Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles Beginner Tips

I love me a good RPG turn-based, tactical RPG. Give me a deep character and skill system with the ability to create my own builds and strategies amongst a roster of characters and thoughtful, challenging combat, and I’m a happy guy. Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles is a beautiful semi-remake of the original 1995 title, complete with all its depth and reasonable difficulty (seriously, though, it’s known for being tough). If this is your first time in Ivalice, you might find yourself unprepared for certain fights or uncertain where to start; I’m here to help, my friends! Take a gander at this lovely list of tips that will prepare you for anything that comes your way, without straight-up solving the game for you.

1. Get the JP (Job Points) Boost passive bonus for all your characters. You’ll have to unlock this skill using the Squire class, which is conveniently available at the beginning of the game. It is arguably the most useful ability in the game if you want to make the most of your time grinding to unlock abilities, and you will have to grind for JP to access the most useful abilities for each job. EXPERT TIP: switch this passive out for something else when jumping into story encounters; you don’t need extra JP in these fights, you need your characters at their strongest and most capable.

2. To make the most of grinding in random encounters, consider using low-damage abilities like Throw Stone to milk JP without killing the last enemy. Restore that enemy’s health with magic or items to keep them alive and soak up all that JP. It’s not the most fun thing to do, but you’ll find your characters can easily have hundreds of JP after a relatively short bout. Make the most of your grind, friends.

3. Save before every story encounter. These tend to be much tougher than random encounters, and some locations launch back-to-back fights without an ability to grind in between. Consider this your main save file that you can always go back to if things are too tough or if you otherwise make a mistake.

4. In those sequential story encounters, if you are given a chance to save, do not overwrite your main save. Seriously, some of these fights are very tough if you’re unprepared, so it is very easy to trap oneself in an unwinnable fight, therefore forcing a complete game restart. 

5. Pay attention to brave and faith stats. Characters with higher brave do more physical damage, so are more effective with classes like Knight and Ninja. Higher faith leads to higher magic damage (or healing) for spells from classes like Black Mage, White Mage, and Summoner. Keep in mind faith goes both ways; a character with low faith will do low spell damage, but will also receive less spell damage or healing from spells. If you’re wondering why your Flare is doing to little to that one enemy, perhaps their faith is low. A fun exploit; reduce a character’s faith to 0, and they are immune to spell damage. How about that?

6. Steal stuff. Particularly during story encounters. You can easily procure gear earlier than shops offer it, saving you money and giving your team an edge, and it’s one of the only ways to get some of the rarer equipment. You can analyze enemies to see what they have equipped, but make sure to check that the enemy doesn’t have the Sticky Hands ability, which prevents theft. Even if that weapon isn’t juicy, stealing it means your enemy can only attack with their bare hands, transforming classes like Knight, Dragoon, Ninja, or Samurai into cuddly teddy bears (skills that require specific equipment, like the Samurai’s Bushido ability, also become useless!). With that said, don’t use the Knight’s equipment break skills on enemies with equipment you want. 

7. Character’s stat increases are dependent on the job they have when they level up. Someone who’s been a Knight for the last 30 levels will have far more health than someone who’s leveled up as a Black Mage. This is somewhat under-the-hood and really only matters if you’re a min-maxer, but it does mean you could minimize how many character levels someone gets in a class you only have them in to unlock a new class or to get a specific job ability. If this is a bit much for you, ignore it, it’s not a game-breaker.

8. Unique story characters, like Agrias, Mustadio, and the mighty Cidolfus, have higher stats than your cookie-cutter party members. Their Squire class is also replaced by a class unique to them, giving them some powerful and unique abilities. These characters can easily supplant your other party members mid-to-late game, unless you want to give yourself the challenge of not using those unique characters. I recommend trying that on a second playthrough though, because if this is your first Tactics foray, you’ll want all the help you can get. Expert Tip: do not underestimate the awesomeness that is Mustadio.

9. Mix and match job abilities to maximize each party members’ utility. Want a dual-wielding Knight? Learn the dual-wield ninja passive and slap that puppy on, no matter what class you are. Want to pump up your monk’s HP with heavy armor? Use the knight’s heavy armor passive. Your ninja can cast time magic, and that geomancer can double as your long-range healer with white magic or throw item. Don’t underestimate mobility skills that increase your lateral and vertical move ranges, which can increase the threat posed by your melee-based characters. In short, mix things up.

