Crisis Core Reunion Buster Sword Proficiency Master Thread

[X-SOLDIER]

Thanks to a ton of meticulous research by @Phantasm which started when were chatting over Discord while looking at Minerva strategies while they were doing their no damage Minerva runs on Chapter 4, and I'd just pushed through the story and unlocked the Buster Sword to start grinding that to max proficiency. After compiling REALLY comprehensive details for the Minerva fight patterns and moving on in their own playthrough, Phantasm passed along what looks to be the most comprehensively accurate information about the Buster Sword Proficiency in Crisis Core Reunion, what its abilities are, what they do, & how to unlock them.

Thanks for giving me the breakdown and the request to share this to a wider audience with some light reformatting:

Buster Sword's Base Starting Abilities​

In addition to allowing you to take up a Battle Stance, there are several enhanced capabilities that the Buster Sword grants you upon acquiring it which are connected to the Battle Stance that you can assume while wielding it. Note that amusingly, these all still apply to the Beach Parasol that Zack uses as a weapon during the 10-3 & 10-4 Costa Del Sol missions.

Strong Attack​

Effect: Performs a unique attack after assuming Battle Stance

Combo Boost​

Effect: Using Command Materia from Battle Stance increases damage like using them after an attack combo (changes damage numbers from white to orange)

Enhanced Guard​

Effect: While in Battle Stance, damaged is reduced by 80%

Necromose​

Effect: Regain a small amount of MP & AP upon defeating an enemy
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Buster Sword's Unlockable Abilities & How to Unlock Them​

The Buster Sword also has a number of additional abilities that can be unlocked by meeting certain conditions when hitting enemies, and you can acquire up to 10 hits towards any ability per battle. On top of providing a significant benefit, this also provides a fixed percentage to the Buster Sword's overall Proficiency % upon unlocking them. Upon unlocking any of these abilities, you'll get a pop-up with an explanation after completing or escaping the battle (although there is some nuance absent from them I'll explain further down). After gaining all three of these abilities, you'll boost the Buster Sword Proficiency by a total of 20%.

Note: Mission 9-6-5 is the best option for grinding to unlock the Barrier Piercing & Barrier Break abilities as all the encounters have large numbers of enemies all with active barrier effects, which basically guarantee that you'll get 10 hits in.

Damage Limit Break​

Effect: Deal up to 99,999 Damage when performing the Buster Sword's Strong Attack or utilizing a Command Materia Ability while in Battle Stance
• Unlock: Hit enemies 100 times for at least 9,999 Damage with Strong Attack or Battle Stance-boosed Command Materia
• Proficiency Boost: 10%
• Max Progress Per Battle: 10 hits

Barrier Piercing​

Effect: Enemy Physical Barrier effects** are bypassed for damage dealt with the Buster Sword's Strong Attack or utilizing a Command Materia Ability while in Battle Stance
• Unlock: Hit enemies with active Barriers 100 times with Strong Attack or Battle Stance-boosed Command Materia
• Proficiency Boost: 5%
• Max Progress Per Battle: 10 hits

Barrier Break​

PREREQUISITE: Unlock Barrier Piercing
Effect: Enemy Physical Barrier effects** are removed upon hitting with the Buster Sword's Strong Attack or utilizing a Command Materia Ability while in Battle Stance
• Unlock: Hit enemies with active Barriers 500 times with Strong Attack or Battle Stance-boosed Command Materia
• Proficiency Boost: 5%
• Max Progress Per Battle: 10 hits

**There are 5 types of barrier abilities: Barrier, MBarrier, Null Physical, Null Magical, & Invincible. The Barrier Piercing & Barrier Break abilities
are able to bypass/remove the effects of only the barriers that block solely physical damage: Barrier & Null Physical. While Barrier Piercing works exclusively on Strong Attack or Command Materia used while in Battle Stance to bypass those effects, Barrier Break is designed to use just one attack from Battle Stance to reenable the damage potential for using normal Attacks & Command Materia. This is because those abilities are related to a representation of the martial combat mastery of fighting with the Buster Sword, reinforcing how Crisis Core Reunion's combat emphasizes the synergy between standard attacks & Command Materia.

There are some unique cases, which are when there is a defensive spell used like Wall that simultaneously applies both Barrier & MBarrier or Null Physical & Null Magical to an enemy. This means that Barrier Piercing & Break them will only bypass/remove the Barrier/Null Physical and will not affect the MBarrier/Null Magical effect at all. This same rule also applies to enemies with any type of dual active barrier effects regardless of whether they are applied individually or simultaneously. So long as there are separate barriers for physical & magical defense applied, Barrier Piercing & Break will only bypass/remove the individual physical damage barriers.

