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Final Fantasy: Record Keeper |OT3| When having no onions makes you cry

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Previous OT

Developer: DeNA
Publisher: Square Enix
Price: Free (with IAP)
Platforms: iOS & Android
Release Dates:
  • Japan - September 24, 2014
  • Canada - March 17, 2015
  • US/Europe - March 26, 2015


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Final Fantasy Record Keeper casts you in the titular role of "record keeper", playing a young boy named Tyro <whatever you want> in a library where records of the games in the franchise have started disappearing, and it's up to you to restore order.

You recruit characters from the games,
attempt to
collect epic loot
like Josef's Giant's Gloves (II)
, battle enemies, play out events, vanquish villains
multiple times
from the games in the franchise and ultimately attempt to get to the bottom of the mysterious situation.

Combat is pure 2D-sprite based ATB Final Fantasy, and the older and newer entries have been lovingly conformed to this format. The game starts off easy enough, but balloons into near-absurdity at end-game, where juggling abilities, soul breaks (limit breaks) equipment and the ever-overpowered Friend Summon system to effectively come up with strategies to progress.

This game requires a time investment and some modicum of reading up on best-practices, etc.

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Is this game pay-to-win?
It's more "pay to advance faster". You do not unlock characters by a gacha system. You can only recruit new characters by advancing in the story. The gacha system in this game is to gain weapons and armor. You gain Mythril by beating stages, and Mythril is used to roll for weapons and armor. You also find weapons and armor from enemies, but this in generally weaker than the stuff from premium rolls.

How fair is the gacha system?
On October 2016, DeNA added guaranteed 5* on 11 pulls. When using 50 Mythrils or 3000 gems to pull, you will always get a minimum of 1 5* or stronger (we now have 6* relics). On a single pull, the chance to draw a 5* is about 14%. While is it thought to be a bit lower, the rate is still pretty close for 11 pulls. For a specific relic featured on a banner, the chance per single pull is from 1% to 2%, depending of the type of relic.

Just did an 11 pull and my 5 star was off banner, what happened?

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So, what's the drawback?
It has a stamina system. It's actually pretty fair compared to other games, but it's there. You rarely have to take breaks if you simply follow the main story path.

Why should I play this?
It's super nostalgic. Classic Final Fantasy characters, classic Final Fantasy music, it just oozes nostalgia. It's also probably the best Final Fantasy smartphone (non-port) game. It's fair, it's fun, and it's free. Give it a try.

Why not the Japanese version then?
It's not like you can't. In fact, JP service is just as fun, and actually ahead in terms of progression and features. On the other hand, the global version has the JP version as a blueprint, and allows one to plan in broad strokes what the next few weeks might look like. Depends what you're looking for, I guess. Most of the OT plays on the global/EN version.

This game is extremely laggy on my device!
As of Dec 14th 2015 with the new UI, if you're experiencing menu lag go to Menu > Config and switch to Simplified Display. Should make it faster to navigate the menus.

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- Back up your game! We read our fair share of stories about people accidentally losing their save data. To prevent this, you can go to Menu > Manage Account > Manage Account link > Pick how you want to back up (Facebook, Google Account, Game Central). On this same page you can see your User ID. It might be a good idea to note the code somewhere in case anything ever happens and you need to contact support.

- Make sure you spend your orbs and crystals on raising the level of your abilities. It's really important because they all have limited usage and low level ones only give you 2-4 uses which make it harder to go through the much longer dungeons in the game. So do not forge more than 1 or 2 until you get them to a sufficient level.

- You receive characters by defeating certain dungeons. For some of the high profile ones, they'll have a weekly dungeon that comes up and stays around for awhile. So do not worry about not getting Tidus or whatever now or spending money on Mythril to restore your stamina. Take it slow as you'll have time. Also, the game periodically has mega-events that give you wildcards to unlock from a plethora of characters and Memory Crystals.

- All of the characters are pretty different so make sure you're setting up balanced teams. The Elite dungeons are tough and the later ones will really require you to be prepared for them as some of the bosses will have ridiculous amounts of life and strength.

- When starting out, 2-3 star gear is fine to keep and upgrade to ++ levels But as you get more gear, especially the 4 and 5 star pieces, it's OK to fuse or sell them for gil. Despite being able to upgrade the star level of gear, their base stats and growth are from them their original star form. So a 2 star gear can be raised to 4 star but it's stats won't be nearly as good as a native 4 star piece. Same with 3 stars that were made into 5 star gear. Native 5 star gear will be stronger in the long term. Gil is a more difficult resource in the game to get so just start phasing out old gear as you get a bunch of stuff.

