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"Final Fantasy XIII Discussion Thread"

These clever things

For those that are already there (WH, moto) I've just seen Barthandalus as a big floaty head thing before he floated up to Eden.

Beat Cid very easily lol, i think the main issue is if your using a Synergist he using that Sephonic Ray a lot and that cause damage to everyone, then attacks straight after.

The weapon stats get stronger per level regardless. The bonuses will not get stronger on weapon level, but as you move up a tier the bonus "upgrades". Take "defense maintenance" on Hope's weapon for example. Tier 1 has Defense Maintenace with slightly increases the duration of buffs. Whereas the tier 2 and 3 weapon have "Defense maintenance II" which increase the duration for longer than slightly.

Weapons first.... (Lightning's Gladius for example)

Gladius starts at Level 1, and is classified as a Tier 1 weapon (first stage of grade)

You get certain items throughout the game drop from enemies (in chests) etc. All of these have EXP values (Monstrous Fang has 30EXP per item for example...I think).

When you go into the menu you choose your weapon to upgrade (Gladius Lvl 1) and then choose the items you want to use to upgrade it.

The Gladius needs 600EXP to level to LVL 2. So you use items to increase the EXP until it levels up. The items are used up during this process.

That's the basic principle....

Now we have Gladius to level 2. But looking at the experience it's going to take ages to level up to max.

Items may have EXP values, but they also have hidden multiplier values. Once an item reaches the next stage of this hidden value it will gain an exp bonus (in stages of x1.25, x1.5, x1.75, x2, x3).

The value is hidden, but generally....

Biological items have low EXP, high Multi Bonus values.
Synthetic/Mechanical items have high EXp, low Multi Bonus values.
You can't really go wrong with that theory TBH.

So we use bio items until we get a multiplier of x2, then use mechanical items which now give x2 experience to the Gladius.

Using this method, we effieciently get Gladius to it's maximun level (reflected as a star on the item level). I believe for Gladius the max level is 21 or so. Can't remember.

And that's that bit.....

When the weapon is upgraded to max (STAR) you will notice you can no longer select any items to upgrade or "spend" on it. Obvious really seen as it has been fully upgraded.

Now I mentioned earlier that Gladius was a Tier 1 weapon.

During the game you will find "Catalyst" items (primarily ores or rocks). These only have 1 use. To transform your wepaons to the next tier.

You can only use these catalysts when the weapons is maxed out at it's tier. So we have Gladius maxed out, and now we have found the required catalyst (each weapon tier has it's own catalyst).

You don't need any other items just the catalyst. You upgrade in the normal fashion, but instead of selecting upgrade items, you can only select the right catalyst. Do so and voila!...... Gladius Tier 2. (I can't remember the name of the Tier 2 Gladius weapon), but it is different).

The wepoan will now be able to level up once more. So we start the whole process again with this new Tier 2 weapon.

Bear in mind that once it has reached Level STAR, Tier 2, you will then be able to upgrade it to the characters Ultimate Weapon, but it will require a very rare catalyst. This is not that easy :S