This nature of those abilities is why the single status of Invulnerable cannot be bypassed by either Barrier Piercing or Barrier Break. While this leaves 3 types of Barrier effects that are completely unaffected by the Barrier Piercing or Barrier Break abilities (MBarrier, Null Magic, & Invulnerable), all 5 types of Barriers can be removed by the Dispel Blade Command Materia. Thus, that materia still has a use for enabling the use of Magic Materia in combat as well as for bypassing Invincible, all of which Minerva is capable of casting on herself.

This helps to shed light on how Damage Break allows for dealing 99,999 Damage by using Battle Stance, and it was likely that it could have also had an upgrade allowing Zack to break the Damage Barrier with attacks & Command Materia. However, as that would have significantly undercut the utility of the game's unique accessories being used only to break the damage limit for Magic, it makes sense that Damage Break doesn't get an upgrade like Barrier Piercing into Barrier Break. The mechanics help to shed some light on why it's likely that the Barrier abilities seem to be configured very differently and being the only ones to act as a prerequisite to the other.

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Buster Sword's Proficiency % Caps & Benefits​

While the aforementioned unlockable abilities will contribute a fixed 20% total to the Buster Sword's Proficiency upon acquiring them, the remaining 80% needs to be acquired by performing certain types of actions with the Buster Sword while in Battle Stance that just boost the Proficiency % value directly. These methods are using the Battle Stance to 1: Perform a Strong Attack, 2: Use Command Materia, & 3: Block Damage. Each of these three actions all have their own separate Proficiency % contribution and individual caps, as well as separate limits that they can be increased by within a given battle.

Additionally, the benefits connected to each of those three actions will increase upon reaching the half-way point towards their respective individual Proficiency % caps. Unlike with the previous Unlockable Abilities however, there is no pop-up notification about these unique effects nor any indication of when these benefits are applied. This can make it difficult to track what grinding the Buster Sword's Proficiency is actually doing, especially as you level up and improve your equipment & materia, but it also means that it's more of a smooth escalation in damage and guarding potential. Since the Buster Sword Proficiency % carries across to NG+, this also helps to create a more noticeable difference in Zack's combat capabilities upon obtaining the Buster Sword.

This setup means that theoretically you could have is an increase of 0.57% to 0.58% per battle ...but most battles won't have enough enemies to reach that, and those that do are less efficient than quick battles that can hit the guarding cap quickly and then eliminate the enemies from that Battle Stance. If there is a long battle with a large number of enemies (like several Missions provide), focus on blocking damage and then using one type of Battle Stance attack action, as it's easiest to casually keep an eye out to see if you max out at 0.32% - 0.33% and then switch from Strong Attack to a Command Materia or vise-versa to get whatever additional percentage you can if any enemies are remaining. The most reliable tactic is to do all of them until you're able to identify that one of them has hit its cap and stops boosting the total, and there's no downside to that since they will all provide you benefits at their halfway mark.

Note: As Blocking damage increases the slowest & has the highest % cap, it benefits the most from quick encounters with enemies that will deal multiple hits rapidly like Mission 1-2-5 if you need to rapidly grind out that last lingering percentage.

Defeating Enemies with Strong Attack in Battle Stance (25%)​

Initial Effect (0%): Damage Multiplier for the Strong Attack is 1x
Trained Effect (12.5%): Damage Multiplier for the Strong Attack is raised to 2x
Mastered Effect (25%): Damage Multiplier for the Strong Attack is raised to 3x
• Increase: 0.02% - 0.03% per enemy defeated
• Max Proficiency Per Battle: 0.25%

Defeating Enemies with Command Materia Abilities in Battle Stance (25%)​

Initial Effect (0%): Damage Multiplier for the Command Materia is 2x
Trained Effect (12.5%): Damage Multiplier for the Command Materia is raised to 2.5x
Mastered Effect (25%): Damage Multiplier for the Command Materia is raised to 3x
• Increase: 0.02% - 0.03% per enemy defeated
• Max Proficiency Per Battle: 0.25%

Blocking Incoming Damage in Battle Stance (30%)​

Initial Effect (0%): Battle Stance blocks 80% of damage**
Trained Effect (15%): Battle Stance blocks 90% of damage**
Mastered Effect (30%): Battle Stance blocks 100% of damage**
• Increase: 0.01% - 0.02% per blocked hit
• Max Proficiency Per Battle: 0.07% - 0.08%

**The following attacks are exceptions that still deal ALL their damage normally and ignore Battle Stance's guard, meaning that the damage dealt is calculated using only Zack's VIT or SPR value as well as effects from SP Barrier/Master:
– Ultima
– Cactuar's 1,000 Needles & 10,000 Needles
– Tonberry's Kitchen Knife & Everyone's Rancor
– Great Malboro's Super Bad Breath
– Sephiroth's Heartless Angel
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Last but not least: At 100% Buster Sword Proficiency, Zack's aura during Battle Stance will change from orange to red to indicate that you've maxed out all the abilties and benefits. There's nothing additional added beyond finally gaining the last of whichever newly unlocked benefits came along with the final % you needed to be maxed out. Especially since some of those benefits will be more difficult to understand, and they're individually and collectively quite powerful, hopefully the above will help to show why the 100% Mastery only gets a cosmetic change (rather than granting yet another additional perk on top of all of these ones that it provides).

