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[Die Squirrel Die]

I haven't maxed any weapons yet, but how do you know what catalyst to use? I recall there being many of them.

Each weapon upgrade requires a specific catalyst. If you have the catalyst in your inventory, when you go to upgrade the name will be light up, whilst the others will be grayed out.

If you don't have the correct catalyst and need to know how to get it, then yes there are plenty of guides online, or just ask here.

 

[Vilix]

I started chapter 11 and just defeated Hope's l'Cie monster (forgot what it's called). Now, I'm in the open steppes of Pulse. I guess this is the best place to grind for CP and upgrade materials?

 

[Gromph]

You finished the game without upgrading any weapons? You at least upgraded the accessories right?

Neither weapon, neither accessories, just a few CP farm, but not too much.

Now after final battle, farmed a trape and levelled a Gale bolg to Kain's Lance max level, dismantle and now i have a Lionhearth -> Omega Weapon. Gale Bolg -> Kain's Lance, Belladona Wand -> Nirvana

I started chapter 11 and just defeated Hope's l'Cie monster (forgot what it's called). Now, I'm in the open steppes of Pulse. I guess this is the best place to grind for CP and upgrade materials?

Depends, i farmed a bit on Grand Pulse, but there are better places in chapter 12/13 pre-post game

 

[Dedication Through Light]

You finished the game without upgrading any weapons? You at least upgraded the accessories right?

You wouldnt need to do either to finish the game (storyline), in fact as long as you get everything in the crysterium, then the characters are strong enough, even with their base weapons and three accessories on each one.

 

[RedNumberFive]

You wouldnt need to do either to finish the game (storyline), in fact as long as you get everything in the crysterium, then the characters are strong enough, even with their base weapons and three accessories on each one.

Agreed. Just got to Chapter 13 last night, and I've had no difficulty with the game despite not uprading a single thing.

 

[CruxisMana]

End of Chapter 11:

Spoiler

So Lightning's real name is Claire? Don't correct me if I'm wrong though.

I heard her name was changed for the English version, so out of curiosity, what was her Japanese name?

And any advice for the end boss of chapter 11? I only proceeded so I could watch the cutscenes, but it looks pretty daunting.

 

[Amon37]

Man

Spoiler

Orphan's first form

is kicking my ass.

What a a cheap bastard, even in combat clinic I keep my HP up enough to survive or he uses that

Spoiler

instant death

attack

So frustrating

 

[Zoe]

End of Chapter 11:

Spoiler

So Lightning's real name is Claire? Don't correct me if I'm wrong though.

I heard her name was changed for the English version, so out of curiosity, what was her Japanese name?

Spoiler

Eclair. French for lightning.

 

[pix]

Been doing the Adamantiose in Eden and the Fang strat goes really fast and I never fail, unlike the Sazh one which it seems to cut too close for me sometimes and I have to switch paradigms a lot more often for.

Once you have a pretty established party and get the Genji Gloves, I would switch from the Vanille Death strat to this because it is guaranteed.

I have tried a few different setups but this is easy, guaranteed and fast. (I might do mission 63 strat later once I have 6 Traps just because it is more consistent but the great thing about this one is this is something I can multitask a bit on the computer and do.)

I will explain it step by step:

Fang

Kain's Lance made from Taming Pole
Energy Sash
Genji Glove
Power Glove
Power Glove

Lightning

Ultima Weapon
Energy Sash
Power Glove
Survivalist Catalog
Champion's Badge

Sazh

Hyades Magnums
Energy Sash
Growth Egg
Collector Catalog
Connoisseur Catalog

The Str accessories or fully upgraded Fang weapon may not be absolutely necessary, it just makes it faster. Of course you can further upgrade the other weapons or Str accessories to speed it up.

Paradigms in order of Fang as party leader, Lightning and Sazh

Com Rav Rav
Com Rav Rav
Com Com Com (Default)
Com Com Com
Sab Com Syn
Sab Com Syn

(Enables quick switching to pretty much instant refill of action gauge. Look it up if you don't know how to do this. I really don't need to use this anymore.)

