Final Fantasy XIII-2

[Shakarian]

So I'm playing the Lightning DLC atm.

Oneshot damage with Chaos Bahamut's Megaflare, holy jiminy crickets

 

[Alex Strife]

To be honest, I have never added skills to my monsters, nor I have ever used any weapon that wasn't the strongest (so I do not really use chain bonuses and stuff). Also, I my accessory use is rather simplistic.

I know that's probably the reason I can't beat the stronger guys, despite my (I used to think) tactical prowess. But I'm shit at organising accessories and skills, etc...

 

[Alex Strife]

What level did you guys have when beating the first Lightning DLC battle?

 

[Splintered]

To be honest, I have never added skills to my monsters, nor I have ever used any weapon that wasn't the strongest (so I do not really use chain bonuses and stuff). Also, I my accessory use is rather simplistic.

I know that's probably the reason I can't beat the stronger guys, despite my (I used to think) tactical prowess. But I'm shit at organising accessories and skills, etc...

Well, if you want an easy way to do it, it'll take some time but there are places that have actual easy recipes for infusion

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/619315-final-fantasy-xiii-2/62435836 is a thread to compare the better monsters. I personally don't use'em but there are easy to follow.

Here's what they generally look like.

Spoiler

Start with Mud Frog level 19
- Infuse Mewmao (level 23) to Mud Frog (level 19)
- Infuse Tonberry (level 24) to Mud Frog (level 19)
- Infuse Frag Leech (level 30) to Mud Frog (level 19)
- Infuse Green Chocobo (level 48) to Mud Frog (level 19)

- Infuse Mud Frog (level 19) to Lightning (level 13)
- Infuse Zwerg Metro (level 20) to Lightning (level 13)
- Infuse Pink Lily (level 30) to Lightning (level 13) - not sure which 2/3 spells to learn, I picked Fira and Aerora
- Infuse Fencer (level 19) to Lightning (level 13)

You should end up with:

01) Attack: ATB Charge II (RL)
02) Siphon Boost II (6) - Fencer (level 18)
03) Quick Stagger (7) - Fencer (level 19)
04) Resist Physical +36% (7) - Green Chocobo (level 48)
05) Role Resonance (7) - Frag Leech (level 30)
06) Strength +35% (7) - Tonberry (level 24)
07) Magic +35% (7) - Tonberry (level 22)
08) Resist Magic +36% (7) - Mewmao (level 23)
09) Chain Bonus Boost II (6) - Pink Lily (level 30)
10) Stagger Maintenance II (6) - Zwerg Metro (level 20)

Monster-----: Omega
Monster Role: Commando
Build Author: BMSirius

The Build:
01) Feral Surge (RL)
02) Feral Fatigue (RL)
03) Leadenstrike (RL)
04) Strength +35% (7)
05) Role Resonance (7)
06) Resist Physical +36% (7)
07) Resist Magic +36% (7)
08) Siphon Boost II (6)
09) Attack: ATB Charge II (6)
10) Chain Bonus Boost II (6)

Monster Materials to use: All-Power, except use Potent for levels 51, 61, 66,
81-84, 86-89, 91.

Crystarium Upgrades-----: +3 ATB, +1 Bonus Boost.

Additional Abilities----: Teach him Adrenaline and Faultsiphon. Then teach him
Jeapordize by infusing 99 levels worth of RAV
monsters into him.


Gather these Monsters:
01) Lv10 Blue Chocobo (Chain Bonus Boost)
02) Lv30 Pink Lily (Chain Bonus Boost II)
03) Lv02 Chunerpeton (Siphon Boost)
04) Lv18 Fencer (Siphon Boost II)
05) Lv01 Yeoman (Attack: ATB Charge II)
06) Lv01 Yeoman (Attack: ATB Charge II)
07) Lv24 Tonberry (Strength +35%)
08) Lv32 Deathgaze (Resist Magic +36%)
09) Lv48 Green Chocobo (Resist Physical +36%)
10) Lv30 Frag Leech (Role Resonance)
11) Lv99 Omega