Hopefully this helps to provide more comprehensive clarity on what it actually takes to get all the necessary bits unlocked, especially if you've noticed that you've stalled out at a particular percentage, you haven't gained a certain ability, or something doesn't quite line up with the way that other guides about these abilities have listed the mechanics thus far, since there is a LOT of complexity at work that isn't directly surfaced.

(Update: 1/7/23)

Just to show off how much of an absolute wrecking machine focusing strictly on a 100% Buster Sword combat can make you – Phantasm's got a video showcasing how you can have a setup to utterly obliterate all of the toughest enemies like they're absolutely nothing, including what it looks like to go toe-to-toe with Minerva using nothing but the Buster Sword with Dispel Blade Command Materia for taking advantage of its melee attack boosts.

All of them are on Hard Mode with the exception of Minerva, just because it would make things a bit long for a showcase like this, but the overall strategy is just as effective since everything about her in both modes is identical and she's just got more HP. The video description has the full layout of all the way that the boosts & modifiers from the materia loadout function if you're more curious about even further optimizing what the maxed-out Buster Sword Proficiency will allow you to pull off.

(Update: 1/11/23)

Made some additional clarifications based on some new research data:
– The Ability unlocks only require enemies to be HIT that meet the conditions, not defeated and you can stock up to 10 hits per battle towards both abilities i.e. Damage Limit Break has a separate counter from Barrier Piercing/Break. You can technically just hit-and-run to unlock these, and there's a linked video in the description text showing explicitly how those work now.
– Updated clarification around how the Barrier Piercing & Barrier Break abilities function in terms of the benefit that they provide.
– The Battle Stance Guard also has a mid-point progression upgrade exactly like the Strong Attack & Command Materia damage abilities do.
– Expanded the guides and overall descriptions to be a bit more comprehensive and helpful towards reaching the various progression points.



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[Tetsujin]

tl;dr
raising proficiency actually doesn't do anything and the stat is entirely useless
I had a feeling that was the case...

I wonder why they implemented it the way they did.

 

[Makoeyes987]

tl;dr
raising proficiency actually doesn't do anything and the stat is entirely useless
I had a feeling that was the case...

I wonder why they implemented it the way they did.

To give grinding players something to do

 

[X-SOLDIER]

tl;dr
raising proficiency actually doesn't do anything and the stat is entirely useless
I had a feeling that was the case...

I wonder why they implemented it the way they did.

No. Literally the opposite.

The total proficiency % is a measure of multiple different attack & defense capabilities that are all tied directly to using the Buster Sword itself.

JUST raising the Proficiency with the main methods boosts your base damage multipliers for Command Materia & Strong Attacks up to 3x and massively boosts your Battle Stance defense to make you nigh-unkillable while you're in it. The other related boosts that include a proficiency % increase also grant you the barrier bypassing for damage, barrier disabling with attacks, and the damage break of Strong Attacks & Command Materia without use of an accessory.

It's an EXTREMELY useful mechanic, and the reason for the breakdown was to help gain the particular benefits by outlining what all of them do, and how to achieve them, as well as making it more clear if you want to get a certain ability how to go about achieving that.

Additionally, because the Buster Sword Proficiency percentage carries over to NG+ that makes it more viable for people to play through on normal and then play through again on Hard Mode, since you don't have to max it out during a single playthrough. It's especially relevant given how those allow you to block the damage from Minerva's attacks, as well as bypass and disable barriers – which she's capable of applying. It very much changes up how you're able to approach that fight.


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[cold_spirit]

JUST raising the Proficiency with the main methods boosts your base damage multipliers for Command Materia & Strong Attacks up to 3x and massively boosts your Battle Stance defense to make you nigh-unkillable while you're in it.

Ohhh, I see that in your initial write up now. Gotcha. I will actually start focusing on raising proficiency now.

 

[Tetsujin]

I must have overlooked the multiplier stuff
Well glad that's all cleared up because there's a dozen guides that were thrown up within the first days that were all like "you get this thing at 27%, the other at 47% and the maximum is actually 95%" and like...yeah nah.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

I must have overlooked the multiplier stuff
Well glad that's all cleared up because there's a dozen guides that were thrown up within the first days that were all like "you get this thing at 27%, the other at 47% and the maximum is actually 95%" and like...yeah nah.