I do this at the Eden save spot outside.

Make sure you have 3 TP for a summon.

Once the fight starts, switch to Sab Com Syn immediately. (The reason i make the COM COM COM one for default is for the two fights you need later.)

Once Sazh casts haste on all 3 chars, have Fang summon.

Put on Deprotect, Deshell, Slow, Curse, etc. You can either do this manually or just cancel after 2-3 tries, it should stick by then. Be careful to not cast too much though because you don't want to stagger the boss until your summon leaves. Really, I spend about 20-30 seconds just waiting for the summon to almost leave. Once you have those debuffs (especially Deprotect, switch to COM RAV RAV near the end and start attacking. Once the summon leaves, you should be at 400-499%. When you get a feel for how much you can debuff/attack, this becomes easy.

Keep on COM RAV RAV until it hits 950-999% and switch to COM COM COM. Attack until the mob is about 20-25% life or the Stagger is close to ending to the letter R or E in "Target" above the health bar (depending on Fang's Str) and then use Highwind.

No matter what, do not miss using Highwind if you are weaker. Even if it has a bit of life left, you should be able to finish it off quickly. It should take 2 mins or a little less of which a large portion is just waiting for the Eidolon to go away. If you are sufficiently upgraded, you may not even need Highwind to finish the mob.

Collect your rewards and you will see you have 2 TP! This is due to the Energy Sash on everyone and Gestalt TP boost Sythesized Ability from having Hyades Magnums, Survivalist Catalog, Energy Sash, Champion's Badge on the same person.

Now all you need to do is walk towards the building, kill the two sets of two soldiers here with COM COM COM default. You will have exactly a bit over 3 TP again. Go to the save spot, save and reload.

Rinse and repeat!

Thanks for the strategy man. I tried it out last night once and it worked exactly like you said, I just don't have enough power yet to defeat him before he gets up. So im using the summon/death trick for now until I can get my stats up a bit more.

 

[burgerdog]

4 ingots in a row! And I even got my average time down to 1min40secs.

 

[luxarific]

4 ingots in a row! And I even got my average time down to 1min40secs.

On the Eden Turtle? Wow, that's fast. I can only do him in 2:30-2:15.

(Have all accessories, now I'm grinding for gil to upgrade weapons)

Fang/Lighting/Vanille.

Fang: Kain's Lance Starred (Upgraded from Pandoran)/Genji/Kaiser/Power/Con Catalog
Lighting: Omega Weapon Starred (Upgraded from Axis)/Genji/Kaiser/Power/Col Catalog
Vanille: Belladonna, Level 53/Magistral/Gaia Ring/Imperial and something else

Out of 18 (recorded) kills of the Eden Turtle last night:

-6 Ingots (33% drop rate)
-1 Trap (I don't need these anymore, but I went ahead and equipped the Con Catalog anyways since it seems to help with Ingot drops (I killed ~15 turtles before I started recording stats and I didn't get a single drop of anything)).
-11 No-Drops

I love the Eden turtle since you don't even have to save/quit/restart. Just walk through the door to the complex and then come out again. Boom, new turtle. Plus if he doesn't drop anything, you can hit the guards up for chips.

I'm tempted to try this to up my ingot rate ((except it will make the Eden turtle take longer):

If you're looking for common drops, you want to try to game the system so that you get a 2-Star Rating or worse and keep a Collector's Catalog on.

Gil-scarcity is one of the worst things about this game. If there's an Int'l version I hope they let common enemies drop gil (not a lot, but a few hundred gil per mob would really let you experiment more with weapons and accessories. As it stands now, I really don't want to waste more time grinding gil to try different weapons).

 

[badcrumble]

On the Eden Turtle? Wow, that's fast. I can only do him in 2:30-2:15.

(Have all accessories, now I'm grinding for gil to upgrade weapons)

Fang/Lighting/Vanille.

