Final Fantasy: Record Keeper - Mobile Gaming Cash Grab

Tempting to do a pull on banner 3 for some nice mage items. Hope's bsb would be awesome.

I'll be passing on all the Colleseum banners. None are particularly good for me and I've had my eye on the X banner coming out this week.

Not a fullblown walkthrough, but the reddit megathreads always give a brief overview of what to expect on each fight. This events thread: [Heir of the Dynast-King] Megathread • /r/FFRecordKeeper

Mandragoras like to spam tons of statuses on your team, which can be annoying. Try to blow them up super fast with aoe.

Been playing this casually for a year or so, but hot damn the game has been good to me the past two months. From two or three 11 pulls and two or three full lucky draws, I feel like I can maybe start taking this kinda seriously.

Highlights:

My BSB's (none until a couple months ago, then 4 in quick succession) in order of acquisition:

Ragnarok (Bartz) - hey, it was my first BSB. Still, doesn't seem very good by a lot of BSB standards.
Overture (Lightning) - ditto
Orichalum Dirk (Vaan) - holy fuck, this one's gotta be good, right? Instant, does the damage my first two do + utility.
And just now, Glorious Armguard (Wakka). Haven't tried it because I haven't leveled Wakka, but this seems really good too.

SSB's that seem notable:

Stoneblade (managed to 7* this - they drop like candy for me). Hits hard as fuck. Love the heal. Plus, Ashe is a cool char.
Ragnarok (Beatrix). Ditto in that I love the character. The eights hits rocks, especially considering how hard Beatrix hits, and the evade magic attacks has saved my ass many times. This honestly seems BSB-caliber to me. Love it.
Excalibur (steiner). Haven't tried it, but seems fun.
Sword of Paine (paine, obv). Got on same pull as Wakka BSB. Seems incredible for an SSB. Excited to try, but she's not leveled yet.
Gebji Blade (Gilgamesh) - my first SSB. Really good, but my healer is Garnet, who has the regen covered.
Golden Hairpin (Quina). Love, love, love this on paper, but it takes fucking forever to charge. Doesn't seem like I ever get to use it.
Trident (Freya). What does infuse with the power of wind mean? Does that mean this is an SSB with BSB-like special moves? Haven't leveled her.
Power Circle (Snow). Love the element, love the all-target, love the def boost, but I've had trouble working him into a squad.
Crescent Wish (Selphie). Seems unremarkable given that I run with Beatrix and Garnet, but I'd love to replace Garnet.
Mace of Zeus (Lenna). Haven't tried, but I'd love to be able to work in the stat boost.
Beast Killer (Krille). How well does this work? Obviously it has niche use, but it seems pretty alright in a caster-heavy squad.

Uniques that seem notable:

Wall for Yshtola. Nuff said, apparently. Having trouble working him in, though, with Garnet. Paine's SSB that I just acquired is gonna shake it up, though.
Yoichi's Bow (like Ashe's Stoneblade, drops like candy for me. 7*). Faris has been a staple on my squad for a long time.
Binding Rod (Vanille). Seems shitty, and I have her SSB, but I have like three of these, so I can power it up.
Healing Staff (Sarah). Seems shitty as well, but I think it's my only FFI unique.
Keepsake Ribbon (Aeris). I'm in dire need of an attack buff, and with my new Paine SSB (which I haven't really tested yet) I feel like maybe Aeris can replace Garnet, so I'm listing this.
Kefka's Cloack. Can't argue with haste.
Bartz's cloak. Haven't tried - pulled on last lucky draw I think. Have his BSB.
Kuja's Glove. I only mention because I have three of them. Haven't combined any - its stats are just really good for equipping random units.

I've obviously got an assortment of 5* generic gear as well. Very strong in V, VI, VII, IX.

My question: Where do I go from here? I can reliably complete difficulty 110 of all events, and usually 120, but no further. Squad thus far - and bear in mind I've been winging it in lieu of internet resources - always includes Beatrix (80, ssb) and Garnet (65, ssb). Remaining slots are filled invariably with three of: Faris (80, 7* yoichi), Lightning (80, Overture), Bartz (80, Rag), Vaan (75ish, Orichalum), Ashe (almost 80, 7* ssb). Vaan will probably be my third solidified member, but I just got his BSB on the lucky draw a few days ago.