10. Don’t let characters die. When a character loses all Hit Points (HP), they will pass out. That’s fine. A counter of 3 turns begins ticking down to their permanent death as they bleed out. That’s not okay. Losing a character permanently is painful, not only because you might lose some sweet gear, but especially considering the amount of time it takes to build these suckers up across all the jobs. If you lose one, reload that aforementioned main save file and give the fight another go. 

There are so many more tricks, strategies, and secrets to discover, so keep your eyes and mind open, but with these tips you’re ready to tackle all the wonderfulness that is Final Fantasy Tactics. Enjoy, and watch those flanks!

If you have any tips of your own, feel free to add them below for the community!

Cyberpunk 2077's Five Best Quickhacks

An inventory full of Legendary- and epic-quality quickhacks and a fully loaded cyberdeck.

Netrunning—hacking enemies and systems—is one of the more unique aspects of Cyberpunk 2077’s world. Quickhacks are the offensive tools of the netrunner, causing damage or limiting enemy capabilities. Unfortunately, a cyberdeck can only hold a limited number of quickhacks at a time, so knowing what to use can be difficult depending on one’s character build. These are only five of the quickhacks avaialable, but will come in handy no matter your build..

Short Circuit

One of the default quickhacks V has, short circuit remained on my cyberdeck throughout the entire game. It does more damage to mechanical enemies by default, but even the damage it does to squishy enemies is impressive. Improved variants apply EMP effects, disabling cybernetic abilities, and dish out even more damage. My netrunner can take out most mid-threat (equal level) enemies in one cast. Tack on a quick, if not immediate, load time and a low RAM cost and short circuit solidifies itself as a netrunner’s best friend. As a bonus, it’s non-lethal, so it’s a perfect weapon against those pesky cyberpsychos.

Cripple

Don’t overlook the usefulness of control hacks, those quickhacks that don’t do any damage but instead apply a powerful effect. Cripple stops a single enemy in their tracks, making them an easy target or removing them from the fight for a time. Not only is this a showstopper for melee enemies, but an upgraded version of cripple also adds an infection effect, spreading the quickhack to nearby targets. The epic version also prevents enemies from attacking, meaning a netrunner with this bad boy can freeze a group in place for easy pickings. This also makes cripple a great tool for leveling other offensive skills without fear of being under-powered. As a final, juicy, benefit, some bosses are susceptible to cripple, becoming a tasty, helpless bullet sponge for a limited time.

Contagion

The world of Cyberpunk 2077 is full of wonderful detail, and as a piece of the diegesis, I absolutely love contagion. This quickhack disables the systems that maintain the balance between cybernetics and organic material. Hormone regulation, immune response, infection protection, all sorts of things our bodies would need if we had tech installed in our meat suddenly stop working, and an instant sickness takes hold. Contagion spreads from a single target, not only dealing damage over time to a group, but causing those affected to vomit and spasm. V can soften up enemies for easy dispatch as well as create openings in the midst of a firefight. Like short circuit, contagion is non-lethal, but unlike short circuit, it’s kinda gross, but in a good way.

Ping

It may not be flashy, but ping’s utility is undeniable. Using ping on an enemy or device will highlight all enemies and devices in the connected network for a short time. Not only is this useful for stealthy dispatching and cheap enough for any build to use, but ping also shows physical access points to a system. Want to figure out how to turn off all surveillance cameras or automated turrets at once? Use ping and sneak over to that laptop or computer. At the least, you’ll see all pinged enemies at all times during a firefight. Nope, no flanking or hiding for you, gonk! NIfty.

Suicide

It is what it says it is. This ultimate quickhack is expensive and takes a while to load, but it’s an instant-kill. Plus, it’ll freak out enemies around the target. With the right cyberdeck, it can infect another target as well. Let your enemies do your work for you!

BONUS: Legendary quickhacks

Okay, so I’m cheating a little, but one can’t talk about great quickhacks without mentioning legendary-quality quickhacks. Legendary, or orange, quickhacks have the most effects and often come with a passive that is in effect as long as the quickhack is equipped. Some of these passives are worth having the quickhack equipped, even if you don’t plan on actively using them. Weapon jam and reboot optics, which cause temporary weapon malfunction and blindness, have passives that load their effects as deamos during a breach protocol. Any enemies loaded with these daemons will jam their weapons on the first trigger pull or automatically go blind when they see the player. Breach protocol has no cost. The combination of effects makes enemies helpless for a good deal of time. Pay attention to passive bonuses.