THIS POST SPOILS UPCOMING EVENTS. GO AWAY IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED
In the spirit of the previous
crystal ball post (which actually turns out to be 100% accurate so far!) I'm looking at all the upcoming stuff yet again. Actually, considering this is where JP started getting reruns for previously missable characters, I'm
less confident that this will be nearly as accurate as we don't know how that's gonna translate to the EN service. Still, it's a decent rough idea of what abilities to prepare or at least work towards, even if the events come out of order. Just like Lenna event, it would be ass if they skip events just due to the easy reward factor for the majority of temporarily available content.
tl;dr disclaimer: EVENTS MIGHT NOT BE EXACTLY AS ADVERTISED HERE
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Locke Event - Dungeon Clear (like Cecil/Rinoa/etc)
Locke cavorting around FF6's world, retreading a lot of the same stuff from the FFVI paintings.
The way this is set up is very similar to Rinoa's event, except 15 stages instead of 10. Hence, 15 Normal stages and 15 Elite stages.
General Idea
- Since many of the bosses are carbon copies of the FFVI paintings, it's in large part a free ride. However on Elite the numbers do get nuts, and blowing abilities on trash just to minimize action stars lost means you want to
hone your core abilities somewhat. Armor/Power/Magic/Mental Breaks are good candidates as they're almost always going to be present on any strat, and having +2 shots to use on each Break on trash waves helps a shit ton, and will also benefit in the long term.
- Many bosses are susceptible to Paralysis.
Hone Intimidate to at least 4 uses. Again, this is also useful long-term
- As having Locke present is a star requisite on the final boss, and this event (presumably) runs through the next dungeon update, a general guideline might be to do the Elites till they start getting too hard, then hold off till the dungeon update hits and plonk Locke in there to level up before continuing.
- Ice attribute is iffy. While it helps a ton on some bosses, using them loses you stars on some Elite fights (unless they change it, which I highly doubt) so I'm not sure if blowing orbs on honing them is worth it.
- Retaliate meta is going to destroy things here if you have something Cyan can use, since his +10 levels from Record Synergy makes him outclass Seph and Cloud.
- I expect this event to be an extended 14-day event (like Rinoa event) just due to how it's positioned right before (presumably!) a dungeon update, and has a similar ending difficulty, albeit not a succession of
witches bosses hence not a crazy endurance test.
Elite Final Boss
- has 180k HP, is
susceptible to Poison, Blind, Slow and has an asshole requirement on Elite.
-
Cheese tactic involves at least 4 shots of Reflect. The boss enters a berserk state with ridiculous abilities at lower HP, but will spend his turn clearing Reflect if you have it cast. Haste on your reflect guy while slowing the boss can actually reduce the amount of incoming damage by a ton.
-
Dark Buster is quite awesome as the boss hits like a truck but can be blinded. Blind and Magic Break should make the fight more manageable.
-
One of the clear reqs on Elite mode is to not use Ice attribute attacks which is the opposite of the Normal dungeon (and hence, an asshole requirement). I think ultimately it depends just how much Ice stuff you have, and if using it loses you three stars but saves you on actions and damage taken stars, it's probably more worth it.
(Personal hypothesis: I think they may bring back the banner for FF6 gear here, and/or include a bunch of it in Locke's banner to entice people to gacha since the event gets really ridiculous towards the end)
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New Dungeons
Focusing on XIII, introducing IX and XII (finally lol), and some continuation of III, VII and VIII. XIII has the hardest elites, hence why I was saying try to save pulls for Vanille event. This update marks the point where the game starts feeling like you constantly have too many things to do at once. Get used to it, lol.
Record Materia get introduced in this update, I believe.
This post will not list every single Record Materia/unlock prereqs/etc. (I'm sure someone will badly translate the JP list) but what you need to know in a nutshell:
- Record Materia is a function where, at lv50, doing a certain prereq will "limit break" a character, which
++ raises his max lv cap from 50 to 65
++ gives him 1 Materia slot
++ gives you the character's first Record Materia
++ gives you the ability to unlock the character's second Record Materia (harder reqs, often RNG)
- You
can swap Record Materia around. As long as someone has a Materia slot (limit break'd) you can use any Record Materia you have earned.
