So I did finish it and now...

[Improper Use]

I'm having issues.

If someone could kindly answer some question please.

1) Apart from perfume and giant turtles, is there a better way to make some gil?

2) Is there any way to tell the damage types delivered to party members without systematically changing accessories till I discover the one that stops the 1 shot mechanics?

3) I have completed all challenges up to the nested challenges for the giant rock dude. Is there anything else to do apart from grinding CP, GIL and killing all the same things I've been killing before the end?

4) Does resist magic resist elemental attacks and does all elements resist magic?

5) Do physical attacks deliver partial physical/elemental damage or can be either elemental or physical?

6) Is there a method to remove party damage numbers, or simply reduce the numerical definitions of damage displayed onscreen of differing subtypes?

7) If I do not use the wiki, am I stuck systematically trying out over seven differing types of resistances and damage types to discover method?

8) Do Catalogues stack? How do they stack? (additive or multiplicative)

If I do the math of the Connisour Catalogue, 1.1% of 1% chance is 1.1% so equiping one is useless, if its additive, then 4 would equate to 1.4 while if it was multiplicative equipping four would equate into 1.4% ... still useless.
But thats alone without factoring in star rating.

with a 5 star rating that 1.1% is factored by 5 so 1.1*5 = 5.5 or with 1 catalogue 11.5
or is it 5.5 + 1.1 = 6.6?

[Caplion]

4-6) for what i know, in summaries up, there are 4 type of damage,

1. Pure Physical Damage :
   These are basically make sense, pure Physical resistance accessories can block it
   
   
2. Pure Magical Damage :
   Thses type do non element magical damage like what your character can do or not EX. Ruin/ Ruinga/ Roar ... Magical resistance accessories block it
   
   
3. Elemental Magical Damage :
   Forget about this one, this type do elemental magical damage. They are typically are those elemental attacks like what your Ravenger normally can do. They can be blocked by Magical resistance and Elemental resistance accessories
   
   
4. Modified Damage :
   These type is they do [ 50% Physical ] + [ 50% Elemental ] damage. They are like all elemental strikes that Ravanger have and the synergist buff of ex. enfire, enlighting, etc they block partially by both Physical and Elemental resistance type accessories

In my conclusion, Imperial Armlet is the best resistance accessories. I might miss something, if it does pls correct me

[Caplion]

8) from what i search from the net or what i found and read, they dont stack the same type but different catalog can equip at the same time, the system will check rare 1st, then go to normal drop. shround is checked separately

[Improper Use]

Thanks, I was assuming the armlet was the best solution as well. I'm just finding it difficult to sort out whats going on. While running into stuff thats either got a huge damage range or using mechanics I don't understand atm.

[Caplion]

But there is some situation, when you face specific type of damage that hit you really really hard, u will need specific concentrated resistance that go in where specialised resistance usefulness

[Sh1nRa358]

1. If you're still in the area where Bandersnatch is a normal enemy, you can farm money and cp (32000 per 2 minutes) there. If you've left back to the outside world, you can't get back here after the last sub boss. Otherwise, you can farm perfumes and scarletites to sell from the Sacrifices in the entrance. 5 battles can get you an upgraded level 2 weapon fully maxed. You should put on 3 maxed seraph accessories to have 94% protection from death for just your party leader. Put the rare and normal drop catalogs on the other 2 team members when doing this.

For 'ultimate' weapons, I recomment the stagger lock weapons for Sazh and Claire, Infliction helping weapons for Vanille and the Dragoon lady, and the Balanced weapons for the other two. The 3 characters with Deathblow should get the 3 genji gloves (1 for each).

5. I'm at this part myself. I don't think magic resistance incorporates both magic and elemental. If I put 1 maxed Imperial and 2 maxed royal armlets on 1 character and all royals on the other 2 team members, I still get annihilated by the turtles. I do not know if all imperials will help yet. This is the part I'm currently experimenting with once I get all Imperial armlets. To combat the turtles normally without tricks, I think a maxed gaian ring, imperial/royal armlet, and a diamond/adamant bangle could help withstand the attacks better. But I haven't tested yet.

