Best equipment

Best in slot with explanations.

Why is this the best equipment?

Well, it's simple:
All of Matt's attacks and Limit Breaks are Attack based (read: physical), even those that don't look like that (Seiken for example). There are three exceptions - Fright, Screamer and Dispel, which use Magic Attack instead. Therefore boosting Attack on Matt is the way to go.

On the other hand, all of Natalie's skills and Limit Breaks are Magic Attack based (read: magical). Magic Attack also boosts the power of Revive, Regen and Healmore. Therefore it's a good idea to give Natz equipment with lots of Magic Attack.

Finally Lance is a mix, who has both physical and magical skills. Oblivion, Snipe, Double Shot, Unload, Crush and Tank are physical, while Ion, Nuke, all the Fire, Plasma, Wind, Dark, Poison and Airstrike skills are magical. I didn't find much use for the physical skills though, because the magical skills are simply stronger right from the beginning and lots of them affect all enemies, therefore Magic Attack is the way to go.

With that solved, you need to keep in mind that you also require decent amount of Defenses and Health so that you don't get instakilled by enemy attacks (mainly when playing Epic difficulty), then you should find a balance between your offense and defense and required Resistances.

And finally, let me explain what the item descriptions mean. When you upgrade items to LVL 4 or 5, some items gain extra description bonuses.
Counter means that every time this character gets hit by an attack or spell, he/she will retaliate with the skill mentioned on the weapon. The damage of that skill corresponds to your skill level and stats. So if your weapon says Counter with Attack, the enemy attacks you, then you automatically attack the enemy who attacked you, and after that you still get a turn. You can counter multiple times.
Randomly summon Y means that at any given point in the game, an effect might happen. For example, Pirate armor lvl 5 will randomly summon Narwhals, which deal decent damage to a random enemy. It can only happen once per turn.
May cast X is found on weapons and it requires you to attack with said weapon. Matt can use Attack, Quick Slash, Wind Slash, Legend and Cleaver to proc these effects. Natalie can only proc them if she attacks with her default Attack (useless). Lance can proc them if he uses default Attack, Snipe, Double Shot and Unload.

Matt

Weapon: Blizzard LVL 5
+10% HP
+80% Attack
+40% Magic Attack
-10% Accuracy
-10% Evade
Element: 75% Ice
Resistances: Ice 60%, Water 60%
Boosts the power of ice attacks. May cast Tundra.
Unleash: Lowers target's Evade.

Weapon with second highest attack bonus. Also gives 75% ice element damage. All Matt's "spells" are actually Attack based, so you want Attack as high as possible. Use the Legend skill often, you get a Tundra proc a LOT from Legend, and the Tundra skill can deal over 20K damage (to Ice-weak monsters) when maxed. It's like having the final attack of Legend combo twice. I've seen it crit for 45K while buffed.
PS: If you haven't maxed Tundra skill it yet, do it!


Hat: Knight Helmet LVL 5
+5% HP
+30% Defense
+15% Magic Defense
-5% Evade
Resistances: -10% Fire, -10% Lightning
A knight's helmet. Summons NoLegs to fight.

Purely defensive helmet with the bonus of randomy spawning NoLegs. Don't get fooled, it's not the skill that gives you a random item, this version spawns NoLegs with a sword, which attacks a random enemy. Not sure which element is used, but I've seen it deal over 9K damage, which is useful.


Armor: Ninja Cloak LVL 5
+15% Attack
+10% Defense
+10% Magic Attack
+10% Magic Defense
+15% Accuracy
+25% Evade
Resistance: +50% Dark, +100% accuracyDown, +100% evadeDown
Nimble ninja gear. Boosts the power of thrown Shurikens. Buffs Evade when hit by a powerful attack.

Amazing armor. Resistance to dark element, which is the only one really dangerous in the end. It boosts your attack even more, prevents accuracy debuffs (which work wonders against Legend), boosts your Evade when hit hard, and all that while also boosting your Defenses AND offsetting all the negative bonuses from your other equipment. Gimme that! I never used Shurikens, so dunno if that bonus is any good, but if you need to poison something, you have the Nettle skill for that.

Natalie

Weapon: Crystal Staff LVL 5
+20% MP
+60% Magic Attack
Resistances: +30% Fire, +30% Thunder, +30% Ice
Balanced staff. Counters with Lucky Star.
Unleash: Buffs magic and magic defense.

This staff shares it's 60% Magic Attack bonus with two others: Nimbus and Obsidian. The reason for picking Crystal Staff is the Counter with Lucky Star. Nimbus has no counter and Obsidian counters with Attack, which will deal 300 damage tops, whereas maxed Lucky Star can go from 4K up to 16K. While Nimbus's Flood attack can deal decent damage to water-weak enemies, you won't have the luxury to do basic attacks with Natz and usually you will use an AoE spell, buff or heal. I never used the Unleash.


