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Stat Maxing Recommendations


Kyden139

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Stat maxing can be a time consuming process. So naturally people want to know exactly how much they have to do and what they can skip. Here's my recommendations. This is for people who intend to both 1) kill all bosses and 2) fill in the entire sphere grid. Its is not the recommendation for absolute best stats, mostly because absolute best stats are unnecessary for trophies and very time consuming.

 

The recommended stats for platinum

I'll start with the basics. 255 for strength, defense, and magic defense should always be sought after. If you want the platinum, you should also get 255 in agility, evasion and accuracy. Having at least 85 luck is recommended for the fight against Penance though you can probably get by with 35 luck and 5 casts of the "aim" skill. If you decide on 35, the dark aeons will be hard to hit. HP can be left alone at 9,999. MP doesn't really matter - leave it at 999.

 

The magic stat

Magic in the end game is fairly worthless. All the best attacks (quick hit, Wakka's and Tidus's overdrives) use strength for damage calculations. Magic does have minimal use though. A couple monster arena creations are immune to physical damage and of course Cure spells are magic based. You can leave your magic stat where it is or increase it to 255, whatever you prefer.

 

The ultimate decision: luck

85 luck is required to always hit when attacking Penance. I'd recommend getting at least this amount as an unexpected missed attack can completely ruin your strategy against him and get you killed. If that happens towards the end of the fight, it means 30 minutes wasted. Not fun. Beyond that, here's some guidelines for how the luck stat affects different fights. Pick the level you are comfortable with grinding for.

 

102 to always hit against Dark Bahumut except under darkness

114 to always hit against Dark Yojimbo except under darkness

130 to always critical against everyone but Dark Aeons

204 to always hit Dark Yojimbo, even when under darkness

205 to always hit Dark Mindy when not under darkness, always critical hit against everyone but Dark Yojimbo and Dark Mindy

214 to always critical hit against everyone but Dark Mindy

220 to always hit Dark Mindy, even when under darkness

230 to always get critical hits against everyone

 

Also note the more luck you have, the less evasion you need. To dodge every avoidable attack in the game, your luck + evasion stat should be more than 290.

 

Break HP Limit and its use (or lack thereof)

No fight in the game requires more than the base 9,999 hp when you have max defense and a good strategy. If you want more hp, go for it. The only two fights that might cause you problems with 9,999 hp are Dark Yojimbo and Penance. For Dark Yojimbo, casting cheer 5 times will work. So will using the Penance armor. A third option is to summon and aeon before every turn to take the hit. For Penance, you'll need special armor. Besides the usual auto-haste and auto-protect, add on auto-potion and defense +20%. Also cast cheer 5 times. Now he won't kill you if you keep your hp full.

 

Using clear spheres

For both the standard sphere grid and the expert sphere grid you can get my recommended stats without using a single clear sphere. In fact, you'll have extra sphere nodes to fill in with whatever you want. If you want to get max hp you'll have to use clear spheres.

 

To get 255 in everything, you'll need:

Standard grid

20 strength spheres

25 defense spheres (confirmed by Zanish09)

27 magic spheres

32 magic defense spheres

32 evasion spheres

20 agility spheres

46 accuracy spheres

 

Expert grid

23 strength spheres

30 defense spheres

27 magic spheres

34 magic defense spheres

35 evasion spheres

35 agility spheres

47 accuracy spheres

 

Luck you'll have to keep track of yourself since only you know how high you're going. Just know the lowest base luck is 17

 

Absolute minimum stats

You still want 255 defense and magic defense. With a strength of 218 and using celestial weapons, everyone but Auron will hit for max damage against everything while at full hp/mp. Agility only needs to go to 170. Accuracy should go to 255 since you won't have much luck. Magic can be left at whatever you currently have it at. You also want 35 luck and therefore 255 evasion.

