What to upgrade in chapter 9?

[Fantasy Fan]

So I've been farming incentive chips in ch. 9 and was wondering what to spend it on? i have 3
*Black Belts so far. I favor defensive items since they don't lower the target time. Any suggestions?

[tiornys]

If you're deep enough into chapter 9 to have picked up the Whistlewind Scarf, might as well make it an Aurora Scarf (you should also have picked up a Rhodochrosite for the transformation). But that's super cheap.

Maxing a few Rune Bracelets is good, although I wouldn't buy any so this is also a late chapter 9 upgrade.

Past that, I'd look at cheaper weapon and +STR/MAG accessory upgrades even though this will impact your target time.

[Fantasy Fan]

I went ahead and starred Lightning's Axis Blade because I'm pretty set on that one for her end game. I did upgrade 1 rune bracelet to star and equipped it on Light for Barthandelus. That worked wonders. I'm just really hesitant to use +str/mag stuff because I am so anal about 5 starring every fight. Do they give more benefit to how fast you finish a fight than they hurt your target times?

Edit: I added the Aurora Scarf lvl. 1 to Lightning and now she has ATB rate +10% from synergy. Is there any reason to upgrade the aurora scarf to star? Do you get anything out of it?

[tiornys]

It varies a lot from fight to fight. If it makes the difference between single-staggering a tough enemy and two-staggering a tough enemy, then it's very worthwhile to have higher stats. If you can leverage the extra stats into effective multi-enemy kills (e.g. using AoE skills like Blitz and -ra spells) instead of picking them off one at a time, it's very worthwhile to have higher stats.

On the other hand, against Armadillo type enemies that don't take much damage outside of stagger and take a long time to stagger but die easily once staggered, the extra stats are probably hurting more than helping. Higher stats can also make it harder to 5-star fights against multiple enemies if you can't use AoEs very effectively for whatever reason.

Another thing to consider is the balance between offense and defense. If extra stats let you finish a fight before you have to stop to heal, that's helping you score 5-stars. If enemy damage is high enough that you're having to heal/keep a SEN out all the time, the higher stats are probably hurting your odds at 5-stars. A lot of the time I run a mix of damage reduction and stat boosting.

edit: oh, and don't forget that you can always adjust your equipment between fights if needed. If I were set on scoring consistent 5-stars, I might switch to a level 1 weapon before fighting an Armadillo.

[Odinsknight101]

God I wish we could have the collecter catalogs at that point. Even at hopes house, would be perfect.

[Fantasy Fan]

Thanks for the in depth look at stat boosting items there, Tiornys. I hadn't considered a few of your points. The only stat boosting items i have available right now are the +50 mag/str at level 1. Is it worth upgrading one of those at the start of chapter 10 or will i soon get something better available?

[Odinsknight101]

Originally posted by pseyechosis:

Thanks for the in depth look at stat boosting items there, Tiornys. I hadn't considered a few of your points. The only stat boosting items i have available right now are the +50 mag/str at level 1. Is it worth upgrading one of those at the start of chapter 10 or will i soon get something better available?

All stat boosting items can be made in the highest posible of what others can be, when picked up. For example an item worth 50points of magic or strength, can be made the same as somthing, you ust picked up with 500 strength or magic.

On the topic of wheather it's worth or not to upgrade them, well it's up to you and what numbers you wish to see. I've completed this game without maxing weapons a few times. So there is that, from my expirance anyway.

One time I maxed all my weapons and went for pure strengh and magic upgrades, took me forever to get max 2 teir weapons there, but what I found was I could kill things really fast, but if wasted 1 secound of attacks on a soldier who did guard, I'd find no damage and that 5* was near impossable.

[tiornys]

In chapter 10, I prefer to save my gil for Perovskites to turn the Hero's Amulet into a Morale Talsiman and a Hermes Sandals (from dismantling a maxed Tetradic Crown) into a Sprint Shoes. You don't have to go too far into chapter 11 to get access to the STR/MAG +100 items.

[Fantasy Fan]

Nice! I upgraded to Morale Talisman for Fang and Sprint Shoes for Lightning. Those 2 things have helped me to 5 star many more battles than before so thanks for that advice. I'm having fun doing missions (on #5 now) in Ch. 11. I'm going to do number 14 so I can get a chocobo and, when the time comes, take Vanille to go death spam mission 55 for a growth egg. Any advice on things not to miss or things very important to do before ending chapter 11?

[tiornys]

You can come back to chapter 11 after you finish chapter 12, so there's nothing you can really "miss" in the chapter. That said, I like to plunder the Steppe after I get Chocobos and repair Bhakti when I reach Oerba; both offer big boosts to your gil/resources.