Hat: Star Clip LVL 5
+10% MP
+10% Defense
+10% Magic Attack
+10% Magic Defense
+5% Accuracy
+5% Evade
Resistances: +100% magicAttackDown, +100% magicDefenseDown
Boosts the power of Lucky Star and Star Shower.

A decent allround hat, which can be fully upgraded quite early. The bonus to Lucky Star syngergizes with our weapon counter and resistances prevent reducing our magic, therefore our healing (and damage) output. While Lucky Star and Star Shower say "random damage", its damage can be higher than your other elemental AoE spells, so give it a go and see for yourself. It's especially useful when facing monoliths or multiple immunities, as this damage is non-elemental, so it won't get lowered.


Armor: Whitemage Dress LVL 5
+10% HP
+10% MP
+20% Defense
+20% Magic Defense
Resistances: +50% Holy, +100% Freeze
A white mage's traditional clothing. Randomly summons Slime Bunny.

The amazing proc is the reason for Whitemage Dress. There's nothing better when you start a tough fight, only to be greeted by FREE REGEN BUFF, which can repeat itself randomly during the fight, saving you some precious turns.

Lance

Weapon: Thunder Core LVL 5
+20% MP
+50% Attack
+60% Magic Attack
Element: 50% Thunder
Resistance: +50% Thunder, -30% Earth
Electric gun. Boosts the power of thunder skills. Counters with Plasma. May cast Plasma.
Unleash: Magic which stuns the target.

Thunder is probably the most valuable element in the game, you can almost always find something vulnerable to it. This boosts your Thunder damage, Counters with Plasma and can cast Plasma even if you go Berserk mode. It also provides the second highest bonus to Magic Attack (along with Shadow Blaster). Unleash is a guaranteed stun, which is perfect if you want to heal up and buff your party before going for the next wave.


Hat: Officer Hat LVL 5
+5% Attack
+10% Defense
+10% Magic Attack
+10% Magic Defense
+5% Accuracy
Resistance: +30% Dark
Vintage hat from WW2. Randomly summons backup machine guns.

Great allround hat, with Dark resistance to boot. The summoned machine guns are rather weak, but they hit all enemies. Also makes you look really good with the Officer Coat.


Armor: Officer Coat LVL 5
+10% Attack,
+30% Defense
+10% Magic Attack
+20% Magic Defense
+10% Accuracy
Resistance: +50% Dark
German officer's uniform. Randomly summons tank backup.

Great allround armor, with Dark resistance to boot. The summoned tank backup hits a single enemy for decent damage, I saw 8K hits pretty often. I prefer this over Red Jacket due to the higher Defense bonus + Dark resistance matters in the endgame + it looks great with Officer Hat + Tank backup.

[killermutantsnowman]

The one thing about counters is that you can end up killing the last enemy of a wave during that enemy's turn, then causing the next wave to show up and all take their turn. I've been burned a lot from being hit too early with the second wave, so most of my go-to's are non-countering

[ilikepizza334]

wait is star clip meant to be star hairclip or are those 2 seperate things?

[Chadbaru Goatsuki]

Coming here roughly a year later to say that prior me was pretty much right, If Hard or below you change equipment based on mostly stats, with some exceptions (even on only Hard or Normal cosmic monoliths and other big boy enemies destroy you) but Epic is unplayable unless you specifically have full/nearly full resistance to the main elements of the area, starting from 3rd area all the way up to the final boss. The game is impossible to beat on Epic if you take full damage or nearly full damage from all attacks.

[Ddus]

Runeblade for the endgame

[Chadbaru Goatsuki]

Honestly, I mostly just went for the type resistances rather than stats, especially in the final 2 areas cause otherwise you get destroyed on epic

[NecroMaster]

The Viking helmet is pretty good.

While it’s annoying you rarely have control while using it it buffs your physical attacking power considerably.

Viking helmet + fully upgraded temper + de habilitate + fully upgraded elemental weapon = one mean hit.

[NotNitehawk]

...also, if you run low on MP you can just bonk an enemy...

[NotNitehawk]

After digging around a bit more, I settled on Lvl 5 Demon Tail for the Holy Ruins, cause enemies in that area have a tendency to Syphon your characters. An when Natalie is spyponed, she's completely useless...

[NotNitehawk]

Either way, my max level Judgement spell is pretty strong with Seraphim

[Psojed]

Well, it's been a while since I played, but I don't think the Holy element on the Seraphim has any effect on healing spells. Seraphim will definitely boost healing spells because it gives +50% Magic Attack (at lvl 5), but the Crystal Staff will give +60% Magic Attack (at lvl 5).
Try equipping a staff with identical +Magic Attack as your Seraphim staff, cast a healing spells, then switch to Seraphim and cast it again. If the numbers are the same, the element has no effect. If the numbers are different, Seraphim is better for healing.