Prepare for Combat in Final Fantasy Type-0 HD

Just as fans of the series would expect, FINAL FANTASY TYPE-0 HD is a game absolutely loaded with features and content. There are a lot of things to do, see, and fight in this game, but it can be hard to figure out which of those things will give you awesome rewards or help you complete missions. Instead of jumping into the game cold, read on to get some tips and tricks that will make sure that you’re good and ready for whatever the war-torn world of Orience throws your way.

 1. Making the Right Squad

Going into battle without the proper squad composition is a guarantee for trouble in FINAL FANTASY TYPE-0 HD. You’ll need a team that is suited for any obstacle that comes your way if you hope to take on the challenges this game throws at you.

The goal in making a proper squad is to have a combination of the following: a melee character, a ranged character, a character with a healing spell or ability and one with an offensive spell. You can mix and match those as you see fit (you could choose a melee character with offensive spells or a ranged character with healing; for example, Seven is a ranged character that does melee attacks), but you must have all of those characteristics in your squad mates or you’ll pay the price for it later. Once you’ve filled all those roles, if you have a party slot left open, feel free to put in whomever you want.

2. Learn to Dodge Perfectly

In FINAL FANTASY TYPE-0 HD the best defense is neither a good offense, nor a powerful defense; it’s all in not getting hit at all. A no-brainer, right? It still needs to be said that putting effort into learning how to perfectly time your dodges will make so many fights in this game 1,000 times easier. Pay close attention to your enemies during combat. Each enemy you face will have a tell that indicates when it’s about to attack and what kind of attack it’s about to do. Knowing when an attack is about to arrive will make dodging that much easier. Using any of your precious AP to upgrade any dodge-specific abilities early-on will make you as difficult to hit as a ghost at a science convention.

3. Those Who Fight and Run Away…

Never retreat! Never surrender! There have never been two more incorrect phrases ever spoken (except maybe, “I’m immune to fire! See?”). If you take on a mission or Expert Trial that is too hard, there is no shame in opening up the Info Menu and selecting “Abort Mission,” especially when considering that you’ll keep all of the Experience Points you’ve gained through that mission. You’ll also be returned to the point just before you left Akademeia to begin the mission, which means you’ll be able to collect yourself, grind out some levels and try again at your leisure.

It’s not all sunshine and chocobos though: You won’t keep any of the items and Phantoma you’ve collected during the mission, so make sure to weigh those cons against the pros of leaving a challenging mission.

4. Just Say NO to Support Personnel…at First Anyway

At the beginning of every mission you’ll be asked if you want to allow “SPs.” SP stands for “Support Personnel” and Support Personnel are characters that will jump in to assist you during missions. Support Personnel will join your squad randomly, but they’ll replace your squad members and they aren’t controllable, which will cause you nothing but trouble if you run against an obstacle that you need to switch characters in order to resolve. Avoid using SP your first time out to maintain as much control over the mission as possible.

You can replay missions to focus exclusively on gaining SPP.  Your first time through a mission may be a bad time to use SPs, but if you replay a mission you’ll be able to use SPs with reckless abandon, gain some SPP and spend it on new equipment with the shopkeeper in Akademeia’s Central Command.

5. Replay Missions, Replay Missions, Replay Missions

So you’ve completed a mission, huh? Glad that’s over! Now you’ll never have to do it again, right? Wrong! Get back out to the Title Screen, select “Missions,” and load up your most recent save, because your time with that mission has only just begun!

Replaying missions and Expert Trials is the best way to gain Experience Points, SPP (Support Personnel Points), items, Gil, and Phantoma. Each mission also has S-Rank requirements which will reward you for completing the mission on each difficulty, within a certain amount of time while obtaining a certain amount of Phantoma and while avoiding casualties whenever possible. Even if S-Ranks aren’t your thing (they should be; more on that in a minute), replaying a challenging mission over and over will get you prepped for any missions ahead of you and it’s a heckuva lot more fun than getting into Random Encounters over and over while on the world map.

Replaying missions will also give you an excellent place to level up your Eidolons, since you generally don’t want to gamble with summoning one during your first trek through a mission unless things are looking particularly dire.

6. S-Rank is the Best Rank

While you might think that S-Ranks get you nothing but pride (nothing wrong with a little bit of pride though, hey?) they actually get you so, so much more. Every mission and Expert Trial has its own set of rewards that you can only gain by achieving an S-Rank while on Officer, Agito or Finis difficulty. The rewards have a specific drop rate, so obtaining them will require diligence and a good bit of tenacity—obtain S-Ranks over and over again to obtain everything.

