By Gamer Dan • February 18, 2018

Having played a lot of Dissidia Final Fantasy: OO, this is a comprehensive DFFOO guide to help you avoid making the mistakes I did while starting the game.

Stick with a Few Characters at First

When I first played the game, I would invest in more than 6 characters at any given time. As a result, I didn’t have a strong roster as my resources were spread out.

The best advice for new players would be to stick to just 3-5 characters that you will be using often at the beginning of the game.

Since this game is all about weapons and armor, it is important that you utilize characters where you have their special weapons.

At the start of the game, you will earn a free 5 star weapon of either Warrior of Light (WoL), Vivi or Rem. (I went with Vivi)

Both WoL and Vivi’s weapon are suggested since WoL is a tank that can taunt and keep your damage dealers safe after they attack and use up their BRV.

And when you complete Chapter 1, you get 10,000 free gems + some from the campaign maps that allow you do the first half price multi-pull (2500 gems). This is guaranteed to get you a special 5 star weapon for a specific character. And then you pull another 2 times using those 10k gems and see what you get.

If you get a good mix of 5 star weapons, then don’t worry about re-rolling.

Here is an example:

BRV Attackers -> Bartz (Yellow), Zidane (Blue), Squall (Black)

BRV/HP Attackers -> Terra (Green), Cloud (Blue), Firion (Red), Vaan (Red)

Supports -> Yuna (White), Hope (White), Penelope (White), Rem (Green)

Debuff -> Vanille (Red)

AoE -> Laguna (Blue), Cecil (Black)

The best is you pull weapons of characters of varying colors and roles. Color crystals are scarce in the beginning and you need to choose who to upgrade to 50/50 first. Examples below:

Zidane (Blue), Terra (Green), Hope (White)

Bartz (Yellow), Laguna (Blue), Yuna (White)

Vanille (Red), Cloud (Blue), Squall (Black)

That would be the best alongside whoever’s weapon you got from the original trio. Having a mix of melee, ranged and staff users will diversify your team and help against various bosses.

Some bosses are resistant to physical damage while others are to magic or ranged attacks. If you start running a melee team, you will have trouble with certain stages in some maps. Keep that in mind. You basically do 50% less damage to resistant units.

You will want to use your resources (excluding gems) to get 3-4 strong characters that can help you clear all regular content. After that, then you can start worrying about leveling other characters if you are a F2P player.

Color crystals (aka strengthening characters) are vital in making your character strong and be able to take on end game content. It is best not to level two characters that require the same color crystal as you will run out of it fast.

The goal is to get 3 of your characters to Level 50 and STR 50 so they can do everything.

Re-rolling for perfect weapon pulls isn’t really necessary in the game in my opinion. The reason is that the meta changes when new weapon banners are introduced, making “weak” characters great.

Note: Check out “Best Final Fantasy Games Worth Playing”

Save Your Gems for Future Banners

Now if you have gotten a good start by pulling the right weapons, it is best to save your gems for future banners that contain the 35 CP weapons. Those weapons are better and you can also pull all the current weapons that you currently have. With a higher CP cap, you can equip more passives and therefore a stronger character.

As of now, I have amassed 35k gems as F2P from just not pulling anything and saving all of it from farming campaign map and special events.

This is only if you see yourself playing this game for the long haul. If you are the gamer that gets bored after a week, just YOLO and spend all your gems on pulls. 🙂

As a F2P player expect yourself to be able to pull twice a month, according to a JP player. Here is the quote from him:

Daily Quests – 3000 per month

Login Bonus – 1500 per month

Character Events – 5000 per month (Assuming 4 character events per month)

New Chapters – Around 1800 per month (Assuming a new chapter every 2 months. Each chapter has around 18 nodes which give gems, each complete node gives 100 gems.)

In total that gives a minimum of 11300 per month, excluding gems from rank up (100 gems per rank up), World of Illusion events and other miscellaneous sources.

Targeting and Turn Manipulation

For those that are starting out, here are some basic things you should pay attention to.

If you look at the enemy health bar, it will show on the right side who they will target next.

