Properties of the ATB Gauge

The ATB Gauge recharges at a faster rate as you add more segments.

Basically meaning that a six segment ATB Gauge doesn't take twice as long to fill as a three segment ATB Gauge. It actually fills almost twice as fast.

Approximate ATB Recharge Rates

ATB Level         Full Recharge Time     Recharge Rate per Segment       Recharge Speed Increase

3                         4.32 seconds                   1.44 seconds                                  100% (baseline)

4                         4.46 seconds                   1.11seconds                                   130% faster

5                         4.66 seconds                   0.93 seconds                                  155% faster

6                         4.79 seconds                   0.80 seconds                                  180% faster


The ATB Gauge recharges continuously while menus are visible. It will pause once an action or action queue (such as Paradigm Shifting and using items) is being set and will resume once those actions are complete.

Things that Modify the Rate of ATB Recharge

Ability                                       Effect on ATB Recharge Speed
ATB Rate +XX%                      +10%~50%
Haste                                         +33%
Slow                                          -33%
Leadenstrike                              -50%
Ironstrike                                   -33%


There are also several special auto-abilities that grant immediate bonuses to the ATB Recharge speed.

ATB Recharge Speed Bonuses

Auto-Ability                           Bonus to ATB Recharge
Lifesiphon                                +1 segment upon slaying a target
Faultsiphon                              +0.2 segments upon attacking a target with a status ailment
Fearsiphon                              +0.1 segments upon attacking a Staggered target
Siphon Damage Lv. 1              +1 segment for every 1000 damage received
Siphon Damage Lv. 2              +1 segment for every 950 damage received
Siphon Damage Lv. 3              +1 segment for every 900 damage received
ATB Advantage                      +1 segment at the beginning of a battle
Kill: ATB Charge                    +0.5 segments per enemy death
Attack: ATB Charge               +0.1 segments per hit on each enemy
Attack: ATB Charge II            +0.2 segments per hit on each enemy

Wound Damage

Serah and Noel take Wound damage; shown in the dark red text on the game screen.

New in Final Fantasy XIII-2 is Wound damage.

Wounds are a special type of injury that reduce the target's maximum HP, and can be inflicted by both party members and enemies.

Wound damage can't be healed by conventional methods (such as using Potions or a Medic's healing spells). Instead, you have to use Wound Potions or Elixir in order to restore the damage caused by Wounds.

Wounds Inflicted by Allies:

• All Saboteur spells cause damage as well as the status ailment they may inflict. A portion of this damage is turned into Wound damage, depending on the enemy's Wound Resistance.

• The Wound spell cast by the Saboteur doesn't inflict a status ailment. Instead, it deals more damage than any other Saboteur ability and because of that, increases the amount of possible Wound damage that can be inflicted on the enemy. The Wound spell isn't as powerful as an attack made by a Commando, but is comparable to the damage inflicted by a Ravager.

• An AI-controlled Saboteur will repeatedly cast Wound once all possible status ailments have been inflicted.

Wounds Inflicted by Enemies:

• Enemies that cause Wound damage convert a certain amount of the normal damage they would inflict into Wound damage.

• Wound damage may seem insignificant at first, but if a battle goes on for a long time, it can become a big problem as it accumulates.

• Having at least one Sentinel deployed against strong Wounding attacks will increase the party's overall defense against Wound damage as well as regular damage. The Bloodguard line of accessories are also effective at preventing Wound damage.

Paradox Alpha, the first enemy in FFXIII-2 that employs Wound attacks.

Status Effects

Status Enhancements

Status enhancements, also called buffs, are beneficial conditions that improve the defensive or offensive powers of the user. They can affect both party members and enemies and can be a major deciding factor on a battle's difficulty, duration, and final outcome.

Buffs can be applied by:

- a Synergist

- equipped certain accessories

- learning passive abilities via the Crystarium for tamed monsters

- certain Feral Links

You can increase the duration of a status enhancement by:

- Synergist role bonuses

- having a high Magic stat

- equipped certain pieces of equipment (either alone or combined)

- the certain abilities learned by monsters

Types of Status Enhancements:

Enhancement      Effect                                                             Opposing Ailment
Haste                   +33% ATB Gauge speed                                 Slow
Bravery                +75% Strength                                                Debrave
Faith                    +75% Magic                                                    Defaith
Protect                 +25% resistance to Physical attacks                 Deprotect
Shell                     +25% resistance to Magic attacks                    Deshell
Vigilance               +33% resistance to Wound                             Curse
Veil                      +50% resistance to status ailments

Enfire
Enfrost                 These buffs add additional attributes to attacks.
Enthunder            Good against enemies with element weaknesses and Imperil.
Enaero            

Reraise               When the user's HP reachers 0, they will automatically revive themselves.
Regen                 Gradually restores the user's HP

Status Ailments

Status ailments, also known as Debuffs, are negative conditions that can affect both party members and enemies.

