 levels of DEF/RES. The only caveat is that he only has one attack in Phase 3: Nightmare Flare, which deals a fixed 9999 damage and can't be reflected or avoided save for Magic Blink. If you can expend a gigantic burst of damage in roughly a few seconds with a few Bursts and abhor dealing with the Barriers this might work better, but staying in Phase 2 is, for obvious reasons, usually the safer and more annoying way to go.

[7.6.10] CELERITY NIGHTMARE #2: Dervish

REWARD: Dervish Record

[7.5.6] CELERITY NIGHTMARE #1: Tonberries


In the first place, Vessel of Fate and Shout grant Haste already, which practically guarantees getting the damage bonus. It's okay I guess, but the case against crafting it is that it's purely damage-dealing as opposed to the utilities of Northern Cross or Affliction Break, for example.
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Recommended RWs: Shout (Ramza), Vessel of Fate (Onion Knight)
Useful skills: Dismissal, Tempo Flurry, and as much Interrupt as you can carry

The only actually hard part about this Nightmare is the first phase, since Atomos attacks normally then -- and doesn't even enter Phase 2 automatically at the HP threshold, instead waiting for his turn to properly roll around again. Be careful of Slowga, since it's usually his second action.

When he enters Phase 2, three gems will appear. They have varying effects based on their color -- if Atomos swallows any of them, he takes an extra action for each gem, usually a buff like Haste or a stat boost, which is bad news. If they're destroyed some other way, they'll trigger an effect -- usually AoE elemental damage, or in the case of an Amethyst being destroyed, a party-wide Doom timer. If he successfully sucks in gems, more will appear and the process repeats. 

If there are no gems on the field at a certain threshold, Atomos enters Phase 3 and the fight becomes kill him before he kills you.

None of this is an issue. Atomos is not only vulnerable to Slow, but also Interrupt -- and the only thing he does during the second phase is suck the gems in towards him to trigger their effects. Avoid AoE if possible so as not to destroy the gems, and if you can continuously interrupt Atomos, he's literally just an HP sponge of about ~350k HP which making this a boring and simple hone check.

[7.6.11] SUMMONER NIGHTMARE #2: Valigarmanda

REWARD: Valigarmanda Record

Deal three devastating fire, ice, and lightning magic attacks to all targets.

The difference between this and Neo Bahamut that makes it worth creating is the elemental exploit. Also, if you're familiar with Alphinaud's BSB at all, you should know that having one charge doesn't particularly matter when you have an ether on-call.
-----------------------------------------
Recommended RWs: Ley Lines (Papalymo), Sheepsong (Krile), Tenets of the Fayth (Yuna), Aerial Blast (Alphinaud)
[7.5.7] BLACK MAGE NIGHTMARE #2: Kaiser Dragon
Useful skills: Ifrit, Shiva, Leviathan, among the summons obviously needed

At the beginning of the battle, an energy orb appears above Valigarmanda, along with a 5-turn countdown to Nightmare Tri-Disaster. Destroy the energy orb to enter the second phase.

Once that's done, the orb respawns with the same countdown, except now Valigarmanda will spawn two colored barriers in front of him. These barriers grant Valigarmanda an elemental resistance based on their active color (but not the orb), and can be destroyed by an opposing element:

- Red barrier: Fire resist, destroy with ice
- Blue barrier: Ice resist, destroy with fire
Apparently there's an ultrawhale in JP who actually spammed stamina refreshes on an Ultimate boss (because they drop 6* orbs now!) -- just so he could hone this thing to Rank 3. So yeah, it's actually good.
- Yellow barrier: Thunder resist, destroy with water

The barriers will change color every once in a while, presumably in some determined order. In general, though: for example, if you see a blue barrier on the field and your active character is ready to cast Ifrit, it'll change color just a split second before the cast goes off, so you're usually better off guessing or predicting what color will come next and reacting accordingly instead.
Recommended RWs: Song of Swiftness (Edward), Sheepsong (Krile), Focus (Lulu)

If you successfully destroy both barriers (and not kill the Tri-Disaster orb at the same time), two Glutturns will spawn, one of which has to be yellow to meet the Mastery conditions. Kill the Glutturns to generate an ether, which you'll most likely need, since Valigarmanda actually has a decent amount of HP and summon charges are low. If you generate two Glutturns at the same time with the same color, the ether restores two ability charges.

Destroying the Tri-Disaster orb respawns a new one, and resets both the countdown and the elemental barriers. This goes on for a while until a bit under half his HP -- Phase 3 is marked by the Tri-Disaster orb spawning with a 3-turn countdown and no elemental barriers, which, in other words, is the usual "kill him before he kills you" deal.