In this case, it tells me the Gaia Behemoth’s next attack is going to be Vanille, so make sure not to use her for an HP attack so you don’t get your BRV broken. Getting BRV broken is a bad thing since it will deal critical damage and your enemy can unleash a devastating attack that will kill your character.

If the indicator says “all”, then you will have to make sure all your characters have enough BRV to avoid getting broken. If you have pulled Yuna’s weapon or utilize Hope, it will make it easier for you.

Now let’s talk a bit about fighting by using turn manipulation. If you break enemy BRV bar, it will set their turn back by 1. Now if you do this in reverse order against an enemy, you can gain turns faster.

To illustrate this, look at the example below.

For example, suppose the turn order is Cloud, Vivi, Squall, A, B, C, Cloud, Vivi, Squall.

If Cloud breaks enemy A then the turn order will be Vivi, Squall, B, A, C, Cloud, Vivi, Squall.

Similarly, breaking B gives a turn order of Vivi, Squall, A, C, B, Cloud, Vivi, Squall.

However, if you break C then the turn order becomes Vivi, Squall, A, B, Cloud, C, Vivi, Squall.

You then break B and A respectively and Cloud will jump ahead of the queue. Know this little tip here will help you get more turns in before the enemy!

Character Speed

Each character actually has an innate speed that is hidden. Notice how some characters like Zidane often go first in battle.

We are not quite sure the actual speed, but according to FF_Silverbells, he tested the speed of the current characters available and found this tier for who goes first:

S Tier: Edge, Rem, Shadow, Zidane, Yuffie-

A Tier: Bartz, Firion, Hope, King, Tifa, Vaan, Vanille, Yda, Y’shtola, Yuna

B Tier: Cecil, Cloud, Onion Knight, Penelo, Squall, Steiner, Terra, Vivi, Yang

C Tier: Laguna, Sazh, Warrior of Light

One of the reasons why you should care is if you want to farm Hope Dojo for items and weapon/armor materials, then you can kill the bats first without them going initially.

Also, in tough boss battles, it helps when you get more turns!

So do factor this into your team building decisions!

Upgrade Equipment (Gold vs XP)

Now when it comes to upgrading equipment, there is two ways to do it. There is Xp efficient and gold efficient. I recommend you go the gold efficient route when you are limit breaking weapons or armor as the gold cost starts to get ridiculous when you use low level equipment to level up.

Xp Efficient

To be xp efficient, you will sacrifice gold cost by just feeding fodder equipment to level up your main equipment.

Gold Efficient

To be gold efficient, you will need to feed 2 star equipment to level 5. Below is an xp chart:

10 x Lvl 1, 2* items = 1000 XP

10 x 2* orbs = 1500 XP

10 x 3* orbs = 3000 XP

10 x 4* orbs = 5000 XP

10 x Lvl 5, 2* items = 5500 XP

10 x Lvl 1, 3* items = 6000 XP

10 x Lvl 1, 4* items = 12000 XP

10 x Lvl 10, 3* items = 19500 XP

10 x Lvl 15, 4* items = 48000 XP

As you can see, you will waste xp feeding 2 star fodder equipment to the main 2 star fodder equipment, but when you feed 10 level 5 two star equipment, you waste less gold.

As mentioned, I would recommend this method when you are looking to upgrade limit broken equipment past level 20+ as the gold costs are high.

Cycle Quest

The cycle keys are used to unlock cycle quests for 30 minutes. So your goal is to finish as many missions within that time period.

For the color crystals, it is always best to do level 50 quest as it yields the best rewards. Below are the rough rewards you get while doing them:

Level 10 – 3 to 6 small crystals

Level 20 – 4 to 10 small crystals

Level 30 – 4 to 10 small crystals, 2 to 8 medium crystals

Level 40 – 6 to 10 small crystals, 4 to 12 medium crystals

Level 50 – 6 to 10 small crystals, 4 to 12 medium crystals, 4 to 10 large crystals

I suggest you do the lv 20 quests at the beginning, then move on to lv 30. I would only recommend the lv 50 once your main team is level 45+ with character crystal strengths of 25+.