8. Catalogs don't stack. But you can use 1 of both the normal and rare ones at the same time. Enemies only carry 2 items. You can only get one or the other. Both catalogs don't cancel each other out though.

[Caplion]

Originally posted by shinra35888:

1. If you're still in the area where Bandersnatch is a normal enemy, you can farm money and cp (32000 per 2 minutes) there. If you've left back to the outside world, you can't get back here after the last sub boss. Otherwise, you can farm perfumes and scarletites to sell from the Sacrifices in the entrance. 5 battles can get you an upgraded level 2 weapon fully maxed. You should put on 3 maxed seraph accessories to have 94% protection from death for just your party leader. Put the rare and normal drop catalogs on the other 2 team members when doing this.

5. I'm at this part myself. I don't think magic resistance incorporates both magic and elemental. If I put 1 maxed Imperial and 2 maxed royal armlets on 1 character and all royals on the other 2 team members, I still get annihilated by the turtles. I do not know if all imperials will help yet. This is the part I'm currently experimenting with once I get all Imperial armlets. To combat the turtles normally without tricks, I think a maxed gaian ring, imperial/royal armlet, and a diamond/adamant bangle could help withstand the attacks better. But I haven't tested yet.

8. Catalogs don't stack. But you can use 1 of both the normal and rare ones at the same time. Enemies only carry 2 items. You can only get one or the other. Both catalogs don't cancel each other out though.

part 5, i have tested it on the adamantoise with and without imperial armlet at one point where one roar my char die but survived with red health with equiped it. Adamantoise have 3 devastating attack stormp his leg normally, quake a damage, roar you to the hell !!!

Stormp is a earth based elemental physical if im correct, quake is a earth based magical damage, roar is a hell devastating pure magical Sh!t. so imperial armlet helps but gaian ring of cause help out it blocked 2/3 of adamantoise attacks. You will left out the Roar to your FOE to send you out

part 8 i have explained earlier...

[tiornys]

1) No. There are other methods, but they are all significantly worse. The best farming methods that don't involve turtles or Sacrifices are worse than half as good as top turtle/Sacrifice methods.

2) The Game Mechanics Guide on GameFAQs lists damage types for most bosses and a couple of other major enemies. For anything else, you have to experiment (although the Libra page usually offers clues).

3) There are enemies to kill that you haven't yet been killing. But aside from that, not really. (Technically you can collect all the different types of wool from the sheep...)

4) No. Magic damage type and elemental properties are separate. See below.

5) The physical/magical trait and elemental traits are separate. An attack can be physical, magical, or both. An attack can be non-elemental or aligned to any of the six elements. If an attack is physical fire, then 100% of its damage is both physical and fire. If an attack is physical, magical, and lightning, then 100% of its damage is physical, and magical, and lightning. Note that this contradicts the comments of other posters.

Also, note that many attacks pierce--that is, ignore--physical and/or magical type resistance. Notable examples include Screech, 10,000 Needles, Ultima, Roar, and Thanatosian Laughter. There are very few piercing attacks that are elementally aligned, but these attacks can be reduced by elemental resistance.

Imperial Armlet is a trap. It's much too expensive to upgrade it for the return benefit. Sell it and use the gil to make Black Belts and Rune Bracelets (or General's Belts/Witch's Bracelets). The only place where Imperial Armlet is actually good is against combination physical/magical attacks, and those are too few and not threatening enough to make the Armlets worthwhile.

Similarly, Entite Ring is a trap. The enemies that actually use multiple elements do so exclusively with non-piercing magical attacks, and since those enemies also have non-elemental magical attacks you're better off with straight magic resistance. For other enemies, it should be obvious which element applies.

6) I'm not sure what you mean here, but if you're trying to make the damage numbers during combat go away, that's not officially possible and I'm not aware of any unofficial patches that do this.

7) Yes, although Libra should shortcut this considerably.

8) Multiple catalogs of the same type do not stack. Collector Catalog multiplies the drop pecentage by 150%, so a 25% drop chance becomes 37.5%. Connoisseur Catalog multiplies the drop percentage by 110%, so a 25% drop chance becomes 27.5%. Collector Catalog is frequently worth equipping. Connoisseur Catalog is occasionally worth equipping.