As a note: Soul Breaks don't trigger Valigarmanda's Tri-Disaster counters, and there's no penalty for attacking the Tri-Disaster orb with non-summoning magic (for example, BSB commands), so feel free to use whatever you have if you're struggling to preserve hones. For obvious reasons, having Alphinaud's Burst goes a long way here.

[8] RECORD MATERIA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Kaiser Dragon is weak to the element he is currently using against you. He'll cycle through them every two turns or so -- while he starts with a random element, the cycling between them is fixed.

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 or even 3rd Memory Crystals that raise the cap further to 80 and 99. With breaking the cap comes a neat little bonus called a Record Materia: an equipped bit that gives an extra boost to its user. 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:

Ramza #2: Battleforged
User actions greatly charge the Soul Break gauge.
[7.5.8] WHITE MAGE NIGHTMARE #2: Guardian


Tyro #2: Dr. Mog's Teachings
Begin each dungeon (not each stage of each dungeon) with one full charge to the Soul Break gauge.
[Condition: Randomly obtained with the Keeper / Tyro in your party; must have Tyro's RM2 (Attunement II) and broken his 2nd level cap.]

What makes Curada one of the more obviously viable 6* skills is the fact that it starts with four charges like all other heal skills. Currently, Yuna has an SSB that does the same thing, and they should become a lot more common in the future as well (e.g. Y'shtola's BSB).

40% chance to double EXP gained from battle.
[Condition: Must have obtained Luneth's RM2 (Zeal) and broken Luneth's 3rd level cap. Obtained by raising Luneth to Lv. 99.]

Cloud #3: Mako Might
Recommended RWs: Sheepsong (Krile), Strange Vision (Selphie)

[Condition: Randomly obtained with Cloud in your party; must have Cloud's RM2 (SOLDIER Counter) and broken his 2nd level cap.]

Cloud #4: Truthseeker
Increases physical damage by 30% when user has a sword equipped.
[Condition: Must have obtained Cloud's RM3 (Mako Might) and broken Cloud's 3rd level cap. Obtained by raising Cloud to Lv. 99.]

Realistically, if you can't see yourself using a certain Record Materia at all (the case for most RMs), even for specific niches, toss it in the Vault for less clutter: View / Sell Items -> Record Materia -> Stash in Vault.

[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.

Destroy the Launchers and Wave Cannon with AoE and then brute-force the Guardian. Another problem is that the Guardian has fucking space-high DEF and RES (somewhere in the neighborhood of 10k, fuck if I know -- I've only heard this secondhand) which means Diagas off synergy-boosted MND usually hit in the range of ~2000; the Guardian has ~140k HP. This is why you'll need to either boost your damage as high as humanely possible (Strange Vision is really good, since it's +30% MAG/MND) or find some other way to crank out damage, like summons, ninjutsu (which ignores RES), or even Soul Breaks (Beatrix's Knight Protector has niche use here, like inflicting Imperil Holy).


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 refreshed twice, during the first Memory Crystal update a long time ago and when ++ dungeons were added, 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.

[7.5.9] SUPPORT NIGHTMARE #2: Necrophobe


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.

Recommended RWs: Shout (Ramza), Keeper's Tome (Tyro)


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 by plenty of 5* abilities; Lightning Orbs are used by Full Break.

[9.4] THURSDAY: SHRINE OF IVORY MIGHT (III)
You'll want to toggle on two or three Barriers at a time to deal steady damage to Necrophobe in Phase 2; focus essentially all of your mitigation on him since he has the bulk of painful AoE attacks that can't be reflected (Vacuum Wave is one). With proper handling of the gimmick and if your party has good survivability you should be able to kill him in this phase.

REWARDS:
If you want to risk it, though: at ~25% HP or less and if you have less than two Barriers toggled on at a time, he'll recall all the Barriers and go back to his Phase 1 levels of DEF/RES. The only caveat is that he only has one attack in Phase 3: Nightmare Flare, which deals a fixed 9999 damage and can't be reflected or avoided save for Magic Blink. If you can expend a gigantic burst of damage in roughly a few seconds with a few Bursts and abhor dealing with the Barriers this might work better, but staying in Phase 2 is, for obvious reasons, usually the safer and more annoying way to go.


[7.5.10] CELERITY NIGHTMARE #2: Dervish


[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

Recommended RWs: Shout (Ramza), Vessel of Fate (Tyro)


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

REWARDS:
When he enters Phase 2, three gems will appear. They have varying effects based on their color -- if Atomos swallows any of them, he takes an extra action for each gem, usually a buff or or they are destroyed, they'll trigger an effect -- usually AoE elemental damage, or in the case of an Amethyst being destroyed, a party-wide Doom timer. If he successfully sucks in gems, more will appear and the process repeats. 

