Maximum Combat Efficiency

Since the AI can't adjust sufficiently in different scenarios, it's best that you gradually start to move away from auto- commands as you get more experienced with the battle system. Manual control is important when controlling battle efficiency.

When you encounter a new enemy for the first time, the AI likes to alternate between physical and magical attacks to test out the enemy's resistances. While it may not interfere much with the speed in normal battles, it can waste a lot of time in the harder ones.

• Say an enemy is weak against Fire. An AI-controlled Ravager will auto-input something along the lines of Fire - Flamestrike - Fire - Flamestrike in order to take advantage of the weakness-induced bonus to Chaining, as well as the bonus for alternating abilities. However, it's much more important to place emphasis on speed (since the rank you get is based on speed alone) rather than these bonuses by using a single consecutive ability instead, like Fire - Fire - Fire - Fire or Flamestrike - Flamestrike - Flamestrike - Flamestrike. This will be a lot faster than alternating the way the AI does.

• In a focused Saboteur assault where you only need to inflict specific debuffs or when you need to inflict certain ones (like Poison), it's best to inflict them manually. The AI will apply debuffs in the same way that it would in a normal situation, and may inflict the one(s) you want last or not at all.

• Against a Launchable enemy that is resistant against physical attacks, the Auto-Battle queue will consist of Attack (to Launch the enemy) and then a string of Ruins (something like Attack - Ruin - Ruin - Ruin). If two allies attempt to Launch the enemy at the same time, the slower of two will leap up into the air and start to attack from there, slowing them down considerably in comparison to if they had just stayed on the ground. Since it only takes one ally to Launch an enemy, having two enemies in the air trying to do this is pointless and will slow you down. You can prevent this by letting the AI Launch the enemy (which it will do by default) and then let your manually-controlled character unleash a string of Ruins from the ground.

Outside of battle, you can raise your party in ways that will force the AI to do more of the specific things you want it to.

• Focus stat growth, either through the Crystarium, equipment, or infusion, towards Strength or Magic. This lowers the chance that the AI will alternate between two different damage types in battle because if Strength is considerably higher than Magic, or vice versa, the AI will go towards using attacks that utilize the stat with highest amount, therefore making your AI-controlled allies more efficient.

• Avoid the carryover of unnecessary abilities when infusing monsters. This will enable your monster to focus on its strengths. For example, there's little need for a monster with low Strength stats to inherit Ravager -strike abilities (which are Strength based).

Animation Speeds

Raw stats don't determine everything in battle. Since the basis of the entire battle system is speed, you have to take attack animations into account. These attack animations have a huge impact on how quickly actions are implemented in combat.

Serah is generally faster than Noel is most aspects. This compliments her generally higher Magic ability and her suitability for Magic roles.

Animation speeds can vary significantly between monsters. For example, Chocobos are pretty fast while the more Western species are slower in comparison, despite their impressive stats. Another thing to realize is that Serah, Noel, and every species of monster have different physical attack animations. This is more than just an appealing-to-the-eye feature.

Noel's physical attacks have the distinct feat of landing two consecutive hits instead of one, with the properties of a single attack split in two. This split applies to the amount of damage inflicted as well as the effect on the Chain Gauge. It's not significant, but two hits are better than one, especially when it comes to maintaining the Chain Gauge.

Serah's weapon can take on the appearance of a bow or a sword. You can actually control which one she uses by tuning your Paradigms appropriately. In a Normal tune Paradigm, Serah will seem randomly switch between the two. In a Cross formation, she'll stick to the sword. In Wide fromation, she will stick to the bow.

Also, Serah's physical actions with the sword have a much faster animation speed than those with the bow. This doesn't apply when she is casting spells, so if Serah is your main spell caster, this information may not have much impact on your playing style. However, this is another reason to pay attention to the tuning of your Paradigms. For example, against a single magic-resistant enemy, Cerberus-X will likely quicken Serah's damage output as a Commando opposed to the regular Cerberus.

Another thing on physical attacks is that Serah and Noel both have kind of special 'finishers' that occur after they execute a full command queue of abilities once they reach an ATB Level of 4 or higher. These finishers tend to deal slightly more damage but are slower.

It's always faster to string together a sequence of the same actions rather than combining multiple different actions. In other words, switching between physical and magic in a command queue takes a lot more time than sticking to all physical or all magical abilities in a single command queue.

