This is it―the last post of this series on exploring the monster taming mechanics of Final Fantasy XIII-2 is finally here, and in it we're actually going to do what the title says. Now that we've integrated all of the tables of data that we extracted from the FFXIII-2 FAQs into a functional website, we're ready to use that website to explore how to optimize the monster taming as we play through the game. This exercise is known in the tech industry as dogfooding, where we proceed to eat our own dog food, so to speak, to see whether or not the product we're building is any good. During the course of using the website, we may find opportunities for improvement, missing features, and other things that could just be done better. It's an excellent way to iterate on a product to improve it.
The Early Game
We don't get to start monster taming right from the outset in FFXIII-2. There's a fair amount of intro game to play through before we get to the monster taming partway through Bresha Ruins 005 AF. Once we gain that ability, we'll want to start looking for the monsters that will most help us get through the game, and more importantly, focus on upgrading those monsters instead of wasting monster materials on monsters that we're not going to keep for very long. On the other hand, it's okay to upgrade some of the early monsters that may not max out at a high level if they're especially strong to start with. These early strong monsters can be used as a bridge to the even stronger mid and late game monsters that will need to be leveled up before they're ready to fight.
The easiest way to get a sense of which monsters we want to go after is to go to the Role Abilities page and select an ability that's common to every monster in one of the six classes. For example, selecting the Attack ability gives a list of Commando monsters sorted by their location depth:
We can see a few options here. Right in the level where we can start monster taming, we can capture Meonekton, Hoplite, and Uridimmu (also Svarog, but not until we complete the story for the level). Of those monsters, Hoplite is the clear choice because of its high base strength and "very mercurial" growth rate. Even though it can only get to level 20, it's okay to dump materials into upgrading a few early monsters because we'll collect plenty of those low-level materials throughout the normal course of the game. Behemoth in the next area of Yaschas Massif 010 AF is a nice longer-term monster, if you manage to beat enough of them to tame one or get lucky. They're a tough beast this early in the game, and in the level at this stage you're actually trying to avoid battles with them. They're also a very late bloomer, so we won't be able to upgrade it beyond the strength of Hoplite until later in the game, when other stronger monsters from the Behemoth family are available. Bottom line, Hoplite is monster we want for our Commando right now.
Ravager: For early spell-casters we have the following:
As you can see, there are a couple Commando monsters mixed in here because there's a slight deficiency in selecting Ravagers―there's no common role ability that would select them all like there is with Attack for Commandos. This could be fixed by adding a filtered link to the monster table to filter by role. Here, I just selected the Bresha Ruins 005 AF location. We don't see more interesting Ravagers for quite a while anyway so looking only in Bresha Ruins 005 AF is sufficient, but it would be convenient to add that role filtering ability as an exercise.
We start out with a Zwerg Scandroid that's kind of a wimp, but we should hold off on upgrading it or any other Ravagers that we may catch until we can snag an Albino Lobo after completing the story events of Bresha Ruins 005 AF. This monster has the ability to learn all of the main elemental spells to the second level and their weapon buff equivalents (e.g. Froststrike), and it starts with decent magic and growth rate. It'll be a pretty good Ravager for the first half of the game.
Sentinel: The Sentinels can be filtered for with the provoke or steelguard role abilities:
The obvious choice is the Pulse Knight since it has high base strength, it learns HP +10% at level 3, and it's the only option in Bresha Ruins 005 AF. The Pulse Knight will be a stalwart companion for a fair amount of time if for no other reason than the fact that there are so few Sentinel monsters to choose from.
Saboteur: The Saboteur can be found from the deprotect or deshell role abilities, at least, any monster we care about has those abilities:
This is it. Only seven Saboteur monsters have the deprotect ability. It looks like we're going with the Unsaganashi since we can't get Rangda until we backtrack to New Bodhum 003 AF with the moogle throw ability towards mid-game. There's no need to upgrade Unsaganashi, though, since we'll be able to snag Chelicerata before too long, and that's the Saboteur we ultimately want.
Synergist: The Synergists better have bravery or faith buffs, so let's filter on bravery:
Like the Saboteurs, there are not many Synergists to choose from. At first there's only Gahongas, so it's lucky that it has decent base magic and speed, and it starts with bravery and learns faith at level 6. Gahongas will work out nicely until we can get a Purple Chocobo in Bresha Ruins 300 AF, not too much further into the game. The Purple Chocobo is nice because it has a bit more HP and strength so it can hold its own in battle for a while, and it isn't as slow to upgrade as the Gahongas, so save most of the monster materials for the chocobo.
Medic: A good Medic is literally a life saver, and it's going to have cure, so that's our filter:
Cait Sith will likely be captured in short order after we first learn about monster taming, and it'll be the best medic we have for some time. It's probably worth upgrading at least until it learns Esuna so that it can cure ailments, and it might be worth going all the way to level 21 for Curasa if you have enough materials on hand.