Icenought Shrine: Ice and Non-Elemental Orbs

Similar to the Wednesday daily. 
This isn't an issue. Atomos is not only vulnerable to Slow, but also Interrupt -- and the only thing he does during the second phase is suck the gems in towards him to trigger their effects. Avoid AoE if possible so as not to destroy the gems, and if you can continuously interrupt Atomos he's literally just an HP sponge of about ~350k HP, making this a boring and simple hone check.

Full Break uses Ice Orbs.

[9.7] SUNDAY: SHORES OF WISDOM 
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 or even 3rd Memory Crystals that raise the cap further to 80 and 99. 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. 

REWARDS:
Shores of Wisdom: Growth Eggs

Drop whatever the fuck you are doing and grind the hell out of the Sunday dungeon. No exceptions -- /ffg/ calls it Sunday Funday for a reason (at least, on the rare occasions Sunday grinding is still talked about these days, fuck you BEcucks). The enemies here will give absurd tons of EXP for relatively low stamina cost, and often your progression can end up limited by what characters you actually have at a good level, especially if you draw a character's relic before you actually get them.

On + / ++, maximizing the use of your stamina and Growth Eggs can level parties of 50s straight to 65 or 65 to 80 -- once you really get going, you can usually cap characters faster than this game can shit them out for you.

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.

Gau #2: Feral Might

User begins battle with Haste and an Attack boost.

[Condition: Break Gau's 2nd level cap. Randomly obtained in dungeons with Gau in your party.]


Mind, most of these quests aren't typical RPG fare in that the objectives aren't things that you need to go out of your way to do -- in fact, if you're a new player, they'll be things that you'll end up doing one way or another, like leveling a character to 50, honing an ability, or doing a Rare Relic Draw, in one case.

[Condition: Must have obtained Luneth's RM 2 Zeal and broken Luneth's 3rd level cap. Obtained by raising Luneth to Lv. 99.]


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

[Condition: Randomly obtained with Cloud in your party; must have Cloud's RM2 and broken his 2nd level cap.]


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

[11.1] Force-restarting the app

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 force 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 INCREDIBLY 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] Hit-and-run SB charging

The Flee command is normally worse than useless: when you flee from a battle, you stay in the exact state you were when you fled, which means any characters already KO'd stay KO'd, any RW charges used are used, and any losses to your HP are retained. If you want to restart a battle by quitting out of it, it's better to quit out of it by means of force-restarting.

However, one other thing that is retained when you flee is the charge in your characters' SB gauges. What this means is that, theoretically, you can enter a battle, let your characters whack a target with the default attack to charge their SB gauge a little bit, and then flee before anyone is hit -- over and over -- until your SB gauges are ramped up to full. (And if any of your characters are hit before you can flee, just force close until they aren't.)

This would normally cost you a prohibitive amount of stamina -- but almost all the bosses on whom this trick can be applied to will cost either 1 stamina (Ultimate + / ++ / Nightmare bosses) or refund your stamina for fleeing (Torment bosses). 

From personal experience, without Ace Striker or Battleforged it usually takes about a full hour to charge a party's SB gauges all the way up to three. It should be up to you to decide whether you need that much, because this is grueling as fuck.

(DeNA is at least probably somewhat aware of this trick: D300 Torment bosses in Japan, known as "Full Throttle" bosses, start the party off with all three bars of the gauge filled -- and then prevent you from accumulating any more after that.)

[11.3] Good and bad ways to spend your Mythril
Ranked from best to worst:
- Relic Draws
- Inventory expansion
- Stamina refreshes
- In-dungeon revives when you lose a battle
- 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:
Wind Orbs are used in Thief's Revenge; Lightning Orbs are used by Full Break.

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? Festival events such as Break of Dawn come to mind here, since they provide tons of EXP for your characters and plenty of orbs to hone.

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.

[11.4] 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 a long time ago and they'll probably never show up in Global.

Also as of time of writing, Eiko is missing her Record Spheres, and we are missing the 6* Bard skill Allegro con Moto, which is actually supposed to be good.

Generally, if there's a feature in JP that Global doesn't have, it tends to show up in Global eventually, and if it merits explanation it'll show up in the guide -- which means that if it's not here then I haven't updated this and you can feel free to call me a faggot if you even read this far.

In terms of characters missed in previous events, this isn't much of a problem, like it is in Global at the moment: characters and Memory Crystals will be handed out like candy. 

If you want to start over from Global to JP, catching up shouldn't be too much of an issue. It's a similar or possibly faster grind than Global would have. 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, character skillset buffs, and Lucky Relic Draws. Furthermore, content that seems to be cut at first glance can usually come back in a different form -- for example, Japan received 20 Mythril as a New Year's milestone in the Dawn over the Big Bridge event -- Global had no such milestone to reach, but the Mythril was handed out later on as a special login bonus anyway.

Also, unless you speak moonrune, the client is obviously a lot easier 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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