FINAL FANTASY XIII HINTS
Xbox 360 | Submitted by RadiantKeybladeFantasy
Okay, for any whom don't know this yet, there is actually a very easy way to figure out what each character's Eidolon is most affected by - remember their three primary roles:
Not all are necessarily in that order, but those are the most affective ways to "hit" the Eidolons. It doesn't actually guarantee an easier fight, but at least you don't have to struggle to find the best ways to beat them.
If you want to stagger your enemy's quickly use this little trick: Always hit them with relentless assault first till you get the stagger meter up to about 30 % after that the chain gauge will fall slower.
On stronger enemies it's a good idea to cast libra or use a librascope on them so your AI characters use the most effective attacks. Using this method will take out just about any enemy. The exception is on enemy's that are immune to physical attacks, use the same method to drive up the chain gauge just don't switch back to relentless assault after stagger just keep casting away.
For those of you (myself included) whom previously fell for the "fact" that incorrectly states only ONE treasure sphere in the Leviathan Plaza in Eden is obtainable, the truth is...they BOTH are, but only under one condition:
The towering Adamantortoise MUST be defeated for this to work. Simply position Vanille as your party leader and make sure you have her "Death" ability (unless you'd rather fight like no tomorrow with VERY slim chances of winning). Now, enter the battle and summon Hecatoncheir. This will, as stated by many, in fact make it fall to the ground. Once it's down, inflict a few status ailments on it (or at least "Imperil") and then go for it with "Death" until it succumbs. Don't worry about staggering it, because I found out it's NOT necessary to achieve this. If all goes well, the Adamantortoise could very well stumble within the first three attempts (the very first time, I got it in one shot!XD)
Now, after it's defeated, run over onto the glass bottom and you can obtain both treasure spheres, since the Adamantortoise that would have shattered the glass (thus preventing access to the second sphere) is no longer there.
When facing "Bart"
When facing "Bart" and he uses his Destero power, all out attack him until he staggers during the "power-up" phase. The Destero power will only hit for half, and not leave your party close the death.
To get the enemy's stagger bar up easily, have your battle formations as... commando/ravager/ravager. Summons also set the stagger bar up fast, however when the summon exits the battle the stagger bar resets.
Now find the Adamantoise walking around (this shouldn't take too long) and commence battle. Immediately initiate Vanille's Eidolon, doing so will knock this mighty creature to its knees. Immediately after the Eidolon is summoned activate Gestalt mode and hit it with Gaian Salvo (Y Button).
This may take a few tries but eventually you will be successful and for a few minutes work you will be rewarded with 40,000 CP and if you are lucky a Platinum Ingot worth 150,000 GIL. Now, fight the enemies around this area to build your TP back to 3 and save your game. Quit your game and reload your save file and hey presto - another Adamantoise has appeared for you to slaughter. Repeat this process as much as possible to improve your characters and to really make the most of the CP points offered, equip one character with the "Growth Egg" to receive a whopping 80,000 CP points a kill!
Once you have obtained a Trapezohedron DO NOT USE IT! - yet. Instead of using this to create an ultimate weapon for your favourite Commando, you will benefit greatly to use this on a weapon for Vanille or Fang. The reason behind this is simple - grind one of their weapons to level 100 (Kain's Lance or Nirvana) and dismantle. I know this sounds crazy but for your 1,500,000 GIL investment into creating this full upgraded weapon, you will be rewarded with 3 Trapezohedrons! with a value of 6,000,000 GIL - more than trebling your original investment.
CP Farming
Strategy: In order to impress Shiva, switch the Paradigm Shift to Sentinel. Have Snow use Steel Guard all the time and wait for the Gestalt Meter to fill up. Don’t worry about your health because Striria (Sister of Nix) will heal you.
Strategy: This is one of the hardest fights you will encounter so far as Odin is fast and deadly. Before entering the battle, make sure that you changed your Battle Speed under Settings to Slow. The key to fill up the Gestalt Meter fast is when Odin sees a lot of healing and chaining up your attacks. Start off with Hope casting Protect and Shell then change the Paradigm Shift to Dual Casting allowing both Lightning and Hope cast magics. When you see one of your characters HP is low, switch to Yin & Yang Paradigm to allow Hope heal Lightning while she’s still attacking with a magic.