 

Zanamato users take heed

You probably still want to do a little bit of stat maxing, mostly for the Dark Yojimbo fight. You have to fight him 5 times in a row without saving or dying. Its hard to get Zanamato for all 5 fights. Also, if you want the platinum you'll have to fill in the sphere grid anyways. It doesn't take that much longer to fill it with useful stats than it does to fill it with mp nodes (the quickest fight for a stat sphere). Therefore get strength and defense to 255, and agility to 170. Getting magic defense, accuracy, evasion, and bumping agility to 255 is fairly easy too. Your big question is luck. If you use the "aim" skill in a fight, it counts as 10 luck. You can do this 5 times in a fight for an effective +50 luck boost. I'd recommend getting at least 35 luck. Along with the boost from "aim", that gives you a decent chance to hit Dark Yojimbo. He can kill you pretty easy, so make sure to have defense boosts or use aeon shields for his turns.

 

Who to kill for what

You'll be targeting the created arena monsters. You get 1 sphere for a normal kill, 2 for an overkill. See the trophy guide for strategies.

 

Strength - Juggernaut

Defense - Tanket

Magic - Jumbo Flan

Magic Defense - One Eye

Evasion - Pteryx

Agility - Fenrir

Accuracy - Hornet

HP - Ironclad

MP - Vidatu - note this is the quickest fight for stat spheres

Luck - Greater Sphere

Fortune - Earth Eater

 

I can't hit ___ at all! You said I didn't need that much luck!

Make sure to cast "aim" 5 times before beginning to attack. It'll make a big difference. Also, overdrives have a 100% hit chance. Dark Mindy in particular might require overdrives to kill.

Edited by Kyden139
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This is the thread I was looking for.

 

I'm currently maxing out EVERY THING. Removing the 1+, +2 statuses for +4. I already have farmed the Luck Spheres. I know its detrimental removing them since its been activated by most of the characters that had already activated the nodes although just three only made sufficient progress the others are behind. I'm using Yuna to adjust the entire grid to get ready for every one else in time. I'm hoping that when its time to fight Don Tonberry again for the AP trick, I'll keep on earning those bonuses for Yuna.

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Attack, Def and magic Def are obvious and should be a no-brainer. But Agility at 255 has no use at all. Past 170 you will not get any quicker due to the tick speed.

 

Magic can be useful (i.e. Ultima for the dark Magus Sisters and a Satacus or double cast in some Battles). If you want to do that, 255 magic would be good.

 

accuracy, evasion and luck were told well.

 

You can survive the attacks of dark Yojinbo without cheers if you use defense +20% in combination with auto-protect.But be aware Zanmato (used as his Overdrive) kills you no matter what and negates Auto-Life. If you want to be sure against Penance, just use Auto-Haste, Auto Potion, Def +20% and auto-Protect. That way he can't kill you in 1 attack You need to take care of his arms though

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Attack, Def and magic Def are obvious and should be a no-brainer. But Agility at 255 has no use at all. Past 170 you will not get any quicker due to the tick speed.

 

There is a very minor benefit to agility above 170 as to determining who gets the first turn in a battle. Your're right though for additional turns. However, the point in recommending 255 agility isn't for actual battle improvement, its that you have to fill the grid with something for that trophy. May as well bump agility to 255 in that case and also get that very minor benefit.

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Great guide. About aiming don't forget about Rikku. Mix Ultra NulAll and she will cast Cheer, Focus, Aim, and Reflex all by x5 on all allies. Plus NulBlaze, NulShock, NulTide and NulFrost.

 

You can mix it with 2x Healing Spring, from the dear, old Kottos (40x with overkill). I am using this with Earth Eater, it allows me to switch 1 Attack Reels with 2 QuickHits.

 

PS: No matter what, I'd say that Agility at 255 is a must. It looks good on the grid and it also helps filling up those never ending empty nodes!! :D

Edited by Michelasso
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Yeah, Rikku's mix can apply all 5 cheer/aim in one turn. Its a good use for her overdrive, I simply couldn't remember the mix ingredients.

 

If it wasn't for the need to fill in the entire sphere grid, 170 agility would be plenty. But 255 does look better and satisfies our crazy minds. :)

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Great guide, but I have some assumptions that were not addressed in your guide, so please tell me if I'm correct:

 

The best party is: Wakka, Rikku, Tidus (or is it Wakka, Rikku, Yuna?)