Fang: Kain's Lance Starred (Upgraded from Pandoran)/Genji/Kaiser/Power/Con Catalog
Lighting: Omega Weapon Starred (Upgraded from Axis)/Genji/Kaiser/Power/Col Catalog
Vanille: Belladonna, Level 53/Magistral/Gaia Ring/Imperial and something else

Out of 18 (recorded) kills of the Eden Turtle last night:

-6 Ingots (33% drop rate)
-1 Trap (I don't need these anymore, but I went ahead and equipped the Con Catalog anyways since it seems to help with Ingot drops (I killed ~15 turtles before I started recording stats and I didn't get a single drop of anything)).
-11 No-Drops

I love the Eden turtle since you don't even have to save/quit/restart. Just walk through the door to the complex and then come out again. Boom, new turtle. Plus if he doesn't drop anything, you can hit the guards up for chips.

I'm tempted to try this to up my ingot rate ((except it will make the Eden turtle take longer):

If you're looking for common drops, you want to try to game the system so that you get a 2-Star Rating or worse and keep a Collector's Catalog on.

Gil-scarcity is one of the worst things about this game. If there's an Int'l version I hope they let common enemies drop gil (not a lot, but a few hundred gil per mob would really let you experiment more with weapons and accessories. As it stands now, I really don't want to waste more time grinding gil to try different weapons).

It's really just postgame; the game needs an accessory that converts CP into Gil.

 

[luxarific]

It's really just postgame; the game needs an accessory that converts CP into Gil.

Tell me about it. After I maxed out everyone's Crystarium, I sold my growth egg for 250K. A Gil Egg upgrade would have been fantastic.

 

[CruxisMana]

Spoiler

Eclair. French for lightning.

End of Chapter 11 again:

Spoiler

Although that makes more sense, I'm glad they changed it otherwise I would have just pictured her as a pastry for the rest of the game.

 

[Die Squirrel Die]

Gil-scarcity is one of the worst things about this game. If there's an Int'l version I hope they let common enemies drop gil (not a lot, but a few hundred gil per mob would really let you experiment more with weapons and accessories. As it stands now, I really don't want to waste more time grinding gil to try different weapons).

Hell even if they'd upped the drop rate on the saleable items, maybe had a few more for different enemy types, it would have been much better.

 

[burgerdog]

Or let you sell traps for 1 mil, of course, they'd have to remove the ability to get them by breaking nirvana and kain's lance. I'm sitting at 4.5 mil ATM, how much more do you think I'll need to get all accessories and weapons for the achievement. Keep in mind I have 3 lv3 weapons already.

 

[Gromph]

Or let you sell traps for 1 mil, of course, they'd have to remove the ability to get them by breaking nirvana and kain's lance. I'm sitting at 4.5 mil ATM, how much more do you think I'll need to get all accessories and weapons for the achievement. Keep in mind I have 3 lv3 weapons already.

1.5 million for each of the other 3 weapons.

Dont know about accessories

 

[Magnus]

Wish this game had a good non-mission boss. Like Omega Mk. XII.

In fact, I wish this game got Ultima or Omega Weapon as bosses in the first place.

I have this feeling that if Final Fantasy XIII International happens, it's going to be such a kick-ass game, and the West will get absolutely none of it...



May 28th.

Well now I feel like playing ToV and I don't even place it that high among the series or in my fav. RPGs. :lol

Region free ps3 games man! We can finally import Internationals. Japanese text, sure, but that's the only real hurdle.

 

[Tideas]

wait, first people complain that monster dorpping money is unrealistic....and now ppl are complaining monster don't drop money?

The eff u guys smoking.

 

[Digital-Hero]

I'm in Gran Pulse.

Spoiler

The game is now overwhelming and the difficult has been ratcheted up to insane levels. It makes me want to stop playing. Should I grind there and do all the missions or what?

 

[burgerdog]

1.5 million for each of the other 3 weapons.