Serah and Noel also have different animations when airborne. Casting animations become much slower when they are in the air. However, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Normally, the lack of speed will extend the time that an enemy will remain Launched.

Speed is also more important in some roles than in others.

Medics and Ravagers benefit the most from quick animations. For Medics, faster animations mean they will be able to heal their targets faster. For Ravagers, since their main purpose is to fill the Chain Gauge, the faster they can attack, the faster the Chain Gauge will fill, and the faster the enemy will be Staggered.

Speed for a Commando is also important. They faster they are, the more damage they can do in a shorter amount of time.

Part of a Synergist's efficiency depends on how quickly they can apply Buffs. This is especially important in a race against time when an enemy is about perform an especially strong attack.

While it's good for Saboteurs to inflict Debuffs in a timely matter, their efficiency is based more on persistence rather than speed.

For Sentinels, animation speeds don't matter. Their main purpose is to distract the enemy and take damage for the rest of they party. Even the slower monsters can fulfill this role sufficiently.

Physical Attacks vs. Magical Attacks

There are some advantages to casting magic spells over using physical attacks.

Against more agile enemies, physical attacks can prove to be somewhat erratic. This is because there is a form of hit detection used in the game where if an enemy goes outside of the 'hit area' when the attack is executed, that attack will miss. However, magic spells will always hit their target. Magic spells come in two types: immediate impact (such as the Ravager's Ice and Lightning elemental spells as well as most Saboteur spells) and tracking projectiles (such as Ruin, as well as Fire and Wind spells).

Notice that it also takes time for a character that is using physical attacks to literally run up to or chase an enemy before the fighting actually begins. Characters using magic don't have to run or chase after their enemies and their spells tend to reach their targets faster than a physical attack that's being forced to reach the enemy by foot.

Also, the animation speed for a magic attack tends to be faster than the animation speed of a physical attack.

While Strength is only used to calculate the amount of damage inflicted, Magic affects other variables such as the healing power of a Medic and the duration of a Synergist's buffs. This can make boosting Magic stats more useful in general across the different roles.

However, this doesn't mean that physical attacks are worse than Magic ones. Physical attacks have a higher damage multiplier, and therefore cause more damage than spells do. They also have higher Cut and Keep values, giving them higher priority in the heat of battle. And the majority of the most powerful offensive abilities are physical attacks, such as Noel's Meteor Javelin or the Feral Links used by many of the strongest Commando monsters.

Juggling Enemies

Certain abilities have a hidden stat called Rise. This stat causes the enemy to be propelled into the air. The most common ability is Launch, which modifies the Commando's basic Attack ability. The    -ga spells (such as Firega) of Commandos and Ravagers also have the capability to Launch foes.

The value of the Rise stat determines how high the enemy will be Launched and can be combined with multiple other abilities. Once an enemy has been Launched, you can continue using -ga spells to hoist them even higher into the air, preventing them from falling back down to the ground. Any other attacks given to the enemy will also keep them airborne. Enemies that are Launched become immobilized, and cannot attack or defend themselves.

For Launching to work, generally, the attack used must have a higher Cut value than whatever Keep value the enemy has.

Many enemies cannot be Launched until Staggered while some are completely immune to Launch, Staggered or not.

Interruptions (Cut and Keep)

There are two hidden stats that determine the priority of conflicting actions:

Cut and Keep

When an ally and an enemy are attacking each other simultaneously, the game uses the Cut and Keep stat of their abilities to determine who will prevail. 

The Cut value is the value that determines if an ability has the power to 'cut', or interrupt, another opposing ability. The Keep value is the value that determines how well an ability can 'keep' its prowess against another opposing ability.

If the Cut value of one action is greater than the Keep value of the opposing action, then the first action will prevail. If the Keep value is greater than the Cut value of the opposing action, it will continue uninterrupted. This is the main factor that is behind the basic principle of ability interruptions.

Both Cut and Keep have values from 0 to 100. Below is a table of the base values for all actions in Final Fantasy XIII-2.

Cut and Keep Base Values

Action                                                      Keep Value         Cut Value

None (idle)                                                     5                       None

Defensive spells                                             15                      None

Saboteur spells (cast by ally);

Offensive spells and ranged physical                15                        10

attacks (by an enemy)

Other offensive spells and ranged                    15                        15

physical attacks (by an ally)

Melee attacks (by an enemy)                          20                         20

Melee attacks (by an ally);                             25                         25

Strong attacks (by an enemy)

Special attacks (used by an enemy)                40                         40

Sentinel -guard abilities                                 90                        None

(Steelguard, Mediguard, etc.)

