Having trouble with Buster Sword Proficiency? I'm here to help!

[Krali]

For anyone who might not have their Buster Sword proficiency at 100% yet, you CAN do it. It's a long grind and you don't need to since there's no achievement for it. but if you do want to, there's a lot of misinformation about how it's done since the addition to the game is still relatively new.

1: Go into mission 1-2-1 "Challenge from Security" and grind encounters. You can run back and forth between them pretty fast and really get through encounters quick this way. While doing this you must do these three things during encounters.

1a: Defeat enemies while in the Battle Stance with the Strong Attack
1b: Defeat enemies while in the Battle Stance with a Command Materia attack (I recommend Assault Twister)
1c: Go into Battle stance and and take damage until your proficiency stops going up in that fight with Enhanced Guard. Simply going into Battle Stance activates Enhanced Guard so it's just taking damage.

Some things you should know about gaining proficiency in encounters

2a: You can only earn 30% proficiency for doing each of these things in Battle Stance to make a total of 90%
2b: How much you get per fight is different from encounter to encounter. Usually between 0.05 - 0.12% if my memory serves me right.
2c: You get different abilities at different percentages, but I don't think there's a way to see what those are in game. the reason I recommend grinding out the initial 90% first is because you need a piercing ability to get the last 10%. And you get that around 50% of the way through. It just helped me to do one thing at a time to know what I had left to do.

After you get to 90% you will NOT be able to progress without defeating enemies with Barrier and MBarrier while in Battle Stance. I recommend being in New Game + to progress past this point.

The best way to do this is going into mission 9-6-5 "Life-Form of Energy" and grind out encounters because almost all of the encounters have enemies with Barrier and MBarrier. All you need to do is kill enough enemies with Barrier and MBarrier respectively While in Battle Stance to get the last two 5%. It doesn't show you the progression, it just tells you that you got it with a pop up on the side. It really is just hitting your head against the wall killing enemies over and over. Eventually those screens will pop up. and you will get to 95% and then 100% once you've completed each. And again, complete the mission if you want to complete and keep your progress.

Agian, 9-6-5 if you're doing this on a first playthrough is painful! I really do recommend doing this part on New Game + when you would have better gear. But it is possible even if it's painful. It's just an end game mission for end game rewards.

Sorry if that's too ramble-ey. I just want to help get people get 100% on their Buster Sword proficiency because there's no guide on steam for it yet and people online are straight up saying it's impossible get to 100% when you definitely can.

Also If someone wants to make a full guide on steam for Buster Sword proficiency with info from this post 100% go for it! No consent needed. All the info is here, and you can google stuff to double check info. I just don't know how to make a guide on steam and have too much going on to do more than type out a mountain. lol

[Mini Adon]

It works, thank you for posting.

[Deykkcaos]

i created a guide with this info, credits to you. =)

[カイラ]

I managed to do this on my first playthrough, was abit sad that nothing actually happens once 100% no animation no rewards no real recognition for all that grinding :(

[medion_no]

Yeah like whats the whole point of making it such a grind for nothing?

[Just Chill]

I can confirm that it's easy to get to 95% by following the instructions.
I just checked my battle tips and realized I only have 2 unlocks for the buster sword (damage limit break and barrier piercing), but no barrier brake.
So I really guess this is onyl obtainable for getting 100%.

I am currently running through 9-6-5 smashing enemies with barriers with the battle stance attack in hope I really can get the last 5%. :/

[Just Chill]

Originally posted by medion_no:

Yeah like whats the whole point of making it such a grind for nothing?

I can confirm that the third buster sword ability can only be obtained legally by reaching 100.00%.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2912255506

Originally posted by Androz:

The best way to do this is going into mission 9-6-5 "Life-Form of Energy" and grind out encounters because almost all of the encounters have enemies with Barrier and MBarrier. All you need to do is kill enough enemies with Barrier and MBarrier respectively While in Battle Stance to get the last two 5%. It doesn't show you the progression, it just tells you that you got it with a pop up on the side. It really is just hitting your head against the wall killing enemies over and over. Eventually those screens will pop up. and you will get to 95% and then 100% once you've completed each. And again, complete the mission if you want to complete and keep your progress.

