FFT Arena Master Guide

silentkaster · July 24, 2016, 12:10:53 am

The download/changelog thread can be found by clicking here.

[01] FAQ

What is FFT Arena?
FFT: Arena is a tournament-style patch, which pits AI-controlled teams of 4 versus one another. Units are always level 35, make use of balanced versions of vanilla equipment, skills, and jobs, with some new ones, as well. The patch is strictly AI versus AI.

What are FFT Arena's goals?
The primary goals of Arena are:
1) To create a balanced playing field for AI battles;
2) To ensure that players have fun whilst watching and making teams; and
3) To be a seamless system for a (future) singleplayer mode.

How do I build a team?
The best way to build a team would be to download the .rar file and use the master guide spreadsheet/MemCardGen (memory card generator) contained within. The MCG removes the need to calculate JP by hand, and is simple to use. You can see team ideas in the Team Submissions thread or by watching some of the videos. All of the rules are in the appropriate section of this guide.

Who are the creators/developers of Arena?
Back in 2010, PX_Timefordeath started this project. Soon after, AeroGP and FFMaster took over, with Aero leaving some time after. FFMaster then led the project for a few years. During that time, Xifanie developed various hacks and tools for Arena (notably, the Deep Dungeon hack and the memory card generator). In 2016, the Discord channel was created, with Andrew changing/updating Arena backed by the community's suggestions.

[02] MECHANIC CHANGES

Brave
Brave is a mechanic that applies to all weapon attacks (except for healing weapons) and most physical skills. Brave-based damage can change depending on the attackers Brave as well as the target's Brave. The multiplier formula is: (Attacker Brave + 25) * (Defender Brave + 25) / 10000. So, if both the Attacker and Defender have 75 Brave, then the damage will not change. Low Brave is typically used on units that don't use Attack/focus on using non-Brave skills (such as magic), since this means they will take less damage from Brave-based attacks/skills. High Brave is typically used on units that really want to get the most out of their Brave-based skills (such as Punch art).

Faith
Similar to Brave above, Faith now also receives a constant. The multiplier formula is: ((Attacker Faith + 25) * (Defender Faith + 25)) / 10000. Overall, this means that caster damage will have less variance than in vanilla. Low Faith is typically used on units that will not benefit from Faith-based magic (such as White Magic). High Faith is typically used on units that want to get the most out of their Faith-based skills (such as Black Magic).

X-Brave
X-Brave is the opposite of Brave in terms of how it calculates extra damage. Any abilities with this formula that don't involve damage will have their accuracy increased accordingly instead. The multiplier formula is: (Attacker Brave + 25) * (155 - Defender Brave) / 10000. Ninjutsu's "-ton" skills and some of Talk Skill uses this formula.

X-Faith
X-Faith affects targets the same way as UnBrave does in calculating damage or accuracy. The same calculation applies for those skills that involve accuracy instead. The multiplier formula is: (Attacker Faith + 25) * (155 - Defender Faith) / 10000. Black Magic's Nether magic (and Dark Holy) uses this formula.

Compatibility
Good/bad compat is +/- 6.25% and best/worst compat is +/- 12.5%.

Reaction Skills
The chance for a reaction to activate is (Br+Fa-60)%. Reaction skills (and some support/movement skills) can have different triggers. For example, Dragon Spirit triggers when most forms of physical affect the user, while HP Restore could only trigger if the user is in Critical status.

Unit Action Priority
When the game loads the map, the first unit that's generated gets priority. In vanilla FFT, the enemy and guests always move before the player, unless you have higher speed; this is because they are loaded before the player's units are. Since it wouldn't be very balanced if all units on one side had action priority, Arena has tried to give both sides as much of an even footing as possible. For example: if both teams have 4 Units with 100CT, the priority order in Arena would be: P1 Unit1/P2 Unit1/P2 Unit2/P1 Unit2/P1 Unit3/P2 Unit 3/P2 Unit4/P1 Unit4. This can be important for team building, as well. If you want a unit to move before the others, like a unit with Phoenix Down, you would want to put him/her as Unit 1 in the submission. However, if you have a unit with Haste 2, you may want to put him/her as Unit 4.

Absorb: Element
Anything labelled Absorb is always "neutral". This means you cannot do "weak: element" and "absorb: element" on the same unit to double the absorb healing. Oil Also falls under this restriction.