Sentinel Provoke abilities                              90                          10

Sentinel counter abilities                               90                          25

Ultima Arrow (Serah);                                 90                          50

Meteor Javelin (Noel)

The Cut value of physical attacks is generally higher than that of Magical attacks, therefore, physical attacks will often interrupt magical ones.

The higher Keep values (those over 90) belong to special abilities such as Meteor Javelin and Ultima Arrow, as well as the abilities of the Sentinel. The high Keep values of Sentinel abilities are an additional bonus to their already strong defensive abilities.

As long as an action's Cut or Keep value is under 90, its Cut or Keep value can be modified by the status effects of Vigilance and Curse, the passive abilities Immovable and Presses, and by Staggering. If an action's value is already at its maximum of 90, it cannot be modified.

Modifiers of Cut and Keep Values

Effect                                Modification

Vigilance                              +20 Keep

Curse                                   -20 Keep

Immovable (ally)                    +5 Keep

Immovable II (ally)               +10 Keep

Pressure (ally)                       +5 Cut

Pressure II (ally)                  +10 Cut

Pressure MAX (ally)             +15 Cut

Stagger (on an enemy)          Keep drops to 0

NOTE: some enemies, such as the Pulsework Soldier, have a special ability that raises the Keep of all their basic actions to 85 before they are Staggered. 

Elements and Resistance

All attacks correspond with one of two damage types:

Physical or Magical

Attacks are also either non-elemental or are imbued with one of the four elemental properties:

Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind

Attacks can be based on Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind

Attacks are either Physical or Magical

Every enemy has a set of elemental resistances, which determine the amount of damage an enemy takes from an attack.

Types of Elemental Affinities

Resistance                            Damage Inflicted

Normal                                   x1 (standard damage)

Weakness                               x2 (200% damage)

Halved                                    x0.5 (50% damage)

Resistant                                 x0.1 (10% damage)

Immune                                  x0 (damage Blocked; no damage inflicted)

Absorb                                  Attack heals the opponent (heals 30% of usual damage)

There are ways to exploit elements in your favor, both to defend yourself from elemental attacks by enemies and to add elemental properties to your own attacks:

- Equip accessories

- "En-" abilities (Enfire, etc.)

Synthesized Abilities

Staggering and Chaining

Filling the Chain Gauge and increasing the Chain Bonus percentage in order to Stagger enemies are the main ways to cause maximum damage.

Chaining

The Chain Gauge is accompanied by two percentages:

Chain Bonus and Stagger Point

The Chain Bonus indicates the current damage multiplier that is applied to all attacks. The Chain Bonus has a baseline at 100%, where all attacks will do regular damage with a x1 multiplier. At 200%, a x2 multiplier is applied, doing double damage. The maximum bonus possible is 999.9%, which is just under x10 damage.

This is formula that calculates the Chain Bonus:

             Chain Bonus = (Ability Value + Role Bonus) x (100 - Chain Resistance) + Hidden Bonus

As the Chain Gauge is being filled, it is also constantly decreasing. If it depletes completely, the Chain Bonus is reset to its default value of 100%. 

All attacks can have one of two effects on the Chain Gauge:

  - how much they increase the Chain Bonus total

- the effect on Chain Duration Value

Staggering

The Stagger Point is the Chain Bonus percentage that must be achieved in order for an enemy to successfully be Staggered.

As you come closer to the Stagger Point, the numbers below the Chain Gauge that show the Chain Bonus percentage, will flash red. Once Staggered, the Chain Gauge will turn yellow and start to deplete at a steady rate. You can also tell that an enemy is Staggered when the values that show how much damage they are taking are yellow as well instead of the regular grey.

Once the Chain Gauge begins to empty itself, it cannot be stopped or slowed. However, the speed at which this happens is determined by the hidden Chain Duration Value at the point of Stagger.

The formula for Chain Duration Value:

               Stagger Duration = Actual Chain Duration x 2 + 8 (seconds)

All enemies have a Chain Resistance attribute. The higher this value, the slower the Chain Bonus will increase. Therefore, enemies with high Chain Resistance can be difficult to Stagger, especially if they also have a high Stagger Point.