Infuse in this order:
01) Lv99 Omega <-- Lv10 Blue Chocobo
02) Lv99 Omega <-- Lv30 Pink Lily
03) Lv99 Omega <-- Lv02 Chunerpeton
04) Lv99 Omega <-- Lv18 Fencer
05) Lv99 Omega <-- Lv01 Yeoman
06) Lv99 Omega <-- Lv01 Yeoman
07) Lv99 Omega <-- Lv24 Tonberry
08) Lv99 Omega <-- Lv32 Deathgaze
09) Lv99 Omega <-- Lv48 Green Chocobo
10) Lv99 Omega <-- Lv30 Frag Leech (learn Faultsiphon)

Gather these Monsters:
01) Lv40 Cloudburst
02) Lv54 Forked Cat
03) Lv30 Frag Leech
04) Lv19 Fencer
05) Lv22 Tonberry
06) Lv20 Zwerg Metro
07) Lv30 Pink Lily
08) Lv01 Yeoman

Infuse in this order:
01) Lv40 Cloudburst <-- Lv54 Forked Cat
02) Lv40 Cloudburst <-- Lv30 Frag Leech
03) Lv40 Cloudburst <-- Lv19 Fencer
04) Lv40 Cloudburst <-- Lv22 Tonberry
05) Lv40 Cloudburst <-- Lv20 Zwerg Metro
06) Lv40 Cloudburst <-- Lv30 Pink Lily
07) Lv40 Cloudburst <-- Lv01 Yeoman

It takes work but it makes fights so a lot easier.

 

[Alex Strife]

My God! That must take time!!

 

[Blade]

I keep saying this to my friends...this game is like Poke'mon.

Dumb question but...can you rewind time and get DLC characters fresh, assuming you messed up a recipe?

Also...I recommend working on your Chocobo racing skills if you want to finance the Gil for these builds, since farming isn't guaranteed without Collector's Catelog.

 

[Splintered]

Dumb question but...can you rewind time and get DLC characters fresh, assuming you messed up a recipe?

You can get any dlc character again but you only really need to rewind for Lightning and Sazh. At least for Sazh.

For anything else, you can release a monster or just infuse it into another monster. Then fight them again and wait for a crystal drop. I infused my Gilgamesh into V!Lightning and just got Gilgamesh again because I was too lazy to make another build.

The other way to rework a build is using yellow locks to force the passives permanently on the monster (or unlocking undesirable ones off), and then working the abilities. But it can be a little like juggling and is time consuming.

 

[Blade]

How do you mess with the "locks" anyway?

Also, playing Lightning DLC: Here's some things I learned:

I have my Paradigms stacked thusly:

Knight (Sentinel)
Paladin (Commando)
Mage (Ravager Spells)
Shaman (Ravager Spellstrikes)
Synergist (Buff/Debuff)

Caius: Commando
--Snaps his fingers when he's about to do his uber hits.
You have enough to time switch between Shaman/Knight between "snaps" to pour on the damage.

Soon as he "Snaps" IMMEDIATELY switch to Knight and hit Queues then Triangle ASAP.

Worth noting he does Ultima and Double-Force Waves when his HP is past half (even after recovering it...so be prepared for doubles with no warning...).

He's IMMUNE to Launch during Stagger when switching Paradigms, so don't even bother switching to Paladin unless you know he hasn't "snapped" yet.

Caius: Ravager

--Does combos, sometimes launcher, sometimes additional special.
You can fudge a bit and take the damage while building Stagger if you want, but I don't risk it, here's what I do.

Switch to Knight and activate "Immortal" stance...let him do his combos (you'll get used to the patterns)...as soon as he "stops", cancel your Queue of commands (Circle) and let the ATB fill a bit more, then CONFIRM them with X, then hit Triangle Again, just as soon as he "steps back"

His backstep is the warning before the combo, so activate Immortal after that.

Caius: Healer
--Starts casting buffs, heals self, debuffs you (if you have buffs, initially you do not).

Since I didn't have Synergist at the outset, I just switched to Mage and Shaman.