Picking up the FINAL FANTASY TYPE-0 HD official game guide will help you in this regard, as we have the rewards and their drop rates for each mission on each difficulty. You can find this information in the “Second Playthrough” section of the Walkthrough.

7. Don’t Buy Twin Spell

One of the earliest abilities you can purchase with your hard-earned AP is an ability called “Twin Spell.” Twin Spell allows you to equip two offensive spells in your ability slots, instead of just one. Spells can get very powerful if you use your Phantoma to enhance their traits in the Altocrystarium, so why wouldn’t having two spells be a great thing to have up front? A number of reasons: While the AP cost for Twin Spell is low for some of your party members, it can get incredibly expensive for others.  You also don’t need two spells during your first playthrough of the game. If you need another spell, you can always equip it to another party member; the MP cost for spells isn’t low to start with and it only goes up as you upgrade them in the Altocrystarium. This means you’ll only get a handful of casts out of your spells, which makes having two spells on one character a fairly pointless exercise.

Rem is the only character we suggest going out of your way to get Twin Spell for, and even then you should only do it if none of the other abilities she has available look appealing to you. Otherwise, sink those early game Ability Points into Accelerate, Triple Slip, Slipstream and Untouchable to get some real use out of them.

8. Work Hard, Quest Hard

You’ll have free time between most missions in  FINAL FANTASY TYPE-0 HD. This free time can be used to talk to your fellow cadets, teachers and visitors of Akademeia to gain items and get new cutscenes that will add a little bit more to the story. You can also complete Tasks, which are pretty much the side quests of this game, or Expert Trials, which are like story missions, but are completely optional and quite challenging. No matter what you choose to do, make sure to do as much of it as possible. Never end your free time before you’ve done everything you can with the time given to you, or you’ll miss out on plenty of rewards, Experience Points and other things that will help you gain an edge in your next mission.

9. Knowledge is Power

All classes in Akademeia have their own personal moogle, but Class Zero’s moogle is the best of them as far as you’re concerned. The moogle—named Moglin—will teach classes that you can take to boost your stats and give you Experience Points. These classes should always, ALWAYS be taken above anything else during your free time sessions. The classes are progressive, so completing a class in one free time session means you’ll unlock the advanced class for a later one. On the other hand, missing a class means you won’t get access to the advanced class, which really disadvantage you toward the end of the game when Moglin starts dishing out all of the awesome stat increasing, Experience boosting classes. Anything you do in FINAL FANTASY TYPE-0 HD can be done again in the second or third playthroughs, so don’t stress too much about not completing all of the Tasks your first time around—some of them can’t even be completed until the second or third playthrough. Focus on completing these classes above all else and you’ll thank us for it later.

10. Love Thy Chocobos

Chocobos work a little differently in FINAL FANTASY TYPE-0 HD than in other FINAL FANTASY titles. Instead of finding them on the field, using some greens to attract them, and then riding off into the sunset while you laugh at all of the sluggish monsters that have no hope of attacking you, chocobos are now more like consumables. While on the world map you’ll have the ability to summon a chocobo at any time, provided you have a chocobo to summon. You see, chocobos will only stick around temporarily when you summon them. After that time runs out they’ll take off, leaving you stranded in the middle of hostile environments if you don’t have another chocobo to summon. How do you get more, you ask? By breeding them at the Chocobo Ranch in Akademeia.

Breeding is a largely simple task in this game: Pick two chocobos (a male and a female), give them some greens if you have them and then head off for six in-game free time hours. When you come back your chocobos will have created a litter of your favorite giant, ride-able raptors and you’ll be able to start the process all over again. Make sure to visit and breed your chocobos often to keep yourself from ever being without a ride during your travels in Orience.

That’s all the tips we have for now, but if you jot these down in your brain space and take them to heart, you’ll start FINAL FANTASY TYPE-0 HD with an advantage, making it that much easier to get everything you want out it.

Want more help choosing the most balanced squad or selecting the right abilities for your character? Check out the complete Characters section of the official game guide for more helpful tips so you don’t miss a thing in FINAL FANTASY TYPE-0 HD.

You can also pre-order the Final Fantasy Type-0 HD Official Game Guide now!