Once an enemy is Staggered, you have these advantages;

          - immediate +100% Chain Bonus resistance

          - the Chain Resistance drops to 0, allowing you to increase the Chain Bonus further

Effects on the Chain Gauge and Chain Bonus in Paradigm Roles:

Ravagers

 - fill the Gauge and increase the Chain Bonus quickly, but lower the Chain Duration Value significantly.              

  This is way a Stagger achieved only with Ravagers is very short.

Commandos

       - their attacks greatly increase the Chain Duration Value but don't do much for the Chain Bonus alone.

It's almost impossible for Commandos to achieve a Stagger on their own.

Saboteurs

       - they're better at building Chain Bonuses than Commandos (but not as much as Ravagers) and better than Ravagers at maintaining the Chain Duration Value (but not as much as Commandos); they are a sort of middle ground.

Sentinels

       - their Provoke and counterattack abilities extend the Chain Duration Value but aren't reliable for gauge stabilization.

Medics and Synergists do not affect the Chain Gauge or Chain Duration Value.

Hidden Factors on Chaining

There are no single factors that make a significant difference on their own, but combined with more explicit bonuses such as Ravager boots and auto-abilities, they can greatly affect overall chaining efficiency. They also affect underlying patterns in AI behavior.

It isn't immediately obvious, but there are positive chains that occur when allies in the Synergist and Medic roles use a sequence of abilities on themselves or other party members. This can increase the effects of their abilities.

For example, the amount of HP restored by a Medic's Cure spell will gradually increase the more they use it consecutively in a single, uninterrupted command queue.

Hidden Chaining Factors

Commando

           Condition                                                                 Chain Bonus

Using non-identical abilities consecutively                  +0.2%

COM's target has yellow HP                                    +0.2%

COM's target is Staggered and has yellow HP          +0.3%

COM's target is Staggered and has red HP               +0.3%

COM's target is Staggered                                       +0.3%

COM's target is Launched                                       +0.1%

COM has a status enhancement                               +0.3%

COM is the only one attacking its target                   +0.5%

Ravager

         Condition                                                                Chain Bonus

RAV's HP is full                                                       +0.3%

RAV has no status ailments                                      +0.1%

RAV's target has no status enhancements                 +0.1%

RAV's target has 1 status enhancement                    +0.2%

RAV's target has 2 status enhancements                   +0.3%

RAV's target has 3 status enhancements                   +0.4%

RAV's target has 4 status enhancements                   +0.5%

RAV's target has 5 status enhancements                   +0.7%

RAV's target has 6 status enhancements                   +0.8%

RAV's target has 7 status enhancements                   +0.9%

RAV's target has 8 status enhancements                   +1.0%

RAV's target has 1 status ailment                             +0.3%

RAV's target has 2 status ailments                            +0.4%

RAV's target has 3 status ailments                            +0.5%

RAV's target has 4 status ailments                            +0.6%

RAV's target has 5 status ailments                            +0.7%

RAV's target has 6 status ailments                            +0.8%

RAV's target has 7 status ailments                            +0.9%

RAV's target has 8 status ailments                            +1.0%

Sentinel

          Condition                                                                Chain Bonus

SEN's HP is full                                                       +0.5%

SEN's HP is yellow                                                 +1.0%

SEN's HP is red                                                      +1.5%

SEN has a status enhancement                                 +0.5%

Synergists

         Condition                                                                       Chain Bonus

No party member has a status enhancement                     +0.5%

One status enhancement on any party member                 +0.6%

2 status enhancements on the party                                  +0.7%

3 status enhancements on the party                                  +0.8%

4 status enhancements on the party                                  +1.0%

5 status enhancements on the party                                  +1.5%

6 status enhancements on the party                                  +2.0%

7 status enhancements on the party                                  +2.5%

8 status enhancements on the party                                  +2.8%

Saboteurs

         Condition                                                                       Chain Bonus

No enemy has a status ailment                                         +0.2%

1 status ailment on the enemy group                                 +0.3%

2 status ailments on the enemy group                               +0.4%

3 status ailments on the enemy group                               +0.5%

4 status ailments on the enemy group                               +0.8%

5 status ailments on the enemy group                               +1.0%

6 status ailments on the enemy group                               +1.5%

7 status ailments on the enemy group                               +2.0%

8 status ailments on the enemy group                               +2.5%

Medics

           Condition                                                                      Chain Bonus

Healed target's HP is yellow                                           +0.5%

Healed target's HP is red                                                +1.0%

Healed target has a status ailment                                    +2.0%

Healed target has a status enhancement                           +0.2%