The Middle Game
Around the time we get to the Archylte Steppe can be considered the mid game, and we start to have a lot more options for monster taming. We'll be able to nab some monsters that will be useful through the rest of the game, and we'll have to make some decisions on what's best to upgrade with our limited mid-level materials, assuming you're like me and hate grinding to acquire all of the things. We'll browse through each of the roles again, but without posting screenshots of every list. Most of the screenshots above show middle game monsters anyway.
Commando: We definitely have more choices for Commandos at this point in the game. One of the coolest monsters to pick up is the albino behemoth Narasimha in Yaschas Massif 010/01X AF and about equally good is the Reaver in the Archylte Steppe. Here's an instance where it's hard to make a choice based on the information we have in the tables. Narasimha has a base strength of 179 and a mercurial growth rate, but Reaver has a base strength of 132 and a very mercurial growth rate. They both can level up to 70, so which one is better? We don't know. At least, we don't know from the monster table. We'd need to upgrade each monster in the game to see which one was better and when Reaver would pass up Narasimha, if it does. That would be nice additional info to have, but it's not readily available online and I'm not going to itemize it all for this post. In the end, both of them are great, strong beasts, and you can pick your favorite.
Ravager: A great Ravager for the mid game is surely the Blue Chocobo. Chocobos are just awesome, and this one is nice and quick. It's a late bloomer, so it'll require a bit of upgrading before it reaches its true potential, but it should start getting there with the materials available mid game.
Sentinel: This next Sentinel will be the last one you ever need. The Pulse Gladiator is a wall when you get it, and it becomes a fortress after upgrading. There's not much more to say here; easy choice.
Saboteur: A surprisingly good Saboteur is available in both the Archylte Steppe and Oerba 200 AF, which can be reached at the same point in the game. Chelicerata looks like a wimp with a base magic of 47, but it has a very mercurial growth rate and can go all the way up to level 99. It comes with deshell II, learns deprotect at level 4, and learns all the multi-target debuffs by the end. It may not look great when you first get it, but throw some materials at it and see how it can shine in the middle game.
Synergist: There aren't any better options than the Purple Chocobo we already have, so just keep upgrading it instead of looking elsewhere.
Medic: Yay, another chocobo! We'll run into the Green Chocobo in Yaschas Massif 110 AF, and be able to replace the Cait Sith kitty with a much stronger giant chicken. It's fast, like all of the chocobos, it learns raise at level 22, which is very helpful, and it can level up to 99, so we can keep it through the rest of the game if we want.
The Late Game
Towards the end of the game, we'll find a few more interesting monsters and be able to upgrade some of our favorites to their highest levels, unlocking their true potential. Here's a quick rundown of the best monsters in the game from searching through the monster table and detail views.
Commando: Surprisingly, the best late game Commando is the small, unassuming Chichu. Square has a habit of doing things like this, making super powerful characters or items out of things that look dinky. Why is Chichu so good? I mean, it starts out with only 156 strength, which, granted, is better than Reaver's 132, but for a late game monster, we would expect it to start a bit higher. Well, it's a late bloomer so we don't see it's true potential until we've fully upgraded it to level 70. By then it's also wicked fast and has great abilities like armor breaker, bravery feeder, faith feeder, vigilance feeder, and strength +25% so it can debuff it's opponents while buffing itself and beating down everything in sight. It's a…well…it's a monster.
Ravager: It's best to stick with the Blue Chocobo for a late game Ravager, since it can be upgraded to level 99 and gets a ton of great abilities along the way, along with 6 ATB slots that allow it more attacks per ATB charge. All chocobos except for the Golden and Silver Chocobos can be upgraded to level 99, so that's why they tend to be great monsters to use.
Sentinel: Yeah, we'll stick with the Pulse Gladiator and just level it up, thank you very much.
Saboteur: The Black Chocobo, which we don't find until the Vile Peaks 010 AF, is a great late game Saboteur with all of the debuffs you would want in one: deprotega, woundga, heavy imperilga, and heavy painga. Like most chocobos, it levels to 99.
Synergist: Keep upgrading that Purple Chocobo, and it'll keep you happy.
Medic: We're pretty chocobo-heavy at the end of the game, but the Green Chocobo is still the best option here, so get it up to level 99 to reach its full potential.
This exercise in dogfooding the monster taming website we built worked out pretty well. We found that overall the site is pretty usable, and we charted a nice path of monster taming throughout the game. We also found a few improvements along the way that would sweeten the experience even more. The monster table could use a filter on the role column, a few other columns could use a sort feature, and it would be great to have a few more columns for mid and late level stats. Although, adding those stats would be a fair amount of work. Another feature that would be nice to have is some tooltips on the abilities, which would also involve adding descriptions to the role abilities. Oh, and thumbnail pics of all the monsters would liven up the monster table and details pages. While all of these features would make the site even better, it's definitely usable as-is. Just browsing through it and clicking around on all of the monsters and locations makes me want to pick up the game again for another play through. Now I have all the information I need right at my fingertips to make it smooth sailing.
Exploring Monster Taming Mechanics Table of Contents:
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