Some enemies are difficult to defeat unless you weaken them with debuffs throughout the battle. A sudden onset of debuffs all at once on party members can severely disrupt momentum and can be dangerous during the brutal follow-up attacks.

Status ailments can only be cast by Saboteurs, but they can also occur as side effects from Feral Link abilities.

Aside from using items and the Medic's spells, status ailments can also be healed by using the opposing status enhancement, making Synergists an option to cure ailments. A capable Synergist can be used to target a specific ailment and can be more efficient than a Medic's Esuna spell.

Many enemies have some form of resistance or immunity to one or more ailments. Using a Librascope will immediately expose those resistances, while the AI will spend several turns experimenting with different debuffs to slowly reveal their vulnerabilities.

When an enemy is not immune, various factors such as the Chain Bonus, role Bonus Boosts, or the Veil status enhancement, can affect the time it takes for a debuff to stick.

When you party is greatly afflicted by status ailments, you'll have to quickly assess how dangerous those ailments are. While a Medic's Esuna spell is the most obvious solution, a Synergist can also be used to cancel out status ailments with the opposing status enhancment.

Types of Status Ailments

Ailment             Effect                                                                                         Cure
Slow                  -33% ATB Gauge speed                                                             None

Daze                  Stuns the target and the target takes double damage;                    Foul Liquid, Remedy,                                                                                                                                                                
                          Removed once the target is hit; enemy-only ability.                      Unicorn Horn, Esuna  

Debrave             -50% Strength                                                                            Remedy, Unicorn Horn,
                                                                                                                            Bravery, Bravega, Esuna

Defaith               -50% Magic                                                                               Remedy, Unicorn Horn,
                                                                                                                            Faith, Faithga, Esuna

Deprotect          +30% damage taken from Physical attacks                                  Remedy, Unicorn Horn,
                                                                                                                            Protect, Protectga, Esuna

Deshell              +30% damage taken from Magic attacks                                     Remedy, Unicorn Horn,
                                                                                                                            Shell, Shellga, Esuna

Pain                  Disables the target's Physical abilities                                            Painkiller, Remedy
                                                                                                                            Unicorn Horn, Esuna

Fog                   Disables the target's Magical abilities                                           Mallet, Remedy,
                                                                                                                           Unicorn Horn, Esuna

Curse               +33% damage taken from Wounds;                                             Holy Water, Remedy,
                        -20 "Keep" to all actions                                                              Unicorn Horn

Poison             Cause target to gradually and constantly lose HP;                          Antidote, Remedy,
                        Very effective against enemies with high HP                                  Unicorn Horn, Esuna


Imperil             Reduces the target's elemental resistance by one tier.                     Remedy, Unicorn Horn,
                       (Resistant to halved; Normal to Weakness)                                   Esuna

Doom              Causes a timer to appear above the target. When it runs out,         None
                        the target is KO'd instantly. Enemy-only ability.

Refreshing Effects

It's best to refresh status enhancments before they expire.

When someone has multiple status effects (ailments and enhancements), reapplying any of them will move it to the end of the display sequence, showing it as the most recently afflicted effect. It will also flash.

With enhancements, it's harder to see how much time is remaining when there's only one.

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%

About the Guide

This guide is for Final Fantasy XIII-2, particularly for the PS3. While this game was created with the use of the PS3 version, it is still fully compatible with the Xbox 360 one as well. There are no differences between the two; they have the same story and everything with strategy is the same. Only the controls are different.

This guide provides a detailed walkthrough, strategy and analysis, as well as detailed entries on monsters, accessories, enemies, etc. When reading through the articles, you will notice things are color coded.

Most colors are just used to point out important information. However, words in red are words that you can find the in the Encyclopedia. The Encyclopedia is full of word entries and their definitions.