This did the trick for me.
Even though I didn't see progression of the last 5%, I got this after killing dozens of such barrier soldiers during battle stance.


It's a shame that I listened to all these comments about how useless it is to raise it higher than 50%. :/
I prefer using materia, than anything else.
If I would have knewn that there is definitely a special ability locked behind 100%, I would have concentrated more on the sword in previous playthroughs, instead of grinding regular proficiency in mission 1-1-1 and the last 5% in 9-6-5 now at the end of my third (final for now) playthrough.

[HeeRoTH]

Read from the website says that the last 5% is given to the farm at the mission 9-6-5, but I have done it for ten rounds, the % doesn't move at all, is there anyone who can help me? I'll send my save. P.S. The game I bought is a normal game, no pre-order dlc.

[Just Chill]

The percentage did not move for me either.
I just continued killing enemies in 9-6-5 and at some point I just got the reward and jumped directly to 100.00%.

[Ultimarok]

Thanks for this guide. Going to come in handy soon.

[Just Chill]

Just some curious addition.
In the other thread about the proficiency and if it is useful to raise it above 50%, it was told that people unlocked all 3 abilities already before reaching 100%

Well, for me that's not the case:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2912270088

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2912270117

Can anyone share a screen of a proficiency lower than 100%, but already with all these 3 entries in the tips?

[カイラ]

For me I grinded 1-2-1 for like 6 hours to get to 90% wasnt hard I was afk watching netflix most of it but the last 5% wasnt appearing so I found some demons in a later mission and kepts killing the in buster stand then all of a sudden I jumped to 95% so I carried on grinding the wall casting demons and the progress didnt go up so I carried on after about 30 mins of grinding I was literally 1 shotting these things it jumped to 100%, I got the barrier pierce and barrier abolish abilities but I was expecting something a little more like an item or achievement of somesort, even a little cutscene of Zack showing off would have been awesome.

[Berengas Nº1]

Originally posted by カイラ:

For me I grinded 1-2-1 for like 6 hours to get to 90% wasnt hard I was afk watching netflix most of it but the last 5% wasnt appearing so I found some demons in a later mission and kepts killing the in buster stand then all of a sudden I jumped to 95% so I carried on grinding the wall casting demons and the progress didnt go up so I carried on after about 30 mins of grinding I was literally 1 shotting these things it jumped to 100%, I got the barrier pierce and barrier abolish abilities but I was expecting something a little more like an item or achievement of somesort, even a little cutscene of Zack showing off would have been awesome.

and how did u grind 1-2-1 beeing afk, u need to press X and Square at the same time to enter in battle stance mode so u can up your %

[V_Silverwings]

I'm stuck at 95% but I have yet to get the barrier break mail. I'm guessing I just need to keep killing barrier and mbarrier enemies until this second magic 5% pops. Strong attacks, command and guarding is doing nothing and so far, killing barrier'ed folks is also doing nothing.

[Just Chill]

It is doing something, but you cannot see it.
I was at 95% and simply killed such Barrier and Mbarrier enemies for around 1 hours in M9-6-5.
I couldn't see any progress. Percentage was stuck at 95%.

Yet at some point after a combat was resolved, I simply received a pop-up for having unlocked the last buster sword ability and the proficiency jumped from 95% directly to 100%.

So continue killing enemies that have the respective protection, while using attack stance and at some point you should get it.

[V_Silverwings]

Okay, I'll keep doing it. One website said all Angeal DMW gave 10% but I'm at 95% (incidentally I'm doing a lv6 cursed ring run so I have no DMW but I've done everything including beating Minerva hard).