The "Full ATB trick" is essential to staggering him. Basically you do a full or Half-full Queue of skills...let them empty the gauge, then Switch paradigms...you'll get a full ATB the next run. So it goes like this:

Cast Thunder x 5
*Switch*
Aerostrike x 5
*Switch*
(Either Switch to Mage or Paladin)...Paladin should be used to slow down Stagger reduction, so don't just let Lightning use Ruin all the time if you can't help it...mix in Physical strikes too.

When your Feral Link fills up, try to save it for Stagger if possible...or use it to Interrupt or get HP back.

Feral Link is thus: Right, Down, Up, Down + X

If he switches back to Commando...keep hammering him until he "snaps" his fingers, THEN switch to Knight.

If he switches to Ravager, switch Knight ASAP.

I never thought I'd say this, but this DLC is like a fighting game almost, lol...

Still haven't won this yet though...

 

[Alex Strife]

The first fight was good enough. After getting to level 5 (or it was 4?) I was able to beat him. Then, the second fight was something else. I beat him with relative ease, but the game thinks it was not enough, and gives me 3 stars.

So I technically finished the DLC, but do not have Lightning yet.

I think I won't bother, since the story bits, I've seen them all already!

 

[AvecAloes]

I found that casting Mighty Guard on yourself right when he goes into Ravager helps a lot, because it keeps his attacks from interrupting your actions so that you can continue to build the chain gauge and get him staggered rather than sitting in Sentinel mode for a whole sequence.

 

[Blade]

I found that casting Mighty Guard on yourself right when he goes into Ravager helps a lot, because it keeps his attacks from interrupting your actions so that you can continue to build the chain gauge and get him staggered rather than sitting in Sentinel mode for a whole sequence.

I prefer to Sentinel through the whole sequence for TWO REASONS:

1. He starts to cast that Burst move of his in Ravager. And Launch can still interrupt you.
2. Taking your time in this fight is ESSENTIAL to getting stronger, AND GETTING MORE CP.

By that I mean, DO NOT get 5 stars in the fight, until you feel you are strong enough...right now I'm doing one duel at a time and taking breaks between duels, because of how much pressure the fight puts on me (I'm at Level 5).

Slow and Steady wins the race.

Btw: Here's my current score:

Caius: 4 Wins
Lightning: 1 verrryyy sloowwww win.

 

[Splintered]

How do you mess with the "locks" anyway?

You are allowed ten passive abilities on one monster, and each abilities has a rank, 1-9. The better the ability generally the higher rank. If you look at your list of passives, top to bottom they are arranged highest rank to lowest rank. When you infuse abilities into your monster past 10, the lowest rank gets knocked off. Unless, of course they have a yellow or red lock.

There are red locks which always stay on your monster and cannot be transferred to another monster. Don't bother with them.

There are yellow locks, they are created. When an ability is yellow locked, they will never be knocked off regardless of rank. And they will be infused into another monster. If you have a lower ranking ability that you want to keep, you'll generally try to yellow lock them

You create yellow locks if you have a particular ability, and you infused the same type of ability of same or greater value. For example

• You want to build Omega, which has the passive strength +20% that might disappear because there are higher ranked passives incoming
• Grow Tonberry which has Strength +35% (Tonberry is the only guy that has strength and magic +35% so he's kind of the best monster to use for infusing)
• Infuse Tonberry into Omega, Your ability Strength +35% is now yellow locked and cannot be bumped off.

The same is true in reverse. If you accidentally yellow locked a passive you don't want, infuse an ability similar to it of lesser value.

• Lets say your monster already had resist poison 10% and accidentally got infused with resist poison 66% so its yellow locked. But you want to use that slot for something like chainbonus II
• Infuse a level 10 mandrake that has resist poison 10% into your monster. The resist poison 66% will still be there but it will no longer be locked.

• Chainboost II is the same rank, so if you have trouble sticking on that monster, you can infuse two Lvl 30 Pink Lillies into a monster to yellow lock it, and infuse that into your monster.

 

[AvecAloes]

I prefer to Sentinel through the whole sequence for TWO REASONS:

1. He starts to cast that Burst move of his in Ravager. And Launch can still interrupt you.
2. Taking your time in this fight is ESSENTIAL to getting stronger, AND GETTING MORE CP.

