World of Final Fantasy – How the Stacking System Works

World of Final Fantasy has many new system mechanics that may confuse even the most hardcore Final Fantasy fans. One of these new mechanics is the stacking system. This article explains how the stack system works in World of Final Fantasy and how to best take advantage of it. When used correctly, the stack system can be a very powerful tool as you fight against enemies throughout the game.

How to Change Stacks

One of the most confusing aspects of World of Final Fantasy is how the new stack system works. You can stack your characters in various formations, which change your stats in a variety of ways. To change your stack formation, first press Triangle to access the menu (when you’re not in battle). Navigate to Stack Setup and you’ll see all of the formations you have available to you right now.

You can change your characters to be large or small, which impacts the available stacks. When your character is big you use the Bigstack, and when your character is small you can only use the Lilstack. Each main character in your party will have these two stack options, and the type of monsters you have access to will determine which stack is more powerful.

All stacks have three sections: S, M, and L. As you might have guessed, S is small, M is medium and L is large, corresponding to the size of the person or creature that can occupy that spot. When your main characters (Reynn and Lann) are in their larger forms they take up the L spot, while the smaller forms take up the M spot.

Prisms and Imprism Command

When you encounter new enemies (and occasionally at other times) you will obtain a prism for that type of enemy. You can use these prisms to imprism the enemy, allowing them to become part of your stack formation if you so choose. When you first catch a new enemy, the info screen that follows will inform you of the stats, abilities and what section of the stack they fit into (S, M, L).

In order to catch an enemy they need to be in a weakened state first. This generally means you need to get their hit points very low, but if you kill the enemy you won’t be able to imprism them and you’ll have to wait for the next battle. Once an enemy’s hit points are low enough they will slouch over and look tired. At this point you can use the Imprism command and try to catch the enemy. This won’t always work, so you may have to try a few times before you successfully imprism an enemy.

If you’re having trouble getting some enemies weakened, try unstacking one of your groups. You can use the Unstack command from the battle menu to separate your party into individuals instead of a single stack. This also means each member of the form stack attacks separately and for far less damage. This allows you to take fewer hit points with each attack and slowly weaken the enemy instead of accidentally killing them in a single attack.

Leveling Up

It’s important to check your stacks every time you imprism a new enemy. The enemy may be stronger than your current stack setup, giving you higher stats. However, most enemies you catch will be much lower level than your current stack. Even if the stats aren’t higher at first, wait until the new enemy catches up in level, then check the stats again. The enemy doesn’t have to be in an active stack to gain experience from battles.

You should also check the Mirage Boards in the menu to level up your characters and give them new abilities. This system is very similar to the Sphere Grid leveling in Final Fantasy 10. You use SP to unlock new abilities on a grid. Each party member, including monsters you catch, can level up and learn new abilities that you can use in battle.

We’ll have more on World of Final Fantasy as the October 25 release date swiftly approaches.