I'm assuming, in a minimum scenario, you only need to focus on the stats of these 3 characters in order to take on the Dark Aeons, and maybe Yuna if you plan on summoning aeons to take damage. Is my assumption correct?

 

The best armor is: Auto-Haste, Auto-Protect, Ribbon, ?

What is the final spot? People keep going back on forth on the internet about this. Some say BHPL, some say Auto-Regen, and others say something completely different.

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If you mean 'best armour' broadly for the Dark Aeons, then I'd say the two abilities everyone agrees on would be Auto-Haste and Ribbon.

 

From there it is kind of a matter of opinion. There are well known faqs that say that BHPL is completely overrated, and there is a good list of reasons why. I can only say that in my case I went for the BHPL/Ribbon combo because it was the easiest way to get Ribbon armour... It's slow and tedious, but the easiest way to get Ribbon armour is from Dark Yojimbo. Even a weak party can fight him over and over again using zanmato. And most Ribbon armour drops I've had come with BHPL on them, or are 3-slotters with things like Fire Eater on them instead. (I did get a 4 slot Ribbon/Curseproof armour of all things for Kimahri though)

 

By the time you are actually able to get Dark Matter as a regular drop to make Ribbon (Penance arms) you actually don't need it. If you were crafting Ribbon armour from scratch (you get one easy craft from the 99x DM unlock from Ultima Buster), you could go for something like Auto-Haste, Protect, Phoenix, Ribbon instead. Whether or not you can get a 4 slot ribbon drop with just Ribbon, or have the patience to get another 198 Dark Matter, is another thing..

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Yes, the best end game party is Rikku, Wakka, and Tidus. End game magic is well overshadowed by physical attacks. Additionally, since everyone learns all abilities the only differential is overdrives. Wakka and Tidus have multi-hit physical overdrives which makes them very effective. Rikku's mix has many uses such as trio of 9999 or null-alls. Yuna is good for calling in aeon shields when necessary. In a minimum scenario, getting only the fighters stats up is fine, though getting Yuna to 170 agility is a good idea too.

 

Armor wise, get the following:

Auto-haste

Auto-protect

Auto-phoenix

Ribbon/stone proof

 

No need to farm for dark matters, you get 99 from capturing. That gets you one ribbon armor. Stone proof is fine as a replacement for the others. This armor works for everyone but penance. For penance get:

 

Auto-haste

Auto-potion

Auto-protect

Defense +20%

 

Break HP is not necessary. While it can make the penance fight go quicker, you'll spend way more time getting it than it saves. And not just in getting the ability, farming enough HP spheres is also time consuming. If you do want break HP, get

 

Break HP

Auto-regen

Auto-haste

Ribbon/stone proof

Edited by Kyden139
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This is a great post. Thank you. I'm maxing stats now and see no reason to farm magic spheres. :p

I'm trying to level enough to beat all the monsters in the arena so i can steal lv 4 spheres key. Do you think its a good idea or should i just bribe them?

 

You should steal them and flee once you get 3, it's much cheaper, and its exactly the path I chose which was:

-Max Tidus, Wakka, Rikku stats and get Luck to 130

-Farm HP spheres to fill empty nodes

-Defeat Nemesis in Monster Arena

-Steal Lvl 4 Key Locks from Nemesis (I needed 27, got it in about 20 minutes)

-Complete Tidus, Wakka, Rikku sphere grid

-Complete everyone else's sphere grid, except for Luck

-Defeat Dark Aeons & Penance

-Use clear spheres to clear luck nodes and fill with HP spheres

-Finish everyone's sphere grid

-Defeat Yu Yevon

 

This is the path I'm currently doing. I'm up to completeting everyone's else sphere grid, except for luck. I would say it's taken me roughly 20 hours so far, but the rest should take another 5 max. I would also recommend that while your farming Greater Sphere, to have someone with Master Theif armor ability and steal Return Spheres from him. I was able to get 99x Return Spheres and jumping around the grid and not using sphere levels is pretty great! You'll also know when you complete someone's grid when you cannot use a Master sphere.