Strengthen: Element
Anything labelled Strengthen will increase the potency of attacks/skills by 25% of the base stat used for damage or healing calculation, rounded down. This is applied before any support multipliers. For example, if you had Strengthen Ice and were using MA to calculate with 15 MA and Magic Attack UP, your effective MA would be =ROUNDDOWN((15 * 1.25)) * (4/3) = ROUNDDOWN(18.75) * (4/3) = 18 * (4/3) = 24. (Note that since FFT uses integers only, the final number would also be rounded down if not a whole number.)

Forced 2 hands weapons
Any weapon that is "forced" two-hands means that it must be held by the wielder with both hands. Similar to how longbows worked in Vanilla, some weapons have been modified so that they must be held by both hands and cannot be used with a shield or Two Swords. The "Two Hands" support skill will not increase the damage dealt, nor will the innate two-handed nature of these weapons. When building your team, please check the spreadsheet to see which weapons are currently labeled this way, and then plan accordingly.

[03] NOTABLE 1.40+ CHANGES

1.44
Brave and Faith constant in calculations lowered by 10. This means that 100 Brave/Faith units are now slightly less powerful.
Minimum/maximum allowed Brave and Faith are now 50/80 due to above change.
Reaction chance adjusted to (Brave + Faith - 60)% due to new Brave and Faith limits.
Unbrave and Unfaith have become X-Brave and X-Faith, which means the user must now be high Brave or Faith to be efficient.
Job innates: Mimes gained 1/3 of MP, Monk gained Martial Arts (115% bonus), Ninja regained Dual Wield, Summoner gained Range +1.
Weapon Guard is innate once more.
Class evasion has been lowered to 0 for most jobs.
Ninjutsu "tons" are now based on X-Brave and the rest of skillset ignores Brave.
Black Magic Nethers are now based on X-Faith.
Revive, Raise 2 and Phoenix Blade (previously Amp. Raise) are now stat-based.
Strength Tonic will no longer target enemies. (Yes that's large enough to make this list.)
Mystic Knight is now a hybrid job. Its stats are rounded and skillset uses both PA and MA. Spellblades are near-instant (1-2 CT).
Most weapons are now 0 evasion. A few of them use different formulas. Two Hands/Dual Wield is now consistent (no more forced 2h katanas for example). Healing weapons ignore Brave. Bows and books arc bonus range is reduced. Bags have been removed. Lots of other changes; see changelog.
The majority of Speed equipment has been removed.

1.43a
Reaction chance changed to (Brave + Faith - 40)%.
Weapon Guard returns as a RSM (Movement). It's no longer innate to all classes.
Item has become a default skillset. This means it now supports all ability mods (Range, MP costs, Silenceable, etc.)
Protect and Shell are considered regardless of current HP.
Guns no longer ignore evasion.
Robes and Headpieces have enhanced stat bonuses at the cost of HP.

1.43
All jobs' base PA and MA now add up to 18, except for Mime and Geomancer, which are 20.
All jobs' base MP have been increased across the board (with a few exceptions).
Defensive abilities (except Cure 1-3) are no longer reflectable.
Global C-EV is removed from the game. Jobs' C-EV are adjusted to reflect this change.
Shields, head and body equipment have been reworked.
Non-cloak accessories had their evasion lowered.
There are a couple changes to the core function of some skillsets. This is only partial; more skillsets will receive similar treatment.
RSM have been reorganised so that most jobs have one of each. Plus a couple additions and removals.
Silence returns to the game. It prevents the inflicted unit from using defensive support abilities. Exception is Item, and that will change later.
Berserk, Darkness, Frog, Undead and Silence are given a CT. Transparent no longer dispels after acting.
Poison, Don't Move, Protect and Shell are no longer removed on death.

1.42c
Mime adjustments to prepare for the tournament.

1.42b
Mostly bugfixes and rebalance of a few status effects.

1.42a
Plenty of reversion, with some new shit.