Strategy: Make sure Hope has a lot of HP by this time as he will be the Party leader. Start off the battle with Alexander by shifting to Delta Attack Paradigm. Have Fang be the Sentinel while Hope and Lightning do the attack. When you see the party’s HP drop significantly, switch to Combat Clinic Paradigm to do the healing. Keep on doing it this until the Gestalt Meter fills up.
Strategy: With only Vanille and Fang fighting this Eidolon Battle, it can be tough. Start off the fight by having Vanille be the Ravanger and Fang be the Sentinel. Keep attacking Hecatoncheir with Vanille’s Magic and watch his Chain Gauge goes up. When the HP runs low, change to a Medic Paradigm and have Vanille heal and switch back to the first strategy. Keep on doing this and the Gestalt Meter will go up
Once Snow is instructed to take Hope's father into the back room, an enemy assault takes place. You are in the circular portion of Hope's house, and there are enemies to your left and right. The safe door containing Hope's father and Snow is in front of you. DO NOT ENTER IT!! Instead, defeat the enemies on your right, then your left, save, upgrade and take care of whatever else is necessary. Once both squads of enemies are dead, head to the right along the longest hallway. Once you reach the end and take the left corner, the original left group of enemies will re-spawn. This is a continuous cycle (I am doing it right now, and have been for an hour). Keep Lightning and Fang as Commandos and Hope as a Ravager. If you get 5 star ratings on the enemy groups, you often receive Incentive Credits (sold for 2,500 gil a piece). This makes for a great way to make fast money, as well as level up character's paradigm roles and weapons/accessories.
Get the L'Cie Paragon achievement to have it unlocked in the extras menu.
For Lightning's 'Army Of One' which is a Ravager command, as such is great for raising stagger gauge, but does little damage. When using the command, watch for the text appearing on screen to signify the start of the combo.
This same strategy works with Vanilles 'Death' move, which, when equipped with a Genji glove can cause up to 999,999 damage to a staggered enemy.
Often, when fighting big enemies with a huge HP bar, Stagger is indispensable. But a lot of times, it's hard to get the chain gauge started, especially on weaker enemies, because their Stagger goes back down to 100% very fast. The way to keep it going up takes a little practice, but will be very handy in finishing fights fast. First, it is necessary to make all of your party members go into commando or ravager (this is usually labeled Relentless Attack or something of the likes in the Paragdim menu). Then, go to auto-attack, and attack your desired enemy. Then, go auto-attack again, but instead of attacking right away, highlight the enemy, but do not push X. Wait until your other party members finish their attacks, and then launch yours. After that, keep attacking as fast as you can. This times your party's attacks so that there is a continuous stream of attacks as opposed to a lot of attacks at once. So whenever the chain starts to go down, another attack forces it to go up, thus stopping it from resetting to 100%. As the Chain Gauge gets higher, it takes longer to reset, so you can afford taking a bit of damage from other enemies. In Stagger, the enemy will often not move, but bigger foes will. What Stagger really does is knocks down all of the enemies defenses and makes them very vulnerable to any attack. The instant you get to the Stagger percentage, a big flash will announce Stagger, and your enemy will glow yellow. Any enemy that is Staggered will also have their name appear in a yellow capsule when you have to select a target for an attack as opposed to a blue one. When Stagger is activated, the Chain Gauge bar doubles as a timer. The bar is filled to start, and slowly depletes. When the bar is completely gone, Stagger has reset. And if the enemy survives until a Stagger reset, then that enemy must be strong, so take advantage of your Medic here (it is advantageous to have both Vanille and Hope as Medics) until your party's health is back up. Then go into Relentless Attack mode again, and achieve Stagger as soon as possible.
The Eidolons are probably one of the hardest opponents you'll come across, but the good news is, if you beat them, they'll join you as FF13's new summons. Here's how to beat the first two you'll come across.