Major prospects are Paine with her SSB and Wakka with his BSB. I'll definitely attempt to go beyond 120 difficulty after pulling this two simultaneously tonight.

I'm aware that this is a long, meandering entreaty, but I'd surely love any squad advice, given what I have. I've got enough hero souls to get any hero I want, but I've listed all the equipment that seems notable to me. For abilities I've gotten most of the 4* that seem worthwhile: Lifesiphon, Banishing Strike, some of those Samurai aoes, Protectga, Shellga, Curaja, all the 4* breakdowns, most of the 4* spellblades, Alexander, Leviathan, Darkra, Ruinga, Stoneja, Quake, Punishing Palm, Diaga and Orthros. Any major 4* I am missing?

Still afraid to craft 5* on account of resource scarcity. What I have (and almost all of it is through random event/login rewards): Chain Firaga, Chain Stonega, Chain Thundaga, Tornado Strike.

I can craft pretty much any 4* and if you guys were to name one or two indispensable 5* abilities, I could probably craft them, but no more. What am I missing that I have to have?

Starting to love this game, but I'm f2p and can't blindly squander resources. What, in terms of squad composition and ability creation, should I invest in?

Long post ^_^
First of all, a quick answer: Enveloped in XXX means for the duration of the buff, all sources of that element deal +50% damage (stacking additively with gear or RM you may have with the same effect). So for Bartz cloak for example, the armor is +20% wind damage, and if you use the limit, you get +50% more for like 20? seconds, for a total of 70% bonus wind damage (tornado strike, aeroga strike, his burst I think?) Best used of en-buffs is to build two limit gauges, then use them back to back. The second limit will get a 50% bonus damage thanks to the buff.

For squad advice, absolutely include Vaan with his bsb. He's arguably the best character in the entire game with his BSB right now, and for a long time to come.
Beatrix is a solid addition, using life siphon and a utility spell like shellga/protectga. Use lifesiphons to buildup her LB gauge and get a bunch of nukes + limit break damage.
Garnet's SSB doesn't actually heal, it only does haste + regen. I'd say Selphie's medica + magic blink is a much superior option. Between Vaan bsb, Beatrix ssb, and Selphie sb, your team is nearly immune to magic, which is frequently the only real threat in ultimate fights.
If you combine Paine's ssb and Quina's ssb, you have 50% atk and haste, which means the only thing you would be missing is wall, which you can RW.

So my suggestion for a synergistic team would be:

Beatrix -- Lifesiphon, Shellga -- Magic blink ssb
Vaan -- Lifesiphon, Magic Breakdown -- Ark blast BSB
Paine -- spellblade skill or knight skill -- haste ssb
Quina -- power breakdown, fullbreak -- +atk ssb
Selphie -- curaja, protectga -- medica magic blink ssb
roaming: Wall

Use mako might / dr mog teachings to start the fight with a limit break ready to use on quina/paine, have selphie/beatrix use prot/shell, and have vaan use the wall from a roaming warrior. From there, you have all buffs active on turn 1, then you just blow up the boss. That team should be able to handle nearly every ultimate fight that doesn't have a special gimick.

As for what 5* skills are worth crafting: First of all, get fullbreak to at least rank 2, or even 3 if you have a bunch of orbs (r3 isn't as important).

I'm a huge fan of Saint's Cross for knights (Paine could use it). I also like Thief's Revenge to use on Vaan during his burst mode. Other than that, I honestly don't really use many 5* skills except the occasional rank 1 chain blizzaga etc just because it was free.

Sinzar said:

Long post ^_^
First of all, a quick answer: Enveloped in XXX means for the duration of the buff, all sources of that element deal +50% damage (stacking additively with gear or RM you may have with the same effect). So for Bartz cloak for example, the armor is +20% wind damage, and if you use the limit, you get +50% more for like 20? seconds, for a total of 70% bonus wind damage (tornado strike, aeroga strike, his burst I think?) Best used of en-buffs is to build two limit gauges, then use them back to back. The second limit will get a 50% bonus damage thanks to the buff.