- In addition to combining, 3,4 and 5 stars relics can now be reforged using Dark Matter (available at the Fat Chocobo’s Ghysahl Exchange) once they have been combined to their maximum. A 3* can now be raised to 6*, a 4* to 7* and a 5* to 8*.

- Characters resonate with their individual worlds and get a level bonus making them stronger there. This is really nice but be careful about spreading your time and experience between chars too thin. IMO, it's more important to raise a char to higher levels and break their level limit with their memory crystal as it makes them far more usable overall.

- Record Synergy is a significant power boost. Characters, as stated above, but more importantly gear. The numbers work out that a 2++ (farmable 2* equipment combined twice and upgraded to the maximum) with Record Synergy generally is on the power level stat-wise as a non-Record Synergy 5* item. A 4* Synergy item will often outright outclass a non-Synergy 5*. DON'T THROW AWAY ITEMS JUST BECAUSE THEY APPEAR TO HAVE SLIGHTLY LESS STATS.

- THE FIRST RULE OF FIGHT CLUB IS: Never, ever pull relics (especially with cash) with the intent of getting a specific item.

- A good medium term goal is to get Black Mage, White Mage and Summoner to 50, to unlock their 2nd Record Materias, which recharge 1 use of each school per stage. This is bread and butter for lv80+ dungeons and events to have enough gas left in the tank when facing the boss. On the flipside, BM/WHM/Summoner themselves really, really suck, so this is a huge chore.

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iOS link.
Android link.
Official page.
Wikia with basic information.
English Wiki with a lot of information.
Japanese Wiki of the above link, but it's in Japanese (and has content not available to the west).
Steamed Pork Bun FFRK site - a very useful (but non-halal) site with previews of upcoming events.
FFRK subreddit
Relic Draw Simulator from FFRK Central Test your luck on this simulator, updated when new banners come up.
Most recent datamined announcements The Recent In-Game Announcements section at the top shows datamined announcements, usually a day before they appear in the game.
FFRK Friend Codes Tracker A great website to search for friend codes. Allows you to sort Roaming Warriors by the relevant stats.
Kongbakpao's Google Calendar of events The datamined dates for upcoming events. Note that dates can always change.
Datamined Gacha Banner Images For planning when to save and when to splurge.


Nerdery corner (Hard data, thanks Reddit)
Quick Info Spreadsheet useful for e.g. ctrl-f "5 - support" for finding who you can stick Full Break on, etc. Also sortable columns for stats, etc.
Battle Mechanics & Formulae - WHAT DO THEM STATS DO DOC?
Battle Multipliers database for at-a-glance checking and comparing effectiveness of buffs/debuffs/etc.
Auto-updating (& underused) 4* Orb Droprate spreadsheet Results can be off due to low sample sizes esp. for newer entries, but a good resource overall regardless.
Event List Maintained event list of past/present/future (thanks JP) events along with dates/forecasted dates/etc.
Enlir's FFRK Database another comprehensive lookup

Special thanks to Falk, Einbroch, MicH and Shouta for their information from the last OT and thedan001 for the banner modifications!

MOD ABUSE EDIT:
Quote to reveal FFRKGAF Discord link
 

Wazzy

Banned
Wonderful OP for a wonderful community.

Once again Merry Christmas RKGAF since it's officially now today! I'm going to go back to orb fest grinding lol
 
Merry Christmas to everyone involved. Very appropriate time to make a new OT. New Year approaching, Orbfest in full swing and all the Mythril we're getting!

Good luck with all the banners!
 
Merry xmas and happy holidays everyone

Got a big old lump of rk coal when I did a full orbfest run and got nothing, no cactaur, gigantaur, mini cactaur, or gold knights &#9760;
 

MrDaravon

Member
Merry Christmas everyone!

Unrelated - this orbfest suuuuuucks. 2nd phase hits tonight, and min/maxing stamina and actually refreshing a couple of times I have seen a total of ONE Gigantuar. This is actually garbage.
 

Dragner

Member
It seems that Cloud will be getting and USB that makes him enter ex mode and break damage cap while in its effect. New era of powercreep in 6 months.
 