*note* Each Eidolon fight is set to a certain amount of time portrayed above the character's head. You MUST complete the challenge in that time or you'll have to retry.
To beat the Shiva sisters, you should have the role "Sentinel" by now. When the Shiva sister leaves herself open, strike while you can. This won't raise her gestalt gauge much, but it will help a little at least.
Then, when you see her throw her hands out and her weapon spins above her head, active Sentinel now. Then, right when she goes to strike, use Guard (or whatever the ability is) to defend from her attack. This will cause the gauge to rise VERY noticeably. Continue this process with good timing, and you'll have the sisters as a your first summon.
Don't worry about the other sister watching the battle. She won't strike, but she will continuously heal you so you can't lose unless you fail to fill the gauge.
Odin was much easier than the Shiva sisters. All you have to do is make sure you have a paradigm with "Commando" and "Ravager", as he's weak against magic, which the Ravager uses. It wouldn't hurt to occasionally active a paradigm with "Medic" in it, but always make sure you switch back to Ravager as soon as necessary.
In this particular fight, it's okay to attack head on with the Commando, mostly due to your Ravager inflicting great damage with their magical attacks. Synchronize your attacks witht the Ravager just right, and you will claim victory of this Eidolon in just a few minutes at most.
While in battle you can get a quick full ATB bar by switching paradigms. You may utilize this for a quick combo while switching to a healing or support paradigm. But remember, it only works on the first switch. Don't keep switching hoping for full ATB gauges.
If you have a hard time inflicting physical damage on an enemy, chances are it's weakened by elemental attacks. Thus, be sure you have a Ravager on the field for one.
Now, to easily access an enemy's elemental weakness in-battle, all you have to do is press RB, and the screen revealing information on the currently targeted opponent will appear. This is most helpful in fights like the one against the mini-boss at the start of Disc 2.
*note* You'll need to use the techniqe "Libra" in order to uncover the aforementioned information.
Master's Seal - Fully developed all characters - 30G
Commando's Seal - Mastered the Commando role - 15G
Ravager's Seal - Mastered the Ravanger role - 15G
Sentinel's Seal - Mastered the Sentinel role - 15G
Saboteur's Seal - Mastered the Saboteur's role - 15G
Synergist's Seal - Mastered the Synergist role - 15G
Medic's Seal - Mastered the Medic role - 15G
L'Cie Paragon - Earned a 5-star ranking for all Cie'th Stone missions - 80G
Superstar - Earned a 5-star ranking in the battle to determine the world's fate - 80G
Instrument of Faith - Defied destiny's charge and embarked on a different path - 30G
Dorgann's Trophy - Completed all high-level Cie'th Stone missions - 30G
Galuf's Grail - Completed all Cie'th Stone missions - 30G
Natural Selector - Passed Titan's trails - 30G
Instrument of Tragedy - Strode into danger's den and paid the consequences - 15G
Instrument of Wrath - Took the fight to the enemy's door - 15G
Instrument of Truth - Recognized the true threat to the world's fate - 15G
Xezat's Chalice - Completed all mid-level Cie'th Stone missions - 15G
Commando's Seal - Mastered the Commando Role - 15G
Commando's Seal (Bronze): Mastered the Commando role.
Ravager's Seal (Bronze): Mastered the Ravager role.
Sentinel’s Seal (Bronze): Mastered the Sentinel role.
Saboteur's Seal (Bronze): Mastered the Saboteur role.
Synergist's Seal (Bronze): Mastered the Synergist role.
Medic's Seal (Bronze): Mastered the Medic role.
Master's Seal (Silver): Fully developed all characters.
Instrument of Tragedy (Bronze): Strode into danger's den and paid the consequences.
CP Farming
When playing as Sazh and Vanille after being attacked by those PSICOM soldiers, fight everyone but don't go past the save that leads to the mission marker. There will be 5 or 6 little blue enemies fight them and you will get 650 CP's, then run back to the little blue enemy next to a item container, fight him and then go back to the 6 enemies at the top and repeat.