Now if you want to quickly gain many crystals per cycle run, you want to activate book of treasure (costs 100 gems) for double the items! Please do it on lv 50 quest though for the best drop rate if you can clear it relatively fast.

Also, this is the amount of crystals you need to get someone’s str to 50.

s = small crystals

m = medium crystals

l = large crystals

0 to 10 = 41(s)

0 to 20 = 211(s)

0 to 30 = 311(s) 100(m)

0 to 40 = 591(s) 380(m)

0 to 50 = 1141(s) 930(m) 550(L)

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Co-op

For those that love to party with other players, here is the place you want to be.

The benefits of doing Co-op is great. You will be able to get bonus color crystals based on the number of players playing with you. Keep in mind you will need to choose to host or be guest of other player’s missions in order to receive the bonus.

If you choose to host, you can only do it 5 times daily. If you are a guest, then you can do it as many times as you want.

Running the map as a solo team will allow you to auto, but you will not receive any bonuses.

Currently, there are 3 co-op missions you can do.

A Behemoth Encounter – You can start doing this one you have a level 30 team. Start joining teams and farm small and medium color crystals. You get small color crystals as bonus. Having 3 members will give you 3 bonus stacks of small color crystals instead of one.

Unpleasant Odors – If you don’t have Yuna’s weapon, this map will be very annoying to deal with as your attackers can miss their attacks due to Malboro’s bad breath. Team up with other players who has Yuna!

The Dragon of Death – Only recommend doing this if you have a few level 50 characters. You need to burn down the dragon fast before he breaks your shield. Bring attackers and a BRV healer such as Hope or Yuna if you need healing.

Get that sweet medium or large color crystal as a bonus!

Leveling and Farming Items

Leveling in this game is unlike other gacha games. For each character that gains 10 levels, you get 1 player rank. You gain 100 gems and the World of Illusion energy (SP) gets refilled. We will go over the World of Illusion energy trick in the next section.

We will go over places to farm depending on what you need.

Color Crystals

Farm Pursuit of Color Crystals is the one you will be doing. You get 10 tries daily on a specific color depending on which day it is.

You can also do Co-op to get unlimited crystals if you can farm all day long.

Behemoth – Small crystals and the occasional medium ones

Malboro – More small and medium ones

Dragon – Medium and large crystals (this is the only one you can’t solo infinitely)

Experience and Gil

The best spot to farm is 5-5: To the Sacred Mountain hard (gives 416 exp). You can do normal if your team is below 40 so that you won’t die when you auto it.

Other notable leveling spots are also worth mentioning:

Level 26-35 – Chapter 5 Firion 2 Hard Mode – 197 EXP

Level 33-40 – Chapter 4: Chapter 4-10 Hard Mode – 327 EXP

Level 40-50 – Chapter 5-9 (yellow one) Hard mode 420 EXP

Here is also a list of places you can level as well. This is compiled by pmmfsu.

Quest Exp Gil 1- Where the dead sleep: Final (NORMAL) 10 45 1-2 Prairie Winds pt.2 (HARD) 130 175 1-9 The Dark Forest (HARD) 165 209 2 – Ominous Shrine Ruins Pt.2 (HARD) 266 322 2-12 Of Space and Time Pt.4 (normal-hard) (54) 254 (141) 308 2- Ilusion of the Hill (HARD) 225 276 3-7 Somber Grove (HARD) 176 208 3-8 Somber Grove pt.3 (HARD) 230 270 3-11 Remnants of War Pt.3(HARD) 333 389 4-10 Snow-Fallen Path Pt. 2 (HARD) 327 261 4-15 Rift in the Ice Pt.2 (HARD) 242 261 5-5 To the sacred Mountain Pt.3 (HARD) 416 416 5-9 secluded greenwood (HARD) 420 420

Update – Chapter 6 prime farming locations:

6-16 Northern Cave Pt 2 (478 EXP)

6-7 Fateful Woodlands Pt 3 (470 EXP)

Getting and Leveling Equipment

The best and easiest place to get 2 star equipment and material is the famed Hope Dojo. It is located in chapter 1 normal mode where you fight hope. Below is a picture of where it is.