1.42
Absorption has been nerfed, and rightly so. Absorption clothes now half instead, and shields/accessories have evasion (with modifications made to their other properties).
Attack UP and Magic Attack UP have been lowered to 25% (from 33%). This, in conjunction with the absorption nerf, should prevent absorption+high damage teams from perpetually-dominating most teams they encounter.
1/3 of MP now costs less JP, and the mass majority of MP costs have been modified so 1/3 of MP maths better with them. Every MP-costing skill is now divisible by 6.
The El Bow was amplifying the effectiveness of Snipe, a well-balanced skillset, immensely! Thus, it was turned into a ranged version of Dual Cutters (which should still be fun). No, the proc will not allow for double Snipe funsies. :P
The majority of Talk Skills now use the new "Hit_(X-Speed)%" formula, making them less effective for units with high amounts of non-hasted Speed.
Many more weapons and skills can now be used with Two Hands (which received a JP decrease, as well). Yes, even most ninja swords. Also, staves ate rods. Chomp.
Courtesy of WKW, the brown team colour has been replaced with purple, and yellow with orange! Looks sharp. Purple fo' lief. Also, he edited the other team colours to make them more representative.

1.41
New in 141a: Refresh's effect was added to Regen, and Sap's effect was added to Poison. As a consequence, both statuses had their CT lowered to 64.
New in 141a: Haste and Regen can no longer be used to overwrite Slow and Poison. As a consequence, Heal and Stigma Magic now dispel Slow, with a new skill from Time Magic called "Return" doing so, as well.
New in 141a: Slow only reduces Speed by 25%, instead of 50%.
New in 141a: The AI will now only use Faith, Float, and Reflect as interceptions.
New in 141a: The AI will now use Regen at any HP level, making it slightly more valuable than Haste is to them.
New in 141a: The AI will now use stat-boosting skills slightly more often.

Several AI-based ASMs have been implemented! These will fix quite a lot of the AI's "derpiness", with the most-notable ones being:
The AI now recognizes that 1/3 of MP is indeed a 66% reduction, not 50%.
The AI now recognizes that Jump CT calculation is Jump/21.
The AI now recognizes that Non Charge actually reduces CT to 0.
The AI now recognizes that Short Charge actually cuts CT in half.
The AI now recognizes that Throw Item is 4 range, instead of its bonus being based on the user's Move stat.
The AI will now consider the possibility of exclusively healing themselves and teammates with weapon-elemental skills like Grand Cross, Houkouton, et cetera.
The AI will no longer use Jump on sleeping allies.

Bard and Dancer have been replaced by Mystic Knight, a physical job that specializes in imbuing its weapon with magic, and then releasing said magic, with amplified effect. Basically, it's a PA/Brave-based, elemental/AoE job that fills in a lot of the gaps that physical has been missing as a whole. Since both genders of Mystic Knight are considered separate jobs, we were able to further differentiate the genders. So, males have 30~ or so more HP than females, while females have 30~ or so more MP than males. Also, while males have 2 more PA (but 2 less MA), females have 1 more Speed, and 10 more C-Ev! More information can (naturally) be found in the master guide, and within a notepad document in the downloadable rar file.
The offensive Punch Art formula is now "Brave_(PAxY)", which means it's easier for lower PA builds to deal decent damage with these skills, while higher PA builds can still hurt with them. Due to this change, Martial Arts was also removed, with the Punch Art skills having their JP lowered to compensate (since Attack UP is in another skillset). Martial Arts had overlap with Attack UP anyway, and had unintentional interactions with certain skills (like Gil Toss and Cover Fire), making said skills more potent than originally intended. Note: the Mystic Knight's skillset, Spellblade, makes use of this formula, as well.
Critical hits will no longer knock-back, which means that this mechanic has been completely removed from Arena. Not only does knock-back cause strange bugs (in the form of knocking units outside of the map when it occurs due to weapon skills like Southern Cross), it'll completely nullify the second attack for a dual-wielder, provided that the first attack critically-hit and knocked-back. Besides, knock-back is yet another mechanic that the AI does not recognize; and, while it can be fun seeing a unit fall off of a cliff to its death, it's more trouble having it around than it's worth.

1.40
Geomancy (formally known as "Elemental") skills will be more widespread, as maps that offer only one or two different Geomancy skill panel types will be increased to 3+ Geomancy skill panel types (I'm talkin' about you, snowy maps).
"Old" Oil is being reintroduced; that is, Oil will have its function changed to doubling all elemental damage on the afflicted (will still expire after elemental damage is taken).
Silence has been removed, and things were balanced accordingly. It simply has no place in Arena.
Speed alteration skills, such as Quickening or Slow Dance, have been either removed from the game, or had their Speed aleration properties changed. Now, the only way to modify a unit's Speed value is by giving them equipment that does just that.
The Jump skillset formula's CT calculation has been changed to: 21 / Jump.
3 Jump = 7 CT
4 Jump = 6 CT
5 Jump = 5 CT
6 Jump = 4 CT
7 Jump = 3 CT (the cap)
The maps that are considered broken in some way are in the process of being tweaked.
There are two new statuses: Refresh and Sap (formally known as "MP Regen" and "MP Poison" throughout 140 and 140a). Refresh is the MP version of Regen, while Sap is the MP version of Poison. Check-out the statuses spreadsheet for more information!
Fixed many FFTPatcher errors. Many, many, many FFTPatcher errors.
Description text has been updated to actually include Arena information! :O

