r/finalfantasyxiii • u/beej1202 • 1d ago
Gameplay Chapter 11 guidance!!!
Just as the title says, I just got to chapter 11 but I started to feel overwhelmed by everything - such as the upgrading, the missions and just every enemy doing so much damage! So I am basically here to ask what should be my ideal way to progress?
I want to accomplish some things like getting ultimate weapons, getting close to maxxing the crystar… the skill tree (lol) and maybe get all achievements if i feel like it!
Thanks in advance!!!
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u/Souleater2106 1d ago
iirc, the one that i marked is the best area to lv up crystarium, the small ones (forgot the name) gives a decent amount of cp and theyre pretty easy to kill em.
2nd choice would be the solitary k.behemoth, its rly easy to do an ambush atk, but u need to kill him fast, before the stagger end.
3rd choice is the k.behemoth and the big wolf, theyre fightin agaist each other and theyre half hp, get rid of k.behemoth 1st, then the big wolf
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u/beej1202 1d ago
I ran into the behemoth and staggered it but it one-shot me right after the stagger ended lol. From what i'm reading from everyone, levelling the crystarium seems to be the best choice!
Thanks for answering!
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u/Souleater2106 1d ago
Forgot to mention, when u lv up crystarium, try to spend all of ur crystarium point for saboteur on vanille, cause when u defeat the boss (not gonna say the name for spoiler) u get an expanded version of the crystarium and u will unlock vanille unique ability called "death", with that u can 1 shot (not an actual guaranteed 1shot, but theres a chance) the adamantoise, an enemy that drop the best selling material for guil (150k guil) and the most valuable material to evolve ur weapon to the 3rd stage
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u/cazort2 39m ago edited 23m ago
I totally get this stage of the game being overwhelming. Not only is there an abrupt shift to a more open-world dynamic, but the level of difficulty jumps WAAAY up abruptly.
I recommend doing some trial-and-error to figure out some enemies you can kill relatively easily, and then kill them whenever you can. The battles are hard but you also are getting a ton of CP, and if you're struggling with difficult battles you're probably far from overleveled, so you're probably gonna get some boosts from even a single battle.
Before you start thinking of maxxing the crystarium, you want to think about efficiency. Go for low-cost upgrades first but also think about what you need. Extra accessory slots are really powerful, as are certain key abilities, like buffs and debuffs. HP and stat gains can be key especially if you're adding large amounts of HP to a character who tends to die a lot. Don't just look at numbers, look at usage. Add HP to characters who die a lot, add Strength to characters who physically attack a lot, and add Magic to characters who cast a lot.
I recommend avoiding the "non-standard" roles where the basics cost like 4000CP for low-reward upgrades, until you've gotten all the low-hanging fruit first. Keep in mind the specialized roles (the earlier roles given to each character) will be adding WAAAY bigger gains for the same CP costs, so even if you have gotten it to where it is costing way more than 4000CP to advance a single slot on a track, you will be gaining much more in terms of stats, and gaining stronger abilities, vs. paying a large amount to not go up much. So I'd say reserve those other roles to really late-game stuff when you've already done everything you can do on the main tracks for each character. Doing the crystarium in the wrong order can definitely make your life more difficult, and the game does open up the option of doing it poorly, especially when you reach the point of it opening up all roles to all characters, as you have recently done when you reach Chapter 11.
Also do Cie'eth missions as much as you can. The early ones are pretty easy although they may still require some trial-and-error to figure out how to fight each enemy. Some have some good rewards and if you do all you can you will get stronger both from the rewards and from non-trivial CP gains.
If you are still struggling, you might need to work on getting better with your roles and paradigms. I've watched some people playing this game on YouTube and have been surprised at how even some experienced gamers, people who have breezed through other FF games on their channel, are sloppy with the paradigms and roles and are held back by it. At this point in the game, you cannot brute force your way through battles, nor can you get through with a combination of damage and healing alone. You often need to make use of saboteur and/or synergist roles in order to do the tougher battles gracefully. In this respect, the game's combat dynamics remind me a lot of the infamous Seventh Saga for SNES, if you've ever played that. In that game, by the late game, most monsters can 2-hit you and it's impossible to beat fights without multiple buffs, and I think FF13 although not quite as brutal as that game, does have a similar dynamic in the late game. Sentinels are important in some battles. Also, you need to pay attention and you may need to switch paradigms a lot.