You get measly experience and gil but you get to farm a lot of 2 star equipment and materials by using virtually any character.

If you are looking to upgrade your equipment (especially if you want to level up limit broken material and safe gil), then you want to farm here as much as you can.

Summon Materials

You can go for these spots as recommend by Klubbah:

Ch1: 1-2 Prairie Winds Part 2

Ch2: Ominous Shrine Ruins Part 2 (Top right of map green)

Ch3: 3-7 Somber Grove Part 2

Ch4: 4-10 Snow-Fallen Path Part 2

Ch5: 5-9 Secluded Greenwood Part 4

World of Illusions Trick

Now World of Illusions will require energy (SP) to participate. At a lower level, it will be an issue because you run out of SP fast. So you will want to utilize leveling characters to keep resetting the SP bar to max.

Since you get a player rank per 10 character levels, you will want to unlock all possible characters in the game first. Then you want to run an easy map to level up your characters. Any normal map on chapter 1 or 2 will easily get your characters to level 1-10 pretty easily, allowing you to reset SP.

Just make sure to use your SP on World of Illusion missions before you rank up.

Farming Gems

So aside from the initial 10,000 gems you get from the beginning when completing chapter 1, you will get a consistent stream of gems from the following activities:

Doing normal and hard campaign maps, completing the objectives (usually 80-100 gems on most missions)

Character quest events (80-100 gems for completing objectives)

Co-op missions (80-100 gems for completing objectives)

Daily Quest (100 gems)

Login Bonus (1500 gems a month)

Rank up (100 gems)

Assuming we get 4 character events a month, the total minimum number of gems you can get if you play actively is around 11,300 gems per month. That allows you to pull weapons at least twice a month. I excluded World of Illusion event gems as those can be hard to get for beginners.

As I mentioned before, that is why you want to horde your gems for better weapons later on. The current weapons you are pulling will also appear in the later banners, so save up as much as you can if you see yourself playing this game for the long haul.

Artifacts

With the new 70 co-op from Balthier’s character event, you can now start earning artifacts. These artifacts give passive CP bonuses that you can equip on your character. You can get these artifacts from completing Balthier’s 70 co-op mission, which requires a good team and a fair bit of grinding. I am also sure that character artifacts will be available from future co-ops!

Artifacts are like equipment…that you don’t equip. Your intent is to max limit break(MLB) the artifact, meaning limit break three times by fusing artifacts of the same rarity and for the same character, to the base artifact, and level the artifact to maximum level. Upon MLBing the artifact, you will receive a bonus which you can then equip to the character by means of CP just as though it were a weapon or armor for the character, whereupon the physical artifact itself becomes worthless, save for fodder for further artifacts.

Just as with other equipment, the passive is permanent, meaning you can fuse a MLB 4-star (now 5-star) artifact into another new 4-star artifact for the same character, and it’ll Limit Break the new artifact once and give it a good chunk of XP to get started with. In my opinion, this is the most efficient use of “old” Artifacts.

For those that would like a more in depth explanation, check out Token_Why_Boy’s Reddit post.

Change Your Support Character!

To change your character, you will want to go to the main home screen.

Click on user data.

Click on change support and select your best character!

Also, don’t forget to equip CP on your support character by clicking on equip section when you are in the individual character menu.

Bonus Tip: Mutually following people that follow you allows you to use their support characters for 5 turns instead of 3.

Plan Ahead for Future Events

With the Japanese version being one year ahead of us, you can use it to figure out what items or characters you will need.

Check out this document to get an idea whats coming up next: Tentative event calendar for DFF:OO

Check this out here.

Additional Tips

Here are some little things that is good to know.

Your support death does not make you fail the mission objective “No members Ko’ed”

Use your support items such as treasure book, fortune book to double your items or gil.

Exchange your DP for cycle quest keys to farm more color crystals of your choice.

Press and hold the icon of your Friends/Following/Followers on the list to reveal the status screen of the Support.

List of Useful Resources for the Game

Here are some useful info I found while looking to improve my knowledge of the game.

Happy DFFOOing! This is a great game to play!

PS: Check out our other guides for the game as well!