Syntsui

Member
What makes OSB fest so exciting considering FF XIV comes right after? I saw the banner on reddit, but what exactly are you guys after?
 
What makes OSB fest so exciting considering FF XIV comes right after? I saw the banner on reddit, but what exactly are you guys after?

For me fest banners are always about getting a good collection of stuff across a variety of realms. This year I'm only pulling on banners 3 and 5 since I have no dupes in either so whatever I get will be new.
 

Dragner

Member
What makes OSB fest so exciting considering FF XIV comes right after? I saw the banner on reddit, but what exactly are you guys after?

Osb fest are usually catchup synergy for several realms and bring fan favourite relics, like wall, shout and most of the top tier bsbs are on this banners(RIP Vaan BSB). For newcommers are the best banners to pull, since they wont have most relics and less risk of dupes. Also this banners have a 4% for BSB or better on each orb. Better than 3% of actual banners.
 

Syntsui

Member
I wasted too much mithril already, I think it's best for me to hold for FFXIV only, as the only thing I'm missing right now are good support/healing relics.
 

Dragner

Member
I have 400, 100 on banner 1 targetting Refia and Vanille, Kain is nice too, and Terra OSB is great vs Nemesis.

Then 300 max for XIV 1 targetting yshtola and alphinaud bursts. Then I think Ill pass on Raines BSB and RW it when I go mages and hoard for 2nd anniversary and Thunder God Cid.
 
I begin to get cold feet about my 100 Mythrils planned for Banner 1 tomorrow. So scared of Tin Armor dupe 1/11. A second Shout is realm synergy I guess but FFT is never too hard. Thyrus has so many chances to be pulled on XIV...

I think it's Vanille stopping me from backing away from pulling. I already have Eiko BSB and will try hard for Y'shtola BSB, but insta cast is so nice! Plus, I want Vanille back in my A-team... Lightning OSB banner is far from being as good as OSB1, but I have no dupe there and my XIII synergy is terrible. No Hastega, no Medica, no Boostga. I could pull once on Lightning 1 and twice on Lightning 2 for Raines. The itch to pull for tomorrow is so strong, though... And Kain is a favorite of mine plus Refia BSB would just be such a great addition to my team.

7 pulls is what I have to allocate between OSB1, XIV 1 and XIII 2. Hoping to get away with less pulls! Need to save for Raijin and Fujin banner and second anniversary!
 
Strong reminder to RK-GAF who aren't entirely F2P that a lot of unwanted iTunes/Android gift cards get dumped onto gift card reseller services like Zeek at this time of year. You can get some OSBfest pulls cheaper that way if you're desperate.
 
I had a little bit of a realization this morning. I haven't cleared all the story dungeons, and many of them offer guaranteed Major Orbs + greaters as rewards. orbfest dungeons give majors at about 90 stamina / greater, but often you can get them for as little as 40-50 stamina in the story dungeons, plus build up your stamina at the same time.

So I've switched from orbfest dungeons back to story dungeons for now, spamming refreshes again. And I'm *gaining* mythril in the process rather than losing it. It's slower than orbfest because I can spam orbfest dungeons faster, but since I've cleared most of my high priority orbs for phase 1, I can just do this until phase 2 hits (and I think I've cleared most of my high priority items from phase 2 also).

Up from 118 stamina yesterday to 126 stamina today, and I've gotten about 7 or 8 major orbs and 20+ mythril in the process.
 

Kyari

Member
I've never mythril stamina refreshed an orb fest. I'm just kind of going through the motions with this one, since I'm sitting on like 100-200 major orbs of each unused.
 

Anustart

Member
I begin to get cold feet about my 100 Mythrils planned for Banner 1 tomorrow. So scared of Tin Armor dupe 1/11. A second Shout is realm synergy I guess but FFT is never too hard. Thyrus has so many chances to be pulled on XIV...

I think it's Vanille stopping me from backing away from pulling. I already have Eiko BSB and will try hard for Y'shtola BSB, but insta cast is so nice! Plus, I want Vanille back in my A-team... Lightning OSB banner is far from being as good as OSB1, but I have no dupe there and my XIII synergy is terrible. No Hastega, no Medica, no Boostga. I could pull once on Lightning 1 and twice on Lightning 2 for Raines. The itch to pull for tomorrow is so strong, though... And Kain is a favorite of mine plus Refia BSB would just be such a great addition to my team.