[Fantasy Fan]

Thanks again for your helpful replies, Tiornys. A funny thing happened today when i was looking up chapter 11 on google. I stumbled across your guide on gamefaqs from 5 years ago :) It's both well written and thought out. Imagine my surprise when I saw that the author is the same person I am chatting with about FFXIII strategy. I like your suggestion to use Vanille and Sazh for offensive buffs/debuffs. I had been using Light/Hope/Fang since I read some nub say that that was the most OP party in the game. Anyway, I made an auto faith accessory today and gonna put that on Vanille most likely when I try your setup.

So, I'm not familiar with this "plunder the Steppe" situation. Are you referring to digging up treasure with a chocobo? Is this a certain hot loot spot or something? I managed to figure out what I need to do with Bhakti when I get to Oerba.

[Unseen]

Originally posted by pseyechosis:

Thanks again for your helpful replies, Tiornys. A funny thing happened today when i was looking up chapter 11 on google. I stumbled across your guide on gamefaqs from 5 years ago :) It's both well written and thought out. Imagine my surprise when I saw that the author is the same person I am chatting with about FFXIII strategy. I like your suggestion to use Vanille and Sazh for offensive buffs/debuffs. I had been using Light/Hope/Fang since I read some nub say that that was the most OP party in the game. Anyway, I made an auto faith accessory today and gonna put that on Vanille most likely when I try your setup.

So, I'm not familiar with this "plunder the Steppe" situation. Are you referring to digging up treasure with a chocobo? Is this a certain hot loot spot or something? I managed to figure out what I need to do with Bhakti when I get to Oerba.

There is some special stuff you can get from the chocobo, also some expensive stuff you can sell for a premium. Ive gotten better at finding the items, it use to be harder but then I noticed the chocobo always looks in the direction the item should be which makes it easier.

[tiornys]

Originally posted by pseyechosis:

Thanks again for your helpful replies, Tiornys. A funny thing happened today when i was looking up chapter 11 on google. I stumbled across your guide on gamefaqs from 5 years ago :) It's both well written and thought out. Imagine my surprise when I saw that the author is the same person I am chatting with about FFXIII strategy. I like your suggestion to use Vanille and Sazh for offensive buffs/debuffs. I had been using Light/Hope/Fang since I read some nub say that that was the most OP party in the game. Anyway, I made an auto faith accessory today and gonna put that on Vanille most likely when I try your setup.

Glad you enjoyed that writeup! Light/Fang/Hope gets overrated for a variety of reasons. The most important thing IMO is to guard against being in a mindsets of needing to stay with the same team and/or same paradigm deck all of the time.

That said, they really are one of the best "all-purpose" parties from about mid-chapter 12 through early postgame--after Hope picks up Haste and Curaja and Fang picks up Imperil, and before secondary roles become sufficiently developed to help even out the role and ability access factors in team selection.

So, I'm not familiar with this "plunder the Steppe" situation. Are you referring to digging up treasure with a chocobo? Is this a certain hot loot spot or something? I managed to figure out what I need to do with Bhakti when I get to Oerba.

In the big area of the Archylte Steppe, Chocobos let you access a Gold Nugget (60k gil) on a plateau near one of the stationary Adamanchelids, a Cactuar Doll (12k gil) on the plateau just across the chasm from the Gold Nugget, two Mnar Stones on an island in the middle of one of the ponds, and a Scarletite on a plateau near that pond. Chocobos also let you access the Aggra's Pasture area of the Archylte Steppe, where you can find a Platinum Bangle (be careful with the approach if you don't want to fight an Ochu--sells for 24k gil) and 6x Gloomstalk (6k gil). The first Chocobo dig is always a Gold Nugget (60k gil), the 5th dig is always a Tetradic Crown (make another Sprint Shoes), the 10th dig is always a Tetradic Tiara (see below), and the 15th dig is always an Entite Ring (sells for 60k gil).

You can potentially use the Tetradic Tiara to make a 3rd Sprint Shoes, but I prefer to keep the Tiaras for use and make my 3rd Sprint Shoes from the Hermes Sandals that mission 34 drops.

Note that Mnar Stones are mostly useful for transforming Collector Catalogs into Connoisseur Catalogs. You should have a Collector Catalog from mission 8. If you transform it, the Connoisseur Catalog will sell for 125k gil. I generally do this early on since I expect to get two more Collector Catalogs (one in Taejin's Tower, one in the Haerii Archaeopolis area of the Steppe) before I plan on any grinding.

edit: oh, and if you don't mind the fights, you can also pick up two more Gold Nuggets by defeating the two Adamanchelids guarding treasure spheres, and two more Platinum Bangles by defeating the 2x Behemoth King encounter guarding a treasure sphere.