For squad advice, absolutely include Vaan with his bsb. He's arguably the best character in the entire game with his BSB right now, and for a long time to come.
Beatrix is a solid addition, using life siphon and a utility spell like shellga/protectga. Use lifesiphons to buildup her LB gauge and get a bunch of nukes + limit break damage.
Garnet's SSB doesn't actually heal, it only does haste + regen. I'd say Selphie's medica + magic blink is a much superior option. Between Vaan bsb, Beatrix ssb, and Selphie sb, your team is nearly immune to magic, which is frequently the only real threat in ultimate fights.
If you combine Paine's ssb and Quina's ssb, you have 50% atk and haste, which means the only thing you would be missing is wall, which you can RW.

So my suggestion for a synergistic team would be:

Beatrix -- Lifesiphon, Shellga -- Magic blink ssb
Vaan -- Lifesiphon, Magic Breakdown -- Ark blast BSB
Paine -- spellblade skill or knight skill -- haste ssb
Quina -- power breakdown, fullbreak -- +atk ssb
Selphie -- curaja, protectga -- medica magic blink ssb
roaming: Wall

Use mako might / dr mog teachings to start the fight with a limit break ready to use on quina/paine, have selphie/beatrix use prot/shell, and have vaan use the wall from a roaming warrior. From there, you have all buffs active on turn 1, then you just blow up the boss. That team should be able to handle nearly every ultimate fight that doesn't have a special gimick.

As for what 5* skills are worth crafting: First of all, get fullbreak to at least rank 2, or even 3 if you have a bunch of orbs (r3 isn't as important).

I'm a huge fan of Saint's Cross for knights (Paine could use it). I also like Thief's Revenge to use on Vaan during his burst mode. Other than that, I honestly don't really use many 5* skills except the occasional rank 1 chain blizzaga etc just because it was free.

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Amazing, amazing response - thank you! Your Beatrix suggestion is exactly what I've been running and your omission of Lightning and Bartz confirmed my suspicion as to the lack of utility of their BSB's and your assessment of Vaan's BSB doesn't surprise me. Hell, the instant + elemental alone seems solid.

For Garnet, yeah I know she doesn't provide any instant healing, but the regen + haste is great and I've to this point used Ashe's SSB when need instant healing because it has the added perk of hitting like twice as hard as my other SSB's and is AOE to boot.

I only have two of the 65 max -> 80 max memory crystal thingies, and I imagine Paine's might be attainable via the current event, so should I use them on Quina and Selphie? And what's the deal with Quina's SSB? I swear he takes twice as long as other characters to fill his gauge. Or am I just imagining things?

I also have no idea what you've talking about re the mako might thing, so I'll need to look that up.

edit: gotta reiterate the sheer importance of Beatrix. God damn, every time I try to remove her I'm stuck with some hapless fool packing both shellga and protecta with no heals, and her replacement doesn't evade any spells and doesn't do anywhre near the damage.

edit edit: what do you think about Wakka's BSB?

Quina's overall kind of a shit character.... but it was one of the only sources of 50% atk I saw in your list. I don't know every limit by heart though, so if you could shake up the squad and fit an atk buff without Quina, that's worth doing. The reason Quina has trouble filling her limit gauge is because she's slow as shit. At level 80, she only has 110 speed, which is terrible. Low speed means less actions compared to the rest of your team, which in turn means less limit generation.

You could bring Yshtola for wall, and roaming warrior Shout, which gives haste and 50% atk in one. Overall though, Yshtola's hard to fit into a squad, as you've noticed. If she's doing wall, she's not doing a medica, so heavy aoe ultimate fights become harder. You could bring Ashe and have her SSB help on healing, which is an option. Problem with that though is generally you want to go pure physical or pure magic, so you can get the proper buffs.