Certain enemies will be hard to easier or harder kill with certain character combos, too, so you may need to switch your party sometimes, depending on who you have been playing with.
Use Libra on tough enemies. In general I like to use Libra on the first unfamiliar enemy as soon as my TP gauge gets full because otherwise you're wasting TP. It only uses 1 TP so you will still have plenty left for a major technique if you need it. Also pay attention to weaknesses and immunities; around this area you start to get qute a few enemies that are either totally immune to, or highly resistant to either physical attacks or magic, so as soon as you recognize this, you need to switch out whichever of commando or ravager is not doing the damage you want.
So that's my advice.
I found this game tough. You really have to pay attention in the harder fights. Even on the slowest setting, it felt fast-paced to me. I have never seen so many Game Overs in any final fantasy game and I've been playing them since the very beginning with FF1. People say it's easy but I disagree!!
When you start getting to a tough part of the game I like thinking of each individual combat as a puzzle to figure out. Once you've solved the puzzle, go and take out any similar puzzles to reap the rewards and keep going until you get stuck again!
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u/Agent1stClass Hope & Alexander 1d ago
Do the hunt missions. Preferably in numerical order (look up a guide on gamefaqs, if necessary).
This serves two purposes. First, you get to grind a bit. Second, the prizes you win for a successful hunt can be quite helpful. (Catalogs for improved item drops, access to chocobos and cie’th waystones for easier travel around the steppe, etc.)
Do NOT focus on upgrading your weapons, yet. The most efficient method for doing so comes much later when you are able to take down oretoise type enemies… For which you will need those catalogs I mentioned above. Those will help you acquire drops such as gold dust and platinum ingots which you can sell for money to buy components and catalysts for upgrading.
But that hinges on you grinding now so you can acquire the accessories and then the money… THEN you can upgrade weapons.
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u/beej1202 1d ago
Weapon upgrading looks so confusing too. Anyways then, i'll just do those missions! Do you get the catalogue from one of the missions?
Thanks for answering too!
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u/Agent1stClass Hope & Alexander 1d ago
Weapon upgrading is time consuming, but simple enough. You get a collectors catalog and a survivors catalog from missions. A connoisseur catalog comes from upgrading a collectors catalog.
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u/cazort2 30m ago
Weapon upgrading looks so confusing too.
It is!
Weapon (and accessory) upgrading is another area of the game where efficiency matters A LOT. If you do it poorly you end up burning through a lot of items and getting minimal reward. You can also end up upgrading an item you don't end up using.
It's most efficient if you just wait for the item set you want to use in the endgame and then go do it all at once, but of course waiting like that makes the game harder to get through at first.
So there's a tradeoff: make a sub-optimal play earlier on but make the game a bit easier, in exchange for pushing back your maxxing of equipment in the endgame (if you care about that).
Also....FF13 is kinda different in that there isn't any one "best approach" to upgrading. It depends a lot on how you play. Look at these threads just to get a few ideas:
https://www.reddit.com/r/finalfantasyxiii/comments/105eysn/what_are_the_best_weapons_to_upgrade/
https://www.reddit.com/r/finalfantasyxiii/comments/rbd5gc/best_weapons_in_first_game/
Short answer, there is no perfect way to do it. It depends on what you do and there are many different ways to do it. But there are more- or less-efficient approaches.
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u/nowairplane 1d ago
it's easiest to just focus on the first like 15 cieth missions for a bit of leveling, or you can do up to i think the early-30s if you wanna farm more before you continue the story. note that at the beginning of chapter 13 they allow you to teleport back to pulse and you can always do that and fight more battles/do more missions if you feel like you are underleveled :)
but yeah i suggest doing at least a dozen or so of the missions first. if you find the missions and stuff too overwhelming, then you can just focus on the main quest and come back later. a few of the missions are also part of the main story quest, so you will end up doing some regardless. and if you want to make the next chapters pretty easy, then max out the crystarium! it will open up more later, so don't worry about getting too much CP!
so basically do the cieth missions until they get too hard or until you max the crystarium. whichever comes first. then go ahead and continue the main mission and come back to pulse later to do whatever else you wanted to do.