Dont know about accessories

Haha, are you crazy? I'm not going to max out the lv3 weapons for the other 3 characters. Just getting their lv3 and leaving it at base level. Then reload my save, no way I'd spend gil on those chimps. I'd rather make a second set of ultimates for my main party.

 

[patsu]

Do the side missions. Avoid random encounter with large animals. The missions will help you.

 

[D23]

I'm in Gran Pulse.

Spoiler

The game is now overwhelming and the difficult has been ratcheted up to insane levels. It makes me want to stop playing. Should I grind there and do all the missions or what?

i would at least grind for CP (get ur primary roles to level 4) , and maybe do 15 mission.

 

[burgerdog]

luxarific, I think it's faster if you go down the stairs to repawn the turtle. You can kill the second juggernaut down the stairs and then have a pretty easy run back and forth. Juggernaut won't respawn from the run to the turtle, do turtle does respawn, however, by running to where the juggernaut was. The humbabas don't really give chase so you dont have to worry about them. Faster than the door method I think.

 

[Caj814]

wait, first people complain that monster dorpping money is unrealistic....and now ppl are complaining monster don't drop money?

The eff u guys smoking.

I don't think the majority of us found that as a problem to begin with.

So now that it's gone of course we are going to complain :lol

 

[Cruceh]

Spoiler

Cid is too damn annoying. I can get him down to about half but whenever he transforms, things stagnate. I got him to like 25% once but then he promptly killed me. I was using Fang Hope Lightning but then switched to Vanille Lightning Hope to try to do any better. Not working

 

[burgerdog]

Went from 13 ingots in one hour to 3 in one
hour.

 

[RpgN]

I just killed neochu both on mission 45 and 55, yay! On mission 45, he was killed the normal way since his minions weren't around at the beginning. That was intense and fun. On mission 55 I've used THE cheap trick though. Those minions are too annoying and that growth egg was waiting for me Just tried it out for a bit and finished playing for today. Next time, grinding will be so much fun

I do have a question though. You can upgrade your weapons up to 3rd tier form and have an ultimate weapon, can you do that with all your weapons? Like Lightning having 5 ultimate weapons? Or are you not allowed to do that once you fully upgraded one?

 

[burgerdog]

WTF? Do I have to farm mission 64 to get another ribbon? I only have one and if i upgrade it I won't be able hold all items at once since I'll be down a ribbon with a super ribbon in hand.

I actually don't understand the treasure hunter trophy. Do I need to hold every item in the game at once or just simply having it at one point works?

 

[RpgN]

WTF? Do I have to farm mission 64 to get another ribbon? I only have one and if i upgrade it I won't be able hold all items at once since I'll be down a ribbon with a super ribbon in hand.

I actually don't understand the treasure hunter trophy. Do I need to hold every item in the game at once or just simply having it at one point works?

Just having the item once should be enough. You can upgrade it and you can still get the trophy. Some accessories can only be obtained through upgrading, the game must keep track of what you had in your inventory.

 

[Die Squirrel Die]

This may be a weird question but how the fuck do you get the Bulwarker at the start of Chapter 12 to drop a Targeting Beacon?

 

[burgerdog]

Just having the item once should be enough. You can upgrade it and you can still get the trophy. Some accessories can only be obtained through upgrading, the game must keep track of what you had in your inventory.

Are you absolutely sure? God, I'm getting a headache over how lame this trophy is.

 

[RpgN]

Are you absolutely sure? God, I'm getting a headache over how lame this trophy is.

I can't confirm it from experience since I haven't fully upgraded all the weapons and accessories yet but I've read lots of people saying that. If you want to make sure, you can wait for someone to confim this who got that trophy.

Also, the trophy description says:

held every weapon and accessory.

But I guess it's better safe than sorry

 

[BeeDog]

Gah, can't find any helpful shit about the weapon upgrading. The GameFAQs guides fly right over my head; can someone recommend a complete noob-tutorial on how to upgrade weapons and what items/weapons to use etc.? Thanks in advance.

