How many of each spell/skill should I farm and max out?

[Sabin]

I've read up a really nice guide on how abiliy upgrade works. Which has led me to want to do NG+ and try hard mode later on. I'm almost done with my first playthrough so next up is farming lvl 1,2,3 skills (before doing hardmode) of each for infusing.

But honestly, how many of each spell/attack type do I need max? its already quite a grind for optimizing a single skill. How would you path that out? I'm probably the only normie who has shield/magic/physical attacks spread evenly amongts all garbs with the occasional one off debuffer.

Or is it better to have one spellcaster and use stagger maintaining abilities from another garb instead of constantly rotating 3 garbs to spam a fire? (example).

I just want to get optimal cost atb + power for every (worth having) possible skill/spell in the game but if I have to do that x3 i'm gonna go lose it. I dont care about auto abilities specific grinding, not worth the extra workload.

Hoping this will help with the more challenging Hard mode/Ultimate Lair/Super Bosses and Final Boss+ version

I'm already on a time consuming journey ahead of me, so i'm trying to optimize it as much as humanly possible honestly

Tips?

[Phreya™]

Here's the Ability Tables. There's synthesis requirement in them.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps3/681990-lightning-returns-final-fantasy-xiii/faqs/71923?page=0#Ability%20Tables

Don't bother with level 1 and level 2 abilities. Farm from day 10 onwards since the enemies would drop level 3 abilities.

Originally posted by Jesus Christ:

I'm probably the only normie who has shield/magic/physical attacks spread evenly amongts all garbs with the occasional one off debuffer.

You're already doing it right.

[KarmaTheAlligator]

You want to spread the abilities to all 3 garbs (bit of everything on each) to make for easier ATB management, so you're correct here.

The only tips I have is to make sure you only fight the enemies you want abilities from (like the Hanuman that drop Thundara, do not fight if there isn't one in a group of monkeys) with the beggar's beads on to avoid reducing the total numbers without maximizing your chances to get drops. And staggering enemies before killing them usually increase drop chances (if you see you're getting too strong, use the stat decreasing accessories). Also, don't be afraid to go back to day 1 via the crystal of atonement to replenish enemy numbers if you need more copies of early abilities.

Originally posted by Phreya™:

Don't bother with level 1 and level 2 abilities. Farm from day 10 onwards since the enemies would drop level 3 abilities.

I disagree with that, some abilities you absolutely want to start from level 1 (the -ra spells, for example). At the very least you'll want to upgrade from level 1 to 2 then 2 to 3 to get the ATB reduction, and after that you can farm level 3.

[Phreya™]

Originally posted by KarmaTheAlligator:

Originally posted by Phreya™:

Don't bother with level 1 and level 2 abilities. Farm from day 10 onwards since the enemies would drop level 3 abilities.

I disagree with that, some abilities you absolutely want to start from level 1 (the -ra spells, for example). At the very least you'll want to upgrade from level 1 to 2 then 2 to 3 to get the ATB reduction, and after that you can farm level 3.

My bad. You're right. I forgot about ATB cost reduction.

[Sabin]

Originally posted by KarmaTheAlligator:

You want to spread the abilities to all 3 garbs (bit of everything on each) to make for easier ATB management, so you're correct here.

The only tips I have is to make sure you only fight the enemies you want abilities from (like the Hanuman that drop Thundara, do not fight if there isn't one in a group of monkeys) with the beggar's beads on to avoid reducing the total numbers without maximizing your chances to get drops. And staggering enemies before killing them usually increase drop chances (if you see you're getting too strong, use the stat decreasing accessories). Also, don't be afraid to go back to day 1 via the crystal of atonement to replenish enemy numbers if you need more copies of early abilities.

Originally posted by Phreya™:

Don't bother with level 1 and level 2 abilities. Farm from day 10 onwards since the enemies would drop level 3 abilities.

I disagree with that, some abilities you absolutely want to start from level 1 (the -ra spells, for example). At the very least you'll want to upgrade from level 1 to 2 then 2 to 3 to get the ATB reduction, and after that you can farm level 3.

Yeah I was confused about the skipping lvl 1-2 thing too, because the biggest draw to me doing a 2nd normal mode before hard mode is specifically so I can reduce the cost of ATB for magic spells, the spells you basically use almost the entire game to cause stagger. Finding out about double cast spell switching was already great. But imagine when I get the almost 40% atb cost reduction for the ra spells. I'm gonna be smoking some of these stagger conditions.

I guess the real question i'm asking is. Do I want to farm 3 thundara (example) max level. I can see having one of each attack type only max. One Attack, one Blitz, one Heavy. But because of Spell weaving I wanted to see if I really needed 3 of each for all garbs for all situations.