[04] JOB STATS, EQUIPMENT ACCESS AND INNATES

[05] SKILLSETS AND R/S/M

Skillsets

Reactions, Supports and Movements

[06] EQUIPMENT

Note 1
All weapons are Brave-based, with the exception of healing weapons which ignore Brave.

Note 2
All weapon procs only affect the original target, have 0 CT, cost 0 MP, pierce Reflect, and also proc their own procs. For example, the Kazekiri's Kamaitachi proc maintains its 25% chance to proc Don't Act upon hit.

[07] DAMAGE MULTIPLIERS

[08] STATUS EFFECTS

[09] REGISTRATION

Rules
Any Zodiac, including Serpentarius, is legal
Teams will consist of four generic humans at Level 35, controlled by enemy AI routines.
Brave and Faith can range between 50 and 80.
Each unit has 3000 JP to spend on various abilities. It costs 250 JP to unlock a job and its skillset; this unlock cost counts for a unit's primary job, as well. You do not need to unlock specific jobs to have access to other jobs. For example, all you need to do is drop 250 JP, and bam, you have access to mime.
Only two units can buy any individual ability. Innates do not count towards this. For example, four units could have the Punch Art skillset, but only two could purchase Earth Slash; conversely, you can have two Samurais (which have innate Two Hands) and two Knights with Two Hands as their support.
Only two units can equip any individual item.
Unit names can be a maximum of 16 characters.
Unit gender is male or female only, with monsters simply having to use "monster" (monsters are not in Arena at the moment).
Leave any blank slots empty; as in, an empty line.
Spell correctly. Whilst it will probably be corrected when received, it will save people from doing extra work. For example, Magic AttackUP is "Magic Attack UP", Move HP UP is "Move-HP Up", et cetera.
The following team colours can be used:
Black
Blue
Green
Orange
Purple
Red
White

UNIT FORMAT
Name
Gender
Zodiac
Brave
Faith
Primary Class
Secondary Class/Skillset
Reaction
Support
Movement
Right Hand (Don't put a shield here)
Left Hand
Head
Body
Accessory

Primary abilities known
Second abilities known

TEAM SUBMISSION EXAMPLE

Player: Example Player
Team: The Example Squad
Palettes: Red/Orange
Last Revision: 2022-03-25

===

Example Leader
Male
Serpentarius
80
50
Lancer
Guts
Brave Up
Overwhelm
Leap
Vaulting Lance
Heavy Shield
Genji Helmet
Genji Armor
Bracer

Jump Range 6, Vertical Ignore
Accumulate, Bullrush, Throw Stone, Heal, Wish

===

Example Token
Male
Serpentarius
80
50
Paladin
Talk Skill
Damage Split
1/3 of MP
Move-MP Up
Rune Blade
Lunar Buckler
Gold Helmet
Chameleon Robe
Germinas Boots

Lay on Hands, Nurse, Transfusion, Reraise
Blackmail

===

Example Sidekick
Male
Serpentarius
80
50
Squire
Item
Auto Potion
Luck UP

Thunder Blade
Genji Shield
Flash Hat
Dragon Armor
Dracula Mantle

Bullrush, Throw Stone, Heal, Yell, Wish
X-Potion, Antidote, Chronos Tear, Calm Grass, Maiden's Kiss, Holy Water, Bandage, Phoenix Down

===

Example Babe
Female
Serpentarius
50
80
Geomancer
Black Magic

Magic Attack UP
Move-MP Up
Giant Axe

Black Hood
Red Robe
Leather Mantle

Hell Ivy, Carve Model, Local Quake, Kamaitachi, Demon Fire, Quicksand
Nether Fire, Nether Bolt, Nether Ice, Nether Water, Dark Holy

===

Final Fantasy Hacktics

News:

FFT Arena Master Guide

silentkaster

July 24, 2016, 12:10:53 am Last Edit: October 08, 2024, 07:36:47 pm by Barren Reason: Update