Recently we've had some mixed buffs being introduced, like Celes bsb (30% atk, 30% mag) which makes mixed teams way more viable. In 3 weeks, we're getting Onion Knight BSB, which is 30% atk, 30% mag, party hastega, and a great burst mode on the caster. Expect that to be the new favorite roaming warrior for everyone once it releases. Then you could RW onion burst which covers haste, and damage boost for all units, which opens up your options greatly.

An example team with onion roaming warrior would be like:
Beatrix (magic blink)
Vaan (ark blast)
Ashe (medica)
Faris or Wakka (breaks)
Yshtola (wall)
RW: Onion (30% mag, 30% atk, hastega, burst mode)

Edit: Mako might is cloud's level 65 record materia. It lets a character start a fight with a limit gauge already completely filled. It's how you start off with like Wall on turn 1, without having to spend 3-5 rounds charging it first. Dr Mog's Teachings does the exact same thing, and is Tyro's lvl 65 record materia

DrSpooge said:

edit edit: what do you think about Wakka's BSB?

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It's not bad, but I wouldn't say it's anything too special. The entry is a slightly stronger fullbreak (-40% vs -30%), and the commands are just copies of atk and mag breakdown.

The thing is, if you're relying on the burst mode to cover your breaks, you can't wait to generate the gauge naturally, so you are forced to run mako might and open the fight with his burst. That's not too bad, but Wakka doesn't have combat 4, which means he can't use life siphon, and his speed is on the lower end too (not Quina snail pace, but still below average). What that all adds up to is even if you open a fight with his limit, the fullbreak status will wear off well before he's had a chance to refill his gauge to apply it again. That means you're going part of the encounter without the fullbreak debuff, which can potentially be really bad.

Overall, I'm not a fan of Wakka's BSB.... least that's my opinion.

Full Break(down) BSB's typically last for 25 seconds--same as Wall and the other stuff--which is much longer than the typical 15 seconds for Full Break and other break/downs, and is long enough to basically keep up without any SB-related RM.

Drained my Mythril. I didn't have any relics on the list and I REALLY wanted Yuna's Chaos Rod. Unfortunately I didn't get it though so she's stuck with Hymn of the Fayth. Hymn is still one of the better Group Heals but it's, definitely, showing its age.

On three pulls I ended up with 3 of Paine's Swords (every Draw had one), two Apocalypse OSBs for Tidus, Auron's Riot Blade and a Tidus outfit. In hindsight I shouldn't have done the last pull since it was two dupes but my X synergy is phenomenal now. I also didn't have a Tidus relic until now so I'm satisfied overall.

Still stings a bit not getting Yuna's relic but she's still viable with her older one. But I'm pretty happy with the pulls. The OSB and Paine's Sword were number 2 and 3 on my want list so I scored with those. Having the full trinity in a CM makes them very easy (Paine for haste, Yuna group heal and RW Wall). I'm also really glad to, finally, have some relics for Tidus. I'm experimenting a bit with Powerchain and Full Charge and he seems beastly with that combo. And for his OSB I can swap in Rikku with her BSB to give bosses a water weakness and follow up with a Tidus OSB.

Chris said:

to replace Ramza though.

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Heresy!

lol, jk. I want onion for the same reason, but it's because I want to swap Ramza's role to handle support + medica, which would let me swap Yshtola into the healer slot with wall. Would free up the RW slot for whatever I wanted in that case.

Do we know whats on the next 10 banner? My 10 synergy is by far my worst now so I'm going to do at least one pull, but trying to decide if I should pull on this one or next one when they add the bonus battles.

Upcoming banners list: Link

Offtopic: How do you guys feel about these new shooter skills we were given? Worth honing, or too niche to bother?

I haven't used a single Shooter skill in Japan so you can make do without. I haven't really looked too close to them though.

My Japan account is the exact opposite of my global. It's 100% F2P and it's VERY top heavy. I have a dedicated A-Team but everyone else lags way behind. My A-Team has no trouble clearing content so long as there is no weird mechanics to deal with. But if you need certain, odd, ability combos or if certain characters are preferred then my account falls apart very fast.

Pulled on this one, got 3 ssb's, sword of paine, riku's force knuckles, and auron's riot blade. That'll certainly help a lot with X!