Okay things I've learned about FFRK

[auronlu]

So I'm not spamming lassarina's  post any more. 

There's two resources that don't renew quickly and are needed a LOT: Stamina and Mythril. Obviously, they want you to pay real money for these, and obviously, we don't wanna. So here's how I avoid doing so.

Mythril

Mythril can be used for all sorts of things, but generally, for most things, IT CAN WAIT. Try again later. Conserve mythril for drawing relics.

Every dungeon gives you 1 mythril the first time you can complete it. So it's worth trying all the Raid & Event Dungeons as far as you can go. Most days you get a 1 mythril login bonus, some days two, and during holidays it can be 5x mythril per day for a whole week (yay!) The Gysahl Exchange also offers 1 mythril for 1000 gysahl greens and repeats this every two weeks. 

Since I can usually do 5 dungeons a day, I can get 5x mythril a day. Between that and all of the above, I usually manage to catch one of the fancy 11x relic draws every week or two, checking the banners to see which one is most likely to buff up the characters I like. (5* Relics give Soul Breaks). Also, now and then there's a half-off relic draw that only costs 25 mythril for 11 relics.

I the less powerful relics I draw to buff the powerful ones.

BE SURE TO DOUBLE CHECK YOUR INVENTORY SLOTS TO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE 11 FREE BEFORE DOING AN 11X RELIC DRAW.


Stamina


Stamina gets consumed for each dungeon you play and recharges slowly. Stamina crystals are awards in Realm dungeons. When you've picked up 5 stamina crystals, which are most easily collected as rewards for dungeons, your max stamina goes up. and your current stamina bar REFILLS. 

So I try to look for Realm dungeons that offer 2x stamina as rewards, end the day with 3 or 4 stamina crystals (the yellow pips up top) saved up, so the next morning, when my stamina bar has recharged overnight, I can burn it by running through an event dungeon or three (no stamina crystals) then do a single Realm dungeon for stamina crystals that bump up my max stamina and recharge the bar. Which means another batch of dungeons until I run the bar dry, after which I have to let it recharge slowly for the rest of the day.

The rest of the day I treat FFRK as a brain break from writing: do a dungeon or two and then back to work. I tell my ipad to set a timer for whenever my stamina bar will have refilled to a useful level (1 stam per 3 minutes). 

The main thing is that I have faith that events will repeat, and there will always be lots of new interesting items offered so I won't feel like I'm missing out too much. The game will always be there, like a daily suduko puzzle: no worries if you've finished the day's supply (i.e. stamina) and have to wait until tomorrow for the next.

Comments

[selenicdistance]

Good advice. My mind was blown when my stamina bar first got refilled via a stamina "level up," and your setup is a really good idea.

It reminds me a little of how leveling up played out in Skyrim. I would often just wait to actually apply my level up, because the game refills your health/mana/stamina when you've finished, so it's a really handy card to have up your sleeve when a battle is turning sour.

[auronlu]

Yeah, I'm keeping a pretty close eye on which characters are liable to level up from XP after a random battle, trying to hold off healing them if I can.

[samuraiter]

Similar set-up to other F2P games I play, really. It's kind of an industry standard (i.e. plentiful in-game currency that does very little, followed by rare in-game currency that can do quite a lot, but costs real money or is just hard to get). ... Alas, this model really does work.

[auronlu]

I really don't mind.

A lot of the video games I played were shareware: I paid for the ones I kept playing. I'm playing this game as much as I would a traditional game I'd bought on disc, so I don't mind dropping a few dollars down to add inventory slots (I think I've spent about $10 in 3 months, which isn't bad.)

ETA: then again I still remember plunking a quarter or fifty cents into an arcade game to play for five minutes, if I was lucky. In that context, games with voluntary microtransactions of a dollar or two for something you're going to use for weeks seem economical to me.

[samuraiter]

I take about the same approach to it, since I'm in about the same age group as you (i.e. I played Doom shareware before I bought the full version, and goodness knows I popped a fair number of quarters into Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II). In the case of the mobile games I play most faithfully, though, I figure, since I'm writing fanfic for them, I might as well plunk down a little cash.

[xyzzysqrl]

Thank you. I've been playing for a while now and I keep going "Well maybe there's new player guides?" and they're like "So it's been a week and you have multiple level 50s..." and I look at my level 25 team and just kinda...

...y'know.

SO. Thank you for the basic advice! Will you be compiling more knowledge? (Or, is there a really basic place that does? I keep getting full inventory problems and there HAS to be a better solution than tossing stuff out.)

[auronlu]

Inventory is the one thing for which I've spent a little $, but:

-- Sell off excess inventory (I'm sure you found this) for gil. At first you'll just be selling off the 1/3 and 1/5 items, but later on when you've got lots of good level 15s, you can sell off the 1/10s, and so on.

-- OR: Use your excess inventory to upgrade your good equipment instead of using upgrade materials. Upgrade > Upgrade Equipment > Click on an item you want to upgrade. Then click the "Equipment" tab to pick throwaway items you're willing to consume. To make it easier when upgrading, try sorting your inventory by Rarity (ascending). Those 1/3 and 1/5 items are handy for this!

-- When you have two of the same item, you can combine them once one of them has been upgraded as far as it'll go. The combined item adds one more star. So a level 15 item (4 stars) becomes a level 20 item. This consolidates your stuff and makes stronger stuff.

-- You know all those staves that boost elemental damage? They may be the ones you want to sell. Pay attention to which characters you have that regularly DO elemental damage. If your fighters are all whacking away with Armor Break and Venom Strike and so on, a dagger that boots their fire damage will never come up because they're not doing firestrike. Likewise, if you've got a staff that boosts lightning, that's not much use for your healers that only ever throw healing spells or (at best) a Dia/Diara.

-- Once you've drawn soul break items (e.g. Traitor's Bow for Fran), those items are probably so overpowered that if you optimize a party, other characters who can use that type of weapon will still probably prefer it, even if they don't have access to its Soul Break. Once that happens, other, ordinary of the same type (other bows) become more expendable.

-- The exception is that items get a synergy bonus in the FF world they came from. So how do you decide which of those to keep? Well, if you've got 3 swords all from FFV, you're not likely to have all of them in use.

-- In general, use Optimize any time you enter a new FF to see which weapons get optimized as the best for that world (turquoise border). Pay attention to which weapons Optimize likes, which ones never get a look-in. It's not foolproof, but it can give you a sense of which ones you're honestly never going to use because you've got another item of the same type that's just a little better.

[xyzzysqrl]

Somehow I obliviously ignored/never found the "Process this one-star equipment into upgrades for my shiny awesome relics" tab. THANK you for notifying me it, y'know. Exists. That was a massive boost to the various swords, coats and whatnot I've been carting around.

As to the rest, I bookmarked this for future reference.

(Incidentally, if you need random friend list clutter, mine is HsgB.)

[auronlu]

And I just found the "sell your one-star black magic spells or excess Minor Orbs for gil" tabs in the View/Sell items menu. Huzzah.

*adds*