It's definitely not a clearly outlined progression at all in-game, as I think it's meant to just encourage you leaning in and utilizing the change that it gives for combat and incentivize really making the most out of all the ways that Reunion made improvements to the combat of the original.

There was common confusion as things like "Damage Limit Break" would suddenly jump your Proficiency by 10% upon acquisition, and they were details that people noticed but just got treated as an anomaly. The inaccuracy of all the random rush-to-be-first guides was actually what irked @Phantasm enough to dig in and clarify things – and wanted to make sure that if anywhere had its facts straight about everything it was here – for which I'm quite grateful.

Since my run heavily utilized Jump and then eventually Aerial Drain, I got used to trying to drop it in at the end of regular attack combos, since Command Materia get their orange damage boost when you do that even from the start of the game. As soon as the Buster Sword's Battle Stance automatically granted that same orange damage boost to Command Materia, I got really in to immediately pushing it up to 100%, and discovered a handy tactic. In addition to pressing X+▢ simultaneously to enter Battle Stance, you can press and hold X and then press ▢ afterwards. Doing it that way gives you a dodge roll into Battle Stance's 80% guard that will then allow you to use Arial Drain to function as ANOTHER dodge at which point the damage from its attack ALSO gets boosted.

That's why I started chatting about it with Phantasm as a way to implement alternative strategies for fighting Minerva given the dodge timing of her attack strings, and how I'd been using Aerial Drain to close space depending on the timing and patterns of her attack loop. That was even before learning about the massive boost to Battle Stance's guard and the barrier bypassing & breaking abilities that you get from maxing it out making that fight into something where you can actually just straight-up go toe-to-toe with her and block most all of her attacks.

It was only once I noticed during grinding that the Strong Attack & Command Materia grinding wasn't pushing the Proficiency % up at all that I figured there must be some upper limit on the % contributions of each type of action that the game tells to you use to raise it, as standing in Battle Stance and guarding against damage was still providing me a % boost. That's most of what I provided Phantasm in advance of all their research. (Thankfully for other people doing this now, it seems like 1-2-5 is likely an easier option than 8-5-3 for getting a lot of rapid hits dealt, since the Battle Stance Guard is by FAR the most time-consuming ability to unlock via raw %age but it's also far and away one of the most powerful because of it boosting your guard up from the 80% to being 100% for a wide range of damage sources).

I ended up lucking out for the acquisition of the two Barrier bypassing abilities as I had already beaten Minerva and stolen Phoenix Downs from her, and I was just grinding 9-6-5 because it's the only place where you can steal Phoenix Downs, and I wanted to max that out before looping through into NG+, so I ended up just getting the Barrier Piercing & Barrier Break there without knowing what exactly triggered them. So, if you're grinding out those abilities, that's something else useful that you can do at the same time as wrecking through the 600 Barrier'd enemies.

It is worth noting that ALL these Buster Sword exclusive abilities are still exclusive to the Buster Sword's Battle Stance in NG+ so you won't have boosted combat capabilities or an ability to use Battle Stance with the regular SOLDIER sword that you use at the start of the game.

Mostly though, I like that this actually feels like an answer to the "Punch" type materia, as Strong Attack gives another type of attack even as Battle Stance also boosts Punch and other Command Materia. So having the Buster Sword FEELS really different and Battle Stance just sets you up to hit them with your sword OR with your off-hand, and it makes those things feel like they can both easily deliver fully maxed-out damage – so that now, end-game Zack is just an all around badass, and not someone with a cosmically super-powered left hook who ignores his signature weapon.



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[MoLe_BlAdE]

Thanks for this @X-SOLDIER really helpful!

I now know not to start getting angry if I notice the proficiency grinding to a halt

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Glad to assist!

Also, I just added the latest video by @Phantasm to the OP (with permission) as it's an absolutely BRUTAL demonstration of the types of strategies that you can pull off with it that finally feels like it puts the Punch materia solidly in their place.

EDIT: Also updated the Battle Stance guard to list the specific attacks that are still able to deliver damage.



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[X-SOLDIER]

Just wanted to bump this as I've just finished making a fairly decent update with more accurate data that I got from Phantasm. Additionally, I expanded some of the descriptions & explanations to hopefully be more helpful in providing a clear overall understanding, as even when the game SEEMS to be telling you what something does, it isn't always totally clear how it works.


This should be the last update needed to the OP at this point, as I think all the points of uncertainty have been ironed out. If there are any lingering questions about anything though, lemme know!



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