Chapter 2: Raise the Vermilion Banner

Events, Tasks, and Expert Trials (First Break—6 Hours)

Once in Classroom Zero, head to the front of the room to start a cutscene. After the cutscene talk to the floating, white creature with a question mark above its head. This is Class Zero’s personal Moogle, Moglin—a creature that will teach you lessons whenever Kurasame isn’t around. Moglin won’t have anything to teach you at the moment, but we’ll make sure to let you know when it does.

Moglin instructs you to head to the Cemetery, which you can reach by heading through the door on the right side of the room. Before you go, stop and speak with the girl with the INFO icon above her head. Her name is Aria, and she serves as Class Zero’s personal Orderly, providing items for sale. She doesn’t have much to sell now, but you can purchase Potions and Ethers from her if you’d like. We suggest you buy at least 10-20 Potions; healing items are invaluable for battle, as they don’t take any Magic Points (MP) and don’t have a charge period before you can use them like Cure magic does.

Once you’ve finished your business with Aria, head through the door to her left to reach the Back Garden. This tranquil little yard is where most Class Zero members tend to spend their off hours. There isn’t much to do now, so head to the end of the Back Garden and hit the Action button on the metal gate.

Free Time in Akademeia

Once the cutscene in the Cemetery completes, a question mark appears above the Cemetery gate. Pressing the Action button to inspect the gate will notify you that you should bring either Rem or Machina to inspect the gate. Ignore that for now and instead head back to Classroom Zero.

Moglin goes over some of the details regarding spending free time (that is, time in between Missions) in Akademeia. Moglin only covers a small part of life as a Class Zero cadet, so we’ll explain the rest of the details for you.

Head to the great portal in the center of the Entrance, just outside of the Hallway leading to Classroom Zero. Head to the Sorcery room and talk to the man with the INFO icon above his head. Tell him to allow SOs.

Time

Every time you are given free time after a Mission, you’ll be given a time limit. During this first break period you’ll only have a scant six hours to explore Akademeia’s halls and try out some of the Events. Time doesn’t tick down by normal means in Final Fantasy Type-0 HD. Instead it ticks down every time you take part in an Event, leave Akademeia outside of a Mission, or take on an Expert Trial. (We’ll talk more about Expert Trials later.) Leaving Akademeia takes up six hours, while taking part in an Event only takes two. Completing an Expert Trial takes twelve hours, which constitutes a full day in Final Fantasy Type-0 HD.

Events

Any time you see a green exclamation point above an NPC’s head it means you can hold a conversation with that character. Every time you speak with an NPC you’ll be rewarded with an item and sometimes be given a new cutscene that will either be displayed right then and there, or put in the Rubicus—a sort of record book of every enemy, character, and most cutscenes you’ve seen, just to name a few of its features.

The classes that Moglin offers are also considered Events, so they only pass two hours of time as well. Make taking classes in Classroom Zero the main priority over anything else during your free time. Classes offer Experience Points (EXP) or permanent boosts to your MP, Hit Points (HP), or magic power to your entire party just for completing them.

Tasks

Tasks are marked by a yellow icon with the word TASK in it and serve largely as Type-0 HD’s side quests. Whenever you talk to someone with the TASK icon above his or her head you’ll be given an objective. If you complete the objective, you’ll be rewarded with an item, magic ability, accessory, or so on. Most Tasks require you to leave Akademeia, which automatically deducts six hours from your remaining free time. Always take Moglin’s classes first, then seek out Tasks that can be done without leaving Akademeia—we’ll make sure to note them for you when they appear.

There are other free time activities you can partake in called Expert Trials. You won’t see Expert Trials for a bit, so we’re going to hold off on discussing them for now. Don’t worry, we’ll let you know as soon as they show up.

What to Do First

At the beginning of every Free Time section of a chapter in this walkthrough, you’ll find a list of all of the Events, Tasks, and Expert Trials available to you during this period, where they are located, how to activate them, and what reward you get for completing them.

Generally we make a few suggestions on which Events, Tasks, and Expert Trials you should do, but deciding what to do after that will be up to you. You won’t have enough time to do everything on your first playthrough of Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, so don’t freak out about trying to see it all. Instead, try picking any Tasks you can do without leaving Akademeia first, as they take no time. Do any Expert Trials that you’re strong enough to handle. But first and foremost, always, ALWAYS take Moglin’s classes. After you’ve done all of that, look through the list of Events, Tasks, and Expert Trials, gauge how much time you have left and what rewards each of those “side missions” offers, and then make a decision on what you want to do from there.

There are only three things you can do today, and they are all Events, so go ahead and knock those out now to pass the time. Once you’ve finished it’ll be time for another Mission.

Missions

We’re not going to spend too much time talking about this subject here, but if you’re having a hard time understanding anything about how the game works or what this guide says about Missions, head to the “Type-0 101” section of the guide to find more detailed information about Missions.

For now, the main elements you need to be thinking about when dealing with Missions are your party composition, what Primed status means and how to obtain it, and the benefits of quitting a Mission before receiving a “Game Over”.

Squad Composition

Squad composition is incredibly important in Type-0 HD, as there are a lot of situations you’ll run into while in the field that can completely block your progress without the right squad under your control. Generally, your squad should always consist of a melee attacker, a ranged attacker, and anyone with a healing ability or Cure spell. The melee party member can be subbed out, but they typically do the most damage. A ranged character and a character with Cure are non-negotiable.

There are plenty of situations that call for a ranged character, most of which give you a very hard time if a ranged character isn’t available. Make sure to replace a KO’d ranged attacker with an able-bodied one to keep your team fighting-fit.

Another factor to consider is Primed status, which you can get by putting certain characters into your party at the start of a Mission. Primed status is awarded to any characters that have gold borders around their names when you first select your team at the start of a Mission. Primed status is a buff that has the same effects as Aura and Trance. This means that as long as you have Primed status, you’ll do double physical and magical damage.

The last necessary element to consider when selecting a team is the individual levels of your party members. Your party members only gain EXP when in battle or through Moglin’s classes; if a character doesn’t fight, he or she won’t gain experience. The best way to determine whether or not to bring a lower- or higher-level character to a Mission is whether or not you’ve done the Mission before. If you’re redoing Missions from the Title Screen, feel free to pick whoever you want for battle. But if you’re going through a Mission or Expert Trial for the first time, you almost always want to bring your best characters to the fight. If you’re doing Tasks outside of Akademeia, however, you are almost always better off bringing your lower-level characters, since a lot of Tasks involve defeating monsters at different points of the World Map. This will give you a lot of time to fight monsters that are almost always manageable for your lower-level characters, allowing your lower-level party members to gain some very necessary levels.

Live to Fight Another Day

The last thing to keep in mind before starting a Mission is quitting. We know, we know, quitting is never the answer. But in the case of Type-0 HD, quitting is often not only an option, but it’s also a very good idea. If every member of Class Zero is KO’d while outside of Akademeia or a town, you’ll be given a “Game Over,” which forces you to reload your most recent save. If you open the menu during a Mission, however, you can select “Abort Mission” and be taken back to the point you were last at before the Mission started while keeping all of the EXP you gained during that Mission. You’ll lose all of the items and SPP you collected along the way, but leaving with all of your EXP intact means you’ll be that much stronger for the next time you challenge that Mission again. So never be afraid to quit out of a Mission when things are looking particularly hairy.

A Brave New World

Once you leave Akademeia, you’ll be on the World Map. You’ll have to deal with random encounters while on the World Map, but you can use chocobos if you’re not in the mood to fight.

Head to McTighe, the town directly in front of Akademeia, to start your next Mission.