 

[burgerdog]

I can't confirm it from experience since I haven't fully upgraded all the weapons and accessories yet but I've read lots of people saying that. If you want to make sure, you can wait for someone to confim this who got that trophy.

Also, the trophy description says:

held every weapon and accessory.

But I guess it's better safe than sorry

I think you're right. I just tried to upgrade everything with 6mil and it wasn't enough. Owned by perovskite, I need a bunch and they're 30k a pop.

 

[Yoshichan]

You do not need to hold any accessory or weapon for the trophy to activate. Confirmed by me.

 

[badcrumble]

luxarific, I think it's faster if you go down the stairs to repawn the turtle. You can kill the second juggernaut down the stairs and then have a pretty easy run back and forth. Juggernaut won't respawn from the run to the turtle, do turtle does respawn, however, by running to where the juggernaut was. The humbabas don't really give chase so you dont have to worry about them. Faster than the door method I think.

The best method, if your CP is maxed out already, is just to save, quit to the title menu, and reload after a successful drop, and just quit to the title menu and reload if you don't get a drop.

 

[RpgN]

You do not need to hold any accessory or weapon for the trophy to activate. Confirmed by me.

There you go, happy upgrading Thanks Yoshichan!

 

[Papercuts]

Spoiler

Cid is too damn annoying. I can get him down to about half but whenever he transforms, things stagnate. I got him to like 25% once but then he promptly killed me. I was using Fang Hope Lightning but then switched to Vanille Lightning Hope to try to do any better. Not working

Spoiler

I don't remember my setup but I DO remember beating him in 2 minutes after taking a few long shots at it before. Just spend some time at the start casting buffs, work up a stagger and air juggle him to death--I was able to completely bypass the transformation with that.

 

[desverger]

Gah, can't find any helpful shit about the weapon upgrading. The GameFAQs guides fly right over my head; can someone recommend a complete noob-tutorial on how to upgrade weapons and what items/weapons to use etc.? Thanks in advance.

Well, the gamefaqs guide is pretty self-explanatory.

Step 1. Buy 72 each of Sturdy Bone, Barbed Tail, and Vibrant Ooze from Creature Comforts.
Step 2. Use 36 of any of these to get a 3x bonus
Step 3. Use the components listed in the guide to get your weapon to max level, for example if you're upgarding Lionheart to Ultima Weapon, use 28 Perfect Conductors from Lenora's Garage
Step 4. Level up the *'d weapon with the proper catalyst, you can buy them from The Motherlode

You lose or lessen the bonus in the item when you use mechanical components on it (which offer more exp), so if this happens just get it back to 3x again somehow.

 

[Yoshichan]

There you go, happy upgrading Thanks Yoshichan!

Not at all !
Also, MAJOR CREDITS GOES TO ONKEN for this tip:

Get all the accessories then make a separate save and sell them all. Should net you most of the cash you need. Make the weapons, get the trophy and then reload.

This pretty much halves the time needed for farming since I got approximately 3.5 mil from selling accessories.

 

[shas'la]

I'm in Gran Pulse.

Spoiler

The game is now overwhelming and the difficult has been ratcheted up to insane levels. It makes me want to stop playing. Should I grind there and do all the missions or what?

I completely ignored all off the open world stuff/hunt missions, and just carried on with the story. The next few corridoors will be a bit tough, but only for a 5-6 fights till you've got enuf CP to be at the right level.

 

[BeeDog]

Well, the gamefaqs guide is pretty self-explanatory.

Step 1. Buy 72 each of Sturdy Bone, Barbed Tail, and Vibrant Ooze from Creature Comforts.
Step 2. Use 36 of any of these to get a 3x bonus
Step 3. Use the components listed in the guide to get your weapon to max level, for example if you're upgarding Lionheart to Ultima Weapon, use 28 Perfect Conductors from Lenora's Garage
Step 4. Level up the *'d weapon with the proper catalyst, you can buy them from The Motherlode

You lose or lessen the bonus in the item when you use mechanical components on it (which offer more exp), so if this happens just get it back to 3x again somehow.