The best damage reduction equipment for fighting Turtles (and the only defensive equipment you need) is a maxed Gaian Ring. It reduces the damage of stomps and Quake by 40%, and these are the only attacks in these fights that matter for resistance. The damage from Bay/Roar/Ultima is non-elemental and piercing. Physical reduction will only apply to stomps, and magical reduction will only apply to Quake.

Note that Sentinel-based damage reduction applies to all attacks in the game, including those which can't be reduced by any other means.

[Sh1nRa358]

Imperial would have been better if it had physical and elemental resistance because there is only 2 non elemental magic attacks and that is the ruin magic series and ultima. But it doesn't block ultima lol. 4 imperials would give you around 80 something resistance to physical and magic. That's great on the physical part but kinda useless on the magic part. Correct if wrong.

[chrcoluk]

others have explained but its like this.

all attacks in game are either physicla or magic, one or the other, element doesnt come into it.
attacks can be either unelemental or tied to an element. Elemental attacks can be physical or magic, although most are magic.
simply been a sentinel will massively reduce ANY damage you take, I think the only attacks that bypass are % based attacks and cactuar needle fixed damage attacks, both types are uncommon.

This is why on the defensive accessories the narrower type of protection you get the more potent it is.

e.g. a maxed out imperial guard will reduce ALL damage by 20% except damage that ignores defense, so its good in that it always helps, but bad in its potency.
Whilst a maxed out physical or magic defensive accessory can protect up to 30%. But only protects one or the other.
A elemental ring will max out at a whopping 40%. But only protects against one element.
A all element ring maxes out lower as it protects against a wider scope of damage, I think an entite ring maxes out at 25% (could be wrong).

If you fighting the turtles, or shaolong gui's or long gui's, then a good combo for protection is one maxed out earth ring 40% and either imperial guard or maxed out magic defense item. 2 defensive items is all I would use. The stomps all 3 of these enemies do are earth based meaning the elemental ring will soften the stomps by 40%.
One hit attacks like ultima from a long gui are easily survivable with the above combo of defensive accessories and switching to tortoise (triple sen). Note you dont need to use a guard ability, just switch and you absorb 40% of the damage,

Hope this helps.

If you not sure what element an attack is you either learn from experience/visuals or check the libra screen notes.

[Sh1nRa358]

Well yeah, I just looked at some guides and remember that the sentinel's guard ability protects against physical and magical and didn't say anything about elemental. But it reduces damage of the turtles so elemental is a part of magic in this game. But one imperial and 2 royals maxed = 43% resistance for both physical and magic @.@. So that would be more than the earth accessory. So I guess it all comes down to how much more life you have to actually see the difference better when using them to combat the turtles. But still, all Imperials should combat both by 80+% (i think). I dunno, I'll just have to see when I get more life by beating the game and getting the extra life stats and extra accessory slot.

Does anyone know of a chart with the Magic Attack damage formula?

[chrcoluk]

it would be more but that combo uses 3 slots vs the earth 1 slot

you also want to add things like genji gloves and stat boosting accessories.

[Improper Use]

Once again I appreciate the indepth replies.

[talgaby]

Stat boosting accessories fall off really quickly. The +300 is pretty much useless compared to a Tier 3 weapon, especially on Stage 10. An Auto-Faith/brave one gives you more, which is enough for mob battles, and oretoise farming needs longevity rather than +10000 damage/hit.

[tiornys]

Damage reduction does not stack additively, but multiplicatively. Four maxed Imperial Armlets will not give you 80% damage resistance. They will give you ~59% damage resistance (1 - 0.8^4).

Damage formulas in FFXIII are very simple: base stat * ability's base damage modifier * random variance * applicable extra modifiers. Extra modifiers include things like Bravery, Protect, Deprotect, elemental weaknesses/resistances, the chain gauge (against enemies), etc. You can find all sorts of formulas in this guide: http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps3/928790-final-fantasy-xiii/faqs/59246

Defensive accessories have absolutely nothing to do with Tortoise being highly effective against Ultima. The exact damage reduction you get is based purely on the applicable SEN role levels, whether or not SEN stances are active, and whether or not Fringeward kicks in.

[chrcoluk]

I never said they affect sen's modifier. if you talking to me.