By that I mean, DO NOT get 5 stars in the fight, until you feel you are strong enough...right now I'm doing one duel at a time and taking breaks between duels, because of how much pressure the fight puts on me (I'm at Level 5).

Slow and Steady wins the race.

Btw: Here's my current score:

Caius: 4 Wins
Lightning: 1 verrryyy sloowwww win.

I've leveled Lightning as far as she goes now, and I'm trying to 5-star this battle so I can gain her crystal, which is why my strategy is more about beating him as quickly as possible. Right now I've been switching back and forth between level 5 and 6 Lightning to try to 5 star against Chaos Bahamut (the higher your level, the higher the detriment which is subtracted from your final score, preventing a good rating), and quick battle time is essential for 5-starring this, apparently. And by the way, the faster your time and the more stars you get, the more CP you'll gain at the end of the battle

 

[Splintered]

I beat Chaos the first time lvl 7 or 8 I forget which but I 5 stared him. I also kind of play offensively although I think HP is a star indicator as well, so you could probably try and defeat him defensively as well.

I think the biggest part of it was reaching the thundagas or generally bigger, more atb consuming attacks because it doesn't look like the chainboosting takes a hit.

The attacks come out incredibly fast and you can immediately switch between ravanger paradigms. And because every other switch gives you a full atb bar it saves you a lot of time. Also Aura. The only problem comes with him nullifying attacks but I you my paladin as my main damage dealer anyway- plus with sabing him as he is staggered makes up for the damage.

 

[Blade]

For some reason ever since I played Snow in FFXIII, I've been hooked on the Sentinel Paradigm. Nice and slow, does even damage...stocks your Feral Link.

I don't like running out of ATB at a critical moment when it's needed...especially during Stagger combo juggles. I block everything with it, then learn the openings.

That's my style.

 

[Drax]

Playing the new DLC, beat Caius first at lvl 4, and now again at lvl 5. The story is not advancing, so I guess I'm just supposed to keep fighting him until I level up to 10 or something?

If that's the case I'm gonna just let him kill me after I do good for awhile, because the CP cap seems to be 100 no matter what and I've been spending 15 minutes for each fight.

 

[Blade]

You're supposed to fight him until you 5-Star him...

I dunno if that applies to Chaos Bahamut though.

 

[Splintered]

I think you need to 5 star Chaos Bahamut to get v!lightning and/or see the secret ending.

 

[Drax]

I just leveled up to 10 so that 100% should be easy now.

Also, thank you DLC for finally giving me the ability to Haste myself. But then again I haven't put Sazh in my party yet, so he can probably do that too.

 

[Alex Strife]

I think you need to 5 star Chaos Bahamut to get v!lightning and/or see the secret ending.

I killed Chaos Bahamut without 5 star-ing him, and I saw the secret ending (Which is when Lightning explains she'll have to wake up again, and the appears in Noel's homeworld, right?). I was using Lightning lvl 10 at the time. And it gave me 1 star even thought I killed it so quickly and everything. And obviously, I didn't get her crystal.

 

[Drax]

If you want to five star Bahamut, turn on Clock Master and go in at level 9. CM gives you a time bonus. Also helps if you elixir yourself just before killing him.

 

[Arianna]

I think you need to 5 star Chaos Bahamut to get v!lightning and/or see the secret ending.

You need to 5 star both battles.

 

[Madame Mayor]

Boyfriend: I need to go back to Archylte Steppe and...

Me: I'll do it!

Boyfriend: Okay, now I need you to...

Me: *runs around not attacking monsters and just listening to the theme*

Boyfriend:

 

[Blade]

What's the trick to 5-Star Chaos Bahamut?

I'm Level 10 now and can beat him easily/quickly.

I'm guessing I gotta be Level 9 or lower?

 

[AvecAloes]

I haven't 5-starred him yet, but yeah, you'll need to adjust your level to something less than 10, because the level offset makes it do you simply can't 5-star it at level 10. I'm trying to do it while level 6 and 7 right now, but I'm still trying to figure out the best strat for defeating Chaos Bahamut quickly...