Should I worry about Crystarium optimization if I'm not planning to do endgame?

[Bird?]

I just read a guide on optimizing the new Crystarium system and, honestly, I'm a little scared. My thought is that if I don't level quite right I'm going to make it to the late game and be screwed because I didn't fill out the Crystarium the best way.

Edit: I added a second question down below. "Should I also worry about monster builds? I imagine they are not as big of a deal".

[OTIS]

I would, because screwing up the crystarium is a valid concern. I did and I had to start over, Once I followed the guide I found the combats much easier because the characters were better optimized.

The guide I found was here on steam, just check the game guides. The one I use is by SirNinja, I downloaded it as a PDF.

That said you can deviate a bit, by sacrificing a bit magic in order to make Serah stronger for instance. However I don't know if it would be a good idea, which is why I asked that in my own post.

However, understanding how the nodes works is essential. Basically the large nodes give bigger bonuses than the small ones, but the bonuses they give depend on which role you level up in.
For instance if you level up in Commando you will gain strength, but if level up in Ravager you will gain magic.

His guide explains the system very well, I strongly suggested you read it. In fact you might want to read it a few times because it can be confusing at first.

[Bird?]

Alright, thanks! I downloaded the PDF and I'm following it. Now, one more question that just popped up: Should I also worry about monster builds? I imagine they are not as big of a deal.

[OTIS]

Yes, to a degree.

http://ca.ign.com/wikis/final-fantasy-xiii-2/Recommended_Monsters

This is a list I am following about the best monsters in the game.

Now when it comes to beasts you use up materials when you level them up, the higher the level the more expensive the material. However some more powerful enemies will require expensive materials even at a lower level.

The materials come in four types: general improvements, one that focusses on hitpoints, one that focusses on strength and one that focusses on magic. Basically use strength for Commandos and Ravagers, use the hitpoints for Sentinels, and the magic for Ravagers, Medics, Saboteurs, and Synergists.

I would recommend focussing on the sentinel, commando, and ravager, as well as using the Flanitor for a medic until you get a green chocobo. The other roles are not as important, and your own guys might be able to handle them better.

As a general rule, only level up the monsters you want to use, that way you have the right material to level up the more powerful ones later on.

Also you can infuse (transfer) abilities, for instance the Green Chocobo is the best medic in the game, but it doesn't have the essential abilities of Ensuna and Ensunada like the Flanitor. But you can sacrifice the Flanitor in order to infuse the Green Chocobo, that way it will learn those abilites, however as I stated you lose the Flanitor in the process.

The same works for the very powerful Sentinel the Bunkerbeast, a sentinel could use the resist elements abilities of the Caterchipillar.

In this case only level up the creature in question to the level required, no higher. For intance the Flanitor learns boths Ensuna abilites by level 34. No need to level up higher than that. After all you only wanted to learn those abilites to transfer (infuse) them to another creature, no point in wasting more materials on him than you need to.


Also you can always buy some materials Chocolina. But she doesn't stock tier 3 -5 materials until late in the game.


Please note however, that none of the best creatures are available until at least mid-game.

Hope this helps.

[Bird?]

Thank you so much, I really appreciate you taking the time to explain all that!

[jclee4843]

If you want to beat the coliseum, you need to optimize your Crystarium upgrades. If you just want to complete the story, you can upgrade the Crystarium in any way.

[OTIS]

Also the nd game content, from what I hear since I haven't got that far, isn't like FF 13.

In FF 13 there is no logical reason to do so, the story is over and there is nothing else to see.

Here, you can see various paradox endings, some of which I believe allow you to explore new areas. And most of these are only available post game.

[MLG Scribblenaut PRO]

its not gamebreaking, when i completed this game on xbox i never knew about proper crystarium optimising and i still beat the entire thing and all the coliseum dlc as well. tbh, i would say your monster builds, paradigm pack synergy and overall strategy with them are far more important to the flow of a battle than the main characters optimised stats. if you've already maxed out your characters and are that concerned there's a cheat/gamehack that wipes crystarium progression back to nothing, then just cheat in infinite CP and optimise away!

for your other question, monster optimisation is a bit more forgiving than main characters crystarium and therefore you CAN do it whenever possible but dont feel too pressured into having to do it, because you definitely don't. for the main game you can just pick well rounded ravagers/synergists/whatever and lvl them and infuse abilities you like along the way. power stats arent as important for ravs as they are for say, commando, and you can get away with not really optimising them. if you're dead set on having an endgame rav ASAP, you can get cloudburst as soon as you enter archylte steppe, there's tons of builds to choose for him. i used nekton for the entire game and even some early coliseum battles and he was anything but optimised. so your choice really doesnt matter.

i would say com is the only exception, you should always focus optimising coms stats and you should always upgrade to a better one if you can. early peaker is a nice choice since you can max them pretty quick and they usually end up having about twice noels str stat. by the time noel catches up theres usually a new early peaker com available. mechanical coms are great, scutari/orion type monsters and such. just infuse the previous into the new one to keep your abilities.

TLDR endgame you have tons more options and that should be when you start caring about optimising. there is nothing in this entire game that you need optimised anything for other than the later coliseum battles, and even then, if only your monsters are optimised you'll still be fine so don't worry about it.