 

Rikku has a great Overdrive, especially for these crazy super bosses. Just use her Hyper Mighty G and Ultra NullAll. It's also best to have everyone's overdrive set to Stotic since these bosses can do 99,999 damage, it's a guarenteed overdrive fill. Hyper Mighty G casts Haste, Shell, Protect, Regen & Auto-Life on the entire party. So if Rikku's dies, she's revived, and have an instant overdrive to do Hyper Mighty G again. It just would've been so much better if you can just select these mixes instead of always preparing them. So it's wise to have the ingredients for these mixes at the top of your inventory so you know what to use. Since they're so many different combinations, you can check them out here:

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Final_Fantasy_X_Mixes

Edited by Dday141
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okay, so im fighting Jumbo Flan (AKA: annoying prick) and i've come to the conclusion the ONLY way to achieve OVERKILL! is with anima, becasue Physicals are not any use at all, and you cant get max magic to hit him for 99'999 (his overkill requirement) because this prick is used to get max magic... :mad:

 

what the hell where they thinking when they designed him all those years ago? i know, lets make the enemy to max magic the only thing you really need to use magic against! :applause:

 

i know i dont NEED max magic but if i need to fill the sphere grid, might as well max my stats, and as OVERKILL! doubles the items its twice as fast.

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Trying to farm HP spheres. Fighting IronClad is so annoying.

 

yeah, but you dont need to kill him to increase your damage against him... i can not understand their logic here, magic is near useless, i only want because i might as well, that and Curaga will heal for over 18'000, i use Break HP Limit.

 

and no "you dont need it" posts, i know there are different options but i prefer having masses of HP, less time spent healing, more time spent hurting :)

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yeah, but you dont need to kill him to increase your damage against him... i can not understand their logic here, magic is near useless, i only want because i might as well, that and Curaga will heal for over 18'000, i use Break HP Limit.

 

and no "you dont need it" posts, i know there are different options but i prefer having masses of HP, less time spent healing, more time spent hurting :)

 

 

 

That's what I'm doing. I just found out a faster way. Banishing Blade and Passado (with a couple more hits) and its gone. I tried doing it against Earth Eater but damn it...you can't break through his defense. I'm content with the Ironclad though.

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okay, so im fighting Jumbo Flan (AKA: annoying prick) and i've come to the conclusion the ONLY way to achieve OVERKILL! is with anima, becasue Physicals are not any use at all, and you cant get max magic to hit him for 99'999 (his overkill requirement) because this prick is used to get max magic... :mad:

 

what the hell where they thinking when they designed him all those years ago? i know, lets make the enemy to max magic the only thing you really need to use magic against! :applause:

 

i know i dont NEED max magic but if i need to fill the sphere grid, might as well max my stats, and as OVERKILL! doubles the items its twice as fast.

 

Yep, Jumbo Flan's a pain to kill. Sadly using Anima is the best option. Make sure you're casting slow on Jumbo Flan (use the item (silver hourglass?) to cut down on the animation time). Then summon Anima, cast haste, and pain away.

 

If she's strong enough to not worry about healing it goes faster. If you do need to heal her, then you're stuck casting reflect on Jumbo Flan and bouncing heal spells.

 

The other way to kill Jumbo Flan is doublecasting ultima's then using copycat to save on mp expenditure. It works too, but is slightly slower.

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The other way to kill Jumbo Flan is doublecasting ultima's then using copycat to save on mp expenditure. It works too, but is slightly slower.

 

I actually double casted Flare and then used copycat. Have Lulu with her Celestial Weapon (Magic Boost) and she will do 99,999 damage at a certain point. Reflecting Slow to Jumbo Flan I didn't see a single Ultima. Which is what takes too much time. i don't remember if sensor works. If it does just check the health and finish JF with Lulu using Ultima as the last cast. One single Ultima is well worth the overkill. :)

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