Hmm, alright, makes it a bit clearer I think. Thanks!

But Yoshichan, your post (that refers to Onken's comment) suggests that accessories should be upgraded first, before one even attempts to upgrade weapons, right?

 

[Yoshichan]

But Yoshichan, your post (that refers to Onken's comment) suggests that accessories should be upgraded first, before one even attempts to upgrade weapons, right?

IMO yes, if you start with the accessories (which is cheaper to upgrade than weapons), you can sell them after you've gotten them all (and confirmed 5 times that you got'em all. You wouldn't want to miss one or you're fucked!)

 

[badcrumble]

Not at all !
Also, MAJOR CREDITS GOES TO ONKEN for this tip:



This pretty much halves the time needed for farming since I got approximately 3.5 mil from selling accessories.

That's very smart. I think I might end up sticking with doing it the slow way, though, because I'm kind of crazy and want to have a fully maxed-out save file with the most powerful accessories and every single maxed-out ultimate weapon. Yes, I'm aware that farming Trapezohedrons for this will take ages (although once I've got three maxed out ultimate weapons I'll feel free to do that Long Gui switch and start farming them instead).

I hope Square-Enix releases some kind of DLC for the game so all of my efforts don't feel like a completionist's waste of time :lol

 

[Yoshichan]

and want to have a fully maxed-out save file with the most powerful accessories and every single maxed-out ultimate weapon. Yes, I'm aware that farming Trapezohedrons for this will take ages

This is incredibly hardcore and I fucking bigbossalute you if you some day manage with this!

 

[Vilix]

Been farming CP all afternoon on the Steppes of Pulse. Those King Behemoths give out 4000. And they're really easy if you're able to pull off a prementive strike.


When I first started the game I was very annoyed at all the movies. And RPGs are just not my type of genre. But, the one thing that keeps me coming back is the style. I grew up playing Japanese styled games. The music, the design, and the overall feel just do it for me. Very rarely do western devs have this type of style IMO.

 

[burgerdog]

That's very smart. I think I might end up sticking with doing it the slow way, though, because I'm kind of crazy and want to have a fully maxed-out save file with the most powerful accessories and every single maxed-out ultimate weapon. Yes, I'm aware that farming Trapezohedrons for this will take ages (although once I've got three maxed out ultimate weapons I'll feel free to do that Long Gui switch and start farming them instead).

I hope Square-Enix releases some kind of DLC for the game so all of my efforts don't feel like a completionist's waste of time :lol

Worry not about Trapezohedrons if you're going for a save file that has all accessories. I already have 9 Traps(3 have been used, 6 spare)so Traps will not be a problem at all. Hm, with the accessory tips here I might just be able to wing it with my 6mil and then 3mil from selling the items.

 

[badcrumble]

Worry not about Trapezohedrons if you're going for a save file that has all accessories. I already have 9 Traps(3 have been used, 6 spare)so Traps will not be a problem at all. Hm, with the accessory tips here I might just be able to wing it with my 6mil and then 3mil from selling the items.

Well, not ALL accessories - just the best ones of each type (only super ribbons, gaia rings, imperial armlets, et cetera).

 

[luxarific]

luxarific, I think it's faster if you go down the stairs to repawn the turtle. You can kill the second juggernaut down the stairs and then have a pretty easy run back and forth. Juggernaut won't respawn from the run to the turtle, do turtle does respawn, however, by running to where the juggernaut was. The humbabas don't really give chase so you dont have to worry about them. Faster than the door method I think.

Ooh, will try that tonight. I definitely have to kill the juggernaut(s) to get the turtle to respawn?

The best method, if your CP is maxed out already, is just to save, quit to the title menu, and reload after a successful drop, and just quit to the title menu and reload if you don't get a drop.

Dude, that takes forever - I'd much rather just run down some stairs/go through a door to reroll a turtle.