7 pulls is what I have to allocate between OSB1, XIV 1 and XIII 2. Hoping to get away with less pulls! Need to save for Raijin and Fujin banner and second anniversary!

I don't even know if there's anything I'm really wanting during fest. Banner with Luneth and Quistis looks aiight. Dunno what the hype is with banner 1, looks pretty tame.
 

Dragner

Member
I don't even know if there's anything I'm really wanting during fest. Banner with Luneth and Quistis looks aiight. Dunno what the hype is with banner 1, looks pretty tame.

Top 3 Healer BSB to this day in Japan
Top 3 physical enelement BSB to this day in Japan
One of the best DPS relics in the entire game to combo (Kain BSB + Lightning Dive)
One of the best OSB against nemesis
Shout
Wall

Thats 6 good prices, and the other stuff is not terrible, for Cid Missions.
 

Balphon

Member
I don't even know if there's anything I'm really wanting during fest. Banner with Luneth and Quistis looks aiight. Dunno what the hype is with banner 1, looks pretty tame.

The worst thing on it is Tin Armor and even that's pretty good.

The three bursts are among the best in the game.

I have two of the items on it and even I'm going to pull.
 

Kyari

Member
I don't even know if there's anything I'm really wanting during fest. Banner with Luneth and Quistis looks aiight. Dunno what the hype is with banner 1, looks pretty tame.

I'm tempted by Banner 4 because every power up I can get for Tyro is a self masturbatory power up for myself.

Custom sprites have me far too invested in Keeper relics.
 
I've seen one Gigantuar so far. Can the regular cactuar drop Major Orbs because I seen those on the results screen? I haven't been paying attention when I auto orbfest.

I'm gonna do one pull on banner 1 because its has stuff I need even with 3 dupes. Not sure if I'll try for a 2nd pull. Then the rest for XIV and if I have anything left after 4 pulls, Thunder God Cid baby.
 

Kenai

Member
I've seen one Gigantuar so far. Can the regular cactuar drop Major Orbs because I seen those drop? I haven't been paying attention when I auto orbfest.

Not sure about normal trash mobs or small cacti (have seen a few greaters from those) but I am pretty sure normal cacti are 100% greater orbs.

I know people were mentioning not refreshing during this fest, but I still have a ton of things to get from the wheel despite spending all my stamina sans 60 for the FFV event on it and it's making me nervous. I don't want to refresh during the material phase for chips, I was under the impression I'd have a lot more by now.
 

Anustart

Member
I'm convinced they start osb fest days after orbfest to try and get me to spend mythril on junk banners. I'm on to you dena.
 

MrDaravon

Member
Via natural stamina only I saw one Gigantaur this phase, and then I refreshed 10 times and only saw two more, and none of the 3 were the only orb type I needed this phase (Ice). Even via conversion I only made a grand total of 9 Major Ice orbs this phase. Wooooooow fuck this orbfest, this is amazingly fucking shit compared to past ones. I'm getting literally none of the honing I wanted to do done this orbfest, I'm not even considering refreshing for the rest of the duration for it (I should be able to finish my leveling without needing it). What hot garbage :/.
 

Syntsui

Member
As this is my first Orb Fest, I can't judge it as a whole but I definitely expected more Major Orbs. The bottleneck is real.
 

Anustart

Member
Via natural stamina only I saw one Gigantaur this phase, and then I refreshed 10 times and only saw two more, and none of the 3 were the only orb type I needed this phase (Ice). Even via conversion I only made a grand total of 9 Major Ice orbs this phase. Wooooooow fuck this orbfest, this is amazingly fucking shit compared to past ones. I'm getting literally none of the honing I wanted to do done this orbfest, I'm not even considering refreshing for the rest of the duration for it (I should be able to finish my leveling without needing it). What hot garbage :/.

If I remember correctly you were the guy that was getting like 3 gigantuars every go around, every refresh last fest and walked away with like 700 of each major orb. Can't have that kind of luck all the time.
 
I'm at 6 Gigantuars with no refreshes, but every time you get Golden Knights it's like you got at least one Major Orb. I think people are forgetting a bit about the amount of orbs we get through the roulette.
 

Dragner

Member
As this is my first Orb Fest, I can't judge it as a whole but I definitely expected more Major Orbs. The bottleneck is real.

There was a time when orbfest was the best source for majors, now with the rehauled dailies and events giving 25 majors each I dont think they are important enough anymore.

Events 6 months ago gave half those orbs.
 
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