So basically i'll need 15 lvl 1 etc. So each garb can have one. Considering everyone is approving my garb setups, which I thought was the scrubby way of doing it, this inherently means I probably want a max spell of each for each garb (give or take since some garbs take care of it literally). Imagine the 4 elements, plus elemental, plus every combo of 2 elements, plus every elementstrike physical attack. x3 for all garbs. RIP. Also every level of magic has Aero, Aerora, Aeroga. I don't even know which would be worth the trouble. There's so many layers to farm. Maybe i'm being too ambitious by wanting to max out literally everything

This is a bit depressing, the grind is gonna be real lol

[Sabin]

Originally posted by Phreya™:

Here's the Ability Tables. There's synthesis requirement in them.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps3/681990-lightning-returns-final-fantasy-xiii/faqs/71923?page=0#Ability%20Tables

Don't bother with level 1 and level 2 abilities. Farm from day 10 onwards since the enemies would drop level 3 abilities.

Originally posted by Jesus Christ:

I'm probably the only normie who has shield/magic/physical attacks spread evenly amongts all garbs with the occasional one off debuffer.

You're already doing it right.

Yeah that's the guide that inspired me to explore NG+. Game has much more depth than I anticipated. My real question is, and it's sort of self answered since you said my garb setups are right.

Do I want (example) to max out 3 thundara from 1 to 5, since I can use it on 3 garbs? If the answer is yes, and I want to farm every skill in the game from 1 to 5 (give or take some I can start from 3), times 3 for all garbs. it's gonna be a hell of a grind. I think i'm being too ambitious in the completionists perspective. I guess there's a lot of spells/skills that I can omit completely?

What do you think I should focus on max leveling? To do everything seems a bit insane, the competionist in me kicked in but when I looked at the list it became excessively daunting

[Phreya™]

Originally posted by Jesus Christ:

Do I want (example) to max out 3 thundara from 1 to 5, since I can use it on 3 garbs? If the answer is yes, and I want to farm every skill in the game from 1 to 5 (give or take some I can start from 3), times 3 for all garbs. it's gonna be a hell of a grind. I think i'm being too ambitious in the completionists perspective. I guess there's a lot of spells/skills that I can omit completely?

What do you think I should focus on max leveling? To do everything seems a bit insane, the competionist in me kicked in but when I looked at the list it became excessively daunting

I don't know what's best for you, so I just share what works best for me.

For physical, I focus on Attack, Heavy Slash, Light Slash, Blitz, and Beat Down. I don't bother with elemental physical attack like Froststrike, Flamestrike, Heat Blitz, Aero Blitz, and the lot since I never use it.

For magic, I focus on -ra spells. They're indeed less powerful, but they cost almost half the ATB of -ga spells and don't have long animation delay on every cast. Very ideal to be spammed for staggering. I don't bother with Icestorm, Flamespark, and the lot. I prefer Elementa for spells with multiple elements.

Any useful abilities, except Thundara (only dropped by Hanuman) and Elementa (only dropped by Arcangeli), are quite easy to obtain. You'll eventually get 3 of each of them maxed out in no time. For those 2 spells, you'll need extra effort, especially Thundara since Hanuman is very rare. I myself don't bother to max out Thundara. But it's up to you whether you think it's worth your time or not to farm Thundara.

[Sabin]

Originally posted by Phreya™:

Originally posted by Jesus Christ:

Do I want (example) to max out 3 thundara from 1 to 5, since I can use it on 3 garbs? If the answer is yes, and I want to farm every skill in the game from 1 to 5 (give or take some I can start from 3), times 3 for all garbs. it's gonna be a hell of a grind. I think i'm being too ambitious in the completionists perspective. I guess there's a lot of spells/skills that I can omit completely?

What do you think I should focus on max leveling? To do everything seems a bit insane, the competionist in me kicked in but when I looked at the list it became excessively daunting

I don't know what's best for you, so I just share what works best for me.

For physical, I focus on Attack, Heavy Slash, Light Slash, Blitz, and Beat Down. I don't bother with elemental physical attack like Froststrike, Flamestrike, Heat Blitz, Aero Blitz, and the lot since I never use it.

For magic, I focus on -ra spells. They're indeed less powerful, but they cost almost half the ATB of -ga spells and don't have long animation delay on every cast. Very ideal to be spammed for staggering. I don't bother with Icestorm, Flamespark, and the lot. I prefer Elementa for spells with multiple elements.

Any useful abilities, except Thundara (only dropped by Hanuman) and Elementa (only dropped by Arcangeli), are quite easy to obtain. You'll eventually get 3 of each of them maxed out in no time. For those 2 spells, you'll need extra effort, especially Thundara since Hanuman is very rare. I myself don't bother to max out Thundara. But it's up to you whether you think it's worth your time or not to farm Thundara.

Gotcha, that's about all i used for most of the game so may be cool to continue with it. I thought maybe for hard mode i'd need some of those elemental physical attacks or dual elemental spells but if you run with the same stuff, then it should decrease the grind a lot. I just want to make sure im gucci for Ultimate Lair boss and Bhunivelze+. I don't know how much harder they are but yeah, the worst would be grinding sidequests for them and being underpowered lol