- If looking at JP lists, not all of them were available right away. Might be different on EN considering we had Record Synergy from the start, but just a heads-up.
- Most of them kick ass, but of special note are BM/WHM/Summoner which recharge uses per stage, something that is unique in the game right now and irreplaceable for longevity.
- Due to the way a lot of 2nd tier Record Materia (the good stuff) unlocks, which simply requires the characters to be involved in your party and then praying to RNGesus, you'll probably want to Limit Break them first, chuck them in the party, THEN start clearing the normal dungeons with them in the party. This applies to e.g. Tyro, Summoner, etc. Thankfully BM/WHM have very straightforward unlock conditions for 2nd tier Record Materia.
4* Orb Farming for certain flavors gets a lot easier. Will post separately.
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Shinra Event - Dungeon Clear
I'm really not sure when this is gonna be in our service. On one hand, this was a period where JP was getting a shit ton of events one after another (holiday) and the 'goal' was stated to be eventual parity. On the other, not much has broken the very rigid 6-days-one-update release schedule on EN up to now. I'm personally leaning towards this being concurrent with the previous dungeon update but I can very well be wrong on this one. We'll see! I'm 100% sure they won't outright skip this event, since a final reward is Blizzaja, in the same vein that Vanille gave a Thundaja and the next event gives Firaja, etc.
Anyway, event itself is essentially a "catch up" event for newer players as it rewards a bunch of abilities outright. Some of the placement (Armor Break being a reward for clearing a 50k hp boss) is a little weird, though, but I guess that's because it was their first shot at such an event, or maybe Armor Break wasn't that popular in JP meta at that point? (lol)
5 Normal, 5 Elite stages, and a bonus "Boss Rush" final final stage to top it all off. Not really too hard compared to the previous events, especially if you have good Thunder abilities and Intimidate.
Most events from this point on have a Boss Rush. If you have WHM/BM/Summoner record materias at this point, THEY REALLY SHINE. It's essentially 3 (or more) extra casts of Black Magic and/or Summons throughout the Boss Rush, and when you think about the honing costs, you can see why it's ridiculously OP.
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Tidus Event - Dungeon Clear
*** ALERT ALERT ALERT ***
Tidus' Record Materia is only available during this event. We're not sure when it's coming around next but definitely not for months.
*** ALERT ALERT ALERT ***
As above, I'm not too sure when this event hits, but if my speculation that the previous event is concurrent with the new dungeons/record materia release is correct, then the above countdown is 6 days after that. Many of the bosses are susceptible to Paralysis, and the req is for Tidus and Wakka to be present. Start grinding them now if you haven't.
Tidus gets his Record Materia here. You need to beat Elite Chocobo Eater, but at ~50k HP, it's a cinch compared to the elites in the game right now. This isn't hard for most people who have been playing a while and are at the point where Tidus is 50
10 Normal, 10 Elite stages, bonus Boss Rush. The Boss Rush is actually more lenient considering the free stars from the special conditions (Tidus/Wakka present) gives you leeway to lose stars elsewhere.
Firaja is the final Elite reward.
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Squall Event - Dungeon Clear
*** ALERT ALERT ALERT ***
Squall's Record Materia is only available during this event (till much later) so if you miss it you can't get it till much later. It's also trickier than Tidus.
*** ALERT ALERT ALERT ***
Again, not sure as to release date of this; just going with +6 from previous event for now. The premise of this event is that Squall failed to assassinate Edea and returns to Garden. I get the feeling that the game is actually
rubbing it in that most of us failed Stage 10 Elite Sorceress rofl.
Anyway, remember T-Rex? Sure you do. He's back, he's angrier, and now he has 120k HP and you have to beat him to get Squall's Record Materia. He's still vulnerable to Poison, Paralysis, and Ice attacks though so if you're prepared beforehand like Batman this shouldn't be trouble. (Powerlevelling Squall to 50 in time might be tricky though)
10 Normal, 10 Elite stages, bonus Boss Rush. (Pretty standard by now)
Some JP forums are saying the Final Boss is
not immune to instant death, which should be hilarious. As with previous events, there's a Boss Rush.